Showing posts with label back-to-school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label back-to-school. Show all posts

Tuesday, August 21, 2012

First Day of School – Richmond Style


Yesterday, my oldest babies started a new year of school in a new place.  We are now proud to be Richmond Rockets!  The Weavers were welcomed by lots of familiar faces, greeted by friends new and old, and bathed in the excitement of starting a new adventure!  Britt and I both had the opportunity to escort the 3 biggest Dream Weaver kids to school yesterday morning, and while we were a little choked up to leave them there, we both fared well in the end.  Our kiddos were all a bit nervous, but Emma and Lara are lucky enough to have each other – and to be in the same class this year for the first time.  But my brave little man had to face it all alone.  Jake was so strong!  You could see the uneasiness in his eyes, and he had the front of his T-shirt balled up in both hands, but he stood in his spot with the rest of his class and headed from the cafeteria to his first day of Kindergarten like a champ!  The older kids were held in the gym down the hall before class, and we had dropped the girls off first.  I think Jake was surprised to find out he would have to part from his sisters so soon.  After several hugs, the obligatory pictures, and reassurance form his new teacher, Britt and I courageously left the cafeteria, and left our baby boy to fend in the big world of Kindergarten (secretly rejoicing in the fact that his two big sisters were protecting him from a far!)

Emma - 5th Grade - Age 10 - 2012

Lara - 5th Grade - Age 10 - 2012

Jake - Kindergarten - Age 5 - 2012

Our traditional First Day of School pose

                                             
We are excited for what this year brings!  The girls are together in the classroom for the first time since pre-school.  I have known their teacher since I was a little girl, and I feel so blessed that she gets to pour into their lives just like she did mine years ago as a counselor at Falls Creek!  And Jake’s teacher is a perfect fit for him.  I hope she enjoys his antics as much as we do!  
Lara and Emma in the gym before class

Mommy and Jake in the cafeteria before class

Daddy with Jake up on stage before leaving

The other new big change for the kids this year is riding the school bus!  Their first attempt at that went fairly well yesterday afternoon.  The girls helped Jake get where he needed to be, and they all made it home safely.  Jake told me his favorite part of the day was riding the bus and was looking forward to doing it again today!
And while the big kids are at school, our Little Dream Weaver is spending his days with Nana the Wonder Sitter!  I know she is enjoying being down to one Dream Weaver during the day.  He is still fighting through the antibiotics for his ear infection, so he has a lot of adjusting to do!  He loved waving good bye to us all yesterday as we left for school!


And in other news, we are 46 days from the Stillwater march for Babies, and we are at 68% of our team fundraising goal!  Please check out Finn's Fans and help up help tiny babies everywhere!


Saturday, August 6, 2011

Pure Fear

Something happened in our house last night that will be hard to forget for a while. It is slightly embarrassing (for me) to tell this story, but it is so incredible, I feel like I have to share. I need to give you a little bit of background and some set-up so you can see why the events unfolded the way they did.


BACKGROUND:
We have a 2 year old miniature schnauzer named Einstein. He is outside in our fenced back yard most of the time during the day, but we usually let him inside the house sometime during the evening, then he sleeps in a crate in our dining room. He enjoys Emma, likes Lara and Jake, tolerates Britt, and LOVES me. Especially now that I am pregnant; he is always sitting at my feet or following me through the house.
Women have vivid dreams during pregnancy. I was reading about it the other day, and 2 things happen during pregnancies that cause this. Hormones are CrAzy, and experts think that’s what causes the dream to be so real, and so strange sometimes. Plus, pregnant women seem to remember their dreams more because they either don’t at all or don’t as often go into that deep sleep phase that humans have, that comes after the dream REM sleep phase. I’ve had some super real to me, and some super strange ones, too…
I am a Twi-hard. I have read the Stephanie Meyer Twilight series books through twice, almost done with the 3rd time around. And I have seen the movies dozens of times. I was with a group of about 10 women age 35+ for a midnight showing when Eclipse came out, and I will be at one for Breaking Dawn part 1 as well. (My boss can tell you how many days/hours/minutes away this is, I just know it is in November…) BTW, I am Team Jacob. Real men don’t sparkle, and I like my men tall, HOT and feisty!
SCENARIO
I had gone to bed about 9:30. It was a LONG day yesterday (9 hours with sorority girls during recruitment spirit week – working hard to perfect everything for recruitment next week, and then swimming lessons with Jake, then out for a quick dinner, then birthday shopping for Dad with the 3 littles. OH! And growing a human inside me.). I ate too much for dinner, (which means I ate about 1/3 of what I used to), and I was feeling pretty miserable about it. The kids had all been in bed about half an hour, there was nothing on TV, and no reason to resist, so I went to bed, trusty Kindle in my hand, settled in to read a few pages of my current guilty pleasure: Breaking Dawn. (For those in the know, Bella had just woken up from being turned, had hunted, and was meeting Renesmee for the first time. She had just realized what was going on with Jacob when I put it down…) I was worn out from my day, and I feel asleep very quickly. One of the things I usually do before I go to bed, is crate the dog. If he is already inside, I just tell him to “go to bed” and he saunters over there and gets in the crate, and I close the door and hook the latches. If he is outside, Britt usually lets him in, Einstein finds me, I pet him a bit, then I tell him to “go to bed.” When I went to bed, the dog was still in the backyard.
WHAT HAPPENED
It was about 10:30pm. I had only been asleep 20-30 minutes, but I was fast asleep and dreaming. It was hot (as usual) in our room, and I was sweaty. (I know at 9:30 Britt had said it was still 104 outside.) These days, I like to sleep in a T-shirt and underwear, no sheets on top of me, curled up with my body pillow. All I know is, something fairly heavy and furry, with sharp claws, landed on top of me, and began prodding my bare legs with something wet, squishy, and cold. I sat straight up and let out a blood curdling scream (3 times, to be exact according to my husband), and the offensive thing jumped or fell from my bed. During the 3rd (?) scream, I hear my husband’s soothing voice coming down the hallway saying “Hey! Hey!”
Um, yeah… so, pretty funny, right? It is now, but right then, it was TERRIFYING! Once Einstein left and Britt got his arms around me, I realized tears were streaming down my face, my throat was sore (that’s how loud I screamed), I tasted vomit in my mouth, and I had dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands. Jake came out of his room (right next to ours) and was standing bleary-eyed in the hall staring at me (my screams scared the crap out of him, and he ended up sleeping with us for a bit – who can blame him!). The dog was at the other end of our 17 foot hallway, sitting (and laying at times) on the tile entryway looking down the hall at us, but he came nowhere near me, until Britt put him in his crate for the night and came to bed. I am not sure what exactly I was dreaming about, but I am pretty sure it had to do with a forest (I remember trees), and due to the content of my late night reading, I am sure it was supernatural…) Took me over an hour to get comfortable and get back to sleep. NOT something I want to repeat anytime soon.
Someday, I’ll tell you about the only other time I remember screaming like that (I need to ask my mom what happened in my childhood to make me scream like that?!?). It involves a late night drive from Dallas to Stillwater, the I-35 bridge over the Red River, and a pedestrian. That time I again scared my husband out of his wits, but I truly believe the Holy Spirit spoke to me that night…. Sigh…. Some other time, then…
Anyway! It is TAX FREE weekend! We are soon off to buy dance shoes for the girls, attend mock recruitment at the sorority house, head to the outlet mall that just opened in Oklahoma City (maybe) to back to school shop for the girls, then dinner out for Dad’s birthday! And hopefully, have dreamless sleep tonight.