School!

On this, the first day of school, I don't have any pictures for you.  Sorry.  I'm lame like that.  I didn't even wake up to see Miciah off on her first day.  Yep.

However, I would like to take a moment and brag on my kids.  I try to avoid that, but I'm proud of those kiddos.  So if you'd like to indulge me for a second, continue reading.  I'll try to keep it brief.

Tank rocks out school.  He is a top performer in his class, he knows it and likes it.  His 2nd grade teacher said that when the class is misbehaving, he'll sit there quietly and sometimes even roll his eyes.  He has told me before that he thinks his class is horribly behaved.  What a cocky snot!  :)  Still, he takes his studies seriously and is ON TOP of doing homework and such.  He involves us in the process, and he asks me or Rob to check his work every night because he hates being wrong.  (He has a fear of being wrong.  I think we've discussed this before.)  I worry that later on in his school career he'll burn out early because of all the pressure he puts on himself, but for now he's doing great.

Elijah's 4th grade year was rough.  He spent a lot of time blaming his evil math teacher for all his troubles.  You'd think she was some old hag with warts, the way he talked about her.  I finally, mid-year, called him on his crap.  I told him I would no longer accept any excuses for his failures.  They were his fault, the end!  Tough love.  I'm good at tough love.  And his Math grade, which had plunged down into the C range, came back up to a solid A- by the end of the year.  Not only was Elijah getting better grades in all of his classes, he was proud of himself.  He watched his hard work pay off with good grades, and he liked that feeling.  There is hope in the world, as it turns out, and he decided he wanted some if it for himself!  Way to go, Elijah!

Miciah is a super star.  At the end of the school year, apparently one of the other kids in her homeroom class snatched her progress report out of her hands.  As the teacher was saying, "Give that back to Miciah," the kid was saying, "THREE 100%'s?!  You must be cheating!"  Apparently every other kid in the class was like, "She's not cheating."  He said, "I know, but still!"  :)  Miciah succeeds in school because she likes to, and because she works dang hard.  No doubt that she's smart, but she works her tail off.  She's a serious over-achiever.  I mean, I know that Rob and I were both the same sort of student, but she definitely works harder than I did, and her grades reflect that.  We lightly tease her about it.  She came home with a 102% on a test this last year and we gave her our typical speech of, "Miciah, we're really disappointed that you brought home this kind of score.  We expect you to get an F next time."  She went back to school and told her teacher what we'd said and the teacher responded with, "Your parents are weird, Miciah.  Just kidding, they're awesome."  :)  Our alternate speech is, "We're really disappointed in this grade.  Next time we want to see 120%."  Really, Miciah is the awesome one.  Often other people will congratulate us about what a good job we're doing with Miciah.  I give the same response every time:  Miciah is doing a great job with Miciah.  We just stay out of her way.

One last brag on Miciah.  I know this would embarrass her, but I can't help it.  I'm just so proud of her!  She took the OAA (Ohio Achievement Assessment) for Math and Reading back at the end of this last school year.  They always send home a detailed report about her scores.  She's always right at the top of the chart, but this year she TOPPED the chart.  Her Reading score was the highest possible.  Now, I don't know if that's a true 100% or if the scores are curved, but either way, that girl is on fire.

Okay, that's it.  A post about Tank's baptism to come.

Announcement / Story #3: Stepping Away

Last Announcement / Story in my series.

Announcement:  I'm stepping away from the Mormon church.  Let's call it "taking a break."

Story:  This one is way too complicated for a full story.  I don't even have a definitive start time or a single plot line.  So I'll skip to just recently.

I have found it difficult lately to reconcile my conscience with the church that I love.  Having struggled with this for a very long time, and feeling like my spirituality was hitting rock bottom on a regular basis because of it, I decided that what I needed was some distance.  So I gave myself permission to do just that.

It is amazing how freeing this has been.  I'm really happy about it and excited to see where this journey will take me.  I, myself, am not sure where it ends, I just know I'm happy to be where I'm at.  For now, that's enough.

This, I realize, is alarming to some people.  I can understand that.  This path is new for me and a little scary.  It's full of disappointing people that I love and potentially losing friends that I cherish.  It's full of what if's and don't know's.  But the place where I'm at right now is not a place of loss or fear.  It's a place of peace and calm.  It's a safe place without conflict.  And having found this place for the first time in a long time, I intend to keep it.

