Back to School Updates (and all that stuff)

Well summer came to an end as it always does and I think the kids were mostly excited, as was I. You know I love my kids fiercely. But I am a mom who just needs a house with a time of peace and quiet - especially given the conditions that life has given me.  This is our reality.  Anyway. We celebrated back to school with our traditional night of ice cream sundaes! Wohoo!

 

Isaac was starting middle school and we survived back to school night, showing him where all his classes would be and getting his locker open etc (he was very anxious about all the changes of course).

Abigail would also be at the middle school with him (more on that later). The middle school here is grades 7-9, even though 9th grade is technically high school and is on your high school transcript, which I find very bizarre but I'm trying to just let it roll off my back. Whatever! They were going to a brand new built school out here, which Abigail found weird (she went to a different school for 2 years prior) - it didn't have any of the landscaping in or signs or anything when we went to back to school night.

 

That means the younger 2 were at the elementary charter school by themselves. Elisabeth would be in 2nd grade and Samuel would be in 3rd.  So here's a little update on each of them with the back to school pics (if you are new to my blog, just a note: I don't use the kids' real names on the blog. I also don't use our last name. I know it's weird. Just what we decided to do. So they are, in order of age, oldest to youngest: Abigail, Isaac, Samuel & Elisabeth. But I do use my name and Zac's. Totally weird. Oh well. That's just how it is.;) ok.):

Elisabeth was very excited about started 2nd grade. She is still taking gymnastics and recently tested into Level 2. She is strong! She is climbing all the walls in the house (like the hallways and doorways) and can hang from just her arms. Silly monkey. She and Samuel play together a lot and that makes me happy (except when they also fight together a lot).  She can still be rather difficult at times (her stubborn streak is still strong as ever) but we're trying to work on it. But overall she is sweet and just loves to play and swim and climb and do cartwheels and give hugs.

Samuel started 3rd grade and he was much more excited than I thought he would be! He is usually a little timid and anxious but not so much this year, which is really great to see. He has jumped right in with getting his homework done too which is wonderful (well except for his reading, which he hates). And he fights me about taking his shower, which he also hates. We are trying to find an activity he can excel in (and that we can afford) because we'd really like for him to have a talent or hobby that he can do really well in and feel confident in. He doesn't really like to do much of anything except video games right now. Hmm. So that's something we're thinking about. He and Elisabeth decided to do an afterschool drama club that meets twice a month, which shocked me. My shy anxious boy with speech issues wants to do drama club of his own free will and choice?!? Ummm, okkkk.  We'll see how it goes.  Anyway, his teacher seems really sweet and I'm hoping this will be a good year for him.  They also do a class play this year which they've already talked about, so maybe that's why he's thinking about drama club. Not really sure. Hmm.

Isaac was pretty nervous about going to middle school but by the second day he was talking about how fun it was and how it was like a game, switching classes and getting to go different places to class and everything, so that was good.  Then we found out he had been enrolled in the wrong classes.  He had tested into an advanced learning program but they hadn't enrolled him into the classes for it, so we had to switch around some classes towards the end of the first week.  That was sort of stressful for me and him getting that figured out. But it worked out and his best friend was in the program classes with him so that helped relieve some of the anxiety about changing his classes for him. Phew!  He's not taking piano lessons anymore but is learning bass in orchestra now so that's good. He's also got some fun technology classes he's excited about. He is so responsible and hardworking and independent.  And he's getting so tall!!  haha.  It's sort of amazing seeing him around the house.  It's like, where did this tall boy come from??  And how did he become so good...?  One day he just said, "I'm going to do everyone else's chores and clean the whole house."  And he did!

