4th Grade

I know I have said this before but I am going to say it again...4th graders know a little too much about life! I am amazed at what gets asked at home. I feel very lucky to have a son who feels okay with asking me anything. Today I got a phone call from school, which is NEVER a good thing. NEVER! 'Mrs. Otto this is Mrs. Mueller the Assistant Principal, OH CRAP, giggle from principal. We had an incident that occurred at lunch today.' In my head I am frantically thinking Emma or Braeden...CRAP! Braeden and another student were doing dares for the last few lunches and today Braeden asked the student to say....' She told me and I was appalled. Seriously! We had a conversation a week ago about this phrase and how it is really not okay. I told her I was very disappointed in my son and we have raised a better boy than that. She said if it meant anything she knew Braeden felt terrible and truly didn't understand what he was saying at all. I said well he knows he will be in big trouble when he gets home :( I am so sad today! I don't think people truly understand what it is like to parent ever. We have learned so much and Braeden is truly our experiment as we go child. We have changed a lot of things just by facial expressions when we talk to him. He is such a smart child and wants to be liked so bad. I feel like he makes bad choices to fit in. Last week we were dealing with him getting bullied at CCD. Seriously...he thought it was okay for a friend to punch him in the stomach every time he came to CCD. He told me he didn't want to go anymore because it hurt. Well that isn't a friend. I had to sit down with him and explain that true friends would never hit you or hurt you. True friends are just that a friend who wants to talk, play and have fun. UGH...Now this week he wants to fit in and gets dared to say something awful but instead of saying it he says..'No I dare you to say it!' So the kid says it and Braeden gets in trouble...BIG TROUBLE. We now have explained to him that if you have to dare someone to say anything it SHOULDN'T BE SAID! I am so amazed at what kids know and ask to know at 4th grade. I don't remember knowing any of this at all! Tonight we feel we have parented the best we know. We told him that when he doesn't know the meaning of something it shouldn't be said. I sat with him this afternoon and we looked up words that he didn't know but that were being said at school. He was amazed at the meanings and really felt bad for what was said today. Braeden got home from school and was crying. He was worried he wouldn't get his special night with my mom! He said..'I bet I don't get to go to Grandma's now do I?' He was a wreck. He knows his actions have consequences but he doesn't always understand the severity of them. I am so confused with this child because he is the most sensitive kid I know but yet can do the most stupid things! He knows so much better than what he did today. He did get to go to my mom's tonight. I felt he probably needed someone to talk to that wasn't Nick or I. Someone that could explain things to him in a much better way. Life is hard and we are learning as we go. I am appalled at what kids are saying to my child and what I have to explain or look up to explain to him. This too shall pass and we will all learn our lessons from this. No child is perfect and everyone questions everything. Curiosity will always win and get you in trouble. Lets just hope we learned a valuable lesson today and this won't ever happen again!

Road Block

Well I have hit a few road blocks as I try to get my office/store space up and running. The frustration has set in and I am just trying to push through. This too shall pass and we all hit hurdles. I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of a fridge. A few people have told me they have one and then when we go to get it there is no fridge to be had. FRUSTRATING! We attempted again yesterday and again I was left without a fridge :(! Who knew this would be such a pain to get. I am trying to get a used one to save money. More shelving arrived yesterday so Nick and I will be hanging the final shelves, trim work and final things that we can do this weekend. It will be all ready to go minus a fridge! Unfortunately I can not get licensed until the fridge appears. I sent my husband to work today asking him to find me a fridge. We shall see how this day goes.

Wedding

Who doesn't love a fun wedding? This past weekend we attended my cousin Katie's wedding. It was so beautiful and all the kids were invited. It was fun to see all my cousins, aunts, uncles and of course my grandma. The little kids were the best! They all had fun playing, dancing and hanging out together. Emma thought Katie was the most beautiful princess. She even got to dance with Katie. During their dance Emma said..'Katie can I see your shoes?' How cute is that? Katie happily obliged and showed Emma her fun red shoes. Emma is definitely getting the shoe gene from her Nana from the pool. Here are some pictures from our night. Charlie is our photographer for some of the pictures and you will be able to tell which ones.

Speech

We had a meeting with Charlie's speech teacher today. It is his annual IEP review. It is amazing what a year can do and how far he has come. He started at 64% understandable to 85%. He still has some language sounds that he needs help on and they will continue to work with him 2x/week. The best news is that he will continue to get help through 1st grade as long as he needs it. That makes us so happy! The process last fall/winter to get him activated again was a pain in the butt. The transition this year was so easy and they told me it will be just as easy when he starts at Franklin. The speech clinician will read his file in the fall and start helping him right away. We are thrilled. The other great news is that they think he is more than ready for Kindergarten. His speech makes you sometimes think that he isn't. His motor skills and what he knows makes him ready! We all agree that getting him into school full-time will only help him with his speech! WAHOO!! It is such a blessing to have all these amazing people working with Charlie. I can't believe he will be going to Kindergarten next year.

Exciting News

Well after all this hard work my store is really coming together. I am so excited! We worked really hard to get everything ready for a small open house that my building was having on Tuesday. That small open house had a ton of people come through. It was fun to see all the excitement in the building. I believe I made a great choice for my ease into a new venture. 

Life Lessons

I feel like every day a new lesson is learned. There are always happy ones followed by sad ones which seem so unfair. My dad's best friend was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer right before Christmas. I feel like we are reliving a terrible dream that happened when my dad's brother, Charley, was diagnosed with it. Cancer sucks and everyones life will forever be changed. It is awful watching dad be so sad and anxious about all of this. Everyone is so strong and so positive so we are all staying hopeful but dad knows so much and it just breaks your heart to watch him be so sad. His best golfing buddy is now doing radiation and will miss the golf trip. This annual golf trip is now not the same without his buddy. Then you can see his pain when he talks about going to Hawaii for a few weeks because his best friend went with them the last 2 years. Life sucks and as mean as this sounds and as happy as I am that this is not my dad watching the family go through this is just as awful. I HATE cancer but not sure if anyone has ever said they liked it so I know I am not alone. Watching my dad go through losing a brother was the worst but watching him lose a best friend to the same thing seems so much more unfair. Especially when his friend shares a name with his brother. Its awful! Life definitely throws curve balls that I will never understand but one thing I do know is that I need to live each day more for the moment and not for tomorrow. Yes tomorrow is a new day but today was the day that counts! Love you all! I don't see many of you and know that I don't talk to all of you either but know you are loved, thought of and remembered daily! Please send lots of prayers to Mankato Minnesota this year. We sure could use them. A miracle would be fabulous as well!

Roller Coaster!

The last few weeks have been such a roller coaster of events. I officially picked up my keys for my new store a week ago. The weeks leading up to last week I spent planning, searching and researching what I would want/need in my store. This week Nick and I spent every night priming and painting. It was been fun to have some nights with just my husband. The kids have been off school all week so it has been tricky to get things done. I have ordered a bunch of supplies, met with inspectors and changed my mind on everything a million times! Today my mom and I went shopping for furniture. It was so much fun! It was great to get away for the day and out of town. We had a great time and found a lot of fun stuff. Tomorrow I will spend some time putting the things in my store BUT I am declaring a family shut in day tomorrow. I want to spend time with my kids before the head back to school. We have been so busy with holiday activities and I am excited to get back to a normal schedule. I will post pictures later in the week as things get put together in my store.