Monday, July 13, 2015

Visit from Nana and McKayla

At the end of June, my mom and my niece McKayla came out for a visit. The kids were super excited to get to spoil and spend time with McKayla. She's just four years old and was super sweet and pretty shy.

We kept busy that week with a lot of different activities. We were planning on going to the beach on Friday, but that got postponed because McKayla didn't feel too well. So then we tried to play miniature golf but they were closed. Instead we ended up at 5 Below and the kids each got to pick something out. It was a good day overall. When we got home the kids did Play Doh with McKayla and then we went and saw Inside Out. I cried during that movie which is really saying something, since I don't cry that often (more as I get older.)

Then on Saturday we headed to the science and history museums. It was fun. McKayla loved the butterfly room and hated the dinosaurs, and the kids had fun showing everything off to her. My mom loved the history museum but didn't get to spend as long there since the kids were tired. That night Rob and I went out to celebrate our sixteenth anniversary. Time sure goes by fast.

We headed out to the beach on Monday and had a great time playing and relaxing. We didn't let our kids take their boogie boards because of the increased number of shark attacks in North Carolina. It was a nice trip. The water was fairly calm and the kids had fun playing in the sand and water.  It was a good day trip overall. Fortunately, we didn't see any sharks this visit.

On Tuesday we headed to the park to squeeze in some extra time with McKayla and Nana before they left. At the park tragedy struck. The kids found an abandoned kitten and we tried to rescue it, but it wouldn't let anyone get close enough to it to grab it. Rob ended up with poison ivy. And the kitten disappeared into the del undergrowth. When we found it at first, it was so weak, and we could tell it wouldn't make it another full day out there by itself. But it disappeared and even though we looked for a good long while we couldn't find it again. (Just a side note: If you are going to have animals get them fixed or find homes for your kittens and puppies. I'm not an animal person, but it just makes me so angry to think of someone dropping kittens off like that to starve. Don't do it!  Not that any of my friends or family would ever do such a thing.)

Anyway it was a great visit and we were super glad for the chance to get to know McKayla better and to have Nana out after her heart attack. It's good to see that she is doing better overall.

Take care!

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Summer Fun Check

We've been out of school for almost two weeks. it got off to a rocky start wight he kids claiming boredom the second day of summer vacation. Ack! I can't handle it. Definitely going to be an adjustment. It's a bit tough right now because we are operating with one car, and we can't do a ton of stuff. Plus it got hot, really fast, several days as high as 100 with the super humidity that comes with living in the south. Yikes.

But things are looking up a bit. This last week, we had several water balloon fights. Caleb informed me that the fun part of the water balloon fight is filling up the balloons. That made me happy because I don't have to do anything. On Saturday Rob got to participate in it and he got soaked!

Lots of video games, and television shows. Beth is reading a lot again (makes this book lover happy.) And the kids are staying up  late, late, late. and they are sleeping in pretty late too. It's so quiet in the mornings. And super noisy at night. Beth's been loving the thunderstorms that are rolling in every night. She told me she missed hearing the thunder.

This summer I'm focusing more on the independence of my kids. I want them to fix more of their snacks, do a few more chores. Basically to become more independent then they currently are.

Case in point: Beth wanted a snack last night after dinner. I told her she was free to make herself one. This was the conversation that followed.

Beth: You know that thing we have to read a lot at church. The one that says you need to nurture your children.
Me: Yes.
Beth: I'm pretty sure that nurture means that you need to feed me.
Me: It means that I teach you how to take care of yourself.
Beth: I think it means that you need to feed me.

It made me laugh, and at least she's getting something out of the all of the discussions on the Proclamation to the Family.

My mom's coming to visit the next week, so we should have some more adventures and fun. Hope you all are enjoying your summer and having fun!

Friday, June 19, 2015

A Bit of My Testimony

The last few months I've been worrying about this and about that. General life worries, things that I felt like I didn't have much control over, or that I should have more control over. I have been praying for guidance, for peace about things and for the strength to get through. I woke up in the middle of the night (as I tend to do when I'm worried) and the words of a hymn popped in my mind. And I knew without a doubt that this was the Lord's way of whispering peace into my heart and mind. My favorite part of this experience is that the words were not a chorus or a first verse, but the third verse of How Firm a Foundation:

Fear not, I am with thee; oh, be not dismayed,
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid.
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand,
Upheld by my righteous, upheld by my righteous,
Upheld by my righteous, omnipotent hand.

