Dec 2012

Dec (and most of Jan) has already passed by.
Dec was full of all the crazy-busy that Christmas always brings.

Darrell started his swim meets.
With being the 1st swim team PP has ever had, no matter what - these kids are setting school records at almost every meet!

Leila had a Christmas program at both school and at church. She did really well. I wasn't sure if she would go up on stage in front of people, but she really turned on the 'star' quality - singing, dancing, and strutting her stuff. Yep - she's a diva.

Ready for the School Program

Church Program (What a cute Mary & Joseph)

We went to see the lights and saw Santa at the same time.
This is the 1st time Leila has ever sat on his lap - she was quite excited about it too.

Christmas eve was spent with family.
Christmas Day was actually a little relaxing, especially after all the preparation it takes to get to that point.
Dinner here at our house and then Christmas night at my mom's.

Darrell earned his varsity jacket.

Leila got the 'Doc McStuffins' doll she'd asked Santa for.

It might have been a little too early for Austin though.

She may have wanted the doll, but she has played with the make-up she got probably more than anything else.

We had a small New Year's Eve party at our house with some friends - just food and games.
My favorite way to ring in the year.

But now, Jan is here with all it's snow, slush, and cold. Bleech!

Surgery

Along with Thankgiving, Nov brought another surgery this year.
Leila had her tonsils taken out. (They also did adenoids and ear tubes.)
She wasn't having any problems with them.
They were just 'in the way' for future surgeries and procedures.
Children's Hospital in Columbus and the Ronald McDonald House are both amazing.
Leila, however, does not do so well with things like this.
She has a very low tolerance for pain.
And when she hurts, there is absolutely NO reasoning with her - at all.
Needles bring on mass hysteria.
We are now 6 days post-surgery, and I'm not seeing much relief yet.
I am NOT looking forward to future procedures!!!

To top it all off - Austin came home with strep throat yesterday!
If she ends up with strep - she'll go back to the hospital, and I'll go to the looney bin.

On a few positive notes, Christmas preparations are coming along.
I think all of my shopping is done.
We put the tree up before going to the hospital.
Austin put up our lights while we were gone.

David celebrated a birthday on Mon. We didn't get to out to eat, so I cooked one of his favorites instead.

Also, earlier in the month, Darrell, Mom and I had a last-minute opportunity to take a 'red-eye' to NYC.
It was up on Fri night, spend the day on Sat, and back on Sat night.
It was tiring trying to fit so much into one day, but we had fun.
We made it onto the 'Today' show - but no one saw us.
We went on a NBC Studio Tour - saw them setting up for Saturday Night Live. Did some 'shopping', but didn't buy anything. And I took him to a comedy show that night. (It was a little bit dirty, but he thought it was funny and enjoyed being a 'grown-up' for the weekend.) Mostly it was just being there and seeing things.

Fall Update

Fall has quickly turned into winter.

Austin is still trying to figure out his life long-term.
He's currently working 2 jobs.
He went back to the gym, and is one of the head gymnastics coaches.
He LOVES that job, and he must have a knack for it, because I've had a lot of the parents tell me how good he is.
They're talking about moving Leila up another level after the 1st of the year. That means she would be in his class. Yeah - we'll see how that goes. (She just doesn't see him as the authority figure the other little girls do.)
He also works at a store called Rural King. It's a little bit of everything type of store. They just recently opened in our area, but he's been there since before they opened - doing all the getting ready stuff too.

Darrell finished cross country, and started swim team.
Our school has never has a swim team before - we don't have a pool.
A new teacher has worked it out with a neighboring community college to have practice at their pool and has agreed to coach.
Darrell was very excited.
Biggest problem is that it's 20-25 minutes away, and practice is 4-5 days a week - at 7:00 in the evening.
We told him that as long as we could work out a carpool, he could do it.
He did, and we carpool with 4 other kids. We only have to drive one day a week, and so far, he's loving it.

Oct brought Halloween and birthdays.

Leila turned 5!

