Getting back to normal

Because of the recent fires in our quite little city things have been different. The air, my car, and house all smell like smoke, the kids got some extra days off and Trevor still hasn't gone back though we got a phone call today saying that the High School is open on Monday. Every where we go the topic is "How close were you to the fire". "Is your family ok?". The good thing is that with the kids going back to school we can all get back to normal. We can now start to move our focus on how to replant our city. I feel sad for the folks that have lost their homes and hope that I can do something to help. I don't know what it will be but I will do what I can.

As for my family we are all doing well and ready to get back to our sports. Triston has Baseball tomorrow and Tatum has a cheer competition on Sunday. For Trevor wrestling get's back on Monday.

Don and I don't have anything going but getting ready for the holidays. For Thanksgiving we are going to Don's moms for dinner and the kids are excited to see their little cousin Jacob. Then of course our Vegas trip that we have been looking forward to (No kids).

It's finally over

Football is finally over. The team had a losing season with only one win. I have to say that our team stuck it out and never gave up. They had to overcome a lot of obstacles but they did it and I hope that they can look at this season as one that showed their perserverence and character. Trevor suited up for every Varsity game but never played a down but he kept his spirits high and definatly enjoyed the pre-game meals. At the JV level we also had a losing season with only 3 wins . Once again perserevence and character shined in these boys. Trevor started every game and had a great year with 3 interceptions and 2 fumble recoverys. He can't wait till next season but first tomorrow we start wrestling and then on to track. No rest for the college bound.
TREVOR WE ARE SO PROUD OF YOU. KEEP LIVING LIFE TO THE FULLEST AND NEVER LET ANYTHING GET IN THE WAY OF YOUR DREAMS. WE LOVE YOU.

I finally did it

Yesterday Trevor comes home and says I think I'm going to wrestle. YEAH VICTORY!!!!! I have been on Trevor to at least try wrestling since last year. I think that he would be very good at it. This Saturday is the meet the coach and 1st practice event and he is going to go. It took a lot of asking and talking to friends to talk him into it. The workouts are very difficult I have heard and I think will help him in football. He is already small so he won't have to loose weight to make a weight class. AND I AM JUST SO EXCITED. I'm excited to see him one on one on the mat. I can take video and pictures and it will be all of him. I think their first match is in December I will keep you informed.

Proud mommy

Today was one of those days that you think to yourself "What did I do to deserve this". Today Don and I went to watch Tatum receive Student of the Month at school. She was so surprised and so happy. We are really proud of her. She is such a good girl and good student. Her teacher told me today that when she told Don yesterday the news Don actually welled up with tears she had to hand him a tissue. Not trying to embarrass you honey but I know that you are so proud of her and you should be. So with Tatum we can get a student of the month sticker and right next to it for the boys we can get the sticker that says my son can beat up your student of the month :) I love diversity

Busy and exciting weekend

Today I will start out with the not so fun events that we had. On Thursday Trevor's football team lost again with a 41-12 score. Trevor did get a fumble recovery so that was a highlight. The team is so tired of losing that they are now starting to bicker with one another. Our quarterback got another concussion and will be out for the rest of the season. This time he got taken away on a stretcher and an ambulance I hope that he is ok. Well the good news is that we only have 3 more games and then it is on to preparing for next season. I have been asking Trevor to Wrestle though because I think that he would be good at it. I hope that he does.

Now on to the Varsity game. Trevor is so tired of dressing out and not being able to play. It is so boring to him. He likes the Pre game meals though and he says they are very good. This past Friday was our Homecoming game and we played Villa Park and lost 13-2. As the snack shack coordinator I was very busy. I got to the snack shack to see that we were out of propane for the BBQ's we ran out of Hamburgers by the middle of the first quarter and Don had to go and get more from the store. One parent didn't show up for his shift so I had to work a little bit until I had a young man come in and volunteer. During the set up I spilled boiling hot water on my hand so it was definitely a night to remember.

Saturday was a long day but ended up great. It started with Triston's soccer game in Laguna Niguel. We lost 4-0 and we have one boy on our team that likes to put other players down and yell at them when he doesn't think they are doing their job on the field. Today the parents had enough and told the coach to take care of it. So the coach gave the group a big talking to and gave them a homework assignment to look up the word respect and write the definition and then write 2 paragraphs about how to be respectful. Not bad, I think that it is important for the coach to take care of these issues and I think that he did a great job. After the game it was off to Irvine to see a Kyle participate in a Ju Jitzu Tournament. It was great to see him as it has been months and he did a great job. Here are some pictures:

Kyle ended up losing the match but really impressed us. After the match we were off to Tatum's football game. It was the Playoffs semi final and the boys were really excited and the girls wanted to do their best. The team ended up losing but the girls did great they had an announcer and when timeouts were called or end of quarters they would play music and the girls would go crazy. It was fun.

