Musings of a Michigan Mom

I just looked at the calendar and realized that it’s just about August and you know what that means… only a little over a month and my baby boy will be going to school FULL TIME!  Oh how different that will be for me.  I know I will miss him dearly as he is my big helper around the house, but then again, I won’t be missing the fighting between the two all day long.   I just can’t imagine how busy our life will start being.  Having to be up and to the bus stop at 8:20, Katie to preschool Tues & Thursday afternoons and then taking Kevin to karate up to 4 times a week. (I will try to have him go at least twice, but if he doesn’t have homework and feels up to going more.. I’ll let him)

I can’t imagine what it will be like when they are older and will start doing sports or Katie starting Dance or Karate.  Karate would be nice as they would be the same time, same place.. .but I know her heart is more into Dance right now.  I did end up finding a dance class that is during the day on Katie’s days off of school so I really think that would be our better option at least this year if I decide to start her in that.

So are you ready for school to start?  Or are you wishing this summer would last a little longer?

Even though Kevin’s birthday isn’t for 4 more months, I’m already trying to figure out what to buy him.  I’m just clueless as I can’t think of anything he needs and I hate buying any ol’ thing just to buy him something.   Since he is loving his karate I am trying to think of something that might go with that. 

So here are some things I’m thinking and w0ndered what you thought.   For his big gift, I’m thinking of getting him one of those stand alone punching/kicking bag.  But I’m also thinking maybe I could look at some custom water bottles that might have his name or a karate person on them, or a new kwon bag to put all his sparring gear in, plus his weapons as it sounds like this fall he will start doing single sticks and let me tell you, he can’t wait to start learning those!  

Besides those things, can you think of anything else to get a 7 year old?   We started building things with K’nex this week, but I bought a bunch off of Craigslist last year so I really don’t know how many more of those we really would need.   He is getting into science a little bit.  With all the tornado watches and warnings this year he is really wanting to learn more about the weather.  I wonder if there is anything like that he would like and learn from at the same time?

Last night we ended up going to one of the nearby cities to watch their fireworks since that would be the only night Paul would be able to watch them with us.   Of course we didn’t get home until WAY past the kids bedtime and it showed this morning as they both slept in until 9:30am and they both ended up taking a nap today as well.  (Of course Kevin ended up napping as he isn’t feeling the best.. strep throat)  

Even though Kevin is sick I’m still debating on taking the kids (by myself since Paul is working) to watch fireworks tonight and tomorrow night.  My goal would be to find someplace where we can watch them from a distance so we wouldn’t be by anyone.  But I can’t help but think if we did that I have a feeling by Tuesday I will have some dark circle under eyes, of course I might have that anyways if Kevin keeps crying like he is.    I just pray that his antibiotic will start kicking this strep throat soon because I hate seeing him in so much pain.

Last night around 9pm I ended up taking Kevin to Urgent Care as he had been whining of a sore throat and not eating or drinking for me. (Along with getting a molar & sores on his tongue next to the new tooth) Two days of hearing him whine I had enough and called his doctors after hours and they gave me the permission to go in (otherwise insurance wouldn’t pay for it) so off we went. After waiting for 1 1/2 hrs we were on our way home with a diagnosis of strep throat. The only bummer thing is at 11pm at night, what pharmacy is actually open? Most of them close at 10pm.

Thankfully on the other side of town there is a Walgreen’s that is open 24 hours a day so my Mother-in-law said she would continue to watch the kids (she was already watching Katie as Paul was at work) so I could get his prescription filled. Let me just say… going someplace during the day and going to the same place late at night are two different things.

I told the pharmacist I would shop around until Kevin’s prescription was filled and didn’t think anything of it until I noticed the other people shopping at the store weren’t quite the type of people I would hang out with. Quite a few of them looked like trouble, maybe that’s because I walked around the corner where they were and they jumped a mile like they were up to something. I just walked on by and headed back to the pharmacy where I decided to just sit and wait. I was surprised at how busy they were.  Besides me they had a car at the drive thru and I had seen 4 other people back there looking to get prescriptions filled or one elderly person asking where they could find joint pain supplements (they must of been in pain to of been out that late at night).

