I knew the time would come when Kyle would be interested in Katie’s friends. What I didn’t know is that it would come so soon…at age 3. Today while driving Katie and Amy to basketball camp, Kyle inquired about our afternoon plans of going to Chick-fil-a with the girls for lunch and playing. He asked, “Is Shelby going to Chick-fil-a with us?” Yes “And is Amy coming to Chick-fil-a with us?” Yes “Well, then can we just leave Katie at basketball camp?”
Several years ago I was a scrapbooking consultant and with that "job" came loads and loads of stuff. I LOVE my scrapbooks and photos, but I despise all of the stuff that I just haven't been able to toss. I used to tell people all the time - once you scrapbook it, you can throw away the rest of the photos. Unfortunately I did not always adhere to my own advice. Plus there are the years and years of photos that I have organized but haven't yet scrapbooked that are sitting safely in storage but that I really have no desire to work on at this point in my life. Maybe in a few years... So today I decided to tackle my scrapbook closet.
The scrapbook closet is home to all of my scrapbooking materials, several old photo albums that need to be scrapbooked, old scrapbooks (the kids' baby books and baptism albums among others), the vacuum cleaner, a dust mop, a small folding table, an art easel, a bookshelf, all of the Easter items that I shoved in there two months ago and a stack of several things in the corner that I can't even get to at this point in my project. Oh and the games! Because we are now officially done with pull-ups and diapers, I was able to empty the trunk in our living room that we used as diaper central and I have filled it up with all of the board games.
So far, I have emptied my long-coveted huge massive rolling scrapbooking cart that I used to tote around to all of the parties and workshops. In the past three years it has become a dumping ground for all things that have been used but not used up. It's empty! Anyone want it? Gently used and if no one claims it, I'll probably take it to Goodwill. Next on my list is to empty the over-the-shoulder carrying case...which also will be up for grabs. I learned a few months ago when I took a weekend trip to Corpus for scrapbooking that I don't need all of that stuff to tote my things around. If you plan purposefully you can use a small tote (one that holds 12x12 files) and one small bag of tools when you take your scrapbooking supplies to another location. So why do I still have these huge bags that are taking up space in my closet? I was basically using them as storage and there are so many better ways to store the items I have. I had no idea I had so many different types of paper because it has been shoved down in a bag for the past few years. It needs to be out where you can see it so you will use it!
My ultimate goal is to get all of the scrapbooking items out of the scrapbook closet and move them upstairs to a place where I can work on my scrapbooks. I haven't left things out for so long because of little curious hands, but I am hoping that both kids are now old enough to know and understand that you just don't touch Mommy's things unless Mommy is there. We shall see. For now, I'm just trying to organize what I have and get rid of what I don't need. Littlest hands just woke up so I will get back to work!
A friend passed on an email this week about a school uniform sale this weekend at Land's End and so the shopping for school clothes begins! I guess it's probably good to spread it out over the next three months so it doesn't hit us all at once in August. Gone are the days of spending $10 on an outfit from Target or JC Penney! I know I'm cheap, but as a teacher I know that you don't send your child to school in good clothes! I'm sure I'll be able to find some cheaper alternatives to Land's End here and there as we get closer to school but for now Katie is ready to go to school for 3 days...if she wears the same skort all 3 days. I decided it was only smart to buy the things that were actually on sale AND could be worn in the first two months of school AND equaled less than $60 because that is all I am prepared to spend on school clothes that can't be worn for two more months at this point in the summer. Maybe next month I'll add in a little more... So like I said, she has three new polos and a new skort arriving in 4-7 days via free shipping. Now that I think about it...I should have just bought 5 polos and waited on the skort. Oh well. If anyone has any khaki or navy shorts, skorts or pants they would like to pass along in a size 6 as well as any logo-free polos...feel free to send them my way! And if you need school uniforms let me know and I'll forward the email on to you...free shipping and up to 40% off.
