In good health

This news is a little old, but in keeping with my new blogging trend (not everything has to be fancy), I thought I would include a little blurb about Logan and Ellie's 7 and 4 year well checks. They actually had them last week. I always schedule them together since we all have to go at the same time anyway and since their birthdays are 2 days apart.

They both did great. It was the best trip to the doctor we've ever had. Isn't it nice the perks that come with age? Anyway, Logan went first and of course everything checked out just great. He's 52 1/2 inches tall (that's 4 ft 4 1/2 in- crazy, huh? Did I mention he's 7?) which puts him in the 95th percentile in height and 56 lbs which is 75th %. He's been in these same percentiles for about the last 5 or 6 years, so that's good. He's maintaining a good "curve".

Ellie also had a great check-up. She is 43 3/4 inches tall which is 97th% for height and 46 lbs which is in the 95th% for weight. She's also been maintaining these % for quite sometime. Poor Ellie had to get 3 shots. :( Of course she did not appreciate this in the least. She cried a little bit, but calmed down quickly. Those nasty things left bruises on her little legs though. She was sore for a day or two, but no other reactions. She keeps telling me that she's not going to the doctor to get anymore shots! Thank goodness she won't have to have anything other than a flu shot (or mist if they have it) until she's like 12 or something. Yippie for her and for me!! No more bribing the kids with prizes for having to endure their vaccines!

Real Life Blogging

Today I decided that I'm going to start blogging more. But mostly more like a diary maybe. I realized that not all blog entries need to be some major extravaganza of pictures and fabulous events. It could just be a few sentences about what's happening in my life. So here goes...

Summer's been a little better than before. Mostly because my expectations are very low, so I'm not disappointed when things go badly. So that's a good thing I guess.

My 33rd Birthday is Friday! Eeeek! It really doesn't bother me though. I always forget how old I am anyway. In my mind I've been thinking I was 33 for a while now. I actually have to count sometimes in my head 2008 - 1975 = 33, but not until 7-25! What a freak! The other night my friends celebrated my birthday with me at Erica's. They even brought me some gifts! Thanks to all of you for that.

I'm still very excited/nervous about teaching at the preschool. I'm going to a training session on Saturday with some other teachers and I'm really excited about that!! It's been really hard waiting to see which classroom will be mine and when I can really get down to the nitty-gritty of what I'll be doing! Erica got me some awesome "teacher stuff" for my birthday and I can't wait to use it!! Some of the items included Alphabet wall hangings, name plaques, pencils, stamps, and ink pads, stickers and even a "teacher tote bag", which I've been informed is an essential for any teacher worth her salt.

OK, so I did decide to include 1 picture. Jack is even helping me to showcase my newly acquired goods. Sometimes I'm so used to looking at him that I forget what a beautiful cat he is. Now if I could just get him to quit shitting on the garage floor, that would be marvelous!

Have a happy day!

Carter's party

I know this is a little late, but that's how my life is going right now! Here are some pictures from the party! We had a great time!

I just noticed this one is blurry, but it's still a good shot!

All the kids had a great time with the slip and slide even after it broke and they had to squirt the hose by hand. Actually I think they liked that better!

Doesn't Erica and Ray's back yard look awesome! You can't even see all of it, but Ray's done a fantastic job landscaping.

Poor Carter, look at that sad face! He was fine once he got control over the hose again!

Happy Birthday Carter!!! We love you!!

Staying Alive

I just wanted to put up a quick note to you all that I'm hanging in there. Thanks for your support. This week has been going OK. Today the kids went to Nonnie's house for a sleep over (woo hoo!) so I'm planning on doing some stuff around the house that I can never do when they're here. Do I know how to live or what? Then I'm going to Erica's tonight for girls night and it doesn't matter when I leave or when I get home 'cause there are no kids here. You don't know what that means to me. Well, those of you with kids probably do know, but for those of you who don't know or don't remember, it's awesome.

Ellie's Gymnastics class plus the life of a summer mom.

Ellie's been taking a gymnastics class once a week for the past few weeks. She seems to really enjoy it. I don't think when we started out that she had much of an idea what was in store.
It's cute. They start out the class warming up by dancing around to a song about animals. They go around pretending to be bunnies or horsies, etc. Then they stretch and break up into 2 groups where they rotate between 3 areas: floor/trampoline, bars, and balance beam.
I couldn't get a good shot of her on the bars since the teacher was always in the way, but those are her legs flipping around the bar.
She insisted on wearing a really long skirt that day and it wasn't worth the fight to make her take it off. Don't judge my pictures, it's hard to get good ones in the gym.

