SCHOOL STARTS MONDAY!!! Woot!~

So Bradley and I seem to be on the mend.. He went and looked like a stud for his 3 days of pre-season soccer Oh how I hope he makes the team he wants.. normally I really could care less BUT last year was such a struggle for him that he will be CRUSHED if he doesn't make it on the "A" team...

Hunter's football camp is over YEA! and his normal two day a week practice starts next week, I can't explain to you how GREAT this is.. I mean Hunter has had a GREAT experience so far but EVERY DAY, was getting OLD!!!

So I FINALLY don't feel like I have an elephant sitting on my chest.. I still can't be far away from cough drops or else I get a tickle in my throat that turns into a coughing fit but last night was the first night in weeks I didn't OD on NyQuil before bed so I think progress is being made for sure..

So last week I was really looking forward to a day long training session to, well, tell me about my job and how I can best serve my student etc. etc. BUT it ended up being a day long sexual harassment, how to avoid bodily fluid's and some other nonsense.. I guess I know these things are important and probably even legally mandated that we have them BUT A WHOLE DAY!!!??? speaking to some veteran aids they usually do a "useful" workshop but I guess this year our number was up.. so Yesterday I had my day with the teacher I'm working with.. it was OK, she doesn't know exactly what to do with me yet and we both don't know exactly how to help this student BUT I have some good ideas some REAL fears (he's not potty trained!) but all in all I'm excited wrapped with a healthy dose of "what the heck have I gotten myself into!?"

so we ALL start school on Monday, I can't wait!!!
ta ta

Halloween

Where the heck did October go??? I'm a horrible sister and daughter Happy birthday Steph and Mom when I call on Sunday I'll be apologizing over and over for not calling on your birthday and oh yea happy anniversary to you and Dad too HECK I'm just not doing well.. I have a million excuses but none that should keep me from remembering these things!

Ok On to Halloween this week for family night we carved the pumpkins.. this proved to have a slight slow start because I had put the pumpkins on the front porch after I got them (you know to look festive) and well they kind of froze a little bit not enough to make them yucky when they thawed only enough to when we brought them in and warmed them up they had ALLOT of condensation on them which made the first step of tracing the stencil kind of difficult especially with the market that was provided.. to top this off the boys convinced us they were old enough to be in charge of one of the pumpkins and with Ben's urging i caved and said ok.. so they chose their design from the stencils and off they went..

so here's the before pic of both pumpkins after the tracing (ok I get you can't really see anything but go with me here!)

So after that first step off they all went cutting and sawing following the lines looking back at the stencil to see if there was something they missed.. somehow I don't have any pictures of Ben cutting away but let me tell you he did and he was into it.. the boys they were also into it and I'll have to admit there were a few times I just couldn't watch i just kept reminding them to keep their fingers away from their line of cutting

I'm happy to report no human was harmed in the cutting of the pumpkins.. only KayLea's ego because there was NO WAY she was getting a hold of anything that could cut a pumpkin and she was none to happy about that but she perked up when she was told she could set in the candles.. yippee!

So the finished products they were quite cute if I do say so my self.. the one on the right is the one the boys did the left is what Ben did under KayLea's direction

Anyway we had a fun Halloween Day ... I am room mom for both Hunter and KayLea's rooms (something I'm putting in the remember bin to NOT do both again) thankfully there are a whole troop of Mom's that understood my dilemma of not being able to be in 2 places at once and pitched in.. and luckily at least for this party KayLea's was before the Halloween parade and Hunter's was After so except for some set up in Hunter's room and clean up in KayLea's room I think I fared pretty well and we'll cross our finger for the winter party (ie: Christmas who are we kidding!) they keep the same schedule (I'm afraid no chance there!) and frankly Hunter's class really only wants the treats the crafts and games they are way too old and cool for so why am I complaining??
these first ones are of KayLea's party

