Halfway There

Today was the beginning of the second half of the school year. This is more good than it is bad. For one, the kids will be out of school soon (Yay! No more waking up early. Well, for three months anyway.) Second, summer is right around the corner. My body can't take anymore of this bone chilling, freeze you to your core weather. Lastly, it's a fresh start. This mostly applies to Trent. Kaela does well in school and I don't have to worry much about her yet. Trent, as you know I'm sure, has always been my difficult one when it comes to school. I've done everything I can to set him up to succeed. He does well with it for about a week and then he's over it. Hmm. That sounds very familiar. Anywho, he now has a tracker for school where he needs to write down all assignments and the teacher has to initial it. It was going well for a week and then he started to slack. I pretty much pleaded with him and told him I am trying to help him. I'm trying to give him the tools to succeed. I want him to graduate to high school. I asked him if he just didn't care? I asked him if the work is too hard? Why isn't he turning it in? He told me he did care. Great! He also said the work isn't hard and that maybe he is just lazy. Figures. He pulled up all his F's from 2nd quarter to C's. I'm happy with that. That's improvement. We are into a new quarter now and he has promised.....again....that he will do better and get his work in. We will see. I told him he has said that time and time again and he needs to show me he can do better. I'm staying positive and I'm thinking a fresh start will be good. I'm implementing some suggestions a friend has given me and it seems like they are working. I'm hoping he can keep his grades up. It is really hard to fail yet he manages to do it. I told him if he handed in all his work and then bombed his tests, he'd still walk away with probably a B, C at the worst. So, we are focusing on him getting all his work in and maybe not so much on the grade since getting his work in seems to be the issue. I figure as long as I'm able to check his work and help him with it he should get a decent grade anyway. I'm hoping this 2nd half is much better than the 1st half. I'm hoping he will end this year with a BANG!

Happy New Year 2012!

I don't even know where to begin. It has been so long since I have even messed with this blog. I decided to go ahead and give it another go. I look at my kids and see how fast they are growing up and think, "I wish I had kept with this to document things." Anyone who knows me knows I don't stick with things for long. I blame it on my short attention span or that I may possibly have a small case of ADD but who doesn't? Dalan can always get a laugh at me doing one thing and then all of a sudden I drop what I'm doing right in the middle and move onto to something else. This is no exaggeration. I do it a lot. It usually leads to me being overwhelmed as I look at all the things that are only halfway complete.

So, anyway, I guess I can start with Christmas 2011. That's as good of a place as any. Our Christmas started at 12:45 AM with Trent asking if we could open gifts. I asked him if Kaela sent him in to ask. He said yes. I think, "Of course she did." So, we call Kaela in and now both kids are standing at the foot of our bed bright eyed and bushy tailed. We begged for them to go to bed and we would wake up at 6:00 AM to open gifts but they just weren't giving in. Their eyes were wide open. Their smiles were from ear to ear. Dalan insisted we get up. I was (stupidly) convinced they would go back to bed. We finally gave in but not before telling Trent he would have to practice his saxophone for 10 minutes first. I have never seen that kid get downstairs so fast and put together his saxophone so quickly. After 15 minutes of practicing we gave the go ahead. They each had a whopping three things on their lists. Trent wanted an electric guitar, a ripstick and iTunes gift cards. Kaela wanted a trampoline, a ripstick and iTunes gift cards. They each got what they wanted plus a few extra little things; candy, book, DS game, Subway gift card. Dalan had a pretty unimpressive Christmas in comparison to last year when he got his Swarovski binoculars. He got a giant bag of peanut M&Ms, a body pillow (which I admit I also got as a decorative pillow for our bed) and some cologne. I got a necklace and earrings and a KitchenAid mixer which I have yet to use. After looking at all the gifts we finally went to bed at around 2:00 AM. I woke up at 6:00 AM to get ready to make the rounds.

Gifts from other family members:

Dalan & Sandy

For Dalan~ RC Helicopter which he broke not long after receiving it (his parents)

For Sandy~ Kindle Fire (Dalan's parents); Cute little pouches that you put in the microwave to heat up and you can use them on aching body parts (From my awesome niece Kinsey)

For Both~ $$ which went toward our new computer (my parents); a See's gift certificate which is basically mine :o) & and a talking fly swatter (Bill & Chrissy)

Trent

Gift cards for iTunes from both grandparents

Subway gift card and a nice Steelers blanket (my parents)

Kaela

Gift Cards for iTunes from both grandparents

DS game from my parents

My parents also got each kid those metal puzzle things you have to untangle. That drove me insane part of Christmas day. I have yet to figure it out but I also give up after about two minutes.

So, now here we are into the New Year. I am actually starting it out pretty well. I have picked up a few new good habits. Maybe not habits. Maybe more like hobbies. I actually don't even know who I am anymore. Ha, ha! Since I got the Kindle Fire from my in laws I figured I may as well use it for something other than games. I'm kind of over the games anyway. Got bored. Go figure. So I downloaded the first book that caught my attention....Hunger Games. I knew my niece had read it and my son read it in school but other than that I had not heard much about it. Oh my gosh! Such a good book! I finished it pretty quickly and I'm now on the 2nd book, Catching Fire. I am more than halfway through that one and will soon move onto Mockingjay. A few days after I began reading Hunger Games my friend Kristy posted on FB the movie is coming out in March. Awesome! I've never been able to compare a book and a movie.

The other thing I loaded onto my Kindle is this reading plan for the Bible. I really would not consider myself to be a religious person at all. I have opened the Bible and tried to read through it before and never got past the creation part. I'm serious. When my friend Shari posted something from YouVersion I think it is I clicked on it and checked it out. Turns out you can sign up for this plan and in a year you will have read the whole Bible. I figure there are probably some words of wisdom in there, being the Bible and all so I'm giving this reading plan a shot. I'm on Day 3. So far, so good.

My other newest "hobby" is working out. No, I'm not one of those who makes a resolution to get in shape and then by February have lost all interest. I've actually been going to the gym for about a month now. I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with it. My major hurdle was pulling myself out of bed while the kids were on winter break. I managed to do it and got my butt in there. I've stayed committed and I don't plan on stopping. Right now I'm going in three times a week. I do the C25K program on the treadmill and then try to fit in 20 minutes or so of weights. Hoping to have a nice toned little body by summer. Plus, I'm sure my heart loves me for it too.

Anyway, that's about all there is to post for now. Kids go back to school tomorrow. I'm trying to get my Christmas decor down without getting completely overwhelmed. I'm making progress. Just a little at a time.

Below are a couple more pictures from Christmas. Hope you all have a happy and healthy 2012!!!