Mia's Birthday Present

Almost forgot. Here's pictures of the birthday gift I did for Seth's friend Mia. Her party is this weekend at the Kohl's Children's museum. I just took a pink plastic flower pot that I had laying around. Put her name and a cute flower on it and then filled it with all kinds of fun girly stuff. I hope she enjoys it.

Tax Day

Hope everyone has their taxes done. We do and we've already received both refunds. Walgreen's Photo Center has an on-line special today. If you type in the code word TAXDAY in the coupon section you can get 15 4x6 photos for free. Needless to say I took advantage of that deal. My shipment from Uppercase Living is scheduled to arrive today so later in the week I will be busy putting things up on the wall and making some other items to use at my open house later this month.

Marc and I celebrated 7 years of marriage yesterday. He went to basketball and brought home Taco Bell for dinner. We did go to Applebee's over the weekend (with Seth) and we bought the iPod for each other so it was a GOOD anniversary. We've been spending the last couple of weekends burning songs off our CDs to put on the iPod. We've currently got over 300 songs and let me tell you between my collection and Marc's it's quite an eclectic mix.

Seth came down with pink eye on April 4th and then on the 7th I came down with a sinus infection so we both had to visit the doctor. Yesterday I got a call from the high school and Suzanne has pink eye now. She's been putting drops in her eyes since yesterday afternoon and it's starting to look much better. She'll hopefully be able to go back to school tomorrow. Unfortunately she was going to try out for BGHS Poms but the workshops were yesterday and today with tryouts on Thursday. Doesn't look like she'll be able to do it now. Oh well there's always next year.

Seth and I are going to see Dr. Skale (dentist) after I pick him up this afternoon. Both of us have small cavities that need to be taken care of. Katie is still complaining of her one tooth hurting when she eats and brushes so I'm taking her with us as well. If necessary I'll reschedule my appointment for next week since I have to take Suzanne anyway.

Why is it that April and May seem to get so busy?? Olivia had a drama club assembly last Friday and Seth and I went to see it. She did really well. She spoke clearly and slowly so she was easy to understand. Can't say that about all the others though, stage nerves I guess. Tonight their is a Puppet Team open house at church and Katie wants to go to that. She's thinking of joining the team and wants to check it out. Next week Olivia has a choir concert that I'll be going to and then on May 5th (Happy Birthday Randi!) is Katie's last band concert for the year. Marc's parents are back from Florida and they are coming up on April 25th and will spend the weekend with us.

Marc booked his flight to Texas. He's leaving on May 10th and Matthew will pick him up at the airport and they will drive back here. They'll be home sometime on the 11th and I'm sure they'll be exhausted. I know Matthew has a lot of things he wants to do and people he wants to see before he has to head back on the 25th or 26th. He's shipping out to Kuwait sometime in June and will be gone for a year.

Well I guess I better get ready to get going. Have a great week!

April Fools Day

I had to warn Seth this morning that it was April Fool's Day. I was afraid someone would play an April Fool's joke on him and he'd get upset. Hopefully my warning helped. I had forgotten about it until I heard the kids on the playground joking with their friends.

Well, it's official Katie is now 12 and at the rate she's going she may not see 13. Tonight I'm taking her shopping for summer clothes. That was our gift to her since she's always in need of clothes. We all survived her slumber party last Friday. It really wasn't bad...they got loud every now and then but that's what your'e supposed to do at a sleepover. She used some of her birthday money to buy an I-pod shuffle so now she feels like she's not so underprivileged, LOL!!

Speaking of I-pods.....Marc and I purchased a 2GB I-pod for our anniversary. We ordered it from Apple's website and it was only $69 with free shipping and free engraving. It's red and says Happy Anniversary on it. We ordered it last Thursday and they tried to deliver it yesterday but I wasn't hope so they brought it again today. I spent most of the morning downloading various songs from some of our CD's. I'm listening to it now as I type this.

We went to my niece Abbigayle's 5th birthday party on Sunday and everyone had a good time and enjoyed yummy food and cake!

Well I made the decision (with a lot of persuasion from Marc) to become a consultant for Uppercase Living. Marc feels that it's worth the investment to see how it goes. As long as I make the money back that I spent on the kit he'll be happy. Now I just have to choose a date to have an Open House and introduce it to everyone. I'm thinking a Sunday afternoon might work best. Once I receive my kit I'll choose a date.

