Trucks, Tiaras and Tutus: End of the year update

I miss my blog. I think of things to write about and I even take notes sometimes so I won't forget. However, making myself take the time to sit down and write has been hard. So I thought I would just stop by and get an end-of-the-year update so that I don't completely forget my life.

Several months ago Tom got a new job as a Construction Manager for his company. The time commitment for him was huge. It was a very busy summer with some pretty stressful days. Summer is my favorite time of year but it was harder to enjoy with a missing member of the family. The construction season has already come to a close and today is Tom's last day at work for three weeks. I am very much looking forward to having him around and he not drained from work in the evenings. The winter months of his job are what I look forward to and are the light at the end of the tunnel come August when we rarely get a moment to ourselves.

Lily will be turning eight in February EIGHT! So strange. I'm happy to say there are days, or moments, that she is wise beyond her years. She continues to do well in school academically and she also continues to be perplexed by her peers. She loves her teacher and so do I. Mrs. Wilkens had made this year very enjoyable and a huge learning opportunity for Lily. Lily is still committed to ballet. She struggles to always remain ballerina-like during class. Not because she cannot dance....but because she lacks the calm, quiet personality that is common with a ballet dancer. I am proud of her because she continues to work hard to do her best and her dance teacher continues to demand Lily's best. My most favorite development with Lily is that she isn't just a new reader anymore. She is now a true bookworm. She has to be grounded from reading if we are needing to really get a message across. We went through a couple of weeks of poor behavior at home and at school. We discovered the root of the problem was that she was staying up way past bedtime to read her books. Now when I tell her good night, we read together for a few minutes and then I take the book with me upstairs. This has to be done so that she can function at school. Chances are this will be a habit that she will continue for the rest of her life...speaking from experience.

Mr. Drew is in kindergarten and will be turning six years old very soon. He has not missed a day of school and he loves his teacher. He works very hard a school and is always trying to be the perfect student, the perfect friend and blend in with his peers in just the right way. He has relaxed some as the year as progressed, but he remains diligent. He struggles some with his eyes. We have discovered that he has not been seeing as well as he could be seeing. This struggle to see has made reading more difficult, but his teacher says that she cannot tell he is struggling at all. He is just where he needs to be for his level of reading and comprehension and she tells me all the time how smart he is. I know I might have sounded crazy to her at first when I said that I thought Drew was struggling...but I'm glad I persisted. It turns out, he inherited my eyes. His eyes cross just enough that it makes it difficult for him to see what he is reading. He has recently begun eye therapy and we are hoping that this exercises with help us to avoid a corrective surgery. Drew has been staying busy with friends and is playing basketball this winter. He loves being a part of a group and really has not met a person at school that wasn't a friend. Last month he was chosen as the Hawk Walker. The Hawk Walker is a child recognized for setting a good example in the hallway and making good choices. As far as I know he is the only one in his class to have the honor so far and Lily told us it was a big deal. For receiving the honor he got a choose one friend to sit with him at a special table in the lunch room for lunch and then his name was announce on the Morgan Morning News. I am very proud of him!

Julianna is in her first year of preschool. She loves it! She always gives me the full report of everything that happened at school that day. She doesn't hold anything back and even shared yesterday that she had her first time out at school. She said she was playing monsters too loud and didn't quiet down to come to circle. She shared that her friend Lauren cried, but that she was too scared to cry. Earlier in the week she shared that she hard learned about 'thinking' at school. I asked her what she learned and she said, 'I don't know. We didn't think.' She always makes me laugh. Julianna is getting so spoiled being the only kid home during the day. She gets Tom and I to herself during lunch most afternoons. She is determined to be as much of a tomboy as she can possibly be, but then loves to play babies and house and do very girly things.She is growing up very quickly and loves to learn. She finds time to mother her babies, play a little basketball, take swimming lessons, and pester her siblings to explosion on a regular basis. Julianna makes everyone laugh and knows just what to do to drive us crazy too.

I am staying very busy. I thought having two in school would free up some of my time - and it did. However I wasn't too keen on free time. I went stir crazy at home with no one to take care of. My schedule has filled up with some volunteer opportunities and helping at the kids' schools. I love being a stay at home mom at this stage. I am always available for their programs and school functions and I am the one to cart them to all of their activities. My days are busy and hectic but I really love it. In January I will start training for my first full marathon. I have now done three half marathons (13.1 miles) so I feel like it's time to take the plunge and just train. At this point my goal is to survive the training runs without injury and to complete the 26.2 mile race in a fully conscious state. My scheduled race is in April in Oklahoma City. I hope that I will take the time to blog a little bit during my training. Surely it will be interesting and a little fun.