Permission Slip Required

Tony was my source of humor last night. Poor guy.

Soooo......we finally celebrated his birthday with his family on Sunday night and his sister, Amy got him this really nice Winchester knife set. We ,of course, started joking with Tony because the last time he received a knife as a gift, he cut his thumb and shoved it in a dirty sock to try to get the bleeding to stop and to avoid getting stitches.

Last night Emily asked Tony to help her open up a porcelain doll that she received from Great Grandma Bartlett for Christmas while I was cooking our gourmet dinner of hot dogs, mac & cheese & peas. Yummy, I know. All of a sudden I turn around and see Tony wiping something up off the kitchen floor and I realize that it's blood. Sure enough, the boy cut himself. AGAIN. Through my laughter, I told him I wanted to see the cut this time to see if it needed stitches and he wouldn't let me see it because he hadn't assessed the damage first. I followed him into the bathroom and once he removed the paper towel from his hand, you could see a nice gash on his left hand where the knife cleanly slashed him. He said that he didn't need stitches, of course. He said that he only needed a band aid. Well that lasted about 30 seconds before he bled through that one. After he nearly immediately bled through the 2nd band aid I told him that he had to go to Urgent Care to get the stitches that "he didn't need."

After waiting there for nearly 1 1/2 hours he was seen and the doctor looked at his chart and said that it was 6 months and 1 day from the last time he was in getting snitches. He's getting pretty consistent don't you think? He ended up with 4 stitches in his hand when it was all said and done.

So now the joke will always be that no one is allowed to give Tony a knife for a gift anymore. And if they do, a permission slip must be signed first in order for him to use it.

Moral of the story? Winchester knives are very nice and very sharp!

The big 3-0

Today's the big day for Tony. He turned 30 today! Tony thought (and some of the rest of us did too) that he'd have a crisis in celebrating this birthday. About 6 months ago when another friend turned the big 3-0, Tony nearly broke out into a cold sweat and begged me not to throw him a surprise party. I was throwing a fit inside of my head because of this new anxiety that he showed because that was just what I had planned in mind. Instead.....here's what we did! We got a huge group of people together and had a night out on the town. Pretty much, we spent a majority of the night at Shooters in Saginaw riding the mechanical bull. The first picture you see here is of Garth (Katie's boyfriend) and Sue (one of our friends) riding the bull together because they matched with their pink striped shirts. What you can't see right now is the video that goes along with this that shows how hard it was to get Sue on the bull. On the 3rd attempt at mounting the mechanical animal, Garth put his hands together to give Sue a boost. In reality what happened was that on the count of 3, Garth shot Sue OVER the bull. It was one of those up and over moments that had us all nearly running to the bathroom about to wet ourselves.



Next, you see another hilarious moment with the lovely bull. That would be Sue (again), me and Tony all trying to ride this thing together. I think we migh have made it 1 second before we all fell off together. And now Sue is left bruised and so am I. My left elbow, that you see pictured, is now so badly bruised that the entire area is black. Tony escaped uninjured which is a Christmas miracle.








And then the night ended with a trip to good ole' Lil' Chef for some breakfast. I think Tony was a little excited when his pancakes finally showed up to the table. What do you think? And I think we could also agree that he has a tongue like Gene Simmons from Kiss.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Fe11OlMiz8

I'm telling you what, someone forwarded this link to me and these guys are amazing. In fact, when I forwarded the link to some other friends and family, my exact words were, "Holy cats Batman! These guys are amazing!" The group's name is Straight No Chaser. I cannot believe their talent and ability. Check the link out and see for yourself. Let me suggest a few more songs to listen to once you are there:

• Lion Sleeps Tonight
• Carol of the Bells
• Sitcom Medley

Ok, let's get real. Just check them all out. I was so impressed after listening to everything on YouTube yesterday that I purchased their holiday album that just came out not too long ago. Normally I don't like holiday albums, but I've got a feeling I won't be disappointed this time. I can't wait to get it in the mail.

Yes people, I have an iPod so I could download everything. But you see, my husband commandeered it just about oh.... a day after I received it. So I never get to use it. And now Emily thinks it's the best thing since chocolate milk and LOVES listening to it and singing her little heart out. I should really record her doing that. It's pretty funny and I'm sure it'd be a video that she'd kill me for later in life when I embarrass the pants off her in front of her boyfriend or something.

