Happy Birthday Daddy!!

Today is my sweet Daddy's birthday!!! Happy birthday Daddy!!! We hope you have a great day and many, many, many more. We love you!!!!

Homework

Getting Hannah and Will to do their homework can be a challenge. With Hannah, you have to make sure she does everything she is told to do. Now, doing work the teacher gave her like worksheets is not a problem. She flies through them and usually does a great job with very few mistakes. The difficulty lies in the work I give her. I have Hannah write her spelling and vocabulary words (with the definitions) three times each every day to make sure she knows them. She likes to rush through them and doesn't pay attention. She would rather play or aggravate her brothers or her friend Gracie.

Man, it's a chore to get Will to do his homework. I have to sit beside him the whole time and make him do his work. He has to practice writing the letter the class is working on for the week. Today, this exercise took over two hours to practice writing the letter S on four lines. If I leave the room or start working on something else, Will stops what he is doing and starts to play. Even if I am helping Gracie or Hannah with something on their homework, Will starts playing around because my focus isn't on him anymore. AUGH!!!

When we come home from school, I usually get the kids to sit at the kitchen table and work on their homework. This way it is over and done with and they have the rest of the evening to play. It comes in handy when one of the kids has practice, like soccer or baseball, because I don't have to worry about getting homework done along with getting a bath and ready for bed. I need to figure out what schedule works best for Will. Tonight, he finished his letters (and his homework assignments for the rest of the week) after we came home from his friend, Will G's birthday party. There was no arguing and he did it fairly quickly. The bad thing about letting Will do it later is it makes his bedtime later because of baths and other bedtime rituals.

Changing the subject, I have the names of the kids' soccer teams. Hannah is on the Wildfire team and Will is on the Tigers. They each practice on a different night. Hannah's practice is on Tuesdays and Will's is on Thursdays. What fun for me and Andrew!!! At least on Tuesdays I'll have someone to talk to and Andrew will have someone to play with. My friend Tracy will be there while her son Will practices then. Her youngest, Seth, is four days younger than Andrew and they like to play together, at least as well as 19 month old boys play.

Hannah's Third Tooth and Other Info

Hannah lost her third tooth today. She was eating an apple and her top front tooth started bleeding. Since it was already a little loose, Hannah decided to work on it to see if it would come out. It did. I told her that the Tooth Fairy was going to start thinking she was doing this on purpose to get money.

Will, Gracie, and Hannah

Mike and Andrew asleep on the bed.
(My mom has a picture of my dad and me asleep on the bed
when I was about Andrew's age that looks like this.)

Mike, Will and the dogs asleep one Sunday afternoon.

Andrew clapping

"Cheese!!!"

" YEAH!!!"

Gracie and Hannah

Hannah's third missing tooth

Beth Uthe called me the other day. She and her husband Tony closed on their house in Florida on August 8th and moved in that weekend. Beth is glad to finally have a place of their own again (they were living with family until they got their house). The house has three bedrooms, one bath, and a sun porch. The backyard has grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime, and avocado trees. They are going to wait about a month or so before getting internet service. Congratulations on the new house!!!

Our MOPS Steering Team started a new blog. We created it so people could post information we wanted to get out to the others between meetings like sales, free meals for kids, consignment sales, play dates, etc. It can be found at www.cornerstonemops.blogspot.com. Check it out!!!

Busy, Busy

Boy, this weekend was busy!! Mike watched the kids while I joined my MOPS Steering Team to plan for this next year. MOPS stands for Mothers of Preschoolers. I will be in charge of activities we have outside our regular meeting dates. The other girls and I met Friday night for a "Get To Know You" session and spent the night at a local hotel. Saturday we planned our meetings. Our theme this year, taken from MOPS International, is "Adventures in Mothering" and is based on the Ephesians 3:18 verse "... how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ..." We even started a blog (www.cornerstonemops.blogspot.com) so we could post events, sales and anything else we wanted to let others know about.

The kids really enjoyed having Daddy to themselves (though Mike did say they kept asking for me and said they missed me). Saturday Mike took them to Chick-fil-a to eat and play. The kids rode their bikes and played in the backyard on the new play set. Saturday night we ordered pizza and enjoyed being together as a family.

Sunday we went to the YMCA and swam after church. Hannah played with a friend from school and some friends from church while we were there. The crowd was smaller than expected. I guess once the kids start school parents don't think about taking their kids swimming anymore. The temperature was great and the water was cold.

Hannah and Will should start soccer practice this week. Their games start the weekend after Labor Day, September 6th I think. When I hear from their coaches and get information about their teams, I'll post it here.

It's so quiet!!

It is so quiet here right now. Hannah and Will are at school and Andrew is taking a nap. Boy, do I love it!!! This is nice!!!

Mike hurt his ankle Monday night during his softball game. On a hard grounder, the ball took a bad hop of the infield and caught the outside of his ankle. He did finish the game - went 3 for 3 batting. He thinks he should get hurt more often. Mike worked from home yesterday to ice his ankle and keep it from swelling. This morning it was still sore.

The kids had their soccer evaluations this past Saturday and should find out what teams they are on sometime next week. There is another set of evaluations this Saturday for those who missed the last one. The coaches will get their team lineups next week and start calling their players. Mike is going to coach Hannah's team this year. He coached Will's last year and wanted to rotate. Hannah, Will, and Nathan, all played on teams called the Tigers last year. It was great for me that way I didn't have to remember which team I was rooting for. It would be nice if it was the same way this year. We'll see.

Correction

Mich informed me that James turned 15 on his birthday, not 14 as I had posted. Sorry James!! She also told me that he has been studying his driver's ed manual and will test for his driving permit next week. Man, how time flies!!! It seems like just yesterday he was running around playing with his toys. Now, he is driving and is the quarterback for his High School football team. They grow up soo fast!