Spring break is officially over...YEAH!! I LOVE my kids but it's always nice to send them back to school. I think they were ready to go as they were getting bored being at home and were anxious to see their friends.

Hope everyone has a Great week!

Spring is coming......

the birds are singing, the snow is melting and even though I'm sure we'll have some more cold days it finally feels like there's a light at the end of the tunnel!! These flowers are from a few years ago but I can't wait until it is time to start planting and purchasing flowers for this year. I didn't do much in the way of flowers last year as it seemed like we were gone a lot and they would've just died anyway.

This has been a fast week and next week will go even faster. Spring break starts at Noon on Thursday the 21st. My brother-in-law will arrive that night and work on the kitchen floor will begin bright and early on Friday morning. Friday evening I'll be at stamp camp at Marnie's with all my friends. I've assured Marc that I'd prepare a nice meal for them before I go. I'm going to be picking up Double Filet-O-Fish sandwiches for those who want them as they will probably go away after Easter.

Marc's brother will stay through Easter dinner and then head back to Michigan later that afternoon. I really don't have much planned for spring break other than all of us going to the dentist for our 6-month check up. Katie's having a birthday slumber party on the 28th and luckily I have really good friends who've agreed to take Olivia and Seth so that they can have some fun of their own and not feel left out. I'm sure it'll be a crazy night here and I think Marc is looking for a place to go as well. Maybe he can go see a movie or two.

Tonight is Winterfest at church and the children are supposed to wear green. While the adults are in bible class they will watch one of the Shrek movies and then later they are going to decorate sugar cookies. I'm sure they'll have a blast and get all sugared up in time to go home.

Hope everyone is having a good week!

Oops

I gave the wrong demonstrator ID in the last post. The correct Demonstrator ID is 541471. Sorry!!

What to Do???

OK, so my sister-in-law (Heather) and I talked at length on Saturday. She asked if I'd ever heard of Uppercase Living and I said no what is it? Well she had just been to a party and spent a little money and is having a book show. She said maybe you'd like to start another business? My first thought was no way, I can bearly make my quarter with TS why would I want to start another business. LOL, well now I am obsessing over this new company and the fact that there are very few reps if any in the Chicago area. The concept is just like scrapbooking rub-on letters and designs only you put them on your walls, doors, closet doors, furniture, appliances, dishes, containers....basically anything you can think of. And when or if you decide you don't like the look anymore or want to put up something new they are easy to remove. I went online and fewed the 100 page plus catalog and I can't stop thinking about it. It's similar to a Stampin Up Catalog, the more you look at it, the more you see and the more you want.

I've gotten the go ahead from Marc to go ahead and give it a try. My main concern is that my friends and family, who have been so supportive in all my other businesses, may be sick of hosting parties for me. I'm going to talk it over with my scrapbooking friends tomorrow night to see what they think. I like the idea that I could really do a lot of business if there is no one else in the area doing it. There's no inventory to tote around and very little to take to a party so it won't be a lot of set up or take down time like some of the other businesses I've done.

I think I went to their website about 4 or 5 times yesterday and I've got a list of questions to ask my sister-in-laws local rep when I give her a call later this week.

If you have any advice, I'd love to hear from you. Also if you want to check out the catalog go to www.uppercaseliving.com and choose customer corner log-in. Use Demo ID #541741 and Token name or ID is Hudson. This will allow you to view their entire catalog.

By the way today is my beautiful niece Abbigayle's 5th Birthday.....Happy Birthday Abbigayle!

Snow, Snow Go Away

And don't come back until next winter, please! Yuck I'm so sick of this weather. And, I hate that on days when Stephen doesn't have school I have to clean off his car. This morning all the doors were frozen shut and he'd pulled so far over to the edge of the driveway I couldn't get to the passenger windows to clean them without falling in the little ditch on the side of the driveway! I was so aggravated that I decided from now on he's going to have to get up early to get the car cleaned off for me so I can get kids to school. Either that or the rent is going up!

OK, so we had a beautiful sunny weekend. Saturday morning Olivia and I went to our local Walmart so she could help sell GS cookies. It seemed to go pretty well. Hopefully this weekend will bring more sun and a little warmth as it's Katie's turn to sell GS cookies at Walmart. At least after this weekend all my cookie obligations will be over, whew!

