Nature vs. Nuture

I don't know too many parents with more than one child who would say any one of them are the same.  Perhaps if you have 3 or 4 children you might say two of them are similar but odds are if you only have two children they are polar opposites.  My boys are so different personality wise I've pondered the nature vs. nuture question.  For example, Nick is more social and thoughtful.  He's the first one to ask you how your day is the minute you get home from work.  If you've been sick, he'll ask you how you feel.  If you do something nice for him he'll usually say thank you without being prompted.  This casual chit chat does not come natural to Jay.  With the passage of time he's improved.  On days when I've been sick and I tell him I can't do something for him because of it, his reaction is usually, "Huh, you're sick, for how long, I didn't know that."  Jay has friends and good ones at that but he'll be the first to tell you he really doesn't like people.  Nick, on the other hand, gets his energy from being around people.  I do not want to insinuate that this is a personality flaw with either one of my boys.  They each have their own strengths and weaknesses, like every other human on the planet.  Being quiet comes naturally to Jay.  Nick, not so much.  Jay knows when it's best to stop, be quiet and listen.  Nick is a work in progress in this area.  So what have I done differently with each of the boys?  Why is Nick more naturally thoughtful?  Why is Jay more naturally quiet?  Beats the heck out of me!  That's the way God made them. 

Nick's 8th birthday party

 This picture didn't turn out very good but I wanted a picture of it because it was truly a labor of love.  I hand made all of Nick's birthday invites which is really not my area of expertise.  I let my boys have a "friend" party every other year.  Nick and I came up with a  fabulous idea.......we had his party at a pizza place which has its own gym.  I thought it was brilliant.....pizza and basketball, kick ball and dodge ball.  Nick invited his entire class.  About two weeks before his party, after the invites were sent out, we found out another boy in his class was having his birthday party on the same day, at the same time but in a different town (so in other words there was no way the kids could come to both parties).  It was a rough few weeks leading up the party.  Nick was upset because he thought no one would come to his party and Mike and I thought about rescheduling his party but in the end that wouldn't work either.  As it turned out it was a great party.  He had about 10 kids come and it was actually the perfect number of kids.  Four of them were girls so it helped tame those crazy boys.  ha. 

 Here's the cake my mom made for Nick.  Nick picked a dog for his 8th birthday.  The poor dog took a bit of a beating during transport but it was all good. 

                                                                    Lauren and Lukie.

 These pictures are just a preview of how wild things got.  The boys.......my son being one of them got wilder as the party went on. 

 Nick gave his "blessing" to Jay to invite his friends, Aaron and Reece.  It actually helped having the big boys at the party.  They helped with the games we played. 

This is Nick's friend, A.........These two boys are a lot alike - lots of energy and laughs!  Notice the "For Rent" sign in the back.  I thought it was appropriate since this was the bitter end of the party.......I was thinking....."For Rent, two boys."  It was a good party though and Nick really enjoyed it! 

Da boys

 The weather has been perfect lately and trust me it's been a long time coming.  Nick had a recycled boat race at school on Friday. 

 Nick got an early birthday present, his gillies suit.  Now he, Jay and Curtis all have one.  Cracks me up.

Jay had a long track meet today.  He ran the 100 meter dash, the 4x100 meter relay and the 4x400 meter relay.  Then we had Nick's birthday party tonight.......more on that later but needless to say this momma is exhausted. 

Pay back is a real.................

My boys use my things and don't put them back!  Truth is I did the same thing as a kid.  It drove my mom insane!  I specifically remember she got really cranky when I took her rat tail comb.  Now that I'm an adult my boys do the same thing to me and Yes mom although they are boys I'm still having issues with them using their boy goop in their hair and then using my comb to fix their hair.  Usually when I find my comb it's caked in goop and I end up having to clean it out before I can even use it.  Then to add to the "hair" issue I have the "pleasure" of sharing a bathroom with my 3 men in my house (don't ask).  I buy expensive hair products.  I have to.  My hair is thick, dry, curly and down right unmanageable.  Just this week I noticed my itty bity $17 bottle of conditioner was almost empty and I only got maybe 4 washes out of it but as usual I didn't quite connect the dots until...........my darling older son calls me to the bathroom about 2 nights ago.  He wanted me to "see something."  I opened the door (he's not the least bit modest) and Jay is delighted with himself.  He has taken globs of my conditioner and made his thick, dry, curly and unmanageable hair into a Mohawk.  Needless to say I failed to see the humor!  The laughable moment he was hoping for was lost with his deranged mother going for his jugular.  And so mom I can hear you chuckling over this blog and enjoying yourself knowing  your pay back has finally come.  Ha!!!

