My son, Luke, got his FIRST report card with no Ds or Fs!!!! I am so proud of him! But, then, I always knew he could do it. It has been that damn school! He did fine in K and 1st, other than the “keep your hands and feet to yourself” a few times. From second grade on, it has been a battle! The second grade teacher said she didn’t have time for Luke. He learned that year to listen to her words NOT the tone of her voice. The third grade class had her son- the scholl bully - in her class. Fourth grade was so very unorganized. Fifth grade had her TWO newly adopted kids in her class. I LOVE those two kids now but at the time, they had many issues. Sixth grade teacher was too good for our small school. Seventh grade, we had a GREAT and patient teacher who helped Luke understand that he COULD do the work! This year we have a teacher who has a child with special needs and “gets” Luke – FINALLY! The school wanted to label him depressed at one point! I told them if he is depressed, YOU DID IT TO HIM! We, his dad and I, have just kept plugging along encouraging him and telling him to do his best. Being the best is OK, I guess…. but DOING your best – it just can NOT be beat! He has aptitudes in things that don’t fit in the mainstream of school life. This is a school that has one class for each grade and each class has an average of 10 students.
It has been a while since I posted. My camera broke AGAIN and I just got a new one for my birthday! I like to post pics because I am not very wordy, as a rule, when I write…. only when I talk! LOL I like pics because I, also, think that pictures are worth a thousand words. My friends and family email and talk on the phone but pics say so much more.
So much going on for the holidays! We got a big storm about 10 days ago. The boys, GH and I spent several days shoveling and then some melted. I even got my van out a few times! Last night we got hit again with another foot and we are shoveling again. Belle had Leavi’s phone for dinner last week and his new one is at Verizon and if, God forbid, we have an emergency, we need to get out of here! So, today we are taking turns with 20 min shifts to clear the driveway.
For the first time ever, I got my packages all mailed 12 days before Christmas, all of the gifts are wrapped and under the tree, got my neighbor gifts handed out last Sunday and the ham is in the sink defrosting for the big day. I am usually sooo far behind that I am up til morning wrapping and baking.
My son, Luke, and I are both a year older since the last post. He is 14! Time flies some days and others….. seems like I just brought him home from the hospital!
Well…. I think I have been wordy enough for this post… here are the pics
This is a sharp contrast to the snow… they sit in my window sill over the kitchen sink – lots of humidity (not a bad pic for my new camera – Kodak Easy Share M341 with Smart Capture, no adjusting for close-ups!)
Leavi, GH and I went to our school’s Halloween Party. GH and I visited with neighbors while Leavi played games and entered the costume contest. And won his age group ~
Someday I guess there will be a matching pic of this one… all grown up!
his prize was a school T-shirt
Halloween night Luke went with a friend and his family to trick or treat. GH had a great (ahem) idea to let Leavi ask some friends to go with us and then to spend the night… all high on sugar! Great night! LOL
Leavi and Luke in full costume… any who knew my dad should recognize the stance LOL – Luke barely knew my dad but is so very much like him! Leavi liked to be “tough” in his costume – all the pics of him where like this one!
We didn’t carve pumpkins this year but I found these trick or treating that I liked on someone’s walkway
Also, on Thursday Luke got a haircut…. it was down to his shoulders. He didn’t want his pic taken – I got MANY of these….
but FINALLY….
I think this is cuter of him but you can hardly see the hair
Last Saturday was our school’s last soccer game. Leavi played a pretty good game! But to get there – Seligman – we had to drive on I-40 through Williams. The Twin Fire was at its height. Clear to the interstate. 64 homes, schools and some businesses had been evacuated. All is good now. Businesses are open, school is in session and people were allowed back into their homes.
Luke is 13 now. Since we live in a rural area, his dad has been letting him drive our pickup in the area – with an adult. Up until recently, I have not been able to admit my “baby” is growing up. He has hassled me so much since GH went back on the road that I relented… and let him drive…. ME in the passenger seat! This was quite a reality check for me – he IS growing up! GH and I thought he should learn to drive in the event of an emergency evacuation around here… the truck would carry sooo much and I would have the van with my MIL.
Yes, I think he needs a haircut, too! LOL
Luke has never much liked school but this year, for the FIRST time, he came home from the first day of school VERY excited about 8th grade. My dream come true for him. He has sat down and actually read a book for the first time, too. I knew he could read, but he has REALLY hated it! He read this book from beginning to the end in a few hours, came out of his room with a smile on his face and said “That was a GOOD book!”
And I think I found an author that I could actually kiss!
A few weeks ago, Leavi and I started to dig a hole. We were looking for a leak in a pipe for the water spigot for the horses. The ground around the spigot had been damp to puddly for weeks and in this dry air, that meant a leak. I have, also, noticed our water usage had doubled and the water pump was coming on too often. Leavi did most of the work… digging out the dirt and the rocks. The pipe is three feet down so that it won’t freeze in the winter. We did find a leak at the elbow – three feet down. It was a hard and muddy job! (Sorry about the cell phone pic, again.)
We ended up calling the plumber and the whole spigot from the elbow up had to be replaced. The water usage went from just under 3000 gallons a week to about 1200! And the water pump calmed down, too!
Leavi, also, worked for the water man this past summer delivering flyers by foot. He was so business-like about the job
Leavi and I are off to the Coconino County Fair today. Luke went with a friend and I am hoping to be able to catch up with him at the fair… I, also, want to see the Demolition Derby. We shall see…. the rain has been coming down almost constant with a few brief moments of sun. We are under a Flash Flood Watch now. But the fair only comes once a year! I will be most thankful, I think, for the exhibit buildings! And Leavi does not feel the best… allergies. But we are going to make an honest try for the fair and to have lots of fun! Will have pics tonight or tomorrow to share with you.