Now go and have yourself a lovely day. If you live in Michigan, have a lovely day digging yourself out of the crapload of snow we just got. And if you live in Florida, like my cousin does, do me a favor and quit bragging about still being able to wear short sleeves without freezing to death. Only kidding Cuz!! I still love you! I'm just insanely jealous, that's all.

Our real forever puppy!

On Saturday we made a trip to Remus which is just west of Mt. Pleasant to the home of the aunt & uncle of a friend of mine. They had a litter of puppies that were ready for a new home so off we went in search of our new family member. After checking all of them out and asking a couple of questions (we really aren't used to this), we made our decision and picked a puppy that had markings similar to what Dash had. The puppies are 3/4 Australian Shepherd and 1/4 Yellow Lab. Our puppy's name is Trooper. We also toyed with the name Flash, but decided that it was too close to Dash and we were already having problems not calling the puppy Dash.

But please meet our new, forever puppy, Trooper. He's a sweetie. He will be two months old Wednesday. He's got some learning to do and so do we, but he's handling the transition very well. We've only had one minor potty accident in the house and it happened to be in the kitchen which was easy to clean up. And then Trooper initiated Maddie on the way home with a barf from what we determined as a nervous stomach with all the changes that took place. All is well now and we are glad to have Trooper with us.

Have a wonderful day and a very blessed Thanksgiving.

Can't stand selfish people

I cannot stand selfish people. What's even more, I cannot stand selfish, rich people. So if you're rich and reading this blog, check yourself and make sure you're not selfish and be grateful for your financial blessings.

As you've read from my previous blog, we became the owners of a fabulous miniature Australian Shepherd on Monday. Well, we're no longer his owners anymore. The previous owner had the audacity to have my poor sister-in-law (who happens to work for them) call my husband yesterday morning to ask for Dash back. Needless to say, Tony and I were LIVID. I don't know that I've ever been that angry before. If I have, I certainly can't remember. I said absolutely not. Not until either Tony or I spoke to one of them personally.

Long story short, we ended up giving Dash back to them last night. It was not pretty. At first we told this woman that she would have to come to our house to pick Dash up and then explain to our little girls what she was doing. But then as common sense began to reappear, we realized that we didn't want this woman to come into our home and lie to our girls about the situation. So when we got home last night, we sat the girls down and explained the situation to them that we love Dash and want him to stay with us forever but that the previous owner wanted him back. Never mind the fact that this woman was being deceitful, but whatever. The girls didn't need to know that.

I'd already begun damage control and got in touch with someone that I trust and knew would probably be able to help. And boy did she come through for me. So once we broke the news to the girls, we quickly followed with the fact that we were going to be looking at puppies this Saturday and that the girls would be able to pick it out, name it and keep it forever. And that no one would be able to come and ask for their new puppy back.

Maddie, being 4 and being a little girl that lets lots of things roll off her back, did really well with the news. Emily on the other hand, didn't do so well. It took me over 2 hours to quit bawling so Em looked like a champ. She broke down immediately but we gave her Dash's dog ID tag to keep as a reminder of him. That helped and she calmed down. But when Dash ended up leaving, she broke down again. And then poor Katie came over feeling horrible herself because she was drug in the middle of this, saw Em and they broke down together. Emily asked if she could go back to Auntie Katie's house by herself with her and we certainly agreed. Well Katie had a chain that she wasn't using and put Dash's dog tag on it so that Emily could wear it like a necklace. That was fabulous.

So the picture above is of Emily just before leaving for school today wearing her new necklace. She's signing "I love you" and that's meant for Dash. Poor kid.

You can certainly say we've learned a good lesson here. But I can tell you that I am proud of my girls for taking the news as best as they could and rebounding like they have. Never under estimate the power of your children. If you do, they'll surprise you.

Stay tuned for an update once we have the opportunity to visit the puppies this weekend. We'll have a new addition to our family soon and can hopefully put this mess behind us.

The new addition

Yep, we got a new puppy. Meet Dash, a miniature Australian Shepherd that is 3 months old. The little cutie needed a home and he hit Tony's soft spot so Tony gave the A-OK for Dash to become the 2nd male in our house. He came to us last night and let me tell you what, the girls were EXCITED. When I got home from school they couldn't wait to meet me at the door screaming, and I mean screaming, that we got a new puppy that gets to live with us forever. So now we own a cat who's name is Baby. She's the one that you see at the top of the page. And a great dog. Let's just say the excitement from Baby wasn't near the level of excitement that came from the girls. Dash REALLY would like to get to know Baby and play with her. But Baby just isn't quite ready for a relationship like that. In fact, you'll notice in the two pictures (sorry about the pile of dirty clothes), Dash really wanted to play and all Baby was willing to do was puff herself up to look even bigger than she already is and then take the high ground out of Dash's reach. Oh, let's not forget all the hissing and growling that came from her too. Who knew that cats could growl?!

