Momarazzi

I just went on a wild goose chase, all to get a few more shots of Elisabeth on her first day of kindergarten. I am now officially a card-carrying member of the Momarazzi.

My adventure started at Kindercare, where Elisabeth attends daycare. They bus her to school, and I wanted to get the iconic getting on the bus picture.

I passed the @#%#$ Kindercare bus on my way to Kindercare.

So I stopped at daycare, where I promptly asked if I had missed them. All four of the ladies chatting in the office said no, they didn't think Miss Gretchen had left yet. So they went to check. Miss Gretchen had left with the kids already.

Seriously? I have an issue with the fact that they didn't even know the kindergartners had all just walked right by them, but that's another post in itself.

So, I let out a squeal of delight and ran out the door. I LOVE an adventure! Although I will admit that I was mentally preparing myself for missing Elisabeth's bus and the ensuing snapshots I was still dreaming about.

Lo and behold, as I was turning left onto the road the school is on, a Kindercare bus was coming at me, and just happened to be turning right onto the same road. Eureka! The pursuit was ON, people.

I made it there before the bus did, so I was able to park my car. I debated staying in my car to take pictures because there didn't appear to be any other crazy moms like myself around (only normal ones that slunk down in their cars to watch their kids go in), but I threw all caution to the wind and got out.

Miss Mason came out, wearing the cutest red plaid dress. I believe it's a prerequisite: in order to be a good Kindy teacher, you must be super cute.

She took the Kindercare kids, and onward they marched, on their own new adventures.

Oh, by the way, I had a good cry when my adventure was done.

First day of school! First day of school!

Elisabeth says she won't say this, because that's what Nemo fish say. Not her.

My baby starts Kindergarten today. I can hardly believe it! I promised myself I wouldn't cry today, and so far so good. I did get a little choked up this morning after she left the house with her daddy.

Until I looked at the picture we took, and realized I had just sent our sweet Kindergartner to school with old man socks on. WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!

Oh well, let's just say we'll be framing this picture, without the socks showing, okay?

Here's a little video, too. The only reason I have this video is because once again I failed to charge the battery on the good camera. Thank goodness for a backup. And a backup with video to boot! (Please pardon my voice. I've been sick all week.)

Meet the teacher day

Tuesday was Meet the Teacher day and drop off all of your school supplies day. It was so fun! Elisabeth got to spend a little more time with Miss Mason, she got to find her cubby, her mailbox, take home homework, check out her locker, and make a few friends. We are all so excited for Kindergarten!

You can't tell from these pictures, but it was total chaos in the classroom and in the hallway. But still, so fun.

Here is Elisabeth's locker. We laughed when we discovered that she shares a locker with one of her daycare friends. What are the odds!? We joked that they could leave messages for each other since one is attending in the morning and the other in the afternoon and resultingly will probably never see each other.


Elisabeth asked if she could take my picture by her locker. Sure, why not.


She has a way with the camera - I thought this next one was super cool! I wouldn't have thought to do that.


Elisabeth took us on a tour. She's very proud of her school.

Mark showed us how strong he is by doing pull ups on the big kid playground. I couldn't even budge myself when I tried to do a pull up on that bar. Elisabeth and I are amazed at her daddy's strength. He's a superhero for sure!


When nobody else is looking, Elisabeth shows us how much she still loves us.


We love you too, Elisabeth. We are so proud of you!

A morning with nature

Elisabeth had a playdate on Friday morning, which is my day off with the girls. After having a cup of coffee and a great chat with Elisabeth's best friend's mom, Sydney and I headed out the door in search of high adventure. We landed ourselves at a nature preserve, smack dab in the middle of Schaumburg. It was beautiful. Serene. Definitely a place to go if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of life and just breathe.


Sydney and I had a great time walking through the fields of wildflowers, watching a family of yellow finches play, and meandering our way into a woods by the marsh.

And of course I took a zillion pictures, much to Sydney's dismay.


Sydney had a lot of fun exploring in the woods. She checked out the trees...

She checked out the water...


And she checked out something curious near the water. I don't remember what it was, but it sure piqued her interest, which made for some great photo ops. Here are some of her best facial expressions, all in one post for you!