 

 Abigail was starting 9th grade - technically high school!!! (but still middle school here - lol) She actually had the opportunity to make a decision between going to this middle school and attending a performing arts charter school in salt lake.... And this turned into a very difficult decision for her and for us. I think I'll write more about how that decision was made, and why ultimately we chose the local middle school, in another post, because it would just make this post way too long.  But Abigail is still writing lots of songs on the piano and sometimes experimenting with guitar chords, and singing. She has figured out some church hymns and has composed some of her own simple variations on them.  She is even accompanying the opening hymn singing for her seminary class today (starting in 9th grade they start taking a voluntary scripture study class for one class period, off campus). I think she's pretty brave for playing the piano for a hymn when she's never taken piano lessons before! I love hearing her play her songs. She is so incredibly talented. She is playing violin and viola in orchestra this year (hopefully trading off songs) and still taking private violin lessons.  She's also singing in our church choir now which is fun for her.  Amazing girl.

 And there you have it. A little update on them all. So, they all took off to school.... these four incredible kids.

 2 going to middle school together...



meeting their friends and walking off to the bus stop...

And that's how the first days of school went - 3 weeks ago. Yahoo!

(more on that hard school decision to come...)

And also in April was Birthday Child #3

Isaac turned 12 in April and, for whatever reason, I feel like turning 12 is a big deal.  It's just right there on the cusp of teenage-hood, teetering on the edge on childhood, like you're about to lose your balance and go flailing over the edge, arms circling like you're falling but trying to fly.  Maybe that's the wrong metaphor.  Maybe they should go soaring off the edge with wings.  I don't know.  But it feels big.  Significant.  But also small.  Not quite there.  Like I can still keep a piece for myself somewhat.  And I want that.  So anyway.  Part of it is that in our church, the 12 year olds move up from the Primary children's program into the Youth program.  And I want to make a big deal of this transition year.  The birthday before going off the middle school and all of that. Or whatever.  So I started some things with Abigail when she turned 12 that I'd like to continue as traditions (you can read about Abigail's 12th birthday if you click there).  I wanted it to be something fun and memorable, including this big 6-layer rainbow cake thing (that is a whole dang lot of work, but pretty impressive, I think).  Turns out she claims to not even remember getting a cake like that or anything.  So much for being memorable.  But anyway.  The nice thing about traditions, I've decided, is that it both makes sure no one gets left out (and avoids all the whining: but how come I never got a rainbow cake?! why don't I ever get a special cake? when are you going to make me one?) and also lets me off the hook (so if I asked a kid what kind of cake they wanted, they know asking for a rainbow cake every year isn't an option.  It's only for when you're 12. Sorry.) ;)  

Ok. Enough about that.  Here's the birthday goodies.

 Part One: Twelve Balloons

We hung 12 balloons from Isaac's door frame while he was sleeping with a little note attached to each one saying something that we love about him, so that when he woke up he had to walk through the curtain of balloons. 

By the afternoon they were tangled and he was pretty annoyed with them but I think he liked reading all the notes when he woke up.

(pic of him before school)

2. the rainbow cake of awesomeness 

then I got to work on the cake

 Here are lots of pics of the process and impressive result, because it is awesome and because I need photo proof of the rainbow cake in case Isaac, like Abigail, "forgets" that I ever went through all this effort to provide him with such an awesome cake.;)  (And blogger is being a big pain and I am having all sorts of trouble arranging photos so after hours of trying I give up and what you get is what you get. Blah.  I'm getting very frustrated with blogger and am about ready to try something different. hmph)

3. The Party

Well Isaac had only asked for one thing for his birthday.  But it was a big thing.  And he was going to have to use some of his own money to help pay for it if he got it.  And it was still a pretty big if.  So he was pretty unsure if we was going to get it. And he was pretty excited when he did (it was a used ipod touch - which also came with a lot of parental ground rules, #1 being that we can take it away at any time and for any reason.)  This was his only present, so I was very sad when I accidentally deleted these priceless pics off my camera and pretty much ecstatic when I was able to recover them.:)

4. The mom-dad-son date

another turning 12 tradition:)

Pretty much the most un-photogenic picture of the 3 of us ever seen.  And this was the best of the bunch. Ugh! hahaha.

