They don't hate it!!!!

Well, today Hunter came home from school in a good mood!!! He stayed home with me yesterday because his cough had kept him up most the night. This morning he cried and whined and stomped his feet and insisted that he was not going to school and that school was awful and no fun! Today upon entering the car in the car line he was smiling!! He also remembered his car line number (the number we parents must display in the car and that the teacher calls out in order to pick up our child instead of using a name tag in the windshield) which helped his good mood! I don't know what made today better but it was, thankfully!

Lucas on the other hand has come home everyday in a good mood and has said that school was good, and he meant it too! I think he really likes the changing classes 6 times a day and not having all the same classes everyday. It must make him feel like a big kid (his word would be "pre-teen"!! *gasp*)

Hopefully this trend will keep going ....and going... and going!!!
Please let it keep going.......

Lucas's first day of Middle School

Luke went to the Boo Hoo breakfast with me but left early with the neighbors grandmother. He asked to ride with them (well, Cole) so I said sure. I could tell he was nervous and I think just being with someone else he knew made it a little better. He said it was awful but I don't think he really thought that. I just think he's so used to saying that that it just comes out. They have a weird schedule, some classes one day and other the next and some classes everyday... very confusing!!! He's taking band. I just wonder what horrible sound I'll be listening to ... Trumpet?? Drums?? Flute?? who knows...
His mother finally called at 6:30 last night to find out about his day. At least she called him this year, last year he had to call her on the second day of school.
His mom also keeps telling him she will open a savings account for him, but it hasn't happened yet. She also didn't get him anything for his birthday. He got stuff but it was from his aunts and uncles and grandparents (all 3 sets) and my auntie Cindi and us, but nothing from her. Too sad for him.
I think it's interesting that one of the papers he brought home yesterday had a place for the students to fill out mom and dad, and Lucas filled in Andrew's name and my name, I don't know if that means anything or if he was just putting down who he lives with ...???
I hope that she will keep in touch with him now. Since school has started she will only see him 4 days a month. He notices when she doesn't call and it makes him sad but he won't say that, I can just tell.

Hunter's first day of Kindergarten

Well, yesterday was his first day of Kindergarten. The school has what they call a "Boohoo Breakfast". They invite all the K parents to the lunchroom to have breakfast with their kids then they call the kids up to the front in group by teacher and sit them down and read them a story. After the story they call the kids out by class and lead them out of the lunchroom to their classrooms, leaving all the parents to boohoo.... alone! I teared up but no tears fell. I thought I would lose it when I got to the car but (thankfully) Stella started fussing and giving me a hard time about leaving so I was able to put my mind on that and not that my big boy just started Kindergarten.
I went and picked him up using the car rider line which was VERY long. He wanted to know what in the world took me so long to pick him up!! He said he didn't have very much fun. He did like art class and he did see his friend Duncan, but that was pretty much all he said.
This morning was NOT fun. He didn't want to go to school. He threw a fit and yelled and I eventually just carried him out to the car and strapped him in. I finally got it out of him that he wanted to stay home to play with Lucas. I had to remind him that Luke would be leaving to go to school, too. He finally calmed down and when we got to school and I dropped him off in the car line he seemed alright. Although today was much harder for me than yesterday because he just got out and walked away....... no wave, no kiss..... nothing! : (
So I hope today is more fun for him. I don't know what special (ie. art, music or PE) they have on what days so i will ask him when I pick him up today to find out what he did. I hope he can tell me more today than yesterday!! I don't want him to not like school, at least not till he's older!!

"Skating"

My kids have discovered they can 'skate' on the tile using cardboard blocks. It's too funny to watch. I don't know how they discovered this, but whatever keeps them entertained, right?!

Baseboards

Yes! baseboards. I want new baseboards in the whole house. Well just the part that has that crappy, supposed to be door frame casing, dust collecting, horribly put in, cut too short in places baseboard. The baseboard don't touch the floor in some places so the dirt just gets stuck up under it. I feel like I can't get my house clean. It would cost probably about $300 plus a gallon of paint but after spending $7500 on our new room that's just not gonna happen.
I also need to take the front door off the hinges and give a good coat of paint and the door frame and outside casing. But it's just too hot to have the door wide open like that, so it'll have to wait till a cooler day probably sometime in November. I would like to paint the hallway with some kind of washable paint. Right now it looks like crap! Actually, compared to the new room, the rest of the house looks like crap!

