Children’s Grief Awareness Day

Today is Children’s Grief Awareness Day and yes I am wearing Blue to show my support.

This information is directly from the Highmark Caring Place website

http://www.highmarkcaringplace.com/cp2/cgad/index.shtml

Before they graduate from high school, one child out of every 20 will have a parent die—and that number doesn't include those who experience the death of a brother or sister, a close grandparent, aunt or uncle, or friend.

Children who have had someone die—especially a close family member — can feel the loss forever. They eventually go back to school. They might pick some activities back up. They certainly look "normal." And yet there's still that hole inside.

It often gets worse during the holiday season when the already hard feelings of longing and pain become intensified and when memories of past holidays contrast sharply with the loss of the present holiday.

This is a time of year when the grieving child can feel even more set apart, different from their peers, more alone than ever.

Every school and every community has children who have experienced some type of loss. Even if they keep their loss and experience to themselves, there are many children who are grieving among us.

These children can be helped to not feel so alone. Children and adults together can show their support for grieving children and show their awareness of what grieving children might be going through by participating in Children's Grief Awareness Day.

I can’t say enough about how good the Caring Place was for us. It gave the girls a chance to feel “normal” if not for just a little while and me a place to make sure I was doing the right things. The counselors were very nice and when the girls are a little older I still fully intend to go back and volunteer. It’s very important for people to know that life will go on and things can and will get better. I was so skeptical in the beginning but after attending the meetings I was so glad we all stuck with it. I want other people to know that and to feel that feeling…so today…I wear Blue.

Monthly Update

Where to begin…so much stuff going on and so little time to write or blog.

The Kitchen

Well our kitchen is done and we couldn’t be happier. Our contractor turned out to be very unreliable, dishonest and a liar…but we finished the job in spite of him. We still a few minor things to finish, but for the most part I can do that myself…in all my copious spare time.

Seattle

I had to attend a work conference out in Seattle in the early part of October. Again, Seattle is the only city that I travel to where the weather is crappier then the Burgh. It’s not real cold, but it just rains ALL the time.

Crazy Fall Weekend Schedule

On every weekend in the Fall we had 3 outdoor Soccer games and 2 outdoor Dek Hockey games…from mid October on we also had 3 additional indoor soccer games…it was really crazy their for a few weekends.

Class Reunion

In mid-October I attended my 25 years high school class reunion. It was actually the first reunion that my class has ever “officially” had, and it was a blast. Seeing some people that I hadn’t seen in 25 years was just a fun, fun night. I had a lot of friends in high school and Facebook has allowed many of us to get reacquainted over the years, but seeing everyone in person was truly a great night. I just hope we don’t wait 25 more years to do it again.

Indian Princesses

The second to last weekend in October I took all three girls on a weekend campout to Deer Valley for Indian Princesses. All three girls had a great time. The weather was perfect and all of us had a really nice weekend. Being the only Dad with three girls at the campout was a little exhausting for me, but well worth it.

School

The kids got their report cards last week and we couldn’t have been more pleased. ALL four kids had a great first term. I was really anxious about Allie since she had so many issues / struggles with her first grade teacher last year at our old school. Her report card was fantastic. Her complete attitude, approach, yearning to learn and reading levels has skyrocketed this year and it’s because she loves her teacher at her new school. Instead of remarks on how her attitude needs to improve and she needs to listen better – the remarks were how well she listens, participates in class, shares with other kids and tries her best.

It’s a complete 180 and I have NO DOUBT it’s due to the fact that she doesn’t have that Bitch of a teacher who yelled all the time from last year. I personally feel bad for all the kids that Miss Bitch has taught…continues to demoralize. What stinks is that one of my friends whose daughter is in first grade this year back at the old school has Miss Bitch and is seeing very similar behavior from his daughter. It upsets me how much influence one horrible teacher can have on a small child in their very formative school age years.

The other three kids all did very well on their report cards. Not a single ‘C’ in the bunch between the three of them. They are all playing an instrument as well. At any given time you can hear the trumpet, saxophone or violin and in some instances all three playing at once. With all the changes and adjustments these kids have gone through in the last few years, we feel very, very fortunate to have such good “normal” kids. Things could be totally different and don’t think for a minute that we don’t think about that and appreciate our four amazing kids.

Niagara Falls

Last year “D” (still need to come up with a good nickname) and I went to Niagara Falls, just the two of us…and we had a blast. It’s off season so it’s not crowded at all. We both agreed that we have to take the kids up here…since it’s basically Vegas for kids…so this year we did. Last weekend the six of us went on Friday and stayed the weekend, and had a great time. We did all the amusements, the water park in the hotel and of course the main attraction (the Falls). We all had a great time…it was a really good weekend away for all of us.

That’s it for now…for those of you wondering what’s going on and how we are all doing I will seriously try to write more.