As a child I am sure all of us at one point or another thought about joining the circus. Now as a mom I feel like I live with the circus on a daily basis!!  Well now your kiddos can have a chance to “run away to the circus” for a week to LONE STAR CIRCUS SCHOOL SUMMER CAMP!!  LONE STAR CIRCUS SCHOOL SUMMER CAMP is a day-camp experience designed to introduce children at any level of physical development and skill the excitement of circus arts including aerial silks, aerial ring, trapeze, juggling, contortion, rolla bolla, trampoline, clowning and balancing.

For more information or reservations, please call 214/206-1449 or visit www.lonestarcircus.org.

For more information or reservations, please call 214/206-1449 or visit www.lonestarcircus.org.

WHERE: The Palaestra
4335 N. Beltwood Pkwy
Farmers Branch, TX 75244

WHEN: June 11-15, 2012
9:00 AM – Noon

COST: $45 per day or $205 per child for the entire week

MORE ABOUT LONE STAR CIRCUS:

Lone Star Circus is the performing arm of Lone Star Circus Arts Center, a Dallas-based non-profit organization, whose purpose is to promote circus arts through training, performance and community outreach.  Its Founder is Fanny Kerwich, an 8th generation circus artist of French descent, who started teaching circus arts several years ago at Dallas International School, and in her own studio, The Expressionists. Lone Star Circus Arts Center was incorporated in 2006. Its circus school, Lone Star Circus School, organizes recreational and professional training in circus arts for children and adults.  They also provide circus-themed entertainment for fundraisers and corporate and civic events.

I have been the worst blogger ever this year. In an attempt to maybe redeem myself a little, I’ve put together a “year in review” post for 2011… Enjoy!!

January

• Livie turned 5 and had a “Tangled” party

• I went back to school after a 10 year hiatus… being a mom. I took 13 hours at Texas Woman’s University- majoring in Family Studies.

February

• Seiuli was awarded OFFICER OF THE YEAR at his PD for 2010.
  

  He's mine.

  March

• Seiuli was in a major accident at work when he was t-boned by an unobservant driver. He was off work for 6 weeks…
  

  Wrapped around a pole

  

  He's alive!!

• Isabel’s basketball (coached by my dad) won 1st place for the season!! Isabel led her team in steals, points and assists.
  

  Winning!

  April

• Tristan turned 16 and got his driving permit…
  

  Driving on the road... gulp

• Isabel turned 12 and had a “Photo Scavenger Hunt” Party! So much fun!!
  

  Take a pic of entire group at a STOP sign

• Our family formed a team for the “WALK LIKE MADD” fundraiser. We earned over $1000 in honor of Kandi and Autumn, a mom and daughter killed by a drunk driver on Easter weekend 2010. Seiuli was a police officer on the scene and also testified in the murder trial.
  

  Our Walk Like MADD team minus Brad and Larissa...

  May

• I got my CHL (concealed handgun license) and a new Ruger LC9 mm. I named my gun “JET” after Jason Terry because it’s black and can shoot.
  

  JET

• The semester ended and I made straight As!!

• Tristan was in and out of the ER for over a week. The doctors finally decided he was fighting a virus. He eventually got completely better, but it was scary at the time.
  

  ER visit #2

• My Mavs WON THE NBA CHAMPIONSHIP!!!!! They swept the Lakers and killed the Heat!
  

  Dirk- MVP

  June

• I went to Houston with Nancy and Stacy to see NEW KIDS ON THE BLOCK and BACKSTREET BOYS in concert!! It was so so so much fun!!!
  

  Well, hello Donnie...

• My siblings and I managed to plan and throw my parents a surprise 40th anniversary party! It went awesomely and they were so grateful.We even had relatives that came from Louisiana.
  

  My parents and the "candy bar."

  July

• We took a family vacation to Destin, Florida and had an amazing time!!
  

  My beautiful family

  August

• School started for the kids and me!!! I took 13 hours again.
• Tristan is a junior in high school.
• Alec is a freshman.
• Isabel is in 7th grade.
• Taj is in 2nd.
• LIV STARTED KINDERGARTEN!! I have NO kids at home during the day!! HUGE MILESTONE!!
  

