Happy Easter

This isn't going to be a long post.  Just wanted to show some Easter photos.  We went to church this morning.  It was a crowded house like it usually is on holidays.  They had to put church over-flow into the school gymnasium and video feed into the gym.  We got to church 30 minutes early so that we could get an actual seat in the sanctuary and have to stand or watch in the gym. 

After church we found a restaurant for brunch.  However, by the time we got seated which was after noon, Lane and I were in no mood for brunch food and neither were the kids.  So the kids got mac 'n cheese, Lane got a burger and I had salmon.  It was still good.  They were packed and very busy.  I think the kitchen was having a hard time keeping up.  Thank goodness we decided to get an appetizer or we would've waited over an hour before our food came out.  It was after 1 when our waitress delivered our food.  It was after 2 when we left the restaurant.  But it's not like we were in a huge hurry to get home.  The kids on the other hand wanted to dive into their Easter baskets.

The rest of the day we didn't do much of anything.  I took a cat nap.  The kids watched a movie.  Hope my readers had a good Easter as well!

Disney Part 1

We left for FL late Friday afternoon and hit horrible Spring Break traffic just about 25 minutes south of ATL.  It easily took us 1 hr to travel 5-8 miles.  I was not looking forward to the drive.  Anyhow, we were going to stop around 10-11 pm and get a hotel and then finish the drive in the morning.  Well, I guess everyone else had the same idea and we ended up driving all the way to Orlando and finding a hotel room there - at 3:30 am.  Note to self and everyone else - don't do what we did.  Stop sooner.  Lane and I only ended up getting about 5 hrs of sleep that night.  The kids however fell asleep sometime between 9 and 10 pm and woke up perfectly refreshed.

During our week at Disney we stayed at Bay.Lake.Tower.  It's one of the Disney Vacation Club resorts.  We rented someone's points for our stay.  It worked out cheaper this way to stay there than it would've to get a regular hotel room at one of the Disney resorts.  Plus we had a small kitchenette and a fabulous view of the Magic Kingd0m.  This was the view from our room.

Our first full day was spent at Magic Kingd0m.  We took it easy that day.  We actually went to the park late morning because Emi decided she was going to make up a code for the in-room safe and lock it shut.  So we had to wait for someone to come and take care of it so we could use it.  We had planned on starting our morning earlier.   Not much to tell about that day so I'll show you the photos.

Our 2nd day was spent at H0llywood Studios.  We had fun but it was a hot day that day.  The park was not all that busy which surprised me.  I'm glad it was on the quieter side.  We didn't have much of a wait for anything except for ToyStoryMania which we ended up not riding.  Oh well.  It's not going anywhere and will be there the next time.  We got to see a few things we haven't seen in awhile or ever.  We ended up leaving the park around 4:30ish to make a dinner reservation.  Here's the day in photos.

Well, that's part 1 of our trip.  Should have the next installment up either tomorrow or Thurs.  Looking at all these photos again makes me wish I were still there.  Can't wait for our next vacation which won't happen until July when Lane and I have an adults only trip.

Spring Break Sneak Peak

Here are a few photos of our Spring Break trip to FL.  We've been super busy trying to get life in order since we got back.  The house we're under contract for is at the forefront followed by planning Lane's retirement.  I would love to spend more time blogging but with the above and trying to sort our lives and decide what we will take with us and what we will get rid of, I'm massively overwhelmed.  I really wish I had family around to help with all of this.  My mom is queen of organization and although I strive to follow in her shoes, it just hasn't happened much and it's very frustrating because I am massively OCD about some things.  Lane can vouch for me.  We've accumulated 15 yrs worth of stuff not sure what we'll need or not need at the next place.  Well, now that we now the next place is indefinite, it's time to discard of all the stuff I don't want in that house.  And there's enough of it.

I'll probably be blogging about Spring Break in 2 or 3 posts.  Look for the first blog post in the next few days.

Month in Review

Not sure how long of a post this is going to be.  There hasn't been a ton going on over the past month but it hasn't been dead around here either.

Over President's Day weekend we headed to IN for our niece I's baptism and to do some house-hunting.  I's baptism was very nice.  Our niece, I was baptized by the same priest Emi was.  Just like Emi, niece I screamed and cried the entire time.  We joked that it had something to do with the priest if he was making them cry.

