Teacher Appreciation Gift

This year decorated these jumbo clothes pins. I also did these last year for his teacher, and for Mother's Day. I bought them here.

We included a card, written and illustrated by Zac. This was the first time he has written a whole note all by himself. I love this!

We also included a target gift card, a great quote and note from me. The quote was by Maya Angelou:

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

 

 

 

Zac had an awesome year! He learned so much, and most importantly loves school. His birthday is the last week of August, and he turned 4 the first week of class. We decided back in Sept. that we are going to keep him back a year and start him in Kindergarten in the fall of 2011.  Last fall, he started in the 4-5 year old preschool class, but he seemed significantly younger than the other kids who were all 6 months to a year older than him. He didn't feel comfortable in the class. He said the work was hard and the teacher said he had a hard time staying on task and keeping track of what was going on in class. They also have a reading program and we were worried that he would have trouble enjoying it and staying caught up. So after a couple weeks of deliberating and talking to teachers and parents, we decided to put him in the 3-4 year old class, and therefore to wait til 2011 to start him in Kindergarten. 

 

All the parents I talked to, who have children with late summer birthdays who started Kindergarten when they were barely 5, said that their child has consistently had a harder time keeping up. So our main reason for waiting to start Kindergarten is because of that and we want him to enjoy school and be confident, not feeling behind all the time. I hear many parents keep their children back so they are bigger for sports-let's face it a year is not going to make much of a different in size with the genes he's got! He has done wonderfully in his class this year, and has loved it! When I told him it was spring break and explained what it meant, he cried because he couldn't go to school.  I am so glad he loves school.

 

A Pirate of Sorts

Yesterday, Max scratched his eyeball at church. We don't know how it happened. But both eyelids swelled up and he had a fever, so I took him to the dr. She used a black light to see his the scratch. We don't know what the fever was for. Max had to wear an eye patch for the rest of the night til the morning, and we had to give him eye drops a few times. As long as we said he was a pirate he did great keeping the patch on.

We took him back today and luckily the scratch was all healed!

The Weather

I just can't resist. Its been craziness here. I guess that is just what the say about Utah. Spring in Utah, is hot, warm, cold and freezing! Last week, I totally sun burned my arms while hanging out in the backyard. Yesterday, it rained all evening and left a nice rainbow

And it continued to rain into the night, and the temperature kept dropping. . .

Snow.

The snow didn't stick at our house, it mostly sleeted

But a few miles to the north and to the east, a few inches of snow stuck.

To remind you of the date, it is indeed May 24th.

Family Fun

Since Jon doesn't get home til 7p most nights, sometimes later, I am trying to be more independent and go out and do things til he gets home. The elementary school in the area had a carnival the other day.

The boys had swimming lessons after lunch then we went to to the rec center to practice, then came home and napped so they would be ready for fun. This carnival was different than we expected. They had like 9 blow up things and that was it. I was hoping for booths of games with little prizes. The boys love that kind of stuff. My boys were too afraid to go on them with the other older kids and because there were so many kids too. So we just used all our tickets to eat carnival food and candy! :P

It was nice to have something different to do than wait for daddy to come home.

Then the next day we went to the United Angels Walk. This was the first year they did this. They support families who have children with special needs. It was a lot of fun. They had good food, fun games, and a bunch of mascots! (To be honest, the boys didn't know who any if them were! But it was a lot of fun anyway!

(I have no idea who this other kid is in the pic. I think his mom was right there, weird that she didn't take him out of the pic . . .)

These were all the PEIP families that were able to come and support the cause. This will be an annual event that PEIP promotes. It was fun to be a part of everything.

Mother's Day 2010

We celebrated a week later because we were camping during the actual holiday (and I was self fish and wanted traditional celebration).

Jon made me a great breakfast. He has perfected the omelet over the years. He wrote me a beautiful letter as always. And he picked out this dress and shoes all by himself!! What a great hubby!  

