As usual, time flies on wings of lightening

It is June and school will be out in 7 days. The kids are excited and so am I. We are anxious to spend lazy days here at home and eat popcicles and jump on our new trampoline. But also, to run around places we never go and stay up late and go on trips. I think we all love summer.
Things have drastically changed here at our house. In the last 3 months we have lost 2 children living at our house. Add that to Taylor being gone and suddenly the Emery house has 2 adults and 3 children instead of six children. It feels so quiet here. Although the children have plenty of friends to fill the house with noise and chaos.
Ross has been living with his aunt and uncle for almost 3 months now. At first, it was hard to adjust to the change but our family knows that he is happy and doing really well there. The difficulties that he lived with us were hieghtened by his needing so much attention. With his aunt having only one teenager, she is a fierce advocate for Ross at home and in school. We get to hang out and play with Ross usually once a month and we truly enjoy our time with him. He is a wonderful boy.
Allison turned 18 in March and by May, it was obvious that she needed to test her wings somewhere outside of the Emery house. She has been living with a family nearby and seems to be making huge strides to take control of her own life. She will be finishing her high schooling by the end of the summer and will jump straight into college. She wants to study criminology and I think she will do really well. She is also super talented with art and has tentatively been asked to paint a mural for a local restaurant.
Cameron is finishing up his freshman year at Sandy High. Cameron has a natural ability to fix things, figure stuff out, and genuinely be fun to be with. He is designing our backyard fire pit and is having fun with friends.
Sarah will be 10 soon. She loves hanging out with friends and doing art stuff. She has a pet fish, a beta named peppermint who she dearly loves. She reads on a 7th grade level and is a true definition of a bookworm. She has a tender heart and a love for all people.
Rylee is 7 and has a love of jokes, pranks, etc. He likes to see who he can mess with. Today in primary, his teacher said he spent the class making beatbox sounds. But they let him do it because in between the sounds, he was correctly answering the questions. haha So I guess he marches to the beat of his own beatbox. What fun!
Scott is working for Nike so the kids are enjoying the half price Nike shoes. He has a long commute but loves the job so we are happy to see him when we can. He is finishing up the job there and is excited that he got to be there to help facilitate the creation and launching of their new Nike plus Training and Basketball software and shoes.
I am finishing up my first year as a Prevention Specialist at the middle school. It has been a great year with ups and downs and great learning on my part. I am excited to continue helping at risk kiddos and learning from them as I go. I love my kids and I love helping other kids too. I am a lucky person.