Check out my new ride....

It's time to be in the market for a new van and I think this one should be in my driveway, more likely the garage, by Monday lunch time.

Fred went tonight to talk numbers and put some money down. We'll go back Monday to sign papers, get the tour of our new ride and be home in time for a nap! I get to keep my old van for another month or so until it is time to turn it over to the authorities AKA the bank. It is a lease so we just turn it in, wait for their inspection details and hope we didn't trash it too bad. The big unknown is the charge for the three headrests that we lost as a result of the fire. They did not perish but were lost in the clean-up process. Anxious to hear what Huntington Bank wants us to do about that. We can buy them and get reimbursed by insurance if needed. I'll need to talk to them next week to find out what they want.

So my new ride has everything my last one did with a reverse back-up camera. Cool! and a sunroof! I really need that here in TX. Haven't had one of those since the Ford Explorer in 1999. It'll be a nice plus.

Nic is suffering through the weekend with croup. You would think at 9 he would be past that but this kid also had fifths disease, chicken pox and probably some other ailment this year. For being so healthy he sure gets sick a lot. We are hoping he runs his course by Monday so that we might be able to take in a movie. Will and I went to the mall without him today and he was pretty bummed. Will was with me so we could order new eyeglasses. When I bought his first pair in June I wasn't thinking about school at all. he is struggling with remembering to bring his home and take them back everyday so we decided to get him another pair. In reality he gets two pairs since it was cheaper at Sears to get 2 for $99 than one pair of el-basic ones. We were really easy customers let me tell you. They will call me next week or so when they come in and we'll get them picked up and put into the rotation. All good.

Fred also picked up a new desktop computer for the boys today. We have been negotiating time on my laptop all summer so now we have mine and theirs and Fred's. We are whole once again!

OK, gonna go let my dog out one more time and head to bed. It was a long day but a good one too. There were many thing accomplished today. I should sleep well.

Wrapping up the week

Well the week finished off pretty well. Wednesday I ran a bit then went car shopping on my own. Never done that before. Not that I was going to sign on the dotted line or anything, although I think they wanted me to, but it was kinda nice to be the only "customer" in the equation for the moment. After the hour at the dealership, I cut it short, I was tired of being the only customer.

I ran to Michael's before I went to get the boys. I made it a few minutes later than Mon and Tues so I was a little further back in the pick-up line. It should be getting easier each day, you know people getting into the groove and all, but I think the learning curve for some of these Kindergarten parents is steep. It will all work out and it won't matter once the boys are able to walk to school.

After school we came home, did homework stuff and then ran to Target to buy Will and second pair of glasses. Well, Target has a deal going on right now, not the best deal in the paper, but Will couldn't find frames he liked. He decided that he wanted me to just get him another pair exactly like the first pair. Such a guy for ya. I will need to call Wal-Mart and see how much that second pair will be. I may be able to get them more inexpensively from one of those offers in the paper. We'll see.

So we picked up a couple of cubes to use for organizing the laundry/rear entry point and headed home. The cubes will work in keeping the shoes off the floor, if and only if, people actually put their shoes in the cubes. We are working our way back to being in a routine and having spots to put stuff. Yeah!

Yesterday Nic hit a wall late in the day and I wasn't able to go to the Ladies of St. Francis meeting at church. I was a little bummed, but only a little. I ended up getting some stuff done at home and was able to have great conversations with my BFF, my hubby and my mom all in one night. No wonder I had a smile on my face. I also got to talk to my MIL and sister in the last 24 hours so life is pretty good, even in a state where I know very few people.

So today I had to take care of some business at the bank and the U-Haul place. I got through that more quickly than I thought I would so....

JEN PLEASE DO NOT READ THIS NEXT PARAGRAPH.

I ran into Ikea and picked up two Expedit bookcases and was out the door in less than 10 minutes. It took me another 5 to load them into my car by myself but I was on the road to Target for my eye exam in under 20 minutes for sure!

NOW JEN YOU CAN READ AGAIN!

I had my first eye exam in more than 10 years and found that I do have a slight astigmatism and could benefit from glasses. It was hard to shop for glasses on my own and since there is not a web-cam at Target Optical I had to take the word of the sales lady. I REALLY liked this one pair but of course they were not on sale and would have been almost $300 with the good lenses. I was able to find another frame that is quite livable and walked out the door with $199 less in my Flex Spending Account. Oh and $55 for the eye exam. My glasses should be in next week. I seriously hope they don't put me into a fit of migraines or anything. Maybe they will cure my Migraines!?!?! Just kidding, I know better.