  My big girl!!

September

• Taj turned 8 and was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
  

  8 years old!! Baptism day

• Seiuli and I celebrated our 10th anniversary on Sept. 14. We are planning a trip to Hawaii in June to celebrate.   Sooo excited!! Sooo blessed!!!!

October

• Took Isabel, my sister Ali and her friend, Maddy, to the Taylor Swift concert at Dallas Cowboys Stadium. We had a blast!!!
  

  Taylor Swift, here we come!!!

• Had a great Halloween!!!! I went as Flo from Progressive. Liv was Rapunzel, Taj as Capt. America, Isabel as a dark fairy, Ali as a psych patient, my dad was a “spider man”, my mom Minnie Mouse and Idk wth Sei is… The older boys went out with friends… wearing white masks and dark hoodies.
  

  Trunk or Treat

  November

• Alec turned 15!!! He also made the freshman A-team in basketball. SO PROUD!!!
  

  Go Wildcats!!!

• Isabel made A team for 7th grade!!!!
   
  

  #00

• Tristan played with varsity in the playoffs at Cowboy stadium!!!
  

  They lost But doesn't he look cute???

• Me, Taj and Livie went to Kansas with my parents and Ali to spend Thanksgiving with my sister’s family. Sei had to work so he stayed behind and the 3 oldest were at the ex’s house…
• Taj started pre-team gymnastics and is doing great!!

December

• Finished the semester with 4 As and a B. My Earth Science class was ridiculously hard so I was thrilled with the B!
• Tristan got his drivers license. We had to wait until after football so he had time to go take the test. He did great!!
  
• Loving being a psycho sports spectator at my kiddos games!! We have 2-4 games a week!
  
• Seiuli has Christmas Eve and Christmas Day off for the 1st time in 3 years. YAY!!

I am soooo looking forward to 2012! How was your 2011??

 

Today’s post is 1) Late- because I started school today and this is my 1st chance to get on the computer 2) about the person who has gotten me thru the most…

I wrote about my best friends just a couple posts ago, so of course they have been awesome supporters in my life and have helped get me thru different rough points in my life. But today I’m gonna talk about the most awesome kids in the world!!!

MINE!!!

My kids rock. They have been there for me when my sister died, through the divorce, thru grumpy moods, thru sad times, thru… whatever. They are so forgiving and loving and make me happy!! I truly have FUN with my kids. They make me laugh and put up with my intentional dorkiness, silly stories and amazingly funny (to me) jokes. I can’t imagine my life without them and wouldn’t want to.  They truly build me up and give me purpose. I am so blessed!!

May was an interesting month. It was my birthday month. May 11 I turned… 29… for the 6th year in a row. Seiuli got me a Ruger LC9. It’s the cutest little 9mm ever. I used it at my CHL class for the very first time. I was nervous since I hadn’t shot that gun yet, but I did well even though I felt like the instructor was breathing down my neck. I would have done better if he hadn’t come up to me in the middle of the test and show me a different way to hold my gun. For some reason sometimes when I shoot I overlap my thumbs. It’s not hurting anyone or messing up my shot, so I didn’t think it made a lot of sense to come try to change it mid-exam. I tried it “his way” the next round on the test and my shots sucked compared to the others. Grrrr… But whatever,  my license to carry should be arriving soon in the mail. “This is Texas. Everybody has a gun. My florist has a gun.” (What movie?)

