Peek A Boo

I've been hiding lately...a lot.  Mostly, I haven't figured out how to manage my time since school started and the fact that I was keeping two other little boys (not at same time) in house. (I'm still keeping one.) I felt like I was working again, a real 9 to 5. I was passed out sleep on the sofa every night! That exhaustion brought back all those old memories from teaching preschool. Lol. Caleb has been enjoying it though. He's had someone to play with on a regular basis besides me and the ducks.

We also geared up and did our annual back to school supply drive and free clothes giveaway. I'm a big believer that we should be helping one another and promoting growth and success. We all are. We even started a non profit to get this show on the road, Open Heart Outreach, Inc. This great project has been another factor of my non existence posts. We have so many ideas and projects that we can't wait to start working on! I would have linked the fb page, but I'm on my phone on the sofa under a blanket and...ummm...well...I'm just too lazy to go get on the computer. (Hey, atleast I'm honest right?)

So at night before I fall asleep on the sofa (the hubby and I are usually exhausted and fall out on the sofa), I'm on pinterest looking up everything from fundraising ideas to budget proposals to grant writing. Oh yeah and clothes, home organization, and every and anything. You know how it goes.  I'm sure you've been on pinterest.  If you haven't, don't go.  It's a trap.

The kids have been enjoying school so far. Well, Cate has. Miss Thang is pulling in straight A's, nothing less than a 95! Awesome!! She has also made up her mind to do gymnastics again.  She wakes up in the morning doing handstands and goes to sleep doing them.  I think she'll likely stick with it this time.  You can just see the light in her eyes when she watches gymnastics on tv.  I think there is a dream in the making.  She's also joined the school chorus and is very excited about performing.  I think she's making fourth grade her year to go "boom!"

 

Aj is adapting to middle school okay though he's trying to get slack on his work. He made all As and Bs and a 78.  We don't do C's at all in this house.  In fact he has never made one, neither of them. It's one thing to do your absolute best and make a C vs. not doing your best and making a C.  So we both know he wasn't performing his best and I have no desire to "handicap" my child by making him feel like that was good enough. He did good though, but I know he can do better.  I know, you may be thinking that's not that bad, but for him it is.  This is a child that excels in every area of standardized testing (which I hate by the way) and has always made mostly A's.  He is teetering into that "I need to be cool" stage. God give me strength to get through that so I don't jack him up.  He knows I'm not about that. Items have already been confiscated and priveledges revoked.

This was also his first year playing football, which I assume is part of the problem (time management wise). We didn't let him play last year to see how he adjusted to middle school and he was soooo excited about it this year.  It was like the best thing ever for him.  However, as always with our family, disaster strikes.

Apparently in his weight lifting class, he couldn't lift the bar anymore while doing bench.  Instead of easing the bar down, he just gave out fracturing his sternum.  There is nothing scarier than getting a call from the school nurse saying your child is having trouble breathing.  It's been about 8 weeks and as of now, and he's healing well.  Most of his restrictions have been lifted. However, he can't play any kind of contact sports which really sucks for him.  He couldn't even jog for the first three weeks. Not to mention that I couldn't stop yelling at the child for the first whole month: "Be Still!"  "Put that down!"  "You know you're not supposed to be doing that!" You know, I was half afraid the child was just going to break. So glad he's doing so much better!

So that's a few of the happenings that have been going on, mostly chaos.  Mostly not organized chaos.  I feel there are some huge things about to happen and I'm excited.  You know when you're not quite sure what it is, but you know God is about to do something.  Yeah.  And it was only confirmation, when a guest Pastor came to church and his wife told me that my worse days are behind me.  Hello! Can I get a AMEN!  Then she proceeded to say that I was about to come into a position of power and authority like I have never seen before.  What?  I was like wow.  I wonder what's about to happen.
Then the next day, I was like wait a minute.  That mean busy, don't it? 


Haha! Lord give me strength... and rest!

The "We Need To Take The Kids Somewhere Because School Starts Friday" Trip

Last Friday,  August 1 school started for us. It had rolled around incredibly fast. So fast that we realized summer was about over for us. Yet, we hadn't really taken the kids anywhere for the summer. Partly due to that early injury from the car accident that couldn't have come at a worse time, the day before the last day of school. The other parts come from Andre working a lot and from church schedules.

So for the last two weekends prior to the start of school, we decided to forgo everything and take the kids off. I admit skipping church made me feel very guilty. However, we usually do everything asked of us so I said God might forgive us. Might.

The first weekend we took the kids to the beach. This was actually our first trip to the beach the whole summer and it's only like an hour away!  I don't think anyone was more excited than Caitlyn.  She was ready to whip and whirl in the waves.

It was a perfect day to go to the beach.  You know most of the time it's just tooooo hot.  The weather that day was just right- not too hot and not too cool.  We could have stayed there all day. Not to mention, I've been watching way to many house hunters episodes with couples searching for homes on the beach.  Oh, how I would love to do that! Soon.  I keep telling myself.  However, the house won't be on a beach.



These two tough guys decided to take themselves further out in the water and got "had" by a huge wave.



When it was time to go, of course the kids didn't want to leave.  Then all the "I wish we lived by the beach." songs started.  I joined in.  I'm like, "I know.  I know."  That would just be so nice!



Not sure when we'll make it back down that way, but hopefully it's soon.

We then decided to drive to Atlanta the next weekend. School shopping was one of our major goals for the trip. We were hoping to score some great deals at the outlet and we did. Aj needed an entire wardrobe because he's outgrown everything. The kid is a giant.   He literally survived summer in basketball shorts that his dad had outgrown. He swears he is taller than me but I'm just going to rebuke that. LOL!

Suprisingly, I didn't buy anything for myself once we got there.  Although, I really wanted this skirt.  I thought it was sooo cute...until I turned around and saw that those flowers were really in full bloom!  LOL.  Yeah,  we're back on this weight train again, primarily because I just decided to chill during the fall.  You know- on again off again every now and then workouts.

What is it about hotel beds?

We only stayed for a night in Atlanta.  We left home Saturday afternoon (because we're slowful) and came back home a little around midnight Monday morning.

Yall this booger is so spoiled I can barely tell you.  That sly grin comes after 15 minutes of crying because he wanted to stay up and wait for me to get in the bed.  He refused to lay down without me and as you can tell from the camera angle, I did.  

Our first trip on that Sunday was a stop at Zoo Atlanta.  We bought an annual pass when we went for spring break because it was only like 20 dollars more.  That's for 2 adults and 4 children.  The kids got feeding sticks for the birds.  I tell you that little area is kind of scary especially when all the birds silently decide to just swoop right over your heads.  The kids enjoyed the park and I actually think I may have lost 2lbs trying to walk all over it.  I was leaving Mr. Evans in the dust.

Our next stop was to our very first Braves game.  Aj and Cate actually didn't want to go at all.  I mean they would have to sit down and be still.  What was going to be fun about that?   They actually did enjoy the game, mostly the cotton candy and playing subway surfers on daddy's phone.  We were going to let the kids run the bases after the game until we learned that the line was like two cities long.  Ummm....no mam.  It was already late and we don't live up there.   We had a drive so we passed.  It was a nice trip.  We plan on going to another game one day soon.