16 years of marriage

I've known Andrew since I was 15 years old. Yesterday we celebrated our 16th year of marriage. While it doesn't seem like we were married yesterday, it certainly doesn't seem like 16 years have passes since we walked down the aisle
Here we are, 16 years later with three children and two dogs. Living a busy life in Florida together enjoying our lives and holding hands through the challenges
The challenges have been many especially over the last few years and yet somehow we endure it all together with the help of loved ones.
If you are reading this, thank you for being a part of our lives. Thank you, Andrew, for continuing to believe in me.
I hope the next 16 years together are filled with much happiness together

Monday of Spring Break 2012

The day didn't start off as I planned. The kids and I slept in until 8:40. This is a rarity for us! Most days I would be thrilled I got to sleep in so late but I wanted to leave by 9 to meet a friend and her family. I had to cancel on her which was disappointing. I got the kids dressed in their swim suits rather than regular clothing because they had swim lessons at 1. They adore their swim coach/teacher but for some reason decided they did not want to go swimming. They complained for over an hour about going to the pool. Alex didn't stop complaining when we got to the pool and Lane claimed that she was scared.

Two hours later, no one would know our morning was filled with complaints when they were splashing happily in the pool with their friends. Ah, I thought the day was salvaged and we could move on. In my mind, this is a precursor to our humid and hot summer days. I took the kids to get a snack and headed home. The complaining started again. I told them that it needed to stop or they could sit on their beds until bed time. Up the stairs we went so the kids could get changed out of their swim suits. Alex said that he was going to to the play room to play with blocks. Gabriel followed him. Great, I thought as I helped Lane with her duplos. Not so great was when I heard Gabriel call my name followed by Alex telling him "Don't tell Mom. She will stop us." This is what I found on the wall:

My 5 and 7 year olds painted on the white wall. Lane chanted: paint on paper, not on the wall! Thankfully it was kids paint. Unfortunately, it took over half an hour to clean the wall. Gabriel was very angry that I didn't keep his painting on the wall. I patiently explained that if he used any of the paper in the bin, we could keep that art work. Please, please, please let this NOT be a prelude to our long summer!

Kobe

It's great advice to stop and see things through the eyes of your child. We have been going to Kobe restaurants for years. We love Japanese steak houses. Now our children enjoy going too.
Even better, on Tuesdays, the Kobe near us has kids eat free night. We go for the early bird, choose water, and get a darn good deal for a family of five eating out.
Despite being the same entertainment each time, the kids still find it new and exciting. It's so fun to watch their reactions to the fire volcano, the Mickey Mouse, and the soy sauce Coca-Cola joke. They are impressed by it every time!
We bought fish food for the Koi in their indoor pond. The kids were entertained for 20 minutes while they fed the fish. It was probably the best $1.50 I've spent in a while. I will need to remember change next time we go to Kobe.

St. Patrick's Day 2012

Gone are the St. Pats celebrations with green beer but our celebration now includes three green clad children. The boys thought St. Pats day was neat this year. They knew to put on green right away and they were ready to pinch anyone who wasn't wearing green.
The Friday prior to St. Pats, all three children took little green shamrocks with gold candy attached. The shamrocks read "I'm lucky you're my teacher." They were very proud of their little creations. Lane was especially excited to hand her shamrock to her teacher.

On St. Patrick's Day we went to Build-A-Bear with ASGO, the autism group. Gabriel made a dog, Alex made a monkey, and Lane was thrilled to bring a purple Hello Kitty to life. Lane is definitely "all girl".
Later our friend Whitney and her friend, Keesha, met us at home. They were visiting from KY on their spring break. We went swimming and out to dinner at Joe's. Alex worked hard at figuring out the monkey bars while Lane made friends with other toddlers and enjoyed the slide. Gabriel, on the other hand, thought the rocks were the best part of the playground. Alex did make several sand/rock angels while we were there. I wish I had photos to share of it because it's pretty funny to see a five year old making an angel in rocks.
Alex's first crush has been on Whitney so we allowed him to stay awake until hours past his bed time. He had quite a tough time waking up today!
It wasn't a wild St. Patrick's day but a memorable one shared with friends. We are grateful for their time and the memories created.

