2015 EVENTS
Lots of things were happening in 2015. I wanted to do a quick update as its happening, so I don't forget :)
Julian~
We'll start with Julian, since he's the oldest :) He remains to be a hard-working Father for his entire family. He is running his business, Radius Educational Services with his partners, Russ, Misty & John. They had another partner named James Atterberry, but they ended up cutting ties with him which was a good step for the business. They have an office on Eastlake Avenue in Seattle, at the Eastlake Professional Center that overlooks Lake Union. He travels a lot for work and has traveled for over several weeks, on separate occasions so far this year. He is typically home for the months, November and December, however, they got a call from a school in early December asking them to go out prior to December 29th, so he left about a week and a half before Christmas, but was home before Christmas. Now he will get to stay through the new year and will probably be off jet setting again in January.
Me~
I am still a stay-at-home Mom. I can't believe its already been 4 years! I have all of the duties as a typical SAH Mom has, especially with having three kids. School, doctors and dentist appts, sports, you name it! In September, Julian was working in Brooklyn, NY and so graciously invited me to fly out and meet him for a couple days for his upcoming birthday. See New York Trip Blog. In November, Tanya so nicely bought me and the girls, plus Ava and her Mom tickets to see the play A Christmas Carol and we got front row seats! It was pretty cool watching it all happen right in front of us. The girls all had a good time. Maybe going to try and make that an annual tradition.
Celine~
Celine is currently 11 years old and in 6th grade and attends Heatherwood Middle School, yes, Middle School! She has to take a bus to school for the very first time and luckily, her bus stop is just up the street from our cul-da-sac. Middle school has been very new to her, considering she now has 6 different classes and teachers. I asked her to be involved in school, so she willingly signed up for an after-school activity which was Yearbook Club, so she stays after school every Thursday for an extra hour and her and her partner, Kelly have to work on the Neon Dance page in the yearbook. Speaking of the Neon Dance, she attended her first dance, which completely freaked me out, but then I realized, it was directly after school (not at night) and only for about 2 hours and they just had to wear something neon and so she went with friends. Rewind back to 5th grade at Woodside Elementary, she was also very involved in school. She did valet service in 4th grade (opened car doors for parent drop-offs) and she also did Patrol which assisted kids/parents across certain intersections in the street. She also wanted to sign up for Choir, which started at 7:10AM on Tuesday's from the beginning of school until the end of February. She had a really great time doing that. The choir was responsible for attending most of the younger grade concerts, opening up with an Etiquett Rap, which reminded you to clap, not hollar and to turn your cell phones off. She is a great kid, although super sassy, but I guess that goes along with the territory at this age. She no longer wants to order from the kids menu's, wants to sit in the front seat, wants her own hair brush, eyelash curler, etc. For Christmas, in 2014, she typically goes to Buffalo, the day after Christmas, however she didn't go because her Dad and Bev had a couple big surprises for her. They got her, her very first laptop! You should have seen her Christmas list, all it said was "laptop, laptop, laptop!". They also told her that she would be going on a trip to Disney World (for the 2nd time) with them the following February. She flew to Orlando by herself and spent just over a week with them. She had a really great time, she even went on rides that went upside down! Then she went to Buffalo on June 25th until July 15th, which was a long trip for her. Then 6 days after she returned home from Buffalo, our Family was taking a trip to Mexico to see Nana and Papa. She had a busy summer for sure. But of course now that she has a laptop, tablet, Ipod & Nintendo DS, you can only guess whats next on the list.............of course, its a phone. Sorry sister, not happening at the mere age of 11! Although, I will admit, I belive that day is coming close, because now that she is taking the bus, I want her to be able to contact me in case of an emergency. So we'll see how long we can hold out on that one. Before, I would always, say "who would you call with a cell phone, your always with an adult, who either has a cell phone or a house phone, so if you needed to get ahold of someone, you could just use one of those phones." Of course, she won't be satisfied with that answer until she gets it. She started playing outdoor soccer when she was 7 at the YMCA in 2011 and then we switched (because we followed one of her coaches) to Northwest Christian Sports League (NWCSL). She has been on this league for the past 4 years. Last year, she had a different coach because her former coach, Jason, decided to coach his youngest daughter's team, rather than the U-13 team. Her team last year, the Soccer Frogs, had a brutal season. Not one win. The coach wasn't great, in my opinion. So Celine played again with Coach Jason this past Fall. Their team name was Thunder instead of Lightening because when Jason coached his youngest daughter's team the year before, they used the name Lightening, so they kept that name and Celine's team became Thunder. Of course, having Jason as a coach meant that they worked their butts off twice a week for an hour and half each day (until it got to dark). They had an amazing season and only had one loss. Celine did well this year, because she needs a lot of work on her running skills. She is still a natural defender and has become comfortable with that position, but when she accidently lets the ball get behind her, she had a hard time chasing after it. We just got to get her to exercise more so running comes more easier to her. We are going to work hard next year, before the next season starts, to show her coach that she has been practicing and improving.
