September

She's so exited!

Jess took the first day of school off work to help console me :)

All smiles and no tears from this big girl!

Sierra may have helped him out with this. We have some mammoth sized potato bugs out here!

Pedis, Jaxon demanded that he also be included.  Daddy wasn't too excited when he got home :)

Gum bubbles.  She's pretty proud!

Every night after dinner Sierra has been reading to Jaxon.

I am so blessed.  SO blessed.

Heavenly harvest!!!!  I love this time of year!

Sierra started school this month.  I cannot believe I have a kindergartner!  It has been an adjustment!  Even though she is just going half a day, she's never been away from me on a regular basis and around that many kids day in and day out. She says she loves it but is exhausted and GRUMPY when she gets home.  There have been a few times that her behavior has been so extreme that I started to panic that something bad happened at school.   But I'm beginning to realize she needs a blood sugar boost right away and a few minutes to decompress.  To be honest, I hope that the after school craziness ends soon.  It's a little scary.

On a positive note, school has matured her in some ways and she really loves to sit and read!  She's putting sounds together and starting to read small words.  She loves to play teacher all evening.  I expected Jaxon to miss her presence more, but he seems to be enjoying his one on one time with me and like being able to play with things without being bossed around :)  I'm getting lots of errands done while we wait for her to get done with class, and he has been loving shopping with me.  He's always happy to see her when we go pick her up though and every morning after we walk her to class he gives her and big hug and kiss and says "Bye, Sissy!"  I haven't been able to volunteer in class yet, but I am looking forward to that starting next month.  I'm hoping that Sierra will do okay with me being there, and not expect to be able to be with me every second I'm there.  We shall see.

As a stay at home mommy, I love the connection that my kids and I have, but I definitely do worry how life will be for them without me.  I want them to know that I am always there for them, but also be able to function well without me.  It was nice to see her go into her classroom on the first morning excited, and after getting hugs and kisses there were no tears when Jaxon, Jess, and I left.  Except by me after we exited the building.  This is a new season in life for us, and I'm praying that my baby girl will be able to be independent and love school and learning.  There are moments of me worrying if I should have sent her to pre-school to prepare her for this, but we are where we are and cannot go back. So we are moving forward and making the best out of it!

On a sad note, we lost our beloved Zoey pup of 15 years on the last day of August.  We are all pretty devastated.  She was such a good girl and has been a part of all of our married life together.  She went downhill rather quickly and one evening we decided it was time to take her to the Dr to say goodbye.  The vet confirmed our suspicions and said the most humane thing to do was to put her to sleep.  They guessed that she had cancer that had metastasized to her lungs which was causing her to cough and she had quit eating a few days prior.  They gave her a comfy blanky to lie on, let us love on her for a really long time, give her some finally goodies, and stay with her while she went to sleep.  It was so sad and we both cried and cried.  When we went to pick the kiddos up afterwards, there was a rainbow in the sky even though it was starting to get dark.  Sierra in a sad quiet voice said, "I think that's Zoey going to Heaven."  So we all cried some more.  Unbeknownst to us there is a poem called the rainbow bridge about pets "crossing over".  A few days after Zoey died, we received a sympathy card in the mail from the vet's office with her paw print and this poem....

Oh my, more tears.  So many I couldn't even finish reading it.  It's still hard to drive up the driveway and not see her waiting for us or walk down to get the mail without her plodding along behind me.  She was my daytime guardian, my faithful garden companion, such a sweet girl to the kids, and just the best darn dog ever.  She can't ever be replaced.  She sure was special.  RIP, Zoey girl.