Ha! Never in my wildest dreams would I have considered writing anything about our dog...let alone entire blog entry about our four legged friend. :-)
However, props must be given to Perry! This dog has only endured 2 weeks of pet training and yet, you/we can notice a huge difference in the way he carries himself and with his overall behavior. If just 2 classes of training can do THIS much for a pet, I am a full believer and do recommend it to anyone and everyone who has a dog!
Perry can now sit, lay down and stand (from laying down or sitting position) on verbal and hand ques (with or without treats!). This week we're working on "no jumping". Seriously, Perry has caught on quickly and loves all the praises he receives for his obedience.
The whole family is involved too! The trainer is soooo patient and works really well with all of us. The kids can get Perry to do all these commands as well. It's so awesome watching them get empowered to help train and bring up Perry in the appropriate way.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Funny Quote From Jackson Today
Me: Good morning Jackson.
Jackson: Good morning mommy.
Me: Breakfast is on the table. There's sausage, eggs and fruit ready for ya.
Jackson: Sounds good, but what's my main dish?
Me (laughing): Main dish?! All of that IS your main dish.
Jackson: Those are my sides, I need a main dish like cereal with it.
Me: Well OK, if you eat all that I've already served you, then you can have cereal too.
Jackson: OK, I will
Sure enough! Jackson ate all that I originally made for him and then he tackled a bowl of cereal too! I cannot imagine what and how much they'll be eating as pre-teens thru teenage years! Yikes... ;-)
Jackson: Good morning mommy.
Me: Breakfast is on the table. There's sausage, eggs and fruit ready for ya.
Jackson: Sounds good, but what's my main dish?
Me (laughing): Main dish?! All of that IS your main dish.
Jackson: Those are my sides, I need a main dish like cereal with it.
Me: Well OK, if you eat all that I've already served you, then you can have cereal too.
Jackson: OK, I will
Sure enough! Jackson ate all that I originally made for him and then he tackled a bowl of cereal too! I cannot imagine what and how much they'll be eating as pre-teens thru teenage years! Yikes... ;-)
Thursday, May 17, 2012
So Many Thoughts, So Little Time...So Little Direction
I created this blog to partially have a place as my dumping ground for all my wild, creative, deep and at times, short lived thoughts. I wanted to have this blog as a central place to refer back to sweet memories, document celebratory times in my life and in the life of my children. Those are just a few of the reasons for this forum.
Lately though, I've been finding myself extremely consumed with the amount of responsibility I have. MANY of my responsibilities are character building and enjoyable, while others are a drag and just part of being an adult; a responsible adult. Sometimes the extreme challenges that I go through with my responsibilities I honestly don't really want to write somewhere because at times I think I don't want to remember these difficult and trying times, sometimes I think when I'm old, I just want to be in complete denial and remember only the best of times with my family and never remember all the struggles I've dealt with, with schools, work, difficult conversations, battle with overeating, the reality of an unjust world and being a control freak at times.
Seriously. I am so sick and tired of being a responsible adult and be surrounded (my children too) by a group and/or a community where half of the adults are completely irresponsible! I am exhausted from having to point out the most obvious safety efforts that should and need to be in place by such a powerful school district. There are several present and past employees (the past still affect my position a bit) who get/have gotten paid for not even doing their job. Parents of kids at my children's school who are completely uninvolved and do not display an ounce of care about their child's behavior or the community and education within their child's school. This week I heard from a school district employee "well that's not in my pay bracket" when I asked him to give a message to a specific person there in the same office. I JUST ABOUT LOST IT!!! I had to refrain from acting out my thoughts for many reasons, but 1 in particular is that I was in my freaking cubical at work finishing up my lunch break! To the best of my ability at the time I said that there are a lot of things that I do that aren't in my pay bracket...good and bad...but I'm a team player, I get paid and I have good work ethics (as I'm having this conversation at work ;-) ) so I do a lot of things that I don't get paid to do, but that's life. Oh man I was furious!!!!