So tonight we ran through Sonic after school then to Game Stop to spend money that was burning huge holes in the boys' wallets. They each picked up a couple of used games and have been playing on and off this afternoon. I put together one of the items from the afore mentioned paragraph and hope to get the other one assembled before Fred gets home TOMORROW! Yeah, we get about 50 hours with him this weekend so I don't want him to take his precious time putting things together that I can do myself. Assembly was way easy, especially with my helpful 9 year old at my side, so I should be able to knock that out before he gets home tomorrow around lunch.

Let me leave you with a couple of pictures of some fun things I bought myself last week. They were totally frivolous but fun and they are pretty too. What do you think?

I am cautiously OPTIMISTIC!

Remember that OPTIMISM is my word of the year. I got reminded of that today and I really should consider getting a tattoo on my arm or something. Nic and Will seemed happy enough after school today. I shared my excitement about finding a much BIGGER binder for Nic to carry his stuff in and the transition to the new one worked well. It is a BIG binder but that is what he needs. We did manage to get a nicely padded shoulder strap off of another carry-on piece of luggage so he should be set for now,



Some may consider my efforts too intrusive, maybe to the point of babying him. I struggle with that myself. He is my first born and will always be my baby but I think I have given him enough cushion to feel like it is safe to keep on trying because if he fails and struggles I will help him but I will not let him just lay on the cushion/me and quit. (Should that have be "lie on the cushion" Dad? Anyone? Grammar was not always my strong suit.)



We had a great few hours after school. I made Lime Bars while the boys were at school so that was a nice treat for Nic, they are one of his favorite desserts. For Will's satisfaction I broke out the Ikea Meatballs and made the accompanying cream sauce to his delight! I had to call my mom to see what kind of cream to buy and I am happy to report that half and half worked out splendidly. THANKS MOM!



I am heading to Ikea tomorrow to do some shopping. I won't mention this to Will, it would be too hard for him. He LOVES that place. I am also going to test-drive a car at the Honda dealership. My van lease is up next month so it is time to get serious. I think I will probably get another van but Fred wants me to consider the Honda Pilot. I think we are not quite ready for an SUV, maybe next time. Anyway, since I am the primary driver I get to do the homework while Fred works hard in Mexico so we have enough money to get said car. THANK YOU HONEY!



OK, I just scared off a migraine with the right combination of pharmaceuticals and caffeine. Now I won't sleep too well but at least I'll be headache free. You take the good with the bad right?



Anyway, I leave you with a peek at OPTIMISM. This is a scene that I drive by on my way to and from school with the boys. (Yes, I got out and took this picture! Don't laugh!) If we lived in the crispy house I would not get to drive by this scene everyday. Yes, they are weeds but I can't drive by and not smile. They are such cheery happy weeds. Ponder that and I will too. G-night!

I may have posted too soon.

So at bedtime last night Nic totally lost it and shared that his first day of school was REALLY bad and he didn't want to go back today. He said that 5th grade is way harder than 4th. When we went in for meet the teacher night last week I noticed that all of the desks were turned around. What I mean by that is that the open sides of the desk were facing into each other so no one can access the inside of their desk. I thought that she just hadn't turned them around yet, well I was wrong. The students are expected to keep EVERYTHING with them throughout the day. The textbooks are kept in the classroom of the teacher so they don't have to carry those but all notebooks, folders, pens, crayons, pencils, glue, eraser, ruler etc stays with them through the day. This is a valient attempt to get them ready for middle school. No bags or backpacks are allowed so it's a zippered binder or a leather strap or some other contraption one could come up with.

YIKES!

We had purchased a 1 1/2" Trapper Keeper for Nic last week but found out really quickly that it is not big enough. Of course this all came up at 9:00PM last night so there was little we could do to remedy the situation. I did run to the 24hr. Wal-Mart to see if I could find a bigger binder but it looked like it had been hit by a bomb in the Back-to-School section and I could find nothing in the form of a solution. Fred did his best engineering to try to streamline his pencil bag and binder; crayons came out of the box, the number of pencils were reduce, extra glue sticks were removed and such. I think it is a great improvement but it is tough for a 9 year old boy to remember the best way to pack a trapper so it can be zipped.

After I took the boys to school today I went straight to Staples and found a 4" zippered 3 ring binder with a carry strap. I never even knew they made such a beast but in my on-line investigations at 12:30 last night I found out that Mead actually makes one that is 5". WOW! I found the binder and also some twistable crayons. These may last longer than traditional paper wrapped crayons because the twistable tube should keep them from breaking. They may be too bulky though, have to check that out.

