Trying on the Halloween garb...

Two nights ago, we tried the Halloween costumes on the boys. Will wanted to be a Star Wars Star Trooper and Xan is a Lion. And more of a Cowardly Lion, at this point. He was not a big fan for Will's costume or his own, after seeing Will's "scary" mask.



"Will no scare me, Will no scare me!" he kept shouting at his brother. Something tells me Halloween is going to be interesting this year.

Tonight was Will's school Open House. We attended, although there was standing room outside only by the time we got there. According to Mrs. Perry, there was nothing too ezxciting said by the Superintendent, just to want to see if there was any flooding or high-wind advsories that might have school cancelled for tomorrow. While Ike will miss us, we are scheduled to have some kind of downpour late this evening and the winds are around 20 mph right now, with stronger gusts.

We also toured Will's classroom where his teacher said he is a model student with one exception - he likes to run into the classroom and JUMP in front of people (especially girls) in the middle of the classroom. They have a penny system, where each child has 10 pennies at the beginning of the week and gets them taken or earned back as their behavior dictates. He currently has 8 pennies for this week, the lowest he has had since the start of school, but Ms. Perry does not seem concerned - she said the kids are getting more confortable with her and her surroundings. We do have teacher-parent conferences on Oct. 6. Tonight she also gave the kids a cute package with the following items and this note:

Toothpick: Pick the good in ALL, including yourself
LifeSaver: You can come to any adult if you need help
Band-Aid: To heal hurt feelings, either yours or a friend
Smarties: Everyone in our class will learn and is getting smarter every day
Eraser: We all make mistakes. That's OK; we learn by our mistakes
Hugs (from Hearshey's): Everyone needs a hiug from time to time
Gum: Stick together and work as a team

Cute idea ...

After the Open House, we went to the neighborhood ice cream parlor, Hershey's, and had ice cream. The boys were in bed by 7:30 - no protests, poor guys! The 6:45 a.m. bus stop really makes its mark by the end of the week!

Anyhow, as for Rodney, he is appalled that I put his medical info here, on the blog, and has asked me not to print anymore, that he will call home and let them know what is going on. Suffice it to say that he has nothing major wrong with him at this time, and is still going in for more previously planned tests next week.

As for me, I think I have finally caught up on my sleep. The hazy feeling has gone away and I am getting a lot done. I have been spending some time with the dogs, especially Slade, who has good days and bad ones. Today was a good one and he was excited to get his piece of meat stuffed with his three pills (heart, dieretic and hypothyroid) and ready to play with Rodney afterwards. The poor thing needs to eat more, he's skin and bones, but as long as he's got his joie de virve (or however you spell that French phrase) we'll keep him around.




Rodney tolerates me allowing Slade in to sleep on the floor of my scrap room while I work, although Slade makes sure Rodney is OK with it (follows him around until Rodney pats him) before he can settle down. Rodney can be such a tyrant, LOL...

Tomorrow night we have plans to go see the Star Wars cartoon (Will has been begging ot see it and hopefully it is still out) and have popcorn for supper. Again, Rodney is appalled with this idea, but I guess I am a more liberal parent and figure that junk food for supper once in a awhile won't hurt... everything in moderation, right? And Will's first soccer game is Saturday, so I am sure I will have some pictures of that.

Finally home and the cousins

Whew! After being away from home for 2 weeks, I am finally home and well-rested! The past two weeks flew by in a whirl and I am pleased to say that both events went very well. If you care to see more about the San Diego Expo and Creative Escape, please click this link to my scrap blog.

The boys have grown at least an inch since I left. Will showed me the hole where his second tooth is no longer there. Xan's vocabulary has expanded and he can now speak in nearly full sentences, adding in some slang phrases as necessary. Very funny. No more baby boy!

Rodney held down the fort quite well while I was gone. He is having some CT Scans, etc., done in the next couple of weeks to find out the root of his stomach ailments that have affected him for the past two years or so. Hopefully they will find out what's wrong and fix it.

I desperately needed to catch up on my sleep during my whirlwind two weeks on the Wesat Coast and slept for more than 12 hours last night (and this morning!). I am feeling much better, although my ears are still all plugged up from the flight.

I have also gotten some great photos of our Illinois cousins. Well, actually, Drew, who will be 1 this month, is in Tucson, AZ, but Lauren is still in Pike County, and these are photos of her first day of dance class, compliments of Aunt Vicky. Lauren looks thrilled!




Drew's Mom, Rodney's cousin Katie, took these and said Drew is getting into EVERYTHING... good for him! I think he looks an awful lot like Uncle Jim...

