The Kids' First Ice Show

Samantha: 69 Months, Week 4
Aedan: 34 Months, Week 2

This week was a very busy week as it was the week leading up to the ice show and the kids had practice several times during the week. Luckily, since Aedan's Hockey Monkey group pretty much just skated out on the ice, around for a little while, and then back, they didn't really need to practice that, saving us from having to drag him to practice a couple times during the week. Samantha had practice on Tuesday night and Ben took her since I would have to take both kids to practice by myself on Wednesday night. He took a few videos of them practicing together. It was fun to see the videos, to see how much she has improved in her skating abilities, and to see how quickly she and her group learned the skating routine to "Ain't She Sweet."

On Wednesday night when I took them both to practice while Ben was teaching his late class, Aedan didn't really need to be there, so I got him in his ice skates and he went out to skate around with everyone else for a little while, but he quickly got bored and wanted to come off the ice with me. They were practicing the finale routine and there were no other Hockey Monkey kids there. It was a little difficult keeping him amused that evening but it worked out okay. This was going to be a crazy week, and we knew going into it that it was going to be like that.

Thursday night was a full rehearsal so we ate dinner quickly before heading to the ice rink again. We knew this night could be long too and the kids would be out past their bedtime. The first video is of Aedan's little Hockey Monkey group, so you can see why they didn't need much time to practice. They were all just learning to skate, so it took them a long time to even get all the way to the center of the ice. He was doing pretty well getting all the way out on the ice by himself, and I think they were trying to figure out where exactly they were going to have them go.

In this second video he was doing his best to follow his coach around, and he was making it farther around than a lot of the other kids in his group. He even fell down twice and got right back up all by himself. It took him a long time to learn how to get up off the ice without assistance, so it's great to see how much he has improved since starting on lessons in the fall.

And then here's a video of Samantha's group at the dress rehearsal. They did such a good job, and I was so surprised and proud that Samantha could remember her whole routine after only practicing it a few times throughout the week. The end of the video shows one of the girls falling down and getting upset about it. Samantha was trying to help her up and make her feel better rather than doing what she was supposed to do for skating, but that's okay, we like her empathy for other people.

On Friday, March 10, I took the day off from school because it was just a half day anyways. We had agreed to babysit for another family's foster child who was about three months old. I wanted to take the time to get things ready for her to stay with us, to get out the pack and play with bassinet, some baby toys, a vibrating chair, the floor gym, and the swing, whatever baby equipment I thought would be helpful. Samantha still went to school, and Ben still took Aedan to go grocery shopping, so I had some time at home by myself which was kind of nice. The little girl showed up a little before 11:20 that morning, fast asleep in her car seat. I got all kind of pictures of her throughout our day and a half with her, but for safety purposes I can't post them of course.

She didn't stay asleep very long in her car seat that afternoon which was okay because I would rather have her nap in the afternoon at the same time as our kids. I let her lay on a blanket on the floor so I could play with her and talk to her. Aedan was so excited to see her when he came in from being out with Daddy. He was very kind and gentle with her, and it was really sweet to watch. Then, after a little while it was time for us to eat lunch so I put her in a little vibrating chair while I got lunch around for Aedan and me. She was doing well just sitting in the chair and hanging out while we ate. Aedan even reached over and rocked her little chair a few times during lunch. Samantha knew that the foster baby was coming over that day, so she was super excited when she got off the bus, came in the house, and saw me holding a baby. She couldn't wait to hold her and play with her. In fact, she didn't want to leave her side. She brought her toys to show her, read her a soft book, and even laid on the floor gym with her, making sure the music was always playing. It was fun to have a little guest to take care of, and she was the star of the weekend.

As it got to afternoon time, you could tell she was getting tired, especially since she had been awake, alert, and active for some time. Ben put Aedan and then Samantha down for their naps. Since we were out late the night before at ice skating practice, we told Samantha that we wanted her to nap as well. The baby needed to be put down for her nap as well, so I took her downstairs to our bedroom where we had the pack and play and a glider set up to use. I wrapped her up in her fleece Halo sleep sack swaddler, rocked her for a bit after feeding her her bottle, and she went right to sleep. I laid her down in the pack and play and she stayed asleep and took a nice, long couple hour nap. I was pleasantly surprised that she was doing so well for us since she didn't know us and had never been to our house before.

The rest of the day went well with our new visitor fitting right in to our routine. Using formula was a little different to get used to, but it was nice in some ways because unlike breastfeeding, anyone can bottle feed, so I was able to make dinner while Ben fed her and helped her fall asleep for another nap. We knew Saturday would be a busy day, so after dinner we played together and had bath time for everyone. Then, Ben did bed time together with the kids, and I put the baby down since Ben had just been holding her for awhile while she took her evening nap. She did well at nighttime too, as she was in bed by 8:00, then woke up at 3:45 a.m. to eat, but then went right back to sleep again and woke up for the day around 7:00, same time as our kids.

Just to give you a little perspective of life in the U.P., this is what it looked like right down the street from our house, where you get on the interstate to go south, rather than north and over the International Bridge to Canada. They had part of the interstate shut down due to whiteout conditions and a multi-car accident. Crazy winter weather. It will be spring at some point, right?

Saturday morning at home was all about relaxing and hanging out together. We had our typical pancake breakfast, played, let the baby take a nap in the swing in the living room, and then got ready for the ice show. The first one was at 1:00, and we wanted to arrive around 12:30 so that Samantha could get her make-up done by another mom who was getting some special sparkly stuff for the girls to share. (Aedan and I did puzzles together in his room for awhile, and I got these cute pictures of him.)

Here is Samantha (and another girl from her skating group), all dressed and ready for the performance. She loved her pretty costume and she actually didn't complain too much about it being itchy or about feeling cold.

