The end of the hottest summer ever.....

Oh man, how I wish that statement were true. Unfortunately, it's more like a wish for things to come. While it is accurate to say that the "summer" as we know it is coming to a close, it could not be farther from the truth to say that it's anywhere close to cooling down. I thought it was rather funny that yesterday on Facebook I was notified of a post titled "On this day in 2010"....it was literally a post from my facebook page from August 27, 2010. And in my post I noted how wonderful the weather was that day and how I was looking forward to more cool days like that one. HA!!! We are still having days in the mid-high hundreds everyday. And I have no idea when that's going to change. Praying for a reprieve sometime soon.

As for us this week.....it probably seemed like a bit of a boring week for my kids. They started school on Monday and therefore each evening was devoted to trying to get us all back into the school time routine. Early mornings, early dinners, and early bedtimes. And we made it to school on time everyday!! For more info on the first day of school, see previous post.

Steve bowled in the Greenville PBA Regional yesterday and came close but didn't make the final cut. You win some and you lose some, I guess. This morning was his first soccer game with his new team.......and I hear it didn't go all that well either. Rough weekend for Steve. Poor guy.

Other than that we literally didn't do much of anything at all this week. Not sure what this next week has in store for us......more to come later.

Love to all,
Melony : )

The start of something new.....

Yesterday was the start of another new school year. And I hadn't actually planned on posting again until this weekend, but since the first day of school is such an exciting day I figure it's worth posting about.

Monday morning rolls around and it's time to get up and start getting ready for school. Unfortunately for me, I have not slept at all in preparation for this day (and it isn't because I didn't try). So, it looks like it's going to be a long day......

We decided to try and drop off Ryann at her new school first since, in MY mind, it would take less time to say our goodbyes and whatnot....seeing as how her school is 3rd-5th grades. However, when you put 600 students in one campus and have all 1200 of their parents in 1200 different cars trying to drop them off........ick......it makes for one big fat hairy mess!!! The parking lot was a nightmare.....more to come on that later. But let's just say that I waited for almost 15 minutes just to find a parking spot. So, we go into the school and all of a sudden Ryann has a case of First-Day jitters and starts telling me that she doesn't want me to leave her.....huh?? Luckily, she quickly found her BBFF (boy best friend forever) from last year, Cody and double luckily....they are sitting right beside each other in class! I knew everything would be fine....

So, about 8:00 we leave Ryann's school......running behind of course....and get in the car to head over to Kamri's school to drop her off. As I'm backing out of my parking spot, I'm carefully looking around to make sure that all is clear since the parking lot is still something of a disaster. So, I'm sitting in line waiting to make my way out of this mess and I look in my rearview mirror. What do I see, you might ask???? A Ford F-25o backing up right in the direction of my truck and clearly not paying any attention.......yep, she hit me. Luckily it was a parking lot so she wasn't going very fast....and I was at a complete stop.....so my truck suffered something between a scratch and a gouge.....again. I don't know why people keep feeling the need to back into or run directly into my truck!!! What a mess!

So, we finally leave Ryann's school and head just around the corner to Kamri's campus.....MUCH better parking situation I might add. Unfortunately, by this time I'm running seriously late. With the parking fiasco at Ryann's school and then the crazy lady backing into my truck we show up at Kamri's school at about 8:15....poor child. As I was walking her into her class, the principal was announcing over the intercom that all parents needed to start making their way to the front of the school so that the students could begin their day......so, not only did I NOT have a chance to really talk to the teacher (or Kamri for that matter) but I only had time to take one picture.....and it's not even the best picture I could have gotten. Sorry baby girl.....Nonetheless, I did get ONE picture of Kamri sitting at her new desk. And then I had to rush out the door.

Both girls reported great first days!! And I am really excited to see what this new school year brings. My babies are growing up so fast!!! And by golly they are just so smart! : ) Of course I might be a little biased. ; )

Melony

My Plans Destroyed........Blegh!

I knew this was going to happen. I tried to prepare myself. I said to myself, "Now Self, don't be surprised...." And yet here I am.....shocked to my very core that we are once again starting a new school year! LOL.

The past seven days have gone by in a literal blur. So many of my carefully thought out plans did NOT go as I intended them to.......and although I am, by nature, the type of person who doesn't adapt to changed plans well, sometimes you just have to let it go and realize that it's not the end of the world. But, trust me......this wasn't an easy week. It seemed that everytime I planned something......God put me in my place.

