Bleah

It's been a tough week. It had it's good points, don't get me wrong, but on the whole I am glad to see this week waning. This week we found out that my mom has cancer again. This time it is in her bowels. I suspected this might be the source of the pain she has been having but it didn't make the truth any easier to deal with. I pretty much fell apart the day she told me - I know, I know I am supposed to be strong for her - I got news for you . . . I am not strong and I am dreading what I know happens next - the rounds of dr. appointments, the days of radiation and chemo, the paranoia over germs and the pain of watching someone I love suffer even more. I dread having my kids watch this all happen again as well. The day I found about this Asher was playing outside and didn't hear me talking on the phone with my mom. I said nothing to him about it. Later as we were driving home from a trip to Costco he announced out the of the blue that he would miss Grandma when she died. I was floored and it was all I could do to see through my tears to drive home. Mom has already started radiation and there is some discussion about whether she will do chemo right away or not.

JJ had scouts that afternoon at his scout leaders house. When I went to pick him up I was informed by one of the other scouts that JJ had thrown another boy's glasses out into weedy area and everyone was looking for them. Of course I was appalled because especially now that JJ has glasses he knows what a big deal it is to mess with someone's glasses. So the full story was that JJ and this boy as well as a few others were jumping on the trampoline and "glasses boy" jumped on JJ and wouldn't get off no matter what JJ did or said. JJ hucked the glasses as a last ditch effort to get the boy to back off. My question to JJ was where the heck was his den mother during all this - he had no idea where she was. This is yet another event in a long string of events that have added up to my frustration with this ward. I want JJ to take part in scouts but having to deal with this crap on top of my own family issues just is more than I can deal with. My friend Missy and her son Carter came over later that night and brought me some yummy cake that Carter had made as part of a project he did for school on the state of Maryland. I am so grateful for loving friends who overlook my many failings and try so hard to buoy me up. There have been several who have expressed their love to me and willingness to help this week and I cannot describe how much that means to me.

On a happier note we watched JJ's last soccer game tonight despite the frigid and windy weather. They didn't win but they sure had fun playing. JJ's coach this year really stressed learning the game and having fun. We are so proud of what a good team player he is! Hannah still has one make up game left if we can ever get it scheduled on a day that isn't raining. She is a good little player when she tries but she is distracted easily. (like the dog from Up!)

Asher spends every minute that it isn't raining outside with our neighbor kids (whom we love!) toting the chickens around and playing his little heart out. He comes in at night filthy and covered in chicken crap (the coop still isn't done) but so happy. We are so glad we got some good neighbors next door finally.

It's been busy ok?

So since I update facebook I rationalize that I don't need to duplicate the info here on the blog. The problem with that is that the details of what is going on with us Madigan's never really gets put down and then it gets forgotten. I am not sure that anyone even reads this blog but I do use it to refer to when I scrapbook. This month has been filled with lots of rain/snow/hail and a day or two of sunshine. We have tried not to let the weird weather stop us from doing the stuff we have to do and enjoy doing.

The kids have been really into making tents lately. They are very creative in what they use to make the tents and how they keep the tent from falling in. They asked one weekend if they could sleep in the living room in their tent and I thought - what the heck - as long as they sleep and don't keep me awake. Amazingly they didn't come and wake Lance and I up at all and seemed to sleep ok themselves.

Since JJ started elementary school I have been involved in various ways with the PTA at our school. This year I have been the secretary and I will continue doing that job next year as well. The reason I like being involved is that I gain a greater understanding of what is going on at the school. I can also have an impact on my kids education for the better. One of the events that we had this month is the Walkathon. It was a big success and will fund our school play next year. The following embarrassing picture was taken by Lance while I was taking a turn going around the course.

I have decided that Mother's day is not all it's cracked up to be. Although my family is very loving and sweet to me, I end up stressing about getting my house cleaned and a meal prepared. It makes for a long day when you include church into the mix. I am, however, very grateful for my mother and my mother in law. They are both so loving and kind to me and have had a profound influence on my life.

To my great surprise I was asked by Hannah's teacher to help chaperone the 1st grade field trip to Hogle Zoo. Although I have helped out every week in Hannah's class I have never got the impression that her teacher liked me very much. I suppose that is just how she treats everyone. Anyway she asked me to come on the field trip - Hannah and I were very excited! I was a little worried that I would get stuck with one of the many difficult kids in Hannah's class (I think they gave all the hard kids to Mrs. Lish because she is so stern) but as it turned out I got all the easy ones! This group of girls was so much fun to be with. The zoo was pretty busy and there was some construction going on where they are adding some more animal enclosures but it was a gorgeous sunny day and we all had a great time. The girls all fell asleep on the bus ride home!

Asher had several field trips this month too. Lance took the opportunity to go on the Thanksgiving Point Farm field trip with him. They had great fun. That is one of Asher's favorite places to go (we have a pass so he and I go there every couple of weeks). He has his favorite spots like feeding the ducks and goats.

Asher also had his preschool graduation this last week so he is all done with school. Now if we could get some summer-like weather we would be set! I can't believe that my baby is a preschool graduate! We decided to have him attend another year of preschool before going in to kindergarten even though with his August birthday he could to this year. He has made a lot of progress in with his speech and has learned to be much more out going this year. We are grateful to the great teachers at Starting Point Preschool for making it such a fun and happy year for him and us.

Hannah has been attending dance classes at the Dance Depot during the school year this year. This has been her first exposure to tap dancing! She has also been doing ballet. We enjoyed the year end recital so much. She did a great job! She is an amazing dancer!

We have also been involved in the North County Soccer League again this year. Both Hannah and JJ have been on teams. They played in the Fall and then again this Spring and are just finishing up now. JJ has improved as a player and has really enjoyed the friendships he has made with his team mates. He loved his coaches too.

Lance was Hannah's coach again this year. It has been a great learning experience for her to be on a team and to learn the game even better this year. She loved the girls on her team and enjoyed spending special father-daughter time with Lance.