Another cheer competition

Today was another cheer competition. This event was an add-on event, added after our Ohio competition was cancelled. It was a smaller event than some of the others, though it was quite crowded. This was the closest event to home, and was held at Elgin Community College. We didn't have to check-in until 11:45 am, so that was a welcome change as well. The weather was cold, but not snowy, so I'll take what I can get.

Ella while we were waiting after check-in, and before warm up.

Pep talk from Coach L before warm up

Amber girls are ready to GO!

The girls really ROCKED it, and pulled off a routine with ZERO deductions! I am sooo sooo proud of them all. They've all worked SOOO hard to get where they are now. They are amazing.

We got SECOND PLACE!!! Yay Amber girls!! You earned it!

Ella picked out a bear that she got to dress however she wanted... naturally she chose her team colors!

We ended the day with a celebratory ice cream sundae at Colonial. Naturally, we shared the Kitchen Sink. Yummy deliciousness!

Blah...

Another week flew by. This one went by quicker than most, it seems. My mom wound up in the hospital over the weekend and for the first half of the week, and spent some time in ICU. This was her first hospitalization in two years, which is a new record. She was able to come home Wednesday evening, and had to return to the hospital for an all day schedule of fun MRI's, CT scans, ultrasounds, and xrays. So basically that meant a lot of sitting around for us. This is what six hours of sitting in a waiting room looks like:

On the upside, there weren't any real arguments, no one threw any temper tantrums, we were able to have a nice lunch together in the fine dining cafeteria (ha ha), and the gift shop had a discount on jewelry, so Ella and I each got a new necklace/earring set. And since she had multiple different tests done, we wound up being moved from one waiting room to another waiting room, so we at least had a change of scenery during that time. So, all in all a decent day.

Unfortunately, the weather hasn't got the memo that we're sick of winter. We had one warm and sunny day on Wednesday. Mostly just enough to tease us that spring is coming, as winter roared back in the following day. I am beginning to think we are doomed to have winter forever. I may never see the sun again :( This is the sad, sad view from my deck. Look at all that warm sunshine pouring down over the neighborhood! ::grumble grumble::

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Oh, how I miss the sun.

Best. Ever.

I'm not sure why or how it happened, but I have the super best friends in the world. Best. Ever. I could seriously never deserve the awesome people that I am fortunate enough to call my friends. But I love them forever for being there. I am beyond blessed.

It was a great day all around today. Super nice things from a couple different friends today, just totally made my day amazing. Beyond amazing, actually. I don't even have words (shocking, I know!)

I scored another 100% on a quiz in pharmacology. I finished my Microbiology lab and got out of class early.

I got all caught up on grading my kids' school work. Yay!

I bought the new Casting Crowns album, and it. is. awesome! So so so love Casting Crowns!

It was pizza party night at AWANA, so the kids were all excited to the max. We started the school year with a giant glass jar full of marbles, and as the kids passed each section in their handbooks they took out one marble. They managed to get the whole jar emptied, so they earned their pizza party!

Just a little bit of Microbiology homework left to do, and I'm going to bed... before midnight... again... Almost like a normal person!

Here's a random funny picture that reminds me of my boxer LOL:

and he is wrong... it is SO funny :)

So it was another spectacular day. I could get used to this :)

Good day

Today was another good day. The kiddos had their Valentine's party at our homeschool co-op today, and really enjoyed that. They had an awesome goofy Valentine's photo booth, so we got silly pics of the kids and parents.

I had only an A&P lab today, so my school day was only a few hours long. That person that jumped up onto and fell right off the lab chair? Yeah, that was me LOL Awkward... Just another day in the life of a short, clutzy person! Lab was fairly quick and easy, so we got done early for a change. Another bonus!

My boys finally got their shaggy mops cut. TJ's is still a shaggy looking mop, but less shaggy than before. Like a bad mom, I did not get pictures. Ooops!