And I've had no troubles sleeping since that happened. I just felt like I needed to share with others and recognize God's love in my life, and that he does answer our prayers and watch out for us.

Sunday, May 17, 2015

An Update on the Caldwell Front

I haven't been blogging on a regular basis, in part because our family hasn't been having our regular Saturday adventures. I think it's likely the nature of your kids growing up and doing things with friends, with school, with church with Scouts on Saturdays. It's harder to hold onto that time we have together and it makes it infinitely more precious.

Not to mention that I'm usually plumb tuckered out by the time Sunday rolls around and I have time to blog. A Sunday afternoon nap often takes precedence over updating.  Sad but so very true. The kids are doing well. Caleb and Jacob bought a four square ball with their own money a while ago, and so four square has become a very common activity, in the mornings while waiting for the bus and then in the evenings when they can barely see outside. It's not gotten super hot yet, which means it's still bearable to be outside. It's actually been cooler most of the spring (it's still warm, but like 80s warm instead of 90s and up).

Beth has started babysitting more and she adores it. She told me she likes to babysit because she gets to spend the time playing make believe, which she doesn't get to do with her friends anymore. Being in seventh grade will do that to a child. But she's great with kids and super responsible and happy to do it.

Rob and Caleb got to go on Caleb's beach field trip the first Friday in May. It was an all day trip with them getting to the school before 6:00 a.m and then home after 10:00 p.m. The next day they had a camporee which was another day of being gone from about 7:00 a.m until 10:00 p.m. Caleb had fun, but was cranky when I saw him. Rob was exhausted too.

The weekend before that Rob got to go to Merlefest with his friends and listen to some folk music. He had a lot of fun and found a new band. (new to him, they are actually well established older musicians.). Rob's been called as Caleb's Webelos leader and it's nice to see them working together on that.

Jacob is doing well. He does really well at school, and loves mine craft and youtube. He told me that he wants to start learning code today. So I think we need to find him a website. It's a must if he wants to pursue his dream career of designing video games. He has a knack for solving puzzles and such so I think it may be a good fit for him, even if it is super competitive.

I don't have much news about myself. I injured my thumb and I've been wearing a stupid plastic splint for the last month. Rob says it looks like Jason's hockey mask. It's likely arthritis, so nothing too traumatic, but it's still not healing. I go back to the doctor in the next week or two. That along with my familial tremor (you know the way I always shake) getting worse has made me think about my abilities and what exactly I'm going to be capable of accomplishing when I'm older. I'm already at a point when I won't eat in public anymore--I'm just too messy. And I think that I'm going to eventually need adaptive technology like voice recognition software. All of it makes me so grateful that I live now, where there is so much technology available to make life easier and to make dealing with this kind of thing much easier.

Today in Sunday school we had a lesson on thp Prodigal son and the lost sheep.  I thought a lot about people I know who have been lost in one sense or another, and how there are always people who desperately want to to find them and help them. The world has become increasingly noisy, and I think it's so easy to lose your way or to become overwhelmed by the things that you have available to you. But most of all I thought about how much the Savior loves each of us, right where we are, no matter what we are doing or where we are headed. He is aware of us and watching out for us.

Hope you all have a great week.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Winter, Winter Go Away

I've lived-in North Carolina for nearly 15 years. Most of those years, we've maybe had one snow storm, that would last a day, everything would melt and we would go happily on our way. One year about six years ago there were maybe two storms. Last year, we had two storms missed close to week's worth of school for each, but they were spread more apart. This year, we've had so many, and I'm so done. Two weeks ago we had an ice storm followed by a freezing spell so nothing melted and we missed four days of school. Then this last week we had an unexpected storm on Tuesday, we missed Wednesday while everything melted and then we had another storm on Thursday. And nothing has melted, and we had a freezing rain event today that canceled church. But the last week we also had some bug, first Beth, then Rob, then Caleb. Today I started with the cough and the aches and pains. It lasts about four days. And on Thursday, we are likely to get snow again. It's March.