At any rate, our family has expanded and although we do have a lot of work ahead of us, we're excited. Anyone interested in a puppy play date, let me know!

Last night was the first chance that we had to carve our pumpkins for Halloween and the girls had a blast! Thankfully the weather was nice enough to do it all outside. Emily really enjoyed pulling the guts out of the pumpkin and Maddie was completely content with letting Daddy do all of the work.

BUBBLES!

So you know how some kids get soap in their mouths as a form of punishment when they've been naughty? Well, I've got a feeling that it's not going to work with Maddie. This is what happens when you turn your back on her and Emily in a tub full of Strawberry Shortcake bubbles. I kid you not, the child kept eating the bubbles until we got her out. Sicko. But that's our Maddie! And let's not leave Em out of this either. She was the mastermind behind this and loaded Maddie's face up with the bubbles. They're a funny team.

Real Fans

This is what true New Kids On The Block fans look like when the group is singing "Hanging Tough"
















This is what I look like as a loving fan of Joe McIntyre. (Yes, that is one HUGE pin from back in the late 80's). And ladies, he's matured into one FINE man.















This is what Tony looks like as a Chemic Fan. He's not one.















And this my friends is what true Chemic Fans look like at the MHS/DHS game (before we got rained on and looked like drowned rats.) Check Erin's blog if you want to see what she thinks a Chemic Fan looks like.

Growing up.....

This past weekend we went to my cousin's son's 1st birthday party and in the girls' goodie bags, they got a page of princess sticker earrings. Both girls fell in love with having them. Emily put them where they belonged, on her ears. Maddie had so much fun with hers that they went all over her face and hands as well as all over Grandm'as face. Later that night, out of the blue, Emily said that she wanted to have her ears pierced for real. I said no at first but then Tony said that we should let her. Emily isn't one to make hasty decisions so we talked about it and told her that it'd hurt and that the decision was up to her. On Monday she came up to me and said that she'd made up her mind to get them pierced. I told her that was fine but that she'd have to wait until Thursday after school to get them done. I did this partly because our schedule wouldn't allow it until then, but it'd also give Emily time to change her mind.

Well, yesterday morning Emily woke up before 7 am with a HUGE grin on her face because she knew what day it was and that after school she'd get to get her ears pierced. I had my sister meet me at work with the girls and off we went to visit Claire's in the mall. Aunt Amy, Nicholas, Aiden and cousins Kevin & Sarah all came as well to watch this big event.

Emily did fantastic. She was excited to pick out the earrings that she wanted which happened to be flowers with a blue center (her favorite color) and diamond (cubic zirconia) petals. She was in a bit of shock once it happened because of how much it hurt but all she did was shed some tears and needed a few hugs to get her through. By the time we left to go stop at Daddy's football practice, she was all grins and excited about her new addition.

Ick!

Never a dull moment in our house, I swear. So yesterday we got to spend a good portion of the later afternoon getting rained on while watching Central Middle School's first home game. Poor kids haven't won a game yet but at least they're trying! And so are the coaches.

After getting home from church with the girls, I got them bathed, read books and tucked them in for a long peaceful night's sleep. That was until at 12:15 am I get jolted awake by Maddie screaming from her bed. Tony and I go running in only to find the child covered in barf. Anyone who knows Tony knows that the poor man absolutely CANNOT stomach vomit so it was amazing that he and Emily still exhisted in the bedroom at this moment. Tony later said that it took everything in him to go into the room so I give him props for entering when all his signals were screaming to run far, far away. He helped me get Maddie bathed yet again so that I could clean up the yuck once I provided a clean escape for Emily off the top bunk. And then no sooner did we get everyone settled back down for sleep than Maddie wakes up in the same situation only this time in the living room. We pretty much were up every hour on the hour with this routine until nearly 7 am this morning. My washer has never had this much action in the middle of the night!

Thankfully I can say now, just over 12 hours later, that Maddie is doing really well. I'm not sure if it had anything to do with us being out in the elements yesterday or what, but she certainly went through the ringer over night.

One funny little tid bit is that through all of this, Maddie kept saying "Someone got me sick!" It was just so cute that she was certain someone did this to her.

