My new preschooler.....

Isn't he just too cute? Will has been very excited to start preschool. When we went for his orientation he kept asking my why I was staying with him. He was ready to go by himself. When he woke up yesterday morning, he was asking how long he was going to have to be there by himself. Almost brought me to tears right then and there!

But, of course, being the "big boy" that he is, he did awesome! He was pretty talkative on the way to school, but as soon as we got there he got really quiet. He started to look really concerned while we were waiting to line up. I thought he might lose it when they finally got in line so I told Scott to give him "knuckles". That got a smirk from him so I knew he would be just fine. I didn't cry getting him ready, I didn't cry waiting for him to line up, I didn't even cry when he looked super nervous standing in line. As the whole line of little backpacks was walking away with the teacher, I started to cry. I held it together pretty well, no meltdown or anything. Just a few tears as I watched by baby turn into a little boy.

Relaxing Sunday, aggravating Monday

This past weekend was a mixed bag. Saturday Scott and I shot a wedding in Westbrook, MN. 3 hours total of driving, 7 hours of shooting. All in all, a long day!

Sunday we had a family fishing outing. We just went to Lake Alvin which is only about 10 minutes from home. I don't have a fishing license, but I don't think I would have had time to have my own pole in the water anyway! Instead of typing a lot of what happened, here are some pics. I will try to explain them as I go:

Haley caught the first fish of the day, in fact, her pole was the only one that was in the water yet! She was just a little freaked out by the "floppy thing". But, she got over it quickly and became quite proud:

Poor Will, still hasn't caught a fish, but really he just likes the pop and snack part of fishing anyway:


Hannah was soooo excited to finally catch a fish!

Shortly after her first catch, Hannah hooked a huge carp! The carp was not very excited about the prospect of being pulled to shore. Daddy had to grab the pole and fight for a bit. The carp won and took part of Hannah's line with him! If you look closely you can see the fish in the water and Haley's freaked out expression says it best!

Haley had the record for most fish caught (6) and she also took the record for smallest fish caught. Believe it or not, she caught one even smaller than this one!

Ummm....well it's Scott- no explanation needed......

Waiting for the fish to eat the last of the worms....

Today while at work Scott texted me. I believe the text was "uh- oh, can you call?" Nice, that doesn't worry me at all......So I call and ask "what's uh-oh?" Turns out my kitchen had flooded thanks to our dishwasher! Great, so here is where my dishwasher is siting right now....

Hopefully everything will dry up ok. Right now the cabinet is discolored along the floor. I am hoping once it dries it will go back to it's normal color. I guess dishpan hands are in my future......

First day of school

The girls went back to school today. Yes today, August 17. I know it seems like summer just started. Believe me, Haley would gladly have taken a few more weeks off, but alas, back to school it was. Haley was up at 5:20 am, she had Scott out of bed at 5:30 to make french toast and eggs. Hannah was up at 5:45 to join them. For maybe the 3rd time in her life, Haley asked me to help her with her hair- she even wanted it curled! So what do I do? I burn her forehead with the curling iron- great- she wanted to be girly and I had to go and ruin it!

Hannah had probably the best day she has ever had at school. I don't think she has ever told me that school was "so much fun!" She made 3 friends today- all in her class. She walked home all by herself after school and wants to walk to school by herself tomorrow morning! I think changing schools will be a wonderful thing!

Haley is too preteen to have had a good day at school- that just wouldn't be cool! She is still bummed about not getting the teacher she wanted, but I think that's just an excuse to be moody. She did fall asleep at the studio this afternoon- I wonder if she will be able to get up as early tomorrow????

Did you notice it's Monday night and I am at home? I quit my cleaning job! YAY!! I think Scott is even happier than I am about it. I applied for a part time job at Target and they emailed me to tell me I didn't get a position. Dumbheads! Oh well, I guess I will just keep looking and if I am meant to have another job, one will work out. For now, Scott is busy enough that it is better for me to be able to be home in the evenings anyway.

Well, I am going to sit in the tub and then watch Monday night tv - Weeds and Nurse Jackie - hopefully Scott gets home from the studio in time to hang out with me!

vacation= test in patience & stess management ( I think we passed!)

We just got home from a quick 2 day, 1 night trip to Minneapolis. I think this was probably the most stressful, patience trying trip we have ever taken (and we've been on vacation with sick kids before!)

