Life Lately

Well friends ... life lately has been a big bummer!

If you didn't see my Facebook video I posted last week on my Tess and Elm Facebook page, I talked about the big bummer.

Which was how we were under contract on a house (FINALLY!) and then had the inspection done where they found a huge crack in the basement wall. We had to have a structural engineer come to look at it to see if it was a major or minor problem.

Turned out to be a major problem. A sixty thousand dollar problem to be exact!

And not 60 thousand dollars that we felt we should have to pay (and not 60 thousand dollars that I thought the owners were willing to pay either).

I was correct because they respectfully declined to pay for it. So we had to say goodbye to the house that was too good to be true for us!

We are sort of in a weird place right now. We just kind of don't know what to do. Matt came home Thursday night from Chicago and said he had a great idea and after the showered, he would let me know what it was.

I was sort of thinking it was going to be this fantastic, genius idea.

It was a house boat. He wanted to buy a house boat.

Needless to say, my sails deflated (pun intended) quickly and I went back to looking at my phone for houses.

I know that a house will work out for us. It's just obviously not even close to being on my time frame. I finally decided to just start emailing a few preschools in the areas we want to be in and will probably just sign Reece up for something. The kid has to go to preschools for so many reasons, but mostly because mom cannot teach him anything. Teaching was not my calling in life and when you know your strengths and weaknesses, you admit them!

I'm going to choose to be optimistic at this point because I'm tired of being sad about it. And on that note...

Other things going on in our life... school is almost out! I literally cannot believe it. I can't believe that I have sent Sloane to school nine months of the year and not once forgot her snack or water bottle that she was supposed to have.

I DID forget to sign a homework folder every once-in-awhile but hey, it was a learning process for us all!

What a school year though... it is truly amazing to watch your child come home and read to you. Or write sentences. I have loved watching Sloane in her first year of school and how she has grown.

Maybe someday she will learn to pick up the tempo a little bit...

But I'm not holding my breath!

As for Reece... he has no idea how to read or write a sentence and I'm really just excited for him to write his name. I think its a little bit of the boy in him, but his care level for that stuff is non-existent.

Can someone confirm or deny this with their own boys at this age?!

We've made big strides in other areas, especially in the swimming department. Once we finished up with occupational therapy in December, I knew I needed to keep pushing him in the areas that he needed to work on. One of those was the water.

The kid loves baths and to put his head under but the pool is a different story. After taking group lessons that were filled with Reece screams, he took private lessons for a month and man... Ms. Lisa was amazing! He still screamed here and there, but he is now putting his head under, going through the extremely loud maze of squirting water at the community center pool to go down the slide and is going down the bigger slides as well.

He has come a long way and I'm hoping we can keep this up -- I don't want him to put a floatie back on!

And as for Ms. Tess... she loves me. Like... a lot. And if mommy is not holding her or she can't see me, she's crying. Loudly. Every once in awhile she will venture off to play with some toys but no more than three minutes later and she is back at my feet.

God love her.

But sometimes I need a break!

Oh... and Matt is in Chicago every week.

Did I mention I need a break?

We seriously miss him... it definitely has put a strain on us as a family and in our marriage. If you can avoid the life of a weekly traveling husband/dad, I recommend it!

And that's life lately for us. We have a busy month ahead and then what comes after school is out is still unknown (say a prayer that the unknown starts to become a little more "known" for us soon)!

And we all know how much I love the unknown!!!!!


XXOO,
Allyson

Valentine's DIY from a Non-DIYer

I am one of those Pinterest people that absolutely loves Pinterest and pinning 256 things per hour. But very rarely applies those pins to real life.

Except on Valentine's Day Eve.

I finally put my pinning to work!

Sloane had to have a box for all of her Valentine's from her school party - another of those momentous "firsts"! Since I knew I would be making this by myself (I knew it would be once everyone was in bed and I knew that Matt would probably be watching TV on the couch -- but to his credit, he wasn't even home so I can't give him crap for this one), I knew the task could not be too difficult or time consuming.