I actually got to cook dinner tonight. It seems I'm always at work, or heading out to work, at dinner time, so I seldom get to cook dinner anymore. I miss it. It's one of the hardest things about my schedule. I can't wait to get that part of my life back. I made entirely too much chicken stir fry, but that's ok. We'll eat it up :)

Ella managed to pull her loose tooth out tonight. She's quite happy it came out so easy, and that it hardly bled at all. She's also thankful she doesn't have a cheer competition for a couple weeks, so it might not be so obvious LOL

It felt like a heat wave today. It got up to 9 whole degrees!! It's super pathetic that I was excited about 9 measly degrees, but it felt soo warm! I almost ran the van through the car wash, to wash the inches thick salt off. But I resisted the urge. The forecast shows that it is supposed to be finally warming up a bit, but you can't tell that from the current temperature.

This was my driveway before it got shoveled out. The snow is almost waist deep along the driveway, and all along the sidewalk up to the front door. It's ridiculous. I've heard we are supposed to get more of this awful stuff. I'm less than thrilled. It's been a good money-making season for my kids though! I guess it's good that they're enjoying it. Personally, I think spring cannot come soon enough!

All in all, it has been a good day! And I'm going to get to bed before midnight, which is another rare treat. I had my nice hot bubble bath, kids got the evening chores done, Ella's prettying up my hair as I type this.... Life is good.

No Work!

I was just lamenting about how last week felt like I'd worked a bazillion hours, and here it is Monday night and I'm OFF work. Not only am I NOT working tonight, I do not work tomorrow night, or Wednesday night. By some miracle, I am off work until Thursday! Unheard of!

On the downside, while I'm not working, I still have school every day... still have lots of homework to do... still have to homeschool my kids... still have to take Ella to cheerleading... still have to lead at AWANA on Wednesday night... BUT, I don't have to GO TO WORK! Woooot!

I'm going to relish every single hour I am not at work. Not only because I'm getting to spend them with my family, and getting to go to sleep in my own bed at a semi-normal-human hour, getting to soak in a hot bath for an ungodly amount of time, and getting to RELAX a wee bit... but also because this break means that starting on Thursday, the coming weekend will be chock full of 12 - 20 hour shifts and no sleep. But for now, I'm not going to think about that. For now, I'm going to relish my time off.


On a totally unrelated note, my kitties looked far too cute to disturb earlier.

The choice of parenting

I always knew I wanted to be a mom. I always dreamed of having 12 kids or more. Of course, when I was a kid myself, I dreamed of having a nanny, housekeeper, and cook too! Somehow that didn't work out. Once I became an adult, I knew I wanted to spend every moment I could with my kids. I never wanted to miss out on anything. Even when they frustrate me to the very end of my patience, I'm thankful that I have them and get to be a part of their lives.

What is frustrating to me is that my children's other parent did not always feel that way. He was a very involved part of our sons’ lives when they were small. I remember him loading the boys up in the stroller and taking them out to the disk golf course with him. We used to take camping trips, and go to museums, and parks. Once upon a time, we did a lot of things together. Unfortunately, by the time my boys were 2 and 4, he was too involved in drugs and alcohol to keep his family a priority. For the last six months to a year before we separated, he was gone more than he was home. My boys were in bed long before he would get home, and he would be gone to work long before they woke up. They seldom saw him. When they did see him, he was most often passed out or drunk. My oldest son is really the only one with memories of him before our divorce, and that's only because he has a crazy memory. The kid literally remembers a trip to Mexico when he was 20 months old! The next handful of years, my ex was a nonexistent part of their lives.

Thankfully, he's cleaned up a bit, and has made an effort to be a part of their lives for the past few years. Unfortunately, you can't erase everything by wishing it away. When he first started seeing the kids, my daughter had no idea who he was. She had not met him until after she was a year old (and then it was only because his mother insisted on taking her over to meet him!), and then did not spend any significant time with him at all before she was about 4. She called the guy that was there for her from birth "daddy", not him, and she was a huge "daddy's girl". Big time. It was awkward when he started trying to be a part of her life, and act as though he'd been there all along, when she had no clue who he was. My younger son has no memories of him before he started working to be in their lives again. He was virtually a stranger to him too. My oldest has memories, but not all of them are good. The problem is, you can't choose to NOT be a part of your children's lives for years, and then expect them to not have any reservations when you decide you want to be a part again.

When they are small, the relationship you have with your child is totally up to you.

You decide whether you're going to put the effort in and have a good relationship with them.

When they are older, it is totally up to them.

