Where have I been?  I suppose the good news is that life has been busy and the bad news has been that life has been busy.  Sometimes I forget the intent was to leave a footprint for my children to know what thoughts were going through the mind of their insane mother, and then I realize that sometimes I AM insane because I AM a mother.


Kyle is 8 now.  In some ways he is very much a little boy.  He still goes to bed at night and asks me to give him a "guarantee."  It's a guarantee that I'll always be here for him.  We've begun this fun little game where I give him a guarantee and then Daddy yells out that HE guarantees he'll be here too.  Kyle likes to pit each of us against the other to see whose guarantee will outweigh the others.  Silly boy.  Of course a MOMMY'S guarantee far outweighs a daddy's.  Silly Daddy.


Kristen is 10 and going to be 11.  I know I'm her mommy.  I'm completely biased.  I get it.  But she is such a sweet little girl.  She loves all pets large and small.  She loves reptiles. She loves anything that requires love and she readily gives it.  She is different from Kyle.  Kyle is sharp as a tack and so is Kristen, but her pace is slower.  She is enjoying being a little girl and is in NO rush to grow up.  Her BFFs are beginning the early stages of liking boys.  Kristen is still at the stage of vehemently hating boys (the pre-step to liking, of course) because they are starting to be nicer to her.


Our lives revolve around basketball.  It would be nice if I could admit that both Daddy and I were six footers, but we're not.  This is a short-lived obsession.  But Kristen's run in basketball has been more than we could have ever dreamed.  In September of 2012, we joined a "travel" basketball club.  Growing up here, part of this community was basketball.  A team sport where we played against our peers and it was a spring board to meeting other kids in our age group.  It worked out very well for me.  Now?  That world still exists to bring young children together, but an offshoot of that circle is the "travel club."  As with soccer or any other team sport, participation and friendship is key.  You make friends and learn teamwork and build bonds.  You complete your season and you are awarded a trophy for your hard work.  Travel sports is earned.  Earn your spot and fight to keep it.  For our family, putting Kristen into travel ball was two-fold.  Kristen herself wanted to push herself and learn more and excel at her chosen sport.  But then once she met all of the girls and enjoyed the challenge of travel ball, she was hooked.  But also, secondarily, we wanted her to learn that life isn't fair.  Striving to earn something is part of life and sometimes we lose.  It is how we grow and learn from such loss and disappointment that shapes how we will handle life's future lessons.


In June, we traveled to Orlando, Florida for the American Athletic Union's 4th Grade Girls Division II National Basketball Championship.  Our little girls played against girls from other states such as Indiana, Tennessee and Georgia.  We are talking about 4th grade girls who were 5'9" and taller!  Although out team had and still has great talent on their bench, we had an exceptional 4th grader who led us to the championship.  Kristen was a member of the 2013 Division II National Championship Basketball team and that is something that she will forever hold in her heart.  She was not Player 1, but she also wasn't Player 11 on that bench.  Being a part of that team gave her a confidence that we could never have given her aside from this experience. 


Me, Daddy and Kyle?  We enjoyed EPCOT and the Magic Kingdom!  We had a blast with 9 days to enjoy those parks!  It's not like we DIDN'T support Kristen, but we realized it would be unfair to ask Kyle to sit in a gymnasium for 9 days so we made the most of it.  And in the end we did spend a good amount of time as a family at the parks too.  So we returned home with a young champion and a fun vacation in our back pocket.


Since that time, we have come back to the reality of life and school and 5th grade.  Kyle is in the 2nd grade and his teacher tells me that although he is a challenge on a daily basis, he is the most honest and truthful student in class.  If he does something wrong or on the rascally end of things -- and he regularly does -- when confronted he will readily admit guilt.  Ms. K says that honesty can't be taught; it's just a product of who they are within themselves.  We'll see...  Kyle is the wiliest of us all.


We are sitting in the dead of winter here and it is the warmest winter on record.  I have to remind myself that we are lucky for so many reasons.  There are about 10,000 things I could wish to change every day.  I could write and complain about things, but I have too many friends who would trade places with me "warts and all," as another tells me.


Today I remind myself that I am so grateful for my wonderful family.  I'm grateful for our oldest child, Buddy the lab, who is arthritic and achy, but never allows a person to pass him without a wag of his tail.  He is truly the greatest and most loving pet.  Thomas J, the feeder fish, survived an entire year after his "goldfish myocardial infarction."  At Christmas of 2012, we were having a party with good friends over and we noticed Thomas J floating upside down in his aquarium.  Daddy rushed over and grabbed him by his tail and proceeded to pull him backwards to force water through his gills.  All of the sudden TJ propped back up and began to swim.  He can only eat cooked peas now because he has a swim bladder problem and he is now blind in one eye, but he swims happily every day.  Kristen and Kyle prayed very hard that Thomas J would survive the new year 2013 and here we are in 2014 and he is still a very happy "feeder" fish.  (We contacted a vet about his episode and when we described the fish there was silence and the vet responded incredulously, "Are we talking about a feeder fish?")  Never judge who you will love and why.