Will lost another tooth!

Will lost his second tooth at school today! Ms. Perry put it in a cute tooth necklace and sent it home. Daddy assured Will that the Tooth Fairy would come and leave him another $1 under his pillow tonight ...

I am in Califoria, so I missed it, but hopefully I will be there for missing tooth #3! I'm betting on a big front tooth!

Xan's first day of preschool

While Will has had the same affects on his tummy as his father did whenever school was mentioned (nausea, tears, pleas for a reprieve), Xan's tearful reaction to preschool was a little less expected.

The night before, Xan was all ready for school. We ran over to Wal-mart and he picked out his own lunch box, a soccer ball-shaped one, and had to be told that he did not get to ride the bus like Will. But once we stepped through the classroom door the next morning, the excitement was all over and he was trying to climb up my legs. Teachers Miss Mercedes and Miss Christy tried to bond with him, but it took my (and Grandma Nancy's) leaving to get him to calm down. After I took Grandma to the airport for her flight back to SoCal, I went back to opeek at Xan through the little classroom window. He was eating string cheese and drinking apple juice. No nausea there!

The remnants of Fay

While Hurricane/Tropical Storm/Tropical Depression Fay did not wreak as much havoc on Pensacola (thank goodness) as it did on other parts of the state, there was still plenty of rain. But by Sunday, most of it had cleared and we decided to head off to the beach again - Will had not been able to go the first time, and neither had Rodney. Rodney is not a big fan of the beach, but I figured he could handle the sand for half an hour.

Fay had washed up hundreds of jellyfish and seashells, many of which were pretty badly beaten up and destroyed - both the shells and jellyfish. We watched storm clouds practically whiz by and around us, but we didn't really see the affects ourselves.

Blue Angels in my Backyard!

I took these photos while standing in my backyard in my PJs. That is how close the Navy's Blue Angels are to my house when they practice each Tuesday and Wednesday from 8:15-9:15 a.m. each week they are in town. So, no fighting the crowds on the beach or airstrip... I have my own front row seat!

Lambert's - Home of Throwed Rolls!

We drove the half-hour to Foley, AL, so that we could all enjoy the HUGE amount of tasty grub this family-run restaurant has to offer. Lambert's Cafe not only has the gimmick of the Throwed Rolls, but it backs it up with great-tasting food.

Those in attendance: Grandma nancy, Grandma Peggy, Grandpa Paul, Jessica, Rodney, Will, Xa, Rodney's friend Jesse, his wife Nicole, and her friend Paige. We all left overfilled.

At the Beach Wednesday

Our trip to the Post Office ran a little longer than expected. We took a detour to Perdido Key, about six miles from my house, to investigate the local beaches. The Grandma's Xan and I had a great time for about half an hour. Well, actually, Xan did not have a good time until the last 15 minites or so, having screamed and cried about not wanting to be in the warm Gulf water. You can see how he changed his mind.

Then we had lunch at a tasty local place, the Shrimp Basket, having seen a banner pulled by a plane announcing all you can eat shrimp for $9.99! Yum!

First Day of School for Will!

It was an early morning for the whole family today, everyone was up by 6 a.m. There were some nerves for Will, he did not eat much all day until our roast beef dinner, and Grandma Nancy, who is the boys' roommate, heard Will talking in his sleep:
"But I already read 'Cat in the Hat.'"
A little later:
"I AM standing in line."
And in the wee hours of the morning, he ended up crawling into bed with her.

But he was quite brave and excited about his new school, class and teacher, Ms. Perry, this morning. He was one of the first kids to arrive in his classroom and Mrs. Perry was kind enough to pose for a photo for this scrapbooker.




He also went to the Pensacola version of TLC after-school care, Childhood Dreams, where the teachers there said he adjusted very well to the transition.

Xan insisted he was going to school, too, and I had to help him find is "pack-pack" in the play room. Once he had that, he was ready to roll!

Will came home saying he liked Lance, the kid who sits next to him in class. He also said, very diplomatically, "I don't mean this in a mean way or anything, but my teacher, well, she was a little grouchy." This got a big laugh from Grandma Peggy, the retired elementary school teacher, who said that you have to be a bit tough the first day and then soften up later - it's harder to go the other direction. I'll take her word for it.