Because the weekend was so nice I had to deal with sinus headaches all weekend. Oh well it's a price I'll pay for a little break in the cold weather.

I'm in cleaning mode today. I spent the morning tearing the living room apart, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming and putting it back together. Next I'm going to tackle our bedroom. The AT&T installation guy will be here bright and early on Thursday to install our new digital cable and internet. So, tomorrow night after I get home from scrapping Marc and I have to move the TV's and computers away from the wall so he can access them. They say it will take 5-8 hours to install and I'll be without internet for most of the day. Hopefully it will all be worth it in the end. We are getting a little more for our money, plus a DVR. I just noticed today that our Dish Network bill went up by $2 so it makes me feel like we're getting a deal. I just hope there are no service issues!

Well I best get back to work. Have a good week!

Another Yucky Monday

I think this is the first winter in a long time where I've gotten fed up and am ready for it to be over!! Anytime now would be good.

Here's what went on here this weekend. The kids had no school on Friday so we slept in until 9. Marc took a half day and then came home and varnished Seth's new toy box. His friend Cathy gave it to him and it's much bigger and looks more appropriate in his newly remodeled room than the Little Tikes one. Katie spent all day at her friend Anna's house and then Anna ended up coming over here and spending the night.

Saturday the girls went with there Dad and I went with Katie's GS leader to go pick up the cookies. What a zoo!! Since I'm the cookie Mom I'm now sitting here with 74 cases of cookies waiting for people to come and pick them up. And.....lucky me, since we have the first time slot of our on-site cookie sales at Walmart I get to keep the extra 25 cases here until March 1st. I'm really hoping March 1st is a dry, somewhat warm day!! I'm thinking 35 degrees or above would be good. After we unloaded all the cookies I ran to Sam's Club and Jewel to get the things we needed. I HATE shopping on Saturdays!! Needless to say I get a call from Marc informing me that Olivia's Brownie leader called and can I pick up her cookies. YIKES!! I was able to pick them up on the way home and I quickly put those in a complete separate part of the house. Don't want to get them mixed in with Katie's troop.

Went to church on Sunday. Katie's friend Anna has been going with us every Sunday since the end of January. She was very excited as the church presented her with a Bible since she didn't have one of her own! After church Katie's two GS leaders stopped by so we could go over the cookies and make sure that Marc and I had sorted them out properly. They each took their daughter's cookies home along with one other GS who lives close by so now I'm only waiting for 5 people to come get the rest. I'm hoping they'll all be out of the house by the weekend.

Well today is President's Day so again no school for the kids. We slept in until 9 again and now Katie's in the shower and Olivia is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her best friend Emily who's going to come and play from 11 to 3. Of course they are both complaining that 4 hours is just not enough time for them to do everything they want to do. My comment to them was they'd just have to deal with it because 4 hours is way more than enough time in my book.

Next home improvement project will take place over the Easter weekend. The flooring Marc wants to put in the kitchen is on sale this week and his brother has agreed to come spend the long weekend with us and help so we're going to take advantage of that. We have hated our kitchen floor since we moved in and hopefully the new floor will look MUCH better and be easier to clean.

Well I've been a little wordy this morning so I'll close for now!! Happy President's Day!

A Heat Wave would be Nice

I'm not asking for much. How about a week of weather that has temperatures above 32 degrees and no more SNOW!! I do realize this is Chicago but come on I think we've had enough already. If this keeps up my parents may never return from Texas and Marc's may decide to stay in Florida.

Not much happening this weekend. We had Winterfest at church so the kids made painted t-shirts and fleece scarves while the parents attended bible study. Our teacher is very good and really makes the class fun. Marc thanked me for signing us up so obviously he's enjoying it too!

Saturday Katie went to London Middle School's variety show as one of her BFF's was performing. She also got invited to a little after party that Zoey's mom was giving her at a local restaurant. So I dropped her off at school and gave her $7. Two for the ticket and $5 to contribute to whatever she ordered at the restaurant. Well needless to say she bought her ticket, enjoyed the show and then lost her purse somewhere between the school and the restaurant so $5 went missing. Zoey's mother of course would accept no money from anyone and I should have known that ahead of time and just kept the $5 to myself. Oh well, it could have been worse. Katie only had lip gloss and her wallet in the purse. Luckily she'd left her school ID at home or we would have had to pay $5 to get a new one.