Ryann and Kamri both ended up spending the better part of the past week with their fathers. And quite honestly that kind of threw a kink in my "plans", but I did my best to roll with the punches. Both girls had appointments with their respective orthodontists. And above all else, I am glad that they won't have to miss any school for at least the first few weeks. Kamri had her appliance installed (that sounds so odd.....installed.....like it's flooring for her mouth or something...) and Ryann had a routine visit where they tightened her braces and she got to pick out new colored bands for her brackets. I can't believe we've already reached the stage where both of my baby girls will be in braces......at the same time!!!!

There was SO much to do this week, and unfortunately I didn't accomplish nearly as much as I would have liked. But, hopefully the start of a new school year will bring with it the return of our dearly beloved (by me, if no one else) schedule.

To be honest, there wasn't really much to brag about this week. I have planned for the majority of the summer to take the kids to a local waterpark right before school was to start again. So, on Tuesday morning we all got up, took care of breakfast and got dressed and packed up to head out for some fun in the sun. My parents had both taken a day off work and were meeting us at the park to surprise the girls. It was going to be loads of fun! Unfortunately, I received a phone call from my mom when we were about 20 minutes out informing me that the park was CLOSED for cleaning! Are you kidding me??? This was the ONLY day we had left to enjoy any type of activity as a family before the girls left for the week/weekend......I was very upset (and that's putting it mildly). But fortunately, my mom has an amazing day-saving friend who lives in Rockwall who just happens to have a pool that she was more than willing to let us borrow for the day. SOOOO, I guess not all was lost in the end. The kids definitely would have enjoyed the waterpark more.....but we were all happy to be able to spend some quality family time together swimming and laughing.

Then, I planned a date night for myself and Steve on Saturday evening before the girls were to come home......we planned on seeing The Change Up. Little did I know when making these plans that God had other plans for us.....lol. We arrived at the theater and saw a sign informing us that "Due to Technical Difficulties with the Projector, The Change Up would not be showing until further notice".......so much for my plan of a much needed laugh-fest. We ended up seeing Captain America instead.......which was a good movie. But it was definitely no laugh-fest. I figure this just means Steve owes me another date night! :)

I think the Lord has been trying to get a message across to me all week. It goes something like this......"Melony, you are not in control.......get over it!"

I get it Lord.......and I'm trying.

Another one bites the dust…….another week that is…..

How in the world have we already made it to Saturday night??? It seems like I was just updating this blog and then I blinked, and now 7 days have passed and I'm sitting here again. Jeesh!

This past week hasn't actually been too bad schedule wise. We had a couple of activities/appointments planned that had to be re-scheduled. And things didn't start to get hairy until just yesterday. The girls and I have enjoyed spending a lot of time together this week. And I'm amazed by them every day. They are growing up so fast sometimes I feel like I can barely keep up.

Today everyone met at my parent's house to celebrate mine and Steve's birthdays. Mine was on the 8^th, of course, and his is on the 23^rd of this month. With the generally crazy busy schedules of everyone in my family and the start of a new school year being dumped on top of THAT…..it made more sense to get together this weekend. We had a yummy lunch and some homemade (from scratch) carrot cake cupcakes with white chocolate cream cheese frosting (which were quite delish if I do say so myself). Then Steve left to go bowl in the Plano Super Bowl Regional…..a yearly tradition at this point. Unfortunately, he didn't make the cut this year but I guess the only way to look at it is……you win some and you lose some. The Lord always has plans for bigger and better things for his children.

Tomorrow is going to be kind of a lazy day I'm hoping…..because next week is going to be insane. LOTS of fun things planned for this little family. More to come on that.

That's really about all for this week. Right now I'm planning out next week's menu and making out my to-do list. It's a little long…..but I work better under pressure, so I'm hoping for a very productive week.

And now……..more planning!!

Love,
Melony : )

Finally all are home!

It has been a crazy hectic week in our house....to say the least. But the important thing is that we are all finally back together. The month of July was especially long this year. With both girls gone it was unusually quiet around our house. That is no longer the case.

Sunday evening I met Ryann at American Girl Dallas where she was able to complete her birthday gift for this year. We had her doll's hair styled. For $21, I watched them spray, brush, and then style this doll's hair. And while we waited our "turn", Ryann and I shared a Chocolate Molten Cake. Hopefully it was a fun experience for Ryann. I wanted it to be special for her. But, I can honestly say, I don't think I'll be paying $21 again for someone to provide a stylish new "do" for this (or any other) doll. We've decided that it'll be more fun to try out new hairstyles at home from now on.

