School Days

We survived the first 2 days of school.

You may not think this is something to brag about, but after Ciara's first day experience, this is definitely something I am happy about.

I was worried more about Caden, being that it was his first day of Kindergarten.

He did great!

Walked into the building without so much as a backward glance.

I, on the other hand, was wiping away the tears as I made the long and lonely journey back home.

After school, I came to pick up the kids and asked how their first day was.

Caden said great!  

Loves his teacher, friends, lunch, recess, everything!

Ciara said terrible!

I was shocked.  

What could be so horrible?

Little did I know . . . .

There is a certain student in her grade.  I will call this student M.

M was disruptive, rude, and just plain awful.

Apparently, M threw a pencil box at the teacher's head, kicked and hit her, stole her scissors, attempted to cut the students, and cut the teacher.  I was also told that the teacher needed to get stitches.

The principal was called up to the room, and another teacher came in to remove the rest of the students out of the room while they dealt with M.

M has since been suspended from school for a few days, so yesterday was a really good day for Ciara.

I did go and talk to the guidance counselor to find out what will happen.

I don't want my daughter to have to deal with this throughout the whole year.

If M's behaviour doesn't improve, they can remove M from the school completely.

But at what point do they do that?

If I get a Dr's note stating that this situation is stressing my daughter out, I can have her put in an other class.  But would it stress her out more to switch classrooms?

I guess for now, I will be comfortable with the fact that M will NOT be back in class today, that the Principal will be closely monitoring the class, and that if it gets too bad I can fight to switch her teacher.

A lot of parents were talking about it yesterday at pick-up (whose kids were even in the class) and it just made me laugh a little to think that my daughter's first day will probably go down in elementary legend.  People will be talking about this for a LONG time.

Summer Can't Be Over!

What a summer! 

I feel like we have been going 100 mph. 

We have been to Chocolate World a few times, Lake Tobias, Halfway Dam, the Philadelphia Zoo, and everywhere in between.

Plus, we go swimming at our local pool almost everyday.

And the fun isn't over yet!

We are planning on going to NYC soon, and then next weekend Rocky and Cade will be going to a baseball game.

We have been filling in all the other days with trips to the pool and the library.

I still can't believe that school will be starting so soon.

We have the teacher assignments for the kids already.

Caden has 5 kids from his preschool class in his K class, but we can't seem to find anyone Ciara knows in her class.

I am just nervous about having no kids at home anymore.

What will I do?

My first instinct was to be a substitute teacher.

I called and got the application.

WOW.

I have to write essays, get an official college transcript in a sealed envelope, and fill out about a million papers.

Needless to say, a little more intense than I thought.

But I do think a part time job would be worth it.

I do have some conditions:

I can only work between the hours of 8-2:30, no Saturdays or Sundays, and I will need the school holidays off as well.

Does a job like that exist?

I guess I will find out.

(For those of you who have been asking about my father in law, he is doing much better.  It was pretty rough for a while, but he is now in a rehabilitation center.  You can get more updates on his condition at Joe and the Falling Tree.)

Baer's Anatomy

I have always thought (and hoped) that if my life were to resemble a TV show, it would be "Friends."  

Well, now that I am older and have kids, it might be more "Everybody Love Raymond."

For the past 2 weeks, our lives have seemed a little more like an episode from "Grey's Anatomy."

Most of you have already heard about this.

For those of you that haven't . . .

Last Saturday, while helping out with something at Girl's Camp, Joe (my father-in-law) was crushed by a falling tree.  He was life-flighted to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center.

He had crushed vertebrae (6 I believe), and some broken ribs.

Amazingly enough, he was not paralyzed.

We were informed that all he needed was time to heal (like a year) and a special brace for his back.

After a few days, there seemed to be more wrong.

He wouldn't eat, and was having trouble breathing.

They discovered fluid compressing his lungs, and put in a tube to drain it.

Then there was a problem with blood clots, and he still was having trouble breathing.

They eventually intubated him, and planned on doing some sort of surgery on his lungs.