First Day of School

Yesterday was the first day of school. Yes, I know it is early. When I attended school here, we usually started around the second or third week of August. This is the earliest I think they have ever started. The good thing is the last day of school is May 22, if the weather cooperates and everything goes as planned. They also get almost two and a half weeks off during Christmas break.

Hannah started Second grade this year. Will started Kindergarten. Since it was the first day of school, Mike and I walked the kids into the building. Will went right into his room, sat down at his desk and started coloring. He was such a big boy. We then walked Hannah to her room. She wasn't really happy about that. In her words, "I know the way and can do it myself. I'm a big girl." When I went to kiss her good-bye, she told me not to. Of course, I did it anyways. The weather wasn't that cooperative on the first day of school. It started raining about 15 minutes before we left. It rained most of the morning, with a few strong showers mixed in. We haven't had rain in about a week and it rains on the first day of school. Oh, well.

The afternoons will be busy. At 2:30 p.m., I pick up Nathan from school and take him to day care. (The school system decided to end busing to day cares this year, even city-run programs, because it has started their own after-school care for students at most of the local schools.) After that, I head to the kids' school to pick up Hannah, Will and Gracie. After school this year I am keeping Hannah's friend Gracie until her mom gets off work. She lives around the corner and Alicia works just up the street. They do their homework (which will start next week) then they can play to their hearts content or dinnertime, whichever comes first.

Below are some pictures I took before the kids left for the first day of school. Hope you enjoy them.

Please, no more pictures!!!

Hannah's friend Gracie

Andrew

Hannah and Will on the first day of school

Hannah and Andrew

Andrew, Will and Hannah

Andrew, Will and Hannah

Happy Anniversary Rich and Mich

Today is my brother-in-law and his wife's anniversary. Mike and I both hope you have a wonderful day. We love you!!!

Happy Birthday Mich and Happy Anniversary Joe and Sharon

Today is my sister-in-law's birthday. Happy birthday Mich!!! I hope Rich and the boys make today a very special day. We love you!!!

Today is also Mike's aunt and uncle's anniversary. Happy Anniversary Joe and Sharon!!! We hope you have a very special day and may you have many, many, many more to come!! We love you!!!

Hannah's Second Tooth and School Teachers

Hannah lost her second tooth tonight. Her right front tooth has been bothering her for a few days and tonight she finally got it out all by herself. She was sssooo excited!!! Now Hannah has two big holes in front. She likes that because now she can drink out of a straw without opening her mouth. Below are some pictures we took to commemorate this momentous event.

We also got to meet the kids' teachers tonight at Open House. Hannah will have Mrs. Wolfe while Will has Mrs. Kicker. As luck would have it, Hannah is on one end of school and Will is on the complete opposite. Thank goodness Hannah will be meeting Will at his classroom when it is time to head home. I can only imagine where Will would end up if he had to meet her.

Pictures

Here are a bunch of pictures for your enjoyment:

Dick, Daphne and the grandkids

Mike, Dick, and Daphne with the kids

Mike, me and the boys with Dick and Daphne
(Hannah took the picture.)

Andrew after eating a Suzy Q

The new addition to our play set courtesy of Dick and Mike

The backside of the play set

The new and improved play set

Our new living room

Another view of our new living room

Happy Birthday James!!

Happy Birthday to Mike's nephew James!!! He is turning 14 today. Hope your birthday is a great one!!

I'm Back!!!

Sorry for not posting anything lately. My in-laws were in town this past week and left Saturday afternoon. Needless to say, the most I did on the computer was download my e-mails every now and then and do a quick check for anything important. It was great having Dick and Daphne here. We really enjoyed their visit and hated to see them leave.

Dick helped Mike by working on the kids' clubhouse. We have one of the wooden play systems in our backyard and Mike has been wanting to expand it by adding a climbing wall, monkey bars and a curved slide (my Dad found it for us a few years back). Mike had to work this week so Dick got working on the new parts. By the time he left, most of the work was done. Mike had to finish the climbing wall, attach the slide, finish one of the ladders and work on the railings. As of tonight, the railings are the only thing left to do. The kids have had a blast playing on it. I'll post some pictures of it when it is completed.

The temperatures here have been killer. During the day, it has been 99-102 degrees with heat index between 102 and 112. Even at night, there is no relief. Last night during the 10 p.m. newscast, the weather man said it was around 96 with a heat index of 100. Winter time is looking awfully good right about now.

I have pictures of our living room (it is finished!! YEAH!!) and of Dick and Daphne's visit and I am going to try to download them this week. On Sundays, the Women's Ministry circle I head up works with the baby/child dedications by taking pictures and giving the child a gift. We have had dedications for the last three Sundays. When I get a chance, my first priority is downloading those pictures, getting them cleaned up and e-mailed to the parents. After I do that, I will post more pictures on here. I PROMISE!!!

I have to brag on my dad a little bit. He came up with an ingenious way to make a hide-a-bed a whole lot more comfortable to sleep on. He took some plywood and cut it to fit the inside of the bed frame, allowing room for the bed to fold. He drilled holes along the edge of the plywood and used zip ties to attach the wood to the bed frame. The mattress fits on top like before. You don't feel the bed frame in the middle of your back anymore. Mike and I slept on our hide-a-bed while Dick and Daphne were here and could tell a major difference after adding Dad's idea. The bed is a little harder to fold up the first couple of times but eventually it gets better. Our couch even sits a little firmer too. Daddy did this for their couches at home and in their camper and recommends it for anyone who has a sleeper sofa. THANKS DAD!!!