Yesterday we all stayed home and tried to keep warm. Marc was adamant about going to Target last night (totally unlike him) as he said they had a few things on sale he needed. I had went through the sale ad and didn't see anything I thought we needed. Well he came home told me to sit at my desk and close my eyes. I got my Valentine gift (I didn't expect one at all so I was shocked) early. He bought me a red fleece blanket with hearts all over it. I spend a lot of time at my desk with my feet propped up and then my legs get cold so he thought the blanket would help. Very sweet. He also brought me dark chocolate M&M's, Peanut M&M's, Reese's Miniatures and Cherry Cordial Kisses. I should be set for awhile!!

Stay warm everyone.

Rainy Days & Mondays....

This has got to be the craziest weather we've had in Chicago in a while. On Thursday night we got 8+ inches of snow which resulted in a Snow Day for everyone. Then yesterday we got another 1-3 inches on top of that and this morning I was out running errands in the pouring rain and I saw lightening.

Seth's room is finally done, WOHOO!! He's no longer sleeping in our room on the floor so I don't have to worry about stepping on him in the middle of the night. It also means we got our dining room back, although there are still a few items out there. Marc's old neighbor Cathy gave us a nice wooden toy box that he's going to stain and then that will go in his room. In the meantime we want to go through all his toys and throw out broken ones and put aside ones that he's too old for now. Seth is very excited to be back in his room and he loves having is own bulletin board to put things on. It is so nice when the smallest of things bring such joy to a child....and then they grow up and what I-pods, MP3 players and cell phones, LOL!

Friday I was supposed to have been the Mystery Reader for Seth's Kindergarten class but since it was a Snow Day it didn't happen. I was all ready too! Hopefully Mrs. Scott has some open dates and we can reschedule as Seth is constantly telling me to call her so I can be the Mystery Reader.

Saturday I went to a VBS workshop with Barb. It was very nice and they even fed us lunch. Afterwards we stopped at The Christian Shop in Palatine to check out one of the VBS kits. Of course the kits were in a room with all their VeggieTale products. We love VeggieTales!! And, since Seth has been talking about not having a Bible and having to wait until he's in 3rd grade (which is a lifetime away for him) to get one....I just couldn't pass up the VeggieTale Bible Storybook. It's so cute and he's so happy with it. Of course we've been reading one Bible story a night so far and we'll see how long that lasts.

Just call me Gimpy. I'm not sure what I did but I woke up in the middle of the night Friday and my right knee was hurting. It hurts to bend it which has made getting around the last few days a challenge. Luckily I can walk and when I'm up and around it's not bad but if I sit for any length of time it gets sore. I've been taking Ibuprofen to help with the pain (which luckily is not unbearable) I just wish I knew what I did. Marc says I'm showing my age, thanks dear!

Hope everyone has a good week!

I've Been Tagged

I've been tagged by Dianne...and now I'm passing it on to you! So, here's the deal for those that I Tag! The Middle Name Game! These are the rules:-You must post the rules before you give your answers. You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name. Each fact must begin with that letter. If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name. After you've been tagged, you need to up-date your blog with your middle name and answers. At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for detail.)

Here is my middle name (Jo) and facts about me....

J - Jo...my middle name...is also my daughter Katherine's (or Katie as we call her) middle name.

O - Oh so many words come to mind that sometimes describe me. Optimistic, I'd like to think that for the most part I'm an optimistic person. Ornery, sometimes I can be a little ornery. Don't ask my husband he might say it's all the time!! Olivia's Mom, Olive's grandaughter are just a few more.

This is probably the shortest tag I'll ever get. I only had to choose two and I chose my favorite sister-in-law Heather and my good friend Jamie. I hope they have fun with this "Tagging"!

Almost Forgot

Whew, time just seems to fly. This past weekend was a busy one for our household. I went to the crop so I was gone from Friday evening at 6pm until Saturday at 5:30pm. I did come home long enough to get some sleep but Marc was the only one who was coherent enough to know I'd been home. I did get several pages done and was so happy to finish some pages I'd had planned for a few years.

Marc and the kids went to Winterfest at church on Friday and then went bowling on Saturday so they all had a good time. Katie and Olivia went with their Dad yesterday and ended up going to a theater in Palatine to watch "The Sound of Music". They both enjoyed it!

