Mean Mommy

Since the girls only had half day of school today, I hadn't finished my to-do list by the time they got home. There were things that absolutely needed done, so I enlisted their help. The kitchen floor was high on the list of HAD to be done!!

Annah was happy to use the Super Broom and sweep the floor.


Scrubbing the floor by hand allows for more helpers to be involved...


Even Caeden joined in the scrubbing fun!


Seriously, they were super excited to be allowed to do this. I kept thinking I must be some kind of really mean mommy to make my kids scrub the floor by hand! But they really thought it was fun and a great privilege to get to help!

The smell of Fall came in the window and woke me up yesterday morning. I hope, hope, hope it's really here this early! That would be so incredibly nice! Fall could just last 4 or 5 months and that would be fine by me!
I have lots of random thoughts whirling around in my brain today, so I think we'll go with the bullet-point list format...

• I'm enjoying the more routine feel of the being back-to-school. I have my piano students all back on Saturday mornings, which is really nice. So, I am teaching from 8:30 until 11:00 right now.
  
  
• Caeden's homeschool books arrived today. He is super excited! I am actually beginning to get excited about it, and know it will be a good kind of new adventure. We are using a biblically-based curriculum, the Horizons Preschool Curriculum. I'm actually thinking we may use his room for school, as it has the most unused space of any room in the house right now. It should work out well. I'm just beginning to look at the books...but can see I'm going to have a lot of supplies to buy/gather, and am somehow going to have to be organized to do this! Maybe you can join me in praying for that miracle!
  
  
• Sylvia came home from school Friday and said, "I never want to leave school--or the bus!" She is loving it! She can't wait to go every day! What a blessing!
  Also, yesterday I had two parents tell me how Sylvia helped their children feel better at school. They were both older students who were crying and upset about school, and they said how sweet Sylvia was to them.

• Annah has been telling me about the Activboard they are using in her classroom! It sounds really cool, and I can't wait to see it! There is usually a Fall Open House in mid-September, where we will get to see her classroom and meet her teacher. Her teacher sent home a nice packet of "Welcome to 2nd Grade" information yesterday, which was su-uper helpful! Annah is loving being in her class, and we are thankful for that!
  
  
• Sensing that Fall is coming in has made me remember that I need to start preparing for those two important birthdays which happen in our family in October! How exciting! I have been updating Caeden s WishList. (He has no problem telling me what he wants!) Much of it is now a lot of CD's, DVD's, books, and CD-ROM's that go along with his homeschool curriculum, but of course there are train items and other things he wants too.
  Annah's list will take some more thought and careful listening. We do already know that she will have a High School Musical birthday party, and that it will include going to see High School Musical 3, which comes out October 24th. Oh yeah, it's on our calendar; is it on yours? Hee hee.
  
  
• I came across a great discount site for online shopping recently, and have already used it for a successful discount. It's retailmenot.com, and you just put in either a link to what you are looking to buy, or the name of it, or just the idea of it, and it will give you a list of what coupons there are online for that thing! For example, I wanted to find the best deal possible on Caeden's books, so I put in the name of the curriculum and it gave me several coupons to choose from. I ended up using one and getting 20% off the books, which were over $100! So, I will be using retailmenot.com again and again, I'm sure! Check it out!
  
  
• I ruined my cell phone yesterday when I left it on the counter and the coffee maker decided to leak. I ordered a Verizon Chocolate (for free) today. I have only heard from one person who's had one--and she hated it. So, we'll see!

That should be enough rambling for now, huh? Toodles!

All-Church Picnic & Hog Roast, Oh Yeah!

The annual All-Church Picnic & Hog Roast was this afternoon! Jeremy was a co-coordinator for the entire event this year, so we have been very excited about it for a while now. Jeremy was up in the middle of the night to begin roasting the hog, which turned out sooo yummy--as usual.

And, someone decided to give him the bullhorn today.
He announced all the church staff and picnic coordinators, and he wasn't even ornery.

The kids have been looking forward to taking a whack at the pinatas all week long. (There are 3 for separate age-groups.) But, the girls chickened out once they saw how big the kindergarten-4th grade group was.

