{ Spencer Andrew }

It has been a busy couple of weeks.

Spencer took his school trip to Washington D.C. and had a great time. Jerome joined the group going and they both came home with a lot of D.C. stories and tired from all the walking and trying to sleep in the bus.

Then not long after that the kids were out on spring break. The girls and I took a trip to Ohio, Jerome had military in Williamsburg and Spencer went with a few friends to camp at the Greenbrier River in his friend's family's cabin.

The girls and I spent the week shopping for summer clothes, antiquing and having fun. Spencer spent the weekend fishing, tubing down the river, going to a local festival in Lewisburg and just hanging out with his friends.

Yesterday was the last day of spring break. Jerome had drill and the girls had spent the week with Grammie and Poppie and visiting their cousins. Jerome had to pick them up yesterday after drill and called to let me know they were going to dinner with Grann and Aunt Pam and they would be home later. So Spencer and I went to see a movie, got a bite to eat and came home. It was a pretty day and I had been wanting to get some pictures of him. We went and shot some pictures and I took a lot. It has been a long time since he has decided to cooperate for pictures, and...this time I didn't even have to bribe him either!

I took a lot of pictures. I plan to post more later. Right now I need to get dinner finished.

~Amber Hope

{ creativity. }

Today was one of those days.

You know, one of those days where you feel like banging your head against the wall.

I am one of those moms who rather than patiently sit back and let her kids learn how to do certain tasks......I jump in out of frustration and time and do the tasks myself because, ONE. I am able to get the task  done a LOT faster and, TWO. I like things cleaned and organized a certain way.

I have not helped my kids by doing this.

Instead, I have a thirteen year old who doesn't know how to wash his own clothes. A ten year old who at one time mistook Palmolive soap for Cascade and filled the dishwasher cup full of it.....not once, but twice (in the same wash load) because she thought she didn't add enough soap. A nine year old who would rather go to her room than to help clean.

Thankfully, I now keep Cascade drop-ins for the dishwasher. But this doesn't solve the rest of the problems I have created for myself in not teaching my kids simple household tasks they should be able to do by now.

I have come to a point where I have decided I want change. Not just a little but a lot. I am tired of unrolling dirty socks before putting them in the wash. I am tired of tripping over backpacks by the front door. I am tired of shoes being scattered everywhere (and yes they do have a place to be put) and the morning rush of, "Mom! Where is my other shoe?!"......followed of course by a reply of, "I don't know, probably wherever you left it". I am tired of toothpaste stuck to the sink, towels and laundry in the floor and water left dripping in the bathtub. I am tired of glasses of milk filled to the rim for Oreo dipping and then poured down the sink. I am tired of telling them to clean their room every day and they don't listen to me, that is until they receive a phone call from a friend to go somewhere and then magically their room can be clean in ten minutes. Oh how I could go on and on.

I love my children. I love them dearly. But these are just a few of the things that need to change here in our home. It isn't their fault....that falls on my shoulders for always "wanting to hurry and get it done".

So today I decided things would be different. I decided rather than me cleaning their bathrooms that they are perfectly old enough and capable enough to do it themselves. Spencer did pretty good.....he has cleaned his bathroom before. The girls however.......lets just say it took a lot of patience and a few laughs here and there.

Natalie and Katie share a bathroom. I divided up the cleaning tasks to be even. Believe it or not they were fighting over who got to do certain jobs. Katie wanted to clean the mirror. Natalie wanted to mop the floor. They both shared the rest of the tasks such as, scrubbing the bathtub, the toilet, putting things away, taking laundry to the laundry room and cleaning the sinks.

What would have taken me about 20 minutes to do......it took them over an hour.

That is where the wanting to bang my head against the wall came in.......it was taking FOREVER.

But my good laugh for the day came when Natalie started mopping the floor.

She mopped by the right side of the toilet (which is right next to the tub), then mopped by the door. I told her she needed to mop by the left side of the toilet and that she had missed it and explained to her how to start mopping at a far corner of the room and mop your way out of it.

"OK Mommy" she said.

Then she climbed from the doorway to the tub.....walked along the edge of the tub, all the while holding a dripping mop, and then stepped on top of the toilet (and yes the lid was closed).

