We had a FANTABULOUS time!

Would you believe that for the first time in three years, we were blessed with extended family here for Thanksgiving? Well, believe it, it's true!
This is big to us.
You see, Thanksgiving has always been a big time to be with family. Especially with Matt's family. I love Thanksgiving with Matt's family. It's the one time of the year that we could see everyone, and it was always fun! Not to mention the most excellent food!
But, no one wants to come to Texas for Thanksgiving, so ever since we've been here, it's just been our little family. Which is all fine and good, just not the same. Every year, I've had a feeling of loneliness, and longing to be with our families.
This year however...oh this sweet year...Matt's brother and his family came to be with us!
Gina and I spent Wednesday baking pies. Four all together, and I just don't think it was enough! Matt made our turkey and Gina and I made the various side dishes. She even made our mother in law's dressing! YUM!
They got to experience a Texas Thanksgiving and thought it was quite different to let the kids play outside because it was so warm.
The kids all had such a good time playing together, and it was just so nice to be with family!
Thank you Tim and Gina for making the drive and coming to be with us. It was the best Thanksgiving since we've been here!

How long?

How long do you think it takes before one stops reciting lines from a play one was just in? Or for one to stop listening to the cd with the music to said play?

My entire family can recite nearly every word of the play and will randomly say something.

Just now, Collin was doing something and I hear, "shut your piehole toots!" This was Dillon's first line, and it comes out all the time.

And then, Violet sings the "blew it" song. You know the one...she is blowing up like a blueberry and she sings, "I guess I blew it, blew it, BLEW IT, BLEW IT!!!" And then she screams and "rolls" off the stage. My kids sing it, and Emmie sings along. Then she screams...for a loooooong time. It's awfully cute.

But really. When do you think we won't be listening to all things Wonka?!?!

I think she is wrong about something

The last day of the play, another mom and I were putting things away backstage and we were chit chatting. Somehow, she had overheard someone else say that I homeschool.
She looks at me and says, "you have five kids?"
"yep"
"and you homeschool them?!?"
"yep"
And then, completely nonchalantly, she says, "you must be mentally ill, and all the chaos in your life keeps you sane, yes mentally ill" She was walking away at this point so I didn't respond, only to chuckle a bit.
But I think she has it wrong.
You see, she doesn't have a clue about the chaos that is my life. She has no idea that the chaos goes much, much deeper than homeschooling. She doesn't know of all the trips to the doctors we take, of the pulses we check regularly, or the meds we administer do different kids every day. Homeschooling is what keeps us sane. Not the chaos.
I think I would lose my mind if I had to schedule things around school!
I also start to lose it when I have an abundance of extra stuff to get done. Like today, I'm kind of feeling overwhelmed. I've been baking all day for a bake sale on Sunday. And doing the normal laundry, and schooling, and cleaning, and tending to Emmie. But just that one extra thing has thrown me for a loop. My day feels all out of sorts!
But hey, it's alright, us mentally ill folks thrive on the chaos!

The shining moment

Willy Wonka Jr ran this weekend. As you know by now, my eldest two were in it. Matthew (12) was Grandpa Joe and Dillon (10) was Mick TeaVee. They did so very well.
Every night, flowers and Wonka candy were sold. The actors were always given flowers or candy from their family and friends who came to see them.
Everyone, that is except for one girl. Caili, aka Mrs Bucket. She was the only other homeschooled kid and she is also a military brat.
So, like my kids, there wasn't anyone to see her. OK, as a side note here, the last day my kids did have friends see them, but that was it, us and them.
We had searched and found Wonka Bars at Toys R Us. Now, the Wonka Bars were prized candy. In fact, before the last performance, they auctioned off a bar for $35. Insane, right? All in the spirit though!
At any rate, the Wonka Bars didn't show up till the end, and we had already given bars to our kids.
What I didn't know, though, was that Matthew had saved his. The next day he said he needed to talk to me. I asked him what was up and he said, "I really appreciate that you got us Wonka Bars, but I'd like to give mine to someone" Me, "oh really? who?" "Caili, she never has anyone to watch her and she hasn't gotten anything after the play"
Oh my, I was so proud of him!
And so he did. Only the exchange was much less grand than one might think. He stopped her and said, "here, this is for you" She looked confused and said thank you and walked off. She'll never know how much thought went into that gesture, and how huge it is coming from him.
Yes, the kids were awesome. Many, MANY people told me how great they were and especially how wonderfully Matthew can sing. But this one act, that was seen by no one, was definitely the shining moment for me.

I'm so proud!

