What prompted us to take Brandon in for allergy testing?

Two things came together at about the same time.  We had received an email from Brandon’s teacher that he was falling asleep in class.  We didn’t think anything of it until a couple of weeks later when he came home and said he wasn’t allowed to go to recess the rest of the year (this was May).  He was required to go to the health room to nap instead.  That’s when we found out there was a recurring, systemic problem.  I called a conference with his teacher and found out he was alternately sleeping or disruptive and hyper.  Around the same time, we had gone out to a restaurant and he had consumed a little bit of cantaloupe which made him sick immediately.  With my own history of food allergies, little red alarms were going off in my head.

Upon testing, Brandon reacted to every food tested except egg.  Wheat, soy, milk, rice, potato, tomato, sugar, chocolate, yeast, and one more (I’m always missing one when I list them).  We eliminated all of these foods from his diet and noticed improvement in his general demeanor, control, and energy level very quickly.  As I posted earlier, he’s down to just four of these foods that truly cause a problem.

Okay, so he has food allergies.  So what does this have to do with homeschooling?  Seems like a leap.

I agree, it was a decision prompted by an emotional reaction.  I had a conversation with the school principal and nurse that made clear that they believed that Brandon was being deliberately disobedient and that our choice of pursuing food testing was ridiculous.  The principal was utterly unhelpful, immovable, and did absolutely nothing to help us get through the last few weeks of the school year.

Though a bit impulsive, I still believe it has been the best move for him this year.  Brandon spent last school year being yelled at.  He was in trouble in music class.  He was in trouble in his regular classroom.  He was in trouble in the health room because he couldn’t sleep on command.  While Brandon projects himself to be a self-confident, social, extrovert, we have learned that he is actually quite insecure, anxiety ridden, sensitive, and folds into himself when stressed.  Our goal is to spend this year (and probably next) finding ways to build up his confidence again.

What about socialization?

Oh my, the number 1 question posed to homeschoolers everywhere.  I could cite so many books, links, resources that answer this question.  In short, in the real world we socialize with people of all ages.  So do homeschoolers every day.  There’s nothing that says kids need to be in a group of kids the same age in order to turn out just fine.

That said, yes, Brandon is still playing soccer with the same group of kids he’s played with for years.  He is attending school at Edmonds Heights K-12, a parent-participation alternative school formerly known as the Homeschool Resource Center two hours a week.  He participates in Sunday School and church activities.  He’s not learning in isolation.

What does homeschooling look like for him?  What’s he learning?

He’s taking a game-programming class called RPGMaker.  He’s taking Class Piano.  At home, we’re working through a lab-based Chemistry curriculum.  For literature, he’s reading The Hobbit and is looking forward to seeing the movie when it comes out.  The rest of the year, we have King Arthur and Robin Hood on the agenda.  For Social Studies, we’re working through Story of the World Book 2 (The Middle Ages), which includes a lot of fun little projects that bring history to life.  He’s also studying the election process, of course.  He’s working through a standard math text.  He’s looking forward to participating in Nanowrimo again this November for creative writing.  He’s working on a super-secret video project that combines his love of video games with learning new technology.  We’re looking forward to attending a few Seattle Children’s Theater productions (at inexpensive homeschooler rates).

Because we are enrolled through Edmonds Heights, he is still considered a public school student and as such, we are required to report his monthly progress to the school, to spend at least an hour a week with a certificated teacher, and to meet with an advisor three times a year.  On the flip side, we have access to a great library and many encouraging people, and we are held accountable, which is helpful.

How is it working to homeschool and work at the same time?

It’s truly a challenge.  Most days I don’t feel like I’m balancing everything very well.  I know that we are doing this for the right reasons and God has control of the situation.  I’m at the office very little right now, and Brandon often comes with me.  We’re learning how and when he learns best (which is a day by day struggle depending on what he ate the day before).  I’m praying that by the time tax season comes around again we’ll have this figured out a bit more, but realistically I think it’s just going to be a challenging time.  I am, most days, truly enjoying getting to know Brandon better and exploring and experiencing learning in different ways.

What is the plan for next year?  What about middle school?

We expect to homeschool through next year (6th grade) and he’ll move into Meadowdale Middle School with all of his friends in 7th grade.  Only God knows if that’s truly how it will work out.

Any other questions I’ve missed?

I’m happy to try to answer them.

This will not be one of those massive “catching up” posts, though.  For today, I just want to throw out there the cheat sheet we’re putting together to go with Brandon when he goes to a friend’s house.  His food allergies have been much more pronounced and serious than anything I’ve dealt with before, and it’s been a learning experience.  I hope to write out our journey so far soon.

In the meantime, here it is:

Brandon is allergic to five foods: Cantaloupe, Sugar, Yeast, Soy, and Tomato

Cantaloupe will make him sick immediately.  Best not to give him fruit that has been mixed with cantaloupe.

Sugar causes swings from hyperactivity to lethargy and crankiness, but no severe reaction.
Limit: Anything with sugar, brown sugar, cane juice

Yeast, when consumed in quantity, causes Brandon to be virtually unwakable the next morning.
Avoid: Breads, cakes, pita chips

Soy causes extreme stomach pain, headache, nausea, slurred speech, and has caused Brandon to lose mobility. His reactions to soy do not begin immediately and can take 12+ hours to manifest. If you see him eating something with soy, please stop him.
Please do check labels, many chips and most tortillas use soybean oil.
NO Chinese food, tofu, foods cooked in soybean oil, edamame, foods with “soy protein”
Ok: “Soy lecithin”

Tomato caused a very strong reaction in the clinical setting. He has not had tomato since, so we do not know how he would react. An epi-pen was issued in case of anaphylactic shock, where the airway closes up. If you do not know how to use an epi-pen, please ask and he would be happy to show it to you and explain how to use it. In an emergency, please don’t hesitate to use it and call 911.
NO tomato sauce, pizza or pasta with red sauce or tomatoes, barbeque sauce, ketchup

So what DOES he eat?
Meats, salad, vegetables, and fruits are good. He likes sugar-free jello. Popcorn is probably fine. 100% fruit juice or water are good. We do try to keep some sugar-free snack foods in his emergency kit (which contains his inhaler and his epi-pen).

It’s a journey, and we’re still discovering ways to keep Brandon healthy and feeling well.  When he’s well, Brandon is a joy to be around.  He is helpful and kind, funny and thoughtful.  When he is not well, he can be inattentive, angry, very easily frustrated, seemingly deliberately disobedient, hyper or lethargic.  We continue to pray for wisdom and patience on this journey.

They provide this calendar, so you can check up on me:

Or my graph and other tidbits about my writing can be found here.

Let the insanity continue!

Alyson

Alyson is doing great in Kindergarten. She loves her class, her teacher, and her school. She’s preparing for a fairly large part in the Kindergarten Peter Rabbit play. They’re having graduation pictures on Tuesday and she’ll be graduating June 9. After much consideration, we have enrolled her at Seaview for Fall. We love Cedar Park, but we’re looking forward to having all three kids at the same school with the same schedule for a year.

She just started a new season of soccer. Her previous team filled up before they got to Alyson’s registration, so she got bumped from the Storm Troopers to the Grasshoppers. She had a great time at their first game this morning and is looking forward to facing off against the Storm Troopers next Saturday. Coaching those 5 year olds appears to be similar to herding cats, but they sure have fun.

Alyson loves…. her family, reading, her stuffed animals, pink, her friends, and so many other things.

BJ

BJ is sitting out this sports season. He’s (sometimes) bat boy for Christian’s baseball team, though, and he’s looking forward to being on his Sounders soccer team again in the Fall. He’d LOVE to take a turn on Alyson’s team but we don’t think he’d pass for five very well BJ blogged about Christian’s last baseball game. He’s hilarious.

This school year has been a challenge for him. BJ is a very impulsive child who lacks a filter between his brain and his mouth. He’s gotten in trouble enough that we had to have a conference with the principal, counselor, and one of his teachers last week. This whole team-teaching thing is a disaster (at least for our active ADHD boys), no offense intended to his teachers, who I’m sure are good teachers. He’s not enjoying school and thinks everything is boring. We know he’s a smart kid and just wish he’d show it more often. The school wants him tested for the Challenge (gifted) program, mainly to gain insight from the results. We aren’t really willing to send any of our kids to the Challenge program, as it’s held at a late start school, an hour and a half later than Seaview. They’ve created a way to reward him for good behavior and I’m hopeful the rest of the year will be better.

Christian

Christian is also still having some trouble at school, but like BJ he’s a smart kid. He’s just having a hard time organizing himself. He has a difficult time keeping track of assignments. We’re working with his teacher to find solutions, and I’m volunteering in his class once a week to supervise a bonus recess the kids can earn by getting their assignments in and having a good attitude. Monday, Christian leaves for two nights of 5th Grade Outdoor School at Camp Killoqua. He’s looking forward to it. He loves camp and he’s looking forward to going back to Bible Camp this summer.

Christian is playing baseball for the Echelbarger Phantoms this Spring, and Bill is head coach. The Phantoms are a very fun team to watch play. Bill always keeps the details up on his blog.

Christian is active in our church youth group and enjoys being active in their bible studies and activities. He is singing with Seattle Children’s Chorus (next concert June 5 in Seattle), and with our church choir. Between baseball and choirs and youth, the kid has something going on nearly every day.

As for me, I’m still primarily gluten-free and still holding steady about 30 pounds lighter than I was last summer. I lived through another tax season. I’m spending a lot of time keeping track of the kids, their projects, and their events. It’s a whirlwind and I’m grateful we have Google Calendars to keep us all on track.

I think that’s about it!

What started all this?
Last fall I started having problems with my skin (dry skin and acne). I thought maybe it was the change to cold weather, but as we’ve gone through summer with no improvement that certainly wasn’t the case. In the spring, I found myself suddenly and intensely allergic to bananas. My hay fever was worse than it’s been in years this spring as well.

The banana allergy, in particular, really had me worried about what else I could be allergic to. In August, I finally went to a doctor who specializes in environmental medicine… meaning how environmental factors affect the body. He recommended allergy testing and lab work. The blood work came back with everything good except my Vitamin D level (which was nearly nonexistent).

What am I allergic to?
The first day of allergy testing, I reacted to every pollen and mold they tested. I reacted more strongly to grasses and cedar than anything else. By the end of three weeks of testing, I had also tested allergic to: wheat, eggs, corn, soy, tomato, potato, rice, baker’s yeast, and milk.

“But I eat these things daily!” I said. Apparently this is normal. We are supposed to be eating foods in rotation, yet the processed foods we eat daily include most of these ingredients. The more that I have read, the more I understand what’s going on. It doesn’t make it any easier to do meal-planning, but I’m working on it.

This is the book that has a great chapter explaining what’s going on. If I could find a good online summary, I’d post it.

So what happens next?
I spend three weeks without any of those 9 foods. I’m on day 5 now and surviving. I spent a small fortune at PCC (like Whole Foods) to restock my pantry/fridge, and started weekly fruit and veggie delivery from Eden’s Organics. After the three weeks, I will be able to reintroduce each food individually, one every 4 days. If I do not have any kind of a reaction, I can continue to have it every 4 days. If I do react, it goes back down to the bottom of the list to try later. It’s possible I will not get wheat or eggs back, as when I was tested for those I felt faint immediately. I really didn’t feel any reaction to the other allergens (other than the swelling where the test was done, and the allergy tech said my face would flare up.

So what CAN I eat?
I can eat fruit and veggies (except banana, tomato and potato) and meats. There are grains that I had never heard of that I can have (quinoa, millet, amaranth). For breakfast, I’ve been eating oatmeal with brown sugar. I know I’m supposed to be rotating grains but the oatmeal has been really easy. For lunches and dinners, I’ve been having salads with shrimp or leftover roasted chicken, or tomato-free chili, or today I had salmon with quinoa and sauteed zucchini. For snacks I have nuts and dried fruit, or veggies and natural peanut butter or hummus.

Mostly, I’ve just learned I have to read every single label, and pretty much just avoid anything that is pre-packaged, processed, or otherwise combined. Yesterday, Christian had tuna and I tasted it thinking it was simply tuna and water (makes sense, right?). THEN I read the label. Nope, there’s soy in there. Other than that, I’ve done well so far. I’ve lost two whole pounds. The kids are enjoying reading labels and identifying allergens.

