November too

I have been posting so much about October this month, it's like this month didn't happen.  But it did.  It wasn't as busy (or as uncomfortable) as October.  But definitely sugar-free.

Since this is a time of thanksgiving, let me tell you five of the things I was thankful for this month.

1. Mary's school

Mary is having a wonderful year.  It's turning out even better than expected.  She is confident and fulfilled. I am prone to grumble about the cost and distance.  But sending her there was clearly the right decision.  I am grateful she spends her day in a place where she is safe and loved, a place where she is comfortable enough to let down her walls of reticence, allowing her true self to shine.  I am grateful that she spends her day in a place where she can develop her gifts and feel the joy and satisfaction of work and learning.  (And I am grateful that I get to enjoy these benefits by having a child who is much much less whiny, bored, and needy!)

Here are some pictures Kim, the assistant, snapped of Mary and a friend hard at work in the classroom.

Mary scrubs the floor while best friend Brooke does some laundry the old-fashioned way.

Mary (top) and a friend work on fractions.

Earlier this month we had a chance to visit Mary's school in the evening, so she could show us some of her favorite lessons.

Mary works on the trinomial cube.
  Right now, for Mary, it is a puzzle, but later it will be used to teach trinomial algebraic expressions.  (Don't ask me how!)

Mary shows us how she is learning to count by 7's.  (There are similar bead chains for counting by  2's, 3's, 4's and so on.  She doesn't know it yet, but she's already learning her multiplication facts.)

Mary works on adding two 4-digit numbers.

She hasn't learned carrying yet.  But she does know to start with the units column, even though she doesn't know (yet) why it's so important.

Yes, she's definitely been into numbers this year.

Mary let David look on.

2. David's school

I am grateful for David's school too!  David's teacher appreciates him, and she has been really proactive in finding ways to help him have a great, successful year.

Every month the school meets together for a short 15-minute assembly called a "Community Gathering."  One grade-level performs, and then the whole school sings the school song.  It is short and sweet (very sweet).  This month the second graders performed a couple of thanksgiving poems.

It was very cute.


3. Phew!  That's over with.

So I'm seriously considering going to graduate school (again).  It's probably not the most convenient timing for our family, but as a military wife you don't always have a lot of choices about timing and places in life.  Anyway, I'll eventually write more about this, but suffice it to say, for now, that I had to take the stinking GRE.  My scores from last time are old and expired, so, yippee for me, I got to take it again.

ETS recently changed the test.  It went from a reasonable 2-1/2 hour exam to a whopping 4-1/2 hour marathon.  Yikes!  People, I'm pregnant!  Do you know a pregnant lady who can sit for 4 and a half hours straight?!  (Oh, wait.  There's one 10-minute break.  Gee, thanks.)  I was registered to take the test earlier in the fall, but it became clear that wasn't going to happen.  I could barely sit for 10-minutes, let alone almost 5 hours.  Plus, I found it hard to study when I wasn't feeling well.  It was really, really hard to relearn all that math while in bed.  Even worse, it wasn't just relearning math--this time around, because the test had changed, there were plenty of concepts I actually had to learn for the first time.  With a foggy pregnant lady brain.  (It didn't go very well--Greg can attest to that.)

Ugh.  This stupid test had been hanging over my head for MONTHS.  I was beginning to realize that I was going to have to try to take the test with a nursing one-month-old and an utterly sleep-deprived brain.  That seemed like a bad idea.  So I rescheduled my test for the end of November, said a prayer, and hoped I'd find enough time to take some practice tests, and, most importantly, that I'd miraculously be able to sit through the test itself.

Miracles happen!  I took the test Saturday, and I have lived to tell the tale. Nothing went terribly wrong--my rib cage didn't start aching, I didn't have heartburn, my bladder was never on the verge of exploding, I didn't have a headache, my blood sugar was under control.  Miracles galore!  The test administrator (a mother of four) even gave me a private room, so I could stand up as much as I needed throughout the exam.  Miracle!  The test was tiring, but not any harder than I expected.  I even got a perfect score on the verbal.  With my foggy pregnant lady brain no less!  Woo hoo!  And I managed to score above average (slightly above average) on the math.  Now that's a miracle!

Miracle, yes.  Nevertheless, it's a miracle I'm glad is behind me.  Mary has been praying lately, "We're thankful that Mommy took her test."  Amen.