I haven't abandoned everything about the Mormon church.  It's still there.  I'm not certain what I will do with it all.  My intention is to go through it all, piece by piece, and decide what to do with it.  It won't be a fast process, but I'm hoping that by the end, I'll have figured some new things out about myself and about my Heavenly Father.

Wish me luck!

(Feel free to ask me any questions that you'd like.  If it's a personal question, e-mail me or call or come by for a visit.  Don't worry that you'll offend.  I'm not like that.)

California Trip and what now?

This summer has been one of the best of my life.  For serious, I have loved it.  I worked a little, but mostly didn't.  This meant I just hung out with my boys a lot.  We took short trips to loved ones' places and enjoyed the heck out of that.  We all did Cub Camp.  We took the kids back to the museum and the zoo, and went to COSI in Columbus, too.  We've just had fun.

Here are some pictures from the Fort Wayne festival thingy that we went to:

Rob and Dustin in the hamster balls.  It was HILARIOUS to watch.

Checking out the steel drums after the band was done playing.  Elijah now wants a set.

I went to California for the first time in years.  It's always nice to go see family, and this time I got to love on my sister, Lori's new baby.  LOVED IT.  We did a bunch of stuff, too, which was fun.  We went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is amazing.  They now have an octopus exhibit which was breath-taking.  For real.  I would go to an aquarium that ONLY showed octopuses.  Beautiful creatures.

The tattoo I plan on getting.

Jellies!!!

Miciah and Dea laying on the ground watching the sardines swim in a big circle.

 

I got to see, and have long talks with, almost all of my siblings.  Collin, my bestie, and his wife, were there while I was.  That was amazing.  I got to go jean shopping with Lori (she showed me where to buy more expensive, better quality jeans).  We went on walks.  We took turns holding the baby.  We put together a puzzle.  It was blissful.  We're all adults now and much nicer to hang around than we were as teenagers and young, stupid 20-somethings.

New jeans, post hemming.  I'm short.

The puzzle.  Fun, right?  It's my family, 2009.

My favorite place we went to is now a Must See every time we head out to CA:  Point Lobos State Reserve.  So, so pretty.

This is Miciah saying, "NO!"  She didn't want me to take her picture.

The other thing that was going on while I was in CA was less than nice.  Before I left, Tank came down with some sickness.  He was sick for a few days, seemed to be recovering for a few days right when I left for CA, and then was even sicker for another few days.  Rob took him in to the doctor and got him an antibiotic.  He still recovered slowly, in terms of getting his energy back.

Then I got a call from Rob saying that he was coming down with something.  The next day he called and said he was feeling lousy.  The next day he texted and said he had bronchitis.  Then he texted a few hours later and said he also had pneumonia in one lung.  Ugh!  He was on two antibiotics, codine cough syrup, and was rotating Tylenol and Ibuprofin every few hours.  Intense.

I got home Tuesday night and instantly was plunged into a very overwhelming state.  Rob was still really sick, so I had all the normal things to take care of post-trip, PLUS all the things that didn't get done while he was laid up.  It seemed like everywhere I turned someone needed something from me and only me.  "Have you done this yet?"  No.  Not yet.  Just repeat "not yet" for everything you're wanting to ask me.

On top of that, we were making preparations for going down to Mammoth Cave for two days as a family.  (And with my parents.  My parents are at my house right now.)  We canceled Rob's tickets.  My mom and I were starting to talk about food prep when it became obvious that Elijah was coming down with the same crap.  Of course.  SO, we scrapped the whole trip and ate the cost of the cabin plus the portion of the tour tickets that couldn't be refunded.  Which was fine.  I feel like I paid $130 for an extra two days to put my house back in order and take care of my sick boys.  Worth it.

But woah.  :)  It's been nuts.

Rob is now almost back to normal.  He's on a business trip in Michigan, and I'm with him.  He gets tired too early in the day and has a lingering cough, but that's about all that's left of his sickness.  Elijah isn't at 100% either, yet, but he's getting closer everyday.  (Seeing Elijah just sitting for hours was bizarre.  That kid normally has so much energy.  ...  The house was really quiet.)

Lake Michigan, where Lake Muskegon connects.

Michigan is beautiful.