2nd Grade

Up until this year, Alex has breezed his way through school. His teachers have adored him, he's excelled way beyond his grade level and was placed in GT in Kindergarten. Now, here we are in second grade, which happens to be the first year that report card grades are numbers as opposed to letters and we are struggling. He's certainly not struggling to learn the second grade material, he's struggling with the most BASIC tasks. His handwriting is atrocious. He naturally rushes through the classwork because it is simple which in turn makes his handwriting even worse than ordinary. He is bringing home class work with failing grades regularly. He rushes through the most SIMPLE assignments and ends up getting half the questions wrong because of it, either that or he completely skips questions, or entire pages...during class. Something I have no control over. Up until this year his teachers have been so accepting of handwriting weakness, even told me how in the big picture it's not that important, but it is. He's missing questions because his "a"'s look like "u"'s, and his "g"'s look like "Y"'s. Silly stuff that I know is important, but really?? Important enough for my son to fail? I'm so upset. I don't know what to do other than keep these failing papers and make him redo them on the weekends...which we WILL be doing this weekend. So far second grade has not been about learning academics, it's been 100% about learning to conform. I know he needs to learn this. It just makes me so sad to see him struggle with work that he was able to do in KINDERGARTEN, meanwhile, he's spending so much time on these BASIC tasks that it really feels like he's missing out on learning new things...learning about the things that he sooo desperately wants to learn about. I feel like he's a sponge that's drying up while dotting his i's, and perfecting his handwriting. I know his interest in learning is going to slowly diminish, it's only natural. I want to pull him out of class and feed that thirst, but I can't

Day 5 - The Love Dare

Love is not rude.

Day 5
Ask your spouse to tell you three things that cause him or her to be uncomfortable or irritated with you. You must do so without attacking them or justifying your behavior. This is from their perspective only.

Ick. I was NOT looking forward to this one. The kids on the other hand, LOVED the thought of picking each other apart. I had to have a conversation with them about the purpose of this challenge, because on the surface, it really just appeared to be another way to start an argument. I *think* they got it. Their lists were fairly predictable, although Ashley did get a little carried away and came up with 5 instead of 3...and then tacked the paper to his wall. Lovely. Today I'm going to ask her for a redo, and for her not be so harsh in her choice of words.

Mark and I didn't get around to this challenge until late last night, and ended up staying up past midnight discussing. Last night I realized that I had built this challenge up so much in my mind that I was actually dreading having to bring it up. I guess my fears were that I was going to learn something about myself that would be hard to hear, and more specifically, hard to change. I was also not looking forward to the possibility of hurting Mark's feelings. I now realize that my fears were much larger than they needed to be. We had an extremely productive conversation, and learned a little bit about each other. Really, our issues with each other are so, so tiny when weighed with what we love about each other. And with every item on each of our lists, we discovered that in order to have what we have in our life together, these things are necessary on at least some level. They could certainly improve, but they are there only as a result of the efforts we make for our family. Behind each irritant is a good intention, and that leaves me feeling oh so thankful.

Conversations with Alex

This morning we were discussing the precautions that we need to take with Abby now that she's on a special diet to prevent her allergies and how easy it would be for her to get ahold of the other dogs food. After a long concentrated facial expression, Alex says "Sometimes dogs can be very fragile, just like frogs." ????

Another conversation this morning...we were discussing the different methods of plant proppegation and I asked him if he remembers how we propegated our Sago Palms. He thought for a minute, gave me a silly look and said "You put the lime in the coconut?"

After the propegation conversation, he said he'd like to do a science project at school one day to test how a plant would grow in different soil types and one test could be "just water with plant vitamins".

I just LOVE how a 5 minute conversation with him can be so entertaining and so educational all at the same time.

Day 4 - The Love Dare

Love is Thoughtful

Day 4 Challenge:

Contact your spouse sometime during the business of the day. Have no agenda other than asking how he or she is doing and if there is anything you could do for them.


