4 more days of school!

So, maybe I did fall of the face of the Earth, but I've been busy! The last month of school is ALWAYS hectic and this year is no exception. I'm up to my ears in paperwork and have even brought some home in the hopes of getting it all done without having to work after school is out. I really need to get my room in order so I plan on weeding through things as well if I have the time. If you're not a teacher, you may not know that in addition to all of our other end of the year stuff, we have to completely take down the room. Nothing is left out unless its boxed up or shut away the cabinets so it takes some time.

We are getting ready for "potty training" boot camp style around here. We have 2 weeks after school is out before we leave for Ruidoso, and I'm hoping to get her trained by then. She's an all or nothing kind of girl apparently, so I'm going to have to go cold turkey on diapers and go straight into undies to get her trained. She'll tell me as she's going, instead of beforehand, and is definitely ready, just stubborn (I blame daddy for that trait! Ha ha)! She's already learning how to push her brother's buttons, but for the most part, she follows him around like a puppy dog. Anytime she gets something, she says "And one for my Jaxon..." or if we go somewhere, "Jaxon is coming too..." She just adores him.

My laptop had an accident and the screen cracked inside. :( Another reason I've been away. I tried using Jaxon's laptop, but it's slow and frankly, he wants to use it! I figured out how to hook up my old flat panel monitor to the laptop and that's what I'm using now. It's not pretty, but it works.

Jaxon is still blowing us away with his reading and I can't even rate what level he's on now because my materials don't go past second gade. He's a smart one (and I'm not just saying that because I'm mom). He is still big into his games, but not to the point of obsession like he was before (mainly because we don't let him). One day, he was playing one of his favorite PS games "The Incredibles 2: Rise of the Underminer" and I walk in to the credits rolling. I ask what happened and he says "I finished it." I thought maybe he he exited the game on accident and pull up the menu to find he had completed the game. He says "Mom, I already told you I finished it." Well of course you did. That's 3 games now that he's completed- he is quite the gamer. We are working on sports in the hopes of improving his muscle tone as he's a skinny string bean right now and he can't wait to get started!

Well, I need to get around- I'll post again soon (and hopefully it won't be a month away)!

I did not fall off the face of the earth...

It just looks that way on the blog! :) So here's the month in review.
My surgery went well. I'm 15 days post-op and other than a little soreness, I'm fine. I feel much better than I expected I would. Brian was wonderful and took over for me completely so I could recover. He laughs and says "What did you expect me to do?" But really... taking over in every aspect of the child-rearing and running the house takes work! I only missed 3 days of work, but even after I went back, Brian took care of business around here. He is simply wonderful.
I had my birthday this month. The big 3-0. We kept it simple, just dinner and a movie, so I wouldn't go into shock or have a midlife crisis. Ha ha! Jaxon assured me that "30 is a lot" but that I'm "not old". :) I still don't feel like a grown up, let alone like a mom in my 30's (sheesh)! Ok... I need to stop now before I DO start to feel old.
We have had tons of birthday parties for Jaxon's friends (who are also students in my class) and the kids have had fun. Jaxon has started to think about his birthday since he'll "finally be 5". Last year, we went to a big place full of bounce houses and obstacle courses, but not sure what he'll want this time.
Summer is quickly approaching and I'm excited. Jaxon is going to be in tennis, swim and maybe flag football, but we'll have to wait until fall for t-ball. We are also going to Ruidoso, New Mexico with the family for a week and can't wait. The cabin we're staying in is gorgeous- I think cabin and think a little place, but it's huge. It's nearby the casino, horseback riding, hiking and the lake. I can't wait for that trip... of course, it'll be the kids first LONG road trip so it may be an adventure! I guess I'll dust off the DVD player in the roof of my van for this trip.
Well, it's already late and I need to head to bed, but more to come soon! :) S

Spring Carnival (as retold w/ Smilebox)

If you've not discovered smilebox yet, check it out! I am a self-admitted digital scrapbooking junkie and love to make layouts, but this is SO easy- just drag and drop- so even those of you who do not share my passion, can share your pictures in layouts. Be sure to click the "zoom in" to read the journaling and "zoom out" to turn the page. This is one of the Spring Carnival... enjoy!

