June 30, 2008

I started out this morning by doing a cardio workout by Bob Greene of the Biggest Loser TV show. It was only a 20-minute workout, but it kicked my tail. Then, at the end, he said, "Congratulations! You have completed the cardio workout Level 1!". Level one? There are worse levels than this? Yikes.

We basically stayed at home today, except for a trip to Publix. Thankfully, this outing went much better than last time. I am making Carson and Jamie both earn stars to get their game time now. They have since become much more cooperative. Now, if I can just get Caleb to quit whacking people over the head with things.

All of the kids are downstairs with Vic now watching The Princess and the Pauper and eating popcorn. They have already had a brownie and a little ice cream tonight. Jamie is a clever little thing and told me it was her little dog Junior's birthday(this is the Monopoly piece dog), and that we simply must celebrate with brownies and ice cream. She said cupcakes would be fine too, lol. So, we all celebrated with Junior after the kids' bath time tonight.

June 29, 2008

Vic had sound this morning at church and had to be there an hour early, so I decided to just take the kids to Sunday School. After Sunday School, we all enjoyed a nice, relaxing rainy day around the house.

It was relaxing except that the TV was on and the Emergency Alert System kept coming on to tell us about a Severe Thunderstorm watch. I am glad we have the EAS, but really, do we need all that racket for a watch? It wasn't even a warning. Seems like a message going across the bottom of the screen would suffice. I guess that wouldn't help blind people, though. Maybe that's why they do it. Well, there's my randomness for the day.

Tonight I went to a VBS planning meeting at church. I am teaching 1st and 2nd graders this year along with another lady. I am used to having 5 year olds in my class. Hopefully this won't be too much harder. Carson will be in my class. I'm not sure how that will go, since he usually behaves better for his teachers than he does for me.

I am going to go help Vic wrangle the kids towards bed now. This will be the first time in a week that they have been in bed before 9:00. Ahhhh, peace. :)

June 28, 2008

This morning I woke up early and did a 45 minute workout video. That's two mornings in a row. I think that's a record for me. After that, I went and did our cleaning at the church. The zone we were assigned to this time required a lot of vacuuming, so that was kind of a second workout for me.

After I got home, Vic and Jamie went to the pool at the Y and I spent some time cleaning up around the house while the boys played.

Tonight, Grammy & Grampy came over for dinner, and Vic grilled some very yummy hamburgers. I didn't do very well on my diet tonight. There was too much good food around. I've been doing well overall, though, so maybe this won't make much of a difference. We didn't have dessert, but after dinner Jamie made us some super strong Crystal Light green tea in her play coffee pot. So, I guess that counts as dessert.

The kids were very excited to have Grammy & Grampy over, so we are still trying to settle them down for bed. Between this and bible school all of last week, their bedtime routine has gone out the window. I am looking forward to getting them back on track this week. Have I mentioned that I get grumpy when my kids don't go to bed on time? ;) I love my peaceful evenings. Besides, Vic and I have a free Netflix trial right now, and we have our first movie here to watch.

June 27, 2008

We had a pretty quiet day today and stayed around the house. I wasn't about to take them anywhere today after yesterday's Publix fiasco. We made shakers out of paper plates and dried beans, and then I kicked them all outside to play with their shakers and forced them to *gasp* entertain themselves for a whole hour.

Later, we had popcorn and I let them eat their lunch in the den, so I wasn't mean all day, lol. Tonight I took Carson and Jamie to their last night at VBS at Grammy & Grampy's church. They had a worship service for the family to attend tonight, so I went to that and met up with Grammy & Grampy there. The kids were so cute singing the songs on stage! I wish I had remembered my camera. Jamie was hamming it up as usual, but the unusual thing was that Carson was really getting into the music and the hand motions, too. It was very cute!

These pictures of Jamie are from Tuesday. She was adding some sparkle to herself and her favorite pet, Tiny. Tiny goes everywhere with us. He even went on all the rides at Carowinds with us.

June 26, 2008

This morning during our craft time, the kids had fun making cards for Grammy. We also enjoyed popcorn and a cookie while we worked, which made for a good time.