Day 4 was an all around challenge, but not necessarily challenge specific. Between the stressors of work, the sick dog, the leaking pool (a whole other post), and children with cabin fever Mark and I were not exactly on the same page yesterday. We took Abbie to the vet together mid-day and made a trip to Pets Mart...so I decided that yesterday was not a good day for this challenge. I think it would have been more irritating than anything to get a phone call in the short span of time that we were not at home together and needing to catch up with work to see how the other's day was going. I know that sounds somewhat shallow, but really, despite my feeling as though I was at work for 12 hours yesterday, I was really only there for 3. We will take this challenge and throw it in on a random day.

Alex, my little buddy, had no problem with today's challenge. He has really surprised me these last few days. He's gone from complete challenge pessimism, to challenge king. He is always the first to ask what the next days challenge will be, and always the first to accomplish it. Yesterday, on three separate occasions, he asked each of us how our day was. I'm so impressed with how he's taken hold of this challenge and made it his own.

I'm not looking forward to the Day 5 challenge today, but I'm working on coming to terms with it.

Day 3 - The Love Dare

Day 3: Whatever you put your time, energy, and money into will become more important to you. It’s hard to care for something you are not investing in. Along with restraining from negative comments, buy your spouse something that says, “I was thinking of you today.”

This was tougher than I anticipated. I really wanted to buy something meaningful, yet inexpensive and could not think of anything "worthy". I think I was over thinking it most of the day. I ended up buying all the ingredients for a new recipe for stuffed jalapenos (with bacon!!). Last night was poker night, so I waited until about 9:00 to give him his gift so he could share them with his friends.

Mark came home with one of my favorite bottles of wine, which I will enjoy this evening after work. Great choice, Mark!!

Alex started his gift for Ashley the night before, almost immediately after I announced the next day's challenge. He wrote her a poem and drew a colorful picture to go along with it.
Ashley drew Alex a picture...I know there's a name for it, I just can't think of it...anyway, she spelled his name and each letter was created with pictures that define Alex's favorite things. I will have to post a picture of it in lieu of trying to describe it. Very sweet!

Day 3 was another success! On to Day 4!

Oh, and on another note, yesterday's coffee surprise/sculpture from Mark was "MMMMPPA!!!" spelled with toothpicks. The dots on the exclamation points were coffee beans. He's such a sweetie.

Day 2 - The Love Dare

Day 2 - Todays challenge was to do at least one unexpected gesture of kindness. Another fairly simple task, but I have to say, just spending the day thinking of something that would make Mark smile was eye opening. It forced me to think about him and his needs most of the day, which is always a good thing. This morning when I woke up, I came downstairs to my awaiting mug for coffee. Every morning I find something silly that Mark has done with my cup. Most mornings he had a little buddha figurine hiding underneath, but there have been many mornings I come down to find a silly mug sculpture with several items stacked 2 feet high with my mug and buddha at the bottom. Or, I'll find something silly inside my mug like a bottle of vitamins. Yesterday he made a smiley face with my mug as the nose, the creamer and sugar as the eyes and toothpicks for the smile. I can't even begin to express what that simple daily gesture does to start my day. I always wake up with a smile. This morning my grin was ear to ear when I found a message formed by toothpicks that said "I love Jamie". What really got me was the realization that I didn't know if he had done this for the "challenge" or just because. I feel so loved to actually have to ponder that question.

Mark had to go in to the office today and of course he rode his new motorcycle. On the two or so occasions that he has gone in and rode his bike, I have asked him to call me, or text me so I know he made it safe, I always worry about him in traffic on that little bike. This morning he made it out the door without me asking him to let me know he was safe. About 30 minutes later I get a message from him saying he's safe and he loves me. Another kind gesture that I'm pondering as to whether or not it was part of the challenge. I took to heart a lot about my husband today. What I learned today was to open my eyes and see what is right in front of me. This challenge has not forced us to do things we don't normally already do, it has forced us to see what is already there and take it to heart.

For my kind gesture to Mark today I couldn't decide what to do until I remembered the other day discussing my messy desk with him. I was analyzing my Myers-Briggs personality test with him, which mentioned a cluttery desk. I told him how different we were in that respect, and how clean his desk always is. Apparently, he doesn't think so. He actually told me he rarely ever cleans his desk. I remembered that today and decided to clean his desk. I dusted his monitors, desk, lamp, etc., cleaned between all of the keys on his keyboards and just did a basic clean up. Yeah, I know, nothing big, but honestly, it was hard to think of something out of the ordinary and simple that he wouldn't expect. He was very happy and thankful of course.