We, of course, had to bring the foster baby with us to the ice show, so that made things a little bit more chaotic, especially since it was bitter cold outside, but again she was an easygoing baby and did really well for us. She got a little fussy at the beginning, she drank some of her bottle, and then she fell asleep in my arms for the rest of the show. Our original plan was to have Ben take Aedan and the baby back home for nap time that afternoon since his song was earlier in the show, and there was no way he'd last the rest of the day and for another evening show if he didn't take a nap. However, since she fell asleep in my arms, we decided to let sleeping babies lie and let her just nap in my arms. We figured if we tried to put her in her car seat and take her back home, she would probably wake up, and who knows if Ben would be able to get her to go back to sleep once at home. So I kept the baby and Samantha at the ice rink while Ben took Aedan back home to put him down for a nap.

Here is Aedan's first performance that afternoon. He is the one in the white skates and red helmet. This first video is not the greatest performance of his life. He was doing so well when he was first coming out, but then his teacher went to help some other kids and Aedan felt like he was deserted by her so he decided to just stand there, pout, and not skate anymore for awhile. He was supposed to skate all the way out the center and then around, but he barely even made it to the center before the song was over and he had to turn back around again. Silly little guy. He was just tired as it was already his nap time, so we hoped he would do better that evening after getting some rest.

And here's Samantha's performance that afternoon. She did a fantastic job, and there was only one time where she must have fallen because she had to skate to catch up and get in her spot. I was so proud of her, and I was glad I could be there to watch her perform.

And here is the finale for the afternoon show. Aedan wasn't a part of this since he was home napping. The baby was still mostly asleep in my arms, even though she stirred a little bit anytime people clapped loudly around her. I was glad it worked out for her to just stay with me, plus she was able to get a good nap in, even in the midst of a noisy ice show. Samantha and her group didn't quite remember what they were supposed to do, so they just skated out to the middle and stood there awkwardly until one of the coaches helped direct them where to go. I'm sure it was pretty cool to be out on the ice with everyone, especially the big girl skaters.

After Samantha finished up, Ben came back to pick us up so we could go home to relax for a little while and eat dinner before heading back to the ice rink. We got there a little early that evening, so we had time to just hang out and take silly pictures with each other while waiting for the show to start. We had the foster baby with us, but she actually fell asleep in the car on the way over, so we just left her in her car seat and let her take a little evening nap. Here are some of our silly pictures of the kids (and some with Daddy in the background). Our kids are so cute. I love it when they give us real smiles and we capture great pictures that show their true personality like these do.

After taking so many pictures and videos that day, my phone was running out of storage space, so I didn't get a full video of Aedan's evening Hockey Monkey performance. However, you can see how much more confident he was in coming out on the ice. He made it all the way to the middle without any hesitation, and he even put his arms up at the end of the song. He was such a cute little ice skater, and I'm so glad he had the chance to go out and skate again. He loved his coach, Miss Emily, and would do anything for her. I think he may have had a little thing for her. :)

For how much more Aedan was with it for the evening performance after having a good afternoon nap, Samantha was very tired after a long day. I told her to be careful and think about what she was doing because she's more likely to trip and fall when she's tired. When they practice they always wear gloves, long pants, and a sweater, so falling on the ice in these flimsy costumes with bare hands is not a pleasant experience. I was beginning to record Samantha's evening performance, and as you can see in this video, she trips and falls on her way out to her spot on the ice. I'm sure it did not feel good, and you can see her lean over to rub her knees and shake her hands from falling onto the ice. She was also beginning to cry, and Ben and I were both worried that this would impact the rest of her performance, or that she wouldn't get over it, or that she would continue to fall because she wasn't paying as much attention to her actions. Poor girl. But she went right to her spot like a brave girl.

As you can see in this second video, Samantha got right back into the performance when the music started. I was proud of her for being so brave. She had a pretty big bruise on her knee from falling, so I'm sure her leg was hurting while she was out on the ice. However, she went on with the performance and again did a wonderful job skating.

I had planned to take Aedan home to get him to bed, but he was doing a good job. We got the kids some popcorn, and they were just having fun hanging out and watching the rest of the show. The foster parents picked up the baby from the ice rink, so we were back to just the four of us. Since the kids were both doing well considering the long day we had had, we let Aedan stay to be a part of the finale as well. You can see how well he skates in this video. He stands by his teacher Kali for a little while, and then you can see Samantha skate by holding Emma's hand. It was a great end to the night, and a great first experience participating in an ice show.

After a busy Friday and Saturday, we took advantage of Sunday to relax and get our house back in order. The other thing going on was me seriously considering calling the vet to make an appointment to put Roscoe down. I know I have said this before, but I was becoming more and more convinced of it. I had to give him a bath four times in the last week for pooping or peeing on himself, in the house, or in his kennel. Then, I was just thinking ahead to all the money we would have to spend on him in the coming months. He needed a haircut, which he didn't let the groomer do last time. He needed go to to the vet for a checkup and more heart-worm/flea medicine. Then, with our trips coming up in the coming months, we would have to spend money on boarding him as well. I just was really unsure whether his quality of life was worth putting all that time, money, and effort into him. He had red, goopy eyes and was resistant to me cleaning them off without trying to bite me, so I'm sure that didn't feel good for him. He walked around the house in circles, ran right into walls, and sometimes his legs would sprawl out from his body and he would just lay on the floor and not be able to get himself up in the kitchen. Then, one time he ate his dinner like that and when Ben went to help him stand back up, Roscoe had peed right where he was laying, all over the floor underneath himself. I doubted that he was enjoying much of his life. My only real hesitation about putting him down was just feeling weird about deciding to end something's life. He had just deteriorated a lot in the last year. The first year in Oxford he was more normal, but now he couldn't walk up or down the stairs anymore. Even in Oxford we started carrying him down the stairs toward the end of our time there because he kept sliding down the stairs, but he could still mostly go up the stairs fine. In fact, he would even just go upstairs and lay down in Samantha's room to sleep, or he would even try to scratch on her bedroom door at night when she was in bed. In the last week, he had fallen down the stairs twice in the last week. He was also very bony and frail looking. If his hair wasn't long, he probably would look like a skeleton. All of the reasons I just listed made me more and more convinced to call the vet on Monday morning to make an appointment. Maybe if I scheduled something and was able to prepare myself, I would be more likely to follow through. It's such a hard decision to make, especially after taking care of this little dog for almost 10 years.

