Goodbye Sandy

Our sweet little Sandy is gone :-(. We are all so sad and can't believe we'll never get to hold her again and feel her soft fur and cute little ears. We'll never get to see her wash her tiny little feet and sit on our shoulders. I can't believe how much I loved that little mouse. I think I loved her so much because I knew how happy she made Landon.

He held her early this morning and then put her back in her cage. A few hours later when he went to get her she was dead. We found a beautiful little red box to bury her in and wrapped her in a pretty purple cloth. Before we wrapped her up Landon asked to hold her so I let him...he needed to. He held her up to his cheek and said, "Well, I guess this is it". ***Big Sigh***

She's buried now and we will miss her so much!!

Landon's Graduation

Well, it's over and we made it through...barely. I'm proud of Landon and glad it's over.

It all started out well with Landon walking down the aisle with a big smile on his face and went straight to his seat where he belonged. I was feeling pretty good at this point :-).
Sitting in his seat like he was told to...
Then he started to get a little restless.
He did pretty good but then started not wanting to stand up or sit down when he was suppose to so I motioned for him to come down and sit with me. He stayed with me for a while, until it was time for him to say his part...he had the letter S. I was SO PROUD of him for walking up there in front of all those people and saying his part perfectly and very clear :-). As you can tell, he was very proud of himself. His part was..."Sue buys sausages on Saturday. Sam cooks sausages on Sunday. The sausages sizzle S S S (he made the S sound) when hot. Sam eats sausages, Sue does not".

After he said his part he went back to his seat up front. Things went pretty good for a bit and he even got a certificate for Most Improved Socially :-). Then things started going downhill. His hat was getting on his nerves so he took it off and then decided the tassle would be fun to play with. Then it was time for them to get their diplomas. He found a good use for his diploma too :-)...he told me later he was a pirate. Then it was time for them to move their tassles to the other side of their hats, which he didn't have on. Mrs. Cherie, his teacher, went and put his hat back on and fixed his tassle and when he went to sit down he missed his seat and hit the floor :-0. ***Big Sigh*** None of the kids laughed at him but I did hear a few chuckles from the audience. I guess I can't blame them, I laughed a little too. And then it was over and the music started for them to leave the stage. I don't even know where his tassle was by this time :-/. And it was over. So what if he couldn't sit still...so what if he ate his tassle like speghetti...so what if he used his diploma as a periscope and didn't have his hat on for most of the time. He did the best he could and I am proud of him. Everyone told me what a good job he did and really I don't even think they noticed all the things I did...or they didn't think it mattered.

Afterward was the reception. We each decorated half a table for our child and those tables were all in the reception area.

Landon's Aunt Lori and Uncle Deano came and I was so happy they were there. It meant a lot to me that they took time out of their day to be there for Landon. Lori had her good camera with her and it's because of her I have really good pictures. I got a few but I was so nervous and busy dealing with Landon that I didn't get a lot of pictures...but she did. Thank you Lori!! PawPaw Byron and MawMaw Lynn were also there. They gave him a cute little card and $10.00. Landon opened it and said "I'm rich". It doesn't take much to make little kids happy.
Before the ceremony Mrs. Cherie gave each of the kids a ring for graduation. Landon's has 2009 on it and some of them said Graduate. They are so cute and Landon is very proud of his ring.
Before Lori and Deano left she took a few pictures of our family...the ones who were there.

I wanted to also share the poem I wrote for Landon's teacher but this is already too long so I'll wait.

Kindergarten Graduation Pictures

Wednesday we were finally able to get the Kindergarten graduation pictures done. We had to put it off once because the photographer hurt her neck and again because of all the rain. The day we did them was hot and humid but at least the sun was shining and no rain.

I knew Landon wouldn't be too happy about the hat he had to wear and he wasn't but did better than I thought he would. At least he had it on for the individual and group picture.

For the first time we had their pictures done at the same place the Seniors have their's done every year. It will be cool when they are Seniors to look back on when they were so little and standing in the same place :-).

This is him getting his individual picture made. His teacher is trying to block out some of the bright sun.

Those little girls in Landon's class love him and it's so cute to watch them. One little girl, Ashley, came up to me and asked me if I would take a picture of her and Landon and she just wrapped her arm around his neck so sweet!!
Well, little Anna Grace saw them getting their picture made and also wanted one. She's a little shy so had Ashley ask me to take one of them so I did :-).