4.  Thanksgiving

I am grateful for Thanksgiving.  It was a low-key affair this year.  Greg ran a 5K with one of his Boy Scouts in the morning.  Then Greg's cousin, Deserae, and her husband, Mikhael, and their son, Elim, joined us for the day.  We hung out, watched movies, ate, watched movies, ate, played games, and ate.  They are our only family in the area, and we were so happy to share with the day with them.  I definitely think Thanksgiving is a day to be shared.  We're pretty selfish about Christmas--we aren't ones to travel somewhere or host a big group for that holiday.  But Thanksgiving is definitely lonely unless you share it with someone else.  We had a lovely time.  To mark the occasion, I will even include a very unflattering picture of myself.

5.  Baby!

Now that the stinking GRE isn't hanging over me and now that I'm feeling much better, I can finally focus on what is the most exciting.  Our baby girl!  She'll be here in less than five weeks.  No, we are not ready.  At all.  But I figure, hey, we've done this before--we'll pull it together just in time.  Right?

I am very grateful for this baby.

This glimpse of the baby (which I know is sideways--grrr--I'm sorry) is from the summer.  She is much MUCH bigger now.  Trust me.

Soccer

Greg took David to a Wisconsin soccer game.  They both carefully observed how the players played their positions.  Also, the Badgers won!  Woo hoo!

I said I would post the good, the bad, and ugly from October.  I've posted some good (like here), as well as some bad (like here).  And now I will tell you about the ugly ... soccer.

Since we moved here, David has been playing recreational fall and spring soccer, and it's been a good experience.  (Especially last spring!!)  Now that he's in second grade this year, I was a little nervous about it.  In our town they combine second graders and third graders.  There can be a huge difference between a young second grader and an older third grader, and David happens to be a young second grader.  I was worried about him playing with and against kids a lot bigger, stronger, and more coordinated than he.  David is sensitive, and it seemed like a potential recipe for disaster.  But he wanted to play, and Greg agreed to coach.  I knew Greg would watch out for David and the little ones and do everything he could to keep the experience positive for everyone.

Then, due to the well-known ineptitude and extremely poor judgment of the city rec director, the 2-3 grade teams were combined with the 4-5 grade teams.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Second graders would be playing with and against 5th graders!!  I assume you are freaking out because you should be.  It's insane.  INSANE!  Well, I completely freaked out.  It was totally obvious this was the worst idea ever--it would be unfair, unfun, and UNSAFE.  I wanted my family (and especially my sweet little boy) to have no part in something so obviously ... stupid.

Unfortunately, we found out about this just days before the season was to begin.  And Greg had already been assigned a team and they were short on coaches.  I still protested.  But Greg felt bad about backing out and David was looking forward to playing.  Greg discussed some of his concerns with said inept rec director, who reassured him that they'd done it in the past and it had been fine.  I continued to protest ... and Greg agreed that we could pull David out at any time ... so I swallowed my worry.  And we sent our sweet, sensitive little seven-year-old to play soccer against eleven-year-olds.

If you are not judging me right now, well, you should.  If ever there was a time to read a blog and say, "Oh my gosh!!  I cannot believe she did that.  I would never be such a terrible mom!"--now is that time.

Well, folks, it was ugly.  Despite some efforts having been made to create evenly matched teams, Greg's team, with only two fourth graders and nary a fifth grader, was clearly the youngest and least-skilled.  The other teams had more older kids, and some of the older kids were very good.  (One time we showed up for a game, and I was sure we were in the wrong place.  The field was filled with teenage girls.  Turns out that team consisted primarily of very tall, very long-legged post-pubescent fifth grade girls ... who would be playing against our seven-year-olds.)  Our poor little team didn't have a chance, against any team.

The first few games were a disaster.  The score was something like a gazillion to zero ... game after game.  It was discouraging to say the least.  David cried--bawled!--after every game.  Which is what I felt like doing too.  And it turns out, pulling your kid off a team is easier said than done--David felt a commitment to the team and a desire to keep trying.  So what could I do, other than trudge to every game, wincing as the other team scored their umpteenth goal?

Well, one thing I could do is pray.  Pray I did.  For a while it was looking like they would go the whole season without scoring a single goal.  So I prayed they could score a goal.  Just one goal!  I believe I have never prayed so hard and earnestly for a single, very specific thing in my life.  ("Please, God, just one goal!")  Seriously.  But if you had seen how hard those kids were working, how hard they tried, never giving up--and your kid was one of them--you would have prayed your heart out too.

Guess what.  A miracle happened!  No, they never won a game.  But they did start scoring goals.  And stopping them!  Greg adjusted his coaching, as it became more apparent where (and with what kind of instruction) certain kids excelled on the field.  The real miracle was how much the kids loved playing--and how much they improved. It was AMAZING!

