Updates...:)

In Julianne's Kindergarten class, there are, what seems to be, a zillion children in her class. She has one great teacher, Mrs. Oldani, and one great Kindergarten Aide, Mrs. Trimble. They both work very hard with Julianne to give her the special help she needs. I can't express my gratitude for them, for their willingness and patience to work extra hard with Julianne.

This past Thursday, while I was at school picking Julianne up to take her to her Speech therapy, Mrs. Trimble came out and gave me the most wonderful gift. She explained to me that she writes poems, and once while praying about the blessings in her life, it became clear to her that helping Julianne was a blessing to her. It fulfilled something she needed. ((How SWEET is that!!)) So, here is the poem she wrote for Julianne:

Our Special Needs

A moment of genius

A moment of grace

We have been working hard this year.

Some days in sync

Some days further apart.

You mastered a concept,

I hoped and prayed would be possible.

You said to me, "It is because you have been

helping me!"

A moment of genius

A moment of grace

It is then that I realized what I knew all

along, that as we spend time together,

I am truly blessed.

I thank God for seeing through his eyes, his

miracle, "YOU"!

Love, Mrs. Trimble

It is just so wonderful to me, that so often, the people who are helping Julianne, often discover that she is *special* in many, many ways!! She is an absolute blessing!

A long tradition in our family continues.

The need for glasses.

Every single woman on my side of the family wears glasses. All of them. I needed them when I was little, and still today have terrible vision. And now, I have 3 out of 5 children in glasses. :)

Here is Alena in her new glasses. She got two pair for $69! Isn't that fantabulous? It is hard to tell in the pictures, but one pair is pink, and the other is blue. Very "fashion"!!

And here are the other girls in this house with glasses...

What I find wonderful is, that each kid has several other little kids in their classrooms wearing glasses. It is so "not wierd" to have glasses anymore. I think that is a great thing. :)

Our Goings On...

It's been awhile since I've added anything here! Whew....sometimes it feels like I'm just going and going and going....

But, instead of cleaning right now, I'm doing this. :) I'll pay for it later.

So, here are some things we have done in the last few weeks.

The Walker Scottish Rite's trivia night was held not too long ago. Jeff and I went, along with my brothers Bryan and Billy, and Bryan's fiance Cammie. Allison and Alena were volunteer "table runners". It was an awesome night, which benefitted a great cause.... Here are a few pics. Oh, it was a "Sports theme" night.








And look at our great centerpiece for our table. :)


I think they raised a lot of money! God bless them for all they do for children with speech and language disorders!


Also, we were in the midst of basketball season. It is over now (sigh of relief). Alena LOVED playing. Mason HATED it. Allison enjoyed it as usual.

Pics of the kids NOT playing... which is hard ya know...just sitting there and eating junk food. ;)









#54 is Allison...


We also went to the Magic House one Friday when they didn't have school. I took the five kids all by myself. I won't ever be doing that again. :)



Climbing the three story beanstalk:






Sorry....this is all jam packed into this one entry...but I've been busy, and also my computer crashed and I had to get a new one...WHICH I LOVE.... but....

More pics:

Some radom Julianne pics that crack me up:

Coming down the steps I hear her tell Audrey, "We are the Cheetah girls!"... And well, this is what she looked like when I turned around:


Audrey was worse....but no pictures to prove it.

Also...at grandmas.....doing some balancing. This sequence needs no words....just guess. :)
CLICK PICTURE TO ENLARGE:






Ha!!!

Walewski Talent!

Friday night was an awesome night. My parents kept Audrey so I actually got to relax some and enjoy the show. The kids did awesome, and a great time was had by all.

For the IHM Talent Show, it is not about who is better than the rest, it is about showing what talents God has given you, and if you want to perform, you can. It was just a fun night for kids and parents.

These pictures of Allison and Julianne do not do justice, because in real life, they looked WAY WAY cuter than these pictures relay. :)







Here is the family act doing Forever (God is faithful)... Mason was just so thrilled to have his own microphone. :)





Here is Julianne and the Kindergarten class. :)



Here is my brave, brave Alena. She really struggled finding the courage to get up and do this...but SHE DID IT! She did "Love Story" by Taylor Swift... She was so good...