Read more...Kyle finally did it - after three and a half months of promising him a trip to Chuck E Cheese if only he'd go 5 straight days without an accident, he was accident free this week. Katie has been VERY supportive of Kyle's progress reminding him daily how many more days he had to use the potty and getting VERY upset when we'd have to start all over. So last night we headed to the land of all things dirty and loud. I was quite surprised that it wasn't more crowded - only one small birthday party and really not that many people for a Saturday night. The kids had a great time and reluctantly left without getting prizes (the line was about 10 kids deep and only one staff member doling out the goods) with a promise of returning another day...and a pop-ice when we got home.
He told me yesterday, "You and Daddy are SO proud of me. I'm a big boy now." And yes we are!
Is it so bad of me to NOT want to go to the pool today? We skipped Tuesday but have been the rest of the week. Which is a lot more than we ever went last summer. And after yesterday's seemingly 15 trips to the potty at the pool with one sweet little boy I was ready to just leave my flipflops sitting right outside the bathroom door.
I am really tired today for no apparent reason, even took a nap but could actually just go back to my bed and sleep until dinner. The problem is I have fallen into my old habits...watch tv until 11:30 or 12 before going to bed, and then get up in the middle of the night when one or both children decide to come into our bedroom. Last night I ended up sleeping on the couch because I thought they were both in our bed, but apparently they weren't, just Kyle who was taking up my whole space.
Katie has been begging me all day to go. And I have been using the old - you better be good, or we aren't going. I guess I assummed they would lose the pool privilege today, but once they realized I was serious they buckled down and started straightening up. So now it's after 4pm and I'm still dragging my feet on going. I guess I should make up my mind one way or another. But at some point someone's going to be unhappy...will it be me or Katie? Could I really be waterlogged the first week into summer???
So far I am loving summer. Granted we are only a week and a half in, but I am so thankful for the way I have structured our time thus far. I have planned activities (swim lessons and gymnastics) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday mornings so we get up and get out of the house...and the kids get some exercise. Now if I could just get some exercise for myself in there, we'd really be doing great. Maybe that's what we'll do on Thursday and Friday mornings. We shall see...
On Monday after swim lessons, we ran some errands and then spent a couple of hours at the pool. On Tuesday, we found some friends at gymnastics that we don't get to see very often so I was very thankful to see them. I realized that I have not nurtured my friendships the way I should so hopefully seeing them weekly will give me a chance to work on that. Then we headed down to Houston for a lunch date with my bff, Marcie. Since we were in the Galleria area I decided to take the kids over to Williams Tower to see the waterfall. Katie loved it and Kyle was scared that we would all fall in. It was only 10 minutes, but I am so glad that we took the time to stop there. Katie had a t-ball game last night and then we went to DoubleDave's. We haven't been there for a while since Kyle can't really eat anything there, but we picked up a smoothie for him at the Y and he was happy as could be.
Today we had swim lessons again and both kids are doing a fantastic job. Katie is so close to being able to swim all the way across Ms. Colleen's pool. She's still having a little trouble with getting a breath, but other than that her form is great. And Kyle is getting it too. Ms. Colleen asked him today if he was going to be an Olympic swimmer when he grows up, but he said no. ;-) After he made it across the pool she looked at me and said, "Wait, he was crying at his lessons in April - what happened?" I reminded him that once Katie swam with him at a make-up lesson he was fine.
Now we are off to meet friends for lunch and then we have more swimming plans this afternoon. Hooray!
Last week we took an unexpected trip to Fredericksburg for my grandfather's funeral. We all knew he would pass away soon, but it was not expected quite this soon. But we are so thankful that he is no longer in pain and that he is resting in the arms of Jesus in Heaven.
While the trip was a little sad, it was also so nice to be with the whole family. We spent Thursday through Saturday there. The kids spent a lot of time in the hotel pool with their cousins. Laura and I had a marathon scrapbooking night where we put together a scrapbook of Papa's life in 4 hours! Granted, we skipped quite a few years in there and only had a sampling of photographs that we could find. Unfortunately the scrapbook we made for him three years ago for his 90th birthday has been packed away somewhere during one of the 6 moves he has made this past year. We think it is probably in a box in my parents' garage. Hopefully we will find it soon.
