This & That

Haven't really had anything to blog about lately so that's why I've been MIA. This week has been just the usual mom stuff. Run kids all over and all that boring stuff. Last night Greg and Emily went to the football game so it was just Steve, Mark and I. We went out to Chili's for dinner and I realized that in a couple of years, this will be what's it's like. In less than 4 years, our family will be a "family of 3" when we go out to dinner. Boy, the bill sure was nice. How weird is that? I cannot even imagine what having only one kid home all the time will be like.

Greg and Emily both got their Homecoming tickets this week. Everyone goes regardless if they have a date or not. In my day, you only went if you had a date. I'm excited to go dress shopping with Em and see Greg all "dapper". This year it's at MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry). Liz went all four years and this is Greg's first. He never had any desire to go and his friends pretty much had to convince him this year. Finally, some pictures to add to his scrapbook besides baseball.

Mark finally lost his two front teeth. The pictures are still on my camera and I will try to upload them this weekend. He looks so cute. Mark is a pretty small kid and still has that "baby" look to him. I mean his is small compared to other kids his age. But, now that he is missing his teeth, he's looks more like a "little boy" and is slowly losing that baby look. Maybe it's just me that notices.

Liz isn't coming home this weekend. There's a football game so she is going to that. Plus, moving your car on a football game weekend is a bad idea. No guarantee there will be parking. She has a few tests to study for anyway. Go Gators!!!!!

We survived Parent Teacher Conferences also this week. No major surprises. Everyone is doing well. I love Mark's teacher this year. I loved last years too and I was hoping this year's teacher would be just as good. Yep she is. We are going to do some more testing with them but he is really trying. Next Monday is our "big" meeting with the administrators and all the specialist where we sit around and discuss what we are all going to do to help him. We had this meeting last year and I kid you not, I was so sick to my stomach. I had a headache for three days. Now that I've been through it, it's not too bad. The only reason we are doing it again is because they have a new school psychologist. Hopefully, we won't have to do this again for awhile.

Greg has a double header baseball game today. His first game is @ 10 and his second one is @ 1. They were away games. I decided to spend my day here at home. Lots on my "to do" list. Which includes:

laundry

cleaning

get out Halloween/Fall Decorations

Paint plant stand on porch

BJ's (we need some food in this house)

That being said, it's time for me to log off here and get started. I actually slept in today so I got a late start.

Have a wonderful Saturday!

PS. SORRY ABOUT THE SPACING. I HAVE NO IDEA WHY BLOGGER WON'T PUT SPACES BETWEEN THE PARAGRAPHS. I HAVE GONE BACK THREE TIMES AND IT SHOWS IN THE DRAFT THAT THERE IS SPACING BETWEEN THE PARAGRAPHS. ANY ONE HAVE ANY IDEA WHY THIS IS HAPPENING?

Disney's Desperate Housewives

Was cleaning off my hard drive on the computer yesterday and found this. I forgot all about this but it just made me laugh. Just in time too for the new season of the real Desperate Housewives. Enjoy.

DO OVER?

Can we have a Monday, do over? Well, maybe not. That would mean we would have one more day to the weekend..........Yesterday, was a NIGHTMARE here in our little community. Around one o'clock, the construction crew working on the new over pass hit a gas line. Not a big deal, just fix it right? WRONG. They had to close the highway in both directions and the road under (our main road). Problem here? The kids school was on the other side of the highway. I couldn't get to them. Emily had an orthodontics appointment which is right across from school so she had to go there. Greg was staying after for newspaper deadline. She was able to go back to school and hang out with Greg. Even if they had gotton on the bus, the buses couldn't get through. So, all the roads were just total gridlock! I can't even begin to describe the mess. There were all kinds of reports as to when the road would open. On the 5 pm news, they said it could take another 4 hours. I wasn't panicked that my kids weren't in good hands, but it would have taken me forever to detour around or even when the road opened, the back up was horrible. I called my neighbor that works on that side of the road and we finally worked out that she would swing by and get the kids (and two other neighborhood kids). Her son was up at the middle school in the other direction at basketball practice so she wasn't able to get him. So basically, we swapped kids for the evening. I was able to pick up her son. They had traffic diverted through our neighborhood so our neighborhood road was backed up as well. What usually takes 3 minutes to get out of took over 20. So when all was said and done, the kids got home from school at 6:45. Long day for them. Thank goodness I have a great neighbor. But, what was the good out of this is that since we had a meeting at Mark's school, Steve had left early to meet me at the school. He totally missed it! Not a good way to start off the week.

Well, I mentioned in my previous entry about baseball. Well, Greg came home today and said they have practice today after school. Hopefully they got a new coach lined up.

