Samuel's big debut!

So Charlotte has been spending even more time at the studio than usual, and for once Molly is not the culprit. It's Samuel. As many of you know he elected to give up "boy dancing" this year in favor of trying karate. After an initial try out he decided he definitely wanted to stick with it and we went ahead and registered him.

Let me tell you... that little guy is totally in love with karate. He asks most every morning "Is today a karate day?" He practices every night, and by now has taught Teague to count to five in Japanese. On Tuesdays and Thursdays at dinner we are apt to hear a LOT of "Sensai says this..." and "Today, at karate, Sensai did this.. and it was so awesome." :)

Well the day finally came this week on Tuesday. His gee arrived. (That's karate speak for uniform!) It had to be specially ordered through sensai because we needed a double zero size. (lol..) Doesn't he look sharp practicing his moves in it? :) He certainly thinks so -- his reply to the question "Hite!" (which evidently is karate speak for yes!)

Feel Good Moment of The Week

It's Wednesday, which means errand day around here. Grandma to the rescue this afternoon, so while I have to run all over town paying bills -- I at least get to do it kid free. Of course, I am already running late this morning but I had to share something here right?


Enjoy!

The "official" school pictures! (and the one I couldn't resist!

After church Sunday I dragged the whole family downtown Jackson in search of a "Cool" spot for school pics... and I think we found one. I'm pretty pleased with how they turned out and these are each kid's favorite shot. So I figured since we share everything else on here I would post these.

The last one is my personal favorite. Those boys love eachother so much I lost my "spot" . At Teague's age I would ask all the kids "Who's your best friend?" And they would all say me. :) (Mommy melt moment!) Teague? Teague adamantly says "Samuel." Even when I said "aren't I your best friend?" He thought about it and said "No- Samuel best friend." lol.. I guess you can't argue with that huh?

Our newest addition.

Yes-- that is a cat. And yes -- it now lives here. :)

Her name is Daisy and she is actually quite cute. Jason is in love with her, don't let him tell you otherwise. The kids? 4 of the 5 of them think she is the best thing ever. Charlotte is terrified to be on the floor with her, but I am guessing she will get used to this idea. :) And me? I am hoping to teach her not to jump up on the couch, not because I actually value the couch or anything but because I want to have a place to lay down without being pounced on.

My baby sister's boyfriend gave it to her before heading to boot camp, (he's going to be a marine) and due to some really severe allergies my mom just couldn't let her keep it. I wasn't actually out on the lookout for a cat, but you know.... here's hoping it at least keeps any mice from coming in this winter.

Other than that, a new week begins today, and I'm feeling pretty good about it. All of our fall activities are in full swing, and the rest seems to be working itself out. I am still craving downtime but I'm at least getting things done finally. It's a start.

In other news, we are still waiting to hear about job issues with Jason so keep praying. I could really use things to work out well... the way I want them too. But I rest assured that God has a plan, and all I can do it wait for it. Yeah... waiting is not my strong suit.

T.G.I.F.

I can't believe it's Friday and I haven't had a meltdown yet... things must be getting better. :) (Either that or at least I must be getting used to it!) All in all, it was a pretty good week around here. We actually got done a huge chunk of what needed to get done -- I still need to play catch up on the laundry (although that was derailed by the City flushing the hydrants all week leaving me with rusty water so I was to scared to actually DO the laundry!), and surprise, surprise, I am still way behind in editing. But I promise -- I'm getting there!

Molly had another meltdown after dance yesterday and frankly, I can sort of sympathize with her. Apparently at some point, Miss Kate had told her that tap 3 was, or might be, or something -- dancing in the Christmas Show. Well flash forward to last night and it turns out she decided NOT to have them dance in the Christmas show. As luck would have it -- NONE of her five classes are in the show. In Kate's words "she falls right in the middle" -- meaning she obviously has all of the advanced classes in the show and tried to include a bunch of the little kids, but Molly is clearly well beyond the beginning classes, but not into the advanced classes yet. (For you dance moms wondering where we are: Div 3, tap 3, jazz 2, hip hop 2, and Jr Irish (Irish 2) -- since we took Irish off last year!)

