Catching up

I realize that I have not updated this blog as frequently as I would like. When I first started it, my intention was to write at least once a week. But then soccer happened. And more soccer after that. Now we are up to 5 days a week of soccer. No, I'm not joking! Our weekly schedule has been like this:

Monday--no soccer
Tuesday--Matthew game/practice
Wednesday--Ryan practice
Thursday--Matthew game/practice
Friday--no soccer
Saturday--Ryan game
Sunday--Harold game

Seriously, I'm all soccered out. Fortunately Matthew's last game of the season is on Thursday and that will cut down on our commitments considerably. I don't know what we're going to do when all three of our kids are involved in completely different activities all on the same day! We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, I guess. Ann, do you have any tips? :)

So, what's new here....Well, Natalie is turning 1 in just 4 days. I have very mixed feelings about that! It has been exciting to see her grow and change so much in the past year. But on the other hand, she is becoming less and less of a baby and more and more of a little girl. I already miss her babyhood. She has been such a blessing in our lives. Now I know why I waited so long for her. She is my special girl.

Matthew is doing GREAT in school! He is at a reading level of 16 out of 21, the highest in his class. He really seems to be enjoying his new class and his new teachers. He actually has two of them...they job share. One teacher, Mrs. Ball, teaches on Monday, Tuesday, and 1/2 day Wednesday. The other teacher, Mrs. Scott, teaches 1/2 day Wednesday, and then all day on Thursday and Friday. Matthew has said that he likes both teachers very much. He is also loving art class. They did not have art class as kindergartners, so he has been looking foward to this for a long time! I am excited to have the opportunity to help out in his classroom once a month with guided reading groups, starting in November.

Ryan is also doing very well! He is in the middle of his first season of soccer, and as most of you know, he has been dreaming of this for a very long time! He even scored a goal in his first game. At school, Ryan is having a great time. He is technically in a Pre-K program, even though Harold and I are not entirely sure that we will enroll him in Kindergarten in the fall, given his late birthday. Anyway, he is working hard on learning his letters and numbers and writing his name. He is so smart, but in a very different way than Matthew. It will be interesting to see how he does once he actually starts school.

I am still working from home, but am actively searching for day care for Natalie so that I can start going back into the office a couple of days a week. Right now I have her on a waiting list at a church day care center, but I have no idea when a spot will open up for her. I am still enjoying being home with her because I know these are days that I will never get back. I missed out on a lot of these moments with the boys, so I am eternally grateful to my boss for trusting me enough to let me do this.

I'll let Harold tell you how he is doing. :) I'm always bugging him to write on here, so maybe he'll try it now. I would like to embarrass him for a moment by thanking him again for the last eight years. (Our annniversary was on September 3oth.) Sometimes I can't believe we have been together for that long...the time has just flown by. Three kids, many headaches, a few arguments and eight years later, I love him even more than the day I married him.

I'm sure he's sufficiently embarrassed now, so I'll stop. ;)

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