We took him to The Macaroni Grill. 

He liked it.:)

Part 5.

We also got him a suit.

And, as is tradition in our church, he was ordained in the priesthood upon turning 12. 

And I couldn't resist making him go pose so I could take pictures of my handsome boy looking so grown up.  (My 2 handsome boys. Because the other would not let the opportunity go by, of course. Hard to believe they are only 3 years apart isn't it?) :)

And that was Isaac's 12th birthday! He is such a terrific kid.

One more Spring Birthday to go!

Three Cheers for Recuva!!

Before I get into the many (many) other blog posts I need to write (hello birthdays!) - let me first give a great big Hoorah to Recuva for helping me recover some photos I accidentally deleted off my memory card on my camera yesterday during Isaac's birthday celebration.  

As you can see, I really really needed these fantastic spontaneous pictures:

 as opposed to this pose I tried to capture after the fact:

I was a much happier mommy after I got those back, as you can imagine.:)  Thank goodness for miraculous technology.  Free miraculous technology, at that. Hooray!

(I really stink at blogging lately. I know.  Sorry about that.) :(

2012 in Review - belated

Usually I make cool little photo collages for every month of the previous year as a kind of year-in-review, but guess what?  Those collages are pretty labor intensive and it's almost March and I just don't know if it's gonna be happening.  But I do want to still sort of sum up the year.  There are some of you near or far who may have missed hearing about all our doings since I haven't posted as much over the last year, and I'd hate for anyone to feel left out.  So, at least for now, I'm just going to jot down some of the bigger things from 2012.  Wohoo! Be excited.;)

1. We went on a big summer vacation to Ocean City, NJ, Zac's hometown.  This was a family reunion of his immediate family.  Just one of his brother's (and wife and 6 kids) couldn't come.  But we had 2 adjacent condos housing our family, Zac's parents, brother Josh, Katie and 2 kids, brother Jason, Ashley and 2 kids, and sister Melissa, Joe and 2 kids.  His sister lives there in NJ but because of the huge storm that had just gone through they were without power and stayed with us a couple days.  Some highlights:

- driving in the aftermath of the storm.  Had to take some detours due to fallen trees across the road and many areas were still without power.  Luckily the island of Ocean City where we were staying had power and water!  Hooray!

- While there we went to Wonderland Pier amusement park, rode the 6 seater surrey-bike thing on the boardwalk (and sweated in the terrible heat), watched the 4th of July fireworks over the water on the beach, saw some dolphins out in the water, played at the beach (of course), went on a (miserably hot) "nature" walk, and watched the sunrise over the beach.

2.  We spent a day at Seven Peaks water park.

3. Our fridge died and we spent a week living out of coolers while we waited for our new one to be delivered.  It's kind of tricky keeping all your refrigerated food cold in coolers for a week.  I wouldn't recommend it.

4. Abigail -
- ran the mile in spring track and did awesome
- ran the Recovery Days 5K with Zac
- got her braces off!
- played in school orchestra - started playing viola this year! And continued violin private lessons. So now she plays both violin and viola.  - And she continues to compose amazing songs on the piano and vocal.  And she's teaching herself guitar chords.
- took a musical theater class which put on a class production (and before you think this was a small deal, you should know there were something like 70 kids in the class), which she loved
- went on a 2-day school "peer leader" retreat up in the mountains where they did leadership skill games, ropes courses, etc
- she also auditioned and performed in a Nutcracker ballet production!  She was a mouse and in Chinese.  Very very fun.
- and she was called to be the president of her church youth group of 12-13 yr old girls (Beehives).  A great growth opportunity for her.