We had cake here and celebrated by going to Camden Park (an amusement park in nearby Huntington) and to the famous Pumpkin House.

2 days later, Darrell turned 16 and got his drivers license!
Not sure I was ready for that, but I must admit - the convenience is sure nice at times.

Halloween was carving pumpkins, Trick-or-Treat and the Block Party.

Cruise

Sept was busy.
In addition to getting back in to the school routine, cross-country track, gymnastics, ballet, 2 family reunions, etc - I went on a trip.

Mom and I went on a Carribean cruise.
We flew to Miami and boarded the ship there.
It was a 7 day cruise, with 4 ports - Half Moon Cay, St. Thomas, San Juan & Grand Turk.
It was beautiful - the water, the islands, the ship - all of it.
Weather was great.

We went on a Harbor Tour in Miami. We was 'stars' houses. They were completely unbelievable. We could probably live in just one room of some of these houses. It was hard to believe we were only seeing the backs of these houses. Also, these are probably just summer or vacation homes.

P Diddy's House

Shaquille O'Neal's House

At Half Moon Cay, we went 'swimming' with the stingrays. I thought it would be neat, but I had no idea just how neat. It was fantastic. They are such gentle creatures, and they were everywhere. Just standing in the water - they swam around you, between your legs, and didn't mind being touched (or even held).
There were also starfish, sea slugs, conch, and plain pretty fish.

At St. Thomas, we went to Magen's Beach. Magen's Beach is supposed to be one of the top 10 beaches in the world. It was nice, it was pretty, but I'm not sure I think it was all that. I've actually seen some I thought were better, so I'm not sure how they do those ratings.
We also went on a city tour. We went to BlackBeard's castle and an amber museum.

Magens Beach

Amber Waterfall

BlackBeard's Castle

Our next stop was San Juan, Puerto Rico. We did another tour there, which included a rainforest. They said it was the only rainforest in US jurisdiction. That confused me because I really thought Hawaii had one too, but I don't know.

Grand Turk was our last port.
We originally had 2 excursions booked there, but for various reasons both were cancelled. So we shopped instead.
Grand Turk was small but very pretty.

Great week.

Although I missed David and the kids terribly - I didn't want to come home to the rainy, cool weather and the housework and the daily grind.

I've decided to be a professional tourist when I grow up.

Summer and A New School Year

Summer is officially over.

After our Beach trip with the 'girls' back in May, summer was relatively slow for once.

We started out with a lot of swimming and bowling. 

David, my mom and I even bowled on a short summer league.  Darrell and Leila would bowl their own games while we bowled our league games. 

Leila started ballet in June - which she absolutely LOVES.  She's still in gymnastics, but I sort of think that if she had to chose one or the other - she just may pick ballet.



Darrell went back to 'Camp Electric' (a contemporary Christian music camp) in July.  This was his 3rd year.  He still likes it and wants to go again next year, so they must be doing something right there.

August, of course, brought the fair. 
Then the boys took a trip with my mom and their cousin to Branson, MO.  They all seemed to enjoy it and had a great time.  But the general consensus was that TN has everything Branson does, and is only 1/2 the distance away. 

When they came back, we took a short weekend trip to TN to see my brother and sister-in-law.  That's always a nice time.  Went to Gatlinburg - spent way too money - the usual.

Leila & Uncle Darres

 



A high point at the end of the summer - ziplining!  My uncle has a zipline at his house.  Austin, Darrell and I went.  It was fantastic. 

Me!

Now, Septemer is here - Labor Day has past - the pool is closed - and the new school year has begun.

Darrell is a sophomore.
He's a good student. He's taking all honors classes. He even has one AP class - as a 10th grader. I think that's pretty good.
He'll be okay. He has good study habits. He does his homework (which he has every night) as soon as he gets home - even on a Friday. Pretty unusual for a teenager, huh?
He's running cross-country again this year.  He had his 1st meet this week.  He's not the best runner, but he's consistent and solid - so that's okay.