Let me just note, that I started this blog in April of 2015, so I am jumping around between her being in 5th & 6th grade, but its all great stuff, so I didn't want to delete it. In 5th grade, we had Parent/Teacher conferences and Celine seems to still be doing fine in reading, but her math scores are all over the map. Her main problem is not reading the directions or the questions all the way through. We have been told this by her teachers for the last several conferences. I keep telling her to "Stop and Smell The Roses", meaning, slow down and don't rush through it. Overall he said she's a good kid, talks maybe a little too much during class, but has good behavior. Unfortunately this pattern has still continued into 6th grade and we've had many a tears over homework each night :( Since she's in middle school, we can log onto the schools website and see her current grades, which as of today, the end of December, she has 4 C's. Sigh. Thats 4 C's out of 6 classes. Brutal. She's had her tablet taken away from her since late November because she had 3 C's and she won't get it back until she gets her grades, up, but somehow over Winter vacation, she has slipped to yet another C. She has maintained a B in math, which has been AMAZING for her, because that has always been the class she has struggled in, plus its a 6/7 compacted class, but unfortunately that is the class that the 4th C just slipped into. And she got a brand new Ipod 5 for Christmas, so I'm assuming that is the next gadget to go. Sheesh. The semester ends at the end of January, so hopefully she'll be able to bring some of those grades up before the first report card. We've had so so many talks with her. But i'm optimistic that things are starting to settle in for her and that she starting to get how things are working out. English has been her major downfall class over all this year. Its an Honors English class, so if this path continues, we may need to drop her down to regular 7th grade English next year. She is currently in Buffalo, NY with her Dad and extended family. She left early morning the day after Christmas and won't return until January 3rd. The day before she returns to school. She of course, got spoiled for Christmas over there and I am sure will be coming home with a lot of great stuff. She was spoiled here at home too.
