Last day of 3rd and 4th grades!

And that's it folks, I no longer have 3rd and 4th graders any more!

 I updated my status on Facebook with:

Last day of school! I'm laughing at a few things! A. Zach's hair B. How you can tell that less effort goes into hair/clothes as the school year goes on! Alissa hardly combs her hair theses days and C. is it just me, or do these two look like they have grown serious attitudes!? I told Zach he'd get 30 minutes more video games with friends and Alissa she would get 10 minutes of me helping her clean her room and I STILL didn't get a decent picture! Not sure I'm ready for summer.....

By the end, I most definitely slack on things and that's okay, they made it through the year, had fun and are ready for summer!

The kids got to take home all their papers, stories, books etc and Alissa had fun showing me what was in her desk and I read through some of Zach's fun poems. A few things went into their special box and now we look forward to relaxing, playing with friends (although with SIX boys over here the other day, I am not so sure I how feel about the noise that brings) and having a fun summer!

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Zach's field day at school

Some times I like to volunteer to help the kids classes at school because if I don't, I don't get to take fun pictures of some of the big stuff they do during the year. Zach class (well all of 4th grade) did a field day and I was on Popsicle duty...in the cold...with cold hands ha ha! The kids had a lot of fun and while I was sitting at my station, I tried grabbing some pictures of Zach way over doing some fun stuff. We did obstacle coarse races and hanging contests after the kids finished their sugar water Popsicle and I think it was a lot of fun.

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Alissa's motorcycle ride

Alan took Alissa on her first motorcycle ride. If you remember the last time Alan had a motorcycle, we lived in Murray and Alissa was about three years old. She was so scared of the loud noise while Zach had a ride around the apartment building. She was scared at first and then ended up loving it and wanting to go again while Zach didn't want to go! It's interesting to see that switch there.

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Alissa with a few "friends"

Some nights while reading to Alissa, I can't help but grab just a couple pictures. She always has her "friends" with her up on her bed and rotates through which ones are her faves. In here she has her long time fave "Lamby" that Aunt Christi gave her when she was about three years old and a new friend she chose at DI a few months ago for trading in her Valentines candy. Old or new, she loves her stuffed animals!

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Tiss was missing

So we had an interesting month. Four weeks and one day ago, Tiss didn't come home. Nothing usual, a night away every once in a while was fine and we didn't worry. Three...four days later, I was worried and knew she was "gone". I called the animal shelter to ask if they had an orange female cat come in from Highland and they told me no, but to come in a look if I wanted to make sure. I knew they say that (remember, I was in almost daily trying to find Bob and Chuggles) but with one car and no conformation of a cat describing Tiss, I decided to give it some time. Almost three weeks to the DAY, I had the car for the first time in months and decided to "just go see". I walked in and saw TISS in the front window up for adoption. I knew it was her and my heart started pounding when I went into check. The lady came in to tell me that she was a "male". No, she wasn't, I knew it was her, so I wanted proof. She brought out the paper and sure enough, they had "male" on the paper but SHE was picked up on our street the DAY she went missing...THREE WEEKS ago! I assured her that this was my cat and sure enough, she peeked and this "male" was in fact a female. I went out and was told the boarding fee was $22 a day...this is were I got irritated. So because you mess up, I have to pay nearly $300 to get my cat out and then later Alan pointed out to me that I could have went in and adopted her for LESS! Ya, I was pretty upset about it. When I talked to the girl and tried to explain, she looked and talked to me like I was an idiot. I already HATE doing things like that...trying to have them take money off my bill was very nerve racking for me to start with. So I didn't push anymore, but I think they are wrong! She told me that some female cats can be mistaken as males that have been fixed. Well thanks for that info NOW, two weeks after I called and you said nothing like that! If, when I called, they would have said "no female cats, but we did get a male from Highland and some times the females can be mistaken as males" I would have verified the address and MADE a way to get there! ugh. so annoying!

ANYWAYS....! We were all pretty sad that Tiss was gone for three weeks. None of us really took the time to think about it in depth because the thought of losing yet another cat we had come to love was just too much for us and life has been stressful enough with out that thought. We were so very happy to have her back and she settled back in very quickly! Otto didn't know who she was at first. She smelled like other cats and he growled at her and it took him almost a full day to approach her and give her loving licks again!

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Our first birds nest

Alan noticed a birds nest on our light this month. I had noticed a broken egg on our front porch and thought maybe the cats had gotten a hold of a birds egg, so it was a fun surprise to see this cute momma bird and her three little eggs! She built that nest right on top of some light bulbs Alan left out there and she used a lot of our dyer lint to make her nest. I love it! It's so fun to watch things in nature do what they do! It's now June 2nd and two of the three eggs have hatched. What a sweet little thing we get to watch happen each day!

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Mother's day

Mother's days this year was nice and low key. The previous night my stomach was really hurting and I was up late not feeling well, so I got to sleep in and relax. Alissa kept coming in with me trying to get me out of bed so I would come out and look at the table. Alan made breakfast in bed like usual, which is always nice to be waited on and spoiled. When I finally made it out, I had nice little notes from the kids and Alan and they picked flowers from the yard to make a beautiful bouquet! Alan and the kids went to visit his mom while I stayed home relaxing and trying to feel better. My stomach has been having major pains that almost double me over, it's nuts! For dinner we enjoyed one of my faves, homemade PF Changs chicken lettuce wraps, so good even with the alterations we make because of our clean eating. So ya, it was nice. I personally would have loved to get out and go on a pic-nic or something, but my stomach wasn't having that! I am for sure loved by my little family and am grateful to be the mom to two pretty awesome and amazing kids who have such (opposite) personalities. Being a mom is probably the hardest thing I've done and will ever do! It's a minute by minute, hour by hour, day by day (you get the idea) job of worry, sweet moments, questioning my ability to raise these two into good adults, stress, pic-nics, dinners, playing, more worrying, reading to, hanging out and constantly changing job! My hope is that one day when they are all grown up they only have (mostly) good things to say! They have to and I truly believe they know how loved they are, even through the day to day chaos that goes on with life. I am very lucky to be their mom!

And with that, I am also thankful for my own mom. The older I get and the more I parent my kids, the more and more I realize that my mom was truly doing the best she knew how, just like I am. She gave me life and a pretty good one at that.  I have wonderful memories of growing up and and having a lot of fun times. I look back and see a lot of similarities between my mom and I and understand things that I never did before becoming a mom. So Happy Mother's day to you too mom, I love you!

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Alissa and Otto sleeping

Sleeping beauties

a "fun" day to the park

It was on of those days when I felt the NEED to get out of the house. I was a bit cranky and so was Alan, but he said he'd come with us. Some days it's just a better idea if we get separate time ;) I kept taking things the wrong way and he was just bugging me ha ha!!! BUT, we did have a little pic-nic and discover a fun new place to go. Okay, not so much fun, but pretty and there is a little play ground and man made lake to walk around and explore. So all and all we had a good time!

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Alissa and Otto

Lately I've been super busy updating my website and updating old files. I seem to be glued to the computer and quit honestly have been a little chill about the kids with their faces in front of a screen. I came out to see Otto just so so happy laying on Alissa's legs. It was too much, so adorable!

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