Busy...Busy....Busy

I know things have been quiet on the blog front and I am sorry it just seems like we are in a real busy season right now.  I always want to write....but, I just can't seem to find the time. I will try harder.

 I thought I would share a little of what our busy season of fall looks like so 1) I will be able to look back at where we were when my kids were 5 and 2; and 2) you will be able to appreciate the hectic pace of our lives. I think i am a little crazy but I am pondering taking on two more things to add to our schedule right now....more on that later.

Anyway what does a week look like in the house of us.  Just as a side note that alot of time Matt is not in town so at times it can get even crazier if he is not here to help.

Monday mornings start out always rushed.  The kids and I get up between 7 and 7:30am (Matt gets up at 6:00am sometimes even earlier if he wants to put in some overtime in the morning). We have to be out the door by 8:20am and into the van to drop Alyssa off at the bus stop (We can definately walk to the bus stop but I find it easier to drop her off so that we can run errands right away in the morning.) After Alyssa is on the bus.  Lucas and I ususally head off  to do the grocery shopping at either Save - On- Foods or Costco.  We usually go to Costco every second week and Save On once a week if not more.  We also run errands on Monday mornings too.  Alyssa gets home at 12:18pm so we are always home and I usually try to have lunch on the table.  As once she gets off the bus she is famished and its easiest to just send her right to the table to eat then hear her complain and whine that she is so hungry.  Mondays we are home in the afternoon and evening so I usually try to cook a big meal and catch up on laundry and do some housecleaning. 

Every second Monday, Lucas has speech therapy so then the grocery shopping gets moved to Tuesday morning.

Tuesday mornings after Alyssa is on the bus, Lucas and I usually head out to do something for  him.  Whether its a playdate at Cafe O'Play, going to the John Janzen Nature Centre with friends, playing at the Mall gym at Millwoods Towne Centre etc.  After nap on Tuesdays (we are in the process of Lucas starting to not want to nap anymore so every few days he decides not to nap and then its EARLY to bed), Alyssa has gymnastics from 4:30-6:00pm.  Keeping Lucas entertained at gymnastics is a little hard but he is actually doing better than I expected thanks to snacks, books, cars and the tablet.  We usually pick up something for dinner on Tuesday nights as both kids are starving by the time gymnastics is over. 

I should note that Alyssa's bedtime is at 7:30pm and Lucas is at 6:45pm if he doesn't nap and 8:00pm if he does nap.  So, after gymanstics its straight home to get ready for bed. 

Wednesday mornings Lucas and I attend Women In Touch at our church.  Lucas plays with the grammies while I co-lead a book study with about 10-15 women in it.  I love Wednesday mornings.  I get some me time and the support I feel there is amazing.  We come home on Wednesdays and in the afternoon I usually have to do some work/prep as I am also on the Women In Touch Executive.  Alyssa always has quiet time when its naptime so i can get some stuff done during that time.  I also make a big dinner on Wednesday nights as we are all home.

Thursday mornings I usually try to schedule any doctor appointments for myself or for Lucas.  He gets his haircut every five weeks at Beaners.  Tomorrow I am meeting with an awesome ministry, Pink Wings.  This is one of the things that I have been pondering about as I really feel led to get involved with their ministry.  At 3:00pm each Thursday my babysitter gets dropped off from school and I go to my Ladies Ministry Meeting (which is different from WIT executive).  It starts at 4pm but I find i can usually run one or two errands before the meeting begins.  I am usually home by 6:30pm to drive the sitter home.  If Matt is home, he drives Emily home.  The kids and Matt have leftovers for supper on Thursdays. 

Friday mornings are usually spent meeting up with friends, doing any other errands or appointments or sometimes just staying home to try and catch up on laundry and housecleaning etc.  Matt curls on Friday nights so he usually stays late at work and just goes to curling from there.

Saturday mornings Alyssa has swimming lessons and then we try to spend time as a family on Saturday afternoons and evenings.   Every couple of weeks we have small group on Saturday evenings.  Our whole family really enjoys small group and looks forward to when the next one is. 

