Sunday, August 30, 2009

We survived!

Well, we survived the first full week of school. It all didn't go by without a hitch though. On Saturday night Abby texted to say that her phone charger had quit working and her phone was about dead so she wouldn't get to talk to us until she got a new charger. So Monday evening we ran to Springfield to take her a new charger and see how her first day went. She seems to like college life and the freedom it is bringing with it. She did want to come home over the weekend so we went and got her Friday night and took her back this afternoon. I know she will come home next weekend with it being the holiday weekend and the weekend before her birthday, but after that I'm not sure if she'll want to come home as much.

Matthew had a very good start to the year. He seems to really like all his teachers and thinks he is really going to like science this year. He likes the idea of it being hands on experiments along with the book work. This year they have to decide if they are going to play a band instrument or do math practices. Well he's not real happy about either choice, but has decided to do math practices.

Shane had a good start to the week before everything started going downhill rapidly. He really seemed to like his new aide this year and things were going so well when for some reason they decided to move her to the library and get him a new aide. Oh yeah, that's going to work well for a kid with autism who needs routine. Just when he was getting used to aide #1 they go and change things to aide #2 who was definitely not going to work out. I seen that coming when I heard of who it was. I knew they weren't going to "click". She lasted all of one day before going in and quitting. Then Shane was sick and throwing up Wed. night. I'm still not sure if it was just a bug or if things had upset him so much that it got to that point - if you know what I mean. He missed school Thursday and Friday - so tomorrow we will find out who his new aide is and how they are going to mesh. Hopefully things will work out soon. I don't want this to be a wasted year. He also his a dentist appt. tomorrow afternoon. I'm not sure how that's going to go. Maybe he will surprise us once again!

Gotta go! Big Brother is about to come on and I can't miss that!

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Abby's new digs







Okay. Friday was a hard day. We had to move our baby girl into her dorm room at college. College. That doesn't seem right. She has grown up so quickly! We left right after we dropped the boys off at school - stopped by Marshfield to get some breakfast - and made it to Springfield by a little after 9. It wasn't too busy when we first got there, but as the morning went by it got really busy. Abby's room is on the 8th floor of Hutchen's Hall. She's got a pretty nice view from her window. She has a suite style room which is 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen area. She has 3 other roommates. We got to meet Katie and Kelsey, but the girl who will be sharing a bedroom with Abby wasn't going to move in until Saturday. We know that she is from Kansas City, she is a sophmore and her name is Breonna. Can't wait to talk to Abby and see what she's like.



After we got her stuff up to her room we went to get her books and to walk around the campus and find which buildings her classes were in. It was an absolutely beautiful day. Really pretty cool for August. It made walking the campus very enjoyable. After that we took Abby out to eat and to Target to get a few things we had forgotten. By the time we made it back to her room, we didn't have much time before we had to go get the boys at school. The look on Scott's face in this picture pretty well sums up how we both felt - it was very hard leaving our baby girl at college. This will be the first time she will be away from home for such a long time. At least we are close enough to go visit or to go get her and bring her home for the weekend!



It's going to seem like forever until next Friday when she has the chance to come home!!

School has started!


I can't believe that school has started again. It seems like the boys just got out of school and here we are making the daily trip to Conway again. Matthew is in the 6th grade - that doesn't seem possible - and Shane is in 3rd grade. He is now on the "upper" hall. I think it's official, I don't have babies anymore! Matthew's teacher is Ms. Johnson. He actually had her last year as his science teacher. He really seems to like her and his classmates. Shane has Mrs. Agee and so far things have gone great for him. He seems to be happy to get back into the school routine. He has a new aide this year and he has really taken to her. She said he even told her "I love you" Friday during story time! That means Shane must really like her! I just hope it keeps going so smoothly!

Wednesday, August 19, 2009

I ready to go to the big slide!







We hear this phrase at least a hundred times a day. I am not even kidding. I'm not really sure how Shane came about even knowing about it. The big slide - we found out - is the play area at Burger King. We found this out after driving around town one afternoon trying to figure out what big slide he was talking about. We thought it was the park. We stopped at the park, let him play on the slide and in the fountain only to get back in the car and hear "I ready to go to the big slide". So off we went down restaurant row, (Yes - all the restaurants in Lebanon are on the same street!) driving very slowly until the smile appeared and the finger started pointing. Holy smokes the big slide is at BK - not our favorite place to eat - but we pulled in and decided to give 'em a try again. After 2 weeks of eating at BK we got wise and would go elsewhere to eat and go to BK for the slide - and maybe a milkshake... we felt too guilty just going in to use their playplace! Now every day, every few minutes we hear I ready to go to the big slide - we respond with Friday - Friday we go to the big slide. Over and over and over. And so today we treated Shane to time at the big slide since it's the last day of summer vacation. He's always so good to go right in and play and when we tell him it's time to go, whether it's been 5 minutes of 30 minutes, he is ready to go with no fuss or fight. So, our little guy will get to go to the big slide every week for as long as he likes until the next obsession hits. (Let's hope it's not something at Hardees!) Yeah - he rules us!