Back to school today and at 10:45am I received a call from the nurse saying that Olivia was there. She was given another detention and was crying again. We talked and she said she deserved it so she toughed out the day and served her detention. She said she was given the detention because she was playing with her fingers and not paying attention. If this continues I'll be having a meeting with the principal sooner rather than later.

Hope your week started out better!

Ooops

I forgot yesterday was Monday and I wanted to post. Having the kids and Marc home yesterday for the MLK holiday threw me off. The kids are home again today so my whole week will be off.

Marc's project for the long weekend was to paint Seth's room and put in the hardwood floor. He even took 1/2 day off on Friday to give him a little extra time. Of course nothing ever goes as planned and needless to say there is one coat of pretty blue paint on the wall and that's it. He's planning on painting a 2nd coat tonight and hopefully putting the flooring in on Wednesday. Anyhow that mean's my dining room is a mess as everything from Seth's room is in there and we can't eat as a family. Oh well hopefully by this weekend everything will be restored to normal.

I ended up going to Kohl's yesterday. They had scrapbook albums 50% off and I was lucky enough to pick a scratch off ticket worth another 20% so I got 3 albums for less then $30. Then I spent the afternoon putting pages I've done lately in the proper albums. I also made the discovery that the shelves in the entertainment center are the perfect size for 12 x 12 albums so now I can keep them downstairs and readily available for me to add more pages too. I also started packing for the crop this weekend. I hope I take everything I need and don't run out of things to do!

Tonight I go to get my yearly eye exam. Since I didn't need new glasses last year I'm sure I will this time. I'm considering bifocals but I'm still hesitant so I'll just play it by ear. I may even run across the street to JoAnn's as they have 12 x 12 paper 6 for 96 cents and I could use some Christmas and Valentine paper.

Well have a good week everyone!

Card Happy

OK so as you can see I've been spending some time in my scrap area and have made the above cards using my new templates. The first one is for Marc for Valentine's Day and I don't think he ever goes to my blog so hopefully he won't start now. The middle one I made over the weekend and when I showed it to Marc his response was "You made that?" I'm hoping that means he was impressed. The third one is for a good friend of mine who loves ladybugs. I still have a few more to make for Valentine's Day and then I'd like to start working on some Christmas ones to get a head start.

Our first bible study was last Friday. There's a good mix of people and Marc seemed to enjoy it. Of course he has to attend the next class alone as I'll be scrapping. I'm sure he'll do fine.

Girl Scout cookie sales are going well. Katie is at about 54 boxes and Olivia is at about 23. I still have some more people to ask so hopefully we can boost Olivia's number up a little.

Speaking of Olivia...I just got a call from the school nurse saying that Olivia is in her office crying. She says she's tired, she doesn't feel well and she can't seem to stop crying. Luckily I have to go get Seth in about 10 minutes so I'll just pick them both up at the same time. She seemed perfectly fine this morning and she got a good night's rest so I'm wondering if something has happened at school or if she really is coming down with something. I guess if she comes home and goes to sleep I'll know the answer.

Have a good week everyone!

Happy First Monday of 2008!!

Well as you can see by the pictures I've finally gotten my scrap area set up and organized...at least for the moment. I spent all weekend working on it but really enjoyed doing it. I've even got some things ready to take to scrap this week. The first picture shows the 9 cubicle storage area that I used some Christmas money on (I used some of Marc's too but I don't think he minds). I had hoped it would be big enough to store my albums in but no such luck. As you can see I had no trouble filling the space. The last picture is of that cabinet we garbage picked and it's got all my stamps and card making items in it!! I'm looking forward to spending a lot of time down there being creative. I'm going to start by hopefully making some cards using the card templates Marnie gave me for Christmas.

Kids went back to school today. They wouldn't admit it but I think they were happy to go back. The weather is wonderful....to bad it won't last. Sounds like we may be back to wearing snow pants by the end of the week, YUCK!

Well Girl Scout cookie sales started last Friday. Each year it seems like we lose people we can sell too due to them having others in their family that are selling also. Katie was sweating making her 50 box goal. However a friend of hers who is no longer a Girl Scout said her family wanted to buy some from her. Well she made the call last night and sold 36 boxes and she was THRILLED!! Of course Olivia is a little awe struck and is hopeful she can sell as many as Katie.

