Kindergarten Graduation and Dance Recital

In all of the craziness that has been going on in our lives the last few months... Rhoslyn graduated Kindergarten!

It is hard to believe that our youngest is now going into first grade.  We are completely done with Kindergarten.

Rhoslyn had a great year in Kindergarten.  She became really close with her teacher.  She just loves Mrs. Foster.  I believe that Mrs. Foster will always hold a special place in Rhoslyn's heart.  She still talks about her and really misses her.

During her Kindergarten graduation the kids sang some very cute songs.  They also received paper diplomas and enjoyed cake and treats afterwards.  It was a wonderful night.  Rhoslyn started to cry during the parent dance because she wants to stay with Mrs. Foster in Kindergarten forever.

The second weekend in June, Rhoslyn had her dance recital.  She said this last year (and changed her mind), but as of right now she is done with dance.  She does not want to be in it anymore.  Secretly I am hoping she changes her mind, but I completely respect her decision.  She is thinking about trying Gymnastics instead.

 

Updates on our entire family!

This may end up being my longest blog post yet!  Here is the scoop of what has been going on with our family...  get ready!

As everyone knows, we are moving.  This process has been very crazy.  We had to rush to get our house show ready so we could place it on the market.  Then our home sold within 4 days!  Woo hoo!  We purchased a new house, which has been kind of a nightmare.  We won't go into that...  However, everything is now moving along pretty smooth.

Billy has basically spent the last two months living in a hotel.  This is hard on the kids, and hard on myself.  I am taking care of all the packing, the kids, their field trips and after school activities, being a girl scout leader, Sunday school teacher, and ALL of the crazy stress that comes along with selling and buying.

We are sad to leave our first home, but honestly I cannot wait until we are moved into the new place.  At that point, Billy will have been in a hotel for 3 months.  We usually only get 1 1/2 days with him a week and honestly... we have been so busy on the weekends that we really aren't even getting quality time as a family.  Our lives are complete chaos right now.

The kids are super excited about the new house and the part they are most excited is that "we will all be on the same floor."  Sad and cute.  We have enjoyed our home here and have made a lot of memories.  Today they put the "sold" portion of our for sale sign up.  It definitely makes me teary, but I know we will make even more great memories at our new place.  That is something we are all looking forward to.

To add to the craziness of our lives right now, I have signed up for school!  Yay me!  It will be a two week program (80 hours).  The certificate is to become a Sleep Lab Technologist.  I am extremely excited about this new adventure.  Thank goodness the classes don't start until July! :) That gives us a little of time to settle the craziness down.  Once I complete the classes I will be able to take a Board exam to become Registered as a Certified Sleep Technologist.  I have been out of work for almost a year.  As much as I enjoyed the summer with the kids, I am ready to go back.  I have held off getting a job, knowing that we would most likely be moving.  Also, not working has helped with the fact that Billy has been out of town/state so much within the last 12 months.

Onto the kids...

Rhoslyn has been extremely emotional and sensitive lately.  I know a lot of it is anxiety about moving and going some where new.  She was so little when we bought this house, it's all she knows.  She is also a daddy's girl and having dad away has been really hard for her.  She even cried at school during rest time because she misses him so much.  He is definitely her rock (as he is all of ours).  What would we do without him?  I have no idea.  He is the glue to our family!

Rhoslyn has been a reading machine.  Her favorite Author is Mo Willems.  She LOVES Gerald and Piggie books.  I love that she loves reading, expect when she wants to read me the same two stories 5 times in one day... haha!  She is such a great reader for being in Kindergarten.  

Rhoslyn has also decided that after her dance recital she would like to be done with dance. :(  This makes me sad because she is very good at it and I know she enjoys it.  She just gets bored when they are only practicing for recital.  I am hopeful that she may change her mind, but if not that is okay!  

Alex is super excited about the move.  He is very excited to make new friends and be closer to his other cousins!  He is also very excited about all of the different things we can check out!  He is doing awesome in school.  I seriously cannot believe he will be going into third grade!  As always, Alex is my man of the house when dad isn't home.  He helps wake Rhoslyn up in the morning and does everything I ask him to.  He has also been a reading machine and has admitted to staying up late to read in his bed.  Goal for new house:  A clock for his bedroom so he knows what time it actually is.

We bought Alex a golf set for his birthday.  First impression was not that great.  He liked it, but we didn't get him any Legos.  Go figure.  We are hoping to get him signed up for some Golf lessons this summer.  One more thing to add to my to do list!

We have had a lot going on and we have more coming up.  Why does May always seem so busy? 

We can't wait for June 1st.  Just a few weeks away!  We are getting a guest bed set up in our basement so we hope to have lots of visitors this summer!!  Hint Hint!!

That's all for now...

Sweet!

Rhoslyn was giving mom kisses the other day and told me that her heart was bursting because she just loved me so much and loved giving me kisses.

She can be such a sweetheart.

Humble and Kind

As I heard Tim McGraw's "Humble and Kind" song this morning it reminding me of two Saturday's ago when my family and I were sitting at Mcdonalds for Breakfast before going house hunting.

There was a man laying his head on the table with a black garbage bag at his side.  Rhoslyn asked why he was laying his head down.  My response "I don't think he has a home and he probably wanted to come into a place where it's nice and warm so he can rest a little bit."

