Make a Wish-Day 1

Today isn't technically day 1 since we're not flying out until tomorrow but Make a Wish did give us a hotel stay before we left so I'm considering this day one! I want to make sure to journal each day so this seems like a good way to remember everything we did!

We got up bright and early for the 4 hour drive to Minneapolis. The hotel water park was only open from 10-1pm so we wanted to get in right away. We arrived just in time for it to open and the kids had a blast.


We spent about 2 hours in the water park and then drove over to Mall of America(which is directly across from our hotel) and had lunch at Bubba Gump's shrimp co. We stopped at the Disney store so Kaydence could pick out a princess dress to wear to Magic Kingdom. We'd found one for Kylie at a thrift store a few days earlier. Emeric didn't seem to mind that he didn't get a prince outfit. ;)


After a couple hours at Mall of America we headed back to our hotel. The kids were bummed because the arcade was closed but they were all so tired that hanging out in the room seemed fine with us!

Right now we're waiting for our pizza we ordered and then plan on getting the kids in bed early! Our limo is set to arrive at 6am!

Less than 24 hours until WARM WEATHER AND SUN!!

Worn out!

I think school is wearing this boy out!

I just realized...

Once again it's been a long time since I've updated here. You've got to be pretty funny, witty, or having an interesting story to tell to keep an interesting blog. Or at least one that people will read! I pretty much just use this place because I like to write. That's probably boring to most.

We've gotten back into the routine of the school year. With both the girls in school full time and Emeric in preschool part time I've got quite a bit of time to myself. I've been mostly using the time to study for the two classes I'm taking but I'm also just enjoying sitting at the coffee shop reading or refreshing my facebook page to see if anyone wrote anything interesting.

One thing I've definitely realized about myself since having 3 kids in school is that I am HIGHLY disorganized. I used to think I was just moderately disorganized but... it's bad. So, when you're a really disorganized person how do you even know where to start? I could write a list but I'd probably lose it. I could rent a library book on organization but I'd misplace it and forget to bring it back and rack up even more late charges at the library. Anyway, I decided that I should probably figure out this organization thing being that I'm almost 30.

Am I really almost 30?

I'm gonna need some therapy if I start coming to all these realizations about myself too quickly!

It's not so bad.

When Emeric was seeing a specialist in Cleveland and they stopped accepting his insurance I was bummed. Until I realized the next best doctor was in Texas. I'll take this scene over downtown Cleveland any day! So whenever I have the urge to complain that we have to fly half way around the country for care I remind myself that it's not so bad! :)

Summer

I can't believe summer is already half way over! I'm trying not to rush it more by saying things like the girls go back to school in 7 weeks! Wow! We're already planning on being very busy the rest of the summer. We've got a family reunion coming up, a trip to Houston ], our Epilepsy Stroll and a visit from my dad to name a few!

I start school August 31st so I'm sure that will keep me pretty busy! Emeric will be in school M-TH mornings and his nurse will still have him some of the time so that should give me enough time to do homework!

I'm excited to get back into some of the Bible studies I am a part of during the school year too. I've met a lot of great friends and had some great discussions with the people involved. They are all so great and still contact me in the summer checking in on Emeric! :)

Well, back to weeding the garden. It's pretty sad when my arm muscles are sore from pulling weeds!

Home.

I have been such a bad blogger these last few months... Not even really sure why...

I got home yesterday from a week counseling at Bible Camp. The Mennonite North Central Conference puts on a camp each summer and I've counseled in Senior camp the last two years. This year we had 50ish campers from ages 13-18. It was a blast and I posted a ton of pictures on facebook so I'm not going to re-post them all here! :)

The theme this week was, "The Bible: Use it? or Lose it?" which was my corny idea. lol Basically we discussed if the Bible was still relevant, why, and how. Of course we decided it was and we explored different ways in which it was. A few people shared stories about how the Bible had been useful to them in a hard situation. I shared a bit of Emeric's story as well.

The days are pretty long at camp... we're up at 7:00am and head to breakfast. After breakfast we had game time, morning session, worship time, small groups and lunch. After lunch is fine arts, afternoon rec, water fun and then dinner. After dinner is evening rec, night session, worship, devotions, and finally... sleep. Although sleep is hard to come by at camp! With musty, damp cabins that keep your blankets wet, giggly campers, a 2" mattress, and other factors it's not hard to see why!

I'm really glad I decided to go back. I was worried about missing my kids and prayed a lot about that and can honestly say I didn't. Of course if I thought about it long I would but there just wasn't enough time for that. We kept too busy! I really made an effort to stay present and keep my mind on camp instead of other stuff because it's pretty hard to be effective otherwise. It was also nice to be technology free for a week! Really makes you realize how much our society lacks in true relationships and conversation when you don't use a cell phone or computer all week!

I'm now home and trying to rest up before we start packing AGAIN to go camping this coming weekend!! :)

Tomorrow is Kylie's last day of 1st grade! I think she's pretty ready to be done and I won't mind not having to get up early everyday! Although I think my internal clock is set now and I'll probably still get up at the same time! She's had a great year. She has done so well with reading & spelling and has come a long way with her math skills.

Since today was Kaydence and I's last day together before Kylie is out of school I decided to take her to town and let her do whatever she wanted(well, within reason!). First we went to Walmart and she bought some gum. Then we headed to Menards to play on the slides and in the playhouse they had set up. From there we went to the mall and she rode on Garfield the cat while we wasted time waiting for Pizza Hut to open. After lunch we drove to our local Community Center to go swimming and play in the gym. The rest of the afternoon was spent sliding, picking out candy, going back to Menard's to play on the slides AGAIN, to the grocery store, to a little town outside our own to play on the slide and drink from the big lion water fountain and a few other random stops. All in all Kaydence and I had a great day and I just can't believe how fast this year flew by! It would be easy to feel guilty and think of all the things I could've done with her this year... more painting, reading, etc... but at least realizing how fast time flies reminds me to never take a single day for granted!