Fist day of School and a confession.

Summer is over!  I am only slightly sad about this.  I know I am the worst mother in the whole wide world, I'll accept the label.  Don't get me wrong I am saddened by the fact that I now have a 3rd grader (What???) and a P-Kindergartener for the last time.  Next year she goes to Kindergarten...sigh.  But man am I happy I get three hours of ME time.  Like I said the worst mother EVAH.  This summer was brutal.  I am exhausted!!  They drained me these last 3 months.  I need some time to recoup and get healthy again so I can once again be super mom.   Being with my two very different personality children 24/7 for the last 3 months has taken its toll.  There were some days I'm not sure I brushed my teeth.  Days without a shower.  I think for the first time ever I agreed wholeheartedly with Mike's philosophy of "pool clean".  Up until this summer that whole notion was absolutely outrageous not to mention disgusting to me.  This summer it became my survival tactic.  This summer I did the sniff test.  Nope we don't smell too bad  and we don't look like pig pen so lets go to Target.  I am not proud but I will admit that I locked myself in the closet at one point this summer with a magazine and a bag of Dove mint chocolates while I listened for 15 minutes to my freaking out children not being able to find me.  Ok that's not entirely true I listened to Cynthia freaking out and Hayden helping himself to whatever he could find in the cupboards and fridge.  I. DID. NOT. CARE.

Part of my brutal summer had to do with me.  I just didn't feel right.  For the first time ever I was hit smack in the face with the fact that I am a Fragile X carrier and now have issues associated with it.  I always considered myself lucky.  I am not brutally shy, I don't have anxiety issues.  I don't have issues I needed to medication for.  Well...that was until I turned 37.   What the heck happens at 37 that your whole body goes berserk?

I mean you should get a memo that says warning turning 37 may cause weight gain that you will not be able to get rid of, loss of memory,  adult acne,  fibromyalgia, night sweats, irritability, depression, cryonic fatigue syndrome and complete loss of patience.  Warning: being alone with your children for three months straight may increase these symptoms.  Use extreme caution around mother's who unlike you seem to have it all together, this may cause a complete emotional break down. 

I would have be prepared had I gotten the memo.  Where was the memo?   What has happened to me???  I don't want to be around me, I am a mess and it's sure not a hot one.  Unless of course I am having a hot flash then by all means I am a hot mess. So I prayed for the summer to end because I could no longer guarantee the safety of children.

So Today I sent my beautiful children back to school and prayed they'd have a wonderful day.  A wonderful day with calm, patient and sane adults. 

Cynthia my child that asks "what are we doing today" before her head even leaves the pillow, was extremely excited to go back to school.  This girl had ran circles around both me and Hayden all summer.  Hayden my child who is perfectly content with just sitting and seeing what the day brings, was not so excited to go back.  I worry more about him than her.  The first few weeks of school can be brutal for him.  He always has a rough time adjusting.  I was especially worried with the new medication we are trying.  It makes him sleepy and a bit sick to his stomach.  To my amazement they both had a great day!!!  Let's be honest they were probably happy to just be around adults who heads didn't spin around 360 degrees.

All of that said we made some great memories this summer. 

I hope all the kids who went back to school already this year had a great first day!  Now here are some pics of my babies first day to prove to you that they are still alive and healthy!

Yep that's Mr. Not looking at the camera and Miss Attitude

   

Makris Holiday Rooooaaaad trip...Part 2

Michigan will always be home..no matter where we end up, how far away we travel,  Michigan will always be home.  It will always have a piece of my heart and little piece always breaks every time we leave.  Do I understand why we are here in Texas?  Absolutely, and deep down I know it is a blessing that we are here.  It was the best choice for our family.  All that said there is not a moment that goes by that I don't wish I could spend more time with family and friends in Michigan.  I must admit though I am not sure I ever want to do harsh winters again!  I do miss the mild summer's though.

We went home for "vacation" like we do every year.  I was a little nervous going home this year because I had no idea how Hayden would be.  He was off the medication and having a really difficult time with transitions.  It could have been a really ugly situation if he had a rough transistion to the craziness.  We do our best to try and keep things as normal and as routine as possible but it's hard to do.  When we got there He definitely needed his few minutes of quiet (which means sitting on my moms rocking chair and relaxing) but once that happened within minutes of his cousins arriving they were off and playing and never stopped.  One of the things that breaks my heart the most is knowing my kids may not grow up with their cousins.  That's one of the things both Mike and I had the luxury of doing and I always thought my kids would too.  I wonder though would they have as much fun if they saw each other all the time? 

