Hello, Summer

Well, I see that is has been since September that I've updated the ol' blog here. To say a lot has happened is an understatement. there has been so much change within the past few months that I am still reeling a bit from all of it.
In January, I started working at the BCCLC School in Blackfoot as a part time Daycare worker. I get to take Caius with me and hang out with sweet kids two to three times a week. It was a big adjustment for Caius and he didn't do well at all at first, but he got better and eventually settled into the routine. Atrion also got accepted into the first grade there and really flourished. I only work when the teachers work, so I am off for the summer! (More on that in a paragraph, or two). In February, we decided to use my extra income and move into a place in town so we could get used to standing on our own again. We ended up in an apartment right next to the charter school, so it's just a short jaunt to get Atrion to school and me and Caius to the daycare.

Caius with his daycare buddies, eating popcorn on the last day

Some cool things that Atrion accomplished at his school this semester:
~He got his first book order! I have a soft spot for book orders. I guess he was one of the only kids to order any books for two months in a row! I just can't resist. I spent a lot of time browsing through the catalog and he told me which books interested him the most.
~He had one of the highest scores on his tests. He was off the charts in reading and comprehension, and he did really well on his math. However, I asked that he get extra help with his math because I know at home he really struggles with the math homework. So he got put in the math class that has that extra bit of help and focus, which is perfect. His reading group gets to do more advanced books and it sounds like they read a lot of fun stuff. He really loves Flat Stanley and Fly guy now too. At home he is reading bigger chapter books. His favorite is Goosebumps books (just like me when I was young).
~He competed in a spelling bee and was top 5 in his class and top 3 in his grade. Then he got eliminated in the round against the school for capitalizing the word "donut". Which to me is a cheap shot, but I'm not the judge (for good reason because I am incredibly biased).
~Atrion made friends with a boy named Tucker in his class and a boy named Zaya, also in his class as well as next door neighbor. Zaya comes over almost everyday with his two sisters and wants to play with Atrion. It really helped him get settled here since he was missing his Grammy's house so much.
~The last week of school Atrion went on his first big field trip to the Idaho Falls zoo! I was worried about him all day but he had a blast. Then he had a special activity day at school where we had to make a car for him to "drive" to the "drive-in" movie. He had to turn in book reports for the ticket to the show as well as to buy his treats. He needed 6 reports to get all the treats and we did it just in time. He complained about it quite a bit, but he agreed that he needed to read harder books that were more his level (thus a lot longer in length) than the regular first grade level books, so it took him more time to complete it. He did awesome though. His reading skill is definitely a proud point for me. :) When we sat down to make his car we browsed Pinterest for awhile, but there was no competition once he saw a Batmobile. The only problem was that there weren't any "How-to's" on the Batmobile so I just winged it. I am super proud of how it turned out.

Atrion's Batmobile

School got out on the 26th, and on the 27th we drove to Twin Falls right after Cody's League of Legends game group got done. That Saturday, the 28th, Laura and I planned a combined birthday party for Caius and Carter. Since Caius said the only thing he wanted for his birthday was "dinosaurs and blue cake", Laura thought it would be fun if we did a party around the dinosaur theme. If you know anything about my sister Laura, it's that she is an incredible party planner and she goes above and beyond in order to make those days extra special. She has a unique talent to make things fun. I get a little bit of that from her, too, I think but my stuff tends to be more homemade games and decorations. She does the whole Shebang. She rented a huge bounce house that was definitely the hit of the party. We bought little dinosaurs, fossils, and other toys to hide in a tilled up garden box so the kids could dig up the toys and be "Paleontologists". I made a "Pin the horn on the Dinosaur" game and an "Asteroid Toss" game. They got some good prizes after each game. The decorations we dinosaurs, or course, and my mom provided that snacks that were themed that way as well. It was a ton of fun and I am so glad to everyone that helped out.

Caius with his dino prize and uneaten hotdog

Caius was so excited when he opened his presents. He is so spoiled! This picture doesn't portray his true feelings, but we spend a lot of time with this "Bug Catcher" puzzle. It's perfect. Thanks Laura!!

We decided to head home on Sunday because the cold I got on Thursday started to take a turn for the worst and ended up being a sinus infection, that I STILL have. It's terrible, but I am getting better. On the drive home Atrion lost his 2nd tooth on the top, the first one he lost a few days earlier. He has teh cutest little lisp now. It's so endearing. I just love him. 

