Sunday, September 11, 2011

Today goes without saying, we are all remembering the events of 10 years ago today. A sad day, a day to remember all those that died, all those that survived and all the heroes.

To begin, I just noticed that I had written a post back in July but I never published it. I just sent that out, so if you received it by email, this is why you are receiving two emails this time. If you are reading this on the blog, scroll down to the July post to read a bit of history!

Summer is over here, the girls are back in school. We spent a week of fun in Indiana, Wyoming and Montana in August. The girls and I traveled to Indiana and spent a week at my parents house doing chores like this........

Cutting grass with Grandpa

...and mostly having lots of fun. We met Dave out in Wyoming. He had our trip planned out, hiking in the Grand Tetons, hiking in Yellowstone. We also went horseback riding, whitewater rafting, site seeing, saw Old Faithful, hot springs, geothermal pools and much more. Check out the buffalo walking down the middle of the road in Yellowstone-right next to our car! If you ever get the chance to go out west, it's really worth the trip. Hannah didn't particularly enjoy all the hiking, but I have to admit, it wasn't as difficult as our Canadian hikes last summer.

Hannah with an Elk

Our pet buffalo

Waterfall in Yellowstone

Old Faithful

We started school in New York just this past week on the 8th. I don't think any of us were ready to go back. Hannah was very apprehensive to say the least. She had consistently told us that she "wasn't going to 7th grade." I did mention to her that she would have an aide to help her out, get her from class to class and her comment was "do I know this person?" "No, probably not," I answered. "Well then what good is that?" she said. That's Hannah, black and white. I did receive a surprise call in August from Hannah's aide she had in elementary (grades 2-5.) She told me that the school had placed her with Hannah for 7th grade! Alleluia that was great news. I waited until nearly the start of school to tell Hannah, just in case a change was made. When I told her that Mrs. W. would be her aide, it was almost like a wave of relief washed over her. She stopped saying that she wasn't going to school and seemed more open to talking about it. We met with her school counselor, we took tours, we tried to get as comfortable as possible with school.

That first day last week I was like a robot, trying to act like everything is normal, while worrying that Hannah would get out of the car and walk into school by herself. The night before, Hannah kept yelling out after going to bed..."text Mrs. W. and make she she will meet me inside the door at school." Text Mrs. W. and ask if she can stay with me the whole time." "Text Mrs. W. and make sure she knows the right door tomorrow." She was yelling things out for about an hour, at which time I told her I would no longer be able to hear her because I was going upstairs to bed, so she had better stop yelling (and now also coughing) or she would have no voice in the morning. Oh, did I mention that Hannah had pneumonia the week before school? It began while in Indiana, continued through our vacation and because she was still coughing a terrible cough when we returned, I took her to the doctor. Bingo...pneumonia. She didn't feel badly, but definitely had fluid in her lungs.

I digress...she got right out of the car in the pouring rain and thunder and walked down the long sidewalk and into 7th grade. I cried, yes I did.

So we're on the next leg of our journey now, jr/sr high school. Day one went great, day two she said she wasn't getting out of bed. I told her "get out of bed and knock it off, it's only Day 2." Maybe I'll start a countdown calendar like we had this summer for their cousin Sydney. Wonder how many days left?

♥Kim