After lunch, we all went to the Dollar Store, where I had planned for the kids to each pick out a water play toy to entertain them this afternoon. Instead, Carson chose a package of punch balloons, Jamie chose a doll, and Caleb chose a hockey stick and ball set. It always amuses me to see what they choose. Next, we headed to Publix, where the kids acted like maniacs and made me really, really mad. Then, we went by and dropped off our cards and flowers on Grammy's front porch. After that, we went home and the older two kids went to their rooms for an hour so I could have some peace.

Things were much better after that. Carson played with William, Jamie played Webkinz, Caleb looked out the window at the moving trucks down the street, and there was peace. Later, I took Carson and Jamie to VBS, which is where they are now.

Today, I gave myself an early birthday present and signed up for Weight Watchers. I got the monthly pass so I can use the e-tools too. Vic came home a little early to watch Caleb, and I dropped Carson and Jamie off at the church and headed over to the WW meeting. I am really excited about this. I think the meetings and the weekly weigh-in will be just what I need to keep me on track. So, look for my progress reports every Thursday night on the blog.

Oh, and our laptop is working now. Brent said it started right up for him. I think he has a magic touch with PCs. He is like the PC whisperer. :)

June 25, 2008

The kids enjoyed some time playing with Grammy this morning while I enjoyed some time running errands all by myself. I went to Walmart and Publix and then went to Sonic to get drinks for everyone. I brought the kids home after lunch, and we all enjoyed the clean house that the maid had left for us, for a few minutes anyway.

We stayed around the house this afternoon until time for the kids to go to VBS. It was an uneventful afternoon, except for another unfortunate incident, this time involving Caleb's habit of taking off his dirty diapers and his love for golf.

Carson and Jamie are at Bible School now, and Caleb and I are sitting at the table while he eats his dinner. I think he has eaten his weight in watermelon. The house is amazingly quiet with just one kid here!

Carson and Jamie are having lots of fun at VBS. It has been kind of tough getting them there right at dinner time and getting them home right at bedtime, but they are enjoying it and it gives them something good to do. They were sad because Grammy & Grampy aren't going to be there any more this week. They enjoyed spotting them around the church and were even arguing last night when I picked them up over who had seen Grammy & Grampy more. But, Brent will be there all week, so they can look for him.

June 24, 2008

This morning our desktop wouldn't start up, so Vic took it over to our computer hospital, Brent's house. Hopefully it won't have to stay there too long. So, I got a lot done today around the house without the computer around. I decided that I would probably lose weight if I quit turning the computer on during the day because I don't think I sat down all day. I am borrowing Vic's laptop right now.

We stayed around the house today. Carson and Caleb played outside with squirt guns a lot. Jamie wasn't so much into that. She is like me and prefers the air conditioning. So, she spent a lot of time playing in her room and dressing up her dolls and stuffed animals, and herself.

Carson and Jamie have enjoyed VBS the past two nights. They like seeing Grammy & Grampy at snack.

The kids and I were happy to hear today that Grammy's injury won't keep her out of the pool! Her doctor put her in a wrist brace and told her that she was okay to swim. :0) She just needs her wound on her hand to heal up and she'll be ready for Summer fun!

June 23, 2008

Today I spent most of the day trying to restore order to the house by putting away everything that went on our trip with us and doing the laundry. I still have more to do, but I got quite a bit done. I also spent a long time thoroughly cleaning the wood floors after an unfortunate incident involving Caleb's habit of taking off his dirty diapers and a musical push-a-long toy.

We made a trip to Publix to restock the house today. That wasn't fun, but we made it. Other than that, we stayed at home and Carson and Jamie played with the kids who live across the street. Tonight I took Carson and Jamie to VBS at Grammy & Grampy's church. Jamie was excited to go; Carson was less enthusiastic, but I think they will both have fun. The church was really decked out in island-themed stuff. Grammy & Grampy are on snack duty tonight, so they are going to check in on the kids, too. I think that will make the kids happy. I know it is making Vic happy to have the relative peace of only one kid at home when he got home from work!

