A Fresh Start

I'm counting down the days until the new year, welcoming a fresh start for our family. Electronics are going to be falling to the wayside while more family oriented activities, walks, games, and exercise will be introduced. We are committing to doing more together and to becoming the close knit family we have wanted but haven't been working towards these past almost fourteen years. After much reflection and a lot of talking, Ryan and I have come to the conclusion that we have been growing apart rather than together. He has had his life with work and friends and the kids and I have had mine with the kids and friends. We have not had a life that mixed that all together and we were going our separate ways without acknowledging it to each other. Unfortunately, I think our kids have noticed, whether they say anything or not and neither of us want them to suffer because of our actions.

Ryan will be heading home sometime at the beginning of the year and we expect date nights to increase, along with family fun nights and weekends, and more communication. After all, what's a family without time spent together with laughter and talking? It amazes me that it took fourteen years to finally figure it out. We had a rude wake up call during his visit home three weeks ago and I hope we never ever get back to that place. I hope that we can continue to look forward and only get stronger together. I'm so excited for him to come back home. I hope he is too!

Fed up with the kids' school

I don't think I've ever been so upset with an educational institution as I have been this week. I had yet another IEP meeting with the school to initiate additional testing for Cora. They continue to tell me that she is working at grade level and that since she's keeping up with her peers, there is no need to pull her out of the classroom and give her additional support. I think it's the biggest bunch of malarkey I've ever heard.
My daughter who is going to be 10 next month and is in the fourth grade is still counting on her fingers to come up with basic addition answers. She has not learned her simple addition and subtraction facts because something is causing her to not be able to retain them. Last year, in third grade, they introduced multiplication and Cora's only option was to learn how to draw pictures of the problem and then count out all the pictures to get the answer. So, if she had 4x3 she would would draw four groups of three circles, then she'd count all the circles to get the answer. While that's a great way to help solve the problem, she still needs to have her multiplication facts memorized because this year she is going to have to multiply using two and three digit numbers. She can't draw 84 groups of 76 circles if the problem is 84x76. That's just ridiculous. It took her forever to get the concept of working from right to left when adding or subtracting multiple digit numbers and every time we sit down to do math I have to reteach her carrying or borrowing so I just don't understand how if she's struggling with 1st, 2nd, and 3rd grade math concepts still, why her teachers insist on saying she's working at grade level. They tell me that a few other kids are also counting on fingers still so because Cora does that, she's not behind if others do too. To me that shows me that other kids are also behind and the school doesn't see it as a problem.
I received her Lexile reading score of 344. That was lower than the score she received back at the end of 2nd grade and at the end of 3rd grade. (On a side note, she never did progress farther in third grade with her reading than she ever did in 2nd grade. Her Lexile score was lower at the end of 3rd than it was at the end of 2nd.) I admitted that a student's scores will drop over the summer if they didn't keep up with their reading but that' 80 points lower which is ridiculous. The teachers told me that she was going to retake it outside of the normal classroom with the special education teacher so that Cora would be allowed to read out loud. This is exactly what we had decided at her previous IEP meeting at the end of last year. HOWEVER, this was not the plan carried out this year. Only after she did poorly did they decide to give her the option of what was in her IEP. Last I checked they are supposed to follow her IEP, not only use it once she's fails the other way. Why set her up to have her self confidence knocked down yet again?! I don't understand. By the way, for readers that don't know what and IEP is, it's an Individualized Education Plan set up for students who need additional help and support with learning in or outside the classroom and Lexile Scores are a way to evaluate where children are at in their reading in relation to the average in their grades. For Grade Levels 4-5, the Lexile Band that a student should fall into is 645-850. Again, Cora was at a 344. For Grade Levels 2-3, the Lexile Band that a student should fall into is 450-725. To me this means that she's working below a 2nd grade level in reading. The teachers did admit it was low and that they were going to retest her but even when they tested her at the end of last year correctly with the ability to read aloud he was still only in the low 400's. How is that anyway near where she's supposed to be?
I have resorted to paying out of pocket for two tutors to come every day of the week. One comes Tuesdays and Thursdays and the other comes Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. One helps Cora with homework and one helps with going over the rudimentary parts of learning math. We have gone back to the basics. The school is aware and tells me that she doesn't need the extra support because that support outside of the classroom is for kids that need to learn in a different learning style than the other kids in the class or for kids that have holes that need to be filled in from previous years and that doesn't fit her description. That is exactly what I think Cora needs and they continue to disagree. She has an IEP, they have the ability to give her the extra support, but they absolutely refuse to admit that she actually does need help. The problem is that she isn't disruptive in the classroom, she will do the work if reminded to get started so she isn't a big problem for the teachers. Therefore, they see very little problems and no reason to remove her for extra support classes.
I never thought I'd have to see my kid fail in order to finally get the help she needs. The school itself is setting her up for failure instead of helping her to succeed. The school is in the process of retesting her and it will need to be done within the next 90 days. As a parent, I have resorted to having to say, "I REALLY AND TRULY HOPE THAT MY DAUGHTER COMPLETELY FAILS THESE TESTS SO THAT THE SCHOOL WILL FINALLY REALIZE THERE IS A PROBLEM AND SHE CAN FINALLY GET THE HELP SHE SO DESPERATELY NEEDS." What kind of parent should ever have to say that about their kid?! What kind of education system do we have set up in this country that allows a kid to completely fall flat on their face before they'll finally recognize that they really did need help?! I'm at a loss. It is me against the school and my daughter is caught in the crossfire! I welcome any suggestions, comments and help. I don't know what to do.

