Monday, September 29, 2008

The last week or so...

OK...I realized today (once Carla reminded me) that I have not posted in a while. Not a whole lot of new things have happened in our lives, but I guess I can tell you as much as I think you will be interested in.
Since my last post we have had 2 garage sales and got rid of A LOT of junk. I don't think I have any clothes left of Becca's under size 5 (and boy did she have a lot of clothes). James' clothes that we have are summer things that we just got back from Mike and Jen, so we will try to sell those next spring/summer. It is nice to let others borrow clothes, then you don't feel so guilty buying that much (at least that's what I keep telling myself). Bradley is growing so much that we are having to buy bigger things (because he is getting tall, not weight wise), but the clothes that he is outgrowing we are mostly just giving to Goodwill or to anyone we can think of that may be able to use them. Garage sales are A LOT of work, but I love doing them and the extra money in our pockets is nice also. And...I finally can park our van in the garage again...YEAH!!!

Becca had her open house last week. She was VERY excited to show us her classroom, art room, lunch room, etc. We saw it all and she had the biggest smile on her face the entire night. I love seeing her so happy, it really makes me feel good that she is enjoying school so much. However, I did find myself holding back some tears watching her show us everything and talk about her day at school. She leaves home at 8:30 and is at school/afterschool till 5:00 or so, everyday. It does make me sad that I am unable to stay home and be here when she gets out of school, however I look forward to Mondays and walking down to the corner to wait for her to get out. Her "Big" tooth is coming in and her front two upper teeth are loose...she is growing up WAY too fast.

Bradley...what can I say...he's Bradley. His grades are good right now at midterm (5A's and 3B's), however the behaviors that we have seen from 1st grade on, are starting again...I guess the "honeymoon" is over. That poor kid is in trouble all the time either because of school, sneaking, or the way he talks to us. I know being a teenager sucked, but being the parent of a teenager sucks even more. We go on Thursday to see what the Child Diagnostic Clinic results are. I'm anxious and nervous about going and hearing what they have to say. Hopefully it will be good news...we'll see.

James is definately a toddler. He is running, jumping, talking more, and rolling his tongue. I keep meaning to take a picture of this...it is so cute and he does it all the time. He is very independent, and still a Mama's boy. I love this kid so much!!! I don't know if him being the baby of the family makes it feel like more, but man he has me wrapped around his little finger, his big toe, everything.

I have been working a lot. Pretty much every Saturday for the last month or so. Hopefully it will slow down some...I doubt it, but I can hope, can't I? Well, the next pictures I put on here are going to be some slide shows of the kids from babies till now and from when Bradley came to live with us till now. Becca and James look so much a like...I can't wait to put all of their pictures on here to see how similar they look. Well, I had better go, James and I are driving up to Chicago with Mom tomorrow to go to her Dr. appt. It will be a LONG day of driving in the car for both James and I. I am going to put 5 goals on here to have done or at least started, before I post next...maybe it will help me with getting some of my goals done. I know they are pretty silly goals, but with 3 kids, school, activities, work, etc., we don't have a whole lot of time to get "things" done.

1. Change the kids' clothes out (summer for winter)
2. Change the curtains in the dining room
3. Winterize the outside (put toys away, mulch on plants, etc) before we blink and have snow on the ground.
4. Clean ENTIRE bathroom...ugh...I hate this one.
5. Clean basement floor, including back room.

Be waiting...hopefully later this week I can get some slideshows on here...we'll see!!!

Sunday, September 14, 2008

OK...I will play the 'tag' game

OK...I didn't think I would get around to actually doing this...but I did...sorry it took so long!!


1. Post the rules of the game at the beginning.
2. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
3. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves them a comment, letting them know they've been tagged and asking them to read the player's blog
.4. Let the person who tagged you know when you've posted your answer.

What were you doing five years ago?
Working at DSC as the Rec. Therapist, enjoying Becca's first year and Bradley's 2nd year with us, living in Mahomet, had 3 dogs, 4 cats, and 1 lizard (now down to 1 dog, 1 cat, and 2 lizards), I know I was doing more, but I can't think of anything else.

What are five things on your to-do list for today?
1. Clean the house or at least as much as I can while waiting on the garage sale next weekend
2. Get the kids in bed
3. laundry
4. give Quincy a bath
5. clean bathroom

What are five snacks you enjoy?
1. Popcorn
2. chocolate chip cookies
3. salt and vinegar chips
4. crackers and cheese
5. whatever I can find...usually I'm not that picky, but when I am and we had it in the house, it's probably gone already...all the good stuff gets eaten by everyone else before me.

What are five things you would do if you were a billionaire?
1. Take care of my family/extended family
2. College tuition for all 3 of our kids and any nieces/nephews that may need money for school
3. Travel
4. Not work and be a stay at home mom (don't really need to be a billionaire for this...but we would have to make more than we make right now)
5. Adopt more kids

What are five of your bad habits?
1. Eating (even when I'm not really hungry, but it looks/smells good)
2. not exercising
3. making a mess in the house and not picking up after myself
4. cleaning out the van one day and the next it looking like I never cleaned it
5. giving in to the kids...one day I will learn

What are five places where you have lived?
Champaign, IL-born and raised
Charleston, IL-college
Urbana, IL
Mahomet, IL
Champaign, IL-swore I would never move back!! :)

What are five jobs you've had?
1. Diana Foods-cashier/customer service desk
2. Animal Medical Center-office manager
3. Caring for kids preschool-teacher
4. DT and Rec. Therapist at DSC
5. CUSR-Adult Program Coordinator

Five people I tag:
Everyone with a blog that I know has already done it!!

