Fall around our house

It has been awhile since I have had the chance to sit down and blog. We have been so busy that I hardly sit down anymore.

School~ is going the best ever. Conner has made so much progress and is picking up the pace. While he still struggles it is far lesser occurrence than before. All the years of patiently waiting and re-teaching have paid off two fold. Elizabeth is extremely advanced and is learning on her brother's level. So we have two fourth graders in a lot of ways. I am able to teach them from the same curriculum and it is beneficial to both.

Bowling~ The kids started bowling in a league. Elizabeth is on a bumpers team with a three yr. old boy who is a doll. They are the number 1 team in the league right now and she is 1st in the standings for girls. Conner is bowling without bumpers and is making progress. It is a lot harder and he is holding his own. Marty has been bowling in a league again and now I have joined him. I am not good and really have a lot of respect for Conner who does better than me most days.

Sign language~ We are taking a sign language class this semester. It is a homeschool class taught by a lady from the deaf and hard of hearing center. Conner has wanted to learn sign since he has a deaf friend and we need to take the class alongside of him. He is really good at it since he is a visual learner. Elizabeth has picked it up quite well and I am muddling through. Those of you who know me well know that I am very uncoordinated and this takes coordination. It is a challenge!

Floors~ My dad surprised us a few weeks ago and put new floors in our living room and dining area. They are beautiful and we are enjoying them.

Marty~ He is doing well and still feeling good. He has been taking Procrit which has given him more energy these days. We are traveling to Stanford twice this month to learn more about transplantation. Everyone seems to think he is a good candidate and we hope to find success with a transplant. We have a positive outlook for the future and are just trying to live one day at a time.


Conner's haircut~ Marty took Conner to the Barber and asked for a crew cut. Whatever this ladies idea was it isn't a crew cut and he is all but bald. We keep kissing his head and telling him that he has less hair than when he was born. Later we found out she asked him if he liked it short and he told her yes. Poor guy!

Overall, we are happily busy and joyful around here in this house. Life is good :)

Here is the kids with our new floors and Conner with his haircut:

I love this..My day in 2minutes and 55 seconds

My auntie Mags sent this to me and I think it describes my day around home perfectly:

happenings

I need to stop to write everything down before I forget.

We have been very busy the past month doing a lot of different things. We started our home-school back up again in August and things couldn't be better. The kids both have made huge progress and just amaze me at their achievements. Conner is really making huge leaps with his reading and that makes life so much easier. Elizabeth is such a good student and we struggle more with attitude from her than anything. We are studying Astronomy and really have been enjoying learning about the heavens and the earth.

This will be the first time I share this publicly and it is unnerving to do so. We found out in May that Marty has Chronic Renal failure. His kidneys are failing and he will need dialysis and a transplant. It has been quite a shock to us as we had no clue this was happening. His previous Dr. dropped the ball and never told us. He felt he needed to change Dr.'s and we found out in two days. This is a lot of information to process and go through. I feel a peace about it and know it will all work out. Marty is struggling with this and is not ready to speak about it yet. So if you know him and read this talk to me not him if he wants to talk about it he will. We just received a call from Stanford and will be going up there soon to find out more about a kidney/pancreas transplant. We have wanted to be referred to LA for transplant so we could be near our families during the surgery and recovery. We heard the outcomes at Stanford are better but we still wanted LA so we could be near family. When Stanford called we took the hint that maybe that is where we are supposed to go even if it is incovienent. I will be writing my updates on here for everyone as promised. Marty doesn't read this since sometimes it's about him and he doesn't like to read about himself.

Okay, now for some light hearted talk. The kids start bowling league tomorrow and then we are going camping for my birthday and then Marty and I are going on a secret getaway that he has planned for us. YAY! he says he should be good for about 5 yrs. after this surprise...."Yeah Right"

I will leave you with two kid stories:

We went out to eat with my Dad last weekend at a Steakhouse. Elizabeth ordered ribs and when they came it looked like something off the Flintstones they were huge for a child's plate. Conner looks at her and in all seriousness says " Hey sis, you can take those home and clean the meat off and keep the bone in your room." ????? What???? I thought he was going to say " give them to the dogs" but I should have known it was Conner and it would be something random. What a kid~!

So now a Elizabeth story: The next day my Dad wanted to buy me a birthday present and I wanted binoculars so we went to Wal-Mart since it is close. On the way into the store I hear a hissing sound and realize it is our car. The tire picked something up in the parking lot and we had to buy a new tire. Thank goodness that we were at Wal-Mart and could get one so easily. We had to wait two hrs. and were trapped in Wal-Mart for two hours. So we went and looked around and looked around some more. As we were walking out of the electronics dept. I am suddenly hit in the head with one of these
in the head. I looked over at a group of teenagers with the death glare. I refrained from saying anything but I heard the guilty party say " I didn't mean to hit her..but it was funny" all of the sudden out of the corner of my eye I see...Elizabeth reeling back and a mad look on her face and she is poised like this


and she kicked the ball hard right at the girl. I don't condone payback or a eye for a eye but in that moment I laughed and was so proud of her for sticking up for her Momma! I guess the older girl got really upset when she was outdone by a 7yr. old.

10 years

A beautiful young girl


A mother


My favorite Diana photo of all time( I almost cried last night when I saw it)


I even re-created the pose on my own wedding day.


She will always remain forever young and beautiful.

Mr.Bean

I am so excited a new Mr.Bean movie comes out today. I love Mr.Bean and have been a fan for many years. We are going to see the new movie this afternoon as a family and I have been introducing my kids to world of Mr.Bean the past few weeks. Here is a little clip of my favorite all time Mr.Bean sketch:




I am going to update you on all the goings on around here very soon.

Vacation

I just lost a whole blog and now must start again.............

We went on vacation last week mainly we stayed home and made lots of day trips around CA. My dear friend Stacy came from Ohio to visit and we were able to show her many parts of CA. We had a great time and miss her dearly now that she is gone back home. Here are a few pics
Stacy and I

My family

A giant sequoia the largest living thing on earth

My mother the Fairy Godmother