5. Isaac -
- continued piano lessons but was sick this year on the day of his annual recital (booo!).
- ran in the school running club in the spring, participated in some meets
- continued to excel in school and be the most responsible, dependable kid I know

6. Samuel -
- continues to be very anxious about participating in activities so we haven't gotten him involved in anything yet
- working hard on his speech and getting better all the time!
- he was baptized a member of our church and had a friend birthday party and took them roller-skating for his Big 8th Birthday

7. Elisabeth -
- performed in her combo tap, tumbling and ballet class in the Spring
- played fall soccer
- started gymnastics class in Nov

8. Isaac's poor pet hamster died

9. Elisabeth's pet fish died

10. I got to go to St George UT for a couple days with Zac while he attended a work conference.  I stayed in bed most of the time with a killer migraine and TN pain.

11. We had a Seven Peaks Pass of All Passes which included many fun days at Trafalga fun centers (mini-golf, laser tag, rides, etc) mostly with Zac and the kids (as well as our big day at the water park).

12. We went to Hee Haw Farms in the fall and watched the Giant Pumpkin Drop. They drop those huuuuuuge pumpkins from a crane and watch them splatter onto ground and crush cars and stuff like that.  I've always wanted to see that.  There were also farm animals to pet, a hay ride, pedal-carts etc.  Lots of fun.

13. Zac and I celebrated our 15th wedding anniversary :)

14. I read 102 books

15. Zac was crew for a couple from Canada running the Pony Express 100 mile race.  He got to see what it's like and get pointers for when he runs the 100 this Oct.

16. I accidentally dyed my hair pitch black

17.  My mom got remarried

18. My sister-niece got married

19. We started seeing a child psychologist.  Wanted Isaac to get tested for Aspergers Syndrome - but getting an actual official diagnosis (from this particular psych) was a surprisingly slippery, frustrating process that I eventually gave up on.  Seems he probably has some mild form of it though, or perhaps OCD. Or something.  He worked with Isaac on some coping strategies.  Then I brought in Samuel for some help with some of his really tough behaviors.  I think it was helping some.  But my pain was making it hard for me to implement the behavior strategies at home so it wasn't very effective, and money was getting tighter with all of my medical procedures etc.  So, even though I also wanted help with Elisabeth's huge tantrum-throwing that continues to be an issue, we had to stop going.  Hmph.

20. and finally, I dealt with face and head pain for the entire year. Diagnosed with Trigeminal Neuralgia and Migraines.

- saw 9 different Drs
- tried 16 different medications, including many anti-convulsants, narcotic pain-relievers, and triptan migraine meds
- had a nerve block inserted into the middle of my head, with conscious sedation that didn't work.  I count this as one of the absolute most painful, most traumatizing medical experiences I've ever had in my life.  It left me shaking and crying for days afterward and didn't even help.  Curses.
- had 2 MRI's, 1 MRA, and 1 EEG
- still not getting any relief and running out of options - grrrrrrr:(

So!  Wow.  Kind of a busy year, I guess.  It felt like one of the worst years of my life, honestly.  It had some really good times, for our family particularly, but for me personally, it was just hard.  So so hard.  I am still working through a lot of emotion from a lot of it.  Along with the physical pain, of course.  It's just hard.

Anyway. I hope I didn't forget anything important, although it's entirely impossible that I have.  I apologize for the lack of photos . . . I may or may not get around to doing my annual collages.  I am also still hoping to do my reading round-up for the year!  Don't give up on me!
And here's to 2013 . . . be nice to me please.:)

The Phantom of the Opera

Back on February 2, I had the chance to take Abigail and Isaac to see a production of The Phantom of the Opera at BYU.  I really would have loved to go with Zac.  But I also knew how much Abigail would die to see it, and then I thought that it wouldn't really be fair to offer this opportunity to her and not to Isaac, who may enjoy it just as much even though he isn't as vocal about things.  And then, the price of all the tickets was adding up . . . and although Zac loves to enjoy the arts with me, he's not one to make a fuss over whether or not he sees this kind of thing live.  So anyway - it was a bonding time with me and the 2 older kids.:)

 

It was also pretty fun to take them down to my old college stomping grounds.  I always get a little nostalgic.  I took them to eat at a yummy local burger joint, Burger's Supreme and I laughingly told them I'd been on many a date there.  They then looked around with noticable interest at the college crowd and asked in a whisper, "are any of them on dates?!"  hahaha.;)

 

Then before the show, I took them down to the basement of the fine arts building where the orchestra rooms are and stuff.  It was fun to show them all the practice rooms etc and it made me laugh when a student saw us peeking into the rehearsal room and asked us if we were lost.  That's when I knew I no longer pass as a student - haha.  Well, and I did have 2 kids with me.  No, no, I responded, I'm just showing my kids around where I used to play. 

