Wow, it's been 6 months already.

Today has been 6 months already since we lost Shana. For those that are new you can read it here. There still isn't any closure to what happened. We are STILL awaiting autopsy results. Tim and Dawn have been told that it is not a priority because it is not a criminal case. So we are still waiting.....

So much going on....

August has been such a very busy month for us! I guess we are tying to cram as much stuff in as we can before summer comes to an end.

Two weekend ago we had a fantastic time. That Saturday we went to my Aunt and Uncles (My Dad's brother and his wife) for a belated birthday celebration for Cooper. They are the kids Godparents but were on vacation when we had the party. When we got there my Aunt mentioned that she had invited her sister's family (her kids are 7,5 and 4). Which was great because I haven't seen A in at least 10 years. My Aunt then mentions that A just lost a baby last week. So I'm thinking a m/c until she starts talking about a funeral! Turns out Gerard passed away at birth. So A got there and when we were alone (or as alone as you can be with 6 adults and 10 kids!!!) I told her how very sorry I was about the baby. Her and I ended up sitting down and talking and crying for about 45 minutes. We missed dinner!! I certainly can't understand exactly what she is going through because I have never lost a child but I can understand a little bit because of what my brother and sister in law are going through. A told me that at her 20 week u/s they found out there was something wrong with the baby. They were thinking Down's Syndrome and decided that they would have an amnio just to know exactly what to expect. A came to terms with the fact that the baby was probably going to have Down's and they would all get through it. Turns out that Gerard has Trisomy 18 and would most likely die at birth. A said that the only thing keeping him alive was her. My Aunt's family is EXTREMELY religious. So the only option is to go full term and pray for the best. So for 20 WEEKS she knew that her baby was going to most likely die. I just can not imagine knowing that. It is heartbreaking. From my experience with Dawn I knew that A would most likely want to talk about Gerard. So we talked about her delivery and everything else. She showed me tons of pictures and my heart just breaks for them. She was allowed to keep Gerard in the room for 2 days. I didn't realize that they would let Moms keep their babies for that long. But A said that on day 2 she dressed the baby and called the nurse and told her to take him and run or she would not want to let him go. A is doing remarkably well and my heart goes out to them.

And then on that Sunday we went out to our friends Jeff and Kelly's house. Madison LOVES playing with their 4 year old daughter Kasey and their son is 2 also. They live up on a mountain in Naples with an awesome view of Canandaigua lake and they have 60+ acres. So the kids just ran and swam and had an awesome time! After dinner they got out the 4 wheelers and the dirt bikes and the kids rode on the golf cart and loved it! That was a fun night for sure!

This past weekend is the first time I have spent a weekend without children since Madison has been born. Yes she is 4 and a half!!!! Ryan and I went to PA for the weekend to go 4 wheeling and it was such a nice and relaxing time! It was really nice to spend alone time with Ryan. We are actually going back this weekend without the kids again! We are going with 3 other couples and I can't wait!!!!!

We finally found it!

Ryan and I decided long ago that we were going to bypass the local public school and opt for a *private school for the kids. We went to our first open house when Madison was 2! Yes, I like to plan ahead =) We have seen schools that were way too small. I mean 30 kids in the ENTIRE school. That was too small for us. We have seen schools that were AWESOME but way too much money. And by too much money I mean $17,000 a year per child!!! That is just crazy! Madison is headed to Kindergarten next year and I was starting to feel like we would never find a school that we liked.

My biggest thing was that I really wanted a school that was K-12. There was really only more school that we had left to look at and if that didn't work out then we were going to have to look at other options. We went Tuesday night for an Open house to Charles Finney and it was perfect! It was exactly what we were looking for. I am so excited that we have FINALLY found the school we were looking for. And the tuition for it is actually reasonable! I'm excited that we have found a good school for the kids and that it has a lot to offer academically as well as different clubs and for a smaller school it offers a lot of different sports as well. I'm really excited for the kids to go to this school!

I really wanted Madison to go to a half day Kindergarten and we have that option at this school which is awesome. However Madison will get out of school at 11:45 and Cooper will get out of preschool at 11:30 and it is about a 25 minute drive in between schools. So now I have to decide if I keep Cooper at the preschool that Madison went to and figure out a way to pick them both up or do I put Cooper into a preschool that is near where Madison will be going to school. Choices choices!!

*People get totally nuts when they find out that the kids won't be going to our local school. I think people have the thought that if it is good enough for my kids it is good enough for yours. So some "friends" would gossip behind my back pretty much saying I was a snob because the kids were going to a different school. There is nothing wrong with our school district and it is actually one of the best in the area. There are a lot of great things and not so great things about public and private schools. So I'm not here to debate the issue this is just our choice =)