Any other questions that I should try to answer?

Breathe in, breathe out…

I’m trying to remind myself of the bright sides here…
– teachers creatively kept their jobs despite budget cuts
– Christian apparently liked this teacher and is not too bummed he didn’t get the teacher he wanted
– Christian’s second teacher will only be 1 day a week, so hopefully he’ll have a bit more consistency this year (and it’s his music/pe teacher, who he also liked)
– BJ’s only in second grade and hopefully it won’t be as big of a deal as it was for Christian in 4th.

That’s all I’ve got so far. We get to go visit Alyson’s classroom this evening, so we’re looking forward to that.

I had the pleasure of accompanying BJ on his field trip to the zoo on Wednesday.  Alyson got to come too, and she’d been asking to go to the zoo, so it was perfect.  (She can spell ‘zoo’, by the way.)  We had BJ’s friend Sammy with us, and the three kids stopped at EVERY bench to have their picture taken.

The new penguin exhibit is open and SO much better than the old one.  I’m sure I could’ve gotten a better picture, but the kids were not as interested as I was.  It was even feeding time, so I wish we could’ve watched a little bit longer.

And we ran into the famous peacock.  (Okay, so maybe not famous, but the peacock is one of the things I most remember about the zoo from when I was a kid.)

BJ was a really good big brother and made sure Alyson could see at each exhibit.  He was also really responsible about keeping himself and Sammy with Alyson & I.  BJ’s really grown up a lot this year.  Alyson really wanted to see the giraffes the most, and the boys both wanted to see the bats.  All were happy.  (Except poor Alyson who got sick at the end of the field trip.  We’ve come to the conclusion she was simply over-exerted.)

The annual school carnival was a couple of weeks ago, and Alyson got to ride a pony.  Mom would be so proud.  She even had her heels down (one, at least)   She loved it.  When we first saw the ponies from across the field, she asked, “Are they real?!?”  LOL

Christian and I also walked the Race for the Cure, our  annual tradition.  It’s always incredible to see the number of people turning out to make a difference.  You can see that while we were near the front and well past the half-way point, there were still thousands of people ahead of us and behind us.

Christian enjoyed the kids area this year too, especially the football toss (though he throws a football like he pitches a baseball).

I think that’s it… our update for another season   The summer will be filled with sports camps for the boys, daycare for Alyson, and work as usual for us adults.  Christian’s also looking forward to his first week of sleep-away bible camp!  We hope everyone has a happy, safe, fun summer!

Alyson’s Kindergarten evaluation appeared in the mail today. She is, on average, a year ahead of herself. They evaluated 8 areas and assigned an ‘Estimated Developmental Age’ to each. In three areas, she tested at age 5 (personal skills, language, and gross motor). In three areas, she tested at 5.6 (visual motor, body image, and fine motor). And in two areas, she tested at age 6 (numbers and concepts). Very interesting. The bottom line says, “Alyson is ready for half day kindergarten. She is on probation based on age.” She’s very excited to go to her own school in the fall.

BJ is proud to be officially a 2nd grader. He had a couple of 2s on his report card, mostly accompanied by ‘occasionally’ on the Effort line. He’s starting to rush through work like Christian. He’s still getting 4s in PE His teacher made a note that she appreciates the responsibility he took in turning in math assignments this year. Great job, BJ!

UPDATED:  Christian’s officially a 5th grader (wow, that sounds weird).  While he certainly struggled to turn in assignments, apparently the work he did in class showed significant improvement.  Yay!

Birthday boy:

BJ:

And Alyson got to go all by herself after the crazy boys were finished.  She’s so proud of herself that she only crashed once!

Christian got Nerf guns from every one of his friends.  They all opened them right away and had an organized battle right there in the party room.  Crazy kids.  Over all, Christian said this was the best birthday ever

Christian is doing very well in baseball.  If you’re not following Bill’s blog, why not?  All of the details, including the schedule and results, are updated after every game.  School is still a struggle, and we’re looking into tutoring for writing for the summer.  He enjoys reading Geronimo Stilton books, and Yotsuba books (which are comic book format translated into English from Korean and are read from right to left).  Christian’s really enjoying learning to cook.  He’s great at pancakes and made us breakfast unexpectedly one Saturday morning recently.  He followed directions to make brownies from a mix quite well (except I didn’t have the right oil out for him so they turned out weird – olive oil is not always an acceptable alternative to vegetable oil).  Today he’s making fudge, yum!

The kids did a great job each of the six weeks leading up to Easter presenting a new symbol of the season each week during the church service.  The boys read their lines slowly, clearly, with enviable poise.  Alyson memorized her lines and said them loud and clear (the four weeks she decided to participate – two of the weeks BJ had to say her line for her).  The last week, her line was really long, and we were really proud of her.  The kids do so well up in front of people.

This summer, the kids will be attending Skyhawks sports camps again.  They had a good time last year, and it’s an economical solution.  BJ was adamant that he didn’t want to go, until I made him an offer.  If they make it through the summer without whining, moaning, and complaining, we’ll spend a night at Great Wolf Lodge at the end of the summer.  BJ changed his tune quite rapidly.  I’d really like to manage a road trip to visit Angie in UT, but I haven’t figured that out yet.  We’ll have a week of VBS in July, and Christian wants to go to Bible Camp.  I’d love to go and take BJ and Alyson too, but I don’t think we can afford it.  I’m proud of Christian for being willing to go to a week-long camp without us.

BJ is having a blast being Bat Boy for Christian’s baseball team.  I think he enjoys being part of the team (particularly the snacks at the end of each game).  He’s a smart kid and does his homework easily, when we can convince him to do it.  He advised his brother to just rip it in half if he didn’t want to do it.  *sigh*  He’s become quite addicted to a computer game, so he frequently loses computer privileges.  He does enjoy reading, though, and can freqently be found sitting in front of the heater in the living room, reading any book that’s handy.  He’s into chapter books now, and is in the highest reading group in his class.  He claims to have read all of the Junie B Jones books.  He also likes Geronimo Stilton.

Alyson is still amazing me daily.  She’s often trying to sound out words.  She now writes Alyson, BJ, Mommy, Daddy, Christian, cat, dog, God and lovely without assistance.  She sounded out Doctor the other day and it was readable.  She called herself Doctor Alyson and said she wanted to be an eye doctor.  Go figure.  She can often be found sitting with a workbook and markers.  Or dancing.  Or playing with toys and games we had forgotten we had because the boys never played with such things.  It’s the workbooks that amaze me.  She can do word searches.  She can do fill-in-the letter activities which require her to look at words/pictures on the back of the book to figure out what letter is missing, and go back to fill it in.  She loves patterns and sees them in everything.  Today she decided she wanted to learn to play piano and learned the first three notes of the random song we had music out for.  She still loves to sing.  Her current favorite band is Paramore (particularly because they have a couple of songs on Rock Band).

We haven’t heard back from her school yet, but I’ll give them a call soon to see when testing should be scheduled.

I’m sure there’s more to say, but for now, hope you enjoyed the update   I’ll see if I can find some new pictures to add later.

She amazes me every day with her understanding and insights, her academic knowledge, her ever-questioning nature.  We’ve decided that even though she’ll be quite young, we need to give her the opportunity to apply for early admittance to Kindergarten.

We spent about an hour at the school today.  We love that it’s just blocks from home.  It’s a nice small K-6 Christian school.  The first classroom we had the opportunity to visit was really cool, built for kinesthetic learners.  Christian would really benefit from a class like that.  Working on reading and math skills while doing active balance activities seems to be something he’d respond to.  I guess that’s a down-side to putting Alyson in private school.  I’ll wish we had the funds to send all three there.

We also had the opportunity to see the library, gym, and multipurpose room.  We met with the kindergarten teacher (Alyson picked up a sponge and started cleaning the classroom) and Alyson got to have recess with the kindergartners.  She loved the playground the best.  The Kindergarten teacher has been there over 20 years and has a child of a former student in her class.  Everyone we ran into on the tour seemed to have had at least one child in her class.  All academics and extra curricular activities are in the mornings.  Afternoons are lunch, recess, fun stuff, and recess again.

So our next step is submitting the application, which includes an application, financial contract, parent participation contract, and a reference from one of our church leaders.  Then testing will be scheduled to assess her readiness.

If she’s accepted, she’ll be able to attend half time until she turns five, then she’ll be able to stay for the afternoons.  She’ll be on probation the first few weeks, where they’ll reserve the right to pull her out.  They also reserve the right to insist she repeat Kindergarten if that’s the teacher’s recommendation at the end of the year.

If she’s not accepted or they find she just isn’t ready, they also have a preschool program that we can look in to, and onsite daycare.

The principal did say his initial impression is that she’s young, but we all want what’s best for Alyson, so we’ll go through the testing, and if she does well, we’ll give her the chance to start in the fall as a kindergartner.

We’ll see how the testing goes, but honestly I feel we were led to this opportunity.  I had completely resigned myself that she’d be waiting another year until I got in touch with this school on a whim.  We’re praying that however it goes will be in Alyson’s best interests.

We had a quiet morning Saturday.  The kids enjoyed some time in the pool before we got ready for the wedding.

The wedding location was beautiful. The boys waited patiently between pictures and the ceremony.

The ceremony itself was brief, and Bill and Edward provided music.  Everyone laughed when the Mission Impossible theme played as Brenda walked down the aisle.

Alyson was really looking forward to dancing and pouted when she had to wait.

She was thrilled when it was finally time for the reception. Grandma gave her a bouquet.

She danced with us in rotation… Grandma, Daddy,

and Mommy

Christian even danced with Grandma and me

Bill

The groom

Alyson was exhausted by the end of the night

Sunday morning, we all had a lovely brunch, and Alyson took a turn with the camera.

She also got this great picture of Grandma

Daddy, Alyson, and the newest member of our family, Puppy

We caught a 6:15 flight home, on which the boys finished their homework and Alyson slept most of the flight.  We got home late Sunday night.

Overall, we had a wonderful weekend.  I’d love to go back to Chicago for another few days and get to the museums and other sights we missed this time around.

We enjoyed walking through the building. There is a stained glass museum that’s just incredible. There is also a garden with really cool fountains. Some fountains went in spurts that made it look like fish jumping. Some flowed in arches from one pool to another.

Navy Pier is also the home of the Chicago Children’s Museum, and we spent a few hours here.

The kids had fun playing, climbing, building, and flying airplanes.

The kids each got to spend $15 in the gift shop. Alyson picked a stuffed puppy, Christian got a yo-yo type toy, and BJ got another toy.

We had lunch at the biggest, busiest McDonalds I’ve ever seen at Navy Pier. From there, we took a cab to the Hancock building and went up to the 94th floor. A voice informed us we were on the fastest elevator in North America, making the trip in 40 seconds. Our ears popped in confirmation. Here are just a few pictures of the view.

The city

The kids listening to the audio tour

The silly kids pretending to be window-washers

The view of Navy Pier from the Hancock Building

I was amazed at just how BIG Lake Michigan is. It seems like an ocean.

Lakeshore Drive

Some of the amazing architecture

We took a cab back to Union Station and then the train back to Hinsdale.

We felt right at home amongst Starbucks and Washington Mutual’s everywhere. We had a little time to kill before the hotel shuttle picked us up again. We spent the time at Starbucks and had a bit of a culture shock. The coffee shop filled with 30+ middle schoolers with Starbucks cards, designer clothes, and attitudes. It was quite an experience, and when we asked about it, we were told they come in every Friday afternoon.

After we got back, we got changed and headed off to the rehearsal dinner. Bill was happy to get his toast delivered and did a great job. The meal was wonderful.

BJ was really tired through most of the dinner, but he perked up later when we handed over the camera. Christian enjoyed playing with his new yo-yo. Alyson spent another meal drawing and talked Kelly’s ear off.

Alyson thought it was funny to meet another Allison.