He let me yank his tooth out and was so happy to get another tooth fairy visit

It's been over a week now since summer vacation began! I am so excited and so loving spending all this time with Cody. We have so many goals, but our first one is to eat healthier and lose some unhealthy weight we started to accumulate over the winter/fall. I cannot do that without his support so I am super happy we are doing it together, with the help of the Diet Doc in Twin Falls. (Thanks Vanessa!) I also plan to exercise more and write more, including blogging. That is if I can stay away from League of Legends long enough.....

Weak Things

It's 4 in the morning and I can't sleep. I've been struggling with anxiety the last few days. That hasn't happened for a long time. When Caius woke up at 3:00 and wanted to nurse I couldn't go back to sleep. I just mulled and mulled and tossed and turned and tried not to wake Cody up with my awakeness. There are several things on my mind:

* the nursing/sleeping dilemma- People say that Caius will wean when he is ready, yet we got into the habit of nursing him to sleep...so will that ever really happen and how do we fix this? (Seriously...how? TELL ME!)

*Getting to church and attending all our meetings- Caius has never been to nursery by himself. Either me or Cody or his Grammy has been in there with him. He screams so bad it breaks my heart and I can't stand it. But I have to teach every other week and it's all just so hard. Going to church is hard for us. I don't know why, but it is. I like going to church but dragging the kids and my husband along gets pretty tiring after an already tiring week, and wait, aren't Sundays supposed to be peaceful and restful?

*Money. I need to stop spending money and save every single penny for a down payment on a house. but I like spending money...but I need to stop. But Zulily...

*Losing weight. I want to be skinny and healthy and feel good. But donuts. And it's coming on fall and that means pies and pumpkin chocolate chip bread! This is probably one of the bigger issues. I used to feel pretty and attractive and now I feel old and lumpy. I get sick of seeing my face in the mirror. Probably because I have gotten into the very bad habit of just seeing my flaws.

*Homeschooling is hard. It's hard and it's easy, but it's also hard. Sometimes I don't want to do it and sometimes Atrion doesn't want to do it and those are the hardest times. I do love it though. I love when we can work through things and I see Atrion grasp at a foreign concept and suddenly he just knows it. Ten seconds ago he didn't, and now he does. And the is a great thing to witness. Also, Caius is learning from it all too.

*I need to do better and be better.

So after mulling over all these things over and over again I decided I better get out of bed and really process them. It turns out the root of all these things is my lack of spirituality nowadays. I have gotten so caught up in daily life that I have put so many things on the back burner. Before I was a wife and a mom, I would take time to reflect and read and set goals. I was so content when I would do those things. I continued doing those things as a wife, but then we had kids and time for myself is suddenly nonexistent and so when I do get it I don't know what to do with it. We are good at family prayer and praying at meals. Everything else needs upgrading. :) So that's what I am going to start with. Here's a quote from Elder Ballard's talk to the Provo/Orem people about the simple things we need to do every day:
           "They include sincere daily prayer; faithful fasting; regular study and pondering of the scriptures and the words of the living prophets; making the Sabbath day a delight; partaking of the sacrament with humility and always remembering the Savior; worshiping in the temple as often as possible; and, finally, reaching out to the needy, poor, and lonely—both those close by and across the world."

I'm going to try and build my foundation stronger and hopefully these other, more trivial things like money and weight loss will be able to be tackled more purposefully. In Ether chapter 12 verse 27 it reads: 
        And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them.

So that's my fight song for the time being. I want to be strong and I know this is the way.

The One Where Atrion Graduates Kindergarten

Remember last August when I was all weepy that Atrion was starting Kindergarten? Well I am now rejoicing that it's over! No more waking up at 6:30 to get him on the bus! No more car pool! No more homework checking! No more "Please send $10.00/box tops/ empty soda bottles/signed form with your kid to school for some reason!" Also, no more of Atrion telling me how bored he is at school and that he doesn't learn anything. He did, obviously. And his teachers were awesome. However, I have decided to homeschool him next year for many reasons. Some of which I might get into later. But first...Graduation! Some might think that an hour and a half graduation ceremony for Kindergartners might be overboard. I might be that somebody. This kid is lucky he is so amazing...the things I do for him.

This sign made me feel super old. Atrion will graduate high school 23 years after I graduated. 

He is in the very middle if you draw a straight line from where the glare on the guy's bald spot is. He was very serious during the ceremony.

