it's a-pollen*

he's not as pitiful as he looks.  he's worse

it's that time of year again in our home.  the time when wadded up tissues litter the floor around liam's bed and fill the trashcan of every bathroom ... the time where i swear a gaggle of honking geese must have taken up residence in some unknown corner of the house ... the time when the sweet, round blue eyes i love so much turn into a watery red mess.  the time of year where i think every penny of my meager paycheck is singlehandedly keeping claritin in business.  the time of year where i actually scrutinize the weather forecast hoping that rain is predicted so it can wash some of this dreaded yellow crud away.

yep.  it's pollen season.  and it's struck poor liam with a vengeance, yet again.

we took an unplanned but necessary break from his allergy shots for reasons i won't go into now, but have resumed them and find ourselves at the office twice a week, bound and determined to get back on track.  he willingly offers up his soft little arm for that vial, understanding that it's a necessary evil in combating an even larger evil.  as someone who's phobic of needles, i honestly cannot watch, but the nurses tell me he's one of their bravest patients who barely even flinches.

which is a good thing, since we have a long way to go -- years, in fact, before he's finished with the regimen.  until then, we're trying to look at the perks to being so miserable.  for one, he's learning to adapt.  several times a day at school, he quietly excuses himself to the PTA workroom, which is adjacent to his classroom.  seems that his nose blowing was proving to be slightly distracting, according to his teacher, so he asked if he could just find a quieter place to go.  (i only found this out because he was excited to inform me that he saw Smokey the Bear headless last week for the earth day celebration.  seems smokey was taking a load off -- literally -- in the PTA workroom when liam walked in.)

for another, he's turned quite philosophical.  "i know people sometimes talk about what they're going to do when they get to heaven," he shared with me last week.  "you know, like how they want to see one of their pets or grandparents who died and are waiting up there for them.  but that's not what i'm going to do when i get there."  he paused to blow his nose for the four thousandth time of the evening before continuing.  "i'm going to go straight to God and get Him to tell me exactly what the purpose of all of this mess is," he said, pointing emphatically to his pills, eye drops, allergist schedule, and tissues around him. "i mean, seriously!"

and lastly, it's sparked some creative juices in him that we didn't know he had.  i think all this nose blowing made him start to feel like one of those hamsters, spinning its little legs and getting nowhere.  he'd get done with a tissue, and five seconds later, he'd have to grab another one.  it's quite difficult to get very far in reading if you're constantly pausing to grab another tissue.  so the solution?

why not?

*do you get the title's play-on-words?  it's supposed to read like "appalling" ... but i'm afraid it might only make sense to those of us with southern accents.  i didn't believe i really even had an accent until recently, during a battle with my strong-willed daughter over hairstyles.  one morning before school i suggested that i give her two side pigtails, but susanna was having none of it, and i couldn't understand why.  exasperated, she said, "they just don't sound very fun!  can't you put in happy pigtails instead?"

flab-u-lous

we've returned from what i'm describing as our most amazing family vacation to date.  actually, it's our ONLY family vacation to date, as all others we've taken up to this point really are better described as a "Family Trip".  Family Trips are when you go somewhere with your children and have an amazing time with them, but come back more tired than you were when you left.  disneyworld?  weekends to asheville?  weeks at the beach?  all fun -- but all exhausting.  those are Family Trips.

but six days in the bahamas where the kids were as entertained with us as they were without us?  six days where my only part of meal prep was mulling over the extensive menu three times a day?  (seriously - our waiter actually cut up our children's meat for us.)  six days where we actually slept in as late as 8 a.m.?  six days where chris and i could sip on fruity drinks by the pool with our best friends while our children saw magicians and made t-shirts and sang karaoke and all sorts of other amazing activities without us?

well.  that, my friends, is called a vacation.  and lest you think i'm the only one who was as blown away by the week, i interviewed our daughter on our final morning at breakfast.  here's what susanna had to say:

unbeknownst to her, "FLABulous" is an entirely appropriate way to describe our week, as i think we all gained an average of three pounds after stuffing ourselves silly all day long

many pictures on their way ...

it's like winning the lottery

yesterday, one of the most miraculous things happened.  but i can't just tell you what it was right off the bat, of course.  i have to tell you the full story.  it's a little long.  but i haven't been blogging much recently so i'm hoping you might have the time to listen.

