Tuesday, June 24, 2008

4 down, 4 to go

...weeks for summer vacation, that is. Yep, that is right. We are half way through our summer vacation. slow down...it is going way too fast.

Ebayer

Well, it is official, I have made my first few $$ by selling a few things on ebay. I have always thought about becoming an ebay seller but never wanted to put the time into learning how to do it. After a little research and google-ing I had my first for-sale listing posted. Now almost 2 weeks later, I have sold a couple items, received my payments, shipped them and gotten confirmation back that they were received. Yea! I did it. I have to say it is a good feeling. Now I am on my way to selling all those things that we have that are just too good to give away. You know, those things that people would still pay money for, those things that still have life left in them. They can't be all that bad...being that I have a couple $100 more in my account then I had 2 weeks ago! Yea baby!!

Hockey Goalie Camp

This is a big week for Tyler as he is participating in his first week-long hockey camp. It is M-F from 8:30-3:30 and let me tell you, they are long hard days. This is not a camp for whimps. They have worked Tyler (and all the others) so hard that he could hardly walk this evening.

The camp is a goalie camp where he is learning and gaining knowledge on how to become a better goalie. His goal and motivation for doing the camp is to get his 1st shut-out... sometime in the near future. We were a little surprised that he made the week long commitment, but then again he has been surprising us quit a bit lately. He has really been coming out of his shell, so to speak. It has really been nice!

We will see if he will need a wheelchair by the end of the week. HA!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Kyle's Surgery

Back when Kyle was a baby we noticed that Kyle's eyes didn't align and track like they should. So, after a consultation with Tyler's eye doctor (Tyler had already been diagnosed with the same thing) it was determined that he had the same issues that Tyler had, an over grown/thickened eye muscle (not sure what the technical name is). So at the age of eight months and then again at 18 months Kyle had surgery to correct the over growth of the muscle on his left eye. It worked like a charm. Kyle's eyes were straight again and the days of falling down, walking funny, tilting his head and bruises from falling all the time were over....Until recently, that is.

So after all these years we are back again for a check up with the best pediatric eye doctor ever, Dr.S. During our last office visit it was confirmed that the overgrown muscle was back, but this time it was the right eye. The doctor told us that he was not surprised to see it and had actually prepared us all along that it would possibly show up at some time in the other eye. So with all that we scheduled and prepared for another eye surgery.

That eye surgery was this past Tuesday and I am happy to say (Kyle is happy too) that it is over and everything went well. I can already tell a difference in Kyle's eyes, the way he walks and how he holds his head. He was really sick yesterday from the anesthetic (he threw up most of the day) but the eye is fine. Although he is pretty much back to his normal self we are still not out of the woods yet. There is a possibility of infection and we have to keep ointment on it everyday. He hates this part but understands that it is for his own good.

Here is Kyle with a new friend that he made while in the waiting room Tuesday morning. His name is Cole and he was having the same surgery that Kyle was having. Tyler was there also.




Here is Kyle after surgery (with Tyler)



You did it Kyle, Thank you for being do brave!






Monday, June 16, 2008

More Soccer

My soccer season ended a couple of weeks ago and once again we took 1st place in our division. It wouldn't be without a tie and a shoot out, but we won! I love playing and can not wait until the next season starts.

Tyler is also going to start playing soccer. A few months ago he informed us that he wanted to try his hand (or should I say"foot") at soccer again. He has not played for a few years (after discovering his love of hockey). So we signed him up for a fall league, that starts in September. And yes... I will be coaching once again.



Here are a couple of pictures of me playing soccer. Not the best, but you can see that I really do play. :) Now all I need are some of Tyler. We will have some in a few months.


Sunday, June 15, 2008

Kyle made Arsenal Premier 2000

Back in May (pretty much the entire month) Kyle went through try outs for a local, top notch, club travel soccer team. And yes, he ended up making the team. It really surprised us all but not as much as it did Kyle. He was SO excited when he found out that the head coach called to let him know he was on the team, that is if mom and dad approved. With a team, such as this one, it is just as much a commitment from the parents as it is from the player. It is still mom and dad that have to get him to and from practices, games and still have to pay for the travel part. We decided to let him give it a shot. He worked so hard and we could not take that opportunity away from him. It is a 1 year long commitment so it is not forever. It may turn out to be one the best things for him. we shall see.

The name "Arsenal" is the name of the club, as a whole. "Premier" is the name for the top #1 team in each division/age group (the #2 name is "select") and the 2000 designates his age group (he was born in 2000). So that is how we get "Arsenal Premier 2000".

He has already had a few hard practices and he is starting to realize how much more intense playing for this team is going to be. I will do my best to keep everyone up to date with where this new adventure is going to take us. I remember my days playing on a travel team. It is so much fun. I am sure this will be, too.

New horizons as ebay seller

I have always loved ebay, as a buyer that is. I have been a member since 2001 and have always had good success in finding what I am looking for, and in most cases getting a pretty good deal, too.

Well now I am trying out the other side, being a seller. With the kids getting older now and growing out of things really quickly I fiqured I would try and make an extra buck here and there on some stuff that is worth reselling. Not only does it put a little extra in the wallet it also helps us get rid of some stuff around the house that we are not using anymore. In the past we have just given all of our stuff away to a charity or to someone that we know is in need. We still give stuff to charity but now I am a little more selective as to what just gets "given" away.

I also have collected a few nice handbags over the years that I don't carry anymore. I know that they are still worth 'something' online, though. So those are going up for sale too. I wonder what else is lying around the house that can go up on ebay? uuhhnnnn.

Schools out

The kids finally finished another year of school. Now we are on to grades 3 and 5. Wow. I have to say that both boys ended the year with some awesome grades and report cards. We are so proud of them! Kyle, being in 2nd grade, only gets effort grades but he still scored the highest in almost everything that he gets graded on, all "E"'s for Exceeds Expectations. And Tyler made the Principal's list once again (all "A"'s)! Way to go boys! They worked so hard.





I am not sure if I blogged about this or not, but after coming really close to pulling our kids out of public school (for next year) and start down the road of 50/50 private/home school option (there is a local christian private school here that offers a homeschooling program) we decided to leave them in their current school for at least one more year. Our school makes it a priority to assign and inform students of who their teachers will be for the coming year BEFORE they leave for summer break.


So, as things turned out, Kyle (in my opinion) ended up with one of the BEST 3rd grade teachers around. Not only that, he will be in class with some of his close friends (the ones that Mom and Dad approve of, that is -yeah). And Tyler ended up with the teacher that we were hoping for too for 5th grade. He got the new one that is to be hired by the start of next school year. So with that as well as a few other deciding factors we are staying with the public school for now.



I know that there will be some of you out there that think I will be a "trader" (being that I come from a long line of public educators) on the day I choose to pull my kids from public school and move on to something different. However, that was something that we knew we would someday eventually have to look at and consider with choosing to stay and raising our kids here, in such a liberal state and environment such as az. Some of the things that I see and hear coming from our schools out here are just crazy! We have not worked (working) as hard as we have (are) to raise our kids with the right morals, attitude and integrity for some education system to come along and pull it all right out from under us and ruin it all. Not going to happen!



Friday, June 13, 2008

Busy in the Wheelhouse

With the way things are going it looks as if these "catch up" posts are becoming a norm for me. Things just seem to be really crazy.



I have been working on trying to write a post now for a couple of days. There is just so much to write about that it seems to be taking me a long time and is really overwhelming at times. So, what I have decided to do is make a new post for each topic that I am trying to catch up on, just taking it one step at a time.



So here it goes...