We left at O Dark Thirty Thursday morning. After Hawaii, the kids act like seasoned travelers. Thankfully, we packed lighter for this trip. This was our first experience flying Southwest, and I’m not sure I’d choose them again in the future (at least when traveling as a family of 5). Southwest has open seating (sit wherever you want) and sorts travelers into three groups. Families with kids under the age of 5 are allowed to board in between the first and second groups, which was helpful, but Alyson won’t be ‘under 5’ much longer, and if we were in the third seating group, we would’ve had to split up.

On our flight to Midway, the boys sat with Bill and Alyson sat with me. Thankfully, the gentleman who took the aisle sit with us has grandkids and was very understanding when we had to wake him up every hour so Alyson could use the restroom. The boys spent the flight doing homework, playing DS, and watching movies. Alyson did stickers, colored, and played a little bit of DS.

We arrived about 12:30 and caught the hotel shuttle to the hotel, Marriott at Burr Ridge.

The homes in Burr Ridge are amazing. Massive beautiful homes on large lots. Even three hours before check-in, the hotel had our room ready. We had a suite, which was great. The kids shared the living room and we had our own room. Here’s the view from our room:

After we settled in, we went for a walk (in the freezing cold). The hotel was near a shopping center that reminded us of Redmond Town Center, without all of the restaurants and bustling people. We went out to lunch at Cooper’s Hawk restaurant, and stopped in at Eddie Bauer. Mom will be proud, Alyson wanted a stuffed puppy. It was a Steiff.

In the evening, Brenda’s dad Bob picked us up to go to dinner at Giardino’s. He was our chauffeur for the weekend, and we were so grateful. With Alyson, we needed a carseat, so it was really thoughtful of them to make sure she was taken care of. We had a lovely meal and enjoyed getting to know Bob and Lynne better, and meeting Brenda’s brother and sister-in-law Kelly. Alyson took the opportunity to draw a map of her community. The big house is ours, the green one is Grandma’s, and you can see our church and daycare in between. Grandma helped her spell a few names as well.

Saturday, we really enjoyed digging out of the snow and seeing Dad & Karen at Auntie Kate’s house.  We were sad that so many family members weren’t able to make it, but we had a great time visiting with those that came.

When we got home, we had a small mountain of gifts to open.  The kids were SO excited.

I think these blankets were the biggest hits.  The kids stayed wrapped in them all evening and have been using them every night.

Alyson has figured out the ‘See what I got’ pose

Christian’s Nerf gun and target were big hits.

Playdough was a bit hit too.

Alyson made snakes using only the girl colors of playdough.  Then she decided the snakes were spaghetti.

We’ve all been enjoying BJ’s Boom Blox Wii game.  It’s a lot more fun than I expected.

BJ got a little crazy around the Playdough.

Sunday, we enjoyed our church’s annual birthday party for Jesus.  It’s my favorite sunday school hour of the year because it’s fun to sing carols around the Christmas tree.  Alyson is so grown up this year.  She went around in the inner circle without us parents.

We still have one more Christmas celebration this coming weekend, but in the meantime, Happy New Year!

The boys also enjoyed their gifts, but the sheer joy that Alyson expresses made the day so much fun.

And now for the picture roundup…

The snow derailed most of our Christmas activities.  Here’s just how deep it got:

As I think I’ve mentioned, we had to have our own little Bake Day at home this year.  Christian insisted that we had to make Peanut Butter balls.  We looked up a recipe and got to work.

I think the kids liked dipping them in chocolate the best.

Christmas eve we were blessed with a ride to the Candlelight service at church.  See that pink lump between Christian and I?  That’s Alyson.  She had a really hard time staying awake.  We were honored to be asked to light a candle and do a reading this year, and BJ did a wonderful job lighting the candle.

Christmas morning we were grateful to have Grandma Julie brave the white Christmas and join us.

Alyson was not exactly ready to start her day.

The boys were excited to get started on the presents, though.

Once she woke up, Alyson loved her Wii Music game.

BJ did great reading tags and passing out gifts.

One more of Christian:

This year has the makings to be the worst Christmas ever.  We’ve been essentially snowed in for a week.  Have you any idea how claustrophobic a home can feel when stranded there with three exuberant children?

We have chains for the car, but it’s still not safe to leave.

We missed our church’s birthday party for Jesus (although it’s been rescheduled to next week, it’ll be odd to sing carols the weekend AFTER Christmas).  We missed Bake Day and the wonderful family time that goes with it.  It looks like we’re going to miss Christmas Eve in Arlington.  I can’t remember the last time we’ve missed that.  We might miss the candlelight service.  We have gifts for the kids stuck on UPS trucks in Redmond.  Our moms might not make it to our home for Christmas day.

I’m trying not to let it get to me.  I’m trying to enjoy the beauty of the snow, particularly the 12+ inches still undisturbed on our outdoor furniture out back, because this much is truly rare here.  I believe God’s reminding us to be prepared for emergencies (we aren’t).  And we’ve taken the opportunity to make cookies here at home, which the kids shared with our neighbors today.  (Our budding entrepreneur BJ tried to bill me $6 in delivery fees.)

Friday it’s supposed to rain.  I’ve vowed to never complain about the rain again.  You’re welcome to remind me how sore I am after walking to work yesterday and shoveling snow the day before.

Meanwhile, we’re home, using our last opportunities of the year to threaten that Santa won’t bring gifts if the floor’s a mess, and trying to keep in mind what this holiday is really about.

I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year.

Alyson was Polly Pocket.  A silent, dancing Polly Pocket.  She actually did sing a little bit, but she refused to say her line and spent the majority of the program twirling around the stage.  It’s a good thing that A) she’s cute and B) I didn’t have duct tape.

BJ was Spaceman Spiff and he did a fantastic job!  His work in speech has really paid off.  He spoke clearly and loudly (but not too loudly).  And he was in control of himself the whole program.  He also sang wonderfully.  When his mic was having issues, he did a wonderful job of staying calm and repeating his line.  Nothing really flustered him.

GI Joe, oops, Christian really stepped up to be one of the stars of the show this year.  It’s so odd for us to see Christian and his friend Alivia step into the lead roles that Nathaniel and Karisa have held throughout our years at Grace.  He had a lot of lines this year.  He did get a little lost in one of his first lines but recovered quickly.  He even ad-libbed a little, added in a phrase that was requested at this morning’s rehearsal, and sang a verse solo, loud and clear.  He said he was nervous, but he sure didn’t show it.  He acts like a pro up there.  He did a fantastic job.

As a side note, I didn’t realize his costume only had the vest.  I mentioned to him maybe we could’ve chosen his t-shirt better.  He replied, “This one’s perfect.  The tag says Old Navy”.  LOL!

We’re so proud of the kids (particularly the two that did what they were supposed to).  We were sad that so many family members weren’t able to make it this year, but perhaps there will be an Easter program this year(?).

On a side note, everyone is invited to two more Christmas events at our church:

Next Sunday, 12/21, 9:15 am is the Birthday Party for Jesus.  It’s one of my favorite hours of the year with carols sung around the Christmas tree.  I can’t seem to get enough of Christmas carols.

Christmas eve, 11:00 pm is the Candlelight service.  We usually bring the kids in their pajamas, although all three stayed awake last year and enjoyed singing carols by candlelight after a few readings.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas!

Christian didn’t take it well and overall had a really awful day that day.

Oddly, the next day he was like a different kid.  He had a map of WA State due the next day.  Apparently it had been assigned weeks before.  He got home from school and was enthusiastic about completing it.  When he showed me, unfortunately I had to tell him he needed to start over from scratch.  It was just a mess.  He did throw a little bit of a fit, but I think he understood.  This time, he typed out the 31 locations he was supposed to identify and while I ran to Office Depot to buy 11 x 17 paper for him to retrace it (and crayons, and white-out), he printed them, cut them apart, and figured out with Bill where they were really supposed to go.

He took the next two hours and re-traced the state, glued down all of the names, colored the whole thing, and wrote out his legend more neatly than I’ve seen him write in a while.

Here’s his WA State map:

Apparently, four of the labels aren’t quite in the right place, but he said his teacher told him he did a good job, and he got to make a big sugar cookie just like it and ate it all

On another fun note, his Reflections project will be going on to the next level of judging.  Who knew?  It really is genius, though.  I have watched it many times and it’s so short it just never seems to get old

The next day, he and Alyson had their annual joint family birthday party (we’re still eating lots of cake, Mom, LOL).  It was so nice to have family over to visit.  Alyson loves her doodle mat, clothes and Dogz game.  BJ loves his soccer game and Hyper Jump game.

On his birthday, BJ got to choose what restaurant he wanted to go to.  Luckily, the Alvords were able to join us at Old Country Buffet.  The kids ate like there was no tomorrow.  I think Christian and Joy managed to eat 5 plates of food plus 3 desserts.  Crazy kids.  Alyson loved the beanie moose and white tiger (the tiger was BJ’s but she paid him the $10 from her card for it).  She takes quite good care of her stuffed friends.

BJ is excited to bring home the class tortoise sometime this school year.  His teacher said she was surprised just how many of the parents called and said it was ok to take him home.  BJ enjoys school, although he’s been trying the ‘I feel sick’ most mornings lately.  He just wants to stay home and watch TV (who doesn’t?).  Mostly, though, he’s a sweet, helpful boy who still loses control of his body parts on occasion and loves to make rude noises.  We had to write ‘r’ words down so he could make sentences with them for speech.  He thought up the word fart and was absolutely stunned when I actually wrote it.  I think he giggled for a good 15 minutes over that.

The kids enjoyed decorating their gingerbread house from Grandma Karen again this year.  We had a bit of an issue with the roof sliding off, but the kids remedied the situation by starting to eat it rather quickly.

Side note:  Alyson doesn’t understand the concept of an advent calendar.  Or perhaps she’s smarter than the rest of us.  She ate every chocolate in her advent calendar on the first day, even after we repeatedly explained that she needed to wait.  BJ decided to ask if he could eat all of his and jumped to the conclusion that if he ate them faster, Christmas would come faster.  *sigh*

BJ’s report card came home today.  He’s doing great.  He got 3s pretty much across the board (meets expectations).  He’s a joy to have in class and needs to work on letting his classmates do their work.  He got a 4 in PE (exceeds expectations), and is progressing nicely in speech.

Speaking of speech, I don’t think I’d mentioned here that the school finally decided he needed help, after we’ve already invested in months of private speech.  He only has one sound to work on, ‘r’.  At practice for the Christmas program a few days ago I realized just how far he has come in the last year.  When he spoke his lines, they were clear and understandable (and he had memorized his lines well).  We’re so proud of the hard work he has done.

I signed up over a year ago to be one of their Reality Checkers.  I fill out occasional surveys and sometimes they send products to test and send feedback on.  This afternoon I received a lovely surprise, a goody bag filled with a bunch of various things from their sponsors.  Some of the items included?  A bag of chocolate chips (wow do they ever know how to make me happy), a bottle of perfume, some skin care samples, and a good sized baby formula sample that arrived in perfect time to go to the food bank.  It’s always fun to receive free stuff in the mail, and free useful stuff is even better.

Have a wonderful day!

Thanks, BJ, for today’s history lesson.

They did a wonderful job.  Christian lead a responsive song, even though he was losing his voice.  Alyson sang out so everyone could hear her.  BJ stood so still.  They all looked like pros.  We’re so proud of them

I don’t know where the last four years went, but they sure went fast!

The birthday girl is a challenge.  Her teachers at daycare say they’ve never had someone as excited as she is to trace letters and numbers.  Give her a stack of colorbooks and workbooks and she’ll choose a workbook every time.  She’ll ask insistently how to complete each page.  In some cases, she’s doing first grade work.  She loves to help read books and recognizes a few words.

She loves to have cereal in the morning… either Froofy Petals (Fruity Pebbles, of course), or Wizard cereal (generic Lucky Charms).  Some days she gets ready for daycare at the speed of molasses, while other days she’s ready well before her brothers.

She loves both of her brothers dearly, although she still has her moments where she doesn’t want BJ anywhere near her.  She usually calls them Bran and Chrissin, even though she can say their names more clearly.  She usually insists that BJ is Brandon.  Not BJ.  She insists that she be addressed as Alyson Abella.  Or Alyson Butterfly Abella.  Sometimes I still get away with calling her Aly.

