November Round Up

This time of year is always crazy. Holiday parties, weekend work commitments, charity events, festivals, less daylight, and more homework have all added to our already insane schedules. So I am going to do one post to combine much of our November fun!

At the beginning of the month I took the kids to the Family Tree's annual walk. Bryan was doing wills for heroes so I met up with a few friends down there and we had a great time walking, playing on the moon bounces, getting balloons, and checking out the playground. It was another excellent morning and I continue to be excited that our family supports this great organization.

We have also spent a lot of the month looking at, doing projects with, raking, and jumping in leaves. We are doing our thankful leaves again in November with Noelle selecting one thing a day she is thankful for. Kellen helps sometimes but mostly just repeats what Noelle has said. And this past weekend the weather was actually lovely so the kids raked and played in leaves with daddy.

Noelle and Bryan spent one very cold Saturday afternoon watching his alma mater Georgia Southern take on Navy. The game didn't work out quite the way he had hoped but the two had a great time together and even stopped for a special dinner after enjoying the freezing cold football fun.

We had our first Kindergarten parent conference and were proud to hear she is doing great. Noelle is reading really well, doing great with her numbers and math, and is generally really liking school. We continue to work on handwriting (her letters and words are well formed, just LARGE!) and building her confidence about new experiences but are so proud of how far she has come in just two months.

And this past weekend, Bryan had another wills for heroes event so the kids and I met up with Catherine and Avery (and ran in to some other friends) for the B&O Railroad Museum Lego weekend. We saw some great model train villages, the Blue Lego man, and went on a train ride. The kids had fun and even complained little when we headed to the zoo afterwards to get my race packet without going in the actual zoo! Zoo Zoom the next morning was a great race and my first race since May and my summer injury. I was 13 out of 245 for my age group so I was really pleased and am excited to keep running.

 

So that pretty much catches you up on our November pre-Thanksgiving happenings. Oh and Kellen's two bouts with the stomach flu. We'll post again soon and wish everyone a blessed Thanksgiving.

Ten Years, One Company

Last Monday was my ten year anniversary working full-time for CTY. The day went by without a thought and later in the week I got an email from HR congratulating me on the milestone and asking me which token of their appreciation I wanted. No token necessary, but the more I think about it, the more crazy it all seems to me.

Over ten years I have gotten married, had two kids, and worked at 8 different summer sites. I was promoted once and have had many additional roles and responsibilities put on my plate. I have searched for other jobs, and even been offered a few, still I stay. And I think that says something about how grateful I am to work for a program that I believe in, that continues to challenge me, and allows me to have some sort of family work balance, at least most of the time.

I also think about the friends I graduated with. Especially from my CSP grad program. About a quarter of my peers have totally switched fields since graduation. Almost all have worked for many different schools or departments since graduation. Am I the only one still working for the same department since graduation? I'm not sure. But I definitely think in today's world, it is certainly the exception of the rule to stay with the same company for years and years.

So happy ten full-time years, CTY. And here's to many more as we continue to challenge and support one another.

Halloween 2014

This year Halloween began earlier in the day than normal for our family. Noelle was supposed to wear her costume to school and then I went in as a room mom after her class had an early lunch to help with the class party. I was in charge of the craft so I worked with groups to make mummies while the two other moms did a pumpkin toss and poke a pumpkin game with the kids. We then had snacks and checked out the kids' costumes. Everyone was adorable and the kids had a great time starting their celebration.

After an early dinner we got the kids ready for trick or treating and took some pictures of the Queen and her dinosaur friend.

We then met up with Jacob from down the street and the kids were off right as darkness fell. Jacob didn't enjoy Kellen's roaring dinosaur costume so we quickly split up and Bryan and my mom (and then Bryan and I) took the kids down the street for candy collection. They both ran up to houses, said trick or treat, said thank you, and then ran back down the driveways. They LOVED it. Kellen came home after street one to hang out with me and my mom as we gave out candy and then Noelle and Bryan went on to the next street and then came home to sample one or two goodies.