This Saturday is a big crazy as I am helping run a dinner theatre fundraiser at our church to support the one day conference that we are doing in Janurary for the ladies of Evangel and Father's House.  So I am getting a sitter, as Matt is out of town, from 1pm until 10pm. 

On Sunday mornings we have church and then we try to rest up for the rest of the week.  When we have a girls night out they are usually planned on a Sunday evening. 

Whew....so that is my week.  It is a little crazy but it is working well for us right now.  Its the right amount of busy and the right amount of down time. 

The other thing that I am pondering and praying about right now is that Alyssa got asked to join Super Girls in gymnastics.  Right now she goes 1 1/2 hours a week but if she joined this special, competitive team she would be there twice a week for 2 hours.  I'm just not sure if going the competitive route is the right thing for her and for our family.  It just seems crazy that I have to make this decision so early in her young life.  I'll let you know what we decide.  Matt kind of wants her to go into it but I am just not sure. 

I am happy to tell you though that even with this busy schedule I am almost all done my christmas shopping.  I have one more thing to pick up and then I just have stocking stuffers left.  Yeah.  I am trying to be prepared as I know once December hits we are going to be busy with Christmas parties and functions. 

Sorry

I am so sorry, blog, that I have neglected you.  I have wanted many times this week to write but, I just haven't found the time or anything that I really need to say.

This weekend seemed to be very very busy.  Friday night was WIT's fundraiser at the waterpark.  We took Alyssa but, left Lucas at home with a babysitter as we knew he just couldn't handle the late night.  Alyssa had a blast.  Having mommy and daddy all to herself at the waterpark meant the world to her.  Matt and I also had a great time getting to spend time together with Alyssa and the waterpark is always fun.  It was a late night though, as we didn't get home until around 11pm.  Alyssa held up though with no meltdowns that night or the next day which was a bonus.

Saturday morning Alyssa had her first swimming lesson in Whale.  She did so well.  It was just her and another little girl so they got lots of attention and once again Alyssa surprised me.  She had another boy teacher and didn't even flinch when she found out.  Three months ago, that would have been a major problem.  But, now she did so well.  The other thing that surprised me was that she swam the ENTIRE length of the pool by herself.  Yeah....I am one proud momma of my little girl.

On Saturday evening we had our first meeting of the year for small group.  Our whole family loves small group.  This time we had a potluck Ukranian meal and it was delicious.  The fellowship, the food, the friendships we are making are all so great. 

Then on Sunday, Alyssa and I went to Cavalia, a cirque show with horses.  It was amazing and my little girl enjoyed it so much. 

Now, it is Monday evening.  Lucas is in bed early tonight as he has decided some days he doesn't want to nap anymore so on those days it is early to bed.  Alyssa is getting some cuddle time with her daddy and I am finishing up the six loads of laundry I did today.  I am finally caught back up on laundry after my surgery a few weeks ago.  And it feels good to not see the heaping pile of clothes in the basement. 

Anyway, I will try and be better at writing this week.  I just need to think up more topics.  Any suggestions? 

The Circus

I was online a few weeks ago looking for tickets to Cavalia.  I found some tickets but it was really expensive to go so I decided not to buy tickets (Matt ended up surprising me and Alyssa with tickets though).  But, as I was looking through the ticket master website I stumbled on tickets to the circus and they were just the price I was willing to spend. 

I only remember once going to the circus when I was a kid.  I remember all of the clowns fitting into a small, small car.  I remember sitting on an elephant. 

I was excited to take Alyssa to the circus.  She had no idea what to expect.  I think she was more in awe of Rexall Place and just how big it was and how many seat there were.  It is always so fun to see something new through the eyes of a child.  She was so excited. 

 

I really enjoyed seeing the trainer and the horse and how talented they both were. 

 

 

People doing acrobatics always amaze me.  This was a dad and his kids from South America. 

 

 

 

At the intermission we were able to go down to centre ring to run around and you could buy tickets for some bouncy castles or have a pony ride.  Alyssa chose to go on a bouncy castle. 

 

 

A circus isn't complete without the clowns....

 

 

The intermission seemed to be really long so we also got Alyssa's face painted like a horse. 

 

 

There was a kid juggling with fire that also really impressed me. 

