Back...with Life Lessons

I know.
I know.
I know...we been gone for MANY minutes. I can't tell you why I stopped posting other than to think -life just got too busy. That's not to say that it's not busy now, but what I've discovered is that I missed blogging. I missed having a place to express myself even if only my mom and mother-in-law were reading it. I missed sharing fun moments that the kids would be able to look back on. I missed laughing at myself as I thought about what I was going to type. I just missed...

So I'm ready to begin again. The intentions are the same with a few additions.
1) I want to share the blog with more people. The things that my family experiences, places we travel, lessons we learn could be of value to someone else.
2) Post more often about the rainy moments in life. Social media is full of pretty things people buy and places they go, but I appreciate people who can express that life isn't always sunny. Therefore, if that's something I value in other people, I should try it myself.

My love for pictures still remains. So here is an update on what we're working with.

  Roses. Hoop Earrings. Ponytail. Comfortable Clothes.

(5) - Gymnastics, personality, dance moves

 (8) - Baseball, baseball, nerf guns, baseball and learning to clean the bathroom every Friday

 They still get along.

Still here for a good time.

Finally, here are the lessons that I learned last week.

Lesson #1 - Mantras Help
After asserting myself at work and making it clear that I didn't agree with the solution that was being presented, this mantra popped in my head.
I Am Brave.
I Am Smart.
I Make Good Decisions.

I found myself repeating this at least 4 times as I walked to check on an event being set up. When I realized what I was doing, I smiled to myself because I really believed it. I was brave for standing up to others (most older than me). I was smart for the solution that I did present. I made a good decision by standing up for what I believed was right. In the end, the others agreed with me. It was the right thing to do. It was the right way to handle the situation so that we wouldn't have to possibly deal with a similar request on a larger scale at another time.

Positive self talk is important and can feel good. Now I guarantee you within the next day or two, I was doubting myself about something else, but in that moment and for a few moments after (because another decision had to be made) that message played in my head.

Find yourself a good mantra. Don't be afraid to smile about it or even say it (even in your head) with some feeling.

Lesson #2 - Self Advocacy
Also this week, I listened to my son finally confess that his teacher is mean. We are entering the third quarter of the school year and this is the first time he has confessed this to me. Now I was aware at the beginning of the year that he felt that way (b/c he told friends), but nothing was mentioned to me. However, through his tears and my refusing to let him walk away even though he didn't want to talk about it...he finally told me. He said that she shows favoritism to the girls over the boys, she yells at the class sometimes, she thinks they are not paying attention when they are, etc. I asked him if he wanted me to talk to her. He said "no." However, towards the end of the conversation he said "I'm going to tell her." My mind said "whoa, whoa, wait a minute big fella," but my mouth said "Ok, if you do that this is how you do it." First, he would have to be respectful. She is an adult and when you want to tell someone something you have to show respect and speak in a respectful tone. Then, he needed to be prepared to share examples of when/how she does this. He has a tendency to start saying something and then back out of the conversation for whatever reason. I told him this wouldn't work. You have to help her understand when she does it. Finally, I presented a baseball analogy to him. If you watch a pitcher strike out 5 of your friends and it's your turn to bat, how do you go to the plate? Go with your game face on. It's clear this pitcher has some skills, so you go to the plate knowing you have to focus and work hard to get a hit. Same with the teacher. If you already know/feel this teacher has mean tendencies, prepare yourself. Get your mind right and stay focused in order to deal with her.

Now I'm not sure if he did it, but the next day I realized that I'm teaching my 8 year old how to advocate for himself. You don't have to hold these feelings in, but what you do have to do is 1) be respectful and 2) be ready to provide examples.

As I continue my work with college students, I am realizing self advocacy is something these students are missing. Yes, I understand coming to college is a lot and not knowing who to go to or feeling weird asking certain questions is real, but A CLOSED MOUTH DOESN'T GET FED. If you want to know...ASK. We have to teach our children to ask. Ask for help. Share their opinion. As long as it starts with those 2 things above. Even if you don't receive the answer you wanted, you could possibly walk away internally chanting a mantra like myself.

And We're Back!

Been gone for a minute but we're back with the jump off! (rap lyrics by Lil Kim.....sorry saints)

Hey Everybody!
Friends, family, those who birthed us, washed us, fed us. Those who love our kids or at least think they have good personalities, but know they run a muck in this house.