June 19-22 Carowinds Trip

We're home, and we had so much fun! We checked into our hotel around dinner time on Thursday and found out that we had been upgraded to a suite. That made things so much easier traveling with the kids! So, we were off to a great start.

Friday we got to the park right about when it opened and met Eric, Anna, and Emily there. Carson went off and rode a couple of the roller coasters with the guys, and Anna and I hung out in the children's area with the girls. Jamie was much braver this year with the rides. She especially liked the swings and the carousel. We rode that carousel at least 5 times that day. Jamie had so much fun with Emily, and Carson was very proud of himself for riding the big rides.

Eric and his family had to leave in the late afternoon, so we said our goodbyes and then headed over to the water park for more fun. Carson and Jamie loved the new wave pool! We hung out there for a while and then Carson and Vic went on some of the big slides while Jamie and I stuck to the kiddie slide and the Crocodile Run, a Lazy-river type thing. We stayed until the water park closed, and then stopped at a Shoney's near the park for dinner. The kids had never been to a Shoney's, and Carson was very impressed. He thought it was the greatest thing since McDonalds, lol. We went straight back to the hotel and everyone was asleep early.

Saturday morning we went back for more fun. We were still pretty tired and not quite as peppy as we were on Friday. It was much more crowded, but still not too bad. We spent a couple of hours riding rides, and then spent the rest of the day at the water park. We left around 6:15, when it began to rain and we decided to call it a day.

Today we had a nice breakfast at a restaurant by the hotel where we had eaten last year, and then headed out. We made it back to Grammy & Grampy's house to pick up Caleb a little before 3:00. It was nice to have the family back together again.

Caleb had a lots of fun hanging out with Grammy & Grampy this weekend! He got to play lots of golf, which made him very happy. He also got to go on a little adventure to the ER, since poor Grammy fell and broke her arm. :( She also injured her ribs, cut her hand, and got a black eye along with other bumps and bruises in the fall. Yikes! We didn't know about her injury until we got back. She didn't want us to worry about it while we were in NC. I feel really bad that she got hurt and then had to chase after Caleb with all those injuries! Caleb also fell and split one of his fingernails. It looks really gross, but doesn't seem to bother him all that much. So, they had an adventurous weekend. Oh yeah, and on Thursday a HUGE limb fell onto their house. I mean, it was about half a tree that fell. Thankfully, no one was outside and it just clipped the edge of their roof. It was bad enough to do thousands in damage, though. They had a crazy weekend. I hope things calm down for them soon!

I have put our pictures from our trip on the web album. It was lots of fun, but I am glad to be back home, too!

Leaving for NC now!

Just a note to say we are leaving now, and I'm not sure if I'll have internet access at the hotel. So, I may not be back to the blog until Sunday or Monday.

June 18, 2008

The new washer arrived this morning, and yes, I took pictures. I have given it quite a workout today, and I am so happy with it so far! I can't believe how little water it uses. It does take a long time to complete a wash cycle, but it washes tons of clothes at once.

I went to the doctor this morning while Vic worked from home and fed the kids Doritos to keep them quiet. I have been having pain in my chest all the time, especially at night since last Friday. I thought maybe it was my gallbladder, but my doctor told me it seemed to her to be related to my digestive tract. She gave me a prescription for Prevacid, and I feel worlds better after taking it. So, I guess I developed acid reflux suddenly on Friday. Huh. That just happens to be the day school let out for the summer. I wonder if stress causes reflux. ;)

We basically spent the day packing up for the trip and washing clothes. We also made another trip to Walmart for a couple more things. Caleb spent the day trying to unpack everything I packed. He also threw lots of laundry on the floor and got into my purse and decorated his face with my mascara. I got pictures of that, too.

Now I need to finish up packing and folding laundry so we will be able to take off first thing in the morning!

June 17, 2008

The kids went over to Grammy & Grampy's house today while I went to Target and Walmart to pick up some things for our trip. Super Grammy not only watched all the kids, but washed another basket of laundry for me today! :)

I got a message on the answering machine today that they would be delivering the new washer tomorrow between 11-3. Yay! If it is on time, that will give me plenty of time to wash the rest of the clothes and pack up for the trip.