(Blog about March 7-13, 2017)

Ben's Spring Break & Visitors from Indiana

Samantha: 69 Months, Week 3

Aedan: 34 Months, Week 1

Even though it was only the end of February, this week was the week of Ben's Spring Break. Since their semester at LSSU ends so early, their Spring Break falls earlier as well, a full month before our Spring Break at Bahweting. He didn't have many exciting plans for his Spring Break other than trying to get some work done on the days he didn't have Aedan.

On Tuesday Ben had Aedan, so they went out together that morning to the library to check out books and let him play for awhile, and then they went to McDonald's for lunch. Apparently Aedan had a lot of energy that he needed to burn off, and they were having a good morning together.

Other than that, the week went by like normal, we were waiting to hear back from the family at church about the foster baby, I was still thinking through and talking to Ben about homeschooling options, and we even were invited over to someone's house for dinner that homeschool since I had a lot of questions for them that would be better answered in person.

Then, on Wednesday, March we had another snowstorm come through. It snowed pretty hard most of the morning, and there was still a lot of snow projected that afternoon, so school closed early so that everyone could get home safely. It was kind of nice to have an unexpected afternoon off from school. However, I was not too happy that it was still snowing so much. I am definitely tired of being cold all the time and surrounded by snow. I'm ready for sunshine and for things to start warming up some.

When we got home we discovered we had caught another mouse in a trap up in the hole in the ceiling of our bathroom, the same place we caught the last one. Since we were out late the night before, both kids took a nap that afternoon. Samantha for only about an hour, but that's all she really needs. Then, we let her watch the movie "Meet Kit" that Ben checked out from the library for her. I tried to work some on my blog while she watched the movie, but I just could not keep my eyes open, so I decided to stop fighting it and just let myself take a little nap while Samantha sat next to me on the couch. It was a nice, quiet, relaxing afternoon, just what I needed in the middle of the week.

And here's a cute video of Aedan dancing to Super Why. He has all four felt Super Why characters in his left hand as well as his wooden plane in his right hand. I tried to start recording earlier, but didn't catch him until the very end. He just can't help but get up and dance with the Super Why guys at the end of the show. This is definitely his favorite show right now, and I can't believe we haven't lost those little Super Why people yet. Ben and I always need to keep our eyes open for where he put them so when he asks where they are, we at least have an idea to tell him where to look.

On Thursday Aedan went to Miss Lisa's again, so Ben ran some errands that morning. One being checking out a minivan at a local car dealership. We have been considering a minivan for a while now to accommodate our family plus any additional foster child(ren) we may have. We are more interested in Honda Odyssey's overall, but there was a Toyota Sienna that Ben just wanted to check out. He sent this picture of him sitting in the driver's seat. He was able to test drive it and found out that they would offer about $3000 if we traded in the Santa Fe. This van was okay, but had more miles and was more expensive that we would like. We just figured it would be good to rule it out as an option since it's the only minivan for sale in Sault Ste. Marie. To look at more minivans we will have to make a weekend trip to a bigger city like Detroit where there will be more options. Ben has been great about researching them online and keeping tabs on prices and when certain ones become available that are models we are interested in. Sometime in the next month we will probably be looking more seriously into buying one, which the kids will be super excited about. We are excited about having more space to accommodate our family, but I know I'm not too excited about having a car payment again.

Ben also surprised Samantha by coming by for lunch on Thursday afternoon, to share one of her favorite meals with her at school. She was so surprised to see him waiting outside her classroom for her, and she loved having her daddy sitting next to her in the cafeteria. Ben usually has class from 11-12 so he can never come eat lunch with her, so I know that Samantha really appreciated that and felt special.

For all the times that I doubt keeping Samantha in the traditional school setting, she then has certain opportunities that I wouldn't be able to give her at home. For example, they were learning about electricity in science, so Mr. McBride had this fun experiment where they got to touch this object and get a small shock of electricity. Samantha was so excited to tell us all about it when she got home from school. Mr. McBride seems to be a really neat teacher, is well-organized, and plans thoughtful and kid-friendly activities to keep the children involved throughout their school day. Samantha really likes him and enjoys being in his class. I'm glad that the switch to another class worked out well and that Samantha is so flexible and adaptable.

On Friday, since Ben usually keeps Aedan on those days anyways, he kept Aedan home with him for their typical Daddy-Aedan day. Ben was being a great help to me around the house, as he always is, and lovingly agreed to clean the house before our company came that weekend. Ben said that Aedan was a little bored that morning, so he decided to have an early lunch and then take him to McDonald's for a small ice cream cone and time for him to play. In this picture Ben said they were watching the macaroni cook together. He sent this picture to me while I was at school and it made me smile, I like seeing how my little man is doing during the day.

Aedan is such a cute kid all the time, but especially when he's sleeping. Ben got this cute picture of him all cuddled up in his bed during nap time to Friday afternoon. He does a terrific job of staying in his bed and keeping his blanket covering him to stay warm. He always sleeps with his blankie and his teddy, and he always sleeps with his head pushed way up on his pillow, almost so that his head is touching the bars. He seems to like it that way because he has plenty of room to stretch out toward the bottom of his bed, but he chooses not to. All I know is that I am super happy that Aedan is still napping so well pretty much every day. Also, we have just recently stopped rocking him to sleep at nap time. He goes right to sleep like a big boy at Miss Lisa's house, and more often than not, if he falls asleep in our arms at nap time, he will wake up as soon as we lay him down and then not go back to sleep. We were tired of this being an issue, so we decided to transition him to going to sleep without us rocking him to sleep. We still do our normal routine and then cuddle for a few minutes, but we put him in his bed and let him fall asleep on his own. It seems to be working much better, and we are glad that he continues to nap so well. Especially when he's at home, he will nap close to three hours quite often. We will take it while we can!

Friday night was a night every one was looking forward to. We were going to have visitors from Indiana coming to spend some time with us that weekend. Ema, Papa, Jeni, and Alaina were on their way but wouldn't arrive until close to midnight. We told the kids they needed to sleep well since they wouldn't be able to see anyone until the morning, but it was hard to contain their excitement.