liam has always been a kid who has not fit the mold of traditional education, for a variety of reasons.  when he was young -- meaning, starting preschool young -- he didn't fit the mold for the two year old class that he joined.  his classmates were verbal, able to sing simple songs and request what they wanted and repeat short blessings before snack time.  liam, on the other hand, was not verbal.  he wasn't able to sing simple songs, wasn't able to request what he wanted, and wasn't able to repeat short blessings before snack time.  instead, he sat silently as he observed all the going-ons around him.  still, we kept him enrolled in his preschool class that year for the exposure, and had him repeat the 2's while he received intensive speech therapy in the afternoons to try to catch him up.  (that's actually a little funny when you think about it -- our son sort of flunked his two-year old preschool class.)

he did catch up.  it took almost six years and hundreds of sessions of speech therapy, but he did catch up.  i'm happy to say that he graduated from preschool with flying colors.  (and by then, he could even SAY his colors.)

then he started kindergarten.  within a week, i was called to the school to meet with his teacher and the principal.  "liam's exceptionally advanced," they told me, which i had sort of suspected but really didn't know because he's my first child and i didn't have a clue what most kindergartners could do.  "we can't accommodate his math needs in his regular classroom, so we're proposing that he start attending a first grade class for math an hour a day."  and so, for the remainder of his kindergarten year, and all of his first grade year, and now his second grade year, he's been responsible for checking his watch, departing quietly from his classroom, and walking by himself to another classroom with older kids so that his math needs can be met.

funny how life works.  he was the farthest behind.  and now he's one of the farthest ahead, at least in math.  on both ends of the spectrum i have felt the anguish that only a parent can feel.  and at either end, you want so badly to know just what your child needs for him to be the most successful, and then be able to provide that very thing.

we've been extremely happy at his elementary school.  they have bent over backwards to meet his needs, and i truly believe that every teacher he's had (and there have been many in the three years he's been there) has done her very best to make sure he's thriving.  but the fact is, he's going to eventually run out of math to take.  and i just keep having the nagging feeling that he could be challenged more.

i think it's always healthy to know what other kinds of opportunities are out there, and we are blessed to live in the largest school system in the state with plenty of options.  there are over 100 elementary schools, some of which run on a traditional calendar and many that are year-round.  there are magnet schools with specialized programs that run the gamut, from engineering to leadership to spanish immersion to technology to arts & sciences to museums to international baccalaureate.  there are private schools and religious schools and a huge home schooling community.  and there are charter schools.

i have a limited understanding of charter schools, but i do know that they are not part of our public school system.  they are funded with taxpayer money, but only partially.  and they are hugely desirable here; so popular that the only way to obtain one of the coveted spots is by entering a lottery.  and i mean a real-life lottery -- they actually pull numbers out of a hopper.  there is nothing you can do to increase your odds.  and your only shot at getting in is in the lowest grade of the school, because no one ever leaves, and if someone does move, siblings are given priority.

so i began exploring options a few years ago, when i first realized that liam had such specialized academic needs, and learned about this truly phenomenal charter school in raleigh that served grades 3-8.  it's a school with highly motivated learners in classes that don't exceed 16 students.  the teachers are all passionate about what they do, and every parent has to commit to a certain amount of volunteer hours a month.  the long-range plan is for every middle schooler to have his own iPad, and a sizable portion of their 8th graders take geometry, which is a rarity in most schools.  (leave it to me to look that far ahead.)  they do these amazing projects and take amazing field trips and every student is constantly challenged to exceed their expectations.  everything i heard or read about this school confirmed to me that liam was tailor-made for it.  or it was tailor-made for liam.  regardless, i just knew he needed to be there.  i have watched as a few friends over the years have gotten their children in and counted down the days til liam was old enough for us to apply.  and this year, finally, we could. 

so we applied, along with 332 other families in raleigh.  for 30 openings.  (siblings of current students are guaranteed spots, which accounted for half of the rising third grade class.)  for all you non-math folks out there, that's a ... drum roll please ... 9% chance of getting in.

so i didn't tell liam about it.  i never mentioned the school name to him, never let on that we were even considering moving him next year.  because, really, what was the point?  why get his hopes up?  or, likewise, why even put the seed in his head that there might be a school better suited for him than where he happily is now?  when the index card arrived in the mail with his lottery numbers on it, i turned it face-down before i pinned it to the bulletin board above my computer in the office so he wouldn't see it.  (on the back, i jotted down the lottery numbers of the 12 or so friends i had who also applied.  that way, when the lottery results were posted, i would know who got in without having to bother calling them.)