Addy-Moo~
Addison is our little beautiful brown-eyed girl. She is now 7 years old and is in 2nd grade and Woodside Elementary school. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Gamlyn and she really likes her. I volunteer in her class the first Wednesday of each month and I try to be a volunteer on most of her field trips and she really likes that. Ever since she started elementary school, she struggled with reading and has been a super star in math, just the opposite of Celine. She got the numbers gene from her Daddy, thank goodness! Although, she has come a long way and is doing a lot better and reading books and sounding out words, that she doesn't immediately recognize. Plus whenever we're in the car, she is constantly reading signs and store names, so I believe its starting to click for her. She has never Loved going to school, like Celine has. She complains about going, but really its only because she doesn't want to get up in the morning, but once she does, she's fine and does well at school. She has a good group of friends right now. She has friends named Hannah, Emily and Kamryn. They are the ones that she typically hangs out with the most. We got back from Mexico two days before her 7th birthday and we didn't have a big party planned for her because for Christmas, 2014, both girls got tickets to Taylor Swift at Century Link Field on her actual birthday. See Taylor Swift Concert Blog. She played soccer for the very first time this year and her team name was Pink Panthers and she had Coach Michael. She was on a U-7 team and was the oldest girl on her team because her birthday put her right on the cusp of either being on a U-7 or a U-10 team and being it was her first year, we decided to put her on the U-7 team. But she had kids as young as 4 years old on her team, so it really was quite a show watching these girls dance and twirl around the field. There were three girls on the team (out of 11) that were the superstars and they were ADDISON, Emma and Shaylee. Addison absolutely Blew my mind on her very first game, because she grabbed that ball and scored FIVE goals!! I couldn't even hold the video camera still, I was so excited! Unfortunately Julian was out of town so he wasn't able to make it and I was using my actual video camera, but I wanted him to see her score a goal, so I used the video option on my cell phone to see if I could catch her score another goal so I could send it to Julian and sure enough, she scored yet another goal and I sent it to him. He was a very proud Daddy! She's quite the natural at soccer. I'm hoping she'll stick with it. She's nervous for next year, because she will be on a U-10 team and will be one of the youngest. I told her thats what happens everytime you move up a group. She'll be amazing. She is definitley a sassy one. But I think that goes along with being the middle child. I really had no idea that there really was such a thing as the middle child syndrom. Celine's older and gets to do more things, Christian is younger and needs more help and she's just stuck somewhere in the middle. But I am trying my best to make sure she feel Just as important as the other two. I mean how could we possibly treat her any differently, when she absolutely Gorgeous, but she definitley tests our patiences for sure. We get so many compliments about her, asking us whey we don't have her model. She really is beautiful. I can't wait to see more of what she will become as an older little girl. Earlier this year, Addy learned how to ride a bike without training wheels and it litterally took two days. The first day was a little rough and frustrating for her, but then the second day, I let go of her and let her start the bike herself and off she went! She was using one of Celine's old ugly bikes, because we thought if she was going to crash while learning, might as well be an old ugly bike, but this Christmas, Santa brought her a brand-new bike! She got an Ipod last year, so this year she got a brand new pair of wireless headphones to go along with it.
Christian-Avi~
Christian is currently 4 years old and is in Pre-School at the Einstein Academy (the same school that Addy went too for Pre-K) and he absolutly loves it. I was nervous on the first day, because he has Always been at home with me and not with anyone else. But he basically shoo'd me out the door when he got to school and his teacher, Miss Maryanne says he is a pleasure to have in class. He has had a couple of field trips with his class, one to the fire station, which he thought was so cool! Then to the pumpkin patch, where we took a hayride out to the pumpkin patch and each child go to pick a small pumpkin to bring home. Then we watched a three-llittle pigs show with actual live pigs, went to the small petting zoo and then we ate lunch and before we left, we let them jump on this big blob thing. Then for Christmas, we went to a play called the Elves and the Toymaker at the Storybook Theater in Kirkland and it was such a great play. They kept it really entertaining for the kids and it wasn't too long. For the field trips, me and Heidi usually go together because Rachel is at the same school, although in the Pre-K class. For this birthday this year, he was very excited that Nana and Papa were coming up for this birthday and Thanksgiving. We had Julian's family over and it was an amazing party! He loves being the center of attention. He was disappointed this Fall when the girls started soccer because he wanted to play, but he will have to wait until next year, now that he is four. I have no idea how I am going to swing having three kids in sports! Christian has been the absolute light of our life. Our family just wouldn't have been complete without a little boy running around. And good thing my brain and Julian talked me into having a third child, because I was very much done with having kids! But I can say we were very lucky, because my first two pregnancies, I wanted girls and then the third one, all I could pray for was a Boy and we got him! We have the perfect balance. He is amazing and smart and not shy at all. He is definitley different from the girls, much more energetic, like jumping off the couches and he absolutly cannot walk down the hallway, he has to run as fast as his little feet will take him! I know we will miss that sound one day. He actually just recently started sleeping his in own bed and actually staying in it all night. He used to always sleep with me or when he would fall asleep in his bed, he would always wake up in the middle of the night to get into bed with me. He is absolutly a nightmare to sleep with and has been ever since he was a baby. He digs his legs in between my legs and it used to cause bruises on my legs. I would always have to say "Christian, enough with legs". Plus, he cannot sleep on the other side of the bed, he has to sleep Right next to me and share my pillow. Ahhhhh, I know that I will miss it one day........(bottom lip). Christian had his first Christmas Program with his class and he was an Elf and was absolutly adorable. He had one line in the play and it was "Christmas is a Great Time of the Year". He said it nice and loud and wasn't shy at all. We were so proud of him. Christian of course also had a great Christmas, because Santa brought him a skateboard....................................now Santa and I had to have a long-heated talk about whether or not to get this certain 4 year old a skateboard, because I was not ready for broken bones. So he reminded me, thats what knee and elbow pads are for.....hmmmm. We shall see. Grandma got him an Avengers scooter that I feel much more comfortable with him riding. She also got him a cool little pool table with two sticks, blue chalk and 15 tiny balls. Its very cute.
