Suddenly Sandy

And Scotty LOVES it. He DID manage to get sick his very first week in school, but he didn't get sick enough to miss any school and he's just about over it. Yay!

Here are just a few highlights from the first two weeks:

*Day 1: I put him on the bus and then drove to the school to meet him and walk him to class...he walked in the door, had already made a friend! I walked them to the cafeteria where their teacher meets them and he told me I could go. Yay Scotty! I was a little teary eyed, but proud. I gave him a big hug and walked back to his classroom to wait where he couldn't see me and make sure he made it in okay. Good thing! He and his new friend were visiting and didn't follow their teacher to the classroom. It was SO chaotic. I walked quickly to the cafeteria and walked them both back to class where they settled in quite nicely. At this point I wasn't sure his friend was in that class, so I was worried all day I left him in the wrong class! Fortunately it was the right class...he and Scotty are buddies now and the class clowns. *sigh*

*Scotty and his new friend feed off each other in class and both got time outs the first week for talking when they weren't supposed to. Oops! AND Scotty lost his lunchbox the very first day. Turned out to be a good thing, I sent an email to his teacher to ask where the lost and found was and we've been e-mailing back and forth ever since. I love her!

*Last week Scotty brought home a "warm fuzzy" that he got for good behavior. Yay! May I just say that these warm fuzzies are genius? They're the little poof balls that you get at the craft store, but the kids just love them!

*He IS quite upset that his table group didn't get a clip one day. You get a clip for listening, putting your things away, following directions, etc. At the end of the week the table group with the most clips gets to pick out a prize from the treasure chest. Again,genius.

*I learned all about slips too. There's one that goes to the office, one that goes home with you and another one that I can't remember where it goes. Sounds like what we called "white slips" when I was in school...I think we also called them "pink slips". I can't remember. I was worried he did something wrong and that's why he knew about them. Turns out the kid behind him in line ran and slammed into Scotty while in line and got in trouble when he wouldn't stop. Thank goodness it wasn't Scotty!

*He told me last night he was quite sad his group didn't have many clips. He really wants a pride award. You cannot ask for a pride award though. I'm still not sure what exactly it is...sounds like a piece of paper with his name on it? Whatever, he wants one and is trying REALLY hard to behave so he gets one.

*Yesterday he came home and told me that something bad happened in his class after recess. He was so serious I was worried. Apparently they just got a new fish tank and goldfish in their class yesterday. It's on a half circle table. HIS story is that he and two of his friends were standing there looking at the fish. One of his friends grabbed the tank and shook it, it got knocked over and the fish couldn't breath and the cubbies got all wet. I talked to his teacher last night at the PTA meeting and she said it wasn't Scotty's fault at all, the tank got knocked over in the excitement after recess. Phew!

*Speaking of PTA...I joined. I knew I would, but I didn't think I'd be SUPER involved. Well, I went to the very first meeting last night and something happened. I still don't know if it's good or bad. I didn't mean to, but I did. I volunteered to be on the board. I KNOW! Right? I hate socializing. I'm not one of those perky happy people all the time. I can fake it when I need to, but I prefer to be left alone. I LOVE the PTA president, she's a blast. During the meeting she mentioned two board positions that needed to be filled. One of them was membership coordinator or something like that. All I heard was "data entry". Right up my alley! So...yep, I'm going to be on the PTA board. I'm a little scared.

I'm sure there will be many more stories to come...both school stories and PTA stories...and just the chaos that is my life now that school has started. I've yet to enjoy a cup of coffee and read my book since he started. I've only been totally kid free three days counting today...and he's been in school 9 days now! AND I picked up an extra day with Ila...so I'll only be kid-free two days a week. One of which is his half day. Poop.

I'm a HORRIBLE procrastinator. I really am. I leave things FOREVER. I tend to bury my head in the sand and pretend I have all the time in the world. Or I get distracted with other things and just put things off a lot longer than I should. Example: My Blog. This summer has been crazy. I've been watching my niece quite a bit (at least 2 days a week, sometimes 4!) This is Scotty's last summer before school. He starts Kindergarten tomorrow! And? I just have a lot on my plate. Financially, things are a little dicey. Emotionally, the same. I get in a spiral and can't seem to get out. So I just make lists...lots and lots of lists. I try to check things off my list, that usually cheers me up. Unfortunately, the blog rarely makes it on the list. Hopefully once school starts I can get myself on a regular schedule. I doubt it, but I'm hopeful

Another plus with school starting? The ability to *maybe* find another job. I'm not sure how it would work with Scotty's school schedule, but I'm willing to try. Either that OR figure out how the heck to ask my sister for a raise. I've been watching the niece for over a year and I clean and do all the laundry. I don't know what a reasonable rate is for all that, but I need to research it and decide if I need to ask for a raise, or find something on top of watching my niece OR just something else. I don't know. Here's to hoping the beginning of the school year is the beginning of good things for our family

I'm not making promises to keep the blog updated...but hopefully I will

Happy 5th Birthday to the coolest kid I know!

Born 6/29/2007 at 9:31 am

9 lbs 9 oz

Today? Around 55 lbs and 4 ft tall!

