Start of the School Year

School has been in for a few weeks now and all 3 kids are enjoying it. Being homeschooled last year Nathan smoothly transitioned back to Trinity and was pretty excited that his friends from 1st grade remembered him.
Braxton is enjoying school and is sad on the days he has to stay home with me. Yesterday was the first day Matt was able to take him to school. About 20 minutes after Matt left with Braxton I received a call from him, while he was pumping gas Braxton decided to open his lunch box and take his juice box out and preced to drink it. Needless to say he didn't have a drink at lunch time.
Nathan also turned 8. We celebrated with a cookie cake. In a few weeks he will have his birthday party at Jacksonville Ice and Sportsplex. He is very excited about it.
College football season started this past weekend and we are all looking forward to the first home football game in two weekends.

Summer Vacation

Does anyone still read this????  I have been so bad with updating over the last year, I am hoping to start writing regularly again.

A lot has happened since I last blogged.  We are in the mist of summer vacation and took a week long trip the TN at the beginning of July.  It was nice to just relax and hang out with my family.  We spent a day out on the lake and then had a nice 4th of July party, even though it rain all day long. 

Nathan and Liam both attended a week of art camp and are also participating in the River City Swim League with champs coming up in a few weeks.  Braxton has almost mastered potty training, no pee accidents in two days but still working on getting him to go poo on the toilet.  He was is doing great at swimming.  Both Matt and I hope that he is swimming by himself by the end of the summer.

Mid June we found out Liam application for the McKay Scholarship was accepted.  For those who don't know about the McKay it is a scholarship for FL students that have an IEP.  Liam has had a IEP for speech since he turned 3 so we were able to apply.  He receives the funding he would of used in public school to apply it towards his private school tuition.  With him receiving that it has made it possible for Nathan to return to Trinity in the fall.  Nathan is happy and sad at the same time, he is going to miss his homeschool friends and zoo class but will enjoy going back to Trinity with Liam.

Braxton will also be starting preschool in the fall, he will be going 2 days a week from 8-12:30.  That will give be a little break from the kids.  I am hoping to get involved at Trinity volunteering in some capacity. 

Matt has been dealing with a bulging disc in his back for a few months now.  Last week he finally was able to have surgery.  His sciatic is doing much better but him leg muscles are still very tight.  I keep telling him that he hasn't used them for months and that it will get better with stretching.

Countdown for Summer...

We are officially on the countdown for summer vacation with May 31st being the last day.  I am so ready for it and so are the boys.

Nathan participated in the Junior FACCS competition a few weeks back, he did solo piano and received a excellent rating.  I was very proud of him to be able to get up in front of the judges and perform.  His end of year piano recitial is coming up in a few weeks.

We are still in limbo for next year, waiting to see if Liam qualifies for the McKay Scholarship.  If he ends up receiving it than Nathan will be going back to Trinity in the fall.

Nathan and Liam both participated in their first long coarse swim meet.  The both did 50 free, 50 breast, and 50 back.  Nathan did good in both the free and back, but was DQ'd in breast.  Liam on the other hand had two disasters, with his googles coming off on dives for the free and breast.  He ended up being DQ'd in breast.  He was the youngest swimmer and it wasn't too bad for his first long course swim meet.  River City starts up at the end of May and I am really excited for it.  Liam should really excel in the 6 and under.

Spring Break

Last week was spring break and we had a great week off at Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte, NC.  We picked up Matt's Grandma and the way, which was a nice treat for everyone since we don't get to spend much time with her.  It was very cold there but nice to relax in the 80 degree swimming pools all day long.

While there we went to the Concord Mills Mall which has a Bass Pro Shop.  We were getting ready to leave the store Braxton took off and I couldn't find him.  I started to get nervious so I told an employee.  He got on the radio and announced a Code Adam.  A few minutes later they found him near the huge fish tank in the middle of the store.  By the way, it is no where near where we were when he took off. 

On Easter we went to church and then came home and Matt smoked a boston butt for dinner.  It was so good.  It was a very relaxing day for all of us. 

Some exciting news, Nathan finally learned how to catch a baseball with a glove.  He was so happy and so were Matt and I.

God's Plan

God's plan was done, only it wasn't our plan.  Even though I know this is God's plan it still hurts a little. 

For those who didn't know, a regional position became available inside Wells Fargo and Matt applied for it.  He made it to the final interview, which was in from of a pannel.  He did awesome but in the end they decided to go with someone else. 

Bad Brother

Well Saturday afternoon the boys were all playing nicely in Nathan's room with his Legos.  When all of a sudden Braxton starts screaming, crying, and saying my ear.  Took one look in the room and immediately I knew what had happened.  Liam was sitting on the floor holding a Lego antenna that was about 1.5 inches long.  I knew Liam put it in Braxton's ear, even though he denied it at first.  After about 5 minutes of crying Braxton went back to playing.  It wasn't until the next day when he woke up from his nap that I saw dried blood in his ear. 

So today I called his doctor so she could take a look at it.  For the last couple of days he has been sick with a cold that caused constant drainage.  Well turns out he has double ear infections.  Since the ear that was poked is infected and full of blood we won't find out until it is cleared if there was any damage.  UGH!!!

We are officially on the count down to spring break.  I am really looking forward to a week of vacation.  The boys have no idea we a heading to Great Wolf Lodge.  They are going to be so surprised. 

ITS BEEN FOREVER....

Well I know I have been bad about updating but I have been so busy with homeschooling and other kids activities I haven't had anytime.  I will try to get back into the routine of writing weekly.

This weekend was super busy for us.  Matt ran the Gate River Run, which is a 15K for those who don't know.  He did excellent without ever training and came through at about 1 hour 34 minutes.  Then Nathan and Liam ran in the Junior Gate River Run, which is 1 mile.  This was their first run and they both loved it.  Nathan ended up beating Liam by about 4 minutes. 

After the race we rushed to make their first baseball games of the season.  Nathan is on the Phillies and Liam is again on the Reds.  Matt decided to be an assistant coach for Liam's team this season since he will be too busy with work to take on the head coaching duties. 

On Sunday Matt woke up and his body was physically dead.  Having not trained for the race his legs were totally beat.  He looked like an old man trying to hobble around the house.  I of course had to laugh.

Both Liam and Braxton had their 6 month follow up appointments with their doctors.  Braxton's endocrinologist still wants to wait on the MRI, says everything looks good and we will follow up with blood tests again in 6 months.  She says we will probably do the MRI around 4-5 years old, unless blood test come back abnormal.  Liam's neurologist said everything too looked good, that I could try and take him off the cyproheptadine in the summer and see how he reacts.  I will probably try it but since we have the migraines under control now I don't want to set them off again. 

We also have had to take a break from Liam's speech with Wolfson's because our insurance is no longer covering it.  I have no idea why things have changed but we now have 2 months of bills that have to be paid for out of pocket.  I have applied for the Scottish Rite so hopefully they will be able to pick up one of those months and then we can start going again.  He is still going to the elementary school twice a week so I am not too concerned about it.

Please keep our family in your prayers.  Something possibly good has come up, and Matt and I are praying God's Will will be done.  Even though it would mean big changes for everyone in our family we are open to it if that is God's plan.