T-Ball and Baseball practice today…

We actually started the day with a dance class. Sydney takes dance classes once a week on Tuesday mornings for an hour. Then Sydney spent some time with Nila, helping her with some things around her house this afternoon. Nila brought Sydney home in time for Charlie’s baseball practice. Baseball practice was at 4:15 for Charlie for an hour. Sydney had her first T-Ball practice scheduled for this afternoon at 5:30 for an hour as well. It was a perfect day for Baseball/T-Ball with sunny warm weather. The temperature was in the low 80’s today. Charlie is a lefty so he needs some extra batting practice, which is what they did today. For Sydney, this is her first experience with T-Ball, so she has a lot to learn. Sydney worked hard today with dance and T-Ball both. She was really tired at the end of the day. Here’s a couple of pictures of the kids in their new uniforms.

My baby is 5 years old today…

Sydney Elayna was born on Thursday, April 28, 2003, at 8:23 AM CST. She was born 4 days past her due date, weighing in at 9 lbs. 13 oz. and 20″. The past 5 years have flown by so quickly.

Today, we started the day by letting Sydney pick out what she wanted to wear. She chose a denim skort, white lace tights, red sparkly top with pink crocs and a pink ponytail holder and barrettes. She looked adorable. I absolutely love her long red curly hair. (I am sorry I don’t have very good pictures to share but I do have a couple of pictures from today.)

After breakfast, we went to the bakery to pick up the cupcakes we ordered (baking was not in the cards the past couple of days with all I had to do). After lunch, Sydney and I took the cupcakes to preschool. After preschool, we invited Nila and Steve over for leftover cupcakes (and banana bread). We lit a candle on Sydney’s cupcake and sang happy birthday to her. She loved it.

She blew her candle out immediately after we stopped singing. I asked her if she had made her wish and she immediately said, “yep, I made a wish!” No idea whether she actually made a wish or not but she said she did. She received a strawberry shortcake coloring/activity book, crayons and stickers from Nila and Steve, a card and $15 from grandma and grandpa in the mail today and from us, she received a Disney princess calendar for her bedroom wall and a pair of sandals. We plan to give her two more gifts after payday. She will be having a party hopefully this coming Saturday, depending upon what time T-Ball pictures are done.

For dinner we had to have Sydney’s favorite, four cheese pizza. She loves pizza, spaghetti and mac’n'cheese. She decided on pizza for tonight.

Today was such a fun day, filled with lots of hugs and birthday kisses! I can’t believe my baby is already 5 years old!!! She sure is growing up fast!!

Chuck’s trip to California

When Chuck went to California for his mom’s funeral, he took some pictures of family members, some that he had never even met. Here are just a few of them. Rebecca and Tony are Chuck’s niece and nephew and Chris is Chuck’s brother. Rebecca and Tony are Chuck’s sister Pam’s kids. Rebecca and Roger are the newlyweds-to-be, this July. Jeremy is Chris’s youngest. Chris and Angie have 4 children, Christopher, Brianna, Emily and Jeremy. Chuck has another brother, Steve, who is not pictured here. Chuck is the youngest in his family.

Roger and Rebecca

Tony and his 10 month old baby girl

2 year old Jeremy

Chris and Chuck

Baseball season begins…

Today was Charlie’s first practice. I think he would still talk himself out of playing but he seems to have fun and could take it or leave it. I told him that he can hang in there for a few games and if he absolutely hates it, then we will discuss it at that time. Charlie is the only lefty on the team so that makes it a little tougher for him but I think he will do fine once he gets going. Sydney will be playing t-ball this summer too but so far we haven’t heard when her first practice will be. She seems excited so far but we will have to wait and see how she feels about it after she learns how to play. I have a feeling she will love it. Time will tell I guess…

It’s not fair… :(

It was a beautiful 64 degrees and sunny here today and we are still stuck inside because of illness. Chuck went to work tonight at 5 PM mostly to get away from sick people and for his own sake. I sure wish I were able to do that too. Sydney wants Mommy all the time and I want to be there for her whenever she needs me but it sure makes it difficult to get anything else done. She doesn’t sleep long when she does but on a good note, she is finally able to keep crackers and liquids in her. She almost seemed like herself at times today but then again, she cried this terrible weak cry for awhile today too. It really pulls your heartstrings when they do that. We are expecting really nice weather all this week so I can’t wait to air out my house for some fresh air and a change of scenery. I have been so busy caring for everyone else and cleaning up after them that I cannot wait to get out for a bit. I feel like I have been in this house with sick people for 10 days or more and I am almost losing my mind at times.

I am going to end up driving my husband 3 hours one way to get to an airport so he can go to California for his mom’s funeral. He leaves Tuesday and will return Friday. So it looks like I get to do lots of driving this week too.

