R.I.P. Treva

Sabbath afternoon I received some startling news which I've had a difficult time getting out of my mind.  My phone rang and I noticed it was my old boss/friend, Doug calling.  Phone calls from him happened all the time when I was gainfully employed but to get one now was a surprise.  I had reason to be concerned.  He gave me the horrible news that my former co-worker, my old assistant, my confidante, my dear friend Treva (pronounced Tree-va) had passed away that morning.  Her husband found her in the shower after she suffered, what an autopsy showed, to be a ruptured aorta due to plaque buildup. I'm not a medical professional but my understanding is that nothing can be done when something like that happens.

Treva worked at the hospital in Accounting and the executive offices for at least 10 years...I kind of lost track.  She was one of those people that I immediately liked and we quickly discovered we had so much in common - - a love of Dr. Laura, the same views on politics, and she was my biggest supporter on being a stay at home mom.  Sure, we had some different beliefs when it came to religion but those never affected our relationship and she was one of the most wonderful Christian ladies I know.  One of her favorite things to talk about was her grandchilden, Lena and Liam, who I would say are 11 and 9.  She was Bebe (pronounced BeeBee) and they were her world.  She would take them to get slurpees at 7-Eleven every Friday for a special treat.  I remember how she would always be promptly out the door on Friday afternoons so as not to be late for that.  She, of course, loved Lena but then when Liam came along, well, she just couldn't stop gushing about how wonderful little boys were.  Maybe it was because she didn't have a son but that boy was so special to her.  As Brady (and Colby although it's different with him because he doesn't talk yet) has gotten older and found such a special place in my heart, I now understand what she meant when she talked about Liam and his specialness.  In fact, that was one of the very last things I said to her.  I went in at the beginning of June to the office.  Treva had been bugging me to come in for a visit and I almost said no because I didn't want Colby to fall asleep on the way home.  But I went and spent a good 30 minutes talking to her and having her walk me all around the office to talk to people I knew who still worked there.  Just before I was getting ready to leave, I whispered to her "You were so right on the whole boy thing." She just knowingly nodded her head.

I know most people reading this don't know her and this is probably boring to read about some "old" lady dying but I needed to write this all down.  Everyone who comes into your life makes a mark on it in some form or another and I am so glad to have known this lady.  The world is a little less bright today because she is no longer in it.

But, the world stops for no one so life goes on.  Our main event over the weekend was attending a birthday party for Blake and Evan.  It's actually neither of their birthdays but Jennifer like to do a joint birthday midway between both of them and who can blame her?  Anything to reduce the number of parties!  The party was at the bowling alley and the kids were excited as they recalled bowling at Papa and Gigi's during Christmas.  Of course, those were with the wonderful candlepin balls (which I personally love and totally prefer) as compared to "regular" bowling.  I apparently had a senior moment or something and completely forgot to bring socks.  No worries...we were able to pick up a cheap pair at the alley for only...$3.  EACH! Oh well.  The kids had a great time.  Aubree actually beat Calleigh but to her credit, Calleigh didn't care. Brady did great too although he was using the little ramp for the ball.

Hmm.  Which ball?

Surprised he didn't have a fit because it wasn't blue, his favorite color.  Or maybe he did and I missed it.

A little hip shake for some luck.

Nailed it!

This one needs to work on her form a bit.

Colby was quite taken with all of the balls.

It's a miracle his fingers didn't get crushed at some point.

As long as he cant' see me, he's cool with people holding him.

I had a little mishap when we got home.  But let me back up.  On the way to the party we stopped at WaWa (a fancy gas station) to pick up some stuff.  In that morning's paper, there were coupons for free parfait, free donut, free gum, and a free Snapple.  No purchase necessary.  And since I get four Sunday papers, there were enough coupons to go around.  Duncan couldn't believe we could just go in there and get all that stuff but that is exactly what we did.  Okay, so, we get home from the party and I reach onto the floor of the front seat to get the bag with the Snapples out and apparently I didn't grab it tightly enough because it slipped out of my hand.  Without thinking it all the way through, I stuck out my foot to prevent the glass from hitting the pavement which meant it hit my foot instead, of course.  It stung but not too bad.  Fast forward a few hours after working on cleaning up the garage for a few hours and it started killing me.  I finally sat down on the couch at about 6:00 and decided I was going to have to take some Ibuprofen and start icing it.  The good news is that was only slightly swollen so I figured it probably wasn't broken but it was quite uncomfortable and a major inconvenience not to be able to walk on it.  We had no crutches so Duncan said he would carry me up the stairs to put Colby to bed.  But then once he picked me up I remembered that his back was hurting him and he had just taken some Ibuprofen for that.  At least, that is what I was attributing the groans too. I sternly reminded him that you should never pick up a lady and make any sort of sounds that would make said lady believe you thought she was heavy.  I am very grateful that a night of sleep (wouldn't call it "great" due to a middle of the night episode by Colby) had me back in good shape this morning with only a little discomfort remaining.  Phew!  So much for a great deal at Wawa though.

