Our World Travelers!

I am sorry it has been so long since I have updated this blog. My niece Emma (see Extinct Stinks) does a great job with hers and she implied that I had been a little negligent.

Our most exciting news is that right now we only have two children at home - no, we are not early "empty nesters"- Andrew is gone to Japan for a Phoenix Boys Choir Tour and Marissa is spending time with her Reay granparents and cousins in Utah. Both are having the time of their lives.

Andrew has been able to visit many historic sites and stayed with Japanese host families as well as performing both scheduled and impromptu concerts. They also got to ride the bullet train. We have gotten a few pictures and e-mails and he seems like he is having a great time.

As you can see they all look pretty happy. The director has been really good about keeping us updated on what they are doing, so we can vicariously experience Japan. I can't wait until Andrew gets home so that I can hear him talk about everything. He was able to e-mail us at one host family's house and he told us that his family lived 10 minutes from the beach and that they had 2 girls - one 15 and the other 12 - who both spoke English quite well. He also said that he was buying souvenirs. I hope he still has some money left at this point.

Marissa has been having her "dream" vacation. She has been horseback riding, hiking, doing crafts, swimming, going to see "Singin' in the Rain" and - one of the best parts - hanging out with her girl cousins. She gets enough of boys at our house and at Cub Scouts and Boys Choir. She does not really like to talk on the phone, but her Grandma Reay has kept us updated on things.

In the meantime, Lee and I have enjoyed a relatively quiet house and we went with Seth and Matthew to a local resort and spent 3 days playing in the pool with waterslides, a lazy river, etc. They are enjoying going to our community pool nearly every day and I am struggling to come up with different meals every night for my two pickiest eaters.

Andrew the Eldest

Today is Andrew's 14th birthday. He is not here to celebrate however, because he is at Scout Camp. We had the big bash Saturday before he left. He got an ice cream cake which he raved about (I'm glad, because it was my first attempt) and he had breakfast for dinner with all of the sausage and bacon he could eat (which is a lot!)

Andrew has really had some big challenges this year and he has largely risen to meet them. When he was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes (the shot kind) in September, I was so worried because he doesn't even tolerate getting out splinters well. But, he has really done well and does all of his own shots, blood tests, etc. and he keeps up with it without much prompting.

He also found his voice and found a new talent. He was privileged to sing a solo at one of the Boys Choir Christmas concert, which was a goal of his. He will finish his Choir experience this summer with a 16 day tour to Japan. He has spent 6 years in the choir and has given up many other opportunities and also relaxing on the weekends to do it. His new talent is....comedy. We watched a Victor Borge special on PBS and Andrew loved it. So, he worked up a routine based on the act and did it in the school variety show. He was a big hit. http://mediaserver.peoriaud.k12.az.us/ApacheElementaryMedia/media/movies/Andrew%20Reay's%20Comedy%20Routine%20-%20Variety%20Show%205-14-09%20video.wmv

He is looking forward to new challenges and excitement as he starts high school next year. I can't wait to see what happens.....

Birthdays in Bunches

You may have noticed that Marissa and Matthew have birthdays two days apart in November. Seth and Lee have birthdays 1 day apart in March. We did not plan that very well.

Lee is my wonderful husband of almost 15 years. He is great at playing with the kids, folding laundry, and keeping everything going when I am gone. He has a great sense of humor and he is a hard worker.

Seth is our youngest and he is still my "baby." He has a great imagination and he is often found in his own world. He loves to talk and loves to read and learn new things. He is still in the stage where he misses school when he has breaks and vacations.

I am grateful for my March birthday boys and I love them!

Wow! It's been a while.

Sorry we have been out of the loop for a while. I have been really busy trying to keep my job with the state budget cuts and also trying to keep services for the kids that I work with. I have also been doing some choir functions and everything has just ganged up on me.

Andrew did not advance past the regional spelling bee even though he made it through 4 rounds. He got out on the word "perfidy" which I had seen before but I couldn't tell you what it means. We were kind of glad to be done with that.

Other than that, life goes on.

A-N-D-R-E-W spells success!

For those of you who haven't heard already, Andrew won our school's spelling bee and a couple of weeks ago he took second place in the district bee, so now he is going to the regional bee on February 18th. Keep your fingers crossed for him. He has not really studied up to this point so I am not sure what will happen, but we will be cheering him on. (Too loudly, according to Andrew after the district bee.) I guess I have had too much experience at outdoor events where a well-placed "Woo-Woo" is appropriate.

The marquee was a complete surprise to us. They had misspelled "congrats" with a d instead of a t, but they changed it. We didn't even mention it to them.

Back to the Grind...

Although I am sure that I would eventually get tired of having my kids around all day every day, I wish that some breaks were a little longer. We had such a nice break over Christmas and spent some quantity and quality time together. Now we are back to school, rehearsals, work, etc. and it just gets hectic. I am looking forward to Spring Break already. Too bad Lee and the kids don't have the same one. We'll figure something out though.

But, life is not all bad. The weather has been great and we are enjoying being able to go outside, ride bikes, and so on and so on. Andrew is in the district Spelling Bee this month and we are proud of this accomplishment. It is also Choir Sweeps month - which we are just going to get through this year.

We have a Wii!

Yes, we have finally entered the 21st century of parenting and enlisted the help of Santa to bring our kids a video game system. He not only brought the basic system, but we also have several games. The kids said "We must have been really good this year!" They are having so much fun with it - although Seth is taking time to warm up to anything other than creating "Miis." I am really not very good at it, but I enjoy playing. We feel the need to rationalize this latest addition by saying that it will help with coordination, motor skills and also socialization opportunities. This was really the only present our kids got so luckily they like it. However, Lee got 6 tickets (from me) to see the Broadway version of Lion King on January 3rd which he will be sharing with all of us.

The Christmas concerts are over along with Christmas and it is a relief. Andrew did an amazing job at the Mesa Arts Center singing the "Silent Night" duet and my dad and Jackie were there to see it. I still get goosebumps at the end of every concert when all of the choirs together sing the "Hallelujah Chorus."

Happy New Year to all!