They sang songs and then the teachers read what each kid said they wanted to be when they got older. Atrion wants to be an ice cream truck driver because he can eat all the ice cream he wants. That cracked me up. In the midst of future doctors, teachers, and farmers my kid is aiming high for ice cream delivery! Woohoo! Doing something right!

 

They didn't let us keep the cap and gown, but by golly I sure wanted to! I can't believe he is so big!

After we got the diploma we still had another smaller ceremony to get through in his classroom. Also, there was no refreshments.....................

Atrion is such a good reader and speller. He does an awesome job sounding out words on his own. He doesn't have that love of reading yet, but I am hoping he will get there. Maybe around 2nd or 3rd grade. He does love to be red to at night, which I appreciate. His handwriting has improved so much too! I need to post pictures of that, but I'm too lazy. 

I saw this little quiz on Facebook and decided to post it here. I asked Atrion these questions and just typed what he responded. Turns out he doesn't know a lot about me. :)

1. What is something mom always says to you? "I love you"
2. What makes mom happy? hugging and kissing
3. What makes mom sad? I don't know...
4. How does your mom make you laugh? Me!
5. What was your mom like as a child? I don't know...
6. How old is your mom? Something in the teens or something....
7. How tall is your mom? 10 quarters (hahahahaha, what?!)
8. What is her favorite thing to do? Sleep (Yup!)
9. What does your mom do when you're not around? Sleep! (He's pretty smart, this kid)
10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for? Sleeping! (Now I feel lazy)
11. What is your mom really good at? Drawing
12. What is your mom not very good at? Running (SAD!)
13. What does your mom do for a job? You're a teacher! (huh...)
14.What is your mom's favorite food? Fruit! Is that right? I don't know...Wait! Junk! Junk! (Well he got it in the nick of time)

15.What makes you proud of your mom? drawing
16. If your mom were a character, who would she be? A Skylanders, I forgot which one, but it's your favorite one and you would be that one. (I have no idea which this could be, I've played Skylanders once).
17. What do you and your mom do together? Go outside?
18. How are you and your mom the same? We look the same.
19. How are you and your mom different? Different hair.
20. How do you know your mom loves you? She hugs and kisses me.
21. What does your mom like most about your dad? He's funny.
22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go? Walmart or Costco
23. How old was your Mom when you were born? I don't remember. haha

Easter!

A lot happens between March and June, normally...like Easter and several birthdays, so it's dumb for me to try and play catch up with all of that, but I'm going to do my best to recap and then talk about some really exciting things for our family. I stopped blogging on here because I started as a coach for Beachbody and I started a fitness blog. It all became a bit too much, too soon so I'm stepping back from a lot of the technical aspects of coaching. I really love the products and I'm going to focus on myself, getting in shape and being altogether healthier before I try to take on more of that. I'm still a coach, I'm just not working the business as much. So, now I have a lot more time to do more of the things I love. Believe it or not, I do love blogging! I love going back and remembering what we did on a certain day. So here I go...

This is me planking. Which I had never done before March. Also, Caius doesn't love it when I work out and tends to get extra needy around that time. Sometimes he sits on my face too.

   I talked about Cody's ABCTE certification and he did so good getting that all done. He passed all his exams with flying colors! I am so proud of him. We applied at several schools and he was interviewed for 3 and was offered a job for each of them. We felt a bit overwhelmed and worried that we would make a wrong choice, but we ended up choosing the Bingham Academy Charter School in Blackfoot. He will be teaching 9th and 10th grade English. To say we are excited is an understatement! It's a STEM school, which means its Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math focused. He gets a tablet, a laptop, and a smart board to use. Each student also has their own tablet so all of his grading and correcting papers will go a lot smoother and faster since he won't have to decipher handwriting and the fact that a lot of programs will automatically grade the assignments. He can focus, instead, on the results and seeing where each student is at in their education. He starts on August 10th and will be done with the RTC on July 17th.

Cody with Caius (left) and Mila, our niece (right). Cuties, the whole bunch!