Lane and I also got to check out about 10 houses that weekend while we were there.  None of the houses were a fit for us.  There were a few that might have been possibilities but decided that we didn't want to settle for something we didn't love.  More houses are coming on the market every day now that Spring is here.  We've actually had my parents look at a few houses and there is one that might be the one.  I am hoping to head up this Saturday to get a look at it myself.  There are a few others they've also looked at that they think we might like so I'll check those out too but there definitely is a front-runner.

While I stayed in Indy with Emi I went up to visit Lane's grandma with his siblings and their kids.  The only grandkid missing was Eriks because he had to be in school in GA.  We had a nice visit with Grandma Wolf at her retirement community.  She hadn't seen Emi in over a year.  She hadn't seen my SIL Marla's son, M in a long time and this was her first time meeting new great-granddaughter, I.  I'm hoping it wasn't too overwhelming for her having 6 great-grandkids around.

I started taking an ASL class at the local community center.  It's only once a week and for 8 weeks.  I wish it several times a week and longer than 8 weeks.  I am loving it.  It is so important for me to learn ASL because Emi is and because she will need it to communicate.  There are times she will not be able to wear her hearing aid and will need to communicate using her hands.  My hope is that when we move, I'll be able to take ASL classes at one of the universities in order to become fluent. 

Emi is doing well in school.  It's still weird being in the house for about 6 hrs a day without any kids.  I am amazed at what she is learning and love how excited she is at the end of the school day when she proudly shows me what she did at school that day or signs she's learned.  She really enjoys it.  Every morning she gets up and signs school.  I say, yes and she smiles.  There are only a total of 5 kids in her class, one teacher and 2 parapro's.  Three adults to 5 kids in my opinion is awesome.  I really like all 3 of them and think they are awesome with the kids.  I will definitely miss this for Emi because I don't know yet what is available to her in Indy.  I am working on finding out.

Emi on St. Patrick's Day.  She had a blast with her class and they did so many fun little activities.  She came home looking like a little leprechaun.  

Eriks was diagnosed with mild AD/HD in February.  The doctor treating him for it doesn't believe it's bad enough for him to be on medication.  She's actually not of the belief that unless it's severe/clinical that kids need to be on meds for it.  So I'm waiting on some natural supplements she recommended to arrive in my mailbox so we can start giving them to him.  Some days are better than others.  We're curbing things in his diet more than we used to and the poor kid doesn't understand why.  I'm going to have to start buying more sugar-free goodies so that he's not completely deprived.  

I think that's about it for now.  Spring break is just about 2 weeks away and I can't wait to get out of dodge for awhile and relax.  I am so looking forward to it. 

Slacker

Yup.  That's me.  At least when it comes to blogging and following other blogs.  I don't do it on purpose.  I have 2 kids in school and now with the "free" time I have while both are away M-F, I'm trying to get stuff done around here.  Lately it has involved lots of doctors appts, countless hours on the internet looking for somewhere to live.  We are moving in 3 1/2 months and I am NOT living in my parents basement.  No way.  No how.  As much as I love them...  There's also a retirement to plan and organize.  House to clean.  Right now it involves lots of purging of stuff to give to charity or sell on e*Bay to make money for the new bedroom furniture we're buying for the master in the new house.  Nothing super fancy, just I.K.E.A, but very contemporary and pretty.  And there is stuff we've moved for years that I don't want move again.  We're at the point where we really want to simplify our lives and live with less.

 I've been thinking about stuff I want to post but finding the time to actually do it, is another thing.  See above.  I'm hoping that Friday I can make some time to discuss something interesting and something that has become very important to me.  Hang in there.  I'm not gone.  Just occupied. 

First Day of Pre-K and Valentine's Day

This week really has kicked my butt.  I'm not used to being up and moving at 6 am and going all day long.  The kids have had multiple doctors appointments this week too.  I spent all day Tuesday in the car running kids to and from school and doctors offices.  Tuesday truly was as follows:  take Emi to school - get breakfast - pick Eriks up for his appointment - take him to doctor - return him to school - grab super quick lunch - get Emi from school - get Eriks from school - take both to Emi's yearly checkup - go home and make dinner.  Note to self, never, ever schedule a day like that again!