More and more lately the very harsh reality that we live (and am raising my children in) in a VERY.UNJUST. WORLD. My children's generation is being robbed of important life skills. Self control. Honesty. Work Ethics. Responsible Citizen. Pay Taxes (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)...just to name a few. TRUST ME...MY KIDS ARE NO SAINTS AND THEY NEVER WILL BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! However, they are being raised in an environment that supports, pushes and physically works hard to build the community around them to be safe, team effort, leaders and honesty. At the end of each day, I go to bed knowing that I have given my best, I love my children with every ounce of my heart and soul (and not showing love with donuts, soda, Twinkies and endless amount of TV) and the rest, I hand over to God and ask Him to protect and handle it. :-)
Life is hard. I want so badly for my kids to grow up in a world that is filled with responsible, honest, mature people who own their short comings. Not robots, or people who are perfect, just people who are pro-active, who care and give their very best every.single.day.
My birthday is next month and for the last nearly 4 years, I get really "real" with myself and emotional as my birthday approaches. Not sure why but I do. I feel like all my ranting above just ages me like crazy! I'm certain people in their 80's are looking at my generation and below and they must just shake their heads at us with disappointment.
So that's some of my thoughts and feelings over the last month or so... I'll move on now...
Lately though, I've been finding myself extremely consumed with the amount of responsibility I have. MANY of my responsibilities are character building and enjoyable, while others are a drag and just part of being an adult; a responsible adult. Sometimes the extreme challenges that I go through with my responsibilities I honestly don't really want to write somewhere because at times I think I don't want to remember these difficult and trying times, sometimes I think when I'm old, I just want to be in complete denial and remember only the best of times with my family and never remember all the struggles I've dealt with, with schools, work, difficult conversations, battle with overeating, the reality of an unjust world and being a control freak at times.
Seriously. I am so sick and tired of being a responsible adult and be surrounded (my children too) by a group and/or a community where half of the adults are completely irresponsible! I am exhausted from having to point out the most obvious safety efforts that should and need to be in place by such a powerful school district. There are several present and past employees (the past still affect my position a bit) who get/have gotten paid for not even doing their job. Parents of kids at my children's school who are completely uninvolved and do not display an ounce of care about their child's behavior or the community and education within their child's school. This week I heard from a school district employee "well that's not in my pay bracket" when I asked him to give a message to a specific person there in the same office. I JUST ABOUT LOST IT!!! I had to refrain from acting out my thoughts for many reasons, but 1 in particular is that I was in my freaking cubical at work finishing up my lunch break! To the best of my ability at the time I said that there are a lot of things that I do that aren't in my pay bracket...good and bad...but I'm a team player, I get paid and I have good work ethics (as I'm having this conversation at work ;-) ) so I do a lot of things that I don't get paid to do, but that's life. Oh man I was furious!!!!
More and more lately the very harsh reality that we live (and am raising my children in) in a VERY.UNJUST. WORLD. My children's generation is being robbed of important life skills. Self control. Honesty. Work Ethics. Responsible Citizen. Pay Taxes (!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)...just to name a few. TRUST ME...MY KIDS ARE NO SAINTS AND THEY NEVER WILL BE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! However, they are being raised in an environment that supports, pushes and physically works hard to build the community around them to be safe, team effort, leaders and honesty. At the end of each day, I go to bed knowing that I have given my best, I love my children with every ounce of my heart and soul (and not showing love with donuts, soda, Twinkies and endless amount of TV) and the rest, I hand over to God and ask Him to protect and handle it. :-)
Life is hard. I want so badly for my kids to grow up in a world that is filled with responsible, honest, mature people who own their short comings. Not robots, or people who are perfect, just people who are pro-active, who care and give their very best every.single.day.
My birthday is next month and for the last nearly 4 years, I get really "real" with myself and emotional as my birthday approaches. Not sure why but I do. I feel like all my ranting above just ages me like crazy! I'm certain people in their 80's are looking at my generation and below and they must just shake their heads at us with disappointment.
So that's some of my thoughts and feelings over the last month or so... I'll move on now...
