Green Belt

Michael had his belt graduation this past Friday. He is now a Green Belt. We are quite proud. In addition to his earning this new belt level, he is now considered an "advanced level". They group "low belts" and "high belts" together in classes. Which means, unfortunately, that his class schedule changes.

Michael has been going almost every day recently. The program we enrolled him in has "unlimited" classes, so we have been taking that to heart, and he has been going usually 4-5 days a week. I knew that would change come baseball and soccer season anyway.

I liked his old schedule, it integrated well into the rest of our activities. One of the changes is actually better, the class is earlier in the day (3:30 instead of 4:20). The other day, however, its later and starts running into baseball and soccer, so he often won't be going that day.



But, back to the point at hand. He did a great job at his belt test. His form (which is a sequence of steps, kicks, and punches) was done with precision and authority. The picture of his sparring is classic. It shows him blocking a kick by his opponent. He didn't enjoy the sparring though - I haven't figured out if it was because he was sparring with a girl, or with a grown-up girl. I think it was the "grown-up" part. But, he held his own and then the instructor switched out partners.

I like his instructor. He is great with the kids. I had to chuckle at him at the belt test. He asked Michael if he was allowed to "make contact" with his sparring partner, which he wasn't because his partner wasn't wearing pads. He then asked the boy beside Michael if he was allowed to make "hard contact" with his partner. The boy said "um, no?". The instructor said, "Do you know why?" and the boy didn't, at which point the instructor said "Because she's a girl and you always respect women" :)

Drama Production

A couple of weeks ago, our homeschool group put on its most recent productions. Samantha was in two of the plays: "Much Ado about Ants" in which she was a vacuum cleaner saleswoman, and "Old Man River", in which she was one of the girls in the family.

We had a great time getting the costume and hair together for "Old Man River". It was set in the late 1940s. So, wearing an old poodle skirt of mine with the poodle removed, a white blouse, and flat shoes, Samantha was fixed for a costume. But then there was her hair. She has straight, long, fine hair - nothing like it was worn in the late 1940s. So, after a few experiments with rollers, we were able to get some curls in her hair. She slept in curlers and we pinned in the curls when we took out the curlers, and pulled the pins just before her play. Assisted with a lot of hair spray, I think her hair kept pretty well.

Unfortunately, the camera batteries died after about the 2nd picture that I took. So, I had to depend on the generosity of others who had photos that included Samantha. I don't have any from "Much Ado about Ants" yet, but I do have a few to share from "Old Man River".

One Year Ago

One year ago today, our lives changed. What had been a normal existence for the first 25 months of her life was shaken when Emma was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes. We knew nothing about what this would mean to our family.

There were days and hours that we wondered if we would make it through. There are days that feel “almost normal” – at least our new normal, and there are days that are downright exhausting.

My husband and I are completely sleep deprived. That’s what happens when you have to get up 1, 2, 3, and sometimes even 4 times a night to make sure your child isn’t at risk of a seizure from low blood sugar, or suffering from high blood sugars. The delicate balance we try to achieve in our lives, and in her body, is often elusive. There is no end in sight to this aspect of the disease – as the finger stick is THE way to definitely know what is going on in her little body.

But Emma’s a trooper. In the past year, she has had her finger stuck approximately 4000 times. 4000 times we’ve had to stick her finger and test her blood to see whether her blood sugar levels are in range or not. In the first 6 months with this disease, she endured more than 1000 insulin injections before moving to an insulin pump – the most wonderful technological invention that has reduced her injections to once every other day and enabled us to achieve a much tighter level of control.

So we are now one year into this disease. One year ago, I never expected to be where I am now. But we made it through – sometimes day by day and often hour-by-hour, but we made it through.

I’d thought I’d share where I was one year ago this evening:

















And here's Emma now!



For our second year, we will be walking as a family in the JDRF Walk for the Cure to raise funds for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. I encourage you to check out our walk page and see how our fundraising is going. If you are local to the DC area and would like to join our team and help us raise funds for JDRF, feel free to email me.

