IT'S BACK ON......

So here I am again, blogging.  I keep thinking how I am missing out on documenting so many amazing things but its just finding the time to do it but I guess you just have to make time so I am!  Summer was awesome!  Summer is by far my most favorite time of year.  The weather is warm and there are no bedtimes.  It doesn't get better than that.  We spend endless hours at the baseball fields and every Saturday at a horse show.  I am actually learning to enjoy the horse shows too!  Raelynn took lessons all last winter and it has made a HUGE differences in her riding, courage and confidence.  She still loves everything about horses and her competitions and it is so rewarding to see our investment in lessons and horses paying off.  This summer was a little odd though in the amount of rained out shows and eventually her fractured hand/wrist.  We had so many rained out shows that our last horse show this year is all the way into October.  We are usually done by early September.  Raelynn also wrecked on her new bike she got for her birthday and fractured her wrist or lower part of the palm of her hand.  She did this on July 12th and she is still in a splint.  Ok, so maybe some of the delay in her recovery was because I ignored her constant complaints of pain for the first 4 days but what does one expect when she complains about body parts hurting ALL the time. Anyway, long story short, after multiple days of complaining I finally stopped long enough to look at the injury I thought she was just being a drama queen about it but it was incredibly swollen and black and blue.  We visited the doctor the next day and finally after 4 sets of x-rays and what seems like an eternity in a brace, she says it is finally feeling better.  We go back to the doctor tomorrow and cross our fingers, she will get to take the splint off.  She is more than ready!  Anyway, she missed a few shows due to this but I let her ride this past weekend and she didn't miss a beat and is right back in her element.  This was the majority of Raelynn News over the summer and now she is back in school.  She was scared to start 5th Grade, scared of her teacher and just plain scared to grow up.  I expressed her fears to her teacher at our before school conferences and she seemed sympathetic.  I never expected how wonderful her teacher would be though.  We had told her that Raelynn enjoyed helping in the classroom and literally that very night we went in to drop off school supplies and meet the teacher, her teacher asked her for her help with a new student.  Instantly you saw Raelynn relax and agree to help and jump right in.  Literally I was shocked, her teacher didn't miss anything we told her.  She instantly connected with Raelynn and these first 2 weeks of school have been a dream for her and for us.  She does not have any friends in her class this year but that seems to be a good thing.  There has been no drama nor has she felt left out. It is truly a wonderful start to the year.  Now the thought that this is her last year in Elementary School makes me tear up but I will try not to think about that any sooner than I have too.

Coop had a fabulous summer as well.  He played baseball and now is in soccer.  The kid lives for sports.  He loves soccer, baseball and basketball and according to him, if he was allowed to play it, he would like football as well!  He is so intense it is incredible fun to watch him.  He is also laid back enough he doesn't get upset over much.  We had the best cardiology appointment in early August than we have ever had.  The leakage around the valve her received last year had completely sealed up and the doctors said he look great.  We had been expecting a surgery in September due to the amount of leakage they had seen 6 months ago.  Now they were telling us he looks great and doesn't even have to come back for a visit for a year!  We have never went a year without a visit to cardiology.  It was an incredibly free feeling and even Coop recognized the excitement of that.  Coop is still a very laid back kid but that sometimes causes a little conflict between he and I.  The boy does not have a "hurry" speed and sometimes his lacadasical attitude makes me what to scream but all in all he is still my sweet boy.  Cooper loves school as well and is doing well, at least doing well except for last Friday.  Last Friday he had a little trouble paying attention in school.  I am not a big fan of misbehavior and we let Coop know it was not acceptable for him to ever causes problems at school.  I made him write apologies notes to the teachers, apology notes to the other boys who got in trouble with him, a journal entry about his day and how it made him fee and his numbers from 1-150 in even numbers because that is what he was suppose to be doing at one time he got in trouble.  All in all I think I got my point across because he has been great this week.  It could have also been impacted by the fact that if he misbehaved again we would pull him from soccer!  "No!  Not Soccer!"

Terry is diligently working on the basement in his free time on weekends.  Finishing the basement has became a huge issue lately because Raelynn needs to move her bedroom down there and I need a place the kids can hang out with the friends.  Therefore we finish the basement or move and well, moving is not an option right now! I truly can't wait until it's done because it really will open up so much more room for us.

Tonight was a great night.  We didn't have anything going on and we were able to come home, work outside for a bit, make dinner, do homework and get ready for tomorrow and everyone still in bed by their bedtimes.  That does not happen very often around here but it sure is nice when it does.  With the kids both so self sufficient and Raelynn's love for cooking, I will say the school nights have seemed much better than last year as well as the mornings.  Raelynn now makes dinner 2X per week and loves it.  I love it too because cooking is not my favorite things to do.  So basically everything is fabulous and I have the best family ever!  I guess I could have just typed that and summed it all up there!

THE FAMILY I LOVE!

Dinner on the deck, compliments of Raelynn