- Looking at a private school for 2 of our 3 boys for next school year
- Looking for more responsibility at work (heck, if I'm gonna be there and away from my kids for 10 hrs/day, keep me busy and let me handle the areas that need more support)
- Starting a new bible study at church...and boy oh boy do I need it! It's about changing yourself through the tools that God has given you. Clearly I need a heart makeover this 5 min! lol
- Baseball season is sooooo close to being done
- Started our family in dog training classes with Perry. David and Perry are doing GREAT! The rest of us are trying so hard but it's not coming as easily as it has been for David.
- Loving my health insurance at work! Total God sent...
- In love with my church and all that it offers to support and help me and my children's relationship with the Lord grow bigger and stronger
- Constantly writing letters and making calls to schools and school district regarding bullying involving Jackson and Nathan (thankfully they're not the bullies)
- Signed another year's lease in our current house
- Recently got a ton of work done on David's car (few minor things left to handle) and we are SO grateful that we actually had money to pay for it all!
- David extremely busy and focused at work
- Fundraiser chair person for Trevor's school, David is the new Treasurer for next year...poor guy...He did not want to do it, but like I said above, no one else in our mighty program stepping up to get involved and be a team player.
- Boys were baptized last Sunday! :-) :-)
- Still struggling with motivation and a routine for working out since I've starting working. IT'S HARD finding a balance!!!
- My skin is breaking out (I have NEVER had to deal with this issue before!). I know my mom will say it's because I'm not taking care of myself...and you know what, she's right! :-/
- Looking for a spiritual based book on raising boys. Trevor is reaching an age and new territory that I think is only specific to boys and I need some major spiritual direction as to how best navigate and direct this age.
- Working on making peace in my heart that the work around this house that is incomplete, that the landlord says semi-regularly they will handle. They will not handle it and so I'm working on making peace with that since we wouldn't move either way.
- We have the BEST NANNY IN THE WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AMAZING, AMAZING, AMAZING...I hope she's still interested and in the position to help when I have grandkids! No joke!!! :-)
Quote from Nathan
Nathan and I's conversation tonight at bedtime...
Nathan (with a big lump in his throat and watery eyes): Mommy, I don't want to go to college.
Me: What? Why?
Nathan: Because I don't want a job and I don't want to work.
Me (chuckling): Well, you're not living here for free and you can't buy things without money that you get from a job. Where is all this coming from?
Nathan (holding back his tears): Well, I just want to learn spanish so I can understand people's conversation.
Me: Ohhhhhh...I see. Well me too. Great news is, is that in high school and in college there are spanish classes you can take to learn how to speak, read and write in spanish.
Nathan: Really?
Me: Yes! Maybe you can go to college in Spain so you learn spanish even faster.
Nathan: YA! That's what I want to do!
Jackson: Ya and then you can teach me, I want to learn too.
Nathan (with a big lump in his throat and watery eyes): Mommy, I don't want to go to college.
Me: What? Why?
Nathan: Because I don't want a job and I don't want to work.
Me (chuckling): Well, you're not living here for free and you can't buy things without money that you get from a job. Where is all this coming from?
Nathan (holding back his tears): Well, I just want to learn spanish so I can understand people's conversation.
Me: Ohhhhhh...I see. Well me too. Great news is, is that in high school and in college there are spanish classes you can take to learn how to speak, read and write in spanish.
Nathan: Really?
Me: Yes! Maybe you can go to college in Spain so you learn spanish even faster.
Nathan: YA! That's what I want to do!
Jackson: Ya and then you can teach me, I want to learn too.
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Update - Nathan
My ever sweet, unpredictable, loving, challenging, curious, wise beyond his years, playful, energy filled, boundary testing, detail orientated 5 1/2 year old who acts like he's going on 2 years old OR 42 years old Nathan has certainly been keeping me on my knees in prayer for his precious life filled with all those things mentioned for the last 2 months...OK, last 5 1/2 years!
LOTS of changes (too many!), both good and difficult, have come about for Nathan over the last couple of months. It explains a lot about his decision making with friends, tantrums, disobedience and occasional lie.
