1st Day of School

1st Day of School Pictures!

OK, I finally got the pictures for the 1st day of school. The kids are still doing well with school, and I'm enjoying my quiet house for the most part.

Jr has made a friend, she tells me, so I'm encouraged.

DJ is playing with old friends on the playground again (soccer, it's pretty popular).

Tori is not quite as interested in sharing everything, but I keep up with what's going on with her too.

Ariel has SO much to say each day when she gets home (we get a run down of her day...sometimes in 'real time'! LOL).

Nothing extraordinary to report at this point...but enjoy some pictures!

Rule #2 for being ALONE at home

Just thought I'd share my newest 'lesson learned' at home. Have you ever read the book 'If you Give a Mouse a Cookie'?? My day reminds me of that book!

Rule #2: Make a list of what you want to get done in a day!

Personally, I LOVE lists, I always have. However, I've neglected my list making as of late, and am finding myself regretting this decision. Without a list, ones day may very well take the path (HA!) that mine has today.

Once the children are off to school, and you've spent your hour on the phone and answered all of your e-mails, taking time to make a list is a very good idea. This may take a few minutes, but it WILL save time in the end! One can start clearing the table (with the intention of washing it down as well), only to discover there are dirty dishes on it from breakfast, and, in taking them to the sink, discover that dishes really need to be done. Getting started on the dishes will remind you that you need to use the potty (good news: you've remembered rule #1!!). While walking thru' your bedroom from the bathroom, you'll realize you need to change the sheets on your bed. Once those are changed, you'll take them downstairs and finish sorting the dirty laundry and rebooting both machines. As you're hanging up clean clothes, you'll realize that you need the empty hangers from various closets. As you collect empty hangers, you'll check the bedrooms and bathroom floor for dirty clothes (it won't matter how many times you've reminded children to not leave them there, there WILL be clothing on the floor). You immediately notice that the bathroom needs cleaning. As soon as you've sorted the clothes and hangers you've collected, you'll move to clean the bathroom. Of course, the first thing to do is to empty the trash can...but into what!? The main garbage can is overflowing (again). So, you bag up the garbage and take it to the trash can. When you come back in, you trip over the shoes by the front door (again, it won't matter how many times you've forbidden this particular habit). You decide to make a pile of each child's belongs that don't belong by the front door (hoping, with an evil laugh, that they'll trip over the piles on the way to their bedrooms!), and you'll wander into the living room (following the trail of shoes and various belongings...that don't belong to you). Once in the living room, you'll hear the living room cry out for attention (yes, the very same one you cleaned SO well 2 days ago). So, you'll clean the living room, remembering that you'd planned to switch out the shelves by the front door with the shelves holding your video games. You'll switch said shelves, discovering that the shelves by the door have been hiding much ickiness. Once the shelves are switched, just before putting the shelves by the door in place, you'll sweep up the mess there and realize that the entire entry could use sweeping. You'll do this, and as you sweep it toward the kitchen, you'll realize that the kitchen needed sweeping as well. Once the kitchen is swept, you'll spy the vacuum cleaner and remember that you needed to vacuum the living room. Once you've vacuumed the living room (and the hallway, of course, 'cuz they're connected!), you'll realize that the dining room floor desperately needs sweeping as well...while doing this you see that the dining room table is not YET cleared OR washed off. What was I doing again?? It's not even NOON yet today! Arg! With any luck, I'll be able to finish off all of the started tasks before the kids get home!

So...lists it will be from here on!

Rules for Being Home Alone

Hello there...for those of you who have not yet experienced the joys of having ALL of your children in school, for the FULL DAY, at the same time, I am going to share with you a few rules I'm learning already. For those of you who have been home alone, enjoy my humor.

Rule #1: Make sure that your bathroom has toilet paper in it BEFORE you use it.
No matter how loudly you can whistle or how much you yell...NO ONE is going to help you! This can be particularly irritating if one uses said bathroom at, say, 10:30am, when there is NO hope of anyone getting home before your legs fall asleep, or hunger overtakes you (seeing as you have been too busy to eat breakfast, this might not take so long).