This afternoon, we stayed at home and I packed up what I could to get ready for the trip, while trying to keep the kids from destroying the house. I forgot to mention that yesterday while I was showering after the beach, Caleb got a hold of a bottle of spray-on sunscreen. He decorated the pantry, part of the kitchen, and the entire den, including the floor, the TV, and all the furniture. What a mess! Vic pointed out that at least maybe now the couches are protected from the sun's harmful rays, lol.

His other new trick is that he takes off his diaper when it is dirty now. I'll leave it to your imagination what kind of messes this makes. I know that is a positive sign that maybe he will be ready to potty train soon, but I am reaaaalllly tired of this trick.

Off to spiffy up the laundry room for the new washer now. I probably shouldn't be this excited about a new washing machine. :)

June 16, 2008

This morning we had lots of fun at the beach with Grammy. It was hot at first, but then some clouds moved in and it was pleasant after that. There was a tidal pool that the kids enjoyed playing in. Carson even found a baby Puffer fish in the tidal pool. It was so cute! Carson scooped it up in a bucket, and we took it out to the ocean.

We also saw several dolphins and some sting rays. There were even pigeons and a couple of crows there, too. There were plenty of shorebirds also, and when Caleb threw part of his granola bar, he and I got to see an Oystercatcher and a pigeon get in an argument over it. I would have put money on the Oystercatcher, but the pigeon won that scuffle. I think that Oystercatcher should see a therapist about his confidence problems. He could easily have kicked that pigeon's tail. He did eventually sneak back over and grab it from the pigeon, though.

It was a very nice day at the beach. After we got back, Grammy was very sweet to take a big basket of my laundry home with her. It is really piling up, and as much as I hate laundry, it is worse to have piles of it and not be able to wash it!

June 15, 2008 Happy Father's Day

We had nursery duty at church this morning, which was pretty easy since half the kids in the nursery this morning were ours. I think a bunch of people must have gone out to brunch for Father's Day or something. We made it right on time for nursery duty, too. I wonder why we can do that, but making it to church 15 minutes later is a challenge.

After church, we met Grammy, Grampy and Brent for lunch at Beef O'Brady's. The kids liked that because they have an arcade and one of the games gives out a bouncy ball every time you play it.

After that we went home and all worked together to clean the van inside and out. It was getting scary inside there, and desperately needed cleaning. As we were finishing up, a storm was rolling in. We spent the rest of the afternoon inside, relaxing and watching the rain. It was a nice, quiet afternoon.

We also ordered the new washing machine. We decided to just call Home Depot and order it over the phone. I am getting this one, except that we didn't pay that much for it. It was cheaper in the store. It is supposed to be here sometime Wednesday. That will give me a little time to wash what we need for the trip to Carowinds. I hope it arrives Wednesday morning, but I'll be happy if it arrives at all on Wednesday. I can't wait to try it out!

I think Vic had a nice Father's Day today, even though we didn't do much. It was a fairly peaceful afternoon. Plus, he got his laptop working, so that was a great father's day gift for him! Now at least we don't have to buy a new laptop and a new washing machine at the same time. :)

June 14, 2008

We started out the day today with the washing machine leaking water all over the place. Fun stuff. Vic was at work, but Carson jumped in to help. We spent a long time bailing water out of the tub and dumping it down the sink. Vic tried to fix it, but we decided it was time to get a new washer.

Tonight, Grammy was very sweet to come over to babysit on short notice so that we could go to Home Depot to check out washing machines and then we were going to go out to dinner at Olive Garden. Turns out Home Depot is running some specials right now where we can get 10% off, free delivery(with rebate), and a gift card with an energy-star washer purchase. We found one we like and we're going to go back tomorrow and order it. We wanted to come home and read some reviews on it first.