all 3rd grade applicants had an A following their number, while the applicants for the waiting lists for the higher grades had different letters

the lottery was monday afternoon.  and as crazy as it sounds, all day i couldn't eat.  my stomach was in knots.  i had convinced myself that he wasn't going to get in, but still, no matter how much you prepare yourself for the worst, there's always that small glimmer of hope in the back of your mind that it might actually happen.  i kept checking the clock for the time, completely distracted while attempting to do anything productive.  but then, right around the time i knew it was going to be posted, i decided i couldn't look.  i turned off my cell phone so i wouldn't be bombarded with texts.  i took susanna to ballet and came home and still, i waited.  i was in constant communication with God that whole day.  for peace.  for understanding.  for the grace i would need to be excited for the others who did get in when we did not.

finally, i felt ready.  i sat down at the computer and clicked on the link.  in those brief seconds that the page loaded, i said one last prayer, as i have said for years now, that God's will be done.  i might think that i know the best school for liam.  but only God knows for sure.  i would be at peace with the outcome no matter what.

and then the page loaded.

i won't go into my reaction, as it borders on being is quite melodramatic.  but the number is there.  little old 166A in the middle of the right column.  the 22nd number pulled, apparently.  liam will be a magellan mariner until he heads off to high school.  susanna will follow him next year.

it was like winning the lottery.  oh, wait -- i should correct that.

it IS winning the lottery.

wheelin' and dealin'

i awoke this morning to rain pelting the bedroom windows, and sat up with a start.  where are the beach towels? i wondered.  i've got to get down to the car and make sure that the floorboard is covered.  the rain was heavy and my sunroof leak was sure to turn my SUV into a swamp in no time.

and then -- it hit me.  i sank back down into the warmth of the bed and smiled.  i have a new car, as of last week, and have no need for gathering beach towels and soaking up rainwater and airing out the smell with the windows down and heavy doses of febreze.

yes, the huge news in the mann household these days is that we did get a new car.  and not just a new-to-us car, but an actual, real life, NEW car.  the kind that they had to remove the sticker on the windshield.  the kind that had single digits on the odometer.  the kind that has no stains on the seats or crumbs in the corners or damp musty odor that the kids swear smells like dead fish.  (what?  most cars don't have that?  oh.)

the reason it's such huge news is because we manns just simply don't do new-of-any-variety cars often.  you might remember that chris drove my college graduation present until the wheels were just about to fall off, and then replaced it with a used sedan.  my aforementioned leaky SUV was actually a hand-me-down from my parents a few years ago, and boasted a small sum of 127,000 miles on it.  so when we finally succumbed to the reality that we desperately needed a new car -- unless we spent more than half of the car's value to get the leak fixed -- used vehicles were the only sensible option.

until it turned out that they weren't.  there was some crazy financing deal going on and after crunching the numbers, it turned out we could either buy a used SUV with 30,000 miles on it, or spend $20 more per month and get one with that sticker and single digits on the odometer.

no brainer.

this is, hands down, the biggest thing that has happened to my children this year.  they are ecstatic.  for weeks as we discussed the possibility, they'd get off the bus every afternoon and crane their necks around the bend to see the driveway.  and every afternoon they'd be crestfallen to see that same stinky car sitting there.  "when are we going to get a new car?" they'd ask, over and over again.  and despite their tendency to border on whining, liam especially had a point.  "i'm tired of everything getting soaking wet even in the backseat!" he'd complain, as he had the pleasure of sitting on the passenger side under the leak.  it really was sort of marshy back there.

so with me they went last thursday evening to the dealer, more excited to see our new purchase than i think they were to go to disneyworld.  they staked their claim on their seats, pushed all sorts of buttons, and marveled at the drop-down DVD screen with its wireless headphones.  (come to think of it, we still haven't tried that thing out.  i told them the car had to be running for at least an hour before it came on since it's only good on long trips.)

and lest i paint a picture that it's only the kids who are excited ... i must admit i sat in the darkened driveway that evening after the kids were in bed and played with my new toy for an hour.  i've set all my favorite radio stations on FM and XM -- and even made chris his own favorites list as well.  i stored all of my regular destinations in the high-tech navigation system and alphabetized my top five on the home screen.  i set up my iphone bluetooth and recorded my voice for hands-free commands so i can now simply say, "call chris" and, voila!, his phone starts ringing.  (if i can figure out how to change that, i'm considering changing it to "call Hot Stuff".  too much?)