Marc and I are starting a bible study this week on the Old Testament. I've taken bible classes before but this will be the first couples class we've taken. It meets twice a month from now until April and it should be interesting. While we are in class the kids will be doing crafts, watching movies, etc. so we won't have to worry about them.

Well I'll close for today and I'm hopeful that I can post on a more regular basis this year.

Sorry

It's been a long time since my last post so I'll try and get everyone caught up on what's been going on!!

We went to Fort Knox for family weekend the beginning of October. We had a nice visit with Matthew and took in some of the local sites. We visited the Patton Museum, Colonel Sanders Grave, Church Hill Downs, Schmidts Coca-Cola Memorabilia Museum, went on the Belle of Louisville for a two hour cruise down the Ohio River and saw the cabin where Abe Lincoln was born. The weather was unseasonably warm and we had a great time!

Stephen came home complaining of a stomach ache on Nov. 14th and by Thursday he couldn't stand up straight. Marc took him to the ER and they said his appendix had ruptured. He had it removed at 4am on Friday morning and spent his 22nd birthday in the hospital. He came home on the 20th and is doing well. Today is the first day he's went to school since it happened.

We left on the 21st and went back to Fort Knox to see Matthew graduate! It was the best graduation I've ever been too! After that we were all able to go and have lunch at the Golden Corral and then we dropped Matthew off at the Louisville airport at 3:30pm and headed back home. We arrived at home about 9:30pm. Matthew is now stationed at Fort Hood which is in Killeen, TX.

Needless to say on Thanksgiving we didn't do anything as we were all pooped. My girls ended up spending the day and evening with their Dad so it was just Marc, Seth and I. I did make a nice turkey dinner on Friday. Olivia spent the night with Emily and Abbi and had a great time.

Marc, Katie, Olivia, Seth and I will be heading to Raymondville, TX on Dec. 21st to spend Christmas with my parents. We are all so excited! Matthew is going to try and take leave and head down there as well and then he'd ride home with us and hang out for a little while before heading back to Fort Hood.

Suzanne tried out for the girls basketball team this year but was unsuccessful in her endeavor. We are just happy that she tried and hopefully she'll try again next year. Katie tried out for the Poms squad but she was unsuccessful as well. Again, hopefully she'll try again next year. Katie continues to play the oboe and just recently had one of her art projects chosen to be included in an art show! Olivia is going to a cheer leading clinic this Saturday. For $20 she gets poms, a t-shirt and is taught a routine that they will perform later that morning. She's very excited about it. Seth continues to love school and has made a lot of friends. His best friend Dillon lives right down the street and they've already had a couple of play dates. They'd have one daily if only us Moms would let them...LOL!

Well I think that covers it! Hopefully it won't be so long before I post again.

Forgive me blogspot for I have sinned, it has been over a month since my last blog. Here's what's going on..... My baby Seth turned 6 today...he was up dressed with his backpack on and his bag of treats ready to go to school at 7:50am. He was not happy when he found out we couldn't even consider going to school until 8:30 or after. He had a great day at school and he has a classmate who shares his birthday. She also happens to only live 3 doors down from us. Who knew!! He was very happy with all his gifts which included new spiderman pajamas, Thomas the Train Leapster game, deck of cards, sleeping bag and Aquadots. The verdict is still out on the Aquadots, not sure if it was a waste of money yet or not. I'll know by the end of the week.

We leave Friday at 1pm for what will most likely be our last trip to Fulton this year. Marc's 25 year high school reunion is this weekend. Friday (Marc's birthday) we will be attending the homecoming game as Marc has been invited to play the National Anthem with the band and also participate in their half-time program. Then Saturday night is the reunion at the Red Dog Steakhouse. Hopefully some of Marc's old high school buddies will be there and we'll have a nice night out.

Just finished watching Dancing with the Stars. I watched last night's show online this afternoon and we just watched the men. Floyd Mayweather got all 6 of my votes. I thought he was good!

Well I'll try and post next week and let you know how the reunion went!

Back to School, YEAH!!

First 1/2 day of school is this morning. Katie left about 7:40am for her first day of Jr. High and she could barely contain her excitement....wish it was like that on every school day. Olivia wanted to be at school right at 8:30am so she could spend time with her best friend Emily, who is not in her class this year. They've been working on the playground for the last week, installing new equipment, putting in more dirt and wood chips. And, of course with all the rain we had last week it's not done yet so it was off to the gym for everyone this morning. Seth and I head off to Kindergarten orientation at 11:15 this morning and then he will officially start on Thursday. He's very excited but a little concerned about homework. Suzanne starts her sophomore year tomorrow and Stephen will head back to Harper on the 27th. Whew!! Our summer was great and we did lots of fun stuff but even the kids were ready to head back to school. It'll be nice to have everyone back on a schedule.