Simple

Happy Easter!

Compassion

I feel like I'm visiting an old friend! Where have I BEEN? Life gets busy -- I really have no excuse, but the day-to-day occurrences of daily life have just kept me far too busy to document my boring life. Well, I shouldn't say that. It's been far from boring.

We spent the fall with basketball games for Kristen, which moved into Winter games for Kristen and on the heels of that Kyle started his first basketball clinic and t-ball. At one point from January through March we were splitting duties and running directly from one function to the next only to rest when school started on Monday. I see why people are told to have children when they're young!

I can't complain about life, the above paragraph has been the "worst" of it. I've been busy, but in a very good and blessed way. My beautiful children are happy and well. If and when they are able to read this some day, they probably won't agree. There have been punishments and missed play dates because of skipped responsibilities. I am growing young people, people that I want to function well in society and with that comes a bit of rule following -- not stifling rule following (definition is debatable depending on which angle you view this), but you can't have the ice cream if you don't eat the dinner.

My parents have been healthy and considerably vibrant considering their age. Jichan went to Disneyland with us for Kristen's birthday and we had a great time. I would guess we walked over 4 miles minimum and he kept right up with us. And if I'm honest? I was behind Jichan in pace for most of the day.

The husband and I have been great. We have days where we get out of sync -- sometimes I'm thinking something and he's thinking the opposite. Sometimes we just miss each other; we're on different pages. But who we are to our core is similar so we always gravitate back to the same way of thinking.

Mostly today my post is about sending good thoughts and having compassion for others. We don't always remember to count our blessings and be thankful for what we have TODAY. Tomorrow is not promised so today I am taking time to be grateful for what I have.

I have two co-workers experiencing tough times. One got a call that her husband's blood pressure was too high and since that call on Monday, she has experienced so much sadness and worry. My thoughts and prayers are with her and I hope that every day things improve.

Another co-worker -- and we have 11 in my office -- was faced at the beginning of last month with the diagnosis that his wife has Pancreatic Cancer, what equates to Stage Four by their measuring standard. They are a family of great faith and that faith is helping them take steps forward, but the news has been devastating as you can imagine. Every day I am in awe of the love and faith that encircles this family.

So as Easter approaches and Spring Break arrives for students (and some are already on Spring Break), we enter a time of happiness as we feel summer creeping upon us. We have so much to look forward to. But at the same time, I realize that there are others who aren't always as fortunate and that my own life could flip on a dime. Today I am grateful for everything I have. And I send prayers and good thoughts to those who are trying to keep their chins up. A good friend can lift you up and I hope to be one, but I hope more to be a REAL friend and be someone my friends can depend upon.

Follow Up

My son went to his first day of school and there were no raccoons and there were no great white sharks. There were no tears... from him. He picked a seat and found his name tag and sat down waiting for class to begin. As I walked away and realized I was sending my LAST little person off to school, I was sad. Just as I reached the door, his little voice yelled, "Mommy!" So I turned and walked back to his desk.

He said, "Maybe you could give me a kiss on the BACK of my hand to keep with me?"

He DID get the story!

The First Day of School

My son is about to start school. He doesn't want to go. He doesn't see the need. He knows how to count. He knows his letters. He can make his bed, brush his teeth and get dressed. He said he can even order his own chicken nuggets at a restaurant. He just doesn't see the point in adding any more knowledge to his repertoire.

This has been the subject of many conversations this past summer.

A good friend is the principal of an elementary school and she gave me the book, "The Kissing Hand" and assured me that if we read this story together it would change his mind about going to school. The story is about "Chester" who decides he doesn't want to go to school. He doesn't want to be away from his mother. His mother kisses his hand and tells him to hold the kiss and take it with him to school and anytime he feels worried or unsure to put his hand to his face and say, "Mommy loves you!" As Chester leaves for school, Chester kisses his mother's hand and folds her fingers safely over it and this reassures Mommy that Chester will be fine.

I read him the story and he listened intently. He even asked me to read it to him again. Then he dashed off to the living room where his pencils and paper were calling to him.

He took some pieces of white paper and folded them in half and he proceeded to make some books for me in return. His first book was, "The Kissing Hand 2 LITE." If you're familiar with iPod apps, this would be the free or the "gotcha" version of an application. On the cover of "The Kissing Hand 2" was a picture of a tree with a hole in it and inside the hole were two stick figures with a heart above them. As you opened the book, there was a pond and the Mommy raccoon (I can only guess that the stick figures were raccoons) was walking the Baby raccoon to school, whereupon a great white shark jumps out of the POND and engulfs the mommy raccoon!

In the second book, "The Kissing Hand 3 HD" (hi-def), the inside picture shows the BABY raccoon engulfed by the great white shark. I won't elaborate on how much red crayon was used to get across the dangers this pond presented on the way to school. (His favorite movie is JAWS)

And in the last book, "The Kissing Hand 4" the inside shows the rudimentary tree once again with the hole and the two stick figures inside with a heart above them.

