End of the school year (just a bit delayed...having too much fun already this summer!)

Yes, I am finally getting around to doing a post on the last day of school for my kids. Their school does such a great job of celebrating the last day of the school year! (I wonder if the teachers and staff have an ulterior motive??)

The first part of the day consisted of 2 separate "field days". First for the older grades, then later for the younger grades. Since I have a child in each age  bracket, I got to be outside for the ENTIRE time.

Spoon races

Sack races

Tug-of-war

(and yes, the girls won! Dylan wasn't very happy!)

Water balloon toss

(I think he knew he was about to get wet!)

Then it was Aleah's turn.

Tug-of-war

Bean bag toss

Ladder golf

(or Norwegian golf, or whatever your family calls this game)

Bubble blowing

Sack races

and more...but I didn't get pictures of everything, and Aleah vetoed some of the pictures of her.

At the end of the day was their carnival. There was everything from face-painting, to hair coloring, to bouncy castles, to snow cones, to cotton candy, to popcorn, to a dunk tank and whatever else I have forgotten already. It is such a great celebration for the end of the year!

and what school year would be complete without great teachers!

Thanks Mr. K!

and thanks Mrs. P!



So, another school year is in the books.

We now have a 6th grader and a 2nd grader. Crazy!

Flying

Flying...not in the "airborne" sense of the word, although my 11-year-old is obsessed with that aspect.

Flying...as in "the summer is flying by". Already.

Flying...as in "my kids days and months and years are flying past"

Flying...as in "there were lots of flying creatures out to get me as I sat by the bonfire with my husband last night"

Flying...as in "our puppy appears to be literally flying as she chases our kittens across the yard"

Flying...as in "the pollen is flying all over in our yard...and settling on anything it can"

Flying...as in "I think water balloons will be flying later today since it is going to be beastly hot"

Flying...as in "there are tons of moths flying around in our house lately. Different kinds. Really."

Flying...as in "my son's Buzz Lightyear was sent flying off the deck yesterday" and now has some broken pieces. Lesson in gravity and the properties of plastic.

We have been flying lately...how about you?

and something else is now off my "bucket list" (if I had a bucket list, and if that bucket list included things that are extremely pointless and painful)

So, I recently did a walking half-marathon. Not really sure why I agreed to do it. I have very persuasive friends I guess.

If you don't know me, I am NOT an exerciser! I don't enjoy doing anything that requires significant physical effort.

Now, I do like to try and be healthy, so my above-mentioned persuasive friends encouraged me to join their gym last year. I was talked into such tortuous things as "Boot Camp" and "Spinning". Seriously, what were they thinking? What was I thinking? Well, they were thinking that I would ultimately love it. I was thinking...well, I still don't know for sure.

So, the next apparent step to joining a gym is to walk a marathon. I did put my foot down and would only agree to do the half-marathon. I know...really strong statement.

Realize that I had probably never walked more than 4 miles at a time. Also realize that about 2 months ago I developed an "overuse injury" of my hip (not related to training for the walk). Training for a 1/2 marathon doesn't go well when you have a hip that needs to be rested. And when even rest doesn't help said hip, well...any effort at training will have a tendency to go right out the window (at least that is what I have heard).

So, I walked a half-marathon with one of my very dearest friends.

(there were others in our group...some were really crazy and did the full marathon, and others just started at a different time than we did)



Ready to start walking!



With basically no training.

    

                                        

Along the route



With a hip that hurt every time I took a step.

Sculpture garden

One mile left!

And I DID IT! Yep, one more thing off my list. Never need to do that again!
(Seriously, I really did just fine. One blister on my right "index" toe (what else do you call your 2nd toe?), a slightly more sore hip, and some general aches and pains.)

Not too bad for just walking for over 3 1/2 hours!



But still, never NEED to do that again.



Summertime!

Ok, now it feels officially like summer! I have been done teaching for a few weeks now, but I tend to spend a lot of time at work getting my classes ready for Fall until...my kids are done with school. Then we party like it is, well...summertime! Thursday this week was our first day off. We slept in some, did laundry, played, did laundry, ate breakfast, did laundry, picked up a couple friends, went to the library, came home, did laundry and played outside for hours. Ah...summertime! Then after daddy got home, mommy went to the gym in peace, then went out for dinner with friends. Ah...summertime! This weekend we are camping with my in-laws and have had a fantastic time. The weather is warm, but our campsite is in the shade. I will have to do a whole post on camping sometime soon, but don't have the ability to post my pictures from my IPad (I have to suffer with a first generation, so no camera on board ;)) I have tons of posts that I want to get caught up on, so that is one of my goals soon! Welcome to summer with us. I'll try to keep up with our adventures, big and small.