When asked where she’d like to have her birthday party this year, she thought for a minute before sharing that she thought, “We shouldn’t have it at Chuck E Cheese because the kids might get lost”.  I have no idea where that came from, but we ended up having it there.  Her best friend from church, her best friend from daycare, her best friend from Christian’s soccer games, and her best friend next door all came to celebrate her special day with her.

She loved every minute of her Chuck E Cheese party.  She was fascinated by the characters on stage.  She gave Chuck E a high five.  She enjoyed conspiring with Tristan to eat all of the candy in their goodie bags before going to play games.  She bopped to the music.  She made silly faces with her friends.  She even ate a little pizza and cake.  Over all it was a rousing success.

When we got home, she insisted on opening and playing with every new gift.  She adores her new Polly Pockets (complete with ponies), and her fairy dressup set, and her princess magnets, and her tea set.  Every gift received equal playing time.

She has a wonderful imagination.  She brought home a picture she drew this week of her and two of her friends running from a giant chicken.  I think the Thanksgiving turkey thing might be a little over done in her mind

That’s our four year old birthday girl in a nutshell.  Or a blog post.  Whatever. 

And I suppose this one qualifies – it was taken at a soccer game

Here is Dora Ballerina Alyson and her preschool teacher Tasha.

And Alyson with one of her other favorite teachers.

I don’t have the Halloween pictures up yet to post.  The daycare party was a week ago   Hopefully I’ll have pics of the three kids up later this week.

First, there was the week that his uniform shirt went missing.  Couldn’t find it anywhere.  Thankfully, his Seaview Chess shirt is the same color.

Then there was the week he chose to wear his red hooded ninja costume from last year(?) under his uniform.

And then the week his black shorts went missing and he chose to wear red ones.

He’s definitely an individual

Two more pics to share.  First, BJ at goalie.  He really doesn’t like to play goalie, but he’s good at it.

And then, just one that shows that he’s too fast for our camera.

I’ve not been able to get many pictures of Christian this year, but here are a few:

The kids choose from the following categories (and may enter as many as they wish):  Visual Arts, Photography, Film, Choreography, Literature, or Musical Composition.

Christian chose Film this year, which was a whole new adventure.  I hope you enjoy his film as much as I did

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/2106006[/vimeo]

Brandon’s looking over a page-a-day calendar Alyson bought at the Christian book store, where there is a game or puzzle or something for each day.  For today, there was a picture with lots of things wrong, one of which was Jesus swimming to a boat.  The kids all knew he should have been walking on the water.

BJ:  How could he walk on water?  It’s impossible!

Bill and I in unison:  Not for Jesus

Christian:  It’d be especially difficult for hobos

????? I have NO idea where that came from.

Christian’s team was fired up and held their own much better this week.  They still lost, 3-1, but they had some great goal attempts and saves.  Christian had some key kicks and did a great job.  I’m really proud of him.

Today, we intended to go to the zoo.  We hadn’t made it all summer, and Alyson has been asking to see the animals.  First, I looked up the info online and was shocked… admission and parking were going to cost us $64.50!  Holy cow!  But it’s the zoo, right?  We needed to go.  So we packed up the family after lunch and headed down to Woodland Park Zoo where there was NO parking, in any of their many lots.  (Probably divine intervention to save our budget.)  We ended up at Seattle Center, where we paid $6 for parking.  There was a festival going on, Fiesta Patrias (Latin American independence), and there were several bouncy houses for the kids to play in for free.  The massive fountain was also going, so we had to spend a little time watching the water spout, and feeling the mist carried by the breeze.  We stopped in the Center House and had ice cream (or fudge) before heading home.  It was a great afternoon.

Alyson enjoyed playing in the dirt both days (and required a bath immediately upon arriving at home).

BJ’s team is unstoppable again this year.  Saturday was fun because with the festival there was music and the BJ started a few dance moves.

This weekend, BJ was on top of his game, both defending:

And on offense.  He scored a goal on Sunday.

I need to try harder to get good pictures of Christian at soccer, but this one’s cute:

And two pics from the gunney sack race at the church picnic.

The boys leapt over the finish line at the same time for a photo-finish.

Tuesday was the first day of 4th grade for Christian and 1st grade for BJ.  They are both happy with their new classes.  Christian hasn’t even complained about dropping to two recesses.  Here they are, the school kids:

The only downside so far is with all of the road construction, the kids have to walk up the street to catch the bus.  It’s not very far compared to how far some of the kids have to walk this year, but still different from just across the street.

Alyson, of course, loved to walk her brothers to the bus stop on the first day.  She is spending some time with the Pre-Ks and Kindergarteners at daycare.  It’s too bad she has two full school years before she’ll go to Kindergarten.  She’s such a little smartie.  Her teacher said she knows all of the answers but sometimes gets shy around the bigger kids.

The soccer kick-off is this weekend, so stay tuned to Bill’s blog for schedules and news.  He’s coaching BJ’s team this year, and it looks like they’re shaping up to be another unbeatable team.  Alyson is not playing this fall.

Christian

1. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
2. Garfield Gets Real
3. Snow Day
4. Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
5. Pearl Harbor

BJ

1. Naruto
2. Garfield Gets Real
3. Star Wars
4. Snow Day
5. The Simpson’s Movie

Alyson

1.  Bug’s Life (honestly, I’m not sure she’s ever even watched it)
2. Veggie Tales
3. Little Einsteins
4. Legally Blonde

Bill

1.  Lord of the Rings
2. Star Wars
3. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
4. The Bourne trilogy
5. Batman Begins/Dark Knight

Jesica

1.  The Bourne trilogy
2. Amadeus
3. The Road to El Dorado
4. Anastasia
5. A Knight’s Tale

He searched high and low and persistently called stores until he brought home a Wii Fit for me for my birthday

I’m SO excited!  I’ve logged nearly 50 minutes already   Happy early birthday to me!

“Mommy, we have an emergency,” BJ pleaded as he came down the stairs (because our maddening lovely children know the only acceptable reason to come down after bedtime is blood or fire).

All is well, though.  BJ lost his first tooth!  He’s been willing that tooth to come out for months.

How did it come out?

Alyson kicked him in the face.

This morning, he gave her a quarter from his tooth fairy money for doing it.

And Bill and I at breakfast

BJ thought his backpack was heavy.   So were all of our bags.

We headed off the ship and back to the same hotel from our first night in Waikiki.  Alyson loved the fish at the hotel and was happy to see them again.

We spent some time at the beach, which was very busy with a surfing competition, before headed to the Cheesecake Factory for lunch (amazingly less expensive than the lunch we had the first day).

This time, our room was on the opposite site of the hotel, the 28th floor, and we had an even better view.

Then, we were off to a luau (what Hawaii trip is complete without a luau?).  Honestly, I was a little too drained and overly emotional to be interacting with people this day, but it’s good we went anyway.  Our driver was super ADD.  We had landed on the “Party Bus!”.  The kids were a little tired, to say the least.

When we arrived, we took our places at a table on the ground, where the kids got a little exuberant with the sand.  After we ate, Alyson and I went off to play away from the people so I wouldn’t have to worry about her getting sand in other people’s food.

Alyson really enjoyed the dancers, and the boys loved the fire dancer the best.

On the bus back to the hotel, a sleeping Alyson won a candy lei for being the youngest on the bus.  In the morning, she shared her candy evenly with her brothers once they were all awake.

Here they are when we tried to wake them.

And Alyson

We had breakfast at Burger King, where I gave in and let Christian have coffee (Mom and I went off in search of mochas too).

BJ and Alyson being silly in the restaurant

Then we had just enough time for a quick swim before heading to the airport. BJ:

Christian (with snorkel)

Unfortunately, us adults weren’t up for a swim, so poor Alyson had to sit out.  (But she perked up… she got a juice and the boys didn’t).

On the plane, I have lots of pictures like this.  Brandon went a little crazy with the camera.

But he did get this shot of the sunset over Puget Sound.  We were SO happy to be home!

The End of the Abella Family’s adventures in Hawaii

Here’s the water off the side of the ship, while we were in Kaua’i.

I have SO many wonderful pictures of Kaua’i, it’s hard to pick the ones to share.

The first day, we took a shuttle to Coconut Marketplace, where Mom insisted the kids try a shaved ice.  I’d never heard of getting a shaved ice with ice cream in it.  They were H-U-G-E!

Here’s silly Alyson

The second day, we (less Alyson) went on a kayaking excursion.  Christian and I went kayaking a few years ago (much closer to home), so we were really excited to go again.  This time, we were kayaking down a river, 3.5 miles if I remember correctly.  Here’s the view Bill had for the trip.

And the guides took this one for us.

I do get the bad mommy award here, though.  BJ was calling Christian over to “show him something” and I was certain he was going to splash Christian.  So I tried to splash BJ a little and got him in the eye *cringe*.  The kid milked it for all it was worth, hiding and fussing about it for EVER afterward.  He did finally perk up a little after the kayaking was over and the guides showed us sleeping grass, that wilts when it’s disturbed.

We had a short hike back to the van, passing under so many crop trees (avocado, coffee, and I don’t remember the others).  Then a quick drive to our lunch destination.  From here, we went down… down… down… hundreds of steps to a waterfall.

We even (less BJ) were brave enough to sit IN the waterfall (although I couldn’t get all the way up there… I couldn’t see and was worried about losing my contacts).   It was a bit cold, but felt great.

I’ll admit, the climb back UP to the lunch area was exhausting for me.

The boys and Bill made it back up without a rest.

On the way back, the guide pointed out this view of the fish pond, which they discussed while we kayaked.  It is a historical site and no longer in use, but the pond used to fill with fish with the tide.

This picture is as the ship left port, a lighthouse.

And the Na Pali coastline

And the boys ready for dinner.  Kids get away with wearing whatever they want in all of the restaurants.  Us adults had to wear dresses (collared shirts for the men) for most of the restaurants.

When we got off the tender, the first thing we saw was sea turtles!

The boys were disappointed they couldn’t swim in the water near the turtles, but the current was really strong on that side of the pier.

The other side of the pier was another matter, though.  It was PERFECT for the kids to spend some time in the water.

Unfortunately, I didn’t realize swimming would be on the agenda, so Alyson wasn’t wearing a swim suit.  Even worse, she was wearing a pullup.  Before we knew it, she was soaked, but having a blast.

The kids found a hermit crab and made it its own little tide pool.

Mom and I went shopping and got Alyson a new dress so we wouldn’t have to take her back to the ship soaking wet.  I also finally gave in and got the kids a snorkel… they’d been asking incessently.  Bill and I went shopping and found my favorite store of the whole trip… Del Sol, where everything changes color in the sun.

Here’s Alyson’s new dress from Kona.  Mom got a great picture, but this one will have to do for now

The kids have been playing hard and the time difference wore them out a little.

The kids enjoyed their morning at Kids Club, and in the afternoon we saw the movie Meet the Robinsons.  Christian and I attended the Lauhala Ribbon Weave lei making class.  It was much more challenging than the Kuikui Nut lei, but we really enjoyed it.

Here’s Alyson’s new dress from Hilo Hatties.

The kids actually being sweet to each other.

Here’s the main pool

I love this picture of BJ.

And the three monkeys while I tried to finalize the purchase of my painting.

While the kids were in Kids Club, we enjoyed the Music of the Night show of mostly Andrew Lloyd Webber music.  I say mostly because they threw some South Pacific in there too.

Mom told us we had to get off the ship and take the shuttle to Hilo Hatties, and I’m glad she did.  We enjoyed seeing a bit of Maui from the shuttle bus, and Hilo Hatties was a fun store.  We picked up a few souveniers and new clothes, and the kids each got to pick a pearl from an oyster.  The boys each got beautiful rosy pearls and Alyson’s is bright white.  Unfortunately, Christian’s was lost fairly quickly.  We have the other two in safe keeping.

When we returned to the ship, Alyson and I attended a Kuikui Nut lei making class, which was great fun.  Alyson loves teachers.  She amazed me.  As the class was ending, I was furiously trying to finish my lei (as I had helped Alyson with hers first), so I handed Alyson hers and told her to take it to the teacher so she could tie it for her.  Alyson marched across the room through throngs of strangers to do exactly that.  This, the child that chooses to be shy around FAMILY.

