It's the MOST wonderful time of the year

I LOVE Christmas break.  I love the break from school.  The time to re-charge.  To just BE at home with my own kids.  I love that Josh and I have the same schedule and we can all be together. I know how lucky we are that we can spend this time together.  I love that my sister and her family live here so that we can spend part of the holidays together.

Me and my beautiful sister, Kristin and she (below) with her hubby, Chris

I love watching the kiddos open their presents.  I love their surprise.  Yes, I over-use the word LOVE...but it is true.  It is the most wonderful of the year...for me.  I truly enjoy giving.  I find so much JOY in watching someone open a present that I have held onto in my head for almost the whole year.  Ella has this gift.  She remembers pieces of conversation.  She remembered Keelin loves cozy socks so she bought them for her (all on her own). Josh got a Georgia Bulldogs bracelet, I got a butterfly necklace, Max a little bottle of GOOP, and Charley a tennis ball. The thoughtfulness of Ella brought tears to my eyes as she remembered and held onto her secrets and surprises.  I tried to catch joyful expressions.....

Who wouldn't be excited about nunchuks?

And the Bills!  (poor girl)

A How I Met Your Mother FAN! and below...the beloved cozy socks!

Charley also enjoyed Christmas this year.  Although, we had to keep getting her more presents to open so she would leave the kiddos alone.  (Good thing I visited the Dollar Store- as she had about 20 presents!) 

Here are a few more from Christmas...hope you all had a wonderful day too.......

Love my kiddos

The one whom my soul loves.....

Opted in front of the tree....since the fire burned out....

Because everyone watches Christmas 90210 in Night vision goggles

Josh's new "man scarf"

Ella's cozy socks from Aunt Bean

Charley and Daddy...it was a RUFF day

Man Down!

A little late in posting this and Ella is going to kill me when she sees the pictures.  So Max had his tonsillectomy and adenoidectomy in October. Ella was scheduled for sinus surgery in December.  Ella had a deviated septum and she had bones growing into her airways.  They are called conchubalosas.  Which sounded like cancer to me, disasteress that I am, so I was VERY happy to hear they were just bones.  Which...is just "unlucky" for Ella.  Poor thing.  She was a total ROCK STAR.  She went through surgery (although it was an hour LONGER than they said it would be).  We went home and I gave her one dose of crazy pain meds.  After that, she insisted she wasn't in pain.  Tough girl recovered with no meds.  She tried to go back to school on Thursday but ended up throwing up from swallowing so much blood.  So we ended up home one more day.  She was more uncomfortable than anything else because of the plastic tubing in her nose to keep her septum in order.  Girlfriend got her plastic out on Tuesday and was a new woman.  She gets debreided on Monday and then we should be done!  WooHoo....Here are the latest and greatest gross nose pictures....

xo~M

Waiting for surgery

Post surgery with her popsicle 

Kinda gross, but she wanted me to take a pic of the plastic tubing inside

The tubing!

Recovery...Charley hardly left her side

Nit-Pik

verb (used without object)

1. to be excessively concerned with or critical of inconsequential details

verb (used with object)

2. to criticize by focusing on inconsequential details

noun

3. a carping, petty criticism

adjective

4. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of a nitpicker or nitpicking

Today I experienced another definition of nit-pik.  As in, I am picking nits.  Out of hair.  A lot of them.  And they are not inconsequential. I criticized (aka swore) as I nit-picked (definition 3). So really, how did this nit-pik NOT make the list....like 5.  verb the act of picking nits...a lot of them...out of hair.  At one point in time, I wished for a pet monkey.  They love picking bugs.  Why don't I have a monkey?  Before today I never even knew what a nit, egg, louse...looked like.  Um at this exact moment in time their characteristics are etched into my brain.  So anyway, 1st little Nitty....Max! Who is DE-LIGHTED to have lice.  He announces it to everyone who passes the nurse's office.  In fact, we may get a bill board.  Nitty #2....Mommy- who as soon as Max was "diagnosed" knew with 100% certainty that she had it.  I mean, I could feel them crawling (ok so you can't really feel them, but I DID).  #3...Ella who came to the nurse's office in tears...more from stigma than anything else...because really, what 5th grade girl wants to deal with that?! She was cleared.  Woohoo....So we end up going home..Ella included just to do a treatment - safe than sorry.  I called Josh- demanded he come home.  I was not dealing with the joy of lice by myself...why should I have all the fun?  Plus he is bald...so will never experience the true gift.  Keelin, by the way, was cleared at school.  