However, the wonders of having your children in school ALL DAY are many more (so far anyway). Do you KNOW how fast you can switch the laundry, sort the dirty clothes, and fold/hang up the clean stuff if you don't have to leave the laundry room to solve one problem or another (like, say, your 4-year old needs toilet paper, and not another soul in the house can hear her screaming for it...but you, surrounded by a running washing machine, dryer and the A/C fan, can make out what she's saying)? Do you also know how fast a living room (which was crying out desperately for some help) can get cleaned up when one isn't cleaning up messes as they happen around you (no matter how often you remind the children not to bring ANYTHING else INTO the living room while you're cleaning!).

I hope to be posting some '1st Day of School' pictures here soon!

School is starting up!

Well, the kids start up school next week, and we have mixed emotions in our house about it. Ariel & Tori (the teenagers) look forward to seeing their friends again, but are not looking forward to classes and homework (mostly homework). DJ is sort of excited, but I think he's been enjoying the 'freedom' of summer break. Jr, who starts KINDERGARTEN, is quietly excited. She's getting better about not being so shy, and I am certain that she's going to do just great. DJ will help Jr find her classroom when they get off of the bus, and they will sit together on the bus, so it will be an easier transition for her.
Don and Tracy just took a whirlwind trip down to Alabama last week. Don had an emergency trip (we left 17 hours after he found out that he had to go), and we managed to make arrangements with Don's sister to keep the kids so that Tracy could go with. We got to visit with a few of our friends from Alabama, and it was SO nice to see them again! Tracy got to see more of them as Don had business each day, but it was absolutely enjoyable to be with our friends again! We even got to have a double date with Jessica and Paul, we had so much fun! The drive was long, but we made the best of that too, stopping in Nashville at a mall and getting some gifts for the kids.
We're changing our house around (bedrooms and office) again...we do that a lot, but it's part of who we are I guess! We all enjoy redecorating and making the most of the space that we have. We will finally have a bedroom for each child (yes, we're going to build the wall for a bedroom at last!), and this is the start to getting a bathroom put in downstairs (along with those 'escape' window thingies). We feel so lucky to have the space to make it comfortable for every one of us! We actually would like to build onto the house at some point, but this is a good start (getting a bedroom for each child, that is). This means painting rooms, pulling up (old, yucky) carpet, and moving furniture. It's always a GREAT way to get rid of clutter too!
I'll be taking pictures of the kids before school starts, so look for them to be posted in a couple of weeks!

Catching up

WOW! I didn't realize it had been so long since I'd been here! Our family visits were SO much fun, and then we got involved with birthdays (DJ & Ariel), and Ariel's best friend moved to Pennsylvania (a sad time for all of us). Then there was the 4th of July with friends and family. We spent around 6 hours at the HS grounds for pre-fireworks games and food, and then the fireworks. It was a lot of fun! DJ did get a nasty sunburn this summer. He used his birthday money to buy a water slide, and spent about 5 hours using it without mom realizing that the water slide was in the direct sunlight the entire time. He woke up every night for 4 nights in a row due to pain. Guess if mom felt horribly guilty and didn't complain at getting up with him?!
Ariel has a new calling at church; she is now the Ward Chorister! It's so much fun to see her using her musical abilities, and she does look very pretty standing up there in front of everyone on Sundays (we get plenty of complements!). Tracy has a new calling as well. Having been released as the Enrichment Night Leader, she was called as the 2nd counselor in the new Relief Society presidency! Out of the frying pan and into the fire! LOL
The summer is going by far too fast for us, it's hard to believe that July is 2/3's over! School will start on August 20th here. Tori has spent the summer in northern New York with Tracy's parents. She's had a good time for the most part. She did get more homesick this year than she has in the past when she's spent time with them. She will be going to Girls' Camp with their Stake, and it's being held in Sharon, Vermont! The birth place of the prophet, Joseph Smith! What a wonderful experience for her!! Ariel managed half of Girls' Camp here. It was incredibly hot and humid, and her asthma just did NOT like that. She did finish her level, and that makes 4 years for her already! Ariel had the opportunity to have her best friend (the one who moved) come to our house the weekend before Girls' Camp so that she could attend camp with our Stake. A nice treat for her (and us, we love Jessica!).
There isn't much else to update y'all on, it's just day-to-day stuff, mostly.
Oh, Tracy has taken up a new hobby and LOVES it very much! However, the house is sort of being over run by the jewelery she's making! LOL Look for a website posting here to see her creations available for purchase online in the next month or so!

