Forgive me while I brag...

Thought I would take a minute and brag about my kids. It is not my thing normally, but they are both doing so great in school I figure I owe it to them both to give them a shout out.

Justin
Justin is doing better than we could ever have dreamed in Kindergarten. He LOVES every moment and got really mad one day when I picked him up early- even though it was to take him to the Big E, he was not pleased. I suggested he stay home one day due to a cough and he refused and ran out the door.

Even better, his teachers are so thrilled to have him in the class- yes those are their words, not mine. They say he is very mature, a wonderful helper, a great worker and their "go to" kid to help other kids. Seriously- I have questioned them and they are talking about my kid.

Now, as many of you know we have struggled with Justin's behavior in school in the past. We finally decided last year that he does have ADHD- emphasis on the H for hyperactivity. He is in constant motion and cannot sit still. We tried a few different medications at the end of last school year, never really settling on anything that won us over. At the beginning of summer we found something that seemed to be working, but it was truly hard to tell because the daily life in summer is so very different that school- so we stopped medicating him and figured we would try again in the fall. We began the school year on this same medication, crossed our fingers and held our breathe. Then all the positive reports started coming. Truly I began to wonder how bad the other kids are that ours is doing so well :)

Then Justin's doctor's appointment was coming up to reevaluate his medication. I told the teachers that I would be sending him without his medication to get their observations and feedback. Ooooh Boy! I got a call from the teacher half way through day 2. She couldn't believe he was the same child, he was being very "clumsy" with his personal space, blurting things out, constantly moving and swinging things around. Teacher said it was 180 degrees different than their "go to" kid. At the end of the conversation I told her I would put him back on his meds the next day- she said, "Thank you!". In his backpack that day was a note from the teacher attached to a picture that Justin had drawn of a very well endowed stick figure man- a picture that he was showing around to other kids much to everyone's amusement. That is the only time he has received a note about bad behavior, and it was on a non-medicated day. I love that the crazy kid is the exception and not the rule for them.

At his conference they had many wonderful things to say. Academically he is doing great, and he is always willing to help them. Even the things that he is struggling with, like his frustration with himself and his work, are improving every day. At the end of the conference they asked Marc and I if we had any questions- we said nope, we just wanted to get out of there before they changed their minds.

We are thrilled beyond belief and so proud of him and his success. He is showing great interest in learning and is always asking us to create Math problems for him and I have had to buy another workbook for him because he finished the other one we had.

Jessica
Jessica is doing great too, while I never doubt that she will, I think it is important to sing her praises as well. At her conference her teacher just lit up when talking about Jessica. She loves having her in the class [truly if there is one that that we hear from every teacher it is that Jessica is a pleasure to have in class]. Mrs W said that Jessica is such an avid learner, no matter the topic is always yearning for more and loves learning new things. She appreciates that Jessica comes to class everyday with a smile on her face and a pleasant attitude. When she read some of her writing to me she kept pointing out some of the phrases Jessica uses- one that I remember was about our trip to the Big E. She mentioned her favorite ride was the spaceship one where you go round and round and get stuck to the side of the wall "with a permanent smile on your face". Mrs W loved that perspective.

When we got her report card it was all As- some + and some - but all As. Of course being me I had to give her a hard time and harrass her about her bad report card- she just shook her head and said, "Mommeeeee". Don't worry I told her I was proud of her too. After her conference I said "oh Jessica Mrs W said.. tsk tsk tsk not good" and Jessica said, "tell the truth Mom you have been doing that to me for years- I don't believe you anymore".

In conclusion both kids are doing GRRREEEAAT and we couldn't be prouder of them both.

Jill Was Here!

Jill came to visit last weekend and she was raring to go! We decided to leave the woods to Jill. We have 1.5 acres of land, which is awesome, but unfortunately the previous owners used the woods to throw out their trash. And not just the small stuff, but the big stuff too. They used to have a hot tub- we found it in the woods. Well we sent Jill into the woods- she admits to losing her faith in humanity, but hopefully it returned before she left. I was gone all day on Sunday taking pictures and when I returned the change was impressive. Jill had gotten the driveway and garage under control in addition to the huge piles of trash that were amassed. I don't mean to give Jill all the credit- Marc was her workhorse and the results were impressive. Excepts for the toilets, everything in these two piles came out of the woods surrounding our house- hot tub, basketball hoop, trampoline- and much much more.


We called a scrap metal person who came and took the large pile of scrap metal. A dumpster was ordered and arrived yesterday- Marc and I filled it with the pile in the yard and all the carpets and pads that we ripped out. Feel like we are on our way now. Garage Door people are coming tomorrow to get the garage doors up and running- right now only 1 out of 3 actually work.

A couple of before and afters.

So we closed on the house on October 1st. We weren't moving in until Tuesday October 6th. To say we were excited is an understatement. We were giddy. We went to the hardware store the morning of the closing and bought all the paint for our bedrooms. It was our plan to paint all the bedrooms before we moved in- that was the plan. Upon arriving at the house for our walk through our spirits quickly deflated. The house was in far worse condition than we remembered. We already had Stanley Steemer booked to come in the afternoon. The Stanley Steemer guy tried to quit 2x. Each time Marc made him go back in and keep working. Marc finally told the guy that at the very least- we won't puke now if we have to rip out the carpets. Many of the stains would not come out and the smell of dog was VERY strong. I tried to accept the carpets- I did. But it just grossed me out so much that within 48 hours it was clear we were ripping out all the carpets. We would love to put in hardwoods down the road, so for now we are on subfloor covered in area rugs- better than smelling like dog. There were far more projects that needed to be addressed that weekend. The first was the laundry room. This is what it looked like when we closed.