 

 

Alyssa's favorite act (I wasn't able to get a picture of it) was when the lady was shot out of the cannon. 

 

I love spending time with Alyssa and getting to see the circus through her eyes was really memorable.  Hopefully we can take Lucas next year so I can see it again through his eyes. 

 





 





 



 





The Pressures of Having a Two Year Old

When Alyssa turned two a few years ago, I was surprised to feel pressure to get things done. Not really pressure from others, but, pressure from myself. Now that she was two, she was no longer a baby so I felt like we had to get going on potty training, losing the soother, and getting her in a big girl bed; all at once.

I remember seriously having to talk to myself to slow down. That just because she wasn't a baby that she was still little and that these things would happen in time. And they all did happen at just the right time that was perfect for Alyssa and for our family.

For example, potty training.....I tried potty training Alyssa four times between the ages of two and three. Everytime I tried she would start crying as soon as she wet herself as she really didn't know what was going on. One day when she was 35months old so just a month before her third birthday, we tried again. She got it and was trained in one day with only a handful of accidents. She was ready.

Then with the big girl bed......we set up a brand new big girl room with a toddler princess bed in the next room over as we wanted to keep the nursery a nursery. On the first night when she was about two and three months we tried moving her to her big girl bed. She just cried over and over that she wanted her crib so we moved her back into her crib. We tried periodically over the next few months and she always wanted back into her crib. One day when she was to two years old and eight months, I put her down for a nap. When she woke up she was talking in her crib when I heard the awful sound of "thunk" and then crying. I ran upstairs to find Alyssa on the floor crying, not in her crib where she should have been. She had learned how to climb out of the crib. Thankfully, she was fine, just scared, not hurt. We then, went downstairs and got daddy's tools and I took off the side of the crib. Her crib was now broken as it was unsafe for her to be in it. That night we explained that her crib was broken and that she had to sleep in her big girl bed. She went right into her new bed with no issues and no crying. She was ready.

The soother was a bit different. We really had to bear down and be firm with her. Just as a note, she only had her soother at nap and bedtime so no one even really knew she still had one. Finally when Alyssa was three and a half we got up the nerve to take the soother away. We were just so scared that our awesome sleeper would no longer be such a great sleeper. Anyway she did really well with it, just waking up early for a few days. On those early mornings we pretended to be pirates and went and hid het treasure, het soother, in the sandbox. After three night of no soother she got to pick out a princess dress at Toys R'Us. She again was ready and I am glad that each time we waited and gave her space to grow up when she felt ready.

I am a planner at heart, so it really felt unnatural to me to not know when these things were going to happen. But, when we let Alyssa take the lead everything went much smoother and more peaceful than we could have ever imagined. While except for the soother which I am sure she would still have now if we hadn't pushed her a little.

Anyway, fast forward to June.....Lucas turns two and once again I feel the pressure. The pressure within to get him off the bottle (which he only has at naptime and bedtime before he goes in his crib), to get him in a big boy bed and to get him potty trained.

Well I am happy to report that after a few attempts in the last few months to get him off the bottle, we have finally succeeded. When he was ready, it was an easy transition. I am surprised that I am actually feeling sadness as that was the last bottle that will ever be in our house. My baby is growing up. If I knew that his last bottle was really going to be his last bottle I would have savored cudling him a little longer. Overall though, I am thrilled that we finally got him off the bottle and I am super happy that I will never have to wash another bottle again.

The Cars toddler bef is downstairs waiting for the perfect moment to be brought upstairs and potty training is not even in our eyesight right now. We will wait until he is closer to three to try that. When he shows me signs that he is ready.

Family Pictures

Last week we met with a friend/photographer at the Muttart Conservatory, here in Edmonton, to get our family pictures taken. 

I wasn't sure how Lucas would do, but, he surprised us all and did AWESOME.  Both kids had so much fun having their pictures taken that they were both sad when it was all over. 

Anyway here are a few of my favorites.....

 

 

A Big Smurfberry Mistake

Alyssa loves playing games on our tablet so when we found the Smurf Village game we knew we had to download it for her. For the last few months she has been playing the Smurf game several times a day. Both Matt and I have joined in playing with her as well.