Nathan has learned how to meditate from a classmate at school (who was explaining to him how Chinese kids calm themselves! You can imagine how nuts I went over this one!) so then we discussed how Jesus brings us calmness and peace anytime we call unto Him for it. I suggested he now tell his "friend" about how we calm ourselves, by prayer. For the next several days at school, Nathan had prayed with not only the 1 friend, but like 6-7 friends! Nathan shared that he taught them how to bow their heads, close their eyes, fold their hands and talk out loud to the Lord. He said they prayed that the whole class would be calm, good, "stay on green" (best behavior cards...green being best), that they'll all get to visit the treasure box (their reward at the end of the week for consistant good behaviour throughout the week) on Friday and that everyone will play nicely together. WHAT A SWEETHEART! Nathan always wants to be a leader and I shared with him that on those days, he was being a leader for Jesus. That really made him feel good. :-)
Baseball...Nathan definitely prefers to be a fan vs. an actual player on the field. He complains he never gets the ball, he strongly dislikes wearing his glove and batting helmet and often spends his fielding twirling, singing, building dirt castles and complaining that it's boring or hot. SOOOO...needless to say, we are NOT going to put any of us through this kind of torture for another season...we'll stick with Musicals for this kiddo! For now, forget any chance of learning some skill at the game, we're just enforcing the ever so important life lesson of finishing what you start, about commitment, about supporting your teammates and giving your best at all times...even if we don't want to.
School...besides prayer and meditation...Nathan has been doing an OUTSTANDING job in Kindergarten!!! So much so, many of his school resources for math, reading, etc are being pulled early this year (I 100% agree and supported that decision). Nathan gets 100% on math (about 15-20 questions) and spelling (5 spelling words a week), and has only missed 1-2 questions on reading tests (10-15 questions), but is already at a 1st grade reading & comprehession level (has been since Jan or Feb). After a TON of prayer, grilling his teacher (she is SO in support of him going to 1st), special ed peeps, looking at Jackson's 1st grade curriculm, listening to my gut, etc. Nathan will be going to 1st grade next school year! This is definitely a big step of faith in the Lord and confidence in Nathan's ability to rise and succeed in any challenge.
Back to Nathan doing so well with his special ed stuff... So Nathan has been such a hard worker in Speech Therapy that after 4 years of this practice, work, frustration, enjoyment and success, Nathan is finally done with the intense level of Speech Therapy. Nathan was receiving 2 hours of Speech/week; 1 hr private, 1 hr at school. Now Nathan will be down to just the 1 hr school based speech. Hence, more change...Nathan has been receiving all sorts (and I mean ALL sorts) of services at McRory Pediatrics since he was 11 months old!!! The owner, Director and ALL of the therapists there have become like family to us. There was a long time there that Nathan was there EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. recieving services and I have got to tell you...IT SHOWS (*tear*tear)!!! Nathan already has an amazing testimony and daily I get the pleasure and gift (and challenge at times, I must confess) to watch his testimony continue to expand. We already miss the therapists at McRory's but their graduation for Nathan, signed (by many therapists) certificate, pictures and all our memories, we will have forever.
Everyday brings new challenges for Nathan, but Nathan never fails to rise to that challenge and take it head on. Quite a good character trait if you ask me!
LOTS of changes (too many!), both good and difficult, have come about for Nathan over the last couple of months. It explains a lot about his decision making with friends, tantrums, disobedience and occasional lie.
Nathan has learned how to meditate from a classmate at school (who was explaining to him how Chinese kids calm themselves! You can imagine how nuts I went over this one!) so then we discussed how Jesus brings us calmness and peace anytime we call unto Him for it. I suggested he now tell his "friend" about how we calm ourselves, by prayer. For the next several days at school, Nathan had prayed with not only the 1 friend, but like 6-7 friends! Nathan shared that he taught them how to bow their heads, close their eyes, fold their hands and talk out loud to the Lord. He said they prayed that the whole class would be calm, good, "stay on green" (best behavior cards...green being best), that they'll all get to visit the treasure box (their reward at the end of the week for consistant good behaviour throughout the week) on Friday and that everyone will play nicely together. WHAT A SWEETHEART! Nathan always wants to be a leader and I shared with him that on those days, he was being a leader for Jesus. That really made him feel good. :-)
Baseball...Nathan definitely prefers to be a fan vs. an actual player on the field. He complains he never gets the ball, he strongly dislikes wearing his glove and batting helmet and often spends his fielding twirling, singing, building dirt castles and complaining that it's boring or hot. SOOOO...needless to say, we are NOT going to put any of us through this kind of torture for another season...we'll stick with Musicals for this kiddo! For now, forget any chance of learning some skill at the game, we're just enforcing the ever so important life lesson of finishing what you start, about commitment, about supporting your teammates and giving your best at all times...even if we don't want to.
