Tuesday, August 31, 2010

On the eve of September!

Happy Tuesday Night!

Things are moving along here :) I can't tell you how thrilled I am that fall is approaching! We were lucky enough to have a few days in the 90's (one day with rain it was 78!) and cooler evenings this past week or so. Sadly, it will be 107 by Friday but let's not worry about that yet!

Today started out with a bang, I got a call from my mom at 7:37 am that my dad had been in a motorcycle accident. She said she was on her way to him, he had called and was "fine" but that she needed to come there. She got there only to be called by the ambulance driver, letting her know they were headed to the ER. Long story short, in a heavy construction area he took his eyes off the road for a minute to look at a car darting off the road and looked back to the car in front at a complete stand still. He threw on his brakes, hit the back of that car, flipped himself over the front of his motorcycle, breaking off the windshield and landing on the car's trunk in front of him. The lady behind him was unable to stop in time and her car hit his Harley. By a miracle or fast flying guardian angels...he only had stitches on his right hand and road rash on his left arm. Nothing broken, nothing internally bleeding. Helmet was on but not a scratch on it. Shane looked at me and said "They rode all the way to Sturgis without a hitch and then 10 min from home this happens" and he is so right. So we are all very lucky to have him with us, all in one piece. Thank you to everyone who called and texted to check on him. Your support and your prayers are so appreciated!

Please also remember to say I love you when people are walking out the door. We all get so busy, so rushed and sometimes mad about ridiculous, meaningless stuff and we don't say it. None of us ever knows what will happen when we step foot out that door so remember to say I love you, even if it is through clenched teeth and a frown. I would hate to ever have to say to myself "I didn't say I love you and now they are gone."

The kids are good, keeping busy, keeping out of trouble! Savannah did a wonderful Greek Mythology Report/project on Helios, the God of the Sun. I will take pics of her with her poster board and report. Her presentation is tomorrow! I know she's going to do great, she was VERY into the whole story/project. I loved seeing her so excited. Griffin is doing well, reading a lot at school, really into his math. He has picked it up rather effortlessly which gives me hope ;) Cassandra is good, she had a slumber party last weekend on Friday night, came home for 2 hours and was off again to an "End of Summer" party at her other friend's house. Then they went to Mimi and Gumpy's house while Shane and I had date night! Busy and fun :)

Sunday School is going great, we have great kids and the activities have been so hilarious so far! I have 2 weeks off as there is no Sunday School on Labor Day and the following week we are going camping back up at Clear Creek. It is 75 there right now and holy hell, those temps better hold!!!!!!!!!

PTO is going great, we just wrapped up our cookie dough fundraiser. It was very successful and very worth all the effort put into it! Our next event is Family Game and Craft night in September.

My Dad's bday is Sept 15th, Griffin's is Sept 24th. I'm not sure yet what my Dad has planned but I know Griffin wants to have a Star Wars theme party. That should be fun!

Well that's about it for now. World of Warcraft calls to me so I am gonna scoot!
XO

Monday, August 23, 2010

August Update!

Helloooo!

I can't believe how hot and humid it has been here! I know those of you not from Arizona will say "but it's always hot there in the summer" and while that is true...we've been very hot and humid which is rare. We are usually a bit cooler (105 or less when it's humid) but we are 109-111 and humid which just about makes you want to lay down and die! We are in a heat advisory for the first part of this week. I hope things subside soon. One the positive note, it IS the end of August so fall is right around the corner!

Things are busy as usual. Right now we all have or had colds. I had mine last week, felt like hammered poo for 3 days and then I'm back on track. Griffin had it last week and still a big gunky in the nose but nothing serious. Cassandra and Alyssa sound the most yucky at this point. Everyone stayed home today because they woke up sounding horrible but have progressively sounded better as the morning has rolled on. I hope that means this is the end of it...I'll have to send them back to school tomorrow :(

Savannah was running for Student Council Co-President. At our elementary school 4th grade students are the acting Prez, VP, Secretary, Treasurer, Historian but 3rd graders can run for Co positions and learn the ropes. So the voting was last week on Thursday and on Friday they announced the winners! I was so excited for Savannah!!!!!!!!!! I wonder if this house can handle two Presidents? !

Cassandra had "Shadow a 5th grader" last week at school. Shane went with her and just did everything with her at school that day. They had a good time and I know Cassandra was thrilled that her Dad came with her! She sure works hard in 5th grade. I'm glad I don't have to go ;)

Griffin is good, his teacher told me last week that he's in the high-reading group in his class. THat made me feel good since he struggled in Kinder. All that reading paid off ;) As did his Title One reading aide at school!

Alyssa is fine other than the cold. She seems to be enjoying PTO more this year since we actually set up some stuff in the room for the kids who come with their moms. We have a little table/chairs/coloring stuff, etc. She takes a backpack of toys and she plays with her friends Ella and Jager so it's like a mini playgroup every week! Whew!