Here's hoping to an "ick free" day for everyone. :)

Wierd Humor

So a great friend of mine sent this to me today and quite honestly I think that my sister may have sent this to me as well. I finally took a moment to watch the video and here's what happened to me:

1. I screamed. Out loud. Not just a scream in my head, but a scream out loud. At work. Good thing my boss wasn't here at the moment.

2. I nearly wet my pants. Not good when the bathroom is in timbucktoo and you always have to wait in line here.

3. I'm not kidding, I had a mini heart attack. Or at least gave my heart a few extra beats.

4. I almost fell out of my chair.

I've seen other videos that were worse but it's been a while. Happy Halloween, scare the bejeebers out of you season!

Kids say the darndest things

It doesn't take long for a 4 year old to say something to brighten up your day. Maddie took care of that just after dropping Emily off to school today. While walking out of the school this morning a woman about the age of my mom and mother-in-law walked past us. Let me interject here and say that any woman who appears to be the age of her grandmas, Maddie immediately thinks she is one. It's like when toddlers see men an assume that all men are daddies. Anyhoo......after this woman passed us, Maddie looked up at me and said, "Mommy, I hope you don't turn into a grandma." I just smiled and replied, "Maddie, I hope I don't turn into a grandma for a long time either."

Kids certainly say the darndest things sometime.

The Tooth Fairy writes with a pen

Ta da! It came out! The tooth came out! I was in class last night and during my break I checked my cell phone and noticed that I had a voice mail from my sister-in-law who was caring for the girls for me. Lo and behold, Emily's tooth came out. After calling to get the details I found out that Emily had had enough of the worrying about this tooth and just got up enough guts to ask her aunt to pull the tooth out. The tooth was more than ready to come out so it was a painless experience for her but not without some anxiety at first. So with tissue in hand, Aunt Amy was the hero and got the tooth out. Now Emily's ready to eat all those hard, crunchy foods that she's stayed away from for nearly a week.

Last night we had her tooth in a glass of salt water sitting on the window sil for the Tooth Fairy to exchange with money and Emily stated to her daddy that she wanted to leave the Tooth Fairy a note. Not a big deal. Emily wrote a note to her telling her that she wanted to see her and that her name was Emily (in case she didn't know). She even drew a heart shaped smiley face complete with teeth that looked like Emily's mouth. I'll scan it and post it fore you to view tomorrow. It's too precious.

So the "Tooth Fairy" replied that she was sorry Emily couldn't see her but that she was excited to see her baby teeth falling out to make room for her big girl teeth and to have fun with it and not be scared. Emily woke up this morning while I was in the shower and came trotting into the bathroom and opened up the shower door so that I could see this repsonse and read it to her. Thankfully she let me finish my shower but before we left for school she observed the note and realized that the repsonse was written in pencil just like Emily's note. I agreed with her and then Emily said, "But I thought the Tooth Fairy's wand turned into a pen?" I think I might have had a deer in the headlights kind of face but quickly tried to play it off with an "oh well" type of response so as not to give myself, errrrrrr I mean the Tooth Fairy away.

Apparantly next time I try to do anything sneaky, I should get all of Emily's input first so I don't screw it up.

I'm not a church skipper!

So I got into the office this morning after having a long motivational talk with myself to heave my rear end out of bed this morning when all I wanted to do was hunker down for about 12 more hours of sleep and had a nice email from my Pastor saying that he missed us in church yesterday. I thought that was nice of him to notice that we weren't there. THEN....about 1/2 hour later, my boss walks in and makes some statement about Pastor's message in church yesterday and did I just skip and stay home? Yeah right!

Actually, Tony, the girls and I were in Kalamazoo yesterday which seems to be our home away from home lately for my godson's baptism. Ethen Gerlas Latimer is his name and he is such a beautiful, wonderful, loveable little boy. He did amazing during the service yesterday. The child stayed awake for almost the entire service and didn't make a peep during it either. He's an angel. And guess what? Right before we were getting ready to leave to hit the road back to Midland, Ethan so lovingly baptized me in spit up not once, but twice. Isn't that thoughtful? Hee hee hee. I don't mind. I even volunteered to change his super stinky poopy diaper. Can you tell I'm out of diaper stages at home? I bet you can.

Enjoy the picture of T.H.E. & M. with baby Ethan at the church. It was such a blessed time with the added bonus of Ethan's Grandma Proskow and Uncle Rick playing and singing along with Daddy, Kirk performing an amazing poem that he wrote for Ethan in front of the entire congregation. Not a dry eye was left in that place. If you want to hear the poem, go to http://www.kineticaffect.com/ and check it out.