The kiddos actually completed today's challenge as well. Ashley's friend dropped off her straightening iron in the mailbox early this morning and Alex went to get it for her (in his underwear no less). And later on in the afternoon, Ashley bought him some candy at the Rec. Center. I'm so proud of my little monkeys! They are doing such a good job with our challenges!! I can't wait to see what's next.

Day 1 - The Love Dare

Today is day 2 of The Love Dare, but I HAVE to post about Day 1 now while it's still fresh in my mind. I have to make this short and sweet since I'm already running late getting ready for work.

I prepared the kids and Mark for Day 1 the night before. Initially, Alex was completely turned off to it. He could not imagine not saying a single negative thing all day to Ash...and then the thought of 40 days of similar challenges had him up in arms. "No, I'm not doing it, that's too long" I was finally able to talk him in to it, by encouraging him to just look at each day individually. I had him only focus on tomorrows task. When he finally agreed, I was so proud of him...but really I knew an entire day of nothing negative towards his sister was an incredible task.

I'm happy, proud and elated to say that Alex and Ashley made it through the ENTIRE day without saying a single negative word. What amazed me most was hearing Alex talk about this challenge and how it made him happy to be positive, and then, he got it. He told me that he could see how this was so easy that it wouldn't be that big of a deal to just make it a habit everyday, and not just on this "challenge" day. My heart swelled. He GOT IT!!!!

Mark and I made it through the day just as easily as I suspected. We are typically positive people and always make that effort.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the challenge and what lessons we have in store.

Now, I'm off to work before it gets any later.

Promises, promises

Yeah, it's been a month, what can I say.

Life has been full speed ahead the past few weeks. With basketball, football and work, it's difficult to find the time for the MANY things I want to do.

I just celebrated my 32nd birthday, which was wonderful. I have such an amazing family, and network of friends. My friend Jess was in town from Washington for a few days and I am so thankful I was able to spend some time with her. We had dinner with a group of friends that I really don't see often enough, and the following day (my birthday) she came out to the house with her son Nicholas. They brought me the most beautiful roses in pink, red, orange and yellow. Probably the most beautiful roses I've ever received. The kiddos did some swimming while Jess and I did as much catching up as humanly possible in what little time we had, but I enjoyed our time none the less. Being with friends that night before REALLY made me realize how important it is to have friendships. I really don't take enough time for my friends. Truthfully, I don't take ANY time. I'm working on it.

Alex had his end of season playoffs for football this morning. No superbowl win this season, but they made major improvements throughout the season. We are not contemplating tackle football. I'm not sure he's ready for that, despite how insistent he is about it. We'll see what happens, and possibly consider it. This summer I signed him up for a swim team in town. He'll be practicing four days a week, and meets most Saturdays. I know he will do well. This boy has been a fish since he was tiny, and now that we have the pool, all he wants to do is race. I've timed him from one end of the pool to the other probably 50 times already this season and it's only just begun. I'm anxious to see him compete!

Last night Mark bought us a new movie camera. I am SO EXCITED! No more tapes! This thing is the size of my palm and super easy to use. I recorded some footage of Alex's football games this morning, but have yet to download them and check out the quality. I guess that's my next project. Now I have to figure out how to take pictures AND video without growing extra limbs.

I'll post video as soon as I can!

Boo-buh

The newest smile in the Urben household:



And the note we had to leave for the tooth fairy, since Alex managed to misplace his tooth. For the record, the kid can write much neater than this, promise, he just chooses not to. I suppose it's a boy thing.





I was really looking forward to him having a silly lisp once both front teeth were gone, but nooooo, he doesn't sound different at all. I even tried getting him to say "sister susie sittin on a thistle" but nothing. Oh well, what we're missing out on with the silly lisp, we're making up for in cuteness. Just look at that smile. He's just so precious.

A few nights later, he got all ready for bed and was so proud to show us that he had his clothes all laid out for the next day of school, and here is what we walk in to find:







Notice he's even "drawing" a picture with his oversized pencil. Silly goose! This kid is a constant source of laughter and entertainment.