Make a scrapbook - it's easy!

World Autism Awareness Day

Please spread the word! As many of you know, most of my students have autism, and it is rising at near epidemic rates, yet there are still many who know very little about it. Check out available resources, research and community support at Autism Speaks.

The busiest month is almost here

...which is both exciting AND stressful! Let's see... I'm getting blond highlights back (the old reliable) so my mom will be very happy. My sister and I were referred to as "Brownie" and "Blondie" respectively as children and apparently we need to remain that way. ;)

I have tons of meetings coming up too for my kiddos headed to kindergarten and end of the year stuff. I am also presenting a few trainings for staff and parents with my teammates which is giving me gray hair (now you see that my reason for the blond highlighting is NOT to make mom happy)!

Next week I have surgery which I'm only moderately nervous about, but I'll be sore and out of whack for a bit, and that has me more worried than the process itself. It's tough to tell the kiddos to go easy on mama or the teacher for that matter- I think my title should include "child wrangler" and "human jungle gym"! That week is also when Jaxon has kindergarten round-up and kinder buddy day which I'm excited about. I can't wait to see what he thinks about the whole thing.

The last but not least of the stresses... I turn 30 this month. Yes folks, it's all downhill from here. ;) I wasn't all that concerned about it until my friends kept reminding me about it... and now I'm thinking I'll make 30 fun. Maybe it'll be my year to lose those last 10 pounds I want to rid myself of, and get more organized, and I WILL do more for myself this year. So, if I'm not around much this month, you'll know why. Anyway, keep your fingers crossed that all goes well. I guess I should finish up my taxes... :)

Happy Easter!

Well this month has just flown by. Do I write that every month? It sure feels like it! :) We had our neighborhood Easter egg hunt today and will have everyone over to our house tomorrow as well. With Easter coming early this year, it snuck up on me so I've got eggs to color with the kids, laundry to do, need to get ALL of these toys put away, and make some pecan pie. Thankfully our moms are bringing almost all of the food so at least I don't have a lot of cooking to do.

And the next day is the 24th- our anniversary. We've been married for 7 years. It seems silly now, but when we were in college, I had it in my mind that I was not going to get married before I graduated. So we lived together instead all through college... don't ask why I was ok with that but not getting married, because it was basically just a test drive for marriage, but oh well! All in all, its been 11 years.

Wow do I feel old now! The big 30 hits next month, so I guess THAT is when I'll officially be "old". Argh... I STILL don't feel like a grown-up!

Anyway, I hope everyone has a great Easter and enjoys time with their families.

A new look

As most of you know, I'm a bit of a scrap addict (but at least it's all digital and I'm not freebasing on paper scraps! Ha ha!) I'm always coming up with stuff on my other blog and liked it's new look so much, that I made this blog to match. I just don't like the choices blogger gives you and would rather make my own. :) Anyway, it took longer than I remembered to fiddle with all of the html code (yes, I'm a geek)... so it'll probably stay this way for awhile, so I hope you like it!

Get ready for Spring Break!

This month has flown by! I swear I feel like I say that all of the time, but with 2 little ones it really does fly. We've been busy getting ready for spring, but Texas weather proves to be tricky this year. It's warm and gorgeous one day, and then some cold front blows in and puts us in the 40s again. We just planted our beds out front, and thankfully we got it done on a nice day, because today we had rain ALL day and it's 36!!! Can you believe it's that cold in March?
Brian started a new corporate sales account manager position and seems to be enjoying it. He was ready for a change, but not really ready to leave Dell, so I'm glad this has worked out for him. My work is about to come to a screeching halt as Spring Break starts after school tomorrow. WOO HOO!!! :) I have no plans other than hanging out with the kids and having a fun and restful break.
I also have lots of CT stuff and ADSR layouts to work on so check out my other blog for pics soon!

Ladies and Gents, we have a Wii!

