Kites Over Lake Michigan

This is probably our favorite event of the summer. Unfortunately, it is on Labor Day weekend, so it marks the last event before school. It sure is fun and the lake water was really clear and beautiful. My kids love to get wet in the lake regardless of how cold the water can be. Later taters!

Surprising Day

Ainsley's first day of school went very well according to her teacher. Mommy was sad to see her go, but she was happy as a clam. What a big girl she is!

On the other hand, I pleasantly received a small flower arrangement today sent in memory of Dot by the vets office. As much as I have complained about them, they are a very good office. The flowers made me cry and smile at the same time.

Heartbroken...

I had to put my poor kitty down today. She has been fairly sick over this summer and has gone downhill very quickly these past few days. I would include her photo here, but I can't seem to get my scanner to work. Aidan took the news much harder than I expected. Dot was a cat who did not tolerate anyone but me and Aidan was crushed by the news that she wasn't coming home from the vets office today. Aidan says to me that maybe we can get another cat someday. I told him someday...just not today and not anytime soon.

Last Hurrah Before School

I am sad this morning as Ainsley starts school tomorrow. I get some one on one Aidan time which will be nice. I don't get that too often as it is cooler for him to hang with Daddy. I think I need to start Date night with him or something so that we can chat and do something fun. I just wanted to post some pictures today to sum up our last few weeks of summer vacation which haven't been as lazy as I would have hoped.



Since coming back from vacation we have had quite the tomato haul. I have given some away and plan to put back plenty to have on hand for lasagna and spagetti sauce.

Painting is now complete. Last night I finished painting the radiator cover and B touched up the ceiling. We were up really late moving furniture back into place. My hope is to take a picture later this afternoon once I get all of the little things moved back in and put back together. Below is a picture of the finished color though just so you get the idea.

Friday last week after finally feeling better from a week of migraine, I took the kids to a local place called Wizards Kingdom. Aidan has been bugging me to go since we got back from Texas. He just wanted to go before school starts as he doesn't get to go as often as he used to now that he is in school all day. They had a great time and as usual Aidan left with injuries. Why are my children so accident prone? Please don't answer that, I know they inherited the clumsiness gene from their mother. Here they are in the ball pit.

Ainsley had quite a mug on her in that picture. Not sure why as she was having a great time. Anyway, that is it for now. Pray for Mommy in the morning. Aidan has meet the teacher this afternoon so that should be fun for him. Wish us luck! Later taters.

More painting...

today. We are almost finished! After such a rough week I had I am glad to say we are almost done. Keep me accountable my friends. I need to go see the Dr. about these migraines! 4 days off and on is just too much. Then I feel whipped out for a day or two after. I have an appoinment coming up in a few weeks so I just need to get off my tush and ask for a preventative treatment because the over the counter products just aren't working anymore especially when it is triggered by stress. Enough about that.


Tomorrow is B and my 12th anniversary. Can you believe it! I have now known him for 15 years and still love him dearly I must say. Can't imagine life without my honey. Love you BSC.

Aidan found out today...

who will be his first grade teacher will be. We met her during his Jumpstart week. Please continue to pray for Aidan was we start this school year that he will bond with his teacher. She was the least favorite of the 2 first grade class teachers. Aidan says it was because she could not find anything in the classroom, so I am thankful that his issue with her was minor my fairly organized child gets frustrated with those who are not. Pray also that Aidan will keep his lines of communication open, too often he answers me with an "I don't know". Pray for Mommy that I do not continue to dread the start of school and that we will get off to a nice smooth start. Can you tell that Mommy is stressed! Later.

Have you ever...

had a weekend where you just tried to do too much? Up way to late last night watching the Olympics after a full day of painting. Today was church, moving furniture, I went to the lake to see some friends get baptized. When I came home the kids wanted to go to the lake so for some fun family time we went, stayed too late, ate dinner late and am going to get the kids to bed late. We also were supposed to make it to a friends for a bonfire, but considering the hour and we are filthy from sand, I don't think I should even attempt it. I will have to give her my apologies later.


ETA: I also forgot that I still have to take apart my downstairs living room and office to get ready for the guy coming to clean my carpet in the morning. Some days it just doesn't end!

Prayers please!

I hesitate to post about this, but as it is bigger than me I must turn it over to God and my prayerful friends. This week my father-in-law was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Unfortunately, he had put off, for several years, getting a biopsy as he has had elevated PSA levels for some time now. Fortunately, at this point treatment doesn't include chemo, only radiation for about 6 months which will be limiting their travelling after the Colorado trip. Surgery is an option, but with T's history of reaction to surgery they doctors suggested forgoing this option at this point. This is very treatable and I pray for healing, but I also pray that T will be a bit less stubborn and go see the doctor when he has to. He is never good about that. This is a man that walked around having chest pains for 2 weeks before going to the ER. B is frustrated I think being so far away, but even when we lived in town we did not have much influence on getting the man to the doctor. He is also concerned for his own health considering his family history. I said that he just needs to do his best about taking care of himself, eat well, exercise, rest, and see the doctor on a regular basis. Anyway, that is enough of a downer for today. Later.