Organization - The Budget

So, my newest obsession these days is money management, better known as BUDGETING. The term budget has only ever been a part of my vocab when referring to things I don't do. Mark and I are in our 10th year of marriage and undeniably this is an embarrassing little tid bit to share, but once again, this is Jamie, queen of all things backwards. I don't typically do things in the correct order, in fact, I think I'd make a great poster child for Experiential Learning Cycles, (maybe not, I don't think there's a 10 stage learning cycle). Better late than never, right? Just think of all that I have learned from NOT budgeting all these years, think of all that gusto now that I've finally found the last stage of said learning cycle.

The scoop...I now have a four page budgeting spreadsheet, along with two additional 2-page spreadsheets for the kids to manage their money as well. (If they inherited their momma's backward tendencies they need to start their experiential Learning cycle a bit early, right?) We're using a little bit of Dave Ramsey's envelope budgeting method, an ounce of my friend A's method and a dash of my own method that seems to be evolving on a daily basis. Really, it's all just common sense, with a few tools that force you to see what you thought you really didn't want to...but in the process you've realized the more you see the better you feel. I could compare it to good housekeeping- Everything has a place; but instead of the "stuff" having a place, we're talking about dollars. Instead of cramming everything in a closet for the instant gratification, we're planning where it all needs to go. Imagine that!
No, this is not rocket science.
Yes, we've always know we should be doing this.
No, you cannot have any of our money when we're rich like Thurston Howell.

We are super excited about this, and have spent a LOT of time planning and adding and getting real. More than anything though, I'm excited that our kids will get to see what it's like to WANT, and then to GET once they've achieved their goals, instead of wanting and then magically getting.
For example, last night we went out to dinner, (our planned Friday night dinner) and the kids both ordered sodas with their meals (a Friday treat). Fast forward...we're on our way home and they ask to stop at Mc Donalds for an ice cream cone. I told them that we already spent our budgeted out to dinner money for the night, but maybe next time if that's what they want to do they can order water with dinner and use that money for ice cream afterwards. They didn't push the subject because how can you, once the money is gone, it's gone, there is no other option.
If we don't have the money for something, there's no reason they shouldn't know that. If it doesn't fit within our budget, they should know that. We are teaching them nothing about being responsible with money by shielding them from the fact that YES, we do have a limited amount of money. With that being said, they now have a bi-weekly paycheck, just like Mark and I, that they have to manage. They have a register where they keep track of their money, just like a check register. They also have a savings register where they deposit 10% of their "paycheck" for whatever it is that they are saving for...for Ash it's a car. Alex doesn't have anything he's saving for yet, but that's the cool part, it doesn't always have to be for something he wants now, it can be for something unplanned. The point is to get them to experience the thinking process that should go along with spending money, which up until now, has only been an action...for kids and parents alike.

A glimpse of our Christmas

1 MORE day...AGAIN

What is wrong with me!??? I can't seem to remember ANYTHING these days, really, it's bad. I find myself walking around in circles trying to remember what exactly it was that I was doing... that bubbling sound, what is it...it's the pasta overcooking in WATER on the stove top, oh yeah, dinner. You have a basketball game? What, you mean TODAY? OH yeah. See the four bowls on the counter over there... you were feeding the dogs, REMEMBER??? Oh yeah, that.

And then there's today. It was after noon and Mark had still not called to say he was on his way home, I was getting a little worried. A hunting trip with four children pretending to be adults (three of which are brothers), I have to admit, does scare me a little...so it's late, he still hasn't called. I'm imagining things I really don't want to be imagining so I send him a text: "When do you think you'll be home?"
Seconds later, I get his response "Tomorrow in time for dinner."

HUH?? Am I really THAT bad?? How did I forget what day my husband, my best friend, with whom I've missed dearly is coming home?? That's beyond sad, it's just plain pathetic. Last night I told the kids daddy would be home this afternoon and they made him huge signs and put them up in the garage where he'd see them as soon as he got home. They were both anxious to see their daddy today. And now I get the wonderful job of telling them that their mom is a moron and can't remember jack.
Maybe I need to start taking my vitamins again.

