Hurray For Friday!!!!!

I haven't appreciated Friday for quite awhile. All of us had a week of adjustments:

Noah: First grade is a lot more work than kindergarten was. Getting up to alarm, eating breakfast fast enough to be to school on time, trying VERY HARD to be cheerful when he is half asleep in the morning, and learning ALL the rules of his new class.

Aaron: First days of preschool. Learning to stand in a line with a class, follow all directions from a teacher for three hours every day, using the bathroom completely unattended, staying out of big brother's way in the morning when he is grumpy from waking up too early.

Me: Oh, where to start...Getting up at 6:45, getting two boys fed and out the door, juggling two take home folders every day, lunches made, clothes washed, and most importantly, learning what it is like to have the house EMPTY for three full hours most of the days of the week.

Steve: Having to deal with three other people in his way in the mornings while he is getting ready for work...probably the biggest adjustment of the week.

So, needless to say, we all are looking forward to the weekend. It will not be stress free...the hand bells first performance is this Sunday. I will hopefully post the performance on my site on Monday. but it is a much needed break for everyone before the rat race starts again on Monday. I wish everyone a safe and relaxing weekend.

Thursday Thirteen: While the Boys Were Gone...

Thirteen things I got done in the three hours that I had to myself while Aaron and Noah were both at school on Wednesday. All of these things seem to be "little" things that would be simple to achieve. However, it is amazing how much more thought process things take when there are little boys fighting, I mean playing, around you.

Not in order, this morning I had time to:

1. Call Suzuki Corporation about replacement of tone chimes for church

2. Take more than five minutes to shower, dry, and curl my hair

3. Change pictures in the frames on the walls.

4. Re-sort and distribute ALL of the children's books from the living room: Aaron's room, Noah's room, garage sale

5. Run and unload the dishwasher (Steve does all the loading...I told you he was a saint)

6. Fold all clothes in the living room and put in respective rooms, followed by two more loads of laundry washed, dried and put away

7. Get bio written for church website and emailed to proper person

8. Clean out both litter boxes

9. Run sprinkler in both front and back yards

10. Find missing folder from preschool that the teacher yelled at me for when I dropped Aaron off this morning

11. Fill out paperwork for the government who had the wrong social security number for one of my payroll tax forms

12. Call the church to fix mistake of above said forms

13. Make VERY long list of everything that needs to be accomplished tomorrow during this precious three hour window of time.

I am hoping that I can get things in the house caught up, then I may be able to tackle some of the bigger projects I had hoped to accomplish this fall.

Wordless Wednesday: First Days of School

Following suit with the rest of the blogosphere...

Noah, preschool 2006


















Noah, Kindergarten, 2007



















Noah, 1st grade, 2008

















Aaron, preschool, 2008


















Excited brothers, this morning

They Were Ready...

But I'm not sure I was. We decided to have a little Back to School party for the boys last night as a send off to school this morning. Noah made a cake and I got them each a little "buddy" to keep in their bags for the first day of school.














As most people who read my blog last year know, we struggled a little with behavior with Noah in Kindergarten. But also as I have mentioned so many times, he grew up SO MUCH this summer and I knew he was ready to go back. I, however, not so much. I'm not ready for him to be gone every day, all day as a big first grader. I console myself knowing that I can be the lunch mom on Fridays this year. I tried it once last year and Noah was so poorly behaved that i was not able to be in the classroom for the rest of the year. I am hoping for better things this year. I guess we'll see this Friday.

Well, he walked right into school and found his locker.



















He was very excited that the locker next to his belonged to his "girlfriend" from last year, assuring him that she would be back this year. We were a little worried that she would change schools.

He then proceeded to walk into his classroom and sit quietly at a desk














and was still sitting there when I left. I am confident that it is going to be a great year for him.

And then there was Aaron. There was never a kid more needing to go to school. He has been wanting to ever since Noah went to preschool two years ago. So this morning was his turn.




















When we got to school, his teacher had a little scavenger hunt for him to do with me to acquaint himself with the classroom, which included finding his name tag



















building a tower with blocks














coloring a bag for show and tell















eating breakfast














and learning to stand in line through the halls (notice who the line leader is)














Now, I have to go pick up my big preschooler and bring him home to pretend that he's my little boy again, at least until tomorrow morning when we do it again.

Happy "Labor" Day

Summer at Summer's Nook did a fun "Labor" Day post that I thought would be fun. Here's how it goes:

How long were your labors?
Both boys were about 7 and a half hours

How Did you know you were in labor?
Noah- My water broke at Walmart on the way to the fireworks
Aaron- My water broke at the library about an hour after my doctor "stripped the membranes". My neighbor was shocked when I took Noah over there so I could drive myself to the hospital. I knew I had a few hours before things were really going to get rockin'.

Where and how did you deliver?
Both boys were vaginal with IV drugs (I was scared of an epidural both times around). Aaron's was much more dramatic but I'll share that in October. They were both at the same hospital that has now been demolished. We went and watched some demo one day and I was actually a little sad.

Birth Stats?
Noah 7 lbs 6 ounces at 4:33 AM, 2 weeks early
Aaron 8 lbs 1 ounce at 7:01 PM, 2 days late
Both were 20 inches long

Happy Labor Day and let me know if you do this one.