It's that time of year

Nothing to report. Nothing special.  Just trying to keep up with everything.  I'm almost done Christmas shopping.  Just a couple of odds and ends.  All of the things I have already are wrapped and under the tree.....driving the littler one nuts.  I took the advice of a coworker and labeled the kids' gifts from their great-grandma and their grandpa, but the ones from us are numbered with a random number so they don't know which ones are theirs and won't be able to figure out what they're getting by shaking or size. 

I can't wait for Christmas.  I can't wait for Jaemin to see the scooter he's been dying for.  I just hope it's tall enough for him. I hope Chelsi isn't disappointed.  She wanted a $150 Barbie dreamhouse.  That's just not in the budget.  She also wanted a Flutterbye Fairy, but when I saw how bad the ratings were I didn't want mom to spend $30 just to throw it away.  So, I found her a Disney Flynn dolls since she's never had a Ken and go her a Rapunzel, Tiana and Merida dolls from her grandmas.  I think she'll love them.

I spend my time running kids to school, going to work and then trying to pick up ordered items or bring them back after work.  The latter seems to occur fairly often.  I've been trying to find a pair of khaki's for the big boys for months now.  Neither has dress clothes and they're both so tall and thin they can ONLY be ordered and I have yet to get a true size that will fit.  I've now splurged and ordered from Gap hoping they'll be accurate.  They are the only ones I've found to actually make the dress pants in a 29x30 and 31x34, which are still slightly big in the waist for them, but at least they can grow then.

Things are picking back up now that wrestling is officially starting this weekend.  Cole's been kinda bummed because he wrestled off for 142, but lost by 2 points.  I thought that was pretty good.  The kid is 2 years younger, but has been wrestling kids club for years, his dad is the coach and they sent him to an expensive camp over the summer.  Cole's only wrestled for 2 years, is long and thin (which is not optimal in wrestling unless you really find a way to use it to an advantage) and has a heart condition.  But, then he found out the 145 can't wrestle this weekend for Varsity, so for the week he's Varsity.  He was pretty darn happy, but is afraid he'll lose.  I told him it doesn't matter, just hope....always have hope.  Then, next week he can wrestle off for the Varsity 142 again.  Yes. he's 6'1" and about 139 pounds.  SKINNY! 

It's been getting quieter and quieter.  With Cole wrestling and working he's rarely home.  He gets home anywhere between 5:30 and 6:30 from practice and then some nights has to leave for work around 6:30.  Some nights he has to wrestle and then a couple he's home.  Then, every Saturday he has a tournament out of town and works on Sundays.  I hope he can fit his homework in.  He needs really good grades.  Chase decided he wanted to go watch his friends play basketball, so he went to school for a bit and it was just us and the 3 little ones.  Chelsi and I started the "Sound of Music", but it's too long to finish before her bedtime.  I'm realizing how quiet it is now and how much I hate them growing up and moving on, but like it all at the same time.  I won't be an empty nester that needs kids around all the time.  I think it's just that I'm still adjusting to this change.  And it's not that I need kids around as much as I just need these kids around. 

If they only knew all the things we go through as parents for them.  How much we love them.  How much we try to protect them while letting them live and learn.  It's so hard to balance that, but so delicately needs to be balanced in order for them to grow.  If only there were manuals for each very individual child.