Monday, August 27, 2012

Our last few days in pictures


I no longer have a baby :(

He got to go pick out a candy bar and ate an entire KING size Kit Kat for pooping on the potty.

THIS GUY... is getting so big.  We were outside riding bikes on Thursday night and he had to come in to go potty.  I had left a chair in the way of Russ' garage door so I left Ross in the bathroom and went out to move it (as Russ was on his way home).  When I came back in he was saying he pooped and peed!!  HUGE battle as he hadn't quite figured out the pooping part.  As of today he's pooped in the potty four days in a row.  I officially do not have a child in diapers any longer!!!

Look again - yes, that's a possum!!
When Jody was leaving for practice on Friday he came back inside and said there was an animal on his bag.  I said "Like a cat?"  I'm sure he said something not so nice in his head.  We went out to the garage and I used a hockey stick to look inside and there was a possum in his hockey bag.  I warned him several times that if it dashed out I was going to scream.  I used a hockey stick to drag the bag to the driveway, a shovel to turn it upside down and then the hockey stick to pull the bag back off of it.  The possum then just walked over to our neighbor's yard.  Poor Jody had stuck his hand in that bag!!


This was my Saturday.  20 WET miles in the a.m.  You can't tell in the picture but we were soaked.  After the run we grabbed chocolate milk and donuts.  I had a pretty lazy Saturday.  Ryan and I even spent a bit of time cuddling on the couch (very un-Ryan like).  Fabulous Day!!  (Ryan also had his first soccer game Saturday but I missed it... little sad about that but I'll catch another in a couple of weeks) 


This is how I found Ross' bed and Ross when I went to get him from his nap.  He's been crawling out of his baby bed and taking his pull-up off.  I had put him to bed in underwear but he peed them, got out of his bed, took them off and then fell asleep behind his glider.  Good thing his big boy bed comes this Friday!


These were the little two before school this morning.  We were taking a picture of Ross' Tigers shirt for dad and Ryan wanted his picture taken too.  Reid was off getting ready still but he's lacking on this post so we'll have to have more of Reid later this week.

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

First Day(s) of School

Another school year has officially started!!  Although I don't love the hectic mornings, I was ready for the routine of the school year.  More reliable bed times, reading, morning rituals... no wonder my boys thrive on regular schedules - so do I.

Reid started third grade with a half day of school last Wednesday.  His teacher this year is Mrs Byrd and he was excited that he got her.  He said that she was the nicest of the third grade teachers.  I was excited to see the one boy that drives me nuts and Reid loves to hang around with was not in his class (yes, I'm a great role model).


He came home and said he had a great first (half) day.

On Thursday, Reid had a full day of school and Ryan had his first day of kindergarten.  He didn't seem nervous at all and was excited to be going to Regency Place.


We did our first day of school tradition and went out for breakfast.  I didn't give the boys much choice in location as iHop is a further drive and we didn't really have that much spare time with getting Ross to daycare as well.  But the boys love them some McDonald's pancakes so no one was complaining.


On the first day of Kindergarten there are a couple of hours of parent activities.  We help the kids put some supplies away and then make some name oriented projects - headbands, puzzles, etc.  As the projects were wrapping up and she was announcing that parents would be leaving soon, Ryan looks at me and says "ok, you can go now."  Yeah, no worries from him.



Ugh... yeah... bye sweetie.  I did force him to take a couple of pictures with me:



His first day was also good.  He gets off the bus every day saying his day was good and smiling.  I LOVE meeting them after school and hearing about their day, checking their back packs... so proud of my boys!

Monday, August 13, 2012

10 Random Updates

I have 15 minutes until my next conference call and I decided it's about time I update my blog again.  I know I'll be updating it later this week with the first day of school pictures but here's some random updates.

1.  I'm still running... of course.  I'm training for the Marine Corps Marathon in DC on October 28th.  I did an 18 miler this weekend so I feel like I'm going to be ready.  I'm much stronger this year than I was for Chicago last year.  I've been taking a cross fit class two days a week since Thanksgiving last year and I can tell a huge difference in hills, etc.

2.  We've been potty training for a couple of weeks.  Ross is doing GREAT with peeing on the potty, he very rarely has accidents (maybe one a week).  Pooping; however, is another story :(  I don't know why but he cant' figure it out.  Not fun!  I wish I had a magic answer but no bribe we have offered has seemed to help.

3.  I've been on a major kick with getting our house cleaned up lately.  I think Russ is sick of my "projects".  We moved the sectional from the basement up to our living room and our beige furniture down to our basement.  I think the main living room looks so much better now.  We also got a new flat screen tv for our basement so we could get that huge box of a tv out of there.  Next up - all three boys are rotating rooms over Labor Day weekend.  Insane, I know... but I think I'm going to be very happy with the results.


4.  I have a LOT of travel (a lot for me at least) this fall.  There are four weeks in a row that I'll be heading out for a couple of nights mid-week.  While career wise I do like getting out in the centers and personally I do enjoy a night away here and there.. traveling is such a pain with coordinating the kids' schedules for before/after school, activities, etc.  It's a month away and it's already stressing me out.

5.  We found out the boys' teachers last night.  Ryan has Mrs Bolliger, who I had hoped he would get, and Reid has Mrs Byrd, who he says he wanted.  I really don't know much about either of them.  Tonight we get to see their class lists so they can see who is IN their classes with them.  Ryan already knows the three kids he would know - Carter, Taylor, and Tori - all got the same teacher as him also.

6.  Our new hockey kid should be here this weekend.  Surprisingly, Ryan is the most excited of the boys.  As of now we'll just have one this season.  His name is Jody Randall and he is from Minnesota.  That's all we really know so far.  More to come I'm sure.

7.  Speaking of hockey housing - it's been a LOT of work the past two weeks.  I'm trying to pass on the torch, it's just hard to transfer that knowledge so quickly.  I can't wait for the new lady to take over more, I just have too many other priorities right now.

8.  Ross has really buddied up with a neighbor boy, Charlie, that is a month younger than he is.  They are so cute together.  I see some serious play time going on in the next couple of years.  Here they are at our neighborhood ice cream social last night.


9.  I did SIX loads of laundry today and I need to wash the guest sheets either tonight or sometime before this weekend.  With Russ and I both working out and Ross potty training we are making some SERIOUS laundry work around here!

10.  Reid and Ryan both start soccer practice this week (technically Reid has had one but then had a week off).  He has practice Monday and Friday this week and Ryan has practice tomorrow night.  Our busy activity schedule is picking back up after having the entire summer off from sports (it was a nice break)!

And that's 10.  Some of them were a stretch to come up with but I was going for some variety :)  And now all of my readers are updated with the going ons around here!