It is a game where you are trying to grow a village. So you are planting and harvesting vegtables, building huts and doing quests.

You can purchase smurfberries but, we have made it very clear to Alyssa that she is not too buy any smurfberries. She has done really well and has never even asked us to buy smurfberries which would help her buy more smurf things and move up in the levels faster.

But, last Saturday morning, Alyssa was up before us and was downstairs playing her smurf game. She ran upstairs asking me for help, that she had made a mistake. Unfortunately, in my sleep induced state I ignored her and told her I would be downstairs in a few minutes.

When I got downstairs, she quickly informed me that she had made a mistake and she didn't know how to fix it. Upon opening the game I quickly realized that she had bought a wagon full of smurfberries, which cost $99.99 !!!!!!! And she had already spent them all by the time I got downstairs!!!

We ran upstairs and got Matt up to help us figure out how to get $100.00 refunded on our credit card. After doing some research we emailed the developer and explained the situation.

As it was the weekend we didn't hear anything back until Monday. Alyssa had had the tablet taken away all weekend and she was praying that they would return our money so she could have the tablet back. She had really learned her lesson but, i really felt bad asi really think it was an accident and I had ignored her when she had asked for help.

Thankfully, on Monday, the developer emailed us back and refunded us the money this one time with instructions on how to secure our creditcard with a pin number so this didn't happen again. We went one step further and deleted our credit card number off of google play.

Lesson learned for Alyssa and for Matt and I.

This morning Alyssa dressed Lucas up as a princess. I will never, ever forget the look on Matt's face when he came downstairs and saw his only son dressed in a pink, frilly dress. It was hilarious and even more hilarious when Lucas wouldn't let Matt change him out of the dress. So funny.

Scavenger Hunt

I am always trying to come up with fun ideas to do with the kids.  So on Sunday morning, we decided to skip church and go on a scavenger hunt at West Edmonton Mall. 

With the list and my camera in hand, we were ready to go. 

I made up the scavenger hunt as a fun way for Alyssa to see West Edmonton Mall but also so I could get some shopping done while she was having fun. 

First thing on our list....nail polish

We both got our nails done to start the morning off. 

Next thing on our list....the skating rink....

 

A cell phone (but not mommy's)....

 



Ladies Boots....

 

Fountain #1....

 



A mask (I meant a halloween mask but when we went to Jungle Jim's for lunch she definately found a mask).

 

French fries....

 

 

Stairs....

 

 

A Sea Lion....

 

 

We both loved the sea lion show and Alyssa really liked the sea caverns and touching the stingrays.

 

Back to the scavenger hunt.....waterslides...

 

 

The next thing on our list was a car (I meant a real car on show in the mall), however after walking up and down the mall we couldn't find one.  But then Alyssa realized she had been driving in a "car" all along.  LOL.

 

 

Mickey Mouse....

 

 

A woman's hat....

 















Fountain #2....(a place where she could throw a penny and make a wish)

 

We had one more item on our list....an umbrella....but, we couldn't find one anywhere.  So we left a little sad that we couldn't complete our scavenger hunt.  Until Alyssa was looking back through the pictures on the camera, on the way home, when she discovered that we had in fact found an umbrella....

 



So we completed our scavenger hunt and had a blast doing it.  It felt like we were tourists in our own city and I'm sure that it will be a family tradition that we will start.  I can't wait to take Lucas on one, however he is still a little too little and wouldn't quite get it. 

Geocaching

Last night was an absolutely beautiful fall evening, so we went on a nuture hike with the kids to find some geocaches.  For those of you who don't know.  Geocaches or treasures are hidden all over the place by different people.  You use a GPS or an App on your cell phone to find the co-ordinates and then you can find these special treasures that are hidden in the woods. 

The kids love geocaching. 

Alyssa finding a treasure....

 

Sibling love....

 

 

Daddy and the kids hunting for a treasure....

 





And finally.....my three favorite people in the whole entire world.....

 

We had so much fun and if this nice weather keeps up, I'm sure that we will be doing some more geocaching this fall.  It is a fun family activity that is realitively free (you have to leave something in the geocache when you take something out.  So we go to the dollar store and pick up small items to leave.)