Olive Garden was way too crowded and we were too hungry to wait 50 minutes for a table. So, we walked over to an Asian Fusion place nearby. I couldn't believe we got a table right away! It was so yummy. :)

June 13, 2008

Carson got an early start to his summer today because of a power outage in the area. Our power went out at around 12:45am and came back on about 12 hours later. Turns out a Woodpecker apparently made a big hole in a power pole, causing it to fall. I figured his school was without power when I called the school and no one answered, so we kept him home. At about 9:40, we got a pre-recorded call from the principal on our cell phones saying that they were closed due to not having power and everyone needed to come pick up their kids right away. I'm not sure why they were accepting any students since they didn't have power in the first place, but I was glad we hadn't taken Carson. I wonder if they will have school on Monday instead. Carson needs to get his supply box from the classroom and give his teacher her gift.

I took them all to the dollar store this morning to get them out of the house for a while. Carson picked out some water balloons and that entertained him and the other two kids all afternoon. Not bad for only $1. Caleb chose a plastic ball and bat, and Jamie chose a snow globe for her room. When we returned home, the power was back. Yay!

Tonight after dinner, Vic took Caleb and Jamie to the beach. They met one of Vic's friends there and his kids. They had a great time, and Jamie made a couple of new friends. Carson wanted to stay here with me. We played some Webkinz while they were gone.

Now I am going to go get some rest. Jamie and Caleb both ended up in our room last night because of the power outage, so I think I was awake more than asleep last night. Here's hoping tonight is more peaceful!

June 12, 2008

Carson had a big day at school today. This morning, I attended the awards ceremony for the first and second grade. It was way too long, but I guess awards ceremonies always are. I think some of these awards could probably just be sent home in the backpacks. They could attach a lolly pop and make the kids way happier than having to sit on the floor of the gym quietly for an hour and 15 minutes listening to names being called out, but I digress. Anyway, Carson received an award for participating in a media festival project that won at the local, state and national level and is now going to the international level. There were about 30 kids who worked on the project.

After lunch, I went back to the school to help set up for the party. This was one heck of a party. Kind of over the top if you ask me. They had a ring toss, face painting, sand art, and water balloon toss games. They also beat the heck out of a unicorn pinata. They ate hot dogs, rice krispie treats, cookies, boiled peanuts, m&ms, sno cones and drank Sprite(the juice pouches I sent in? half of them were missing.) Oh, and they had already had ice cream sundaes as dessert after lunch. They all seemed to enjoy it, and they were all pretty hyped up, too. They have school tomorrow, but it seems many of the kids aren't going tomorrow. I'm not sure what's up with that. Maybe I will check Carson out after lunch. The teacher did say that they really had nothing to do tomorrow.

Tonight, we watched the raccoon play in the sprinkler that we had left on in the back yard. It was pretty cute. Then we watched it rummaging through our trash can, which was decidedly less cute. The raccoon is not very neat. I think it was very happy that I had cleaned out my pantry the other day.

I posted a few pictures from Carson's party. These are all from the Pinata excitement. I didn't get many because my camera battery died. The pictures of Caleb and Jamie are from Tuesday.

Raccoon

As I was leaving to go to Carson's classroom today, this raccoon was in the back yard. It ran up the nearest tree when it saw me. These pictures aren't the greatest. She was pretty high up in the tree. She was still there when we got home four hours later.

June 11, 2008

I took the kids to McDonalds this morning for breakfast so that they could play in the play area and so that the cleaning lady could clean in peace. They had lots of fun and we stayed for about an hour. By that time the weather was getting hot and they were getting tired. We headed to Publix and arrived back at home just as the cleaning lady was leaving, so that worked out well.

This afternoon, I took Caleb and Jamie to Grammy's house to play so that I could go to Carson's class. I was scheduled to bring drinks today to go with their carnival snack. Another mom ended up bringing drinks too, so we used hers and mine will be used tomorrow. She brought sprite with maraschino cherries and grenadine. I guess that trumped the minute maid juice pouches I brought, lol. The kids were supposed to have cotton candy and ice cream sundaes today. It turned out that the room mom and the teacher had a misunderstanding about who was bringing the ice cream, and no one brought it. So the kids had cotton candy and the cherry sprite. I think that was plenty of sugar for one afternoon. They were all pretty wired already.

