Tall or short socks?

1st grade

2nd grade

There is something about the first day of school...new clothes, new back pack, routines being established, the smell of new school supplies, etc. I like it. This year, I had to decide to buy Zachary the tall socks or the short socks. I know the short socks are 'in' style, but he is my little boy. I'm not ready for him to grow up and worry about style. Sometimes, I consider myself lucky because with Zachary, he doesn't care about the 'in' thing, the fashionable haircut, being with the cool kids. He is happy just being Zachary.

Well, I opted to buy the short socks, as you can see. I've posted 1st and 2nd grade pics, and you have to admit, his tall socks are pretty cute on his little legs (only a mother would say that). You may also notice his hair is a bit fuller. When we went for the haircut, I asked him if he wanted it shorter like last year or longer like the summer. He said longer. Maybe he does have likes and dislike when it comes to style, but for now, I'm keeping him carefree as long as I can!!!

Disney delayed - bummer!

We were off to Disney last Sunday, until I came home Friday night, and John said...Houston, we have a problem. There was a potential hurricane over Cuba with an uncertain track, but possibly headed toward 'the World'. We had until Saturday to make a final decision....should I stay or should I go now (I think that is a song). Even if the parks stayed open, we would likely be in rain 2 of the 4 days. After more contemplating, we decided to postpone our trip to January.

Did you know you have to 'plan' for your Disney World trip? I didn't! Some restaurants take reservations up to 180 days in advance. Ridiculous! Well, after changing the hotel, flights and now restaurants, I am finally done 'planning' our Disney trip...at least for a few months. Should be fun, and I will give you the full update. Oh yes, and I was unable to get one of the restaurants because there were no reservations left...Disney has truly brainwashed us all. 8-)

My point to this post is, have you ever wondered why God sends 'disaster' your way? I wondered that with this trip. I think God sends disaster because it is part of His sovereign plan. And thankfully, He normally reveals why the storm has hit. So for us I think it was not the best time for Zachary and school. I can't tell you how many times I found myself saying, this was a bad time to plan this trip. We have used this week to get back into a routine of going to bed earlier and getting up to get ready. We also got to meet Zachary's teacher on Thursday in a much less stressed setting as originally planned. I think it was better for Lauren too. She has had a long summer with 9 hours of summer school. She just finished an intensive reading class with Business Law (boring, I remember!). I think she needed to force herself to relax before starting Fall classes Monday. And for John and I, we were committed to being lazy and not really do much. That was difficult for me, but not so much for John. A little hard for him though because of so much rain...he was having "golf-withdrawals". So, all in all, our 'stay-cation' was a good thing, though maybe not for the residence of Florida.

He has it!!!

No, not the chicken pox! I am trying to share this with as many music fans (and others that think Zachary is cool) as possible because I want you all to be ready when you see his name in lights. So, here it is...are you sitting down, because you are going to think this is soooo cool!!!

Zachary has perfect pitch! He can tell you any note on the piano and tell you intervals (2 notes together) as well as what two notes you are playing simultaneously. He can even tell you sharps and flats. Yesterday at church a music friend of ours wanted to see if he could do it with guitar....he can! Then he got a hymnal and decided to sing a song, and as he was singing, he was kind of changing the pitch of his voice. My friend said, he is site reading that song. Well hello music prodigy.

Piano lessons: $65/month, gas to piano lessons: $10, the look on Zachary's piano teacher's face when she discovered he has perfect pitch: priceless!

Pretty stinking cool. Of course he thinks it is nothing. Another friend noted, where God taketh, He giveth in another way. By golly, I believe He has!

Share in our exciting news. These are the little victories we relish in!

Oh, and please excuse John's crazy morning hair. We were up doing "important" things with Zachary. And of course, I am such the amatuer behind the camera...stupid voice and all.

I'm hooked!!!

This blog stuff is about cool. I'm copying my cousin and friend's ideas as I learn more. What a neat way to share videos and pics of the fam! Love that!

I bet you are wondering why I would pick such a boring background. Well I did it as a tribute to Zachary. His new favorite color is 'dark' blue. More recently it was 'dark' green. Things are 'dark' and 'light' these days. He even tries to make dark green and dark blue with his crayons by adding black. Pretty ingenius, I think! He hasn't figured out that crayons don't mix like paint does. In due time...

I tried to add a cute border with music notes that would tie in with the Zachary theme. I think my Type A personality got the best of me. I couldn't get the text part to center with the background. After a bit of time, I gave up. Annoying!!!

Don't expect I will post every day, but I have a little free time before school and such get into full swing. It is kind of nice. I never find I have too much free time, so I am living it up. And of course this is on my 'summer to-do' list. I love to check things off my list.

Back up to the beginning

Well, maybe not the beginning. I wanted to share our Zachary with you, so that you could share in his accomplishments amidst the challenges. Zachary has a diagnosis that has posed many challenges, but by God's grace, we face them with hope for a better tomorrow.

I will start by expressing my gratitude for the many prayers and support from family and friends over the years. This blog is for you. Thank you!

So what is new this summer. We have had much go on, so I will pick up where we are currently, and add previous summer events as I post more.

Today was an exciting day! We finally earned $22 for a strawberry shortcake ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery. Zachary earns checks for nearly every good behavior you can think of, but he can loose them for bad behavior. I love the check list system (self monitoring system)!!! If he gets 100 checks in one day, he earned a dollar. He's been working nearly all summer. And as soon as he had $22 dollars, he was ready to head out the door last night at 8:30 pm and get his cake.

Well today, we stopped in to buy the cake. He picked out his cake and proudly carried it to the counter and handed all of his money to the cashier. He was all smiles from ear to ear and never stopped talking about it all the way home.

We ate lunch, and proceeded straight to eating cake. He did not want a smaller slice but opted for the larger pre-marked slices. I do not know where he put it, but it wasn't until the last two bites I was able to convince him to save the rest for a snack later.

When dad got home, he told him about the cake, and then recalled 'the snack'. And no less, after dinner, we had more cake.

I truly believe one of the biggest blessings of parenthood is watching your kids enjoy themselves. While the frequency of enjoyment opportunities has increased with time, in my opinion, it certainly could happen more often. What a joy it was to watch him shoveling in cake, followed up with licking the plate. Priceless!