Sunday, September 27, 2009

Cold Feet

So I leave for Ecuador in just three days. THREE DAYS! And then I'll be away from my family for TEN DAYS!!! I've never been away from my kids that long. EVER. And the last time I left Scott for that long was before we were married. So I'm feeling a little, well, nauseous. I prayed for a long time about this decision, and it was really one of those things where God hit me over the head and said, "GO!" So I know I'm supposed to do this. But I'm really getting cold feet here. I'm going to miss them so much!

Another issue is my students. My colleagues have got me covered, but I'm going to be gone until the end of the grading period and I'm going to have to come back and do grades because they are due the NEXT DAY. ACK!!

So here I go with my final preparations. I probably won't be blogging much this week. Since I seem to have been designated "blogmaster" for the group, I probably will only be blogging on the other site while we are there. I imagine we will be busy working most of the time.

So for now, farewell! Please pray that our presence will be a blessing to the children at For His Children. And if you're in a position to take good care of my family, please do so!!

XOXO
Cindy

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Caleb Update

Caleb is having another cognitive quantum leap. He is suddenly discussing books that he read in school and telling us interesting facts he learned from them. He is remembering people's names. He wants to practice soccer all the time. These are all NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN behaviors!!

I wonder if there's a magic formula that causes this to happen one year after you can actually hear for the first time?? Something to ponder.

I never blogged about this because we were doing remodel chaos, but we decided to terminate Caleb's special day class services. Last year, he was bused to a SDC preschool twice a week, which he never complained about, but it had to be disruptive. For a variety of reasons, we chose not to continue these services. Now he gets to stay at his school with the same friends (who are NOT SDC students) all day, and he gets speech twice a week in the mornings. I suffered from a great deal of parental anxiety over this decision, but now I am so glad that we made this choice for him. He is just blossoming.

Go, Boo!!

Sunday, September 20, 2009

REALLY tired...

I spent this weekend at camp with my Peer Helpers in Julian. We left after school on Friday and got back today at noon. Essentially, this means I got about eight hours of sleep all weekend. After dropping off one of the students (I still find it disturbing that I have the kids all weekend and their parents STILL don't come pick them up), we headed home. The rest of my day looked like this:

12:45 Arrive home, have a piece of Julian pie with the family.
1:10 Dress Caleb for soccer pictures.
1:30 Scott takes Caleb for pictures so I can unpack. Instead, I fall asleep watching the Chargers.
3:15 Wake up in a panic because I slept. Watch Chargers lose. :(
4:00 Bathe Gloria & put a load in the laundry.
4:30 Deep-clean former master bath since it is now for guest use.
5:15 Decide that we are having taco shop for dinner. Keep cleaning.
6:00 Eat, do dishes.
6:15 Still cleaning!
7:00 Kiss Caleb goodnight, switch laundry, PAINT!!
8:00 Kiss Nikki goodnight. STILL PAINTING.
9:00 Walking with Mich.
10:00 Laundry, vacuum.
10:30 Check E-mail.

So here I am at 11:30 blogging. I should really be getting my clothes for tomorrow out, showering, and getting my work stuff together.

I think it's going to be another long week.

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

The Good Part

The really good part about Nikki being a teenager (and also liking to cook) is that SHE is making dinner so that I can type this.

I hope there's some homemade pasta sauce in your future, too. Particularly homemade pasta sauce that YOU didn't have to make (at home, or elsewhere).

That is all.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Mixed Messages

Caleb is playing soccer for the first time this fall. He could have played with four-year-olds last year, but the two attempts we made at enrolling him in structured activities deterred us from making another effort at that point. This fall, however, he's ready to listen and is VERY excited about being a "soccer teamer." He's been anxiously awaiting his first practice since we purchased his gear mid-August.

Last Tuesday was his first practice. I had to go run several errands for the house, so I was a little late getting there. When I got there, he was beaming as he passed the ball back and forth to his partner for the drill, and kept giving me the thumbs-up sign. Clearly, he was thrilled. Of course, he had no idea what he was doing (we registered him late and he missed a couple practices), so most of the time he sort of stumbled his way through. This was aggravated by the fact that he didn't have his hearing aids (Scott was worried about the sweat and took them off. We have now agreed that hearing is more important, and that's why Caleb has Ear Gear.) Even so, HE was eating it up!

Then the coach decided they should scrimmage, so she called the boys in and gave them different colored jerseys to put on over their clothes. ALSO VERY EXCITING! Then she gave them a ball and let them play. Caleb happily ran down the field toward the ball, got it, and then immediately started crying when another boy took it away. He came running back to us sobbing, "They mean to me! They take the ball away! That not sharing!!"

For five years, we have had to work HARD with Caleb to get him to share. We spent an ENTIRE WEEK this summer talking about how we take turns when we go bowling. And then we turned him loose in a game where the whole point is stealing the ball from somebody else, your friends even, and sort of forgot to mention that. Such hypocrisy!

This week, our conversations went like this:

Me: Caleb, what do we do when someone takes the ball away?
Caleb: We get it back!
Me: That's right. In soccer, we don't share during the game.
Caleb: Yeah!

Of course, none of this prevented another crying episode during this week's scrimmage.

Oh man. What are we doing here???

Tuesday, September 8, 2009

New Beginnings & Letting Go

The house is nearing a stage where it might once again be sane. We have a fully operational kitchen which I LOVE! We have been using it a LOT and I don't ever want to eat out again. Okay, well maybe someday, but not anytime soon.

Caleb started his final year of preschool last Monday and then started soccer on Tuesday. That's a funny story for another day.

Nikki started her final year of elementary school today. She's officially an eighth-grader (both of her schools have been K-8). Wow. Next year she will be starting high school. They played this song on K-LOVE as I was driving her to her Spanish class, and I had to change the station before I got too emotional. It makes me sad to know that we only have five years left with her. I know that five years is a long time, and that she won't really ever not be mine, but still...

CHAMPs has a new leader this year, and he's actually an old friend. We had a smooth start to our school year, and I'm optimistic that this year will be the push that we need to get back on track. We lost a lot of great teachers, including Scott, after last year. The new staff seems great, and the students have chosen "New Beginnings" for our theme this year. I certainly hope so.

Today was also my first day without my beloved Class of 2009 after four years of working together. My new students seem great, and I was actually fine once I got started, but the drive to work was a little teary as I contemplated all this change. I have trouble letting go. I need to get over it.

So that's where I am tonight. Feeling a little nostalgic, but very optimistic. It's going to be a great year!