EE's Debut

We have been counting down the days until we could see EE's artwork being displayed at the County Arts Center. Friday was the big day. And here is what what chosen to be displayed along with 6 other first graders from his school.



This is a close-up. The project was to create a Van Gogh house. Once it gets returned to us we are thinking about framing it and hanging in his room. We think it is a nice drawing.

Play date conundrum

Jay has been asking for a play date with one of his friends at school. I am in the classroom a couple of times a month so I know all of the kids in the class. I know the boy, he is nice but he is the one who taught Jay the word "a*s". The boy has a brother who is 17 months older than him.

I have been emailing and talking with his Dad regarding finding a time to play. We finally agreed upon this past Saturday from 12:30 until 2:30. The boys tentatively had baseball practice at 3 as long as it didn't rain. We also had a birthday party to attend for our neighbor across the street. Baseball did get canceled and we all went to the birthday party.

Saturday morning the phone rings as I am on the treadmill. My husband speaks with the Dad and he said he would bring the boy over at 12:30 and then he asked to speak to Jay. My husband at first thought this was a strange request but thought maybe the boy would like to say something to Jay. Jay gets on the phone and says a few yes and oks. My husband asked about the conversation and the Dad asked Jay if he would like the boy's older brother to come over for the play date.

This really threw us for a loop and really not knowing what to do or say when they got there. We had about 1 hour to think about it. Both boys show up at the door ready to play. The Dad comes in and I asked him questions about the older brother. He then brings up about asking Jay if he wanted the older brother to play. I took this as my opportunity to tell him it was ok this time but in the future if he could ask us instead of Jay. He apologized and made note.

I have never been in a situation like this. Normally when someone calls for a play date with one of my twins, I don't send both of them. And I don't even ask if it is ok if their brother joins in on the play date. Sometimes both of mine are friends with the person and they both go. I am a firm believer in that they each need to find their own friends but be open to playing with the other's friends. For the most part they do a great job with this.

The play date ended up being fine. The boys all played well together and I only had to talk to Jay's friend once regarding throwing balls at EE.

It's not that bad......

"It's not that bad....it could be worse" is the saying I keep playing over in my head. Of course, last night I was saying how much our situation sucked....all night. The shower situation is going to be much more costly and timely than we anticipated. And yes that really sucks but we will make it through.

I spoke with a neighbor yesterday who had a similar situation (most of our neighbors who have the same house builder have had the same situation probably to varying degrees). We will have someone come do a full analysis on our mold including a protocol on how to get rid of the mold. Once all that is done we will then have to have a remediation company come in to properly gut the shower and get rid of all the mold. The Environmental people will come back in at this point and ensure that it all has been removed. Then we will have to have the shower reinstalled, correctly this time around. Not sure what we will do as the same tile is in our shower, floors and on the decking to the tub. We will have to wait until we get estimates on what the shower will cost and then determine what to do about the rest of the bathroom.

I spoke with the Mold guy yesterday and he got me frightened. He said if it was still wet in the shower then the mold spores are being released out into the air in our house. This could cause us some health issues. He advised that we close the vents in the bathroom and cover them with painter's tape and to close the door and put the tape around the door seam. We moved all of our essentials out. Luckily, we have the boys' bathroom and a full bathroom in the basement. It is just not convenient. The mold guy will be here tomorrow morning.

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I really had to convince myself to go to the gym this morning. I was not motivated but decided since I had eaten so much Banana Chocolate Chip bread I should do something. The bread was delivered sometime yesterday by the church we visited(I never heard them knocking, I must have been in the basement). The bread is absolutely delicious! I get to the child drop area only to be told they can't take any additional children because they have had 2 people call in sick. They were at their max ratio of children to staff. I guess that was my excuse to not work out
today.

Someone told me about a W*lmart super center around this area. So Tee and I went up there and I decided I will need to start shopping there from time to time. Their prices on some of my weekly staples beat my grocery store out of the water.

And the season begins

Last night was the official start to the baseball season. We will have practice on Tuesdays and games on Saturdays and Mondays. It is a long season and runs through mid June. The boys really enjoy baseball and they know lots of kids on their team.