Lane's Color Book

Using a few ideas from Pinterest, Lane and I created a book about colors for her. We had fun picking out paint chip samples and other colorful objects. We printed some free templates from blogs:


We cut out the pictures, sorted them, and glued it all into a journal type book we found at the teacher store.
Lane helped me pick out ribbon to glue on the pages, hanging out of the book. It created a type of book mark for each color. We are both proud of our little creation and I'm happy I was able to complete it with her.

Lane is become very good at naming colors but purple remains her favorite. Once in a while she will tell me that she likes purple and "kink".. pink in non-toddler speak.

A Day in the Life of Autism

Sometimes Gabriel acts so... well, ... normal. I start to think this autism thing isn't as bad as it feels. Then I wonder if I'm just overly sensitive to each of his quirky ways.
THEN autism hits again. Gabriel had a particularly bad day yesterday. He threw a fit going into Build-A-Bear for the autism group's activity. He called it "stupid" and refused to go into the store. When we got there, he insisted on crawling under the gated entrance rather than just walking into the store when it opened.
We went to lunch afterward and again it was "stupid". Gabriel ran down the hallway of the mall to go back to the Build-A-Bear, the place where he didn't want to go a few hours earlier. He would not eat lunch with us but thankfully I had my phone to keep him busy. He had to sit in between Andrew and me so he wouldn't run out of the restaurant.
Later in the day, we went to dinner at Joe's. They have a playground with little rocks on the ground. Gabriel sat on the ground and covered himself in rocks. He put them in his ears. His hair has rocks embedded in it. He filled his mouth with rocks and crunched on them. When he went to the restroom, hand fulls of rocks flowed to the ground.
I know, you might be thinking, "what's the big deal?" My kid has eaten rocks. My kids hasn't always cooperated in a mall. My kid drank the water out of the public water fountain. My kid touched everything in the Farmer's Market. Those last two items happened this morning when we walked down to the local Farmer's Market.
The difference might be that Gabriel is SEVEN. I don't see other 7 year olds incapable of keeping their hands to themselves while walking down a row of vendors. Other children might touch a couple things but not Gabriel, he touches EVERYTHING he can get his hands on. This includes the breakables and he is not careful. It makes the adventures stressful but I suck in my frustrations and make the most of the adventure. If I didn't, I would sit in the house with the kids all the time.
Eating rocks and drinking public water made quite a few people stare. It looks rather odd. I can't always stop him. If he has something in his mind, he runs to do it and I have two other children to keep an eye on. Sometimes a mouth full of rocks is the least of my concern.
If you see a child munching on rocks or drinking out of the water fountain, try to hold your judgmental comments. It might not be poor parenting that lead the child to that place in time. It might be a disability rearing its ugly head.
At one point when Gabriel was screaming and yelling in the van, five year old Alex asked, "is he doing that because of his autism?" Yes, Alex, and I know it's difficult to watch and listen but it will make you and your sister more accepting people in the future.

Reward Cards

I use reward cards at stores, hotels, and restaurarants. I also use them for airlines. Anywhere I can earn points for things I already purchase, I use a reward card. Why not? It's free. (except some of the book stores - they need to get with the program and offer free reward cards too)
My wallet is full of cards. It was so full that I had to pull some out and put them in the desk drawer. Given that I adore anything to do with organization and can't think past clutter when I see it. So I have been frustrated by my stack of cards in our desk drawer. It honestly bothers me.
When I saw this idea on Pinterest, I had to go for it! I found a ring, punched some holes, and slid the cards on the ring. Done! Now the cards will find a home in the van for when I need to use them.

I also found the free Key Ring app for my phone, per a friend's suggestion. I scanned the reward cards into the app and now have all of them available through my phone. Once I'm sure the kids won't delete my app, I'll feel comfortable getting rid of the physical cards. A third back up - the phone number system lists at the store. Whew.
Thank you Pinterest for another "wish I had thought of that first but it doesn't matter because now it's done" moment.