Taj~
Taj joined us this year on my birthday of all days! He needed a kick-start to a new life, since he was having a hard time after we lost the house. I hadn't talked to him for the last two years, so it was so amazingly great having him back in our lives and for him to get to know Christian. Of course, the kids Love him, because he is crazy and does crazy things for them, like strap Christian into his wagon with pillows and a helmet and hauled-ass up, what we call the "mountain" in our back yard. Christian absolutly Loved it! Plus he put "motors" on each of their bikes, ya know, the whole card-in-the-spokes kinda deal. Plus he would always take them to 7-11 and buy them whatever they wanted. He would do concrete work with Owen and one time he was on the mountain and was wrestling with a much younger kid than him and the guy ended up breaking his collar bone. So that kinda got him all bummed because he couldn't work and had been doing really well at work. He finally heeled with that and then him and Jr. decided to start hanging out more, so one weekend Jr. came to pick Taj up, although he was watching the kids for me while I was in NY, but my Mom got out of the hospital and said she could handle the kids for one day so he could go out. Of course they went out, got wasted, started wrestling (what is it with guys and wrestling when they are drunk, ugh) and Jr. ended up breaking Taj's wrist on accident. So just as he was healing from his broken collar bone, he now had a broken wrist and was in a lot of pain. He ended up getting surgery where he had a plate and screws inserted into his wrist to set it so it would heel the bone correctly and he still has it in for as long as his body will tolerate it. He lived with us for about 7 months and then Jr. talked him into driving with him back to Ocala, Florida where he is currently at. He is loving the weather there, but I'm not sure he loves everything else about it and I have a feeling he'll be coming home soon. Which, as you can imagine the kids will be ecstatic about!
Justice~
Unfortunately we lost Justice this year. She got sick last summer with a thing called Pyomitria which has to do with an infection in her uterus. But we were able to treat her with antibiotics and she made a full recovery. Well unfortunately in March, she got sick with the same thing, so we called in for the same antibiotic and it just wasn't working and she wouldn't eat or drink water and eventually Julian and I had to make the decision to bring her in and have her put down because she was suffering. I was sitting in the way back with her and Carlos was going to meet us at the vet and take the kids for him so they didn't have to be there and as we pulled into the stall, she litterally died in my arms. Julian opened the back and my eyes were just wide and shocked, but I didn't want to say anything outloud because the kids were just getting out of the car to get into Carlos's car. The nice people at the vet came out to greet us and I told them that she had just passed away, so her and Julian carried her in and brought us into this room, so we could say our final goodbyes. Lets just say I was a mess. In fact, I'm a mess right now just typing this. Its just that it was so unexpected. We expected Mina to go before her, since Mina was 14 and Justice was 9, which was still old for her, since she was a big dog. RIP Jussy.