Houston

Well, to sum up the second week of our trip. Friday we headed down to Houston and made it down in time for dinner my Mom had asked my Dad to prepare. Brats! We just can't get away from the brat. She thought we liked them which my hubby does, but they don't like me too much. Enough said. Above is a picture of the kids playing pirate with some left over party gear of my sister's.

Saturday we went to a huge BBQ at my sister's house. My hubby attended the grill much to the thankfulness of their guests. Most of them are European and knew that my hubby saved their 4th of July celebration a few years back but taking the reins of the grill away from my sweet but grilling challenged brother in law. That is an odd story, being one of the few Americans at a party celebrating American independance from the British. One for another time though.

Sunday I took the kids to meet some people at my parents church. You heard that right, my PARENTS church also a story for another time maybe, and B headed back to Wi.

Monday we took everyone to Chuck E Cheese. Enough said.

Tuesday we went to an amazing park and fountain in downtown called Discovery Green. http://www.discoverygreen.com/ The kids played in the fountain while we were there and had a blast. During most of these events I had left my camera at home because I had taken it out of my bag to show some pictures and charge the battery. I have some pictures of them on my cell phone, but as my screen seems to suddenly gone completely dead I have not been able to retreive them.

Wednesday was a shopping day.

Thursday we took the kids to a disappointing exhibit at Space Center Houston. They advertised a huge collection of Star Wars memoribilia gearing up to the release of the clone wars movie. Not so huge quite pitiful really. We did get a picture of Aidan with some of the advertised characters which turned out to be only two storm troopers. Aidan's response was similar to mine...is that it! So much like his mother!

They had more fun playing at some of the kids space activities there.
Friday was spent at Katy Mills, Chick Fil A and my sister's pool as she had the day off. Friday afternoon, B headed back into town and we went out to Cajun for dinner much to my hubby's surprise. Saturday morning we headed out of town for our trek back up north just in time to avoid heat advisories and some minor storms due to hurricane Eduard. Crazy busy but fun time. The trip back was uneventful, except for the terrible heat in Arkansas and at some point along the way Ainsley decided she did not want to go potty, but that also is another story. Later taters!

Lots of walking!

Aidan's school next year is very close to our house. So close in fact that they don't offer us bus service ( I am sure you could get it for a small fee if you really needed it though). Anywhoo, After talking with Aidan we thought it would be okay for us to walk to school on nice days and in the winter I would drive him and drop him off. This morning after walking Aidan to Jumpstart, I decided we would walk down to the library, while headed down there I realized the Farmers Market was running so I walked around this as well. When it was time to leave the library I headed back and I realized the street the whole way back is up hill. Ainsley and I got more drinks then we walked back over to the school to pick up Aidan. Whew, my legs were tired when we got back! I took a nice long nap, not too long as I have laundry to tend to and painting supplies to search for. Two trips minimum to the school everyday will be a nice way to get a little of my tone back since I got very lazy over my winter of continual illness. Lets see how we do this winter. Later taters! Anyone else get some exercise today...I am sure some of you did!

Prayers for Aidan...

if you would please this morning and this week. He started Jumpstart to 1st grade this week and while he was excited the whole way there, when we got to the classroom he started doing the shy thing again. Hiding behind me, not talking to the teacher, etc. He usually gets over this quickly, but he wasn't being "shy" until this last school year. Not sure how to handle it because these occasions are fairly rare. Anyway, if you think of him I would appreciate it.

Ceiling Crash of 2008

We have had a bad spot in the plaster of our bedroom ceiling for some time. I have been asking B to fix it or hire the job out. His response has always been, I can take care of it. Well it hasn't gotten taken care of. When we got back from Texas this weekend, I noticed it had cracked even further. B says I need a free weekend and then I will take care of it. Needless to say we never made it to the weekend. Tuesday morning, I went up to my room to fold some clothes before putting Ainsley down to nap. I came upon this...


I was to horrified to think about taking a picture of where all the mess landed. On my side of our bed! Imagine if we had been sleeping when this happened. I call B to tell him what happened. He says, okay I'll fix it. But would it be okay with you if I went to play golf this after noon. Fine, I said go play golf. I was livid though. He realized this and brought a friend home who has done dry wall work to assess the damage. That evening we went to Lowes and bought some supplies. Wednesday evening his friend from work came over to help thankfully. They got the job knocked out pretty quickly, but it will take several coats of mud for it to be ready to prime and paint which has apparently become my job. Not sure why as it wasn't my fault the ceiling finally collapsed. So really the collapse wasn't that bad, but I was horrified nonetheless!



