Kindergarten was fun. I love Kindergarten. I can’t wait to see what it is like in first grade. My teacher was Mrs. Magneta. She was nice and she would always read us books. My favorite thing about Kindergarten was when we played and got five more minutes of playing. We learned math and we also learned how to read. My favorite friends we Frederick, Brayden, Trent, and also Bryson. I will miss my teacher. My favorite memory in Kindergarten was when we went to the zoo and saw the hippopotamus.

This year Randy and I really wanted to  have a family snow trip but it just wasn’t working. At first we wanted to go to Bass Lake and Yosemite because we thought it would be a great experience to see Yosemite in the winter, but the government shutdown made us second guess that choice and we cancelled it. We then decided to make our trip to Washington double as a snow trip with a few days at either Leavenworth or Bend so we booked a week trip. As luck would have it, we found out that when we would be gone would also be opening weekend for the boys’ baseball and decided to cancel so we wouldn’t miss the baseball events. Randy and I basically decided to just skip a snow trip until last week we heard that a storm was hitting Southern California, so we asked Mary Howell if we could make a last minute trip to Idyllwild, and she said, “yes!” We just wanted to make it a quick, one night, trip, but knew that if the weather held out we would get snow when we woke up on Sunday. Since timing for a winter trip seemed to not be on our side, starting Thursday I began feeling sick with a cold and Wyatt woke up Friday with the same cold. To make things more fun, on Friday I tweaked my back from coughing from said cold. Randy and I debated going with Wyatt and I (mostly me) feeling crappy, but I figured we might as well make the most of it. Saturday morning we packed up the car and arrived around lunch time. The weather was rainy and cold so we did not want to spend much time walking around town. On top of that, my back was still hurting a lot and my cold was hitting me hard. Despite these things, it was a fun day just staying cozy in the cabin playing games, watching movies, napping, and really not doing a whole lot. Jackson and Wyatt loved the fact that they got to play an over-abundance of Minecraft, so there was no complaining from them. Randy served as pizza boy and picked up pizza to-go and we all watched Harry Potter. Around 6pm Saturday the rain started to shift into snow, and I knew that we made the right choice to make the trip. Sunday we woke up to a bit of snow on the ground. We made our way up to Humber Park where there was a decent amount of snow. While the snow was not as thick and fluffy as we hoped for, it was enough to make the boys happy. We walked around a bit in the snow along a trail before heading back to the car. Randy and I wanted to drive to see if we could find even more snow but did not have any luck. Watching Jackson and Wyatt’s expressions light up when they saw the snow made the trip worth it. I will admit, I felt like crap pretty much the whole time and had a horrible night’s sleep between my cold and back keeping me up, but I guess some trips are like that. The best part was slowing down and getting some great hang time as a family. We do a lot together, but rarely do we take 24 hours to just be together. It seems that when we are home there is always something to work on or to be distracted by, so this was a good change of pace.

 

It’s really fun seeing Jackson become fascinated by an idea.

Last week while at Awanas it was announced that Sparkies (the group Jackson’s currently in) would be collecting items to donate to a homeless outreach group. When I picked him up that evening he excitedly told me about his plan to get “socks and shirts and everything else they need, because they’re homeless!”

Sarah put out a call on the local “buy nothing” group for anyone willing to donate, so today we’re driving to a few homes to collect those items (and of course, taking the opportunity in between stops to play at some of their favorite playgrounds).

I enjoy watching him light up when he sees the bags full of items. He seems just as keen on giving things to people who need them as he is on getting “Awanas Bucks” he’ll be able to redeem later for prizes. We’ll just have to have a brief chat with him about what it means to be homeless so that he understand why it’s important to help.

Around Thanksgiving Great Wolf Lodge spammed me with a deal that could not be passed up. Last year when we went to Great Wolf Lodge we had the best time and have been waiting to go back, so I jumped on the deal and booked. Seeing that is was such a great deal I texted Marcie, Alyssa, Lesa, Amanda, and Janea to see if they wanted to go and miraculously they all said “Yes!” and booked with us. I was pumped! Corey wasn’t able to come, so Marci and her daughter came along with Lesa and in total we had 14 kids and 12 adults. Finally January 16th arrived and we made our way up to Great Wolf Lodge. I am not sure this trip will ever be beat as it was the best day and a half I have had in awhile. The kids of course were all stoked to be going with their best friends and us moms were probably even more excited. Watching every kid have the time of their life was the best to watch. I love that we have a group of families who all get along so well because it makes life more fun. Even the husband like each other. Based on the success of this trip I will not be surprised if we all head back next year, assuming a deal like this one comes along. Today was the first day back to reality and I think we all have Great Wolf Lodge hang overs.