2008 JDRF Walk Page - Emma's Strollers

End of an era!

Today we moved our youngest and last child from a crib into a toddler bed.

We delayed it this long because she had not once tried to climb out of the crib. Emma, like Samantha, much preferred to yell at the top of her lungs for us to come get her out!!

But she also wouldn't / couldn't climb in. We tried and tried to teach her but no luck.

She is fully potty trained during the day and we leave her in diapers / pull ups overnight for now but figured that we needed her to be able to more easily get out of her bed if she needs to.

I have already started getting some individual pieces for her ultimate bedroom set but for now, she is using the same toddler bed that Samantha and Michael used, that we purchased used for a good price when Samantha was 2 1/2 - so we have definitely gotten our money's worth!

She loves her new Big Girl bed!!

Roomba update

A friend asked in a previous comment for an update on the Roomba

I love it.

I now have a schedule built so that it can run in the master bedroom and family room two times a week, and each of the kids rooms, the living/dining room, and the upstairs hallway once a week. And all that time I can be doing something else (especially since the family room will run overnight while we are sleeping!)

Upward Basketball

Yesterday was Michael's last basketball game of the season. This is his second season playing Upward Basketball at a church not too far from Mike's office.

Michael has really improved this year. His coach was surprised that as a lefty, that he continously went to the right side of the court when he dribbled down the court. But by the end of the season, he was going to both sides a bit more. He still thinks that when he's done dribbling, its time to shoot and doesn't think about passing. But, he's getting better. And he is pretty great at defense. He can really guard his man and really prevents him from getting towards the basket or often even getting the ball in the first place.

And he had a great coach this season and we were really fortunate to have him as coach!

What a difference five days makes!

Last Wednesday, we were in the throes of an ice storm. It was actually raining ice, there were sheets of ice on the roads and sidewalks and it was just a mess all around.

Today it is 70 degrees outside.

In two days, its supposed to snow again!

Happy Birthday Emma!!

Today is Emma's 3rd birthday!! I will share photos of her Dora party later.

But we are happy to celebrate that 3 years ago today, Emma joined our family after a long and tough pregnancy and was, and still is, quite the snuggle baby!!

Happy Valentine's Day

The kids woke up to new Webkins at the breakfast table (the Love Frog, of course), and cards and candy from us. I had a beautiful bouquet of red roses, with 3 placed in separate vases(1 for each child).

And then I had a delivery from the FedEx man - a Roomba vacuum. I have been coveting one of these for a while and it is currently in its charging base. If it works like it's advertised, then I look forward to having our high-traffic family room vacuumed each day. And, this means that the clutter will have to be picked up each day so that the vacuum can run! But at least I can be doing something else while it runs!

Poor, Busy Tooth Fairy

The poor tooth fairy has been busy, and will continue to be busy in our house.

Samantha lost a tooth over the weekend. The tooth fairy visited that night.

Michael's other front tooth FINALLY came out this morning, with lots of struggles including both myself and Mike. Tooth fairy will be visiting tonight.

Samantha is getting some teeth pulled tomorrow - hopefully one of the ones planned to be pulled was the one that fell out - and the tooth fairy is going to go BROKE tomorrow night!!

Poor, tired tooth fairy.

Good homeschool week

Well, I can certainly say that my standards for a good week have changed over the past year and a half, especially with all the extra that we have had to take on with Emma.

The past month or so has been difficult. One or the other of us seems to always be sick, there have been any NUMBER of doctor's and other appointments, and just when I would feel like we are getting in a groove, we get derailed again.

This was a good homeschool week.

The first day was actually a carry over from the last day last week, that was yet another sick day. But, we actually have five good days in a row. I did all of the lessons with the kids all week, including everything that involved me (which is always the areas that I fall short on). We are catching up with where I'd like to be in history and we have finally started a science program. So, all in all a good week.

Happy Birthday Samantha!