the biggest thing i learned through this process is that car buying is not for the faint-of-heart.  chris was on standby for any questions i had, but 99% of the process was done by little old me.  i did the research, narrowed down my options, and test drove.  i met a dozen or so car salesmen, most nice, a few slimy, and all hankering for my business.  i called around for deals, negotiated, threatened to walk away, and then did walk away.  and i finally wound up with what i think is a great deal (although, really, who says that they just bought a car and paid way too much?)

if history holds true, i figure i will likely be driving this car until liam graduates from high school.  the kids might actually learn to drive in this thing.  by then the floorboards will certainly have crumbs and the seats might have a stain or two.  and the new car smell will have long been replaced by stinky soccer shin guards and sweaty basketball jerseys.

but what it will not have is a pile of beach towels on the floor soaking up the rainwater.  because there's one feature this car -- a 2012 buick enclave, in case you were wondering -- does not have.

a sunroof.

picture coming ... stay tuned

stop hunger now

neither liam or susanna are eager beavers when it comes to trying new things.  there are some kids -- believe me, i've seen them -- who will bound out of the car for their first day at a new school or new camp or new whatever with an excited smile on their face, ready to meet new friends and do something different.  they're not intimidated by the unknown, or afraid of not fitting in or sticking too far out or being lonely.

these are not our children. 

no, neither of them exactly welcome change.  they're like their parents, in that they like to sort of know what they're getting into and want to assess the situation before diving in headfirst. but once they've done just that, liam will walk forward and join in.  he'll often glance back a time or two for reassurance, but within a minute or so he's acclimated and enjoying himself.  susanna, on the other hand, still clutches my hand.  if she finds a friend, she'll let go of me and go grab that friend's hand, and all is well in the world.  but if she doesn't know anyone, well, it can take a long time for me to detach myself from her vise-like grip.

every once in a while, however, they'll surprise us.  take last sunday, for example.  our church supports the Stop Hunger Now program at least once a year, and for a few hours, converts our huge parish hall into a mini food packing factory.  hundreds of parishioners, most of whom are still dressed in their church clothes, place quite fetching hairnets atop their heads and gloves on their hands and get to work.  we packaged 20,000 meals for children all over the world that sunday, and had a grand time doing it.

just when we were getting into the groove of it all, i realized that the kids' sunday school classes were ending and i needed to retrieve them down in their classrooms.  as we ascended the stairs back to the main floor, i thought, you know, they could totally help out.  there was plenty they could do.  and so into the parish hall we went.

and this is where the surprise comes.  guess who took one look at the hubbub -- with music blaring and adults running about and a huge gong clanging each time we hit another 1,000 meals -- and immediately decided to join in?  why, that would be susanna.

susanna was our table's "runner", transporting our packaged meal bags to the weighers who would then use scales to make sure they were they contained the right amount before sealing and boxing them

and liam, after initially declaring that he was not interested in participating, came around after a minute or two.  he actually joined a table half a room away from the rest of us, serving as a team member with several adults generations older than he.  and had a marvelous time.

liam assumed the role of rice mann, scooping out a cup at a time and pouring it into the bags.  and never fear -- my rule-following boy would never have handled the food without having on gloves.  this photo was taken after all was finished

but.  i will say this.  as much as we all enjoyed the experience and cannot wait to do it again ... we did not have rice that evening for dinner.

sweet treats

last week was full of valentines fun.  below are the inside of the cards susanna made at school for chris and me, which were great because we've always wondered just why she loves us.  now we know.

 

(just in case you're having trouble reading my scanned copy ...

"Daddy you are my Valentine because you have twinkly blue eyes, you laugh when I ticle your foot.  You are special to me because you take care of me and you spend time with me.  Thats why I love you!  Love, Susanna)

 (Mommy you are my Valentine because you have sparkling blue eyes, and blonde hair.  You are special to me because you cook delicious food with me.  And you give me very special gifts.  Thats why I love you!  Love, Susanna)

so that's what they do in the first grade -- write love notes to their parents.  what do they do in second grade, you ask?  apparently dream of ways to honor their girlfriends.  yep, as liam and i walked down the aisle at target to pick up valentine's candy for their classroom parties, liam paused in front of the ghiradelli section and decided he'd like to buy his girlfriend some.  this is lauren, the same "girlfriend" he's had since they were three year-old classmates in preschool, so i know her well.  she's such a sweetheart and quite worthy of some chocolate treatment so we added it to the cart ... and the whole walk up to the checkout lines, liam fretted.  "how do i get it to her?" he asked me.  "i can't give it to her at school because other girls might be jealous -- and it might embarrass her."  (quite an astute observation, i thought.)  "maybe we can bring it to her house?"  and so that's just what we did on valentine's day afternoon.