As we were eating our breakfast a dad walked into Mcdonalds and started heading towards our direction when he saw the man and told his kids, "Nope, we aren't going this way" and headed back towards the front.  It saddened me that someone could be so arrogant.  Haven't you ever been in a tough place?  Maybe my husband and I are sensitive to this because he has lost his job and we have had to somehow make ends me with very little pay from unemployment more then once.  We don't know the hurt and sorrow of living homeless, but we have been in tough places before... just like so many others.

We didn't know his story.  We didn't know why he was homeless, but we did know that we wanted to buy him breakfast and leave some extra cash in his meal bag.  We wanted to make sure that he got at least one warm meal that day and enough money to cover two more meals.  

When we left, I turned to the man and told him to have a nice day and smiled at him.  I left with a tear in my eye.  We talked to the kids about how we bought him breakfast and gave him some extra cash because for some reason, he doesn't have a home to live in.  We live in a small town and we do not see homeless people in our area.  However, we want our kids to grow up to be "Humble and Kind."  When they see someone in need, to help them out and be kind.  

You never know what someone is struggling with.

Always stay humble and kind.

Rest in Peace Maddie

A few weeks ago we put our kitty to sleep.  This is the first pet loss we have dealt with as a family.  This was also the first time Rhoslyn really dealt with a loss as well.  The last time we had a loved one pass away, she was too little to understand.

We had been talking for awhile that it was going to be time to put the cat down.  Her approximate age was 15. 

She had arthritis and they also thought she had cataracts.  She could only groom her paws and legs.  And you dare not too her back end because it was too painful.  She was barely eating and most of what she ate she threw back up.  Her quality of life just wasn't good.

As sad as it sounds, we decided to just get it done and over with.  We talked to the kids and how she was going to heaven.  Alex understood and Rhoslyn wasn't sure what to think.

It wasn't until about 4 days later that Rhoslyn had a meltdown about kitty not being home.  She wanted her to come back.  I think it had finally sunk in that kitty would never be home again.  The next day while riding in the car with daddy, Rhoslyn asked if we could take the shot back so Maddie could not be dead anymore.  

It was a hard week.  It was hard to see her favorite place to lay downstairs (which was the recliner).  It was hard not to see her food dish and cat box in the basement. 

Time heals and we are feeling better about it.  Billy and I had the hardest time with it because she was out first pet together.  We had her for 12 years.  She will always be our baby.

I am sure she is still being feisty and sassy even in Heaven.

Rest in Peace Maddie.  We miss you.

Fellar Cake Bake

Alex and Bill were part of the Fellar Cake Bake for Cub Scouts again this year.  The theme was Games.  It could be video games, board games, etc.

There were many ideas thrown out about what kind of cake to make.  However, the winning idea was a Checkers Board!

The cool thing about the Fellar Cake Bake is that the boys are in charge of doing everything.  They get to work together, come up with ideas, and create their masterpiece.  

This year, they even ventured into using Fondant.  The cake turned out awesome!  They won Judges Choice which was the same as last year. 

Cancun, Mexico

Bill and I had a fabulous trip to Cancun, Mexico for our 10 year anniversary.  For the last year, we had been talking about doing a cruise or resort.  We finally decided to just splurge and do it!  So glad we did.  We had a great time and we are already looking forward to going back again (hopefully in a couple of years and maybe with the kids).

Unfortunately, we did not have the best weather.  However, we didn't let that ruin our trip.  We had 2 really good sunny days.  The other days were a mixture of clouds, rain and wind.  It was still warm enough to sit on the beach and soak up the sights of the ocean.

We stayed at a great resort.  Although we aren't sure we would go back to the same one.  I think we would like to try Cabo or a different area of Mexico.  The resort staff were awesome.  They were very kind and helpful during our trip.  Our favorite person Caesar who waited on us for drinks while we parked our butts on the beach!  He had a great sense of humor and made sure we were drinking plenty!  

While at the resort we enjoyed two shows.  A magic show with a man who actually performs in Vegas and a Light Show (it was supposed to be a fire show, but it was raining).  Both were fantastic! We were going to venture outside of the resort and possibly go on an excursion, but the weather was so iffy.  

We had a crazy driver on our way from the Airport to the Resort.  We pretty much thought we were going to die! :) When we arrived at the resort we were taking upstairs to the preferred club area where we were offered a drink while we checked in.  They brought our bags to our rooms for us so we didn't have to lug them to our room.  They even brought us a bottle of sparkling wine (which we both thought was gross, but it's the though that counts) and a plate of apples.

Every night the resort would "turn down."  They would come to our room, get our bed ready for us, leave chocolates, a card about the next days weather, have the lights on dim, remote on the bed, and would have relaxation music on.  It was a nice little surprise!

One thing we enjoyed about our stay was that room service was include in our stay.  So, the first night we just got room service for dinner because we were exhausted from traveling.  It was perfect.

We also had a mini bar which was included.  So they filled it daily and left us M&M's and a small can of pringles.

It was my first time being by the ocean and I loved it.  We mostly just sat by the ocean during the day and took it all in.  It was great for relaxing.  We swam in the ocean.  I was a bit skeptic with this... didn't want to step on anything that I shouldn't step on.  We found a Star fish on our last day and some other fish in the water.  You could see a lot more fish, etc when the water was calm.

Sellers would walk on the beach (only when it was nice out) and sell items.  I bought a Handmade Mexican Blanket and love it.  It's beautiful.  It was fun just to see how the atmosphere is in Mexico. For our first experience out of the country, it was a great!  We are both looking forward to going back again and being more adventurous the next time we go.  This vacation was all about relaxation.  The next time it will be more about adventures. :)