Caeden, however, was first in line for the toddler/preschool group! He took 3 whacks by himself, then all the other kids took their 3 whacks and it was barely dented. So, on the 2nd round, some adults started helping some of the kids hit it a tiny bit harder. Here's Zac helping Caeden aim.


By the 3rd round of turns, there weren't many kids left still interested in hitting it. But, Caeden was still revved up and rarin' to go! He tried to talk his "brother" Samuel into taking another turn, but he was not to be persuaded. So, before too many lost interest, our friend Vince decided to help his son Bradley take some real hits. We laughed and only slightly seriously worried that Bradley might have gotten a bit of whiplash. Then Caeden stepped up for his turn with Vince (Did I mention that Vince used to play baseball for some big California university? So, he has a pretty good arm.), and...here's the magic moment...

Caeden was SO excited, he talked about it the rest of the evening, all the way home, all through his bath, and until I tucked him into bed. "Mommy, I got to be the one to break the pinata open! I saw one piece of candy com out, and then we hit it again, and then ALL the candy came out! It was like it was SNOWING!! And I crowded in to get the candy! And I got THE MOST!" over and over. He was pumped!

Another of the definite highlights of the picnic was my friend Jesika's "Porky Pig" cake! This girl has such a talent for cakes and working with fondant icing. How cute is this?! I love the apple in his mouth and that cute curly tail!


Unfortunately, a storm came through and the lightning sent many of us running for our cars before 5:30 and the rest of the games. But, even short, it was a great picnic!

the frustration of our old home

To preface this post, I would like to say that I love our old home. Also, I love my husband and am very proud of all the work he has done on our house--completely by himself, with no prior experience in construction.

However, this summer we have gone through some great frustration with the process and progress (or rather, lack thereof!) of the many projects he has begun on our house. Jeremy has replaced all but 2 windows on the main floor and almost completed the installation of vinyl siding on the main level as well. We have been trying since spring to hire someone to complete the 2nd story work of replacing 7 windows, completing the siding, and installing soffets. We have contacted FOUR contractors, each of whom have expressed interest in doing the job and then never showed up or bothered to call to tell us they were not actually interested!! It has been very frustrating, to say the least. And now we are heading into Fall with no work done on the outside of the house in nearly a year.

Jeremy has purchased most of the supplies to complete the project, minus the soffets, and the one contractor who actually came TO the house and agreed to do the project said it would really only take a team a few days to complete the work on the outside.

Jeremy has been extra busy this spring/summer, and has had little time his own to work on anything--inside or outside the house, besides mowing and other lawncare. He has done some plaster/drywall repair here and there where he had a bit of time, but there is still so much to be done. It's overwhelming.

Thought I would share a couple photos of our den, which started this all with a "simple" window replacement 2 years ago and snowballed into replacing 18 windows, residing the entire house, ripping out walls, etcetera... I took these photos today. As you see, the den has become a storage room for much of the construction "junk," including 7 huge windows which should eventually go upstairs, a large pile of drywall which will eventually be the walls of the den, lots of tools... I try not to even look in there very often!

This is the view if I DO open the door:



Here are the huge windows and the wall of exposed lathboard...


I know someday it will be beautiful, and we can say we are proud of all the work we've done...someday.

The Blessing of the Backpacks

Our church has a wonderful tradition for kicking off the new school year--The Blessing of the Backpacks. All the senior saints gather behind the altars, all the children kneel at the altars, and many prayers are lifted for the children and their school year. It's a wonderful blessing for them, and a powerful way to remind them that God is always with them--even, and especially, at school!

