Well, it’s been far too long since I last wrote. Amazingly, a lot has changed over the past month and a half! (How can it not with 4 kooky kids, a military man, and a few feisty faunas!?) First of all, we tried to do online public school for Owen and Julian. Key word there……TRIED. That failed miserably! I don’t think any of us liked that one! It was fun for the first few days and then it was just a big ole’ chore. Owen hated working with me. I hated trying to teach him. Julian would look around the room and ask if he could be done. I would try to get him ‘on task.’ It was just a battle that no one could win. Finally I gave in and started looking at what I like to call ‘real’ public schools! I still refused to send them to the public school that they were supposed to go to. (It has terrible ratings, it’s in the heart of a seedy neighborhood, and it’s more than a mile away and they would be ‘walkers’……I wasn’t having it.) So, I pulled up my sixth best friend Google and started tapping away. What did I come up with, you ask?? Well, another district, first of all. And, secondly, a really awesome school! My boys have started a new school and they love it and I love it! They attend Woodmen-Roberts Elementary in Academy District 20. (Doesn’t THAT sound fancy??) AND Julian even gets to go to full day Kindergarten!! I have to pay for it, though, but because we are poor and qualify for FREE school lunches, we get the reduced rate! Whoo Hooo! And, can I just say, I looked this school up on www.schooldigger.com and last year only 12 children received free or reduced school lunch?!?! Can I say ritzy neighborhood?!? And it is!! The houses in this neighborhood are GORGEOUS! I drool every time I drive the boys to school. I feel like I’m in a dream. Seriously, the last couple times I picked the boys up from school, I was almost to the school parking lot and I thought I saw some dogs in one of the front yards of a house near the school. When I looked a little closer I realized they were deer! There were 7 deer eating in someone’s front yard! They didn’t have a care in the world. I totally stopped the van and stared at them. They didn’t give a crap. They just kept eating! It was too cool! I would LOVE to live in a neighborhood like that someday!! Oh well, at least my kids can go to school in that neighborhood!

You know what’s even cooler??? The boys get 5 choices for lunch each day! 5!! And there’s a salad bar! They can have as much as they want from the salad bar without getting charged extra! How cool is that?! My boys are picky and they literally eat opposite things, so for them to have 5 different choices everyday…….that rocks! (And, it’s free for them!) Yes, I’m bragging about being poor…..

Cleo……..my little Cleo. How she loves Preschool! Her teacher ADORES her! I’m so happy that she got into this class! The funny thing is, she wasn’t supposed to be in the class at all. I found out that there was a mix up with papers and Cleo’s ended up on top of someone else’s and Cleo got the spot instead! I believe that everything happens for a reason and she was just meant to be in that class. It’s funny though; because Cleo’s Preschool is about 7 miles southeast of our Apartment and the Boys’ school is about 7 miles northwest of our Apartment. So, their schools are literally in the opposite directions!! Oh well, at least they are all in school now!


Last Thursday was the first time I experienced a wee bit of quiet alone time! I was beautiful! The boys were at school, I dropped Cleo off at Preschool, and then Westin and I came home. I put him right in his crib for a nap and I sat on the couch. I sat there for a while just enjoying and pondering the strange sound of silence. The dog was even looking at me strangely. I didn’t quite know what to do with myself! It was quiet, I was (pretty much) alone, and I was happy! I can’t wait for it to happen again! I didn’t get it on Friday, though, because Jeff was off of work and I had to run some errands. And tomorrow I have to get another MRI and I don’t know what tomorrow will entail…….so we shall see………

Yes…….that’s my other bit of strangeness. I’ve had terrible headaches since I’ve moved to Colorado. They were bothering me so much that I finally saw my doctor about them. He switched up my meds, ordered a blood test, urine analysis, and an MRI. Everything came back normal except the MRI. It appears that I have a possible cyst on my pineal gland in my brain. Because they can’t quite see my pineal gland, I have to go in tomorrow for another MRI, but this time with contrast (where they inject the dye in your bloodstream). As of now, they think it measures about 12mmx10mmx7mm. But after tomorrow I hope they’ll know more? I don’t know. But now I’m reading about a bunch of people having negative reactions to the flippin’ dye! Ugh! Can’t a girl get a break!? One step at a time, I guess.

Jeff went to his doctor about his knees last week. They think he might have arthritis, but he needs x-rays before they’ll let him have an MRI. Who knows if anything will show up on an x-ray? One step at a time for him, too. Owen has a doctor appointment in Aurora (near Denver) for his throat on the 14th of October to see how his RRP is doing. I can’t tell right now. His voice is pretty quiet again. I just don’t know. I’m hoping he doesn’t need another surgery this year. Ugh! We are a broken family!!! Literally!

I am taking 2 classes online at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. They don’t really have much to do with my degree, but they are pretty neat! I’m taking Gothic Architecture (pretty much all about Gothic Cathedrals) and Criminology (all sorts of stuff about crime, criminals, racial disparity, etc). They are both cool and I’m doing well……so far. We all keep busy around here, that’s for sure! With school, the Army, and medical crap……I think we have enough to last us quite a while!

Oh…..I almost forgot……that would be my ADD kicking in…….I DID get to go back to Minnesota for my sister’s wedding! It was a very short weekend, but at least I got to see her get married! It was a very pretty little ceremony and a very nice day! (Gorgeous weather!) She had a cute little get together at her house afterwards and then they immediately went on their honeymoon! I got to see my mom and dad and some of my girlfriends and then I had to come back to Colorado Springs. It would have been nice to bring my whole family with me to MN and to be able to see everyone, but the time and money just weren’t available. Hopefully we will be able to come back for a visit someday soon??!? We shall see. Again…….one day at a time! That’s what I have to tell myself in order to survive each and every day!

I will write more later, but I need to get to bed soon. I have to wake up bright and early to get my brain scanned again! Ugh! Let the noise commence and the headache begin!

~Rachelle