Each Peach Pear Plum

I have been reading a book from my childhood to Waverly lately. I actually have had it memorized for years!  It is an I spy book so you look for a person on each page... It goes like this: Each peach pear plum, I spy Tom Thumb. Tom Thumb in the cupboard, I spy Mother Hubbard. Mother Hubbard down the cellar, I spy Cinderella. Cinderlla on the stairs, I spy the three bears. Three bears out hunting, I spy Baby Bunting. Baby  Bunting fast asleep, I spy Bo Peep. Bo Peep up the hill, I spy Jack and Jill. Jack and Jill in the ditch, I spy the Wicked Witch. Wicked Witch over the wood, I spy Robin Hood. Robin Hood in his den, I spy the Bears again. Three Bears still hunting, they spy Baby Bunting. Baby Bunting safe and dry, I  spy plum pie. Plum pie in the sun, I spy EVERYONE! It is one of her new favorites. Now she calls me Mother Hubbard. 

Twirling in her Easter dress.
 

Total Failure and Heart Break

Cannon very excitedly lost a tooth yesterday afternoon. He ran from the bus to the car to show me his dangling tooth. He was worried about having to eat fried chicken for dinner with that yucky thing. I told him I was sure it would be out before dinner. Not a second later did he proudly announce that it was out! So exciting! For the record- I HATE loose and lost teeth. It totally grosses me out.

He went right to his room and found his tooth saver box and put it under his pillow. He told everyone about that tooth, even brought it back out to show dad.

You can see where this is going...

I had a friend from Colorado visiting for dinner, we had soccer and wrestling and adventures. We finally got everyone to bed. I remembered the tooth when we were heading to bed, however, Cannon was still awake when I went to bed. I thought I would have to get up with Waverly a couple of times during the night and the Tooth Fairy would make the exchange at that point. I thought wrong.

Matt went to wake the boys up this morning and found Cannon sitting up in his bed staring with sad big brown eyes at the tooth saver box complete with tooth and no money. OOPS!

He slowly came down for breakfast, slowly ate his food, slowly got ready for school. His heart was broken.

I felt so bad. I do hate to disappoint the boy like that. The Tooth Fairy arrived while he was at school and I was at the dance recital. She even left double the money to make up for being late. I hope he will forgive her.

On a side note, I do not think I will be sad when all the kids discover the true identity of the Tooth Fairy, Easter Bunny and even Santa Claus. I have been doing this for a lot of years. The novelty has kind of warn off. Poor Waverly.

It only took 15.5 years!

It finally happened, the event and phone call I have been waiting for pretty much since the day Madsen became mobile. He broke a bone. His let wrist practicing a new throw move at wrestling practice.

Coach Armfield called to tell me about it and ask if I would please come pick him up.

I am such a good mom that the first thing in my head was can it wait til tomorrow when the doctors are open again so I don't have to go to the E.R. Fortunately the urgent care office was still open so we headed over and received not so urgent care.

He is all splinted up and we will head to the orthopaedics tomorrow for a cast.

This is the last week of wrestling so he will only miss 2 matches. Depending on the length of recovery, he may miss off season wrestling which is a bummer.

Madsen has ALWAYS been crazy with his body. I thought for sure he would be broken all the time and I would be on a first name basis with doctors all over. I am honestly amazed that this is his first real injury. And he is soaking it up, I tell you! He is sure he can't do homework or housework or pretty much anything with only one arm. I told him he is lucky it is his left wrist and if he was an amputee, he would find a way to do things with only one arm. See, Mom of the Year, I tell you!

The urgent care doctor was pretty impressed with my cool calmness. I guess you get used to these things and it was nothing to freak out over any way. I am just hoping this is the only thing that goes wrong this week while Matt is out of the country!

Rival High Schools

Friday night Madsen's cross country team received their conference champions shirts during half time of the basketball game. He got in free and I thought it would be fun to go to a game, so it was date night.

Panther Creek, Madsen's school, was playing Apex, Sully's school.

There were a lot of Apex kids in the stands. It was kind of obnoxious to have to listen to all the rival banter back and forth. This did not happen at my high school games since no one traveled the 40 plus minutes to see games.