Mina~
Unfortunately, again, it was a rough year for dogs for us. Julian was out of town and Mina got sick and wouldn't eat or drink and wouldn't get up. I was forcing water into her mouth with a little syringe and would try to get her to eat anything. And if you knew Mina, that dog ate ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. Taj was here with me and is a big softy and kept thinking she was going to get better, but she just wasn't and I knew it my gut that it was her time. He left for the work the next morning and I immediately called the same vet and said that I needed to bring her in to put her down. Which I was okay with because I just couldn't watch her suffer anymore. But one thing dawned on me that morning that I hadn't thought of. Julian and I always said that when Mina passed that we would always bring her home and bury her in the back yard. But it didn't dawn on me that I was going to have to be the one to dig the hole and place her in it. I sat out in the back yard before I brought her in and just cried so hard, because I just didn't think I could do it. Finally it was time to bring her in and I left all of the kids at home (made sure Heidi was home) and when I got there, they brought us into the same room and she wasn't even nervous which just solitified that she was ready to go and they gave her her something to calm her down and then gave her the injection and it happened instantly. I, again was a mess and they took her out of the room and then brought her back in, in a box-casket. I put her in my back area and sat in the drivers seat and just bawled my eyes out and when I was ready to drive, I drove home and put the box into the garage and made the kids stay inside while I went out back with the shovel and dug a very deep hole in the corner of the back yard underneath the Rhodendren Bush. But as I was digging, it was so incredibly hard to dig because of all of the rocks and roots, so I knew there was no way I was going to be able to dig a hole big and deep enough to put that box-casket into it, so I knew I had to place her actual body in the ground. I brought the box outside and placed it onto the grass and so was nervous to open the box, because I didn't know if she was going to be all stiff, but I finally did so and she was still soft and looked so peaceful, so I pet her and said my final goodbyes and placed her in the ground. I just started tossing the dirt over her because I couldn't handle seeing her in the ground anymore and packed it nice and tight. I will tell you what.....it was a lot harder emotionally to dig a hole and bury my dog of 14 years than it was to put her down. Celine was so sweet and wrote on a rock and placed it on top of where she was buried. So next year when that Rhodendren Bush blooms, we'll know she's a part of it. She has been such a major part of my life. She lived in many places with me, went through relationships with me and evetunally was able to be a part of our kids lives, which is so incredibly important. RIP Mina-Safina-Snack-Pack-O-Pudding-Goat-Jones.
My Mom~
Rought year for my Mom as well. Julian spent a lot of time away from home over the summer, so my Mom spent a lot of time over here at our house. One night, I was in the house and Taj called my name and I ran to the garage and my he was holding my Mom up by the underarms and brought her into the house and laid her onto the couch. She said she was sitting on the chair, but then everything just started spinning and spinning, but as she was telling us, she started slurring her words so I immediately called 9-11 and they arrived and took her to the hospital and it turns out she had a TIA, which is also known as a mini-stroke. She made a full recovery and was put on a bunch of different medicines. She had a trip planned with us to Mexico a month or so later so she was nervous that it was going to happen again down there, but her doctor gave her the all-clear to go. And she went. See Mexico Blog.
Then a month after we got back from Mexico, she was again at our house and Taj wasn't here and we had a storm so the power was out and my phone was dead. At around 1:30AM, I was woken up to my Mom screaming my name and so I ran into the room with a flash light and she had shortness of breath and couldn't breath, so since my phone was dead, I had to run over to Brian and Heidi's and ask them to use their phone to call 9-11. Again since the power was out, Brian and Heidi were so Amazing and stood outside the cul-da-sac with laterns to guide the paramedics in and I had lined the hallway and bedroom with the lights so they could see. She again was taken to Evergreen Hospital, but I had all the kids here and Heidi was again amazing and stay at my house with the kids and slept on the couch so I could go to the hospital. This time, she had a severe case of Pnemonia and a heart-attack. She was in the hospital for 5 days. After she got out, they determined that out of the three main arteries in the heart, one of them was 99% block (which is why she had the heart failiure) another one 50% blocked and the other clear. She later had a procedure to have three stents put into the artery that was 99% blocked. She still has the one that is 50% blocked, still smokes and still hasn't changed her eating and exercising habits. Grrrrrr.
