A Trip to the Mountains

It started with the hiking merit badge and a requirement to do a 10 mile hike..... combined with a desire to see the leaves in all their fall glory.....

and ended with some very tired, somewhat dehydrated and completely exhausted family members encouraging each other to "endure to the end"!

I can't think of a better way to spend the day!

I cannot even begin to tell you how incredible this stream felt midway through our hike to my aching feet. I DID NOT want to leave!

I had to laugh because the boys always ran on ahead of us. We came around bend in the trail and saw them sitting under this sign which read "WARNING: Problem bears in this area".....like the bears wouldn't come get them as long as they didn't pass the sign!!!

LOVE this pic of my sweet teenage son piggybacking his little sister. You know, with all the unlovableness that comes with teenagers, this picture reminds me of everything good that is still deep inside of him.

Resting with my sweetie.....

Yes, we are still here....

Pardon the lack of posts please! We are into the chaos and craziness of school and after-school activities and well, LIFE! Oh, and I have started working at the school as a substitute teacher, so my days are very full! I thought I was being extremely picky and exclusive when I said that I would ONLY work at Savannah's school and ONLY teach up through 2nd or 3rd grade, so I was sure I wouldn't get called much.

I quickly found out how wrong I was! My first week working, I worked four days. The second week, I filled up 3 days and then quickly blocked out the other two so that I wouldn't be called in! I have found that I need at least two days a week at home in order to stay on top of my home responsibilities. So far I have mostly taught in pre-K which is a class of 16 students with a teachers aide. I spent one day in Kindergarten with 22 kids and only ONE teacher (ME!!!) which was a little crazy! I had an opportunity to teach 1st grade last week, but then Samuel got sick, so I had to turn it down. I was looking forward to trying out 1st grade to see if they were a little more manageable than Kindergarten!

I am loving the little kids and find that it is really fun for me to substitute. I love the flexibility and it is obvious that I still need that! I was offerred a full time position as the aide in the pre-K class which I turned down because it is more than I want to work. So instead I am now the designated substitute teacher for that class, which is fine by me! I know the kids and love them and it is fun to get to go back in and see how they are doing on a regular basis.

Cross Country....maybe!

Joshua tried out for and made his middle school cross country team this year. He was so excited about it! He is a good little runner and when he sets his mind to it, he will do his best. Unfortunately, after 2 weeks of practice, he started to have pain in his ankles. He took a few days off and rested and then tried running in the first meet. The poor kid was in so much pain, but he would not give up. He came in near the end, but even through the pain, he was still running at a very slow limping pace. After a visit to the doctor, he has now been given a 1 week rest period to recover. Considering that the season is only six weeks long, he will only have 4 meets left when he returns. We are hopeful that he can get better and try again, because he was so excited about being on the team!

Retro Car

After years of threatening our children with having to learn to drive in mom's minivan, we finally have another option! We were given an old car from a family member's estate that Caleb seems a little more excited about learning to drive. It will not be HIS car, it will be a family car, but it is definitely a way cooler option than the van!

So as soon as the eagle project (which was mostly finished a year ago) is completed......ah yes, paperwork remains.....Caleb can get his permit and start driving.

I actually love this car. Something about it takes me back to my childhood! The seats are bouncy and it has loads of character. We are having a lot of fun with it!

The best part is now I have an extra car when mine goes in the shop.....as it inevitably does on a regular basis!

A Soggy Back to School

The first day of school was nothing short of miserable this year. It was pouring down rain for most of the day and I woke up early stressing about everything that needed to be done. This year was different than the previous ones for me....I found myself dreading sending my kids back to school.

This is the year that I wanted to stop time.

After taking two teenagers through summer vacations, I have realized that summer is a form of detox from the world. They face so many trials and bad influences at school that it is difficult for them to withstand them all and in the end, they end up compromising. By the time school gets out I am rallying my troops, making plans for church camps, EFY and family activities in the hope that I can replenish them. That is what summer is about for me....reminding my children that they can live in the world and still hold tight to their family's values. I only wish that summer could be 9 months and school would be 3 months!

So as I hugged Joshua goodbye on his first day of 7th grade, my heart ached. He will enter teenage-hood during the middle of this school year on his birthday. This was my last carefree summer with him. He is so good, and I want to stop time and keep him that way. My heart breaks when I think of the struggles and trials that his older brother and sister have faced. I desperately want to protect him from evil and I feel more and more incompetent in my abilities to do that. My fortifications with the others have not been enough and I am unsure how to best prepare my children to withstand the world. My feelings of inadequacy brought me to tears so many times yesterday.

Savannah and Samuel were excited to meet their teachers but a little nervous since we didn't get a chance to go in beforehand and find their classrooms. Chris and I had to divide and conquer on this one since they are in different schools starting at the same time. I was grateful for the gift of cell phones to keep us connected so Chris would know how Savannah did and I would know how Samuel did.