On Saturday morning, our guests tried to get some extra sleep, but our kids were up at their normal time. I tried to keep the kids occupied doing puzzles quietly in the living room until everyone else was ready to wake up. When Alaina came down the hallway, the look on Samantha's face was priceless. Those two girls love each other and are each other's best friends. From that moment on, they didn't need the rest of us, they just went off to play together. God knew what He was doing when He planned for Jeni and I to be pregnant at the same time, and for them both to be girls. :)

Aedan was also very excited to see our visitors. When Aunt Jeni walked down the hallway he ran into her arms and gave her a huge hug. But after awhile he had to ask the obvious question. "Where is Ema?" She was downstairs taking a shower, and he couldn't wait until she came upstairs to play with him. It was so fun having everyone there for the day. We had donuts and eggs for breakfast, and then we just spent the morning hanging out. Ben, Aedan, and I took a small break to visit a preschool open house, but then we were back home to hang out with family.

When making lunch that afternoon, Ben accidentally cut off the very tip of his thumb on his left hand and ended up going to a walk-in clinic and then was sent to the ER so they could help stop the bleeding and decide whether or not it needed stitches. They ended up using something called Surgicel on it instead, and wrapped it with gauze and a bandage. He felt silly, even though he shouldn't have. Luckily, it was something easy to take care of, and then Ben was back home with everyone.

We decided it would be fun for our guests to experience going tubing, so I stayed back with Aedan as he napped while everyone else went to the tubing hill for the afternoon. Alaina and Samantha LOVED going down the hill together, and you could hear their squeals coming halfway down the hill. I have a video that Ema took of the girls coming down the hill, and you could tell they were having a blast. (I couldn't figure out how to upload it, so hopefully you can follow the link.) Alaina didn't have any fear of trying tubing, and even though it was a bit chilly, it was at least sunny and everyone had so much fun. I was sad to miss it, but I was okay with taking one for the team and hanging out at home with Aedan.

Snow Tubing

And for all our friends in the lower Midwest that have not had much of a winter and very little snow, here's what it looked like outside our house that afternoon. We are so used to seeing these gigantic piles of snow that we don't even think about it anymore, but it doesn't change the fact that we will be excited when it all finally goes away.

The rest of the evening went by all too quickly for everyone's liking. These cousins love spending time together, and we always enjoy having visitors to our house. We hadn't had anyone come visit us since November when these same Indiana visitors came to watch our kids so that we could go to our foster parent training, so we were definitely missing our family. Like I've said before, we are definitely feeling the distance of living far away after living a couple hours away from Upland for the last six years. As the night wore on, the kids were getting tired. The girls had a busy, active day of playing and tubing, and Aedan took a shorter nap than usual, so here are the kids doing some relaxing by taking turns playing a game on Ema's iPad before it was time to get ready for bed.

Samantha and Alaina wanted to have another sleepover that night, so we moved the air mattress into Samantha's room for Alaina, and they actually chose me to put them to bed. Normally Ben is the person of choice, so I was honored to put them to bed, since Aedan will always choose Ema when given the choice of who puts him to bed. I let the girls talk for a few minutes on the air mattress together before going back in and telling Samantha it was time to get back in her bed and go to sleep. They took a little longer to fall asleep being in the same room, but it wasn't bad. They are getting older and better able to handle things like that.

When Sunday morning came, everyone found themselves in more somber moods. Our visitors had to leave to drive back home for work the next day, and Samantha was extremely sad knowing they all had to go home so soon. She misses family and is having a hard time with us living farther away where it is more difficult to see people as often. Just thinking about it made her cry, so for much of the rest of the day, she was in a very sad mood. However, I'm glad that we have family that she loves so much, and we will take a trip down to Upland in a few weeks, so there won't be as much time between visits this time.

The rest of our Sunday went by like normal with church, nap time, doing laundry, cleaning up the house, and getting ready for another week to begin. Weekends are always so fun, but always go by way too fast.

(Blog about February 28-March 6, 2017)

A Week of Inward Struggles

Samantha: 69 Months, Week 2

Aedan: 33 Months, Week 4

After being gone on our trip to Great Wolf Lodge, it was kind of hard being back home and getting in to the swing of a busy work week again. Plus, it was nice being in a bigger city like Traverse City, and to be in a place where the snow was mostly melted. I think we are all ready for winter to be over. In fact, whenever Aedan prays, he prays for the snow to go away, and as our week started he commented, "My ready for the snow to go away..." Trust me buddy, we all feel the same way.

Aedan has been doing a really good napping at Miss Lisa's. In fact, there are even some days when Ben has to wake him up when he comes to pick him up. Here's a picture of Aedan sleeping away in his little bed. He usually sleeps on his tummy, so I was kind of surprised to see him laying on his back. Ben sent me this picture while I was at work, and it definitely made me smile. I'm glad that he is doing so well at Miss Lisa's, and now he's even sleeping in the same room as two of her little boys and a little baby in a pack and play. It was amazing how it worked out so quickly for us to find care, and I'm so glad he is being taken care of in someone's home. In fact, when we put him to bed at night now, he will often ask for us to "pet his back" which means to rub his back after he gets comfy on his tummy with his teddy bear tucked under one arm and his blankie under the other. I'm pretty sure that Miss Lisa started this with him and rubs his back every day before nap time. She also sings, "It's nap time, time to rest now." Aedan will sing that song for me occasionally and then gives me a cute little smile after he's done. Hopefully he doesn't get too upset when he has to stay home with Daddy after the semester is over instead of going to Miss Lisa's every day. :)

The rest of the week went by like normal. I had a pretty bad headache for part of the week. The days felt long and busy. I don't have many pictures or videos to share, and it was kind of a rough week all around with inward struggles and a lot of things on my mind.

Then on Thursday morning while I was in the bathroom getting ready, I saw a mouse run across the bathroom floor from the closet and out through the door that led to the main part of the basement. We put out a bunch of box glue traps as well as a flat sticky trap up in the hole in the ceiling in our bathroom. We figured since we'd heard noises in the wall, that might be a good place to try to catch one. Sure enough, on Friday morning there was a mouse stuck on the glue trap, so that's why we probably heard it scampering across the ceiling and in our walls. Our guess was that the mouse that I saw in the bathroom must have fallen out of the hole in the ceiling, hid in the closet when it heard me coming in, got really freaked out, and then ran across the floor to get away. It just freaks me out to think of mice crawling around our house at night or when we are gone, and I also don't like not knowing how many might be around and how they might be getting in to our house. This is definitely the part of home ownership that I don't enjoy.