We finally made it to PV and my Mom was again grumpy because she hasn't smoked in hours and we still need to make it through immagration. Julian and the kids made their way down the terminal to find Nana and Papa and I was waiting for my Mom because she walks slow and had to use the bathroom. I forgot how long the cooridors were and it took forever to find a bathroom. We finally found one, she went and then we made our way to Nana and Papa. We were so excited to see them! My Mom walked outside and first thing she did, was of course, light up a cigarette. UGH. She was also surprised at the heat and humidity even though we tried to warn her. Nana and Papa brought two cars to get us, so Julian, my Mom and Celine drove with Nana. Then me, Addy and Christian drove with Papa. We made our way out of PV and into the Jungle (thats what we like to call it) and once we're out of the jungle that means we're close to Nana and Papa's house. 
We finally got there and they had made so many cool changes. Of course, we took the time to show my Mom around the house and she thought it was so unbelieve and huge! 
The next morning, we ate breakfast and decided to go to the beach again, which is really the only thing that we could do that would keep us cool. So again we packed up and this time my Mom came with us. 
We all had a blast in the ocean and took some great pictures! At one point, my Mom was getting swept away by the waves and I was already in the water behind her and it wasn't making me nervous, but it made Papa nervous enough that he ran down to the beach from the chairs to ensure she was okay. Its always the same routine when we get home from the beach. Me, Julian and the kids pretty much went to the beach every day.
Sometimes even late in the evening. Most of the evenings at the beach the sun turned into a thunder and lightening storm and that was our cue to leave the beach. The days when we didn't go to the beach, we hung out at Nana and Papa's and the kids would swim in their pool. 
Since Lalo, Amanda and their girls were there, we made our way back to the beach and Amanda was a little nervous of her girls by the ocean and at one point panicked and dove in the wanter and got a very bad sand burn on her leg. Ever since that happened, she was hesitent to go back to the beach. Although I think we got them to go at least one more time, just us, not the parents. But she didn't go near the water. 
Celine was compaining of having a bad ear ache to where it was making her cry, so we decided to take her to the next town to go to the doctors. Papa drove just her and I there and you litterally walk into this tiny doctors office and he checked her out and confirmed she had an ear infection and then we had to walk next door to the pharmacy to get her some ear drops and antibiotics. She had to take medicine and drops for the next 10 days and keep her head above water for the next few days. She eventually started feeling better. Then unfortunately Kaiya got the same infection and got the same medicine. Plus my Mom found that she even had an ear infection once she was back home and had to go to the doctors to get medicine. Both the Mexican doctor and the US doctor confirmed it was from the dirty water where the waves break at shore. So I always made sure to make my way out into the water up past my chest. I wasn't as nervous to go under water out there. 
Our direct family decided to drive into Puerto Vallarta for a night and stay at a hotel with a pool, then spend the next day visiting shops in PV. We ended up having dinner, then swimming in the pool for a little bit, but then we had to get out because there was thunder and lightening. We walked around for a little bit, then came back when it was dark and went down to the pool again, because they were all lit up with Christmas lights. 
We of course, all went to the beach and Me, Julian, Celine, Eva's sister and the young boy along with other strangers all decided to get on the banana boat for a ride around. We agreed that they could whip us off and I thought it was only going to be once, but it ended up being 3 times! And the last time they flung us off, I got nailed in the temple but a leg, knee or something, because once they whip the boat around, all the people on the banana boat just cannot stay on and fly off and I'm pretty sure it was the lenky young boy's leg that was sitting behind me that nailed me it the side of the head. It wasn't his fault, it was totally out of control, but man it still hurt. While I was trying to make my way up out of the water for air, all I could do was hold the side of my head. Julian swam right up to me to ask if I was okay and I thought I was bleeding, but it turned out it was just make up that he was seeing. But once I got back on the beach, I sat down and had to ice my temple area. I had quite a large red lump. Lesson learned: Sit on the very back of the banana boat, because if you are up near the front all the people behind you can potentially land on you. Bummer. But Celine had fun. 
