First Days of School

Wow...can you believe it school has already started here? Courtney started on the 7th and CJ had his first day yesterday!! Yes, Jason and I got teary-eyed when we dropped him off in car line. Believe me, he was so excited to go! Today, he made me leave earlier than what I needed to and was sad that he couldn't be dropped off before Courtney...LOL

So, with first days of school already past - here are a few pictures of the kiddos....

Can you believe she is in the 4th grade??

He was so excited about going to school and really didn't want his picture taken - he just wanted to leave...LOL

Another very PROUD Moment!!!

HUGE congratulations to Courtney!! On Saturday, she had a private try-out with a softball travel team (new this year) as a pitcher and made it!!! My baby girl will be on a travel team called Lady Bombers99 as a pitcher!!! Travel teams are considered the 'best of the best' and are very competitive (which fits Courtney to a tee!). She is on Cloud 9 and you know what, so are we!!

We had a parent meeting last night and she had batting practice. The indoor facility is amazing. You can see some pictures at www.basesloadedtrainingfacility.com They actually have baseball travel teams and only had one softball team last year (hence Lady Bombers 10U pictures). They now have 5 teams which includes the Lady Bombers99 (the 99 is for the year they were born in so her team is a true 99 team - all members have a 99 birth year).

Their first practice is Thursday but neither Jason or I will be there. Thankfully a friend of hers is on the team, Alyssa, and her mom will be taking her since Jason and I will be at a parent's meeting for CJ's school. I can't believe that Monday he'll start! He is growing up too fast and is actually very excited to start. He'll meet his teacher on Friday morning and be all set.

So with all that said, it's been a very exciting weekend/start of the week for us :o)

Monday

Monday was a great day - we got to see Marti and Josh :o) Since Marti was in Georgia visiting Nanny and with Nanny being still weak, she came to visit us here!! Marti asked me not to tell the kids and have it a surprise and BOY...they were surprised!! As soon as the door bell rung, I asked Courtney to answer it. Her response "I don't know who it is..." followed by a very LOUD scream! She opened that door so quickly and gave each of them a HUGE hug. Believe me, CJ wasn't far behind!

There were a couple of priceless moments - CJ being held by Marti and him smiling ear-to-ear with his arms wrapped around her as soon as she got in the kitchen. Another moment was when Josh was sitting on the recliner and CJ was laying in his lap watching t.v.

I did get some pictures and will post them later. It was a wonderful visit but short! Both kids (and me) were teary-eyed when they left. I've come to realize that we can't wait a year anymore to see each other!

Lottery results....

We went again last night to see if CJ could get into the Odenville Pre-K via the lottery. And the results are......NOPE! It's ok because we walked out of there knowing that he was in a school already and that he really liked it when we toured it.

So with that said, Courtney starts on Thursday and CJ will start school on August 18th. Then I'm not sure what I'll do during the day...LOL

Oops - another lapse!

Man, I need to get with blogging again...LOL

Our vacation was nice but short. We got to visit with almost everyone we wanted to see :o) I was happy to be able to spend time with Mellan and Richard on Sunday while visiting my parents - it was really nice being able to do that. Also, we got to see Pat on our way out of town. She was walking Shamrock as we were driving down the road. It was great to be able to see her too!

Jason and I enjoyed our 3 days at Daytona Beach. I even got Jason back in the ocean! He told me only his feet would go in but after a while, he was in to his waist and having a great time. We both got a little burnt but not too terribly bad thankfully. It did hurt but all was good.

On Thursday, we took Courtney, CJ and Madisen to Disney. They had a blast and so did Jason and I! We got there early and left just after the 9pm parade. CJ was tall enough to ride Splash Mountain and Big Thunder Mountain and he LOVED them! Unfortunately, he wasn't tall enough for Space Mountain (only 1'' to short) but I think it was best for him to wait a little bit before he rides it anyways. Madisen got to ride it and both girls screamed and laughed the whole time, well, maybe I laughed the whole time at them screaming!!

We even went to Hollywood Studios (or to most of us MGM) and CJ got to see McQueen and Mater from CARS! That was well worth the long bus wait and trip there! That really made his day. We also watched the Pixar 3pm parade and all 3 really liked that too. Some of those jumpers were really amazing! I forget how 'above and beyond' Disney is - even in entertainment.

