The oldest two spent last week at Threshold, a GT camp held at Hardin Simmons in Abilene. They really seemed to love it, and I loved that another girl went from their school and her mom and I could share the driving. The last day Brian and I got to come and see what they worked on all week. Angie's age group studies major events of by decades starting at the 1950's and learned what is involved in making a city. Then they divided into groups and had to design their own. Angie was the "artist" of her group. Her friend was the "politician" in another group. Angie designed a museum for her city that also included a billboard for the Audobon exhibit. She also made a game where she bees in her city and you had to try to find them all.

Tony's grade studied the ocean including animals and ecology and they had to build an underwater city out of recycled materials. He was in heaven. Brian and I divided and conquered so I didn't get to see more of his presentation. Brian did say that Tony's teachers really seemed to enjoy him and that he gave one of them one of his famous running tackle hugs as they were leaving. They really seemed to get alot out of their camp and hope to go again next year. The themes are different every year, and when they get to middle school, they get to pick their classes.

Im so thankful to my friend for discovering it and suggesting it for Angie and Tony.

Tolerance

Yep, two posts in one day, it is a record. :)

This week, I took Angie and Tony to gymnastics Thursday evening. They usually go on Thursday mornings, but we went in the evening because Angie was at softball camp that morning. Zachary didn't go, seems he caught the virus I had earlier in the week. I'll spare you those details, but I will tell you that it is rare for either of us to be sick. Well, I ran into about 4 people that I knew, including one of the parents from Angie's dance class. This little girl was in gymnastics. I will tell you, she kind of bugs me. In dance she was always like "Miss Amy, Angie did this wrong, or miss Amy, Angie did that wrong." GRRR. So, after gymnastics, we are walking to the car, and she tells Angie "Don't forget what you need to work on and be sure to practice before next week." Kind of annoying, if you ask me.

So, when we get in our van, I ask Angie if it bothers her when this girl says stuff like that. Angie tells me, "no mom, she's my friend and she that's just the way she is". It doesn't bother me because she's right, I did mess up on that part and I do need to practice." Ahh, sweet girl. I could take a few pointers from her for sure. I need to work on letting more things so, letting less bother me and taking fewer things personally. These kids are teaching me so much!!

Change

Yeah yeah, I know I haven't gotten pictures on here yet. Here's a few random ones for kicks. The kids are all smiles about their lunchables. Seriously, they are super excited. When you are a family of 7 this is not something that is on your grocery list as a norm. This particular day, we were very busy at home cleaning, so this was an easy lunch (no dishes). That, and the fact that they wore me down at the grocery store.
The last picture is one of Zach and Aiden rocking out. It cracks me up, you put on a song they love and they immediately go for the Wii instruments. This particular day they are jamming to Weird Al's Lala la lasagna. Don't ask me, They LOVE this song and Zachary knows every word.

The next time I post pics you will get to see all their new haircuts. Amie did a fantastic job with the oldest 4. I don't need to tell you how hard it is to find someone that is good with kids cuts.

But that wasn't the only change I was referring to with the title. I am officially a part time employee. Yep, I'm nervous, I'm scared, but I am also excited and I know that things will work out and that I will be rewarded for putting my husband and my kids first. I don't know yet how I will do my schedule, and am trying out a couple different things, but I do know that I will be working 2 days a week. This is huge for us. I'm cutting my income by 1/3. Who does that in this economy? We do.

I found an online public school. Now, I'm perfectly content with the school the kids go to. They are happy and thriving. But I was still curious. So, I requested info, but my children have informed me that they love their school. So, we continue as we were. We may revisit this again in middle school but for now, I'll just continue to supplement their education at home. So, we aren't making that change this year.

Catching up.

Tomorrow, I promise to try to get pictures on here, but right now everyone is in bed and I don't want to turn more lights on to scrunge around to find my camera. Last week, I had the kids go to bed early the night before gymnastics. Well, they were up and dressed before I even got up, and they made their own bowls of cereal. It was so nice that I kept looking for alien antennaes on these perfect children. Gymnastics went much much better after a good night sleep. So, I have vowed to make my kids have a bedtime for the rest of the summer.

