Getting geared up

We're getting geared up - for summer that is. Because it is definitely upon us. A hot and humid 91 in KY today. In APRIL for heavens sake. Mr. T. and I were busy this weekend opening the pool, cleaning off the patio, funiture, etc. After a few more days like today, it won't take long to get that water warmed up and I will be laying on my float, book in hand soaking up the sunshine.

We've got a busy summer ahead, as I'm sure most of you do. Preschool is over for Faith May 9th. She has her graduation ceremony on May the 8th (complete with a cap & gown). T-ball starts for her a few days after that and she is also doing a gymnastics class one day a week this summer and Mother's Day out at her preschool 2 days a week. Wesley made the Middle school basketball summer team so we will have his practices and games. He gets out of school May 17th and a few days later Mr. T and I leave for an adult only vacation. SIX glorious days, no kids, no phones, no mouths to feed, no laundry or cleaning, just us. We are going on a cruise and really looking forward to it. (20 days and counting until we leave) It's one of our favorite things to do.

It's funny, you tell people you're going on vacation and the first thing they ask is "Where are you going?", the 2nd thing they ask is "Are you taking the kids?" Ummm, NO, not on a cruise. There are certain places that are not kid friendly and in my opinion, a cruise is one of them. (Unless it's a Disney cruise). 3rd question is "Won't you miss them? I don't think I could leave my kids for that long." Yes, I'll miss them, but I am a parent 365 days a year, I have no family close by and no sitter, our lives revolve around the kids. Shoot me, but I don't feel guilty and I definitely feel entitled. I'll be glad to see them when I get home but everyone deserves a break. My husband and I also deserve some re-connecting time. So No, I don't feel guilty.

We also plan on a few trips with the kids this summer. Probably a long weekend trip to my parents in Indianapolis. They have a terrific Children's Museum and also a zoo. I am also going to be brave and take Wesley and a few of his friends to King's Island (an amusement & water park) in Cincinnat, OH because he has done so well in school this year. So far perfect attendance and honor roll all year in addition to being on the winter & summer basketball team. He's a good kid and deserves a treat. So that's about it for our summer plans. June will be busy. Busier than I would like, but July is pretty uneventful. T-ball will be over the end of June as will basketball so July will be a relaxing, enjoy-the-summer month.

So what are your plans??

School Shooting

I had to comment on the school shooting. I had to. I come from a town that had a school shooting. I feel so bad for the families, the friends, it involves so many. How sad. I just don't understand. I guess the need for venegance, revenge??? Shit, take your own life FIRST. Not 30 something people that have no choice in the matter. I just don't get all the evil that this world has become....

I finished the book "Nineteen Minutes" by Jodi Picoult a week or so ago. It was about a school shooting. Ironic, huh? In 1997 there was a school shooting in the town that I lived and worked in at the time. I was at work in downtown Paducah, KY. My boss's husband was on the police force so we found out soon about it after it happened, before it hit the news. I didn't know anyone that went to the high school where it happened or the students that were killed or injured. Amazing though, because I only lived 20 miles from the school. The boy that did the shooting, his Dad had an office just a few buildings from the one that I worked at. (The Dad is an attorney). That is as close as it came to affecting my life. Michael Carneal, the student shooter, claimed he was bullied. Just like Peter in "Nineteen Minutes". All of it was just disturbing. The book, Peter, Michael Carneal, Columbine, Virginia Tech. I just don't get it. How do you become so angry that you want to kill people?? It's an evil world we live in. So much violence.

Wes and I were talking about the school shooting. The news was showing some footage of the shooter of V. Tech. Apparently he had sent NBC a package prior to the shooting on Monday of himself and a bunch of ramblings. Wes and I were watching this and he says "There is a kid at my school that one day, I swear Mom, he will do a school shooting." Huh? "There's a kid that gets picked on all the time. Kids call him gay and make fun of him. I really feel sorry for him." "Why do they make fun of him?" "Because he is really short and little and nerdy looking. He has a brother in the 3rd grade that is taller than him." (note that Wes is in the 7th grade in middle school that is 6th-8th grade) My heart is hurting for this kid. "Wes, please don't ever make fun of him. Don't do that. Can you imagine how bad his life sucks?? Do you know that on Monday, when he has to go to school, he would probably rather go to hell than have to go to school? Don't you look at him and think "Thank God my life is not his"? Don't be a part of that." As a mother, I want to go to the school and hold this boys hand and defend him or have an assembly and ask all these kids that pick on him "Why?, He is a kid that wants to be liked just like all of you. We are all different. So he's short? Big frickin deal. Lighten up. Take up a cause - make it him. What if your life sucked and you were him?"

I feel so bad for this boy that Wes knows, I guess it's the mother in me. Imagine how it feels for it to be 30. or 40 or 50. 50 people making fun of you. 50 people that say you are gay. 50 people that seem to hate you. So tomorrow I am calling the school and asking the principal "What are you doing for this boy?" "Are you aware that he is being picked on? Do you know what kind of damage it can do?" I am doing it because someone has to. It won't change anything for him, but I wish it would.

Easter

Easter is over. Not one of my favorite holidays. Anything that involves candy is not tops on my list. We had a nice day though, a little cold (50). Compared to the 80 degree weather we have been having earlier in the week.

