New Adventure Kids Club

Last year as I was researching which preschool to put AJ in I quickly became discouraged.  Preschools in NC are extremely expensive! The cheapest ones were a little bit over $300 a month. So my friend Becky and I started spit balling the idea of doing our own. How hard could it be really???? Just paint a room and teach a few days a week to get a tiny bit of extra green....this train of thought is a perfect example of how I constantly underestimate things!!  When I returned from Utah this summer we got to work.  We had to clear out the room that we planned on using.  It was filled to the ceiling with spiders, bugs, and her brother-in-laws crap, crap is a harsh word...but the stuff had been there for like 3 or 4 years and he has never even touched it so he obviously didn't care too much about it. Anyway, we had to clean it out, risking fingers and toes to the spiders. Once we made it out alive we had to clean the room.  Next came the painting.  I love to paint so that part wasn't really a chore, other than I still had regular life to keep up with :)  Then there was all the stuff to set up, the table to make,the carpet to put down, the bathroom to fix and paint and put new floor in,  the curriculum to plan, the supplies to buy, etc.  We found the greatest curriculum online so that has helped us out a TON!  We were going to just plan it all from scratch but by accident I came across it and it's so perfect we couldn't NOT use it!  I honestly thought teaching for 2 hours a day, 3 days a week would not be that big of a deal.  Once again...I was naively wrong!  Since we started teaching in September my life has been ABSOLUTELY CRAZY!!!!!  I haven't had a second to spare.  Until this week I had not even been to the grocery store other than quick trips in to grab little things like a gallon of milk, or a loaf of bread.  My house has been in utter chaos and I feel like I am losing my mind!  With that being said...I am having a BLAST!!  It has totally taken over my life but it's so fun!  And not to brag or anything but I think I'm a dang good pk teacher.  All the kids love coming to school.  It feels so good to be accomplishing something outside of the home.  I posted pics of the room. I kept forgetting to take before pictures but at least Becky remembered to take some after ones.  The table is actually an old door that was down in the basement. That was either Becky or Clay's ( her hubby) idea.  It was brilliant!!! Actually Becky does a lot more than I do with the preschool...she is amazing!!  PK is the reason I never have time to blog and the reason we get our clean clothes out of the dryer or a basket.  Wait, I was like that before...dangit!!

Holy moly.....12 years!

Yesterday, August 13th, was mine and Drew's 12th anniversary!!  I can hardly believe it.  Time has just flown by!  Marriage has been such a learning experience for me.  Our marriage has had it's trials, as they all do, but it has taught me so much.  I have learned patience (now if I could apply it that would be great), to pick and choose my battles (such as dry elbows....it's an inside joke), and with all that comes along with marriage I have learned about charity, the PURE love of Christ.  I still have a lot to learn..unfortunately.  I can say that I am thrilled to be married to Drew!  My sister-in-law once said "It would be so fun to be married to Drew....a LOT of work...but fun."  She was soo right!  We have so much fun, his sense of humor cracks me up!  He is a wonderful father!  He moves us around a lot, but we have made so many wonderful lifelong friends that way!  I am glad he puts up with me and my dramatic emotions!  I am super excited to see what the future holds for us!  If you're reading this honey....I LOVE YOU!!! .......actually, I wonder if I've even told him about my blog. Huh, I guess now's as good a time as any!!
Here's to the future.........

Funny Story! (that's the best title I can come up with...I am open to suggestions )

This happened a while ago but I have been SUPER busy and was out of town for a couple months....it's still totally worth sharing.  Since Drew has been in Dental School I have been a "single" parent for the most part.  He makes an occasional showing so the kids can see he still exists. During finals it's even worse! It was towards the end of his finals and I was about to go crazy, I was in the middle of making dinner, and Drew calls and tells me that they are taking a break from studying and going to dinner and asked if me and the kids wanted to meet him there.....I couldn't say yes fast enough! I also was excited to get help with Tyson's math homework, yes, my son's 3rd grade math homework has been known to bring me to tears! Anywhoo, we ran out the door and met them at the restaurant and had a great dinner.  We were gone about an hour. When we pulled up and got out of the car we could hear a really loud ringing and Tyson said "mom, our fire alarm is going off!"  (insert potty word!)  We run inside and the whole house is FILLED with smoke!!! It was then that I realized I had left dinner on the stove still cooking.  It was pretty much done BEFORE we left, now it was charcoal! So I am running like mad to get windows and doors open to air this place out and the kids are in the living room and AJ yells and says that a lizard just ran under the couch.  I wasn't quite sure I believed him because AJ has been known to just say stuff...crazy made up stuff.  I decided to check anyway and using my supermom powers I lifted the couch onto it's side and sure enough...a lizard. (deep breath) Okay....now what!  Tyson says he'll catch it but those little suckers are fast and I am not in the mood to chase that thing all over the house. So I go get one of our neighbors, and I know he can catch it because he caught the Copperhead that was in front of our building...yes that's right, earlier in the week there was a Copperhead on the sidewalk...stupid snakes!  Did I mention that I was in the middle of reorganizing my pantry?  The floor was covered other than little paths for you to walk in.  Just wait, it gets better.  So he is walking to my door and I am telling him sorry for the smoke and the mess, of course the day I am cleaning out my pantry is the day the house decides to try and burn down! He's trying to decide how to corner our little friend and asks if I can move the coffee table so I walk around it to move it...and there on the floor is one of my humongous bras that Scout decided to bring downstairs while we were gone (sigh). I turn red as a beet, hurry and pick it up, and try to wad it up as small as possible, hoping it will just disappear!  No such luck! I trip over myself apologizing and he just laughs it off.  He catches the lizard and takes him out of my way.  My wonderful neighbor Emily takes the kids for a while so I can clean up.  The smoke is so thick that I keep having to go outside to clear my lungs. After a while I sit down outside to try and collect my thoughts.  I was on the verge of a breakdown, with all the stress and the whole "what if I had burnt the house down" thing when I look up and on the sidewalk is a frog...just hopping along...and that's the icing on the burnt cake!  I start hysterically sobbing, because I am thinking that I have the doors open and what if that stupid frog gets in my house! At this point I cal my other friend crying and after about 2 seconds tells me she is on the way over to help.  We ended up getting everything put away and most of the smoke out.  I was able to save the pan too...yeah!  I could do without days like that!  Thank goodness for good friends!