I worked Sunday the 4th, and my parents set off fireworks here. There was a show closeby Friday night and Saturday night, but I just wasn't into it this year. Maybe it was the idea of sitting out in the rain and the mud. Brian is not a fan of sparklers and he is super parental about it. I always tease him about it, and he was the one that burned his thumb on one. We were both off on Monday. Brian was off because the 4th wasn't his holiday to work and his hospital recognized it on the 5th.

It was an amazing day. Brian and I had a huge argument last week, which is not like us. I said I just wanted one good day and couldn't remember the last time I DID have one. Well, monday everything was aligned perfectly, and God definately smiled on us. We all got up and took Tony to zoo camp. Yes, its kind of ridiculous to make an hour trip to Abilene to drop him off and to make that trip everyday for 5 days, but to see him in his element was 100% worth it. Well, we took the other kids to the zoo at 9:00 right when it opened. It was cool that day so the animals were active. We left about 11:30 to get lunch and the crowds were just starting to come. So, then we went to lunch at Rosas. Don't ask me why I like that place so much, I just do. Well we ate, and left just as the crowds were starting to come.

Notice a pattern here? We got to spend a nice day enjoying our kids without fighting crowds!!! We stopped in at Sam's to pick up my membership card and picked up some yummy fruit, nectarines, blueberries, and organic raspberries. We took the other four kids to the park by the zoo until it was time to get Tony, and once again no crowds. My kiddos had the slides to themselves!! Mom called and asked if we'd meet her in cross plains to pick blackberries.

So we picked Tony up at 2:30 and headed over to the berry patch. We picked 35 pounds of blackberries. Of course the biggest juiciest berries had to be on the bushes with thorns and bugs :( Pam plans on making jelly, I just froze three bags worth to break out in winter. I didn't want them to go to waste and I had picked up all that fruit at Sam's earlier. Oh, and the raspberries were demolished on the way to the blackberry patch. Peaches will be ready this week. I was scorching by then, so We headed home and I took all the kids swimming. One of my favorite things to do. Really. Put a hot grumpy kid in a pool, and presto chango, new kid. Promise it works every time. Now that Emi is big enough for water wings, I actually get to move around in the water some. In the words of Tony, "hollah" "Whoop whoop"

Tony had a blast a zoo camp. If you see him, you will have to get him to tell you all about it. He did a "research project" on the red spitting cobra, and he did his first power point presentation, which they gave us a copy of, along with a picture of the kids in his camp.

The gymnastics teacher was very complimentary of the kids this week, especially Angie. Miss Charity said that she loves her attitude. She keeps practicing when the other kids are moping that they are hot and tired and she tries to help the other kids, especially her brothers. Ahhh, proud mom moment.

Tuesday when we came home from berry picking there was a message on our machine from one of the ladies at our old church. We don't go there anymore because we both work Sundays and they don't have a Wednesday service. Pam has been kind enough to take my kids to her church, so when we started looking for a Wednesday night church, we ended up there because the kids are used to going there. Anyway, the message was so sweet about how they missed the kids this year at vacation bible school. Honestly, i would have sent them had I known about it. So, they went starting Wednesday evening. We went tonight to here the songs they learned this week. What a wonderful blessing.

Anyhoo, It my be a boring life, but its my life. Hope everyone is doing well.

Summer

If you asked Angie and Tony what they did this summer, they'd say: "we learned latin, studied poetry, read classic literature, studied history, etc". If you asked Zachary what he did, he'd say "I rode my bike, swam and played in the mud every chance I got, and it was AWESOME." Too funny. These are a couple of pics of our trip to the Llano river. On the left Zach is telling me to "take the picture so we can swim".

Brian and I just got to go for the day because we both had to work Sunday, but mom and dad stayed through Monday. The kids had a blast camping on the river. It was a private rv park in Junction, and it was exactly what we all needed. The pecan trees where massive. Mom said that Sunday once people started clearing out, the kids found several rope swings tied up in those trees. We swam and kayaked the river and Tony caught two fish.

