Spring break

 This spring break consisted of lots of snow, then lots of melting and finally some mild temperatures and sunshine.  The boys saw movies, hung out with friends and family, went ice skating and swimming and ended the week with a trip to Cabela's with their dad - the highlight of their break.  On Friday night the Ausili's came out and we fried fish and the kids got muddy - see picture below.  Oh boy!  All in all it was a really good week.

                                              The boys wearing their new hats from Cabela's.

                                                               A muddy masterpiece!

Winter wonderland....in late March

 As annoying as it is Central Illinois got a big snow storm on March 24 - just in time for my kids to start their "spring" break from school.  True to form, however, the boys used the snow to their advantage.  Nick spent the day with Mike's parents and made a snow fort with Grandpa.  Apparently Grandma even served him lunch in his fort!  What a life.  Jay spent the day with my mom and got to see a movie!  Jay heads to Grandma and Grandpa's tomorrow and by tomorrow the fort will more than likely be melted and then maybe we can enjoy some nice weather!

Bye, Bye Blankie

My friend, Jenna, gave Jay a blanket when he was born.  Jay has loved his blankie every since.  He has slept with it, cuddled with it and it's traveled with us on our family vacations.  When Jay was a toddler he needed it to sleep.  He'd snuggle up with his blankie and I'd find him still snuggled with it the next morning.  His blankie has required some stitching and some TLC through the years but overall  it's held together for all the late night snuggling.  Recently, however, I've noticed blankie on Jay's floor.  I would pick her up everytime and secure her in her rightful place, right on Jay's bed..........hoping it was just a mistake on Jay's part.  Today Jay brought his beloved blankie to Mike and I and told us he no longer needed or wanted his blankie.  I teased Jay and told him he needed to slow things down a bit for his ole mom.  I can handle things but in small doses and a tween boy has no idea what that means in terms of how it relates to his mother.  Just this week he announced to me he has a girlfriend, he has started texting and we are in the process of turning his room into something that fits his tastes and desires - very tween boy and we bought him a desk in which he promptly put a picture of the girl on.  Times are a changing and this mom had better make some changes herself.  I need a lesson in backing off (just a bit) and thankfully I have Mike who has reminded me this is a natural process and we need to give Jay some space.  When he screws up (and he will) we'll be there to help him learn from his mistakes.  All I know is I'm entering new territory and whether or not I'm ready, it's here!  Yikes. 

Girls, Girls, Girls

Well it's official.  Jay likes girls.  No worries, we never had any doubts but up until this point his love of hunting, four wheeling and getting dirty trumped any girl.  But recently there has been a shift.  This shift has involved more communication and lots of grins from Jay.  He came home from school last week and announced to me he was "dating" someone.  I about fell over from shock that he was sharing this information with me (because with Jay giving birth to him was easier than getting information out of him)  until he finished his sentence with "If I tell you, you can't put it on facebook."  Ahhh, now there is the Jay I know and love.  I promised to not put it on FB but instead told myself I'd put it on my blog (ha). Just tonight I laid out shirt for Jay to wear to school the next day.  Jay announced to me it was an ugly shirt and he wasn't wearing it.  I asked him, "Since when are any of your clothes ugly?"  Jay's response, "Since girls started liking me."  Oh boy.  Jay has a grin that gets you every time (just like his dad).  One day when he really meets "the one" I pray she notices that grin and that it gets her, honk, line and sinker but until then I'm just keeping my fingers crossed that this newly found interest in girls prompts him to wash his hair every night without being reminded five times.