waiting sort of nervously after ringing the doorbell.  luckily he's not old enough yet to resent me snapping pictures from the car

lauren rode up on her scooter and seemed quite happy ... which made liam beam.  "i think that went as well as i could have hoped," he exclaimed when he returned to the car.  (i'm not quite sure what he was expecting, come to think of it)

and on a completely unrelated note, susanna and i saw the touring show of mary poppins in durham last week with one of her best friends and her mom.  it was quite a grown-up affair ... dinner out at a restaurant, with a showtime starting at 7:30 -- which is normally when she's getting into bed.  we didn't get home until close to midnight.  i'm thinking that when we go see "beauty and the beast" in october, we might just opt for a weekend matinee.

too bad it's blurry, because you're missing my "sparkling blue eyes"

best-laid plans

liam's math class has been studying perimeter and area as of late, and one activity they were assigned was to design their dream house.  he worked hard on his floor plan, his little blond head bent over his paper for almost an hour as he drew his lines, changed his mind, erased and redrew.  he proudly shared his final product with me and it gave me great insight into what he deems important at this stage in his life.

he's got all the real essentials in there somewhere: a bedroom, kitchen, office, and a few halls thrown in for good measure.  he managed to squeeze in a bathroom over there on the right after i reminded him that one was necessary (thank goodness.)  but liam's essentials take up far more space.

so if you were to build this house, just look to see what's inside!  you've got a souvineir (sic) and trophy room -- necessary for all those hundreds of plastic trophies you surely have just for showing up to practices.  you've got a playroom, TV room, a pool table, and even a movie theater.  the spa will allow for massages and facials (i guess?) and the pool will be a nice way to exercise, if the gargantuan exercise room doesn't have enough to offer.

but my favorite room can be found in the primo location in the front of the house.  feast your eyes on that gem: the Tablet Charger room.  because you can just never have enough space for making sure that your ipad is always ready to go. 

somehow i think he might have a few classes to teach on home design if he decides to pursue this as a career path ... but if and when he does, i'll frame this one as the first design he ever made.  he was a man ahead of his time, i'm sure they'll say, as every house in the future will surely have a Tablet Charger room of its very own.

these boots were made for walkin'

it's funny how a post can start off one way and in the matter of an hour, take off in a completely different direction.

i had been planning on writing a summary of susanna's shoe choices as of late.  the girl has more shoes than liam and chris combined -- black patent flats for church, two pairs of sneakers, brown mary janes, shiny silver flats for dressy outfits, pink crocs and rainboots and flipflops and about five different pairs of sandals ... you get the idea.  and yet, despite the wide variety of footwear at her fingertips, every day except wednesdays (which is her required sneaker day for P.E.) she makes a beeline for the same exact pair:  her cowgirl boots.

i tell you what, for the $30 or so we paid at target for these fake brown leather gems, we've certainly gotten our money's worth.

cowgirl boots with jeggings -- what more could a first-grade fashionista want?

about an hour after i snapped this photo, super and i took a ride to the vet.  the poor girl has some sort of hind leg problem that has been getting noticeably worse, and after swallowing a roughly $1000 vet bill right before christmas to have all those teeth extracted, i figured it was time to drop some more money on her.  

and let me just tell you -- it's a problem that's affecting all of us.  well, chris and me, anyway.  she's gotten to the point that she cannot navigate our stairs.  the hardwoods make them too slippery for her, and so, every time she needs to go up or down from one floor to the other, we have no choice but to carry her.  luckily she's only 45 pounds ... but do that a few times a day and you start to feel it.  who needs to work out when you're lugging 45 pounds up and down, over and over again?!  (note: this afternoon we're having a runner installed on our stairs to help the sweet thing out.  we're crossing our fingers that our carrying days are soon a thing of the past.)

what the vet told me was that it's surprisingly not a skeletal or muscular issue -- it's actually neurological.  she's got this disease that's common in boxers (what isn't? i've started to wonder) where the neurological pathway from her brain to her right hind leg isn't functioning properly.  the good news is that she's not in any pain.  the bad news is that her leg splays out to the side because she can't tell it to stay in place.  and in a house that has a main floor that's totally hardwoods, that's a serious problem.  she'll just be standing there, drinking water, and we'll watch her right leg go completely horizontal.  to eat dinner, she'll actually take a mouthful of food and walk into the family room to stand on the rug to eat it just so she can stay stationary on a non-slippery surface.  and taking her on a walk outside?  forget it.  she balks and refuses to go one step farther because she can't control that leg.