After the talent show came the "dance party". Here is Alena and her friend having a blast.



And I LOVE LOVE LOVE these two pics. This is Mason, being 4 years old, in dancing bliss....

Snow Day...

It snowed today! Enough to get school called off...which takes a miracle to happen at IHM, but it happened. The way it is snowing still, I don't doubt there will be no school tomorrow either!

So, I finally dragged out my new camera...first time since Christmas Eve. I got some pics of the kiddos, and then played with some editing. Here are a couple of them.







I would like to type out about how we saw that Home Depot was laying off a lot of people, and that we are just praying that Jeff's job will be safe...but I don't really want to talk about it. I know that God will provide no matter what...he always has and continues to do so. It is just so frightening what is happening in our world today. I don't see a turn around anytime soon.

Let's see what ya got, Barack....what can you do for ME?

Busy Day...

Today was full. We had two basketball games, two birthday parties, and one concession stand job. Tomorrow we have donut duty after mass, my real job and one basketball game.

Oh, and the whole getting ready for Monday morning thing...

I've returned!

To the blooging world. If there are really anbody who reads this, you are in luck...ha ha...because I feel like typing out my life again. :) More to follow.

But for now, all I have to say is:

What the HELL was I thinking when I signed up THREE kids to play bastketball this season? I mean, I am essentially a single mom on weekends, who works on Sunday's! I've just added ALL the games into my (STILL UP TO DATE, yay me!) daytimer, and....whoa. I'm just praying that I figure out a way to get them all to where they need to go, when they need to get there, and I will have to finagle some schedule changes at work.

I promise to post more often now!

Winter Happenings...

Winter is usually not my favorite time of year. Nothing has changed, I still pretty much hate winter, but in the last couple of weeks, we've been able to do some fun "wintery" things.

Last Sunday, was the Girl Scout Christmas party. It wasn't really a party so much as it was a gathering of all the Girl Scouts from all the grades at school, and their families who could come. I was fortunate enough to be able to get off work, and go! It was held at Steinberg Ice Rink. It was myself and my three Girl Scouts....my Junior, my Brownie and my Daisy.

It was really the perfect ice skating day. It was like 40-50 ish degrees, but very windy. So, it would get warm if you were skating in your two layers of clothes that your mother made you wear, but you didn't get cold!

Alena was very worried before going that she was going to fall, and that another skater would skate over her fingers and cut them off. (geez, where does she get this crazy thinking from??? ;)) I was worried that Julianne would have a very difficult time even standing up in the skates. But ALL three girls had a blast! Julianne was able to give the rail a death grip and go 1/4 way around, and then back. After that, she was "ready to go back to grandmas". ha ha!

But Allison had a blast, and Alena had a really, really great time! She did not want to leave! After a few hours, Allison had sore baby toes, but really, that was the only complaint of the day. I did not skate, but rather took pictures and talked with the other moms! A good day was had by all.

The next fun "wintery" thing we've done is make Gingerbread men. Well, I should say we decorated them.... Target has a great deal on them, so I picked up a couple packs. The kids were really excited to get to do it, but as almost usual, it turned into a circus side show.

Ugh. It started off cool....then about halfway through, it started to get a little hairy, and the kids started "discussing" who had more cookies, who used more icing, and where on earth had all the little gumdrops gone?? (hint hint...check Julianne's mouth...)

It ended in an almost full blown fight, as Mason was soooo upset over not having enough gumdrops, and Allison worried that somebody actually ATE one of her cookies.... But, it was fun, and I have one more package to do...and when we do it, THEY WILL have FUN, gosh darnit!

The other fun winter/Christmas thing we've done is go to my employer's Christmas party. It was held at a place called Time For Dinner. I had an awesome, awesome time! I took my oldest daughter Allison with me. Allison has been wanting to take a cooking class for some time now, so this was a great and fun thing for her to experience.

I also had fun taking pics with my new camera.

So, even though I despise the cold, and the early darkness, and the high heating bills, and the scraping of ice off my windshield, and the dry skin, and the coats, hats, gloves, socks, wet floors, and everything else that comes with winter, I do enjoy the fun things I get to do with my family, that I otherwise would not be able to do in the summer.