Weekend Updates (Last Weekend In June)

(Sorry for the delay on this post...I wrote it for the weekend before we went on vacation but did not get to upload pics until we got home from Vermont!)

It has been HOT HOT HOT! I mean daily temps from 95-104 all day everyday. It is so humid and pretty much miserable. So we've been trying to do whatever we can to keep cool while still getting things done and having fun.

Friday evening we headed over to Ocean Breeze for a few hours before bed. It was really nice to just hang out and not be so hot or worry about sun screen. My dad came with us and Izzy and Tanner both had a blast!


Saturday we had a giant yard sale. We cleaned out pretty much every room, closet and attic of this house! We've acquired a lot of stuff in the past 5 years and it was time for it all to go. That included most of the baby stuff. Since we're done having babies there is no need to hold on to all of the equipment. I started pulling stuff out at 7 am and people were already driving up. It was hot already and I was sweating before I was halfway done pulling the stuff out. My mom and Theresa came over to help with the kids. I worked really hard but we made about $350 which will help pay for our vacation! We still had quite a bit of stuff left so I took it all to my mom's house and she is going to have another yard sale in a couple of weeks. Saturday evening we headed back to Ocean Breeze with my mom and dad. Again we had a great time!

Sunday we did some shopping and stayed around the house. We cooked out at my mom's house so we could play in the pool and we had a nice time. Monday morning we were finally healthy and on our summer schedule. We headed to Candace's house to swim with her and "Dew". We had lunch and then headed home for naps. We had a great day and we are excited for many more to come!

We also took Tanner for his first Carousel ride at the mall and he loved it!!!

First Haircut, Sickies, and Some Random Pics

On Tuesday Tanner finally got his first haircut! For a boy to go over 14 months before his first haircut is kind of crazy. We kept saying we needed to get it done but we just hadn't gotten there yet. My mom came over to see how the kids were doing and gave them both a haircut while she was here. Since I was holding Tanner and she was cutting we didn't get any pics, but I do have some after shots. He no longer has a mullet! Hooray!

Over Father's Day Weekend Izabel complained a lot about her mouth hurting. I thought maybe it was her teeth or something and kind of left it alone. By Sunday she had sores in her mouth and on her bottom. She was barely eating because her mouth hurt and she would scream every time she put something in her mouth. Monday morning I took her to the Dr. where they confirmed it was Hand, Foot and Mouth disease. Who knows where she got it from but it's very contagious so we have been stuck at home all week. All that I can give her is Benedryl so we came home and she passed out on the couch.

Of course by the end of the day Tanner had it too so I gave him some Benedryl before bed thinking it would help both of them sleep. I was SO wrong. It has the opposite reaction on some kids and evidently Tanner is one of them. He was literally up ALL night. At about 4:30am I put him in his crib, shut my door and let him cry. He cried forever and then a little while later Izabel got up! Not the greatest day for me. The next night wasn't much better but now today they both seem much better and we are starting to get some sleep. Hopefully by the weekend all the sores will be gone and we can rejoin the world outside of our house!

And for some random pictures...

Izabel painted a birthday card for Mrs. Sherri...

she may have had a little help with the message :)

Izabel and Tanner hanging out at Ocean Breeze...I'm afraid this may have been where they picked up the virus, but of course they could have gotten it anywhere!

Father's Day

For Father's day I got up with the kids and let Noah sleep in. After a while we couldn't wait any longer so we went in and woke him up. We gave him all his presents! I got a variety of little things that he had been wanting - a new flag for the front porch, two new movies (From Paris with Love and The Hangover) some new flip flops, a new ODU football t-shirt, and some of his favorite treats! We played for a while, all took naps, and then headed over to my mom's house for a cookout and pool party. We got my Dad an ODU football shirt as well and part of his Ocean Breeze season pass. He loves getting to go with us all the time and he is alway excited for any excuse to spend time with the kids! It was super hot so the pool felt great! Nana, Aunt Ann, Aunt Phyllis, Aunt Judy, Glen, Amy and Ray, Keith and Michelle and Tristan all joined us for the celebration. We also celebrated Matthew's graduation. It was a great time and I think Noah really enjoyed his relaxing day! Thank you for being such a great husband and daddy and for working so hard to take care of us! We love you to the moon and back!!!

A few of Daddy's favorite things
Time to get up Daddy!Having fun in the poolIzzy and Daddy hanging outMe, Tanner and Anddaddy! What a great way to end the day!

Matthew's High School Graduation

My youngest brother Matthew graduated from Kempsville High School last Wednesday the 16th. We were all really excited that he made it and I'm sure my parents are happy to pretty much be done raising kids! We are all grown ups now and starting to live our own lives. Matthew has a summer job and is considering going into the Navy soon. We all agree that it is the best move for him and hopefully it turns into a great career. Congratulations Matthew - we're very proud of you!