Serious:


VERY serious:



"Ah dahh?" (What's that)


No idea. But typical.


Getting down for a closer look:


Still serious. And still curious.


Aaaand, we're done with said curious item. Next!

Kindergarten Screening

Elisabeth took Mark and I on a walk down the road yesterday to her new school, where she had an appointment for Kindergarten screening!

We walked in and immediately met her new teacher, Miss Mason. Miss Mason is exactly what I would have asked for in a teacher, had I been given the choice. She is cute, young, very caring, and is obviously loved by the other parents, as we heard things like "Oh honey, you've got Miss MAAAASON! That's who your big brother Johnnnnny had!" while we were there yesterday. And according to her facebook profile picture (which I did NOT purposely stalk out. Okay, I did. Can you blame me? I just wanted to make sure she wasn't a total wacko!) she likes to accessorize with cute green scarves and she drinks Starbucks iced coffees. I'm liking her better by the minute!

So Miss Mason took Elisabeth into her new classroom and quizzed her on her numbers, letters and shapes. Elisabeth got to see a lot of cool things like brand new crayons and pencils in her new classroom. She also got to check out her very own locker, which already has her name on it! (darnit! I said I wasn't going to get choked up again, and here I am, getting choked up.)

Mark and I stayed behind and filled out paperwork. One of the forms asked what the primary means of getting home from school would be, and out of six boxes, I checked three. That's right, three. The administrator came over and as I joked about my not having the ability to check one, she joked even harder and said "Ah, I see we have an overachiever here!"

My reply: "I would be more likely to call myself an indecider than an overachiever. Do you want me to start over and fill out a new sheet with just the primary means?"

Her response (with a friendly smile): "Oh, NO! I'm going to keep this and give it to Miss Mason. She'll get a real kick out of it!"

Great. I've already got a reputation, and school hasn't even officially started yet!

Anyway, Elisabeth did great. She came back out with Miss Mason and looked so happy and excited. AHHH. What a sigh of relief! And she proudly came home wearing her special nametag:




Gosh I love this kid! Don't tell her I figured it out, but I think she might love us too. :)

School of Change

I have never been good at handling change. Good or bad. I like my life to be predictable.

Apparently that is not what God wants for my family.

So as Elisabeth goes to school to learn the 3 R's, I need to go to school and learn to accept the unpredictability of life.

We spent last week preparing for a road trip to Duluth, MN for a family reunion. It was going to be a long weekend of fun and bonding. We got on the road Friday morning around 9:00, and at 10:30 made a very long pit stop at the hospital. One of my least favorite places.

Mark woke up with some of the same back pains and twinges of elbow joint pain in his left arm. The same pains he had when he had a heart attack, but this time only a 1 or 2 on the pain scale. He and I discussed and debated over whether to go on the trip or not, but decided to start driving and see if the pain got worse.

It didn't really get worse, but Mark's eyes had worry written all over them. So he called his cardiologist, who by the way, had just given him a clean bill of health the week before, and he suggested Mark take a "quick" detour and stop in an ER to have his heart enzymes checked.

So that's what we did. His EKG looked normal. His troponen level was normal (that was very high when he had his heart attack). His cpk was elevated though. The cpk only checks muscular something or other, not specifically heart issues. His de-dymer (NO idea how to spell that), which measures the potential for clots being formed, was also elevated but a CAT scan showed no clot. And the pain that he was having? It disappeared on its own within the hour.

We sat in the ER room for hours. We questioned why we even stopped, frustrated that we were losing so much road time and watching the out-of-network dollar signs go "ka-ching!" every time another Dr. popped his head in the room. Of course we knew that stopping was the right thing to do, but sitting in a hospital was the last place we wanted to be. We kept waiting for them to say Mark could go on his merry way.

They never said that.

Because of Mark's history, he's now considered a 'high risk' patient. So, they admitted him.

UGH! Talk about throwing a wrench in the plans!

The Dr. strongly recommended Mark staying so that they could take two more sets of bloodwork, each 8 hours apart, to be 100% certain that he wasn't having a heart attack. So, he sat in a hospital bed from 2:00 pm to 9:30 am the next day.

