Here are some more photos of our time recently...

A train trip to Millenium Park in Chicago...



Six Flags on Olivia's birthday...

So much going on, not much time for the computer! :(

Olivia had her eighth birthday on August 16. Where DOES the time GO??? :) The kids and I spent the day at Six Flags to celebrate. We had free admission with Olivia's Make a Wish passport which JUST expired, and with my six flags credit card points we had free food vouchers, so we paid the cost of gas and parking which wasn't bad at all for a great day! :)

Olivia's in Third grade this year which amazes me! :) Our district is K-8 and is split into three buildings: one is K-2, one 3-5, and one 6-8. I teach at the 3-5 building which means Olivia is now going to school at the same place where I teach, crazy! :) Even crazier is that she's in the classroom RIGHT next to mine! Luckily she's young enough that she thinks this is VERY COOL! She loves seeing me in the halls and yesterday said, "Mom, I saw you THREE times today!" It was so cute! I think she'll begin seeing the downfall, especially since I see her desk through the door as I pass by the room. :) The other day I went past and she had the point of her scissors IN HER MOUTH! What?! Of course I HAD to say something, right??? :) But overall it's great!!!

Braeden had his first day of kindergarten this year! Seems even crazier than Olivia being in third! :) I drop him off at school in the mornings and he rides the bus to my school at the end of the day. I hope the year continues with his HUGE grin and yell of "MOM!" at the end of every day when he sees me in the hall. :) It's like he didn't REALLY believe I'd meet him there until the moment he actually saw me. Melts my heart. :)

God has poured an abundance of change into our lives in the past year. So many wonderful things! I feel HIM moving in many ways in my heart and preparing for the future. I am thinking of possibly moving back to the area I'm originally from at the end of this school year. A lot has happened in the last few months, and in taking time to look at our life and situation I feel like that is where God is leading us. It's not set in stone, still up in the air, but that is where I'm feeling led right now.

In order to prepare for the possibility, I've been finishing small projects around the house, purging toys and baby items I don't know we'd need anytime soon, and just working on getting things in order. The area I'm from is about 2 1/2-3 hours from here. Not real far, but far enough that we haven't been there often. It's been about 12 years since I lived there and the kids don't know the place much. It's also only 45 minutes from my dad's side of the family which would be wonderful, and I have many friends in the area, some of which I've been blessed to reconnect with on Facebook.

A very close friend of mine, Braeden's godmother, lives in the area so we made plans last weekend to travel there to spend time with them, see some others, and show the kids the area. They loved it. Here is a night at the park where we met up with some great friends...

Unfortunately we also had quite a scare while there. The first night we stayed, we swam in the hotel pool. That night/early the next morning there was a scary cough from Liam. I woke and went to check him. He was completely unresponsive. This has happened two other times, the last over a year ago. The first, unbelievably, was at a hotel also, the same kind we were in now. Even though this has happened before and I know it's most likely a seizure though they've not found out for sure, it was still horrible. I lifted him up to check him and took him to the bathroom to not wake the others if I didn't need to. He was like a rag doll. Eyes closed. Unresponsive. Very scary. You feel like you're holding a dead child. It was hard to tell if he was even breathing until I laid him down.

Some bad experiences with the hotel not answering the phone, then the ambulance arrived. He took a lot longer "coming out of it" than he did the other two times. I had them take him to ER to check on him and after a few hours we were able to leave. He was completely himself and we continued on with our weekend. I was able to get him in this coming Thursday for an EEG and a neuro appt. They haven't done an EEG in the past so I'm really hoping we get some answers!

Other than that, if that wasn't enough, it's been back to school, back to work, back to routine. Olivia's had a hard time getting back into the swing of things and we've had some issues with her being tired and not doing what she needs to in the morning, but we're getting there. I don't think it will take her long to get back in the routine. Hope you are well. Looking forward to catching up on all of your blogs!!!

Here are some new "before" and "current" pictures for those who were asking! :)

Notice I say current, not after! :)

Here's a before at Christmas time in FL right before I started with my healthy living...


And here are a couple from the other day... so not fun trying to take photos of yourself! :)...

This is a first for our family, and I am officially a soccer mom! :)

We're having lots of fun trying out soccer this year. Our local association began mid July and since that was the perfect time for us with our vacation this year, we signed up last spring. Braeden wanted to try it, so even though we've done gymnastics, swim lessons, tae kwon do, all to no avail with him, I decided to try again.

Practices for both have gone well. Olivia loves soccer, as she does with everything physical she's tried, and she does well, especially for her first year. Braeden has been Braeden. :) He does well when he's focused and paying attention and engaged, and if he's waiting in line to shoot, or something similar, he is off task to say the least. :)

Today was the first day of games. We began at 8:30 am with Braeden's game. I was AMAZED! He did GREAT!!!! He played about half the game, and while in he was focused, he knew where to be and what goal to go for (something which this age is not always so good at!), and he even shot a goal! I was SO PROUD of him! I really hope he continues and soccer can be something for him "to do."


Olivia's game was at 1:00 in the afternoon. We had some rain, but that didn't stop them! She did AWESOME and played most of the game! She also scored a goal and I was so excited for her! I think she was exhausted (her age group's field is quite larger than Braeden's), but said she wished she could do it all again!