EIGHT YEARS OLD?!

I'm not quite sure how it is possible that my sweet boy Zachary is now eight years old. I still vividly remember the shock of him being pulled from my body and the nurse laughingly informing me that my baby was certainly not a little Madalyn Nicole. The shock was quickly followed by abounding joy and that joy has never abated.














We had a birthday bash here at the house on Friday night. LEGO was the theme. We had five boys and two girls on our guest list. Alec and his special friend Scott (Mr. Scopp) were also on the list. Scott is 20 years old and he and Alec are mutual fans of one another.

The kids were fun and funny. They loved the LEGO competition. We paired them into teams and each team had 25 minutes to construct two items. One item had to have wheels and the other could be anything. We gave prizes for creativity, for going above and beyond, for attention to detail, and for originality.




















This is Zach with his team member Tyler. They are displaying their prize winning creations in the creativity category.





The highlight of the evening was the cake made by my dear friend Tracy. She also made Alec's tiger cake (see previous post). She's AMAZING and this LEGO cake was beyond amazing. It was almost too pretty to cut and eat!











Happy birthday to my sweet Zach, and happy Easter to all my readers!

Update

My thanks to all of you for prayers last week. I'm happy to report that my trip to Tennessee was successful. We're in the process of buying a sweet little house in Bartlett, TN. http://www.crye-leike.com/memphis/3161922 I'm very happy with this house and can't wait to get settled in it. The backyard is wonderful and the current owners have done a great job with the landscaping in the front yard. The best thing though is that the neighborhood is nice, with wide streets and nice sidewalks. I'm thrilled with this because the street we live on now has NO sidewalks and I'm scared to walk in our neighborhood because people drive too fast on our road. I'm looking forward to sidewalks!

We also celebrated Alec's fourth birthday a few days ago. He had a Chuck E Cheese party and walked around all day saying, "I love my party at Chuck E Jesus." I'm sure that is probably somewhat sacrilegious, but it sounded so funny that I never corrected him. Below is a photo of him blowing out the candle on his "tiger" cake. (He requested that he have a tiger cake for his party. The kid loves cats.) The second photo is with his buddy Zachary from preschool. I think it is so funny that the one kid from preschool that Alec is really attached to has the same name as his brother!

Zachary's 8th birthday is on Friday and we're planning a big party for him here at the house. He's already beside himself with anticipation. It should be fun. More pics to come from that later.

While I was in Oklahoma last week, we celebrated three birthdays: my dad turned 62 on March 31; Alec turned 4 on April 1; Zach will be 8 on April 10. It was a special celebration to have all three of them together for a combined birthday bash. I'm not really sure who enjoyed it the most (probably my dad!)

I also had a good, productive talk with my dad about my mom's condition. She's still declining, but I'm happy to report that she enjoyed her time with the boys. She doesn't always know who they are, but she never fails to comment on how cute they are. They entertain her and it's nice to see her enjoying them. Dad and I have a plan of action now on what steps to take next. I feel better after talking to him.

So, that is my update. This is also my 100th post. I need to get busy on one of those "100 things about me" posts! I think it'll have to wait until AFTER Zach's party though. Things will be busy around here this week!

Have a great one!

99 and going strong

This is my 99th post. Wow. I'll have to start thinking about that 100th post soon. But today I'm writing to inform you that the boys and I are heading to Oklahoma on Wednesday to see my family. On Friday I'm leaving Zach and Alec with my dad and driving to Tennessee to begin househunting. I've got a realtor and we've got about 30 houses to see over the weekend. I'm nervous but excited. I covet your prayers that we'll find a great house in great location at a price we can afford! Mike is on tour in northern California right now. I'm missing him and I really wish he could go with us!

I also ask for your prayers for my dad as he watches the boys AND my mom for an entire weekend. She's really harder to keep under control than they are. I worry about him, but he INSISTS that I MUST leave them with him. He'd kill me if I came all the way to Oklahoma and then took the boys with me to Tennessee. He lives for our visits.