Well, have a good weekend tater tots. This weekend is the dreaded company picnic. B keeps telling me that I don't have to go this year. I told him I am willing to go if he is going to hang out with me. He somehow expects me to network with all his people while chasing 2 kids around the Expo grounds. I am just going to walk up to strangers and start chatting. Yeah right. Wish me luck!

As permitted...

I am posting a few pictures of our visit with Miss N and her boys. Enjoy! And Miss N when I get my act together this week I will e-mail these to you.





The ever adorable Miss N and little Mr C. Gotta love those curls!

Miss Ainsley got tired keeping up with the boys.

Little Mr C will most likely be into Star Wars and Mario one day. Right now he just wants to chill.

Aidan and Mr. K playing Star Wars again. Over this they have bonded. Too bad my close up of Mr K was blurry. He looks more like his precious mama every day.



Still more to come maybe tomorrow or next week, computer crash, Houston and the great ceiling crash of 2008. One crash or another around here I tell you what. Lowes is going to love us. Pooped today after a rough night so I postponed heading to Target for some school supplies until tomorrow. Later taters!

She did it!

http://tvwatch.people.com/2008/08/05/melissa-lawson-wins-nashville-star/


The girl that sings at our church in Texas won Nashville Star! How exciting! Keep an eye (and an ear) out for this girl as she has some pipes. It was still odd for me to hear her sing secular music, but I am so amazed by her talent. Later!

The DFW leg of our trip...

did not go quite as planned leaving us unable to do too much other than swim. The kids were fine with that as it was ridiculously hot, but we had wanted to visit some friends that we did not get the chance to. Our first full day there was a pool bbq party with all the family in town. Above is a picture of the the kiddos "cousins" and "Aunt Rhonda. These are my hubby's cousins kids so indeed they are the cousins we have until the kiddos receive a blessing from Uncle J and Titi M. Monday was a quiet day with B's grandpa. At 95 he doesn't get around to well anymore so we needed to keep it low key. Tuesday the boys went to play golf, while I dragged my MIL to the Mills and eat at my favorite...Chick-fil-A. I really did not give her a choice, I told her where I was going and asked if she wanted to come along. Needless to say, the kids ended up with some loot and I got my mall and sandwich fix. Remember that I said it was ridiculously hot, I was concerned about Aidan while the men were playing golf, but really my FIL was the one who ended up with heat-related illness. This put him under the weather for the next 2 days, but he did allow us to go to a Mexican place to go out to eat so B could get a Mexican food fix. While I took Ainsley home for a nap the boys when to see the new Cowboys stadium being built.

B was in Cowboy heaven, but Aidan thought he was in the desert because it was so hot. Not quite as impressed was the little man. Maybe he will be moreso when it is finished and if he ever gets to go see a game there. One day...


That evening we went to visit my dear friend Chris and swim in her pool as well. I think she liked having us over and she even went through the trouble of making us dinner as well. Sweet lady she is.

Thursday morning we went to visit with my friend Miss N and her kiddos. It was so cool seeing them! B stayed behind while his Dad went to the Dr about a huge "burn" on his leg. Turns out it was a reaction to the medications he was taking and probably aggravated more by the heat from the golf outing. I have some super cute pictures of my friend and her kiddos but I am not going to post them here unless I have permission. Sometimes my photography skills aren't too shabby. Friday morning we headed out to Houston and at breakfast my FIL mentioned that we did not get to go anywhere, he had mentioned some museums and IMAX, but with the way they planned their time and unexpected illness what could we do. Maybe next time...the kids were happy with getting to swim everyday so as long as they were entertained I was fine.


Later on to the Houston end of things. I have been busy today, but essentially have nothing to show for it. I did one smart thing on this trip was do several loads of laundry at my Mom's house before heading back so everything packed in my large suit case was clean. All the dirtys were in a smaller duffle back and was mostly what we travelled in on the way back. I will have to remember to do that next time as well. That is it for now as this is ending up to be a longer post than I intended. Later taters!

We're back!

And I survived. Seems strange being home, and the first thing that I have learned since being back in my house this afternoon is NEVER miss the annual block party. Lord knows what your neighbors will leave in your garage and adorning your house. We came home to an odd assortment of Christmas lights on my front porch and a life-sized stuffed Superman hanging in my garage that was meant to look like he was flying when I put the garage door up. Actually, he looked like he was hanging from a noose. Poor thing is now in my living room because Miss Ainsley just loves him. His owners said we could keep him for a while, I am thinking that we will keep him until next summer's block party. He ended up in our yard last year as well. He was hanging out in the kids swing set until we set him up in the garage to get out of the rain.


More about our trip, computer crash, etc. until later this week. I have tons of catching up to do and tons of appointments already. Later taters, I hoped you missed me!