So Bad At This

So, as I was reading other people's blogs tonight, I realized that I haven't written on here in a really long time. I'm thinking it's time for me to suck it up and admit that I'm really bad at this writing thing. I originally started this to let people that didn't want to get on Facebook know what was going on in our lives. I'm pretty sure, they probably think we fell off the face of the earth. That's about how well this blogging thing is going. So, here I go again, trying to turn over a new leaf...once again, trying to let you know what's been going on.

School is about ready to start. It has been a LONG summer and I'm ready for the kids to be back in school and extracurricular activities. We spent the summer traveling, some unexpected and some expected. As you know Ryan left in January for Afghanistan, so the kids and I got to do all the traveling by ourselves.

When school ended in June, we headed back to South Dakota to say an unexpected goodbye to a family member we never even got the chance to meet. Kylie Raelyn Aas was in our thoughts and prayers throughout the entire year and her family continues to be after her passing. On a positive note, we were able to spend a little time with Grandpa and Grandma Chilson and Aunt Nikki and quite a bit of time with Grandma Debbie. The kids hung out at a couple water parks, visited with Great Grandma Fergason and saw the St. Louis Arch on the way back home. While it was a spur of the moment thing, and a crazy amount of driving, we wouldn't have changed anything about how we spent our June 2012.

July was spent traveling as well. We went up to Virginia Beach and stayed with our friend Devon for a night in order to say hello and then headed up for our 10 day vacation over the fourth of July in Washington D.C. and Baltimore, MD. We were able to spend our vacation with friends and see some of the sights the big city had to offer. Dominick then went on a 6 day vacation of his own in D.C. to the Junior National Youth Leaders Conference where he met lots of friends (especially girls) and got to experience the big city without parents. He had a blast. During this time, Hayden, Cora and I took Jenn and her girls back home to South Carolina, went up to visit my cousin Rebekah and her family in Conway, SC and then back up to Portsmouth, VA for a couple days to see a friend before picking Dominick back up. While most people would think our trip would be ending, we surprised everyone and went up to Connecticut to visit a long time friend of the family who finally had a baby, Lisa!! We spent a week with her and baby Lacey catching up, reminiscing over the past, and planning our next visit together. It was a wonderful time! Then, we finally headed back south to Severn, MD where we stayed with another friend for a couple nights to catch up after not having seen them for 2 years as well. This was the month for seeing all our long time good friends. The only thing that could have made it better was having Ryan here with us. On the way back from Severn, MD we stayed another night with our friend back in Portsmouth, VA and then headed back to NC.

August was spent unpacking, cleaning, getting back into the routine of gymnastics, piano lessons, and church. But, this month has not been without it's trials as well. I've had a rough week this past week with watching a good friend have to bury his 16 year old son. It really puts family into perspective and makes me cherish the time I have with my kids even more. However, that doesn't mean that I don't need time away sometimes to miss them and make that love grow deeper. So, the proper way to end the month is for school to get back in session. Unfortunately, my college classes already started on the 19th. Now, it's the kids' turn to have this wonderful opportunity of learning as well. (I'm sure the kids are SUPER excited!) Now it's time to see what this fall will bring us. I know one exciting gift will be a visit from Ryan in October! That will be wonderful!

Busy Fall Family Time

School has started for the kids and for myself. Ryan of course is working, working, working! This fall is going to be busy with schoolwork, gymnastics, baseball, housecleaning, piano lessons, wood working, and having as much family time as possible. We just realized that Ryan most likely will get his much awaited deployment. He's been non-deployable for so long being in Iwakuni that he missed it. Hopefully, the kids will be able to handle Ryan being gone. They were so young during his last deployments and now all of them will really understand what is going on. If anyone actually reads this and has any tips, I'd love to hear them. :-)  

Summertime

Normally, I dread summers because it means that I will be either stuck at the pool 24/7 hoping no kids drown or sitting in my house in the A/C dodging the heat with 3 cooped up kids that are fighting nonstop. This is the first year I'm actually excited about school ending and summer beginning. We get to travel back to South Dakota and stay for a month. I'll get to show the kids where I grew up and what I did as a little kid and allow them to have a month of fun times like I did growing up. Staying up late at night hanging out with friends, playing at the parks and the pool, and hanging out with grandparents. Should be a nice relaxing time where I don't have to worry about cleaning my house, doing my homework, or teaching piano. One whole month of relaxation and I can visit with my friends from high school as well. I can't wait!!

Wow, we're getting old!