A week ago (before I found out about our baseball season) I signed the boys up for an instructional Lacrosse class. Luckily, it is only 6 weeks and is on Sunday afternoons. We want to determine their skill and desire to play that sport. We will be busy.

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I am sure you want to know whether I went to the jewelry party or not. I decided not to go. I am one of those people who feels that I HAVE (guilty if I don't) to buy a product. I don't really wear lots of jewelry and I definitely don't need to spend over $30 on something I will not use. I emailed her Sunday morning to let her know that I would not attend and was honest regarding why. She replied and stressed that it would not be a lot of product pushing just a fun relaxing time. I honestly was very much into getting things cleaned up and did not feel the need to get out to socialize. My neighbor did go and she was the only one there for over 1 hour. She not only purchased a product but also said she would have a party. The host never sent out a reminder email or checked back with any of her friends. Her friends showed up 10 minutes prior to the end time.

Out of Order

When we purchased our house over a year ago we knew it was going to need to work. Last summer, we did several projects in our backyard. At the time we felt it was important to get the back outside area looking good. This is where we spend a lot of time during the summer and we also like to entertain.

Until the recent turn of the economy our plans included a little remodeling indoors this Spring. We would like some improvements in our kitchen, along with new appliances and a make over in the master bathroom. When we moved in we heard from many people that the builder of our house did not properly install the showers. I believe they did not line the walls to the shower correctly which has lead to water leaking behind the tiles. Of course you know what happens when water gets behind tiles and sits......you guessed it.......mold.

We had just completed a bathroom renovation in NC prior to us having to move. We really loved the way the bathroom turned out. We were able to make efficient use of our space and also increase the size of the shower, with 2 shower heads. We have a good idea of how we would like our bathroom to look but decided we would have to wait at least another year until yesterday happened.

As I was showering my foot hit one of the tiles at the bottom and it pushed through. All I could see what black stuff. My husband came home and took a few more tiles off and found that there is no lining on the back of the tiles, it is all black and there is standing water.

We went through several scenarios of what to do. We could try to fix it but it seems pointless if at some point we are going to rip out the entire shower. Our plan now includes to increase the shower size both in width and depth and install an additional shower head. We will have to have the shower re-tiled but are unsure how that will look because the same tile is on the tub deck and the floor. We may do a few minor things on our own and then hold off on the rest.

We are now in the process of trying to get someone out to give us a quote. We only have the name of one person and are trying to get a few more contractors out here. We need to move some what quick as we can't use the shower.

Church #2 - strike

I have been seriously searching for a Church that meets my requirements. This past weekend we tried another Methodist church that is about 15 minutes from our house. I now understand about contemporary services. We get to church and check in at the information desk. The lady was so nice and went through going into service, Sunday school and the nursery.

The chapel is nice, nothing spectacular, but it looks like a church. Children attend the first part of the service. After the welcome we were asked to greet our neighbors....just like in the church we have been attending. I had a hard time from laughing at that one. There was a band set up on stage and they sung about 4 or 5 contemporary songs. Yes, people in the pews were singing and swaying to the music with their hands up in the air.

The doors to the chapel are left open and people come and go as they need to. People come in late to service. The children were dismissed after the baptism of a little baby. My husband walks the 2 older boys to their room and I take Tee to the nursery. When we get back there were a few announcements and then the readings were read and the preacher gave a sermon. The sermon was fine but I found the minister to be dry, not much of a sense of humor.

As soon as service ends I go to get Tee out of the nursery. I didn't get a great feeling about leaving him in there. I asked for name tags but the guy said he was just subbing this week. The nursery is very close to the front door. I am not normally paranoid about leaving my child but something felt strange. As we were getting ready to go down to get the boys, the information lady catches us to tell us that Sunday school goes for another 1/2 hour. Luckily, the husband was on game and said that we did not plan for that. We decided to pull them out and leave.

Oddly enough the boys really liked the Sunday school class there even though there were only 5 kids in class. I am not sure why they liked this one so much better. It could have been because they were watching a Bible story on the TV. From the looks of it, it seems like they are fairly organized which makes a huge difference. I asked about the curriculum but apparently each class chooses the curriculum they want to use.