Updates

Well, my trip to Eugene Oregon was really nice. I dreaded going..."who would want to go to Oregon??"...I kept asking myself. We had 2 nice, long traveling days (Indy to Dallas/Fort Worth to Portland to Eugene there, and Eugene to Seattle to Chicago to Indy) with 2 beautiful days in Eugene. The weather was beautiful, the town itself was different than Champaign/Urbana, the University of Oregon is in Eugene, however the campus is on the outskirts of the town, unlike the U of I . We saw things that I guess I just haven't seen in Champaign...lizards and rabbits and ferrets walking down the street with their owners, a HUGE market that makes the one in Urbana look teeny tiny, their downtown looked like a residential area-offices were in old houses, etc...that was pretty cool. Anyways, I had a good time and the conference was pretty good also. It definitely was the best conference in the way of food, they fed us so well. They had a lot of salmon, which I love and huge buffets with REALLY good food. I did miss the family, but having a king size bed to myself with "quiet" in my room...was nice!! It was also nice getting home and getting my birthday present from the kids. They made me a stepping stone with their hand prints in it with mosaic tiles around it and their names and the date...very cute!! I guess Jason does listen when I "hint" what I want. :)

I think this is Mt. St. Helen's from the plane (that's what someone else said on the plane and we saw it right after we left Seattle)...through the clouds...whatever mountain it is...it's cool.


Out the hotel window...seeing mountains isn't something we see everyday.

I was so excited about shopping at the Duck Store..."Go Ducks"



We had a garage sale this past week...we got rained on, on Friday, so I think we are going to do it again next weekend...getting rid of all of our junk is our main goal...but the extra money is nice also. It will be nice after next weekend, we can put our house back together since we have totes/boxes, etc all over waiting for what we are going to end up keeping or what we are going to take to goodwill.

Becca is LOVING school, and looking forward to Youth Club starting at the church next to Bottenfield. Gymnastics is also going pretty well, she gets discouraged that she can't do a cartwheel, but she is practicing a lot, so I'm hoping she gets it soon. She did lose another tooth, and her top 2 front teeth are loose, so she may be asking Santa for 2 new teeth for Christmas. She already knows she wants a Nintendo DS for Christmas...that's it...nothing else. At least that is what she is saying. I keep telling her that if she gets that...she's not getting much more since they cost so much. She says that's fine, however I already know on Christmas morning it would not be "fine".

Bradley is doing OK in school so far. He goes this coming Friday to the Child diagnostic clinic at Carle. His doctor thinks he may have Aspergers, so they are going to have him do this clinic to see what they find. We go at 7:45 in the morning and we get done at noon...long day...hopefully we will have some answers when this is over. We/he meets with an OT, Speech Therapist, Psychologist, and Doctor...he will meet separately with them and then we will meet with them (or at least that's what I think is going to happen).

James is James. Not a whole lot different. He is definitely trying to talk more and is putting multiple words together. He "sings" twinkle twinkle and knows the ABC's or at least he knows the rhythm of those songs. He is so cute...it's unbelievable (I guess I'm suppose to say that aren't I...I am his mother)

Well, thanks to all the rain today we have water in our basement, our backyard is flooded, and Quincy hates to go out in the rain...YUCK!!! Well, I'd better help get the kids in bed...another weekend over and I didn't do much more than the garage sale...our house is a mess and I don't feel like picking anything up or doing a whole lot...I hate that feeling. I am home tomorrow, maybe I will feel more ambitious...we'll see. :)

Monday, September 1, 2008

Labor Day weekend

Labor Day weekend...part 2

So, we had a pretty good weekend. We didn't do a whole lot, hung out around the house, took the boys to Prairie Farms, had family over, went to a Labor Day parade, and celebrated my birthday. Becca was not in most of the pictures because she was at my moms all weekend. Bradley is not in a whole lot because he's a "teen", and when he is home with us he is usually in his room.

Friday night, had my mom and uncle over for a fire in the firepit. Becca ended up going to my mom's to spend the night (just like most other weekends). Saturday we hung out in the house and then took the boys to McDonald's and Prairie Farms. James had a good time seeing the animals. After that we went home and I had to go to work. I had an End of Summer Dance at Hessel Park. It went really well...and I'm glad it's over. After the dance we went over to my moms and watched the end of the Illini game. Becca stayed the night, again. Sunday, we went to Sam's, Jason grilled out, and my mom, aunt and uncle, and stepdad came over for another fire. We have been having a lot of fires because we had a tree in the back cut down and it was full of termites, so Jason is trying to get all of the wood burned so we will be rid of the termites.
Becca had Grace over for a sleepover Sunday night and we went to the Labor Day parade over in Urbana. We had lunch over at the park, the kids played on the inflatables, and then we came home. We then head over to my moms for dinner to celebrate my birthday (since I will be in Oregon next week during my birthday). We had a really good dinner, and the kids helped (A LOT) blowing out the candles. James did not understand that he could not touch the candles and everytime my mom lit the candles he blew them out. The one picture you see of him crying is because I was holding him back from blowing out the candles while everyone sung "Happy Birthday".

On another note: We got a new air conditioner and furnace. YEAH!!! The AC and furnace we had was about 35 years old (we crossed our fingers everytime we turned it on). So, we are really excited about this...the things you get excited about when you get OLD...it's scary.

Well, I leave for a conference on Thursday morning and won't return till late Sunday night...and I probably won't get another post done before then...so...will post next week!! :)