the end of (school) days

 we're done with 2nd and 3rd grade. school let out on thursday after several absolutely grueling days of movie watching and the cleaning out of desks. why they even went to school the last week is because i needed to get as much done as possible before i have to start taking 4 kids with me to the grocery store. otherwise they could have stayed home that week and cleaned their rooms and done chores for as much as they were doing at school.

scarlett had a great year. she absolutely loved school and she had cried several times over missing her teacher, all while still seeing her every day. according to scarlett, one of her biggest accomplishments is crossing the monkey bars. i think her biggest accomplishment was learning to go out of her way to be a friend. she struggled for the first few months with her shyness and only spent time with reagan on the playground. when reagan transferred to another school, i had to coach her every day on what to do to approach people to make friends. it was really hard for her to be in a completely new environment with nothing familiar, but we practiced multiple conversation scenarios and she kept at it and became completely comfortable with talking to new children. being a friend is such an important skill. few things aggravate me more than a person who has a terrible social experience because they depend on others to talk to them. 

scarlett also learned to make her own breakfast, completely unaided. except for the cleaning up part. but i think kids who clean up after themselves is an urban legend. 

reagan also had a great year and after he transferred to his new school program, he really did well in school. we are still working to decipher his alternative learning methods, but we're making a lot of progress. homework was often a marathon of pain, but after the wailing and gnashing of teeth, he could accomplish the task in about 20 minutes. sounds like some adults i know.  when i asked him about his favorite thing from this year, his answer is always, i hope there are girls in my class next year. ladies man, indeed. 

 things i won't miss: driving an hour each morning and each afternoon in order to do the car line at two schools in two different towns. 

i also won't miss being stuck in car line and driving home behind this dipstick:

all us carline moms are WAY impressed at him revving his engine when he was behind us and then driving at breakneck speed to each stop sign on the way home. so cool. so. cool. i feel bad for his kid.

both my kids are going to miss seeing this bicycle memorial on the side of the road somewhere in between reagan and scarlett's schools. a bicyclist was killed on that stretch of road and my kids were morbidly fascinated by it. a close 2nd place of interesting was seeing a house with goats and miniature ponies in the yard and thirdly was when i caught the green light at the top of a hill and i was get enough speed to gas my engine and catch air, leaving behind our stomachs and all safety precautions. simple pleasures. next year's drop off with take less than 10 minutes so i'm not sure what i will do to entertain them. 

school school. what will we do without you? probably a whole lot of nothing.

the target demographic has left the building

milestone update:

easter 2015

something i like about reagan. 

i've told him on more than one occasion that mom and dad are santa claus and the easter bunny and the tooth fairy and he has rejected that information. we've discussed the ins and outs of why we do it, he digests the information and then decides he just wants to believe. and i think that is great. let's all believe!

our church put on a special needs carnival for all local special needs children in the area and their families and it was great. (except for the kid operating the plinko game who had never heard of plinko or the price is right before and i had to school him on how it works. kids these days!) i love the efforts by our church to make special needs children feel more included. everyone needs a friend. and everyone needs to ride a pony!

my darling blythe turned 3. it was also a low key year for her but she totally "got" present opening this year. 

to say she is a little mermaid fan is an understatement. 

i also reached a big milestone this year. 35. marketing companies and television and movies will now no longer cater to my opinion for the rest of my life. i guess i'm relieved. it was a lot of pressure liking one of the few well-crafted shows here and there only to have it canceled due to low ratings. stop dragging my heart around!

and hurricane athena blythe at my leftover birthday cake. all part of the job description, i guess.

and this is where i got my new phone and the clarity difference in all my pictures is absolutely incredible. it's like when i got new glasses and realized that those blobs were trees and those little things on them were leaves. JUST LIKE IN BOOKS!

scarlett had a monumental field day. i always dreaded field day because of my genetic history, lackius of athleticus abilitium, but she and her class knocked it out of the park. i think pitting kids against each other in a competitive setting is brilliant, as long as my kids win.

my requisite mother's day picture, first time as a mother of four. i really love being a mom. i couldn't say that 10 years ago, or even 5 years ago and i never EVER say that during the hours of 5-7pm each night, but i love being a mom, poop, vomit, screaming and everything. and that's just me.

hersch is thriving. he sleeps from 8pm to nearly 8am when i have to put him in his carseat for school drop off. it's like i discovered the golden ticket to willy wonka's chocolate factory. it's makes quite the difference on my outlook on life in general.