Now the kids are tucked in for the night, and I need to go downstairs and start baking. I need to make four dozen cookies for the big end-of-year party tomorrow!

June 10, 2008

Carson went back to school today, and I think he had a fun day. Their carnival treat today was cracker jacks and they played a bean bag toss game. He doesn't like cracker jacks, but, luckily for him, they also had barbeque potato chips - his favorite! He came home without any make up work too. I guess there's not much going on this week.

The kids and I stayed at home today. I organized my pantry. That was quite a job! I can't believe how much stuff I ended up throwing out. I need to keep it more organized so I know what I have and things won't expire before they are used. Outside of that, I just tried to keep up with the messes Caleb and Jamie made. I think I lost in that contest.

This afternoon, the kids enjoyed singing happy birthday to Nana over the phone. I was surprised that she was still able to hear after that, since Carson and Jamie seemed to be competing for who could sing the loudest and get closest to the receiver. Oh well, at least they were enthusiastic.

Tomorrow I am looking forward to going to Carson's class for the carnival snack. It is our turn to bring drinks, so I'll be there with plenty of fruit punch in hand. I got an email this morning that the time for the snack had changed from 1:00 to 2:30. I guess they figured it was better to sugar them up and then send them home than it was to sugar them up and then try to accomplish anything else in the afternoon. :)

June 9, 2008

Carson still had a stomach ache this morning, and so he got to stay home from school today. He will definitely be back tomorrow, though. He was back to his old self this afternoon.

I mentioned to him this morning that I may check him in after lunch if he was feeling better. After lunch, I asked him how he was doing. He said, "was that lunch or dinner that we just ate?". I told him it was lunch and he put his hand over his stomach and said in a sickly voice, "oh, my stomach is still hurting!" I'm glad he got to spend the day with Nana and Poppa today, though. I doubt he missed all that much at school.

Poppa played some golf with Grampy this morning, and Nana watched the kids while I went by the Y and signed Jamie up for two summer camps and Carson up for one. Jamie is going to a princess camp and a gymnastics camp, and Carson is going to a gym and swim camp. I think they will have fun. I will have to ask them about Jamie's gymnastics camp because the flyer said it was for 4-12 year olds, but the receipt they gave me says the minimum age is 6. So, she might not get to go to that one. I also got to do my grocery shopping alone while she watched the kids, and that is always a treat.

Nana also finished ALL my laundry! Wow - what a feeling to not have laundry waiting for me! Vic calls her the laundry fairy. :) Now, if I can just keep up with it over the summer.

Poppa and Nana left this afternoon after loading the kids up with mints and a little spending money. We really enjoyed their visit.

The kids and I spent the rest of the afternoon playing outside, except for poor "sick" Carson who played a whole lot of Webkinz. It was surprisingly cool late this afternoon and very nice to be outside.

Now I'm off to watch some TV and not fold laundry!

June 8, 2008

We have had such a fun day spending time with Nana and Poppa. We all made it to church this morning, and this time we only missed the announcements and opening prayer. We even heard some of the opening prayer from the lobby. I am so proud. We are on our way to one day hearing the announcements while already seated in the sanctuary.

We left before Sunday School and picked up Sonic for lunch. After lunch we had some very yummy cake and ice cream to celebrate Nana's birthday, which is Tuesday.

Carson and Nana played an epic game of Monopoly today. They eventually set a time limit on it to bring it to a close. I am not sure who won, but I'm pretty sure it was Carson since I didn't see him sulking. Carson and Nana also played about 1,367 games of tic-tac-toe today. I learned that he will stay quiet in church while playing tic-tac-toe.

Now Nana is trying to get Carson and Jamie to sleep and Carson is saying that his stomach hurts. I hope he is not getting sick. I wouldn't want him to miss his last few days of first grade. I gave him some Childrens Pepto. I hope that will help.

I am off to rescue Nana from the kids now and then hopefully we can all enjoy some peace and quiet while the little darlings sleep. I am going to have to go to bed early tonight, since Caleb fell asleep at 6:15, and I'm sure he'll be up before the birds tomorrow!