and so, you might wonder, what's the solution?  nothing, really.  she's now on some medication that's supposed to improve the neurological thingy, but it's just a matter of time (maybe months, maybe years) before it progresses up her body.  in the meantime -- and this is where this post ties in with susanna -- she's gotten some new footwear of her own: these little balloon-type things that help her feet have traction on our slippery floors so she can stand upright without sliding.

in other words ... boots!

still not used to these bright blue suckers.  perhaps susanna can show her how to strut around in style

not exactly a red letter day

one of the beautiful things about parenthood is you just never know what's coming up next.

for example, never in my wildest dreams would i have thought that i would be following up my last words with friends post with a story about words with friends hallucinations.  yep, hallucinations.  but that's just what happened last night.

liam had the craziest roller coaster ride on tuesday and i still don't know what to make of it.  we were off from school on a day when the high didn't climb much past freezing, so i took the kids to see a movie with some friends.  riding back from the theater he was in great spirits, recounting his favorite parts of the movie and talking about his basketball practice that night.

and then, a mere half-hour later, he came downstairs in tears to find me.  he said he felt awful, and when i took his temperature, it was an alarming 101.6.  before i could get any advil into him, he got sick into the toilet and declared that he was fairly certain he was going to die.  but he took a nap, and when he awoke, he was fever-free and starving.  he ate a huge dinner and worked on his book report and i started to wonder if maybe he had just had an adverse reaction to the popcorn.

the following morning, however, he awoke with a high fever again, so i had no choice but to keep him home.  and it was just as well; it was freezing again and i had no plans but to stay home and work.  remembering what it was like when i was sick growing up, when i was actually allowed to lie on the couch and watch television, i indulged him with much more screentime than he is normally ever allowed.  naturally, he didn't want to play his DS or watch espn or even a movie ... he wanted to play words with friends.  and thanks to the blog, he has acquired a new opponent in a college friend of chris's, who has assured me she will be quite kind and perhaps let him win a game or two. (thanks, meg!)  he traded turns back and forth and enjoyed texting her in the chat window, along with keeping current with his games with chris (who's in kansas city all week for work) and his aunt leslie.

and then, right when i assumed he was back to normal, the roller coaster dipped again.  he sat right next to a space heater at dinner, cranked up to 90 degrees, and was shivering so badly he was rocking in his chair.  he dissolved into hysterics before bedtime with sky-high fever yet again.

and this is where it gets frighteningly strange.  about an hour or so after falling asleep, i heard him screaming, and when i raced up to his room, i found him looking completely disoriented as he stood in the middle of the floor.  "they're everywhere," he muttered over and over again.  "make them go away, mommy!  why are they here?"  he grabbed me tightly and stared out into the air with a terrified look on his sweet soft face.

it took me a long time to figure out what he was talking about.  but what i finally surmised was that he was hallucinating.  he was actually experiencing febrile hallucinations (thanks, wikipedia) that our pediatrician assured me were actually not that alarming.  as soon as his fever subsided, the hallucinations would dissipate, i was told.  (and thankfully, they did.)

what was he seeing? you ask.  what were floating in the air around his room every time he opened his eyes?  life-size yellow squares with letters on them.  you know -- those tiles from words with friends.

 i said a few days ago that i had created a words with friends monster.  turns out i was quite right.

highly inappropriate

i've created a monster.  a WWF monster, that is.  as in, Words With Friends. 

liam is obsessed.  after i upgraded my iphone, i decided to let him have full control of the WWF app on my ipad.  i even let him create his own account, rather than playing under mine.  after a few failed name attempts -- seems there's already a liam mann somewhere -- "Liam the Hammer" was born.  (liam's soccer team is the hammers.)  he currently plays against his aunt leslie and against chris, both of whom are a little easy on him, thank goodness.  (have i mentioned to you his competitiveness?)

but had i known the fixation he was going to have, i'm not sure i would've been so eager to get him started.  he'll race inside from playing basketball in the driveway, flushed and breathless, but instead of asking for water, he asks if it's his turn with words with friends.  or he'll just so happen to walk past the ipad a few times in a matter of minutes, staring at the thing, trying to will it to chime with a new WWF notification.  he even bombarded his poor aunt with a string of urgent messages when she took a little while to play, complete with a plea along the lines of "please play a word!  pretty pretty please with a cherry on top!"

so since both of his opponents actually work for a living and cannot spend the entire afternoon trading words back and forth with him, he started looking elsewhere for a game.  he saw the feature where he could begin a game against a random opponent and at least had the mind to ask me if that was okay.