We missed the Easter egg hunt at church the previous weekend because I had gotten tickets to see the Doodlebops Live and it was the same time as the egg hunt. Therefore a hunt took place in our house (due to the cold weather) and Faith was just as excited about it. Please notice the gorgeous jewelry ensemble that Faith wore given to her by our neighbors (instead of candy.) Complete with clip-on earrings, whooo hoo what a treat. Just glad she didn't want to wear it to church on Sunday.

Faith was adorned in her new Easter dress minus the bonnet and white kid gloves that I always had to wear as a child for Easter. Her dress was so pretty but it was too cold to wear without a sweater to church so that was a big issue Sunday morning as we are rushing (as usual) to get to church.

Church is a big part of our lives. If I miss church on Sunday, my week feels so off. I Love, love, love our church. I love the spiritual feeling, I love the church members and the love they have for me and my family, I love the friends I've made and I love all the activities at church. I am very involved in our church. I spend about 4 hours a week at church. We go on Wednesday nights (as most Baptists do). I am a youth group leader and love the kids that I work with. On Sundays I am an assistant teacher in the Preschool Sunday school class and then we go to Sunday services.

I was raised Catholic so becoming a Baptist a few years ago was a big change from what I had known most of my life. I have always questioned the Catholic faith and still do, so when I started attending a Baptist church, it seemed like I had finally found my place. This has become a big deal with my Catholic parents. My dad feels that since none of my children were never baptized as infants (something Catholics do) should they die, they will rest in hell for all eternity. OK, we are talking about young children. Baptists believe that you, as a person decide when you want to be baptized, when you feel the calling to be saved and have a closer relationship with God. I find it hard to believe that my innocent 4 year old daughter would be condemned to an eternity in hell. But, that's just me. I also question the need to tell a priest all my sins and the mistakes I have made, in a confessional. Can't the Good Lord hear me just fine?? I was always taught that when I prayed, He would hear me. Why the need for a mediator?? A man to dole out my "punishment" with 3 Our Fathers and 3 Hail Mary's? Shouldn't that be God's task, not some faceless man sitting in a box that doesn't even know me or my remorse for my wrongdoings? I can't say I completely agree with everything that Baptists believe though either. I guess I just have more tolerance for their beliefs than how I was raised. For example: Baptists do not drink alcohol. Ever. There was a lot of wine drinking in the Bible, what makes it so wrong if I have a glass or two? Although my reasons for drinking aren't holy one's, I honestly don't see the harm. Also gambling is a big No-No. That includes raffles, bingo, the lottery, casinos. If it's my money and I don't lose the farm, the house, can feed my children next week and don't need to become a member of Gambler's Anonymous what's the big deal?? After all, it is MY money.

I guess all religions have their own issues and we can't agree with all of them but I do like knowing I belong to a group of people that know and believe that God exists, that He is there for me, that He hears me when I pray. It gives me a great deal of comfort and peace in this crazy world I live in.

Kindergarten

This is another thing that I am struggling with. Kindergarten. Who would have thought it would be such a debate in my life?

Kindergarten here is all day, 8 am until 3 pm. A long day for a 5 year old. And I must mention that Faith doesn't turn 5 until the end of July. Therefore a very young 5 year old. Trav went to Kindergarten when he turned 5. Again, barely 5. Then it was 1/2 day. He made it through with flying colors, on to 1st grade, then 2nd grade and that's when it blew up in my face. He struggled, we pushed, pulled and drug him the remaining 10 years of school. I realize school is not for everyone but he was/is a smart kid. He got it, he just didn't want to do it. Other than school we never had a problem with him. Maturity was his big issue. Lesson learned.

I held Wes back. Wes went to Kindergarten at the age of 5 and turned 6 a few weeks later. At that time K was all day. I was not going to go through the same thing I did with Trav. All my kids have summer birthdays and them both being boys, well, you know what they say and it is true. Girls mature faster than boys. So far with Wesley, no problem. Honor role, academic team, involved in sports, respects his teachers, does him homework. School isn't the best thing in the world to him but he is mature enough to realize it's his job for now and he has to do his part. He also realizes to be successful in life, he has to do well in school. It is a part of his future.

Faith is DYING to go to K. It's all she talks about. I had talked to her preschool teacher about holding her back. She thought I was nuts. She is BRILLIANT the teacher says. Brilliant??? OK, I know she's smart and I'm not one of THOSE Mom's. You know the ones, they think their kids are perfect in every possible way. Not me, I know my kids. They are great, sweet, bright kids but I know their faults and I am not blind to them.

Back to brilliant. Miss G. thinks it would be a disservice to Faith to hold her back. She would become bored with another year of preschool and she is ready. OK I am open-minded, I will consider this. I talk to my SIL. My SIL (has a PhD in child development) thinks I should send her too and gives me a number of reasons why I should. I take her to the K evaluation to see what she scores and if in the tester's opinion, she is ready. After I signed Faith in, we were told that the test would take however long it took for your child to cooperate but no more than an hour. The tester takes Faith to the testing area and I sit in the waiting room. One mom tells me she has been there for 45 mins. Faith walks out and is done after 20 mins. Apparently she cooperated. She scored 27 (all scores are from a possible of 30) in motor skills, 27 in concepts, 25 in language, 25 in self help and 28 in social.

I guess I surrender. My daughter is ready for Kindergarten. Her Mom however, is not.