We left Saturday morning around 7:00 am. I drove so that Scott could try to get a little nap in after his late night shooting a wedding on Friday. Since we were going straight to the Albertville outlets, I took highways instead of the interstate. There were a couple of weird detours, but nothing major. We were about 15 miles from Albertvile (on the interstate at this point) when we saw an interstate sign telling us that there was a crash ahead and to expect delays. Well, about 8 miles from our destination the traffic came to a halt- all 3 lanes. We crept very slowly ahead for about a mile and came up to an accident. Nope, not the one that was causing the issue, one caused by the congestion due to the issue. The next 2 miles took us almost an hour. At this point we saw an exit and escaped! This is when we discovered our new best friend on vacation- VZ Navigator on our cell phone! What a wonderful little application! It got us to the outlet malls without having to get back on the interstate- I think we might still be there otherwise! We had a great afternoon wandering around the outlet malls, the kids were even really good!

We went to our hotel- no major issues on that trip- thank goodness. We spent a couple hours in the hotel waterpark. They had a couple of waterslides. The girls and I went running up the stairs very excited to go down the slides. The girls each took a slide so I had to wait at the top. When it was my turn, I get in the slide and as soon as I started down the slide I started to panic. It was an enclosed slide and had I been 10 pounds heavier I think I would have gotten stuck it was soooooo small. Add to that the fact that it was pitch dark and the water was constatly rushing over my face- for a kid or even most adults that might be a great rush- for me who is claustrophobic- not fun at all! I was swearing within the first 2 seconds, praying by the next 2 and wishing to pass out by the end. Needless to say,I only went down the slides once. The girls loved them! Go figure!

Tucked the kids in about 8:45. At 9:00 the hotel staff was ushering people to the ground floor hallway. There was a tornado headed right for Maple Grove- yippee! Will and Hannah were already dead to the world, so it was great fun getting them up. The hotel was still standing 15 minutes later and we were all able to go back to bed!

This morning we used our favorite new application to get to Minnehaha park in Minneapolis. I did another feeble attempt at getting a picture of all 3 kids- some day it might work! I did get a picture of the sweetest little boy on earth, though! He was such a trooper- lots of walking this weekend but he did great!

I took this picture cuz Scott was making fun of Hannah for having a statue of herself at the park!

We went to the Mall of America for a couple hours. Will was so amazed by all of the rides in the park. We didn't go on any of them, but I think he could have just sat and watched them all day!

Hoping for an easy, uneventful ride home proved pointless. We were no more than 15 minutes down the road and we were at a standstill. ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? Turns out this one was due to road construction and one lane traffic. Once again we found a random exit and escaped. Seems MN likes their detours, cuz the highway we took had about 4 of them. We lost about an hour on the interstate waiting to find an exit so poor Scott was not taking any detour that did not head in the correct general direction.

Then we get to I90 headed west and we see this:

Now, I am sure it was just a "water spout" but after the 2 days we have had I was just sure we were headed towards a tornado!

We found our way home, the kids were all great all weekend. We had some trivia question books that kept the car ride entertaining and we are now home and happy!

Sometimes vacations seem like more work than they are worth, but we spent 2 whole days together as a family, no work interferences, no laundry, no cleaning, no errands. I don't care if we had been stranded on the interstate for hours, it was worth it!

2 weeks til school starts???

Seriously, the girls go back to school in 2 weeks. I feel like I completely missed summer. I think the strange weather is partly to blame, but we have just been so busy and never home to relax that I feel like we missed out on something this summer. Working 2 jobs has definitely caused extra time constraints, but thanks to the 2nd job we will be taking cash to Minneapolis next weekend and using that to buy some school clothes. Thank goodness the kids don't need much for clothes as of yet. I am sure by the middle of winter everything will be too small- guess they will get clothes for Christmas then!

So, what has happened since the last time I had a chance to post? Hannah started summer soccer- every Tuesday night for 9 weeks- Yikes! Especially difficult since we have to get her to Harrisburg by 5:45. Kind of a rat race, but we make it! Hopefully fall soccer will be a little closer to home with more reasonable start times! Haley went to a week of Lego League camp - she was one of two girls there! I think she had fun and she still wants to be a part of a Lego League team this year so hopefully she learned something too! Other than that, the kids have just been hanging out with Grandma during the day and with either Scott or I at night- depending on who isn't at work.

I did get my cleaning hours changed a little so that I clean Monday and Wednesday night and then I have to clean the bank sometime between Friday night and Monday morning. That gives us a little more flexibility. I am actually looking for a different part time job though. This cleaning thing is really hard to get motivated for. I applied at Target- they are opening a new store on our end of town. The cleaning company was the only place that called me after all the applications I put in, so I guess they are it until someone else calls. If Scott can stay this busy all winter maybe I can quit working part time and just help him more. His part time employee found a new full time job so he is back to being on his own. At least if I worked for Scott I might get to see him once in a while.......

Well, I should probably put my quiet morning to better use. Scott, Hannah and Will are out fishing, Haley is doing her Haley thing and hiding in her room reading a book. I have some laundry to do, a check book to balance and I really should put on some makeup. I think the pool will be calling our names this afternoon, so better get to it this morning!