The other struggle I have had this week has to do with Samantha's education and due to multiple factors, I started somewhat considering homeschooling, something I never thought I would seriously consider. I thought about it a lot, searched on the internet some for various homeschool curriculums, and even reached out to a few moms I know that homeschool their kids to see how they came to the decision to homeschool and what their experience has been like. It was difficult for me to know how much is just my reaction to something, or if it could possibly be that "that grass is greener on the other side." However, I have just been really unsettled with Samantha's experience in school throughout this year. At the beginning of the year, it was the behaviors in the classroom that were out of control. Now, most of the behaviors are mostly taken care of (even though I know that will always be an issue you deal with when in a class of kids). Samantha also moved to a different classroom when I started working at her school, which solved some problems we were encountering at the beginning of the year. However, still, the behaviors of some of the kids astound me, and it gives me a pretty clear picture of what type of expectations are probably required at home, if any. Samantha is not a behavior issue at all. She is sensitive to others and a respectful listener, so she does not require the discipline and redirection that so many other kids need. My hope would be that next year would be better with some of the behaviors worked out, but each kindergarten class has its own group of kids that greatly misbehave, meaning next year she is guaranteed to have some of these kids in her class again.

My issue now is that Samantha is advanced in math and reading, and just all around academically. She has basically topped off in the testing they do for kindergarten, and she is at least midway through 1st grade in her abilities, if not farther along that that. Samantha is very smart and picks up on things easily, so I feel like much of her time in school is wasted waiting for others to finish or to behave. Not much of an effort has been made to address her advanced skills. In fact, they have pretty much come out and said that they have to focus so much on the bottom 30% that they don't have much time and don't have much in place to encourage the learning of those on top. It's hard for me as a teacher because I know how school is, and I know how teachers have to help every student learn, which often means bringing up the low kids and spending a lot of time on remediation, which often results in the kids on the high end of the spectrum being left to learn more on their own. I know because I had to deal with it myself in my own classroom, but it feels so different now that it's my own kid affected. But, I don't want Samantha to just be pushed to the middle, and this is only kindergarten, so this problem is probably not going to go away as she goes through school. I want Samantha's love of learning to continue and not dwindle because she is not being challenged at school. Plus, she is at school from 8:00-4:00, and oftentimes I feel like she doesn't learn very much for all the time she spends there away from home and her family. Then, she comes home so exhausted after a long school day that our evenings together usually involve some play time, dinner, bath time, and bed time. They go by so quickly.

Now I'm sure all the schools in the area would be similar, so I don't think putting her in another school would change anything. I have never really thought of homeschooling as a serious option because I have always thought I would go back to teaching in my own classroom some day, and I think it's important for public schools to be good, to be better, so taking good families out of public schools is not going to help them out any. However, my mind has come back to homeschooling more and more this past year now that we are confronted with the education system in our own family. I am a licensed teacher, so I feel like I am doing a disservice to my children by not using my educational background to ensure they have a good education.

I am currently a lot more interested in the idea than Ben is, I think. He thinks that Samantha would be bored at home, that she would miss the social interaction with her peers, and that she would miss out on things like specials and just learning how to interact and deal with people that are different from her. However, I see her a lot at school, and I think she is probably bored at school. I would worry some about the social interaction she would miss, and that it would just be me responsible for making sure she knows everything she is supposed to know, so that's a lot of pressure on myself. However, not all the social interaction at school is positive either. Being part of a co-op group would help some with that, but that would only be every other week around here. However, if I were to take Samantha out of school to try homeschooling next year, then she would lose her spot and Bahweting, and what if I regretted my decision and it didn't work out to homeschool? Then, I probably wouldn't be able to get her back in again.

My other hesitation with pulling her out and doing homeschooling is just thinking about how long I would want to do it, and if I don't want to do it for the long haul, would it be better to just leave her in the schools? For example, I don't know how well-equipped I would feel to teach some of the middle school and definitely high school subjects adequately. Plus, there are so many groups, organizations, and sports, that they wouldn't be a part of it they were homeschooled. In addition to that reason, I think about how it could negatively impact our family financially if I homeschool instead of going back to work sometime in the next few years and make money for the family. Also, just dealing with young kids and maybe even a foster child at some point, while also still trying to teach Samantha everything she needs to know could be rather difficult and stressful at times. Maybe I wouldn't be able to do any better of a job than the teachers do at school with a class full of students.

I just feel so torn this year because I know it's not all about the education you get, life it not about trying to be as smart as you can possibly be, so I don't know how much of this is just me overreacting or if I need to be more trusting of the schools, the teachers, and Samantha being "okay" regardless of how she learns. I don't know if I need to stop looking for something "better." Or, if this is a stirring in my heart for a change for her. I am always so torn between knowing if how I feel is from me or possibly God speaking to my heart, and I have a really hard time distinguishing the difference sometimes. I don't know what is the most important factor to consider when thinking of Samantha's education, and this is definitely a decision that I need to think about and pray about more over the coming months.

On Sunday at church I was approached by a lady who is also a foster parent and was currently taking care of a two month old baby. However, she said it was looking more like a long term placement, and they weren't that interested in fostering babies anyways, so she was wondering what our interest would be in taking her on. Ben and I talked about it, thought about it, and prayed about, ultimately telling her that we would be more than willing to take the girl. We don't think we would be too interested in adopting at this point, but we would definitely be interested in a long-term placement. So, we will see what happens with this and what they decide about moving the girl to a different foster home. Regardless of what they decide, we will have the opportunity to babysit her overnight in a couple weeks to give the foster parents a chance to get away together. We are very excited to get our first opportunity to foster, and I think I feel a little anxious about it.

On Sundays we often take advantage of our time to rest and relax, get caught up on laundry and housework, and also just hang out together as a family. Here is Aedan putting on a little concert for us that evening before bedtime.