  With the new job comes a substantial pay raise, so we have been looking into moving. For those that don't know, we live with Cody's parents. They have been so gracious and let us basically take over their whole house. We occupy the basement and a bedroom upstairs for Atrion. We share the kitchen. We have our own living space and bathroom. We share a room with Caius because upstairs is too far away right now. We have a big yard and lots of space for the kids to run and play. But we do want to get out on our own. The downside is we are basically terrified. We have been paying down our debt, some months better than others. We talked to Idaho Housing about rental assistance and we don't qualify so then we looked into mortgages. We can afford quite a bit more than we originally thought but that scared us even more because we don't want to stretch too far. So we decided we are staying put a little longer and using the extra money to get completely debt free. Hopefully by next summer we will be ready to take that plunge. As long as we are still wanted around here for that long. :)

Easter was a lot of fun this year. Cody and I hid eggs for the kids. They each had their own color-coded eggs that they need to find. Caius was so cute trying to get his eggs. Atrion was more excited to help Caius than he was to find his own. He is such a sweet big brother. Shy was visiting with Kairi and Mila so we got to have a lot of fun with them too. It was my first time meeting Mila! Such a sweet heart.

The kids after they found all of their eggs. Caius is so cute I could squish him.

My handsome husband!

The Easter Bunny spoiled my kids! Caius's stuff is on the right, and Atrion's is on the left.

Dessange Oleo Miracle Replenishing Oil Review

I love Influenster! It's so fun to get to try new products and to share my opinion (like it really matters) about such things. I received the trio of Oleo Miracle Replenishing Oil by Dessange through Influenster, for free, a few days ago. It came with Shampoo, Conditioner, and a leave-in oil treatment.

I have pretty thin hair so anything oily tends to drag my hair down A LOT, so I used the shampoo as directed, but only used the conditioner and leave-in treatment on the ends of my hair. I was so surprised by the results! My hair is super silky and soft and shiny without being heavy, or weighed down with oils like I expected it to. Afterall, the main 3 ingredients in the products are different types of oil. After that, I did my regular hair routine or blow-drying and straightening the top layers of my hair and curling the ends for some extra fun. :) Here's a picture:

My hair isn't really two different colors, but I can't get the lighting right in my basement so it all looks one shade, but the bottom is pretty much what my hair looks like all over.

My one complaint I have of the product is that it doesn't smell as good as I want my hair products to smell. It's not bad or anything, but I love a fragrant, yet subtle, smell that lasts all day and makes my husband say "Oh you smell so good!" when he hugs me. Ya know what I mean?

What the What? It's March?

Let's start this thing off with the obligatory mother-son selfie: 

 Aaaaaw. :)
It's been a wonderful month. I have a beautiful family. I just love them. Ya know? Cody has done awesome with his ABCTE exams and we are looking forward to the new school year and him getting his first teaching job. Caius is sleeping so much better most nights. Which means he is getting up only once at night. Instead of every two hours. Can I get a Hallelujah?! Atrion is getting healthier every day and is having some fun at school. He's having a lot of fun playing with his little brother too. That's so special to me.

I have also been enjoying the occasional perusing of Pinterest. I have decided to avoid the DIY and the recipes section because that makes me feel like I actually have to put to use what I pin, whereas if I look up humorous pictures or inspirational quotes- the Tada! I have accomplished my goal. I have laughed or have been inspired and I can easily share it with Cody with a tap of the button. I love technology. This quote below is a gem. It just states exactly, simply, how I feel about marriage. So many people get divorced and it's because they stop choosing each other.

 I choose Cody everyday and he chooses me. This is something we realized in the past two years. We have to renew our commitment to each other every day. Sometimes it's as simple as asking "What can I do for you today?" or taking a moment to do something sweet for the other. Cody and I leave notes on our bathroom mirror for each other and it's always nice to see a new note on the mirror and know he's thinking of me. I hope this isn't coming off as self-righteous, because we are far from perfect and don't have everything figured out, but I loved that quote and these are my thoughts on it.

Next up is the fascinating discovery that my ears are still pierced! I haven't worn earrings in years but my sister got me these cute ones and so I decided to test them out. SO cute! These are from Paparazzi. She also gave me the scarf and I love it too. I don't love my hair though. Or my weird eye. But I do love my accessories! :)

 Going to DI is always exciting. Out of everything in the store Caius found these two lonely pumpkins in the holiday section and then walked around sticking random things in them. We ended up with a plastic cup, an action figure, and almost a ceramic duck but I draw the line at breakables.

 When it was time to go, we walked back around and put the items back where we found them, but he really didn't want to to let the pumpkins go. An old man was laughing really hard at him when he threw a fit about putting them back. I just love an audience when I am trying to parent, don't you? I'm like "My kid is totally spoiled and this is totally expected and the only thing I can do is let him throw a fit. But go ahead and enjoy your day with his blaring scream rattling your ear drums."