We’ve found a range in Dallas that has Ladies Night AND gives a law enforcement discount, so we’ve gone there a few times. I shot a Glock the other day and l.o.v.e.d it. It’s too big to carry in my purse though. But I shot it well I think. These were my first 10 shots:

Tristan got really sick a couple of weeks ago. He went on a Father/Son campout with Seiuli and his brothers, then the following Saturday night he said he didn’t feel good. I left him home, sleeping, the next morning while the rest of us (minus Sei who had worked all night…) went to church. I went home mid-church to check on T. He could not move his neck. It was sore and stiff. He had a fever. His throat hurt… So I took him to Urgent Care down the street. They tested him for strep- negative. And sent us immediately to the ER. They wanted him tested for meningitis. So, my big, 16 yr old baby went to the ER for the 1st time in his life. They x-rayed his neck and head, took tons of blood and he had a spinal tap done. All the preliminary tests came back negative. They sent us home with antibiotics for… they didn’t know what. They instructed me to take him to his pediatrician the next day for a recheck. I did and they couldn’t figure anything out. He puked that evening so I kept him home Tuesday. He threw up basically all morning then felt totally fine that night. Wednesday he felt fine so I sent him to school. 1 hour later he was in the nurse’s office puking. Right when I was picking him up they had a fire drill. He puked in the parking lot in front of everyone… I took him back to the dr. They called a neurologist at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth. He said to come down. So… back to the hospital. Tristan had a shirt over his head the entire drive there and while he laid in the hospital room. They doped him up to help his head stop hurting. The neurologist came in and did tests and said he was fine, neurologically. Basically the doctors that saw him collectively decided it was a virus he was fighting off. $4 million later and he has a virus. The next day he felt 100% better. And he hasn’t been sick since then… Weird. I’m just glad he’s ok. It was not fun watching my baby get a spinal tap.

Taj is our little guy who seems to be extra sensitive to spiritual matters. He gives loooong, meaningful prayers. He loves to answer questions at church with detailed explanations. He loves telling scripture stories and does well relating them to his life. He’s just a really special boy. On Saturday we had an activity at the church. They had the 7 year olds who are turning 8 this year meet in a room so they could talk to them more about baptism. One of the teachers was passing out booklets about baptism. On the front of the booklet there was a picture of a birthday cake. The teacher made a comment something along the lines of, “Everybody loves birthday cake! It’s the best gift ever!” Now, I wasn’t in the room because Livie was having a meltdown, but when I returned a mom told me that Taj raised his hand and said,

“Um, actually, the best gift ever was Jesus Christ.”

I was proud, impressed and POSITIVE he gets that  from his dad.

Today I received a Christmas card from none other than… NKOTB. Yes, Danny, Donnie, Jon, Jordan and Joe love me. It’s appropriate they sent me this since I am getting concert tickets from my man for their NKOTB + Backstreet Boys tour (NKOTBSB). I am takin’ a road trip (Holla Stacy and Nancy!) to Houston to see them since, once again, they are coming to Dallas on a Sunday. I don’t do concerts (or much of anything else) on Sunday. Every time I have seen them I have traveled to do so because they have come here on a Sunday (Oklahoma City and Kansas City– shout out Sara!!). So, yeah… I’m famous.

Isabel did a powerpoint presentation for a class about herself. One the part about “THE PEOPLE I ADMIRE” she wrote:

The people I admire the most are my parents! They do EVERYTHING for me. They are the best. My parents have 5 and sometimes 7 kids. The reason I said 5 to 7 is because my 2 step sisters live in Canada, and they visit sometimes. My parents treat us all equally they love us all equally! Even though we can be a handful sometimes, but they can handle us! They are the people I admire most.

Awwwwww!!! And she had pics of me and her and her and Sei.

The other part I loved was from MY FAMILY:

My family is AMAZING!!!!!! My family has 9 people in it and that is a lot. My family from youngest to oldest and age is……. Livie or Liv is 4 almost 5, Taj is 7, Isabel aka MEEE is 11, Karlea is 12, Kelsea is 12, Alec is 14, Tristan is 15, Tori aka MOM, and then Seiuli aka DAD! My family is the best in the whole entire world! I LOVE THEM ALL!!!

It made me feel awesome. I thought it was cute she put Karlea as younger than Kelsea. They are 18 minutes apart. haha

Seiuli is nominated for the 2nd quarter in a row for OFFICER OF THE QUARTER.  In the letter the chief wrote to him these are of few of the things that supervisors and/or peers made the following comments about him:

• “He has been an outstanding influence on our shift.”
• “He comes to work every day with a great attitude, and his reports and investigations are accurate and detailed.”
• “His ability to translate Spanish has proven invaluable.”
• “He also has made tremendous impact on our DWI enforcement. Again he will either take the lead on these investigations or assist in providing translation.”
• “He has a true passion for his job, and is a leader among our people.”