Thanks for joining us as we embark on this blogging fun again. Not that life is any calmer, but I low key missed recording and sharing these moments. I think I've worked things out in my brain to post at least twice a month so I hope you will come back every so often and check on us. I'm also vowing to stay true to myself and keeping it as real as possible. So don't be surprised if you see a post called "Come Get These Kids!" We are all human and we don't always have nice thoughts, but Dad taught me "Think before you speak" so I'll keep that in mind when I'm keeping it real!! Hahahahaha

In addition to this post, I posted 3 additional post (Summer Vacation, Alex, Alana) about what we've been doing since last year.

So Happy Holidays to you! Here are a few more pictures from our holiday photo shoot. We are still shooting with our favorite photographer (Bailey) and the kids did a great job during this shoot. My thought process was Christmas in the Fall. Enjoy!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Alana (4)

Alex (7)

Now Alex might look like he's not enjoying this chocolate milk, but he is ALL ABOUT IT. I heard about Fairlife Chocolate Milk in the gym, saw it in the store on a whim and decided to try it. I don't even care for milk (except in cereal), but when I tasted this my eyes got big. Before the shoot, I let Alex taste it and he had the exact same reaction that I did. He and I just laughed. He was so excited he wanted to carry the lunch box that contained a milk container and straw for each of us.
I'm still buying the milk! Get some.

 It's a giant candy cane. We should have put the hook on the front side of us.

The other reason they were so excited is because the wrapped gifts had real gifts in it them.

Love to all! Keep reading.

Summer Time Whitaker Style

This year we made all of our summer fun happen within the same week. No spreading it out. A little here. A little there. Just one big long week that required thought and planning on my part.
- Baseball
- More baseball...MLB All Star Week
- Charles Birthday


Alex's Summer Baseball 
After the Spring baseball season (2nd place finish), Alex was invited to play on the All-Star team in the summer. Yeah we heard "All-Star" and were like "Wow, Ok Alex!" I mean you can watch him and tell he's good and enjoys the game, but it's always nice when others recognize the same. Well then we discovered that "All -Star" was not the top pick kids, but the ones right under the top and a little younger. Alex was playing in the 7-8 league, but he was only 6. ANYWAY!

The last tournament took place in Greensboro, NC, the Saturday before the Sunday when we were supposed to begin our MLB All-Star Weekend Summer Vacation in Washington, DC. Yeah, you see where my planning nerves started to be affected. Charles and I decided after the Greensboro games, we would just drive straight to Maryland and stay with family. Well of course the last Saturday game was intense and resulted in the team scheduled to play again on Sunday. Can someone say "Are you kidding me?" The team wanted and needed Alex to play. However, the entire team and parents KNEW where we were headed, so "the looks" and the questions of "what you gonna do Dad" started coming our way. Charles just laugh at the questions and first he said "I don't know" then it turned to "it's up to his momma" Hahahaha. My mind said our money has already been spent to attend the MLB All-Star Celebrity/Legends Softball game and we need to in DC by tomorrow (Sunday) afternoon WITH kids who aren't tired. So after a few looks of consideration between Charles and I, we wished the team well and hit the highway.

She's so supportive! She can often be heard saying "Go Bruh Bruh"

Oh the next day, we got text that they lost the game.

MLB (Major League Baseball) All-Star Week - Washington, DC
Last year, when Charles and I learned that All-Star Week would take place in DC (driving distance) it was a no brainer that we wanted this to be a part of Alex's memories. Automatic summer vaction. So hotels were booked way in advance and we waited for the schedule of activities and list of players schedule to appear to come out.

Saturday night, we arrived in Maryland. We got to visit our cousins new house (it's awesome) and the kids got to play with their cousins for the night. On Sunday, we toured the Smithsonian National Gallery, walked around DC (Uber what...not in this family), and then attended the Celebrity/Legends All-Star Game.

 

 

The tickets to this game were pretty reasonable, but when you multiply anything by 4, it can still make your eyes roll. It didn't matter...THIS was our vacation. You can see above that our seats were on the first base line and not to far from the field. However, this momma spotted an usher identifying kids and bringing them closer seats. I told myself "if I can get that ushers' eye, I'm going to ask him if Alex can come down." Well, guess who looked at me? The nice usher with the white hair. I pointed at Alex and then pointed to coming down there and he motioned for him to come on. YESSSSSSSSS PARENT OF THE YEAR!! Go Alex Go.