The hospital we stopped at happened to be near Mark's sister's house, which was a perfect coincidence, as the girls didn't have to spend the entire time being stuck in the hospital too. Their Aunt Barb picked them up around 1:00 and they spent the day on the farm. They had a blast! And when I came to the house that evening to crash and asked Elisabeth if she wanted to go visit Mark in the hospital, she chose to stay at the farm and ride the horses. Poor Mark, the horses got chosen over him!

We missed the family reunion.

And that's okay, because there will be another reunion next year, but we only get one chance at life, and we will do whatever it takes to make that life a long and healthy one. We were so happy that Mark didn't have a heart attack this time, but I still couldn't shake this feeling of sadness. It took days and a couple of great friends to help me realize that my sadness stems from mourning our old 'normal.' Now we have this new normal, where we need to be cautious and aware, and we need to accept that our plans can change in the blink of an eye. And that sucks! Much like stress sucks.

Speaking of that, we're fairly certain this isn't helping Elisabeth's anxiety levels. Which makes sense. I was just hoping to tip the scale in the other direction, you know? So we are working hard on talking openly with her about anything and everything. She and I talk to Charlie cat in heaven at night. She tells him how much she misses him, she tells him about her day, she tells him that she's so happy that her daddy is home. It's a good release for her.

So, this school of change - I'm working on it. My #2 pencils are sharpened. I'm sitting at my desk. I'm learning. Every day I work on learning to accept change. I don't like it, but I have to accept that these are the cards God has dealt us, and that He can change them in a blink of an eye. I have to trust Him. That sucks, because I'd rather lay down on the floor and throw a fit, kicking my arms and legs like a toddler. I've kind of been doing that in my head, and I'm trying to work through it. It's hard, but I will keep working on accepting His plan.

Maybe someday I'll get my A+!

A new day

I had a bad day yesterday.

Thank you for reading. I promise I won't start complaining all the time. I just needed to get some of the stress off my chest, as it was eating me alive. It got worse, but I won't get into it, because it's done now.

Today is a new day.

So, on a happier note, I wanted to share this photo of Sydney. This picture makes me happy. When I need to breathe, this is what I look at!



There, that's better!

Stress sucks.

Our calendar is a sea of black ink this month. I know that this is the start of many years of black ink, but WOW am I stressed out! I try to be positive when I post things on our blog, but for the moment I'm going to take the mask off. Bear with me.

We have been going non-stop since August 1st. I feel like I can't catch my breath. And we're only halfway through the month! At first I liked the idea of being busy, because I thought I could be superwoman and handle it all. Well, the cape has lost its glimmer. I just want to take 5 minutes and come up for air. Is that possible? When can I breathe again?

It doesn't help that we're all working overtime at work, and that I sit back down at the computer after we put the kids to bed. And that I'm burned out and don't care for my career choice at the moment. Or that my salary is paying 75% of what it used to before the economy took a nosedive.

Elisabeth has been very busy this month too. Swimming lessons just ended. She had VBS (which we LOVE!) at our church every evening for a week, which meant late bedtimes but the same 6:30 am morning routine. Each bedtime that week was progressively more awful than the last. By Thursday she was so unruly that I put her to bed and laid on the couch and just cried. She is a flower girl in our niece's wedding at the end of the month (which we are so excited about!). We've had birthday parties to go to. We have a family reunion to go to soon (which includes an 8 hour drive, of which I am NOT excited.) Kindergarten starts at the end of the month, so we've been busy preparing for that as well.

Elisabeth has been enthusiastic about all of these activities. But she has started misbehaving quite a bit. She won't listen to us. She acts out in public. She wants to be carried like her little sister. It all adds up and upsets us and puts us in foul moods, which does nothing but put Elisabeth in a foul mood as well. It's an awful cycle we're stuck in, and I just don't know how to get out of it.

I am wondering if deep down she is nervous about school or something? She has developed this nervous giggle. When we scold her she giggles. When she knows she is doing something wrong, she giggles. Where are the psychologists when we need them? Or Supernanny? Where is she? I could read discipline books until I'm blue in the face, but really, I just want someone to smack me in the face and tell me what's missing from the equation here. What am I missing? Is my own stress just shining through and causing Elisabeth to lash out as well? Are we not giving enough positive reinforcement? I have no idea what we're doing wrong, but it's not helping my stress level at all. Maybe this is just the ebb and flow of parenting?

