Thirteen - Silly Rowan

Rowan just bolted straight up out of a deep sleep nap, spread his arms wide in the air with his fingers splayed out and stretched apart and said in an exasperated, panicked tone, "DID YOU HEAR ME MOMMY?! I SAID I HAD TO JUMP OVER THE MUD!!" Then he flopped right back down and was instantly out again, only to jump up 30 seconds later screaming, "OH! DADDY'S GOT THE LAWN MOWER?". After professing his excitement over this, he scrambled up and in his still not yet awake daze, tried running as fast as he could across the couch to the window, where he tripped and hit his face on the arm of the couch.

I have never laughed so violently, ever.

Twelve - Mr. & Mrs. Charles James

Eleven - Not Wanting to Give Up

See? I'm slacking off here already. I really don't want to give up on this. I could feel myself starting to. I'd sit down to write and I'd tell myself something like, "Meh, it's not important, you can always update later."

Anyway, the wedding was nice. More than nice really. It was gorgeous. Denise, the bride made all the decorations herself. They were unique, tasteful, and classy. She did things like cutting up tissue paper circles and circles cut out of dictionary pages as her "confetti" to throw at them when they walk back down the aisle. She also created these hanging flower poms that hung from strings all behind where they were married (it was in their backyard). Oh! I think my favorite was where she took pictures of her and Chuck and attached them to twine that she roped around, from the ground up, on a tree in the yard. So cute and creative. I wish my new camera lens had arrived in the mail so that I could have taken some really good pictures. :[ Oh well. The reception was nice too. It was in a local cafe/coffee shop. Very, very nice. Besides Juanita, Connie, and Abi being there, but that's a different story.

We have our meeting with the special education committee next Thursday, June 3rd at 10:40am. I'm nervous. What if they don't approve him for receiving special education? I'm still trying to understand how they can even turn children away when they're evaluated and deemed in need of help. I know it comes down to money and funding. But by denying a child who needs help, what does that mean for them? For their future? I just don't want to be in that boat.

Hoping to set up Rowan's pool this weekend. Thane has a three day weekend. Normally he just works his holidays and banks the hours, but they're making all the employees take this one off. We're not complaining, 3 day weekends are nice. It just would have been nice to be able to save the time towards taking our possible trip to Harrisburg, PA in August.

I'm going to go see about uploading some pictures from the wedding now.

Ten - Grandpa Dennison's Birthday

Today is a busy day. I don't have much time at all to write. I have housework to do before Jenn comes over. Then later when Thane gets home we have to get ready to go to a family get together. My Grandpa Dennison's birthday is today and we're going to their house for dinner and dessert. He turns 82 today! He's an amazing man.

Last night was the Grey's finale and I wanted to die. So so so so sooooo sad/shocking/scary.

Thane, Rowan, and I might be taking a little trip to Harrisburg, PA in August. It's one of the places on our potential future relocation list. We're thinking of going for 3 nights, 4 days. If we do we're going to stay in the Hilton that's right in the middle of downtown, 2 blocks from the river, and within walking distance to the pedestrian bridge that will take us to City Island! We want to make sure we experience it the right way, so we would know for sure whether we'd like to live there. If it makes the cut, we'd like to move there and rent a condo in the heart of downtown, maybe even on "restaurant row" (hehe, I'm learning the local lingo). The major downfalls on paper for Harrisburg are that it is far from the ocean (3 hours?) and we wanted to live closer to the coast, and it is also far from NYC (3.5 hours?) and we wanted to be within commute (less than 2 hours) to the city. :/ But if this place is as nice as what we've researched about it, it might be worth it. Three and three and a half hours is still a lot closer than we are now.

Sunday we have Jenn's graduation to attend in Auburn and then a wedding Sunday evening in Fairport/Rochester. Geez travel! It's going to be a longgggg day.

Nine - Wedding Cheesers

I looove Thane's cheese face in this picture.

(I just pulled this from my Facebook, so the quality is probably poor.)

Eight - Good Morning

I've updated my profile on here. Added my interests (though I need to update it with real interests), books, movies, all that stuff. I'm trying to stay away from Facebook today. Thane and I didn't watch the Idol results yet and someone always posts a status about it and spoils it, so I'm trying to avoid that. Lame. Haha.

Yesterday, after Rowan's evaluation, we went to Daddy Ed's in Mexico. Love, love, LOVE that place. Their french toast is seriously the best around. Nick and Jenn got ahold of us and wanted to hang out, so we made plans with them for mid afternoon when Jenn was finished with a meeting. Around 3, the four of us took Rowan to the bounce house at the mall. He loves it there. We do too! It's only $5 for an hour or $6 for two and you only pay for your children. This time there was a boy for him to pal around with and a little girl who wouldn't stop giving him hugs. Too cute. After our hour was up we headed home and made cheeseburgers for dinner. We capped the evening off with a game of Balderdash. I won because I'm awesome, duh.