School...besides prayer and meditation...Nathan has been doing an OUTSTANDING job in Kindergarten!!! So much so, many of his school resources for math, reading, etc are being pulled early this year (I 100% agree and supported that decision). Nathan gets 100% on math (about 15-20 questions) and spelling (5 spelling words a week), and has only missed 1-2 questions on reading tests (10-15 questions), but is already at a 1st grade reading & comprehession level (has been since Jan or Feb). After a TON of prayer, grilling his teacher (she is SO in support of him going to 1st), special ed peeps, looking at Jackson's 1st grade curriculm, listening to my gut, etc. Nathan will be going to 1st grade next school year! This is definitely a big step of faith in the Lord and confidence in Nathan's ability to rise and succeed in any challenge.
Back to Nathan doing so well with his special ed stuff... So Nathan has been such a hard worker in Speech Therapy that after 4 years of this practice, work, frustration, enjoyment and success, Nathan is finally done with the intense level of Speech Therapy. Nathan was receiving 2 hours of Speech/week; 1 hr private, 1 hr at school. Now Nathan will be down to just the 1 hr school based speech. Hence, more change...Nathan has been receiving all sorts (and I mean ALL sorts) of services at McRory Pediatrics since he was 11 months old!!! The owner, Director and ALL of the therapists there have become like family to us. There was a long time there that Nathan was there EVERY.SINGLE.DAY. recieving services and I have got to tell you...IT SHOWS (*tear*tear)!!! Nathan already has an amazing testimony and daily I get the pleasure and gift (and challenge at times, I must confess) to watch his testimony continue to expand. We already miss the therapists at McRory's but their graduation for Nathan, signed (by many therapists) certificate, pictures and all our memories, we will have forever.
Everyday brings new challenges for Nathan, but Nathan never fails to rise to that challenge and take it head on. Quite a good character trait if you ask me!
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Cover of Good Housekeeping...
...NOT! Instead, our family will be on the CBS news at 11pm tonight! Last week we were interviewed about arsenic in foods with no regulations, but yet there are limits as to how much is allowed into our drinking water.
Our family was referred to CBS by the boys' Pediatrician who was also on camera for an interview regarding this same topic. Trevor was cool, calm and a little shy with the cameras around, Jackson acted completely normal, Nathan on the other hand was loving the spot light, couldn't stop admiring his reflection in the camera lens, and then randomly starts talking about how he was born with no parents and that Jackson is his cousin...not his brother! Oh my! I hope they did a LOT of editing because I was ready to crawl into a hole at that point of the evening. Hahaha! I was extremely nervous and they kept having to stop taping, pick up where I screwed up my words and then start filming again. David was on camera when the two of us were tucking the kids into bed, but otherwise, he was trying to explain taxes to the CBS lady and may have scored himself a new client! ;-)
Once it airs I will send a link for all the friends and family outside of LA.
Our family was referred to CBS by the boys' Pediatrician who was also on camera for an interview regarding this same topic. Trevor was cool, calm and a little shy with the cameras around, Jackson acted completely normal, Nathan on the other hand was loving the spot light, couldn't stop admiring his reflection in the camera lens, and then randomly starts talking about how he was born with no parents and that Jackson is his cousin...not his brother! Oh my! I hope they did a LOT of editing because I was ready to crawl into a hole at that point of the evening. Hahaha! I was extremely nervous and they kept having to stop taping, pick up where I screwed up my words and then start filming again. David was on camera when the two of us were tucking the kids into bed, but otherwise, he was trying to explain taxes to the CBS lady and may have scored himself a new client! ;-)
Once it airs I will send a link for all the friends and family outside of LA.
Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Update - Jackson
Jackson is wrapping up this school year with a strong fan base, continued love for learning and exploring and can barely talk about anything but baseball or ocean life.