Some of our Wawa stuff.

Colby has been giving me fits for about the last week.  When we were at campmeeting, we obviously got out of our usual routine with napping, etc.  But he did great sleeping at night and all was well.  We got back and he went back to everything as usual with naps and sleeping at night.  But then last week, something happened and he suddenly won't go to sleep unless I'm in the room.  Normally, I just put him down for his nap, awake, and he may cry for about 30 seconds and then that's it.  Not now.  He'll cry and cry.  And then when I go in and lay down beside him on the floor and reach my hand into his crib, he'll immediately stop crying and go to sleep.  Clearly, I haven't helped matters by succumbing to his cries and going along with these shenanigans. Sometimes I've let him cry for at least thirty minutes but other times it's only five or ten.  Tonight when I put him down I vowed that I was NOT going to go in there and lie down.  I would let him cry it out.  We need to kick this new unwelcome habit.  Fortunately, he only cried about 10 minutes and went to sleep on his own.  Tomorrow may be another story when it's time for a nap.  I will persevere!

"Who's causing problems?  Little 'ole me??"

Can you see his little hand holding on to mine?

This past week I've been ordering all the curriculum for the new school year.  I have been enjoying the summer immensely but it goes by quickly.  My plan is to start on August 25.  I've decided to My Father's World again but unlike the first year curriculum, you have to come up with your own math, language arts, and spelling curriculum.  It's not included in what they provide you.  There are only like 10,000 different options out there which can be overwhelming but have no fear!  My friend Vasti is a homeschooling guru and a quick email to her for her recommendations and we are in good shape.  For language arts we are doing "Queen's Homeschool for the Very Young," for spelling we will do "A Time for Spelling" and for math we are doing "Math You See" and "Life of Fred." The interesting thing about this was that I had to give Calleigh tests to find out what level to do.  You can't just assume they are ready to do second year stuff.  I have not tested Calleigh at all since it was not part of the curriculum and the understanding in the early years, in particular, is that you don't need to be giving your kids tests or grading them because you should know where they are with things since you are obviously working with them everyday. So I was a little nervous giving her the tests especially considering we haven't done anything with spelling at all.  I was happily surprised when she got a 15/20 on the spelling test which meant that she was ready to do the second grade level.  She was not a very happy camper to do the math which were 30 addition and subtraction problems and then seven word problems.  She got 25/30 and 6/7.  I'll take it!  She will be doing the Beta level for "Math You See" which is their fancy term for Grade 2.

So yeah...apparently we also have to work on our "7's" and "9's"

For all that Calleigh drags her feet and doesn't want to do school, I have my little Aubree who is just exuberant to be starting Kindergarten.  I did not do Kindergarten with Calleigh at all and was not planning to do so with Aubree either (as far as an actual curriculum).  However, I decided to get some books from Rod & Staff so that Aubree can have her own things and she keeps asking me when they're going to get here so she can start school.  We had our last day of school in mid-June and then the next day Aubree said "Okay, time to start Kindergarten." I had to set her straight that "No, you aren't starting Kindergarten until the new school year starts at the end of August." I pray that her enthusiasm continues for a very long time.

A few pictures of other stuff we've been up to this past week:

Joined friends at the splash pad and Tijuana Flats for lunch on Tuesday

Got all this brand new loot which came in the backpack for $2 at a yard sale.  Both the girls got one.  I was very excited considering the backpack still had a price tag on it that said $21.95.

Food trucks with the Bergs on Friday evening.  Blake seems thrilled.

Moved up to the 3-year old Sabbath School.  All four kids are officially in different Sabbath School classes but we are unofficially taking Colby to Brady's.

Back in class with Miss Patti who I helped out when Aubree was in her class.  She now has the songs automated and such and doesn't need me.  Oh well!

Have a good week.