First Day of School!

Today my baby girl started 1st grade and my baby boy started 5th grade. I can't believe it's Christopher's last year of elementary school. This is also the last year that he and Kayla will ever be in the same school together. That makes me very sad. They are growing up and I don't like it.

But of course we had our share of drama today. I assumed that the shoes we bought in May for Kayla to finish up Kindergarten would fit today. I was wrong. So she had to wear her "new this summer" crocs and I went and bought her the shoes she so terribly wanted, the Twinkle Toes Sketchers. I also had to go and buy Christopher new baseball cleats because the ones we also bought him this past April or May no longer fit. He is 10 years old and is wearing a men's 9 shoe!! I also grabbed the last iCarly lunch box today for Kayla at Target to go with her iCarly backpack - another surprise.

Can't wait to hear about their first day!

Clean Sweep

I spent most of Monday cleaning Christopher's room - top to bottom. WOW - what a difference! I'm on day 2 of cleaning Kayla's room. Tomorrow I should be finished. I did this in hopes of getting them to keep their rooms clean and hopefully we can start off the school year with organized rooms. With a month to go before school starts, I hope these next few weeks we can actually PLAY with our toys that have been buried and just relax and have some FUN!!

Next week we start going through all of last year's school work and this summer's school work, and then I guess I really should start on our bedroom. :-/ We'll see how long this cleaning bug lasts. I hope long enough to get through the whole house - but that's doubtful!!

Need some ME time!

I swear I wish Chris could be home more, that we didn't need the money from his part-time gig. I'm exhausted. I've helped w/ workbook pages, listened to reading, made dinner, helped Kayla shower, yelled at the kids b/c it's taken 4 times to get their teeth brushed properly, helped Kayla do part of a girl scout activity. I still need to clean up the dinner mess, load the dishwasher and throw in a load of laundry.

Just for one day I'd like outside help. Someone to come clean and cook for me, do my laundry for me and put it away, take my kids to all their activities or just take them away for a day or two so I could breathe.

I love my husband and my children, my house and my life. But everyone needs a break now and then and I just feel like my husband and I NEVER get one. And that's my pity party for today.

Father's Day Wknd

What a busy wknd we had! Saturday morning we got up and headed to the Farmer's Market for the first time. Then hit Michaels and the library. We had a Father's Day lunch at Hu Hot - one of our fav places to eat! We made a quick trip home to change into our swim stuff but on our way to the pool the skies became dark and it stormed big time. So we had to turn around and head back home.

Saturday night my in-laws picked up the kiddos. They were super excited about spending the night at their Memaw and Pepaw's...this hadn't happened for almost 2 years! It was about 10:30pm and I honestly was ready for bed. But Chris said we needed to take advantage of the no kid thing, so we headed to Taco Bell at 11:00pm!

We got up early Sunday morning and headed to St. Louis. We stopped by Jefferson Barricks to see if my Grandma's headstone had arrived, and it had. It was incredibly emotional for me to see that. I just couldn't believe I was standing at her gravesite and not stopping by to see her at the Altenheim.

We then headed to the ballpark. Man was it HOT! And the Cards lost...but we did get to see 2 Matt Holliday homeruns, so we had fun! We stopped at O'Charley's on the way home and were seated next to old friends who had also been at the Cards game.

I took the kids to the pool after summer school Monday since it's the only day this week we'll be able to go due to having ballgames every night. They gave Daddy their presents that night too b/c it'd been too late Sunday night. They were quite proud of their plate designs but disappointed that Daddy couldn't actually use the plates. The warning on the plate says "May poison food," so they are apparently for display only!

My kiddos have such a wonderful Daddy who works very very hard to support our family and who very rarely complains about anything at all. We are all so lucky to have this man in our lives and we love him very very much!

Missing my Grandma

I have really been missing my Grandma who passed away May 5, 2010. I think of her each and everyday. I miss being able to call her up and chat and hearing her say, "Take care of you!" as we said our goodbyes. I miss her lovely white hair and her smile that made her eyes light up.

New to Blogging

OK - so I'm trying this blogging thing. Getting ready to head to bed, did some picking up in our bedroom tonight. Still so much stuff to do. I am so envious of the stay-at-home-moms that seem to have their act together. My house always seems to be a mess. If it is clean, it only stays clean for a day. But I do a pretty good job of keeping up with the laundry, but that's about it.