And, oh yes, speaking of school and faith...I don't know how I forgot to write about this the other day...
On Thursday evening, Jeremy and I prayed with the girls about school before putting them to bed. We asked them what they were excited about and what they might be nervous about so that we could pray specifically for what was on their hearts. Sylvia mentioned she was worried about not being able to do math, and Annah was worried about homework. We talked with them about how God would help them, and prayed he would take away their worries and remind them they can do all things through Him because he gives them strength.
We also prayed for their teachers, and, since we don't know them, we prayed that maybe they would be teachers who also happen to love Jesus. Then, Friday morning while we were visiting the kindergarten, I noticed Sylvia's teacher was wearing a small silver cross necklace. I pointed it out to Sylvia, and she said, "Maybe she loves Jesus too...just like we prayed!" We didn't have an opportunity to ask, but she does definitely have a sweet spirit about her, and we are glad for Sylvia to be in her class.
I'm looking forward to meeting Annah's teacher at the Open House night in September. Annah already has good, happy things to say about her too. I am so thankful for our school and our teachers!! Thank you, Lord!

The Big First Day of School!

The first day of school has been completed! The girls could hardly sleep last night, and I know it was after 9:00 before either of them got anywhere close to sleep. I think they were both up multiple times in the night too...They were just too excited!

This morning, both girls were up and dressed by 6:23 a.m. They had their backpacks on at least 3 times before eating breakfast and were ready to go! I kept reminding them they needed to eat breakfast and that there was more than an hour before the bus would come.

Jeremy left with Caeden at 6:30, to take him to the Keller's so we could go to school too. Parents are invited to the kindergarten classrooms for an hour to be there as the kids are oriented to their space. And, Jeremy always takes the first day of school off work to be part of The Big Day.

Here's our little kindergartener! This day came wayyyyy to quickly! But, she was very excited to be heading off to elementary school!


Annah is all set for 2nd grade!! She was surprised by where her classroom is. Since there are 3 kindergarten classes this year, 2nd grade gave up one of their rooms for them and Annah's classroom is where the music room used to be...kinda cool!
She said she was a little worried about going to school, but she came home very happy!


We had a litte fun with the tripod while waiting for Daddy to get back home before the bus came.
I am so, so proud to have these beautiful, sweet, precious girls as my daughters!!!


This is my favorite photo of the day. Daddy and his littlest girl...


He made it back before the bus to see his girls off.
They were so glad to have Daddy home for this important day!


And this was the moment that made me burst into tears...our daughters hand in hand crossing the street to get on the big yellow school bus...I couldn't hold it in.





As we walked up to the school, we saw Sylvia was already in line with her class, and her teacher was talking to her. We joined her in line with all the other kids, teachers, and parents waiting to go inside and start the school year!


Sylvia realized last night that she would get her own locker, and she was overjoyed! This was probably the biggest deal of the day--at least while we were there at school with her!


And they came home grinning!




And, this one, we found out today there is no spot for in the school's pre-K program this year. So, I will be homeschooling him. That is a big adventure I never thought I would undertake. But I'm sure God will guide us!


And another new school year is off and running!

Making time to play, even on a busy day

We filled the last day before school with a lot! Here's how it went:
1) Stop at bank in Arrowsmith.
2) Visit Daddy at work.
3) Get Annah new school shoes at Stride Rite.
4) Eat lunch at Carlos O' Kelly's.
5) Go downtown to the county Board of Health to get Sylvia's (and Caeden's) official birth certificate that she needs in order to start kindergarten tomorrow!
6) Play at the sprinkler park!
7) Go to Meijer to get Annah a bigger backpack for school.
8) Come home and collapse.
9) Eat supper. (Daddy grilled burgers for us!)
10) Baths for all kids.
11) Spend an hour and a half trying to get the girls to sleep! We are all excited about the first day of school tomorrow!

It was a splashing way to end the summer!

Um, someone got a little time-out for spitting water at his sister...

I think he was trying to do a "cannonball" into the sprinkler...?





Sylvia got the others going on the fun with these fire-hydrant things. The top circles all the way around, and they could kind of "shoot" water at each other...



This was cracking me up, when they climbed up on them to sit and fire at each other or Caeden when he went by!

All in good fun! We had a great time!

Visiting Daddy at Work

We had a lot of things on our to-do list today, but we made sure to fit in a visit to Daddy at work before summer was over. The kids have been wanting to go see Jeremy's work place again all summer, so we stopped in for about 45 minutes today. We chatted with all the nice people who work in his area (Finance), who oogled over the kids, gave them candy and toys.