I cannot believe that tomorrow is Dominick's 11th birthday! 2 more years and we will have a teenager on our hands! It seemed not that long ago that we were changing those diapers, cleaning his messy hands, and teaching him how to tie his shoes. Now, we're playing chauffeur to drive him to and from gymnastics, baseball and robotics, teaching him how to clean toilets and to cook. Our biggest challenge, though, is trying to get him to make good decisions so that we can trust him since he'll be heading off to middle school this next year. He has mentioned being allowed to have a cell phone and I still think he's on crack but Ryan is thinking about it more and more. I know I didn't have a cell phone until I was in college and yes, times are changing but good golly, if he can't get anywhere on his own and he's for the most part around adults, why does he need to run up our already ridiculously expensive Verizon bill any further? I'm sure though that the first couple times I can't get ahold of him and his new "tweeny bopper" friends, I'll be wishing we had gotten him that darn phone. However, we had a long conversation about how he would never need that phone if we couldn't trust him to be off by himself with his friends. He's working on making good decisions this week so his birthday party doesn't get taken away from him and he knows we're serious because he had no birthday party a couple of years ago for the same reason. The consequence that would go along with no birthday party is no playing outside with friends without parental supervision and don't think for a minute that this mom and dad have any qualms about following our 11 year around and letting his friends know why we're there. He's terrified of that consequence so most of his decisions have been good so far this week. We've had a couple bad choices here and there but they're minimal so we're happy to see improvement. Realizing that teaching these things to our children is in our future instead of ABC's and 123's is making me feel that we are getting up there in years. I'm realizing that it's been 15 years since we graduated, 12 of which we've been married and 11 of which we've been parents. We're growing up and by golly so are our children! Thanks Dominick for making us feel "OLD on your special day. We love you and are proud of the person you are becoming.

Mom and Dad

School sucks! Vacation NEEDED!

Heading this weekend to Virginia Beach and Williamsburg, VA for a much needed vacation over Easter! I can't express how much school has sucked this semester and how much I just want to quit! Then, I look at my kiddos and realize how bad of an example I'd be setting if I quit so I will continue on this hellish journey until I have a degree. This is why this weekend sounds so delightful. Sitting at Virginia Beach with only two kids while Ryan takes the oldest golfing, relaxing the next day in a pool at our timeshare with only two kids while Ryan and Dominick go golfing again sounds like a dream! 3 nights where I don't have to worry about anything but relaxing.......sounds peaceful. Is it Friday yet??????

Valentine's Day

Well......those peanut butter oatmeal cookies I talked about in my last post turned out to resemble rocks. I think I am in need of lessons on how to use the timer properly while baking. I don't know what happened.....one day, I knew how to cook and bake, the next I get married, have kids, and my cooking skills end up in the crapper. Oh well....at least they stuck around long enough for me to teach my husband what he needed to know about cooking before I lost all my skills. Now at least one of us can cook so we all won't starve. That is a plus. :-)

Well, it's Valentine's Day today. There is nothing like taking boxes of goodies from family members that sent things, passing them out to the kids and my husband in hopes of them not realizing I didn't get them anything more than just a card for Valentine's Day. With this economy how can anyone afford to spend all that money anyway? On the plus side....it makes me feel better when I know my gift from my husband was the fact that the white chicken chili he made for a chili cook off at work did not get totally eaten and he brought some home for me! Who needs to spend money when you can win my love with soup? My husband told me today on Facebook when I told him Happy Valentines Day on a post about soup that we had gotten a little too comfortable with our marriage.....I say.....I think not! I LOVE soup and my husband. I'm looking forward to many more years of soup and my husband. I hope he is too. Speaking of........it's supper soup time right now! Off I go! HAPPY VALENTINE' DAY everyone!

Once a month is enough.....right?

It looks as if I'm still taking my time with this whole blogging thing. Once a month is enough, right? Let's see if I can think of the new things that have happened since the last time I posted.

The kids have started gymnastics and are really enjoying it. After switching Dominick back and forth between every class offered to the boys; due to scheduling conflicts with Robotics Club and teachers that weren't working out, he is excelling so much that one of his teachers thinks that if he learns the terminology, he can move on to the more advanced beginner class. He's working with the older kids who are actually wanting to be there instead of the young beginners who still are using this as another recess and goofing off. Dominick no longer has to spend his class time doing extra push ups and sit ups and isn't getting rocks thrown at him by the other kids, but instead is

getting to do gymnastics that we signed him up for. Cora and and Hayden are also enjoying gymnastics but are taking a little longer to get used to all the stretching. Cora is loving that she gets to dress up in the pretty leotard and I think she enjoys swinging on the bars and doing the vault the most. Hayden loves the rings the most. He says he likes to hang from them but he still is working on steadying himself so that he can swing properly. We are really happy that all the kids are enjoying themselves and getting exercise.

Ryan went to a beer festival a couple weekends ago. He had a great time having a "guys" night....something he hasn't had much of at all. He was able to sell his beer tap handles that he had made from wood and antler. He is also learning quite a bit about beer from his friend Eric and is now paying more attention to what he is drinking and can pick out flavors and subtleties he never noticed before. By golly, he's growing up and becoming all fancy like.....well......it is still beer. He may be a beer snob but we need to get him to recognize all these fancy subtleties in wine. Then I can enjoy it with him because there are very few beers that I enjoy.

I am back in school again. I'm currently taking a Biology lecture class and a biology lab class. in another week, I start my accounting class and in about a month I start a Human Genetics class. It should be crazy! I got offered a job at a local grocery store in their cash office, however, I had to turn it down. I thought it over for quite a long time before I realized the amount of money that they could offer me was not worth it to try to figure out how to move everyone's schedules around to accommodate it. Since the kids are in after school activities and plan on starting baseball soon, there was really no way to get them to and from these places and still have me get to work on time. We couldn't afford to pay for childcare on the salary they could offer so we're back to square one. I'm currently trying to build my piano clientele by posting ads on craigslist and business cards around town. I'm still on the lookout for a permanent full-time job but it does have to be a 9-5 type job that pays well enough to afford after school care. Unfortunately, this area does not have an abundance of jobs so piano will do for now. It's enjoyable and the kids are great so not only does it provide a little income, it is fun as well.