On a happier note, here's the adorable sign Ashley made on huge post it poster paper:



In case you can't read it, it says:

Dear Daddy,

While you were gone we made friendship mix! Yummy! (and ate it all without you!) Haha!
Alex went to a party for Connor at Jags! He hurt his toe very badly (obviously) But he had fun :D
He got 100 on his math/shapes test. Dudley farted about 10 million times, Abby never stopped barking.
Sarge slept with Sissy. Sadie was a good girl, of course, and Ashley read A Christmas Carol.
Alex can successfully sing all of Jingle Bells! Haha…again! Ashley played in her basketball game against
Running Brushy. They owned! Her team went shopping and wrapped presents for the family they adopted and much,
Much more!

Love Alex and Ashley!

Traditions

It's official, I'm in the Christmas spirit! Alex has been really pushing me to get out the decorations, and after several days of "Maybe, if we have time" tonight I was finally talked in to it. I guess this is a perfect example of what kids can do for the Christmas spirit. After putting on a nice Christmas scent, begrudgingly, I made my way up to the attic and started hauling out the tubs of decorations and after about 5 minutes of of "OH, I FORGOT ABOUT THAT!" and "OH MOMMA, LOOK!" I was thoughroughly enjoying myself. Now a couple of hours later, I'm giddy with excitement about all of the fun times ahead of us. In a few minutes we'll sit down with our hot cocoa and continue listening to Christmas music. And maybe, just maybe, we'll put on A Christmas Story. Oh how I love this time of year, it brings back so many warm memories and I can't help but want to do it all over again with my children.

And suddenly it's December

Wow, it's been so long since I've blogged, it's hard to know where to begin! About two months ago my hard drive crashed, FINALLY, I'm back up and running and have so much to blog about. I really need to get back to blogging more often, aside from family and friends being out of the loop, I MISS IT!

So, I guess in order to get caught up, I should just run down the list of things going on in the Urben household. For starters, YES, the pool is complete, and has been for quite some time, however, we are STILL waiting on the right retaining wall blocks to be delivered. Meanwhile, the wrong blocks are still taking up a large portion of the driveway. A few weekends ago, Mark and I sodded the backyard, and nearly killed ourselves doing so. Let me just say, that is something I will NEVER do again. We worked for over ten hours straight taking no more than 15 minutes here and there for breaks. It took me days to recover...just another reminder that I am completely out of shape. But hey, the grass looks fantastic. We decided to go with Jamur Zoysia, a drought tolerant, traffic tolerant and slow growing gorgeous turf that should save us a whole heck of a lot of time and money in the long run.
We also decided to rock the back stretch of yard in lieu of trying to keep sod alive. During heavy rainstorms we have a full on flowing river that runs the back four or so feet of the yard. We decided to just let it do its thing and now it can run freely through the rocks without tearing up our yard, or creating a mud hole for the dogs to play in. We used about 10-12 truck loads of 2-3 inch rock which equates to about 10-12 tons. Another project we're so thankful to be done with!

I'm not sure what I've updated about the kids, so if I repeat myself, forgive me.

Ashley was on the A team for Volleyball and finished her season a couple of weeks ago. She had such a blast playing for the team, and now can't decide which sport she loves most, basketball or volleyball. Basketball tryouts were last week and we are so proud of our girl for once again, making the A team! Her first game is tonight and I am really looking forward to it.
Along with basketball practice every morning at 7:15, she's also doing training with Magic Volleyball, a club out of Round Rock that practices 4 hours each week. She has already made soooo much progress with this group, I can't imagine all that she'll learn between now and April.
As for school, she's doing SUPER. 7th grade is typically a tough year for kids, but so far that hasn't phased her a bit. On her first report card she had all A's and two B's (an 88 and 89). While this is her first time to not make honor roll, I'm so so proud of her holding it all together so well with sports, friends and boyfriends (ugh, yes, I said boyfriends).

As for Mr. Alex, he just finished his NFL flag football season and his team ended up with the Super Bowl win. He's so proud of his trophy, he seriously didn't put it down for an entire day. He loves riding his new bike that we bought him for his birthday and spends a lot of time playing wii and his Tony Hawk X Box game. He's doing well in school, no problems to speak of. Now that football is over he's itching to try something new. He's mentioned BMX and Boy Scouts, both of which I have no clue about. I've tried looking in to BMX, but I'm not sure I get it. It seems that you just show up to the track, practice and then jump in on races? If anyone knows anything about this HELP!