I have communicated with the head of children services at Church #1. Currently they don't have a specific curriculum as they have used a variety and made some up. They were looking for a new curriculum and that will start in the fall of 2009. Sometimes I feel like they are a bit disorganized and I am not sure my kids are learning anything.

At the end of service (church #2) we walked out and shook the Pastor and assistant Pastor's hands. They saw that we were holding a visitor bag but failed to say anything else to us. This really just rubbed me the wrong way.

The Pastor at Church #1 stopped us one day to ask us our names (not that he has remembered) but he always makes sure to greet us as we walk by him.

I came home and did some research on-line of other churches in the area. Tee will be attending preschool at an Episcopal church but they do not offer Sunday school. I spoke with a neighbor this morning who attends a Lutheran church nearby. Their contemporary service (and Sunday school) start at 10:15. I have looked up several Presbyterian churches in the area and almost all of them have service start at one time and Sunday school starts 30 minutes after.

I have a hard time with having the kids in service with me. I grew up Catholic and was made to attend mass every Sunday. I went to a Catholic school so I did not need to attend Religious Ed classes. When I was young I know I did not get anything out of service. I sat sat there waiting for it to end. I want my kids to be able to be in Sunday school and learn about the Bible stories at their own level.

I am not sure where to go from here. There is one more Lutheran church about a 15 minute drive that has a traditional service and Sunday school at the same time. At this point I just don't know if I want to change denominations. It is a lot to think about.

Boys

The boys had their annual Drs. appointment last week. I warned them before we went that the Dr. would need to look at their scrotum and feel their balls. I wanted to make sure they would be comfortable with our female pediatrician. Last year we went to a male Dr. at the same practice and I thought he was a dud. Anyway to witness their reaction to the scrotum test was so funny, it took all I had not to laugh. The Dr. could not feel EE's left testicle so she sent us to get an ultrasound of his scrotum. Fun times in this house.

The radiology place almost turned us away at the ultrasound place because I had Tee with us. But she said as long as he stayed in my lap it would be ok. She gave us instructions before she left the room. EE had to get undressed and then take this blue napkin and wrap his penis in it and move it to the side. The first part of the instructions was ok and then I got to she wants us to do what with you penis....she does realize it is just not that big. So I opted to flap his penis up and put the blue napkin over it. When she got back and started she just had him hold the napkin so he penis would not come flapping out as she was moving the ultrasound wand. She couldn't share any information with me, but from the information I did get from her my take was that everything is ok and where it should be. This is what we thought but it never hurts to be sure.

We have always given the boys the proper names to all their body parts. It is what it is so we call it like that. I don't have a problem with it and neither does my husband. I do want to be open and honest with my boys especially when they start asking the tough questions. I would much rather them hear it from us than get bits and pieces from their friends who probably don't have it all together correct. I think I should start reading books now to help me prepare.

Moving on to the big boy in the house. Sunday we are sitting at the table eating lunch and he looks at me and says he feels lazy and like he should be doing something. I immediately jump in with a slew of things he can do, you know fun stuff like dusting, vacuuming etc. His response is no not those kind of things, outdoor projects to make our house look better. I guess housework is not on the top of his list either. We ended up cleaning up the garage and boy does it look better than ever. We threw away a lot of stuff and organized all of the toys.

We also found that we had a TON of shoes in the garage. Most of the ones the boys have outgrown. The shoes that were in good condition got boxed up for Tee when he gets to the sizes. We had probably 15 pairs from sizes 12 to 1. Tee will have it made. We also had shoes that were in poor condition, about 12 pairs. I have boxed these up and will send them to be recycled. Check out the website. The reuse a shoe program is sponsored by Nike. They use the rubber on the bottom to use in sports and playground equipment surfaces. The website provides drop off areas around the US and also a printout of a label to use to mail your shoes. I will have the box mailed out this week sometime. A great cause!