And the Oscar goes to......

Let me tell you, Emily better become an actress some day so that she can bring me an Oscar or whatever else award you can receive for a leading dramatic role. This will come as no surprise to anyone who knows our little girl. She is so funny, but certainly wears the title "drama queen" with pride at times and today was a shining moment. Too bad that it happened at school!

So I get this call near the lunch hour from her morning Kindergarten teacher explaining that as the kids were walking down to the lunch room with lunch boxes in hand, a little boy who was in front of Emily turned around and accidentally bumped into her which in turn caused her lunch box to some how bump into her lower lip. This apparently caused one of her bottom teeth to become loose. So needless to say, the tears started rolling and panic set in because that's just what happens for Emily when a tooth becomes loose.

Keep in mind, the child has already lost two teeth and nothing was done to warrant this type of a reaction or behavior from her. Just ask my brother-in-law Eric, who as a police officer & detective, had to use his training and skills in hostage negotiations with her just to get permission to get a small wiggle check when her first tooth became loose. Emily is one who immediately jumps to the worst possible conclusion with situations. So unless you consistently work with her to focus on the good and realistic things, she'll most certainly be focused on what terrible thing COULD happen.

I informed her teacher that this is the way Emily is and she shouldn't be concerned but just to lovingly support her and try to get her mind off of this dreaded loose tooth. She understood and thanked me for my time and I thought that would be the end of it. Wrong!

About 1/2 hour later I get another call from the school and this time it's from one of the secretaries who has Emily in the office all upset and unwilling to eat her lunch. She wanted to know if they should continue to try to get Emily to eat and I told her no, that it would do no good. If there's one thing with Em, it's that when the child's mind is made up, it's like trying to move a mountain to get her to change her mind. She also said that Emily was upset and wanted to go home and she wondered if it would help if I talked with Emily to help calm her down. I had no problem with this but here's where I have a confession to make. And anyone who is in my family that is about to read this, quit laughing now. This next trait of Emily comes straight from me and I cannot deny it at all. I knew that the moment she got on the phone and heard my voice, that the situation would become even more dramatic with eyes full of tears, whining, labored breathing and anything else you can think of in a dramatic "girl" moment. And Emily didn't fail me this time either. She immediately began crying saying that she wanted to leave school this instant and that she didn't want to eat because of this tooth. One of the funniest lines from her went something like this after I explained and reminded her that she's already lost two teeth and knows the drill, "But mommy, this is the first time my tooth was loose at school without you with me!" And then my reply went something like this, "That's right but you also know that your tooth is not going to fall out of your mouth today."

I got her to take some deep breaths to calm down and also to agree that finishing out her day at school would be just fine and I'd come and pick her up. She only agreed after giving one last ditch attempt by asking me to call her at school between that moment and the end of the day. I told her no, that I would be there waiting for her when the bell rang and assured her that her afternoon teacher would take good care of her and that she should have fun and not focus on her tooth anymore.

Of course as a parent you wonder if you are doing the right thing in dealing with your child and I feel confident there. But then there's another thought that makes you wonder if you've done anything to fuel the behavior. All in all, at the moment of dealing with issues like today, it stresses a parent out. But it also doesn't take me long to sit back and just laugh. This child is so adorable. I am certainly blessed and she definitely does her part to keep my life interesting. No dull moments here!

I'll be sure to keep you posted on the status of this tooth but I may have to call in reinforcements to check on this tooth because I have a feeling she's going to keep her mouth guarded like Fort Knox! You think I'm kidding? You should see for yourself.

New beginnings

I didn't realize how long it's been since I've been able to post a blog! Ooops! I guess the title of our blog is proving right, we're very busy these days.

School has begun and the girls are into their regular routines now and doing really well. Emily is loving Kindergarten so much. She gets to do so many things throughout her day that it amazes me. They have gym and Spanish class along two times a week along with a chance to visit the school's library every day. This is all added on top of what they are doing in their classrooms. I love dropping her off and even having the opportunity every now and again to pick her up and hear what she's willing to tell me about her day. I laugh at her comments sometimes because often she'll tell me that she's done so much in school, that she just can remember what to tell me. I am so thankful for the staff there too. Since 3 out of the 4 teachers/paraprofessionals had me as a student at this age, it's funny to listen to them say that she is definitely "a little Heather." And they've all reassured me that when they say that, it's a good thing! :) Emily's extended day teacher is someone that I used to go to church with and is only a couple of years older than me. Emily looks to her as a 2nd mother and I couldn't be more happy. If Emily has a hard time or sad moment, she's comfortable going to her teacher to help her out so that by the time I see her, the issue is already being dealt with. It's just so nice to have such peace when I leave her there every day.