My mom's birthday was on February 28th and everything worked out that we could go as a whole family to visit her. It's rare that Cody's schedule fits everyone else's unless he's on Day shifts. Which he was AND he got Friday off because he worked overtime the day before. It was great. Nate had Halle for the weekend and I got to pick her up from school. We had dinner at Prasai's on Friday because Sushi-Ya was too packed. And actually, me and Cody took our food to go because Caius was ready for bed and started doing the whiny kid thing that everyone loves. The food was good though and I love this picture.

 We lounged around a lot on Saturday. My mom opened her presents and was fed breakfast in bed. I made her a lemon cake with cream cheese frosting. It was pretty good but a little dense because I made it wrong. Next time. Next time. That night we got BBQ from a new place in town and Nate and Vanessa brought Scattergories. We had a ton of fun playing and being loud and riotous. Vanessa is Nate's girlfriend and she's an awesome person. She's the Diet Doc in Twin Falls. She has a lot of energy and its very contagious. She was even sick as a dog and still very exuberant.

Atrion has days we refer to as "Jammer days" when I'm too lazy to make him get dressed and he just doesn't feel like it. I love this picture because Caius usually wants to be where his big brother is.

 Whilst visiting with Nate and Vanessa they talked about intermittent fasting. That's basically where you don't eat for an extended period of time each day. They take aminos to help protect muscle gain and allow the body to burn fat instead. I hope I'm getting this right. If you want more info, go to leangains.com. Anywho, I was intrigued. I have never liked breakfast and actually have a mild contempt for it because it's too damned early to eat. But I still have to feed my kids and I don't want to cook anything so frozen french toast sticks it is. When we got back home, Cody and I bought some aminos and started IF. We don't eat anything from 7pm to 11am the next day. Let me tell you....it's hard. We can drink water and anything that doesn't go over 5 calories. I have the aminos for breakfast and I feel GREAT for a few hours. Then 9:00 hits and my tummy is grumbling and I get a bit hangry. (That means hungry/angry for you people who have never experienced this...also you're weird, Just sayin').

 I sat down at 10:52 and stared at my plate of food like a dog balancing a treat on it's nose. Then my alarm went off (Set to the tune of I Can't Fight This Feeling Any Longer) and I devoured my lunch in .06 seconds. Then I got a tummy ache. Then I felt fine. Also, no truer thing has ever existed on Pinterest than this picture below.

 Oh I forgot about the best news! We have a big box! It's amazing. I am not sure why we have never had a big box before but it's the only thing a kid needs. Hours and hours of fun. Plus they draw on it and tip it over and jump on it and I could care less. Pretty fantastic!

 Me and Caius sat in the box for a long time. I make awesome faces. So does he.

 He loves me.

 After being sick for the past week it was awesome to be able to go outside and enjoy some nice Springlike weather. Caius busted out of their like it was prison and headed straight for the trampoline.

 Atrion got sidetracked by his buddy Chuck the ladybug. I named him Chuck after Atrion told me it was a boy.

Once Chuck was safely relocated to a nearby tree, Atrion commenced with Operation: Middle Earth where he is every character from Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit. Sometimes I am a character, usually a bad guy, and sometimes Caius is a character, usually Gollum. Atrion found a pretty awesome stick to use as Gandalf's staff and Caius followed him around saying "Dee! DEE! DEEEEEE!" which is his word for "please" which means "Give me that or I'll scream". 

 Atrion relented. Seriously, this kid. If he wasn't so cute....

 They meandered around the lawn Middle Earth for the better part of an hour, slaying giant spiders and ridding the world of various types of evil. I believe the trampoline was Weather Top. If you have no idea what any of these things mean, then Congratulations! You probably aren't a complete nerd....but we can't be friends. Just kidding. sort of. I would like to note that Atrion has only see parts of the actual movies and most of his knowledge of LOTR comes from the LEGO video games of the same name.

MY mom surprised me by coming to visit after she had a relaxing day with her friend. She brought me Lobster pasta because she is the best and she loves me. It was delicious. I love talking with my mom because she is so wise and I feel so cozy when she's near.

Sweet Boys

First off, my child is obviously a child prodigy, This is real art. REAL! I love him to pieces. I need to get pictures of all of his other drawings and the book he's been writing and illustrating. He's just so sweet. His teacher said that he writes some of the best draft book entries. He takes after his daddy. When we have quiet time I try to get him to either draw or write a story since it's easy for me and I don't have anything to clean up or set up. He's been using the artforkidshub.com site and he just loves it. I bought some oil pastel crayons so he can color just like the guys in the video do. If you haven't already, you should check it out. 