Well let me tell you Alex looked at me like "Where am I going?" "What are you talking about?" "Ya'll not coming too" "Stranger Danger." And all I can say is "Go. Go. Go down there." Finally he went.

 

After a few minutes the usher looked at me and motioned that he had one more seat. Well Alana was completely content on YouTube (thanks for the free wifi Nationals Stadium) and she at the time she was 3. So no. I suggested that Charles go so he went. OMG Look how close they are. 

Eventually, Mr. Nice Usher with the White Hair, got all 4 of us down there. And didn't let anybody bother us.  "No, no, no that's there seat." Hahahaha.

DJ Diesel

aka Shaquille O'Neal

The line up

Jaime Foxx

 

 Wale (Rapper) and Josh Norman (NFL player - Redskins)

Of course celebrities and legends warmed up before the game started and when you're in a place with celebrities, people scream their names and all kinds of stuff to them. It's a mix of encouragement and hey look at me. We are normal people so we did a little bit of the same. Wale gave us eye contact and a head node.

During the first inning, Wale was in the outfield and caught the third out. The crowd roared and he jogged back to the sidelines with the ball in hand. People were screaming at him to throw them the ball, so we did the same thing. Well guess who Wale pointed to and then tossed the ball. ALEX!!!

OMG! We couldn't pay for this much joy. We were so excited. Even Mr. Nice Usher with the

 White Hair was excited with us. 

That smile was worth everything!

DJ Diesel (Shaq) and Jamie Foxx switched roles for a while. Shaq came out and hit or attempted to hit the ball and Jamie Foxx was on the turn tables.

Oh but before we left, one more awesome thing happened. The game was over (American team won) and people were back to yelling at celebrities. They wanted everything from the balls to the shirts off their backs. Well Josh Norman threw his glove and guess who jumped up and caught it. CHARLES!!! But it was all for his son. 

This kid walked away from the 2018 MLB All-Star Celebrity/Legends Softball Game with a souvenir ball AND glove that we did not buy in the gift shop. And this was only the first event we attended. Look at God!

Day 2 - FanFest and Home Run Derby

Lots of interactive activities for the kids and historical information at FanFest

Now she was good with some of the activities, but some she was too small for. Thou shall not worry. She created her own fun...Open space = Cartwheels and Flips!

On the way to the Home Run Derby...well Alex and Charles that is. Alana and I went to visit a friend.

Charles says that being at the home run derby was pretty exciting! The hometown favorite (Bryce Harper - Washington Nationals) made it all worth it by hitting homerun number 19 during the final second of the last round against Kyle Schwarber. The crowd went BANANAS!

Day 3 - Play Ball USA outside park

Now all I remember is it was INCREDIBLY HOT and we were trying to do this last activity before the rain started. The actual All-Star game was this day, but the tickets were super expensive, so the other activities were how we compensated for not going to the actual game. We left town and headed to VA as Charles' birthday was coming.

While in VA, Alana had her first hair salon visit at Aunt Clarice's shop. She was excited. She did well, but when you have this much hair it gets to ya.

Before

 During

After

Charles' Birthday
Well number 40 is here! Since we were going to be so close to VA, I thought it was important that Charles spend the actual day with those who raised him. Yes, part of my planning. However, what he didn't know was a surprise party was being planned for him - 2 days later.

The "story" of attending our old neighbors work party had already been told a couple months before. This is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. Not tell him! I didn't think it would be that hard, but it made me realize just how much I talk to him. Whether he really cares about what I'm doing or not, I usually can get his opinion either way. The day of the party, I promise I almost told him. Everyone from far and near was here and I was so excited that I just didn't want hold it anymore. I knew how excited he would be!!!! But instead of telling him, I called my homegirl who basically told me to get myself together. Ok. Ok. Nighttime came. He was surprised and we partied the night away. One of the best parties ever!

Charles says he didn't realize it was for him until he saw his mom. Once he figured it out, his first comment was "Aw S(&*!, now that was a good one."

 

Photo booth...duh...we own it!