(Blog about February 21-27, 2017)

Our Trip to Great Wolf Lodge

Samantha: 69 Months, Week 1
Aedan: 33 Months, Week 3

After having a sick day and two snow days in a row, it seemed like a long time since we'd been in school. Samantha was super excited about going back to school on February 14 because not only was it Valentine's Day, but it was also the 100th day of school and her publishing party. The kids were all pretty wired from all the special activities, so it was kind of a wild day at school. Different classes did different activities to celebrate the 100th day, and then in the afternoon Ms. Cornwell's class had their publishing party in the cafeteria, followed by Mr. McBride's class. It was fun to see the kids so excited to share their stories with others, and I was pretty proud of Samantha's story. She wrote about Aedan slamming her finger in the door in Upland. She included a lot of detail and her pictures were very nice as well. They also had cookies and hot chocolate to share with the parents and guests as well as the kids that worked hard on their stories. Ben was able to come too, so I know Samantha was excited to see both of us at school. We were both pretty proud of our little girl.

Then, because our day wasn't busy and crazy enough already, as I was cleaning up the classroom at the end of the day I received a phone call from our DHHS licensing worker asking about a possible foster placement starting that night. Our license had just officially gone through an hour earlier, so the phone call definitely took me by surprise. I won't go into too many details, but the foster child was a two year old boy from a tribal family. They were in court at the time I talked to Lauri, and she fully expected the judge to approve the removal of the child, so they were going through the proper steps to make sure he had a home to go to that night. There were a couple tricky things with the Head Start program the boy was already attending, but we would have been able to make it work in our schedule. Once we got back home, Ben and I talked about it some more and called Lauri back to let her know we would be willing to take him into our home. After getting off the phone, we sat down and talked to Samantha and Aedan about what was going on and frantically got things ready around the house, like making a bed up for the little boy, rearranging some toys, and cleaning things up a little bit. However, a little while later we were notified that the order to remove the little boy was not approved after all, to everyone's great surprise. We were disappointed, especially the kids. Aedan thought that the little boy was going to be just for him. We are glad that the kids are so excited to have a new child in our home. Even though we didn't get the boy that evening, we told them we could still get a call at any time, even in the middle of the night. So the next morning when Ben went into Aedan's room, the first question he asked was, "Did we get a call over night?" It will be exciting when we receive another phone call some day and get to provide a home for our first foster child.

This week was a shorter week, partly because of the snow day on Monday, but also because Thursday was a half day and we had no school on Friday for Winter Break. It was one of those crazy days on Wednesday where I just could not stay on top of everything. We got to school, and I realized Samantha was allowed to bring a stuffed animal if you paid $1 for Love Your Pet day, but I didn't know it was happening, so we didn't have an animal, and she was really sad. Luckily, Ms. Cornwell let her just pick a small beanie baby animal from her classroom to use for the day. Then, after being at school for about an hour, I used the restroom and noticed my eye looked much worse than it did that morning. I stopped by the nurse and she confirmed that I probably pink eye, just like Samantha had. So I had to leave school early so I could go to the walk-in clinic and get checked for pink eye so I could start on the antibiotic eye drops. After going to the doctor and to the store to get my medicine, I actually was able to go out to lunch with Ben. I figured we might as well take advantage of our chance to spend time together since I couldn't go back to school until the next day. Since I didn't have anything else to do, I ran a couple errands and then just hung out at the house until it was time to go pick up Samantha and Aedan. It was a strange day, and I felt silly for getting pink eye and having to leave school and leave Ms. Cornwell without any help.

On Wednesday evening we had to eat a quick dinner before heading over for ice skating pictures. The kids were supposed to arrive 15 minutes ahead of their scheduled picture time, which we did, so they could change into their costumes and be ready for pictures. However, this was another instance where I feel like people didn't communicate clearly about what we were supposed to do. When we arrived early, everyone was already dressed, so apparently most people just had their kids get dressed at home. Aedan just had to slip on a hockey jersey, so that was no big deal, but Samantha had to get her whole costume on, tights and all. I took her to the bathroom and I tried to get changed as quickly as we could. I was told to try and put warmer tights on underneath the special ice skating tights that Ben bought special just for this ice show. It was frustrating to me because we got there at the time we were supposed to be, and then someone came down to the bathroom looking for Samantha. She was almost ready, so I just had her come out so we could finish it while waiting with everyone else. I was told that the tights we got would have to go over her skates, so I thought that meant I had to put them on at the end. Mind you, we are not from this area, ice skating is not as much of a part of our life as it is for everyone else. But apparently, I was supposed to put the tights on, leave them rolled up, then put the skates on, and then pull the tights down over the skates. One of the ladies in charge was rushing me along, even though it was before the time we were scheduled to have the picture taken. In fact, they had even already taken some pictures without Samantha. She said it didn't matter that Samantha didn't have the tan tights on like everyone else did. I wanted to finish getting Samantha dressed the correct way, but apparently they didn't want to wait for us, so Samantha just got in the picture with her white tights on. I felt terrible about the whole situation. I was emotional and tired, I was frustrated and embarrassed, and I felt so stupid that I was the only one that couldn't get my daughter dressed properly for ice skating pictures. So now she is the only one wearing the wrong color tights in their professional pictures. I know it doesn't matter, but I feel like it's a negative reflection on me because I wasn't on top of things enough. Sometimes I feel like no matter what I do, I can never be on top of things enough. After this evening, I was ready to just go home, get comfortable, relax on the couch, and go to bed early.

Despite my bad day, and my negativity, their little ice skating pictures were cute. These are just the ones we snapped with our phones while the professionals were taking their pictures.

Thursday was a big, exciting day for us because after Ben was done teaching his 1:00 class, we had plans to leave for Great Wold Lodge in Traverse City. Samantha and I just had a half day, and then we went to pick up Aedan from Miss Lisa's. We came back home and the kids just played while I tried to get everything packed up and ready so we could leave as soon as Ben was done. The kids were not exactly being helpful so I didn't get things done as quickly as I would have liked, meaning we left more like 2:30 rather than 2:00.