Jaxon has seen the Wiis before, but after watching Luke play yesterday, he was really wanting one. I know they were near impossible to get around Christmas, but its mid-February so I figured it wouldn't be too hard to find. So we went out this morning and no one had it, no one knew when they would have it, no luck at all. This was bad news since Grandma B. had graciously offered to buy it for us (a few hundred bucks is nothing to shrug at, you know). Then Brian called his mom, Grandma Schock, and asked her to look around on her side of town. After a few phone calls, 2 or 3 stores and someone double-checking in the back, they were able to find it. They picked it up for us and then Brian met his dad at Golf Galaxy to shop and pick up the wii.
So I set it up (you know I'm the techie nerd around here so I get to hook up everything). Jaxon started playing Wii Sports Boxing and LOVED it! I've got some great pics to share that'll be coming soon. Then Brian tried it out and he liked it too (he wasn't sure he'd like the wii, but I think he's already found how fun it is). So we've been playing Boxing, bowling and now golf for a couple of hours already! :) This is really good news since the PSP had to be sent off for warranty service. I see a new addiction in Jaxon's future and maybe Brian's too!

February Update

Well we've all had "the crud" at my house. Coughing, congestion, overall yucky stuff, but not sick enough to really warrant a trip to the doctor. The weather was starting to get nice again, so I was hoping that may help us get over this junk, but now a cold front has come in and it's getting down into the 30s at night. :( Hopefully we'll all be 100% again soon!

Valentine's Day was fun. Jaxon loved signing his name on all of his valentines. Marley just happily carried around the extra "Balentimes". I got Marley a princess puzzle and lollipops (she's got a sweet tooth like mama) and Jaxon a snake (one of those cool sand filled ones, not a real one) and books. I've not really screened him, but he is reading on at least a second grade level, so of course the books I got he read immediately. I'm thinking about beginning to read more complex books to him aloud to continue to challenge him... I don't want him getting bored in kindergarten next year.

Anyway, Brian and I were not going to "do" Valentine's Day. I really see no point in going to dinner and having to wait for 2 hours (WITH a reservation) to eat. And good luck finding a sitter, right? So Brian comes home from work with a new Sony Cybershot H3! That's great... our camera died and we needed a new one, I was eyeballing DSLR-like cameras... but it made me feel TERRIBLE. I didn't even have a card for him. He says he doesn't care, it's my day, etc. but I feel awful. So I called my mom and she's available to watch the kids next weekend for us so we can go run around and do whatever we'd like for the weekend... I guess a late gift is better than none.

If you follow my digital scrapbooking stuff, you know I'm counting down until ADSR3 starts and with the new camera, we're back in business with NEW pics to scrap! :)

Back just in time for the Superbowl...

Well, most importantly, we are back from Kansas and Grandma's service was lovely. We got to spend a lot of time with Brian's aunts, uncles and cousins which was really nice as well. She was such a wonderful lady and it was great to think back on her life. We flew in during a snowstorm (they got 5 inches that day) and I was in shock. We don't "do" snow in Texas, and on the off chance it does snow, it lasts a day at best. It was 15 degrees when we flew in...eeek! Anyway, luckily it warmed up some ("warmed up" for Kansas is in the 40s by the way)! So we're glad to be back in Texas! :)

We made it home just in time to watch the Superbowl (thanks to TIVO we could rewind the first 5 minutes we missed and catch up during commercials) and the GIANTS won!!!! Since our teams didn't make it, Brian and I were both REALLY rooting for the Giants, but didn't think they'd be able to win. As the game went on and they kept sacking Brady and doing well on offense, we thought "Well this may be a game"... but holy moly they WON!

Well, I'm off to update my scrap blog then hitting the sack as I've got lots of sleep to catch up on. Talk to everyone soon!

Heartbroken...

Sadly, Brian's grandma passed away this afternoon. Her hospice nurses and family were with her, and she was given medicine for the past day or so to be sure that she was comfortable. I think the hardest part is he memories it brings of my own grandparents. I couldn't see my grandmother when sh fell so ill... I just couldn't handle it... and now I regret not being able to say goodbye. I know she knew and that I prayed for her, but I still wish I had been able to pull it together to be there. I sat with grandma and held her hand last night, letting her know how much we love her.
When my grandma passed away, Jaxon was still too little to really understand. This time, we talked a little about it and he just broke my heart. He cried and said he wanted to see her. Then he starting worrying that I would die... it's just awful. I explained as best I could, but it's hard for anyoe to really understand. I talked a little bit about heaven (which since we don't attend church, it probably made him even more confused) but I think in the end, he felt ok about it. I'm going to go to school tomorrow and will get out my book on grief with children to see if it will help.
We will probably be headed to Kansas this week for the funeral, but I'll keep you posted. Please keep Helen in your prayers...