While us girls were making leis, the boys went on the Gyroscope.

BJ was sadly too little to go upside down, but he did get to spin a little.

Mom and I attended an art auction.  I’d never attended an art auction before and it sounded like fun.  Free champagne and free art for everyone who registered and attended sounded like a good deal.  I walked around and really enjoyed seeing so many different types of art.  Fortunately I didn’t get attached to any of them until I came to this one.

It’s perfect for my office.  Even though it was out of my price range, 12 months no interest made it more affordable.  I can’t wait for it to arrive (should be here in another couple of weeks).

While Mom and I were enjoying the auction, Bill got the kids dinner at the kid sized buffet so they could go to Kids Club while we had our 8pm dinner.  The darling little boy with our kids was very attached to Alyson.  Whenever they were together, neither of them ate anything because they were too busy chasing each other around.  We adults got to enjoy Lobster night and an adult meal after the kids were happily in Kids Club

We were docking in Maui this morning and really had no plans for the day, so we took it easy.

We explored the ship,

and read a few books in the library.

And we had to buy pony tail holders for Alyson.

Our cabin steward made us a bunny with towels.

We went swimming and got to participate in smoothie tasting (although Cantaloupe is NOT my favorite).

The boys did a little putting…

And what cruise is complete without shuffleboard?

Cruise life at its finest   The boys also got to participate in a soccer tournament.  They played against a dad and his son, who was a bit older than Christian. The boys did great!  They lost, but only by 2 points.

While the kids were in Kids Club in the evening, we went to hear WT Greer sing.  Honestly, it was awful.  But on the way back to our cabins with the kids, I heard Mark O’bitz, who I really enjoyed.

and getting on a bus to visit the USS Arizona memorial.  Alyson thought tour busses were great.  I thought they were tiring.  She was constantly up and down and bouncing around… not in her own seat, but on our laps.  Buses did make her tired, too, though.

We arrived at the memorial before it opened, and the line to get in stretched all the way around a big green field.  Thankfully, there were some trees for shade, and once the gates opened the line moved fairly quickly.

At the bookstore, we got a great pamphlet about the events December 7 1941 for Christian to read, a comic book for Brandon, and some totally unrelated paper dolls for Alyson.  Bill and the boys walked through the museum.

We watched a film containing all original footage from the attack on Pearl Harbor.  I was amazed just that much film existed and survived.   After being put in a somber mood, we boarded a boat that took us past the USS Kittyhawk and dozens of other ships to the memorial.  So many people lost their lives that day.  And so many are still entombed there.  It was pointed out that many of the names on this memorial wall are the same, because fathers and sons, brothers, served together and died together.

It was amazing to  see what’s left of the Arizona under the memorial (which incidentally does not touch any part of the submerged ship).  They had great displays that explained what we were seeing beneath the water.  The kids were fascinated by the oil on the water.

Drips of oil are still escaping from the Arizona.  Legend says it’s the ship crying for its fallen crew.  Legend continues that it will stop the day the last survivor dies.

The kids didn’t understand, of course, what it was really all about.  When we returned from our trip, we showed them the Hollywood movie, Pearl Harbor, and I think Christian at least has a better idea of why we went and why it was important.

After that sobering start to the day, we had a tour of Honolulu by tour bus (which much of the family slept through), and returned to reclaim our luggage from the hotel and catch taxis to the cruise terminal.  We waited in excruciatingly long lines, but they were moving, and got our luggage checked, our key cards issued, and were finally allowed on board the Pride of America.

We were greeted with Mimosas (or orange juices for the kids), and our first buffet lunch of the cruise while we waited for our cabins to be ready.  We also had the opportunity to check out the kids’ new favorite place, Kid’s Club!, where they would spend 6 hours a day most days (9am to noon and 7pm to 10pm).

We went to dinner at the Liberty Restaurant that night, and before the entrees could even be served, two of our kids were asleep at the table.  That 3 hour time difference and busy day caught up with them.

Shuttle Express arrived bright and early to take us all away.   The kids were excited, except Alyson really didn’t like the carseat that was provided for her.  The kids particularly enjoyed riding the subway train to the terminal at the airport.  Here’s Brandon listening to his mp3 player and waiting patiently for our flight, surrounded by our multitude of carryons.

The kids did really well on the 5 1/2 hour flight.  They played their DSs (except Brandon’s which broke), built lego cars, watched movies, and perhaps slept a little bit…

When we arrived in Hawaii, the first thing I noticed was the heavier air and the floral scent.  We took the longest bus ride ever to get from the airport to our hotel in Waikiki.  We got quite the sightseeing tour.  We saw the same buildings at least three or four times before he finally got to our hotel, the Sheraton Princess Kauilani.

While we waited for our rooms to be ready, we went to the most overpriced meal of our trip.  It was over $100 for the five of us and Mom for a mediocre lunch.  It was a bit of  a neat place… the waitresses in 50s attire would go up and dance, but it wasn’t worth the cost of the lunch.  We opted for the Burger King next door the next time we needed a meal.

Our room was on the 29th floor.  The view was beautiful, and we were just blocks from the beach.

The boys went off with Uncles to the beach, while the rest of us had the chance to relax for a bit.

After a nap, Bill and I had the chance to walk around a little, and we picked up ice cream for those of us that were going to watch the fireworks from our room.  We enjoyed our ice cream on our balcony and enjoyed not one, but three fireworks shows.  It was really cool to watch the fireworks shows progress down the beach.

What a great way to spend the 4th of July!

She’s our studious one.  She is happiest surrounded by crayons, and asks daily to go to the library.

And her artwork is quite easy to understand much of the time.  Here are some flowers.  She also writes her name (and Mommy), checkmarks, hearts, and stars quite well.

Here are the boys ready for their first day of camp for the summer:

And is this ready position?

How about this?

One more pic of the baseball boys:

The kids started off the summer with a week of baseball camp.  Thankfully, Brandon really enjoyed that first week of camp.   Brandon’s not nearly as thrilled with baseball this week, but he’ll live.

The following week, the only camp available was a basketball camp for kids ages 7+.  Brandon got to go to work with Bill every day for a week!  Christian loved basketball, and when Bill went to watch he described Christian as the next Gary Payton.

That week was incredibly hectic as we tried to wrap things up for our Hawaii trip.  We fit in a few fireworks on the 3rd, packed, and at the last minute realized we didn’t have Alyson’s birth certificate.  Thankfully no one asked us for one, but we’ll be ordering multiple copies shortly.

Lots of Hawaii posts to follow, as well as pictures from camps!

During the game, for once she actually RAN AFTER THE BALL. Those following this saga will understand this is a HUGE improvement over the past 5 weeks. She played in both halves and even had a great stop in the second half. We’re SO proud of her for getting out there and playing. She had so much fun.  She even enthusiastically put her hand in and participated in the cheering, and went out without me to high-five the opposing team at the end.

I will admit I did bribe her some… we did go out to her favorite coffee shop after, and she got to spend a few minutes at the playground.  She was excited to be able to bring home her very own soccer ball to keep.
Both soccer games were at the same time this week, so Bill will have to post about Brandon’s game.

I’m confident it’s the best business decision I’ve made yet.

Yesterday, the five of us Micro to Millions awardees had the opportunity to meet each other, the founder of Count Me In, and our contact with Count Me In.  I found out that we had been chosen from hundreds of applicants. (!)  They walked through our award package with us… a $5,000 loan if we want it, about two and a half months of business coaching, access to the whole network of award winners and finalists, mentors, and PR opportunities. I really enjoyed meeting my fellow awardees. They’re in widely different industries with such varied experience. I’m in awe of each of them. One has a new product on the market, licensed with Crayola. One makes the most beautiful paper flowers for weddings and businesses. One has a successful technology company, and one is creating completely organic textiles for interior designers, with production around the world.

We also had the opportunity to watch the Make Mine a Million $ Business finalists rehearse their 3 minute presentations. And get them torn apart by the Count Me In gurus.  I enjoyed watching how all of the finalists offered input and helped each other, taking notes for each other.  Listening to all of these amazing women talk about their passions, the growth they’ve had so far, and their plans to make it to a million dollars in revenue in the next two years.

The founder’s dream is to have one million women business owners with revenue over a million dollars in 2010. What a goal!

Today I was blessed to have my one and only staff member, Carol, with me for the main event.  When we arrived, we were greeted with a continental breakfast and a $20 Starbucks gift card.  We heard some fantastic speakers:  Anne Levinson, an owner of the Seattle Storm, Bob Drewel, Governor Gregoire, and Nely Galan, who was on Celebrity Apprentice.  We also heard from a fantastic business coach, Simon Sinek, who really got us all thinking about why Apple and Southwest Airlines are such successful companies.

One of the most fascinating parts of the day for me was watching the finalists make their presentations.  After watching last night’s rehearsals, I had an idea of what they were going to say.  But several of them just blew me away.  They took yesterday’s criticism to heart and improved their presentations by leaps and bounds.

We Micros were presented our awards at the very end (but just before the Make Mine a Million awards).  Nely Galan introduced each of us and read the 50 word bios we provided, and provided a word of encouragement to each of us.  We had our photo ops with Nell Merlino, the founder.  Of the 16 finalists for the main program, 8 became awardees, but even the finalists receive coaching and other assistance.

I can’t wait to hear from the photographer and see the pictures she got.  Carol took a few pictures, but our camera really wasn’t the best for something like this.  I forgot to mention we each had a professional photo shoot yesterday as well, so it’ll be fun to see how that turned out too.

It was such a tremendous opportunity to be involved in this event, and to get a taste for what the Make Mine a Million $ Business finalists go through.  I expect to be one of them in the next few years, but it’ll take a lot of hard work to get there.  I’ll admit I’m scared to death… accepting coaching, stepping out of my comfort zone, taking calculated risks, are all required to get from here to there.  But with the help of the Count Me In community, business coaching, and the love and patience of my family, I believe I can do it.

Thank you for your support thus far!  Let’s make a million!

I’m just appreciating how prepared Brandon is for every eventuality.

He packed a backpack to go to Christian’s baseball game tonight.

In it? A sweater, a blanket, a baseball hat, a couple of baseballs, some candy, some money, and who knows what else.

This from the child that also worries incessantly about how much gas is in the car and if we’re lost.

He’d make a great Boy Scout, wouldn’t he?

The Something Store

Pay $10, and get something delivered to your door. Something. Could be anything. We’re trying to get RID of STUFF in our house, so this concept is astounding. Apparently they’re selling nearly 16k a month in product if their stats and my math are right. I’m not sure what the profit margin would be… by the time you pull out shipping, there’s not much profit left unless you’re getting the stuff dirt cheap.

Anyway, end rant. Just thought I’d share the silliness.

It’s a lot more fun than I expected.

Wii Sports is incredibly addictive.

I learned I actually like golf (who knew?!?).

I’m sore in places I didn’t realize I never use (now I need to start using my LEFT hand when I play tennis and baseball – so I can be evenly sore).

Now I just need to get Wii Fit when it’s in stock somewhere (and I end up with an extra $100).

I’m even remarkably enjoying Guitar Hero (Christian’s birthday money purchase).

Unfortunately, the Wii causes intense sleep deprivation.

Alyson declined to even GO to soccer today.  Potty training is absolutely getting the best of us.  Today she wore a pull-up to Brandon’s game, and with half hour left before her game she’s refusing to change her stinky bottom.  I’m SO done changing diapers.  I told her if she didn’t change, she wasn’t going to soccer.  Then she decided she didn’t want to go anyway. 

From the Count Me In site:

Woman-owned businesses under two years old and/or under $250,000 in annual revenue can apply for the Micro to Millions award — up to $5,000 dollars in financing, plus coaching, marketing, mentoring and more.

I got the call last week that I’ve been awarded a Micro to Millions package, which I’ll be presented with on Wednesday in Seattle after an orientation and walkthrough Tuesday afternoon.  I’m so excited.  I’ll have to fill you all in on the event next week!

I really appreciate everyone’s support.  It’s been an exciting endeavor.