Ryan and I had a date night last night and went to Wilmington to see Third Eye Blind. Oh my, we got out on a school night! We had a lot of fun and it was a wonderful break from the nonstop rush of life to spend some much needed time together. Thank goodness for radio shows and winning free tickets! Next week we are also planning a date night to see our friend make his debut playing guitar and singing down in Wilmington in the Calico Room. Two date nights in a

week....what a lucky guy he is........I mean....girl I am. LOL To top it off, the plan for the following weekend is to again go down to Wilmington, this time with the kiddos, go to a beer competition one night while the minis have a sitter and then spend the weekend down there exploring with them. It should be fun for the whole family.

Well, it is time for me to end this as I have a very important mommy mission to fulfill. We are making Peanut Butter Oatmeal cookies before we make curry for dinner. Yum Yum! Lucky kiddos!

Christmas is over, New Year has started

Christmas is over and the New Year has begun. However, I feel I need to recap the amazing Christmas we had. Dominick has been telling us for years now that Santa is not real and that he believes that Ryan and I do all the work and pretend Santa does it. We have told him time and time again that there is NO way that we could be Santa because we don't have that kind of money to buy all those gifts that Santa is able to bring. Mommy and Daddy are struggling after the move to pay for electricity, rent and food. How could we afford an air hockey table, an MP3 player and a playdoh kit? Also, what mommy and daddy in their right mind would purchase playdoh for their kids? That is the type of gift that you regift to other people's children and shrug your shoulders and say, "Sorry." Moms and dads that are smart will continue to regift it all year long. Anyway, we were lucky enough to be able to reinforce the fact that we are not Santa and that he is in fact, "real." Uncle Ben came to visit and he was able to capture a quick photo of Santa putting the last present under the Christmas tree. He said he has never seen someone move so fast in his life! This has also reinforced my thinking about my weight. If that fat man can move so fast that Uncle Ben wasn't able to chase after him, maybe I'm just not quite fat enough and shouldn't worry so much about losing weight. Maybe that's why I can't run! Well, that's probably not a good idea but it is a nice thought. After Ben showed the kids this truly awesome picture, Dominick has changed his ideas about Santa and has now said he believes in Santa. I think the fact that he only got one present from Santa this year and a letter stating Santa wished Dominick still believed, helped reinstate the belief as well. I'm just happy my little ones are staying little just a wee bit longer!

Now that Christmas is over and the New Year has begun, the kids have gone back to school (THANK GOODNESS!), Ryan has gone back to work (I'm a little bummed), and I am starting school in 6 days and have applied for a multitude of jobs. Hopefully, someone sees my potential and is willing to hire me. Piano lessons have not taken off like we had hoped and I only have two students at the moment, so it's back to the land of hard work. Unfortunately, NC is not like CA and doesn't have a multitude of office and accounting jobs. So, it may be a little while before someone decides that I'm a good fit. I'm just happy I found a decent resume site online to be able to make it look like I've been doing something in the past 6 years while we lived in Japan. Gotta fool them somehow, right?

Hayden is taking Japanese lessons on Fridays after school and is slowly learning how to read and write. We're hoping to have him stick with it as long as he can. I'd love for him to be able to get to a high school that offers Japanese so he can be bilingual. Unfortunately, his really awesome teacher, Amalu, is going back to Okinawa on the 29th of January. On the plus side, her sister is arriving on the 24th so while he will have to adjust to a new person, his lessons can continue and she's bringing new books with her from Japan for his studies! I'm so thankful for foreign exchange students!

As for my school, I'm not lucky enough to concentrate on foreign languages. I have to take a Biology class, a Biology lab, a Human Genetics course and an Accounting course this spring. People looking at my classes this semester can't believe that my major is Accounting and

Business Administration. Why I have to waste my time on Biology and Genetics is beyond me but it's the ways of the U.S. education system. I guess I'm supposed to be well rounded or some crap like that! It's like putting lipstick on a pig, in my opinion but if I want these degrees, I have to suck it up and stop complaining. Eventually I'll be S-M-R-T!!

During the course of this post, Hayden has declared me to be such a bad parent because

he is NEVER allowed to play with his playdoh! Haha! My job is done! He has also declared that Ryan is not part of our family because he was told he would need to wait to do his "Family" art project that he brought home from school until Daddy came home to participate in being part of the family. What a little booger! He's too smart for his own good. I'm not sure if everyone new but to go along with his smartness, he has a "smart" new look. No longer is he one of the two only people in our family without glasses. He has joined the glasses wearing side of the family. I guess it's so he can say he looks edumacated. Cora is enjoying being the only one in our family with no glasses and hopes she doesn't ever have to get them. We hope the very same thing.

Well, it's that time to start making dinner, to deal with the kids, and to find out where my husband is. He must be hiding out in hopes that dinner will be made before he gets here. Haha! At least I'm not helping him with that crazy delusion. As if this mommy can get things done on time! Yeah right! Good night and hope everyone that is reading this is well. Hopefully, I'll be able to write a little more often since I'm guaranteed to be on the computer for school.

