Tuesday Twelve

1. I am in full on project mode. So far this week, I have changed my pantry into a coat closet, painted the door from my garage to my house, and painted my shutters.

2. I taped and mudded dry wall joints for the first time. My old closet, new pantry had the surprise of the current stuff coming down so painting on there is on hold till it is successfully fixed. Another surprise in there ended up being the stupid box from our security system that is no longer hooked up. Fun stuff. It isn't there any more ;)

3. I dropped about $400 last week on book and already got them. The classes don't look too bad but still eh.

4. In less than one week I will be a college student for the first time in my life after leaving high school 11 years ago. I will no longer have to check the box on things that say "level of education" as just having a high school diploma ever again. I have moved onto "some college"

5. Both girls have colds :( Hopefully they stay colds and don't develop into anything else. That would be just our luck that they get sick my first day of school and have to miss school. That is not a situation I want to deal with at this point.

6. My sister finally has her c-section scheduled I learned via facebook since she doesn't have a phone right now. September 30th my new sweet baby niece will be here!!

7. I am working on figuring out how to get up to Ohio in October to see the new baby. I am thinking I can leave the night after my last mid-term and head that way for about 4.5 days.

8. I am having a garage sale on Friday. Apparently after sitting on my butt all last week, I decided it would be a great idea to cram as much as possible into this week. Wish me luck cause I have some serious lofty ambitions this week.

9. The girls are both enjoying school this year!! I had both of their room meetings on Thursday and I have got to say I really like both of their teachers alot. I think this is going to be a good year for them.

10.Travis picked up a second district. joy. That means, oh yes folks, TRAVEL. This equals good times for me. ugh

11. I joined my moms groups biggest loser contest. I don't think I have lost any weight this week but I am getting back into exercising. This is good since like I said in a previous post I have gained 12 pounds this summer! yuck!

12. Girl Scouts is back in session. We had our first meeting last Monday. I have 1 new girl as a brownie which puts me at 4 girls. I am really excited about having only a few girls this year and getting to do more with them. I had 11 last year!!! This is going to be a cake walk!

Look out Kindergarten here she comes!

So far Kaylee has had 2 half days of Kindergarten. Her phase in day was Friday and she had another half day today. Tomorrow starts full time school! I am nervous for her but excited too. I will still be walking her to class, even though it isn't "recommended" because she still doesn't quite remember where her room is. She is still very much so getting the hang of things around that big school where independence is so important. I have her lead me to her room in the morning and she can almost get me there, so she is close and should be ok by the end of the week I would imagine. However, since today after sitting in what could have been the longest carpool line in my life (and it was only kindergartners being picked up) I got to the doors to find my child was not there. Yep. She was missing. Oh where is she? I'd like to know that too. It ended up that she mistakenly got into the wrong line for the ESP kids rather than the car riders and then when she saw her teacher walk away she tried to follow and the ESP teacher told her she had to stay with her.... so hopefully we wont have this issue again or the mama bear is gonna be roaring pretty loud. This is now twice in 2 days that someone has misplaced my little girl, yeah the people at church on Sunday couldn't find her either. She was fine then and in the room she was supposed to be in then too. Seriously though it is not cool. Anyhow she really likes school alot and said her teacher is really nice. After we picked Mykenzie up after Kaylee's first day she asked her how it was and she said "GREAT!" She has met a new little friend too :) She is off and running into big girl world.

Mykenzie is in 4th Grade!!!

Mykenzie started school Tuesday morning. She just had a half day but she came home happy and said that her teacher was really nice, but made sure to add that "teachers are always nice the first day of school" She has already had a bunch of homework this week. Ey yi yi That is a freaking nightmare. She is so slow! It has taken her hours every night to complete it because she doesn't just sit and concentrate and get it done. It is going to be a long year if she is this scatter brained with this amount of homework. I hope she learns to focus, and fast! She did say after spending the week in her class that her teacher "is awesome" Her best friend from school is in her class again this year too so that is great news. She is really happy to have Grayson with her again.

School's Starting!!!

We went to the school tonight to drop off the girls school supplies and meet their teachers. We went to Mykenzie's class first and she has a very sweet teacher. She seems really nice and I got a good feeling from her. Immediately felt comfortable around her. So Yay! One down one to go. I have had a really bad feeling that Kaylee was going to get the one and only kindergarten teacher that I can not stand and did not want her to get. Mykenzie did not have her but she did have an encounter with her where I witnessed her hollering at her bent over in her face and wagging her finger in her face. So after I exchanged so unpleasant words and expressed my dissatisfaction with that situation I haven't really had good feelings toward the woman. So anyhow when they would not let me request a teacher I was feeling that Kaylee was surely going to get her..... Turns out, I am happy to announce that my feeling was wrong and she instead got a teacher that I think she will end up loving (and I will too) Hopefully I am right about these ladies and we have a terrific year! Mykenzie got Jennifer Grimes for 4th grade and Kaylee got Jennifer Polk for Kindergarten.... it is the year of the Jennifer, Mykenzie said that it either means they are both going to be really nice or both going to be really mean. Lets all keep our fingers crossed that it means really nice!

Mykenzie goes tomorrow for a half day and then starts on Wednesday full time. Kaylee has a phase in day on Friday for half day and another half day on Monday then starts full time on Tuesday. Wow! Yay for another great school year. Now lets hope I like my own teachers... dun dun dun

Summer In review

1. Trip to Ohio in June. We had such a good time visiting family and friends. Drama as always and makes us glad we don't live in those towns but wish we were still closer than we are. We have some great people in our lives.



