Catch Up

Okay, it's October 1st and my last entry was at the end of June. To say that I am a little behind is putting it nicely. I am really going to make an effort to make a quick entry on a regular basis so that I don't have to play catch up again. I don't want this entry to take weeks to read so I will just try to be somewhat brief about what has been happening in our lifes over the past several months.

Sam completed 12 weeks of swim lessons and learned to hold his breathe, jump in the water and pull himself out of the pool (kind of!). He cried every week at lessons until the last week. By the end of the last week he was laughing and having a great time. Of course this would happen on the last class! They are opening an Emler Swim School near McKinney sometime next spring so we will sign up for lessons then. This summer we had to drive to their location in Plano, 30 minutes away, so I am looking forward to having one close by.

This summer we went to the "beach" almost every week. There is a subdivision in McKinney that has a pool that is actually a beach with lake-type water and then turns into a pool. It's really cool. We went there almost every Thursday for free guest day and had a great time with some of the other mommies in our playgroup. Claire loved the sand and by the end of the summer wanted to be in the water more. Sam liked the splash area they had with the sprinklers.

August 2nd we went to see The Wiggles in Dallas. Sam is a Wiggles fanatic so this was a great day for him. We didn't tell him we were going until he woke up from his nap that day. We had bought him a Wiggles t-shirt to wear to the concert and a new Wiggles cd to listen to in the car. Both kids had so much fun singing and dancing and Sam and I even got to give one of the dancers, Katarina, a bone to give to Wags the Dog and roses to give to Dorothy the Dinosaur. If you don't have kids that 4 and under or haven't had young kids in the past 10 years then you probably have no idea what I'm talking about but for those of you with little ones you know who the Wiggles, Wags and Dorothy are and probably can sing several Wiggles songs if asked, not that you would admit it!

In August we went to VA Beach to visit my parents for a week. We stayed with them for a couple of days and then stayed on at a hotel on the oceanfront for a couple of nights. That was challenging b/c the kids had to share a room (it was a suite so they slept in the family room and Bill and I slept in the bedroom, of course!). Claire at this time was waking up screaming almost every night and the one night she woke up in the hotel she woke Sam up too. It was awful b/c she woke up at 4:15 and never went back to sleep. It was also the morning of the Rock and Roll 1/2 Marathon that I was running and I was planning on getting up at 5:15 but of course ended up getting up an hour early. Sam eventually went back to sleep and so did Bill. My mom came and got Claire and they went and watched me run.

Anyway, our trip to VA was a good one that included at visit to the Aquarium and several trips to the beach. Both kids loved jumping the waves. Sam hated the sand and water last year so this year was a big improvement. We also fed the ducks and turtles at my parents house several times. They live on a little pond that has lots of ducks, turtles and fish and the kids loved feeding them. Neither the ducks or turtles are afraid of people so they would practically eat the bread from your hands. Claire didn't feed the turtles or ducks but rather fed herself. At least she had a good time. Sam and my dad also went fishing in the pond and caught 4 little fish that they threw back. All in all it was a good trip.

Sam started preschool on Sept. 9th. He is going on Tues/Thurs. again this year from 9-12. He was excited about having some of his friends in his class but on the first day kept saying "Mommy, you go to school with me?" I told him that I would take him to school and he would stay and have fun and then I would come back and get him. As I expected the first day was full of tears, mostly Sam's, and since then we still have our days when he cries. He was like this last year so I know it will get better.

Bill's brother, Gary, came to visit a couple of weeks ago. He stayed with Bill's parents down the street but we got to see him daily. While he was here we went to the Ft. Worth Zoo. It takes about an hour to get there but is really a great zoo. We got there around 10:30 and didn't leave until after 3:00. We were all exhausted. Claire loved the monkeys and really liked getting to see the parakeets in Parrots Paradise. We bought a sesame stick to feed them and they land on the stick and eat. Sam was a little scared but wanted to hold the stick. Claire wanted to chase the birds but of course never caught one. Sam loved seeing the alligators and iguanas. I'm sure we'll go there again next year.

Bill and I celebrated 6 years of marriage this last weekend. To celebrate we went to see the Counting Crows/Maroon 5 concert in Dallas on Sept. 6th. Maroon 5 was really good but Counting Crows were a bit disappointing. It was nice to go to a concert though and we realized that our last concert had been about 5 years ago. We also were able to go out to dinner this past weekend to the Melting Pot, which is one of my favorites. Who doesn't like dipping bread into hot cheese!

As of last week I am now a Tupperware consultant. I tried over the summer to revive my model home cleaning business but just couldn't get any clients. The market is terrible and builders are cutting back. Plus, most builders already have a company they are faithful to. I tried to appeal to realtors to clean foreclosures or homes that had been vacant for awhile and actually had two jobs from a realtor but that was over 6 weeks ago now and I ultimately couldn't continue paying for insurance that I wasn't using. So, I decided to start selling Tupperware which is something that I had been thinking about for awhile. I love their products and love that I get to meet other moms and help them make their lifes a little easier in the kitchen. I am hopeful that this will be a great new position for me.

Well, I think that mostly gets everyone caught up for now. That in a nutshell was our summer. I will try to make entries now reguarly so that you can read what we have been up to.