Maddie is so funny when it comes to school. She is SO excited that school has finally begun for her and she wishes that she could go every day like her big sister. She has no fear or reservations going into her classroom and I'm sure it helps that she's got 1 cousin(Nick) and two almost-cousins (Danial & Colin) there as well. She truly is our Tigger with all the energy and enthusiasm that she displays and it shows the most with school. She goes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and at the end of class time on Monday, her teacher told the class that on their next school day, it would be picture day. This just added to Maddie's excitement. But since she still hasn't quite grasped the yesterday, today, tomorrow concept, yesterday was a tough morning for her. She thought that she got to go to school yesterday and that it would be her picture day. She just broke down into tears when I explained that she had to wait another day. Although it made getting out of the house difficult, it was so precious to know how excited she was. So this morning was one for the record books on good behavior for Maddie. The child woke up, ate her breakfast so fast that I doubted her and didn't make a peep when I had to put her hair up. Now I can't wait to get the pictures back because I'm sure they will be adorable.

Not only has school begun for the girls, but it has also begun for me. I've got my ethics class this semester and it's very interesting. It's hard though since this subject focuses on the gray area so there's no black or white answer. Having interesting subject material helps make this 3 hour class go by fast and I love that. It helps that I have a really good professor too.

Tony's getting all geared up for the start of middle school football too. He's really enjoying coaching at Central Middle School along side Dan TerBurgh. Today is a scrimmage against Northeast which is Central's biggest rival so I'm sure everyone is excited. This is to prepare the boys for their first game that starts next week. Tony's figuring out that it's not easy being a coach and that you've got more time invested than just at practice and the games. He's a natural though and from what I've heard, the boys on his team love him.

I think that's got us all caught up for now! Enjoy the picture from Emily's first day of school that has Maddie in it. Hopefully it brings a smile to your face.

One proud Mommy

So I need to post a response to the blog that I recently posted about Emily being the victim of a bully already. And this response makes me so proud!!!

The little girl who had hurt her did end up showing up to school on the last day of the program last week. And Emily went up to this girl on her own and came right out and asked her, "Are you going to hurt me today?" And the little girl replied that no, she wasn't because her mommy told her that hitting is not nice. And that was the end of it.

It was such a proud moment for me to hear that because it let me know that Emily was not going to live in fear of this girl. And she was also able to let the incident go and not sit and dwell on it forever. It was as if all she needed to know was if this girl was going to continue to behave this way towards her. And if so, then she'd keep her distance.

So, high five Em for making your mommy & daddy proud!

It's already started!

I can't even believe that I have this event to tell you. It's very sad.

Emily is going to be starting Kindergarten after Labor Day at Eastlawn Elementary School. For the first 3 weeks of August, Emily got to be a part of a "Jump into Kindergarten" program that is funded by local foundations. It's truly a great program for these kids because it helps transition them for school coming up so soon. And the things that they are learning are wonderful too! Coming from us, where my father-in-law is deaf, I couldn't be more pleased that they were teaching the children the alphabet in sign language. Insert tangent here: I think that kids should be learning sign language in school before they have to learn to speak Spanish. There are more deaf Americans in this country than you realize and they are constantly being left out and looked over because people are afraid or don't know how to communicate with them. Why do we need to make sure that our kids can speak Spanish when this is America? Speak ENGLISH! Ok, tangent done.

This program is hosted by Eastlawn so I was glad to enroll Emily into the program because I knew that it would enable her to become familiar with her school building. And lucky for us, they grouped the kids by school so she would also begin to develop friendships before the school year began. Then yesterday, something awful happened to her.

She was already having a bad morning of not wanting to leave Mommy so thanks to Mrs. Smartt, who oversees this program, she went with her and spent some time talking, calming down and making a picture to show me at the end of the day. I swear, the child must have known something bad was going to happen to her. When the children were in line to go to another room, there was a little girl behind her along with some other classmates. The end of the line was pushing to go forward so that caused a chain reaction of children getting bumped towards the front of the line. This little girl, pushed Emily from behind and it caught Emily off guard. Emily turned around and using her words, like we've taught her, asked this girl to please not push her. Apparently after that, this girl pushed Emily again and then kicked her 3 times in her leg! Thankfully one of the teacher's witnessed this event and went to this little girl and asked her to apologize to Emily. This little girl would not apologize and then became defiant. She wouldn't say that she was sorry and then got out of control with screaming and kicking to the point that the teacher had to hold her in her arms on the floor. The even escalated to the point that this child had to be removed from the group and sent home because of her horrible behavior.