From there we went to my friend Jodi and Ken's house for dinner and game night. We had some Tri-tip and some awesome twice baked potatoes. We played two games that I have never played before and they were fun. The first game was Encore which is about music. We would have to come up with songs that had a certain words in it or songs with peoples names and then sing it. We played boys verses girls and of course the girls won but the boys didn't do so bad. I was hoping to get Don to sing at least once but he didn't. Maybe it was better that way for all of us :) After Encore we shooed the kids away and played a game called Spades. Boy that was fun and I totally thought I was getting it when I found out that I was playing my cards wrong and frustrating the hell out of Jodi. Sorry Jodi. We totally saw Jodi and Ken's competitive spirit and we had a huge laugh when they showed me what I was doing wrong. While we were there we had some of the best daiquiris ever they were strawberry with banana rum. I hope that we get together and do that again soon.

On Sunday Tatum had a cheer competition down in Long Beach. The team won second place. It was awesome. The girls now move on and they have another competition in Long Beach again in 4 weeks. Of course we are all waiting for our favorite competition which is in Vegas in February. It so much fun with that many people in one place with their families haveing a great time. We over run the tables and get really obnoxious its great. Here are some pictures from the event:

So to say the least it was a busy weekend and we can't wait for the next one. Great Job Tatum on winning second we are very proud of you.

Kids test our patients but it makes us stronger

Today was the twins conferences. First we saw Tatum's teacher. Wow is all I have to say. She is doing so good. You know it is going to go well when the teacher starts off saying I love your daughter. I guess she is really helpful and really helps other kids that may need it. She is performing well in all classees but Social Studies. The good news is that the teacher is willing have her come in at lunch to work on getting caught up. I know Tatum will take that help and do what she can to do better.
Triston on the other hand we have some issues that need to be dealt with. He is hanging in there on grades and I know that he will have A's and B's but behaviorly he is struggling. He just can't keep his hands to himself. I don't think that he is intentionally hurting anyone rather just being rougher than most kids. He gets along great with his friends so I just don't understand where the roughness is coming from. I was really upset at his conference though when the only thing that the teacher was talking about was his behavior. I had to bring up his grades and how his work performance in class was. It was like she didn't even want to talk about that. What frustrated me was that Don and I know that Triston has something going on we are doing positive reinforcements with him and punishing him if he has had a bad day. I get daily updates by his teacher regarding his day and Don and I still don't know how to fix the issue but we are working on it, we know about it, we are doing all that we can. STOP BEATING US UP ALREADY. We already feel bad enough first that he might hurt somebody and secondly that we don't know how to help him. We didn't expect to sit there for 30min and be lectured about counseling and medication and why haven't we found out what was wrong. I for one don't believe in medication unless absolutley nessesary. My sister had ADD/ ADHD and was on medication all of her life. It never helped her and now she is in jail and addicted to drugs. The doctors could never get the dosage right so she was either a zombie or she felt that she couldn't control herself. So now you know why it would scare me.
This morning before the conferences I was looking back at some old pictures of when the twins were little. They were so cute and we did some awesome things when they were little. We had big birthdays every year, we went camping a lot and it just seems that now we have to many things going on. I told Don tonight that I want to go back to taking those little weekend trips and just get a chance to reconnect. I wonder where I should start first. I think I will plan a trip to Joshua Tree because Tatum and I had such a great time and we know that the boys would have a blast. Maybe we shoud plan another cruise. Jodi you in?

Over all not so bad

Today Don, Trevor, and I went to talk to his teachers and school counselor. It was a great meeting. I found out that he is at least trying since we started talking to him about his grades. He has risen his World History grade a significant amount and his teacher thinks that if he keeps it up he may have an A by the time Semester grades come out.

His spanish teacher told us that he needs to focus and not talk to the girl behind him though she thinks that she is helping him stay on task (I wonder if that is the girl he asked to Homecoming). He was missing a workbook for her class so we bought another one and hopefully he can now get caught up.

He is getting an A+ in Lit I hope that he can keep that going since he went to summer school this past summer becuase of this class but once again it was because of the homework.

His math teacher didn't show but we knew that she wouldn't. Trevor told us that it is not to hard of a class but that he is just not doing the work and that he would do better.

The hardest class of all Honors Bio. Not sure what I should do. Do I take him out of the class or do I leave him in it and make him try harder. I feel like I should keep him in it and let him try harder but then I take the risk of him failing the class. As of right now I told his teacher that I would like daily reports from her and I hope that I we can get him to succed.

Tomorrow is the twins conferences so I will let you know how it goes.