So we have been living in Michigan for 2 years. We have accomplished things that we set out to accomplish by moving back to Michigan. Brian has stayed a reservist while using the GI bill to obtain his associates in aviation. He graduated this spring, and he is onto the final steps of this particular journey ..Getting his bachelors. He just hit a major goal in his schooling by becoming a flight instructor at the college! He has a handfull of students and a constant smile on his face. Its nice to see THAT brian again, and not the stressed out, going grey Brian we have seen this past year and a half. He has had a smorgasbord size plate since he started school and always having 2-3 jobs at once it hardly leaves time for family life. Its a small price to pay to reach your goals and becoming something. Im so very proud of him.
Lately life has been crazy. Sladen was selected to be the Cherry festival Prince of his school. Along with that EXCITING title for him, came LOTS of work for mom and dad. Basically they handed us a trailer and said this is yours to build with no help from us. Challenge accepted. The theme of this years parade was Michigan Authors, so we were given the book M is for Mitten ( an alphabet book). His princess' family helped get us donations, but that was about all they gave us. We towed the float, we built the majority of it, and put it together, tore it down, and all the other things that came along with it. My past 2 weeks consisted of painting, stapling, painting, and did i say painting?! I couldn't have been happier when the second parade ended. Check that off the bucket list. ANd sladen can say he was a cherry prince. The things we do for our children. He had appearances he had to make. A pie eating contest, 2 tours and a pizza party, plus the 2 parades. It was an exhausting & rewarding experience.
To stay on the subject of Sladen, he is BMX'ing his little heart out this year. We have been enjoying watching him become more and more comfortable out there on the track. In one year its crazy how much he can change. Hes a good little racer (as are all of them out there) but with first place wins, comes a big head and a semi load of confidence. He thinks he IS the BEST and thats simply not how i want him to be. I want him to think of the other kids as team-mates and not competitors. I want him to have good sportsmanship. Slowly he is learning that. He just received his 7th first place trophy, and when he reaches 10 he moves up a class from novice to intermediate (racing faster kids).... or when he turns 7 he will start racing 7 novices whichever comes faster. Im sort of rooting for the birthday to come faster than the 10 first places, simply because once he starts racing the 7 boys, they are a little faster than him,but not as fast as the intermediates and it wont crush his soul as much, but still knock him down a notch. Does that make any sense? Kendal is really itching to race, but she is too small for the mini race bike, but too big for the strider bikes, and we cannot find a Micro mini race bike, and when we have come accross 2 of them, they are nearly 500 bucks and well, thats half of a months rent so that would be a ..... big....fat.... no.
So keeping with talking about Kendal.... She just turned 4. 4. 4 whole years. woah. She is one wild, and crazy girl! There isn't much that she cannot do, or atleast try. But this week she has a bad case of bad luck or juju or just not paying attention that leads to accidents. this week alone these are the accidents:
*Saturday she was riding her bike and bit the ground chin first, giving her a golf ball size egg and all bruised.
*Sunday she stopped riding her bike right in front of brian and his tire scuffed hers, sending her yet again to her chin.
* Sunday night she was rounding a turn on the river bridge as we were riding a family bike ride and as she rounded the turn, her spokes of her tire caught my foot from my pedal, eating my whole foot and wrapping my toes around her spokes sending us both to the ground. (now talk about thinking your toes were sheered off!!!)
*Monday she was doing tricks, yet again on her bike, with her brother and they were skidding to hit folding chairs and knocking them down, well she folded herself into one of the chairs while still on her bike- tell me it isnt possible, because you would be wrong.
* Tuesday she was riding slades bike around the school while we were waiting to pick him up from camp, and she got excited when she saw him and you can guess what happened next...... haha
*wednesday (today) durning lunch she was tipping on her chair (which i have told them hundreds of times not to do) it fell backwards, she fell on the back of it, breaking 2 of my rungs. she didnt learn a single lesson.
She is an accident waiting to happen. The thing is, is that she is absolutely fearless. She falls and thinks "wow, lets try that again". she only cries because she is either pissed that it happened, or embarrased... Rarely does she cry because its painful. She is doing really well though.
Life is a bit chaotic... and i wouldnt have it any other way!
My photography is slower this summer than last, but since brian is always gone, it leaves me little time to focus on setting up sessions when i would have to bring the kids along. Most of the families love the distraction my kids make for their kids to watch and look at the camera, and the my kids listen really well, but its just not that professional, and it doesnt let me FOCUS directly on that family. However, i did score a sweet deal with GTCBMX Raceway, and i am the track photographer. This is my first real big chance to show people what i can do. Its difficult to shoot moving objects, its difficult to get the camera just right but i am learning. Lots of blurring and motion at first, but i am starting to get the hang of it. ITs helping me learn and grow in lots of ways.
This summer has been going by really fast, but we have been able to accomplish alot. We have gone camping, lots of races, lots of family outings, go carting, beaching, pooling, bike rides galore, drive in movies, air shows ... just going going going.
This summer is far different than last! last summer I had 3 jobs, brian had 1 plus school, when he was gone i was home and vice versa. I rarely saw the kids, and we didnt get to do a single family thing. It was an exhausting summer. This summer is very enjoyable with lots of memories. Chasing the ice cream truck, getting dirty, lots of laughing, lots of fun.... i feel blessed, completely blessed.
In other news, this will be the longest we have lived in one home as a family. We just re-signed our lease.... we are in this house for another year. The thought of moving is always apetizing to me. I love the change of scenery.... But for now, i am content. We have the school right down the road, we have stores convientiently placed, we have what we need right where we are.... so why move? Plus the thought of figuring out how to get the couches we stuffed downstairs back up the stairs is enough to make me stay put ;)
This is getting long, and a bit pointless but for those of you whom like to read my life, this oughta do it for a while :)