So here Emily is, 6 years old and getting ready to start Kindergarten and already has become a victim to a bully. And a girl bully none the less! She told me all about what happened but if you know Emily, you can't dwell on an event too long because then it turns into a fishing story that gets blown out of proportion. And we usually take dramatic stories with a grain of salt because sometimes Emily perceives events to be much worse than they really are. Only to find out that her teacher confirmed EVERYTHING that she said to me when I spoke with her this morning.

Thanks be to God though that the staff witnessed this event and handled it to the best of their ability. They assured me that they would keep the girls apart should this other little girl show up for school today. And thankfully after checking with the school secretary, both girls will not be in the same classroom this year. We are very lucky that her Kindergarten staff is a great one. Her teacher is who I had when I was in 3rd grade at the same school, the paraprofessionals in both her core class and extended day class are ones that I also had when I was there. And her extended day teacher is the wife of someone I used to attend church with. So I know that I won't have to worry should I need to talk with them about this. But I still stand amazed that this is already beginning and she is just about to enter Kindergarten.

Yesterday's events were terribly traumatic for her. She ended the day in tears and frustrated beyond mention. Thankfully we were able to talk about it and pray about it together. And even at this age, we are teaching her to pray for her enemies because we don't know what their lives are like at home. From what I've heard, this child is from a broken home so I can only imagine how things are for her. It doesn't excuse her behavior but it at least gives us a glimpse to a reason. Lastly, it makes me so proud of Emily. She handled herself the best way that she knew how and she managed to work through it.

She went to school today, with it being her last day, excited. That's the way that it should be, a child going to school excited and not scared.

It leaves me to wonder.....what is this world coming to? And it also makes me wonder how any parent would allow or enable such awful behavior? I guess, ready or not, here we come to find out!

It's raining, it's pouring.....

So last night was the Garber Chevrolet Body Shop boat cruise on the Princess Wenona out of Bay City. This is a yearly event that is held where a certain number of invited people come to eat a wonderful dinner and enjoy music by a dj while cruising on the boat for 3 hours in the bay.

Last year we nearly cooked ourselves alive because of how hot and humid it was. This year was totally different. I, who was only thinking of what it was like last year, didn't really pay a whole lot of attention to the weather report and decided to wear a jean skirt and short sleeved t-shirt and dressy flip flops. Didn't bring a jacket or sweater with me even though anyone who knows me, knows that I am always cold. We got on the boat and had a very nice, filling dinner while sitting at the same table with some friends and then two CRAZY people. One was a lady who sat right next to Tony and at one point in the dinner asked if she could borrow his phone to call her friend to tell her that she was eating raw prime rib. Coookooo! She was sitting next to a guy that screamed molester to many of us as well. Those two had never met before but were obviously hitting on each other for most of the night. Very scary. After dinner, we proceeded to go upstairs where there is an open viewing area as well as a covered area. The covered area is where the dj was with an open space for a dance floor. We were having fun listening to the music and visiting when all of a sudden you could see the dark clouds rolling in and the lighting shooting out from them. Bill, who I might add is completely addicted to his BlackBerry, pulled up the radar a little earlier in the evening and showed us that there were two separate storm cells moving in our direction. We thought we'd be lucky and miss the first one and the possibly get hit with the second one on our way home. Let's just say that we were off target on that guess. Not 10 minutes after we started seeing the dark clouds and lightning, did it start raining. And it was a Forrest Gump kind of rain. It came in sideways to the point that even standing in the middle of the covered portion of the upper deck, we were getting pelted with rain. Bad news for us was that in order to get down to the main deck, you had to go down the stairs that are right near the edge of the boat. Just going down one flight of stairs was enough to soak all of us. We were waiting the storm out and then once things cleared, we went back upstairs and were completely entertained but one woman who clearly had too much to drink. She was dancing and singing her heart out on the dance floor at times, by herself, and didn't care at all. A few others joined her so we had plenty to be entertained by. Not to mention, Tony being in rare form and entertaining us as well. Just about the time that our three hour tour (quit singing the Gilligan's Island theme song now) was finished, in came that second cell that we saw on the radar. So just about the time we were beginning to dry out from the first downpour, in came this one when we'd have to get off the boat and head to our vehicles.

