Pumpkin carving

Jay said to write, "I can do it myself dad."  Ha.  Doesn't his face say it all? 

The Mysteries

Lately things in our house seem to be disappearing and when we ask our boys about them they have no idea what we're talking about.  Things get broken in our house on a daily basis.  We're use to that but the disappearing act has us a little perplexed.  It all started in August when Mike put his GPS on his desk and it vanished into thin air.  Eight weeks later the GPS is still missing.  Then last weekend I noticed the wooden bench we have in our playground area is split right down the middle (okay this is not something that has disappeared) the perfect place where a four wheeler could have slammed into it.  But when we asked the boys they had no idea how it occurred and said perhaps a deer jumped over it and kicked it as it jumped in mid air.  Really!  Then just two days ago I made our bed as I do everyday.  I remember on Friday morning we had six pillows and on Friday night after we had a babysitter over we were down to 5 pillows on our bed.  I asked Nick about it and he had no idea what happened to our pillow......his exact response........"Maybe Maggie (our babysitter) took it."  My first mistake was I didn't ask Jay where the pillow was.  I found the pillow today in Jay's room so that mystery is solved.  Then our central vac broke.....see what I mean things break constantly in our house so Mike had to purchase a new motor.  When he took the old motor apart there was a rubber boot that is not broken and is needed to attach the new motor.  Mike left the rubber boot on his work bench in his shop and now that we have the new motor the rubber boot has mysteriously disappeared.  The rubber boot is really the biggest mystery because the boys aren't allowed in Mike's shop without his permission so I'm inclined to blame the rubber boot disappearance on Mike.  But regardless it's still missing and as a result we have no working central vac which translates to one dirty tile floor.  The most amusing part is as I was blogging Nick came in and announced he lost his kick start on his four wheeler (what ever that is).  When Mike asked where it went Nick replied......"I don't know, somewhere in the yard." So on that note I'm going to partake in a pumpkin beer I've had chillng for myself in the fridge.  Bottoms up!

R.C

By reading the title of my blog you might think the content of my blog will be about a cola product but no my friends it is not.  My creative juices are not flowing today so in order to remember what I was going to write about I decided to simply abbreviate it.  The "R" is for Reading and the "C" is for conferences. 
As I've written many times in my blog reading is not Jay's thing.  He struggles with it so therefore he doesn't like to read and after the month we had in September I was feeling really defeated in terms of trying to get him excited to read.  Now that we're into October I still can't say Jay is "excited" to read but that being said I've seen a huge improvement.  He's reading daily and appears to enjoy what he's reading.  He's able to tell me what his current book (Jack & Me) is about and everyday I notice he's read more pages than the day before.  I'm one pleased momma about this. 
On Tuesday this week we had conferences for Jay and Nick.  Nick's first grade teacher is on bed rest and was only able to teach the first 3 weeks of school.  She is gone until at least March.  For anyone wondering.......Yes, this stresses me out BIG TIME but there is nothing I can do about it.  The school and the substitute is doing their best but I worry, boy do I worry especially since first grade is a pivotal year.  But as I know from having an older child (who is struggled through school) everything works out - what seems a big deal at the time always has a way of working itself out.  Nick's conference was okay.  I am struggling with several things with Nick which I'm not comfortable putting in a blog right now.  L.D. is on every one's radar right now (where Nick is concerned) and we will soon be starting all the processes we went through with Jay.  The only thing I do know for certain is Nick's deficits appear to be completely different from Jay's - what those are, however, is what we have to figure out. 
Jay's conference was excellent so excellent I shed a tear during his conference.  I couldn't help it and I quickly pulled myself together.  It's been a long road for us and Jay with many, many more ahead but Jay is going to do just fine.  I'm so thankful for the teachers he's had and I'm especially grateful for his LD teacher, Mrs. J.  She's provided Jay with extra help since 3rd grade and no matter what she has approached every situation from a positive perspective.  She said Jay is the student that's been with her the longest and she will truly miss him next year (when he goes to middle school).  I know I will truly miss her. 

I always know when football practice is good when...

Jay comes home looking like this........covered in mud.  Thank goodness for the sanitize 2 hour cycle on my high efficiency washer!

Hanging with cousin Lauren

My sister and my brother in law went on a mini vacation - Yes, I am green with envy.  My mom is watching Lauren while they are gone.  We took Nick and Lauren to the pumpkin farm and they had a ball together.  It was so nice to watch them and see them playing with no fighting.........ahhhh heaven.

Fun times in the corn crib

They played post master together.  It was so cute to watch them bring the mail to each other.

Nana!!!

Jay joined us after the pumpkin farm for some pizza at Nana's.  If you look very closely you can see the tea cups.  Lauren convinced her boy cousins to have a tea party with her.  Both boys happily participated.  Nick is hiding but he was pouring the tea.  He just hid when he saw I'd be documenting the moment with a picture.  Ha.  It was one of those rare nights where my kids didn't run around my mom's house like deranged headless chickens and all the kids got along.  I savored the night.  It was lovely.

Check out my new skips

My bears

Whew this has been a busy week in our house.  Jay has some kind of practice 5 nights a week right now and it's brutal!  It leaves no time for family and I don't like that.  Thankfully the hectic schedule will be over on Oct. 26.   Both  boys are doing well.  Jay is playing football for the third year and he says it's his last.  This year hasn't been as enjoyable for him for a variety of reasons.  He seems to have finally settled into the school routine but somehow I think that when this year is said and done I will say 5th grade has been the most challenging thus far for Jay and I .  There are days where I do a lot of eye rolling (but make sure Jay doesn't see me doing it, ha).  Jay has a lot of attitude.  I love him dearly but he's so preteen right now and he's going through a lot of learning school wise, socially and learning more about kindness towards others.   Some of the "stuff" he's going through and acting out on is all part of growing up and I pray he's learning something and applying it in every situation.  Whew it's hard being a parent! 
Nick is a happy first grader.  He's making friends and has tons of energy.  He finished up soccer and insists he'll play flag football next year.  Nick loves to hang out with the group of big kids that hang out at our house after school almost daily.  And I have to give the big kids credit where credit is due, all of them are good and kind to Nick.  Nick is enjoying reading and loves to point out all of his site words.