Vacation and Horrible Welcome Home

So we're back from an awesome vacation at the Flying L Ranch in Bandera, Texas. My sister Stacy and her husband saved up their timeshare there so we, my brother and his wife, and my sister Betsy could all come hang out with them there for a week. It's nice when the only worry of the day is "Will it get warm enough to swim today?". The crazy thing was it is usually in the 90s this time of year there, and it rained for 2 or 3 days and was barely even 60 degrees. Good thing I packed lots of shorts and tank tops to wear! Let's just say the one pair of jeans I packed for everyone ended up getting worn most of the week. It was hot on Monday when we got there, and got hot again for Friday and Saturday, so we were able to play at the water park on those days.

The four cousins got along great and had a fun time playing together. All the adults also had a fun time hanging out and playing Settlers of Catan at night. All of us girls got to go out one night and see The Time Traveler's Wife too. We had a few mishaps with an inkpen--Ansley decorated the leather couch one day with it, and then the next day Sidney decorated the coffee table with it. We're hoping we got them out enough that they wouldn't be noticable! I'm waiting any day for a call from my sister saying we have to replace the couch...which would be just our luck considering what we came home too...

Apparently our toilet in the girl's bathroom (you know the one that I just re-did the floor 2 weeks ago) somehow got a leak and water came through our living room ceiling, causing a huge hole in the ceiling, on top of our TV and Wii, and making a lake in our living room. It also caused water to soak through the living room floor into our basement as well. So it turns out the floor that I have been hoping Jeremy would finish since April, and the ceiling which I had been hoping he would finish since January (we had a shower leak then) will both be ripped apart and replaced professionally...as well as the floor that I finished a few weeks ago!

Right now we're hanging out at the Drury Inn indefinitely. It's about 2 miles from our house, and has an indoor pool, so the girls are happy. Thank goodness for insurance is all I can say! We have to pay our $1000 deductible, but then they will pay for everything to be fixed (ceilings, living room floor, bathroom floor, possibly basement carpet, new rugs, etc). Oh, and Jeremy is hoping our TV needs to be replaced, and it's possible they will have to pay for a new Wii too. They are also paying for our suite at the hotel and our meals while we can't be home. Not exactly how we planned to spend our week though. We only booked the room for 2 nights (wishful thinking) but they said it could be at least 4 just to clean up the mess. Then everything has to be replaced.

I'll post pictures of our disaster area later, but for now you can enjoy our vacation pictures by clicking here:

Flying L Ranch

Things That Go!

Today we spent the morning up at Kennedy's school for an event called "Things that go!" Basically they had trucks, tractors, busses, etc. in the parking lot and the kids could get in them and play around. The girls had a great time, and we had fun watching them. Speaking of things that go, I hope they remember how much fun cars can be during our 15 hour drive to San Antonio. We leave tomorrow for vacation and are so excited!

Home Improvement Project

I usually leave the home improvement projects up to Jeremy. However, he's so busy that I know he doesn't have time to get projects done in what I consider a "timely fashion". I may struggle with patience a little bit! I'm the type of person that would rather stay up all night long to get a big project done, just so I don't have to worry about it the next day. Or like when we got home from a trip, it doesn't matter what time of night it is, I have to unpack and put away everything...I can't stand to leave it and wake up to it the next day! Jeremy, well, I don't think the word "worry" is even in his vocabulary. We are just a little different in that aspect. Take our beautiful living room floor that he worked so hard on...in April. It's still not quite done yet, but I'm sure it will be someday...and he did a really great job, so I'm trying not to complain...too much. :)

I've known that our bathroom floors were disgusting since we moved into this house over a year ago, but it wasn't a priority to change. The other night though, I was giving the girls a bath and suddenly I realized again how awful their bathroom floor looked. It was a white linoleum, but many parts of it were gray, there were some holes in parts of it, and it was just nasty!!!

I had "assisted" Jeremy in replacing one of our bathroom floors in our old house with peel and stick laminate tiles, and decided that I could tackle the bathroom floor all by myself. I didn't want to ask Jeremy to do it, I just wanted to get it done so he didn't have to think about it. So the next day while Kennedy was at preschool, Ansley and I ventured out to Lowe's (woo-hoo!) and bought a $25 box of 30 laminate tiles. We also managed to visit Target and hit some great clearance racks while we were out, which helped make the trip even more worthwhile.

Today, while Jeremy had the day off, I got to work. I finally had to ask for his help to remove the toilet so I could finish the tiles underneath it, and to assist me in one that I really messed up, but other than that, I did it all by myself! Add a few bucks in for a new wax ring for the toilet and that brings our newly improved bathroom total to about $30, and only took about 4 hours of my time! Jeremy told me he'd even let me do our master bathroom floor too...isn't he so nice? :) I think I'll wait a little while to tackle that project though...it involves 2 closets and is about 3 times the size of the girl's bathroom. I need to let my back recover a little too.

We forgot to take a before picture, but this is the same type of linoleum that was in the bathroom (it's also in the master--and much worse looking in person!)

The finished product

Labor Day Weekend

Last weekend we spent some time up in Peoria. Not only did we get to see lots of family, but we got to hang out with some of our best friends that we miss dearly, the Campbells. Kennedy cries at least once a month about how much she misses their girls. Anna is a little older than Kennedy and Emily is just a little younger, but these girls have such a great time playing together. We went over to their house Friday night for dinner and other than eating dinner and dessert, we pretty much didn't see the older girls. We heard their squeals of delight, but they kept themselves entertained until after 10:00 when we had to cause tears to come in our announcing that it was time to go. Their youngest daughter Jenna is about two weeks older than Ansley, and although they were a little shy around each other, I'm sure someday they'll be great friends too. (Sidenote--Jenna had to spent last night in the hospital with pneumonia, so keep her in your prayers!) Here are some pictures from our fun times.

