Slowly, Slowly

When your contractor tells you that a certain job will begin on a certain day make sure you add 2 to 3 days on to the job start date. Maybe I should create a translation guide for contractor talk.

I am really trying to be cool in this process. Being that we did a bathroom remodel in our old house a few years ago I know the process. It makes sense. The tile guy has to finish his current job before he moves onto a new job. Sometimes things don't go as smoothly which causes an extra day added on which means you are one day behind. And everything has to be done in order. You can't start tile until the plumbing is all complete in the shower. If you are going to have the plumber in make sure he can take care of all your plumbing needs at one time. Can't help it if the plumber needs longer than 1 day to take care of everything. There was a lot to be done in the bathroom.

We are looking forward to having our very own bathroom. One in which we just have to walk a few feet from our bed to be in. We are excited about how nice the bathroom will look once everything is complete. And the room we will have. We are adding on a cabinet so that we can store towels, toilet paper and such.

When I look at my house I see project after project that I would like to have completed. I like my house but there are so many things I would have done differently if I built this home. I look forward to the time where I can sit and enjoy my surroundings.

Old friends

I grew up in Florida. Our next door neighbors for the longest time was a family of 6, which included twin girls who were 1 year older than me. We were good friends. The friendship would toggle from one of the twins to the other when we were younger. They moved away in 1985 during our high school years.

They moved to New Jersey where they completed high school. They then both attended a college in Pa. where they lived together. They have a love hate relationship. A little funny to watch.

Over the years we have kept in touch. We were in each other's weddings. I was up in Pa on business once and I stopped by to see them. The last time I saw them was 3 years ago at Thanksgiving. They stopped by on their way to Tenn. for a family reunion. We have one of those relationships where we can pick up the pieces at that point in time.

They are each married and live around the block from each other. One has 2 boys and the other has 3 boys. The cousins get to play together a lot. Of course, they are all very busy with sports.

Being in Maryland means that we are very close to them. We finally arranged a day where we could drive up to visit. Saturday was the day (we have been planning since February and had to change the date once). It is a very easy 2 hour drive. I can't tell you how great it was seeing them. I really miss their friendship. They are part of such a great family.


Here we are....all grown up.

Here are all the kids, from 11 years old to my little 2 year old. They had a blast.

We have extended the invite for them to visit us any time. We also hope to meet up with them sometime in August for a trip to Hershey park.

Progress......at last

It seems hard to believe that after about 2 months of not being able to use the master bath that it is now being reconstructed. Our contractor has been out the last 2 days working. They have enlarged the shower area, worked on all of the plumbing and have done clean up of the bathroom area. Next week our tile should be installed along with our cabinets. The only items that will cause delays are the counter tops (because the cabinets must be in so a template can be made) and the glass frame for the shower (because that will have to be measured once the shower in in tact). It will be so nice to be back in our bathroom once again.

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Tee and I stopped by the boys' school for field day. It was really hot and Tee was very tired so we did not stay the entire time. We watched a few events and then left. I had to stop by the store (Kohls) quickly to buy a gift. I had Tee in one of the strollers. As I was strolling down the isle, Tee spots the bras and immediately starts saying "mommy boobies" over and over and over again. I got a few looks at which point I just had to laugh.

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I don't use my GPS system often (when we moved here I used it a lot), but still need it on occasion. Last week I was driving on a back road and missed a turn. Yes, even with my system telling me where to go, I missed the turn. I then turned into the parking lot beyond my turn so that I could get back on the road. As I am driving in the parking lot, the lady on the system says, "there is a better route". So I turned her off.

Sports

The last few days have been filled with sports. Sunday I finally made it to a Lacrosse practice. The practice is at 3:00 and in the middle of Tee's nap. The boys seem to have fun at Lacrosse but they both say they are not interested in playing the sport on a team. I feel it is our job to push them to "try out" the different sports but not push them if it is not something they enjoy. Although they seem to have fun at practice.

Sunday was a chilly day. I keep thinking that we are done with the heat but the mornings have been so chilly that I have had to run it upstairs. We are almost in June, certainly I won't need my heater any more.