So Emi is a big girl and in school.  She's doing well but dislikes it when I leave.  Because of her separation/abandonment issues I have spent at least the first 30 - 40 minutes with her at school in the morning.  On Mon & Tues when I left, she was fine.  Yesterday and today, not so much.  She cried.  I'm thinking because her little body is not used to this routine and she's not really napping at school, yet (she has a 1 hr nap time but has not fallen asleep during it) she is tired.  When she's tired, she's super clingy and this whole school experience is new to her.  She also is just getting to know her teacher and the para-pros that work in the classroom.  With that being said though, in 3 days, I have seen how beneficial this is for her.

On Tuesday we got home after the insanely busy day and Emi was wearing jeans that had an owl on them.  She tapped me, pointed to her jeans and said, "owl".  After that she made the sign for owl.  She can say apple clear as a bell.  She is actually working hard to get clear b's pronounced.  In general she's just making these amazing yammering sounds.  Sounds you can tell she's trying to turn into letters.  Driving home from Eriks' dental appointment yesterday afternoon, she "talked" non-stop.  Her favorite word of the drive was apple.  She's also learning new signs at school so I'm having to keep up and that's a very good thing.  It means I'm moving in the direction of becoming trilingual.

As Emi and I are learning more sign (hoping Lane and Eriks catch up to us) it's amazing how much more I'm watching people staring when I'm communicating with her.  I guess it is pretty fascinating to watch people talk with their hands.  One of the things Lane and I told Eriks is that if he learns ASL, he will be able to talk to Emi without other people knowing what they're talking about.  I do speak to her out loud as I sign.  She needs to hear the words that go with the sign in order to learn to talk.  I can't wait to see how different she's going to be in a month.

Valentine's Day was no big deal in our house.  It never has been.  Lane and I didn't even exchange gifts until 11 pm that night.  We had a date planned on Saturday but our babysitter canceled on us about 2 hours before our big date.  It really stunk and put a damper on our night.  We were looking forward to getting some time away from the kiddos.  We'll make up for it this weekend with a new date night and some family babysitters.

So here is a photo from Emi's 1st day of school and Valentine's Day.  I could not get her to pose for the photo.  She just wanted to dig through her new backpack and lunchbox.  Forget looking at mom.  The kids also enjoyed the giant cookie we got.

She Turned 3!

Last Thursday Emi hit the big 3!  I looked at her today and wondered how this little creature who was placed in my arms 1 day shy of 17 months, has become this big girl.  She's still a tiny, petite thing and likely will be her entire life, but she's not a baby anymore.  She can dress herself.  Loves to button and zip and put on her shoes (all velcro fasteners for now).  She has become so independent and wants our help less and less. 

We didn't do anything super special for her birthday.  With it being a school night, we decided to put off going out to eat to Friday.  So I made a dinner of chicken, roasted potatoes, and green beans.  We also didn't do a traditional cake.  For the 4 of us it's kind of crazy to buy or make a big cake.  I had heard about this bakery in Marietta and decided to give it a whirl.  Emi had a very yummy strawberry shortcake.  Eriks wanted New York cheesecake.  Lane and this mousse cake and I had a to die for red velvet cake.  I told Lane for my birthday, I wanted a red velvet birthday cake from this place.  It was so crazy good.  We all sampled each others desserts.  Emi got some more Ameri*can Girl doll stuff for her birthday.  She loves, loves, loves that baby doll her Aunt Marla & Uncle Corey got her.  

Her vocabulary is growing and today, she started a pre-K program for kids who are deaf/hearing impaired.  Getting up at 6 was very HARD.  Emi and I would snuggle in bed watching Playhouse Di$ney in the mornings until about 8:30ish and then eat breakfast and get dressed.  To be more exact, she'd watch while I snoozed some more.  School starts at 7:50 and we have to be out the door at 7:10 because it's about a 20-25 minute drive to the school.  We do have the option of bus but she has to be on the bus like at 6:45 and that's just way too early.  I'd rather drive her.  It was kind of hard this morning for both of us.  She was so excited this morning to take her backpack and lunch box.  She yammered in the car the entire drive there.  But once we got there, she wasn't so sure.  She got super quiet.  I stayed for about an hr.  She kept looking back at me to make sure I was there.  But when they stopped learning to have some center time, that's when I left.  I watched her in the kitchen/house area with a vacuum and sneaked out.  I just hope she didn't cry when she noticed I was no longer there. 