It was a fun day and I loved my cuties, even if Noelle did insist on wearing the most unoriginal costume of Halloween 2014. And thankfully Noelle's school did a candy donation so we kept a few pieces and sent the rest in to school so I won't be eating multiple snickers bars a day up until Christmas.

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!

Three Year Visit and Stats

Last Thursday I took Kellen to the doctor's for the second time in 8 days. The first was on day four of a fever that was coming and going. Thankfully he was at the tail end of a virus with few other symptoms and he was pretty much back to normal the next day. The second time was for his annual check up and flu shot.

We recently switched doctors within the same office for Kellen based on how complete a sick visit we got with the new, old guy last year. Noelle is staying put with Dr. Burke based on her long health history with her and at Hopkins but I thought Dr. Kopper was the guy for Kel. After an almost 40 minute well visit with him, I think I made the right decision.

We talked about everything from Kellen's eating habits to his night terrors to his relatively small size to his iron/thalassemia minor issues. During his sick visit, another doctor heard a slight heart murmur. This is something that they heard right after Kellen was born but that quickly faded and hadn't been heard from since. At the well visit, Dr. Kopper listened for about 5 minutes and had the doctor we saw at the sick visit come in and listen/consult as well. I was pretty impressed. Thankfully it appears this isn't a big issue as when he is feeling fine it is hardly noticeable even with a close listen. We'll continue to monitor for changes in the years to come though and I appreciated the thoroughness of both doctors.

Dr. Kopper sort of cracked me up too. With Kel's thalassemia minor stuff, he pretty much said we don't need to do anything at this point, and that besides high altitudes probably being a problem (so no scaling Everest or playing football for the Broncos later in life) he should be ok. And with his eating and weight stuff he wanted me to know my kid isn't malnourished so I can probably stress less and just give him some vitamins and an ensure shake occasionally if he isn't getting any protein or veggies in that little body.

Kel's official stats:

Height: 36.5 inches 25%

Weight: 30 pounds, 6 ounces 37%

In the last year, Kel grew a little less than 2 inches and gained almost 5 pounds. At this age Noelle was about 4 pounds heavier and 1.5 inches taller so I think we can probably accurately guess where the size in our genes has gone. Kellen is lower in the height percentile and a little higher in weight now (although that went from baby scale with no clothes to big kid scale fully dressed) so we are going to push a little more milk on the kid, especially when he skips dinner, and otherwise reevaluate next year. Hopefully he has a massive growth spurt and will be taller than all of us someday!

I feel so blessed to have two super cute, very healthy (in the grand scheme of things) kids that bring me joy every day!

Fall Leaf Photo Shoot

While I was at the beach, Bryan took the kids to an actual photo shoot with a real live photographer. When I chatted with the kids one hour beforehand Noelle had dressed herself in see-through white leggings and a sweater and Kellen still had on his Jake pajamas. I have great confidence that Bryan got their clothing act together and slight confidence that Kellen looked at the camera and Noelle gave a real, non-cheesy smile in at least one picture, but just in case I took some photos last week while the kids played in the leaves after school/daycare.

We miss our daylight and warmth in the evenings!

I'm no professional photographer and my iPhone camera isn't fancy, but I think these last two are pretty darn adorable and are definitely going on my new gallery wall!

Moms' OC Weekend

Being a mom is super great. And beyond exhausting. Thankfully I have a great group of mom friends and one of them has parents with a condo in Ocean City. Hello much needed girls' weekend!

My kids tried to derail my weekend with fevers, but my awesome husband took one for the team and took full responsibility for the kids while I enjoyed a getaway. The weather was absolutely gorgeous with sunny skies and temperatures right about 70 and we enjoyed walks on the beach; outlet shopping; a wonderful dinner out; buffalo chicken dip, brie, and other yummy goodies; baileys/hot cocoa/coffee, mimosas, hard cider, and wine; and lots of girl talk. Of course girl talk with moms is about how to be a good parent, good wife, and good friend so our real lives were never far from our minds but it was still relaxing and wonderful.

I am so thankful to great friends for an amazing weekend and to B for letting me take a weekend away from it all.