The Changes In Cell Phones

I got a new cell phone yesterday and I was amazed at how much different this one is compared to my old one. Two years makes a huge difference in the life of a cell phone.

I got my first cell phone when I was about 16 or 17. It was my dad's old phone and it was huge. It was basically, maybe even bigger than a house phone. I was given it strictly for emergancies and so my parents could contact me whenever they wanted. I remember quite clearly how short the battery life span was. Sometimes it didn't
even make it through the evening.

I don't remember having a cell phone when I was in college.

When we moved to Edmonton I got a cell phone for emergancies again and this one I used prepaid minutes. I remember calling Matt alot on that phone, usually to tell him I was lost in this big city of Edmonton and that I needed help finding my way home.

After a few years, we finally both signed a contract and got 'real' cell phones. I still remember quite clearly how excited both of us where to get these new cell phones. We were on a plan that allowed us to call each other free and we took advantage of that. These phones were tiny, flip phones.

Three years later, our contract was up and I got to upgrade to a pretty, small purple phone.

A few years later, texting was starting so I got a phone where you could pull out the bottom so you could text easier. That phone was black and was a little bigger.

Then, the touch screens and I Phones came out. I stayed with my trusty Samsung that I had had so much luck with. And I officially became an android user even though I had no idea what that meant.

Fast forward to today....I have a brand new Samsung Galaxy SIII 32GB and I love it, as I have loved all my new cell phones. It is bigger than my last tough screen but so much faster and has so much more memory.

Sixteen years ago, I would have never thought that I would be using words like 'syncing' or 'data plans' or 'texting'. But, here I am just trying to keep up with all the new technology that changes by the minute.

It makes me wonder where we will be in another sixteen years.

Nothing Like A Kitchen Dance Party

I hope my kids always remember our kitchen dance parties. Whenever the day seems to be stressful, I crave a kitchen dance party with my two littles. We turn up the kids worship music and dance until we can dance no more. And after our little party I find that the house feels that much more peaceful and joyful which is what we all crave.

We needed that stress relief something furious today.

I mentioned earlier this week that Alyssa had a bad fall, hitting her head hard on the monkeybars. Well out of nowhere she got two really bad bleeding noses. The second one lasted 45 minutes. She has never even had a little bleeding nose before. I was worried so I called the pediatrian who advised us to go right to the ER to make sure she didn't have a skull fracture. Yeah...I was pretty panicked at that point.

Our morning turned very hectic in like two minutes. Lucas is running around, pulling everything out of the bag I was trying to pack. Alyssa is crying and spitting out the blood she is swallowing and she is begging me to pray with her. Which I did a number of times. Anyway we got out of the door with Alyssa still bleeding quite badly. We dropped Lucas off at my good friend Jamie's and we were off to the hospital.

Thankfully at the hospital we were seen pretty quickly. The doctor did a good exam of Alyssa's skull, ears and nose. He didn't think that the fall and the bleeding nose was related. He would expect to see CSF fluid in her ears and nose if it was in fact a skull fracture; along with bruising around the eyes.

This mama was relieved.

So we picked up Lucas and had a dance party in our kitchen to rid ourselves of the stress. It did everyone really good and our day instantly went from bad to good.

And then our day went from good to excellent when we were invited over to our neighbors and good friends house for dinner. Laura made delicious pizza, the kids played nicely together and I got some adult conversation in. It was just what we needed.

And.......Matt comes home tonight which means my world is about to be righted (is that a word?) again.

Happy Weekend Everyone.

Travelling for Work Sucks!!!

Matt has been travelling a crazy amount for work lately (actually for about 10 months).  He is gone at least 50% of his time and we all hate it. 

We all long to move so that we can have him home everynight.  Hopefully in the future it will happen.  But, for right now we are left trying to make the best of this situation

I will never get used to the day Matt leaves.  It just plain sucks.....we all kind of feel just plain depressed as the weeks ahead with him gone, look unbearable. 

But, somehow I pick myself up....dust myself off and we make the best of the situation. 