The meeting for Mark was the usual stuff--"Let's do this, we can do that." Well, let's see if it gets done. She even commented that some of the stuff we agreed to do last year wasn't done. We did make some changes to his 504 Plan. I can see some changes in him this year (maturity and developmentally) so I know we are going in the right direction but we still have a long way to go. He's getting better verbally but still struggles to put it down on paper. This is an FCAT year for him as well. I hate FCATs. Basically, you don't pass FCAT, you don't pass. I hate that it comes down to one test.

I hope to stay close to home today again. I love it when I have nowhere to go or be. I'm slowly getting out my Fall decorations. Although, based on the temps here, we are far from it. We are still in the 90's. This is the time of year that I really miss living in Ohio. The leaves were so pretty. When the older kids were little, playing in the leaves was their favorite thing to do. Mark has never gotton to do that. I have so many pictures of the kids in leaves. Fun memories.

Well, off to get my day started. I hope it's a productive one as well.

Weekend Update

We had a great weekend here in our home. Elizabeth made it home around 7 pm on Friday night. We had a nice "home cooked" dinner of her favorite--pork chops, au graten potatoes and green beans. Since there was no high school football game this week (it was a bye), she spent the evening with us. We did her laundry and just "hung out". She got up early on Saturday and went and got her hair cut. After that, we ran to the bank, Bed Bath & Beyond and to the grocery store. It's nice that she doesn't want to "eat out" because she's sick of it. She did however hook up with the newspaper staff from the school and they all went to Moe's. Since Greg is on staff now, he went. It's weird seeing those two have something like that in common and hang out. Since she drove home with her roommate, she didn't have her car so she took Steve's. It was nice having him "stuck at home". Since she went off to Moe's, I decided to go to my Stampin UP workshop. Had a blast and made a cool photo holder. Definately something I see myself making again. As you can see by the above picture, there was one little person in our family who was thrilled more than me to have Liz home. He followed her around and talked her arm off. Saying goodbye on Sunday wasn't too bad because she's coming home again next weekend (the Gators are playing an away game).

This afternoon we are off to Mark's school to sit down and review his 504 Plan. (I can tell that it's not being followed this year so far). I'm still baffled why he doesn't qualify for an IEP. I think he needs one with his CAPD. I know for a fact that other children who have the same thing have an IEP. It's so frustrating!!!!! Luckily, last year, he had a teacher who really "got him" and his needs. It's too soon to tell this year but 3rd grade is way different and he has more responsiblity. I have a feeling though that this will be a long year. Also, this year is the dreaded science fair project for the first time. I don't know why they bother with these things. The parents end up doing them. I was so excited when Emily was done with them in 7th grade. Speaking of Emily, I am so proud of how she has adjusted to high school. So far, so good with her studies. Unfortunately, her best friend went to the other local high school so she is really missing her. They only have their weekends together. Her group of friends are way more dramatic at this age than Liz's friends ever were. OMG, the drama these girls create. I've really been pushing her to distance herself from it all as much as she can. I tell ya, I wouldn't want to be a teenager in this day and age for anything.

Still no word on whether there will be a Fall baseball season at school. I really don't mind though because it's been nice having it off. It's really giving Greg some time to rest his back. He said it bothered him a little in tryouts again. They are keeping an eye on it with his work outs. He is just way to young to be having back problems like he is.

Have I mentioned how much I love my new washer? I have been so good keeping the laundry done. More time to do other things.....................

Well, that's about all that's been happening in our house. Keep your fingers crossed for us that we make some progress with Mark at school. I'm feeling negative about the whole thing but Steve insists we are not going to be the losers in this battle.

Later.................have a wonderful Monday.

Pictures to Remember

Wow. Two posts in one day. I'm sitting home today listening to the radio and reflecting on September 11. For some reason, I kept thinking back to the one year anniversary of 9/11. We were living in Sandy, Utah and the Sandy City Hall had set up this beautiful memorial. They had a flag to represent each person who lost their lives that day. The kids were at school so I packed Mark up and he and I went. When he was a baby, he was obsessed with flags. I mean obsessed! He called them za za's. Whenever we would drive by a flag pole he would say "ah, big za za". We had little flags all over the house. I figured we could go to the memorial and he could see his "za za's". This picture is a view of the some of the thousands of flags displayed.



They also displayed a flag to represent the countries of where some of the victims were from. It wasn't just Americans who died that day.

Here's Mark checking out all the flags. He would just walk around to the flags and look up at them. He was in total aw over all the flags.

Did I mention in my last post how proud I am to live here in the USA. I can't imagine living any where else.

I can hardly believe that it's been seven years since that tragic day. I remember it like it was yesterday. Seeing the news reports and images on the internet just brings it all back. I can only pray that something like this NEVER happens again. I pray for the safety of our military and their families for their sacrifice to see that it doesn't. I hope that our next President will never let "their guard down" and continue this fight against terrorism. Enough said................

