Wow it has been a year!

Ok so I swore that I would do better this year to keep my blog current, and look it is been a year since I have posted.  I know there are many things that get us distracted, but man, what is my excuse... oh wait the three children that I have and care for.  Well lets see if I can do better the last half of the year.

Well the kids and I made it through daddy leaving for Texas in January.  It was a tear filled event, but they cheered up at the thought of seeing daddy over spring break.  In March we embarked on our trip to Texas, 14 hours and many are we there yet's we arrived in one piece.  Wes still had to work, but we filled our days with exploring and visiting friends.  In May, Wes went to a Non-commissioned Officer course (WLC) and passed with flying colors.. Since they ended right before Memorial Day, he was able to get a pass and we spent the long weekend at Myrtle Beach, SC.  A teary eyed Timmy said good bye to daddy at the airport and we drove back to Signal Mountain.  The great thing is he will be home for two weeks in July.  Now I am not sure about the rest of the year!

The kids have been great during this time and all passed their classes and are promoted to the next grade level.  Michael played Baseball of course, and did well.  He was chosen to play in the All Star game and played well.  He has been away at Boy Scout Camp and then off to youth camp.  He starts football in July and will play for his middle school in the fall.  Gabe finished his first year of Boys choir and did well.  He is excited to go to camp this summer.  Timmy is, well Timmy.  He is full of life and into everything.

Me... well I am gainfully employed as my kids mom and my husbands wife.  I was working at Allstate and was laid off the day he was deployed.  I occupied my summer with umpiring some of the kids ball games, running them all around.  I am ready to have Wes home for a little bit and be able to have another set of hands around.  I know this is a lame account of the last six months of our lives, but there it is in a nutshell.. ~Ashleigh

It's Spring Time!

Well it has begun. I realized that spring is on its way regardless of what the weather man or the ground hog says. I do have robins hopping around my yard and the woodpecker is was making his presesnce known. There is hope for warmer weather. In spite of the cold weather baseball has begun. This makes spring official. Once again I have 2 boys playing ball this spring. This time it is Michael (as usual) and Timmy. The excitement of this little guy is very contageous. I just have to mention baseball and he knows where every piece of his equipment is. He runs and gets his bat and glove, he even knows where both of his cleats are. This is from the little boy that usually has shoes in all areas of the house. He is excited to even practice. We had a tournament this last weekend and his practice was in between the two games of his older brother. He would not stop the continuous questions of "is it my turn yet?", and "hurry mom, I am going to be late".

I have been again reminded about how different my children are. I have one that is so talented in sports, and a youngest that is just getting started in sports. They enjoy it. Then I have Gabe... he has done his share of trying sports, but does not seem to enjoy them like the other boys do. Much to my surprise when I came home yesterday he was so excited about a letter he had received at school. He couldn't wait to show me. I read the letter, and found out that Gabe was one of a handful of boys that had been recommended to The Chattanooga Boys Choir. He was over the top excited. He has been signed up for his formal audition in April and will start rehersals this fall. I was glad to see that he was excited to do something with music. Who knows where this will lead...

Snow

Wow what a weekend. It all started abotu 3 pm on Friday afternoon as the snow came down. My wonderful husband had been telling me for the last hour that I should head home. I am at times very hard headed and figured that I could make it... Well I did make it... 31/2 hours later. I actually left the office when my operations manager said he slid down MLK Blvd. It was slow and steady and some times stopped. When I finally got to the top, I stopped and picked up some essentials, milk and soda. There were several others that did the same. I got home as another down pour of snow let loose. It was a beautiful sight. Then came the mist the eventually froze on all the limbs and power lines. We lost power sometime in the night and had to use extra blankets... We thought we were in the clear later in the morning when the power came back on.. Our joy was shprt lived, it went back off. As quick as they could get power restored, another tree wold fall on the lines and snap them or the whole pole. It was quite an experience delivering papers. I went out with my zone manager. Saturday was ok, the snow was soft. We were able to get around pretty good. There was some sliding, but not bad. Today was a whole nother day. It started about 5:30 AM.. he came to pick me up so we could throw my route. There was a sheet of ice going across the road right where I needed to walk. Well I did pretty good and wham.. I was on the ground! We were laughing and i checked to see if I had broken anything. We went to pick up another carrier and ended up getting stuck in her driveway. Well we did a lot of pushing and managed to get out. We were headed down the mountain and saw one of our other carriers walking down... She had gotten stuck as well. We all went down the mountain and got papers. We headed back up and had to go under fallen trees to deliver the W road. We then managed to get stuck again.. this time it took one of our customer and the two of us to get us out of that one. At at the end of the route we got stuck again.. It was quite an adventure. There were power lines down and trees all over the place. There is still a lot of ice on the roads and some were still impassable. It was quite an experience over the last few days.. All that being said... I do not like snow unless I am in the house with power and a good movie. All the other drama can stay up north. Spring come quick!

Scouts - Getting ready for a new Beginning

Tonight we had our final den meeting. We handed out the last few awards and celebrated. I cannot help but being very proud of my oldest son. There are about 20 scouts that will be crossing over in February to the Boy Scouts. This alone is an accomplishment, but he has achieved even more. He will be one of 4 scouts that achieved Super Scout. This is an achievement that few finish. He did all the requirements required of a Webelo; he has also earned the Arrow of Light. All of these mark the path of a young boy turning into a man. As he leaves the ranks of Cub Scouts he will cross over into the world of Boy Scouts... Not a big deal you say- well there will be no more mom involvement, no moms on activies, no more moms on campouts, and no more moms at meetings. I know this is all in time and He will grow up and be better for the experience. I know it is a passage of life, but I am still wondering where that little boy has gone. The one that was completely dependant on me will now learn to survive on his own.

There is just a moment in time when that little baby is yours, then he grows up and starts to branch out on his own. I am excited, yet aprehensive about all the new challenges we will face, but I know that he will always remember who was by his side, cheering him all along the way!

Ok .... Time to quit procrastinating!

There are many things that I really dislike doing - So I procrastinate. You know like the dishes or laundry. There have been times my children have come to me and said - "Mom you know this is my last pair of clean underwear"... I rush to the washing machine and throw in a load of whites and then stay up all night doing laundry, vowing that I will never let that happen again. Well this morning I have found that my oldest son has the same disease of procrastination that I do. At 7:00AM he brought me a history project that was due - TODAY! Guess what it was not even started. The week he had to work on it had rapidly come to an end. His reason - "Mom, I needed you to type it for me." Well I hurridly got ready for work and sat down at the computer and preceeded to type. We managed to finish his project and he was off to school and I to work.

I noticed that each assignment is different for him. If it is a hands on science experiment, he wants to do it that day. Other assignments that require lots of writing he will not do until the last minute. I have to think that each of my children struggle in different ways and my oldest has gotten the curse of procrastination.