*drunk failure*

I told Andrew that I decided to be a drunk. I can cope more easily with everything if I have a glass of wine. He said that was fine though the side effects to my liver would be disappointing. So I drank a glass of wine and another... it turned into a bottle and a half of wine. I was relaxed and felt great. I think I'm really funny when I've had alcohol. I even think I can dance!
Until the next morning when I had to get up with three young children. I had to get them dressed and to school. I wanted to curl up in bed, not deal with three active children. Their behavior was no more tolerable with a bad headache. My head screamed at me with each step and I was positive I was going to yak in front of the teachers at the school.
So I'm a drunk failure. I don't know how someone can be a functional drunk. How the heck do you function the next day with that kind of cotton mouth and headache?
It was a terrible idea and I was a failure. I suggest you don't even try it. I'm saving you the pain. I'll continue my journey sober. Well, except for the occasional glass of wine (or two)...

Read to your child's class

Lane attends preschool Thursday and Friday mornings. She LOVES it. In fact, she yells at me the other three week days because she is at home with me. Quite a different reaction from the boys who have never really warmed up to the idea of school. I'm glad but somewhat sad that she has grown up so quickly.
Thursday mornings I go to the school and volunteer in Alex's classroom. He isn't testing well. In fact, the school didn't think he knew his colors or shapes because he won't tell his teacher. He's known those things since he was 2 years old. ~sigh~ So I'm there to see if I can help in the room and with Alex. It's good to see how Alex behaves in the class room, and perhaps even an eye opener.
I also go to his room with all three children one evening after school. We are hoping to figure out why he isn't testing well.
No answers yet but we're working on it. Thank goodness for wonderful teachers who care about their student's success. I am grateful for his teacher this year.
I went to the school on Monday but when I got to the room, the teacher told me that she had to go to Urgent Care right after school so we weren't able to meet to help Alex. Instead, she pulled me into the room to read to the students since I was there any way.

I don't know why but I have always been intimated by reading to a class. I have never volunteered to read to a class. I didn't mind reading to my class as a Pre-K teacher but I think having the professional teacher there makes it scarier.
When I didn't have a chance to think about it, I didn't have time to get anxious. I sat down and read a short book to the class. It wasn't bad. In fact, it was downright enjoyable to have 17 little faces watching me read. I didn't have the responsibility of the class, just the fun.
Take a few minutes and volunteer in your child's room. I guarantee, you'll love it too.

Bobby Pin Holder

I haven't posted about projects or organizational things I've done lately. I've done a few but to be honest, I have been getting caught up from the holidays and working on getting things in place for summer break. I have a couple months but I want to be organized and ready for a fun yet educational summer for the children. If I'm not organized, nothing will get accomplished.
My list is getting checked off slowly. It feels good to get thank you cards mailed from the holidays. This is late for me! I don't know what happened but I'm back on track!
I saw a tic tac bobby holder idea on Pinterest. How easy yet "green" and an organizational idea too. All the things I love in one little container. Gabriel was more than happy to eat a bunch of tic tacs so I could put bobby pins in the container.
So I took the bobby pins off the paper and threw them in the container - wha la! Easy Peasy as Alex tells us. On to more Pinterest ideas...

Religious Discussions with Children

Avoid discussing religion and politics with friends. It's a good policy to have to avoid disagreements and awkward moments. However, this is a blog about our family so I'm going to break that rule.
Andrew and I have different views about religion and the afterlife. Since we both feel strongly about our views but there's no way to prove our belief, we decided to discuss many belief systems with our children. We know this is not common among parents. We also know that several of our friends and relatives would think this isn't the correct way to introduce religion to children.
We respect the way other people raise their children and hope other people will do the same for us. If not, it isn't going to change our minds so it will only hurt our relationship with those people. We will raise children with strong ethics and belief systems.
The boys, especially Alex, have had many questions about death and the afterlife lately. Andrew explained reincarnation and the concept of heaven and hell. He also explained resurrection. We've told them bits and pieces along the way but haven't spent hours explaining things yet. Both of the boys listened intently to the entire explanation. When asked which belief system made the msot sense to them, they liked reincarnation the best. Heaven sounds best to me, but I'm not a 5 or 7 year old boy.

Alex was having a rough time a few days later. Afterward he told me that he really should work on his behavior because he wouldn't want to end up in that place with fire with the mean guy or as a bug in his next life. Then Gabriel chimed in and said, "I don't think a bug's life would be too bad." It was pretty tough to keep a straight face.
I will enjoy watching and helping our children develop their religious views. I know it's going to get more complicated but right now, I enjoy teaching them things from world religions. What a journey!