A quick recap of the past year:

• Christian had a wonderful year in third grade. His class was almost entirely different from his 2nd grade class, which was a big help. He learned to use PowerPoint for class presentations. His class went to the beach and on the ferry.
• He enjoys PE (of course), math and science. Recess is still one of his favorite times.
• He’s enjoying learning to play his new guitar, and he took it to school to share during his spotlight student week.
• He enjoyed another season of soccer on the Red Dragons. It’s not his strongest sport, but he sure enjoys it.
• He has also learned to ice skate, and he enjoys the occasional ice time with Joy.
• I’m sure you all know about baseball from Bill’s blog. He’s become a really consistent player and an asset to his team.
• He had a great year of chess, ending with the State Chess Tournament.

And the year to come:

• Both boys have a summer ahead full of sports camps, VBS, and our trip to Hawaii.
• He’ll be a fourth grader in the fall… one of the intermediate kids.
• He’s excited to re-join the Red Dragons in the Fall for soccer.
• He will play in the Minors or Majors league next spring with the 10-12 year olds.
• Will we be attending the 2009 State Chess Tournament in Spokane in April?

We’re so proud of the loving, smart, engaging boy you are, Christian. We love you!

Alyson had a decent game.  She was a bit clingy, and wanted a drink of water every 90 seconds, but she opened up some when they got to play the game where you kick the ball to try to hit the coach’s legs.  She thought it was hilarious.  She even scored her very first goal during practice!  During the game, she just stood still at her spot on the field and absolutely refused to move.  She actually spent most of the game time laying on the ground.  Oh well.  Two more games to go.

Saturday evening we had a blast at the Mariners vs Padres game at Safeco Field. Most of Christian’s team and their families went, so we had a great big section in the nose-bleed seats (should’ve trained for weeks for all of the stairs to climb – especially up and down and up and down with Alyson to go potty). It was a Little League day, so the boys wore their uniforms and got to parade around the field before the game. It was a really hot evening (and expensive – one kid gets ice cream and suddenly they ALL want some $5 ice cream), but it was great fun. The boys were all riled up and really enjoyed the game. At the end, they were all standing together, waving their shirts in the air, cheering for the Mariners. What fun!

Sunday, Brandon wasn’t feeling great, and said he had a headache. In hindsight, he had a fever, but with the warm weather I didn’t realize it. At church, we ended the Sunday School year, and Christian was presented with a new bible (a third grade tradition). Christian had a baseball game in the afternoon, which Bill blogged. Monday, Brandon was quite obviously not well, with a fever of 102.5. He slept most of the day. Tuesday, he wasn’t any better, and I got hit with a chest cold. Wednesday, when he still wasn’t better, Bill got him to the doctor to find out he has strep throat. Poor kid… if he’d ever mentioned his throat hurt, we would have had him in sooner! We’ve both taken it easy the rest of this week.Today, Bill and the boys took the van in to have the tires replaced. We even had a rebate for the tires. Turns out we won’t need it. The van was all ready to go, tires replaced, when they managed to break our van. At first they said it was the brake line. Fluid was leaking all over. The manager got Bill and the poor starving boys hooked up with a rental car. Turns out, it’s not the brake line, it’s a line for the rear heating system, and they don’t have the parts for it. So we’re without our van for potentially a WEEK! What are we driving instead? A pretty 2008 silver Toyota Highlander.

Our four new tires? Free.

Our van to be fixed as good as new? Free.

Shiny new Highlander to drive for a week? Free.

And an extremely apologetic manager AND corporate staff to go with all of that free stuff.I think Discount Tire would like to keep our business. I’ll try to get some pics up later. Let’s hope for a quieter week next week!

Week 2 found Alyson much more prepared to play soccer. She arrived at the soccer field ready to play. She initiated triangle passing with me and the coach’s older daughter Chelsea. She had a great time doing the practice drills with her team. She wanted to do everything slowly, but she was getting the hang of it. Unfortunately, only three of her teammates showed up, so they really needed her to play the whole game. When coach called the kids together before the game started, he told them he needed them all to be sharks and go after the ball (they play a game called Sharks and Butterflies during practice). Alyson replied, “I want to be a butterfly!”. Have I mentioned she wants to be a butterfly when she grows up?

During the game, she decided she no longer wanted to play. She wanted to play with her own ball, not go after the single ball on the field. She stood resolutely on the sidelines and clapped for her team.  I told her she needed to stop the red shirts from scoring a goal.  Her response?  “I want them to get a goal!”

[vimeo]http://www.vimeo.com/999494[/vimeo]

This is how she spent the second half of the game… in the middle of the field… playing in the dirt. She did have one good stop when the ball ran into her, but other than that she didn’t even attempt to make contact with the ball during the game. Huge progress this week though.

Brandon had another great game. He had an awesome stop at goalie – he caught the ball under his chin. I didn’t get a picture of that one, but here’s another great stop:

He also had a great goal. It’s fun to hear the parents on the sidelines murmuring, “Wow, Brandon’s fast”.

He zooms across the field and is fantastic at being in the right place at the right time, getting open, and calling out to his teammates to pass to him.

Unfortunately, Brandon got hit in the eye by the ball late in the game and wasn’t able to finish the game. He’s fine though.

Brandon had a great game today. He scored three goals and played the entire game, thanks to some absent teammates. Brandon is on the Black Bears this spring. What a day!

Christian had baseball practice too, but Bill is chronicling baseball on his blog

Yesterday, we left right after school and arrived at Overlake Christian Church around 3:30. Wow, I had no idea just how big this place was, and there aren’t any words I can find to convey the sheer size of the building. It looks big but not formidable from the outside, but once inside you find it takes a long time to walk all of the big open hallways and check out all of the rooms. Their small chapel is bigger than our church’s sanctuary.

Christian and his friend Nik competed in a Bughouse tournament last night, which ran from 5 until 7:30 or so. The boys had fun but got creamed in 7 of 8 games. Bughouse is a fun chess-variation where you play with a partner and when you take a piece from your opponent, you hand it to your partner who can then use the piece in their game. On the bright side, the boys challenged us parents to a game or three and creamed us every time.

Christian also played me a variation of chess called Monster Chess… where I was white and played normally, he was black and had only his king and four pawns… the catch is, he gets two moves to every one of mine. Try wrapping your head around that

We enjoyed our hotel room. We were pleasantly surprised to have a room with a balcony. Our hotel was the Marriott at Redmond Towne Center, which was great. We walked across the street to Cold Stone Creamery and enjoyed our waffle bowls of ice cream on our balcony. I’m so grateful the weather finally felt like spring enough to enjoy being outside.

I didn’t sleep much, but Christian seems to have slept ok. At 1:20 am he managed to roll over and push a button on the alarm clock and the radio was blaring. I finally got the sound turned off, and Christian has no recollection of this at all. We were awakened by a little bit of sunlight streaming in the room this morning, around 6, well ahead of the 6:45 wakeup call we had scheduled.

A wonderful breakfast buffet was included in our stay. Christian had rice krispies, a cinnamon roll, yogurt, french toast, an orange juice and a hot chocolate.

The tournament has been fun. There are 12 kids from Seaview here, and our team has a great sunny corner to hang out. So far Christian has had 2 losses, and they’re running behind schedule. Three more rounds to go. I’m going to see if I can get more pictures

UPDATE:  Round three, Christian had a loss.  Then he convinced me he needed coffee.  Round four, he had a draw, which was great.  Round five he came back saying he won.  Then he fessed up that his opponent didn’t show up, so it counted as a win

Next year state is in Spokane.  I hope gas prices come down in the next year!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ci3nK0R0rk0]

And with his participant trophy (all Kindergarteners get trophies at tournaments):

Brandon finally got his first tournament win, along with 2 draws! Not enough to qualify for state, but a fantastic improvement. Christian ended the day with two wins and a draw. We’re looking forward to one more tournament before state.

On a side note, Christian’s baseball schedule has been posted, and Bill will keep baseball updates on his blog.

And a picture of the inside:

Still waiting for the city to approve the building before any furniture can go in.  Hope that’ll be soon… my phone line moves tomorrow!

In the last two months, a LOT has changed in my business.  ATS is now incorporated, which was WAY more work than I anticipated (changing business licenses, opening new bank accounts, changing everything with all of my vendors, etc).  Add all of that work to the massive amount of unanticipated work in January, and the year started off wild and crazy.  It’s really funny to try to compare 2008 numbers with 2007 numbers… the percentage increase is immeasurable.

Not to be outdone, February is even crazier.  The first week of February was so overwhelming, I HAD to hire help.  I met my new assistant Carol in one of the QuickBooks seminars I gave in January.  I really felt that her energy and passion for helping business owners get organized would be a great fit with ATS’s mission, and when it became apparent I needed help she agreed to step in and help out.  I’m SO grateful to have someone here part time.  Her mere presence helps me buckle down and get some of this really complicated backlog of work started.  As of today, February 22, I’ve already logged in as many tax returns as I logged in on April 12 last year.  Just when I think, “maybe everyone just came in early”, I go look at the drawer of files of those that haven’t come in yet and think “Wow, there’s a lot of work left to do!”.

City of Lynnwood says I can’t have an employee in a home-based office, which is fine.  My office really isn’t big enough for me, Carol, and whatever clients I have lined up, so smack dab in the middle of tax season, ATS is MOVING!  I signed a month to month lease today for a nice corner office in a brand new building called Creative Workspace, 1.6 miles from home.  I’m SO excited, but on top of the massive list of tax and bookkeeping work to get through, I now have to call Verizon to move the phone line, call Comcast to set up internet, buy primer and paint (my painter client is going to do the painting next week), order furniture at Office Depot (who incidentally is having an awesome sale on Sunday), and arrange to move my existing furniture.  Oh, and I had to buy and set up a new computer so Carol wouldn’t have to suffer trying to do bookkeeping with my little MacBook   (I’m SO enjoying my new 22″ widescreen monitor!).

I’m really excited about the space.  It has 3 big windows, so lots of natural light.  And being in a secure building, I don’t have to worry about manning the office all the time.  I don’t want to be tied to the office any more than I have to be, and I can’t afford to have someone else there all the time.  I also love that it’s month to month, so if the cash flow upward trend doesn’t continue as I’m hoping it will after tax season, it’ll be ok.

I’m continually reminded that I’m completely insane and not happy unless my plate is completely full.     Anyway, I HAVE to get the kids to bed and get back to work.  Love to all!

Last November, a blogger I read had posted a challenge.  They were trying to raise a certain amount of money for this charity.  I checked it out and picked a project to donate to.  A first grade teacher in a high-poverty school was in need of books for her classroom.   We donated $58 (incidentally, we spent more than that at the Seaview book fair this year).

Then I was delighted to receive an email gift certificate from Donors Choose, allowing us to donate another $10 to a project of our choice.  So back out to the site I went, and donated to a project for a Seattle classroom.

This week, I was shocked to receive two packets in the mail… one from each of the teachers we had donated to.  The packets included a full disclosure of how the funds were spent, a letter from DonorsChoose, a letter from the teacher, pictures of the kids with their new materials, and personalized letters from the kids, thanking us for our contributions!

I highly highly recommend supporting education and kids in high poverty schools through this organization.

Next we had Christmas dinner (a few days early) with Bill’s side of the family.  The kids’ gifts from Grandma were the biggest hits.  The boys each got a Rip-Stick (this is a crazy skateboard-like contraption that only has two wheels and probably says Age 10 and Up on the box, definitely requiring pads and helmets).  I like this picture because this is the only way I’d ever be able to balance on the thing   Christian’s starting to get the hang of his now.

Grandma found Alyson this fantastic Dora jacket – she LOVES it.

Next in our Christmas tradition was Bake Day.  We always enjoy the opportunity to spend more time with our Arlington family, and it’s a great warm-up to Christmas Eve.  Alyson was a great sprinkler this year.  She jumped up, ran over, and sprinkled cookies with great enthusiasm every time a pan was ready to sprinkle.  The boys helped make peanut-butter balls (and by the end, Alyson had them making squares and pyramids instead of the boring balls).  Here are the silly kids taking a break from all of the cookie-making.

Christmas Eve was next, where the kids were surprised with a fooz ball, pool, air hockey, table tennis, etc etc etc table that they have been playing nearly nonstop since we got it home!  Alyson also got a really cute white soft fuzzy bear that lights up.  It’s been a great nightlight for her.  We made it to the 11pm candlelight service at church, and all three kids managed to stay awake.  This is the first year Brandon was awake to hold a candle, and I think he enjoyed it.