"oh, no, sweetheart.  that's not a good idea," i replied.

"why not?"

"well, you just don't know what kind of person you'll wind up playing," i explained.  "it could be an adult somewhere who might play some inappropriate words."

susanna's ears perked up.  "like daddy!"

i turned to her. "excuse me?"

she nodded emphatically.  "daddy played an inappropriate word just a few turns ago," she stated, all of a sudden assuming the role of the all-knowing WWF judge.  "just look!"  she turned on the screen and pointed. and there it was. 

heinie!  my word! 

(pun intended, of course) 

kicking it up a notch

liam's basketball season is in full swing, with chris coaching again and games on saturdays.  he's proving himself to be quite a good shooter, although i had suggest to that he practice a little on his own and actually use that basketball goal that santa brought him last year.  (i'm guessing, of course, but i'd assume that the poor man probably spent hours and hours putting that thing together and it's a shame that it sits in our driveway, unused, while liam opts to jump on his pogo stick instead.)

so on sunday, on a beautiful 75-degree january afternoon, liam decided to listen to me (wonders never cease) and shoot some hoops.  with me, no less, since i was appropriately dressed after playing a tennis match.  we played "horse" and he's invented all sorts of rules that didn't apply back in the day when i used to play in my own driveway growing up.  i found myself shooting backwards ... shooting from the yard behind the goal, trying to arch the ball completely over the thing ... even trying to replicate liam's moves as he scored a reverse lay-up.

proper form (i think.  it looks good to me, at least)

after i took a few pictures of him shooting, he wanted to return the favor.  "you have GOT to see what you look like when you shoot, mommy!"  he said.  why, whatever could he mean?

yep, that's my signature move -- i have never been able to shoot the ball without my right leg kicking up at an awkward angle.  is it any wonder that when i was young, my coaches, who were initially so excited to meet me because of my height, quickly surmised that i'd take my rightful position as  benchwarmer?

and now that you've had your smile of the day, here are a few highlights from liam's last game.  i thank God yet again that he inherited exactly none of the atkins athletic genes.

2012: a recap

for the first time ever, i actually involved my family in our wrap-up of the year (imagine that.)  at one of our last family dinners of december, instead of discussing our daily peaks and valleys, i asked each one of my core four what yearly peak was.  in years past i would also have solicited their yearly valley, but i thought that we'd be a bit more uplifting if we just focused on the positive.  (and, let's be honest.  it's halfway into january as i'm writing this.  i can crank this out in half the time if i skip the downers.)

so, without further ado, this is what we self-assessed as our 2012 highlights.

liam:  making his soccer team.  tryouts were held in the summer and he found out he had a spot several weeks later.  it's been an enormous commitment (at times, when his indoor and outdoor seasons overlapped, we were doing soccer stuff five times a week) but it is something he truly, dearly loves.  there are 11 other boys from all over the triangle on his team, and it's been really nice to get out of our bubble and meet people who go to different schools, live in different counties, and have different backgrounds.  they'll be together for the next three years and it's a joy to see them grow, going from a dozen individual kids to a true team.  "oh, and i have a professional soccer player as my coach!" liam reminds me.  yes, an actual professional athlete who manages to find time to nurture and mentor twelve elementary school boys ... coach floyd rocks.

liam and most of his team, following an exciting win at the southeastern indoor soccer championships in virginia beach in december

susanna:  having her artwork displayed at the state fair.  let's face it -- it's easy to be in the limelight as an athlete.  but as a young aspiring artist?  those opportunities are fewer.  still, i often see susanna's paintings and sketches adoring the walls of the school hallways, and stop to take them in.  and she's constantly hard at work on a new project at home, whether it's making a homemade card for a friend or a portrait of her lalaloopsy doll or just a drawing of whatever strikes her fancy at the time.  but to be recognized as one of the four top artists of her school of over 800 students?  AND, to be the only one of those four to receive a gold star on a state-wide stage?  i promise you this, it will be something she remembers for a very long time to come.  (actually, probably forever, the way my kids pore over these blog books.)

