Summer 2014

I feel like I'm really late posting for summer of 2014, since it's the fall, but here I go anyway:) Bella did pretty good in fourth grade. She had a male teacher this year, Mr. Bright and he was pretty awesome. She almost had straight A's, but that blasted math did her in again. That was my downfall too, so at least we can commiserate! She ended the year with Girls On The Run, which is a running club. They had to run a little bit every week and when they did their trial 5k, she ended almost last, crying and her coach trying to encourage her on. It was a cold rainy day,and that didn't help, but she was so discouraged and wanted to quit and kept telling me she never wanted to be in the club ever again. I started running on the treadmill at the beginning of the school year, so that I could run with her, but having not had to run for any reason in 20 years, it took a while for me to get my running legs on. Thankful for my treadmill, Bella and ran the 5k (3 miles) with all of Ottawa and Allegan county schools. It was held at Grand Valley State University, my old stomping grounds:) There were a zillion girls and their parents there. Of course it was nearly 90 degrees that day at the end of May! At first, when we were running, she kept wanting to give up and I was bribing her and threatening her and encouraging her and she wanted to stay with her friends and their parents, but she couldn't keep up with us. Finally finding her inner-strength, which I truly believe was from God, she burst fourth with a new energy and was encouraging all of us by the end. We were passing people that were really great runners and even past her coach. I will never forget her coach's face when she saw Bella kicking butt. It was priceless! She said all breathless, "See, I knew it was all in her head - I knew she had it in her!" One of my best mommy moments with Bella. We will probably never run another 5k ever again, but we can now say we did it and we came in, some where in the middle! First grade was a challenge to Natalie and for most kids from what her teacher said. Going from teacher directed activities, a lot more unguided activities was hard. She had a lot of difficulty paying attention and staying on task. She was a distraction sometimes and had a little too much energy. Again, we got a few notes home saying she was playing too rough or got into trouble. We also had some problems with bullies on the bus. Older kids messing with her to get a rise out of her and kids being plain mean. I ended up doing a lot of driving myself. She had a wonderful teacher, Mrs. Sampo, who I believe is one of the best teachers ever and was so thankful for her guidance and love for our little Nat. Nat still did gymnastics, but again, had trouble not getting in trouble for her wild ways:) I did day care during the day and after school, so most days we had Eden and Blake after school and so they had lots of play dates and snow days spent with good friends. We had more snow days than we could manage with the amount of snow we had, so they missed a lot of school. The girls both did AWANA again this year and so the weeks were filled with memorizing scripture, doing homework and working on their extra sports. After school was very exhausting!!! In February we traveled to Florida and Disney World with my friend Kim and her two daughters Emma an Kaitlyn, who were my girls' best friends. We had many people praying for our trip and I believe it's the only way things went as smooth as it did. On the way down, we had good weather and the girls slept most of the night and didn't complain about being crammed into the back of a 7 passenger van. Thank goodness for technology. They watched movies and played video games and snacked the whole way. I drove for the first 8 hours and was hopped up on flavored coffee which I discovered last year. Kim kept me awake by yelling FORK! It was our code word for when I was over 90 mph. I guess driving on double expressos is like driving on speed:) We left at 5:30pm and arrived the next day at around lunch time. We loved the little apartments and the kids loved the pool. We had pretty awesome weather. The only day it rained was the day we did Animal KIngdom, and it was only a little misting and then the sun came out still during the morning. Fickle Nat only got difficult for a half hour and that was shocking too. The kids went on two of the scariest roller coasters out of all four of the parks and were a little scarred after that:( Had no idea that would be in the dark and go backwards and upside down! That night we went to the Epcot fire works show. The next day we did Magic Kingdom and the kids walked from 11-11. Not once did they complain about how tired they were. They might have asked about snacks a few times, but we were all really proud of them. After all the rides and the warm weather, we watched the light parade and watched the movie and another light show on the actual castle as we were walking out of the park. The girls were so tired they were crying to go home. Us adults really wanted to stay until the end