Bill and I were up L-A-T-E getting the last Christmas morning surprises ready to go.  We now have a band in our house!  Here is the drummer:

And the guitarist and vocalist:

And here is the tired princess after a busy few days of Christmas.

We really enjoyed having Mom join us for Christmas this year.  I think my favorite gift was my most surprising.  Brandon chose to buy me the Mac game Lego Star Wars   I’m sure I missed some important highlights – feel free to comment on anything I missed.  It was such a nice Christmas.  I’m actually sad it’s over, but I’m very busy getting ready for another tax season.

Happy New Year to all!

The month started with a joint family birthday party for both winter kids.  We ended up accusing Brandon of wishing for snow, because not only did it snow on the 1st during the family party, it also snowed on the 9th, his actual birthday and kid party date.

Here are the birthday kids… I can’t believe Alyson is 3 and Brandon is 6 already.  She’s become quite the naughty little child, both at home and at daycare.  She’s also getting very complex in her sentences (lots of sentences connected by words like so and ‘cuz).  And she’s very very loud when we say it’s bedtime.  She still really loves to go play with her friends at daycare the two days a week she’s there.  She is potty trained, but wears a pull up at night.

Brandon is really enjoying Kindergarten and seems to be very popular.  He had a massive 18 kids at his birthday party at the Lynnwood Pool.  It was a blast.  The only thing that made me cringe was his method of attacking gifts… shred one open, throw it on the floor and race to the next one.  In fact, at the family party he demanded to know where his gift was before he’d let anyone in the door.

Dad and Karen brought one of the best treasures… a gingerbread house to make with the kids.  They had the best time decorating it with the gazillion (ok, I exaggerate a little) candies, and eating their fair share too.  Here it is, in all its glory.  I was really surprised at how precisely Alyson lined up the gumdrops on her tree and the roof

Speaking of chess-addicts, our big-kid Christian got his wish and qualified for state today (3 wins in one tournament qualifies you for the state tournament in April).  He lost to two tough opponents (rated 796 and 599), but he won over three opponents that were new to tournaments.  He was SO excited.  His friend Jordan qualified today too, and several other Seaview kids have already qualified, so they’ll have a good-sized team.  Christian received a medal for earning 3 points today.

Speaking of teams, the Seaview grades 1-3 team won 1st place today, too, so they have another nice big trophy to display in the library.

It was a great competition, and I’m very proud of both of the boys.  I’ll put up a picture or two if I can get them off of my phone.

Saturday, we reported to Memorial Stadium beneath the Space Needle, got our numbers, ran around a little, and settled in to watch entertainment by Radio Disney until it was time for the walk to start.

Christian was really excited to be doing another walk.

Brandon was not so excited.

We finished the last 1.2 miles in about 20 minutes.  The longest part of the morning was standing in line forever to get the kids’ shirts and goody-bags.   They thought it was fun to go around to the vendor booths and get milk, yogurt, bananas, and other food.  They were even happier when I promised a trip to the top of the space needle.  I hadn’t been up in YEARS.

We had lunch at the observation deck, but none of my pictures picked up the view of Seattle. 

Now we have to figure out if we’re going to let Brandon continue.  There’s no way we can afford for both to continue.  It’d be $400 a month!  They’re running some big specials on Friday, so the boys will go for another lesson and we’ll revisit the pricing issue again then.

Today she had a very special girly day. First, she had a party here at home this morning with four of her friends, Natalie, Maddie, Hannah, and Hailey.

She really enjoyed decorating a bracelet, sharing stickers with her friends (and their moms!), and eating cheese and crackers. She was adamant that she wanted a Halloween cake, but she didn’t really eat much of it. Gifts were a big hit as well. She’s excited to read her new Angelina Ballerina book from Maddie, and she enjoyed playing with the fairies from Natalie with Hannah. She’s also excited to take pictures for the photo album Hannah and Hailey gave her.

After the excitement at home, Alyson and I headed over to Julep, a nail salon in the University district. As a side note, Alyson loved pointing out every single purple Husky flag in the area.

Alyson felt right at home. She settled into a chair next to me and quickly gobbled the chocolate that was waiting for her. The ladies there were fantastic and seemed to enjoy Alyson as much as she was enjoying the experience.

Alyson chose very red nail polish and was SO good. She kept her hands so very still and let her nails dry. I’m sure it helps that they have several flat-screen TVs around the salon (which is what Alyson is looking at in this picture). They have Mommy Mondays, where they have a care-giver on site to play with the kids, and they had Magic Schoolbus on TV. Alyson had plenty of time to play while my manicure was being done (hers was super-fast). My hands still smell of the lovely lavender-vanilla lotion they used.

Here our our pretty nails (and a silly face from Alyson).

Next Sunday, my darling daughter will be three already.  I’m not sure how that happened so quickly.  She’s definitely acting three.  She’s extremely independent, and has been testing out the word NO frequently.

She’s finally deciding that Brandon is a great playmate.  Last night they were dancing together and chasing each other around the house and playing Ring Around the Rosie.  She alternately wears two shirts (like Brandon) or no shirts (like Brandon).  She still adores Christian, but she doesn’t push Brandon away as much as she used to.   She insists she’s a boy and her new favorite color is blue (although she still chooses to wear lots of pink and is looking forward to her Hannah Montana birthday party next Monday).

She still loves her letters, and she points out every letter that belongs in her name.  She loves to color and do puzzles and play computer and video games (you should see her play Mahjong with alphabet tiles on my Mac, or Plant Tycoon).

Did I mention she cut her hair a second time?  Twice in about a week.  The first time it wasn’t really noticeable, but this time it is.  Not sure what we’re going to do about our family portraits (grumble).  But she’s cute and we love her, really.

Princess Alyson and her bodyguard recon commando BJ (he’s decided recently he’s BJ, not Brandon, go figure).

The boys carving their pumpkins. All. By. Themselves. (Can you tell I’m excited I didn’t have to scrape goop this year?)

Here’s Christian’s two faced pumpkin. Brandon ran out of time to finish carving his… he was having too much fun running around with all of the kids.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Conferences were this week.  When we got home from meeting with both of the boys’ teachers we told the boys they were in BIG trouble.  Then we took them out for dinner… their conferences were fantastic!  Christian is right where he should be and doing well socially and academically.  His handwriting (when he’s trying) is astounding.  He tends to rush through his work, but he’s very easy-going about re-doing it when asked.  He’s easily redirected when he gets distracted, but she said that isn’t a frequent occurence (Yay!).  The things he picked up last year in a 2/3 classroom are really helping him this year, I think.

Brandon is also doing very well in school.  His time in preschool last year served him well.  He knows most of the numbers and many of the letters/sounds he needs to know.  He is compliant and a joy to have in class.  His teacher said he’s quite the actor.  She said she was really surprised to see the dramatic side of him.  (We asked him later and he said he showed everyone how his army guys dance.  Incidentally, I didn’t even realize he HAD army guys and had NEVER seen him play with before show and tell day).  Too funny.

The boys are participating in the Seattle Kids’ Marathon this year.  We have until 11/24 to walk 25 miles.  We got 4 miles in so far this week and 4 more weeks left… wish us luck!

Hmmm… what can I say about Princess Alyson?  Well, she wants EVERYTHING that Toys R Us is advertising on Nick Jr.  Her potty training is going well.  She wore underwear the last two days and had few accidents.  Today she’s back in a pull-up (stubborn child).  And she cut her hair, but I already said that.  I guess that’s her update for now

It’s a little hard to see the red, so here’s a closer pic:

Perhaps I should have mentioned that Alyson took it upon herself to cut her own hair this week (just days after we went to the salon for haircuts). She got a nice chunk cut out one side. Thankfully, it’s difficult to tell, but it was definitely harder to put the pigtails in one side than the other!

Not perfect, but they made her happy

I mentioned this goal in my last post, and Bill posted this video too, but it’s SO funny I had to post it here too. Here is Brandon, #5, and his two back to back goals from Saturday’s game. I LOVE Kindergarten soccer!

Soccer season is in full swing. Today was foggy and a little chilly, but a perfect day for soccer. Brandon had his second game today, and wow the House Wreckers are the team to beat! They’ve won their games by at least 10 goals, holding the other team to 1 goal or less! Brandon has scored 3 goals in two games (one of which being a hilarious kick from mid field… the ball traveled all the way across the field and into the goal and the goalie didn’t do anything about it!).

Bill’s in charge of documenting Christian’s soccer team, but for once I got to go to one of his games and they were wonderful today! They won against the other team of kids from their school. Even though they had substitute coaches and were down a couple of players, they all played hard and showed they’ve been learning this season!

YAY House Wreckers and YAY Red Dragons! Keep up the good work!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxT5NwQUtVM]

First, a few of my darling daughter.

Note how thrilled she looks to be there… SOOOO far away from Mommy…

She’s been a little tired lately…

Alyson thinks she should be the one playing soccer (note shin guards and cleats and Brandon’s uniform)

Brandon with a BIG smile during soccer practice.

Ok, here’s the update you’ve been waiting 24 days for…

CHRISTIAN – Christian is having a great school year so far.  He doesn’t really have close friends in his class, but it seems like a great mix of kids (28 kids in his class!).  I saw his teacher last night and she said that if I hadn’t told her about his ADHD before school started she wouldn’t have known he had it!  Although did I mention she’s in charge of 28 3rd graders?  He’s feeling good about how he’s doing and it’s wonderful!  She assigns light homework, too, which helps a lot.  Christian’s happy to be in Chess again, and was excited to be categorized as ‘Advanced’   The soccer season is off to a good start.  I think they’re 1-1 so far, and they play on the BIG soccer fields this year.

BRANDON – Brandon is loving Kindergarten.  He loves library and PE and music and lunch and recess.  Christian took him to go buy Breakfast one morning and he thought that was really cool too.  It’s been fun to see him open up this year.  He’s been making friends and just really seems to enjoy himself.  He started chess last week also, and seemed to enjoy it.  I think Christian liked going over to sign him out of his classroom and take him to chess.  The biggest surprise to me is just how much Brandon is loving soccer!  This is the kid that has NEVER shown an interest in team sports, aside from the trophies at the end.  He’s having a BLAST!  Now I just can’t wait until they publish a game schedule for him so I can get it circulated!

ALYSON – Alyson is thrilled to be starting her music classes again next week.  She’s set that Daddy’s going to take her, and that’s just that.  She’s potty training herself… at least once a day I hear “Don’t need PullUps any more!”.  Of course, she does, but she does make it several hours without an accident now.  She’s been very whiny and demanding lately… I hope that phase passes quickly.  She’s still having fun at daycare twice a week (once this week, she was sick on Tuesday).  She’s having an easier time letting me leave.  She can almost write her name, which is really cool   Swimming has been… ummm… a challenge for her since she moved up to the preschool class.  For the first 2 weeks, she did absolutely nothing but sit on the step and whimper Mommy occasionally.  Now, she’s opened up and spends her time splashing her class and hitting her teacher on the head with her noodle.  Still not doing what he asks them to do.  I’m not sure which is worse.  I’m really on the fence about whether to sign her up for next session.  She’s enjoying it, but now that she’s getting disruptive I’m not sure.

ME – Busy, busy, as usual.  It’s funny… last month I was lamenting that the phone wasn’t ringing.   I should know better.  August is supposed to be a slow month.  Now I’m swamped with… let’s see…

• a new client who is has no bookkeeping records for 2006 and needs to file a tax return by 10/15
• incorporating my business effective 1/1/08, and all the paperwork that brings
• more tax returns on extension
• bookkeeping clients that have to file 3rd quarter returns next month
• getting clients moved over to new remote access and paperless systems (so I can delegate work more easily to staff!)
• marketing, marketing, marketing
  • I joined the Chamber of Commerce and have been meeting lots of business owners
  • I licensed a QuickBooks seminar program and will be giving 2 seminars a month for a while – the work to get this set up was enormous, finding vendors and establishing a location, printing workbooks, setting up the invitation mailings… the list goes on and on
  • I’ll have an ad in the Lynnwood Business Directory that will go out to 11,000+ households January 8.
  • I considered signing up for a Welcome to the Neighborhood program that markets to new homeowners, but it was more expensive than I’m ready to commit.
  • And keeping my eyes and ears open for other opportunities

  Oh yeah, and I’m co-team-mom for Brandon’s soccer team.