Science 101 - with Nick

Nick has been relentless lately with his Science questions.  He's like "Sid, The Science Kid."  Everyday he'll quiz me how rocks are made or how earthquakes happen and I try to listen to him (I really do) but after awhile he starts to sound like Charlie Brown's teacher and I tune him out which I always pay for the next day when he quizzes me and I don't know the answers.  It infuriates him.  I tell him I'm just giving him a hint of what it's like to be a parent!  Ha!  The picture above is of a recycled boat Nick made for school.  He worked really hard on it.  Unfortunately it fell apart which caused a major melt down but all is good now.  Nick glued it back together and now it's ready to go.

Conversations with Jay

Now there's a blog post I never thought I'd write about......conversing and Jay usually don't get used in the same sentence but recently Jay has enlightened me with some conversation that I've found rather engaging.  Jay is involved in track right now so were spending A LOT of time in the car together.  Most of the time Jay is way more interested in playing on his phone than talking to me but as I've always said with Jay........ya gotta wait for it.  Below are some highlights of the conversations we've had the last 2 weeks.
*Jay told me he feels like he's getting older because he's not as interested in playing at froggie island anymore (say it aint so) but despite that he still somehow manages to grab his brother, his shovel and my brown eyed and blued eyed boys take off on their bikes together.  I also hear the banging of nails into a tree that Jay is working on for his tree house so in my opinion I had to agree to disagree with him on that one.
*He's had lots of God questions lately.  I've really witnessed Jay growing spiritually in his walk with God in the last 9 months.  He told me just last night that he does wonder sometimes what God is all about and if he's real.  I responded by telling him it's completely normal to feel that way.  He went on to tell me he'd been praying for a friend and nothing was happening which frustrated him.  I told him that we can pray about something really hard and sometimes the answer is just No - there may be no explanation and often there is not.  He said he can't understand how 7 billion people in this world will all fit in heaven.  I told him that as humans there are things we just can't and won't ever understand but the one thing I understand for myself personally is God loves us, he sent his only son to die for us and despite what questions you have (and it's certainly okay to have questions) I always come back to the main event and main character - Jesus.  I am encouraged by Jay's questions and I like that he's thinking about this stuff.
*Last week Jay had grandparents day at school and his Nana went with him.  He was nervous about it but only because he didn't want to be the only one who had a grandparent show up - as if!  My mom went that day and had a good time.  That evening I asked Jay how his day was and he said good.  I went on to ask him how grandparents day was and there was a slight lift in his voice and he said his usual good again and then proceeded to play on his phone.  I left it at that.  When we were almost home (again I waited for it) he told me he really had a nice day with Nana and he enjoyed her coming to the school.  I was touched and so was Nana. 
*Yesterday Jay told me he plans on working really hard on his basketball skills so he can play basketball in college and then go onto to play for the NBA.  This isn't the first time he's said this nor do I think it will be the last.  I have to bite my lip every time he mentions this because I don't want to squash his "dream,"  but I also know it's not gonna happen - I'm just saying.  He'll figure it out soon enough on his own and according to my mom (who taught middle schoolers for years) most middle school boys have the same "dream" to play for the NBA! 

On that note, I don't want track season to end (despite how painfully long and boring the meets can be).  Keep on talking, Jay, your momma is loving it!

Easter pics 2014

 We had such a nice Easter!  The weather was perfect and in Illinois we really needed a nice weekend, weather wise.  My mom went to my grandparents house and my sister went with her in laws so we relaxed at home.  We saw the movie, "Heaven is for real" with the Ausili's and then went to church late in the afternoon.  It was really nice!