Jeremy's cubicle is now in the corner by a big window, and he has a great view of the campus and the lake (behind those blinds). The kids just liked to check out all the stuff around his desk.


The kids each sat down and tried to help crunch some numbers at Daddy's desk.

Winding Down

Summer is winding down here for us. The girls go to school on Friday! As a mommy, I tend to feel bad that we haven't "done enough," so I am trying to think about all that we have done.

There has been a lot of bike riding. Now all 3 kids have bikes, and they love to go up and down the sidewalk in front of our house.

This week, Annah learned how to ride her bike without the training wheels!!!! She had tried with Mommy and Daddy's help one evening a couple weeks ago, and yesterday decided to try on her own in the grass. Today, she got on the sidewalk and went back and forth until she had it! We are proud of her for doing it on her own.


Sylvia actually asked to have her training wheels off a few weeks ago. She is not comfortable trying on her own, but is eager to have one of us help her!


So, other than ride bikes, we have...

...spent hours playing in the "tree house" (under the pine trees in our sideyard).
...spent hours swinging on the new swingset in the backyard.
...made 5 trips to Indiana and back, including LOTS of adventures there!
...all 3 kids gone to the dentist, and doctor.
...gone to State Farm Park.
...played at the sprinkler parks.
...attended VBS in Arrowsmith.
...had lots of fun with our LifeGroup every Monday night.
...watched lots of movies we had never seen.

Speaking of movies we'd never seen... I would have to say, in our house, the "official" movie of the summer has definitely been Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed! I picked it up in the $5 bin at Wal-Mart at the beginning of the summer, and the kids have absolutely loved it! I'm sure they've probably watched it more than 10 times, and loaned it to friends, watched it with every friend that came over. It is pretty cute, and they now quote their favorite lines from it all the time. They love Scooby!

sunny day

We're home now! The trip went fairly uneventfully, despite going through quite a bit of road construction in various small towns. I feel much more confident about driving the 200 miles now, after having done it 3 1/2 times on my own this summer.

Mom wanted a new photo of her and Dad and the kids, so we tried this morning before we left. It was hard to find a spot that was lit by the sun, but where the sun wasn't making anyone squint...plus the task of getting all the kids to sit still and smile. But, I thought this one was pretty nice after a little cropping.


Since we were at it, I asked for some of me and the kids. We just tried for about a minute. You can tell by Annah's face there was a wasp flying around us, so we didn't try very long.


After we got home and got the car unloaded, I let the kids play outside. After a few minutes, I heard them screaming to each other..."Come here! Come here! Look at this! Get Mommy!!!!" I went running outside, and they had gone to check the garden and saw that the sunflowers bloomed while we were away. Talk about excited kids!!


We were so fortunate to have several trips to Indiana this summer. Now we attempt to get back to "normal" and get ready for school to start on Friday!

Travis receives his MBA!

Last evening, we (the kids and I, Travis & Erin, Patti & Dave [Erin's parents,] Mom & Dad, and Grandma C.) went to the Oakwood Inn for dinner to celebrate Travis' receiving his MBA. We all had a good time together. We are sad the inn will be closing at the end of this month, as we have enjoyed visiting over the past several years.

After dinner, we took some photos near the inn on the lake. It's such a lovely setting. I set up the mini tripod and used the self-timer to get this one of us all:

(Just sneaking in this one of little cutie Annah...)


Today, the kids spent the entire day at the lake with Uncle Walt, Aunt Joyce, Danielle & Kasie. They got to play in the sprinkler and ride on the pontoon boat, and they had a great time! Thank you so much for taking care of them Uncle Walt, Aunt Joyce, Danielle & Kasie!!

I went with Mom & Dad down to Marion, Indiana, to watch Travis' commencement ceremony at Indiana Wesleyan University. Travis received his MBA in Accounting with a magna cum laude distinction. We are all very proud of him, of course! I personally am amazed by anyone who continues their education while working full time, being married, running a home...quite an accomplishment! You're awesome Trav!
It was a great ceremony, and we were so glad to be there to celebrate with Trav! The speakers were very inspiring too, both speaking about integrity.

Erin & Travis on campus after the ceremony