Olivia will turn 8 on Monday the 27th and my parents are coming into town to help her celebrate. She has no idea that they are coming and when she sees Grandma waiting for her after school I'm sure she'll be thrilled. She thinks they are coming sometime in September and was a little disappointed they wouldn't be here on her actual birthday.

Marc went to Michigan this past weekend for the Nascar races. Saturdays race went without a hitch. However Sundays race was a washout and was postponed until Monday. Marc decided to go ahead and come home as it looked like it would rain all day Monday as well, which it did so the race was postponed until today at 10am ET. Needless to say Marc arrived home Sunday night a little after 9pm and headed back to Michigan last night about 8:30pm. He called from the racetrack this morning and said it was foggy but no rain so hopefully the race will happen today. His favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. will not be driving the #8 car next year so all his merchandise was 1/2 off. Needless to say all of us got souvenirs of some kind.

Got a letter from Matthew yesterday. He's been gone since August 2nd but just started boot camp on the 13th. He says it's extremely hard but he's toughing it out. He's really homesick and requested letters everyday if possible. I wrote him one last night and another one today. I'm hoping to send one every couple of days and then with other relatives and friends writing hopefully he'll get mail almost daily.

Well I'm going to sit and enjoy the quiet for a few hours as I know I'll spend most of the afternoon filling out school paperwork. Have a good week everyone!!

Baby It's Hot Outside and Inside!!

Well here comes the hot weather and we have no A/C. Today we are getting our 4th and final bid on a new furnace and A/C so hopefully we can make a decision and get it taken care of in the next week or so!

Matthew leaves tomorrow afternoon and then on Thursday he will be headed out to Fort Knox to start his Army Basic Training. He's actually looking forward to it! His Dad and I are a little less than enthused as of course we fear that at some point he'll end up in Iraq. I do, however, applaud Matthew as this is something he really wants to do and for that we are proud!

Katie started a Sneak Peek into 6th grade class at the Jr. High yesterday. She was very excited but nervous too! Hopefully becoming acquainted with the school before hand will ease some of her anxiety on the first day of school! Speaking of which 20 days and counting, LOL!

Olivia is going to have Ms. Resnick for 3rd Grade. Katie had her for 3rd and 4th grade. Olivia of course wasn't to happy as everyone says shes mean. My hope is that since Katie and Olivia have such different personalities that she might actually enjoy having her for a teacher. And, since they no longer loop she should only have her for one year.

Seth has been switched to morning Kindergarten. Usually everyone who lives in our subdivision and is a walker gets assigned to afternoon. However this year there were only 7 kids who fit that bill and there are another 17 kids that were scheduled for morning. So.....they decided to combine them all together in the morning and there will be no afternoon kindergarten at all. This will be good as now I can drop Olivia and Seth both off in the morning and then head off to do any errands I need to do.

Well since it's quiet here I better get some things done. Keep Cool!!

Catch Up Time

Let's see....Olivia and I spent a long weekend at my brothers house. We had a great time. Olivia got to play with my nieces and Mom, Heather and I scrapbooked. Attached is a picture of Haley who turned 2 on June 27th and Chloe who will turn 5 on August 22nd. When Olivia and I returned home my kitchen was green and I LOVE IT!!! On the 30th of June we threw Matthew a Graduation/Going Away Party. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a good time and ate lots of good food! Suzanne and Matthew went home with Grandpa and Grandma and this weekend we are headed to Fulton to pick them up.

4th of July was spent picking up my birthday present, which is a new bike. Unfortunately it's been so hot lately that I haven't ridden it much but since cooler weather is on the way I plan on taking a ride every evening. Both Katie and Olivia were in the Wheeling parade and Marc, Seth and I had a great spot to watch the entire parade. Thank goodness the weather was nice for it! Then at 9:30 we found a great spot to watch the fireworks and we were the only ones there. We are going to keep that secret spot to ourselves!

UH OH!! I have clothes on the line and it looks like it's going to rain!! Gotta go.

Keep Cool everyone!!