Here's the parade

Hunter's Party

KayLea was a Princess Elephant, the story behind that was a conversation we had about a month ago.. but first you should know KayLea has wanted to be this Elephant for as long as she could choose a Halloween costume because it was Bradley's Elephant costume he used when he was about her age (if i was a good blogger I would scrounge up the pic of Brad in the costume but I don't wanna sorry!) it's been in the dress up trunk well before she was born.. but it was always too huge for her so this year it FINALLY fit and she has been talking for a good 6-8 months that she can FINALLY be an elephant so there's the set up here's the conversation;;

KayLea: Mom, I think i want to be a Princess for Halloween

Me: ok that's fine we can do that

KayLea; but I REALLY want to be the Elephant

Me: Fine KayLea you can be either we just need to make a decision so I can get things going if you want to be a Princess..

KayLea: But it's hard to choose

Me: I know but you HAVE TO CHOOSE

KayLea: Why do I have to choose, Why Can't I be a Princess Elephant??

me: I don't know why, I guess there is no reason YES, YES you can be a Princess Elephant!!!

So she was a princess elephant and Hunter was Elvis..

I almost forgot (probably cuz I didn't take any pictures, go figure!) we did go trick or treating.. the next town over actually has a neighborhood and by that I mean 20 or so houses semi close together.. it still was probably about a 2 mile walk but we did I guess the good part the kids felt like they fufilled their need to trick or treat but they didn't come home with too much candy.. now we had no clue if we'd get trick or treaters at our house we live on a major road so we knew we wouldn't get foot traffic but everyone knows we live here we lit the jack o lanterns i got a bag of candy (at Sam's) and NEVER cracked it open so I guess it IS a good thing the kids didn't get much candy cuz we have a TON that i purchased myself I can't win!!!

Ta, TA

Last Day of Summer

So today was the last day of summer i honestly and truley wanted a day to just exhale.. it seems as though as GREAT as our summer has been we have been running all summer and have had little to no time to just breathe and take it all in.. i suppose going to the lake and stuff but honestly i was always thinking of what ever was the "next" thing i had to prepare for.. But we've had a GREAT summer my only complaint would be that our summer was kind of short BUT i feel good about school starting tomorrow and i'm sure i'll have pic's to share.. the boys have informed me they will be riding the Bus because having your Mom take you on the first day is just SO NOT COOL so i'm trying not to be crushed by this statement and just going with the flow of having older COOL kids.. KayLea has to be taken to school so she doesn't have a choice for me to take and dote and i'm going to do my best not to shed a tear in front of her (mostly because Ben will razz me horrably!)
i'll post pic's tommorow!
ta ta

We are SO DONE!!!

So we have our offical last day (baring any un-forseen floods or natural disasters that prevents all the kids in our school district from attending schooo) the kids last day is June 20th.. and they go back to school on August 26 yes your adding up correctly they get barly 2 months off.. i guess this is good in some ways.. but i'm feeling some real resentment over this.. and I"m usually the mom who says.. "yea less time for .. i'm board".. why do i care.. i think i care because it seems as though my kids are loosing their childhoods.. Summer is well essential in their rounded education.. maybe i'm just annoyed because i've worked on 2 projects and 2 book reports in the past few weeks that i'm READY for school to be done and 2 months just doesn't seem like enough..
I'm going to book mark this blog entry because my predection come August 15th i'm going to be more than ready to shove off my kids onto the bus, oh yea thats another thing KayLea starts Kindergarten and she's in the PM group and our district doesn't allow Kindergarderners to ride the bus even one way, so i'll be taking her (at least i don't have to get up early) in the afternoon and then picking up both her and Hunter afterschool... it kind of sucks for me because it would REALLY be helpful if she could ride with Hunter towards the end of the school year because it would be nice for her to get use to the bus system rules etc.. while she can ride with her brother.. Hunter will be in Middle school the year after and so KayLea will ride all alone.. which only means my insaine mind things i will probably take her at least through 1st grade..
we'll see..
thats it for now...
tata