Visiting with the family...

This weekend, some of Brian's extended family came in to visit. His aunt Pam and her boyfriend Jack, his cousin Dax and his wife Kelly, and his cousin Brieann all came in from California and Arizona. So Grandma S. wanted to come back to her house so hospice got a hospital bed delivered to her house and they brought her home. We spent Friday night visiting with them all at Grandma's house and she really seemed to enjoy herself. Jaxon was enamored with Dax as he makes video games for a living and played PSP with him. Marley just loved on grandma and Kelly all night, and Pam and Jack were both sick so we didn't have much time with them.
Yesterday, the plan was Brieann's flight would leave in the morning and we would leave the kids with brian's parents and go out with Dax and Kelly. Of course, Kelly is pregnant, so our usual tour of Austin would be limited, but we would have had a good time (it's just not fun to go to loud music venues with massive bars when your pregnant, you know?)
Brieann missed her flight, but it turned out to probably be a good thing. Brian and Rick golfed at Grandma's course and then about the time they finished, I brought the kids up to Grandma's. She was not doing well and we called Maria her hospice nurse/ They told us to get her "comfort pack" which is basically morphine to make her comfortable. She came out to see her and said she didn't think she'd make it through the weekend. We knew it was coming, but it still is so awful to think about. Then in the midst of all of this sadness, Pam has to call the ambulance for Jack- he's having a major asthma attack and can't breathe. The EMTs come in and find he's wheezing terribly and his blood pressure is skyrocketing, so they take him to the hospital. Talk about a rough day.
We end up spending the rest of the evening sitting around grandma's hospital bed, looking through old photo albums and reminiscing. This morning, Dax, Kelly and Brieann are flying back home. Jack is in ICU this morning- he tried to wait it out rather than calling for help sooner and the stress was just too much on his respiratory system. Brian's parents spent the night at grandma's house and will be there most of the day while Pam goes between grandma's and the hospital for Jack.

Be sure today to let your family know how much you love them as life is just too short not to share that each and every day.

Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a safe and happy new year. Brian and I sent the kids to grandma B's house and went out to Cool River for dinner. It was wonderful. We ended up going to Opal Divine's afterward and then headed home. No real resolutions other than the usual- lose a little weight, get organized, etc.

But, we've already been VERY busy around here lately and the "home improvement" bonanza continues! I don't have pictures up yet, but I hope to post them soon of all of our recent projects. We have some great ones planned too, including flooring, so more to come on that.

Switching the kids rooms was hard work, but they have both really loved it. Its almost like when you move and you see all kinds of new possibilities... they have adjusted quickly and love their "cool, new rooms". Jaxon's room is now the larger of the two, and we painted it "Retro Colonial Blue" so it's nice color he won't grow out of.

Marley's room is tan now and is going to be painted too, but after all of this work, we may wait a week or two to do it. I converted her crib down to a toddler bed and she is doing very well in it. The first night I heard her playing and went in to tell her to lie down, she walked to the side of her bed where the comforter was draped over and peeked out at me from behind it. :) When she realized I meant business, she did lie down and went right to sleep. I think she was ready for the "big girl" bed too.

Anyway, if you're interested in seeing the calendar I made for our families for Christmas, you can click the link on the left to get to my scrap blog where its posted. Off to enjoy the weekend before Brian and I return to work... the break always seems to fly by...

Talk to you soon! :) S

Happy Holidays!

I hope everyone enjoys the holidays with their families. The kids and I came to San Antonio for a few days to visit my family. Then Monday, we're off to the Schock's house for Christmas Eve (day). We will all be home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning together. My family will come up Christmas day or the following weekend to celebrate with us too. Brian and I will also be working hard on the home projects we've got on the to-do list! Anyway, I was late getting my pics out, and we still haven't made it in for our family portraits, so if you didn't get my photo card through snail mail, here it is... Happy Holidays!