That's what my ex-husband is finding out. My oldest son chooses not to go for his weekend visitation with his dad. He is 14 years old now, and I do not force him anymore. My younger two do not want to go either. Because they are still younger (Ella is only 9), I feel that the decision isn't completely theirs yet. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to realize that he still holds the power as far as developing a good relationship with them. It's not that his relationship with TJ is lost- it's just going to be more difficult at this point, as he's a teenager now. He needs to meet him on TJ's terms. It was my hope that he would recognize that he needs to work on developing those relationships, and change some behaviors to encourage the other two to bond a little more with him. Thus far, that hasn't happened. It's not that they hate going to see him. I'm sure they have a good time while they are there. They just don't look forward to it. They beg me to let them stay home. They don't get one on one time with their dad, as he has a "new" family, and they are just thrust into that scene. A scene they aren't really a part of, but are forced to try to fit into.

I wish I had the answer to fix things, but that lies with him. Only he can repair those relationships. He claims to want to, but hasn't made more than a half-hearted effort. You can't strong arm a child into loving you. You can't force them to want to spend time with you. As a parent, you have a window of opportunity to be the one in control of how close your relationship with your child is, and of the amount of time your child spends with you. Use that time wisely. Once it's gone, you may not get it back.

Oh, soo tired!

No words really necessary.....

Schaumburg Cheer Weekend, Day Two

Morning came much, much too early. I don't care who you are, NO ONE wants to flat iron hair and apply make up at 5:00 am. NO ONE. Especially not little girls. Or their mother, who went to bed after 1:00 am. But we did it. And there wasn't a lot of crying.

Once we got to the convention center, there was a lot of "sit around and wait" time. But the girls took it in stride.

I'm super disappointed in the fact that our gym has miscategorized our team, essentially setting us up for failure as far as winning goes. However, the girls did really well, and I'm proud of them for working so hard to get it together, especially in light of everything they had working against them. We've had two athletes out with injuries, so two girls from a higher team stepped in with only a week to prepare. We've had a routine that the coaches seem to change constantly, so they girls haven't had the chance to really work on perfecting anything. And we had a tiny tot move up from the "baby team" to be a flyer. So it's been a challenge. But they performed well, and I'm so proud of them!!

We took home a trophy, even if it wasn't the one that they wanted. I think all the girls had a great time. This was our first weekend-long two day competition, and for some of the girls it was their first time staying away in a hotel. Our next few competitions will be at the same place, and we'll likely repeat the weekend at the same hotel. Ella is already looking forward to it. As an added bonus, we even wound up with a discount on our next stay due to a smart mom complaining that the hot tub was broken, and that we were inconvenienced by this ;-) Anything for a deal! The weekend was great, but long. I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight. Tomorrow starts midterm week, which will be a killer. Vacation is clearly over.

Schaumburg Cheer Weekend, Day One

We made it to Schaumburg Friday night for our weekend long cheer competition. We kicked the weekend off with dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Yummy Yummy! Ella's team had to compete both Saturday and Sunday mornings, with check-in being at 6:00 am (which should be illegal, in my opinion). We got a super deal at a hotel that is minutes from the convention center, so most of our team got to spend the weekend together. The hotel also offered a spectacular complimentary breakfast buffet and complementary happy hour every evening. Double bonus! I brought both boys, as well as my "adopted" other son (my oldest's best friend), and they packed the Xbox so they could play while we were competing. The kids all enjoyed the indoor pool, and the boys used the fitness center often.

Since we had to get up at 5:00 am to get ready for competition, it was a long day. On the other hand, we were done competing by 8:00 am, and had the entire day to spend doing what we wanted. We shopped the vendors for a bit, and Ella got a new cheer bow.

We made it back to the hotel to enjoy the ridiculous hot breakfast buffet. After a long splash in the pool, we opted to spend the afternoon at Woodfield Mall, where we bought a bit of candy in the candy shop, and ate at Rainforest Cafe.

Megan braided my hair while the kids swam.

We had fun in the photo booth at Rainforest Cafe.

The girls did well on their first round. They had some deductions, but no major problems with the routine. The hardest part is that the gym insisted on placing them in the junior division, when they should be in the youth division. We just can't compete against 14 year old girls, when we have 6-11 year olds. It just won't happen. But they're doing the best they can, and that's all that matters. Overall, awesome weekend so far. One more round left to go tomorrow!