A couple of weeks ago, Samantha turned 11. She went back and forth on what she wanted to do for her birthday, and finally decided to have dinner at Olive Garden on her actual birthday (with just family) and then a party at the Laser Tag place for her friends.

Laser Tag was pretty neat. They had a party room where we could set up, and the kids played two different games of Laser Tag, with snacks in between and cake afterwards. Samantha initially wanted cupcakes and then we found these fun "star shaped" mini cakes so we made those and each person got their own little mini cake to eat.

Samantha even invited the younger brother of a friend of hers so Michael would have someone to play with.

It was a nice afternoon but, as always, quite exhausting, and I was just happy that I didn't have to clean up remnants of a party at home when it was all over!

Gold-stripe belt

I am a bit behind in my updating so I'm going to update with some random events that have happened in the past month.

Michael earned his next Tae Kwon Do belt. He is now a "Gold Stripe". This is basically halfway between Gold and Green. They "break the curriculum up" into two parts, I think, to give the kids something "closer" to strive for. Michael earned this pretty quickly, considering there were lots of weeks of limited classes due to the holidays and our trip to Disney

Once he earns his next belt, I have to change the class schedule, which is a shame because I like the times he goes now. But most of the classes he attends are for "low belts" and when he gets his next belt, he will no longer be a "low belt"

You may notice the black uniform among the sea of white uniforms. Michael joined the "Elite" program, which means he can go an unlimited number of times in a week (right now, he goes 5), and he gets to go to an additional "Elite" class. They focus on additional physical fitness, leadership skills, and weapons. He really enjoys it and because I changed the way I was paying from monthly to all up front, it actually didn't cost me anymore to upgrade - I just had to go ahead and pay for the year.

You know, we agreed many years ago not to give gifts to the adults!!

Thankfully, my brother and sister and I have agreed not to buy Christmas gifts for each other - just for the kids. We have gotten lucky there as we only have 3 nephews to buy for while my brother has FIVE nieces and nephews to buy for.

But, really, my sister-in-law didn't need to give me the gift she gave me. Really. She should take it back. That is, that cold that she was suffering from for two weeks when she visited for Christmas. I think she shared it with me! Really, I appreciate the generosity, but that's really alright.

Back to School, Back to Life

Today we are back in business. Kids are back onto their schoolwork and practicing their piano (which they have had a TWO WEEK break from). Mike is back at work.

School is going pretty well today - that usually happens when I take the time to do the lesson plan in advance. We are still struggling with getting Samantha to "move along" - she dawdles at everything, from getting up in the morning, the actual ACT of eating, and dawdles at her schoolwork. The problem is that the dawdling affects more than just her because I have to be involved in some of her schoolwork and I actually do have other things to do - SHOCK

But, we're back into the routine and now just need to start packing up Christmas and geting the tree down!!

Oh, and since so many people are mentioning their New Years Resolutions, I will too.

I only have two and they are related: Get more organized and simplify. We have too much stuff. The stuff is getting in the way of my getting organized. So, I want to get rid of lots of stuff and then organize what is left. Some of the "stuff" is because my parents are working to put their house (my childhood house) on the market, so their "decluttering" becomes my "clutter" (Hi Mom!) But its stuff that I'm not ready to get rid of yet, so I need to get rid of the stuff in my house that I AM ready to get rid of - and I'm going to be getting 2 bookshelves from her eventually so that will HELP organize the stuff!!

Magic Kingdom (Day 4)

Nov 30th


We headed back to the Magic Kingdom after a day at Epcot. The days at Magic Kingdom are usually about the same - start in Fantasyland, which has universal appeal to everyone. Head over to Tomorrowland for possibly our favorite ride - Buzz Lighyear. The kids and Mike head off to hit the roller coasters from time to time and we meet back up. Emma has a grand old time and takes a nap in the afternoon. Throughout the day, we visited with a variety of characters that we found throughout the park - that is one of my more favorite parts of a trip to Disney.



The two highlights of this day were our dinner at Crystal Palace and the Very Merry Christmas Party. Crystal Palace is probably our favorite character meal - and not just because its the Pooh characters. Pooh has been a favorite for all of our kids - and Emma is no exception.