I just love love love these shoes!  Every time I see them I just want to wear them around!

I had some thoughts about Motherhood that I wanted to put in writing. It is hard to be a mom. Its so constant, and requires so much consistency. I see a night and day difference when I am praying daily for help to be patient, consistent, loving, playful, and not uptight ;) Sometimes, everyone gets caught up in what they have to get done, and doesn't think about the relationships that are involved. We start to all live like roommates rather than a family. I am sad to say I am guilty of that. To Jon as well as the boys. Instead of looking at my day as a to-do list, I try and think of it as, what can we do together today. Make the to-do's activities or projects that we can work on together and build our relationships through working on things together. I am trying to connect and talk to the boys more instead of rush them here and there, and being irritated about their consistent irrelevant questions. Irrelevant to me that is; they are important to my boys, so they should be important to me.

Lately, the boys have been in swimming lessons. They are the intense survival, safety type. They have had them for the last 2 weeks M-F. They are 20 min lessons. The first day the boys were nervous but still did really good. They didn't scream and cry like I thought they would. But the second lesson was the worst.

A forced smile

"I really really don't want to go in"

Doing great!

So sad

They were so scared, even though they did great the day before and even said they had a good time. They were both so clingy to me. Max was like a baby monkey hanging on me. They were both crying. I had to leave the pool bubble during that lesson so they would focus on the lesson.

Outside the bubble

It had been a long time since I felt needed like that from them. They are daddy's boys through and through. Sometimes, I guess, I'm jealous. Jon says when they are away from me, they ask about me often. But I don't see that. And of course they need me. The first thing they say in the morning is I'm hungry, I have to pee, what are we doing today or can I watch a show. But feeling needed in this way, their security, made me feel more like a mom. And reminded me that I want so much to have good friendly relationships with my kids, instead of just providing the essentials to live, carpooling and disciplining.

Its was great to see my relationship with them get stronger over the next couple weeks. When Zac and I are on the same page and communicating effectively through out the day, he wants ME to tuck him in. It makes me feel terrific! And I love when the boys just out of nowhere say, "I love you" to me!

Being a mother is truly, THE MOST REWARDING thing to do! There is honestly nothing I'd rather be doing with my life right now.

I am so not in the mood to blog, but its the only think left on my to-do list that will not interfere with nap time. And miraculously, both are napping!! :)

Live Your Dream 5k

On Saturday, I ran another 5k. This Live Your Dream 5k supported single mothers. It was the first year they did a 5k, so there were only a couple hundred people, if that. The race was on part of the river trail, which was pretty. There were tunnels and bridges so it was nice to mix things up a bit.

I didn't know if I would actually do this race, since I hadn't worked out AT ALL since the last 5k I did in March. And my knees have been swollen and sore off and on lately (and I have no idea why!)  But, I already paid the registration fee, and I wanted to get the second of my three 5k's finished. So I decided I would just do it, even if I had to walk most of the way.


Before

Well, the morning of the race my knees had no problems. I was so relieved! I actually did ok. I finished in 35:27. This is a little faster than the previous 5k I did. The trail was mostly flat, and there was a turn around point. It was nice to know when I was halfway and what to expect for the second half of the race.

It was fun to have Zac run with me a little ways at the very end. It boosted my energy a bit.

After

I think that not preparing for the run gave me more side aches, and a more tiring, pretty sore recovery on Sunday. My throat/chest was burning so so bad when I was done. But, there was great food after, and lots of cool water. The race started at 9a, later than most, and it was at a nice park so Jon and the boys were able to be there and support me. I am so glad that I did this, and that it was so much better than I anticipated. Now, I just need to be sure to prep for the next one!

(On a side note: I lost 7 pounds in the last month, by cutting my calories A LOT-no sweets, way less junk and fat, and much smaller portions. I was eating tons of junk food! I would ideally like to loose a few more, but in the last week or so I have lost control of what I eat on the weekends! Time to recommit to a few things!)