We go one with our life.  Talking to Matt as much as we can.  Skyping with Matt as much as we can.  Alyssa really needs time with Matt so she will often take the phone or the computer up into her room at night so she can just talk to Daddy alone.  They can be on the phone or Skype for a long time.  I asked Matt once what they talk about and he says he just tells her stories; either pretend stories or stories from when he was a little boy. 

I find the hardest time of the day to be suppertime.  That is when Matt should be getting home and the mood in our house always changes.  From tired, worn out mom to Yeah...Daddy is home.  I find that I often try to get us out of the house at that time of day.  Whether it is to the park for a picnic supper, or to Kidz Quarterz to let the kids run wild.  We seem to eat out more when Matt is gone because I just plain don't want to be home at that time of day. 

So we somehow make it through the week and then the weekend comes.  I hate Friday nights when Matt is gone because the weekend just looms before us.  Everyone seems to be so excited that the weekend is here but to me it just feels so empty.  We get through it though. 

Then the countdown starts for when Daddy will be home and the mood starts to shift to Pure Excitement.  Days are counted down.  Clothes are picked out by Alyssa for what she wants to wear when Daddy is home.  Pictures are drawn and colored for Daddy. 

Then Daddy comes home......and all is right in our little world again.  He completes our family and having him home just feels so right. 

As much as I complain about how hard it is to have your husband away, I know that Matt is suffering just the safe; if not more.  He too is worn down from all this travel.  He just longs to be home with us in the evenings and weekends. 

I know that this travel season is just that; a....season.  We will get through it.  We know that this is NOT how we want to raise our kids.  We NEED to be together.  So until this short season is over we will work on thriving as a family instead of just surviving.  And we are doing it....we are really doing are best to make the best out of this situation. 

New Routines

The last week or so has just been getting us used to the new routines that fall and kindergarten bring.

Alyssa has done really well in adjusting to kindergarten. She seems to be really enjoying her ckass and new friends and taking the bus is a big bonus for her. She was excited though, when the weekend came and she could "sleep in" which really means just being lazy in the morning rather than getting up and ready pretty quickly.

I moved bedtime to an hour earlier and it seems to be going really well. I really do like my evenings back as 8:30pm just felt too late. It worked for us in the summer but, 7:30 is much better. Lucas seems to be taking a little shorter nap in the afternoon but, then has more nighttime sleep. It is all working out for now and hopefully doesn't change now that I've written it down.

Matt is in Fort Worth right now and like always we can't wait until he is home again. All of this travel is getting absolutely crazy and all of us can't wait until it ends. That being said though, our family is really happy to know that so far for the month of October there is no travel planned. Yeah........I think this is the first time in ten months that Matt will be home for the whole month. Yeah.....We are going to enjoy every moment with Daddy this fall.

Lucas had a speech assessment done today and he does have a moderate speech delay, probably from all his ear infections in the past. We will be taking him to a speech therapy playgroup once every three or four weeks until he us caught up. We are also still waiting to get his hearing tested to make sure permanent hearing loss hasn't occured. I don't really think this is the case but, it is best to get it checked out.

This afternoon was an absolutely beautiful day so we called up some friends for a nature walk in the river valley. The kids had lots of fun exploring through the trees and looking for some geocaches. We ended the evening with a picnic in the park. It was a really nice time, until just before we were to leave. Alyssa fell off the top of the monkeybars and hit the back of her head hard on the bar and then did a flip mid air and landed on her tummy. Needless to say, she was hysterical and has been in alot if pain since. She is sleeping in our bed right now and I will continue to wake her up every few hours tonight just to make sure she is okay.

Anyway I am off to bed to snuggle my little miss Alyssa.  She doesn't get to sleep in our bed very often but I am going to enjoy it while I can. 

Edited: Note Alyssa woke up this morning just fine.  Her neck still seems quite sore and is a little stiff but she feels fine.  Around 5am when I woke her for the third time, she rolled over and said, "Don't wake me up anymore, please.  I am absolutely fine."  LOL.

Women In Touch

Women of all ages; with all different backgrounds meet together to encourage one another.

Beautiful decorations create a peaceful space in the fireside room at our church.

Coffee with flavored cream are staples on a Wednesday morning.

A spread of delicious food is layed out at the back table; so thoughtfully prepared for this meeting.