 

 

Tuesday morning at 4 am Jake came into our room and alerted Randy. I was pretty deep in sleep, but could hear some rustling going on with Piglet as well as him making some noise. I assumed he was just getting comfortable, but when Randy wasn’t coming back to the room and the noises persisted I knew something was happening and I went to see what it was. When I walked in the office Piglet was having a full-blown seizure: body twitching, mouth foaming, and he was in zero control. Needless to say I freaked. Piglet is 13 and has been blessed with good health. While I want him to live forever, I acknowledge that he has had a great, long life. This being said, I did not want this to be the end. After what seemed like forever but was probably only a minute or two he stopped seizing but was clearly disoriented. Piglet’s back legs did not seem to be working and he was not really responding. His legs began working but then he started frantically walking around the house, bumping into things, and not knowing where he wanted to go. I called the ER vet but was told that as long as he stopped seizing to wait to take him to the regular vet. I did my best to stay calm and tried to get Piglet to relax. Randy went back to bed and I stayed with Piglet on the couch to get him to go to sleep. While no timing is good timing for having a seizure, this was especially bad because the next day we were heading to Great Wolf Lodge with a bunch of other friends. Oh how I wanted this to not be a big deal but deep down I knew that this would not be a one-time event. Later that afternoon I took Piglet to the vet and he checked out well so they did some blood work to see what was up. I left the vet hopeful and optimistic. Wednesday morning I woke up refreshed having a full night of sleep only to find out that Piglet did have another seizure and this time only Randy got up with him. The good news was it was not as long as the other one but the bad news was this meant two seizures in 24 hours. Ugh. Luckily the vet got us in at 8 am and prescribed Piglet some anti-seizure medication. I am happy to report that it is now Friday and Piglet has not had a seizure since Wednesday morning. I am grateful that he is responding well to the medication but I am also sad that this means something is not right with him. Piglet is for sure “my dog” and I am not ready for this to be the end. Right now I am just thankful that he is doing well, but every time I leave the house I get concerned for when I get home because I would hate for him to have a seizure when we are not here. I am not sure what the next steps will be, but next week we will find out more. Maybe we will just keep him on the current medication or maybe we will run more tests. The hard thing about the current medication is it has to be given three times per day, so someone has to be around to give it to him. This is possible to do for a bit, but I know we can’t expect to always be home during the day. Jackson is more aware about what is happening than Wyatt but neither really understand what a seizure is, and I am so glad they didn’t witness either one. So for now I will spend as much time with Piglet as I can and take him out as often as possible to get love from others.

 

The other day Jackson came up to me and told me he “has a secret crush on a girl in his class named Daylin.” While I already knew this (he told me before), the fact that he brought it up again a couple weeks later meant that this crush is a real one. Randy gives me a hard time about how I talk to the boys and get them excited for their crushes, but I think it is adorable. As he and I talked about his crush he told me he wanted to buy her a present, more specifically a necklace. I about died. How cute is that? I wasn’t sure how serious he was about it, but sure enough he kept bringing up going shopping for a necklace over and over again so I knew we were not avoiding it. We were out at Target and he wanted to search for one there. As we looked there wasn’t a huge selection but a pink and silver star bracelet caught his eye and that is what he wanted to get her. Jackson really is a romantic and I honestly did not think that buying jewelry and gifts for girls would start his young, but here we are. As we got ready for bed last night we picked out his clothes and he told me he wanted a “handsome shirt” because he would be giving the bracelet to Daylin and wanted to look good. I couldn’t resist, so we picked out a button up shirt and he went to bed. At school we ran into Daylin right away and Jackson was so excited. She was a ways in front of him so he ran her down, some words were exchanged (he says he doesn’t remember what he said), and she accepted his bracelet and put her it in her backpack. Jackson smirked a little and ran to the playground to play and Daylin went off with her friends. Oh how I wanted to hear what he and she said. I cannot get over Jackson buying his first girl some jewelry. Young love is so cute and innocent. I am not sure what Jackson thinks having a crush really means, but he is off to a good start at winning her over by buying her jewelry. I also do not know her parents and am very curious to know what they will think when their five year old comes home with a bracelet given to her by a boy in her class.