The drive to Traverse City was pretty easy. The weather was good, and both kids were tired and ready for a nap by the time we crossed over the Mackinac Bridge. Here they are sleeping in the car that afternoon. So cute when they're sleeping. :)

Samantha never sleeps very long in the car, so she was awake in under an hour, as soon as we got off 75 and started stopping and slowing more in Gaylord. Aedan continued on sleeping; however, after a little while Samantha started whining about having to go to the bathroom, even though she knew Aedan was still sleeping. We begrudgingly stopped at the first gas station we found so she could go potty, which of course woke up Aedan. The drive was only three hours, but the kids were getting hungry as we got closer to Traverse City. It was fun exploring a new area of Michigan and traveling to a bigger city with restaurants and stores was fun as well. We found a good local Mexican restaurant to go to for dinner that was near an old state hospital that they turned into fine dining, shopping and residential building. Then, we were off to Great Wolf Lodge to check in.

The kids (and parents) had been looking forward to this trip for quite some time, so we were thrilled to finally get there. It was amazing how little snow Traverse City had, especially in comparison to Sault Ste. Marie, and it was nice to be in somewhat warmer, sunnier weather, even though we were going to an indoor waterpark. While Daddy was checking us in and bringing all of our junk to the room, the kids and I checked out the lobby. They had this area with pretend bears, a kid zone area, a great big chair that looked as if it had been carved out of wood, and a wall of windows overlooking the waterpark down below. The kids were amazed at how big it was and couldn't wait to get in. They also got a free pair of wolf ears that they could wear on their head like a headband. Samantha liked wearing his around, but Aedan was not as much of a fan of them.

We then all went down to our hotel room to check it out and get dressed to go to the waterpark for awhile. We were all so excited, especially since they keep the waterpark at 80 degrees. There are so many different areas that it's hard to explain, but I will do my best. There is a toddler area with a zero depth entry, pretend jet skis that shoot water, water features that dump and spray, and several little slides for younger kids to go down. There was also a large fort area with rope bridges to climb up, lots of ways to get wet, as well as a huge bucket on top that filled up and dumped out every five minutes. (Samantha really loved that part and would always run to stand near it so she would have some water dumped on her.) There was a deeper pool with some basketball hoops and other fun things you could climb on, like a large floating snake and lily pads you could climb on from one end of the pool to the other. There was a lazy river, a family friendly hot tub, and then way in the back were three different big water slides that you would ride down on tubes. Lots of fun stuff, and I knew we would have a great time. We spent over an hour at the water park before we decided it was time to head back to the hotel room and get the kids dressed for bed. They have story time at 8:15, so we went down to the lobby for that. We figured we were on vacation, so bedtime doesn't really mean much of anything. You can see Aedan standing up in the front, closest to the character, and Samantha is sitting down next to him. The story time was pretty cheesy, mainly just more plugs for Great Wolf Lodge, but the kids enjoyed it, and then they got their pictures taken with the raccoon.

After story time was over, we went back to the hotel room to finish getting ready for bed. We were nerds and brought a blanket and duct tape to cover the opening to Samantha and Aedan's little bunk bed room. The walls were open and didn't connect with the ceiling, so it wouldn't block all the sound and light out, but it would give a little separation between them and us. We read a book, tucked them in to bed, and hoped that they were tired enough to fall asleep quickly. Ben and I sat quietly on the couch, waiting for them to fall asleep before we made too much noise, but Samantha just could not fall asleep. Aedan seemed to fall asleep pretty quickly, but it was close to 10:00 before we finally heard snoring coming from her. It was a little frustrating to us because sometimes it's just so difficult to get her to sleep in new places. (She is so much like her daddy, in more ways than one.) Luckily, her wiggling around and jingling her blankie didn't seem to bother Aedan any, and he was so cute all snuggled up on the bottom bunk.  Pretty soon after we knew the kids were asleep, Ben and I fell into bed ourselves. We knew morning would come earlier than we wanted it to.

Sure enough, at 5:30 in the morning we heard Aedan start to make noise, starting with whispering to himself, then counting, then singing. I went in there to tell him to go back to sleep, Ben went in and was a little more stern with him, and then I had to go back in again to talk to him. It told him in a very calm voice that if he wanted to have a donut for breakfast, he would have to be quiet and go back to sleep. After that, he got quiet and I'm pretty sure he went back to sleep. At some point Samantha got up to go to the bathroom, but it was at least quiet for a while longer. The waterpark didn't open until 10:00 so there was definitely no reason to get up early, but kids don't understand that too much. Once we finally woke up and sensed the kids were awake, we went down to the Dunkin' Donuts that was inside the hotel to get some coffee, donuts, and breakfast sandwiches, eating them in the lobby in our pajamas. We still had time before the waterpark opened, so we got the kids ready and let them watch a show and relax a little while Ben and I got ready for the day.

Then, it was off to the waterpark to play. We got there pretty much right at 10:00 and played for a couple hours until it was time to stop and eat some lunch. Samantha really enjoyed going on the water slides with Ben, so while the two of them did that together, Aedan and I played in the little kid area and went on the lazy river, but really, he just preferred to stay in the "hot water" as he called it. The water wasn't cold, but it definitely could have been a little warmer for Aedan's and my taste. He doesn't have a very high tolerance for being cold in the water, so as soon as he got cold, he said, "Mama, can we go in the hot water?" The water in the family friendly hot tub was not as hot as the adult only hot tub, so Aedan would just float and swim around in the warm water with his floatie on, and he was perfectly content in there with me. I figured there was no point in making him go places he didn't want to be.

After getting our fill of the waterpark in the morning, we got dressed and went out for lunch at Fazoli's. They have places to eat inside the hotel, but we heard mixed reviews about the quality of food for the price you have to pay, so we figured we'd take advantage of the chance to eat at restaurants we don't have anywhere near us. Aedan was getting a little tired to eat very well, but Ben and I definitely enjoyed our food. Then, it was time to go back to the hotel to put Aedan down for a nap. Our plan was for Ben and Samantha to go back to the waterpark to go on some of the bigger slides together while I stayed in the room with Aedan. He needed one reminder to be quiet and go to sleep, but then he was fast asleep after that, sleeping for close to three hours. In fact, I ended up just waking him up around 5:00 since it was getting close to dinnertime and we wanted to go back to the waterpark again that evening. This picture probably won't show up very well, but this is my attempt at a picture of him napping. It was nice and dark in their little Kid Camp area, and he was one tired little boy from being up late, waking up early, and being so active in the water.