people keep asking me how much he weighs and in all honesty, i have no idea. i always say around 12-13 pounds, but if i can't get myself on a scale, i'm certainly not going to put my baby on a scale. i don't even think we own a scale anymore. ain't nobody got time for that. hersch wears 0-3 month outfits and a few newborn things here and there. he'll be 4 months on june 4th. 

we've had a few 90 degree days and the kids have discovered the joys of trampolines and hoses. saturday has been transformed.

probably the biggest news is that these 2 ding dongs finally learned to TIE SHOELACES. reagan's hands don't like anything that requires fine motor attention scarlett just skated by this long.

again, low expectations and you'll be richly rewarded.

reagan- "now that i can tie shoes, will a girl want to marry me?"

final note. simpsonville house is thisclose to being put on the market. all the renovations that we've wanted to do for so long are finally done. it's a shame not to have been able to enjoy it, but this is the first chance we've had to do any upgrades. it looks amazing. we're just waiting on new countertops and a few light fixtures to be switched out.

 a sneak peak from last week when they finished the floors and paint:

the end.

this is our song

in our family, we all have a song. it started when thomas and i were on our honeymoon in florida and every time we got in the car we heard kenny chesney's song, the good stuff. it was annoying. it was hokey. it was too country. we kept changing the station. and then we stopped changing the station when we actually started hearing the words and it became our song. 

a few years later when reagan was born a month premature, i was driving up to the hospital multiple times a day to visit him and when i would get in the car i was constantly hearing two songs by kelly clarkson, breakaway, and behind these hazel eyes, over and over and over. then when he finally came home i would be up all night with him and i would watch music videos on MTV and VH1 and the rob thomas single, lonely no more, would be on heavy rotation. any time i hear any of those songs i am quickly reminded of the first few weeks of reagan's life. i chose, behind these hazel eyes, as reagan's song because those other two songs just annoy me a little too much. 

a tradition was born. everyone has a song. it's the song that was most popular on the radio a lot when they were born or in thomas and my case, when our marriage was born. the song chooses us and whenever we hear them when we are out and about, we turn them up and sing at the top of our lungs. even though i am notorious for not liking a song simply because it was overplayed on the radio, in this case it's fun because you know that in 20 years these songs will still be played on the dentist office style popular and country radio stations and we can think about each other. tradition? tradition!

reagan's song. if reagan could choose his own song today it would be, come and get it(nah nah nah nah) by selena gomez. it's an instant classic over here in these parts. 


scarlett's song. instantly reminds me of the world's most scorching summer in montgomery, alabama and giving birth to scarlett in the middle of it. 


athena blythe's song. this song is the most fun to sing in the car. blythe is the most fun in the car too, unbuckling her carseat at high rates of speed.


herschel's song, by a native georgian, naturally. i love this style of country twang. authentic americana.


mom and dad's song. thank goodness tank tops on men are popular again. i can't get enough of men's hairy armpits. who doesn't want to see that? this song can change the night to day for us. we can be grumbling in the car about whatever daily task, or disagreement we are experiencing(and i'm not afraid to admit we don't always get along) and this comes on and it is the balm of gilead to our marital soul. it can almost drown out the discordant shrieks our undomesticated passengers. (undomesticated passengers! band name! called it!)

party of 6

writing for a wife and mother, "is like rowing against wind and tide"- harriet beecher stowe

when i started writing this blog post, herschel had been home from the hospital 3 weeks after nearly 5 weeks in the NICU. as of this edit, herschel has been home 9 weeks. time flies and every minute counts toward staying afloat as opposed to making progress.

 i was a mixed bag about herschel coming home. i missed having him with us but it was nice to be able to heal and rest and have him completely cared for while he worked so hard get big and strong. it was like the most expensive baby sitter of all time. but he lives here full time and pays taxes and all that so i guess we're making it.  

we had tons of wonderful people bring us dinner but next time i'm a millionaire i'm going to totally order a meal from instead of flowers. thomas' office sent us meals from instead of flowers on two different days and it was great. it was TONS of great food, plus reusable insulated totes!

this is all ONE MEAL!

and since i've got to get caught up a million thoughts and posts, here is a gratuitous amount of photos with one line captions:

chicken leg baby

feeding tube up the nose because like his brother before him he was good at figuring out how to pull it out.

two sisters pushing the new stroller around the living room and getting its first dents in it.

the bed herschel has yet to spend the night in. 

darling big sissy in the NICU

the triumphant arrival on sunday march 22nd!

love at first sight

2 kids in diapers is so expensive

a huge chunk of our budget goes toward velcro bags that hold poop that we throw away.