Catch Up, Digest Version

Life has gotten even busier in the past week and a half. I have started subbing long-term at the kids school in a 3rd grade class till the end of the school year. This has made for long days of working, still trying to be the fundraiser coordinator, and of course being mom and wife. I am looking forward to a break come June 11th.

The kids started swim lessons two weeks ago and have made great progress in the past 4 lessons. They both went into it with a pretty big fear of the water and not much experience when it comes to swimming. Alexis can't stand even the water at bath time. The one thing she does love is cute swimsuits.

She likes her teacher Rachel, but also likes to pull out the puppy dog eyes to get out of doing things outside her comfort zone. Not the most graceful swimmer YET, but getting there. We are going to sign up for another session in hopes of getting even better.

Andrew is the main reason we signed up for the lessons to begin with. He really wants a pool party for his birthday (which is this coming Wed.), but yet he doesn't know how to swim. Not a good combination. He tends to panic and starts making himself sick to his stomach. We were off to a rough start with clinging to the wall, but as of his fourth lesson he was already swimming off on his own. All smiles (and chattering teeth in the shade).
Clinging to his teacher.

Besides the obvious first of swim lessons, Aiden also had a first this past week. He had his first dentist appointment. I was disappointed that I could not be there since I had to teach. So, Dale treaded off to the dentist alone with my questions running in the back of his mind. Aiden was very cooperative and even allowed them to take an x-ray of his upper teeth. They are crazy looking from what Dale could see, but that is to be expected. The dentist thinks he has a tooth coming in the cleft area, which I have thought for a while now, but it is struggling to come through the scar tissue. If that continues then they will have to slit his gumline to help it work it's way through. Hoping it doesn't come to that.

One of the main questions I had for the dentist was, "How do I get Aiden comfortable with us brushing his teeth?" He fights us just to stick our fingers in his mouth to check the number of teeth he has. Well, that question was never asked. Before Dale could ask the dentist had already said, "Wow, you guys are doing a great job keeping Aiden's teeth cleaned!" To which Dale did not want to respond with, "we have never been able to brush them, what should we do?" So, he just left alone and let him believe that we are doing everything right. UGH!!! Any suggestions and brushing teeth?

And now on to BIG and EXCITING news (yes swiming and dentist are exciting, but.....)

I have been working feverishly to raise almost $18,000 for our 4th graders to go to Catalina Science Camp next year. It has been crazy and TONS of work to say the least. As of last Monday we were $6,201 away from our goal with the deadline approaching fast. We had only a few more fundraisers up our sleeve and I was starting to panic. We had our Fun Run on Friday, at which we were able to raise $1,650!!! I was shocked at the amount. I thought we might get about $500 but could not find the words when the money just kept pouring in. The kids had a lot of fun running and were super excited to have Bernie, the mascot of the local minor baseball team, running with them.

Though Alexis wasn't there for the Fun Run part of it, she was at the sitters, Bernie stuck around after school and Alexis got to take her picture with him. She could not stop talking about how he kissed her (little creepy to me) and was super excited to know that she will get to see him again at Thursday night's game that Mentone Elementary will be going to (of course to raise funds for Science Camp).

BUT, the biggest news is..... ::drum roll please:: I got a phone call early on Friday morning that an anonymous donor would be sending in a check either later that day or on Tuesday. My smile could not get bigger as the day went on. When the check showed up at the office right before I was walking out the door, I was shocked it was actually happening and could not contain my excitment. The check ::drum roll again please:: was for the amount of FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!!!!!! That put us clearly above our goal and ensures that the kiddos will be going to Science Camp in Oct of 2009.

It has been A LOT of hard work but well worth it all in the end. I would be making that same statement even if we didn't make the finish line. Thank you to everyone here for being my encouraging cheerleaders.

And now, I rest. That is until Tuesday when it is time to go back to work.