Caleb did not start school on the first day. A few weeks ago, Chris and I made one of those heart-wrenching parental decisions and chose to remove him from the governor's school where he has been studying the arts and bring him back to his home high school for his junior and senior year. There were a lot of things involved in that decision, more than I want to get into on here, but we both agreed this was the best course of action. Knowing that did not make the decision any easier though, because we knew it would be difficult for Caleb, and our hearts ached for him.

Due to the storms, the transfer between schools did not happen till after school started, so now Caleb will be starting school today, on the third day. I have cried more times than I want to admit over the last two days, empathizing with my children's pain and mourning the intrusions on their innocence. Maybe it is just the fact that I am older and more knowledgable now of the dangers they face; it has torn me up inside.

Today will be another stressful day, one I wish I could stay in bed for and not have to face. It will be Caleb's first day of school at a new school and we will be going with Shelby to deal with some of the aftermath of the choices she made during the summer.

I think I have had enough of the pain and stress of motherhood for now.....it is about time for some of the joy!

Running Away to the Beach!

I know it was lame of us.....there we were, one of the few houses in our neighborhood with power, and we left and went to the beach! But I promise, it was planned beforehand, and we DID offer our house to several people to stay in till their power came back on....we can't help it if no one took us up on it! Actually, we had not planned a beach vacation this year. The kids begged and pleaded for a trip to Disney World in the fall, so we all agreed that in order to afford it, we would need to skip the beach vacation and skip our annual passes to a local amusement park. Everyone was fine with that, except for me and Chris! The beach is really the perfect vacation for us; it is so relaxing and carefree and when you compare that to a Disney World vacation....well it kind of sounds like a nightmare to us!

So anyway, by the first of August, we were further ahead than we had expected on saving for our trip and Chris desperately still wanted a beach trip. We decided that we could afford a vacation with one caveat: it had to be under $500. That's not an easy price point to hit, but Chris went ahead and took the last week of August off and I kept checking craigslist for last minute specials. Then the hurricane started looking threatening, so we decided to just wait and see what would happen.

On the Sunday after the hurricane I started checking the internet. It looked like we might be able to pull off a 4 night trip to Myrtle Beach within our budget, but Myrtle is just SO much more developed. Not really the lazy relaxing beach that we are used to at Topsail. I started checking some rent by owner sites and found an owner who lived close to his rental at Topsail and called him. I was hoping that with having to actually meet up with him in person, it would be more legit than wiring someone money for a rental that you hope pans out. His property was even in the same condominiums that we usually rent, so it was a good fit! The only downside was that it was a 1 bedroom. There were bunk beds built into the wall in the hallway and then a pull out couch. We knew it would be tighter quarters than we were used to, but it was right in our price range, so we went for it! We drove down Sunday evening and spent the rest of the week relaxing at a relatively deserted beach! It was heaven!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the little part about Caleb having to work Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.....

We ended up leaving him home and then he went into work Monday and traded his other shifts off. So Chris left Monday night and picked him up, then drove back and got to the condo at about 5:00 am! Not really relaxing, but it was fun to have Caleb at the beach with us.

We found lots of shells and shark teeth and sea glass this time. Way more than we have ever gotten! It helps when there are less people around to take them!

It was a perfect week! Once again, a great way to end the summer!

IRENE

After clearing out underneath the deck and securing a safe place to park my van (which is only worth about $1000, but we definitely could not replace it with something that would actually run well, thus we could not afford to lose it to a tree!), we endured a full day and into the night of being pummelled by wind and rains. Somewhere around late afternoon, trees started to fall, and our gorgeous tree-filled neighborhood became a living nightmare. We were fortunate to find only a mess to clean up the next morning.

Many people in our neighborhood were not so fortunate....

We had gone out riding around the neighborhood around 6 pm during a little lull in the storm (hurricanes are like that....you have bands of wind and rain and then quiet and then more bands) and found this destruction. I talked to the people in this house the next day and they said they were bailing out water all night long because of the damage the tree did to their dormers.

This road was closed for almost a full week because the power lines were down and entangled in this tree.

This is one of our friend's houses. Sadly, their pop up camper is destroyed.....but at least it was not their home!

We actually saw a tree fall on a home at twilight. It was leaning on another tree and then all of a sudden the other tree gave way. It made an awful eery creaking noise and then smashed through the roof of a rambler. The poor little older lady who lived there by herself had been next door at her neighbors riding out the storm and came running out to see what had happened. She was in shock. Chris and Caleb jumped out of the car and went to help her by moving all of her furniture from her master bedroom and office into the rest of the house so that it wouldn't get destroyed by the rain that was pouring in.

Destruction was everywhere....we came home that night and let the kids sleep downstairs. We figured it would be safer there if a tree were to fall on our home. Fortunately, we did not have to worry about that. We were one of the lucky homes in our neighborhood. As a matter of fact, we never even lost power because of the storm! Most of our neighborhood was out for almost a full week!

