Spring Update

Can't believe it has been nearly 4 months since my last post. It is all a blur. I'll try to remember some key events to catch you up and I'll try not to drag it out so it is too long to read!

O: He has been super excited to get back to baseball for the spring season. His team has grown up together and really have honed their skills to play well as a team. I am so proud of all of them and it is amazing to watch them play. This season is bitter sweet as this is their last season of machine pitch. They are at a point where they are really "getting it" with their skills and next year will begin a new struggle as they move on to kid pitch and the new skills required. Some of them will pitch, others will not and the games, expectedly, will be much more slow paced and tedious for players and fans alike. Also, one of the star players of the team is the only girl. She has gotten to the age where she will be changing over to competitive soft ball and we will be so very sad to see her (and her wonderful family) go.

He continues to do well in school yet complains he "hates" school all at the same time. Mostly he hates getting up early as we are all night owls in our house. He seems to have lots of friends. When I go and have lunch with him there are tons of kids and staff alike who greet him constantly. However, he is easily upset when he is left out of an after school football game or not asked to play with people he considers his friends. I'm not sure if he is left out on purpose but it really upsets him. I'm trying to work with him on going to ask to participate, not taking it all so personally and being willing to play what the group is playing. He often thinks everyone should play what HE wants to play and gets his feelings hurt if people say no and play something else. It is hard to know how much to intervene and how much to make him figure out for himself.

He is an amazing kid with wonderful insights into life and continues to be a source of great pride to his dad and I.

M: She absolutely loves school. She is a social butterfly, which was expected! She has done well overall in school but went through a short period where she needed to review some basic skills she was ignoring. I think she just wanted to play and be with her friends so she didn't try very hard to show the teacher what she could do during testing. But, we continue to work with her and her brother helps out as well. No one has more influence on her than her brother right now. He pretends to hate her part-time and they are like two peas in a pod the rest of the time. He encourages her reading and asks all kids of questions from any subject, quizzing her all the time. It is fun to watch them interact.

She continues to adore dancing and, in my opinion, is quite good at it. Her skills are not beyond what she has learned but she naturally moves gracefully, picks steps/skills up quickly and practices every chance she gets. She is such a natural girly girl! She decided to play t-ball again this year and seems to enjoy it but says she doesn't want to play next year. She has mentioned trying soft ball since once of her girl friends plays. But, we will see next spring if she still has an interest. As many of you parents know, it is nearly a full time job to run the kids around to practices, games, recitals, classes, school.... It will continue to get more busy as they get older even though we limit them to one activity a season. She continues to make us very proud and we are constantly mesmerized by her charm and cuteness!

Character Awards: O received his second character award in Jan and M received her first in early April!! Each nine weeks, every teacher chooses a boy and a girl from their class who exhibits the character traits that they are focusing on for that period. Traits such as being honorable, fair, kind, trustworthy and so on. O received the award the first time in first grade when the school began the recognition. We are so very proud of both kids!

C: He is working hard as always. He recently attended the Flight Readiness Review (FRR) at Kennedy Space Center (KSC). This is a huge meeting with the upper management where each and every department must state what is going on with their specific widget, how that affects the crew/launch and if they are go for launch based on how their widget is involved. He always returns from work travel with wonderful stories of what he saw and who he met. He was happy to have our close friend, TR, also attending the meeting and they were able to have lunch after the meeting and do some shopping for the kids (she has a daughter who is almost joined at the hip with M!)

He continues to pick up the slack with the kids by getting them to practices, meetings, games etc while I'm busy with classes and work. While we don't always see eye-to-eye on handling our schedules, he is a wonderful partner and and amazing dad.

T: It was a tough semester of juggling too much, as usual. But, in the end, I managed to pull it off and will be starting my internship in the school clinic next week where we treat the public. As an Intern I, I will work closely for one month, two days a week, with my group of fellow Intern I students and our supervisor. We will work together to take patient health histories, diagnose, create patient treatment plans and perform acupuncture treatments as well as prescribe herbal treatments. After one month, we will work individually, still followed closely by our supervisor. In total, there are 4 levels of internship. I plan to follow what many students do and combine the last 3 into two semesters to finish and graduate. That simply means that in the fall and next spring I will work 3 shifts per week in the school clinic. While doing my internships, I will have 5 classes to complete and 5 board exams to pass. My goal is to be ready to treat patients in my own clinic a year from now.

Part of my juggling too much this semester included working 4 days per week doing massage. That is twice the time I'm used to working. I loved the interaction with clients and really feeling like I was helping people. Many clients I had not worked with before because of my previously limited schedule. When you work with the same clients over and over again, it can feel like you aren't accomplishing as much. Although I know I make a difference to each of them in their daily lives, I don't see it as readily anymore since I see them so often. It was good to be reminded that my skills are still top notch. I look forward to having a similar satisfaction as an intern. Although I know I will have challenges trying to take my book learning and turn it into actual treatment of patients, I am looking forward to seeing the difference I can make with something else I love to do.

Well, that is our lives since Jan in a nutshell. Hope it wasn't too tedious of a read!

Love to all!