Back to School

After a very busy summer, moving and all, the boys are all back to school! While everyone started school on August 18th, Kenny & Ty had a bit of a bumpy start missing the last part of their first week due to the storm.


Tylar is in 5th grade, and is very much enjoying being the big man on campus in his last year of elementary school! Tylar made a lot of new friends in our new neighborhood, and many of them go to his school... making for minimal first day jitters. Tylar's teacher's name is Mrs. Hartless - a very unfortunate name for a school teacher... but I am happy to say that she doesn't seem to be one who will live up to her name. We attended Tylar's back to school night the other day and learned that he has several fun activities planned for the year, with the finale being a trip to Universal Studios & Islands of Adventure in Orlando at the end of the year. The only catch is that he has to meet his 25 book reading assignment for the year and be "in good standing" with conduct and grades. What a great incentive to keep the kiddies on track with that to look forward to! Also, check out Tylar's class blog located in our other blog list.


Kenny is in 6th grade, entering middle school this year! He was so excited to start school, hoping that he'd recognize a few of the kids that he met in school at the tail end of the year last year. Good news is that there were a few familiar faces... bad news is that middle school doesn't have a playground!! Kenny's teacher's name is Mrs. Caldwell, and she seems like she'll be a wonderful teacher for Kenny. Already she has sent notes home saying what a joy Kenny is to have in class. Who wouldn't love to be around that sweet smile every day!!??

Brandon started his Junior year (YIKES) at Thomas Jefferson in Denver this year, and from what he says it sounds like things are going quite well! He is taking a few advanced classes for extra credit, and is in a weight lifting class that he seems to like quite well. I can't believe that he'll be graduating next year... where in the heck did these past almost 17 years go!!

Rain, and Wind, and Tornadoes... OH MY!!

Stuck in the bathroom... waiting out the potential tornado!
Driveway... or maybe now a shallow lake??!!
Chad's feet in the parking lot, water is about 2 in deep - uhhh, gross!!
Maintenance people checking out the damage.

Well Tropical Storm Fay blew through Jacksonville this week, with the most volatile part of the storm coming through today!

We got quite a bit of rain overnight, and unfortunately woke up to some leaking in our apartment. No damage, thank goodness, but was annoying to keep up with ensuring all is kept dry until our maintenance people can get out and fix it. Even more unfortunate, is that it seems the leaking is coming through the roof and down into the sides of the wall both upstairs and downstairs. So... we'll see what happens, but for now it is a bit worry some.

So being stuck in the house can be quite boring, and that's been the case for the past three days. I think that the kids finally had enough when we had to go into full TORNADO warning mode and pile into the hallway bathroom on the first floor (see picture). That's right, we had a tornado sighting about 10 mi south of our apartment complex - which was actually quite scary! We gathered up a few pillows, blankets and our cell phones and camera (not a necessity... but how can we NOT capture that action), and hid out for about 15 minutes. The best part of our close family time together was Kenny's comment about 5 minutes in... he said "Mom, can't we get some food or something?". Guess I should have prioritized that over the camera! Lesson learned :)

Enjoy the pictures from the storm rain aftermath... and hope everyone is doing well!

Caitlynn's 4th Birthday

Our Caitlynn turned 4 today! It's hard to believe that just 4 years ago we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl. She is growing up faster than we can keep up with, every day is something new (see previous posts!!!).

We had her birthday party at the house, and invited over our closest friends to help celebrate. I think Caitlynn really enjoyed the day... even before the party started she kept telling Chad and I that this was the "best birthday ever". The theme for her party was PRINCESS... go figure??!! She had pink princess decorations and even her birthday cupcakes had little princess tiaras on them. I LOVE that she is such a girlie girl!!!

I wanted to do something to remember some of her favorite things at this age, so I did a little Q&A with her... this is what she said:

• Favorite Color - Pink & Purple & Yellow (she couldn't pick just one)


• Favorite Food - Pancakes


• Favorite Toy - Dora Doll


• Favorite Book - Dinosaurs


• Best Friend - My brothers


• Favorite Song - ABC's & Twinkle Twinkle Little Star

She is so much fun at this age... I can't wait to compare lists next year - this just may have to be a tradition on her birthday!