I pinned some options and after reviewing my pins, I narrowed it down to the easiest one, showed Sloane, got the approval, and moved forward.

Below was my inspiration:

Hello Kitty

After single-momming it for the day and everyone was bathed and in bed, I began my chore for the evening. Operation Sloane Valentine's Day Box commenced!

Thank you to Two Dots for donating a box for this event.

Also on the crafting island for the evening was a large stack of white tissue paper, a thick pad of construction paper with numerous colors, a knife, two pairs of scissors (large AND small) and two kinds of tape. A glue stick would have been a better option that double-sided tape, but go figure - I didn't have any. I don't know how because I could swear to you I've seen 30 random glue sticks lying around recently. But not tonight, not when I truly needed them!

A Coke was also apart of this evening.

You can be sure that this part of the box-making process was where I used the most brain power. 

I spent the most time cutting out small oval circles for eyes. Because they had to be perfect (not because of Sloane but because of my over-analness).

 And BOOM.

Just like that, I completed my first real do-it-yourself project and it didn't take me days to complete or tons of money. 

Just some peace, caffeine and patience when using double-sided tape on the entire project. 

I'd deem it a success! She had a smile on her face the next morning and when I asked if I could throw it away when she got home, she was very angry with me and said "Hellll no, Ma! Back off!" 

Or maybe that's just what I heard. :) 

 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Valentine's Day! 

XXOO, Allyson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Importance of Great Teachers

I am the daughter of two educators.

My mom taught elementary school for more than 25 years before she retired... then returned as a teaching assistant (slash she is a teacher) at a school near Manhattan, where they moved two years ago.

My dad was a teacher, counselor, principal and superintendent over his education career.

And I can tell you that they were two of the VERY best. It is hard to find someone in Sedan that had my parents as a teacher or principal that did not love them. So I hold teacher's to the very highest regard. Their value is priceless.

I've entered that time in my life where my kids are in preschool and in public school and man, have we lucked out with some great teachers!

We had the sweetest teachers when Sloane and Reece were at Normandale Preschool in Minneapolis. When we moved to Bentonville, we somehow lucked out at a wonderful preschool that had ONE opening left in Sloane's age level. Ms. Ashley transitioned Sloane into her room so well and Sloane loved going! Reece was at Creation Corner and it was there that they pointed out some of his hearing issues, which brought about so many things we now know about Reece.

So again... I don't know what I would have done without these wonderful teachers!

Sloane had Ms. Alicia for pre-K at In His Image and in one her books here at home, it asks who her favorite teacher is. It says Ms. Alicia. And that will be there forever! Ms. Alicia pointed out how she noticed Sloane seems to be lacking in the self confidence area and how she was going to work with her on that and again, pointing out things for us to watch for!

Reece had an interesting year at Creation Corner because his meltdown tantrums would show their ugly face here sometimes. And thanks to Ms. Amber and Ms. Amanda, he found his way.

Now Reece is at In His Image and Sloane is in elementary school. Reece's teacher, Ms. Heather, is moving on to a new job after Christmas break and won't be returning to the school.

Ms. Heather took on Reece beginning in June at summer school and really 'figured him out'. He loved going to school and seeing Ms. Heather. And I am so grateful and appreciative of her and the kindness, love and patience she showed Reece (and myself) over the last six months. She saw him through some of his rough patches, but man, has he progressed! We both had tears in our eyes today when we were saying goodbye. Ms. Heather, you are going to be one missed woman!

My Sloane's kindergarten teacher has shown tremendous kindness to Sloane and has called to fill me in on things she has noticed with her, which I'm thankful for. Sloane is going to be one that takes awhile to process things, which slows things down. So we've got some things to work on, but hoping it will all just start to click.

It takes a village to raise children and you just hope and pray that your village includes people that I have discussed above. I will always remember these teachers and what they have done for my kids! And I hope that I can look back in 25 years and see that our village is massive and full of people just like them!