Has it been THAT long since I posted?

Well, it HAS been a busy year, but I will try to do better keeping everyone posted with the blog. I'll probably add feedblitz to it too so you can sign up to get an e-mail anytime we update the blog. I am probably better at updating my scrap blog, but I've even been neglecting that lately. So let's catch up...
November was uneventful really. We had Thanksgiving at the Schock house and enjoyed spending time with the family. Then we blink and its December already. I tried to get most of the kids shopping done early but still find myself picking up "a little something" here and there. The adults in the family are much harder to shop for and it's to the point where I'd much rather skip gifts and just do gifts for the kids. Right now, I don't feel like the stress of holiday shopping is worth it. Ok, so there's my BAM HUMBUG!
That said, I am VERY excited for our kids this year. Jaxon has been reading on his own quite a lot lately and was reading on a website about the North Pole. He was telling me that it's much too cold there... will Santa be ok? Maybe he could move to Round Rock. Ha ha! He's too smart for his own good. Marley is scared to death of Santa (aka "Ho Ho") We have a blow-up Santa in the yard and even when it's deflated, she wants me to carry her to and from the car (you know, in case it pops up and comes after her)... what a cutie! They are sure to be adequately spoiled this year.
We are also working on some home projects for the holidays. We are planning on repainting and switching the kids rooms. Jaxon has much bigger furniture and his bedroom suite would fiot better in the other room, but since it was lilac when we moved in, we just stuck Marley in there automatically. They are excited and we hope to have the project done by the time we go back to school. We let them pick out the colors even (brave I know): Marley's room will be light purple (Behr Disney's One Enchanted Evening) and Jaxon's room will be a slate blue (Behr's Retro Colonial Blue). Fingers crossed they come out ok! We are also planning on replacing the carpet up the stairs, in the upstairs living and all bedroom with laminate. We've talked about it for awhile and think we're finally decided on getting rid of the carpet once and for all.
Anyway, I'll post again soon... no really, I will! S

A weekend without the kids... woo hoo! :)

I am so fortunate to have such a wonderful family. I have 2 wonderful children and they are loved by so many. They have a close relationship with both sets of grandparents and their one and only aunt. So my mom called last weekend to ask if she could have the kids this weekend... um, no, we're busy. ARE YOU KIDDING?!? You can have them anytime you want. And kids, "Do you want to go to Grandma B's house?" They yell "YAY!" before I can even finish my sentence. :)
So last night after I dropped off the kids at the usual half-way point, I met Brian and a couple of his friends for drinks. We ended up hitting 2 spots for drinks and then headed home. It was great when you don't have to worry about when you get home or having little ones ready to get up at the crack of dawn. :)
Plus I was getting bored and don't want to take my hair shorter than the angled bob I've already got, so I went from blonde to auburn. If anyone sees us out without the kids this weekend, they may think Brian has a girlfriend or something! Ha ha ha!
Anyway, hoping to get some cleaning done around the house, some scrapping and maybe some shopping as well as a few more "dates!"

October...

I really can't believe its been a month since my last post. Here's the "nutshell" version of the past month.

Brian had a good 30th birthday- uneventful, but good. He got rid of his truck... you know, the brand new one he's had for 6 months... and got a new Accord loaded out. To say he's spoiled may be an understatement! :) He loves it though, and I feel better driving it if I have to... the gas money will surely add up as well. But, looking back at Brian's pattern of car buying, good gas prices cause Brian to turn his attention to trucks. Then Brian buys a truck and the gas prices go up 2 weeks later. So if gas prices go down (we'll say hallelujah) it's all because Brian sold his truck and you can thank him. :)

The kids have had overnight stays with both sets of grandparents giving us some time alone to relax, get things done around the house, and go on dinner dates without them kids (as much as I love them, its nice to not be mom for a day or two.)

Marley had her second birthday and we had a small family party at the house. She had a princess cake, which looked great, but the food coloring they used on the cupcakes surrounding the small cake tasted bitter (which as you can imagine made for some hilarious pictures!) Marley was having a blast, but when we put on her tiara and started to sing happy birthday, she started to cry! And I thought she'd be used to being the center of attention! Ha ha!