Here are a few pictures of the boys from Sunday.

EE all geared up and ready to practice.

Jay geared up. He has to be cold.

Tee soaking all in while watching the practice.

After Lacrosse we headed to a Tennis celebration. The organization just started their tennis league which the boys will start in July. The celebration was to get everyone excited about the program.

Monday and Tuesday (a make-up game) we had baseball games. The team has really struggled this year. We don't want EE and Jay to lose their desire to play because they enjoy the sport and are really good. The other teams seem to have a lot of older kids who are all very good. We are going to enroll the boys for the fall league but are unsure at this point which one we are going to put them in.

EE at bat. It is very cute because he does a little dance when he is up at bat. He has continued to hit the ball every time he is at bat.

Jay at bat.

On Tuesday, I volunteered for the school golf fundraiser. It was a long day but in the end it brings in money so that the PTA can fund certain school functions/programs.

Friday is field day at the school. Tee and I will be there cheering the boys on. It will be a fun day for them and I am hoping that Tee can survive through it all. Meaning that he will sit with me and watch vs. trying to do whatever his brothers are doing.

My jaw dropped to the ground

I would love to blow up a big bubble for all three of my kids. Well, I guess they could each have their own bubble. Have you seen the commercial with the lady at the park and she has her baby in a bubble because she doesn't want him to get dirty? Something like that. Wouldn't it be great. They would be protected from all outside influences. As much as I would love to protect them with all my might I know we must be real. So our approach is to be as open as we can (varying by age) and help them understand the ugly realities of life and the "uncomfortable" facts of life subjects.


I think being open is a necessity. I have one child (Jay) who tends to believe what ever his friends say and is so easily influenced by them. We will need to be the ones who broaches these subjects with him first. Ee tends to be a little more oblivious to what people say and do.


The boys and I have had several conversations about bad words, what they mean and why we don't use them. They know a** and b**ch. I don't think I was prepared for what happened on Saturday morning. We woke up early and got up and out of the house early. We had to drop my car off for service then it was off to baseball pictures before their game. We were sitting at Chickfila eating breakfast. Since Dad had been gone I was filling him in on some of the conversations the kids and I have had. The subject of bad words came up. Jay piped up and said I know that F**k (he spelled the work instead of saying it) is a bad word. I was trying not to show the "oh my God you did not just say that" look but know I failed miserably. The husband and I looked at each other and then we started asking questions. Apparently, it is written on the back of a seat on the bus. The girl he was sitting with one day told him it was a bad word. We had a very firm discussion that the word should never be used and that he is not to repeat to anyone else. He seemed to understand.

The boys and I have had several conversations about when to call the police and the fire department. They couldn't understand why you would call the same number for both police and fire. I had to give them a few scenarios on when it would be important for them to call. We also talked about guns and if they ever came in contact with one they were to never touch it and to leave the area immediately. I think they understand that a gun can go off even accidentally.

I think tomorrow I will start looking into all boys private schools....or better yet maybe boarding school.

We made it!

Well, we survived the week without the husband home. He was in London which is 5 hours ahead of where we are. He sent emails to the boys a few days which they really enjoyed. The boys returned emails to him as well. It took them a long time to write just one sentence so most emails only consisted of one sentence. But I am sure my husband appreciated the effort. He is scheduled to come in around 7:30 tonight and we will pick him up.

We have a busy schedule this weekend with baseball games, Lacrosse and a tennis day. I signed the boys up for a tennis league that will start in July an end in August. This is just another sport I would like them to test out. My husband played tennis as a child and I believe was very good. He played on an adult league a few years ago but has not found something around here. Our weekends are so busy.

I have had a few interesting conversations with the kids this past week but I just haven't had the time to sit down and recount them. They are full of questions lately.