 The boys really wanted a photo with their dogs but it didn't turn out so great.  Neither one of the dogs were being very cooperative........kind of reminds me of when the boys were little and I could never get them to cooperate for a picture either. 

This picture would have been perfect if Copper would have looked at the camera.  Oh well! 

Easter weekend

 We had our first (with many more to follow) Ausili/Siebert fish fry of the season last night.  The kids rekindled their love of the fish fry with their famous zombie tag and four wheeling.  We picked up right where we left off last summer.  The weather is beautiful this weekend - FINALLY.  It you look closely in the pictures you'll notice the trees are still bare.  They are starting to bud but just barely.  It's been cold for so long.  Just last Monday is snowed - ugh! 

                     We celebrated Curtis' 12th birthday!  Faith will be 14 next month.....hard to believe. 

 Painting is the job my husband has been involved with all week.  I know it's not easy but he makes it look effortless.  The color is so much better, very vibrant.  I really like it.  I'll post pictures when it's done. 

 Jay and Curtis played each other in basketball at church today.  I put the picture above on Facebook and said, "Friends but rivals today - from noon to one anyway, Warriors vs. Heat."  It was fun to watch the boys play and guard each other. 

Grandparents Day

I love, love, love this picture of my mom.  It would have been perfect if Nick was smiling and looking at the camera but Hey, you take what you can.  I love it anyway.  April 11 was grandparents day at Nick's school!  What a pair they are, those two!

Psalm Sunday

 Today we had spent some time with my mom for Psalm Sunday - Praise Jesus we can still get together and keep it real.  When we all get together it's usually (notice how I used the word usually and not always) a hot mess!  Kids are fighting, our husbands are either asleep (Craig) or playing on their phone (Mike) and mom is just trying to feed her family and enjoy her grandkids.  But here's the beauty of it, we can all laugh about it.  When we left my mom asked Kim and I if we ever left her house with a headache or feeling tense because things hadn't gone as planned or perhaps we felt unwanted pressure from mom that things didn't go "as planned" and I can tell you Kim and I NEVER feel that way.  Why, you ask, because my mom keeps her expectations WAY LOW!  Way to go, mom, we love you. 

 And here are the 4 smiling "darlings."  We still have some work to do to get them to all smile appropriately (Nick) and look at the camera (Luke and Lauren) but dangit, we got the picture anyway. 

This picture is just funny.  Kim grabbed Jay and reminded him how she use to rock him as a baby and now he's all legs!

Every once in awhile

I realize this picture isn't the greatest but if you look closely, back by the trees, you'll see a "blue dot," (Nick) and a "camo/black dot," (Jay).  I had to sneak up on the boys and take this picture without them seeing or hearing me.  Every once in awhile I catch the boys playing like this.  They are in the dirt with their trucks playing.  Every time I catch them playing like this I stop and Praise Jesus!  My boys fight, boy can they fight but I try (oh how I try) to point out to them that if they could stop arguing for two seconds they would see that although they are very different (personality wise) they both like the same things.  It amazes me that at age 12 Jay still plays with trucks & there was not a toddler/preschooler who loved playing in the sand more than Jay and again every once in awhile I'll find him in the sandbox with Nick playing with.......you guessed it, trucks!  Glory Be! 

Our "crazy" week

 I have noticed that pictures I've been taking with my camera are looking grainy (like the one above) - Ugh!  Anyway, that isn't what this blog is about, just felt like I should point that out before I got started.  Ha.  This is the season of our lives where on Sunday afternoons I'll look at our week ahead and say to myself, "Yikes, this is a really busy week, but next week should be better." And the following Sunday I look at my calendar and repeat the same thing.  All our weeks are busy.  I like being busy and I like keeping my boys busy.  Jay is truly at his best when he's in an after school sport but I found this week that it was too much.  I was tired and grouchy by Friday.  I helped run a carnival at school last night and I could not do it with a kind heart and I don't like that.  I posted the picture above because it shows how long Jay is getting.  This week during practice he said he jumped 15 feet!  Crazy!  I joked with Mike that that's Jay's deranged monkey coming out!  No wonder he's good at the long jump. 