The majority of my Monday was spent driving down to Houston to pick up Kamri from her dad's house where she had been for the previous 6 weeks. It was of course a long drive, but well worth every second. While Kamri was down there she was finally referred to an orthodontist who said it's time to start her treatment. So, in the very near future Kamri will have braces put on a few of her teeth and we will begin the road to her oral perfection (ha!). More to come on that topic later I'm sure.

Tuesday we had an appointment with the Hunt County ECI ladies. I was slightly nervous about this appointment, as was Steve. But overall I'd say it went very well. Back in June, when we went to see Dr. Lay for Grant's 15 month well-child check she noticed that he wasn't able to speak very many words and it was mildly concerning to her. I myself had not noticed because I figured that children just start talking when they're good and ready. However, she referred us to the Hunt county Early Childhood Intervention group. She said it wasn't anything to be strongly concerned about at this time, but she'd like for them to assess him just to make sure that he's learning and developing properly. So, Tiffany and the ladies came out to assess my boy. And their report was as I expected. He's actually AHEAD of his age developmentally in every area EXCEPT the number of words that he's able to say. Me.....I just think he's being lazy....lol. He's gotten so used to having myself and two older sisters provide him with anything and everything he needs before he even has to ask. So, that's something we are learning to work on. He'll be assessed again in a couple of months and in the meantime, we're teaching him to speak.

Wednesday finally rolls around and although in my opinion we've already been busy enough to last us the rest of the week.....there's still more to do. Greenville Carpet came and installed the new carpet in the hallway and the kid's room......something I've been looking forward to for months now! And I'm SO pleased with how it turned out. But let me tell you........Wednesday was a crazy day for us. Certain areas of our house looked like we had either just moved in or had a severe case of hoarding...lol! Cleaning everything out of the kids' room and moving it all into the pool table room made for a huge mess (albeit an organized mess). Plus, it took the installers longer than I had expected to lay the carpet so my poor kids were bored ALL day. See, not only did they not have a bedroom to play in but they also couldn't play outside since the temps have been in the 104-110 range for about 2 weeks straight now. So, as terrible as it is, my kids spent the better part of the day in the nice air conditioned living room watching movies. But, honestly I don't know of any other way to keep them out from under foot and entertained. Soo......we dealt with it the best we could. And to be quite honest, the worst part wasn't the kids being bored.....it was having my 16 month old son desperately need a nap and me having nowhere to put him where he could safely sleep. That's where my nerves started to fray.......but we all survived and our house is one step closer to being "complete".

Thursday......man is it only Thursday??? I spent THREE HOURS at Rockwall Dodge getting my truck serviced. Last month I came across a deal on Groupon where for only $24 you could receive an oil change, state inspection, and car wash for your vehicle. This came at a PERFECT time since my inspection was expiring in August and my truck was a tiny bit (3000 miles) overdue for an oil change. So, I snatched that deal up quick!! But, I did have to sit and wait in the customer service waiting area for 3 hours while my truck was enjoying it's spa day. Again, a long long long LONG wait......but worth every penny! Afterward I drove my newly cleaned and running like new truck over to Kroger and did the grocery shopping for our family. This week I was able to purchase ALL of my family's grocery and personal needs for just under $33. And that feels great! See more about that at http://www.lifethefrugalway.com/.

Friday, oh how I love thee.......not a lot to report for Friday.....I was finally able to get my eyebrows waxed (and realized that it had been close to 9 months since my previous appointment...what?!).....this was something I've been looking forward to for about a month now, so it felt GREAT to rid myself of that unwanted pesky hair. Then the girls and I had lunch at Subway with my mom and headed back home to wait for the text from Adam letting me know he was ready to meet me to pick up Ryann. Believe it or not, that's the extent of my Friday.......boring, I know.

So here we are now.....Saturday morning......sipping coffee and browsing the online deal websites that I follow. Getting ready to "prep" for my shopping this week. While it may not sound like much to some......it's one of the highlights of my week. I <3 saving money!!!

It's definitely been a busy week for us. And next week looks like it's going to be jam-packed as well. LOTS of thing to finally get off my To-Do list, school shoe shopping (hopefully), and a trip to the local library for the kiddos. I'm looking forward to a productive week!! And if all goes as planned, we might even get to hang out with some family friends tonight and go bowling! Whoo-hoo!!!!

Hope everyone has had a blessed week!!

Love to all,

Melony & The Fam : )