Matt and Dad

Matt with Aunt Judy and Aunt Phyllis

Matt with me and Amy

Matt with Amy and their Uncle George

Matt with Mom and Dad

The end of the school year

We'll start with the last two weeks of school. As I talked about in my last post, we lost one of our seniors about two weeks before graduation. Her name is Jessica Starr and she was in my class for the last three years. Since I teach an elective, if a kid likes the class I tend to keep them for most of their high school career. We travel and do lots of after school stuff so I get really close with these students. This particular student was in the fashion show and had spent a lot of time with me after school gathering supplies and preparing for the show. I took her passing very hard. I was completely exhausted and drained all week. I went to her viewing and then the funeral. It was so painful to not only say goodbye to her and watch her family grieve, but to watch all of my other students grieving knowing there was nothing I could do but be there for them. Just when I thought I couldn't cry about it anymore I'm sitting here in tears while I write this! The funeral was beautiful and it even had some students asking the preacher questions about God and being saved which is always a blessing, especially in hard times. The school excused my class that Jessica was in from taking their final exam. They could take it if they wanted to, but sitting in that room with her empty chair was just too distracting and we were certain poor exam grades would be the result. The last day of class my students were going through old projects and found Jessica's last one. It was a fashion forecast which she did a really good job on. They asked me what to do with it and I just couldn't tell them to throw it away so I let them hang it up. It's still there, her name is on the back so no one knows who it belongs to but me. Graduation was the last hurdle to go through before we could really put this death behind us and move on. Jessica's chair was left empty and her cap and gown were draped there. Everyone wore a silver star over their hearts in remembrance and her brother accepted her diploma. Other than that it was all about the students and it was thankfully not a sad event! I'm still sad about this, but now that summer is here and I'm not in the building anymore I can move on and so can the rest of the school! I'll always remember Jessica fondly and hopefully this is something I will never have to go through again in my career!

A Very Sad Day

Yesterday one of the students that I've had for the past three years passed away on her way to the hospital. Little is known at this point, but the cause of death appears to be kidney failure. This was something she had been struggling with for the past couple of months, but very few people knew about it.

There is very little precedent for how to handle the death of a graduating senior two weeks before graduation. This student was very well known and her death is hitting a lot of students and teachers very hard, including myself. How do you comfort your students when you're hurting too? How do you explain how something so tragic could happen to someone who was so loved and had such a bright future?

It's hard to even know how to feel about this. It's not an elderly family member or some distant relative, this is someone who was barely 18 years old that I have seen everyday for the past 3 years. While we all have different ways of grieving, grieving as a part of a large group can be extremely difficult. I'm trying to pull myself together but everywhere I look there is a sad face of a student who has lost their friend and classmate. I see them cry and give them a hug and lose it all over again.

A teacher could go their whole career and never face this kind of tragedy, and yet here we are trying to figure out who can go to the funeral and who needs to be in the building. How do we honor this student who should be walking across the stage in her cap and gown next week? How do we tell a student they will never see their friend again? How do we give a diploma to a grieving mother? How do we grieve the death of one so young? Of course these questions don't have answers and time will help us heal, but it is a very sad day and it will be a very sad end to this otherwise successful school year.

Memorial Day Celebrations

Since we did not go camping for Memorial Day weekend this year we tried to find some new ways to celebrate. Sunday morning we met up with Candace, Matt, Drew, my dad and my brother Matt to go to the Strawberry Festival in Pungo. There was a ton of food, carnival rides, entertainment, a petting zoo and a large military display. Izabel had a ball riding some of the kiddy rides with Drew but it was super hot so we did not stay too long!

Tanner was there too...he was too short to ride !
After the festival we headed over to Candace's house to hang out by the pool and have a cookout. We swam for a while and then ate dinner. The boys headed down to the dock to go fishing and Candace and I took the kids for a walk. Drew drove Izabel around in his Escalade power wheel which was really cute! I brought dessert which was Red, White, and Blue cupcakes! They were a little more complicated than I had anticipated but I think they came out pretty cute and I was really excited about them :)

Izabel can swim around with just her vest now!
Tanner is slowly starting to be ok in the water
Daddy got to play too!
Red, white and blue cupcakes!

Monday Noah had to go back to work, but me and the kids got up and took a long walk to the park! Once again it was super hot so we decided to pick up my Dad and head down to Ocean Breeze for a few hours. Izabel was really tired and had a bit of a meltdown so we ended up leaving after about an hour, but it was nice to cool off. After Noah got home we headed over to Angie and Jimmy's house for a cookout. The boys drank beer and played corn hole the whole time and the girls sat around and chatted. We had a nice evening and a it was a nice end to the long weekend!