Its official

The new blog is up and running. Not beautiful (yet and possibly ever), but I will now be posting there. Open to everyone...

New blog.

thinking it may be time for a new one. one without our name in the title. just in case.

totally open to anyone i know, but figuring out how to disassociate from my profile. obviously does not make sense to lose my name on the blog just to have it on the profile. if anyone wants the new name let me know. maybe i'll link from here one time.

Hmmmm

I should be making dinner, but just realized I am about to enter last updated 1 month ago status. Cannot stand when that happens - it makes me feel like a total slacker.

Everyone here is good. Today is a "learning immersion" day for me. I had a one-to-one apple appointment this morning. Learned how easy and some of the amazing things I can do with iphoto and imovie. Cannot believe I have not delved into that sooner. Eight months is way too long to have that kind of access and not a clue how to use it. Tonight is class one of three that suppose to teach me to - KNIT! Have tried this before, but something always comes up and then I cannot finish the classes I start (Evening at Emory we had to move 2 classes in of 8 and someone had to go home and take care of the puppy we only had for a year, M was already training in NY). Here two babies in less then two years did not leave much time for getting out and then when they started school M always seemed to be traveling when a session was starting.

Anyways, will try to update more, but suppose to leave in 15 mins and need to try to throw dinner together.....

Ahhhhhhh

Life is slowly getting back to "normal". C loves school, but has told me "kindergarten is hard". It is definitely a much longer day and I think everyone really misses her. Today is my super sad really miss her day because she goes straight from school to dance class with another girl from her class that we are carpooling home with in the afternoons (dads take in the morning when the line is easy). So right now I keep checking the clock to see when we need to leave to pick her up and keeping noticing that class has not even started. Sad.

O had his first day yesterday and second one today. He loves it and has some of the best teachers ever - same from when C was in the three's. All the three year old teachers are good, but these two are "so awesome" (quote from C). O got to be the weather person yesterday and today he "played with the other O". Not sure how, but C ended up with a C O. in her class and O has an O O. in his class (the two are not related).

So, I thought I was going to have lots more time to get things done this year, but then M pointed out that it is only 3. 5 hours more (Owen goes one more day this year) and that I will lose a little over an hour of that driving Caroline and her friend home a few days a week. Car pool in the afternoon is ridiculous. The school is only a little over a mile, but we leave about 25 mins early to be NEAR the front and Owen just plays on the playground. Then we have to actually move through the line and get everyone home. Currently we leave about 2:20, arrive at school about 2:25, line starts at 2:50 and takes us about 8 minutes to move to front and get everyone loaded, arrive home at about 3:05. Considering leaving here at 3pm and just being at the end of the line, but she likes being near the front. When the weather gets bad she may have to get over it.

After being totally confused because it seems like just with Caroline starting school I had more time, it occurred to me that it is because I am down to just having one with me. I had adjusted to two and everything was fine, but one is so much easier. No discussions or debates on which game to play, who gets to help me do things, get in the car first, etc. It is just one child to help do things and take with on errands and no intervening in "disagreements". It is amazing! My to do list is growing as I realize I CAN clean out my closet, empty all the old stuff out of the bathroom cabinets, clean the baseboards and maybe even all the light fixtures (after Matt gets any bugs out of course). Trying to think what else I need to add to the list. Think I may try to go through the drawers in my dresser, but I so seldom go beyond the first layer not sure that is necessary!

Hope everyone has a great afternoon!

Busy Summer

We have been having a great summer staying busy and cannot believe it is almost over! Brief rundown of the high points -

- Beach for a week at Hilton Head. Great time swimming with the kids and playing with nothing scheduled!

- Girls weekend in Myrtle with great friends from college that I do not get to see near enough of.

- Long weekend in Norfolk visiting Matt's family. This is where Caroline decided she wanted to show off for her Grandpa and swam for the first time across the pool with no help. She then went off the diving board with no help and swam alone to the side of the pool. Proud does not begin to describe it.

-Two weeks later (this past weekend) - Owen swims across the pool without any help!!!!! AMAZING! Could not believe it, but he has no fear and really has been doing lessons for almost as long as Caroline so it seems to make sense he would not be far behind. He still does not want to jump by himself off the diving board. He prefers to climb up, go to the end and then ask to be thrown in the water.

- Today - first time taking both kids to the pool by myself and not having to get in. Watched from about three feet away and then after lunch it finally warmed up enough to join them.

Not that much in retrospect, but there have been lots of great "little things" to fill in our time - weekly school friends playgroup, play dates, weekly dinner with another family, trips to the pool, reading the Little House series with C and kindergarten get togethers. It has been nice and relaxing.

Now we are getting ready to start kindergarten next week. Scary! Cannot believe I am going to have an official kindergartener in less then a week. She is so ready and I have looked forward to this for so long (the light at the end of the tunnel!), but now I see that she is going to be gone almost all day (1st bell is 7:50, 2:45 dismissal). Count in activities and she seems like a teenager that just eats and sleeps here. Oh well. She wants to play and have fun with her friends and I guess that is a good thing. Hope she does not completely forget the rest of us.

Guess Owen will get lots of mommy time!

When I tell Owen he can play quietly instead of napping

Ahhhhhhh

It has been a very quick and great last month, but very busy and nice to relax now - at the beach. Oh, other then Caroline being sick all day yesterday (Monday). She woke us up at 5am saying she was going to be sick and needed help getting to the bathroom (she walked past one bathroom to tell us this). Not a big deal, we made it. She threw up two more times before she even ate or drank anything (likely it was all bile, since she had last eaten 11 hours earlier). She then threw up every time she tried drinking water and when we felt bad let her have a few bites of plain bread. No complaining when Matt and Owen went swimming (twice) and that she only ended up with a few sips of water yesterday. She was throwing up the water earlier in the day and by the time we got any to stay down it was way after bedtime and she was exhausted. So we went to bed and started over today. Everything has been good so far. Yea!

Anyways, a million things going on, mostly good. Actually cannot think of anything bad to really report other then a few books that have been awful! Will try to give an update on those at some point. Phoenix, Mother's Day and my birthday were all great. The kids have been great.

Matt is having a slight crisis however. I took a picture from a distance while he was playing with the kids in the pool this afternoon and he flipped out when he saw it. He thinks he saw a spot that is beginning to bald. He is considering shaving his head over this photo. So, now on the couch next to me he just tried to take another picture. I guess I should be thankful he is going to age gracefully and deal with it instead of going too extreme with any hair prevention things (rogaine, propecia, etc.). If anyone has any words of encouragement for him please pass them along. I think it is hitting him harder then he thought (even though I still don't see it).