Silver Dollar City











This time last week we were spending the day at Silver Dollar City with Scott's Mom and Dad. We went last year for the first time in ages and the kids really loved it. It was no different this year. We had a beautiful sunny day, but it never seemed to get unbearably hot. Shane loved riding The Great American Plunge - he's been all about the boat and splashy water since the log ride at the fair this year. He also rode The Lost River and the flooded mine. It was really crowded down there this year and the average wait time to ride one ride was between 30 minutes and an hour - so the kids probably didn't get to ride all the rides they wanted! Matthew decided he wanted to ride a roller coaster. He decided to go on Powder Keg since we all told him there was nothing to it. It just goes from 0 to 60 in like 3 seconds. We all got so cracked up at the look on his face at the picture booth - I mean his mouth was wide open like he was screaming in terror but Abby said he wasn't even making a sound. I had to buy the picture when I seen it and will try to get it scanned and posted asap. It is just too funny! Poor kid is never going to listen to us again! Not only was it a scary ride for him, but at the beginning of the ride Abby put her hands in the air and knocked his glasses off his face! Luckily they fell in his lap and she grabbed them and held onto them until the ride was over. After he got off the ride he said his back kind of hurt - then a little later he said, "My back doesn't hurt anymore, but my spirit is broken." He is such a funny little guy. Later that night he said if they played music on the rides the song for the Powder Keg should be "It's the end of the world as we know it". He can laugh about it now, but he says next time the only rides he is going to ride are, The Great American Plunge, The Lost River and The Waterboggen.
Now Abby on the other hand... this girl loves to ride the rides. She and her dad rode Wild Fire, Powder Keg, The Great American Plunge, the Waterboggen, and the barn swing. She would have ridden every ride there if the lines weren't so long. She had a smile on her face the whole time and laughed and giggled while everyone around her was screaming their heads off - Dad included!! She makes the most of her time when she gets to go to amusement parks. It was so much fun! After Silver Dollar City we went to Pizza World - Reilly is the manager - and had some really good pizza! If you are ever in Branson you should try it out. It is really good pizza! Shane and Matthew ate and ate and ate. I guess all those rides worked up an appetite.

It was a really fun day and I can't wait to go back again!

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Camping at Pomme de Terre Lake





























So, we went camping a month ago and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it! Not because I haven't wanted to, but I just haven't had the time to sit down and do it! Any way we went camping on July 8 and 9. We decided to stay only one night because we weren't sure how Shane was going to do in the great outdoors. Turns out he loves it! We got down to Pomme de Terre around 2:30 and decided to swim. Scott went ahead and found our campsite and got everything set up. We decided it was time to eat, so we had hot dogs over the campfire. Scott had to take Shane swimming again and Abby, Shawn, and Matthew played board games. When Scott and Shane got back we watched a scary movie on the dvd player. Abby even screamed out once during the movie, but it didn't seem to bother anyone. It took Shane a bit to go to sleep, but once he did he slept sound. The next morning we were all up by 6. Scott made us sausage and eggs over the camp fire. They tasted even better in the great outdoors! We were back down to the beach by 8 o'clock. We had it pretty much to ourselves - us and 3 other kids had the whole lake to ourselves. We swam until we got hungry, then went back to the campsite to eat and pack up and go home. We learned that Shane can swim and that he can float like a cork. Matthew loved to run into the water like a hottie from Baywatch, and Abby was just delighted to have Shawn along on the trip. It was so beautiful and quiet at the lake. It was so great to just get away for a while. I am sure that we will try to do more camping next summer - it was just too much fun!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Card for MSW challenge


So, My Sketch World has a really fun ABC's of summer crop going on the whole month of August. The challenges posted so far look like they are going to be a lot of fun. Now if I can just make the time to work on them. I'm hoping this weekend I can sit down and get a lot done. Today I made time to do the challenge for the letter d, which was to make a card and use 2 distressing techniques on it. My techniques were crumpling the paper and distressing the edges. I really like the way it turned out. I haven't used crumpled paper on anything before and it was a lot of fun to do.

Hopefully I will have more things to post this weekend.

Busy, busy, busy!

I am such a bad blogger! I can't believe the whole month of July got away from me. This summer is just flying by! The kids will be going back to school in 2 weeks. I feel like I haven't even had a summer. So much has happened in the last month that I need to catch up on... 4th of July, camping trip to Pomme de Terre lake, our day at the fair, Scott's birthday.... I could go on and on! More details on all of those happening a little later - hopefully no later than this weekend!