Another teacher at my school gave me a brochure for a company called the Lice Ladies.  Sold...as it was difficult for me to treat myself and I am pretty sure I am little bald myself after Josh just started to pull hair out.  We get busy....vacuuming, bagging up stuffed animals, and did about 10 laundry loads of hot water wash (hello hot water bill).  Ella, Max, and I head to the LL.  They were pretty cool...it was a neat adventure and unfortunately when you have a moderate case, you need another treatment so it will not be the last time I see the LL :( Oh and they did find some on Ella.  Who took it a little better and received her treatment.  

I picked up an OTC treatment at the drug store to treat Kee.  I found a dead one (woo hoo) and some casings so I hope she is in the clear.  Anyway she was treated.  And here I sit.  

Did you know....At least 60% of the US population will have the critters at least once in their life time....that it is as rampant as the common cold....oh and about 20 kids from my school got sent home today.  So at least the Ungersquad is not alone in this lovely infestation.  

Totally hate that Ella cried so bad about it.  I did not have Max's enthusiasm, but I really felt the stigma attached...I think I will try to be more enthusiastic, like Max, like today was an adventure (that I never want to go on again.)

Post treatment - still loving the adventure

My new BFFs

Ouch....but a nitless head is kinda priceless

Bye Bye Tonsils

So my little Maxer has GINORMOUS, I mean BIG tonsils.  Ever since he was little.  He has a rough, raspy little voice that I love.  He had tubes put in when he was about a year old.  The ENT commented on his tonsils being so big but since they were not continually infected and he could breathe (uh yeah...I sure hope so) - they were not causing a problem.  He is 6 now.  Strep a few times last year...but not typical strep when you have the white spots on the back of your throat.  His tonsils have little pockets in them and they hemorrhage when he gets strep.  So before winter and sicky season rears its ugly head again, we go back to the ENT.  I am armed with all my SLP knowledge, a pleading letter from Max's SLP, and a fighting spirit!  Fortunately, the new ENT who took over the practice, looks into Max's mouth and says, "They are HUGE!  They are almost touching and he's NOT even SICK." Thank you and scene....
2 weeks later finds us in the surgical center.  Max is super excited that he will go to sleep with parts of his body intact and wake up missing both tonsils and adenoids (which were also huge...jeez).  It is awful to watch your kiddo be put out.  Max insisted on knowing how he was going to sleep. He says,"Laughing gas?  No really....what's it called." So he likes to tell ALL his friends about the magic of nitrice oxide now.
We are three days post-op.  Josh and I are switching staying at home.  Today is my day.  Milkshake for breakfast, a little hydrocodone snack, and lots of tv and iPad.  He is not my spunky little Maxer yet, but he is getting there.

xo~M

Right before we left for the hospital-I promised he could have bedhead !

Having fun playing basketball while waiting for the surgeon

Watching Regular Show post-op

Hanging out with his Zoey-dog on the couch

Flying

For ten years (since Keelin was 4), we have been a soccer family.  With a smattering of gymnastics, 2 winter seasons of basketball, and a season of track and field thrown in to give it some flavor.  We have traveled all over Georgia and also played in SC.  We have started at 7am and we have ended at 7pm.  Josh and I have broken down fields, checked in for tourneys, done uniform fittings, worked in the spirit wear store, cheered until we were hoarse, gave hugs for tears....and so on....Soccer has been a huge part of our lives.  Max started playing when he was 3~loving it just as much as his sisters.  He has played up an age group and held his own.  So when he announced he wanted to swim....we were like...huh?  Swim?  Let me tell you...swimming brings a whole new kind of crazy. First of all we don't have a swim team in our neighborhood so we take Max to a pool by Josh's school.  Practices are daily and meets are once a week beginning at 4:00pm and ending at....ok, so we have never actually made it to the end...because they go FOR-EV-ER.  Equipment: goggles and a technical suit ($50).  Travel: nearby neighborhoods (gas money) Time: One hour a day and volunteering in the bullpen (no price on sanity) Seeing Max's face when he FLIES through the air when he learns to dive:  priceless...
Swimming may grow on us....

xo~M

(all of these were taken with my iPhone....so not the best quality)

Max's FIRST swim ribbons

At the diving swim clinic this week

TRYING to get the diving form

Getting there

Woohoo ..the best one yet!