Going to Carolina......again.

I'm back in NC! Now maybe I can catch up on my blogging!
I'm testing out Drew's iPad and although it's super cool it's not very easy to type with.....so to be continued!!

What Blog?

Okay....so I haven't posted in like a month, but it's soo not my fault!  I could not get the computer to even turn on and when Drew finally had time to look at it...it of course turned right on for him. Grrrrrr! Then I could not get the internet to work.  Double Grrrrrr!!  ANYWAY, now I can get on the computer and got the internet to work now I can't figure out how to download the pics from my phone so I can post those.  Apparently I have serious issues.  Let's see...what have we been up to for the last month?  JoAnn came to visit and we had soo much fun!  It has been gorgeous weather so we spend most of our time outside.  We have all had a variety of sicknesses. I am still hacking up a lung!  Drew's been taking finals for the past two weeks.  He will be done in 2 days then we have 2 WHOLE WEEKS of just him all to our selves.  I am so excited!  I know he is too, he has been working his tail off for the last 2 weeks with no breaks.  Poor guy!  The kids have spring break this week so I am trying to get their help with some organizational issues and messes in their part of the house.  So far....I've pretty much been on my own :)  Tyson turned 9, that was fun!  Wow, isn't this post exciting?  Okay I'm gonna stop until I can get some pics on here!  To be continued......

AJ (there is no nickname...AJ says it all!)

Our other cowboy!  He is so hilarious!  The faces he makes and the things he says crack me up!  I could have a whole blog entitled "AJ's quotes".  I have decided to post all the crazy and adorable things he says so we can all have a good laugh.  I can't believe my baby is 4 years old...where did the time go?

Pockets (A.K.A. Tyson)

Tyson LOVES John Wayne.  He also ALWAYS has his pockets full of stuff, which is where we got the name Pockets (from Hitari).  He refuses to wear shorts or pants if they don't have pockets.  He always has a pocket knife, a cell phone, some sort of map, and some sort of gun or toy.  One day I will take pics of what he has stored in there!  It's so adorable, don't you just love him?

Punky Brewster (A.K.A. Rebecca)

In the first pic just ignore the passed out, exhausted, sick dental student on the floor (poor guy).  Rebecca has her own sense of style and I try very hard to let her wear what she wants, although some days I just can't do it and I gently suggest she wear a different shirt or skirt or pants.  I am trying to let her be herself and express herself and be proud of herself and have a good self esteem.  Some may call me crazy...and they'd be right :)  In these pics she is not really dressed crazy but it gives you a taste of the outfits she picks out.  I posted the first one cause she has cloth, sparkly, headbands on her ankles.  The second one I just thought it was cute she added her scarf to her second  outfit for the day.  Ignore the messy floor.

Kids say the darndest things!

Okay, so I am gonna tell this story...but I don't want any sarcastic comments about my driving abilities!  Agreed?  Okay.  So I am driving Tyson to scouts and we have one of our neighbors in the car with us, he was trying out scouts for the 2nd time :)  Anyway, it's raining and I am eating my dinner, a healthy Whopper w/ cheese, and yes I can feel my sweat pants getting tighter, when the cars in front of me stop suddenly.  They could have been stopped for a long time and I just didn't notice because the Whopper was blocking my view.  I slam on the breaks and Tyson, who had taken his seat belt off to reach something and forgot to put it back on, goes sliding off his seat and almost ends up in the front.  We are all chuckling at the fact that we didn't wreck and Tyson says " It's a good thing my legs are strong like my Uncle Jason's.  Ya know, his legs are so strong they jiggle in the back.  I'm really glad mine are strong too so I could stop myself."  Now that's what I call good parenting right there...doing things so that your kids can discover their true strengths and potential.  Aahh, I'm so close to the Parent of the Year award I can almost taste it!  And thanks Uncle Jason for being such a great example and having He-Man sized muscles!

Halloween 2010

Becca's first lost tooth!

November 10, 2010- Becca "lost" her first tooth (after Dad pulled it out).  You can see a few tears were shed at the prospect of it being pulled.  Then she didn't even know he had pulled it!

Thanksgiving 2010

Kids really got into the pumpkin pie!

The Beginning

Let me just start by saying that this whole blog thing is a lot of pressure! I am so not creative. Trying to come up with some witty, cute, funny blog "title" was excruciating (thank goodness for spell checker!) . I have been working on my first post for like an hour! I keep typing and backspacing over and over again...aaghhh! Anywhoo, I am super excited about blogging. It's a perfect way for family and friends to keep tabs on us! It's of course going to take me like 6 months to get this whole thing figured out...just bare with me! In a perfect world I will post picks of the kids and post things about our day to day adventures. I know some of you are rolling your eyes at this point, but seriously, have some faith in me! Once I get the hang of all this it will be great...wish me luck!