The floor was coming up and very gross. We couldn't just pretend it was fine and move everything in on top of that disaster. So this became the first project and our first finished room. Marc and his dad ripped up the floor and then watched a cool video at Home Depot and bought a new floor and installed that floor. Marc patched and painted the walls- and voila! new laundry room.



Our next finished room (well almost finished room) is Jessica's room. Here is the before/ before picture- what the room looked like when we bought the house.

Here is what it looked like on closing day. Aren't the carpets lovely?

Here is Howard painting away. He came up to help and we made him work all weekend without a break!


Jessica chose two different colors of blue- the wall behind her head is a lighter color. Not sure these pictures do it justice, it is actually a very pretty color. Jessica has the bed I had growing up. Unfortunately there is a top piece that has broken- so it is on the list of things to be fixed, but I still think it looks very nice.


One of my favorite things about this room? The closet. Originally it was just a shelf, but Marc indulged my closet organizer request and now it is a thing of beauty!

Justin's room is just about complete as well (accept for the flooring of course). I will take those pictures soon. The rest of the house is a disaster. There are so many thing on our "to do" list that I can't even keep track. Plus I have so much to do with my business right now that I can't even begin to cross things off the list.

Which brings us to- do we like our house? The answer is that we love this house, well we love the potential of this house. We know that in the long run we are so happy with our choice, but the short run- whoo it is a lot of work.

One of my favorite things about this house is this view from my front door in the late afternoon.

Not bad, huh?

Remember me?

Goodness it has been SO LONG since I blogged. Rule of thumb- if this blog is moving slow most likely there have been a lot of posts on my other blog. So feel free to skip on over there and you will see some of what has been keeping me busy. We have moved into our new house and I am going to blog some of those pics too- but thought I would share our first Halloween pics. This year Justin is Mario. For those in my circle not familiar with all things Nintendo and Super Mario you may not recognize the costume. Justin already had a Mario Baseball cap and a red shirt so all I needed was some overalls and voila! he would have a costume. Much to my dismay you cannot find overalls for the over age 1 crowd. I made these overalls for him out of fleece- I am very happy with how they came out, very cartoony.

After posing nicely he then did some cool Mario moves!



Here is Justin this afternoon at the school costume parade. I have to say one of the best costumes was a little girl dressed as a tornado- very clever.

It is supposed to be in the 60s tomorrow. Let's hope that Jessica's fever doesn't keep her from being a vampire witch!

Way Back Wednesday- Family Picture Day!

Since the season of Family Holiday Pictures is upon us (ok, well it is upon me, many of you haven't even begun to think about it at all). I thought it would be a good topic for Way Back Wednesday. Ever since we had children Marc has been a big proponent of sending out a family picture NOT just a picture of the kids. We have friends all over the country, even the world. There is a good chance we may never meet some of these children, and in Marc's words- "I don't really care what their children look like, I want to know what my friend looks like now" For the record, I care what their children look like, but I understand his perspective.

So here is my retrospective. We start in 2001, the year Jessica was born. This picture was taken by Kelly in our backyard with out digital video camera.

2002: This picture was taken by the Picture People- we scanned it in, copyright schmoppyright.

2003: Along comes Justin. This year we decided to get together with the Cooks and Odells and do our first official Family Picture Day. We met at the Cooks house and took turns taking pictures of each others families. Then we went inside, looked at the pics on the TV and ate pizza [I believe- gasp!- Emily was still using a film camera at this time].

2004: Family Picture Day again at the Cooks house.

2005: This was our first year going to the Outer Banks and we decided to incorporate Family Picture Day into the vacation- thus getting the obligatory picture out of the way before the holiday crush begins. That has been the tradition ever since. I had originally chosen a green theme for our pictures, but hated the way the pics came out so we grabbed the clothes off the Cook Family's back used them instead- much nicer.

2006: Since the blues worked so well we did it again!

I think this was the picture we used on our card.
2007: We went with white this year. Couldn't find the pic this morning but here is the card we sent out.

We also did a second card and sent that one out as well.
2008: It was very windy this year so we couldn't go down by the surf or we would all have looked pretty crazy- so it was our first dune picture. Went back to the navy.

2009: Ok, I am not going to show you our official pic from this year- instead you get a reject one. Can't exactly send out a pic with Justin grabbing his crotch :) Tried something new for colors, but I think I may be going back to navy again next year- is it wrong if we are wearing the same thing every year?

A few of Jessica

Took Jessica out tonight for a photo shoot. Here are a few...






Then we went out for ice cream!

Diet Coke and Mentos = fun

Many of you know that Marc enjoys the Diet Coke and Mentos trick. If you are unfamiliar with this particular trick feel free to go to You Tube and I am sure you will see lots of examples. The kids love it too. Becky had picked up this attachment that goes on DC bottles to better facilitate this activity. So one night we went to the beach with 6 bottles of DC, one for each child. And this is what we did.

want a better example? watch this video (we have many videos but Jack at the end of this one makes me laugh)...





At some point this evening we notice a group with a water balloon launcher. If you have ever attended one of Justin's birthday parties you know this is also something we enjoy. In our opinion they were not doing it "right". We joke that one of us should go over and tell them how to do it. Can you guess what happened? Yup! Justin went over! With his smile and friendliness he convinced them to let him give it a chance. But just before he shoots the balloon, he stops, he says something else- everyone laughs and they turn around. It seems Justin saw more humor in shooting the balloons at his family than just down the beach at no one.


One more... Miss Julia as we were walking back from feeding the turtles.

Well we took around 1500 pictures between the 3 families- be thankful I am not sharing them all. It was another wonderful week and one all of us look forward to all year long.