Nothing Much to Say

I've been in a bit of a blogging funk lately...there just hasn't been much going on that seemed blog-worthy! Kennedy just finished her second week of preschool, and still loves it...especially now that they started doing crafts this week. That is what she was looking forward to most. Her teachers told me she is very shy, and rarely talks, although she did share the things she brought in her "All About Me Bag" with her class, which I wasn't real sure she would do. She doesn't tell us a whole lot about her day, unless we specifically ask, although today she got in the car and told me a boy pooped his pants. I'm so glad she remembered to tell me that one! Ansley and I are enjoying our one-on-one time. I'm not sure what Kennedy thinks that we do while she is gone, but today when I told her that I took Ansley to the library for storytime, she seemed very hurt, got teary-eyed and said "Are you going to take me to storytime for 4 year olds sometime?" I promised I would sometime and then changed the subject. I'm hoping the teariness just came from the fact she got to bed a little late last night, and she's got a bit of a cough/sore throat and I'm not sure she's feeling 100%.

Kennedy has also started asking me to play "school" with her. That's one thing I'm pretty good at! I've been "playing school" probably since I was about 5! She has a small chalkboard/easel that we use, but soon enough I'll have to bring out the five-foot tall chalkboard/easel that my dad made for me one year for Christmas. It got many, many years of use from me, and I am looking forward to my girls using it to play school too! However, I did forget one part of school I do not like--fundraising! In her four days of preschool, she has already come home with two different fundraisers! Are you kidding me??? I wasn't expecting that so soon!

In other news, Ansley has recently begun asking to sit on the potty. She doesn't do anything while she's there but sit and grin at us, but she's showing interest. Not that I am expecting anything from it though this early! With all the trouble with had potty-training Kennedy (mostly thanks to the fact that she had a new baby sister!) I am not quite ready to start that again!

Here are a couple of pictures of the girls having fun with my computer the other day.

Preschool!

Update:
Kennedy is home and had an awesome time! She said it was so much fun and her favorite part was recess (go figure!). She was a little bummed they didn't do a craft today and she didn't play with the dress up clothes, but I explained she will have many more days of preschool to do those things. I asked her if she learned any of the other kid's names, and all she could remember were two boys--Logan and Ethan--should I be worried? Ansley ran up and hugged her as she came out the door and has been pretty much attached to her side ever since. In fact, here's what I just caught them doing as I was typing this:

Let's hope for many more great days of preschoool! I also think Ansley will soon catch on to the idea of having mommy all to herself...I know I look forward to a little one-on-one time with her!

Original Post:





Today was the big day! Kennedy started preschool! She is going on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, and it is at the school that she will be attending next year for Kindergarten. Originally we were going to skip the whole preschool idea, but Kindergarten here is full-day and I can't imagine her going from no routine/structure to a full day of school next year! I think the socialization will be good for her too. Hopefully she make some friends that will be in Kindergarten with her next year. There is a Pre-K class that we could have sent her to, but it was a 5-day program, and I wasn't ready for that yet! So her class is with 3 and 4 year-olds, and is pretty basic (playtime, snacktime, recess--all the important things!) She has been SO excited about it though and last night was just plain giddy talking about it. I let her pick what she should eat for breakfast today, and she asked for a pink and purple donut (she's my daughter!), and luckily Walmart provided. I explained it was a special first day of school breakfast, and that she would not get to eat donuts very often before school! She also picked out a new outfit at Target last week for today, and then Nana sent some new clothes and goodies for her as well.

I figured today would be an easy day, as far as the drop-off went. I knew she was so excited, and she basically pushed us out the door after we got there. I'm hoping it stays that easy, but I think it will probably depend on how today goes and if it's all that she expected. Ansley was quite distraught as we were leaving Kennedy, saying "no no no no no" over and over. Since we've been home she keeps saying "K-K?" which is how she says Kennedy. I'll ask "where is Kennedy"? and she'll say "I no know". Here are a few pictures of our morning. I'll have to update later to let you know how her day went!

Cousin Time!

Wow! What a fun two weeks it has been! My sister Stacy and her two kiddos Sidney and Caleb flew into St. Louis two weeks ago and the girls and I drove up with them to Peoria. Betsy was also there, and we spent a week at my mom and Dave's house. Then we drove back to St. Louis, and Betsy stayed for a few days, and Stacy and the kids stayed almost another week, until today. We definitely learned that having a 4 year old, an almost 4 year old, an almost 2 year old, and an 18 month old makes for some crazy, loud times! Although Sidney and Kennedy started out the two weeks telling each other they were the other one's most favorite cousin in the whole wide world, I think they were both ready to have a break from each other. Kennedy loves to be bossy, Sidney loves to push Kennedy's buttons, and both like to make each other cry. The two toddlers picked up some bad habits from the older ones...Ansley loves telling people "NO!" now. They also learned that sharing is not fun either. But overall, we had a great time and are looking forward to spending a week at a Dude Ranch with them at the end of September. I never have my camera on me, but I did get some pictures of the kids on my computer.

Yes, my daughter is picking her nose in this picture

The "princesses" enjoying their Leapsters...and getting along at the moment

The two "little" ones--although I'm not sure Caleb qualifies in that category--he weighs only 2/10 of a pound less than than Kennedy and Sidney

Hugging? Or maybe wrestling?

Can you see what Caleb is doing to Ansley in this picture--he is going through a hitting phase right now--fortunately it didn't phase Ansley!

Isn't he cute???

The three girls