Life in NC

I guess I can't really call my blog "Life in Iwakuni" when we are no longer there. It must be time to change the name. In the meantime, we are now here in NC. Ryan is now working on base at Camp Lejeune. Same type of work, but now he has people willing to help do the work. That is a huge change from what he has been used to for the last 6 years. I'm just excited since he has been able to take more leave in the past 5 months than he has in the past 6 years almost. We can actually spend time as a family which we have been lacking. I've tried to start up piano lessons, however, it's been a bit slow and I only have two students. I'm trying to get through this year without working a real job so I have decided to help watch kids at a local MOPS group through December. Starting in January, I am on the job hunt and starting back to school. I have 4 classes lined up for this spring. I hadn't done any of my science credits so even though I'm going to school for business and accounting, my classes this spring make me look like I'm a science major. I'll be taking Biology and a Biology lab and a Human Genetics class. Along with those, I'll be taking my second accounting class. It should be a tough semester but if I can get through it, I can get through just about anything I suppose. I have been keeping busy since we've moved with getting the house together and knitting. The kids will definitely be warm for the winter.

The kids are enjoying their time here in NC. Dominick has joined the robotics club at school. His team placed tenth out of fourteenth. His team was the youngest team and only had six weeks to prepare while everyone else had five months. I think they did really well. He's going to continue to remain in the robotics club and they'll only get better during the next couple years. He is also reading at a sixth grade level and doing well in the rest of his subjects. He is an honor student his first year in his new school. We're so proud of him. Cora is repeating second grade and doing very well. She has been put back in the classroom instead of taken out for special reading and math classes because she is doing so well. Her teacher said there is nothing that we should be worried about at this time which is the best news we've had since she was diagnosed with ADHD. Hopefully, next year will go just as smoothly. Hayden is enjoying kindergarten but he has said he is bored sometimes. I attribute that to him having been in school for the past three years in Japan. He is in the top of his class this year and is already reading. He has really surprised us all with how well he is doing with his math and reading. He is also taking Japanese lessons from a Japanese foreign exchange student. He says he doesn't want to learn but while he is in the lessons, he seems to enjoy himself. We're hoping that he can stick with it long enough to find a high school that offers Japanese. It would be wonderful if he could be fluent by the time he graduates. Only time will tell. We're coming up on Christmas time. We'll be visiting friends up in Williamsburg, VA the week before the holidays. The kids should really enjoy the colonial houses and Busch Gardens. We'll be spending New Years here at home with friends having appetizers and drinks and playing games. It will be a great way to celebrate 2012 coming!

Back to the grind

Well, the two older kids are back in school. Ryan and I are finishing up our last couple weeks of classes before starting new classes. Hayden is the only one lucky enough to still be on Christmas break.

We had a wonderful Christmas and an awesome New Years Eve Party with some great friends. We hope to get some more rest this year than last but still hope to spend some quality time with the wonderful people in our lives before we leave Iwakuni at the end of this year.

In the meantime we hope to get through as much school, housework, bills and saving money as possible and end the summer with a fun trip to Tokyo and Mt. Fuji. Here's to hoping 2011 brings us all these wonderful things!

We hope this finds you all having a wonderful first part of the New Year and hope to hear from many of you throughout the year!

Off to the accounting homework! WAHOO!

Blog posts

So, I think I'm really bad about keeping up with blog posts. In fact, I know I am. It's just one more thing to add to my day of stuff that I never get done. I feel that since I've become a mommy this has been the story of my life.

Today has been "one of those days." It started out to be what I thought would be a great day. The kids slept in, so I got to sleep in. They even came and cuddled with me before we got up to start our day. The kids went off ahead of me to pour cereal and turn a cartoon on so I could get up and get ready for the day. When I walked out of my room 30 minutes later, a scene of mass destruction lay in each of their bedrooms. I went downstairs to find out that not one of my kids had decided to actually get breakfast and were just starting to make oatmeal when I walked into the kitchen.....which actually ended with just as much dried powdered oatmeal on the floor as there was eaten. After breakfast, I sent them all upstairs with my words trailing behind them, "CLEAN YOU ROOM AND THEN YOU CAN PLAY." All morning.....no cleaning occurred, had to take the van to the Toyota dealership for new spark plugs....no cleaning, all afternoon......no cleaning occurred, daddy came home from work........still no cleaning had occurred. Fighting, more destruction and a lot of whining had occurred instead.

It's "one of those days" when you pull out the Cabernet Sauvignon at 4:00 PM. No....I did not drink the whole bottle though it crossed my mind at first. Luckily, my knight in shining armor took the three minions to the store with him to give me a break before we had to go pick up our van. I thought I would get a chance to fold some laundry and then relax. Instead, I just relaxed. So much nicer that way! I thought the day was looking up. Not quite so sure after the following episode.

After dinner, Cora was still hungry so she got a banana which happened to be a little overripe. It was not brown but it was soft in parts. Cora decided that since it didn't look right, she was no longer hungry after a couple of bites. I proceeded to listen to "I'm fu-ull, my tummy huuurts, I'm fu-ull, my tummy huuuurts.....over and over and over again. Ryan took matters into his hands after we listened to the whining for 10 minutes or so. All I can say is thank goodness for my wonderful hubby. I'm trying to pick and choose my battles and the wasting food battle is one I choose to fight. Lucky for me, Ryan battles it a whole different way. The whining stopped, the children are in bed, and I'm starting to return to halfway sane. I guess it's time for homework now.