EVENING UPDATE
The fair was fun! The camera took a dump – but a got few before it died (full battery) and took afew with my phone camera. And it didn’t rain! More tomorrow….
Last night my mother died. She was terminally ill from cancer and had a heart attack. I have not spoken to her since my dad died 4 and half years ago. She resented the father/daughter thing that I had with Dad ever since I can remember. That is sad to me, that one parent would resent the relationship that their child has with the other parent…. that should always be a good thing. When Dad died, she told my brothers not to tell me – they did anyway. She had him cremated and threw the ashes in the backyard. End of him. He will always be with me – he left me with soooo much! As far as my mom…. I never had one that behaved as a mom towards me. I “buried” her many yrs ago. I feel funny just telling people very calmly that my mom died… no emotion. It is surreal to me. I should be mourning and feeling bad… but there is just nothing. When I spoke with my brothers, I got shook up because I feel so bad for their loss. Or at least, their perceived loss… she was never a mother figure to them…I was. My mother has been bitter and angry since she was about 12 when her parents divorced. She has been racked with arthritic pain for 40 yrs or so. She was always pissed at Dad about something and she took her anger out on us kids. She was an absentee mother via alcohol.
Ok, after all of that negativity about her I am trying to find something good to say….. I am digging deep for this. She was a Girl Scout leader for many yrs. She loved one out 3 of her grandkids and would have nothing to do with her greatgrandson because he is half Black. Oh.. I am supposed to be writing about the good….she was HIGHLY principled – no lying, cheating, stealing. She paid her bills on time every month all of her life. ……. many minutes later…. ok I will try on this later.
Am I wrong in thinking that mothers should be nurturing. Hugs hugs kisses and props all the time? Aren’t mother suppose to think that their children are so awesome and tell them that regularly? Maybe I am so naive in this thinking? I think “Leave It To Beaver”‘ and June Cleaver are way too set in my thinking here. Because I did NOT learn this as a child in my home life. ever.
I am sad for my oldest daughter, who stayed in touch with mom, I feel the loss for my brothers. I am sad that she was so miserable most of her life – emotionally and physically. But I am glad that her pain is over.
Found another positive! She taught me that I need to love my children forever and ever NO MATTER WHAT. She taught me that I need to be a mom in every aspect so that my children love and like themselves, so that they can be real adults and make a life they are happy with. I have done this with the oldest, I believe that the second is very close to finding what she has been looking for to be happy. I have 2 more to go But I guarantee that my kids know that I think they are awesome and they all know that I would move the world over for them and that I love them forever and ever NO MATTER WHAT. So, I guess my mom did do something great and awesome.
Do not feel bad for me, do not pity me…. I have learned to finally love myself and I know that I am a good person. My great and totally awesome husband and children have had a LOT to do with my happiness within myself.
I am my father’s legacy.
Great husband and awesome children………I LOVE YOU ALL TO PIECES!
Yesterday I was gifted by a good friend with my favorite coffee. Flagstaff does not have a Trader Joe’s but this good friend finds Joe in whatever city she is in. She just returned from the California Bay Area and brought me my favorite coffee. THANK YOU, N! I LOVE this coffee… but not as much as I love you!
Then today Leavi and I went to the Health Dept Health Fair…. for his 2 required immunizations for school. After waiting in line for a half hour, then sitting in a hard plastic chair for an hour, it was finally our turn. The required shots were a Tetnus booster and the new Meningitis Meningococcal. The clinic would not give those two to him…. you have to be 11 and he won’t be 11 until Aug 22. School starts the 13th here, so I do not know what they are going to do. The school told me that the clinic WOULD give them to him and that he had to have them for school. The clinic DID give him HepA and the Chickenpox one. (Leavi was such a trooper.. not a fuss at all and when the nurse was done, he asked if that was it!) But the school did not require them – go figure… if it is time for them, too, then why aren’t they required? They are just as communicable as the other one. Any way… we are done there for a few weeks. I will find out this Monday what the school intends to do about it.
While we were at the Health Fair, I had my hearing tested and I did not pass and was told I could use a hearing aid – NOT! I am supposed to go in for a more extensive hearing test soon. I know I do not hear my phone ring more times than I would like to admit and I have troubles hearing the TV. I guess the rock concerts are taking their toll and I am only 55 yo. More on that after I go in for the testing. But I think that I am digressing…. the point of this post is that I am doubly spoiled. There was a man at the Health Fair who was running the hearing testing out of the same waiting room as the immunizations. He saw Leavi and I sitting there for so long. Need I speak of ALLLLLL of the kids running, screaming, crying and rolling on the floor? After I signed Leavi and I up for the hearing test, this kind man asked if we were hungry – when I said, “Yes”, he went to the employees lounge and brought us each 2 pieces of pizza. We really enjoyed the pizza and the act of kindness while we waited another hour for our turn there. The hilarious part is that he told me that he appreciated my patience!!! Well anyone that knows me, knows that patience is so NOT a word that describes me at all! But I walked into that clinic this morning knowing full well that it was going to be very trying on me…. yea! me!!
Tonight Leavi and I BBQed hamburgers and then he toasted marshmallows…. I can’t eat them anymore because of the egg whites in the marshmallows – but they sure did SMELL good!!
Too much flash in this one but you can - just barely – see the red coals
No flash this time and you can see the red hot coals better
– all the pics of him where like this one!
Nicole
Talina
Talina
yarmi74