Court of Honor

We had our big "after summer camp" Court of Honor last week to recognize all the rank advancements and merit badges the boys have earned. Joshua was in charge of conducting this one and he took it really seriously and made sure it was all well organized. Good for him! He was troop historian for the last little bit, so he took the time to organize all the pictures into a slide show with music. Chris started to help him thinking that Joshua wouldn't understand how to do it, but Joshua quickly took over and was quite handy with the computer!

He has been a bit embarrassed by the lack of merit badges on his sash....he took care of that, though, by earning more merit badges than any of the other scouts at our Court of Honor! Chris is still serving as scoutmaster, and although Caleb seems to have grown out of enjoying his dad being scoutmaster, Joshua is thrilled to have dad around!

Caleb had to work, but I ran home and got him in time to get him back for his special award. He won the "151 mile award" which is something that Chris created for the boys who complete the 50 mile hike, 50 mile bike ride, 50 mile canoe trip and 1 mile swim. Caleb was the only boy in our troop who has completed all of these! He is going to work with a man in our ward who will be making him a walking stick that is specially designed and numbered just for him!

Swim Team Movie

We recently found out that the movie our kids participated in as part of the 48 hr. film festival was the overall winner! I debated about posting it here on my blog because my parents were somewhat offended by it. In truth, this film was meant to be a comedic spoof. Our swim team coach was the lead male actor and the lead female actor was involved in a car accident the day before the team received their assignment. They were assigned a "film de femme" which meant that their film had to have a strong female lead. It was the worst possible situation, since they no longer had a female actress who could carry this role. The team was brainstorming and came up with the idea of using the male actor to portray a female role. So, that being said, if that might offend you, then don't watch! Oh, and see if you can find anyone you know in the movie!

Turkey Time!

This post is beyond explanation.....it just goes to show the lengths I will go to to do fun and exciting things with my kids when we travel ;)

Saying Goodbye.....

I remember my mom telling me when I was in the midst of crying babies and the chaos that comes when you have little ones around that it was mind boggling how quickly the time passes. I didn't believe her at the time....how could I have known? There I was muddling through never ending days and sleepless nights and time seemed to be moving so slowly.

Surely she was wrong....

This week I realized with shocking clarity how right she was!

It seems like not so very long ago that I brought this sweet baby home from the hospital and fell in love with motherhood for the very first time. And now, here she is, heading off to college!

There has been alot of drama this summer.

Parenthood isn't pretty....

it is not for the faint of heart....

there were days when I didn't want to get out of bed and face it.....

but this week reminded me of all that is good about being a parent.

Saying goodbye to my (big) little girl, helping her set up her dorm room, reminiscing about growing up together.....(yes, I do believe I have grown up too!)

It was all good.

And so rewarding.

Shelby is still deciding who she wants to be. She is growing and learning, re-examining her values, reaching and stretching.

There are days when it is painful....

And there are days when it is oh so sweet....

I saw a quote recently that I would love to post in my house where everyone can see it several times a day. "IN THIS HOME--We do second chances. We do grace. We do real. We do mistakes. We do "I'm sorrys". We do loud really well. We do hugs. We do family. --WE DO LOVE."

So, for now, we are celebrating the oh so sweet, we are acknowledging mistakes and revelling in second chances, we are finding the joy in love....

And amidst it all, we are saying goodbye.

Swim Champs

We finished off our summer swim team with 3 kids making it to the Championship meet! It was an exciting time for everyone.....except mom.....because Joshua aged up to the older group so we now have Champs TWO NIGHTS IN A ROW!!! Not fun!

Samuel got 3 gold medals in his individual events and then a 4th and 5th place in his relays. Savannah (with her buddy Cole) was so excited to be at champs! It was her first time making it and she couldn't stop smiling! She was scheduled to compete in breastroke and one mixed relay, but by the end of the night when they realized that one of the members of the freestyle relay team had gone home early, they drafted Savannah to take his place. Now, she is not a great freestyler, but Savannah swam her best ever and hopped out of the pool still smiling!

The very next night we returned with Joshua for another fun-filled night of swimming. He swam the freestyle and medley relays and then an individual medley and breastroke. He is a great swimmer and as soon as he gains some weight, we are expecting great things from him!

Teaser

Yep, this is the promo shot for the movie the kids were in over the weekend. That's Josh on the left in between all the bigger boys. We can't wait to see it! I heard that Savannah's part is still in so she is excited!

10 Seconds of Fame

Yes, we like swimming, but one of the kid's favorite things about being on swim team is our coach. He is an actor and really has a lot of fun with the kids. On Saturday during practice he was involved with a 48 hr. film festival and they decided to use a storyline about a swim team.....so, our kids got to be part of the film! Oh yeah, and that IS our coach on the side of the pool in the blue suit....dressed as a GIRL because he is supposed to be an East German Swim Coach. The kids got a real kick out of the transformation!

Savannah had a small part with a group of girls where they pretty much say "yes" or "no", but she was excited!

Here the kids are gathered around checking out the clips that have already been taped.

So today the film crew is frantically editing tape and hoping to turn in their finished product by 7:00 pm. All the swim team kids are so excited to see the finished product!