One Happy Dog Speaks

My youngest is building Hogwart’s Castle. I am the assistant. I help find the pieces and hand it to him and he assembles. Though he does it on his own as well. It is moving right along… and I’ll be glad to help more just to get it out of the middle of my living room! Ok, my fault for letting him start it there. But luckily… you can walk around it:

And here is part that is done…

Yep… it’s an interesting summer

Usually it goes another day another dollar… right now it’s another day, another day closer to summer break. I’m ready for it. The kids are ready for it. The hard part is working and summer time. Finding a camp or two, maybe getting my mom to come down, see if one of Bou’s boys would be willing to watch them… so much going on and so little time to really plan it well. And… no money to be made. Sucks but I really lose money over the summer. Oh I could throw them in the really cheap school one… but it would be two different schools for the boys and you have to pay for 3 weeks at a shot… and even if you don’t go you have to pay to keep your spot. Naa. Not happening. Besides, it is school. The same school they attend all year long. I just can’t bring myself to do it. One day it may have to happen, until then. I will see if I can find them some fun stuff to do… besides me harassing them with Grammar, Math and Reading. Egads.

This is day one of camp. I don’t usually send my kids to camp but I will be doing it this year. And the youngest complained all weekend that he wasn’t feeling good. Not a good sign… since he is going to triathlon camp. I’ll let him go today and see what happens. The oldest kept waking up every 2 hours last night… guess he is worried about his camp. He is going to tennis/golf/swimming camp. This ‘camp’ stuff is killing my hours at work and work doesn’t earn me enough to pay for the camps. But if I want to keep my job I can’t take the summer off… Hence, I’ll be getting to work at 9:30 and leaving at 1ish versus getting to work at 7:45 and leaving at 1ish.

The hard part is having all the stuff ready when we get home. Mon, Tue, Wed, and Thur is ‘school’ days and we will spend an hour doing math, grammar, reading and typing. Yaa… not a lot of time for any one thing but something to keep their mind active since they don’t do it on their own yet.

Phew… off to make lunches, double check that I have packed everything they need and start waking some children for camp. Ok, a child… one is already up. Sigh.

It’s Friday and my hubby has decided to stay home with the kids and I’m off to work. Then off to do grocery shopping after work. I would rather be shopping for free time. I have some stuff I want to do this summer myself that does not include going to the office. Like how to find my ring size and see about getting my engagement ring fixed. It is wearing thin and I’m worried it about it. I would hate to lose it. I think if I had my ring size, I could take it to a jeweler and have them fix it to be the right size and add more to the thin part.

Then again, I have cleaning to do, school work to organize, and scrapbooking to enjoy. Yaa… if I could get myself organized enough!!!

It’s here. Really. Today when the kids get home, it will be summer vacation. Wow. I think it is time for me to seriously consider how I’m going to get everything done this summer. My oldest has to know how to type by the end of summer. My youngest seriously has to be better at adding and subtracting faster. Both need to read read read. And comprehend. Wow. What a concept huh? Well, I have some grammar books on the way, one math book and a bunch of Rick Riordan books have been put on hold at the library. Wow. It really is here.

The clock is running down and the kids are ramping up. I think I may need to start working out and checking out the creatine reviews to see which I should use to bulk up. They are going to be in great shape and I’m going to be a work potato. While they are swimming, golfing, running, biking… I’ll be at my PC at work sitting. UGH. Not a good solution. Oh well.

I’m just excited that summer vacation for the kids is almost here. It is easier even if they are going to camp. Well, until they find out I have an hour’s worth of ‘school’ work for them to do three days a week. Oh and typing every day for 5 minutes. Yep… my boys will know how to type by the end of the summer. No slacking off this time as it really hurt us this year at school. My oldest had an opportunity to get a typewriter (NEO) and didn’t because… he was not proficient enough at typing. ARG. Not happening in 4th grade. Ok, off to the dentist and work…

Wow. I have a list of about 20 items that needs to get done BEFORE the kids get out of school. Eeek. One of them is update my wardrobe. I started that. I have 3 new pairs of jeans (still need to be hemmed), and 3 new shirts. I need some ‘work around the house’ clothes that are not tattered. Seriously… I catch the threads hanging down on stuff. I saw an ad for dickies scrubs from Marcus uniforms and, all joking aside, considered getting one outfit. It looks comfortable… loose, yet not tattered.

Yaa, I could probably get a better deal buying another pair of jeans and finding a t-shirt without holes… sigh. And the money would be better spent on getting containers. Geeze, I’m a frick’n pack-rat. Particularly I can’t seem to get rid of any of my kids creations. Which are now growing in large quantities. What do you do with all the crafts they do? Mine bring home wooden houses they tied together, I must have 8 to 10 ceramic pieces, and more… Along with all the stuff I have been piling around. We’ll see what I can come up with over the next couple of months that is inexpensive but gives me space. I really need 4 very tall and about 12 to 14 inches deep shelving units. Ugh. By tall, I’m talking 7 or 8 feet. Any ideas???

Wow. I can’t believe it’s over. I hardly posted any of the stuff the kids did during summer. Here are some fun pics of things they did:

I think this was the most fun and repeated as often as necessary:

And of course the big red ball moments:

Yep, dirt and water… the boys best friends.

Friday night we went to a ‘splash bash’ at the community pool. We had so many respond the pool was reserved just for the oldest 2nd grade. Four classes got together and reserved the pool. Wow.

You have to be able to swim the length of it to get a wrist band to use the ‘big pool’ slide and diving boards. Both boys made it this year. Phew. The little one was telling EVERYONE he made it. He was so excited. I love seeing that excitement in their faces.

Saturday was entertaining as well. We went to karate and the boys are waffling with it. They want their next belt but don’t like all the hardwork. Before it has been a cakewalk. Just learn the moves, but for the next belt they have to do them with more precision and accuracy. Yaa… boys at this age don’t want to work that hard. While there, someone mentioned to my husband that the marina down the road was having a festival and would be giving free fishing poles to kids. We went, they got a tackle box AND fishing pole. Very cool.

Sunday we went fishing. Who’d a guessed? (sarcasm). The youngest got a 4 inch long fish… the rest of us got Nothin. Again, the youngest was sooo excited because he caught his first fish with HIS fishing pole. Very exciting. Though to hear his voice when his dad threw it back into the water. I think he wanted to bring it home and put it in a fish tank!

Back to the excitement of the week… home schooling, swimming lessons, vision therapy and today I have to find an occupational therapist! When do I get to rest in the summer????

What’s with this heat? A heat index of 110F in the beginning of June – SUCKS. How can you go bike riding in that heat? You end up a puddle of water and irritable for the rest of the day. And I’m talking about my boys, not me. If that isn’t enough… I have to take them shopping with me now. The grocery store, Costco, and … the drug store… Shoot me now. Heat, summer, shopping with 2 boys in tow. I must be out of my mind. At least the teaching is going well. If we can get the younger to make his o’s from the top and the older to make his lower case a’s readable… we will make major progress and I’ll be much much happier. Ok, off to swim lessons and grocery shopping. Wish me luck!