Days with the Dorans

Perhaps I should preface this post with a quick back-story.  Joe lost his baseball glove for his game on Wednesday and the last time we thought we saw it was when he was playing catch with Sean (the day before) at Ali's game and got caught in a down-pour. We assumed they dropped their gloves and ran for the car.  We found Sean's glove in lost and found but no Joe's glove, so Joe was busted! Grounded from almost everything.  Gloves are very expensive... especially lefties!  I clean-sweeped his room meaning removed all toys, books and paper (except for his bible and journal) and had chores for him to do every day to pay for a new glove. Thankfully for him, his brother happened to find it (as Jeff and Joe were going to the store to buy a new one), dirty and soaked at the bottom of Joe's favorite climbing tree. He's still in trouble, but not quite as much. Ali happened to come home sick on Thursday (a flu that began two weeks ago in our house finally made it to...

I am beginning to realize that Jeff and I weren't thinking when we had our kids outnumber us.  Our April Calendar is a mess and we literally have things going on Every. Single. Day.  Opening Day for baseball was a crazy one.  Ali started with pictures at 8:15 in the morning, a scrimmage at 10:30, opening day line-ups for the boys started at 11:30, Joey's game was at noon, Zach's game was at 2:30 and Ali Jane had a party to go to at 2:30.  To top everything else off, it was COLD.  When I looked at my car thermometer in the afternoon, it had REACHED 32 degrees!  Brrrrrr...  Despite the miserable weather, Al played pretty well.  She is the lead-off batter and she got walked every time a kid pitched to her.  Her last at-bat she had a nice hit (her coach pitched) and she got an RBI, the only problem is with temperatures that low, hitting a ball STINGS and she was in tears.  She also pitched and struck out her first batter (I probably ...

I can hardly believe that it's been 6 years since I had Zach! There is so much that I want to say but seeing that it is April (and poor Z is learning that it is our busiest month ever), I feel like I should write something before I forget. I was looking back on my blog at Z's old birthdays and I love that I have them documented back since his first ONEderful birthday.  I realized though that I never wrote about the story of his birth so I'm going to write some highlights... A cliff-note version if you will... 1. I was scared (that was my normal after losing Andrew) but my dad being LATE to come and watch the Bigs so we could get to the hospital for my c-section made me MAD (which was probably a good thing... not as much time to be scared). I wanted to kill him though. I called to see if he was on his way and AFTER I hung up the phone with him he jumped in the shower! Grrrr... 2. I was certain that Z was going to be a girl~ mostly because if he was, Jeff told me...

It's the end of the third marking period and I am happy to report that the Doran kids are happy, respectful and doing their best!  All this proud mama could ever ask for! Joey is reading above grade level. He scored 81% on both his science and math BAs this marking period.  Here is what his teacher wrote about him: Joey is a wonderful student and is a pleasure to have in class! Joey continues to make steady progress in all subject areas. We will soon be working on determining important ideas, writing summaries, folktales, and author's intended meanings in reader's workshop. Joey has been making good progress in reading, however, we will continue to work on inferences and author's intended messages which will help with deeper comprehension. Please continue to practice with Joey on insertions and deletions during his reading at home. We will also focus on this in the classroom. In writer's workshop, we will focus on word choice, adding supporting sen...

It's hard to believe it's been 12 years since these pictures were taken... partly because I remember the day like it was yesterday, and partly because it feels like we have lived a lifetime since that beautiful, sunny day. The weekend before our wedding, it was a blizzard!  I mean, school was closed and we got got tons of snow!  Not a girl who gets stressed over much, I went with the flow knowing that an April wedding could mean I get married in spring, winter or even summer...  The day of our wedding, it sprinkled a bit in the morning, got into the 70s and we had beautiful sunshine.  I couldn't have dreamt up a better day!  Pastor Paul married us and as the light filtered through the window onto us, he said, "May God shine on you always, like the sun," and I know that He has. On our anniversary this year, we were tired... we got back from vacation and were in the midst of unpacking and to be honest, just looking at our April calendar and get...

 Jeff was very proud of me!  I am not at all a morning person (like he is~ nor am I one for being on time) and he wanted to leave early in the morning but thought I wouldn't be able to... I stayed up late the night before (couldn't sleep really) and packed up everyone leaving only spaces for pajamas and toiletries.  I got up and showered and was ready before 8 and the rest of the troops weren't far behind me (when I say troops, I mean kids... I woke to the sound of Jeff doing dishes at 7am). It was sad knowing we were leaving and I wish that we could stay longer (especially with the weather finally getting warmer).  We packed up the cars gave my folks huge hugs and thank yous and were off.  Jeff and I stopped at a McDonald's for coffee, tea and oatmeal and they didn't have tea !! I was surprised since they usually only have a Lipton bag and hot water anyway, but oh well.  This world wasn't made for us non-coffee drinking gals.  We were just ...