Shane is good, he did Physical Therapy for his hip and is back to normal pretty much. Work is busy and he's still doing the Foster Care Review Board once a month. Other than that he's tired of the heat and ready for winter.

I'm good, got back to riding the exercise bike after months of saying "I need to do this" and now I am. It showed because I lost 2lbs last week at my WW weigh in! I hope I keep up the momentum :) PTO is going great, we had our first meeting last week and had probably 15 or so people show up. That is monumental for a PTO meeting. Everyone seemed interested and supportive so I am hopeful for good things this year! Sunday was the first day of Sunday School and it went GREAT! We have 16 kids in class total. It's going to be busy but they are good, fun kids. I know we won't always have 16 but at least we've got a shot at having at least 5 show up each week by mid year LOL!

I think that's it for here, I'm off to clean. I feel the urge to do so after my toy room purging on Saturday and my start of deep cleaning last week.

I hope you all have a great week!
XO

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

FYI~Blog Songs

It occurred to me that I should probably mention the music player that automatically starts when you log into the blog.

Yes, I know it's been there all along but I have added some new songs to it.

In light of the fact I have added an Eminem song that uses the "F" word I thought I would 1. warn you and 2. let you know that if that song (or any other song you don't like) you can either hit the pause button or just click ONE time on another song and it will automatically start playing.

Monday, August 9, 2010

August 9th

Well hello!

I can't believe it's already the 2nd week of August! All I can say now is THANKFULLY we are on the downward slope of summer! It has been dang hot again this week. We got a little spoiled from the rain and cooler (but more humid) temps we had awhile ago. We have been back to 108-110ish and I'm not enjoying it!

The kids have started their 3rd week of school. So far, so good. They all like their teachers and their classmates (for the most part) are good. It is crazy in the afternoon/evening with homework for all 3 which is due daily rather than weekly (for Savannah and Griffin) plus AR Reading and such. We're starting to get a better routine but it's just such a short amount of time from when they get home (Savannah and Griffin at 3:00, Cassandra at 4:00) and bed (in bed at 7 to read for about an hour and then some TV before lights out). We're getting the groove back though.

Alyssa is doing ok, she had a rough first week with them all gone. She would just ask me "where is everyone? why is our car empty? why is the house empty?" and now she's doing better. We are back to full steam ahead PTO and playdates, etc. She took me to the chiropractor today ;) and then we had lunch with daddy. THOSE moments she is happy not to share, LOL!

Shane is doing better, he had some serious sciatica (spelling?) issues going on and ended up getting physical therapy assigned to him for 3 weeks, 3x a week. He is doing SO much better! It was just awful to see him in the pain he was in 2 weeks ago. I am glad he got to the doc so fast and the PT is wonderful!

Other than that, we are just waiting for birthday rush to hit (Griffin and my dad in Sept) and then Savannah  October 29, a visit from my friend Dee (from Australia) for Halloween, Shane's bday Nov 2nd, trip to San Diego Nov 9-13, Cassandra's bday Nov 20th, Thanksgiving, December.....you don't even want to know. We have 4 bdays plus Shane and I are going to his water conference in Vegas and the holidays...it's gonna get hairy! But it will be wonderful!

PTO is going well and I had my Sunday School teacher's dinner/ meeting and I am all pumped for another year of teaching! Should be fun, we just got the class roster today. We have a lot of new kids in the PreK/K class I teach :) and some of my returning favorites (shhh, don't tell!) I've had Griffin in my class for 3 years so it's weird to not have him now as he moved on to the 1st/2nd grade class.

Well it's late and I'm tuckered out so I hope everyone is well! I'll try to get some pics posted again soon!

XO

Sunday, August 1, 2010

First Day of School

Well the first day of school (Wednesday, July 28th) went pretty well! All the kids promptly jumped outta bed the FIRST time I went down to wake them up and everyone was dressed, brushed, beds made, fed and pics had been taken by 7:37 a.m.! I know that rarely happens but on the first day, you take what you can get!

Savannah and Griffin had a good day despite the teary exit from the car when Griffin looked at Cassandra and said "I'm going to miss you today Cassandra" and I looked back to see him full of tears. She gave big huts and watched them go out to the playground.

I got Cassandra to the Middle School and we had about 10 min to kill so we talked about a lot of stuff and off she went. She said she had a great day, her teacher is wonderful and she's right next door to one of our favorite teachers from the elementary school (who switched schools, now teaches 5th grade). Overall, everyone had a super day!

Alyssa did ok, we kept busy. She asked about the kids a lot. I could tell she missed them but we have already started to settle back into our old "mommy and Alyssa" routine. She sure does make a fuss over them all when they get home every day!

SO here are some pics, Alyssa insisted in being included in the "back to school" pics, complete with her own backpack ;)


Some people are more excited than others for pictures ;)

Smiles starting!

Goofballs

Please, I want to go!

Savannah Banana

Cassandra, unimpressed by it all

Typical Griffin