of it, but they were all wiped out. The next day we did a pool day and had perfect weather. The day after that we did Epcot, which was my least favorite part. We did get to see an aquarium, but I sat on park benches while the others stood in hot lines to get pictures with princesses. We didn't stay forever at that park and went home to jump in the pool. I think we did our trip to the ocean next. We went to Cocoa beach for the day and it was a perfect day for swimming. Bella and her fear of the ocean and sharks! So................... Bella walks up to me with her cut finger bleeding saying she won't get back in the water because sharks can smell blood and they'll come after her and then a few minutes later, we are laying out on our towels and the guy next to us in a Jersey Shore's accent shouts "get out of the watta, there's a shock!" over and over! I think a lost a bit of credibility with Bella over that one, because sure enough, there in the waves was a brown shark. I guess that beach it notorious for shark attacks and sightings! Bad mommy moment of the year:) The last park day was spent at Hollywood studios and was a pretty fun little park. Aaron make us get up at the crack of dawn, to be literally the fourth or fifth car in the parking lot, so we could be first in line, which we were, so the littles could be in the Star Wars show, which they were. We got lots of great shots of them learning how to fight with light sabers and fight Darth Vader. That was a proud Papa moment for Aaron;) Kim and I got to go on the Tower of Terror twice by ourselves, so I really loved that. AAron was chosen to be part of the Indiana Jones stunt and action movie, so he was thrilled about that too! We watched the night show in an amphitheater surrounded by water and it was fantastic. Maybe the best of all of the shows. The drive back wasn't as good as going down, but we did the pool on an over-cast morning and left after lunch. I started driving first and poor Aaron did most of the driving after that. The kids couldn't get situated, so after three miserable hours of the kids waking up, while I was driving, and complaining, poor Kim got in the very cramped back so one of the kiddos could have the bucket seat and stretch out. I was up late that night! We got home the next morning and it was cold and snow was every where. Aaron left for Kentucky in May and was gone through the end of August, so he missed out on most of the activities, but I kept busy babysitting my friends' kids. It was a cooler and wetter summer, so we didn't get out to the lake as much as I thought I would. The girls went away to Pine Ridge Bible Camp with their friends Ella and Sophia and had a blast. We did the county fair, family games night at the fair grounds, had lots of play dates and a couple of nights of sleepovers in a tent at their Grandma and Grandpa Combs' house. I attended Gabe's first birthday party alone, since everyone else in my family was gone. My friend' Mandy and Keith had me over lots to keep my company so I wasn't as lonely with Aaron being gone. Some friends from church also gave us zoo memberships, so we did that a bunch of times as well and had a blast! Aaron came house and a few days later, we left for Niagara Falls. It was a quick trip. 5.5 hours long without traffic. We stayed on the Canadian side and had yummy food and rode the Maid of the Mist and got to see free fire works at night. The falls were very pretty with lights shooting on them. The next day we went to the American side and walked through parks and did the junk shop shopping and saw the falls on the U.S. side. and then drove home. That was a longer trip and we were all exhausted by the time we got home. The girls started second and fifth grade before we knew it and have great teachers. We had conferences today and they both were fantastic. They both have great grades and are behaving well. Natalie is night and day different from her behavior last year. She has grown up and matured in amazing ways. The first day I woke her up for school, she jumped right out of bed to get dressed without me warning her and threatening her. I was shocked! Bella on the other hand, who started young adolecense with a vigor, couldn't get out of bed for the first time. Watching Bella's body grown and change and becoming moody and sullen has been difficult. My cheerful happy positive kid had gone into hiding for a bit and hopefully we make it out of this new journey unscathed. School is getting a lot more challenging for her and isn't as much as a breeze as it used to be. She still climbs into my lap, while I hold on the her with all my might, knowing that time is going too fast with her. It's amazing how much my love grows for them. I am still so completely grateful for their little lives. Nat has learned how to do a back walkover, back handspring and a back tuck on the trampoline. She's getting stronger and more sure of herself and it's fun to have that thing in common with her that we can bond over. Bella and I read together and Nat and I have gymnastics. Life keeps on chugging on.......