Guess I better say lots of prayers right now so that I can be strong for everyone who needs me. Life can sure be tough at times but those are the times when you find out how strong you really are. For right now, I am simply praying for a good night’s sleep for both me and Sydney so that I have the strength to get through tomorrow.

Grandma Hester

We got the phone call this morning. Grandma Hester had passed away in her sleep last night. She died peacefully and it is really a blessing that she went that way. She was 83 years old and lived a long and wonderful life. We haven’t yet heard the details of the funeral yet but Chuck will have to fly to California by himself but he will be with his family when he arrives.

I will be at home taking care of my sick family. Poor Sydney has not been able to keep anything down for the past day or two and I have lost a lot of sleep this past week. I think once Sydney is able to keep food/liquids down, I will be able to take care myself that much more too. Chuck is doing better but he is still on the mend too.

I found a couple of really nice pictures of Grandma Hester when she first met Charlie. She loved spending time with him and these pictures are so wonderful of her. She was such a wonderful lady, mother and grandmother. I just have to share some of our good memories of her.

Grandma Hester will be missed by many and was very special to all of us! We will surely miss you and will keep your memory alive for your grandchildren. Rest in peace…

Letting go is really hard sometimes…

Chuck’s family at Christmas 2004 – Pam, Steve, Chris, Chuck and Hester

Grandma Hester with our family – Christmas 2004

We haven’t had much good news around here lately. First my husband came down with influenza. He said a guy came to work sick and that’s all it took for him to get sick. Now the rest of us seem to be getting the symptoms too, hoping its not the same thing. And while he is dealing with that and missing 3 days of work, he received a call from his sister, Pam. Pam said that their mother, Hester, age 83, is not doing well at all and in fact may not make it through the night. This was last Saturday and she is still holding on but Chuck is not able to fly out to California to be there with her. She may not even be aware of his presence if he got there and he admitted that he just couldn’t see her like that. He seems to be distancing himself from the pain of losing her so far but the time will come when it will hit him. He told his sister just to let him know when the worst happens. The hard part for us right now is that we are all sick and cannot afford to fly out to California. The cheapest flight we found so far, roundtrip was $946 I believe. And that is for 1 person. I just worry that Chuck will have regrets if he doesn’t get a chance to see her before she passes. Its so hard to know if she will be aware of his presence or not. My husband is one who chooses to procrastinate or put off the things he cannot afford to put off and then will pay the price later. I wish I knew how to help him. I sure have been saying a lot of prayers lately.

On a good note, a friend of mine went to her son’s wedding today. I can’t wait to see the pictures and hear all the details. At least there’s a happy event in the middle of all this sadness.

April Fool’s!

My 7 year old, Charlie thought it was funny when he told me there was a spider in my hair. Apparently, the kids at school had lots of fun with April Fool jokes today.

Today was a fun day really. This morning Nila and I were invited to watch Sydney’s dance class (we get to watch them once a month – its too distracting otherwise). The class was small today, only 5 girls were there today. Sydney tries really hard and seems to really enjoy herself too. After dance class, we all went to eat at Subway for lunch. Then we did some small errands including buying flowers (Nila’s son needed them for his girlfriend). Nila had an appointment to keep so she left.

Ashley called me this afternoon too, just to talk. She is so busy moving into her new rental house. I am really happy for her. I can’t wait to see her new place. I am so proud of her!

Charlie brought home the best papers from school today that I have seen in a long time. He struggles with focus problems (possible ADD). The teacher suggested good sleep habits, less sugar, more protein and a good breakfast as well as a multivitamin and OmegaBrite (1/4 tsp daily). What a difference the OmegaBrite has made for him! If you are struggling with a child who has ADD or ADHD, OmegaBrite may be a good option to look into. You can find more information on it at http://www.omegabrite.com.

Tonight, Charlie was busy working on a homemade train track and cars made from an old crayon box and copy paper, glue and crayons. He has such great ideas and the details he remembers are amazing. He is making this for his dad for an early Father’s Day present, he said. My children never cease to amaze me…

After much convincing, Eric made dinner for us. After Charlie and Sydney went to bed, Eric conned me though; he needed to use the computer to “study” since he didn’t have his book (the second night in a row). He had lost any computer privileges except for homework only. Well, with supervision, he still signed into messenger and some other websites that he isn’t allowed to use as well as not logging off when he should be. He has pushed his limits so much lately and lied to us way too many times. Teenagers sure like to test you at times. I think 15 is a really tough age. Rebellion is the word that comes to mind when I think of him lately. He even refuses to get his hair cut. This is what he looks like these days… We told him its not the length of his hair so much as how he wears it. I just want to see his eyes. Most days, he wears it straight down like the picture where you can barely see his eyes. How do you get through to teenagers who don’t talk to you and don’t respect you as much as they should?I do know that deep down Eric has a good heart and it is in the right place (most of the time) but he also has a lot of struggles of his own in life, with ADD and some other things. I know that high school can be tough at times. I will be sure to keep praying for him.