New Rosebush

This is our new Marilyn Monroe rosebush that Mike bought for our backyard. It's got an orange-y/coral-y color to it. Very different - but smells absolutely divine!

The kids have both been sick - going back to the doctor in about an hour to have her recheck both of them. They still sound horrible - but at least Zachary is sleeping through the night. Katie is not - which means, I am not. And gee, our HOA garage sale is day after tomorrow - and of course, I'm coordinating it. Although, with 2 sick kids - not much is coordinated this year! Oh well, it's in the newspaper, listed on line and I've got a few signs made up to stick around town. Nothing like a very basic sale.

What a week!

Wow! Last week was just mind-bogglingly busy. Katie had her first dance recital - hence the mountain of photos. For her recital she had to have a bathrobe to put over her costume - an absolute requirement. Try finding a child's bathrobe in May - yeah, not gonna happen. But, like a good mommy who would really rather not sew, I searched EVERY SINGLE store in town - to no avail. I ended up having to make her a robe on Monday for her rehearsal on Tuesday - nothing like waiting until the last minute to tell us she had to have one - but that's a different story. Anyway, for her recital, the dance studio requires that all parents either volunteer or pay a $250 "opt-out" fee. I decided that paying that fee was ridiculous (big mistake!) and so I volunteered. I was selected (after having to submit pieces of my work) to be one of the photographers. That meant 2 days of shooting the rehearsal - lucky for me, Katie had her Preschool Graduation ceremony on the last day of rehearsal - so I was able to leave after 2 hours of shooting to attend that. Of course, it didn't mean I got home any earlier, or that I wasn't shooting a blue-million photos (lord, are my shoulders tired!)! Anyway, after 2 days of volunteering (and 1,400 photos later), then came 2 days of the actual recital - so we're at 4 days of the week just for this *&%* recital (Tuesday-Friday). Then Zachary had an 8am flag football game on Saturday - not to mention the field trip to the zoo on Tuesday during the week for school. Then we finally got him into the accelerated program at school and that brought a host of issues during the week. UGH! I'm ready for some good old-fashioned sleep. But that's not going to happen as I'm coordinating the HOA garage sale which is in 2 weeks. Ah well, at least I can clean the crud out of my basement.

A Few More Photos

Just in case you're wondering - a "couple" means 2 - a "few" means MORE than 2! Hence the huge amount of photos! LOLOL!!

As you can see we had some serious fun playing outside - and little Miss Katie has become quite the camera ham! She just loves posing - I'll even catch her standing on her step stool in her bedroom posing in front of the mirror!! Between her serious affection with shoes and clothes - and now makeup (for her dance recital) and nail polish........we're going to be in trouble when she hits those teenage years!!!

As you can see, there are no photos of Zachary. That's because he runs for the hills as soon as he hears the straps on my camera case being undone! These days I have to sneak photos of him when he's not looking. Problem is, he's either gotten better hearing - or I'm making too much noise - cause he can hear me coming and then takes off running. I can hear it when he grows up "Why are there so many photos of Katie - but none of me???" - yep, that's just bound to happen.

4!

This is Katie at her birthday party with her Pirate face! Too funny!!

My sweet little baby is 4! It's a bit beyond belief that the most beautiful and wonderful Mother's Day present I could ever think of (especially since she was 2 weeks overdue) is now 4. She's such a joy. I love everything about my little Katie - even her little temper tantrums and her attitude. Heck, she's so cute when she is being a brat that it takes all I can do not to laugh when I'm scolding her. 9 times out of ten, when Mike has to do it, he ends up cracking up. She just has the sweetest little expression and her eyes just dance most of the day. One of my favorite phrases is "Ok Mama". There is just something about her voice that makes you offer up every bit of love you have to give to her. She's my shopping buddy, my snuggle-bunny, and my housecleaning helper. There's something inside of me that's torn apart because I no longer can call her a toddler - and something else inside of me that is so proud of her. She may not be a toddler anymore, but she will always be my baby!

For her birthday today she got a Barbie, a Barbie convertible (which Zach thinks is the coolest!), and a Barbe big wheel. Hmmmm, sounds like a theme! Mike made her chili for dinner (yeah, weird, but she loves it!) and I made her cupcakes with hot pink icing and sprinkles. When I was a kid, my parents always let us choose what we got to eat for our birthday dinner. Every year it was the same for me - dad's homemade spaghetti and meatballs. How funny that my daughter would want her dad to make her a special dish - guess that apple didn't fall far from the tree! One of these days I've got to get my dad to give up the recipe for those meatballs! I can still taste them - and I still crave them!!

Oh, how God has richly blessed us with such beautiful, intelligent and sweet children!

Another Barn

I go past this barn at least a couple of times a week on my way to shop. It looked pretty cool this winter with the snow.........ok, so maybe for the first 1 or 2 snows and then it was just aggravating to see snow.

Anyway, Mike is doing much better now and we just got the final bills from the pre-surgical testing and our part alone is $800. That's just crazy. The surgical bills haven't even begun to flow in - but I'm guessing we'll hit our "out-of-pocket" maximum this year. Guess this will be the year he gets a bunch of testing done so that it will all be covered 100%! I can't even begin to imagine what it would've cost had we not been insured. So the political waves of insurance still strike a note at our house.

We've been doing a lot of research on schools......yet again.....recently. Zachary apparently is exceptionally bright and should be having advanced work, but his school is giving us the runaround on this issue. 2 teachers and the principal want him to have it, but his kindergarten teacher is against it. The fued is enough to make us look at private school, or changing elementary school. We can do that since it is "school of choice" here - ok, well, we can try to - but will most likely have to get on a waiting list at the school we decide we want him to go to. Probably would have to do that for private as well. ugh......I wish the public school system here was better! This "no child left behind" act has really screwed up this city. Of course, had the city been taking care of it's lower income neighborhood schools to begin with, this would never have become an issue. Now everyone is trying to figure out a solution - and in the meantime, private schools are expanding and growing by the day. Go figure. But why should the public school system care - since they get your tax dollars whether you go to public or private. Just another frustration in a long line of frustrations with this school district.

Big Tree

A great big tree that looked kinda cool!