Every Day Life

Every time our life seems to be falling into a routine, something changes. So, I'll just update each child.

Tyler -- he was working custodial at the mall, but they kept leaving him to close alone, which is at least a two-person job. Iron Wok saw how hard he worked and hired him for the days he didn't work custodial. He also works in our flea market shop Friday, Saturday and Sunday. 

Finally he couldn't take the stress of the custodial job and gave two weeks notice. Iron Wok gave him an extra day, and Hickory Farms just called to see if he wants to work seasonally starting November 21. They hired him last year when they saw him sweeping the food court. I really don't have recent pictures of him because he works every day except Tuesday. So on Tuesdays I usually take both him and Jessica to Taco Bell. This is last Tuesday.

Jessica continues to work two jobs, one retail, one a waitress job on the beach. She works evenings, so there is only a short time gap between when she leaves for work and when Hunter gets home. We take turns helping her with the babies. I had them today. Yesterday she and I took them to the park.

Jeff- I haven't heard from him in two years by his choice.

Adam -- He has moved three hours away to become active reserve. Thankfully he does come home every few weekends so we can make connections. He and Tara are no longer together. They have been on and off so many times, but this move seems to have ended it. I hate that because I think they are good together. But it's their lives. So we watch and pray. He is involved in coaching a boy's basketball team after work. And he has an endless supply of friends.

Jasmine-- Life has gotten stressful far too quickly this year, her junior year. She is not in band because when you are percussion, it is your life. She said she could not go through another year of that. She is in a local children's theater group, though, and loves that. Since it is two nights a week, she chose to not participate in county Christian choir this year. I am a bit sad about that because it's a great program that combines a Bible study with choir, and they go on tour the first week of summer every year. This next summer they are going to California. But she has to do what she feels is best for her, and she is struggling with math and history already. I'm glad she has the theater program for fun.

We went to the beach during a tropical storm two weekends ago.

Kaleb-- Intermediate band is marching with advanced band this year, so he has marched at a couple of football games already. Thankfully he can wear Jasmine's middle school uniform for the upcoming parade, except that he needs a different color cummerbund and bow tie. He is also in his third year of swimming. He can't decide if he likes it or not. He likes things to come easy and doesn't want to work at them. I know it will all click one of these days.

Kayla -- Kayla finished Teen Court. She just has to turn in her notebook completed. She tried out for middle school basketball and made first cut, but she did not make the team. We were all disappointed for her. She has the choice of playing on a city league, but it is not until Jan/Feb and is at the same time as middle school soccer. She has to decide quickly between the two.

This month was Kayla's turn to go on a Mommy date. She chose the Chinese buffet.

Ashley-- hoping to see her and the kids on our very brief trip to Indiana next month. Phoenix is in marching band, and Griffin is in football.

So those are my updates for now. I know I don't post much, just too much going on most days. And I'm never sure if anyone is really reading my posts other than my brother. LOL.

A Tough Weekend

This top picture makes me smile. And I need that!

It was a tough weekend. Kayla decided to rage Friday afternoon and Saturday. Wrote the F word in cleaner on the kitchen ceiling. Made threats against the pets and siblings. Not the cheery stuff blogs are made of so I'll spare you the details. Waiting to hear from the counselor tomorrow.

A classmate of Jasmine's got a sinus infection. It went into his brain, and he died Friday. Just like that. Jasmine has been having bad dreams about it. Going to talk to the counselor about that too. Have already talked to her about some ways to process it. But the raging from Kayla has made it all worse.

