Happiness Is...

Today I am off to camp with Brendan.  I've never been a counselor at this camp and I'm very excited.  We leave this morning and arrive home on Friday afternoon.  Cole, Kaelin, and Collin are staying home and they have a fun week planned as well.  

Today I am happy!  The scale has finally realized that I want the number to go down!  After 5 weeks of going to the gym daily (M-F) I have lost 5 pounds.  I have gone down at least 1 clothing size, but I was anxiously awaiting the falling numbers on the scale, and I'm happy to finally be seeing that.  

I've been cleaning out closets at my house.  Cole and I both went through our clothes and got rid of items we'll never wear again, and I went through the kids' closets with them.  I have a friend with 2 girls that I give most of Kaelin's clothes to, and Collin gets most of Brendan's clothes, but I don't have anybody to give Collin's clothes to.  When all was said and done, I had 6 big boxes of clothes that needed a home.  The obvious solution would be to take them to Goodwill, and not that Goodwill isn't a perfectly good organization, but I was looking to find somebody that could use some help right now and would benefit from receiving clothes free of charge.  I sent an email to a bunch of my friends asking if anybody knew a family that might want some of these clothes, and nobody did.  Then a friend of mine suggested giving them to Mission Possible.  She knows somebody who volunteers there, and said she could get the clothes to them.  I thought this was a wonderful solution and I hope that somebody who truly needs them receives the clothing we can no longer use.  

I'm teaching Kaelin's 2nd grade class with my friend, Angie, and so far we've had a great week!  We have music with one of the first grade classes and today there was discussion about what heaven is like.  One of the first grader's said, "Heaven's like Chuck E. Cheese's."  I suppose that's an accurate statement for a 7 year old!

Brendan returned home after spending 5 days at Camp Wilderness Ridge.  Surprisingly, my city boy had the time of his life.  It is a Christian based camp for boys, and they get to do things that city boys don't normally get to do.  They went canoeing, fishing, learned archery, shot pellet guns, slept in open cabins, ate outside, and went without a/c for 5 whole days!  They had devotionals after breakfast and then had a Bible study with his cabin mates.  Their verse for the week was Mark 12:30, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." 

Today marked the third week in a row that I made it to the gym 5 times!  Yay, me!  I am still not seeing the number on

 the scale go down like I want to, but my clothes are getting looser and looser, and I can see muscle tone where there used to be almost none.  

Earlier tonight we went to pick up Brendan from his camp.  As we were driving to the camp, we passed a pasture full of cows of many different colors.  Kaelin saw a black one and said, "There's a black cow, that's how we get chocolate milk."  

Kindergarten Graduation - the ultimate tearjerker.  My last 2 blog posts were about how wonderful Brendan and Kaelin are, and now it's time to gush about Collin.  He is just as wonderful as his older siblings.  He is just as smart and creative as they are, but he has a completely different personality.  He hasn't quite figured out when is a good time to talk, and when it would be a good idea to be quiet, but we're working on it.  Pretty much everywhere Collin goes, he has fun.  He is almost always smiling and giggling, and it warms my heart when I hear him laugh.  He, too, received some awards at school.  The music teacher gave him an award for enthusiasm in music (not really sure what that means), and his kindergarten teacher gave him an award for most patient.  This I find hard to believe.  When he is at home and he wants my attention, he says, "Mommy."  If I don't respond within 3 seconds he says, "Mommy" again.  He is not patient at all when he's home, but I'm glad he is at school.  Collin is a unique little person, and I have a feeling he is going to shake things up in this world.  

My only girl is growing up.  Everyday I look at her and I am amazed that she is mine.  She is uniquely Kaelin.  She is

 smart, creative, beautiful, and she knows exactly what she wants at all times.  And she never hesitates to let everybody else know what she wants.  She loves Miley Cyrus, nail polish, Bath and Body works, shoes and hats, and anything girly.  In these ways she is the total opposite of me when I was a child.  But she is Kaelin, and I see great potential for her to do wonderful things in her lifetime.  At her 2nd grade celebration, she received several awards.  She received awards for A honor roll, a Six Flags reading award, outstanding theater arts student, and I think one other award.  Her preschool teacher is still under the impression that she cannot talk, but she has found her voice in a big way.  Kaelin had what was basically the lead role in her class's play. She not only talked, she did hand motions and talked loudly.  Ms. Lee would be so proud!  

It's true!  I am now the mother of a middle school boy.  Wow!  Our elementary school has a really cool 5th grade graduation celebration,  Brendan got several awards - honor roll, Six Flags reading award, academic award, outstanding theater arts student, and at least one more that escapes me right now.  I am very proud of my firstborn.  I've been told that he is referred to by his friends at school as "The Genius."  I was talking to his teacher on the last day of school about him going to middle school, and in a 3 minute conversation, she referred to him as a genius at least twice.  He kept his PACE math teacher on her toes this year.  And I am so thankful to have had a math teacher who worked so hard to keep him challenged.  She has recommended that he not take 6th grade PACE math next year, but he should take 7th grade PACE math, which is essentially 8th grade math.  So I guess the moniker, "Genius" is fitting.