All in all, we truly did have a fabulous night and had a lot of fun. Full of inside jokes that will never be forgotten too. But take my advice, check the weather report ahead of time and prepare in advance so you don't turn into a drowned rat who is freezing cold too!

Whew!

It seems as though more and more people are blogging to keep people updated on the day to day happenings of their lives so I figured, "Why not join them?!" With so many people bogged down with their own responsibilities, commitments or whatever else there is that takes up our time, I figured this would be a neat way to keep people updated on our family. So thanks to Erin for sharing your blog with me and for creating an easy avenue for me to do the same thing.

As stated in the name of my blog, we are always busy, busy, busy. It's not intentional but just how life is for us. I'm sure that a lot of it has to do with my inability to remain still for long so I take some responsibility there.

Tony is working very hard at Garber Chevrolet, where he's been since he was in High School. He's moved through ranks and departments and for now has cemented himself in the Paint Shop as the Head Painter there. Through a lot of research and talking with the right people, he helped the Paint Shop "Go Green" recently with paint. Granted, I don't really know what I'm talking about but they've gone from solvent based color to water base now. I know it's better on the environment, better for Tony's health since he's dealing with chemicals all day long and produces a much better finish on the vehicles. Besides work, Tony has been working on restoring a 1938 Chevrolet. He doesn't get nearly as much time as he'd like to work on the car thanks to our busy schedules and two little girls at home, but he is inching closer and closer to completion. Hopefully by this time next year, we'll be driving the car to shows and around town instead of just talking about it.

Emily just recently celebrated her 6th birthday and the thought of that is still a shock to me. Where has the time gone?! She had in her mind that she wanted to have her party at our house and have it be a pool party. So that's what we did. We invited the family over and a few friends on a great Saturday afternoon and had a great time visiting, eating cake & playing. Emily also recently lost her 2nd tooth already! She also started a "Jump into Kindergarten" program today. This is an educational study done by a local agency that studies and prepares children who are registered for kindergarten in the fall. What's nice is that Eastlawn is the host school for this and Eastlawn is the elementary school that Emily will be attending in the fall. She had a terrific time today and has already begun to make friends. I can't wait to see what the new school year will be like. What's funny is that her teacher and the paraprofessionals who will help in her class are all wonderful women that I had when I went to Eastlawn back in the day. Hopefully her teachers will see her as a blessing and not a curse having already had her mommy in their class!

Maddie is just Maddie, our little Tigger. She is a bundle of non stop energy that just goes and goes and goes. She celebrated her 4th birthday back in May and has been a lot of fun to watch grow. She wants so badly to be just like Emily and do things just like her. She went to preschool last year in a 3 yr. old program and absolutely cannot wait for the 4 yr. old program to begin in September. She will be with the same teacher she had last year and will also get to be in the same class as my nephew, Nicholas as well as two boys from our surrogate family (the Bergs), Colin and Daniel. If I'm not mistaken, there might also be a York cousin in that class too! Watch out!

I'm staying busy with working for Rich Purvis at RE/MAX of Midland and enjoying that very much. I've said it from the very beginning that God has blessed me with this job and I don't deny that EVER. Rich is a wonderful person to work for because he understands how important my family is to me and he also supports my adventure going back to school at Delta to pursue a degree in Nursing. I've been blessed there as well to have the support of everyone in this adventure. I completed all of my basics when I went to school right after graduating High School, so now I'm taking the last of my required classes before heading into clinicals. It's quite a challenge balancing everything but thankfully I've got just about the best support system there is to make this is success. I'm looking forward to one day finishing this and being able to be proud of myself for the accomplishment as well as doing what I feel I'm called to do by helping others.

I think that's pretty much caught you up to date on our lives if you haven't been caught up already. This has been a packed summer for us with little weekend getaways to Silver Lake Sand Dunes and camping trips. We're gearing up for our last camping trip of the summer for this weekend. We're heading to Clear Lake State Park in Atlanta, MI which is in the northern portion of the Lower Peninsula. We'll be going with my mom and her husband, Rich as well as my sister, her husband and two boys. It should be a fun time!

If, for some reason, the day to day happenings of our lives interests you, stop back and stay caught up! And by all means, fill us in on your lives too! I always love to know how people are doing and staying in touch.