"What are you doing?" I laughed and asked her.

"Well Mommy, I didn't want to put feet marks on the floor where I already mopped!".

I had to laugh, it was hilarious. She was standing on top of the toilet mopping the floor. Then I came to my senses after laughing and realized this was Natalie.......Natalie standing on top of the toilet mopping. She is the clumsiest of the three of our kids. The one who is always falling and getting hurt. The one who can trip just walking. So I helped her down and helped her mop her way out of the bathroom.

So for today I feel like I accomplished something. I feel better knowing I stepped back and let our kids do certain tasks rather than taking over so I could hurry and move on to the next one. I learned that there is certainly a creative way to do everything, including mopping a bathroom floor.

To my darlings. I love you.
Love,
Mommy xoxo

{ not defeated yet. }

Day 19.
Not Defeated Yet.




Tuesday started out as what I thought would be a "normal" day. Everything had gone as planned until around 4:45 when Spencer paged me from practice saying, "Mom, you need to take me to urgent care after practice".
I hurriedly made it to school only to find that he couldn't open even open the door and his right arm was just there, he wasn't using it at all. We then went to urgent care where we spent the rest of the evening in x-rays and sitting rooms. The doctor had said it had been dislocated but he wasn't going to mess with it until after the x-ray results were back. Thankfully a friend of mine came to pick up the girls (I thought they were going to have to put his arm back in place).
As it turned out his arm had been dislocated but was back in place as it should be. Then the doctor gave Spencer the news that there is no possible way he could wrestle in this weeks big tournament. Spencer was very upset and as soon as the doctor left the room he leaned his head over on my shoulder in disappointment and told me how hard he had been working for this and that he really wanted to be able to wrestle in it. He put his arm in a sling and sent us on our way.




Today around three I took him some motrin to school and was surprised by his swollen hand when he came to the office to get his medicine. I called his pediatrician and they had us bring him in. His doctor there took a look at it and said by the looks of it (sunken shoulder, tenderness spots, inability to function with his arm) that it was still dislocated. She then left the room and came back to explain that there was to be a lot of pulling and moving of his arm to put it back the way it should be and she sent us on to the ER where they are better equipped to handle dislocations.
We made it to the ER, and they were PACKED. I was kind of relieved because Jerome was still working and I wanted him there when they were going to be "working" on his arm. I did not want to have to do this alone. We sat in the waiting room a good while until they finally called us back. They took a lot more x-rays and then sent us back to wait in the waiting room. By that time Jerome arrived and we joked and laughed with Spencer trying to keep his mind off of what we thought was coming. They called us back and we waited some more. Then the doc let us know that his arm was not still dislocated but that in the x-ray he believes he has a AC separation in the joint of his arm/shoulder. We have to see a specialist and then go from there.




Day 19
There is still a fighter in him.
Two days, two doctor visits and one ER visit we learned his arm was dislocated, relocated and are now waiting to see a specialist to see if he has an AC separation in his right arm/shoulder.
He is very upset and discouraged of learning he won't wrestle in this weeks big tournament, or next weeks for that matter. He doesn't like wearing the sling.....even though he can barely do anything with his right arm. He is begging to miss school because of such a difficult day today with his injured arm. The teachers are not being very understanding of the fact that he is right handed and it takes quite a while to write with your left hand two whole pages of notes.....and so on. I know he'll get through this, he always has been a fighter. But for now it is disheartening to see him in pain and see him discouraged and know that other than giving him a little encouragement, that is all we can do for him right now. I would take his place in a heartbeat just to see him be himself again and out there participating in a sport he loves while we yell for him from the stands. The doctor has him out of participating until January 27th, he has high hopes that he will still be able to participate in the counties tournament the first weekend in February. He has a lot of healing to do until then......he can't even buckle his seat belt, put on a regular pair of tennis shoes, open a bottle of gatorade, lift his arm above his waist without pain, and so on. He said this evening he is going to work towards the counties tournament and still try to get down to 155 by then. I just hope that he heals.
I hope he heals soon, that possibly this won't be an injury to take a long time to heal. But for now he will be having to sit on the sidelines, watching his teammates participate in the events he has so much been looking forward to participating in, and hope and pray that he heals soon.