Anyway, to be honest part of me is thrilled she is not in the show -- it will save me the performance fees, and all those tickets. :) Although I would have been happy to see her dance too, as she loves it so. Molly, on the other hand is devastated. She cried the entire way home from the studio about how it was "unfair", and it's not "the nutcracker" and "if Miss Lori were still there she should have got to be an angel" (our friends child was in division three for the variety show a few years ago and was an angel-- I am assuming that is where she got that idea!) she "doesn't understand why everything has to be different just cause Miss Kate is the boss now" and she just "really, really, wants to be on that stage." You get the idea. She cried at dinner again.

I don't know what to say to her. I think Jason promised to take her to the Nutcracker in Grand Rapids to make up for it, but I know that is not the real answer. I also suspect that all these tears are about more than just her obvious disappointment about the show. Change is really hard. Especially when you are eight, and all I can tell her is that she will get used to things being different. In the mean time, I wish I had a stage I could put her on for a moment, just so I don't have to see the pouty face about the show from now until December. :)

Luke, and why he is starting to scare me.

So we're in the car yesterday afternoon, mid way through our usual frenzy of drop offs, and pick ups and Luke says to me "Hey, Mom I was thinking. " (Uh oh.) "How do like -- you know animals that don't lay eggs?"

Me: Yeah.... (dreaded feeling creeping into my stomach)
Luke"Well how do animals that don't lay eggs get their babies?"
Me: (Choked on my water.) Um, well you know.. the same way mom's get their babies.
Luke: "But like they don't go to the hospital so how do they do it?"
Me: Well they have animal doctors that untie their belly button. ("Yeah I know -- that is how my kids think babies come into this world, they made it up themselves, I have never told them otherwise!)
Luke: "Yeah but what about like you know.. wild animals?"
Me: "Well.... (my mind is racing for something, anything but the truth!) you know probably most wild animals lay eggs."
Luke: (looking a little annoyed) "I'm gonna have to think about this some more"
Me: "Okay -- what do you want for snacks next week?" (MUST CHANGE SUBJECT.)

Okay so in hindsight, I probably could have handled that a little better. I mean the kid is in fourth grade. But man, I am so not ready to go there -- because as soon as Luke knows, Molly is gonna know. To be honest I had planned on waiting another year to do the baby talk, and then a year after that to do the puberty talk. I figure I didn't get the puberty talk until fifth grade and Molly doesn't need it any sooner than that either. Oy. And why does he always ask me these things? I wanna scream "ask your father!" lol...

School... on the road.

So it was 85 degrees yesterday. For what was likely the LAST time until next summer, and rather than sit at home and roast while we tried to work and clean, the kids and I took a holiday. (I didn't buy a year long state parks pass for nothing!) We made the short trip to Portage Lake and had a picnic:

We pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Teague found this stick that looked like the Letter F.

After lunch the older kids practiced writing their spelling words on the beach.

Then we wrote the numbers on the beach and played a math game where the right answer had you running to the number, and the wrong answer had you running in the lake....

Charlotte thought all of this was a riot! But not as much as she loved playing in the sand with mama.

And then we relaxed... because 85+ degree days don't come often this late into September.

It must be good to be the Princess

Not only did I achieve everything I needed to yesterday, we also had time to take the Princess for her evening walk. :) Life is pretty achievable sometimes. Today I have BIG plans for the kids... and I do mean BIG. Then later on it's more laundry, karate lessons, swim practice, Irish class, and soccer practice. And if that didn't all fall within a three hour window on opposite ends of the county I would be doing great! :)

Look for a report on our big plans tomorrow, but for now I leave you with a Molly-ism:

Me "Molly you are not done picking up the dining room I can still see a bunch of papers and garbage under the table."

Molly "GRRRRRRR.. Why do you have to say that?"

Me "What do you want me to do pretend I didn't see it?"

Molly "YES!"

Another week....

Another day. So I decided the week may go slightly better if I choose to focus on small -- daily goals instead of just tons of lofty ones. I spent much of last week looking like this:

You recognize the face, eyes closed, deep breath, hair a hot mess! ;)

I'm not sure why it suddenly became so overwhelming, but needless to say it did and I am determined NOT to let it happen again. (Before anyone says it I know my schedule would be overwhelming to most people, but the reality is generally speaking I'm used to it!)

So this week you're going to get a rare insight at my actual schedule (try not to run in panic!) As I map out the smaller attainable goals for myself, I need someplace to keep accountable. So here we are, Monday, and I need to:

Complete the kids school tasks with them.

Finish cleaning the kitchen.

Figure out the issue with Jason's student loans online.