The bus stop ***Updated***

My kids like to get to the bus stop early to be able to be one of the first ones on the bus. Jay has major issues with always wanting to be first at everything, but that is a story for another day. Our bus stop is 2 house up from us on a corner. Am I glad I don't live in that house. The kids (not mine except that one time that their Dad was with them) like to run around these people's yard.

There are several kids that are up there alone, meaning no parent present. And there are also kid's who have a parent present and the parent is clueless. There is this one family that has 3 kids on the bus, I would guess one is in 5th grade, maybe 3rd and then a kindergartner. A few days ago as I was walking up to the bus stop two of the kids in this family were physically fighting. They continued to go at it and when I got up there I asked them to stop fighting and made a comment about them being siblings and that they should be much nicer to each other. This morning as I was heading up to the corner there were kids fighting on this family's grass. I yelled, only because I was still walking (Tee slows me down) for them to stop. The clueless mom who was standing up there walked over. I asked her if she took care of it and she said what...they need to run around, they have to sit in school all day. Oh my gosh....really. I said what they need to hit each other and she said oh no just run around. I am thinking maybe they should run around before they get to the bus stop.

I understand that fact that both parents can/need/want to have a job. But leaving your child unattended at the bus stop seems wrong to me. Most of the kids at our stop are in 3rd grade and under. What happens if your child misses the bus?

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Clueless Mom came up to me at the bus stop this afternoon. She started off by saying that she thought she would tell the kids that they could run around (all over someone else's property) but no hands. Then went on to say that she has spoken to many educators who say that it is best to have your kids run around before school to burn off some energy (I am sure they added a good idea to let them run around on a neighbors' yard). I told her that I would not tolerate the kids getting physical with each other and I would continue to tell them to stop when it happened. She then suggested I contact the parents of those kids. Honestly I know the parents for one of the kids and they are not present in this child's life at all.

Then the subject of kids running all over the grass and she responded with I think grass is just grass, basically who cares. I let my kids run all over my grass, but it is my grass they are trampling on a daily basis. I think it is disrespectful to let your children run all over someone property but that is my view. My kids stand on the sidewalk and wait for the bus to come and I am there watching them the entire time.

Clueless Mom and I will never see eye to eye as we parent differently. And the couple of time I have seen her son he has been the biggest brat ever. Not so surprising to me. I have heard she tries very hard to be friends with her kids vs. parent them.

The irony

I have talked a lot about my noncommittal neighbor (NN) I know. It provides me an opportunity to laugh on most days. As an FYI, this is the same neighbor who normally asks me to get her daughter off the bus. She has gotten a full time job which starts on Monday and has made other arrangements for her daughters. I won't elaborate.....but it will come up again if it doesn't work out for her.

Back to my story. I checked my email on Tuesday morning and saw an email from NN. It was an invitation to a jewelry party. I only glanced at it briefly. Later on in the day when I looked a bit closer I noticed that the party is scheduled for Sunday, yes this Sunday...coming up. And here is the kicker, she asked that you RSVP by Friday. So within a matter of 5 days she wants me to commit to going to her party and she wants me to respond with an answer. NOT! I may let her know on Saturday if I will make it or not.

Is he trying to tell me something?

Tee has shown a lot of interest in going to the potty recently. About 4 months back we started sitting him on the potty before his bath and eventually figured out what you do in the potty. Now he pees before he goes in the bath every night. This past Friday, he wanted to wear his Thomas underwear so I let him wear them for a while. He then had an accident and I put him back in his diaper. I know that I want to potty train him but I am not sure that I am ready right this minute. I truly believe that I have to be 100% committed for this to work.

On Sunday, Tee kept wanting to sit on his potty which meant I had to take his diaper off and then put it back on. After a few times, I decided to put him in underwear. He did really well with only 2 small accidents(he told us about both). I started him off in his underwear today and he hasn't told me when he needs to potty as I have been sitting him on the potty at certain intervals. He did have 2 accidents at lunch but told me right after he had them.

I feel like he is ready and he knows when he goes pee and now he needs to connect the urge to go pee with him sitting on the potty. I think back to my twins who had a hard time figuring this out.