 Caius wants to do everything Atrion does. It's so sweet. Sometimes he gets hurt though. Like when Atrion does a triple front flip over the back of the couch (against the rules, I might add) and Caius tries to follow. Not only does he get hurt but it shaves at least 10 minutes off of my life due to the mini heart attack I get.

It's a rare moment these days when Caius falls asleep on me. Mostly because we had to break that habit in order for him to start sleeping through the night. But I sure do miss these precious moments. He is still nursing a couple times a day. Once when he wakes up, once for a nap, and once before bed. If he's sick or super grumpy we throw an extra one in there, for my sanity and his comfort. 

These are really awkward pictures because the papers are bent weird so the pictures are askew...but my drawing is also crooked, so it looks extra crooked. I tried to draw Olivia Munn from this picture of her in my Redbook magazine. It doesn't look anything like her, but I am actually really proud of this drawing. I'm improving, and that makes me happy. Lots more to go, but it's so relaxing for me to focus on something like this. 

 Atrion got a Book-it pizza again so off to Pizza Hut we went. I really love eating out, and I really love junk food like pizza...so it's actually a treat for me. But the boys had fun coloring their Care Bear pictures and crawling back and forth under the table. There was a couple of old ladies across the restaurant who thought they were the sweetest little boys. I just love old ladies.

 I totally forgot about the Blackfoot Community Center! They have free play on the week days for a few hours and it's $3.00 per kid. Atrion and Caius had a blast! They have a jungle gym, an inflatable tumble track, lots of huge foam blocks, balls, balance beams, hula hoops, and other gymnastic/ athletic type toys. One of these days, Caius and I are going to hit the Children's Musuem but it's only open Thursday mornings. I am also wanting to take the boys swimming more. I want this to be a really active, fun summer. I am the new Child and Volunteer Protection Advocate for AYSO (American Youth Soccer Organization), which makes me a board member...it sounds so official and awesome. I don't quite know what I'm doing yet but I'm happy to volunteer. Atrion is going to be playing soccer and I'm excited for him to try this new sport. I'm just looking forward to warm weather and long summer days.

I went to DI the other day and saw this gem. It's an electric organ just like my Granny has/had. I am not sure if she still has it but I remember having so much fun pressing all the buttons and switches and pedals. It was a blast from the past to see this sitting there. I pressed a few switches for old time's sake. 

 This kid cracks me up. He is pretending to be Harry Potter with that ratty wig and plastic spoon. I mean, C'mon! It doesn't get any more adorable than that.

 And that brings us around to today. I woke up at 6:25 to get Atrion up and out to the bus by 6:55. Then Caius and I hung out until 8:30 when I had to start getting ready for Visiting Teaching. My partner is Tara Lee and she is so much fun! I love her to death. The ladies we visit are so kind and amazing. I met a new lady that we just got assigned to named Courtney and she lives just down the street. It was a lovely way to start the morning.
I was able to come home in time for Caius to squeeze in a nap before we had to go to Atrion's school for a recognition assembly. They do something called the Moreland Superstars where every 3 months 7 kids from each class are picked to get recognized for what makes them special. It was Atrion's turn and it was so fun to see him with his class.

 Atrion walking in and spotting me and Caius sitting in the front row. He walks with is hands in his pockets and that just kills me. I love it.

 I thought it was funny that his shirt was the same hue as the two girls by him. He didn't care though. It's not pink, it's SALMON! He got a medal, a pencil with a cool star eraser, a certificate, a coupon for a McDonalds french fry, and an 8 piece crazy bread. I could really go for 8 breadsticks right now, actually. Mmm...

 Caius tried so hard to run up to the stage when he saw Atrion and he was devastated when I wouldn't let him. I had to take him out in the hall until it was over. I'm glad I got to see Atrion before the big breakdown. Caius is at that stage where I can't really take him anywhere, haha.

 Atrion's teachers, Mrs. Hill and Mrs. Jacobsen, are so nice and really have helped Atrion so much. He is a fast learner and is in the top of his class. They said he is often done with his work so early that they have to find other things to challenge him. The certificate below is what they said about him for the assembly. We got cookies after it was over. He said he felt really special and that was so awesome to hear. I am just so proud of him. My sweet boy.