After dinner at Crystal Palace, it was time for the Christmas party. They were shuffling out the other guests - we had our wristbands to show we were there for the party. We walked over to the castle mainstage so that we could see the Christmas party show. We took that time to TRY and get a family photo. Between random eye-blinking of one or more members of the family, and Emma refusing to look at the camera or wearing a hat or anything else of that nature, we finally got a decent photo of the 5 of us with the Christmas castle in the background - and I got a good one of Mom and Dad.

After the show, Mom and Dad and Emma and I headed down Main Street to get our places for the parade. The Christmas party parade is really different than the regular daytime parade. They have lots more floats and characters and everything is decorated for Christmas. AND, they have the marching "precision" toy soldiers. They march and play right on the beat - which has GOT to be difficult with those big soldier heads on.




After the parade, Mom and Dad and Emma and I headed back to the hotel. It was already 9pm and Emma would do better if she got some sleep. Mike, Samantha and Michael stayed and rode the rides some more, while the lines were especially short. They caught some of the parade on their way out.

I realize that I hadn't shared any of the fireworks that we saw our first day at the Magic Kingdom. I got some great ones during the show and thought I'd share a couple of my favorite.

Epcot (Day 3)

Nov 29th - Epcot

Today was our day at Epcot. We have always spent just a half day there and done "most" but never everything we wanted. So, we decided to spend the entire day there and take our time and see all that we wanted.


We spent the morning at the Land and the Sea pavilion. I personally hadn't ridden "Soarin" before. I loved it and we rode it a couple of times. In between, we rode the Living with the Land train and that was really neat. We saw a lot of different plants - and my favorite was seeing the mold that they put around the pumpkins to make them grow in the shape of Mickey Mouse. And I LOVED how they grew all of their "vine" plants on racks up above your head - a lot better results that way!! (and surprisingly I don't have any photos). We also popped over to the Sea pavilion to ride the Nemo ride and check out the aquarium. We love that they project the animation right on the aquarium - pretty neat.

After lunch at the Land pavilion, we worked our way back to the World Showcase. Mike took Samantha and Michael to ride Test Track while Mom, Dad, Emma (asleep of course) and I rode the boats on the lagoon - both of them. Mike and the kids made it back by time we were getting on the 2nd boat so they rode with us - and Samantha even got to be a guest pilot.










Once on World Showcase, we started at Germany and worked our way around back towards the front, as our dinner plans were at Le Cellier. We wanted to see some of the Christmas presentations at the different countries. We started with Germany. A lovely German woman came out and told of some of the Christmas traditions in Germany and she spoke of a Nutcracker, who then came out to greet her and have some photos taken!







As we worked our way around World Showcase, we enjoyed the Dickens carolers in the American Pavilion and then the Fife and Drum Corps performance just outside. Emma finally woke up from our nap and we worked our way around towards England and one of our objectives for the day - seeing Winnie the Pooh. He was greeting guests with Eeyone in the back of the toy store in England. We waited in line and were able to see and play with them - Emma showed them her stuffed Pooh and Pooh loved on it. And, as we were exiting the toy store, Father Christmas was coming out to tell his story of Christmas in England - so we were able to sit right down and hear that.

After England, we continued our way around to Canada where we saw Papa Noel tell his story of Christmas in Canada and then we went and checked in for dinner at Le Cellier. We enjoyed it a lot the last time we went, but the service was pretty slow - VERY SLOW. And, we went prior to the Candlelight Processional last time, so we were extremely rushed to get to the concert. From what I understand, we weren't the only ones to complain about the speed of the service. So, while we were 20 minutes late getting seated, the service was much more efficient and we had a good meal and were done in plenty of time to walk calmly to the American Pavilion, arriving just in time to sit down for the Candlelight Processional. It was, as expected, wonderful - and the deaf interpreter that was there two years ago, was again. She is quite animated in her interpretation and really enjoys the concert herself!