Ready to Roll

Seth and Tiara had the opportunity to be on a local daytime talk show today called Studio 5. They were invited to do some driving on some of the newer Power Wheels vehicles and show everyone how fun they can be. They both had a blast and have enjoyed seeing themselves on TV. Davis, of course, wanted NOTHING to do with any of it. Click here to see their TV appearance.

Real Life = Really Hard

So on our way back from Florida, we noticed that both Seth and McCall felt hot. We stopped and picked up some Motrin and drugged them both up. After we got home, it got worse. Both kids had fevers and sore mouths. When we left, Davis had been sick with the same symptoms. He had a fever for a few days, then swollen, bleeding gums and sores in his mouth. So now Seth and McCall have the same thing. Poor kids have been miserable ever since we got home. Neither one has had solid food for days - they only drink milk. I'm so sick of this huge dose of reality I came back to. Why can't life be more like vacation - someone to make the bed, clean the house, cook the food and beeing able to do whatever I want, when I want. ARGHH!! I need another vacation!!

Pictures from New York and Florida

So I'm a little behind in the blogging world after our trip. We had a lot of fun in NYC (except for JFK!) and enjoyed shifting to the slower pace of Florida. Since we had our "screen addicts" with us, the preferred activity each day was to watch the huge plasma TV we had in our suite. I, being more of a "get up & go" or "sunworshipper", struggled with this choice. So the compromise was to go to the beach in the morning and then relax in the room in the afternoon. I still got frustrated by just sitting around and watching TV when we travelled so far and spent so much money, but I kept my mouth shut (Yes, I can do that!) and let Seth and Matt enjoy their trip. On Tuesday night, we got to go to Hard Rock Hotel in Hollywood (where Anna Nicole Smith died) and have a nice dinner and go to a private concert. The band was REO Speedwagon! I was so excited because they were one of my favorite bands during my teenage years. Dave's convention group was the first concert the gave here in the states before they started their summer tour. Dave and I really enjoyed hearing all our old favorites. McCall totally grooved the whole time and Seth thought it was too loud. Matt, I think, was indifferent--but who can really know what a teenage boy is thinking??? We returned home late Wednesday night after a smooth ride with Delta, although they weren't as friendly as JetBlue. All in all, it was a fun trip to start off the summer and now that we're back, I can start planning the next one this fall to Dallas with Jackson and Davis.

Favorite Friends

I got a very sad phone call today. The director from Seth's school called to let us know about Seth's friend, Caiden. As many of you may have heard last week, there was a news story about a little boy that fell out of a 2nd story window while jumping from the window sill onto an air mattress on the floor of a friend's bedroom. He feel backwards through the screen and onto the cement driveway below. This poor little boy was Caiden. He was Life Flighted to Primary Children's with severe head injuries and placed on life support. His family made the tough decision to take him off when there were no signs of life and sweet little Caiden quickly passed away. I am so sad because Seth just LOVED Caiden. They played together almost every day at recess and went to each other's birthday parties. I can't imagine losing a child and just held Seth as I told him about his friend. He cried and talked about how he would never get to play with him again. I cried knowing how much my little boy loved this little boy. Seth doesn't make friends with kids his age very easily, and this little guy was one of the first friends Seth made at school. I feel so sad for his family. I can't imagine the pain they are going through right now. After last week's post, I am now finding even more reasons to appreciate my children and the great blessing they are. Life is so fragile and we all need to treat it with the greatest care.