Luckily her day is only about 6 hrs long with a 1 hr nap time which should be starting right about now (12:15 pm).  School ends at 2 pm.  Again, this is so good for her because she's not only learning ASL, but they are encouraging her to use her voice and with her vocabulary growing, that voice needs to grow too.  I'm hoping that by the time the official school year ends, she'll be starting to talk to us in more complete sentences.  Or at least 3 - 4 word phrases.  She has the opportunity for summer learning which, while we are here still, she will do.  She has so much catching up to do and I want her expressive language to be closer to a 3 yr old's and not a 12 month old's.  She's behind in receptive language too, but not as much as expressive.

Time to show off some photos from the birthday girl's big day. 

Sydney

I spent about 5 minutes trying to come up with the title for this post and finally went for simple.  Why did it take me 5 minutes?  Well, I didn't know how to title a post about what I'm about ready to talk about.  I'm still not handling it well.  There's a piece of my life that's gone.  Missing.  And I won't ever get him back.

On December 23rd, our beloved black Labrador retriever, Sydney, died in his sleep.  We knew his time was coming.  Life was getting more difficult for him.  After all, he was 13.5 yrs old.  If we do the calculations as to how old he was in dog years, he was almost 108.  He lived a long, full life and for that we are thankful.  However, we had hoped that he would've waited until after the holidays to die.  We are also thrilled that we did not have to make the decision to put him to sleep and take his life from him.  I couldn't imagine having to be in the position to do that.  I have to give kuddos to those of you who had to make that very difficult decision.

I cried until I was exhausted.  And then the next day, I got horribly ill and was sick for the next few weeks.  What a way to spend Christmas.

We got Sydney when he was about 12 weeks old.  He was the dominant dog in his litter and he showed that throughout most of his life.  We were living in Mississippi when we received him from the breeder.  When he arrived at the airport he was actually very, very sick.  The airplane made a stop that the breeder was not informed of and was unloaded onto the hot tarmack and given a bucket full of water.  The heat and the water made him very sick and when I met him at the airport, he was having seizures.  I found out where the nearest vet was and took him there.  The vet didn't know what was going to happen to him.  The doctor informed us that he could die.  He could have serious brain damage.  He could have seizures the rest of his life but they were going to do everything they could.  They started an IV and were administering fluids.  I ended up going home to wait.  Later that afternoon, I got a call from the vet.  He said something along the lines of, "Ma'am, I've never seen this before.  He was seizing and we tried to do what we could.  We finally made the decision to try a dose of glucose.  Within minutes his seizures stopped.  He stood up and started looking at us like, 'Hey, what's up?'.  It's as though nothing was wrong with him.  We want to monitor him overnight.  But you can come get him in the morning."  Syd never had another seizure and had absolutely no brain damage.  He was so excited when we came to pick him up.  Life with Syd went on from there.

Syd was a dumpster diver as we called him.  Even up until a few days before he died, he'd stick his nose in the trash can looking for goodies.  One of the funniest memories I have of him was when he was about 4 months old.  We had a wooded area behind our house and all of a sudden we see this puppy dragging this 8 foot long tree limb by his mouth across our back yard.  This limb was about 5 times his size but he had no problems bringing it to us.  It's almost as if he was trying to say, give this one a toss for me!

Syd was always a gentle easy going dog.  When Eriks was a baby he'd climb all over him and Syd could've cared less.  He always had this, "meh - whatever" look on his face when Eriks was messing with him.

Life is so weird without him.  Almost wrong.  I walk by the stairs and look up in hopes of seeing him laying there at the top.  He loved having a bird's eye view of the house.  I miss the sound of his tags clinking together when he scratched or shook himself out after standing up.  I miss his bark.  I miss the way he'd cock his head when you asked him if he wanted to go for a walk or if he wanted food.  I miss his smell.  The sound of his breathing.  It's amazing how attached we get.  When he died, it felt like a piece of me died.

We got his remains back from cremation about 10 days ago.  He sits on our mantle for now.  We might find a different place for him when we move.  For now though, it's nice that he's in a prominent place and I can look at him every time I walk by.  Getting him back in his wooden box really made his death final.  After we took him to the vet for cremation, I did spend about 30 minutes saying goodbye to him there.  I so badly just wanted to get up on the table with him and lay down and hold him.  The next day, I felt guilty.  Weird I know.  But I felt like I didn't spend enough time saying goodbye and I felt a little bit like I had abandoned him.