Tracy's Family Reunion

Well, we've nearly finished with family visits for the summer! Tracy's 2 sisters (with their children who aren't married) arrived on Tuesday, May 27th. It's SO cool to see family again! Friday night, we picked up Tracy's little sister's husband from the airport while her brother arrived at the house with his family in tow (4 kids and a wife). Saturday, Tracy's parents joined us for the day, and we enjoyed visiting and having fun together all day! We had dinner together, and that was quite the situation! 20 people per meal!! Tracy's little sister planned everything, and did an excellent job figuring out what would be popular for eating and how much of everything we'd need (and that's a LOT of food!). Everyone finally got to bed Saturday night, after much fun and entertainment. Sunday, Tracy's brother and family left Sunday morning while the rest of the crew attended church. How much fun it is to introduce so many people for a visit!! After church, Tracy's aunt and 2 cousins (with their spouses and any children, 6 total) along with Don's sister and her family (6 total) joined us for dinner! If you can imagine, that was 26 people for one meal!! It worked out far better than we could have imagined!! We all had a GREAT time, though had hoped Tracy's brother and family could have stayed for the day as well.
I'll update more later.

May is here

Well, we see how busy it's been with the Wilsons when we look at the date of my last post! Don's mom came to visit us for 2 weeks to meet and enjoy the new twins at the Banta household (Don's sister's family). As of right now, I have just under 3 weeks to get my house in order for my family to arrive for our family reunion. The reunion, itself, isn't 'til the very last day of May (and into June), but I have my 2 sisters and their children arriving early. So much to do with the house, yard, etc!

Ariel made high Honor roll for her 2nd trimester, and received an award at an 'Honors Banquet' (which we never received her invitation to for some reason and we missed out on). Her test in AP World History is in 11 days (this is for college credit!), keep her in your prayers, please.

Tori made the honor roll last semester, and we are very proud of her! She is continuing to do very well in her art class and plans to continue taking art classes.

DJ is doing SO well in school! It's wonderful to see his enthusiasm for learning. He can't wait to get into 2nd grade, and his reading is far above grade level at this point. We'll find out later this month if he's going to be included in the 'pre-gifted & talented' group that the school has for K-3 at this time. After 3rd grade, they have the 'real' gifted & talented program that will help him stretch himself with learning. We love the GT teacher at his school, she is still one of Ariel's very favorite teachers!

Jr went to kindergarten open house with me last week. She's quite shy still, but was warming up to the atmosphere as we were finishing up seeing all of the classrooms. She was disappointed to find out that she wasn't going to learn anything while we were touring the kindergarten rooms, so I really hope she has a great time once she gets started. She's very lucky to have DJ to help her get on the bus and to the right classroom, I think that will help her out a lot (I expect some tears, and possibly even a phone call from school the first day or two...or more. She's quite the 'mommy's girl having been home with me alone for 2 school years).

The house continues to see improvements as it is my favorite thing to do! Tori has moved (mostly) into a new bedroom, so I get to help her paint that room! A bright lime green and a lighter shade of almost neon pink (if that makes sense), and lots of accessories in bright, bold colors (a girl after my own heart!). We spent 2 days getting the yard mowed, swept, raked and picked up. but no progress on the garden as time hasn't allowed. This week will see me painting Tori's room and her shelves, getting paint for the entry/hall way, cleaning out the basement family room for new flooring, and helping Don (FINALLY) put a shower in the master bathroom! We've rearranged and updated the living room somewhat, and cleaned out the garage (mainly, seems we always find a way to clutter it back up pretty fast!). All in preparation for my family reunion (ok, mostly for that). With luck, I'll post successes and more progress for next week!