My grandmother was diagnosed with alztimers this year and watching her decline has been so painful.  What an ugly disease that is.  My biggest fear is the day I go home and she has no idea who I am.  Luckily that wasn't this trip.  She may not remember that I moved away or the little things like that but she remembers me and she knows I was the first born grandchild.  We got to see all of our grandmother's this trip what a blessing that is. 

We had a so much fun.  We got to spend so much time with our family.  So many of our friends took time out to come and visit.  I would like to let everyone know that both Cynthia and Hayden  are wondering when our family will come and visit us....Just saying.   

 It's pretty cool when your aunt and uncle have a pool!

 This all started out pretty innocent and turned into one wild water fight

 Cynthia asked Nonnie to save her some snow and she did!  What do you do with snow in July?  You make a snowman of course!

Getting to hang out with Papa is always fun!

We got together to get family pictures taken.  Love that I have these memories preserved.

Ice Cream truck the kids thought this was pretty amazing!

We let a paper lantern go at GAC and GUS's.  Just like in Rapunzel!

Hanging out with more cousins and the kids first time on a slip and slide!

Grandma Alma and Aunt Kathie stopped by to visit.

As you can see we had a lot of fun and adventure packed into two weeks of vacation.  The kids keep asking when we are going back and why we can't see everyone all the time.  Thank you to everyone who took time out to come and see us.  We love you guys and we'll see you next year.  Only this time we arriving by plane!!!

Love,

Tina

 

Makris Holiday Rooooaaaaddd...trip! Part 1

 Well its no secret road trips are not my favorite thing in the world.  I rank them just above dealing with a child who has to make number 2 on a vacant stretch of road (why does this happen to us) and hearing "are we there yet" for the 1,582 time while not even out of the state of Texas yet.  I lost again because I  seriously LOVE my husband... blah, blah...blah.   He talked me into another road trip. A loooong road trip.  We drove home to visit our family and friends.  We made a few stops on the way.  Indianapolis Motor Speedway was one of our stops.  Hayden is going to love this a race track, I can't wait to see his face...are some of things that were said prior to making our reservations.  What thanks did we get from our slightly spoiled little Nascar redneck as he looked onto the track from the suite "It's boring, no cars".  That's right folks we are raising an elite Nascar redneck.  We made him complete the tour without cars on the track.  We are so mean like that.

 We conducted interviews

 Of course we made it to victory circle..we're the Makris family

We kissed the bricks.  The germaphobe in me got over it.  The germaphope in Hayden couldn't.

Our kids Love hotels.  Hayden especially LOVES hotels.  He asks to go to a hotel often.  I find this really crazy with his sensory and transitions issues he has.  He adores them that's part of the reason I can't win the "let's go on a road trip" speech.

What, doesn't everybody sit in a hotel window with their Ipad while watching the cars go by on the express way?  No, well everyone should its really the bomb and it takes your sister forever to figure out where you are.

Nope she is not awake its a figment of your imagination.

One of the reasons I actually agreed to go on this road trip instead of flying was so we could stop and see my family in Tennessee on the way home.  I haven't seen most of them in years and it was so awesome to spend even a little time with them.  They got to meet Cynthia for the first time. We also got to have lunch with a great friend and his lovely family while driving through Indiana.

And of course we had to stop in and see the duck commander warehouse.

She insisted I take her picture by Phil but she didn't want to stand by him alone, He scared her.  I don't get it either.

All in all it was a great road trip.  I went through 1 package of wipes, 2 boxes of tissues, and pulled out the kiddy potty only once on the side of the road, thank you to all the friendly cars passing by who honked at us.  I am convinced that Hayden does it on purpose...I mean really what little boy doesn't dream of doing his business on the the side of the road in a pink princess potty while mack trucks honk at you?  We aim to please little man, you are welcome.  

We traveled through 10 states, saw people and places we would never have seen otherwise, battled a flock of naughty chickens and had a lot of laughs.  Most important we spent some much needed quality time as a family.  What could be better than that? 

Love

Tina

Part 2: Michigan (coming soon)