Speaking of my mom, I've been doing some research on Alzeimers and am pretty convinced that my mom is in the 6th of seven stages of the disease. I think she's quickly on her way to that seventh stage; the seventh is the stage when speech is lost and when the patient becomes completely incapable of self-care (toilet, feeding, dressing). I'm so scared about this and ask for your prayers for my mom and dad, but also for me as I try to deal with everything. It's very discouraging and disheartening.

Okay, so basically, PRAY FOR ME! Thanks so much.

First Finals

Yesterday was the last day of my classes at Olympic College and the last day for Alec to go to Ms. Renee's house. They were the first of many "lasts" that will occur in the next few months.

Alec has been going to Ms. Renee's since he was 18 months old. My first job -- post-children -- was here, working for OC. I was a nervous wreck, thinking about leaving my babies, even though it was literally for about two hours a day. Ms. Renee was my gift from God. She loves my boys and has doted on both of them since that very first day. I am sad that we'll be leaving Renee and her daughter Rachel. The two have been the greatest tag-team babysitters in the universe for our family.

I'm also going to miss teaching at OC. I know I've said it before, but I absolutely love teaching English at the college level. And I've realized in the past three years that I have a calling to the community college setting. I love the diversity. I love the fact that I can shine a bright light into a small corner of my own world. I love seeing my students learn. I know -- I trust -- that God will give me another teaching opportunity in the near future, but I'm sad to say goodbye to Olympic College.

There will be many more final moments in the next couple of months. I know Mike is extremely ready for his final commute to work (40 minutes). And I'll be ecstatic to HANDWASH my final set of dishes (no dishwasher in this house). But I'm dreading that final goodbye to friends. I'm especially dreading Zach's goodbyes to his buddies. That is going to be difficult.

From Alec comes fun and insight

Alec and I just did an "interview." Cara and Sara gave me this idea. Thanks girls!

1.What is something Mommy always says to you? “You say, 'Go to your room,' when I’m being ugly. And when toys are broken you say you’ll fix it.”

2. What makes mom happy? “Not peeing on the toilet and floor.” (We just had issues with his 'aim' this morning.)

3. What makes Mommy sad? “Not giving you hugs and kisses.”

4. How does your mom make you laugh? “Silly Mommy tricks, like the jokes you tell.”

5. What was your mom like as a child? “You were like a little girl. You looked like an alien (giggle, giggle).”

6. How old is your mom? “I think. . . 20.” (Sigh. If only.)

7. How tall is your mom? “Like taller than a space alien.”

8. What is her favorite thing to do? “Playing blocks, cooking.”

9. What does your mom do when you're not around? “Do your work: grading papers and doing e-mail.”

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? He laughed as though that were hysterically funny and then said, “You can’t be famous if you have kids!”

11. What is your mom really good at? “Grading papers and ‘innertaining’ kids.”

12. What is your mom not very good at? “Cooking.” (ouch.)

13. What does your mom do for a job? “I don’t know. You teached a class.”

14.What is your mom's favorite food? “Enchilada, green beans, cake.” (He made me hungry!)

15.What makes you proud of your mom? “Just of being silly with Zachary and me.”

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be? “Uniqua.” (Backyardigans)

17. What do you and your mom do together? “We play blocks. We read.”

18. How are you and your mom the same? “We have dimples. Our eyes are blue.”

19. How are you and your mom different? “You don’t like video games.”

20. How do you know your mom loves you? “Oh, a’cause you just do love me.”

21. What does your mom like most about your dad? “A’cause he takes the trash out.”

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? “To Safeway, a’cause it has all the good food.”

Fantastic Seuss

My boy Zachary won the Dr. Seuss Birthday Poster Contest for the second year in a row! Last week we headed up to the school to see his poster on display and to join in the Dr. Seuss day festivities. I know I'm a BIT partial to my own child, but I thought his poster was AWESOME! He wanted to do something three dimensional and chose Hop on Pop for his inspiration. It is kind of hard to see in the pictures, but the children hopping on their pop are actually springing off of the page. It turned out to be VERY cute. Yay Zach!

Fingers strumming

My boys were strumming tonight and I was able to grab this on the camera right before the battery died! It's kind of fuzzy, but still sweet.