Gabby our other dog has been quite mopey since his death.  She's lost her companion.  When we leave the house she stands at the door between the house and the garage and has this horrible look of disappointment on her face about being left alone.  She's getting better but I know she's wondering why he's gone and why he's not coming back.

Syd, wherever you are, we loved you so very, very much.  You will always be a part of us.  You were one of the best things that happened to us and we will cherish every memory we have of you.  You endured so much with us including 5 moves and always easily adapted to your new surroundings.  Thank you for the 13.5 years you were with us.  You made our lives more complete with your companionship and unconditional love.  We will meet you again one day on the other side of the Rainbow Bridge.

"Blizzard"

I will get back to catching up on things that happened over the past few weeks but had to blog about the 5 inches of snow we got last night and the fun the kids had in it earlier today. 

Snow is such a rarity here in the South.  And usually if we do get it, it's just a dusting.  Nothing to write home about.  However, the snow we received is a completely different story.  It came down hard and fast.  It's been a long time since I've seen that much snow fall in that short of an amount of time.  It was breathtakingly beautiful even though it was dark outside. 

The entire metro area has shut down for the day.  There are virtually no cars going in and out of my neighborhood.  There have been a few people on ATVs going here and there.  It is seriously like a blizzard has hit.  I know all my northern friends are cackling in disbelief that 5 inches shuts down the city.  I know if I were home in Indy, I would be out and about and school likely wouldn't have been shutdown for the day.  Possibly delayed, but not closed. 

I am going ot be so sad when it melts.  The kids have loved it.  Emi did not want to come in for lunch and it wasn't easy getting Eriks to stop asking this morning when he was going to be able to go out and play.  I called my mom and said a big 'Thank You' for the snow pants she bought the kids.  They came in handy and kept the kids nice and dry while they rolled around in the front yard.  And I'm truly my mother's daughter.  Lane and I cleared the patio out back, the walkway, driveway and sidewalk of snow.  I don't want to have to trudge through it.  Nor do I want other people to have to do it either.  Plus adding it to my front yard means that the kids have more of it to play with. 

Hopefully the kids will get more play time before it all goes away.

 I love this photo!  She decided to pull a typical silly Emi face while we were getting snow clothes on before going outside.

 Eriks was doing some serious snow lounging.  He tried to make snow angels but it wasn't working because he couldn't break through the light layer of ice on top of the snow.

Had to throw in the obligatory photo of me.

Eriks' Birthday Party

Happy New Year Everyone!!  We had a very rough end to 2010 but I will discuss that in another post in the future.  Eriks went back to school today after a little over a 2 week break from school.  I'm happy but sad that the winter break drew to a close.  Our Christmas decorations are still up and will come down this weekend.  They haven't even been up a month and I'd like them to hand around a little bit longer.

Eriks had his birthday party the weekend before his birthday.  The reason we decided to do this is because his birthday fell on the Friday winter break started and my guess was that many people were going to start their holiday traveling that weekend and/or preparing for company.  We decided it would be best to not have his birthday party then for fear that a number of his friends would not be able to come.  Even on the weekend we did have his birthday just over 1/2 of the kids Eriks invited attended.  Mid-December is not a good time to have a birthday.  I'm thinking in the future we may start having 1/2 birthday parties in the summer when kids are out of school and more readily available for parties.  Plus it will give Eriks the opportunity to have a birthday party when it's warm!

Eriks chose to have his birthday at a bounce place.  The staff there was fantastic.  They did all the set up, clean up, running the party, etc.  All we had to do was show up, provide cake and pay for it.  So worth it!  The 14 kids in attendance had a blast.  They were all drenched in sweat after bouncing their little hearts content.  They then gobbled down pizza and cake and watched Eriks open presents.  In my opinion this is the best birthday party Eriks has had.  He couldn't stop talking about it.  Here are some photos of the event.

 Eriks wanted a Ben_10 cake so he got it!

 I tried to get a good photo of all the kids but it's impossible

to get 14 kids who have been bouncing for 1 hr and 20 minutes

to sit still enough for a photo!

 A very sweaty birthday boy!