1 Decade

It’s hard to believe it had been 10 years since we moved into the house we had built for our children.  With all the rain we’ve had the trees and weeds have grown like crazy, telling us yes, we have lived here a while. This is the longest the kids and I have ever lived in one place and I am still so grateful Hubby picked this place out.  Natalie redid our fairy garden after helping me pull weeds and I am so glad we still have that fairy garden magic here. Oh, and we threw a neighborhood potluck in the pocket park to celebrate 10 years but only 2 other families showed up. It was still lovely and now I’ve learned that a simple Facebook post isn’t enough to get the word out.

Natalie also got to celebrate a wonderful friend’s birthday before school started with a morning of ropes, zip lines, friends and food.  All of my teenagers went to the county fair at least once with friends and now we can all say we’ve watched the Barbie movie at least once.

Exactly 10 years to the day from when we signed the papers on our house, 2 out of our 3 combination smoke/carbon monoxide detectors started beeping at us in a way I had never heard before. Turns out when they are 10 years old and hey will beep at you two times every 30 seconds until you by new ones. Or until your son figured out how to completely dismantle them so they silence.  Thank goodness for him and for Hubby actually knowing how to hard wire the new ones I bought — and did the employee at Home Depot that saved me from purchasing the wrong kind for our house. It might be hundreds of dollars I wasn’t expecting to spend this month but at least we should be good to go for another 10 years. Fingers crossed. 

Speaking of finger crossed, I felt like I was on pins and needles as I waited for Kate to exit her last day of high school volleyball tryouts. With a brand new head coach doing things very differently from last year we didn’t know what to expect as far as what team Kate would be placed on. As girls began to exit the building I looked for clues as to whether it was a good thing or a bad thing to be one of the first out the door but I had no idea. I may or may not have prayed but I don’t think Kate would appreciate knowing that.  I don’t like to pray for specifics such as being on the JV team again like last year — I like to be able to say “whatever team would be best for her” but I just couldn’t this time. I feared that we might all be signed up for a hard lesson simply because of the way Kate had said there were so many players that improved a ton since last season.  She truly felt like she would be offered C team and she was right.  It broke my heart to hear her cry. All I could ask if there was anything I could do for her.  Even though the coach told her a couple days later there was a spot for her on JV after all, Kate decided that she was tired of playing volleyball and wasn’t going to play at all this year. Volleyball has been such a huge part of her life for so long and so many of her friends play volleyball that this will be a huge change. One of the coaches told me that she hopes Kate will miss volleyball this year and come back next year because she knows Kate is great and would love to have her play again.  Even though I loved watching Kate play for her high school team, this decision is up to her and time will only tell.  And I have been truly amazed at how whole heartedly Kate has chosen to support her friends by showing up to ALL the volleyball games, both home and away to cheer them on. I couldn’t be more proud of her!

I wish I could say my oldest was the only one who cried about this school year before it even started. Let’s just say I got to have a phone call with her algebra teacher from last year as to why she wanted Michelle to repeat algebra again this year even though she passed the class last year. Well, let’s just say Michelle decided to go ahead and repeat algebra class. She is kind of glad to be taking the same level math as Danny again but it was a blow to go down from accelerated to advanced for someone who is a Ravenclaw.  We are hoping that having math be easier will make advanced language arts better than trying to do independent study last year. And hopefully she won’t pass out at school again!  Yes, while taking her math iReady test her science teacher reported heard a noise like a binder falling to the floor and looked over to see Michelle slumped over in her chair. Another student said he moved so fast it was like he teleported over to Michelle’s desk to see if she was ok. Michelle did not respond to him asking her if she was ok and it looked as though she was sleep.  He was able to shake her shoulder to wake her up and get her to the health office. The attendance clerk came and found me and let me know what had happened. Michelle’s pupils were huge and she had a rapid heartbeat so we watched her, gave her food and water, and called her doctors. The pediatrician’s office had us come to the clinic right away but by the time we were seen it was an hour and a half later. And Michelle blacked out again while we were waiting in the doctors office but at least didn’t pass out again. The pediatrician said that if she had been standing up it would be understandable but since Michelle was already seated when she passed out we need to take her to a cardiologist and a neurologist just in case. The school district nurse had me write all her teachers an email letting them know that if Michelle asks to go to the health office they need to send another student with her just in case she passes out again. Oh, goody. So we begin a new year with lots of drama and/or changes for all of us!

The biggest change for this year goes to Danny since he is the only one changing schools. Yes, our barely 14 year old is entering the high school world. I am grateful for the basketball team and transition program helping him feel a little more settled. He’s already excited for basketball tryouts even though they are still months away.  And I’m thrilled he woke up on his own, let me take his picture, and let me drive him to school in a timely manner. He even checked to make sure I wasn’t crying as we drove. It is so hard to know I only have four more years of my son at home with me for sure. Then he might go off to college or something and I will miss him so much!

His bestie also created a new tradition for us. When C’s grandmother passed away we asked him what we could do for him and he responded to take him and Kate and Danny to Taco Bell. So now I guess that’s what Hubby and I do for teenagers who are grieving.

I went back to work to help prep the classrooms and take trainings a couple days before the official start of school. We have a new SSN teacher and new para + another para of ours will be moving to California next month. We are also combining forces with the resource department more, which I think is a great idea. I also like how they moved the classrooms around and I am thrilled to report that every student we had last year has started off great this school year. It is truly wonderful to be around them again. As soon as we have schedules nailed down and get to know our new students we should be fine.  I am now past feeling nervous and have moved on to feeling tired. Ha!

Speaking of nervous, that was definitely a feeling I could tell a lot of kids were feeling at the elementary school on their 1st day. Even though we went to back to school night the day before, we forgot to ask which door to line up at but luckily all the teachers we standing at their doors so it wasn’t a big deal. Natalie had some great students in her class and we are looking forward to having a teacher straight out of college so that this class will always hold a special place in her heart. And it turns out her teacher and I share a birthday… and I’m old enough to be her mom. Lol

Natalie is loving 5th grade and I couldn’t be happier for her. She was sick for a couple days and was so sad to miss two full days of school!  We did have a blast watching all 3 High School Musical movies when it was my turn to stay home for a day with her. (My mom got to spend the next day with her while I was at work.) Bucket list item complete. Yes, I will always love those movies and I am not ashamed. Luckily Natalie felt better in time to car pool to her first softball practice with her new team and she said it was GOOD!  Yay!