{ determination. }

 

Dear Spencer,

Today you made us proud. Proud to yell over the crowd, proud to watch you take on each and every one of your opponents with such determination. Proud to watch as they raise your arm because you won your match and proud to see you shake hands with your opponent and use good sportsmanship even when you didn't win. Proud to watch you grow into the man you will someday be. 

We are proud you are our son. We love you Spencer Andrew.

Love,

Mom and Dad 

xoxo

one.frame.a.day.

January 5th.
Dedication.
Spencer has been very dedicated this year in wrestling. It is his first year and he loves it. This coming from a kid that had no want to to wrestle, to get up in front of everyone in a singlet. The practices are hard, his practice clothes the other day were drenched in sweat so much so that it looked like he had jumped in a swimming pool.

January 6th.
Richard Simmons....eat your heart out.

This picture of Katie cracks me up. She looks up to Spencer, even wrestles with him sometimes. This day she was exercising with him, her and Natalie both. I guess she decided to dress for the occasion....and boy did she ever! All the way from knee socks to converse!

 January 7th.
Big boy.

At the doctor's office today. Usually they put us in one of the "bigger kids" rooms when Spencer is there. Today we were in the dinosaur room. He has grown so much. I remember when he was little and climbed all over this dinosaur examining table....needed lifted up there to sit.....not anymore.

I picked Spencer up from practice yesterday and I could tell he wasn't feeling well. We came home, he took a shower and some motrin and went to bed for the night.....at 6:00pm. He was running a fever and chilling.
I made a doctor appointment for him this morning and took him in, he was feeling a little better. He has a sinus infection and will be back in school tomorrow.....that is if the snow doesn't accumulate to much.
While we were out today (after the doctor appointment) we had lunch, went to Target to get his prescription filled. We were walking around Target waiting for the prescription, he was bored out of his mind. He looked at me and said, "So mom, is this what you do while we are in school? It's kind of boring." It made me laugh. I wish my days were filled with walking around Target endlessly window shopping with nothing more to do but wait on a prescription.

{ Cozy and Warm. }

School was canceled today because of all the snowfall overnight. I had a good time in the snow with the kids today. I took this one of Natalie and Katie warming up under the blanket and fell in love with this picture of the two of them.

{ His First Wrestling Tournament. }

We spent Friday evening and most of Saturday at The Pepsi Invitational Classic Wrestling Tournament. Going in to these I had absolutely no idea they lasted so long. I thought an hour or two maybe......boy, was I wrong. I didn't take my camera with me Friday evening, I wanted to enjoy watching my son wrestle for the first time. The coach came up to me after and asked if I would mind taking pictures (something special he has planned for the boys at the end of the season). So Saturday I took a lot of pictures. Looking back I probably should have used my flash and not bumped my ISO up to 2500 but oh well.....according to my husband only I notice the "technical stuff" anyway.

Spencer's first match he didn't win, but he fought hard for it.




A little advice from the coach.....


His second match ended up being with one of his best friends, Adam. I (and several other moms) don't like how they match up kids from the same school....but I know there is a reason. He fought hard on this one too, but didn't win this match. He put up a good fight though.






Then they took a break and the kids did some more warming up before beginning again.


Spencer was very determined not to lose his next match. I think that determination carried him through because his third match he won. It was great hearing his name being yelled by our home team, "GO SPENCER!".
This was the first round of his third match....




Getting more advice from the coach....


I can really see the determination in him here....






I'm proud of my son! So proud.


His coach was proud of him and Spencer was happy he had won a match. He told me he didn't want to go home without winning one.


Spencer didn't meet the standard for his weight class, he was just a few pounds over and was bumped up to the next weight class. He was at the bottom of the weight class they put him in and wrestled several that were in the top of the weight class (Spencer and Adam both are in the same weight class and both were bumped up). He is working hard to get back down in the weight class he belongs in so that way he will be at the top of his weight class.
It was a long day. When we left the school that was hosting the tournament everything was covered in snow. We made it home safely and enjoyed the rest of the evening.