Morning quote

Serif: Can cars drive in grass?

Me: Yes, as long as its shorter grass.

Serif: Can cars drive on sand?

Me: Well, yes, but it's kind of tricky.

Serif: When we were at Florida, I saw a car driving on the sand and it was very easy for him. All you have to do is work hard, exercise and eat healthy do your body gets really strong and healthy.


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Our Day - The Start of Pre-K Homeschool

This week we are learning about the letter A. Yesterday, we did some online exercises with this letter and did some interactive videos to learn about how the letter sounds alone and in words and sentences. He really enjoyed it. Today, we worked on handwriting skills and coloring. He had so much fun. I had no idea how receptive he would be to all of this but so far so good!








He really slowed down and took his time with everything. This is the best I have ever seen him write his name. I think having my print to refer to helped a lot. (Reminder: You can click on the photos to enlarge to see clearer)




Typically, Serif's colored pages are made up of a bunch of scribbles with no real intent. Not today. He did a very nice job with slowing down and keeping it close to the lines. So proud!












It's been a great day. He watched some PBS kids this morning, we did story time at the library and checked out more books (he gave me tons of hugs and kisses in there!), then came home for lunch, read a book, did our "group time" (lesson), then he played play-doh and went to quiet time. He said he went to sleep but I'm not too sure. I did though so it was all good. Hehe.




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Bedtime Conversation: Heaven

We were reading a new book from the library tonight when I read the word "heaven." Serif quickly said, "(gasp!) Heaven is where God lives!"

Me: Yes it is!

Serif: Do you have to be dead to go to heaven?

Me: (unsure of how to best respond) Yes. You would be dead here but not in heaven.

Serif: So when you're dead here, God transforms you back to life in heaven.

Me: Yes!

Serif: Is King Saul in heaven?

Me: Hmmm, well I'm not sure. Was King Saul mean?

Serif shook his head yes.

Me: He didn't like Jesus did he?

Serif: No. (Shaking his head)

Me: Then no, he probably is not in heaven. But David, you know David and Goliath, that David? David is in heaven.

Serif: Yeah! I want to see him when I get to heaven.

Me: And I bet he could teach you how to shoot a good sling shot too!

Serif: Yeah!!!


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Photos from the day

Alligator (coming at me on a skateboard).




Spider-Man with sunglasses on our way to the Science Center. He never took a nap in quiet time but he fell asleep after 7 minutes in the car.




Dr. Godby.




We got lucky with maybe 5 kids total at the science center this afternoon. He normally can't get to some of this stuff due to all the other kids! We were only there for about an hour and 15 minutes but we did more than we normally do in 2-3 hours!




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Spider

Serif was waving bye to daddy this morning and found a nice little surprise on the other side of the window. He was obviously quite tickled over it.


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Day 2 of being home

Day 2 of being at home went really well. We spent the morning at the downtown library got their weekly story time. It was so fun to watch him as they performed and read the story. I think he must have randomly hugged me 5-6 times during the 45 minute segment. It was very sweet. I think he was very excited for me to be at the library with him. He normally only goes with his school class.
Towards the end of the show I told him his class was coming on Thursday. I was getting ready to remind him that we would be joining them when he chimed in with, "but we won't be going then because I'm home now and not going back to school." It caught me off guard and was pretty funny. I guess we'll play that one by ear.
After the show he immediately wanted to go to the puppet play area. We spent about 5-10 minutes there before moving on. It was amazing to see how much he knew about the library and also what he didn't know.




I discovered a fun computer area where they could learn how to use a mouse and keyboard by playing educational games. It was actually pretty cool. He seemed to enjoy it and you could tell he was unfamiliar.




The one book he wanted was "The case of bad tattle tongue" but it was out and has 4 holds on it so I guess it's a pretty popular one right now. It'll be a month before we see that one.
We did get other books, a few movies/shows and a cd to listen to. I think the library will definitely be on the weekly rotation.

One other interesting thing happened during the story time. The song the sang at the end was Louis Armstrong 's What a Wonderful World. This is the song that played at the beginning of our wedding when the wedding party entered the sanctuary. It was perfect. It certainly put a smile on my face.

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Anniversary #19

Dinner at our all time favorite place, Omni Hut. This was Serif's first time there and had so much fun. The server gave him extra cherries for his Hawaiian tea, brought us chicken sticks with fire in the middle and topped it off with a complementary surprise at the end . . . Ice cream volcano! Another special thing was not ordering from a kids menu. He tried everything and really liked most things but the sweet and pungent pork was his favorite. Fortune cookies are always fun and here are our fortunes for the night . . .