Then when we went in the house I saw all the girls sitting on the couch and told them I wanted to take a picture. Ashley said she wanted Landon in the picture too. It makes me so happy when I see how much his classmates love him and accept him for who he is. They never tease him or make fun of him because they just know this is Landon and this is the way he is. Watching them all together I felt so happy that I had chosen to put him back in school. I believe it was the right thing for him...he needs to be with his friends. He is not even the same little boy that I put in school back in August. He doesn't turn his back on people, he doesn't face a wall and cross his arms, he doesn't bite his hand and is not afraid of so many things. He also strikes up conversations with complete strangers. Even though he is way behind his class I don't feel like the school year was a waste of time because he has made a lot of progress. He will move on with his class because it's what's best for him. I will work with him this summer and his teacher wants to tutor him two days a week.

Their graduation will be Tuesday night, the 19th. He did it :-).

Mother's Day

My Mother's Day started a few days early when Kaylyn came in one day with a dozen orange roses for me. It was a sweet surprise!! I don't normally like to get flowers but I really loved these and loved the color.
Then I got a nice surprise from my good friend Rhonda. She brought me a gift and said she just wanted me to know what a good Mother she thinks I am...how sweet is that :-). She gave me a Paula Deen candle, Pear Crisp scented.
Saturday Stephen came home so I had my whole family home :-). Jose' cooked crawfish for us. When he was cooking the last batch it started getting very dark and the tornado siren in town went off. So, Jose' and Stephen moved everything under the patio and we kept cooking and eating. The bottom fell out!! It rained so hard and the wind was blowing hard. I'm so glad we have that covered patio. That night Kaylyn went to her best friend's house and Stephen went out so it was just Jose' and I and the two little ones here...again. We joke and say we only have two kids every weekend.

Sunday morning I slept until 9:00 and Jose' was up with the kids. I thought for sure he would go ahead and get the kids bathed for Church and maybe fed. But, when I got up they hadn't had baths yet and I knew we didn't have time to get ready so we didn't make it to Church. Jose' and the kids gave me my gifts. My big gift hadn't come in yet so he just gave me the blank DVDs to go with it. He got me a machine that converts VCR tapes to DVDs. I've wanted it for a while. I am so excited to get this because now I can turn all our old home movies into DVDs and we can watch them and easily store them. I can also take all their old movies and put them on DVD so they can watch them again. We don't even have a working VCR right now so haven't been able to watch any of them.

After Stephen woke up he surprised me with a gift. Him coming home was gift enough for me and I never expected him to give me anything else. He went out to his truck and brought in a bag from Bath and Body Works. He knows I love their lotions and got me three bottles. I have the sweetest kids!!
Kinley made me a card and Jose' gave me one.
The kids and I ate the rest of the crawfish for lunch. I ate so much I thought I'd be sick!! Cold crawfish is just as good as hot. Kaylyn left to go swimming with a friend and Jose' and the kids took a nap while Stephen and I watched The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. That is a very long movie and very good.

Then the weather got bad again. Within ten or fifteen minutes the ditch and yard were full of water. The wind blew so hard and limbs were falling out of trees and stuff blowing everywhere. The tornado siren went off again and this time I believed there really was a tornado somewhere. Later we went riding and sure enough there were downed trees everywhere, power lines down, telephone poles snapped into, tin scattered...definitely a tornado. We were without lights for five hours. Here are some pictures I took during the storm.

And then the sun came out. It was so beautiful...this picture doesn't come close to showing how beautiful it was. The sun was shining just in the tree tops and it was a eerie color outside.
After Stephen left to go back to school Jose' and I and the kids went riding and then went to MIL's house since she still had lights. Kinley took a shower and then at bedtime we went home. The houses across the road had their lights back on but we still didn't. So, we went to bed and soon after that our lights came back on.

It was a good Mother's Day, even with the storm.

Pets

I can't decide if I feel more sorry for the cats or the mouse LOL. This is how Grace and Sister spend a lot of their time now. It really drives the cats crazy when Sandy is running in her wheel. They don't seem to bother her at all.

Landon loves Sandy so much! Every day after school on the way home he starts asking me if he can hold Sandy and asks me until I let him. I have to keep a close eye on him to make sure he doesn't get too rough with her or love her to death. But, he's very sweet with her and Sandy never tries to run away.

He even has a little car for Sandy and she'll sit in that car for as long as he wants her to. Sometimes he puts her in it and lays on the floor beside her to watch t.v. It's really cute :-)

He finally did it :-)

It took Landon almost a week but he finally got all the way in the pool yesterday :-). He was afraid it was over his head and it was too cold for him. He loves it now!! I'm sure he'll be swimming like a fish in a few more weeks.

The whole back yard just feels so much better with the pool back there!!