There was more, but you get the jist… He is awesome. I am proud of him. And I sleep with him. Just sayin’…

I’ve been a mom now for about 15 1/2 years and last nite was definitely a first… I was sleeping– DEEP. I had taken a melatonin and everytime I do that I sleep really hard and have vivid dreams. In the middle of the nite I was dreaming that there was a glittery-looking person talking to me next to my bed. I laid there and listened and was thinking, “This talking is making me tired. Finish already!!” when I realized the glittery-person was saying, “Mom. Mom?” It was Alec. What the heck? I didn’t realize he was REAL. I totally thought he was my dream.

Anyway, he’s standing there holding his sheets and saying something like, “It’s all over me and I don’t know how it happened...” I totally thought he wet the bed. lol  I was wrong. His back, arm, ears, side of his face, and chest were covered in something dark. And in the dark it looked like blood, but it smelt like chocolate. Yes, my sweet 14 year old was covered in chocolate at 3 in the morning. Apparently Tristan had found a bowl of See’s candy sitting in their bathroom (I know- gross.) He thought Alec was snackin’ while he was on the toilet so he thought it was funny and sat the bowl of chocolate next to Alec’s sleeping head… and the rest is history. Alec must have knocked it over and rolled over on the chocolate which melted all over him. He even still had chocolate in his ear at church today. lol It was pretty freakin’ funny, but kind of disturbing that he came in my room and had a conversation with me and I didn’t even know I was awake...

Funny #1:

I don’t really watch the show “Glee.” Although it can be entertaining I am bothered by the subject  content and the target audience. My 16 yr old sister watches it. I’m not really ok with a girl getting pregnant by one guy, but telling another that he knocked her up when he, uh “lost it” in the hot tub.  And the scene where this “conception” happens it is obvious he’s about to ejaculate early and the girl starts saying, “Think of the mail. Think of the mail!!” That just doesn’t really seem appropriate for teens. I would hope in my naive mind that my little sister didn’t get what was happening. But that’s not the point of this post. My point is…. One of the few episodes I’ve seen was when the football team does the “Single Ladies” dance on the field. You can kinda see it here:

I thought the football players dancing was hilarious and showed that one part to my 15 year old football player. Anyway… I play basketball 2 times a week and I brought Tristan and Alec with me to play on Monday. Tristan was bringing the ball down the court when all the sudden he stopped and started doing the “Single Ladies”  hand thing- twisting it back and forth and pointing to his finger. It was so funny. The other ladies I play with must not watch “Glee” either because they just kinda looked at him.  I was rollin’…

Funny #2:

My friend was hosting a bridal shower today and asked if I could come help get her house ready. I showed up early and vacuumed and then started mopping her floor. Livie and Taj were with me. Liv saw me mopping and this conversation took place:

Liv: “What’s that?”

Me: “What? The mop?”

Liv: “Yeah. What is that?”

Me: “It’s a mop.”

Liv: “Oh. A mop?”

My poor child. She had never seen a mop in action! LOL I clean my floor, I just don’t mop. I usually scrub on all 4s, but still… My 4 year old asked me what a MOP was!! Bad Mommy award…

So, the kids have been attempting to teach me to do “the jerk” or something… Anyway, here’s an example of what it is:

So, we’ve been doing this a lot in our kitchen and the kids all think they’re so hood. Yesterday Isabel comes home from school and says, “Me & Zane were having a jerk-off at recess. I won.”

Um????

So, we’re painting some rooms in our house and my husband, well… he loves me. A lot. So, I was surprised one morning with this message on the wall:

So I, of course, left him a nice lil message too:

Well, my 5 yr old Taj, seeing all this romantic-ness goin’ on came to me last nite and said, “Mom, I painted you someping on the wall…” Yeah. Hmm…