 And this sweet puppy has been sleeping with Nick at night.  This is how they sleep together.  Doesn't Cole look like a person next to Nick?  Copper gets herself curled up like a snake in Jay's bed but not Cole.  Most nights both dog and boy crash because the weather is nicer now and they are playing outside all evening. 

 It was spirit week this week at the middle school.  One day it was "crazy" day - kind of went along nicely with our "crazy" week, I thought.  This is about as crazy as Jay gets.  He wore Christmas socks and crazy 3D glasses and trust me for Jay, this is really an accomplishment. 

 Notice how these last two pictures are sharper.  I took these pics with my phone.  Go figure.  Nick is taking a basketball class once a week with his friend, B.  This week B. came home with Nick after school and the boys played at froggie island until their class. 

And this picture sums up how I felt on Friday night.  I felt like Nick looked.  Here's to a more relaxing weekend (no track meets, woot, woot) and a calmer week next week - Yeah right. 

Drama vs. grossness

This week my good friend, Laura, gave me some good blogging material.  Laura has two girls.  Our kids are "sandwiched" between each other, age wise.  Her older daughter is one year younger than Jay and her younger daughter is only 4 months younger than Nick.  This week it was spring pictures at school.  The only reason I knew about it is because a note was sent home from school.  There was absolutely no preparations in my house for spring pictures.  My boys could have cared less.  On the morning of spring pictures Laura called me (as she often does) on her way to work.  The first words out of her mouth were, "I thought about you this morning my friend and was just wishing I could have had Jay and Nick in my house vs. my own girls."  My first thought was REALLY -does Laura really know what she'd be getting into with Jay and Nick - all of the farting, the burping and let's not forget all the pee around the toilet seat every morning.  She went on to describe the week long ordeal in her house in preparing for spring pictures.  I, on the other hand, just kept thinking am I missing something, are spring pictures a big deal?  Clearly with girls, they are!  Laura said it took weeks of preparing the outfits, buying new outfits, making sure the outfits went together right and on the morning of it was the hair!  First it was braids which Laura admitted she isn't very good at then it was a "fish tail" which to a mother of boys a fish tail only means something that is on a fish that will probably get cut up for frying purposes. After the braid and fish tail fiasco the girls decided they didn't like that either and one girl wanted her hair straightened and the other girl finally settled on a pony tail.  I asked Laura if she started her day at 4 a.m. in order to prepare for the big spring pictures.  Ha!  Laura said she was exhausted by all the drama that morning and wished she had my boys for the morning (but only for that particular morning).  Now I'll admit boys could care less about pictures and getting them to even smile for one, let alone having them care what they are wearing or how they look is a challenge.  Don't all us moms face our own challenges with each one of our children?  I suppose it's how you look at it and I know on certain days Laura and I would love to switch children.  I could get the exposure to braids and fish tails (and not the kind you eat) and she could get exposed to mud, pee on the toilet seat and lots and lots of talk about hunting, guns and four wheelers.  I suppose it would be a breath of fresh air for just a bit but then I know neither one of us would trade our kids for anything.  We just make sure we have a lot of vodka to sustain us.  Just kidding - sort of. 

Jay's first track meet

 Jay is running track this spring and I had a rather rude awakening last night.  I was warned from other parents that track meets can be long and boring and guess what, those warnings were right on!  Jay participates in the long jump, he runs the 100 meters and the 200 meter relay so as a parent I spend 80% of my time sitting and watching and freezing!  Next track meet I will dress for the weather.  The picture above is Jay and his long time friend, Aaron.  They both do the long jump together.  Jay's best jump last night was 12 ft, 4"......pretty good for a 6th grader, if you ask me.  I'm not certain of his time in the 100 meters last night but I do know he was the only 6th grader (all the other boys were 7th and 8th graders) and Jay came in 3rd place.  I was so happy for him.  If only I could have gotten a picture of that grin he had when he crossed the finish line!