So, though I'm horrible at this blogging thing....hopefully, the story of how a day in the life of my family goes, helps justify my not getting to this task. Don't get me wrong, I love my family, but with so little to do here in Iwakuni on a small budget....the whining and fighting has increased tremendously. Oh how I look forward to moving back to the states to have things to do!

On a side note...and thinking about it now....it probably should have been the main part of the post, if I was a good mommy, but here are some pictures from our wonderful Christmas day which for once had very little fighting, yelling, screaming, kicking or punching.

Busy week

This has been a busy week for all us, more for than the kids than me, but since I get to play chauffeur it seems pretty busy to me also.

Dominick is in his second week of DEFY camp. It's Drug Education For Youth camp. They are teaching him and many other kids how to resist drugs and giving him great alternatives to drugs. They have been keeping him busy all week long with team building activities, games, trips to the Kintai bridge, bowling, movie theater, fire and police depts. and on Friday they are even doing some community service at Tsu Tsu beach helping to clean it up! During the school year, once Saturday a month will be devoted to DEFY for either fun trips or tutoring. I think this will be a wonderful way for Dominick to spend his year having good role models and feeling he's part of something good. He has also been going with his brother and sister to Vacation Bible School at the chapel on base in the evenings.

Cora has been going to a Vacation Bible School every morning out in town at our church, Calvary Chapel. She is really enjoying spending time with her friends and learning about God's Word. She asked Jesus into her heart this morning while praying at her church. She's becoming a wonderful young lady. In the evenings, she's been going to Vacation Bible School at the chapel on base. She has very little time at home this week because she's so busy at church. The time spent at home is to eat and sleep.

Hayden is joining Cora and Dominick at Vacation Bible School at the base chapel each evening. He's kind of rambunctious and the director had to talk with me after the second night telling me he wasn't being a good listener and that he was actually taken out of his room that night. After a long talk with Hayden, last night seemed to be pretty good. I don't know if he's bored or if the difference in structure between yochien and Vacation Bible School is so great, but I was very surprised that he was acting up. I've never had a bad report about Hayden in the last year at yochien so it definitely wasn't expected.

I've finally gotten enrolled in college. I ordered three out of my 5 books and I'll be taking 4 classes this fall. My classes will consist of Introduction to Business Management, Principles of Accounting I, Advanced Business Writing, and World War II History Class. This should definitely keep me busy but I know I need to get it done before my $6,000 grant for military spouses is no longer available to me. I'm hoping since I start the same day that the kids do at their school that I should be able to get a lot of my homework done and not have to worry about it interfering with my time with the kids. I do have to worry about it interfering with my time where I should clean. But hey, who needs a clean house anyway?

Ryan is enrolled in the same University I am. He is taking the same History Class with me also and will be taking two computer tests to CLEP out of the basic computer classes. His class load will definitely be lighter than mine but that comes with him taking classes while he's working full time. I wanted him to take a class with me so we can share the cost of books and we can help each other with assignments. The more we can do together, the easier this whole school thing will be.

That's what's happened so far this week and hopefully we'll have a new post about has happened over the weekend. We will definitely have to make the most out of these last weekends of the summer with the kids since school will take up a lot of our time. The kids will hopefully see the importance of homework when watching us scramble to get all our stuff done. I'm hoping they're smart and go to a regular university when they grow up. That way they're not cramming all their school work into a week full of kids and work like we are.

Well, off to get dinner for the kids before I chauffeur them to Vacation Bible School

Summer is finally here for all kids

Cora finished her summer school program and is excited to have a full-on summer vacation now. Unfortunately, she has had some problems with keeping her room clean and with taking other people's things, so her summer vacation is resulting in no toys and grounding. Hayden is joining her in this endeavor as he is her partner in crime. So, while he has finished yochien and is having his summer break, he is also indulging in the wonderful world of being grounded!

On a happier note, Dominick is becoming a wonderful helper around the house and is enjoying being able to go out and play with his friends. He is spending time at the pool, the park and lately at the skate park with his friend, Braiden. Hopefully, with a little more coordination, we can get him a skateboard.

Ryan and I are starting on something we've been putting off for way too long..................school!!!! I have enrolled in University of Maryland University College for an Accounting and Business Administration Double Major. It will definitely keep me busy but hopefully, it will eventually result in me becoming a CPA. Ryan has called the school about getting his Tuition Assistance and has a meeting with an advisor this next week. Hopefully, he'll get enrolled in this Fall Session with me and we can take some of our classes together.

We've been trying to figure out a way to get all 5 of us back to the states in October to attend Ryan's dad's wedding but unfortunately, it looks like we will have to have more adventures in Japan instead. Flying 5 of us to the states is a huge expense and we can't rely on the Patriot Express (military flight) since it is during the school year and Ryan will only have a certain amount of leave. We would hate to get stuck back in the states and Ryan not make it back before his leave runs out or the kids get stuck and be out of school for even longer than the two weeks we plan. We will miss getting to see him get married and miss getting to socialize with everyone but it's a little more than a year and we will be back in the states for good.....well, at least the kids and I will be. Who knows if Ryan will deploy or not. Oh, the joys of the Marine Corps.

Well, I'm off to do some laundry before piano lessons start for the day! Hopefully, I can tackle Mt. Laundry and get me in shape for Mt. Fuji next summer. HAHAHAHAHA!

Long time No Post

So, it's been a long time since I've posted anything on here. I keep starting all these new sites to try to keep in touch with people and allow family and friends to see pictures of the kids. However, I'm not very good with sticking with it due to everything else going on in our lives. This blog in particular shows that the most.