Kaleb had a swim meet. He moved up from novice to level one. His starts from the blocks are better, but he still came in 23 out of 24 on 50 yard freestyle, 23 out of 23 on 50 yard back crawl, and he DQ'd in 50 yard breast stroke. He used a scissor kick instead of a true breast stroke kick. His freestyle was 10 seconds faster than last time. His back crawl was 10 seconds slower. He slows down as he nears the wall because he doesn't know how close he is. I told him to use the flags. Once you go under the flags, count your strokes to the wall. I don't know why the coaches haven't worked on that. It's pretty basic. If he'll do it, it may help his time next meet. Thing is, he has no competitive spirit at all. When he saw he was 23 of 24 he said, "But that's good, right?" Well, that depends on how you look at it. Good he finished. Good he didn't DQ. Good he is okay with it. But he's also very complacent about it. That's okay unless he wants to compete in high school or wants to get a scholarship. Time will tell.

The twins spent some time playing trombone together this weekend. I played saxophone with them, and Jasmine played drums. It makes practice time more fun to do it together. Jasmine has marching band assessment next weekend at a different high school. 

We ended the tough weekend with some music together.

River is getting more and more mobile. She walks quite well with her push toys. She interacts and recognizes her special people and rewards them with a smile. On Tuesday Jessica, Tyler, River and I went to Dory during the day while the others were at school. River and I lasted about five minutes. I was actually happy she was fussy so I had an excuse to leave. We went out and played in the mall play area.

much more fun than sitting through a movie!

My 9-year-old step grandson is in football and taking down kids three years older than himself! He's in Indiana, so I won't get to see him play.

Crazy Year

This is proving to be a challenging year, especially for Kaleb and Jasmine whose schedules are crazy!
  
We split up the school pick up to get people home faster. Jasmine is home by 3:30, Kaleb's school gets out at 3:30 and he's in another town so he's home after 4:00, and the charter school has a bus so Kayla gets home around 4:00 also. She could be home ten minutes earlier, but pokes around getting home.

Jasmine has choir Mondays from 6-8:15, band Tues, Thurs from 5:00-8:30, football games on Fridays and some Saturdays. She got in Friday night at 11:00 and had to be back at the school Saturday at 10:30 for a band assessment at two locations in AL. Home after 11:00. 

On game day mornings the band members go to school in their practice uniforms and play in the courtyard.

Kaleb has swimming every night from 6:45 - 8:00. It's about 40 minutes away, but at 6:00 the traffic is challenging. He also practices trombone every day.

Kayla only has trombone right now. I was planning to sign her up for basketball, but recent e-mails from school make me question her ability to listen to a coach and respect other players. We will see what happens. Many things are unconditional, but the things that require money and being at regular practices require trust and appropriate behavior.

Tyler is still without transportation after his accident a week ago yesterday. That was also when Jayden was injured by another animal. Jayden is doing better. She had a procedure to put in a tube, so the infection would drain. Her eye is better too. The vet called her Frankenkitty. Unfortunately, that is what she looked like!

She is looking better now. She got her tube out Saturday.

Ty's van isn't looking better though! We are waiting to hear if it can be repaired.

Ever since the amazing day we had at the springs, trampoline gym and Chuck E Cheese, the kids, including Adam, want to know what we are going to do on Saturdays. Adam has texted me the last two Saturdays to ask, but I've had to tell him "nothing" due to band. One Saturday it was band pictures, and Jasmine had to be there from 9-1:30!! This Saturday it was the assessments, and she was gone from 1:30 am -11:30 pm!!

We do have plans for next Saturday, so let's hope nothing band related comes up because the following week Adam has reserves and we are taking part in a big "yard sale." The following Saturday is Kaleb's first swim meet of the year and the next week is marching band assessment.  The 29th is our next free Saturday after the 1st.

One good thing this week is that Jasmine and Kaleb had Wednesday off of school for a teacher day. The charter school wasn't off, so Kayla wasn't. I told her if she brought me the form, I'd fill out a family leave form so she could be off, but she waited too late.

Jasmine, Jessica, River and I went to the beach for a short while. Ty and Kaleb opted to stay home. These are my favorite photos from the beach.

I think this last one is my favorite one of Jasmine.

Life Now that School has Started

Now that school has started, we are kind of into a routine, and life is pretty ordinary. We still try to get to the pool or beach on the weekends, but it's not the same. Sigh.