Last night was opening night!
I worked backstage so saw the whole thing from the wings.
For the first time I saw the show without Emily squawking in my ear. It was so great.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again...my boys can sing!
But aside from them, everyone did a great job. I was a bit concerned during dress rehearsal. I wasn't sure the younger kids could pull it together, but they did.
I felt bad for my kids though, because there was no one in the audience for them. After the show they said, "go out in the audience and see your family and friends" and my kids had no one. Oh well, Sunday their friends will be there.
Anyway, I'm pretty proud of them today.

Let's just jump right to it

I'm in the living room and overhearing Dillon and Collin.
Dillon is teaching Collin how to find the area of a parellelogram.
Ok, let's think about this. Collin doesn't know how to multiply yet. Nor does he know how to find the area of something simple like a rectangle. We won't mention that he doesn't know what area is!
He seems to be understanding Dillon though!

Don't forget

Today is Veteran's day. As I drove around town (yes, the great white is fixed, oh how we love her), I saw very few flags flying. You wouldn't even know it was Veteran's day.
A couple people called Matt and thanked him for his service, which was nice. But in general, I think it is so easy for people to just ignore that there is a war going on. And that so many of our troops are over fighting every single day.
We go to the doctor at Brook Army Medical Center, which has a burn unit. Everytime we go, we see the results of war. What these kids sacrifice because they are proud to live in the greatest country there is.
Today, we remember the vets who have served in the past, and are serving today. We remember their families who sacrifice so much. The wives and children who say goodbye to their husbands for way too long. The mothers and fathers who have buried their children much too soon.
If you forgot, please thank a vet, for all they do, have done, and will continue to do...voluntarily, so that you might live in freedom.

Poor Great White

The Great White has been having troubles. Specifically with her radiator. There is a leak in a hose causing her to lose all her coolant. She then says, "WAIT, I'm too hot...SHUT ME OFF" And so, we have.
Today, a great big truck came to our house, loaded her up and took her away.
How we miss her.
We missed her all weekend, even though she sat in the driveway. But sitting in the driveway does not help one get a family of seven any place. Everywhere we went this weekend we had to go in two trips. Thankfully, Matthew and Dillon are old enough to be left alone while Matt dropped me and the littles off wherever we needed to be. But still, such a pain.
Hopefully, soon, the dealership will call us up and let us know she is fixed. Although, we have no idea when that is supposed to be. I suppose, it could take days. We'll see.
It all goes along with opening week of the play, when the boys have to be at rehearsal at 5. Matt gets home close to 5. So yeah, our boys will be late until she comes home to us where she belongs!
Poor thing, she's awfully young to be getting hot flashes...

Treadmill test

After adjusting the settings on Zachy's pacemaker, he got to do his first treadmill test. Isn't he so cute??
And let me just add, that as cheesy as it may seem, it makes me very proud that the men surrounding him are all in uniform.

This is it!

Willy Wonka Jr runs this week!
I can't believe, after devoting all our time to rehearsals and tech days for the last two and a half months that it is finally here!
The kids are doing so great, and we are so very proud of them.
Last night, Matthew and Dillon put on a little performance for us. Dillon did his main song and Matthew sang and did the choreography of Dill's mother with him. Then Matthew did one of his big songs and Dillon played the part of Charlie during it.
My kids can sing! Not to brag, but they can. Which is huge to me, because I cannot. And I have always hoped that they would get their dad's musical ability. Thank goodness, they have!
I'm ready for the show to be done, but at the same time I'm not. It has been a great experience for the boys. We will be doing this more often, for sure.
But at the end of this week I'll be singing along with them..."no Willy Wonka just can't go!!"

Are you cold?

It is always so hard for me to believe that there are parts of the country that are cold right now. We got pictures from our old pastor showing us snow this week.
This is what it is like here. This picture was taken last Sunday. The pathfinders were working on their swimming honor.

Update on Zachy

So today was Zachy's appointment.
When he was originally paced, they were happy because he was able to get his heart rate up on his own. And by that I mean while active his heart would raise to the proper level. So, his heart rate was very low, but when he got active, he was able to get it up on his own.
That isn't happening now. So, he was being active, and his hr wasn't going up very much, causing him to be tired.
The dr changed the settings on his pm to now include the higher rates. So now, when he gets active, his pacemaker will kick in and raise his hr to a higher level, where it needs to be to properly oxygenate him.
We are happy about this, because it was a simple fix. We hope. We still have to wait and see if this takes care of the problem. It is a bit troubling though, because a year ago he was able to do that on his own, now he isn't.
Time will tell what the future holds for Zachy. But right now his heart looks great and strong, just a bit lazy.

Heart Video

OK, as if I'm not emotional enough these days...a mom on my heart list sent this video. Her son is Brayden.
This is so cool that I'm even removing my Christmas music for awhile so everyone can see just how awesome this is.
Of course, I cry through it like a big ol' baby!

*edited to add...if you can't tell, all of these are heart defects.