I don't know what to do. If he is ready then I feel like I need to step up to the plate and take it on. Is he just having fun with it right now and eventually lose interest? The thought of not having to buy another box of diapers is so exciting.

When he wakes up from nap I will once again put him in diapers and try to get my strategy ready for tomorrow. The problem is I am not ready to stay home and focus on this just yet. Our morning are fairly busy especially at the beginning of the week. I may be able to focus better towards the end of the week.

A dreary weekend

It was a really dreary weekend here for the most part. Not nice enough to play outside that is for sure. It drizzled for a lot of the day yesterday. We did the normal weekend activities....like run errands.

My husband is encouraging my quest to save us money on groceries. I feel like it is important to have an organized pantry so at a quick glance you know what you have. Our pantry is very small. It is rather deep and I have about 6 shelves. I also have to use our lazy daisy for some of my groceries. This weekend my husband installed a wire unit that sits on the side wall and has about 8 small shelves with different heights. I have moved some of the food onto the wire unit and it has left me more room on the shelves. I also bought this stand that sits inside the pantry door to hold chips. It looks very organized!

We made our stop to BJ's this past weekend. I was able to stock up on cereal and some other items. Cereal is a staple in this household. I think that BJ's and Costco will be comparable, however BJ's accepts coupons. And BJ's will accept their store coupon and a manufacturer coupon for the same item. I think in the long run this will save more money. Although, Costco does at times send out good coupons. I will more than likely shop where I have coupons for in the future.

We made it to church this weekend. I still struggle every time I go there. It is so close and convenient that I am afraid we will settle. Settling in my opinion means that we won't feel like we want to or have to go every weekend. I have a few concerns, some important and others not soo important. The very first part of the ceremony involves standing up and greeting people in the church. I didn't like this in the Catholic church but at least that was more share a handshake with someone standing near you. People are all over greeting everyone. It makes me uncomfortable plus I really don't' want to shake so many people's hands. I struggle with the curriculum for the kid's Sunday school. I am not positive they follow a curriculum. Yesterday the boys said they watched a little bit of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate factory. We are still puzzled on how that can relate to the Bible. Tee will be in the nursery until he is 3 because there are not enough small ones to start Sunday school. They do have a lot of children's activities and they do a lot in the community. There is another Methodist church a little further away that I want to try. But we may have try other denominations.

We were very happy to see my niece again who was up here for a alumni function at her college. Tee immediately was very connected to her. She must go home today and now we are all sad once again.

A little artwork

My boys love crafts!. They like to paint, color, work with beads and really create anything. Neither one has ever been much into drawing. Their great grandma on their dad's side was an artist. We are lucky to have a few of her painting hanging in our house. I met her once but unfortunately don't know too much about her. I am thinking since none of her grandchildren inherited her talent that maybe one of her grandchildren will. I don't think it will hit this family but you never know.

In art class, the boys are bringing home some really nice pieces.

Jay drew the picture above. It is a picture of him and one of his friends from NC (one of the triplets that we were neighbors with) catching fire flies. I think he did a really good job.

Yesterday I got this letter in Ee's backpack:

I am so excited to see what his artwork looks like. I can't believe I have to wait until March 27th to go to the exhibit. EE was so excited about this. I am not sure how the artwork is chosen. I guess we will find out more on the 27th.

Every once in a while I get some special work dedicated to just me. EE brought this home for me one day from school. So sweet! He often makes me pictures and says that he loves me on them. Jay will also make me pictures but they typically don't have the "love you" statement on them.

It sure does make a Mom feel good to have her little guys love her so much!

Lowering the grocery bill

A few weeks ago Dr. Phil had on a guest that really got me thinking. It was the cheapest family in the world. Ok, yes I do like the show and just started watching it again. I think he really is able to help a lot of people on and off the tv. Anyway, it was a family of 7 who live well within their means(you don't hear that everyday). You can read about them here.

Some of the ways this family cuts spending are things that I would not do. They primarily shop at thrift stores for their outfits. I have nothing against it but I would not be inclined to do so for my family. I feel like I get good enough deals on our kids clothing as it is. I typically buy clothes on sale and usually have a % off or coupon from having the store credit card. Yes, I know I said credit but my balances are paid off every month. As for my clothes, I will stick with my normal routine, sale items at the mall or some other stores who run sales often.