Unfortunately, Panther Creek lost, by a lot. Apex was a much better team.

I told Matt that next year we will have to go to all the games that are PC vs. Apex. That way OUR team wins no matter what. It will be interesting to have kids attending rival high schools.

Truthfully, I think I will have a hard time cheering for Apex. Except the soccer team if Sully makes it.

And, we brought home Panther Creek pom poms that were handed out at the game. Waverly loves them. What was I thinking?

Proximity with Choice

Yesterday was the first day of school choice selection here in Wake County. The process was simple, log in, find student, choose schools. No problem. Now I just have to wait 2 months to find out what schools my kids will go to next year. It will either be the easiest possible year with 4 kids in 4 schools or a complete nightmare.

I am hoping that Cannon will get into Baucom Elementary because it is 2 miles away from home, he can ride a bus to and from school that comes into the neighborhood. It is traditional calendar, same start/end time we are used to. A lot of our church friends go to that school.

I am really hoping Declan will get into Apex Middle. This is the school Madsen and Sully went to. It is not far from home, busing to and from. A huge majority of our church friends go to this school. He is currently assigned a school that is 25 minutes away from us on the other side of a different town that we do not live in. It also feeds into a high school that is 20 minutes away from home. Totally ridiculous. I also put as my second choice Salem Middle which is close to home, a really good school, but a year round calendar. So, if this is the school he gets in, we will have 3 traditional schools and 1 year round. Yikes! We would try a transfer for this coming year and then try again next year to get him into Apex Middle. This is my biggest worry.

Madsen is staying at Panther Creek. He has had such a great experience there with friends and teams and school that I am not messing with a good thing.

Sullivan will be going to Apex High. All his friends go there and it is closer to home. We will survive 2 high schools for 2 years. I really don't think this will make much of a difference.

Now it is out of my hands. Much faith and prayers going out that Declan will get into Apex, that is the most important. I just might have to light a candle, too.

2012 in a Word

Successful. That is the word I choose for my hopes for the new year.

I hope we are successful in selling our house and buying one I love.
I hope the boys have successful school years.
I hope Sully is successful in making the middle school soccer team in the spring and the high school team in the fall.
I hope Madsen successfully gets his drivers license.
I hope Matt is successful at work.
I hope we successfully change school assignments for Declan and Cannon.
I hope I am successful in my fitness goals.
I hope we as a nation successfully elect a new President.
I hope that whatever happens this year we will successfully choose to have positive attitudes and make the best of whatever circumstance we find ourselves in.

The End

The year wrapped up with not much excitement at our house. Madsen blamed me for not having any friends and I reminded him that no one had called and invited him any where for New Year's Eve either! Sully was at a friends house. We sent Declan and Cannon and Waverly to bed around 10:00 with a sparkling juice toast. Matt, Madsen and I stayed up watching silly shows until it was time to watch the ball and acorn drop. We toasted and picked Sully up and went to bed.

2011 was a year full of ups and downs like most years. Good things happened and bad things happened. The most frightening was Matt's potential job loss which ended up with a transfer. My van transmission died. Cannon had surgery. The water heater died. We survived.

The boys had successful sports seasons. Sully's soccer season was cut short with a broken thumb. Madsen had an excellent cross country season, receiving his first varsity letter.

Madsen and Sully had "the best summer ever!" spending nearly 5 weeks in Colorado with grandparents. They loved it. Sully was not ready to come home and I think would head out again any time. Madsen was ready to be home. Declan and Cannon enjoyed the time with out those brothers!

Sully got braces on in September. The teeth that were sticking out were down in a normal position after just a couple of days. He gets the set on his bottom teeth next month. Not much fun right now, but he will love the results!

Matt started a new job in November and so did I! His is much more important. We love that we get to stay in North Carolina. He loves that his commute is now only 20 minutes. I love that his new job is close to the high school so I don't have to go up there to get Madsen after practice. Mostly I love that it will enable us to FINALLY buy a new house.

All is well that ends well. And now for the adventure of a new year.