I asked my son, "What happened? How did all of this destruction take place and now the Mommy and Baby raccoon are just fine?" To which my son responded: The Kissing Hand 4 is the moral of the story. If the Mommy raccoon had just allowed the Baby raccoon to stay home none of this bad stuff would have EVER happened!

Preschool student, 1, Mommy, 0.

The Value of Time

The genesis of this blog was to chronicle how I view life, what my "daily" thoughts are and to give my kids a chance to understand at THIS stage how their mother's mind works. So far? I've shown my kids how little value I place on this blog. I have shown my kids that LIFE gets busy and the recordation of it gets pushed back. I'm sorry, kids. It's never too late to make a resolution to change things, so I'm making a resolution to do a better job blogging. No promises, but I am making the resolution. Does that count?

Back in December, a good friend of my parents' passed away unexpectedly, and -- to be honest I don't recall if I blogged about this or not -- but at the service the family had tons of family photos of her with her grandchildren. Sitting right between MY parents at the service, I realized that I had not made time for MY children to enjoy vacations with their grandparents. We did go on the family vacation to June Lake last year, and we had the time of our lives! But that was it? Unacceptable.

I planned a family vacation to Hawaii. Could we afford it? Probably not. Could we afford NOT to go? Possibly not.

We just got back and I'll revisit the questions posed: Could we afford it? STILL probably not. Could we afford not to go? ABSOLUTELY not. This was by far the BEST vacation we've ever taken. You've seen those people enjoying something and pinching themselves to make sure it's real? Every single morning I woke up between 3:00 and 4:00 a.m. (jet lag) and had time to take in my vacation. I made sure to take lots of scenic memories (pictures). I breathed in deeply that fresh morning sea air and felt the Trade winds blow every afternoon. I created mental memories to hopefully sustain me a lifetime.

You'd think this was to be our last vacation ever with how perfectly everything went. The condo we stayed in was beautiful, and we were mysteriously upgraded before our arrival to a luxurious ground floor condo with direct access to our own waterfall. Our flights were perfect and the airline was great -- even travelling through airports was really a breeze. We had no problems with travel and our van was great. I noticed every little thing and even when I tried to nitpick I could hardly find a thing to complain about... hence the pinching.

We will never forget this vacation. We spent it with the people we love, both the family we traveled with and the family we visited on the island. Sometimes you have to decide what value you place on "time." Everything in our daily life comes down to what we can afford, but when you place value on "time" that time becomes priceless.

I'll post pictures soon!

Curiosity

My heart fills with pride when curiosity sparks learning! I love it! My daughter loves to draw, which sparked her curiosity to draw the finer details of an image. She spends hours on Saturday mornings drawing pictures -- before we all awaken -- of Japanese anime characters. There is a warm feeling when you come upon her in her room engrossed in the details of her drawing. I can almost feel the energy in her room as her little brain buzzes!

My son becomes obsessively interested in whatever strikes his fancy. First, it was trash and the rubbish collector, then it was pirates. He still continues loving signs of all types -- can't pass a "dip" in the street without noticing the yellow sign. He has morphed his love of signs into "maps." I wanted him to do a better job brushing his teeth so I created a map of how to brush your teeth. First you brush the top teeth, then you brush the bottom, and so on. Worked like a CHARM!!

Now? My son loves planets. Jichan gave my daughter a birthday card that had pictures of planets all over it. He wrote his name around some of the planets, so my son asked, "Jichan, do planets have names?" And he replied, "Yes." A few days later -- after this thought had festered -- my son asked ME, "Mommy, what are the names of the planets?" I sort of blew him off. I was busy. I sort of blew him off for too long -- or what he FELT was too long. So the next day I came home to find our solar system written out on a piece of paper with the names of all of the planets on it.

I asked him, "How did you learn the names of the planets?" To which he replied, "I used my iPod and went to Safari and searched for PLANETS. I then watched a video on YouTube about planets. Did you know that Mercury and Venus are hot and Jupiter and Saturn are gassy planets? Neptune is cold like Uranus and Pluto is no longer considered a planet."

All of the planets' names were spelled correctly. I shudder to think of what he COULD have found on "Safari" had there been some Planet Sex or some other inappropriate web site he found.

We have since taken away his access (which we didn't know he knew how to use) to Safari. He thinks of it as a "punishment" but we've explained that we just need to be with him when he accesses it. It's not going over well, but it is what it is.


Here is what he drew. You will see that Jupiter and Saturn have "uncomfortable" faces -- because they are "gassy" -- he also said they feel bad because they smell since they're gassy. He made up a few planets (Planet X, Planet M and N). I'm not even sure what planet in our solar system "Forest" is but perhaps he's on to something. Earth is a happy planet, and I love that way off in the lower left-hand corner is "Heaven." Darling.

Don't be too impressed. He goes for his Kinder testing today to see if he's ready to enter school this September and he found out that he'll have to count to 10 and distinguish between circles and squares and he said, "Boy, that's gonna be HARD!"