My focus is blurred

I have really been having a time staying focused on everything that needs to be done. I am a very organized person and feel like there is so much disorganization around me right now. I work best when I have a nice clean space around me. The biggest problem is my office (it is a disaster). It seems as though when I clean up the house, the office is a default room because I can close the door to hide all of the papers and such that can be dealt with later. Then we have the issue of our bathroom. All of our bathroom stuff is sitting along the wall in our bedroom. Construction will hopefully begin next week and I am thinking at least 4 weeks to have everything completed.

On top of all that I have a crib sitting in my living room. I really want to be able to donate the crib. The shelters around here won't accept the crib due to the issues of the slat needing to be the correct width. I guess they don't want the liability if something were to happen. I did find one pregnancy shelter who would LOVE the donation, but it is an hour drive away. If we have a free weekend we could take it and then head to the outlet stores, but baseball, lacrosse and household chores seems to take up a lot of weekend time. See what I mean about disorganization? There is just so much stuff everywhere and it really is driving me nuts.

I seem to have lost steam in the homework department. For the last few weeks it has been a chore for me to help the boys' with their homework. I have slacked in reading time with them also. I would much rather be outside enjoying the weather than sitting inside. Plus we have 2 days a week where we have to rush through homework to get ready for baseball. I think school work is important but we are down to our last 24 days of school (yes I am counting).

A few weeks ago we had the need to find our signed mortgage papers. We refinanced our loan recently. I looked everywhere and could not find the paperwork. This really bothers me. My husband remembers us receiving them in the mail and I don't. I have a really good memory and can't figure out why I have no recollection of this.

I am still working on some administrative tasks for the school. But they will linger until school end. I will once again be collecting for teacher gifts. The teacher gifts will be given on June 15th so luckily I will have time to get it all done. I am not complaining. I put all of this on myself. I am glad I am able to do this for our wonderful teachers who do so much for the kids.

I have so many items on my to do list that seems to be getting longer and longer each day. I am really looking forward to our vacation after school lets out. It will be a glorious week at one of our favorite beach spots. I hope after a week of fun in the sun maybe I can get focused and organized and then possibly start crossing some projects off my list.

Dentistry

The dentistry field has certain advanced from my times (oh, why do I always age myself like that). My memories of the dentist are unfortunately not good ones. Like the time I had to go in and get 7 cavities filled. Too many for one day so I had to go in 2 times. My Mom said it was because I ate too much candy, but gosh did my teeth ever get brushed. I guess I was the last of 5 kids..... I have had more work done in my mouth and I can honestly say it is the one thing I dislike the most.

I have been taking the boys to the dentist every 6 months since they were 18 months old. I am determined to instill good oral hygiene. They must brush 2 times a day (one of those times we assist) and floss once a day. Unfortunately, Orthodontics is my future with all 3 kids.


The boys had a cleaning on Monday.

I need to take Jay for a consult with the Orthodontist. His upper teeth are shaped more like a V instead of a U and they are inside (instead of outside) the lower jaw. The dentist said a lot of work can be done now in preparation for braces in the future. He was talking about an expander for the upper teeth to get it shaped more into a U. And a possibility of other contraptions in his mouth. Then when he gets all his adult teeth they will be ready to move.

EE may have to have a tooth extracted in the next month or so. An x-ray showed that a permanent tooth is on the way up and the baby tooth is not that loose yet. If the baby tooth doesn't fall out (or get pulled) it may lead to the permanent tooth coming in somewhere other than the designated spot. Believe it or not this happened to my husband. I guess the technology was not as great as it is now so his tooth had to be pulled into place.

Tee was such a big boy. He sat in a chair by himself and let the hygienist clean his teeth. She was really great with him. He really enjoyed getting the water sprayed into his mouth. He was so happy to be able to pick out his 2 prizes from the drawer and walk out with his bag just like his brothers.

Mother's Day

Mother's day was a very nice day. I was inundated with gifts and cards in the morning. The boys made some precious gifts at school. I wanted to take pictures but haven't gotten that far yet. I also got some nice gift cards for a little shopping, a sweater and some chocolate. This was followed to a trip to my favorite breakfast place here (breakfast is my favorite meal). Then back to the real world of laundry and housework. It was nice while it lasted.