Mark is still at Apple...thank goodness! I think he's meshed well with the Apple crowd and is enjoying himself as much as one possibly can going to work each day.

He's still hosting poker every other Thursday with the same group of guys. They are still having a blast pretending they're not old farts for one night every two weeks.
He's also still working out regularly and looks and feels better than he has in his entire life. His dedication to his health and fitness such and inspiration to me. And I must say, I'm certain that I have the best looking husband ever.

Ahhh, that feels better even if it is only a half ass update. Now at least I can start fresh update as things come up without feeling like I can't because it's been so long!
At some point I need to upload pictures...maybe I'll find some time this weekend.

School and then some

Yes, I'm still here. Nope, I'm not too soggy from swimming to sit my toukus down and blog... more on that further down. School started on Monday, and our schedules are slowly getting back to "normal"...whatever that may be. They are both very happy to be back at school, although they certainly wouldn't complain if they had just a wee bit more time to sleep in and enjoy the nothingness of summertime. We met all of their teachers...Ash has 9, YES 9 teachers that we met at open house, and Alex has a sweetheart of a teacher whom he has really taking a liking to. On Thursday, Miss Ash turned 12 years old, and on the same day, learned that she made the 7th grade Volleyball team. She is just thrilled as can be. She's finally old enough for school sports! We've waited a long time for this, and can't wait for it to begin. This fall we'll be busy with Volleyball, and then Basketball shortly thereafter, and meanwhile, we're also waiting on Alex's flag football season to begin. I signed him up a few weeks ago, and he's anxiously awaiting the phone call from his coach.

I'm working about 6 hours a day, and currently I'm on a project that requires more than 6 hours a day, so I'm working from home in the afternoon/evenings. It's certainly a busy time for us.

On the not so soggy toukus front..The pool is STILL not complete, believe it or not. We're still waiting on the decking to be poured, at which time we'll begin building the retaining wall and deciding what on earth to do with the dirt we had them leave behind. For now it makes a great playscape for the dogs. Abby has made it crystal clear that SHE is the Queen of the HIll.
The pool, better known as the muddy puddle, is still not completely full, not for lack of water pressure, but lack of contractors living up to their promises. For two weeks now, we've had it 3/4 full. For two weeks now, we've been collecting leaves, mud, mosquito larvae and at least 50 different types of bacteria. Our last promise was that we'd have our concrete poured on Friday and have the holiday weekend to enjoy our new COMPLETE pool. Wrong again. Our crap pit still sits full of crap pit type stuff.

Meanwhile, yesterday Mark installed outdoor speakers by the pool and a massive spotlight to light the pool area. I'd say we're a weeee bit anxious, don'tcha think?

Testing, One, Two

Friday's progress proved to be just enough for a little fun. Since they're still working on backfilling, we could only fill the pool to the level of the backfill....which proved to be JUST enough. Alex and his two neighbor friends had a BLAST swimming, and I had just as much fun watching. THIS is what it's all about!

Friday night: Excuse the poor quality...I was using a cheapy camera.

Saturday Morning, crack of dawn, 6:30 to be exact, my darling husband set out to purchase the remaining tools and supplies for building the fence. With the help of Joe the magnificent, we spent the next 14 hours building our fence. And believe it or not, we actually had FUN. My husband is amazing. I'm just in awe at his abilities. No problem was too complex. And every solution turned out to be a masterpiece. I'm dead, I'm sore, I'm weak, but more than anything I'm SO PROUD of us!!!

Catch Phrase

We've been in to playing Catch Phrase lately. Basically, Catch Phrase is a game where you try to get the other people on your team to guess the word you're trying to describe before the timer goes off. The three of us play a modified version, where we all guess, while one person describes. No points. Just some fun.
Alex gets a word and here's how it went today:

Alex: Ok, the first word is frozen water.
Ash: ICE!
Alex: YES!! Ok, second word is a three dimensional square.
Ash: CUBE!...ICE CUBE!!!!
Alex: YES!!!

