First Day of Preschool 2009-2010

Today was Jacob's first day of preschool for the 2009-2010 year. I specify the year because he will do 1 more year next year due to his birthday.

Last night we went to the school to meet and greet with Jacob's teacher and see the classroom.

His teacher seems really sweet and the curriculumn looks really good. He has 13 in his class. The unique thing about his class is that they are considered "Young K 4" All this kids in his class turn 4 between Sept 1-Dec 31. So he is not the youngest is a classroom of kids all going to Kindergarten next year. Wish they had that when I was his age! They go at a slightly slower pace than the 4 year old class.

When I picked him up this afternoon he was excited. I asked him what he learned and he told me "I learned about Jesus and that he made the morning and night" he goes to a Christian school so I expect him to come home with lots of Bible stories. He also has a Bible Memory verse to learn each week. It looks neat the way they do it. 1 a week A-Z. Each weeks verse starts with the next letter of the alphabet. They are short verses so hopefully it won't be too difficult. I hope to learn something too!

Well, now I'm off to do MY homework that Jacob brought home (customary 1st day of school papers to fill out ;)

Lazy Summer Day

The Dragonflies were huge!

Waiting. . .

Waiting some more. . .

And more waiting. . . .

This is how most of our day went. Tim had a 3 day weekend and yesterday we decided to take Jacob fishing. After church on Sunday, Tim and Jacob went shopping for gear. Jacob got a little Lightning McQueen fishing pole and tackle box. The tackle box now houses CARS.

Yesterday morning we headed up to Jasper, about 45 min NW of our house. The weather turned cloudy but after an hour the sun came out. I did a good job with the sunblock and luckily no one got burnt or tan!

Jacob lasted about 30 min waiting for something to happen. We got a few little nibbles but after 2 hours nothing. It was just nice to sit in a peaceful setting and enjoy the time none the less.

The fishing area is nice. A big lake with lots of ducks, a nature trail, picnic areas, boat launch (we'll rent a boat next time), and bait shop. As you can see from the above pic, there are some huge bugs too! Luckily they weren't too annoying, just noisy. Often we found a dragonfly on our poles staring at us.

We came home for a late lunch then headed off to our community pool. Lukcily it wasn't crowded. I didn't take the camera but Jacob had a great time. He's getting more relaxed in the water. By the end he was jumping off the side into Tim's arms. We really want to get him into swim lessons. If I cannot find year round one's I'll shoot for next summer making that a priority.

And that was our Monday. Tonight we have orientation a Jacob's school, meet the teacher and classroom. Then tomorrow morning he's off to pre-school.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Why I've been MIA

For back to school! Don't you just love that commercial for school suppies? I used to hate it. On Monday afternoon I had enough of sitting around the house and decided to attempt a shopping day with Jacob. These never go well, I was tempting the fates, but I HAD to get out. So we headed out around 12 and went to this great shopping area called "The Summit." It's about 30 minutes away on the south side of Birmingham. We started our spree with a lunch at Panera. After all, "they have those good foods that little boys like." Jacob tells me this all the time. Then we hit the stores. We needed to get a new backpack since "wheelie" backpacks are not allowed for Jacob's age group at school. We got a cute "preschooler" sized backpack at PB Kids. Mission accomplished? No! I haven't been mall shopping in over a month. We hit up lots of stores and got a first day of school outfit, and some things for the house, and soccer gear. Jacob was great! I think it was the bribe that if was good he would get some Ben & Jerry's ice cream. I have no shame in bribing my kid. He earned his ice cream and by the time all was done we got home around 6pm. I also made a detour though downtown B'ham to scout out UAB and the hospitals.

By the time we got home, I found out my phone stopped working and therefore the internet wasn't working. I called AT&T and of course got a recording because you cannot talk to a live person anymore. Apparently some main line in the area was out and the estimated date of it being fixed was Thursday, August 5th. Am I in Sicily again? I've called everyday and finally last night we saw AT&T trucks on the street and today they showed up in front of my house on a cell looking at a piece of paper. They came back 2 times and did this and finally I have service again!

Washing the Cars

As an insanely busy weekend to came to a close, I walked outside on Sunday evening to find the scenes above. Tim was washing the cars and Jacob decided he needed to wash his car too. Jacob did a very good job scrubbing and spraying his car. To find the two of them outside together is common occurance lately. If Tim is mowing the yard, Jacob is next to him with his little mower. If Tim is tinkering with something in the garage, Jacob is there too with tools. So cute! Not cute, however, was how Jacob finished off his car by spraying me and the camera 2 times with the hose. Kids!

Tim's schedule Monday through Thursday is very loooooong. He leaves around 7:30am and we see him between 7-9:30pm. Friday is "short" day with him getting home around 4pm. This is supposed to be temporary, but I have a feeling there are many more of these long nights ahead over the next 3 years. As you can imagine, by Friday night I am fried from spending all day with a 3yr old. So, even though our weekends are our only real family time, I spent all of Saturday out alone! I needed it. I went shopping and to a Ladies Tea and Auction at church. Tim and Jacob really needed their daddy and son time so it was a win-win all the way around.

Sunday we went to Church. 2 weeks in a row is good for us, I'm aiming for 3 next week. Hopefully we can keep this up. I know that's bad, but after 7 years of rotating shift work, opposite schedules, etc. it fell by the wayside. So, a new place, new schedule, we will try to do better. Jacob loves Sunday school so this helps. He tells us he is going to church school and mommy and daddy are going to big church. I actually ran into a woman there that I had met earlier in the week and she has a son Jacob's age. It's nice to finally be meeting some people and getting out. This will get easier when Jacob starts school in 2 weeks (yikes! and yay!) AND soccer season begins.

