Chase

So, my Chase, my oldest son, he is in kindergarten. His class celebrated the 100th day of school this week. They came home with a project --to collect 100 things. All 100 things had to fit into a zip lock baggie. Well, my son, he likes to be creative. He likes to be different. He has to be the only one in his class doing whatever. On his "letter" days, they have a brown paper bag & have to bring in something that begins with that letter, he always tries to be the one who stumps his teacher. Like for P he brought a frying pan, a one egg, real frying pan....he loved that his teacher couldn't believe a frying pan fit in his brown paper bag...or the H day when he was the only one with a harmonica, and he got to demonstrate how it worked, on on the F day he took a picture of his Aunt F ara...NO ONE guessed that;) I love that he is creative...I love that he wants to be different, because during this school year, I have seen how peer pressure has affected him, even down to the clothes he wears, so the fact that some individualism is remaining, I think is a good thing. So try desperately to encourage his creativity. And sometimes it is just what he & I need to reconnect. He has discovered his attitude and we have been having a rough go of things lately, it seems I am always "nagging" him to obey or watch how he talks to me, it gets exhausting, so when these projects come up, we both have fun doing them. So...back to his 100 things, this was no exception. My parents took a trip over the summer to Niagara Falls and had sent him & Seth a bunch of post cards. My sister also sent them post cards from her trip to New York. All of these are displayed on their mirror, so he sees them & says, Hey I want to bring 100 post cards. This was no small feet....he only had about 10. I had some saved from my trip to Alaska when I was in high school, so with those we had about 30. So I sent out an email to our family and friends asking if anyone sees any post cards could they please mail them. I only had about a weeks notice. Boy oh boy. Did our friends & family come through! He got WAY over 100 post cards. And it was so fun to get the mail everyday to see where & from whom they would come! I think I have counted he got post cards from 10 different states! And my mom went crazy...she sent him 45 postcards...and not in one big envelope, she sent them individually & wrote them all out! That was so fun reading them all to him! Our favorite was when she wrote "chase my hand is getting tired writing all of these post cards" Or they got a big kick out of her story about me. She sent a Star Wars one, and told them about when they took me at the age of 3 to see Star Wars & R2D2 fell in the water & Luke was frantically looking for him...I yelled loudly in the theatre "he's in the water Luke". Chase & Seth both are still talking about that one:) It was such a fun project. I am so proud of him for his determination & creativity! Although I am afraid that one day he will get disappointed, because up until now, whatever he has set his mind to, he has gotten & then some...one day I am afraid it won't be so. But until then! I feel so blessed to have such a smart, creative little boy! Now our new project will be pulling out a map & showing him all the different states he got the post cards from! I love it! His class had a "circus" on the 100th day. Admittance was his 100 things & they could dress in costumes...something from a circus. He dressed as a ring master...and looked quite handsome! As much as I miss him during the day, I also love seeing him grow & learn.

While I am on the subject of Chase and not doing things the easy way. I have to write about his Bike-a-Thon for St. Jude's. Lest I forget in about 20 years...I don't think I will, but hey, you never know. Last year his preschool participated in a trike a thon to raise money for St. Jude's. He was so excited to hear he would be able to ride his bike at school with his friends, and raise money for sick kids. So he told me he wanted to raise $1000. Well I discouraged him, I didn't want him to get his hopes up. So I said let's try for $100 and go from there. Well, within a day he raised $250. Then we realized there was a conflict. My mother in law had planned to take him & Seth to ride on Thomas the Train...the real one, the same day of the bike ride. So I told him bud you have done a great thing, lets turn in your money & you can go with Gramma & Pop Pop to Thomas. And he said no, he had to "earn" the money he raised by riding his bike. Which of course made me cry. He was barely 5 at the time! So, at the urging of a friend we made a video of him telling people what he was doing! And that video got passed along to people I didn't even know...and before I know it, he raise $1170! One third of what the entire preschool raised! Oh, how excited he was!!!! He rode his bike 22 laps! My parent drove up & surprised him and watched him ride! I still cry thinking about his compassionate heart! We still to this day read about the children at St. Jude's & he says, that is who I helped! What an amazing lesson we learned from our little boy, and what a great thing the preschool did to help us teach him about giving. So... Chase is my go getter! I am excited to see the man he will become. I pray daily that most of all he will Love the Lord with all his heart, all his mind, and all his soul and be a young man on his knees!!!!

Thank you Lord for the blessing of children!

So yeah, I think my kids are great...but who wouldn't with a kid like Chase:)