Anyways, CJ did not get picked for the Odenville Pre-K at the lottery drawing. I was disappointed at first but had a few other options to go with. So, last Monday, I went calling to figure out where I could get him in. Boy, that was hard!! My first 3 options were waiting list only. I was really getting discouraged especially since Wednesday I hadn't found him anywhere. Thankfully my friend Rhonda called her former employer and they had a opening but I couldn't formally take the spot since they were closed last week until Friday. On Thursday, I found another place, Grace Presybterian and they had ONE opening come available and all the 8 on their waiting list had already found somewhere. CJ IS GOING TO PRE-K!!! I drove straight there on Thursday, turned in the registration fee and form and took a tour of the church's facility and CJ really liked it. Grace doesn't start until August 18th, parent orientation is August 14th evening and meet the teacher is August 15th in the morning.

BUT....guess what I received on Friday afternoon - a call from the St. Clair Board of Education! They called to say that Monday, August 4th at 6pm that there will be a 'lottery' drawing again for 4 spots for boys and 5 for girls. Something wasn't done correctly the first drawing so they are re-doing those spots. Woo Hoo....we'll be there! THEN....yesterday afternoon I received ANOTHER call from the same lady. She wanted to make sure I received the message. I told her 'yes and that we would be there Monday night'. I knew that there was only 4 spots and the chances of him getting in was going to be slim but at least I know that I can walk away from there if he isn't chosen knowing he has somewhere to go! Well, turns out we'll even have a better chance - ALL 9 SPOTS ARE BEING CHOSEN AGAIN!!! So, tomorrow night - WISH US LUCK! We have a second chance at this opportunity and then only reason I am willing to go back and do this, is that the Odenville Pre-K is a free public school grant and Grace Presbyterian costs us. I know that if he isn't chosen, he will go to Grace and we are fine with that but nothing hurts us from trying again for the Odenville one. Keep your fingers crossed for us and those prayers coming!

Another quick note, Courtney meets her teacher today. She starts school on Thursday and is getting somewhat excited. Hopefully after today, she'll be more but since she is in a different building, it's something new to her and looks nothing like the elementary school. At least, she'll know the cafeteria well - they share the same one.

Ok - this has been an extremely long post and I have left off something very important to me. So, if you are still with me, please pray for my Nanny. She is recovering from a procedure she had done Monday and is still weak. It was truly a scare that I can say, I wasn't ready for at all. I'm hoping in the next couple of weeks, I'll be able to visit with her without the kids (I want her stronger before taking them) and then after a while, take them to see her. I know Courtney was nervous and kept making sure I was ok with what was going on - she wants to visit her too but understands that Nanny comes first and she'll wait until she is 'up for the visit'.

We made it!

Well, it was to say the least a very interesting road trip on Thursday. Even though we gave Biscuit some medicine, she still got car sick (just waited until 130 miles into the trip to do it) THREE times...LOL! Thankfully Jason prepared the car very well with towels and we made several Biscuit stops. We even decided about 5pm to go ahead and drive through to Jason's parents to make sure we didn't have to go through it all again on Saturday. Doing for 2 days of travel was much better than 3! We are going to have to get some extra inexpensive towels to make the trip home.

We just relaxed yesterday and today, Jason is playing golf (still as I type this) with his parents and brother Mike. Then we'll adventure over to my parents this afternoon and spend some time with them. Hopefully we'll also get to see Mellan and Richard too :o) I haven't even taken out my camera for pictures - I'm slacking.

Anyways, that's all that is happening here.

Vacation!!!

Yes, you read that right - we are going on trip!!! We will be leaving a little later today (around 1pm or earlier) and making our way to Florida. We plan on returning next Saturday evening. Jason and I are actually taking a "mini vacation" within our trip :o) The kids (including Biscuit) will be at Gramma and Grandpa's house for 2 nights. Nothing fancy for us - just the beach.

CJ is all excited about going!! Jason will get to see his brother Mike for the first time in forever...LOL They are actually going to play golf Sunday morning. Sunday afternoon we'll adventure over to my parent's for a visit. Either Thursday or Friday, we plan on taking the kids to Disney since CJ wants to go so badly! Hopefully he'll be able to meet Lightning McQueen and Mater (if they still have that parade). That would just make his day.

Since Courtney went back to Florida with Jason's parents last Saturday - it'll just be the 4 of us in the car down and then all 5 of us on the way home. Courtney is really enjoying her time down there and spending a lot of it with her cousin Madisen! They get along so well and I'm glad she gets that quality time with her!

Anyways, off to finish up packing things for Biscuit. It'll be an adventure since she gets car sick but we have medicines to give her - a BIG BONUS!!