Back At It

It's been almost 4 years since I've logged onto my little corner of the Internet. A lot of life has happened. Some really great, some good, some bad, and some  - well just awful. But there is no joy in looking back on the awful and I'm not sure if the awful will ever truly go away, but time will dull the ache and I can move forward because it's the only choice I have. 

So here is where we are at. We are in the process of selling our house and moving to Atlanta. I am excited for this new chapter but will definitely miss this life that I have built is Dallas. It is bittersweet and there will be many people I will miss but after much thought and discussion, this decision is the best for our family's future. 

I have never been afraid to live in new places and this is no exception. However, there are so many moving parts now that it's been a bit stressful to say the least, and I've been told that journaling is a way to deal with it. I have found that writing has been a great deal of help to me when there is a lot going on. I am not gonna lie - I am utterly overwhelmed with ALL the things (emotionally, mentally and physically). I have to remember to focus on our family goals and take things one bite at a time.

Goals:

1. Sell  house

2. Buy house

3. Move

4. Remember to be grateful for what I have - and I have so much.

Sports!

Well, here we go again! Our weekend got busy pretty quickly. Mark had his very first soccer tournament this weekend. Although the games did go their way, I think he played really well for his first couple of games on his first select team. I'm very proud of him.  

He was so excited to finally be able to play on a more competitive league and he seems to be getting along with his new teammates. He had two soccer games - one on Friday and another one on Saturday. His game that was scheduled for Sunday was cancelled due to rain, which was a relief because he had a basketball game as well.

After his game on Friday night, we went dinner. He deserved a big dessert which he had no problems finishing with Daddy.

His basketball team played against a team that had a lot of his friends on it on Sunday. It was so fun to watch especially since the Dragon Ballers won 21-8! I don't know what it is but victory is always sweeter when you play against your friends. Haha!

This was the only picture I got for this game..

But here's a few from their first game. They won that game 10-8.

Michael's school soccer season has started and they are looking good! He had a couple of scrimmages this weekend and won both. He has a preseason game this Tuesday and another on on Friday so we are going to be busier than we've been in a long time, but I welcome this! I just hope that it continues and he gets to finish the season his senior year. Of course, I didn't get any pictures. 

I entertained the idea of getting all three boys to take pictures with Santa this year since I don't have a picture of all 3 of them together with Ole' Saint Nick. I didn't really think it would happen, but I threw it out there. The older boys were not into it, but I persisted and this happened! I am so proud of myself for using the right combination of threats and bribery to get it done. Ha!

We went to breakfast after this the Santa session and everyone was happy, including this mama.

Birthday

Last month, Mark turned 9. I think there is a big leap from 8 to 9. Not just physically but also emotionally and mentally. I'm no expert, but he's much more mature this year than same time last year. He has his emotional meltdowns, but that's a another whole post.

But, yes, he turned 9 last month and I am just writing about it now. We celebrated with ice cream cake with family. We did celebrate a day early because M had to leave for a work trip on his actual birthday.

Mindcraft lego set from grandma and grandpa was a huge hit.

He was THRILLED about this gift from Poh-Poh and Gong-Gong. He couldn't wait to start building in. It took him a week.

He requested homemade Belgian waffles for his birthday breakfast. It's his favorite!

Then he had a great time celebrating with his friends at his birthday party at Stampede Arena. We had a little issue with Stampede (they were renovating and didn't open in time for our scheduled party) and had to delay the party a week, but they were great and had the room all decorated for us! This was a nice surprise. It was one of the easiest parties I've thrown.

We had to cut the cake and then do candles because, you know, COVID...

Love these two guys so much!

I can't believe this little baby is almost double digits. Happy birthday to my sweet baby boy! I love you more than anything in the whole wide world.

Still Here

So it's been a long hot minute since my last post. I don't know why but I just have not been really into writing lately. Blame it on COVID. I just felt overwhelmed every time I sat down to write. I've missed a lot and I may go back and do some highlight posts but for now, here's the low-down of what we've been up to lately.

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house again this year. That's alway a fun event. We had the traditional Thanksgiving food, but the boys requested Peking duck again this year so we added that to our menu. It was a pretty laid back day. Of course, I didn't take any pictures except for this one before everyone came over.

Mark did an amazing job in helping to set the table. He LOVES this part of hosting Thanksgiving. We did a semi-formal setting this year so there were more plates and glasses to set out. He has great eyes for the small details.

Snowflake made his appearance and brought the boys some hot chocolate bombs which is all the rage right now. I am thrilled that Mark is still into this tradition.

What do you do when you have hot chocolate bombs are waiting for you? You make hot chocolate and decorate the tree! I have to say, I'm quite happy on how the ribbon on the trees turned out this year. It's so much easier and looks much better when you cut the ribbons before you work it into the tree. Don't let this picture fool you. This was the only ornament he hung. Haha! 

This boy was the most excited to decorate for Christmas. He actually did most of the decorating around the house. 