Our weekend without Mike

 The Ausili kids spent their spring break in TN so Mike Ausili and Mike left to retrieve them on Thursday night.  Now I admit when Mike is gone for any length of time it is really not so enjoyable to me.  I love my boys and wouldn't trade them for anything but I think that's why it's so challenging when Mike is gone - I have boys!  I really have to plan things out and I make every effort to stay really busy.  This weekend - success!  On Friday night we have Jay's Blue & Gold Banquet for Scouts.  This is his last year of Cub Scouts.  He has chosen not to cross over to Boy Scouts.  On Saturday we went to the gym and my mom joined us for her first experience at Bass Pro Shop.  Mike got home early on Sunday morning after driving all night (crazy man).  Faith had knitted the hedgehog (above) during her spring break and gave it to Nick - so sweet.  She is one in a million, love that girl.  Nick happily named him Hedgie.  On a side note, Mike was "welcomed" home with another job.  It wouldn't be a typical homecoming in our house without something breaking.  Mike was home for less than 12 hours when Nick flooded the upstairs bathroom.  I was the first one to hear water dripping in our bathroom downstairs.  I thought someone had left the water in the sink running.  No such luck.  Nick had so much water it had leaked through the floor and was dripping out of the downstairs door frame.  Now all we have to do is wait a couple days to see if mold shows up.  If it does then Mike can add another job to his already HUGE list - remove dry, fix mold problem.  Welcome home, dear.

The wrong path

I've made it no secret throughout my blog that Jay has struggled in school.  It appears Nick is struggling as well but I can't quite get a good handle on Nick.  First of all he's had a substitute teacher the entire year until about two weeks ago.  Jay had such a strong first grade teacher and I'm afraid that has not been Nick's experience.  Plus I can't figure out how much Nick actually isn't getting.  He is exceptionally verbal and his vocabulary is outstanding.  He has such a hunger to learn too.  I know his focus/attention is an issue but I'm not sure I'm ready to "cross that bridge" quite yet - until we've exhausted other options.  My heart broke for Nick tonight.  We had a sort of "Coming to Jesus" with Nick tonight and he was sad as he told us he feels he's going down the wrong path at school and he can't keep up with everyone else.  See what I mean about the verbalization?  Once we can get Nick to calm down and be serious he expresses himself quite well and honestly his silliness may be his coping mechanism.  I used my favorite saying which Jay can finish for me before I even start, "It's not how you start the race, it's how you finish it."  Thank you, mom!  Plus I like to add some humor to things and use Phil Robertson's famous line, "The world doesn't need a bunch of straight A students, I was a C average student myself."  Love that Duck Dynasty!  In a world where scores and statistics are everything, our children can often feel as much in the "rat race" as we adults do and we are adults, they are only children.  I have my faults and I have and continue to make mistakes but I know without a doubt that my children's hearts may break a little in school but they always have open arms and loving hearts to come home to. 

Six years of nagging

About two weeks ago I came up with a brilliant plan.  It takes so little to make me happy and I noticed my brilliant plan was so easy.  I couldn't believe it took me so long to think of it.  What is this brilliant plan you ask?  A list - a morning list to be more specific.  I was so tired of nagging and repeating the same old stuff every morning........make your bed, brush your teeth, pick up your clothes, pack your back packs.....blah, blah, blah.  I got to thinking it was ridiculous.  Jay was able to dress himself and get ready for his day at about age five.  He's now 11 so for six years (Nick's entire life) I've sounded like a broken record and a raging nag!  I developed a list for each of the boys.  It's a check list of things they need to get done every morning.  It's the same things they've had to do every morning but now there is no nagging.  After the boys eat their breakfast they review their lists and get the tasks done.  When they are completed they have to go through their list and check off the tasks.  I've told them that if they mark a task off and it isn't completed then they owe me a $1 - yikes!  For the two weeks that the lists have been "live" I've only made $2 so the lists are working and I have stopped sounding like a old hag, I mean nag. 

This & that

 I've included a hodge podge of pictures from our weekend.  Nick wanted this ugly shirt so bad but if anyone could pull off this shirt, it's Nick.  He has it all laid out and ready to wear to school tomorrow.

 Last week it snowed...A LOT!  Last March was so nice, weather wise.  This March, not so much.  I'm hoping the snow doesn't come back.  The snow melted away in a few days and now everything is wet and extremely muddy - ugh!

 The boys took advantage of the snow and they built a snow man with Mike.