BILL – Bill had the opportunity to record a demo for a voice actress recently.  It was a very interesting project, and she was a really cool person.  His web hosting business is growing, too.  I’m not sure how he manages to do the church podcast every week, special DVDs for the special events at church (baptisms, etc), his web hosting work, helping with soccer practice, AND everything else!

Whew!  I’ll try to get some pictures added later, but no guarantees

In the meantime, one of my MayMommy friends sent me a link to this video and it’s incredible. I laughed. Then I cried. Then I copied the link to share with you.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uISuvTiTYJA]

Alyson was a little sad she didn’t get to go on the bus and be in Kindergarten, but she was happy to go to daycare this morning.

One more picture of our school boys:

And here she is this morning:

The kids had a blast chalking up the driveway, skating, and scootering, and biking. And what summer is complete without smores?

You may notice she’s drawing an ‘A’ for Alyson

Christian’s saving his money for a new skateboard… this one is older than me!

There are a few things unfinished… I bought hooks for each kid to hang up their coats, hats, stuff, but they aren’t up yet. I also would like to buy shelves for Brandon and Alyson (like the one by Christian’s bed) and a cool robot lamp for each of the boys so they can read at night.

And the pictures to prove their room can really be somewhat clean…

Here’s Brandon’s corner of the room… (edit: WordPress is not my friend and replaced this picture – I’ll try to get it fixed later today 9/4)

And Alyson’s room…

And Christian’s…

Lastly, the happy, silly, kids…

Christian started this summer in Youth Safety 2, and graduated to Youth Safety 3 after the first session. In YS3, he got to learn the beginnings of diving! He’ll still be in Youth Safety 3 next June when we re-enroll him.

Brandon started this summer in Preschool Safety 2 and remained there for both sessions. He did pass Preschool Safety 2 after the August session, Yay Brandon! He’ll be in Youth Safety 1 next summer, because he’ll be 6.

Alyson spent both sessions this summer in Parent Infant/Toddler, which was very fun. Once she had that noodle tied around her, she was off and swimming. She is now enrolled to continue into Fall in a Preschool Safety 1 class at 1pm, which will be great because she’ll be done and home before the boys get home from school. She’s lucky they let her move up… they aren’t supposed to move up to Preschool until they turn 3, so hopefully she’ll listen to her teacher and do what she’s supposed to.

Just for posterity’s sake (and so everyone reading knows why we have such a hard time keeping in touch), here is our week…

Saturday

10:15 – 11:15, Shoreline, Brandon’s reading class

12:30 – 2:45, Lynnwood, Christian has Youth Hockey Day

3:00, Mill Creek, Brandon needs to be dropped off for his special Kindergarten overnighter with Uncle Andrew.

Somewhere in here Brandon needs a haircut, and Christian needs to buy a birthday gift.

Sunday

10 – 11, Church! Hopefully Brandon will be dropped off just before the service

1:30 – 3:30, Ice skating (note here that now all three kids are hooked on skating – thankfully Christian and I have our own skates now, so that’s two rentals we don’t need to pay for anymore)

5:00, Dropping off Christian for an overnight birthday party

7:00 – 9:00, Choir concert at Trinity

Monday

10, need to pick up Christian

3:00 – 3:25, Christian’s swimming lesson

4:00 – 5:00, Christian’s soccer practice

4:00 – 4:25, Brandon and Alyson’s swimming lessons

Tuesday

8:00, Drop off kids at daycare (the boys will go to a movie in the morning, and a park in the afternoon)
9:00 – 9:30, hopefully brief stop at client’s in Redmond

Hopefully will finish painting kids’ room!

3:30, Pick kids up from daycare

4:30 – 6:00, Kenmore, work for a client

Wednesday

3:00 – 3:25, Christian’s swimming lesson

4:00 – 5:00, Christian’s soccer practice

4:00 – 4:25, Brandon and Alyson’s swimming lessons

Thursday

10:00 – 11:00, Brandon to speech therapy

3:15 – 5:15, Shoreline, Christian’s reading class

Friday

8:00, Kids to daycare (no movie today, just the park)

9:00 – 1:00, Redmond bookkeeping

2:00 – 3:00, Bothell bookkeeping

3:30, pick up kids

Whew, what a week! And guess what? The following week looks much the same. Add in Kindergarten Orientation and drop the Kenmore bookkeeping, and that’s what the last week of August looks like. Oh, and add in the Fair somewhere in there too. Thankfully, when school starts, swimming will be over, and so will the twice a week trips to Shoreline for the kids’ reading classes.

Personally, here’s how I spent the summer… I got a lot done on the kids’ room this summer.  Hopefully I’ll be able to post ‘completion’ pictures in the next month.  Unfortunately I don’t think I have any ‘before’ pictures of just what an enormous job it has been.  Bill and I also have been enjoying Netflix.  We rented all of seasons 1 and 2 of Veronica Mars, and I’m SO upset that it was cancelled.  Now we’ve moved on to renting Alias.  The downside is that we end up staying up really late to watch ‘just one more episode’, but it’s been fun   I hired a bookkeeper to take on any new clients, which I’m really excited about.  Surprisingly, I haven’t been reading much or scrapbooking at all.  I hope to return to those hobbies at some point… maybe when the kids are in school all day.

Thrivent Builds and Habitat for Humanity have teamed up to do ten weeks of builds this fall in Biloxi, MS. The cost is only $25 for Thrivent members, and $190 for nonmembers. The airfare from here is in the $350 range.

I’ve always wanted to participate in a Habitat build. Something about expending time and energy to help provide a home seems incredibly worthwhile. It hasn’t been a practical idea, though, so I hadn’t pursued it. Until now…

It’s the perfect time. I’m not working full time (I’m working about 10 hours a week, at least until tax season comes around again). The boys will both be in school full time this year. Alyson is acclimating to daycare and could spend the week there rather than the two days she’s there now.

I can’t think of any reason not to go, so if you have any reasons I need to consider, please comment.

Here are the reasons I want to go:

• Selfishly, I want to see the Gulf Coast. It’s a part of the country I wouldn’t go out of my way to visit, but I’d like to see it.
• Last selfish reason, I can add on a stop in SC to see Angie. I miss my sister. It’s been way too long since we’ve been able to sit and talk face to face. Sadly, SC is another state that I can’t forsee traveling to under other circumstances any time in the near future.
• I’d like to be a part of something bigger than our ordinary lives.
• I’d like to help build a home and help restore order to the chaos left behind by the storms.
• I hope to see that even amidst chaos and destruction, there is hope, and people really can come together to make a difference.

Here’s what the week’s itinerary looks like.

And other details.

And the journal of someone who went on a similar trip to New Orleans.

Saturday, Bill had a sprained ankle, but he took Brandon to reading class anyway, and Alyson and I went to my Thrivent chapter meeting, and when we all converged back at home we decided we should go. By the time we threw the bikes and a ton of snacks and water bottles and blankets and sweaters and, well, you get the idea, it was 1:00. The next ferry from Edmonds was 1:30 and we knew we were cutting it close, but we were hopeful. Unfortunately, we had to wait for the 2:30 ferry, which left a grumpy Brandon, who had never been on a ferry, in the backseat asking continually why we couldn’t go, and could we just go home!

2:30 arrived, though, and we were on the ferry and ready to go. Brandon conceded that maybe it was worth the wait. We picked up a lunch of popcorn and nachos on the ferry and enjoyed the beautiful weather! We couldn’t have picked a better day for this trip. It’s a short ferry ride, and 30 minutes later we were in Kingston and on our way again. The drive was an unremarkable hour, exactly as Google Maps had said it would be.

We arrived around 4, got a restroom stop out of the way, said hi to all of the family, unloaded the bikes, and immediately went for a walk down to the beach. Alyson wasn’t too sure of the waves coming in on the rocky side of the beach. We watched Keina’s puppy Dakota run into the water just to get surprised back out by a wave nearly crashing over her. I think Alyson was as surprised as Dakota, and both of them decided they loved the water on the muddy side of the beach. The boys enjoyed the water too. Christian perfected skipping rocks, and Brandon got soaked!

The kids had some fun at the playground too. Alyson built a volcano (although it looks pretty flat in the picture).

Christian and Bill tried to get his kite to fly (it needed bigger sails and/or more wind).

We had a wonderful dinner cooked by the kids (not MY kids… the big kids), and went down to the docks to see if Josh and Trek caught any crab.

Alyson loved this part of the adventure. She loved sitting at the side of the dock, watching a too-small crab float back down into the depths, while waving and saying “Bye crab!”.

The boys liked helping pull the rope up, and Christian even picked up a crab or two.

They even liked it when they were told the rule. Can’t pull the crab pots up again until you go run up and back down that MASSIVE hill over there! They took it on with gusto, including Danielle’s boyfriend Curtis who was fantastic with the boys. Brandon was proud he always came in second behind Christian and that Curtis was last LOL.

No trip to Flagler would be complete without a walk through the bunker. We were watching our watches and the ferry schedule pretty closely by this time. We did NOT want to get stuck on the last ferry of the night and chance missing that one as well.

We went through the bunkers, and although the camera took bright pictures of the inside, it was pitch black to our eyes… Angie probably remembers it well! (Alyson found the LOUD banging by the older kids really scary but enjoyed exploring anyway. The boys LOVED all of it.) and we headed home in time to catch the 11:20 ferry home!

On the ferry, Brandon fell asleep on the floor of the van. It wasn’t fun to try to move him, but it had to be done. Alyson had fallen asleep shortly after leaving Flagler, but woke a little on the ferry and was upset to be stuck in her carseat. They all did great, though, and had a wonderful day!

Here’s our musical daughter, quietly playing piano, still singing the song (albeit much more quietly) that she’s singing in this video, from VBS this year.

Yes, Alyson is wearing the same headphones I wore when I was little (now if only I could find a picture and scan it to have side by side).

Picture this… me sitting in the middle of our bedroom, surrounded by little kid clothes and my laptop, sorting and documenting our charitable donation of clothes for the pickup Thursday morning.

Alyson walks in and claims nearly everything in site! This is mine and I LOVE it! as she hugs it tightly to herself.

Ok, so I gave in. I let her keep a 2-3T red tow-truck shirt of Brandon’s (which she’s been wearing ever since), and some little socks, a bib, and a shirt for her baby dolls.

On a side note, the boys had the mission yesterday of filling a garbage bag with toys to give away. HAH! They came back with four tiny little McDonalds toys. Their room is an embarrassing mess (which I’m really trying to fix this summer) and that’s all they can find to give away?!? /rant

Here is me as a Simpsons character

If you want to be a Simpson too, Simpsonize Me *

*thanks Mama Milton for starting (or passing along) the madness

Well, it was inevitable, I guess. Our darling sweet kind daughter has turned into a terror tot. Much, but not all, of the time.

On the bright side, she is learning to potty train. At the moment, she’s sitting on the floor in my office saying, “Just be quiet Mommy. Picking a pair.” as she’s spreading her new Dora, Princess, and plain underwear all over my floor to select one special pair. The winner tonight? Pink with princesses on it. She actually managed to stay dry the entire time we were at skating today, even through a nap! Pretty impressive. There’s hope that she’ll train before 4 (the boys were both 4).

Oh, and while it’s not the clearest picture, Yes that is underwear on Alyson’s head.

Back to Ms. Terror Tot… yesterday she was in Time Out more than she was out of it. Everything she did was directly contrary to what we’d just told her. Don’t jump on the bed landed her in time out twice and got her hurt once. When we’d put her in time out, she’d push her limits and try to move two feet to the left. Everything had to be her way or she was extremely upset. I had no idea we had spoiled her so badly, but I can tell you it stops now! We were all exhausted at the end of the day. Thankfully today has been a bit better.

Side note: check out Bill’s blog to see pics of our driveway under construction!

We’ve also started ice skating (thanks Crystal for roping us into another activity LOL)…

And one more… Bill and I went to a wedding on Saturday and dressed up