Veteran's Day tribute

My sister put this together with her kids for Veteran's Day. A few of the men I'm grateful to call family. Give it a watch. And thank a vet today.



It just occurred to me as I was watching this video again that not a single one of these men was drafted. Every one of them signed up voluntarily. There is a cross-section of Americans who look down on our soldiers--who see them as low-class grunts who have nothing but the military. Every one of these men gave a service to their country, and then went on to be very productive, industrious members of their communities. All the ones in this video happen to also be very, very bright. Most of the soldiers I know who are currently serving are much the same. They serve out of loyalty, a sense of duty and honor, and selflessness. We don't always appreciate that they way we should. We don't always appreciate that around the country and the world are thousands of mother putting their babies to bed without saying goodnight to daddy, thousands more mothers who go to bed at night knowing their baby is in combat, or standing watch with a gun. To all my friends who are in the military, or whose husbands are valiantly serving our country, a sincere "thank you" for your service and sacrifice. It is not done unnoticed.

So usually the five under six thing works out pretty well for me. The babies are so, so easy (seriously, we all got such mellow little people in this round of cousins) and the three older ones (5, 5, and 3 years old) all entertain each other so that I don't have to worry about them much.

The one catch?

Keilana and Clayton are extremely loud people. Especially when they're with each other. And I developed some nasty sinus stuffiness/headache this afternoon, seemingly out of nowhere. The noise I usually ignore quite contentedly is making me want to just slip into a deep, clueless slumber.

But, hey, they're all happy (and the babies are sleeping), so its not that bad. And Spiderman is almost over. Then everyone's off to bed and I can drink my hot cocoa in peace.

Ahhhh. . . .

Dual Immersion update

I have sssoooo many other things I want to address, but find myself unable to focus my thoughts or sit at the computer long enough to sort them, so here is the first of the promised updates on Keilana's progress in dual immersion.

First of all, several people were apparently under the impression that this was our only option here in Lindsay, but that's not the case. You can choose dual immersion or regular kindergarten for your child, so this is something we opted into--I would feel very differently about it if it were required.

Keilana is absolutely loving it, and picking up Spanish vocabulary much faster than I anticipated. She frequently corrects my gringo accent on simple words like "gracias" or "viente". Each morning she starts the day with an hour and forty minutes of solid instruction entirely in English (she's in a classroom with a different teacher for this part of the day) and then returns to Senora Samaniago's class for the rest of the day en Espanol.

Most of the vocabulary she has picked up is exactly what you'd expect from a Kindergartener--family members (she got out a piece of paper the other day and drew a picture, then wrote "Mi Familia" at the top and labeled the whole thing "mi papa" "mi mama" "mi hermano" "mi hermanita" "mi perro"--she asked me for a little help with spelling, but did it primarily on her own), some foods, commands (she's frequently heard yelling, "Bada!" at her brother), and classroom objects like backpack, desks, pencils, crayons, etc. She actually uses the Spanish word for such things as often if not more than English at home. She seems to be making great progress at contextual vocabulary (figuring out what a word means by how and where it is used). Each night she has to read me 2-3 books in Spanish and 2-3 books in English (her English reading is at about mid-year 1st grader right now, her Spanish is early Kindergarten. She still mixes up vowel sounds when sounding things out because of all the Spanish and, let's face it, all of English's bizarre rules for written language).

She is enjoying it immensely and I think will actually be a big asset for her slower-learning mom and dad in about a year. We'll see how Dylan does when he hits kindergarten--while he knew all his ABC's by 2 1/2 and is starting to sound things out now, his verbal skills have always been much farther behind than Keilana's. But, on the bright side, his natural syntax seems to veer Latin (ex., "I want the car blue"). ;)

Overall its been a fantastic first trimester--parent teacher conferences next week!

By small and simple things

I walked into Church on Sunday not exactly my best self. I was physically tired (we didn't make it home from the Halloween festivities til around 1am--and my children have no concept of Daylight Savings Time, so they woke up at 6 anyway), I was emotionally drained (have I mentioned its been a rather intense few months?), and I was dreading the possibility of running into a few people I just really, really didn't want to see. Oh, and I was also alone, since my husband was still nasty sick (still is--getting better, but for Pete's sake, he got sick a month ago), so it was me and the older two monkeys. Just one of those Sundays where you make yourself go even though staying in bed sounds so much better.

A humble 9-year-old, without ever meaning to, severely put me in my place.

Cotter, one of my friend's sons, and a young man Brad was teaching to play piano until his sudden move, walked up to me before the meeting started and asked me how Brad was doing. I explained that he was doing OK, but was sicker than we thought at first so he has to start a new medicine next week. He looked at me with grave earnestness and said, "I heard he has cancer." I said he did, but he's still feeling OK right now. Cotter looked at me with solemn, intense eyes and said, "I'm fasting for him today." I felt about an inch tall before being completely overcome by gratitude for this little boy's faith and love.

His mom told me last night that he made it a full 24 hours. He ate dinner on Saturday, and fasted all through the Halloween activities--no nibble of candy or anything else that night. At about 2:30 Sunday afternoon, he said to his mom, "I'm really, really hungry." She told him that it would be OK with her if he broke his fast, and that she was extremely proud of him and she was sure Heavenly Father was, too. He thought for a moment and responded, "Do you think Heavenly Father will be more proud of me and help Brad if I make it til 5?" She choked back her own emotions and said, "I'm sure he'll notice. You're doing great." Cotter didn't break his fast until dinner that night. Rarely have I seen someone fast with such sincerity and devotion.

And a little child shall lead them. . . .

Halloween

I'm having major photo issues today--lots of trouble with programs of all kinds, so this is all you get, at least for now. Great times, lots of candy. Yes, Kylie's wings are sideways. She kept trying to pull them over her head and eat them.

Addendum

So Brad will start chemotherapy in just over a week. Sounds like that may go for 3 months or so, depending on the severity. The oncologist didn't think that the cancer had made its way to his liver or brain--if that's the case, things still look pretty darned optimistic. Won't know for sure until another battery of tests, including full-body CT scans, next week.

Trying to put aside the guilt, and the anger, and focus on the hope and the love. That's what is productive right now. Just need to let go of the rest. What's done is done. What matters is moving forward from where we are right now.

Its a wonderful family--not without its flaws, not without its setbacks, but filled with wonderful individuals. Brad is surrounded by a great support system. God bless them.