Watch out world...

"She's steady, she's ready, she's up on her feet." - In the words of Isabel (ok, actually from the Barbie movie)

Growing up

Last week Isabel started kindergarten.  Really, where has the time gone?  All these people tell you how fast it is going to go, and truly it has.  I've enjoyed being blessed enough to have Isabel home with me up until now and am so grateful for that time with her.  We've made many a memory.  She is such a bright, funny, creative young lady.

She was suppose to start her first day on Wednesday, and Monday morning she woke up so sick.  She had a fever and had come down with croup.  We prayed and prayed for her.  We warned her that she might not be able to go to school her first day if she still had a fever.  I took her to the Dr. and she gave her some medicine to help with the croup side effects.  Thankfully, the morning of school she was fever free.

I think she had been getting anxious about school because she would say, "Yea, Mom and if I'm sick for two days I can't go to school for two days."  Like, being sick was going to be an excuse not to have to go.  So when she didn't have a fever and we gave her the, "you're going to go," she got very anxious, almost to the point of tears.  We just kept encouraging her all morning though, reminding her of how much fun she would have and how nice her teacher was.  We laughed and told jokes.  It calmed her nerves and when it was time to go she was excited and ready.  Lee dropped her off and she went skipping in to school.  What an answer to prayer.  I picked her up at the end of her day and her impression of kindergarten, "It was so fun!"    

 

 

 

Not only did she start kindergarten, but she also turned 5 this past week!  To celebrate we spent the day at the park, including boat ride, a picnic lunch, splash park, farm animal zoo, playgrounds, and tractor ride.

 

 

 

 

Isabel came home today telling the story of Pete the Cat that she learned in school.  Here is her retelling of the story at my mom's birthday party, which we also celebrated today.  She has memorized the story in a short time, which always amazes me.  When she comes home from school and says, "I don't remember."  I tell her, "Isabel you remember everything, that is not an excuse."  She is hamming it up a bit here...just a bit.   

Life, Love, and Other Mysteries

Anyone remember that song?  Point of Grace?  Ah, brings me back to Tuesday night rollerskating during Jr. High and High School.  Fun times.

Any how, Lee was looking at the blog the other night and said, you haven't posted anything in like 3 weeks?  I know, I know.  Life has been busy, kids have been sick, we've been serving friends, celebrating birthdays, and trying to get in as much of summer as we possibly can.

So here is a quick recap (pictures to come):

I got to be apart of a friend's birth of her baby boy, Clay David, the end of July.  It was an amazing experience, in which I hope to write an individual blog about soon.

We celebrated my dad's 66th birthday. 

My dear friend's mom went home to be with the Lord after a short battle with cancer.  It's been amazing seeing our family of friends join together in serving her family.  I have such loving friends.

We've been preparing for kindergarten.  Not only is it hard to believe kindergarten is starting tomorrow, but it's even harder to believe that I have a kindergartener (and that is where I will stop before I burst into tears).

We've had several different kinds of viruses in our home, none of which have been the same.  Really just ready to be healthy...come on winter.

I've been learning a lot at church with our Pastor's last sermon series.  Very challenging.  A good one...you can listen to it here.  

And that about sums it up in a nutshell. 

School starts tomorrow and that will be another blog I'm sure....  

The Olympic Games

(A post I wrote a few weeks ago and never posted - and now I'm missing the nightly event of watching)

So when Lee and I got married it was 2004.  The year of the summer Olympics in Sydney.  I LOVE the Olympics.  I probably shouldn't admit this, but at our first apartment the pool was right outside our building.  For whatever reason no one ever really swam in it, so Lee and I would have it to ourselves most of the time.  I remember that summer we would race each other in the pool pretending we were at/in the Olympics.  Of course I would always win...NOT!  I would tell him I was Michael Phelps and was going to beat him, or vice versa.  It was a lot of fun.  Silly newlywed stuff:) 

This year before the Games even started, probably like a month or more before I started "playing" Olympics with the girls.  If we were in the backyard swimming in the kiddie pool we would each represent a different country.  Isabel usually wanted to represent Mexico.  They had no idea what was going on really though.  They would race each other in swimming, you know the whole 5 feet of the kiddie pool.  We'd also pretend we were rowing, or a variety of other sports.  They would get pretend medals.  Again, not really knowing what that meant. 

Last night we let the girls stay up late to actually watch the Olympics.  They had so many questions and just would NOT stop talking.  Lee kept saying, "If you just LISTEN you would learn things."  It was fun.  It was a memory.  Now they kind of understand it a little better.

It would be like a dream come true for me to actually go to an Olympics.  2016 is in Rio!  I better start saving my shekels.  Unlikely, but it's good to dream right:)

2 weeks

So last night as we were watching the Olympics a commercial came on.  It was for Target, Meijer, or some store like that advertising school supplies.  Then it hit me, that in 2 weeks my little big girl would be starting school.  I got a little sad, not really about her starting school.  I know she is really excited.  I'm excited.  Just more than I'm going to miss her.  Life will be different without her around for half a day for sure.  She's a good helper.  She's a good playmate for her siblings.  Sometimes she surprises me, like today when she cleaned up after herself after a craft project (not the norm).  She's growing up.  I'm sure her sisters will miss her too and we'll have to adjust to this new phase of life. 

Today she was so sweet at lunch and said, "Mom, I'll feed Klara lunch for you today because you have like been doing it the whole day."  I knew what she meant.  She was trying to give me a mom break.  I needed a bit of extra grace today with her sibling (Ahem...Ana), so her kind gesture was thoughtful and sweet!  Yes, she used "like" in her sentence.

Here's to 2 more weeks of summer!  Loving each moment with my little big girl!