Because there was no dominating fifth grader hogging the ball, everyone on the team had a lot of contact with the ball.  I noticed that on the other teams, the little second-graders rarely touched the ball.  With so many older kids dominating, it was almost like they weren't even team members.  They were lucky to get to throw it in.  Not so on our little team.  Every single player was super important.  The more they played together, the more each child realized how important he or she was.  No one could stand around and wait for somebody else on the team to swoop in.  Each player had to be aggressive, focus, and work hard.  And they all did!  Every single player improved dramatically, due in large part to the absence of a team super star, and, even more importantly, they worked together.

In the end, it was a positive experience.  A miracle!  Again, I can't express how amazed I am by how much the team improved.  Although they never won a game, they became a force to be reckoned with, losing by just a point or two (rather than a dozen or two).  I am so proud of them!  (And so proud of Greg for his thoughtful hard work.)  All of the kids genuinely enjoyed being a team, and they were sad to see the season end.  I think they are a remarkable group of kids.

Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of the team.  But I have a few pictures of my sweet boy.

David played fullback most of the season.  David, fullback friend Brooke, and fellow second-grader goalie Isaac formed a nearly impenetrable wall of defense.  They were awesome! 

Even with the Great Soccer Miracle of 2012, my kids will only be participating in team sports with KIDS THEIR OWN AGES.  Perhaps the greatest miracle of all is that no one got hurt.  It was scary to see 11-year-olds plow over little kids.  I know we aren't the only parents who expressed our concerns to city officials, so hopefully this won't happen again.

One more thing.  As discouraging as the games were to watch, I did love going ... to chat with the other moms.  I've been lucky to make such good friends here.  And I loved having the chance to hang out with some of them a couple times a week.  I miss those crisp fall evenings, sitting on the sidelines, cheering on our kids, and talking matters of the heart.

Halloween 2012!

Halloween festivities began the weekend before, when Aunt Marie was here.  She enlisted Mary to help her make sugar cookie dough, and then David and Mary together decorated the cookies.  

Daddy and Aunt Marie took the kids to Sutter's Ridge for some pretty fall views and pumpkin picking.

Then the pumpkins had to be carved, of course.

The kids dressed up for the church Fall Festival, where they got their first haul of candy from the Trunk-or-Treat.

This year Mary chose to be cheerleader (one "for Bucky Badger"), and David wanted to be a Stealth Ninja.

On Halloween Greg took the kids trick-or-treating in the neighborhood. I stayed home to pass out candy.

Greg reported that Mary was a super trooper, skipping from house to house.

 Love these sweet kids!  (Who brought home lots and lots of sweets.)

Aunt Marie comes to visit

My aunt Marie came to visit us at the end of October.  We were excited because we always have a good time when Aunt Marie comes to visit (like this time).  But I was especially excited because we had planned to take a quick overnight trip to Nauvoo, just us grown-up gals.  It would be short; we'd be gone just two days.  But the idea of having a couple of days in Nauvoo without having to herd kids around seemed heavenly.  Most of all, I was so looking forward to spending time in the temple there, which really is special.  I had been looking to this for months.  But, alas, I was in no shape for a four-hour car ride. It was after shedding many (bitter) tears that I finally called and cancelled our hotel reservation.  I was one disappointed gal.  Sigh.

The other fabulous thing on our agenda during Marie's visit was a jaunt down to Chicago to revisit the Science and Technology Museum.  With David's recent interest in World Wars I and II, he's been anxious to see the U-boat again.  Since the kids would have a couple of days off for Fall Break, I thought it would be the perfect time.  But, again, I was in no shape for a road trip to a museum.  More cancelled plans.  (More tears.  Mine, of course.)

So what was supposed to be a week full of exciting and meaningful excursions near and far would be a rather dull, uninspiring week.

But Marie came anyway, and, bless her, saved the day!  Rather, saved the week!  She helped around the house, cooked, and, most importantly, entertained the kids.  Her and Mary spent hours together in the kitchen baking.  Above all, Marie was patient.  She chatted with me, keeping me company while I spent ages on the sofa.  She would listen to me worry and complain after my doctor's appointments--I had three that week!  She patiently went along to the Culver's school fundraising night, David's classroom Fall Friendship Party, and pumpkin picking at Sutter's Ridge.  (Not quite as exciting as Chicago.)  I had to stay home from the church Fall Festival, so Marie took my place, passing out candy at the Trunk or Treat and looking after the kids while Greg judged the costume contest.

Marie had her birthday while she was here.  So of course we couldn't pass up the opportunity for a little celebration!  We always love a birthday celebration around here!

Marie was so wonderful that she even baked her own cake.  (Mary helped, of course.  It was a delicious brownie-cake.)

Happy Birthday, Marie! We're so happy we got to share it with you!