A little control!

I have been really busy the last few weeks. I have volunteered for several things that are all happening (or happened) this month. I am helping with the school golf tournament and I need to get letters out to the parents in both classrooms to collect money for an end of the year gift for the teachers. And I am still trying to keep everything in our house running smoothly. Therefore, I have not had much time to post lately.

But I do have a story for you about my darling husband. He is the best guy ever and would truly do anything for me.

I consider my job as running this household and everything that is associated with it. I am the accountant (take care of the finances), the tutor (make sure homework is completed), the chauffeur, the house cleaner, the garbage collector, the cook (and the bus boy) etc. I draw the line at mowing the grass. I am sure you get the idea and probably not much different from what a lot of other people do. I feel very fortunate that I am able to stay home (even if the kids drive me crazy sometimes). Ok...and I have to admit that I do have issues with the need to control most things in this house.

My husband sometimes works late at night and he is usually never home before 6:30, which is normally after we have dinner. His role at night is mainly to help Ee and Jay brush their teeth before bed, although sometimes he will get everyone ready for bed.

My husband has to go out of town on business for a week. He called me the other day and said that he has arranged for my niece to come into town on a Tuesday and stay through the weekend. Then on Saturday he was going to arrange for us to be out for the night. You would think my response would have been one of gratefulness. Oh, someone to help out while you are away. But it went very much the other way.

I am really going to be ok while my husband is out of town. The only tricky day would be on the Monday because the boys have a baseball game that may not end until 8pm. My niece would not be in town until the next day so no big help there. With my husband away I can slack on the meal making. The boys would love cereal for dinner every night (I won't let that happen every night but maybe a few). If my niece was here, I would feel compelled to have a meal every night. Lastly, have you read that the master bathroom is gutted and we are using the bathroom in the basement. I would have to share the bathroom with my niece while she was here. It honestly is just not a good time for us to have a visitor. In a few weeks(when the bathroom is completed), it will be a different story. So she now has a ticket that she is holding onto for a visit up here.

I hope next time the plan goes a little better for my husband. He was trying to do a nice thing, but it didn't work out that way this time. Maybe he could have asked if I needed help while he was away and then taken it from there. No I really don't have control issues.

The drama

Why is it that when a group of ladies comes together in some sort of fashion that drama is sure to appear. I have been a part of a few groups, a multiples club and the school PTA. I like to be involved in things that are important to me. From experience I know that it is difficult to get people to volunteer their time. I feel like if I am benefiting from something that I should give back in some way.

I have been part of the PTA at the school. I co-chaired the special events committee. I am glad it is coming to an end very soon. We have one more event to host in June. I was very lucky to have a very creative person with me on the committee. Her thing is to put events together. I am much better at administrative tasks or being a runner. So you can guess that I will not be a part of this committee next school year.

It is that time again where the PTA is looking for an entire new crew of fresh faces. Most of the people have served their max term of 2 years. One of the VP's sent out a note to all families (well, those who are signed up for the e-group) pleading for people to step up and take a part in the PTA. In this email she wrote and I quote "The PTA is often criticized for being "clique-ish" but that's only because the same small group seems to volunteer for most of the work.".

As you can imagine this statement has caused a lot of whispering among people and one person decided she would send out a email with her views to everyone. As you can imagine she is one of the people that thinks the PTA is "clique-ish" and wanted everyone to know it.

I don't get it. My thought has always been if you do not like the way something is being run then get in there and do something about it otherwise keep your trap shut. I will be a part of the PTA next year but am unsure in what capacity. I have another 9 years at this school so I need to pace myself a bit. I have a feeling that the drama will continue to be present.

Baseball

Well, the boys' team is getting a little better. They have finally been able to practice. At the last practice, they had a pitching machine. All of the kids need help with their hitting.


Jay is on first base. He has had some really good hits and plays this season so far. He has had a couple of doubles!

Ee on first base. He is batting 1000 (which means he has hit the ball every time he has been up to bat). He is very proud. We were a little nervous at this last game when he didn't get a hit until the very last pitch came his way.