Women being transparent and honest with one another.

Women lifting each other up as we walk through the trials of life.

Tears and hugs being shared when life gets tough. Laughter and smiles a few minutes later fill the room.

The Holy Spirit is present.

The children are being lovingly cared for by "the grandmas" so the moms can have a break.

Women are growing and moving closer to God.

Books are studied and used as a tool to help in our journey.

Prayer is essential and the Holy Spirit is so kind to always meet us where we need. 

Women leave more peaceful, more rested, and ready to take on the week. 


To me, Women in Touch has been such a blessing in my life.  The fellowship that happens on a Wednesday morning is what I crave.  The support that these women offer has been what lifts me up during difficult times.  I can't give it all the praise that this program deserves.  It is what I look forward to each week and I can't imagine my life without it. 

I took a step of faith this year and I am now on the executive team as well as I am leading a book study.  I need to give back all that has been offered to me.  I pray that God uses me to encourage other women, to lift them up when they are down, to help them grow on their spiritual journey. 

I am so thankful for all WIT has done and will continue to do. 

  

First Bus Ride

Although I had a hard time letting Alyssa go to Kindergarten, I was really struggling with her taking the bus.  I just couldn't imagine letting my five year old on the bus all by herself.  But, I knew that it was something I needed to do and she needed it to. 

Alyssa was beside herself excited about taking the bus for the first time to school today.  Again, she was up before me, dressed, and eating breakfast when I came downstairs in the morning. 

She kept reminding me of the time all morning so that she wouldn't be late and miss her bus.

Here she is waiting like such a big girl for her bus to come.

Alyssa getting on bus route 232 at 8:35am in the morning.

As the bus left with my baby girl on it, Lucas was left crying as he wanted to go with his sister on the yellow bus and I was left with tears blurring my eyes as once again Alyssa grew up right in front of my eyes. 

So what does any crazy mother do.....she follows the bus.

I just had to make sure that she wasn't left not knowing what to do once she got off the bus.  But, my fears were rest assured when I saw the assistant teacher waiting for the kindergarten kids to get off the bus. 

The assistant teacher took them to their doors where they waited for the bell to ring.  Once I knew she was safely inside, I finally felt okay to leave her. 

She got off the bus at 12:18pm and the smile couldn't have been bigger on her face.  She was so proud and she looked so old. I knew that we had made the right choice in letting her take the bus.  





First Day of School

Alyssa was doing so well and was so excited about going to school, until two nights before she would have her staggered entry.

As she lay in bed, the tears came about how scared she was.  How she was upset that Lucas would be getting more attention that her.  She was crying and saying, "I just want to spend more time with you, momma."  My heart was breaking as I held her while she cried. 

Once she settled down and went to sleep I sent out a prayer request to a couple friends; asking them to pray.  I then went into her room while she slept and prayed over her. 

When she woke up she didn't say anything about school and we just went on with our day like we normally would.  We met up with some friends and went mini-golfing at West Edmonton Mall.  After mini-golfing I took the kids to Build-A-Bear. 

The teacher had sent out a letter saying that if they needed to, they could bring a favorite bear with them.  So we went to build-a-bear where we allowed her to build her special "Kindergarten" bear that she could take with her the next day. 

Both Lucas and Alyssa had alot of fun building their bears.

Alyssa put a recording of her voice into her bear saying, "I am so excited to start Kindergarten."

Alyssa named her bear, "First Day of Kindergarten" and she named Lucas' bear "Thomas" as he loves Thomas the train.

 

I really found that the combination of prayer and building a bear really helped Alyssa.  She woke up the morning of school before I did.  Once I got downstairs she was up and already dressed ready for school.  She was SOOOOO....excited and so ready for school to start. 

 

I can't believe that my baby girl is in Kindergarten :(

 

 

Lucas had to get into the picture taking too.  He also had a sign that morning that said "Lucas".

 

 

We dropped her off and took her to her classroom.  She never looked back and was just following her teacher.  Her confidence shown through and I was so proud of how well she did.

 

 

Matt took some time off work and picked her up after her class so they could go out for a celebratory lunch.  Alyssa chose a pizza parlor and loved having all of Matt's attention.