I do have pictures from the weekend, but haven't had a chance to upload them to the computer yet. We've had a very busy day today with swim lessons, grocery shopping and two hours at the swimming pool. Now we are heading to the dentist...a place that Katie claims to enjoy more than the pool! Apparently Dr. Jon is doing something right.
Anyone who knows me well, knows that my feet give me problems ALL THE TIME. So anytime I stand for more than about 20-30 minutes at a time they hurt. And for some reason, I have been standing for what seems like hours today. I had no intention of tackling the project I have undertaken. Notice I did not say I have “completed.” My goal this week was to re-organize the craft cabinet. I stash all of the kids arts and craft supplies in one cabinet in the kitchen closest to the kitchen table. I should have taken a before picture so you could see how absolutely terrible it had become, but I didn’t. So here’s the after:
It will be interesting to see how long that lasts…
In the middle of tackling that project, I somehow started emptying out my pantry and re-organizing all of those items as well. I’ve thrown away three trash bags full of junk, expired medications and expired foods. Funny how I always get on my mom to throw out the expired things in her pantry yet I had some things in there that I forgot even buying! And I learned that one shelf is about a sixteenth of an inch shorter than the other one so I can only fit my cereal boxes on the left side rather than the right side. That is going to take some getting used to because our cereal has always been on the top shelf on the right side, but now it is on the 2nd shelf on the left side. I also organized Katie’s snacks, Kyle’s snacks and then the things they both can snack on…for the babysitter’s sake (and probably for hubby’s sake as well!). So here’s my pantry as it currently looks:
So why is it that my kitchen still looks like this?
Now I must go soak my feet before I finish this feat!
These are fairly anti-climactic because it was really a "you had to be there" moment, but I figure I'll share them anyway. I still haven't downloaded the video. Those clips might prove to be a little more interesting. But here are the photos from the Kindergarten Celebration last week.
Today at T-ball practice we had a make-up picture due to several kids being absent when the professionals took the team photo. So I had my camera there to capture the afternoon. Here are the Sharks:
For Summer! This morning officially marks day #1 of our summer. I didn’t count Saturday and Sunday because I needed to catch up on some much needed sleep. Last week was crazy and I was out of the house 4 of 5 nights and worked 4 of 5 days when my usual schedule is just Tuesday/Thursday. Granted, Thursday wasn’t really work because I only went in for 45 minutes and then headed on a field trip to the Oil Ranch with Katie’s class. And Friday, also not really work since I popped in for a while just to say goodbye to my class that I had skipped out on Thursday. Guilt plagued me for a while since I technically had a sub (not really a sub, but my assistant covered for me) on my last day with my class, but I would have had worse Mommy guilt if I had skipped out on Katie’s last field trip. I missed the other two because of work also.
Last night I sort of planned out our week. I made notes of which errands I wanted to run on which days and planned my meals. I am striving to cook a lot more this summer. We are tightening the purse strings again. While it is not yet official, I am most likely going to be switching classes which means a big change in pay (unfortunately, not for the better!). Derek is also starting an Executive MBA program in the August and we are most likely going to have to take out student loans. We were so blessed to not have to do that for our undergrad or his masters, but this degree probably costs as much as those three combined.
I tried not to over-schedule us this summer but I do want to have some sort of plan to keep us in a routine. The kids will have swim lessons on Mondays and Wednesdays and gymnastics on Tuesdays. I checked today and most of the library programs we will go to are on Thursdays so that works well. We also may be switching off playdate weeks with some friends so that each Mommy will get some time by herself. And of course in between all of that we will be swimming! I am so excited about this summer because both kids are much more confident (but not overly so) about being in the water so I do not have to be attached to one or both of them when we are at the pool now. And our neighborhood pool is mostly only a foot and a half deep, so they can play to their hearts content. We went yesterday and they entertained themselves for about 45 minutes before they wanted Mom or Dad to get in with them.
Now that there’s a little more time in my schedule I will hopefully be able to update this more often. I have pictures from last week to add, but for now we have to run our errands! Have a great Monday!
