Breakfast table vandalism

Just some pretty spring pictures

An Important Message

I need to share this story, because it is a scary story. Buzz has recently been allowed to explore the neighborhood on his bike a little more--just a few streets where we knew people as "safe houses" in case of an emergency. We also set a time limit that he must be back at the house by, so that if he misses that curfew, I come looking for him. On the ride home from the park yesterday, Buzz relates to me a story that scared me. A few days before on one of his bike rides, a van pulled along side Buzz, and he reported that an older man asked him if he knew "Ben" and that he (Buzz) looked like "Ben." He also told him where this person lived. Buzz then said he drove away. We went ballistic--asking him questions about the person and the car, and told him under no circumstances should he speak to anyone he doesn't know on his bike rides. Of course we have pulled back his bike riding territory again, but we are trying to play it safe. We've also gone in depth with action plans and emergency plans with all the kids, explaining what to do. Now this person may have been the nicest, safest person in town, but nonetheless we had to take serious precautions. It makes me mad and sad that this has to be the case--I was allowed to bike all over the place, but never feared for my safety. This is not the case today. Keep your kids safe!

Update, Gravois Creek Chronicles

We have checked all suspect areas, and Buzz does not have the lunch money. It appears there was a mix-up somewhere between the student teacher (who is gone now) and the regular teacher, and the $10 got lost between the two of them. I did cave and pay the $.75, but no more for now. I think of this as my silent protest over the poorly written flyers from school.

What a beautiful day today! It was so nice to be out, getting my vitamin D for the day. The kids played and played and played. With the exception of the dog eating chocolate chip cookies, it was a good day.

2nd notice

Yet another "red slip" from the school, saying I owe them $.75....still no sign of my $10. Who's going to give in first?

No baby bikes here!

Beav is officially on two wheels! What a big day! I was shooting baskets in the cul-de-sac when I see Bear and Beav conspiring near the gate. Bear says "I'll teach you," in a gentle manner. "Teach him what?" I yell. He explains that he's about to teach his little brother how to ride a two-wheeler. "Oh no, you're not!" I toss the ball and go running up the driveway. I get up there and talk to him about going slow, using the brakes and keeping his balance while keeping his eyes on the road. "I can do it, Mom," he says to me, almost in a flustered voice. He takes off down the driveway, with me running along side, hand on his neck. "Let go Mom!" he yells. I let go--and off he goes, as if he always knew how to do it. He made about 10 laps altogether, before I made him get off for awhile so "Mom's blood pressure can go back down."

A few observations--found among the photos

The box of pictures was out today, so of course I lost about 30 minutes going through some photos. I have noticed a couple of things:
1) Buzz has a lot of photos where he has different things on his head. Large hats, pants, a book...
2) Why didn't anyone tell me my hair looked that bad?
3) My kids seemed to hang around a lot in their underwear from age 2 to age 3.
4) Bill had very large glasses when we were dating.
5) I lost a lot of "chestiness" after nursing the 3rd baby, as evidenced by the camping trip pictures of me in my swimming suit. I already knew this, but now I have proof in the form of photography.

***$10 still not found yet.......

I'm holding firm

Today we got a notice from school that we owe $.75 for my son's lunch account. I refuse to pay--they still haven't found my $10. Who's to say that when I send another $.75 they won't lose that too?

Haven't written anything in awhile, and my only reason is that it has been an exceptionally busy few weeks. The day-to-day activities of motherhood have continued to trudge on, but we've had to add more bumps in our roads. Sicknesses of the children, battles with allergies, wet beds, bad dreams, sore throats, check-ups, kindergarten madness, cub scout meetings have swallowed up even more time. The lingering "kennel cough" in the children is one of the last remaining signs of our past two weeks of craziness. I felt like I could barely keep life together. One evening, I realized I didn't have much of anything to feed the kids for lunch at school the next day. "Buy lunch!" I triumphantly thought, "my task is done!" But, having checked the balance of money left in the lunch accounts, I realized they would not even have enough money to buy milk. "So what's one more day of peanut butter?" I ask myself, but I did remember to send money with the boys to school to add to the lunch account, saving myself from packing a lunch another day. (I have since come to find out that at least one teacher neglected to put my son's money in his account, so now we owe school $.75--thanks, a lot.)
Still, one other tragedy marred our weeks. My friend's husband, having battled cancer for several months, succombed last week. This tragedy has left an enormous hole in her heart, and ours as well. And as we watched the Caring Bridge site for updates, having my email, facebook, cell phone and home phone line open for those last bits of information, a feeling of peace came over when he passed away. I knew this wouldn't be the end of pain for my friend, but I knew she wouldn't watch him suffer any longer. I'm so sorry for my friend, her 3 children, his parents and family and all who feel his loss. I cannot understand it, and I cannot say the right things to make any of my friend's hurt go away. But those are selfish things, anyway, to think that I could even try.
One thing stood out to me: that he passed away during Holy Week, and when all the world is mourning death and despising death, and then here we have Easter, when Jesus conquered death. Is it possible to see hope when we hear the Easter story? It won't take away the pain now, but maybe it will point us to faith. Faith. I have been thinking a lot about faith, because I think it's normal to have periods in life when you have lots of questions and times when you affirm your positions of faith. Faith to me is like the friend you don't see. How do you know that person is still your friend? You haven't seen her, and she's not there to back up your claim physically, but yet you know. Do I sometimes feel God's not there? Especially in bad times? No, I know He's there, but He allows me to contemplate faith. In fact, I think sometimes He may even physically pull back from me, to make my faith grow--maybe even so I can take care of other things. Then there are times I feel very close, very faithful to God.
I guess I hope my friend's pain would be eased by faith. Faith that she'll be okay, she'll have help, she'll have friends and family close by, she'll smile and laugh, and love. Faith that her husband loved her very much and loved his kids very much. Faith that cares for her and is always with her, even when she doesn't physically see it.