(Mom Picks jaw up off the tile floor)
WOW! THREE DIMENSIONAL SQUARE??!!! 6 years old I tell ya, SIX!

Easy come, Easy go

I can't believe I forgot to post this!

While the kids and I were visiting Nana's last week we spent a great deal of time swimming in the lake, lounging in the sun. All week the kids begged and begged for me to take them out on the boat for a tube ride. Fine. Lets do it. So I'm weaving all over the lake, submitting to their pleas for me to go faster, when suddenly both kids scream STOP! STOP! Frightened that I'd just injured a child I throw it in neutral, and turn around to see Alex screaming and blood flowing down his chin. All OVER his chin. As you might imagine, I was horrified at what I might find at the end of the rope once I finished pulling the kids in. About halfway through pulling them in, my adrenaline began to settle when I realized that they were LAUGHING, not screaming with fear.

They're finally at the back of the boat, where the blood is clearly visible, and clearly flowing and I can't for the life of me figure out why he's laughing and not crying! Finally, he yells, "I lost my tooth!!! I lost my tooth!" And proceeds to hand me his little sliver of a tooth, jump back in the float, bloody face and all, and yell, "lets go!".
And so I went.

Mid Summer

I'm still trying to figure out how this summer has gone by so fast. It's late July, and already time to start school shopping. Good grief, where does the time go!

So here I am, once again, on an endless search for that perfect part time, close to home, no nights, no weekends, all school holidays off kind of job. In case you're wondering, NO, IT DOES NOT EXIST! Everyday, first thing in the morning I start my search, craigslist, Monster, Statesman, etc. And each morning, I end my search wondering if I'm just disillusioned by my hopes of finding that perfect job. The jobs that don't require weekends are the ones that run in to the evening hours, both of which I won't even consider. I've been applying for jobs through the school district for over a year now, with no luck. In fact, today, I applied for another Pre-K assistant position at a local elementary. This time I included a cover letter, all but begging for the chance to work with children. Problem is, (I'm assuming) I don't have any "formal" experience working with children. Nevermind the two amazing well adjusted children that sit in the next room. I've even resorted to searching for preschool jobs. I called up the private school down the street only to find out they're fully staffed. My other options are a bit frigtening. How can I work somewhere that I wouldn't even consider taking my children? And nevermind the pay.
I never imagined myself in this sort of predicament...unable to find a low paying job working with children. Huh?

Anyway, back to summer. The kids and I (plus Savannah and four dogs) just got home from Dads. In between the time I was lounging and playing in the lake, I painted their bathroom cabinets and installed new hinges and hanldes. They definitely look better, but I still need to do some fine tuning when we go back this weekend.

While we were gone, Mark spent a majority of his time building a privacy fence in order to bring the yard up to code for the pool. I'm amazed at what this man can do. I really don't think their is a single project he couldn't tackle on his own. Am I the only one who finds that extremely attractive?? I am so proud of this husband of mine.

As for the pool, just as we suspected, the 25th was too good to be true, and they've bumped it back a few weeks. Apparently, both crews have hit rock on their current digs, and this has put us behind schedule. We're not worried about it, in fact after our experience with contractors and their "estimated dates" we fully expected it.

That's it for now, we're off to the orthodontist.

Sweet little nothings

Yesterday, Alex comes inside with a big grin on his face:

"Momma, I bet you don't know where I just was...
I was in the front yard pulling weeds." *Grin*

"You know, our Susans are falling over?" (Our flowers, the Black Eyed Susans, he calls them our Susans) "I think we need to figure out how to make them stand back up again."

With a proud momma grin, "Ok sweetie, lets go find a stake and see if we can do that."




And this morning he wakes up, makes his usual dash for the bathroom closest to me. (because this is just what he does, I suppose he likes to find me first, then run for the porcelin) Even first thing in the morning he's full of spunk and without fail he tells me something silly in his rough little morning boy voice. His wit never rests.
From the bathroom in the same sleepy voice:

Boy, men sure can pee a lot.
You know, the other morning I peed for like 2 minutes.
I'm sure it was at least a gallon or so.

And then he runs off in his Cars themed underwear to watch some morning cartoons.