Bullies

I went to a great conference on bullying in Eau Claire awhile ago. There were speakers who were experts in the brain development aspect, the "impact" aspect, and the...well...law enforcement aspect (which I guess is also "impact"!).

I could very well relate to the lady who talked from a developmental perspective about how brains develop differently based on our environment and experiences. How our brain develops obviously impacts how we react to things.

For those of you who don't know us well, our son is adopted, and we adopted him at an "older" age. He was 4 when he came to live with us, and was 5 1/2 when his adoption was finalized. We don't have a ton of information on his first 4 years and what his life was like, but we can assume it wasn't great until his Aunt and Grandma stepped in (Love you Shelly and Judy!!).

No matter how exactly his early life was, it impacted him, and he struggles much of the time with how to act and how to react. He tends to act very impulsively, and react very strongly to everything (happy, sad or mad, you know EXACTLY how he is feeling most of the time).

Add on to this, our son is fairly small for his age, and worse still, he FEELS very small for his age. This means he is an easy target for comments from his peers, which he reacts very strongly to, which results in more comments, which results in stronger reactions...you see the cycle. So...he ends up "bullied" due to his size, his actions, and his reactions.

What happens when a very reactive child feels bullied?





He becomes a bully.





Which means he gets bullied more





Which means he bullies more





again, you see the pattern.





I am still going over the information that I learned at this conference, and plan for Mike and I to have a conversation with both of our kids about bullying. Both receiving it, and causing it.

Those of you who do know us, know that BOTH of our kids have incredibly tender hearts, and hate for anyone to be sad or mad, so I am really hopeful that our conversation can help them respond appropriately if they are bullied, and help them know that being a bully is never okay.

Our world can be hard, and it can cause kids to be cruel. Maybe because they don't have all the "tools" to handle how hard their world is. I don't know. I just do know that I am now much more conscious of this issue than I was before, and hope that I can have a positive impact...

What I do

I have said for awhile that I was going to share what I do for my job. Well, last week, I was finally inspired to sit down and write this post.

I am a physical therapist, and have worked at a few different places in my career. Mostly focusing on geriatrics (working with elderly people). I love my profession, and am passionate about it.

Because of this passion, I think, I have ended up in my most recent step in my career. 5 1/2 years ago I took the opportunity to develop a physical therapist assistant program at our local technical college. I have long said that I wanted to teach in physical therapy, but knew that I wouldn't leave my hometown to do that. Then, the opportunity came right to me, so I had to try it.

So I went through the process of developing the program (which I wouldn't recommend to anyone in case you were wondering...), and now have  been the program director and one of the two instructors in the program for over 5 years now.

I LOVE teaching. I LOVE sharing the profession that I am passionate about. I LOVE that I (mostly) get the summers off!!

So, what I do...

I create healthcare professionals. Physical therapist assistants to be specific, and this past week I got to celebrate the sending out of a new class. Students that I have spent the past 2 years with. Times that they were excited and eager to learn; times that they were frustrated and worn out. Times that they "got it"and times that they didn't, and I am so proud to say today that I had a hand in bringing them to this point. I was teaching students spanning a 4-decade span. This had many challenges, but many joys. What a privilege.

They still have a couple steps along the way, but they will all go far.

What I do...

(Sorry, this is only some of the 14 students who graduated this past week, and sorry the quality of the picture is so poor! It was nighttime, and I was using my 6-year-old's camera because my camera is being crabby right now.)

Thankful

Today is Mother's Day. And I am thankful.

Thankful for an incredible heritage of "mothering" from my mom and grandmas

Thankful for my husband

Thankful for my kids

Thankful that the road to being a mom wasn't easy

Thankful for friends and family who prayed for us

Thankful for medical professionals and technology that brought us Aleah

Thankful for a wonderful family and the process of adoption that brought us Dylan

Thankful for the joys and challenges of having kids

Thankful for people who have helped us through those challenges

Thankful for people who have celebrated the joys

Thankful for so many blessings in my life

Thankful for my Savior who gave all of this to me

to make me who I am today