Friday Phone dump and first days of trying Karate

These are the days.....to remember

School days

Cooper has had an awesome few days of school.  He came home yesterday with "Fluffy" the class bear, he was the first student to be chosen to take the bear home.  He was awarded this prize because he was the quietest and listened the best.  He was so proud.

 Fluffy comes with homework and Cooper had to draw a picture of something he did with Fluffy and then write in a notebook a sentence or two about what they did together.
"What is a sentence?" was his first question.  The instructions said to let them spell out words on their own. I spelled things out for him and he wrote them down....that's about where we are with our writing. He did great and only messed up a few letters.

Cooper and Fluffy snuggled, We brushed teeth.

Today was the first day of school for Erin and Brad so Cooper and I had the afternoon to ourselves which was so nice!  We played with modeling clay and he even wanted to frame his name.  I thought we were having a great time spending time together all afternoon, but when Erin and Brad came through the door after school he flew up the stairs and nearly knocked Erin over hugging her.  "Now I can play!" he said...what were we doing all afternoon??? Oh well.

In other news, my ears popped yesterday and I believe I am on the mend. My voice is still bad but things are clearing up FINALLY! :)

Sickness

I am sick.  Yes, I am just owning it outright.  I am SICK like "I ain't neva been sick before" (that's for you Mere). I am on my second antibiotic, I haven't been able to hear out of my left ear in a week now, the sinus infection has my head full and the residual has me coughing like I have TB.  It AIN'T PRETTY!  I have so much in my system, it's amazing I haven't thrown up on a daily bases (Lord PLEASE don't take that as an OK to add that in too!).  I am on day 4 of new antibiotic (old one didn't touch it) and day 3 of Afrin, crack in a nasal spray and I can't take anymore after today due to it's crack-like qualities.  To tell you I am already having the DTs just thinking about not taking it is an understatement, at this point, it's the only way I am actually breathing.  The aches, fever and sweating/chills have ended so at least I "feel good" as I have been saying. If you have talked to me, you know I sound like hell but since my body can walk upright without pain and I can pretend (if you don't hear me coughing) that I am not sick, at least you don't know.  Cooper said to me tonight "Mom, it's so sad you are still sick, this is too long".  Even HE sees it's been too long now that we are going on week 2. The not hearing thing is what's really got me irritable, I have become my own pet peeve "what?" "huh?". URGH

In other news, Cooper still loves school. I forced myself out on Sat on what was the 5 year anniversary of my father's passing (NOT that I like to count this sort of thing!) to go to Yoga in the park and brunch and some shopping. Sunday, to mark the official end of summer, Mike wanted to take us all to Waterworld so how could the girl with potential pleurisy/TB and the black Plague stop the kids from having fun?  I dragged along sounding like death the entire day.  Fun times!

Friday I took Cooper to Chuck E Cheese for the first time ever. I have gotten by without going now all this time, so as a "great job for loving your new school/new life" we went and he had a blast. I couldn't hear a damn thing so it was a win/win!  I am hoping for the next few days to really feel better, if this new antibiotic actually works I think I should. As for the ringing/clogged ear...you will hear me all the way to Florida yelling "Alleluia" as soon as that thing pops open! 

First day of Kindergarten!

It's official! Cooper has started Kindergarten!  We had a great first day and I was really impressed the way the school handled it for Kindergartners.  

Cooper and I walked to school it was a beautiful morning of about 55 degrees.  Parents go to the first day of Kindergarten with their kids but the first day for them in only like an hour.  Mrs Bray read a book, we put all the supplies we brought away, we did a few crafts together and then the principal came and took the parents on a tour while the kids had more story time.  We then were brought into a boo hoo breakfast where the kids joined us :)

I know they say the first day of Kindergarten is sad and your baby has grown up.  But I don't feel sad at all.  I am so happy he is growing up to be such a great and amazing kid and I am really looking forward to a lot of fun and growth this new year!

Settling in

 These few weeks have been full of change, fun and newness.  This past week, I think we are feeling settled in.  I have been working out with Chrissy (she thinks she is going to train me to climb this HUGE incline up the side of a mountain...my next goal is for something simpler like a 5K so we shall see! ha).  Both Cooper and I have fallen in love with church at Woodman Valley Chapel (you can watch past services on line in you feel like following along at home!) Cooper loves the kids church where they do puppet shows, have snacks and do crafts (this week he made a Sampson puppet), I love the praise and worship and each week, I swear, they are talking RIGHT TO ME!  About trusting God's plan for your life, about being broken and rebuilding from the ashes (a lot about rebuilding around here since the fires) but...at any rate...things are feeling more settled. We are still watching a lot of Olympics, we bought school supplies this week and Cooper has been stealing my camera more and more to take pictures of himself or his toys.  I love finding them on my camera phone.  His breathing treatments needed to increase since we have been here, the weather is so dry, I am doing more of them than I did back in Florida but we are on top of it.  Cooper is in HEAVEN with all the animals here...as you can see from below..Tori is his constant companion, even when he does his breathing treatments she sits with him.

I gave Cooper the chore of feeding the rabbits. He likes to have jobs to do and this one seemed easy and harmless. He has been taking it very seriously and this week Bun Bun (the black and white bunny in the picture below) got a bot fly.  Firstly, I had no idea what it was but it's like tick and it grows into the skin and secondly, I had no idea how serious something was to a little rabbit.  We got the bot fly out the other day but after the vet surgically removed the infected tissue today and we brought him home, sadly Bun Bun died tonight.  Apparently rabbits can't handle much stress, and I am so proud of Cooper how he handled it. Erin and Brad cried and cried, deep sobs for their rabbit and Brad broke my heart when he sobbed "now I know what it's like to have someone you love go to heaven and you never see them anymore".  URGH!  Grief even for a rabbit is not something I like to discuss or handle anymore these days.  But Cooper I told separately, alone downstairs and I asked if he was sad that his new friend Bun Bun was in heaven, and he said "No, it's ok, I am sad for Erin and Brad because I know this will make them sad, can we go upstairs and give them a hug?"  Such a smart sweet kid my boy is! So we did and came downstairs and had Twizzlers and ice cream because you know that is how I roll :)

Tomorrow morning Cooper has his Kindergarten screening. Which is himself, me and 4 other kids and their parents who get to meet the teacher and they kind of meet and greet and get to know what level the kids are at and the kids get to intermingle a bit on a smaller scale before school officially starts.  The first day of school is next Thurs and the kids only go an hour and the parents go with them. Then next Friday, is the first "real" day from 8-11:20am.   Cooper is getting excited and so am I  :) I am eager for him (and me!) to make some new friends, everyone we have met around here so far have been so amazingly nice!

Please note, we are still wearing the "ring bearer" suite jacket and a clip on tie with just about anything because we like to dress like Yogi the bear, minus the hat.  

We are still bear obsessed

 but haven't seen any other live ones :)

Crazy Colorado Days

The other day, these dark clouds rolled in.  I was out in town when the rain started and a road I had previously taken on my way out...was a river on my way back.  I didn't know that's what "flash flood' meant.  With the fire damage to the mountainside, strong storms with a lot of rain can mean danger for flash flood.  

Just when I was getting over that, we pulled into the driveway to find hail had fallen.  Cooper was running out of the car yelling "It's like snow, it's AMAZING, so cold!" 

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After the hail melted and they were finished playing in that.... you guessed it....the kids got into the mud.

The next day, I saw a big wild black bear in this very back yard. I will post the video of Cooper explaining it all as soon as I can get blogger to recognize the video :)