First Day of School - 2014

I can’t believe it!  The first day of school already!  My boys are so excited to be going back.  And I really enjoyed buying and labeling school supplies.  So this is, overall, a fun time of year.
Kobe is 13 and starting 8th grade.  He is on Eclipse base.  He got braces the day before school started!  But I think he looks handsome in his braces.  He can pull it off.  He is currently playing on TWO football teams – Varsity Little Loop and the OPMS team!  Add scouts to that and he is one busy 8th grader.  I think we bit off more than we could chew for that guy, but we’ll tough it out for a few months and never make that mistake again.

(Luke had a fall on a diving board the day before school started and got a huge scrape all down his shin.)
Luke is 11 and starting 6th grade.  A big middle schooler now!  He is soooooo excited.  He was ready for school to start weeks ago.  He is on Enterprise base.  We just went last night to organize his locker and he could hardly contain himself.  I should’ve taken a picture.  Luke is so full of life and loves everything about it. He is playing football on JV Maroon Little Loop and loving it.  It’s going to be a great year for Luke.
Jude is 8 and starting 3rd grade.  Wow!  His teacher is Mrs. Oesterle and she is very structured and fair and kind.  I think she will be great for Jude.  He doesn’t know tons of kids in his class, but he is good at making new friends so I know he will be fine.  He is getting ready to start a new soccer season and he loves Cub Scouts (he has a fantastic leader named Sister York ), so I know he will have a great fall.
Tate is 6 and starting 1st grade.  My baby!  He is excited for school to start, but looooooves to be at home, just like his mama.  So leaving the house every day to go to school is definitely a chore for him.  But he has a good attitude and once he gets there he is happy.  His teacher is Mrs. Kingston and, from what I hear, she will be great for him.  He “graduated” out of his IEP last year, so he won’t be receiving speech services from his amazing Speech Therapist, Ms. Beyer.  I am heartbroken.  He will always learn things a little differently than the majority, but I know he will thrive in school and in 1st grade.
I am starting my second year of all of my kids being in full day school.  I took a nap and did laundry their first day back.  I will have a great year.

Get ‘er Done

I really don’t have anything to blog about today, but I don’t want to get out of the habit after only one post this year.  So just a few random thoughts.

There are a lot of things that are sad about not having a girl, but the one thing I’m sad about today is not ever being able to help her pick out a homecoming or prom dress.  That would’ve been fun.  All I’ll get to do is contact some girl’s mother to find out the color of her dress and find a matching tie and corsage.  So boring.  And all of my boys’ dance pictures will be next to a possibly ugly or inappropriate dress.  Completely out of my hands.

Everyone always wants to get thin for the summertime, but I really wish that I was thin this winter so I could wear leggings.  With boots.  Leggings with boots.  I think it’s so cute and I know it would be so comfortable.  Instead I have to squeeze into my one pair of jeans that fit whenever I go out in public and then tear them off the minute I get home and pull on my sweats.  Lately I’ve gotten lazy and I just wear my sweats out in public sometimes.  Last night I wore them to The Cheesecake Factory.  Acclimating to Buffalo culture has been very easy for me.

We got a wireless printer on Black Friday and it has completely changed my life.  I always work on my laptop, and had to stand up, walk four feet over to the printer, hook up the cable, and stand there every time I wanted to print something.  Now I can just press print from the comfort of my bed.  Whatever judgment you want to pass on me is fine.

Blog regularly.  Check.

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year, everyone!  I am going to try and start blogging again.  I’m not sure how I’ll do, but I’m excited to try.  Here are my new blogging rules:

1.  Blog for myself, not with the hope that people will like it or I’ll get more followers or people will comment, etc.  I want my friends and family to read my blog, but I don’t want that to affect my self esteem or motivation.  I’m going to turn off the comments, just to keep myself in check.

2.  Less pictures.  I think pictures are what weaned me off of the blog a year ago.  Too much work.  And then I’m less likely to just blog about my thoughts or feelings because I feel like I should be scrapbooking my life.

3.  I’m not going to feel the pressure to explain why I’m blogging about something.  If I just want to jump right into talking about my neighbor who is the friendliest man in the world but my gut tells me he’s a serial killer, I’m just going to do it.  And if I post that blog on December 25th, I’m not going stress about blogging about Christmas.  If that’s what is on my mind, then that’s what I’m going to write.  Likewise, I’m not going to stress about tying everything up with a conclusion paragraph.  If I want to end by saying, “I’m going to the store now,” then I will.

I think that’s all.  I haven’t read any blogs since they shut down Google Reader.  It coincided with our move and me joining Instagram, so that whole part of my life just died.  I hope nothing major has happened to any of my old blog authors.  I’ll have to check up on them.

Anyway, I’m excited to be back!  I love New Years.  I love New Year’s resolutions.  I just love fresh starts and starting lines and official beginnings.  I always start diets on Mondays, and usually the first Monday of the month.  There are things that I couldn’t imagine starting on, say, a Thursday in October.  But January 1st is just so fresh and new and I’m full of hope and resolution.

And I know this is going to be a great year.  Last year was chaotic.  A lot of life changes, with plenty of blessings and miracles all along the way.  But it was exhausting.  This year is hopefully going to be normal and boring and I can hardly wait.  Plus, 2014 is an even year, so it’s bound to be better than the odd years.  It’s so psychological for me, but it’s tough to sit through an entire odd year.  365 even year days ahead!

And I know I said no pictures, but I found this gem this morning while frantically going through Jude’s backpack, which hadn’t been touched since his last day of school.

His amazing teacher had a “Polar Express Day” and dressed up as the conductor.  He is the best and I’m so glad Jude has him.

Also, living in New York state subjects us to a lot of government rules and control.  But Christmas at the schools was pure rebellion from political correctness.  The Grinch and Santa Claus came and visited the school, the children sang Christmas Carols, including “Silent Night”, and all the crafts were “Christmas” themed, not “Winter” themed.  It actually made me feel a little nervous at first because I’m such a rule follower, but it was so refreshing and made it such a wonderful December.