Last Day of School 2015!

WWoohoo we did it! Summer break has officially begun in our house! God knows how much we needed this break – the adults equally as much as the kids.

  

Last week was the longest evah!! Between having my hubby and three kids sick at home, prepping for Julissa’s overnight camp and just life’s occurrences, it was sort of crazy. But school, baseball/softball are over, and right now that’s all that matters :).

Abdiel, Adrián and Julissa’s last day of school was a week ago and Jovan’s last day was last Thursday, and let me just say that this break couldn’t have arrived soon enough! God knows it has been a loooong year. The younger kids attend a year-round education school, so they only get six weeks off this summer break – just enough time to squeeze in some summer fun without giving them the chance to begin to think…and complain…about the common “I’m bored” and ”there’s nothing to do” that come along with a long summer break. By the time my bank account starts to scream for help…*wahla!* school is back in session. It’s a win, win situation for the parents and the kids alike!  

This year has been a year full of challenges but mostly a year of accomplishments. Looking at pictures it feels unreal what a difference a year can make, they have grown and matured so much! But since ‘a pictures is worth a thousand words’…here’s a before and after-

First and last day of 6^th and 4^th grades for Abdiel, Adrián and Julissa:

And first and last day of 9th grade for Jovan:

Here’s a rundown of what the year was like for each of my four Minions…

Jovan: This year was a big year for Jovan; the first of four of the most exciting and important years of his life – his first year of HS! It was so exciting and emotional to see my first born start 9^th grade, but it was also nervous wracking because Jovan (like the rest of my kids) went to the same school from Kindergarten to 8^th grade, so when he graduated last summer, he did so with most of the same classmates that he started with on that first day of kindergarten. This year he wasn’t just starting a new school with new teachers and new surroundings, but he was starting with new classmates, that meant having to develop new friendships. But Jovan has an amazing personality and is a complete extrovert, so he started this year strong! He’s attending a vocational school and at the beginning of the year was able to choose five trades that he wanted to work on for the next four years. He was super excited when his was placed on his first choice – Auto Tech. It was the right choice for him…fixing cars is definitely his passion and he wears those greasy, black nails (which he’s not allowed to touch the walls with) with pride!

But although Jovan started this year strong with amazing grades, new friends and playing for the school’s football team, he also had his struggles. When the second quarter came around and the grades came in the mail, I about freaked out! Jovan was literally failing not one or two, but three of the main subjects; English, History and Math. I was so utterly disappointed. How could this be? What happened to the high honors student that graduated 8^th grade a few months ago?! So I took action – there was no way my son would stay back! – so I took away what I thought was a distraction to him; cell phone, video games and TV time until the next progress report. It worked. He worked very hard to get those grades up, which included many days of after school help, but by the next term he had brought up his grades and all was good.

I was not exaggerating when I said it was a BIG year lol! Grade 9 down…three more years to go! I thought that grade school flew by, but I was never prepared to find out how quickly four years of HS go *sigh*.

Abdiel & Adrián: 6^th grade down and now officially a middle schoolers <--- (yup, I just totally made that up lol)! Same school, different academy. They started their year off with their first overnight school field trip with their classmates to Sargent Center in, NH. Although Adrián struggled a little throughout the year, they both worked really hard and ended the year with very good grades :). This is the second year that they’ve been together in the same classroom and at first I thought it wasn’t a good idea, but now I know that it was the best decision ever! They complement each other very well – when one of them struggles with an assignment the other is there to help or brainstorm together, at very least. They definitely have each other’s back and love seeing them grow closer.

Julissa: My goal this year is to get blue cloud at least three times a week” – and she did it, she reached her goal! Reaching blue cloud is challenging; I always say that a student has to be a statue to reach that status lol, so if getting blue cloud once a week is good, achieving it three times a week is amazing! I’m not going to lie, I had my doubts that she would reach it but getting the schools emails more than three times a week proved me wrong. I got an urgent call at work one day, it was Julissa's teacher, she was calling to tell me how much of an asset Julissa was to her classroom … “a hard worker, always helping her classmates”...yup that’s my girl – my kind-hearted, hard worker, goal kicker, High Honors kind of girl! Watch out 5th grade ;).

What a year! My kiddos have worked long and hard! They have struggled but they have persevered. I am one proud Mamma :).

See you in a month or so, 10^th, 7^th and 5^th grades…now, let the summer fun begin!

~ Yamilka ~

My First Race Experience

I did it – I ran my first 6K yesterday and I crossed the finish line!

I’m  to be able to check this off my bucket list, where it has been for the past five plus years. Running does not come easy to me, so it’s no surprise that it has taken me this long to check this off my list.

This is not the first race I have signed up for, either; I’ve signed up for a couple of races in the past, start “training” but then as the days and weeks would pass, I would start to skip runs here and there (even though I knew I was starting to get better) until one day I would just give up training altogether. Then when race day would roll around and I would decide not to go because I “wasn’t ready”. But this time was different. This time I had the support of my best friend, Celia, who pushed me to go out and run and continue training. During the three plus months of training we didn’t train together once, but she took it upon herself to text to check up on me on a daily basis. Did I run every day? No. But it was encouraging to know that I had someone who was keeping me accountable…someone that I had to answer to, if you might.

The race that I signed up for was a 6K race in honor of six firefighters who gave their lives trying to save the lives of others in a Worcester, MA warehouse fire. I had been asking my 14 year old, Jovan, to sign up to run with me, which reluctantly agreed to do, but he later chose to be volunteer passing out water to the runners with his high school’s football team :). I’m so proud of that kid! So on Saturday, the day before the race, I picked up my shirt and participant number. I waited until the last minute to sign up (procrastination at its best lol), hence the high participant number – 1189.

On race day all I could think of was ‘*I’m so not ready for this*!’… I didn’t feel ready at all! But I showed up and that was a milestone on its own. Seeing all the runners there was a little overwhelming at first and it made me a little nervous to know that I would be running among all those athletes!  I made it my goal to just get to the finish line. That’s it. 

When the race started I started off easy but it was a crazy hot day and I started feeling it soon after. But I kept pushing...except on the hills. Them hills were a killer!

Half way through the race, I could hear this "cling cling cling" noise coming from behind me, and when they passed me I saw that the noise was coming from the equipment of these firefighters who were running fully dressed and equipped in fire-fighting gear. I don't how they could do it in the horrible heat we were running in! They passed me, but they inspired me to keep going...

After crossing the finish line I had sort of a hard time catching my breath and that sort of scared the heck out of me. It literally felt like I was going to faint! I was probably overheated because after pouring some water on my head I felt much better. I about died a little and my finish line pictures shows exactly that lol. BUT I finished!

So here's my picture at the finish line...

After I was able to catch my breath...

With the one who pushed me...

This was the first race, but it definitely won't be my last. Seeing everyone running around you, the crowd cheering for you and the rest of the runners at the finish line, gives you an euphoric feeling that I haven't experienced before. And that feeling of finishing a race is just empowering! 

After signing up for this event, I kept saying that I didn't want to be last at the finish line. Being last would be too shameful! I was in fact, not last - I finished the race in 56 minutes and 9 seconds and there were a couple hundred people that finished after me. But I learned something yesterday; I learned that in a race, it doesn't matter if you're first or last, what's more important is crossing that finish line.

~ Yamilka ~