June 7, 2008 Jamie's recital day

Jamie was so cute at her recital today! I think she had a good time. Vic, Nana, Grammy, & I were there to watch her. The whole show was very cute. This recital was just for the 3-5 year old classes. I think there were 10 different classes that performed two dances each. So, it wasn't too long. She was excited about the bracelet and necklace we gave her. She ended up getting two bracelets because I didn't realize the package the necklace was in had a matching bracelet inside, too. So, we were both surprised by that. These pictures were taken after we got home from the recital. Her hair had fallen out of the pony tail by this time. We ordered the video, so whoever comes to visit us should be prepared to watch Jamie dancing. Don't worry; it's a DVD, so we can skip right to the Jamie parts. :)

Poppa and Nana arrived around 1PM today. Poppa was very brave and stayed home from the recital to watch Carson and Caleb. Sounds like they were fairly nice to him, and he only had to change one diaper. Caleb took a nap while Poppa and Carson started a game of Monopoly.

Tonight we went out for Mexican food with Grammy and Grampy and Nana and Poppa. It was yummy, but I should just stop eating Mexican because I always eat too much there.

Now I am off to get these wild kids in the bed and spend some time visiting with Nana and Poppa.

June 6, 2008

I took Jamie to her dance rehearsal at the theater this afternoon. Man, our downtown was a mess. Lots of traffic, endless herds of pedestrians, and of course, construction blocking off the route I had planned to take. It's a good thing I left early. We ended up parking on the 6th floor of a parking garage that is just a block from the theater.

Our instructions were to check the dancers in at the back door in the alley way. Nice. We ran into my friend, Halle, and her daughters on our way to the alley way so we walked together. It wasn't a very rough area, luckily. Although when we picked the girls up, there was a guy sitting on a bucket outside the door.

We got to go into the theater and watch the girls rehearse. That place is gorgeous! It was built in 1921 and later restored and re-opened in 2000. I have never been inside until today.

After rehearsal, we met Grammy, Carson and Caleb at the pool so Jamie could swim with them for a while. Then, I took all of them home for take-out Japanese food for dinner.

Carson got a 100 on both of his big spelling tests this week! 50 words and he got every one of them right. He worked really hard studying for the tests, and it paid off. We are so proud of him!

June 5, 2008

I went to the Y with Vic again this morning. I have only been going once a week, but it's better than nothing I guess. We walked on the walking trail and worked out with the weight machines. Caleb and Jamie went to the pool with Grammy & Grampy. The both had fun. One of Jamie's friends from church was there, plus a bunch of other kids were there for her to play with.

I didn't get to go to Carson's classroom today because they were going to the AR store to cash in their Accelerated Reader points during that time. Carson got some sort of rubber monkey. Its head broke off before he even got home. I missed going, but it worked out okay because I have a lot to do around here.

Tomorrow Caleb and Carson will be going to the pool with Grammy while I take Jamie to her dance rehearsal at the theater. I have never been to this theater, so I hope I can find it. I also hope I can find a parking spot. That will not be fun on a Friday afternoon downtown.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Jamie brought home someone else's pink shoes in her dance bag. She was eating dinner at home after rehearsal when she said, "Mommy! Guess what? Ms. Carla gave me some pink shoes! She put them right in my bag." Then she ran and got her bag and there was a pair of pink shoes, three sizes too small for Jamie in there. I told her that she should have told Ms. Carla that those weren't her shoes, but I think she thought they were a gift from Ms. Carla. Poor Jamie likes the shoes a lot, but we will try to find their owner at rehearsal tomorrow. They are Target shoes, so I will look for them next time I am there.

Jamie has also adopted the dog piece from the Monopoly game and named him "Junior". She added him to her collection of small "pets" that she devotes a lot of time to caring for. She has made a bed for them in the office consisting of an overturned chair, a pillow, a cardboard princess chest, a 4x4 truck, a dump truck, and part of a doll house. I should really just snap a picture of this. I tried to clean it all up after she went to bed last night, but she saw me and began sobbing that I was tearing up her pets' bed. Whoops. So, I put it all back. I guess it will stay for a while. Woofy is still her favorite pet of all, of course.