Contact the library and figure out why they think Molly still has a book I KNOW she has returned. (We took it back two days after we borrowed it and made it a point to show the librarian that we had found some of it's pages were falling out.)

Do one load of diaper wash, and one new load of real wash. Put three loads away.

Call the Parks and Rec Department and figure out when Samuel's soccer practice is -- his coach never called last week.

Tap class for Molly

Swim Practice for Luke

Spend at least two hours catching up on editing (or at least trying to!)

Okay now -- breathe. :) I don't know how but I know I CAN do those things -- I have to.

Feeling a little bit more put together.. I promise!

So yesterday was not my finest hour. You probably notice that huh? :) Anyway I am hoping for better things today. My head feels like it's in a better place so at least that's one thing. I went to the park yesterday to take Charlotte's nine months pictures and I really think it refocused me. It gave me something concrete and creative to think about and really cleared my head. I actually enjoyed watching the finale of America's Got Talent with the kids last night. (Congratulations Michael Grimm!) OF course the finale of "Got Talent" is a pretty big deal in our house. Mostly because it's the end of a season here. The last few years we have all watched it together, as a family, complete with popcorn every week all summer long. We each have our favorites, and acts we "aren't in love with". In addition of being fun to root on those acts we love, it's been a good lesson in being polite and respectful of other people's favorites. Mostly it's just fun, at a time when there is not a lot of TV that is really appropriate for family viewing. Even last night I counted several ads for other shows that I thought crossed the line of family friendliness for the 8:00 hour. And I am not talking about the shows, I mean the ADS~!

So anyway, America's Got Talent has crowned another winner and it really feels like the end to summer here in the Williams household. The weather is cool, fall activities are in full swing, I've started to make lists of things needed for Halloween, and Thanksgiving plans. I should have already started to think towards Christmas (and I have been thinking) but that is as far as it's gone. Another season passed.

The tale of two twinkies.

Today I bought myself one of those snack packs of Twinkies at the gas station. Yeah I know -- gross a twinkie, but what can I say? Once every five years or so I really like a Twinkie! When I tried to eat during the finals of America's Got Talent, (which I was straining to hear because not one of my kids were A - in bed, or B- ceasing to talk and/or scream or otherwise make noise, and at the same time keep Charlotte from knocking over my last glass of Pepsi since she has developed a great love of doing anything necessary to knock over any cup in reach) Jason started to complain that he didn't get a snack. HE was joking, trying to be cute whatever. I felt bad so I offered him one of my Twinkies. Then Samuel came over and asked for the other one. Before he even finished asking Luke was asking why he didn't get a snack. Teague was reaching and moving his mouth but I don't know what he was saying I couldn't hear it. (OR Nick Cannon for that matter.) And when I lost it and screamed "No" -- no one was having it, it was MINE, Jason looked at me with that disapproving look he always does when I yell. And Luke whined about how it wasn't fair (he had just had a bag of popcorn has had ALL The kids), Teague started crying,and Samuel just continued to ask and ask and ask again. "No Samuel, you can't have my twinkie because there are only two and I already gave one to your dad, if I give you one I won't get ANY." Then I shoved it so far in my mouth I choked on it.

Sadly, this true story isn't a funny little story of one over interesting snack cake. It is also the tale of my life right now and I have no idea how to fix it. Worse, I seem to have no one I can ask or talk to even get to listen to me.

Samuel-isms... yet again!

This is Samuel's journal this morning:

Yep, the journal topic of the day was "What would happen if you found gold in your backyard?" and Samuel's reply? He could buy a hippopotamus. LOL! I love that kid I really do!

Playing Catch Up

Over the last week I have been trying really hard, and praying to remember to take times to enjoy life "in this moment". I actually think I have been fairly successful in that endeavour too which has to be a work of God. However, that has left me falling behind in other areas. I have at least four photo "shoots" that I need to edit, and I haven't touched the laundry in a week. So here I sit on Monday praying to God for the wisdom and the ability to squeeze all of that in better this week, to be the wife and the mom my family deserves.

Of course, my plan last week was to try and play catch up on the weekend. Umm.... yeah. That would have worked better had I not overbooked the weekend, again. That will NOT be the case this weekend. One because we are really tight on budget this week so there is no money for "extra activities", and two because it's the last weekend before soccer starts and frankly I want the break!

Friday we picked Jason up from work and went immediately to Somerset Beach Campground for the J.A.H.E. kick off picnic and enjoyed dinner with some really great families, and the craziest hay ride I have ever been on. Two days later I am still finding hay in people's shoes, hair, and coats. Note to self: Be prepared for hay fight mid ride next year!