I did have a conversation the other day with another mom who appears to have many of the same feelings I do. She said she often asks herself in the heat of a situation "What am I doing wrong?" and I was so thankful to hear that I am not the only mom that asks this question. I am guessing that most of us have these feelings, and we're all just really good at hiding them?

It gets better, right? Actually, I don't need to ask that question because I know it will. We can't survive without breathing. I'm trying to breathe when I can. I just wanted to take the mask off for a brief moment and let it all out for once. There, I feel better already. (Okay, not really, but we will pretend.) Where is that Calgon lady? She always knew how to get rid of her stress. Maybe I should talk to her!? Or did she just wear a mask, too?

Here, kitty kitty

When I picked up the girls from daycare yesterday, Elisabeth was nowhere to be found. So instead Sydney and I brought a pretty tiger home with us. Yes, a tiger! And her name was Ellie!

Okay, it was Elisabeth.

She's had all kinds of summer camp adventures at daycare. Some of them field trips on the bus, some in-house activities. Yesterday a lady with pink and black and white dreadlocks and a great accent came to daycare to paint faces in Elisabeth's class. Way cool!

Sydney loved Elisabeth's face painting. She kept saying "Eye-ya! Ditt-dee! Eye-ya! Ditt-dee!" That means "Ellie, kitty, Ellie, kitty" in case you don't understand Sydney speak. And don't worry, I'll forgive you if you didn't get it.


Sydney thought it was hysterical that Elisabeth was roaring like a lion, and even did a little roaring of her own.

And then, as the evening went on, they both began to turn back into children. Cranky ones at that, and they did much roaring of their own kind. I would like to say that I didn't roar back, but then I'd be lion.

snort snort.

Slide Masters

Aside from pretty much the entire frigidly cold and rainy month of July, we have spent a fair amount of time checking out the local pools this summer. It's been so much fun, and I really wish summer would last just a bit longer so we could continue to take advantage of the pools.

We have a favorite pool that is a zero depth walk-in pool, and goes no deeper than 4 feet. This is especially nice because it keeps the big kids away. (No offense big kids, you guys are just a bit more, umm, splashy than our kids care for.) The pool also has 3 slides. 2 of them are big plumes for the adventurous folk and the other is a multi-kid, very wide, very slow moving short slide that is perfect for the adventurous mini folk.


Sydney took a huge liking to the yellow (mini) slide. So much in fact that she declared her independence and went up by herself.


She even stopped along the way to have a conversation with the pool manager (very one-sided -- the manager had no idea what "ah gah sahhhh" means. Seriously? How can you not know what that means?)
We stood at the top, although it was pretty much for moral support. Sydney showed us she needed no help. You can see it in her face, too. She kept this little mouth pucker for most of her rides down the slide.


I promise she was having a good time. She just soaks it in and lets out this little closed-mouth smile/pucker a lot.

Here we go...here's a little smile.

Sydney saw me while I was taking this next picture, so she quickly yelled "eeeeeeeee!" (cheeeeese) That cracks me up. We have a nephew that used to do that too. He'd see the camera and would instantly stop what he was doing and pucker up.

Aaaand, MASTERED.

So after Sydney got bored with the yellow slide she decided it was time to move onto bigger and better things. And because she doesn't feel the least bit like a mini-folk, she decided to go for the big folk adventures.


She barely blinked. The lifeguard told me (yeah, I went down too once or twice) that even though her expression was, well, expressionless, the excitement in her eyes was priceless.

She got out of the inner-tube and said: "MAH?" (more!) And so she went more, until she was blue in the lips.

Elisabeth loves herself some yellow slide too, but she much prefers the big girl stuff. Up until recently, she had worn a life jacket (required) and went down with one of us. But this year she asked if she could go by herself. She is exactly of minimum height required. She really wanted to go by herself, even though it requires you not wear a life jacket, and she is still only learning how to swim.

I will admit, I was a bit nervous for our emotional child. But was she? NOPE. Cool as a cucumber.


Ladies and gentlemen, all slides have been mastered!