chris: hands-down, the highlight of 2012 was his new job.  he had been pretty unhappy miserable at his former place of work and really couldn't wait to get out of there.  ironically, after months of looking and interviewing, he received two offers on the same day and spent the better part of a week negotiating and discerning what was the best option.  he's now at topaz shared services, a start-up that has something to do with health insurance.  (i tried to find a link and wasn't successful.  which begs the question ... exactly where does he go each day?)  all kidding aside, he's much, much happier with this new position, and aside from the longer commute, likes everything about it so far.

 this has nothing to do with his new job.  it's just one of the few pictures we have together without the kids, taken at my cousin's wedding in dallas in may

me: maybe it's telling that for my children and my husband, their highlights were new things, and for me, the highlight is something that's ending.  so instead, let me phrase it this way: as of december 21, i'm regaining about twenty hours a week of time that had been previously devoted to curriculum development.  i won't bore you with the details, but suffice it to say that i've been wrapped up in writing three separate courses for special education students throughout the state since last january, starting with algebra 1A, then moving on to algebra 1B over the summer, and finally to financial management this past fall.  (the last one is the most ironic -- i don't even balance my checkbook or know the password to our bank account online, and yet, i'm teaching thousands of students how to budget.)  with my newfound free time, i've already finished a book and stayed on top of the laundry and made a few authentic lasagnas from scratch  ... what more fun can i find?

come to think of it, perhaps my highlight of 2012 is becoming an aunt for the first time.  how i wish teddy lived closer than a five hour drive :(

super: let's not forget out sweet pooch.  2012 proved to be a difficult one for our aging canine, who had to have EIGHT teeth extracted in november (merry christmas!  here's a $1000 vet bill!) and who now suffers from arthritis in her back left leg.  so what's her highlight?  being carried up and down the stairs like the queen that she is, multiple times a day. 

that's all for us.  and i say this every year as i sign off ... but our true highlights are the health and love and happiness and faith we continue to be blessed with.  we strive each day to show our gratitude for all that we've been given.

happy 2013!

the gofster chronicles

gofster had his moments of sheer brilliance this year.  he wasn't terribly naughty -- i think he learned his lesson from years past, when he realized that any mayhem he caused resulted in ME cleaning up the mess the following day -- but that didn't cramp his style. 

here are just a few of the highlights ...

the kids found him facedown in the scanner, and then saw the following image on my laptop:

seems he has a sweet tooth

okay, so this isn't exactly a picture of gofster ... but it's the only shot we have from liam's big soccer tournament in virginia beach.  he surprised us by showing up in our suite at the holiday inn.  does that count?

his piece de resistance -- he used his cinematic talents to create this one-of-a-kind video just for us!

and the craziest thing of all happened just yesterday.  we heard squeals of surprise from the kids upstairs, who actually found that sneaky elf in the top drawer of chris's dresser, buried under his shirts.  seems they were playing hide-and-seek with their stuffed animals and discovered gofster still hanging out.  (what are the odds?!)  we quickly explained that even though the legend is that the elves return to the north pole on christmas eve for good, apparently some of them stick around until their family's christmas decorations have been stored away.  i mean, who can blame him?  if i were facing a ton of work back at home, helping to construct all the toys for the following year, i'd stick around here as long as i could too.  luckily, liam and susanna agreed.

there he is, partially concealed by the sweet note susanna made for him  

(that's gofster, santa, and susanna in her drawing)

farewell, dear gofster ... til next year!  

xoxo, liam, susanna, chris, and sara

dream big

christmas 2012 has come and gone.  there's much to share when i have an extra moment, but suffice it to say that the big gift this year is a cruise for spring break with our dear friends the basses.  to reveal the surprise, the kids went on a 10-minute long treasure hunt all over the house, with clues they pieced together and recorded on a clipboard.  eventually the hunt led them to the globe in our dining room with a big pink arrow pointing to our destination.

 the final product

i've trimmed this 10-minute video down to the final 50 seconds, as they figure out exactly what this all means.  you can see them start to process this news in very different ways.

table tennis?  really?

click on the picture for the video

special deliveries

i haven't written much about gofster (our elf on the shelf) these days, but suffice it to say he's up to his old antics.  the kids still love to hunt for him every morning and their squeals of delight when they discover him is always a fun way to start our day.

today he was a delivery elf, appearing this morning with letters from santa.  it's remarkable how well santa knows both of our children -- not only must he see them when they're sleeping, and know when they're awake, but he's also aware of sore losers and picky eaters (for goodness sake!)