On Saturday I took senior pictures for my friend Angie's twin brothers. I wanted to help them out so we planned a picture shoot in Ella Sharp at noon, and I would edit the pictures right away so they could take them home with them. They live about an hour away and they needed the pictures for Monday for the yearbook. Two things --- it poured rain, and I do mean pour. But we worked around it, shooting the boys on the covered porches, under ledges, and in the rotunda (around the wedding that was set up there for later that day!). Two, I seriously underestimated how many shots of two people there would be and how long it would take me to edit them, which meant they waited in town two hours instead of the one I was hoping for. But in the end, they got their pictures and I really hope they were pleased with them.

Sunday, we had church of course, and afterward a friend through the most AMAZING Dr. Seuss birthday party I have ever seen. (As seen here in Wordless Weekend Post) The activities were a engaging, the decor was incredible -- right down to a platter with a "crumb to small for even a mouse", and Jason announced it some of the best barbecue he had ever had. And yes, I have 500+ images to sort through and edit from that as well. :) It's funny because I love portrait photography, but I think I love event photography even more. I pray that the images from the party can really capture the spirit of the moment, so that when you look at them you feel like you were there, and I hope my friend enjoys them too.

Wordless Weekend Post

Making Progress

I would like to say that we are all adjusted to our new schedule. That we are running like a well oiled machine.. but that would be a lie. Heck I haven't even ADDED everything to our schedule yet. But we are getting there. I think.. given another week we may be on to something.

I've fallen way behind in photo editing..again. But I am trying not to think about it. It's been a long week and I intend to enjoy some family time this weekend. Because after all. that is what it is really all about.

On the calender for this weekend? A senior picture photo shoot for a friend, a showing of Despicable Me at the Michigan Theater, and a Dr Seuss themed birthday party on Sunday. Oh yeah.. and this week Jason and I take the plunge at church and sign up for a life team! I know, not terribly scary to most people but for us a giant leap!

It was stressful, but good.

That should probably be the tag line for my life huh? The epitaph on my headstone? "Stressful, but good." I hope so anyway, I can think of worse things. Yesterday was one of THOSE days. It wasn't a bad day, and it could have been, just a lot going on.

Molly started dance and brought me to tears. I've concluded that her hair all slicked back into a ballet bun makes her look older,and combine that with a new leotard, new "big girl style" shoes, and her "hip" new sweatsuit over it, I had to a double take when she came downstairs, her bag over one shoulder announcing we were going to be late if we didn't leave "right now". The dance diva extraordinaire is growing up. Gone are the days of pretty pink ballet skirts with sparkle, or giant pink hair bows on our bun. I'm slowly becoming okay with that. But to see it all "laid out" for me still takes me breath away.

Of course growing up comes with it's challenges. Confidence has never been something that Molly has lacked, but ballet comes with changes with this year. Our beloved dance director Lori has gone, moved to Florida and sold the studio. The new owners seem nice enough, and her new ballet instructor is a familiar face. Miss Linnea has taught at the studio, at least as long as we've been there. (Although she has never been Molly's teacher before.) Miss Lindsay, whom Molly idol worshipped has moved on to college. And I am left to wonder if I underestimated how important these women were in Molly's eight year old world. She was anxious about being on time to dance yesterday (we were 20 minutes early), the first in line to get into the new classroom, stretching at the bar before class instead of running around the hallway and begging for a snack, came home eager to practice the positions Miss Linnea had taught them, and confessed at bed time that Miss Linnea had told Gracie how nicely she had done something but hadn't said anything to her. :( It made me sad to see her doubt herself in even such a small way, when she never had before, but I reassured her that I'm sure she had done great, and that Miss Linnea couldn't single out every single person, every single class. I also promised her that I was certain Miss Linnea liked her just as much as she had liked Miss Linnea.

Samuel started dance yesterday as well, without shoes. He decided at the last minute he wanted to do it this year and that meant that he would have to order shoes late. He seemed unphased, and happy to have an old friend in his class.