Butterfly

While I was in the backyard cleaning up all the stuff from the remodel, I came across a caterpillar that was attached to the tar paper and getting ready to turn into a chrysalis. I cut the piece of tar paper off and brought it inside so we could watch it. I was hoping to actually see it come out. I didn't get to. Andrew noticed it first. He was like, "What the hell is THAT?" It had fallen to the ground and was inside a toy so it just looked like a BIG bug moving around. He forgot that I had the chrysalis hanging up on the wall. So I picked it up carefully and all the kids were in awe. It was really pretty. We all went outside to let it go and she flew away into the trees. I have always thought butterflies were neat and it's cool to show the kids the whole cycle of it.

So later I looked online to see if I could find out what kind it was and I did manage to find it. It was a Spicebush Swallowtail. I attached a link to another site with lots of pictures. Hopefully it works as this is the first link I've tried to attach.

Ummmm... I can't think of a good title...

So today is Friday and I just got back from grocery shopping. I had to plan for Lucas's 'party' (he's just having a sleep over) and he asked to have s'mores on the fire for dessert. His mother called this morning to find out what he wanted for his birthday!?! We are just going to give him $$$, which is what he wants so he can go buy his own stuff. Cheaper and easier for me.

I need to at least start thinking about the sprinkler/messy party that I am having next Friday. We want to make it messy, but how??? Slime? Is that a good idea? Jello? Hmmm..... No more spaghetti, it's a pain to get out of the grass and to cook all of it too.
With a bunch of people coming over I need to get the house all the way put back together. I don't know what to do with the old family room. I guess I'll just line the walls with all the toys like it was in the old playroom. I also need to clean out the garage so people can walk through there with out falling down and stuff.

Next Wednesday both kids have a dentist appt and Shannon is just going to drop off Luke so I can take him since it's her week with him next week. Then on Thursday both boys have their orientation at school. Luke's is in the morning and I'll meet Shannon there. Hunter's is in the afternoon so at least I won't be running around like crazy. I should have enough time in between to clean the house and mow the yard for the party on Friday!LOL

Then Monday is my baby boy's first day of school, sniff, sniff. I am looking forward to it actually. He NEEDS the structure that I can't give him. He behaves better when he's at school and getting that structure. I'm just not good at structure, I would stress out about it too much. Plus he will meet some new friends.

Post more later.....

Stuff

In general stuff is going on in my life. Just yesterday we finally got all the furniture and TV and new area rugs put in the remodeled playroom that is now the new family room. It looks fabulous if I do say so myself. It came out exactly as I saw it in my own head. I know that sounds weird but I knew what I wanted and just had to find the right things (flooring, wall color, rug, curtains) to make it match the picture in my head.




The colors in the photo aren't quite right, but you get the picture. Those of you who had seen it before can see the difference from the wood walls, vinyl ceiling and green carpet.





Next news is that Stella is doing great not nursing. She is (for the most part) sleeping through the night. Woo Hoo!! Now if I could get Hunter and Stella to both sleep through the night on the same night and to get Andrew to quit snoring I could get a good nights rest!! LOL





The next tidbit is that Shannon, Luke's mom, who is preggers with her 3rd kid, is no longer together with the baby daddy! Yea, you read that right. She apparently is mad that he isn't becoming the family oriented guy she wanted him to become. I guess no one told her that you can't change a guy just because YOU want to have a baby, and a baby won't change a guy. He's 30 something and still drinking and partying and she's surprised that he's still drinking and partying now that she's preggers. So now she's living back with her parents with Jillian (her 2nd kid with no daddy) and with no job and no good job prospect. Good luck to her though because she's gonna need it. Thankfully Luke is living with us and isn't getting moved around.