If you know me, you know I am not a homebody.  I did a pretty good job of resting all week, thanks in no small part to Marie.  So by Marie's last day I was feeling somewhat better.

 Let's see ... I was feeling a bit better ... I hate being home for long stretches, it was a chilly but bright fall day, we are surrounded by lovely sites here in Madison, and I had a companion!

So I took Marie down to Little Norway.  It made for a lovely morning.

The original house of the original settlers (to whom I'm most likely related)...

Little Norway is beautiful any time of year ...

And I'm glad we went.  Because it was the last day of the season, and, unbeknownst to me beforehand, the last season.  Ever!  The owner's daughter was our tour guide, and she was, understandably, quite emotional.  (It's not economically sustainable right now, so her family is closing it down while they figure out what to do.)  So, yes, I'm glad we went!

Well, Marie, thank you for coming to play.  And we hope the next time you come we can play a little harder!

Mary's birthday bash

Mary had been looking forward to her 5th birthday party for approximately 364 days.  I had been hoping for a nice, family outing instead.  But my kids love their friends.  And insist on celebrating with them!  (I think if we made them choose between a bash with friends and any presents, they would choose the party.)  So a party Mary would have!

Back in September, when I was feeling fine (memories ...), I started planning a party we could have here at our house, like last year.  But something deep inside told me "Bad idea! Bad idea!"  Soon thereafter I discovered we could have Mary's party at the gym where she took gymnastics--super easy, super fun, and very reasonably priced.  Woo hoo!  And very lucky--by the time Mary's birthday rolled around, there's no way I could have hosted anything at our house.

Mary was an awesome helper in getting ready.  She helped write out names on the invitations.  (A side note: Mary insisted on inviting just a small handful of friends.  I encouraged her to invite a few others, girls I know she enjoys.  But she was adamant about keeping the party small because she didn't want it to get "too big and crazy."  I have to appreciate her ability to understand herself--she knew she would be uncomfortable in a boisterous, chaotic, gaggle of girls.  But she did allow David to invite a friend.)  She assembled the gift bags (which had an Olympics theme) and decorated the cupcakes.  Mary is a wonderful helper!

The party was awesome!  The staff did a fabulous job with lots of super fun, structured activities.  And then there was time for free play, which was a blast, too, of course.  The kids seriously had huge smiles stretched across their faces the whole time.

Popcorn!

Mary the Egg gets cracked.

Brooke bounces high!

Abby and Mary race down the air track.

After the hour in the gym, we headed upstairs for cupcakes and gifts.  Mary has such sweet, thoughtful friends.

We're so happy they were able to come celebrate with Mary!

Sariah, Abby, Mary, Lea, Brooke, Iris

Mary turned 5!

Here are pictures of Mary's 5th birthday.  (Since her dad was out of town on her birthday, we pretended it was the day after he got home.  Shhh, don't tell Mary.)

 We surprised her with gifts first thing in the morning ...

She loved her new big kid scooter ...

And check out this adorable new outfit for Katie from Grammy and Grandpa ...

She also loves a cuddly new blanket from Grandma Evie ...

After the pre-dawn gift-giving extravaganza, we rushed David off to school.  Then on our way to Mary's school, we stopped for some donut holes to share with her class at the birthday celebration.

While we were waiting for the celebration to begin, Mary got right to business working on the hundred-chain ...

Soon enough, all of the children were gathered together in a circle.  Mary waited patiently with her dad ...

Mary carried the Earth around the Sun five times--to symbolize the five times she has traveled around the Earth ...

Then Greg and I shared some pictures and stories about Mary when she was a baby.  The night before Mary and I had picked out some things she wanted us to share.  Some of the class favorites were this and this.

After the children shared with Mary things they love about her (so sweet!), Mary passed out the donut holes ...

Finally, the children sang happy birthday to Mary, and she held up the number five.  Hooray! ...

The children sang "What a Wonderful World" to Mary.  (I think the world is amazingly wonderful because Mary is in it.)

Last was a mini dance party to the wiggle worm song.  Always a blast ...

Then Mary dismissed each of the children one by one to return to their lessons.  As each child left, he or she shook Mary's hand and wished her happy birthday.

Like previous years (here and here), it was lovely and meaningful. I was teary-eyed that this was her last birthday celebration in Anna's class.


That evening Mary chose Culver's for dinner.  (Greg took the kids while I stayed home on the sofa.  The morning had been a bit much for me that day ... but I was nearly heartbroken to miss any part of Mary's celebration, including the Culver's dinner she'd been planning for weeks.)

Finally, that evening we enjoyed Mary's cake ...

Happy birthday, Bear!

You have amazed us every single day of your five years.  And we have no doubt you will continue to amaze us ever more.