 Jay has been trying to earn extra money.  I tried to think of a job he could do that was outside his normal/because I live in this house responsibilities.  He cleaned our entire kitchen floor and scrubbed the grout.  It took him 3 hours and he did a good job and I paid him well.

 My grandparents came to town to spend the night with my mom on Saturday night.  We all went to mom's for dinner!

Nick's take on "The Bible"

As a family we have started watching "The Bible" on History.  Last night was the first night it was on.  We taped it so we could watch it at our leisure and fast forward through the commercials.  As I've blogged about before one never has to wonder what is on Nick's mind.  Tonight we were watching the scene where Abraham had to send his son, Ishmael away due to Sarah's jealousy.  As Ishmael and his mother, Haggar (I hope I spelled that right) were leaving Nick said, "Boy Abraham sure got himself into a hot mess!"  Then when the three angels visited Abraham to tell him about Sodom, Nick asked if the third angel was God.  Mike and I told him that God hasn't been to earth, only Jesus.  Nick said, very matter of factly I might add, "Well why doesn't he just come on down here every now and then?" 

Our spa weekend

 My mom had one request for her birthday.......that Kim and I not buy her a gift but instead put our money towards ourselves so we could spend the weekend together at the spa.  It was so fun.  We shopped, ate and Yes, drank and we turned into noodles after our massages and our feet are all set for spring....if it ever gets here.  We all agreed it was a tradition we should continue every year.

 Our favorite girl, Leslie, joined us.  She is one of my mom's closest friends and she tutors Nick and has been instrumental in helping him this year.  Plus it was Leslie's birthday on Sunday.

 Okay this pose may be a little much but just to state the obvious from the picture, I got a hat!  I don't do hats or rather hats don't do anything for me but we all agreed this hat rocked!

 Kim and I at the end of the night........we rented a small condo and it was heavenly - other than the fact I had to sleep with my sister on a pull out bed.  It's funny how sleeping situations with your sibling can take you right back to your childhood.  Kim has learned, however, I draw the line at sharing a bed with her big stuffed bear, Molly, that she's had for 30 some years........Needless to say Molly has seen better days.  And Yup, I was still wearing the hat.

The four of us at dinner.  We are all trying to watch our weight but we failed miserably this weekend.  But hey, it was my mom's and Leslie's birthday........we celebrated!

Nick's humor

Nick has this way about him.  About the time you want to strangle him he plays the funny card.  We have a lot of laughs in our house from Nick's humor.  Today is Nick's 1st grade substitute teachers last day.  What's the big deal you ask?  Well this sub has been his teacher the entire year.  She's been with the class since September.  His regular teacher comes back on Monday.  This morning Nick tells me he wants to get Ms. Klaus a braided key chain, "you know mom, like the ones dad makes."  I tell Nick it's a little too late as today is Ms. Klaus' final day.  I suggest I stop at the store and buy her flowers.  Nick gave me two thumbs up, told me it was a great idea and he had one simple request, make sure they were pretty.  I loved that he was so thoughtful towards his teacher.  I bought a big blueish/purple flower and Nick was so proud walking into school today.
The last few weeks Nick has been having an educational assessment done at I.S.U.  We had the same assessment done for Jay when he was in second grade and because we're being told there are perhaps some LD/ADD issues with Nick we thought we had better get the assessment done.  Anyway, Nick learned that next week he'll have to have a speech assessment.  We were driving when I gave him the "good" news.  From the rear view mirror I could see his face crinkle up in a confused way - kind of like when he broke out his mad eyes when he was three.  Family members know exactly what I'm talking about.  Then he boomed, "But my speech is good!"  Sure everything else with Nick may not be going just right but by golly his speech is good! I explained to Nick no one doubts his speech is excellent but having a speech assessment is part of the entire package.  What I didn't say to him was I  think it's a waste of time, however, I have paid good money for the assessment so it's a good idea to have it done.  I just know when I take Nick next week he'll walk up to whoever is assessing him and tell them point blank, "I have good speech, I don't know why I'm here."  You never have to wonder what Nick is thinking