2. Kaylee got 10 inches of hair cut off and it is ready to be mailed to Locks of Love. Yes I said it is ready, I suck and haven't mailed it yet. This week I swear!



3. Mykenzie had a week of VBS in June that she loved. She also had several days of girl scout day camp in July. She had a great time at that as well so I think I am going to look into doing a week long one for her next year.



4. Kaylee had a week of kinder camp in June. She got to meet some of the teachers and learn what her days are going to be like in the big school. She ended up being much more nervous than I would have ever guessed her being but I think overall she enjoyed it and she is going to really enjoy kindergarten.



5. Mykenzie turned 9! Holy Moly! She had a skating party with her friends and they all had a great time. She is doing much better on her roller skates now. Kaylee did very well for her first time on skates as well.



6. Travis' friend Ernie came down for a visit over 4th of July weekend. This means that our roof is actually fixed now! Yay!! 3rd times a charm right. Kaylee loved having him here and didn't want to leave his side for a second.



7. I turned 29! Gasp! I am now officially in the last year of my twenties. Next year at this time I will be 30. I remember when I thought 30 was so old!



8. We got a zoo membership. I swore I would not buy another one here because it costs too much and it isn't that great of a zoo. Well I broke down and got one and we have already used it twice! Once with friends and once with just the 4 of us. I would imagine that since we have it we will get our money's worth out of it anyhow.



9. Blueberry picking! We went blueberry picking with our playgroup and it was tons of fun! The plan was to make yummy blueberry muffins.... nope never happened. They all went to waste cause I just never had the time to do it. So sad, but it was worth the $4 of fun we got out of it anyhow.



10. Several trips to the pool with friends. We don't typically have a ton of trips to the pool with friends but we took advantage of it this year. We had a great time going and hopefully we will continue to take advantage of that free fun thing to do for the kids.



11. Thanks to all of our pool trips, both girls have become much braver in the water. Mykenzie started the summer refusing to jump off the side of the pool in the deep end to having that be the main thing she wants to do. Neither of them can swim yet but I feel confident that they will be able to next summer. Both of them have relaxed quite a bit, and since Kaylee is now 5 she can take swimming lessons without me in the pool with her so they will both be signed up soon and take them through the winter so they will be little fish by the time next summer hits.



12. We celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Seriously. I don't even feel old enough to have been married for 10 years! lol We went out a week early while the girls spent the night with wonderful friends. We saw a movie (Public Enemy), had a yummy dinner at The Melting Pot and went to a couple of places downtown including The Big Bang which was great fun. It was a really fun night and I am glad we got to go out and celebrate. He also bought me a new toy, I got a Mac book computer! I am still getting used to it because Apple is a whole new world from PC but I love it.



13. Vacation to visit my mom. Hanging out at her house and spending time with her is always something I love. If only you realize this when you are a teenager! lol



14. Kaylee got her ears pierced. Such a big step for my little girl. She loves them and so do we and knock on wood they are doing great.



15. Kaylee turned 5. It is still so hard to believe that she isn't a baby anymore. She had her party with her friends and had such a good time. We are so lucky to know such great people.



16. I have to report so I can be held accountable, that I have gained 8 pounds this summer. I am pretty sure at least 90% of that landed in my ass. Once school starts back up so does the workouts. This is not a good thing people.



17. This obviously isn't all we did but just some of the highlights. We have had a great summer. I am a little sad to see it end but I am looking forward to the girls being in school too. Our lives are about to change so very much I am so nervous and a little excited too. I don't do real well with change so it will be interesting if nothing else. Having both girls in school, trying to navigate being back in school myself. Trying to find a balance between everything. We are beginning a new chapter in our lives. No more babies at home just school age kids. It is really scary but I am sure we are all going to do great in our new adventures.

Kaylee's new exciting thing....

While in Virginia Kaylee did something that I have wanted her and Mykenzie to do for a long time. I have been hounding Mykenize about it for many years but just recently started on Kaylee. Mykenzie still has absolutely no interest and says no way but Kaylee agreed and I jumped on it. So while shopping with Nanny, Kaylee took the leap and got her ears pierced!!!! YAY!! I am so excited about it!

My big brave girl didn't even shed a tear. She got pretty teary eyed after that first one but she held it together and only let out an "ouch" and did the second ear like a champ. I am so proud of her she did such a good job and was so very brave. She looks so cute!! I love them! I told her she could pick any of the earrings she wanted and she picked the cheapest pair! lol

Life

It is now August and in only 2 days my baby girl will be turning 5! Yikes! On Sunday she told me she wanted to go to the splash pad for her birthday so I frantically sent out several evites and started planning a little party for her. I mean she is going to be a whole hand afterall. I have nothing ready but I am keeping it pretty simple so it shouldn't be too difficult to get everything together tomorrow.

On Saturday we got back from a week long visit with my mom and step dad in Virginia. We always have a good time with them. Last year our visit was so busy and we were constantly on the move though it was totally fun it was really exhausting. This year we took it easy and just hung out at her house. Took the boat out and once again didn't catch any fish. lol It is so relaxing sitting on the boat though so I sure didn't mind just being out there. We of course did alot of shopping, playing poker and cards and just sitting on the porch and talking. The girls love the 4wheeler so we all took them on many rides on that. It was a good trip and it is always hard to say good bye to them, I really wish we were closer so we could see them more than once a year.

In another post I will share Kaylee's exciting news from our trip to Virginia. No it does not involve anyone getting lost in the woods or getting ticks or poison ivy! lol This one is good exciting news :)