Okay, here's a picture of Jamie's pet bed. There is a pet on the pillow, some in the house, and some in the princess chest:

Pebble tile pictures

It still needs some sprucing up, but I'm very happy with how it turned out!

June 4, 2008

Nothing much to report today. We stayed around the house and the kids played outside. It is starting to get hot here. I am going to have to find some things to entertain them inside this Summer.

I took Jamie to her last rehearsal at the studio before her recital. She has one more rehearsal at the theater on Friday afternoon. I can't wait to see her on stage Saturday! I went in the dance shop tonight while she was rehearsing and got her a ballerina bracelet and necklace for a recital gift. I think I will get her a small bouquet of flowers, too.

Carson is over at Grammy & Grampy's house tonight. I talked to him on the phone and he was about to paint some rocks, so he is having a good time as always. He also reported that no flying toys hit him today, and that he even played Magnetix again at center time. Good news.

Vic painted our bathroom tonight. It is looking good. Still a mess, but looking good. I will try to post some pictures of the pebble tiles and the new paint color tomorrow.

June 3, 2008

The little kids and I ventured out to Publix this morning and had a surprisingly pleasant shopping trip. Caleb wasn't even demanding at the cookie counter or at the balloon area. Thank goodness for those race car carts. They love those things. If only the carts had a partition between the two seats so the kids couldn't possibly touch each other, that would be perfect.

Caleb took another nice nap today. Not falling asleep in the car in Jamie's carpool line(because she is out of school now) has worked wonders for his nap schedule. I was ready for him to nap today, too. He managed to throw my folded laundry all over the floor(2 loads!), dump out a bag of Cheez Its, and open every stick of a new package of butter and throw them across the room as I was unloading the other groceries. He is a quick little thing.

Poor Carson had a rough afternoon at school. Apparently, he was playing Magnetix with his friend Chris and another boy from a different class. The other boy threw a Magnetix piece and hit Carson right in the eye. He went to the nurse and got an ice pack. He has a reddened area on his face below his eye, but his actual eye seems fine. Poor guy. He told me he was never playing Magnetix again. But then he quickly changed his mind and said that he would play Magnetix again, but only with people he could trust not to throw them. Smart kid. :)

June 2, 2008

We enjoyed a fairly quiet day at home today. The kids played outside a lot. It was overcast and not too hot. They played in the sprinkler quite a lot today. I am glad they like that thing. Usually when I buy stuff like that, they use it a couple of times and then it gathers dust in the garage.

Caleb was up at 6:30 this morning, which wasn't fun since my alarm wasn't going off until 7:15. But that meant he was ready for a nice long nap by about 12:30. That gave Jamie and I time to have a picnic lunch outside. We sat out on the playset swings and ate pizza and blueberries. It was a nice change of pace. :)

After Carson came home, we all spent some time cleaning up the house, and then the kids were back out playing in the water until dinner time.

Carson is counting down the days until his Summer break begins. He has nine school days left! All of his friends who go to private schools are already out and Jamie is out too now, so he doesn't like it very much that he still has to go. I think next week will pretty much be a party for him, though. They will be having a carnival-themed week with different carnival games and snacks each day, ending with a big carnival party on the last day of school.

I am kind of looking forward to Summer, too. It will be nice to have a break from fussing with homework and reading logs and getting the kids out of bed and out the door on time in the mornings. I am looking forward to spending lots of time at the pool, taking the kids to the beach, and, of course, Carowinds. :)

June 1, 2008

This morning we went to church and were only about 5 minutes late this time. Of course since we were late, the only place with four seats together was the very front row. That's not the place you want to be with two squirmy kids, but they did reasonably well. We stopped by the ice slushy store on the way home to celebrate.

Caleb took a super long nap this afternoon. It was especially nice because Vic took Jamie to the Y pool, Caleb napped and Carson was outside playing with a friend, so I enjoyed lots of quiet! I paid for it at his bedtime, though, when he wasn't particularly sleepy.

Carson beat Vic in Monopoly again tonight. He's a little real estate tycoon in the making, I think. :)