I need some new books to read. Well, I just ordered four new ones, but I fear that I'll be disappointed with them. See, about a year ago I had a streak of good finds where I read some of my current favorite books. Now I'm in a rut. I like thrillers. Not those awful Dean Koontz (Admittedly, I have liked a book or two of his) or James Patterson novels. More like psychological thrillers, disturbing family drama. Orrrr I like stories about families whose children are kidnapped, or murdered, or where one parent goes crazy and ruins everyone's lives. Hahaha. I can't help it. I like suspense and emotion both, and these types of stories seem to house the perfect balance. The author also have to be intellectual, philosophical. The words have to move me or catch me. Make me think. Every time I go to Amazon and look up a book, the other recommended books listed on that book's page are all books I already own! Haha. I have so many books. I'm thinking about purchasing a Kindle sometime, but I kind of like my large library of books. Ha.

Anyway, Rowan is finished with breakfast, so I'm going to go play "Iron man" with him.

Seven - Evaluation

Rowan's evaluation this morning went well. He was such a good boy! The ladies loved him and were impressed with his musical talents. It's nice to see we're not the only ones who notice it. After going through a series of tests and questions, mixed in with some playtime, they are recommending that he receive both occupational therapy and speech therapy. Some areas he tested right at the appropriate age level and others, obviously, he rated below average. Then there were a couple of areas where he devoured the scoring system. Haha. At one point he was displaying behavior equal to that of a child aged 4 years and 11 months. Wow! He just turned 3 two months ago. So hopefully we will be able to get him some help for the areas in which he has a delay and eventually he will not only catch up, but then surpass other kids, because come on, he's perfect. :] Our next step is to wait and hear from the Fulton City School District Committee for Special Education. They will make time for a meeting, in which we should attend. During the meeting they will determine whether they want to approve a tutor for Rowan. While there, we will be able to stand up and speak on Rowan's behalf to try and convince them to let us get help for him. I'm nervous about that. At any rate though, today's results gave us both some relief and some knowledge as to what we can expect to happen.

Six - Long Walk to Job Site

Yesterday we took a walk across the bridge to the other side of the river and through the city to see Grandpa and Uncle Nick at work on the crane.

Crane.

Rowan did not want to sit in the crane.

My baby brother at work.

Nick on the job. He's an iron worker.

Five - Riley Jane

Riley Jane. She'll be 1 year old in July of this year.

Four - Sign

A day in Oswego with my sister-in-law, Jenn. Sign near the hospital.

Three - May 2010 Pictures of Rowan

My little bean. Heart.

Rowan enjoys showing off his belly.

Let's ignore the fact that he's grabbing himself. Haha.

Rowan taking a pretend picture of Mommy.

He definitely thinks he's an adult.

Two - Stress & The Future

So I gave up my first attempt at this, which means I can't promise any commitment to this next go at it. I also gave up job hunting. Instead I applied to, and got accepted into SUNY Oswego, where I will start in the fall. I will be going to finish my bachelor's degree in Adolescence Education, English. A lot of other things have happened. I've been really stressful lately. I know it's only temporary, but there's always that chance that it's not. Things really could go wrong and stay wrong. Why not? It happens. Right now we're facing a furlough that would affect Thane's job, thus in turn affecting the whole family/household. He already lost his raise because of the economy. We were denied health insurance through a state program (that we qualified for based on income guidelines) because Thane is a state employee. Now we pay $180 a month just to belong to an insurance plan, instead of the $50 we were paying. Rowan has an evaluation tomorrow morning. He may need speech therapy at the least. I'm trying to keep my head up, I am. I just have days.

One of the things that has us still clinging to and believing in hope is that our financial aid awards are ridiculous. They're generous and we expect about a $22k-24k refund for the 2010-11 school year. That's from both Thane and I going to school. Some of it is loan money we are borrowing from the government, but we'll do what we feel we need to do to make it to this next level. Everyone is in debt. It's part of the American way. If Thane graduates before I do with his degree in Hotel and Restaurant Management, he'll search for a job to get his feet wet in around here while I finish up. After I graduate, we are getting out of here. We mean it this time. We have a list of places we would like to visit and explore. Potential new hometowns. Places with thriving streets/communities. With shops and restaurants galore. With live music and excellent school systems. We can do this.

Now, what will keep me motivated to update this? I have a wonderful husband with whom I share every single thought with, a beautiful, perfect little boy who fills up my days with laughter and kisses. How am I so uninspired, in this sense? Maybe if I start simple? Update with a little bit every day? Maybe a picture and a few words? We'll see. I'd love to stick to this.