For being so opinionated and straight forward about how he felt about me going to work, he's been so chill about the whole thing! Like me, Jackson is more of a "quality" vs. "quantity" type of a person and he really makes the best of our short time together. When I get home from work, he's waiting with open arms and ready to snuggle on the couch with either a good fishing show or a good book. Jackson has definitely adjusted quickly to the changes in our home. Praise the Lord!
Jackson received outstanding grades on his report card and proves to be ahead of the curve in many areas...academically and socially. Apparently he still can't sit still in class for the life of him so there is an area for improvement. ;-) At Jackson's request, he takes the bus daily. He LOVES taking the bus. He likes the time he gets to sit with friends and chat with one another...again, just like his mother (are you seeing a pattern here?!)!
This baseball season has been quite interesting for Jackson. He's playing in his own division which is Single A, but Trevor's team (which is a division up) constantly needs another player so they always ask Jackson if he'd like to join them. We've gotten so used to it, Jackson just brings his baseball uniform and gear with him to Trevor's game because he knows he's going to play. :-) Thankfully, Trevor is a great sport about it and doesn't seem to care at all. So Jackson has the experience of machine pitching and kid pitch and is quite good at both, if I may say so myself. :-) There have been times where Jackson has played 3 games in 1 day (between his own and Trevor's)! Jackson just LOVES it...
If Jackson will keep his fingers out of his mouth long enough, you'll see he still has a toothless smile! I'm slowly working on the sucking of the fingers thing with Jackson but being as though I was a thumb sucker myself for a long time, I know not to push it too much because he'll eventually stop on his own. Jackson really wants his top front teeth to come in and occasionally I'll mess with him and tell him they're waiting to come in because they're just gonna get ruined coming in if he's still sucking his fingers. At that point, Jackson will just move onto another subject! Ha!
He is constantly finding the good in people, pointing out the strengths in others (including his brothers!), showering people with compliments and is just so encouraging to others. I constantly have to do a double take because I'm just shocked at what mature, kind things are coming out of the mouth of my 6 year old!
Jackson gets baptized on Sunday!
For being so opinionated and straight forward about how he felt about me going to work, he's been so chill about the whole thing! Like me, Jackson is more of a "quality" vs. "quantity" type of a person and he really makes the best of our short time together. When I get home from work, he's waiting with open arms and ready to snuggle on the couch with either a good fishing show or a good book. Jackson has definitely adjusted quickly to the changes in our home. Praise the Lord!
Jackson received outstanding grades on his report card and proves to be ahead of the curve in many areas...academically and socially. Apparently he still can't sit still in class for the life of him so there is an area for improvement. ;-) At Jackson's request, he takes the bus daily. He LOVES taking the bus. He likes the time he gets to sit with friends and chat with one another...again, just like his mother (are you seeing a pattern here?!)!
This baseball season has been quite interesting for Jackson. He's playing in his own division which is Single A, but Trevor's team (which is a division up) constantly needs another player so they always ask Jackson if he'd like to join them. We've gotten so used to it, Jackson just brings his baseball uniform and gear with him to Trevor's game because he knows he's going to play. :-) Thankfully, Trevor is a great sport about it and doesn't seem to care at all. So Jackson has the experience of machine pitching and kid pitch and is quite good at both, if I may say so myself. :-) There have been times where Jackson has played 3 games in 1 day (between his own and Trevor's)! Jackson just LOVES it...
If Jackson will keep his fingers out of his mouth long enough, you'll see he still has a toothless smile! I'm slowly working on the sucking of the fingers thing with Jackson but being as though I was a thumb sucker myself for a long time, I know not to push it too much because he'll eventually stop on his own. Jackson really wants his top front teeth to come in and occasionally I'll mess with him and tell him they're waiting to come in because they're just gonna get ruined coming in if he's still sucking his fingers. At that point, Jackson will just move onto another subject! Ha!
He is constantly finding the good in people, pointing out the strengths in others (including his brothers!), showering people with compliments and is just so encouraging to others. I constantly have to do a double take because I'm just shocked at what mature, kind things are coming out of the mouth of my 6 year old!
Jackson gets baptized on Sunday!
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