Two of the kids have an insane schedule.

Our days go like this:

On school days, Rick and Kayla are out the door at 6:10 to drop Kayla at her charter school bus stop, and then Rick goes on to work. Jasmine, Kaleb and I get up when they leave. Previous years we all had devos and family meeting at 5:40. So it feels different not doing that. We try to read a devotion at supper because despite the crazy schedules, we try to all eat together even if it's at 4:30.

Kaleb does his afternoon jobs at 6:30 a.m. because his afternoons are crazy. He also does his homework before school. Jasmine does her homework in the morning, too.

Either Ty or I leave with those two at 7:45 and drive them to two schools in two very different districts. Jasmine's school starts at 8:30 and Kaleb's at 9:00. She is in kind of a poor school, and Kaleb goes to the rich middle school. It's laughable how different the school are. Sometimes they have club before school. Both twins plan to join Fellowship of Christian Students/Athletes.

In the afternoon, we pick Jasmine up at 3:10. We were going on to Kaleb's school (he gets out at 3:30), but the car line is so long that it was a two hour round trip. So Rick is picking Kaleb up at 4:00 after he gets off. That is about what time we actual got through car pick up anyway. His doing that really helps because we can get Jasmine home at 3:30 instead of 4:45. Kayla's bus gets here about 3:45.

On Monday evenings starting after Labor Day, Jasmine will have County Christian Choir from 6-8:15. This includes a Bible study each year. They will be going on tour to Michigan next summer.
The twins were going to be in the Middle School choir, but the director was just selected to sing with the USAF choir and tour the world. So middle school choir was cancelled. There has been a bit of a fuss over that, so they may come up with something for them.

Jasmine has percussion at 5 and full band at 6 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. There was no way to get her home, fed and back in the days before Rick took over picking up Kaleb.

Kaleb has swim team every night at the college which is about 45 minutes away, a little less if there is no traffic. Thankfully it starts at 6:45 so he has a short time to get home, eat, change and head back out.

We are going to take Wednesdays off from team and all three go to youth group at church. We may take some Fridays off too. Jasmine has football games many Fridays. I would like them to have some unscheduled time too, although the twins need the structure of schedule even if it's scheduled outdoor free play or Wii (electronics are rare around here with the exception of Ty which is pretty much all the time he isn't at work or driving).

Kayla was supposed to start city soccer, but she violated some counseling goals/rules/boundaries, so she will start with either school soccer or city basketball in a couple of months. She will do youth group with the others but is disappointed there is no middle school choir.

So life is a bit crazy around here. If grades fall or kids get too stressed, something will have to go. The problem is that band really stresses Jasmine out, but if you skip a practice, you can't play at the game plus you get an F AND have to write a research paper. That goes for excused absences too, so don't dare get sick! She is going to drop band either after first semester or after the year because of the stress. It also takes the whole summer. This summer we went on a family vacation at the only time we could, and she missed percussion camp. It wasn't pretty. She also missed an evening practice the week of her surgery and couldn't carry her drum during full band camp because of the weight and her recovery. I think kids need the summer off. We do our summer math and reading packs, but also family time and free play.

While the kids are at school, Jessica, Tyler, River and I get time together. Jessica, River and I went to the beach last week.

My Nikon is damaged, and my water camera's battery went dead after these two photos, so no cute water pictures.

Ty is always talking about how I do things with the girls, but that he and I don't share any major activities (our advanced scuba fell through--money and instructor changes), so he and I went to comic con in Pensacola for a day.

This morning before going to the pool, the girls went to Lowes to the free kid's workshop. Technically Jasmine is too old, but that's one advantage of being small. Even though her age is on the registration form, they have never told her she's too old.

They made the last of the Avengers characters they've been making each time. There were six total.

We've been also working on using the jigsaw at home.

So that's kind of how life has been here lately.