At this point, my mother-in-law finally decided to have him moved to a closer (and better) hospital.

I will just say that I am NOT a fan of UVRMC.  They did not make it easy for her to transfer him.

He was then life-flighted (again) to IMC.

They performed the lung surgery Wednesday evening, and took out his breathing tube yesterday.

They are still debating on whether or not to do any back surgery.

This is one of the times that I wish we did not live so far away.

If we were within driving distance, we could have been there for a lot of this.

Being 2000 miles away makes driving not so convenient.

And plane tickets are so expensive that we have difficulty flying out at a moments notice.

I know that we can't make him better by being there, but at least I would feel like we could alleviate some of the burden on Rocky's family because we would be there doing our part.

Instead, we wait here every day for news, hoping that it is good.

We are grateful to everyone who has been able to help, with fasting, prayers, visits, and the general love and concern that friends, family and neighbors have shown.

Family Pictures

Here is a sample of some family pictures we had taken a few weeks ago!  A friend of ours is a wedding photographer, and we had scheduled to do this the first week in May.  However, his wife went into labor on that day, so we had to postpone.
He also shoots what he calls "A Day In The Life" and I think that is what I will opt for next time.  I was probably a little up tight (no, never!  not me!) with the kids while trying to create the "perfect" picture of our family.  Next time, I will just go for candid shots of my family doing whatever it is we do during the day.
So if you are looking for a great photographer, check out Vantage Pictures here in PA!

Graduation

I can't believe the end of the school year is already here!

Since it was his last year of preschool, he had a graduation ceremony.

I was in tears the whole time.

I can't believe that we are done with preschool. 

And now both of my kids are in elementary school.

What will I do with myself next year??

Should I get a job?

Hmmmm, probably not.

I will just make myself available to volunteer in the classroom as much as possible!

I have noticed that I am very reluctant to let Caden grow up.

With Ciara, I am excited to see her take the next step, but I would like to keep Caden young for a little bit longer.

If time travel were possible, I would love to revisit the days when my kids were babies.

Rough Week

The plague has descended upon our house.

It all started last Friday with Ciara.

She woke up feeling not so great, so I let her stay home from school.

She got progressively worse throughout the day, with stomach pain, fever, and congestion.

Everyday, I thought she would get better, but she didn't.

She missed school on Monday as well.

Tuesday, she finally went back to school, even though she looked quite pale.

And lo and behold, Wednesday Caden came down with the same thing.

Ciara's also made a reappearance Wednesday night (they both woke up and threw up all over).

Thursday morning we had an appointment with an ENT.

I considered rescheduling, but being that it took me 8 weeks just to get an appointment, I wasn't going to give up my visit!

So I woke up the kids at 6:15 (the appointment was at 7:30, but it takes 30 mins to get to the hospital, and another 30 to navigate through the huge place to find the office).

I also gave them each a mixing bowl to carry with them at all times in case they got sick again.

So we trudged through the hospital, puke buckets in hand, to meet with the ENT.

Everything was fine at the appointment.

Ciara has some hearing loss (not permanent) due to fluid in her ears.

If it doesn't clear up in 6 weeks, we will put tubes in.

Anyway, we made it home, and both kids have been feeling pretty badly.  

Ciara has been not sleeping due to noises she hears.

She says she hears footsteps in her head all the time.

I tried explaining that she is just hearing her heartbeat (because of all the fluid in her ears) but she still thinks that someone is coming to get her.  

She wakes up crying multiple times per night with nightmares about this.

And she gets freaked out because she gets dizzy every time she shuts her eyes (another side affect of her ears).

I hope that we can make it the 6 weeks, and that it was actually resolve itself.

And to top it all off, I whacked my head extremely hard on the washing machine yesterday (don't ask me how).

Rocky thinks I need stitches, but I am still hopeful that it will just heal.  It seems to have stopped bleeding, but it is really hard to see because my hair is in the way.

Either way, it is just painful.

Could we please have one, healthy, accident-free month? 

Finally, Ciara's Birthday!

I love looking back at all these pictures!  What an adventure and joy you have been, Ciara.