Jet Blues

What we thought was going to be a fun day in NYC ended up as a nightmare. And I guess I should say that we had a blast doing the things we did. Last night, Dave & I took Matt, Seth and McCall with us to one of his conferences. We scheduled a long layover in New York because that is the one place Matt has always wanted to go. We flew into JFK about 5:30 am and our flight was supposed to leave at 9:30 pm for Fort Lauderdale. We went to see the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and up to the top of the Empire State Building. After that we went to Times Square and had lunch at ESPNZone. It was a fun place to eat and really good food but at $70 for lunch it was quite pricey. We took Seth to see the Toys R Us, which is so incredibly huge that last time we were in NY with Spencer I spent a couple of hours there just looking at stuff. Then we took Matt to the only NBA Store in the world. They had stuff there for every NBA and WNBA team. Pretty cool for a big basketball fan like him. We made our purchases and headed out the door only to see it POURING rain. Our next stop was to be Central Park which I LOVE, but in a drenching rain, it's not exactly in my top 10. After watching it pour for a while and realizing that it wasn't going to let up, we opted to just head back to the airport a little early. We got back to JFK about 5:oo for our 9:30 flight. After killing some time, we headed to our gate, only to hear a lot of announcements overhead about delayed flights. Come to find out, JFK had been in a "flight management program" since 2:30. For those of you that don't know what this means (like me), it boils down to a nice way to say the whole airport was grounded. The storm that had come in brought flooding rains and lots of lightening which doesn't mix well with flying metal objects with little tiny wheels. By 10:00, we had changed gates in hopes of using a different aircraft. But not so lucky! An hour later, we switched gates again to a gate that had an actual airplane parked at it. But now our problem was that there wasn't a flight crew. After all of the flight diversions and delays, all of the pilots had reached their limit of hours and had to go home. So we waited again. We finally boarded the plane at midnight, thinking that we'd fly into Fort Lauderdale about 3am. Rule #1, don't EVER use logic when figuring flight times. As soon as the cabin doors were shut, the Captain came on overhead and said that we would have a long taxi to the runway. I'm thinking 20-30 minutes, but then he said 2 - 2 1/2 hours! At that, several people totally freaked out and demanded to get off the plane. So they opened up the doors and wasted another 20 minutes letting some off and others that were cancelled from their flight on. ARGGHH! So we headed to the runway at a snails pace, following 200+ flights ahead of us. At 4am, we finally got clearance to take off. We landed at 6:15 am - another night spent sleeping on an airplane! We quickly proceeded to our hotel, since Dave and Matt had reservations on a fishing boat that left at 8:00. They only had a King suite left for us, so we took it and said "thank you" knowing that at least we had a bed. It was such a crazy 36 hours and I wouldn't exactly want to do it again, but we did have fun. I love New York and would love to back soon, just not for only a day.

Mommy Brag

Okay, so every once in a while our kids do something so remarkable that us Moms have to brag. If you don't want to hear it, go read someone else's blog today.

We got Seth's report card and SAT results in the mail yesterday. Of course, he had a perfect report card, just like always. It's been pretty evident all year that he is quite bright. We left him in a private school for kindergarten after trying to do kindergarten at the public school with Spencer and having him be bored. So we swallowed hard and paid the tuition every month, hoping it was for the best for Seth. He seemed bored at times, even with the 1st grade curriculum. It just came easy to him. After having Spencer in the gifted program the last 2 years and learning more about accelerated and gifted kids and their traits, we came to the conclusion that Spencer is very bright and does well in an accelerated class. But Seth, on the other hand, is gifted. Now, we've never had him officially tested--after all, what's really the point? He has all the traits and learning styles of a gifted kid, so treat him as a gifted learner. But after seeing his SATs, we're amazed. Seth, who sometimes is in his own little world and ignores much of what is going on around him, scored in the 99th percentile! Amazing! When I looked at the graph and saw his range slammed up against the "99" I couldn't believe it. I knew he was smart, but is he really THAT smart? While it's fun to brag about a kid that bright, I'm not sure that's what I really want.

Now for those of you that think I'm nuts to not want a gifted kid, take into consideration what goes with it...He doesn't listen well, is obstinate, will not do anything that he sees as "unimportant", likes to argue and reason his way out of things, and is quite "sensory oriented". He has no boundaries when it comes to touching others and can focus on something that interests him for hours without any clue as to what is going on around him. He freaks out if someone doesn't play by the rules and has a hard time making friends his own age.

We've often questioned if having a gifted child is a blessing or a curse and I've decided it's both. While the best would be to have just a smart "normal" kid, I'll take Seth with all his eccentricities and love being his mother, because sometimes, (like now), I get to brag about how great he is.

Cherish EVERY Moment

I saw this video on Janine's blog and it really touched me. This is a video from Steven Curtis Chapman called "Cinderella" that he wrote last year. The story of how he wrote the song follows the music video if you want to watch it, too. He wanted to remind himself of how fast children grow up and are gone. Unfortunately, his youngest daughter, Maria Sue, was killed on May 21st after being backed over in their driveway by her teenage brother. Accidents like this happen all too frequently. It's a good reminder to all of us to be careful with the little ones around us. It's so easy to rush through each day with our "to do" lists and miss out on the simple things in life. Most of us will never have to live through such a tragedy, but our children will all grow up and leave home all too quickly. I know how easy it is to get frustrated with kids and the day to day tasks that we try to do. I often forget that what's most important isn't whether or not I have time to clean my floors or if I'm going to be on time. My kids are more important to me than a dusty floor or running 5 minutes late. I can't imagine not ever being able to tuck them in or give them a bath each night. Cherish EVERY moment with your children, even when it's not convenient. They truly are a gift from God and NOTHING is more precious than these little ones. (Don't forget to pause the playlist so you can hear the video)