As I sit here looking at my barren blog I have to make a diversion. This started out being just about gymnastics, but I can't help but write about my life right now. It's been really hard, especially this last week. My summertime fears are being realized. I look ahead at the weeks to come with dread. Wow, that sounds awful I know, but right now that's how I feel. It's been so hard being with the kids ALL DAY, EVERYDAY with no breaks- not even 5 minutes to go to the bathroom. I can't wait for school to start just so we get a break from each other. I don't think any human beings were meant to spend so much time together without a way to get away for a while or some help.

These people that home school their kids, I just don't know how they do it. I would surely require medication. Is it just me? Am I nuts? I love my kids with all my heart, but after a while, the whining, fighting, mess-making... I just can't do it anymore. And they don't like it either, although they don't know it really. I know that they need more stimulation and variety than they can get from me at home. Even with all the activities we've been doing, it's still tough. June was not bad at all, but July's been rough and I'm really worried about August because all of our activities end by July 30th. Eeeek!!

Someone needs to seriously re-think this whole year round school thing. I know there must be some good reasons not to do it, but I don't know of any. The kids wind up spending the 1st 6 weeks catching up to where they left off at the end of the last school year anyway. I could definitely handle 1 month at a time, but almost 3 is rough.

Now I don't want anyone to worry about me or the kids. We'll be fine. I'm just blowing off steam. This is not a cry for help or some such. It's just reality.

I tried really hard to keep a positive attitude for the summer, so as not to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. I must admit however that my positive attitude is gone and in it's place is a haze of irritation, frustration and guilt. I am going to try and reverse that or at least start out each day with a good outlook. It's like AA or something, one day at a time!


I'm glad to have my new teaching job to look forward to. It's hard to have to wait so long to start it though. That gives me something to look forward to. I feel like I'm in a holding pattern right now, but I'm sure that soon enough it will have passed and we'll be gearing up to start school. Only 45 days until Logan starts school (not that I'm counting, hahaha) and 48 until I start my job, Woo hoo!!! 6 weeks, I can do that, right? I've already survived 5 1/2 weeks, so this shouldn't be so bad. Pray for me people!!

(I hate AT&T wireless DSL!!!!!!!!!!! It disconnects about every 5 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!) Run far, far away from it at all costs!

Happy 4th of July (a little late!)

We went to Houston last Thursday afternoon and stayed until Sunday. Stuart's whole family is from Houston so we go to visit as often as possible. This time we were able to spend time with all the Great Grandparents as well as Stuart's Mom and Dad. I keep telling him how lucky he is to have all his grandparents still around. Probably not too many 34 year-old's still do!

These are Stuart's mom's parents otherwise known as Memaw and Pawpaw. They love our kids (of course)! They'll be celebrating their 60th Anniversary next March and Pawpaw's 80th birthday! Way to go!! I've been volunteered to design invitations for their 60/80 party. More on that to come!This is Stuart's Grandpa (Logan's Great-Grandpa) otherwise known as Pops. Nana was there too, but I never had a chance to take a picture with her.

While we were at Stu's Dad's house we went for a walk and fed the ducks! We used almost a whole bag of bread (well fed ducks!).

I also wanted to include a picture of Logan's Lego creation he did at Grandma's house. It was like a whole space station or something. Very creative!

I'll probably be in trouble for putting Stuart on the blog, but I thought Daddy and daughter were cute on the swing.

Sorry this is such a short blog, but since the kids are home with me all day, everyday, I don't have a lot of time for blogging. Hope you all had a nice holiday weekend!! I heard a crash, so I better go!!!!

Swim Lessons

We are in our 4th year of swim lessons for Logan and 3rd for Ellie. We take them thru the local community rec center. They do a great job and I feel like the kids have learned a lot. Logan is becoming quite a competent swimmer learning different strokes like freestyle, backstroke, elementary backstroke and butterfly.

This is Logan's classmates and teacher before class. He's wearing the orange swim shirt and goggles.

Here he is swimming very intently as you can see from his tongue hanging out!

Ellie's in her first class by herself. For the past 2 summers as long as I've had to take Logan to class I decided Ellie may as well be in one too. So we did the Parent/Tot classes together. I really think they helped prepare her for this year's class.

This is Ellie with her classmates and 2 teachers before class began. Ellie's in the pink swimshirt.

Here she is learning to float on her back with airplane arms.

They love to swim and be in the water as I do, so teaching them to swim has always been a top priority for me. They are both doing great and I couldn't be more proud!!