After Samantha had her fill of water slides, they got out to do some activities in the lobby of the hotel. There was someone making balloon animals and Samantha was nice enough to ask the lady to make two, one for her and one for Aedan because she knew Aedan would be jealous of her if she had one and he didn't. I love how thoughtful she is and how much she thinks of others on a daily basis. She did some coloring, had a little snack with Daddy, and tried to keep themselves occupied until Aedan woke up from his nap. We had no idea that he would sleep for so long.

Since Aedan took such a long nap, our evening got pushed back later, so we decided to go out and get some dinner first. We just went across the street to Panera so we could get some healthier food like salads and sandwiches, plus they have pretty good choices on the kid's menu as well. We wanted to eat a quicker dinner so we could get back to the hotel and do some more swimming. Plus, Ben and I wanted to buy the kids ice cream for a special treat that night. Samantha was getting pretty tired as the night went on, since she didn't get a three hour nap like Aedan did, but she hung in there pretty well. After we were done swimming, we all got dried off and put the kids in warm pajamas before going to get ice cream. I think it was like 8:00 at night when we were eating ice cream, but we were on vacation and were having a great time together, definitely trying to make the most of it.

Once we got back to our room that night, we let the kids watch a Super Why show to kind of calm down some before bed, and luckily they both did much better that night. In fact, I think Samantha was asleep even before I stopped singing. As soon as she got in bed she rolled over toward the wall, getting herself nice and comfortable. They both had a more normal night and even slept in some in the morning since we stayed up later than normal the night before. Ben and I were definitely glad we didn't have a repeat of the first night.

Saturday morning I went to Panera to get some bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, and we just ate in our rooms. We still had some time before the waterpark opened for the day, so we did FaceTime with Jeni, Alaina, Ema, and Papa since they were all in Upland together. Then, we had to get all our stuff packed up and out of the room to check out before going to the waterpark. Here are some pictures of the kids wearing their wolf ears and sitting in their bunkbeds pretending to howl like wolves.

It was difficult to take many pictures inside the waterpark because we couldn't just carry our phones around with us, but I made a point to take some on Saturday morning. Here are the kids posing for me in the toddler water area.

I thought that Aedan would enjoy going down these little slides a lot more than he did, but for some reason he was just really hesitant to do them. If we encouraged him or bribed him to, then he would go down, but mostly to appease us. Now, he had a good time going down the slide and would smile every time, except for in this video when he slipped backwards a little, but he just seemed uninterested. He is definitely not as much of a risk taker as Samantha is when it comes to going down anything fast, whether it's a slide or a hill. He was much more likely to go down if Samantha would go down with him, so we had her go down with him one more time on our last morning there.

One of Aedan's favorite things to do was to sit on this pretend jet ski that shot water out of the front. However, there was another jet ski opposite this one so that you could spray each other, but Aedan did not enjoy getting sprayed, especially since a lot of times the other kids would spray him right in the face. Aedan eventually learned that if someone got on and started spraying him, he just had to get off instead of just sitting there and crying about it. He also learned that he could just stand and wait for other kids to get off before he got on for his turn, that way he could spray his side around without having to worry about getting sprayed himself, which was a rather smart strategy actually.

Samantha wanted to spend more time going down the big waterslides with Daddy, and she enjoyed going on them over and over again. However, Aedan was kind of tired of the water. We had done a lot of swimming, and he is not as big of a fan of water as Samantha is in the first place, so he wanted to spend most of the morning in the hot water swimming around, which was fine by me. Here is a picture of the whole waterpark from the tables at the front entrance.

After swimming for awhile we stopped to warm up and have some strawberries and blueberries for a snack before going out and spending a little more time in the water. Both kids were tired and you could tell they wouldn't be too interested in spending all afternoon there, so we decided to order a pizza from a restaurant in the hotel.

After Samantha did some more slides, and Aedan and I floated around on the lazy river together a few times, we decided to call it a day. Both kids were tired, and we thought it would be nice to get back home before dinnertime that evening. Here is a family picture someone took for us. I'm glad I asked someone. We don't have nearly enough family pictures together. :) It was a fun trip, and Samantha got pretty sad when we got in the car to leave, but it was time for us to head home. We had a fun two day getaway, and I'm glad we decided to do it.

On Sunday morning we relaxed more in the morning, giving ourselves time to recover from our trip, and just went to the later service at church. That afternoon before dinner we decided to take advantage of the "warmer" weather and go outside to let the kids ride their bikes around campus for awhile. I had been seeing a lot of our Indiana and Ohio friends posting pictures of no coats and boasting about warm weather and zoo trips, and I have to admit that I was getting jealous. However, our high of 44 felt pretty good, and it was encouraging to see some of the snow beginning to melt. Just for kicks, I thought it would be funny for the kids pose in front of a pile of snow on campus, just so people could see what it looks like in the U.P. I am definitely ready for spring to come, and this long drawn out winter will be hard for me since I will be expecting the snow to go away and the temperatures to warm up.

When we got back home after being on campus, Ben took the chance to shovel some of the snow and ice that had accumulated at the end of our driveway. The kids wanted to help out too, so I had them come back in to get their snow pants and boots on before staying outside. Aedan tried to help Daddy shovel, and then I got their sleds out of the garage and let them sled down the little hill in our front yard from the corner by the mailbox to the tree in the middle. It was such a nice day outside, and we all really enjoyed being outside and playing in the snow together. I wish we could do this more often. I feel like we haven't had many chances to play in the snow because we are too busy during the week, plus they both get to play outside during the day, then on the weekends we have other things going on, or it's just been too cold or too windy or the kids are sick. I certainly wouldn't mind having more days like this.

And to end the blog, here is a picture of our two little cuties relaxing on the couch after a fun afternoon playing outside. :)

(Blog about February 14-20, 2017)