Notice anything different?

Things are somewhat back to normal around here.  While busy, life is not chaotic or stressful these days and I am just perfectly happy with that.  Jason has been busy with little house hold projects now that spring has sprung and we can see all the junk we have!! and all the stuff that needs repair!  I seem to finally be coming out of my winter funk and have been on an organizing kick the last couple of days.  I tackled cleaning my basement, threw away 2 garbage bags of broken, worn and or plain useless junk, cleaned my dresser and Olena's as well as my closet...all in the last 2 days! I feel accomplished, I even found time to cut the grass tonight and all my laundry is washed, cleaned and put away.  Hooray!!

Updates:

• Olena can now ride a two wheeler with no problem. 
• She is a motorized scooter junkie.
• Her top two teeth are slightly wiggly.
• Her bottom two big teeth have started coming in....but the babies are still hanging on for dear life.  So for the time being she has shark teeth!
• She has made huge progress and is moving along steadily in her math work.

She has become a class favorite in her riding classes.  Last week was the last day of the spring session.  Her instructor is taking the summer off so she came over to talk to us and she just gushed over how wonderful Olena is and how talented she is as a rider.  She said that she would love to personally coach her if we ever decided to seek private lessons.  These classes are therapeutic based so there is not necessarily a lot of riding technique taught.  However, over the last 8 weeks we have noticed that Amber (instructor) has been individually teaching Olena a few different things such as proper mounting, posture, two-point, and using a bridle (which we were told she can successful use without any assistance now...I guess this is impressive for a 7 year old??)  While I was beaming with pride at the compliments and her accomplishments, the next day I read an article on Yahoo how horseback riding is the #1 most expensive sport to get your children involved in....followed by ice/roller skating, and gymnastics.  Oh Boy!!! just my luck.  The top 3 things this kid loves.  Looks like mommy may need to encourage the love of skateboarding or bike riding!  :)

She went to the circus for the first time a few weeks ago.  It was an Easter present from Rickie and the three of us went.  When Rickie and I were younger this is a fond memory that I have.  Every year, her parents would take us to the State Fair grounds and the circus was held in a coliseum.  I remember being so amazed while watching the trapeze artists, the tight rope walker, the man shooting out of the cannon or riding his motorcycle around the big ball of fire....her and I would have the time of our life.  It was so awesome to be able to go see it all again and this time share it with Olena.  It wasn't as grand as it use to be, but it was my first time under the big top and it was pretty cool.  It was kinda neat to experience that old time circus feeling.  O was bit freaked out at first because it was really loud, and started out with the motorcycle and four wheeler acts.  She has a huge sensory issue with loud noises but all in all she did an amazing job at tolerating it.  Her favorite part of course was the tigers and the hoops of fire! she thought that was the best thing in the world. And I now often find her twirling around from her swing chain like "those trapezey girls at the circus"   It was a perfect day.

Olena's saying of the week, that made me bust a gut from laughter!!

"well... I am just so excited I am gonna put a chicken on my head and dance with joy!"

Now that would be something interesting to see!!