Matthew hung the most ornaments out of the the three boys. and the only one wearing a shirt. Haha!

Mark picked out another ornament for Michael and Matthew this year. Last year, he picked out different birds for each of them. This year, he picked our different owls. 

I love that this is turning into a family tradition. He already has picked out a theme for next year - snow globes. Can't wait to see what he will chose for them.

The boys are back "in" school today. I was certain that school was going online after Thanksgiving break because the COVID numbers have been exploding, but am thankful that the district is still giving us parents a choice as to either go virtual or in-person. Mark and Michael are in-person and Matthew is going to school virtually.

I've been substitute teaching for the district and I have to say that I am really liking it. I've discovered hat teaching the high schoolers is much easier than the elementary school kiddos, which is the opposite of what I thought it would be. I'm sure it's completely different from a regular school year, but it's really neat to see what different classes are doing.

The best room I've been in is this one. I would have loved to have a classroom like this when I was in school.

This is my little set-up in the back of the room. I had time to work on some of my own things while the students were working with their teacher during their online instruction time.

Spring Break is OVER!

Woohoo! The kids are back in school. Our district gave us the option of sending our kids to school face-to-face or go virtual. This mama chose to send them back to school physically. I'm no dummy. But seriously, my kids need to get out of the house to get any sense of normalcy so I really think this is the best choice for us. There was no debate in my head. Michael and Mark would have chosen in-person anyway and Matthew? We are still working on it. I signed him up for in-person but he's pleading his case to do virtual. 

Anyway, they all had a fantastic first day of school. It's been long time since they've had to get up this early and get dressed so I wanted to make it special. Michael is a Senior, Matthew is a Sophomore and my little itty-bitty baby is in THIRD grade! How can this be?

I got each of them a little treat and a gift card and surprised them in the morning.

It's hard to get a reaction from my Senior, but he saw his Cane's gift card he smiled pretty big. 

Mark requested waffles for first day of school breakfast...

I know they were excited to get back to school because I had ZERO complaints this year about first day of school pictures. They were ALL so cooperative. 

I ordered Michael this sign from a friend hoping that he wouldn't refuse to hold it up for a picture. To my surprise, he liked it and said it was a cool sign. Woohoo!

This guy set his alarm to wake up early and showered without me even telling him to. 

Let's do this, boys!

Summer In One Post

Oh my goodness - summer is just slipping away over here. No vacations, no sports, and not much going but I'm still sad that it's almost over. The boys will start school next week and I find myself unprepared. I need to get my act together! 

Michael got his first car this summer. That was pretty exciting!

Michael has been slowly getting this college applications together. Lots of milestones for him with regards to that. He has not been able to take his SAT yet because of all the cancellations, but we are keeping our fingers crossed that he can take it in a couple of weeks. We will be traveling to Texas A&M in Commerce to take it because the local locations are either filled or cancelled. He's been taking SAT prep courses in preparation of the October test date.

We've submitted his application to the University of Arkansas and Oklahoma State University and we hope to be able to submit his SAT score after the October test date. There are several other things he will need to do to submit the other applications. I was really excited for him to take this journey, but it has been a beating and nothing like what I imagined. There's been a lot of prodding and nagging on my part and a lot of "I'll do it later?" on his part. 

We were able to take a quick road trip to the University of Arkansas. He drove some...

Can't tour a campus on an empty stomach!

It's actually a very pretty campus and I liked it more than I thought I would. He liked it too, but he says his first choice for now is OU. Well, my love, you better get cracking on those applications.

He started work at McDonalds last month and quit a few weeks into it because he didn't want to drive the 20 minutes and from work. 

This was him after his first day of work. He looked like he had been working hard. Of course, I had to sneak a picture. Haha!

                             

Here's his first paycheck. Poor guy had a difficult time trying to figure out how to open it.

After McDonald's, he got another job monitoring a neighborhood pool 5 minutes away so hopefully he can do that the rest of the summer. 

It's been a tough summer with him, but we are getting through it. I'm usually pretty upbeat on my posts but I have to keep this one real, he has not been the golden child this summer. He has made some horrible choices this past couple of months. People tell me that one day, it will click and boys will grow up. I pray that this day will come soon.

Matthew got his learner's permit last week but we have not taken him out driving yet. 

We celebrated with breakfast.

He has 10 months until he can get his license so we are not in a big hurry. He's been playing a lot of Xbox and staying up later than he should, but we will let him enjoy the last few days of summer until he starts school again.

All we do around here is swim! We've used our pool more this year than the past 4 years combined! This boy loves it. In the past summers we've been gone so much that we really didn't get to use our pool very much.

Mark loves to swim with us and I'm taking advantage of the fact that he still wants to be with us! 

One cool thing before I wrap it up - we were able to see the Neowise comet this summer. Mark was super excited about it because this will be the only chance in our lifetime to see it. I thought it was pretty cool as well. 

He loves all things space and this summer was filled with exciting space stuff. We watch the launch of SpaceX and we were able to see the International Space Station a couple of times this summer.