1st day of school vs. T.S. Fay

Handsome boy...first day of Kindergarten

Yes, there is a very handsome preschooler there...yelling, "don't take my picture!" (It's very paparazzi!)

Yea, we did actually start school on Monday. Things went well. J walked straight into his class sat down and said, "mom, I'm not going to miss you!" Well, alrighty then...we're off to take B to his first day of preschool....

You can tell by his first day pictures that it wasn't such an easy transition. He actually did fine. He just has to take his time and size up the situation, decide who's who and what's what, figure out his angle and then he eases into place.

I did have one brief blissful encounter of silent, quiet, move-at-my-own-pace shopping that day. It was a bit unnerving...you do tend to become highly aware of everyone else's "children noise"...

Well, it was all over far too soon...Tropical Storm Fay hit...oh the rain...the never ending rain....I do believe we encapsulated 40 days of rain in the last three. This means that there has been no school. This evening for about one hour I did believe that my children were going to school tomorrow...however, school is once again closed.

I have posted a few pics (sorry about the poor quality) just to show the amount of rain we have encountered here at home. As I told my mom (who calls frequently during storms to make sure we're not flooding) we live on a "mountain" here on our property. Not actually, it's just that the house does sit a bit elevated to the rest of the property....blah, blah, blah...hence the house does not flood.

Here is the backyard looking a bit like the entrance to the Everglades....

Another Everglade shot out the back....Why there is my driveway on the left...yes, the river to the left of the picture...the lake on the right is normally a grassy clearing.
The retention "lake" again, it's normal existence is a pond, about 1/4 of this size...however, we're are actually getting close to retention "ocean"....Thankfully, our power has stayed on pretty consistently...this is my greatest fear in a storm...not electrocution, or the food going bad in the fridge, or trees falling on the house...the AIR CONDITIONING must never go out in my house in the summer....I must NEVER feel the intense HUMIDITY inside my house...I can usually last, oh about 20 minutes before I'm grabbing the keys, putting the kids in the car and heading to the nearest A/C.

I have rambled enough about all this. School will re-start again on Monday. Perhaps I might get a better picture of B, who knows. Until then, grab the playdough and Legos...let's build us a boat!

bad mommy moment #65,893,123

okay..okay...this is supposed to be a blog about all the things I'm thankful for...like my beautiful children...that I have one last, beautiful week to enjoy with them prior to the start of school. Today, I was thankful that they would BOTH be starting school this year and that it's only one week away! Today was one of those days. Apparently I was trying to get too much done. Their "don't let mommy complete projects" radar was fine tuned and running overtime!

Big brother was testing his ability to completely annoy little brother (without so much as flinching). Little brother in return practiced the negative response level of different styles, volume levels and intensities of screaming.

Adding to this lovely parade of "who is in control" is mommy...steroid pill popping mommy. Last week I had a pretty severe case of bronchitis and part of my medical regime was a series of steroids. These things can be pretty evil...or at least they can make a person pretty evil (my husband will in fact vouch for this). I felt like I was going out of my mind. My girlfriend reminded me of the time one of the boys was on an oral steroid as a baby...how grumpy, nasty and overall unpleasant the drugs made him....why yes, I remember because I am currently behaving just like him!

I did manage to make it through the day with lots of Lamaze breathing (didn't need it for my C-sections, but I sure use it in daily parenting) and about a dozen timeouts for both boys.

Tomorrow is another day...another chance...a fresh start...I think we'll head to the beach and let the sand, surf and breeze blow the memory of today away. To second chances!

Fun with the cousins...

I have been incredibly lame regarding my blog postings this summer..shame on me! I wanted to share a few pics tonight of a fun evening we had together with the cousins while in Denver. We had spent the day exploring the Natural History Museum and then assembled in the park behind the museum for a picnic dinner. Mama J always has fun props on hand for the making of the most incredible adventures and this evening was full of fun.
She had made capes for all of the kids. Knight capes for the boys and princess capes for the girls. The foam swords, shields and helmets were a huge hit....
Somehow Frankenstein managed to make an appearance...but trusty Lord J defended Princesses G and B with great honor!
Fair Maiden A was distraught with Lord J for being much to fierce with poor Frank. "He only wanted to join in the fun!" So she gave him a lashing and reminded him that tie-dye and camouflage are not a fashion statement.

There was even a rare spotting of "Camera Guy" Pappa J with J and B. It is very difficult to catch this creature without it's knowledge of being photographed. Again, very rare footage.

What a great evening. It still amazes me when I stop and look at each child, to see a bit of my brother or sister in a smile, in the motion of a hand or the sound of a laugh. I have brief recollections of the three of us at 9, 8 and 3 years old....camping, playing on the beach....

Fast forward too many years to admit and I love the feeling of our children, together like we once were; playing, laughing and loving on each other. Dear Lord, please give us the opportunity for many more of these memory building opportunities.