March means spring. Not cold and snow. Come on!

Okay rant over. Other than me going a bit stir crazy and the bout of illness, we are doing well, being happy, and overall okay.  Hope everyone else is having a great week!



Sunday, January 18, 2015

Fun Update

We are getting back into the swing of things after Christmas break. The kids went to a week of school and then we pulled them out for two days to go to Great Wolf Lodge. It was of course a lot of fun. Caleb was big enough to go on the Tornado finally. And he loved it. Jacob loved hanging out in the wave pool. All of the kids lips were blue the whole time, so even though it felt warm in there, it was a bit cold.

The best part of the trip was turning on Veggie Tales and singing along on the trip there. Although the kids have all outgrown the cartoon, the Silly Songs with Larry stand the test of time for fun things to sing along to. Then we listed to Fruit Salad by the Wiggles. And it was fun. On the way home the kids requested the songs again. Sometimes it is nice to see them still enjoying the things they did when they were younger.

The kids have the next two days off of school. Martin Luther King Day and teacher work day. Last week we had a two hour delay twice. I feel like school isn't happening so much. But the kids are enjoying the relaxed schedule.

This week Jacob turns eight. Tomorrow. And on Saturday Caleb turns ten. It's a bit disconcerting to have my baby turn eight. He gets to start cub scouts, and get baptized and all that stuff. Good times. We are being fairly mellow for birthdays this year.

Well that's our basic update! Have a great week!

PS I want to go around and take pictures of my house just because it's finally clean in every room. Usually I get one room really clean (like deep clean) and by the time I get the next one finished, it's a mess again. You won't trip on anything no matter where you go in my house right now. I'm super proud!

Thursday, January 1, 2015

Annual Newsletter 2014 Recap

Again this year, Christmas cards just didn't happen. But I did finally manage to make Jacob a Christmas stocking so he had one like the rest of the family. I call that a real win!

This was a busy year! We had a lot of fun, worked hard and made it through relatively unscathed. We are looking forward to another great year in 2015. It's hard to believe how fast everyone is growing up. I thought I'd post some pictures since I finally figured out how to get them off of Rob's phone.







News on Beth. It's official, we have a teenager in our house. Beth is doing well this year. Another good year of middle school and she enjoyed Young Women's Camp. She is still aspiring to work in the medical field as a doctor of some sort, but she keeps going back and forth between different fields. She's thinking a lot about what works best with having a family. She's happy, and enjoys school and spending time with her friends. This picture was from her birthday celebration at Busch Gardens. It was a lot of fun.


News on Caleb. He is having a great school year, probably his best ever. He loves video games, especially Call of Duty. He is my most empathetic child, always watching out for the way that others feel. He earned his Bear award early this year, and is getting ready to move to Webelos next month.

News on Jacob. Jacob is in second grade and gets baptized in February. He's pretty happy most of the time. He's the one that likes to go to bed early and get up early for some quiet time to relax and chill. He's doing great at school, and loves playing and using his imagination.








The boys at the father son campout (I think).







We got to go visit my sister Sarah and her family in August. It was a lot of fun to hang out with the cousins. We did a lot, and visited the zoo. Went swimming. Hung with the cousins. Here's some zoo pictures.







News on Rob. Rob had fun with hammocks this year. He and all of the kids got one. They'd go hiking and hang out in the woods for a few hours in their hammocks. He also got to do his annual hike along the Appalachian Trail. He's still Cub Scout committee chairman and an instructional designer at NCSSM. He's very, very busy.


News on Mim. (No picture for me) I've had another busy year juggling working from home and being a mom. I love that I have the flexibility that I currently do, but the stress can be a bit much. I'm hoping to accomplish a lot this year, and I'm getting ready to make a sign to post my goals on my wall. Right now I'm a Beehive advisor, and I'm really enjoying that and working with Beth (except when I embarrass her).





This was how Rob and I spent our New Year's Eve with the Avett Brothers and some good friends. It was a great show! Hope you all have a great new year!