Well, Nic knew he had no choice about going to school today but he was pretty reluctant all the same. My heart was just breaking last night and I couldn't hold back the tear. Mom's want their children to have happiness, joy and success daily and yesterday did not fulfill those hopes of mine. I am praying for the boy and trying to make coming home good for him. I am making Lime Bars, his favorite, for dessert tonight and I am making Ikea Meatballs for supper so Will should be satisfied too.

Well, I think I am going to take a short nap. The last two nights I have been up WAY late/early working on stuff with Fred and dealing with this school angst. I am beat and this may be my only chance.

Day 1 was so good they are going back tomorrow!

Overall I think it went pretty well. Nic's first observation was the there are some "hot chicks" in his class. I immediately suggested he not call them that and we were on a search of what to call a pretty girl in 5th grade. Will made some friends at his table. One girl looks like his old love Grace L. and the other girl at his table looks like Grace P. The other boy at his table lives 5 houses down from the crispy house so that will be nice when we get moved back.

Nic had a little homework tonight but I had the MOST! All of the registration forms that I filled out earlier in the month had to be filled out again. UGH! I knew it was going to happen but not until I turned the first set in. I should have made copies of those to save myself some time. It took about an hour to fill out two sets of permanent file packets and two applications for the GT (Gifted/Talented) program. Will is not sure that he even wants to try for it but we are trying to encourage the attempt. He may not make it but we hope it is worth the try. Nic should be an automatic based on his Iowa scores and Explore test scores. I will be frustrated if they make him re-test but we'll just have to wait and see.

Fred and I spent too long at the crispy house today. Meeting the site foreman and walking through some changes made to the original quote. After we got done there we went to lunch together at Dicky's. Fred loves this place and the boys don't so we haven't been there since we moved. He used to go there all the time when he was here without us. Well, we had our fill and then moved along. We had planned to go look at cars without the boys but the afternoon flew by. We went to Kohl's and a fairly simple transaction took WAY too long. I don't think they had the brightest chick at the service desk today. I'm just sayin'. After Kohl's we went to Sam's Club and spent a little cash before heading home to drop off the truck and the groceries before having to go get the boys.

I was "in line" by about 20 till 3 and will never get there much later. The line was long, slow moving and necessary. It seemed well run but of course teachers are not familiar with cars and parents just yet so it is a learning curve. I'm sure it will go more quickly in a matter of days.

Fred was so sweet to me while I was waiting in line and mowed the grass. Love that guy! He is all packed and did a bunch of computer work for me tonight so now I have the fun task of labeling receipts so we can get reimbursed differential on a bunch of stuff that we have purchased. It is EXTREMELY tedious and I can only do it for about an hour before the numbers start to blur. Maybe that's just my eyes failing. I have "Get eyes checked" on my to do list but I haven't gotten there just yet. It will come. Now that I don't have to "mow the grass" I should call about that tomorrow. I haven't had my eyes checked since we lived in Lafayette, IN. Gosh that was a while ago huh?

OK, Fred is bonding with the boys over Mario Kart and I need to go make Will's lunch for tomorrow. The cafeteria thing is a tough gig. I think Will made a bad choice, and when I say bad I mean outside of the realm of gov't approved and subsidized lunch choices, today. I can not get to the on-line purchase check to see how he was charged but I am fairly certain that Doritos don't count as a vegetable. There are possibly too many choices and I may need to join him at some point soon to figure it all out for myself. Maybe I'll see what looks good on the menu the rest of the week. Stay tuned for the first hand cafeteria report coming soon. I won't call it an expose' but you never know.

And they're off...

Well today, this morning at least, went pretty well. Will REALLY did not want to get up but once he did he was good to go. Nic was in my room at 1:30 AM with a loose tooth issue so morning came way too early for the two of us. All in all I think they look good, have necessary supplies and just enough excitement and nervousness to have a good day. Let's hope!

Tomorrow is the BIG day~!

We have been waiting for this day all summer. Some of us have been more excited about it than others, Will could pee his pants he's so excited, Nic not so much. Me, I am happy but a bit melancholy at the same time. My boys off in the big world without me. Not that I will be far away but I won't be there like i have been. All new here.

Well Fred is home and we need to do some big time work on receipts that need to go to the insurance people so we can get some differentials from depreciated value to actual money spent. It all adds up people. More tomorrow, hopefully good first day of school pics. None from the classroom though. I have been told I am not really welcome beyond the front door. Don't want to cramp their style you know.

I think I'll go cry now so I won't do it tomorrow.