My Pixie Girl

There is a little girl name Caitlynn Reese
Who to my heart she holds a very special key
With big brown eyes and rosy cheeks
She’s the cutest darn thing you ever did see

One thing about Caitlynn as a baby and a tot
The hair on her head was so sparse and so few
When it’s all said and done it wasn’t a lot
But over the years when she finally turned two, the hair on her head, it finally grew

Caitlynn enjoyed her long locks, and as her mom so did I
We’d curl it, and style it, and braid it to play
But all was for not, I can’t tell a lie
For the long hair on her head, she cut it all off this past Thursday

A rite of passage I’ve heard, and maybe it’s true, that all girls learn in this very special way…
And now I have a little “pixie” who will never forget her 4th birthday!!

Caitlynn's new hairDO

Well, the fun and excitement never ends with my children!!... Ms. Caitlynn decided that she needed to give herself a haircut last night. And this wasn’t the typical “rite of passage” short bang haircut – OH NO, she decided to start at the front and stopped just short and left herself a nice long mullet!!

So, this morning I took her to a stylist to see if they couldn’t work some magic, and as you can imagine… a pixie style was about all they could do for her! While I haven’t loaded the pictures up yet… I am definitely “documenting” this event & will share! Can you believe it… we wait 2 years for that little girl to finally grow some locks, and just 2 years later… as she has enough to flip around she cuts it off!!

We are thankful that she didn’t hurt herself with the scissors, and hope that she’ll never ever do it again. Good thing she has those killer dimples and big brown eyes!!

We’ll remember this upcoming 4th birthday for a long time!!!

Brandon... Colorado Bound

We are going through some very difficult times right now as a family. I am hoping that sharing my thoughts in writing, and asking for all of our friends and extended family’s prayers will help bring peace into our hearts and minds.

Today I had to say goodbye, for now, to my oldest son Brandon. He is moving to Colorado to live with my mom and dad, as he is trying to make some significant changes in his life for the better. It broke my heart to see him off on the plane, but I have to believe that the choice we are making with this arrangement will help all of us become a stronger family in the long run.

For about the last 4 years Brandon has been struggling in school and with some life choices that have put him in some pretty bad situations. Adolescent choices and the situations that naive ones can put us in are never easy; I as his mom know just how difficult that can be. I know now as a parent that all we really want for our children is for them to be happy, healthy, and to have a full, meaningful, and successful life. Unfortunately, when one bad choice leads to another we sometimes find ourselves in a hole that seems much too dark and difficult to get out of.

During times like this I can’t help but look in the mirror and ask… “What did I do wrong?”, “Am I doing and saying the right things?”, “Am I setting a good example?”. I’ve been racking my brain for months reliving the past few years thinking that there must have been something I could have done differently to have helped Brandon feel more loved, more appreciated, and more self confident – so that we wouldn’t have ended up at this day.

When we moved from Florida to Rhode Island in the summer of 2006 Brandon was very upset with me, as he was very attached to the life we made in Jacksonville. He was 14 and if I think back to that point in my life, I would have been SO MAD if my parents lifted me from the life I knew and loved. However, we hoped that Brandon would have been able to make a fresh start with new friends in new surroundings. While Brandon was never really happy to be in RI, things did go well for a short while. Unfortunately, the poor grades picked up and troublesome friends found their way yet again into his life.

In April of 2008 we received great news when I got a new job offer with the opportunity to move back to Jacksonville. Thinking that this would provide another “fresh start”, and would get the whole family back to the place that we grew to love and enjoyed living, it was only a few short weeks before our life was in disarray. Without sharing details, we realized as a family that we had to make some drastic life changes if we wanted Brandon to turn things around.

I suppose we won’t know for sometime if the choice we made was right… or even the best decision we could have made. So, in trying to pull my beautiful and gifted son out of his dark hole, I send him off with all of my love hoping and praying that he will be able to make positive progress and will return home to us soon.

As you can imagine, Chad, Kenny, Ty & Caitlynn (even our Jack dog) are also very sad that we will not have Brandon be a part of our daily lives. Each expressing in their own ways – Kenny made me smile when I really needed it today, as he always does in his oh so special way, when he said “I wish we could all go live with Nana and Papa because they love all of us.” He is so right, and I know that above all Brandon will be loved where he is. Afterall, in addition to Nana & Papa, his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandma Rolayne, and even his great grands are all within a hug distance :)!!

Meanwhile, I continue thinking about all the choices I am making and pray that this life lesson will help me to be a better mom. You know, it would be so much easier if there was a handbook... Wait - there is, I just need to get back to reading it!!