I normally spend over $1,000 a month on my grocery bill. We are a family of 5 and normally eat out 2 times a week. My husband takes his lunch to work about 3 times a week. I feel like I spend so much money at the grocery store and feel like there has got to be a way to cut it even if just a little.

I do use coupons when I have them. My grocery store will double my coupons and once a quarter they will triple up to 20 of them. My grocery store also runs some fairly good weekly specials. I visited this website recently for tips and links for good coupons printable on-line. She was also on the same Dr. Phil show.

As much as I don't want to admit it, I went into Wal-Mart the other day to check the price on some of their grocery items. I have to say from what I saw they do have some fairly inexpensive prices on some items I use. My next step is to continue the comparison at Costco and BJ's. I have memberships to both, but I do have to say I only paid $15 for my membership to BJ's through my mothers of multiples club. That to me is an awesome deal as they have items I can't find at Costco. I will then add on to that and check my grocery store as well as Target. Can you tell that I am an accountant at heart? I love me a spreadsheet.

I am busy and can't spend my entire day driving around looking for deals. My plan is to determine where the best prices are for the items I use often (these include cereal, snack items, chips etc) and shop at that store once a month to stock up. I will still need to grocery shop once a week for perishable items such as fruit, lunch meat, milk etc. My grocery store runs promotions about 3 or 4 times a year. If you shop there for say 14 weeks out of 16 and spend at least $40 you will get whatever they are offering. I am now working towards a $50 gas gift card.

I think the most important part of this will be to plan. Meals have to be planned in advance to ensure all of the ingredients are on hand. I feel at times I make several trips to the grocery store because I forgot one ingredient for a meal. I do love to plan but not so good at planning meals to far in advance. My husband comes home from work and he says that his team will have to do more with less people. I am going to try that here, get more food with less money.

Once I get my comparison completed I will share my results with you. I am hoping to be able to cut my bill down by at least $200 a month. Happy clipping and saving.

The weekend teaser

It was a gorgeous weekend here. The boys got LOTS of outdoor play which was much needed after all of the cold days we have experienced lately. The boys were able to ride bikes, scooters, draw with chalk, play a little baseball and basketball all while breathing in some fresh air. On Monday, the weather started getting a bit chillier and today we are back to our winter garb.

It was for the most part a quiet weekend. The husband spent a LARGE part of the weekend getting his reviews completed (I am sure he will argue this point with me). He did join us outside from time to time. He had to complete 5 reviews and still has one left to finish. He has been very busy at work with all of the other "stuff" they want him to do that this has not taken priority.

On Saturday morning about 5:30 am the husband and I hear voices. My first thought was that he forgot to shut off his alarm. Then I realized he wasn't making an effort to turn the alarm off and at about that time he got up out of bed. Our bedroom is on the front side of our house. There were 2 guys arguing right in front of our house. One was sitting down the other was standing and f bombs were coming out of their mouths left and right. Did I mention it was 5:30. in. the. morning? I asked my husband to call the police and report it. For all we knew they were going to start fighting any minute. It took the police about 10 minutes to arrive and the guys were still outside arguing. They had walked down the street a little but we could still hear them. The police talked with them for about 5 plus minutes and then they walked off. I could not see where they walked to but it was a house in this neighborhood. Not the best way to start a morning.

The highlight of the weekend was I sold some stuff on Craigslist. I put about 8 or so items out there to sell. I sold a TV, which my husband was not happy about because I didn't charge enough money. But it is now out of our house. I also sold all of the boys' old Leapster games and one of the recharging systems. I had more emails from people wanting the games than I have for anything else. I think I have 2 more potential items selling but probably not until the weekend.

The silliest thing I heard this weekend was a comparison of me homeschooling to my husband coaching the boys' baseball team. He feels like he can't coach their team because neither boy will listen to him in terms of "how to" in baseball. My husband will help out when needed and is always there for games. When the subject came up he asked me why I didn't home school. That can't be a legitimate comparison. I still help them with their homework when they get home and I also volunteer in their classroom.