And a beautiful big bright blue moon.



The next one won't be around until 2015.


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First Monday Home

When Serif woke up around 8:15 this morning, he came in to the living room where I was sitting on the sofa waiting for him to wake up. I reminded him that this is his first Monday to not have to go to school. He gasped and smiled really big and came and gave me a big hug. We sat on the couch a while and he snuggled up with me. He then asked, "Do I not have to go to school for a whole week!?!" I told him not for a whole year. He then asked if that was a long time. I explained to him all the holidays we'll be home for and went through the seasons. He looked at me wide eyed and surprised and lunged at me with a huge hug. This hug lasted for 2 minutes straight! Longest one I ever remember getting.

After eating breakfast together he wanted me to read the story of Snow White. He began singing the "Hi-Ho" song and went to get the book. Several times throughout the book he would randomly fall over me with a big squeeze. At the end of it he stood to his knees and looked at me and said, "I'm going to give you something really sweet." And he fell over me again and squeezed the biggest hug. Then he looked at me with a great big grin and said, "You are my most favorite person in our family." (Sorry honey!)

What a great morning. I must say its been rather weird to not go to work this morning. I'm going to miss so many people there. They have truly become like family to me. I think my time with Serif will pay off and be worth every moment of it. I'm feeling very blessed to have this opportunity and thanking God for his direction, clarity and peace about this new change. I am also very grateful that I have such a wonderful husband (of 19 years tomorrow!) that is so supportive of me. I'm a lucky lady.


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Serif's last day at CDC

We made a paper chain Monday that had a link for each day he left at school. Every morning he gets to tear a link off. Today was the last link of the chain!




Here are his superman cupcakes he picked for his party. He noticed one of the cupcakes in the second batch was missing its superman ring.
Serif: They must have forgot or maybe they ran out.
Me: Maybe
Serif: They'll have to buy more.
Me: Yep.
Serif: i bet they prayed and asked for more but Jesus was too busy because he has a lot to do.


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Last Day at ESa

My coworkers planned a going away lunch for me today at Centennial park and Hogg Heaven. The weather was perfect (sunny, nice breezes and 80 degrees) and they found the perfect picnic tables under some great old shade trees.




So many friends we're able to come out and help celebrate with me! One of my coworkers, Molly, drew this huge caricature card of me , Jeff and Serif. What a hoot! It is totally my favorite! Definitely framing this for the house!




I received so many words of kindness, encouragement and support from everyone. From co-workers to principles, they were all just incredible and it was so overwhelming the love they showed. It was bittersweet to finally see my desk cleaned up and ready for the next person to move in. A lot of memories at this firm. Great friends . . . like family.




When i got home from work, we headed to Peiwei to celebrate as a family and then to Publix to let Serif pick out cupcakes for his party tomorrow since it will be his last day. We opened our fortune cookies and this is what mine said. Ha! It has been an amazing day. Definitely feeling blessed.




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Friends

Serif and I went to the tomato festival this weekend and we ran into some of his school friends, Alexander and James. They were waiting in line for the bounce house and were so excited to get their picture together. I love how you can feel their excitement and genuine happiness through the photos. Classic. I think we'll be printing one of these for his room.








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Days and Weeks

We had a misunderstanding of days and weeks this morning. He was so excited all morning after discussing that this was the last week of school; then he got to school and told ms jerri, "this is my last day!" When we corrected him he did his angry thing (arms crossed and mean look) and was on the verge of tears. We had to go talk out in the hall to talk. Once I explained it again he was better. We went back to his class and after he washed his hands we went and looked at the calendar to get a better understanding. He got excited again and went and signed in and did great the rest of the time. Shew!


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A dragon story

Serif? What is all of this tape doing everywhere?

The dragon got sick and threw up everywhere!

Well he needs to help clean this up.

Yeah, I'll help.


Serif don't get any more tape out.

But he needs to floss.





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Protecting bear

He had to hide his bear from the rain and thunder before going inside school.


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Happy Birthday Mom

Serif just handed me one of our old flip phones and said "Here mommy it's your mom!" What he didn't know was today is her birthday. I pretended to talk to her a minute and told her happy birthday then almost went to tears. Thank you, God, for the little reminders you send. You are so clever. She would have been 63 today. So weird.


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