I am anxiously awaiting the delivery of my new washing machine. I have spent the morning cleaning out my laundry "area". Since we don't have a basement (bummer) our laundry room is in this little entry way that connects the garage to the house. It is really small and not very functional. That was one of the things we lost moving from our previous house in Utah to Florida. No one has basements. I am not very good about pulling the washer/dryer out (maybe once a year) to really scrub and clean under and behind it. I know there is a bunch of lint, hangers and other stuff that has fallen behine. But, the vacuum and mop is ready to go once they haul the old one out. Maybe having a new and functioning washer will help me stay on top of the laundry. Since the space is so small, the laundry baskets end up in my room to be folded. I've been better staying on top of it but with my hectic schedule, folding laundry is kind of on the bottom of the list.

I don't talk about Greg much. Today is a big milestone for him. Tonight we go and order his classring. With Elizabeth gone, he is officially "the oldest" kid at home. Their baseball team is "on hold" at the moment due to a coaching change so he's been home alot more. We've really gotton a chance to talk and do more stuff together. Here's one of the more recent pictures of Greg. This was in May when he made his Confirmation. Grandpa Behrman flew down to be his sponsor. I wish I would have thought to take another picture with Steve in it to show how much they all look alike. Since this picture was taken, he's gotton his braces off. Man he's got beautiful teeth!

(What a handsome duo)

Well, not much else to blog about. I've been on a major organize and purge effort in my scrapbook room. What a feeling! I got caught up in all the new "gadgets and gizmos" that I lost my scrapbooking "mojo" because I was so intimidated by all the stuff out there now. I've gone back to the more simpler style of scrapbooking and that has really helped. I had to get back into the mentality that "it's all about the pictures" and not the embellishments. The pictures should tell the story not all the embellishments that one can shove onto a page.

Well, gotta run. It's here, It's here!!!!!

Feeling Crafty

I mentioned recently that I was making the girls some blankets. Well, here they are. The brown and pink one I made for Liz for her dorm room. Pink and brown are her colors. I picked this fabric before I new the colors for her sorority are pink and white to it is absolotely perfect. They are so easy to make and best of all, I didn't have to dig out the sewing machine. Even better, I was able to get the fleece pretty cheap with the opening of the new Joann's store right down the road. They are definately going to like having me for a customer!! The next blanket is the one I made for Emily. The colors are absolutely perfect for her room. She's loving it. I found her on the couch the other night all wrapped up in it. I think it's way too hot. We are still in the 90's with the heat index right around 100. I don't keep the house all that cool so I don't know why she is so cold. Mark has decided he wants one too for his bed. So, it's back to Joann's to get him some Florida Gators fleece. I also have have to make one for Heather--Liz's roomie. They need matching blankies after all!

Liz is coming home next weekend. We haven't seen her in over a month. I can't wait. She said she's bringing her laundry home with her. She said the washing machines there don't have cold water! Weird. She said they washed their towels and they bled. Her timing is perfect. Yesterday I bought a new washing machine. We purchased the Maytag Neptune set a few years ago. We've had nothing but trouble. Luckily I had a warranty but it finally ran out and I had enough. I went back to the traditional top loading Kenmore (I did get the extra bells and whistles though). I had serious mold issues with the ring on the Maytag and I was just losing the battle. Plus, for some reason, sometimes it wouldn't finish a cycle. I'd have to restart all over. It was getting to the point that sometimes it would take three cylces to do one load. The sales man said they don't even sell the Neptunes anymore and I wasn't the only one with trouble and complaints. He also said you should keep the door open when not in use. Well, that wasn't an option for me because of the set up of my laundry room. Since we don't have a basement here in Florida, the washer and dryer sit in the hallway to the door to the garage (which is our main door). So, now the problem is solved with a top loader. Isn't it amazing the little things that make us happy? I never thought the day would come that I would get so excited over a washing machine!!! Next year the dryer!

Looks like we dodged another bullet with Hurricane Ike. Unfortunately, it has to go somewhere and at last check, it was headed to Louisiana again. I can't imagine the stress and anxiety they are feeling again. It is very stressful not knowin where these hurricanes are headed.

Today is just clean, clean, clean day. I didn't get as much done yesterday as I was hoping. I got caught up watching Football and NASCAR. Mark and Emily started back to Relgious Ed at church so now our Sundays are tied up running back and forth to Church. We aren't lucky enough that they have them at the same time. I also need to run to the grocery store and stop at CVS. I'm so proud of myself that I have stayed out of Walmart. I know I can save money on some things there but I end up buying more and not saving anything at all. This way, I can stick to my list and be done.

That being said, it's time to get my Monday started. The weekends just go by way to fast.

EDITED: Sorry about the weird layout. I keep fixing it but blogger keeps publishing it weird. Sorry. It is a Monday after all!