blog

Day 154

Shaggy boy was making sure we didn’t waste any food.

Day 155

All registered for fall classes. Hard to believe I’m the parent of a college student!

Day 156

Seen the Fault in Our Stars with the girls. Great movie…bring tissues!

Day 157

Following Karli home on Chase’s bike. She’s such a boy sometimes.

Day 158

Thrilled that a break from homework is almost near! I can feel it! It’s so close!

Day 159

Cleaned my work laptop keyboard and now the space bar doesn’t work. Good thing plugging in an old keyboard works. Otherwise.I.would.be.typing.like.this.all.day.

Day 160

Karli’s Dance Recital line-up…she has lots of quick changes, but we can do it!

Chase’s 5th grade graduation photos are a perfect representation of his personality. He is our most outgoing and friendly kid. Hard to believe that he was the most difficult baby. He would cry and cry and we could never figure out what was wrong with him. Now he is the happiest little dude. He makes friends with everyone and he has been the easiest and most drama free of them all. {Knock on wood of course!}

Waving to us!

So proud of our boy!

Right after graduation Chase said, “Just stand here in the hallway and take pictures of me with all my friends.” Finally a kid who enjoys have photo after photo taken of him and loves to smile!

And then we have Blake. Thank goodness I took this photo of him in the morning before school because he has yet to give me more photos.(He got photos taken with a bunch of his buds afterwards but I need the other parents to send them to me.) Unfortunately we weren’t able to attend his 8th grade graduation ceremony because Andrew had college orientation and Ken had already signed up to volunteer for Karli’s field trip. My parents went in our place thank goodness! My mom got video of Blake receiving his certificate which was nice. Blake and a bunch of his buds decided to wear bow ties. He wanted red and all I could find was a real bow tie so Ken had to use YouTube to learn how to tie it. I can’t believe he is going to high school next year. Crazy!!

It’s hard to believe it’s been 13 years since I walked Andrew into his Kindergarten classroom for the first time. 13 years of wonderful experiences, long lasting friendships and endless memories. My website has actually been around for 12 of those years. Back then I made graphic photos pages and wrote blog posts via Microsoft Frontpage. I had separate webpages for each of the kids, check out Andrew’s Arena. (You click on various years to view different entries.) So crazy!

My first post was in November of 2002. The very first photo I shared on Andrew’s page is still one of my very favorites of him and Blake.

How time has flown since then. It’s so typical for me to say that it goes so fast, that everyone with young kids should enjoy every single moment. But it’s TRUE! It really does fly by and Andrew has kept us on our toes with activities since his first T-ball practice at the YMCA. Never a dull moment. So enjoyable though. It sure is rewarding to think about all he has accomplished.

I am not stretching the truth when I say how great of a kid he has been. Can I still call him that even though he is 18? Sure, why not. He hasn’t caused us a single problem. I mean yes, there were times when I questioned his judgment and was nervous of the outcome, but he always found his way down the right path every time. Not once did he veer in the wrong direction. I’m pretty darn proud of him and the young man he has become.

I still have so many things I want to write about, such as how he came about choosing what college to go to. His change of major after so many years of thinking he was going into the medical field. How things changed when he was no longer able to play sports. And more! Unfortunately I have been trying to write this post all week. In between work, helping Andrew prepare for college orientation (choosing classes) and the other kids end of the year activities…its been an insane week. We have all 3 boys graduating this week – One high school, one junior high and another elementary.

One memory that I thought was too good to pass up. This video that Andrew and some classmates made for his Anatomy & Physiology class this year. Andrew is quite the comedian. He’s the guy in the black hat for those who aren’t familiar with our family just yet =)

Finally…the photos from his Graduation Ceremony and trust me… there will be more stories to come. Especially as I prepare things for his graduation party. I am sure I will think of tons of fond memories to share.

Day 147

We left Tori with her special spot so she could still look out the window all day while I am working.

Day 148

Still can’t believe this is happening.

Day 149

She is always dancing and flipping around…even at the boys baseball games.

Day 150

Love Barry’s Bagels tuna salad…but I pick out the celery and onions like a 3 year old.

Day 151

Dusted off my macbook. I’m excited to share that I will be blogging more and making some videos now that summer break is right around the corner and I’ll be having more free time with the kiddos =)

Day 152

School skipper! Karli missed school today so she could spend the day with her cousin Emma who is spending some time with her father this month. She misses her so much!

Day 153

Chase met Karli at the bus stop sporting his new roller blades he got for elementary school graduation. Of course Shaggy had to come too.

I found this small group of women who have been sharing their monthly goals and I thought it was a great idea. There are always sticky notes laying around on my desk with lists of things that I need to get done. I’m pretty good about completing the lists, but I always wanted to add in some things that have been difficult for me to commit to lately. Then next month I will share my progress.

June Goals:

1. Blog at least 2 times per week and Post at least 1 video per week.

2014 has been so busy and I find myself regretting not documenting special moments more often. Such as our Las Vegas trip from last month that I just transferred the photos off of our camera on to my computer! I know I share daily snippets on Facebook, but no one every goes back and browses Facebook. I’m going to be better about posting things here instead of just dropping the photos in a folder on my computer and never looking back. I still have two recipes that I took photos of that I haven’t shared yet.

2. Paint Blake and Chase’s bedroom.

Remember this mistake I made awhile back? I thought I was touching up the paint in their room and it didn’t match correctly? Well that was 18 months ago! Chase has been wanting his room repainted so what better time to get it done.

3. Organize photos and scrapbooks for Andrew’s Graduation Party

June 29th will be here before I know it and I have a lot to complete before everything is ready for his party. It’s crunch time now.

4. Walk at least 4 times per week.

A friend and I recently committed to walking with one another in the evenings. This is hard for me because night time is when I like to chill and watch the Bachelorette or So You Think you Dance (and Big Brother starts soon!) in the summer, but I need to do this. Whenever I do any form of exercise it pushes me to eat better as well.

5. Decorate my office.
We finally got new furniture for my home office where the kids and I have separate work stations so they keep their hands off of my stuff. Now it needs some décor to complete the room.

Feel free to join in. Here is the link up if you do…

Day 140

It was 1 year ago that I posted a video about my office remodel. We are finally getting the new office furniture delivered tomorrow.

Day 141

King of the World!!

Day 142

Thug Life

Day 143

Sneak peek of my office. Work in progress…needs to be decorated. But here is the furniture. Kids area is on the left and mine on the right. I totally needed my own work space.

Day 144

Painting the garage..Andrew doing all the hard work, however Ken had more paint on himself. Getting the house ready for Andrew’s graduation party.

Day 145

Karli just couldn’t resist. What it is with kids and having to try things out at home stores?

Day 146

Karli had made me this for Mother’s Day and how I have a special place for it right on my new desk.

Day 133

It’s nice to have a hubby that can cook. Love his hobo dinner.

Day 134

A friend posted these bagels and I just had to try them, they smell delicious and taste just as good.

Day 135

We seen Martha Washington today at Karli’s school. Her class presented a Wax Museum and had to give speeches and dress like their famous person from history. She did a great job!

Day 136

Chase just had to get a new shirt to watch SpiderMan 2 in 3D. It was a great movie…however I wasn’t very happy with one part :-(

Day 137

After someone approached my car in a parking lot the other day (which I ignored him and pulled away), Ken got me some protection. I already had some spray that I carry in my purse and I do pull out when I am leaving places alone or in the dark. But this one I have attached right under my steering wheel. Better not approach my car now crazy people!

Day 138

My baby girl Tori

Day 139

I developed the film from Chase’s camping trip and most of them are of his friends or the camp site. This was the only photo that he was in.