She made out like a bandit (as usual) with tons of new clothes, 2 new baby dolls with accessories, a baby doll stroller, light-up princess shoes (they have a heel on them and she wears them like a pro!) Her "big gift" was a pink and purple trike and she likes it, but is still a little short when it comes to pedaling. She has been taking care of her "babies" since the moment she opened them. I think it's so interesting the way little girls just take to that.

Anyway, getting sleepy and so I'll turn off my computer (even though I really wanted to scrap tonight) but I'll try harder to keep the blog updated and current so you don't get these quick little entries. S

September...

Well I can't believe how fast time seems to fly! Here's what's been happening since my last post... not much! :) Ha ha!

School is off to a good start. My PPCD lead e-mailed today and said the local newspaper is coming by to do a story on PPCD/TWC and she wants them to come and highlight our PPCD/TWC program. So fingers crossed I have a good hair day when they come! LOL! I'm actually very excited to spread the word about our program and hope that this will be a good way to do that.

I just returned today from the 3 day state conference on Autism that was being held in Corpus Christi. I'm part of the Region XIII PPCD Leadership Council, so they paid for our registration, the rooms, mileage and meals. I probably would have gone anyway, but going for free is better! :) I ended up rooming with a friend who taught PPCD and is now in a district support role. We had fun (except for a big headache episode on Friday afternoon - thank goodness for Excedrin!)

It was a great conference and I was so excited to see so many families there in addition to the professionals. It was really moving. Anyway, I also started thinking about ways to raise money for Autism research and thought I could make items with the "puzzle piece" to sell at our Greater Austin Walk for Autism and then donate the proceeds to Autism Speaks. Trying to think of what I could make that folks may want (like glass bead magents, car decals, etc.) That would be a good way to "use my talents for good" (you know rather than evil like usual, ha ha).

Brian flew with his friend Jason to Norman, OK to see OU (Boo Sooners!) play Miami. Jason's apparently a huge Miami fan and Brian just loves football regardless of who is playing, and since his birthday is coming up, it was his little present to himself. He's having a good time and will be back tomorrow.

So, my mother-in-law's birthday was today, Brian's is the 12th, and Marley's is the 28th... guess I've got some shopping to do!

Busy August update!

Sorry its been awhile since my last post... here's what been going on since my last entry.

Jaxon had his 4 year old well check and is STILL off the growth charts for height. He's 44.5" tall and weighs 40 lbs. and 8 oz.(which is in the 75-90th%) He's just one tall kid! He did well with his shots and everything else is right on target.

We went to Port Aransas with my parents and sister from July 27th-30th and had a blast. A tropical storm has supposed to hit before we got there, but we had great weather the whole trip. Click my digiscrap blog on the left corner to see some pictures.

Just after our return from the coast, I got all 4 of my wisdon teeth out. Only one on the bottom was encased in bone, so it hurt and is still a bit sore now, but the rest are fine. Apparently it takes longer to heal as an "older patient"... yes, at 29, I'm considered an "older patient" for wisdom teeth removal.

Susan, my friend and speech pathologist for our school, worked with me on a "buddy group" for some of our students and Jaxon to participate in to continue working on social skills, playing and to just have fun together this summer. It was great and came to an end the first week if August. The moms in the group told me about this cool sprinkler park nearby, so we took Jaxon and Marley and the others out there and they had fun (Jaxon and Marley had to warm-up, and then Jaxon had to remember not to wander, but it was fun).

Last weekend (which coincidentally was the last weekend before I had to go back to work), we dropped off the kids at my parents house. They stayed one night and then I came down to spend one more night there with them. They just love hanging out with their grandparents!

This week, I went back to work which was both happy and sad for me. I was ready to be back for sure, but I'll miss seeing Marley during the day. Since Jaxon is in my class, I don't get the chance to miss him! Ha ha!

I've also been working on my digiscrap stuff, particularly making LOs for the DigiTreats Creative Team. Check us out on my digiscrap blog where there are links to the DigiTreats blog and store. I have been posting in a few galleries too, but I post all my LOs here too, so you don't really need to go there unless you want to see what other folks are doing too. Enjoy!