I had a bit of a frustrating week with the kids. I vowed that I was taking them out of all activities. Zachary had some sort of emotional breakdown on Thursday and refused to do gymnastics. He kept crying that he needed his dad. Very unlike him. Today he's made lots of comments about being glad that his dad isnt sick anymore, so I don't know if the two were related. But, as Brian says, I always say that and then I sign them up for stuff. Like today when I went down and signed them up for swimming lessons the last two weeks of July, sigh. If only I didn't feel that it was important for them to be safe in the water.

Angie

Ballet

Broadway

Softball
Here are a few pictures of what sweet girl has been up to. I really need to be reminded sometimes what a good kid she truly is. She is a good big sister and a big help to me. Angie has very high expectations for herself. I feel like my job as her mom isnt to motivate her but rather to remind her that its ok to just have fun sometimes and that she will be loved no matter what. Ladybug made a perfect score on both sections of her TAKS test. Brian and I were so proud. She was very humble about it and only stated that she knew that she had passed.

She has always wanted to take ballet and she fell in love with childrens broadway all over again during her recital this week. It was a wonderful thing for me to witness. I am so thankful that it was such a positive experience for her. The scab on her nose is from running into the side of the pool while swimming at her girl scout camp out. Im a bit sad that I didn't get any pictures of it but the girls had a blast. Mom and Pam put up tents in the yard. The girls swam, karaoked and watched the tooth fairy on our outdoor projector.

What we are up to....

Well, I guess I would say that we are up to a whole lot of nothing. At least it is our nothing, right? The kids finished school on Thursday. I now have a 4th grader, a 3rd grader, and a kindergartener. Mr. Aiden will go to Tuesday school in the fall, so Tuesdays it will be just me and Emi. The kids had a very good school year overall. I think many were surprised that they did as well as they did considering the stress our family has been under since in December. Both of the older kids made all "A"s. Angie's year average was a 95 in math. To hear her tell it, its because she isn't good at math. She received several awards including student of the year for third grade. Tony recieved some awards as well, but his are wadded up in the bottom of his backpack :)

I promised the kids two camps this summer if they made all "a"s so later I'm sure I will be writing about GT camp, softball camp, and zoo camp. The kids are also doing gymnastics one day a week, vacation bible school and a soccer camp. Tony has been telling me for a couple of years that he wants to paly soccer, but when I told him that it was played outside and that he'd have to run after a ball, he wasn't so sure. So we are trying an inexpensive 4 day camp.

Angie has a dance recital next week. She has a practice Wednesday, a dress rehearsal Thursday and a full recital Friday and Saturday. Ugggh. She loves her ballet class, but not so much the childrens broadway class afterward. There are only four girls in that class so the teacher really points out every little thing they do wrong. I told Angie that its not personal and that she just wants to help her improve, but its like watching the air being let out of a balloon--watching her face in that class. On the way home Thursday, we talked about maybe only doing one dance class or maybe going back to gymnastics. We will see what the summer brings.

One of the mom's Thursday was talking about her daughter's voice lessons. So I ask where they do voice. She tells me Howard Payne, "but its really expensive". At first I was pissed. These snooty dance mom attitudes get under my skin, but then I thought "she's right, it probably is more than I'm willing to pay." We are on a budget, but I was thinking more about other prices we pay. And Brian and I are trying very hard to put our kids in things that are going to build them up. They have wonderful spirits and I don't want that changed.

I talked to my boss about going to part time, so I will be taking the leap in July. I am nervous, but I'm also excited. I think two days a week will be a huge help to our family. We're doing some things to prepare and budget, and there are going to be some things that we have to say no to, but I think it will be good. We cancelled our directv and our movie store membership. Next month we hope to pay off the last of our credit card debt. Brian changed his shift to 4, 10 hour shifts, so he will be home every evening. This will be better for the kids, but I worry about the extra driving on Brian.

yep that's right, he's back at work. He's working 8 hour shifts to start with. He's doing pretty well, and has a PET scan June 18th. Please keep praying that this scan is clean and that he continues to heal.