Oh and of course, the theater where the Phantom was being performed is the same theater where I had my orchestra concerts and where Zac had invited me to a formal dance by lowering a banner over the balcony where I could see it when I looked up to try to find him. Good times!  Good memories!  So strange and fun to be telling these stories to my kids in the places where they happened!!

Enough of the nostalgia though.

The performance itself was amazing.  It's been a lifetime dream of mine to see it live and I loved every minute of it and I loved that I could share the experience with my kids.  Isaac was quite anxious (as usual) about getting home late afterwards, and things like how to find the bathroom if he needed to leave in the middle of the show, etc etc etc (my poor anxious boy).  But other than that, I think he really enjoyed it.  And Abigail loved it too.

on the way to school today

Isaac (age 11): I learned yesterday that you don't have an adult brain until age 25

me: oh yeah?

him: yeah so you think you know what you're doing but you really don't

me: hm that's interesting because a lot of people get married before age 25. Me and dad got married before then. Actually we even had Abigail before we were 25.

him: really? how old were you?

me: hm, we were both basically 23 when we got married and 24 when she was born

him: you had a baby only a year after you were married?!?

me: well, it was more like a year and a half . . .

him: wow! that must be like really unusual because 99.5% of the time the sperm doesn't get to fertilize the egg . . .

me: {chuckling a bit while pulling up to the curb to drop them off}


Yep.
This conversation brought to you by the 5th Grade Maturation Program.
Fun Times.;)

my inspiration

Zac pointed out to me that my last post, where I went point by point through all my symptoms, reminded him of Isaac's Sickness Report that he very kindly wrote up for me a few weeks ago when he was sick. All the kids went through some type of sickness. Isaac is just very thorough and wanted me to have the full report on how he was feeling.


Maybe he was my inspiration in detailing all my symptoms to you.

Or maybe he gets it from me.
You never know.;)

December Recitals (in no particular order)

(catching up December)

(this picture belongs at the bottom but I accidentally erased it and now blogger is being a pain to move it back to where it belongs, so here it stays, sorry):

These cute kids at our church Christmas dinner: :)

Samuel and Elisabeth showing off their antlers:

Elisabeth post-Kindergarten-Christmas-Program:

Isaac (in bright striped sweater) waiting to begin the traditional 5th grade holiday flashlight show:

Elisabeth and friends watching their older siblings perform:

Samuel (in bright green/blue knit hat) getting ready to sing:

Elisabeth performing in the Kindergarten program:

Isaac had his annual Christmas piano recital:

Abigail performed a Christmas school orchestra concert:

And she also had a violin Christmas party where she performed for the other students of her teacher - but it was students only, so I don't have pictures. Her teacher is copying the performance for us though. She played Pachelbel's Canon in D with a 14 yr old boy and I arrived as they were practicing it together over and over (after the party was over), still trying to get it right (it was pretty challenging for them). It was pretty cute.:) And, of course, Pachelbel's Canon is one of my favorite songs (or it was, until it got corralled into strange Christmas song arrangements and completely overplayed on the light rock stations all season long. Ahem - anyway). I am thrilled that my daughter can play it now!! That means we can play it together! And me, my mom, and my daughter can play it together! (it's best as a trio anyhow) And that's 3 generations of violinists right there in our family!:)

Anyway - busy month of performances! They all did a fantastic job. I'm so proud of them. (phew! getting through December! Just you wait, I'll get caught up if it kills me!) ;)