I had to include a picture of Tee. Here he is eating a donut. He says yummy donut!

Young Author's Tea

The first grade hosted a young author's tea. The kids wrote a story based on a trip that they went on. The parents were asked to help complete a questionnaire of the trip so that the kids could remember some of the details.

I volunteered to help type some of the stories for both classes. Some stories were very detailed and some not. Jay did a good job at remembering our trip and let's just say Ee is a boy of few words. Both stories were very nice!

I also had to help coordinate both tea's. Luckily, one was on Thursday and the other was on Friday. It would not have been good for them to be on the same day.

The children were split into groups of 4 to 6 children and the parents sat around them. They read their stories and shared their pictures with everyone. I have to say it was difficult to hear with so many people around but nonetheless a very nice tea.

EE is reading his story.

Jay reading his story.

Ee's dedication was to me....Of course.

Jay dedicated his book to Grandma.

The books were so nice. They were bound. The paragraphs (really just a sentance or two) were glued to each page so that the children could draw a picture. It was so nice (I think I said that already) and the kids worked so hard on these book.

We took video but I am not sure that you can hear anything. I will post if I can download and it turns out ok.

What a week

Whew....this past week was really busy and I am so glad that it is over and we all survived. We have been doing so much around the house and still trying to keep up with our other activities.

The Garden
We decided to have a garden this year. The boys are excited about us growing some vegetables and I allowed them each to pick out one package of seeds. We have a nice spot for our garden but we had a few obstacles in the way.

These plants had to be dug up. That was a fairly hard task. I did a few of them on my own, however, I needed the man strength to get a few of these out. My neighbor took a few and we (meaning the husband) replanted some elsewhere in the yard so we only ended up getting rid of 2. You know how I like to be as green as I can be.


Since our garden was not ready for any planting, we planted the seeds in a starter kit. Within a week we had growth out of all of the seeds. We have corn, carrots, cucumber, green beans and squash planted in the garden.


My husband worked very hard and very fast on getting the box built around the garden. I was able to dump my soil and transfer the plants on Friday evening. I think we waited too long to do the transfer as it was very difficult to remove from the starter kit. I hope in a few weeks I will have some more growth in the box and after all this hard work (and money) I hope we yield something!

We had 7 yards of mulch delivered on Friday to freshen up our beds. We feel that this must be done once a year. I don't have a picture of what 7 yards of mulch looks like but believe me when I tell you it is a bunch. We spent a good part of the day yesterday moving mulch and we still have about 3 yards to go. Ah, you ask me why am I not out there spreading instead of typing. We all would be but it has been raining here all day. There has not been one let up and I draw the line at working outside in the rain. Instead I have finally been able to work on cleaning the inside of the house....which really needed to be done.

The Bathroom
The remediation company was in this past week and gutted our entire bathroom. The only items that remain are the tub and the toilet. I am not sure I mentioned this but there was bad mold found in our bathroom (I can barely say the kind much less spell it). And there was also some mold in places that the Environmental company could not see. I think we made the right decision in going ahead and gutting now.

We are in the process of finalizing our cabinets and counter tops for the bathroom. We should have the estimate tomorrow and the order will be place on Wednesday and it will be a 3 to 5 week turn around. The husband worked with another cabinet place but they had a 6 to 8 week turnaround. We do not want to wait that long. The person helping us was not that nice when I spoke with her on the phone. I actually thought she was a little rude in her tone. We went to a different place and are happy with what they have to offer.

I picked out the floor and shower tiles on my own. I was able to bring one tile home as a sample. I am not sure my husband loves it, but I think it is going to look very nice in the bathroom.

The only things left to get are the plumbing items, lights and mirrors. At this point we don't know when the contractor will start but hopefully in the next week or so.

In addition to dealing with all of the above we have had 2 first grade teas to attend along with baseball games and Lacrosse. Not much time to sit and relax lately and we still have other projects waiting for us. I will write about the teas in a different post.