So, to catch everyone up; Dominick and Cora finished their school year. Dominick is officially a 4th grader and Cora officially is a 2nd grader. Dominick finished out his school year at the top of his class, had an awesome science fair project about electromagnets, and according to his teacher was a big help in his class. Cora successfully reached all her goals in her IEP for speech! She no longer needs the speech therapy as she is finally caught up. She does have an extra reading class now to help give her support during he normal classes. The extra help in reading has allowed her to progress form a reading level of 4 to 10 in a matter of a couple months. I'm so proud of her. Hopefully, with her new medication to help keep her focused, she will continue to progress. We're hoping to take her off the medication this fall and get her tested for a learning disability right away. I'd rather handle any problems with extra help and support in school and from us then to medicate her. Currently, she is in a summer program to reinforce everything she's learned throughout the past school year and add additional learning before the next year. Hayden is still finishing up his school year. He has another week or two before he's done for the summer. Right now he is swimming at his yochien, learning to speak Japanese better and is even starting to talk to people in the community which is really helping us out. He's such a good little translater. He's growing up so fast and soon I won't have any little kids in the house anymore. So scary, but also such a delight! I'm enjoying how much less my house gets destroyed by them as they grow up.

Today is a day with no children, but also a day where all our money will disappear into the Japanese economy. JCI = Japanese Compulsory Insurance. We have to go take our new car into to get an inspection and purchase secondary insurance on our car. The exchange rate is going to crap right now so we spent $571 on new tires so our car would pass the inspection and we wanted to take at least 70000 yen with us which normally with a good exchange rate that would be close to $700 but instead is over $800. Ouch! on our pocketbook. Well, time to take the kids to the sitters so we can head off for our inspection. Wish us luck!

Camping at Seven Falls (Zyakuchikyo)

We planned a trip up to a place called Seven Falls for the weekend of July 4th. We were supposed to go with our friends the Griffey's around 1 PM on July 3rd. Unfortunately, that morning we realized our car was not going to make it up the mountains with our brakes as bad as they sounded. So, after a couple different stops, we found a Toyota Dealership that could fix our brakes but wouldn't have them done until 6 PM. So, our friends left and went up to the campground to set up while we got the brakes done, fed the kids and had them nap. We were on the road a little before 7 after picking up the car, getting gas and getting food for the kids. Luckily, the trip only took a couple of hours and we arrived there around 9 after a couple wrong turns and much rain pouring down on us. So, unfortunately, the campground and our tent which our friends were nice enough to set up for us were soaking wet. Also, our tent was missing a pole which kept the ends of the tent up so water would pour away from the tent and not in the tent. Since we were missing that pole, we had a tent full of water along every edge and corner. We hung out for an hour or so with our friends to relax, then laid our sleeping bags in the middle of the tent and piled our bags on top of the kids feet of the their sleeping bags since it was the only dry spot an none of them really reached the ends of their sleeping bags and we tried for about 2 hours to get them all to go to sleep.

The next morning, we got up and had breakfast. The kids had cereal and bacon and we had some eggs and bacon and bagels. We all put our tennis shoes on except for our friend Amy who did the whole hike pregnant and in flip flops and we hiked up to the top of the mountain to see the water falls and the view and then we came back down. Here are some of the pictures from the hike.
The picture on the top right is one of the first waterfalls as we were starting up the stairs to get to the top of the mountain.These pictures are of Ryan and the kids. The one on the left is them by the manmade waterfall early in the morning. The one towards the right is as we were hiking up the mountain. They are standing on a bridge in front of one of the waterfalls.Here we all are standing on the same bridge. Our friend Amy was nice enough to take a picture for us so everyone in our family could be included. Then, we swapped and I took pictures for their family. It was a great but tiring hike up the mountain. I definitely got a workout since almost the entire way up the moutain it was steps. Talk about a step aerobic workout! This would definitely be it.

This waterfall was farther up the mountain. It was awesome to be able to watch all the water rushing down the mountain and was definitely a calming feeling to hear the water. We really enjoyed the trip there.Luckily the whole way up the mountain there were stairs and for the most part, they had handrails so Hayden was able to make it up to the top with the help of Ryan.This waterfall in this picture was one of the waterfalls we found towards the top of the mountain. I was so happy that I remembered to take my camera and was able to get some great scenic shots from our trip. This will definitely be a place to take family to visit and camp when they come to Japan. Hope you all are ready for the wilderness. The part of the hike that I thought the kids might get scared of was the cave that we had to walk through. It was pitch black and you couldn't see the end of it when you walked in. Luckily the flash from my camera was bright enough to get the picture! The kids were just excited and all I heard was "ECHO, ECHO". It was very cute. The rest of the hike had some very narrow steps, some missing handrails and at the very top had no steps and no handrails. Only Ryan and our friend Dustin went up to the top. Since Amy, the kids and I couldn't see the top view, the guys got us some pictures of the top of the mountain. Here is a partial view from the top with Ryan showing how high up we hiked. Definitely a good workout! The picture of Ryan and Hayden walking together by the man made waterfall is at the end of our hike back down the mountain and the rest of the pictures that will be posted on here are some pictures showing the campground and the kids having fun. We hope you enjoyed looking at our pictures because we know we enjoyed taking them.

School's Out....Summer's Here!