Scotty, you keep us on our toes. You ask questions all day long and know more about how things work than your mom does. You drive me bonkers, but you make me laugh constantly. You're a helper and a caretaker. I'm excited for what the next year will bring. Summer camp. Kindergarten. New friends and experiences. You're going to shine! I don't know how we got so lucky, but don't ever change. You're absolutely perfect just the way you are.

My last post was at the end of January? I didn't think it had been that long! It's been crazy busy around here lately. I admit part of it has been procrastination on my part. I have had very little to say and not many pictures to post, so I haven't even been doing Wordless Wednesday. What have I been doing?

*I've been watching my niece 2 days a week minimum. I've been picking up extra days whenever she needs me to. May I was 3 days a week for the most part because Nana was on vacation. Baby Ila is almost 2...so it's been chaotic. Between her and Scotty, my days are long and seems like I'm constantly battling SOMEONE. BUT we also have our really good and fun days, so it's worth it. Yesterday Scotty pulled her onto the couch and read a book to her. It was the cutest thing ever

*I can't remember if I mentioned a while back, but I was helping as much as I could with my brother in law's nieces. His sister was battling cancer and at times needed help with the girls so she could go to appointments. She had a calendar online where you could sign up to help with the girls, take her to appointments, prep food, etc. I also gave her my number for last minute calls, Scotty and the girls get along really well. Unfortunately at the end of May she lost her battle. It's been rough. I had only started to get really close to her over the last year, but she was an amazing person. It's just so unfair. SO that's something else that's been going on around here.

*What else...life. Just...life. Everday things. Battling to stay on top of the bills. Health. Trying to drum up business so we can stay on top of everything.

*Scotty keeps us on our toes constantly. I went a little overboard and crazy trying to make his birthday perfect. I finally asked my sisters to help and they took over so I could focus on cake and cake pops. He had SO MUCH FUN! All the kids left having meltdowns...sign of a good party, right? Nobody wanting to leave?

*And a HUGE thing? Scotty's starting kindergarten next year! I picked up the registration paperwork, brought him to his doctor within a day or two (no shots for him, one for me!) and then we went to turn in the paperwork. The little ham dressed up in his nice slacks and a sweater from Christmas, slicked back his hair and he was ready to go! He was a little upset I wasn't leaving him there...I don't think he's going to have any trouble when September rolls around and it's time to start school He loves to learn and make new friends.

*Coming up...Summer camp next week! Since he's never really been away from me or another family member, we're just doing day camp...and short days. 3 hours 3 of the days, then the 4th day is a field trip and will be a little longer. He's excited for that! And the following week we get to go to the cabin! I'm so excited to get away and unplug and unwind for a bit.

Alright, I think that about sums up what we've been doing all this time. I'm hoping once his birthday is out of the way and I get back into a routine I can stay on top of this blog! If nothing else I can setup a temporary routine and get back to it for real when he starts school...I think I'm going to have a harder time with it than he is! Heck, baby Ila will be the miserable one...I'm not nearly as much fun as her cousin!

Alright, I'll start with a few pictures and then do a post on where the heck I've been since January!

Scotty and I went to the Oregon coast with all my sisters for my birthday:

We've also been spending a LOT of time with Ila, I've been picking up extra days on top of the 2 a week I have her:

AND someone is turning 5 on Friday! We had his birthday party last weekend due to a funeral I'm attending this weekend.

Snow finally hit around here! I don't drive in it (no 4WD or snow tires on the minivan!) so we were stuck for over a week! Thankfully we picked up a snowsuit and boots for Scotty a week or so before, and a sled last winter after the one snow we had. This snowstorm was pretty crazy. Lots of people around us were without power for days (thankfully we never lost power). We had freezing rain on top of the snow. I am horrible with measurements, but I'll go out on a limb and say we had maybe 6 inches at our house? I know people that had 12 inches or more (my dad!). Thankfully I had done all my grocery shopping Thursday, the storm hit Sunday and we just hunkered down. Scotty LOVED the snow

For more Wordless Wednesday visit Aleks at Busy Working Mama!

"I'm having a party with my friends Mom!"

For more Wordless Wednesday head over to Busy Working Mama!

I hope you enjoyed the Holidays! We had 4 days full of get-togethers...and that's not counting the week or two of prep beforehand! Needless to say, I'm ready for a vacation!

It started on Friday with the Christmas Boat. Then Saturday we had Christmas Eve with my Mom's side of the family at my sisters...then home to do dinner with my brother in law. Sunday was Christmas morning just us, then afternoon at my sisters to celebrate with my dad's side. Monday was brunch with my husband's biological family...the most fun and I forgot to take pictures!

Happy Holidays! I've been hanging with these two cute kiddos for the past few weeks on Monday/Tuesday...then frantically trying to cram in all the holiday festivities and baking! This week we have something planned EVERY SINGLE DAY! The holidays are pure craziness around here...but these two make it so much fun! Scotty is finally into Christmas and Ila is just a nut and loves everything that Scotty does Hope you are ready for the holidays, they're fast approaching whether we're ready or not!

I asked Scotty if I could take his picture for our Christmas letter a few days ago...and he picked a zillion different places to pose! I love it Happy Holidays!

For more Wordless Wednesday visit Aleks at Busy Working Mama!