New Craft Blog!

http://creatingwithandrea.blogspot.com/

I finally decided to create a blog just for my cards, quilts, scrapbook pages. . .anything crafty! Check out the site above and see what I've done!

I will STILL KEEP this blog. So, if you are interested in my daily life continue to stop here.

Please keep in mind this is a work in progress and will probably evolve over the weeks and months.

The Latest Moving Casulties

My prized pedastal table all dented and scratched
My student desk, with a leg barely hanging on


This part of the desk was found in a drawer. It' is supposed to be between these legs

Top of craftsman tool chest that Tim got for Christmas just 5 months before we moved.

The bottom of the craftsman tool chest. 1 wheel taken off, 1 barely hanging on.

These are the latest casualties of move #3 in 7 years. When we found out we were going to Sicily in Feb. 2006, we decided to put some of our stuff in storage. Things like text books, extra Christmas decor, outgrown baby clothes, power tools, extension ladder, kitchenette set (we brought our formal dining room set with us, SMART!). It was on option that we were entitled to and after looking over what we had and what we would need/have room for in Sicily, we decided to use it. Boy was that a mistake. Above are just some of the wounds that some of our items sustained sometime between leaving our house in in VA Bch and returning to us 3 years later in AL. I'd like to know just what they did to my things. . .

The pedastal table was something I searched high and low for after my aunt and uncle had gotten one years before. It is hunter green and half oak looking. Very simple. The table top (which I do not have a good pic of yet) looks like a crow bar was taken to it and has missing pieces. The tool chest was brand new since Tim had gotten it for Christmas just 5 months prior to us moving. Was it really necessary to remove 1-1/2 wheels? The student desk has sentimental value. See Tim bought it and stained if for me as a gift when I got into Nursing school. It saw me through many a long study session. It moved from apt to apt then house.

I also had my 4 boxes of Precious Moments in there the box popped off of one of the totes and the drummer boy to my Nativity set somehow came out of the box and broke. He is now in 2 pieces and if you are a collector of PM, you know that this is a piece that has long since retired. GRRRRR! Anything that was in a plastic tote, had not been taped by the movers. Tops popped off all of them and ornaments and PM were scattered all over the back of the truck. Wish my camera battery had been charged. Hopefully I have all the pieces.

Another item that didn't make it was our Treadmill. Pieces were found in the street after the movers left, the frame is all cracked and the thing doesn't work anymore. Half our stuff in the garage from the storage shipment is now busted so there it sits in the garage until the claims process is resolved. Basically if it was in a box it did ok. If it was too big for a box, we shouldn't have bothered. This is our tax dollars at work. Nice huh!?

Now I'm off to finish the long claim I have to submit.

Finally Home!

First, I wanted to post this picture of Jacob. Taken sometime in June, a little over 3-1/2 years old. I was going through the hundreds of picts I have taken since Jan. and found this one and though, "Wow, time flies." I think he's looking like quite the little boy here.


Anyway, I also wanted to catch you all up on the last 2 weeks. On Friday, June 26th, my parents graciously drove Jacob and I to Atlanta, GA to pick up our car that had been in Sicily. After 4 hours we made it. It was a typical hot day in the deep south. The car pick up was very easy and simple. I never know how these things will go without Tim. I had a power of attorney so that helped. After that, we transferred all our stuff from there car to ours, grabbed lunch said our good-byes and headed in opposite directions toward home.


We spent our first week in our new house with the bare minimum. No tv, no internet, no furniture (except Jacob's new bed was there). Jacob and I explored the surrounding cities over the weekend for lack of anything else better to do. It was along 4 days until that Tuesday when our household goods arrived, did that by myself too. I waited until 2pm for the guys to arrive and by 7pm that night all 200+ boxes/furniture pieces were in the house. I'm happy to say this was the least amount of damage we have had in a move.


The next day we unpacked some boxes and waited for our couches to come. Couches came at night (See a trend here?). They look great except they put the wrong color feet on my loveseat, so waiting to get that replaced. Nice to have something to sit on, buy nothing to watch.

Thursday, Tim came home for a 4 day weekend from his school. We hadn't seen him in over a month. It was a nice homecoming and Jacob was very happy to see his daddy. I don't know how my friends do it who's husbands are gone all the time for extended periods. Thankfully, we had the help of my parents. However, Jacob wouldn't talk to Tim on the phone. He told me he was mad that daddy went away. Isn't that sad?


We had a calm 4th of July weekend. Catching up and unpacking during most of it and finally getting the satallite and internet hooked up. Yay! Now we can see what the rest of the world is doing again. I love the radio but even I need a little TV!

Monday afternoon Tim left to finish up his last 4 days of school. Jacob and I spent the week getting our items that were in storage (that was a disaster!). I also got Jacob enrolled in preschool! Very happy about that.


Tim came home last night and with the exception of a night here and there that he will be away, we are done with extended schools! This morning we headed over to the soccer fields and signed Jacob up for fall soccer camp. That starts in August with games in Sept/Oct. Guess I'll be a soccer mom. He is so excited to play! Tim might help coach if his schedule allows.

As for me I received my AL state nursing license this week! So, I can finally work. Problem, jobs are in short supply. Especially because I'm specialized. I'm in no rush, especially getting Jacob situated with school and activities. At least I know if something comes up I can jump on it.

So, that's what the last 2 weeks have been like. Over the next couple we'll try to establish some kind of a routine. I feel like the past few months we've been living out of suitcases waiting for the next transition so some normalcy is welcomed!