And after much debate, and stress on my behalf (see yesterdays VENT post) Luke started swimming at the Y last night. He wasn't thrilled, I wasn't thrilled, but it is what it is for right now. I talked it over with him and asked him to give it a month and I 'll see what I can do. IF he still wants to make the switch at that point, I'd try. Yes, he'd be starting a month into the season, but I need that long to be able to afford it, and for now at least he's in the water again. He seemed happier after practice, his Coach seemed happy to see him back. We shall see. I was just happy to be able to have a conversation about it with him, and come to some kind of compromise that seemed to work for us. It's going to completely throw my schedule for September as I had planned all of our dance stuff around the other team's practice schedule. But maybe it's only for a month... I guess the morale to this tale is Luke's growing up too.

We finished the day at church, which is exactly what I needed after the afternoon, finally it feels like fall is falling into place smoothly, as we pick up our new "normal", and welcome back our old favorites.

Warning. (This would be a vent post!)

So I usually try my best to keep the blog as happy as I can. But today I need to vent. I spent the entire summer agonizing over Luke and his swim team needs. At long last in July we "tried" the Aquatic Club for a week and came to the conclusion that is was going to be a much better fit for Luke. It was more competitive and we felt would give him the extra push he sometimes needs. We were all comfortable with this decision. Luke was happy with it, the new team's coach was there to cheer him on at the City Meet, we got on the email list of the new team, and prepared to switch at the start of the fall season. (Today!) We let our Y membership expire, it just wasn't worth the money if we didn't need it for swim team anymore.

Well for the last couple of weeks we have been watching for the new team to post their registration information. I didn't really expect changes, I had already been told the practice schedule, etc. would stay the same. They sent an email on Friday stating that yes -- practice would start this week, and sent the calender for the first few months, and said registration pages would be up online by Monday. They weren't. Still no biggie, I figured the parent volunteer in charge was busy over the holiday weekend. Yesterday another email comes, apologizing for the delay, and has the registration paperwork attached. Ummm.... yeah. So the session in fall is twice as long as the session in spring. So instead of paying $55 in registration fees and $90 for the session now, and then another $90 for another session in November as I was anticipating, it's $80 in registration fees and $180 in session fees, and yeah... it's due today.

Now I know most of you are thinking, "wow that is kind of a pain in the ass but so you pay it all upfront and won't need to pay it later" And that would be true, except the way things are right now for us, I don't HAVE it all to pay upfront. Things are really, really tight right now, and we have a TON going on at the moment, and we have to budget for every little expense. Usually that's okay, but then something like this happens and I am totally thrown.

So now I have to face sending him back to the Y after all, because even though by December 31 (when the big session ends) I will have paid them $80 MORE they want it in monthly payments and not one lump sum. In addition, I don't WANT to send him back to the Y. Don't get me wrong, I loved the Coach at the Y , but I didn't feel like the team was run all that well, we were one of the ONLY kids to go to most of the meets, and we didn't feel like they really "pushed", well... at all. To make matters worse, Luke was crying yesterday because HE didn't want to go back to the Y , and to top it all off his Grandpa TOLD the Y he wasn't coming back, so they know we wanted to make the switch. Plus they already started practicing!

I was up for hours last night agonizing over it. I feel so stupid, and so guilty that I can't do what I KNOW is the right thing for him. I even contemplated making Molly wait until October to start dance so I could pay for it, but that didn't seem fair either. There are days I really wish we had credit cards. Then I could just say "well I guess I am charging groceries this month." And yes,I know that is not the right answer but I don't know what else to do.

Crawling along... (and so it begins...)

Today marks the beginning of a brand new season in our house. The school year begins today and while I am excited about that, I don't feel quite ready to walk yet so crawl we must. :) The breakfast muffins are made, the schedules printed... all that I need now are the kids and we will be on our way.

So how did we send off the summer? We did the only thing acceptable once the rain died down and the clouds finally broke at about 3:00 yesterday. We went to the beach. :)

Jason was a little bit weary, and sure it was like 76 or so, but you know.. I didn't pay for that state park pass for nothing! Thankfully, Portage Lake is about a twenty minute drive and thanks to the weather we had the place pretty much to ourselves. (Usually you can barely stake out a spot to sit!) The place was all but deserted and the atmosphere screamed "RELAX". The kids had a blast, Jason caught up on his reading, and the me? I watched Charlotte crawl in the leaves that are starting to fall from the trees already while her big brothers and sister played in the lake. 'Cause you know? That's Michigan!

Watching the kids play reminded me that while today starts this new adventure in our lives, we're pretty lucky -- we have a pretty great family. :) And with a week of new dance schedules, and swim schedules, and sign ups ahead of me I really needed that reminder.