While Will was school, Xan got enrolled in Blue Angel Early Learning Center preschool. He will start next Monday, so we will have photos of that. Today, the grandparents and Xan got a tour of the school and he was very impressed by the variety of toys available in each of the classrooms we visited. Then, it was back home until time to pick Will up later in the afternoon. Grandpa Paul worked on shelves in the garage. The grandmas watched movies, took walks and chatted. Xan played, ate lunch and then took a 2-hour nap. I took a 2-hour nap, too... I am sorry but 6 a.m. is just too early for this night owl. I was falling asleep at my computer at 10 a.m.!

Before we picked up Will, I took the grandmas on a brief drive through the Naval Air Station Pensacola, stopping at Rodney's work, which is the Air Traffic Control school. Rodney's friend Jesse was sweet about showing us around and explaining how everything was run and organized. I, personally, want to try my hand at the simulators! Big video games... fun stuff!



Once dinner was over, before we got to dessert, Will asked to be excused from the table. By the time we were done with dessert, Will was asleep on the couch, wrapped in his favorite blanket. Poor kid! It was barley 7:30 p.m., but off to bed to begin the day again!

The Boys Come Home!

Peggy and Paul were kind enough to drive the boys down from Illinois, just in time for Will to start school. They arrived around 3 p.m. to a hot and humid Pensacola, but I don't think the kids noticed.

After a very short tour of the house, the boys were waylaid by all of their toys in the playroom.



Will sought out his Legos and Xan immediately dug out the tractors. Eager to show them the backyard, I had to drag them away from the toys. But once they saw what was outside, the play room was forgotten for awhile. While the spa and swingset were nice, both were WAYYYY more excited about the battery-operated ride-on tractor.




Especially Xan, who, as anyone who has spent a moment of time with his recently would guess, started shouting, "My drive! My drive!" And drive he did! While Will did not take to the tractor at all, Xan immediately figured out how to press the accelerator with his right foot and steer. He was even working on shifting to reverse. We might have another Mario Andretti on our hands....

Will was also quick to show me the hole in his mouth where a tooth had once been.



The Tooth Fairy came and left him $1... very exciting! We also had our first dinner in the new dining room, which was nice.




The boys are still getting lost in the house, turning where the front door is to go to the bathroom or wondering where in the laundry room I have disappeared to when I am, in fact, in my bedroom, one door to the right. But they've now been here a couple of days and have managed to figure out the important things: Where the play room is and how to get out to the backyard.

"Rodney's Evolution"

This is the title of the album I created at Creating Keepsakes University-Provo for Rodney last week. I finally finished it Friday evening, journaling and all, and am very pleased by the way it turned out. He got a real kick out of it, laughed a lot and had plenty of stories to tell about the memories the album had reminded him of. A HUGE thanks to Jill for helping get the comments from the family and for sending hers in so quickly. Aunt Vicky, thanks for taking the time to respond. And Aunt Sam, Peggy, Grandma and Grandpa, thank you for taking the time to ponder Rodney's existance for the book. It really means a lot to him.

Will lost his first tooth!

Saturday afternoon Will was in Grandma Peggy's basement with cousin Kara, both of them furioiusly wiggling their loose teeth in the hopes one would fall out. Will aparently one, yanking out his own tooth and rushing up the stairs to show the family. (I never did that, he must be much better with medical stuff than I am!). I was in Utah and got the excited phone call; Daddy was in Florida and got the excited phone call; Grand,ma Nancy and Grandpa Mark were in California and got the excited phone call. And then, the Tooth Fairy came that night,m took the tooth and exchanged it for a dollar. Will could not be more than thrilled and is working on his next loose tooth!

Grandma Peggy and Grandpa Paul will be be driving the boys to Pensacola Friday and Saturday, just in time to start school. I went to Pleasant Grove's school orientation today and met Will's teacher, Ms. Perry. She seems nice and come from a educational family, too - her mom has been a teacher for years. The really cool thing is that Will's class only has 14 kids in it right now, but wonlt ever have more than 18. Hooray for smaller class sizes!

Grandma Nancy decided at the last minute to fly out for Will's first day of school, so she will be here tomorrow evening. It will be quite a group of people taking Will to school the first day... then he will have to learn to ride the bus! School starts REALLY early here, which is not good for this night owl Mom. They have to be in their seats by 7:30 a.m.! The bus picks Will up a few houses down from ours at 6:45 a.m. good thing he's an early riser! School is over at 2 p.m., but he will be going to on-site after school care.

Xan is still on the waiting list for Blue Angel preschool and I hope to hear something soon, especially since Rodney will need help with the boys while I am at the scrap events in CA and AZ in a couple of weeks. Hopefully things will work out!