Elf on the shelf: misadventures

Jingle; that is his name.  He has one mission:  make sure the boys stay off the naughty list!  And how exactly?  With a little help from me of course.  It's my job to keep them believing, and if that means I have to keep coming up with silly situations to put him in, so be it!  Today we woke up to marshmallows on the living room floor.  It seems our elf has made a game of tossing them into D's "coffee" cup from atop the Christmas tree! Hehehe, what will he do next! :)

 

 

Soccer time!

Well it's happened... once again I've become a soccer mom/mamarazzi.  It's a busy life, but I love that the boys are trying new things and experiencing what it's like to be part of a team, while having fun of course!  It may or may not be their life long dream to be in sports, but at least they are having the opportunity to decide for themselves. 

This year, E has decided he wanted to try soccer.  I think seeing D play was encouraging for him.  Although he has limitation, he seems to be having  a great time.  He tries so hard, and this is a great way for him to work on his listening, focus, motor skills, and team work.  It's also important for him to expand his experiences. 

Raising money to kick some cancer ass

I decided to do the Light The Night walk again for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.  I've done it a few times in the past, and it's such an inspiring day.  This year I created "Team Survivor" and I had this idea to do a bake sale.  I asked my work if I could do this in our lunchroom and they said yes!  So I'm excited to do this and enlisted the help of some of my friends to help with packing the baked goodies :)  I'm looking forward to doing this for something that I am this passionate about. 

Oh no! Not humpday!

Wednesday is the busiest day of the week for me right now.  We've got Soccer games now 2 times a week and practice on Mondays.  Practices aren't too bad, but for some reason on game day Wednesday it is a mad dash!  Luckily right now the games have been at 6, but we have to be there at 5:30, so I rush home and dress D practically while he's having dinner.  Get all the gear; ball, shin guards, socks, cleats, water, camera... then out the door we go to the field.  Kids are all a little tired but a little silly after the school day.  Focus is hard on Wednesdays but we've all been at work and school and rushed out to the park for the game.  And we'll all do it again next Wednesday.

Game On!

Well, well, well, as if life isn't busy enough, let's add Soccer to the schedule.  Well I'm loving it!  A Soccer Mom, me??  Yup, it's happened.  Yeah, it's made life for this single mommy a whole lot busier, but that's OK.  D is really enjoying himself and E is a great supporter of his little bro, who says "good job brother!" after practices and after the first game on Saturday.  The first game.... wow, that was intense!  He even blocked a shot from the other team's best player!  I cheered, I yelled, I screamed, I took lots of pics and when it was all over I felt like I had just played!  My voice was practically gone.  It was a great day and all the practices every Mon, Wed and Sat, rushing home to get the kiddos ready and out the door for practice that last 1 - 1-1/2 hours then back home to get them bathed and ready for bed on top of all the other mom duties; homework, laundry, dinner, bed time rituals... tired yet?  I am.  But I'm OK with it all.  It's great to see him trying new things, making new friends, having a great time! 

Where to go from here...

Our worse fear has come true and I am so sad for my dear friend. Her daughter is gone, and there is nothing I can do for her to change that. They say everything happens for a reason, but I can't think of one damn reason that is good enough. They say we learn from our experiences, but I don't know what the effing lesson is here. They say hard times make us stronger, but who the hell decides we need to be stronger. This is truly a test of one's faith.

When I started the FB page for Bree it was for support for the family, as the only way I know, by sharing words and thoughts of positivity. Our little group of 40 members is now 900+ and growing. Do they all know Bree or her family? No. Which impresses me the most. That the story of this young, beautiful girl has touched so many. I've seen this group grow so much over the past 2 week. People who knew Bree or know the family, and people who don't. People from around the corner from where Bree lived and from miles away. And they've joined the page truly to express their sympathy for the family. Such a humane gesture during a time when there seems to be no humanity left in this world. I can not even BEGIN TO IMAGINE what Bree's parents are going thru. I wish I could do something to make this all go away for them.

♥ love to the two of you, the kids and the babies ♥

A fund has been established and people are coming together as well now, to contribute to the Bree’Anna Guzman Memorial Fund to help the family and Bree's two little girls in this next phase.

There is still lots to do. There is still a monster out there that needs to be taken off the streets.

Still missing...

I did something on Sunday I hadn't done in years... I went to church. My visits to church have been limited to weddings a funerals. As a child we always attended church every Sunday. But as I got older I didn't make an effort to go. And when things got tough, I found it easier to turn my back on my faith. But as the week passed and I am still unable to get a hold of my friend Darlene to find out the status of her missing daughter Bree, I felt like the only thing left for me to do was go to church. I've felt so helpless over this that going to church seemed like the right thing to do. Instead of turning my back on my faith, I decided to turn to it. I must admit, I'd thought of going back to church and accepting my religion again before this, but it felt a bit hypocritical. But under the circumstances I felt I should worry less about being judged and more about just doing what felt right.
It's been hard this week getting my head around what has happened. I never imagined that I would ever see a missing person poster and see the face of someone I know. It's so easy to look at a missing person poster and not take a second glance, but next time I will remember this feeling of helplessness, fear, anger and sadness.
Bree has a mother, a father, a brother, sisters, and daughters that all want her home. Pray that she makes a safe return.