1st Day of 10th Grade

Leila went back to preschool.  She's at the same school, in the same classroom and has the same teachers that she did last year.  The only difference - new classmates.  (All the ones from last year moved on to kindergarten.) 
She's fine.  She loves it.  She has missed it over the summer.  On the first day, there were a few kids that were teary and unsure.  Not Leila - she was ready to go! 

1st Day of PreSchool

 

 

Austin - turned 19 in June and well, he decided not to go back to school this year.  He decided school isn't for him at this point - which is fine, it isn't for everyone. 

His senior year in high school, he worked as a gymnastics coach at a gym here.  While at school, he worked as a coach at a gym in Fairmont.  He really, really loves coaching, but it's hard to make it on your own financially as a coach.  This was something he came to realize after trying to pay rent and insurance and living expenses for a few months on his own this summer.  He came to the conclusion that he needs a 'career' rather than a 'job'. 

He considered the military - and I still don't think that's totally out of the question.

He would like to go into the State Trooper program, but you have to be 21 - and he's only 19.

At this point, he's decided the best thing for him is to get a job on the river - good pay, solid career, and upward mobility.  He took the Maritime Deckhand Course in August, and has been applying for jobs since.  Hopefully something will come up SOON. 

It's been nice having him home, the last month or so -  he can be very helpful.  He helps out, he runs errands, he keeps Leila, he'll do pretty much anything we ask. 

He's a bit expensive though - and he eats a lot.  He's been doing a few odd jobs here and there for gas money, but the money he had saved from when he was working is almost gone.  We told him that he needs to find something part-time to hold him until a job on the river opens up. 

So now, he's looking and applying for both part-time 'jobs' and full-time 'careers'.  

 

 

 



I'm Tired

I'm tired ... of lots of things.

I'm tired of being tired. I take vitamins, so I don't understand why I always feel exhausted, but I do.
I'm tired of the never ending list of chores and the never paid list of bills.
I'm tired of being nice to people that don't always deserve it.
I'm tired of never feeling like enough is good enough.

I've always thought that Fall was my least favorite time of year (colder weather, hunting season, etc). And Spring was my favorite (warm weather, no jackets, pastels, no school, etc).
Now, I'm starting to wonder.

And along that same line of thinking - Easter is rapidly losing favor with me as a 'happy' holiday.
Now before anyone gets all irate and 'religous' on me - I know WHY we have Easter and I know it's one of (if not THE) most important holidays.
I get that, and I'm thankful for it. I am.
I also still love the warm weather, the pretty clothes, the best candy of any time of year, and all that stuff.
But, over the years, Easter has also come to symbolize hospitals and sadness to me.

Let's go back.
1997 - Darrell's first Easter - he spent Easter Eve night and morning in the hospital with an unexplained high fever. They finally sent him home on Easter afternoon - never any answer as to why.
1999 - My grandpa passed away just after Easter.
2002 - Darrell had the chicken pox at Easter.
2003 - I had eye surgery.
2004 - Darrell had his tonsils out.
2008 - Leila had cleft lip surgery.
2009 - Leila had cleft palate surgery.
2011 - The worst. My Dad passed away the Friday after Easter.
2012 - My uncle passed away the week after Easter.
See ... Not a great history going on here.

Another thing I'm tired of - people dying.
In the past year, I think there have been 13 people pass away - family members, cousins, my kid's friends, my kid's friend's parents, church members, friends.
I just lost 3 family members the last 2 weeks of April.

Maybe it's all getting to be just a little too much.

Beach Trip

Last week was our 3rd annual 'Girl's Trip'.
We went to Myrtle Beach this year.
There were 6 of us this time - me, Leila, Mom, my aunt Marcia, my cousin Jessica, and my cousin Mandy.
We had a great time.
I think this was the best place we've stayed yet. 
Right on the beach, 6 pools, 10 hot tubs, 2 lazy rivers, and close to everything. 
The weather couldn't have cooperated better or been more perfect. 
Although, yes, I did take Leila out of school for a week - it is only pre-school right now, and the time of year was fantastic - no crowds ANYWHERE.