Heartbreak

Being a mom to two girls I anticipated comforting them on heartbreak.  I really thought it would be a (gulp) boy issue.  I never thought it would be sports related.  Ella has played soccer since she was two.  She has worked her way up from rec onto a travel team.  For three years she has played in the top pool, focusing a lot on goalie training.  She attends practice three times per week and has gone to goalie training (optional) two times per week for two years.  Soccer here is pretty much year round.  This is a lot of soccer.  Tryouts for next season took place this past week.  Ella has a rough first day, struggling to breathe in the heat.  We got her inhaler for the next day, hoping it would help.  "I brought it, mom" she told me after the second day. Ella found out today, she dropped down to a lower team - all of her friends moving on.  For someone who has poured her little heart and soul into the sport, I saw heartbreak in her for the first time.  As a parent, it is a teaching moment, I know.  "We don't always get what we want." "Look for the positives." But let's be realistic, she is 10 and she is hurt.  She is hurt by a coach she trusted.  Of course, we can't protect our kids from these things, but we can try to soften the blow.  I know kids need to be prepared for disappointments and things that happen in the "real world" but what do you do? What do you say? We told her we are proud of her.  We don't care if she is on the World Cup team or if she is on the 100th team.  We want her to be happy.  So, she went to bed with a tiny smile and tear stains on her cheeks.  I will hold onto that tiny smile...

xo~M

  

She's Baaaack!!

What do you call a slacking blogger? A blacker...and slogger??? Megan? I can not believe I have not blogged since January.  It is not like there has been a lack of action around here.  Let's see....Keelin has started and completed her first season of Track and Field.  So amazing to watch her run and she is competing in the same events that I did.

Keelin passes another runner in the 4x400

Keelin and her friend, Laura

Lead leg of the 4x100

All three kids are full into their soccer seasons.  Max's team has done amazing and has grow a lot the past season.  They went from winning one game in the Fall to only losing one game this spring. He is having a lot of fun.  

Spring Break has come and gone.  Only Keelin truly went on vacation, leaving us to spend a week in Pensacola and Orange Beach with her friend, Laura.  The rest of us spent the week at home.  It was beautiful weather and we got a lot done around the house and relaxed a little too. 
We have 7 more school days left...My summer blog promise is to blog at LEAST once a week.

xo,

~M  

Snow in Georgia

I am from upstate New York.  Land of wind, ice, snow, wind chill, negative temperatures, frozen eyelashes, lake effect ....you get the picture.  Fast forward 10 years....I live in North Georgia.  The Peach state...land of humidity, occasional droughts, air conditioning, heat waves, Indian summer....
But-today we are on day 2 of no school.  Tuesday, our district let out at half day.  What usually takes Josh and Keelin 15 minutes took them an hour.  Snow immediately turned to ice as it hit the pavement.  Cars left abandoned on the interstates as they ran out of gas after being on the road for hours.  Children stranded in schools and on buses.  Reminiscent of Buffalo...when it snows an inch an hour.  Here I think we got close to 3 inches.  The kids were in heaven.  They feel no cold or dampness.  They would have been outside all day. Our neighborhood is hilly and now hilly and icy.  Car tires spin trying to drive out.  So I walked to the store yesterday to gather provisions (mainly ingredients for Ella's birthday cake!) I loved it.  The walk in the snow. It was peaceful and beautiful and so out of place down here.  A little homesickness did settle in.  I am not a southerner yet....I am a northerner through and through.

xo~M

My walk on the way home from the store

Josh and I took a walk in our neighborhood Tuesday night

Store parking lot...a sheet of ice

The front yard!

One happy snow girl!

Happy New Year

"Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one." ~Brad Paisley

I am quoting a country singer.  Am I considered a southerner now?  Stop it!  Once a northerner, always a northerner.  

As a family last night, we all filled out 2013 letters.  We put our names, ages, favorite colors, most memorable moments, what we want to work on, our goals....NOT resolutions....goals.  We sat around the chocolate fondue and read in age order (oldest to youngest). It was fun.  Then decided to put them in a safe place....and read them at this time next year.  I was moved by how introspective the girls were and giggled with Max's answers.  2013-ups and downs for sure.  I am making some internal and external changes (goals) for 2014.  I want to take better pictures.  I want to be present.  I want to be brave and patient and kind.  I want to be the kind of person my kids can be proud of and the kind of wife for whom my husband can be grateful to have.  Not too much to work on, is it? Here is to my first page....

xo~M