First and Second Grade School Program

I just love school programs. I thought they were fun when I was a kid and now I get to sit in the audience and grin like my kid just performed an Oscar Award winning performance!!
Jayce is in a combined first and second grade classroom, there are three at his school. This year the school theme has been about Fish. They also learn French at his school, so the performance was peppered with French - from phrases to songs. Jayce gave the introduction. So here are some cute pics of the event, you can see Jayce's personality in some of them.

"Jayce, smile...."

"Seriously, smile for me...."

I have at least 5 of these. I guess this is the new smile!!

Happy Be-lated!!

Since I was stuck in a car driving on his actual Birthday I couldn't post a Birthday post for him.

Happy Birthday Jason!!

This is one of the best days of the whole year. Just think if this special day had not happened - I would not have all the wonderful things in my life that I do. I am very grateful. You are one amazing guy - you can fix anything, you can ride horses, you can train horses, mend fence, wrestle cattle, hunt, cook, get accepted to Dental school, get good grades, do beautiful dentistry, make furniture just to my liking, quiet all my fears, and kiss away my tears. I love you and hope you had a good one!!

The Ride Home

On the ride home we decided to stop at Mount Rushmore. That way we can check it off our to do list. Except we got there before it opened so we couldn't go into the museum. So if all you do is stare at it, does it count? The kids got to run around after all night in the car driving.

Spring Break - Marathon!!

Spring Break is probably one of the cruelest school vacations ever. It is way too short and just an exercise in staying motivated. We spent our scanty 7 days (stretched to 10) visiting family.
We left Milwaukee around 8pm on Saturday the 7 .
This was after Jason had spent the day facing his grueling CRDTS Exam (which he passed with flying colors - I think his low score was a 96 - smart and talented men are sexy!!).
We then drove straight through to Idaho, no breakfast, no lunch, no dinner, only potty breaks. We got there about 10pm on Sunday the 8. The kids were so great and easy in the car.


Jason spent the next few days finishing the Damascus Steel Knife I had given him for Christmas. We hung out and made memories. For my Brother-in-Laws' birthday dinner my mom fixed Romanian food - which was yummy. For Jason's birthday dinner we tried our hand at Sushi - really California Rolls. I thought the rice turned out a little too sweet.





After a few days we headed to Utah to visit the Geary's. We celebrated Jason's Birthday again (spoiled much?!?). We hung out, Jenny and Stacey helped entertain the kids - yeah for nieces.

This is a picture of Grahm just before dinner was served. When you are starving and waiting what else would you do?





After we had worn out our welcome we jumped back in the car and headed to Idaho - cuz' I always forget something. Pillows are very important (and I ended up forgetting my sweatshirt in Utah, too.). After eating dinner in Idaho we really headed home.

The Kitchen finished!

 

Milwaukee Renovation Revisted!!

I thought I would spend the next few posts - showing how far we have come. This is the kitchen. These pictures were taken during the home inspection (so the stuff is not mine!!!)

If You Really Want To Get Freaked Out, Open These Up and Zoom In!!!


You will see grease on the walls, massive spider webs a half century old and caked with grease covering the walls and corner, Cockroach poop and if you are really lucky you might even see a cockroach.
















In case you where wondering. Once we realized our new home was Roach infested and covered with roach poop, I decided I could not use that kitchen - no matter how hard I scrubbed. So I politely and ever so gently asked Jason if we could please just throw it all away.
Next time see what it looks like now!!

Milwaukee Renovation Revisited!!

We officially listed the house last night or this morning (I know bad timing with the economy). We now have a sign out front. Jason graduates in May and will be active duty in the Navy again. We still can not believe it has been 4 years. We have loved this house and I wanted to share how far we have come.

We purchased this house in May of 2005. In 2005 Grahm was 6 months old, Jayce was 3, Jason had just finished 2 years of service in the Navy in Great Lakes, IL. I was enjoying the extreme weight loss thanks to breastfeeding. Jason and I had less wrinkles, less grey hair (in Jason's case - maybe a few more), and a few less aches and pains.

Here is the house in April of 2005!














Here is part way through - small improvement. May of 2006!!



















Here is what the house looks like now, October 2008!! Wowee - super cute!!



















If you think that is impressive, you should see the backyard!! This is actually during the major part of renovation. We were playing hillbilly at this time. These pictures are from June of 2005. We had no kitchen (not even a kitchen sink), no bathroom (there was a laundry sink and a toilet in the basement - not a favorite place of mine), and no laundry facilities (Jason had not hooked up the water heater yet). This is also before we ordered the dumpster for all the yucky crap we were hauling out.















So a quick recap of what happened to the exterior of the house in the past 4 years!!

Took off plastic porch cover, new roof, poured concrete (mixed one bag at time - very dry- by me) along the south side of the house and driveway, sided the garage to match (it was brown), retaining wall, fence, garden fence, raspberry plants, privacy bushes, repainted some of the exterior trim, painted porch and basement, yanked out overgrown bushes in front, laid sod, planted perennials, swing set... More pictures to come of the backyard all done.

Cutest Pictures of Charlotte!!!

My friend Shalet took some beautiful pictures of Charlotte for her 1 year old pictures, you gotta document it. Go here to check them out. Here is a sneak peak.

Now to pick!! What to print, what to do, what to do?