monday news

well i finally did it - i gave Vann's 30 days notice at his nursery school and i will be taking care of him at home starting after Christmas holiday - and juggling work too. It will be an adventure! Jayme will be watching him one full day from home so i will be able to also work a full day in the office. I think it will work out fine, though it will be a little crazier around here that's for sure! I'm glad our situation is so unique that this is an option for us. We are definitely feeling the slowdown in the economy lately. I know it's short term though and we'll see it through just fine.

In other news, here's a shot of one of our 2 trees coming down in the back yard. They created nice big stumps for the kids to play on (when the weather warms up again)-- it's freezing out there now!! It was amazing to watch the guy get hauled up into the trees by the crane, then jump on the branches and start cutting! 2 hours later, and they were done. You can see all of the power lines in the yard they had to work through - it was very cool.

Oh and we all seem to be healthy again, thank goodness!

Good Morning

was planning on heading back to work today but Vann still sick, so i'll be here today. Lots of excitement for the next 2 days - a tree company is coming to take our (only!) 3 trees off of our property. our Japanese Maple in the front contracted some sort of bacteria and is almost all dead. And our 2 Silver Maples (huge) in the back yard are looking so dead that I am they would fall on the house soon. So they are all going away, it will be tricky work since we have many power/phone lines converging in our backyard. I will try and get some pics, it should be interesting! Then tomorrow our final work will be done so we can get our HVAC installation inspected. Jayme and I spent lots of time painting last weekend, and more this coming weekend. We are all looking forward to Thanksgiving for a nice break (hopefully no more sick kids around here!) - at our pastor's house this year, and then Jody and Scott will be coming the next weekend for a visit. Oh and it's so cold here, we had snow flurries yesterday and it's only November! It's gonna be a cold winter, i can feel it!

sick house

hi - long time no post!- i am just poking my head above water in this sick house - we've all been down and out in one form or another for the past 2? 3? weeks... apparently we have a stomach virus that keeps coming back! that mixed with colds, fevers, chills, a migraine, and now a confirmed case of pinkeye, and you have one very tired mommy.... i felt good enough today to go out and find a very strong bleach cleaner and start majorly sanitizing our surfaces. i'm telling you it's been ugly around here for awhile. Poor Vann has been starting off each day with a bath because of his diaper blowouts (ewww). Not to mention the laundry that creates... oi vey! Jayme was a champ and took care of us all this weekend.. I'm convinced we're getting it all out of the way now, then we'll be germ-free the rest of the winter. i'll end this post with another cute kids shot - this is Vann giving Ava a full body slam - he calls it going "boom". And she actually enjoys it...

i'm getting out of the house today!

good morning. long time no post, we've been sick again here, and i havent been up to a whole lot lately! Another stomach bug swept thru the household, hanging on for quite a few days for everybody. I won't go into too many details, but I found out Vann had it when Ava asked me in their bubble bath the other day -- mom, why is the water so dirty?? (ewwww!!!) We're headed into the office today to get some work done and Ava is coming with - her school closed until Monday. rainy day all day, but not too chilly out. We're starting to consider getting a kitty cat sometime after Christmas. We miss having an animal around, but dogs can get so darn expensive, especially with boarding and vet bills and such. Plus we don't quite have a secure yard yet. That and Jayme and i haven't come to an agreement yet on the size of dog we should get - he wants a big dog for protection and all i can imagine is our Jackson (who now lives with O.G.) who shed about 3 buckets of fur every day, and bathing the monster in our bathtub during the winter. uuuf... Although I have heard about the poodle mix dogs, who are bred not to shed at all - which is one of the best ideas ever, except that pound puppies are the cutest dogs , no matter how much they shed, and i would like nothing better than to save a puppy from the pound! We'll see..
Here's Ava is her kitty cat costume for Halloween.