Tracy & Lindsay, my go to girls

 This blog is a follow up to my weekend with Tracy & Lindsay.  Not only did I have a ball with them but they were full of information.  Kim and I joked that we walked away from the weekend with tons of tidbits whereas Lindsay and Tracy walked away with nothing.  But of course they said their insides were sore from laughing so much so that's something!  But seriously, here's what I gained.  First off, I am sick to death of battling zits!  I have tried Proactive and Clinique acne line, nothing works.  Tracy told me she had the same problem (and you can see how clear her face is) and finally went to see a dermatologist and according to her dermatologist adult acne is not something you can "wipe out" without medication.  So dermatologist appointment made - check.  Secondly they told us that we do not want to go to Disney over Christmas, that it is the worst time of year to go, the crowds are horrible.  My mom, sister and I made the executive decision to nix Disney over Christmas - check.  Thirdly, I learned of a little app for my smart phone called Ustream.  I'm a tech dumbie and don't have a whole lot of knowledge when it comes to apps until someone tells me.  Now I'm obsessed with watching the eagles and their babies on Ustream.  And finally, the girls turned me on to a camp called, Kenokuk and I'm probably spelling it incorrectly but in any case it's a Christian camp for kids and families.  I have already ordered a DVD from their website so I can learn more - check.  My family would LOVE the kind of vacations they offer!  Clearly I need to get together with these girls more often!  Love them. 

Reunion with friends

 This weekend my mom, sister and I reunited with our friends from childhood, Tracy and Lindsay and their mom, Kathy!  I have such fond memories of these girls and the 6 of us had a ball.  We laughed so hard my insides hurt today!  We relaxed, enjoyed great conversation and laughed, did I mention that already?  We picked up right where we left off and considering my sister has no filter (but we love her anyway) we spent a lot of time in gales of laughter being entertained by her. 

 Just like old times except now we are old enough to partake in an adult beverage - ha!

 Mom and Kathy.  They have been friends for 35 years......or darn near close to 35 years. 

 We hike at Starved Rock State Park yesterday.  The weather was FINALLY nice and we enjoyed being outdoors. 

I can't wait until next time we get together!  Love these girls and I love spending time with my mom and sister.  What a weekend.  It was great therapy!

I have left my blog on the low end of my priority list lately.  I feel like I have my "creative juices" flowing and the boys still provide me with good material, I just haven't had time lately and I'm blaming the weather too.  I'm going to try to make blog a priority in April!  Just a quick run down of our week:
Jay has track practice every night after school.  Jay is at his best when his schedule is busy.  As a parent it's a balancing act but as a family we do pretty well with it. 
Mike went to Jay's parent meeting for track on Tuesday.
I had book club this week on Tuesday.  Did I mention Tuesday was busy?
Nick is taking a basketball class with a friend which started on Wednesday night.
Jay had small group on Thursday night.
Nick decided to do his own science experiment and has buckets set up throughout our yard to catch rain water - don't ask.
Nick's four wheeler officially won't start.  Another "job" to add to Mike's never ending list.
Some pipe in the basement exploded last night.  I woke up at 12:30 a.m. to the sound of bursting water.  Not the best sound to hear in the middle of the night.  The good news is I heard it instantly and therefore we avoided a flooded basement. 
Jay had girlfriend problems this week (welcome to middle school, folks) and now claims he's "done with girls and all their drama."  Oh boy!  He told Mike he finds girls annoying and my response was, "And so it begins, Jay."  As if I don't annoy Mike and as if he doesn't annoy me (sometimes).  Ha!
We had a ton of rain and it's still freezing here.  I'm so over this winter.  Mike seemed to have fixed our roof leak to the tune of $30 after we've already spent $1000.  Who knew $30 was all it took to fix it?  And so it goes. 
On a light note, the boys and I are obsessed with "The Newsboys" new CD, "Restart."  We listen to it constantly and considered they are a Christian rock band I get great joy hearing them belt out the lyrics.  I am headed off for a girls weekend with my childhood friends, Tracy and Lindsay this weekend.  I am so excited!  I'll post pictures next week.