Looking forward to the weekend

No, we have nothing special going on this weekend as of yet anyway. But I am looking forward to the 70 degree weather that has been forecasted. Seems pretty silly to some that of all things that is what I am looking forward to. It has been so cold here lately. We tend to get ferocious winds, at least on our street. The winds seems to stay around for two plus days and make it that much colder. So the fact that we are getting warmer weather even if for just a few days is going to be the highlight of the weekend.

The boys will have to put down their Nintendo DS systems and play outside. They really need the fresh air also.
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I took Tee to his My Gym class today. He almost got trampled over by the instructor. The instructor was giving a ride to some kids on a sleigh. The instructor was running backwards pulling the sleigh. Tee ended up running right behind him and CRASH. I saw it happening and was right there but couldn't stop it in time. I did put my hands on the instructor so he would step on Tee. Tee fell (fairly hard) straight back on the ground. Poor little guy.
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Preschool update: Tee got into a church preschool that I registered him for. It will be 2 days a week for 2 1/2 hours. I have heard many good things about that preschool. I have looked into 2 other preschools but they are much too expensive for me. I think I am paying a lot for the one he has been accepted to. My hope is that by the time he is ready to go into 3 year old preschool that the church we have been attending will have their program up and running again.

Update re: noncommittal

I can't believe I forgot to let you know how the noncommittal situation ended up from the birthday party invite. On Friday, I still had not heard from her so my assumption was that they would not come. I was fine with that. I wanted this to be rather small and casual so I didn't want too many people here. I was very close to inviting another family we have met from basketball. They have a 5 year old and a 2 year old. The 2 year old loved to play with Tee while we watched the games. I ended up deciding not too, again I just wanted a casual night.

On Saturday morning as I was preparing for the night, I get a call. You guessed it, noncommittal lady. She proceeded to make a few excuses as to why she didn't call until that morning. She said her husband and kids would like to join us for the party. He came about 45 minutes late and had someone else make up his kids' dinner plates.

I can't tell you how annoyed this makes me. I guess you can probably sense it since I am writing about it. I can tell you that they will not always make my list.....at least not in the near future.

A few snow pictues from today

We had about 5 inches of snow today. The morning winds were very strong. It was so strong that we could not play outside. It was much better this afternoon but still really cold. The boys loved playing in the snow.


EE and Jay working hard on a snowman. I am a Florida girl I don't know how to make a snowman. Also, the snow was not compacting that well. The end product will follow.


A snow angel....and he was anything but today.

This is their very small snowman.

EE and Tee playing in the snow.

Tee had a blast.

Weekend

It was a busy weekend for us. The boys played in their last basketball game of the season. It was a good game. Jay made several shots and EE attempted many shots but they kept bouncing out. EE is a great blocker. They had a great time playing basketball. Such a fun sport.

Here the boys are goofing around on the court.

We had a few families over for dinner on Saturday to help us celebrate Tee's birthday. He had such a great time. He has a friend in the neighborhood that he plays with on a weekly basis. It is fun to see the two of them play.

Here is the cake we got from a place up in Catonsville. Their cakes are the best I have tasted in a very long time. I ordered last minute so all they could do was do an Elmo face.

Tee loved having us sing Happy Birthday to him. He would dance as we sang. Very cute. He tried to blow out his candle but in the end I had to help a little.

Opening a gift and cards on his real birthday. He loves his little lamb.

I asked that there be no gifts. Honestly the boy doesn't need anything. But none my friends listened. So we took some time to open his gifts.

Tee got these really large coloring pages for his birthday. On Sunday we caught Jay pulling over a chair for Tee and getting the page up on his easel. They both colored. Very sweet!

Our weekend ended with us going to a wake. Someone that worked for my husband passed away last week. She beat breast cancer and then they found tumors on her brain. It is very sad as she was so young. Her Mom was thankful that she went peacefully.

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We have snow today and lots of it. I measured earlier and it was about 5 inches. We will be heading out shortly and I will post pictures later on.