By the time I left there were so many cars next to mine (guess that’s what I get when you park by one of those red things that you can get movies from) and the one next to me had their windows down and their music blaring (Bass BIG time).  I was never so glad to get out of there… all I know is if I rode around with the person in the car next to me I think my head would still be pounding today!

So while I’m thankful there are 24 hour pharmacies around, I just hope I don’t have to go back there anytime soon.

Today we went to the 37th Annual Grand Rapids Open Karate Championships in Kenowa Hills for Kevin’s 2nd sparring competition.  Even though he didn’t place in his division, I was still proud of how he competed as he gave all.   Since he was done with his division I ended up watching the older kids and let me just say I’m not sure how long I’ll be letting Kevin do this as those older kids can be quite vicious, but let me tell you, after their matches and they took their head gear off you can tell they got quite the work out.  I can’t see any of them reading fat burner reviews in hopes of loosing a few extra pounds.  All they need to do is keep doing what they are doing and I’m sure the weight will be coming off.  (if needed)  Parts of me thinks maybe I should start taking karate or something like that.  I bet if I did my pounds would start falling right off.

Sometimes figuring out a Halloween costume for the kids can be such a chore, but then there are the years that everything just falls into place. Here I thought I was going to have a harder time this year as I usually like to do something the kids enjoy or will remind me of them at that age. For example, When Kevin was one I had him be a skunk as he was a little stinker. Then when he was into fire trucks, I had him be a fireman. Last year he was into batman and my mother-in-laws friend actually had a batman costume that was to small for her son and ended up giving it to us. WOOHOO! Now this year I was wondering what would he like to be? I always think it’s fun to have “couple” outfits for the kids. (Last year he was batman & she was robin) Another one I could of done I suppose would be Kevin could be a doctor (put him in scrubs, mask and even get some of those disposable shoe covers and then what could of been fun was to of put Katie in a wheel chair, have her leg all wrapped up, maybe her arm in a sling and with makeup have some bruises as she had been in an accident.

Thankfully what clicked for us though was right now both kids are into Pirates of the Caribbean.  Then last month I had found out about the Pirates League at Disney world (it’s a pirate make-over) and since we are going in February I thought I might as well buy the costumes now and have them be that for Halloween too so I can kill two birds with one stone.  I ended up finding a cute girls pirate costume on amazon.com and ended up getting Kevin a Jack Sparrow costume on ebay! 

Can I say I just love it when things fall together like that?!?

I chose this song as Kevin’s pre-k teacher ended up making a DVD with pictures of the kids through out the school year and had this song playing through it.

Can I just brag and say how excited I am now that Kevin is reading!! For awhile now he was able to sound out words but always had a hard time putting 2 and 2 together. Well, during Christmas break thinking finally started clicking as he read me his first book titled The Bus.

Since then we have been doing reading exercises online thanks to starfall.com, but what I think is funny is how he still will tell me he doesn’t know how to read even though he is on exercise 13! It’s just so amazing to watch him read one of the exercises all by himself with out help!

What’s also fun is how we might be someplace and he will ask me what something says like at the store he saw an exit sign and asked me what it said and I told him to tell me.  Sure enough.. a few seconds later he told me!  I just wish he had more confidence in himself to pick up one of his books and at least try to read the words in it instead of looking only at the pictures.  Maybe on our vacation South he will as he will be stuck in a minivan for like 20 hours with a crate full of books! 

I always found it fun to watch my nieces & nephews doing their Christmas programs for church & school, but to have your own kid up there singing away is something else! Last year when Kevin had his with his preschool it was just a little thing where just the parents were there. So nothing big at all and he didn’t want to sing and put his fingers in his ears. This year he did great! It was hard getting pictures as I had to zoom quite a bit to be able to see him (so they aren’t the best quality) but at least you get the picture! (no pun intended) I did get a video of their last song as well! I just wish the lady in front of me quit moving over to tell the person next to her something.

Now I have no clue why Kevin was giving his look and then the girl behind him was giving that look, but I find it quite funny! LOL