Well, school is officially out here in Iwakuni. The kids finished up their last day of classes on June 11th. They had a half day of school and then a half day of playing outside with their friends! To end the school year we followed the tradition Grandpa Greg started with his kids and enjoyed rootbeer floats at A&W. Because the restaurant is inside the bowling alley and joined with Pizza Hut, the kids enjoyed bowling and some new Chicken Alfredo and cheesesticks from Pizza Hut! What a fun way to end the school year. Cora is now in 1st grade and Dominick is a 3rd grader! Dominick's teacher is moving away and going to teach in Okinawa Japan so he gets to see what a regular 3rd grade class is like. No more combined 1st, 2nd and 3rd for him. It'll be good though to see if he's ahead in anything or if he's behind in anything. It will show us if the combined class was beneficial or not because they also have the combined 4th and 5th grade class. We'll have an idea if we want him to be in there or not the following year.

Summer is now here and the kids are already enjoying themselves. They have had watergun fights at the park with friends and turned the park's slides into water slides by getting them all wet. We enjoyed almost an entire day at the pool and are definitely going to be going back for more. Dominick has enjoyed riding is bike, playing horseshoes with his daddy and hanging out with his friends. Cora plays in the backyard with her friends and has enjoyed some days at the park too. She's not old enough to be outside on her own unless she's in our backyard, so if it's hot and too muggy for me to go sit outside all day, she has kept busy with her Littlest Pet Shops up in her room. Thanks to our friend Devon she has kept her room clean for over a month. I don't know what Devon said to her but thank goodness for her miracles! Hayden is still going to yochien during the week. On the 22nd, they start teaching him swimming. At least I have one I won't have to pay for swimming lessons for. He has enjoyed his afternoons swimming or playing at the park with his brother and sister. And of course they have all enjoyed not having to be in bed by 8 every night. They love being able to stay up late. I just wish they'd now learn the art of sleeping in. I'm sure they'll learn it soon enough and they'll escape chores and everything I think is important by staying in bed. Then I'll wish I never wished for it, kinda like wanting my children to talk and walk. I don't know if that was such a good idea now. :-)

I hope everyone is doing well and I'm sure there will be more posts of our summer fun soon. For anyone in South Dakota, we'll be seeing you at the end of July!

Bad mommy

I had the case of bad mommyitis last Thursday. After Cora went to school, I discovered that she was supposed to have a field trip on that day and that I was supposed to have sent her to school with a lunch, water, sunscreen, and a change of clothes in her backpack so she could go to the Asa Zoo up near Hiroshima. Instead, unaware of this field trip, I sent her to school with a backpack full of library books and a blanket for nap time. The paperwork specifically said to make sure there was nothing extra in her backpack as she was going to have to carry it around all day at the zoo. I felt horrible.

So, I called my friend and she got ready to go with me, I made a lunch for Cora, grabbed a smaller backpack and filled it with the lunch, the water, and sunscreen and stopped at the ATM for yen and off we went to meet up with the bus at the zoo. We drove up to the zoo and when we got there discovered the zoo is closed on every Thursday of the year. Not only were all the gates to the zoo closed, the parking lot was all roped off so we couldn't even get in there. I thought I read the paperwork wrong. So, I called Ryan, had him borrow a car from a friend since we only have one van at the moment, and asked him to go to the house to look at the paperwork. He got there and told me I wasn't going crazy and that the paperwork said the 28th so he called the school. They informed us that the field trip had been canceled for that day and moved to June 2nd. They said paperwork was sent home about it but unfortunately we hadn't seen any. When Cora got home from school that night, she produced that paperwork and then we realized why we had no idea. Even though I had the bad mommyitis and forgot about the lunch...at least it all worked out in the long run.

On the plus side, my friend Devon has been visiting Japan for over a month now and has seen very little of the country so we were able to stop at Miyajima and tour the island with no children. So, here are some pictures from our trip there.

New way to keep in touch

Hello family and friends! I've decided there needs to be a way to allow everyone to see what we've been up to over here in Japan. Most of you probably thought we've fallen off the face of the earth, but hopefully, with this new blog site we can keep you up to date on the happenings in our lives! Ryan plans on working on a website for the whole family to use to keep in touch but until that happens, this will have to do. I'm going to start out this blog by posting the most current pictures we have of the kids and ourselves. And, then hopefully we'll be able to post new pictures as events happen throughout our lives. Cora thought she needed pretty pictures with daddy after getting her hair brushed last night. It took many times of taking it to get them to stop goofing around enough to get a decent picture. The picture of me with Dominick and Hayden was taken at the triangle park on base in Iwakuni. Dominick's class had a class picnic under the cherry blossoms to enjoy them for the few days they're out. Everybody had lots of fun and we're looking forward to being able to do it again next year! Everyone is doing well here. The kids are getting ready to finish up school. They are super excited for the summer to start. Only 8 1/2 more days! Hayden however has year round school and only gets August off but I think he's okay with that because he likes having stuff to do. When he gets home from school, we can take him to the pool, tire him out and he'll sleep like a baby every night through the summer. Hopefully, that means the kids will learn to sleep in a little. Then, maybe I can too. But, that's probably just wishful thinking. Ryan will continue working throughout the summer but we're hoping in August to take time to head back to South Dakota and Minnesota and visit family and friends. We are in dire need of a vacatiion in an English speaking area. I hope this finds everyone well and there will be more to come soon. Love to all!