Introducing... Mr. S

It is official. Brayden love, love, LOVES school, and I am so bored I am borderline comatose. Brayden has the most creative teacher that I have seen in a long time. Since the first day of school, Brayden has come home with Mr. M and bags of m&m's, gingerbread men cookies that were finally found in an oven in the school cafeteria-after a scavenger hunt- and today he came home as Mr. S -a super hero. Yes, my little boy is loving his new life. I am missing him desperately during the day. He is my little buddy that I read to and played with all day and now the house is organized, clean and deathly quiet. I am still trying to find my new identity but so far I am not having much luck. I miss my Brayden. But on the bright side, I am so glad that he has a teacher that is fun and energetic and obviously was born to teach kindergarten. That is a sacred calling in my opinion, that few are called to do.

more Fay...

Two posts in one day. Go me! Earlier in the day I reported that Fay is just a rain storm that is hanging on and on and on. Well we just got home from picking up my parents from the airport, pulled into the driveway and realized disaster had struck. The van wasn't even off when I saw Travis running through our front yard to collect this big, strange looking piece of plastic. Soaked to the skin and muttering some choice words he then charged through the house to inspect our bathroom. After looking through the huge hole in the ceiling and stepping in the swimming pool that replaced our bathroom floor, I realized that the strange piece of plastic was a chunk of our skylight. After panicking for a few moments Travis headed up to the roof with a tarp and duct tape. Our fabulous neighbor drove into his driveway at that moment and thankfully took charge. He took the tape and tarp away from Travis, collected the pieces of our skylight, and with new caulk and nails, fixed our roof. We owe him BIG time. So now that the drama is over, I am really ready to do the rain dance "Fay Fay go away!" Keep your fingers crossed that the big dead tree in our backyard doesn't come down next!

Fay, Fay go AWAY!

Thank goodness tropical storm Fay has stayed a tropical storm and has not strengthened into a hurricane. However, I am TIRED of all the rain! It has stalled for the past three days right off the coast of central Florida. We have had rain totals of about 8inches (according to the news) here in Orlando and it is STILL falling! I am counting my blessings that I don't live on the coast about 45 minutes away because they are up to almost 30 inches of rain. Besides being stuck inside the house, I get to watch all these disgusting, creepy, frogs that keep showing up on my windows, in the doorways and oh yes, IN MY SHOWER! This storm is a pain in the butt, but we are doing fine so far. Thanks for all the calls, and thanks for worrying about us! School is back in and I grocery shopped today by myself for the first time in years. Life is good. Now maybe I will drink a diet dr. pepper and take a nap. Hmmm... the possibilities are endless! :)

Oh yeah baby! School day!

This morning I awakened to the sounds of shutters slamming open, followed by Brayden hollering "KAITLYNN! OH YEAH BABY, SCHOOL DAY!!" Next the sound of feet thundering down the hallway forced me from my bed. Summer is over. Instead of bursting into tears, I bravely put on my game face and smiling the best that I could, asked Brayden what he wanted for breakfast. Cereal had been poured and bananas peeled before I saw Kaitlynn slowly make her way into the kitchen. Brayden was so excited that he couldn't sit still long enough to finish his breakfast while Kaitlynn was determined to eat as slowly as she could so she would be late for school. Finally after 30 minutes, I told her that she was going to school no matter what and that she would have to go without having her hair combed if she didn't get a move on it! After that, things progressed nicely and away to school we went. Brayden barely gave us a second thought as he bounded into his classroom. I tearfully lingered outside his classroom window and watched as he blossomed into a kindergartner. Thankfully Travis took the day off so that I wouldn't be alone to wallow in pity. He took me to lunch and bought me a new pair of shoes and then we went to pick up the kids at school. As I nervously waited for the dismissal bell to ring, I kept my fingers crossed that both kids enjoyed their day. I worried for nothing. Both kids came flying down the sidewalk all grins trying to talk at once. "I love school " was heard from both children and in that moment my heart soared. I still don't know how I am going to spend all my free time, but finally I am feeling some peace and I have hope that I will figure out what to do with this next phase in my life. My children's joy is contagious. Hopefully today is an indication for what kind of year we have in store.

getting ready

School starts in exactly one week from this morning! Normally I am bursting with joy and excitement and gleefully joining in with the TV commercials that sing "It's the most wonderful time of the year." This year is different. Brayden will now be joining Kaitlynn at school which leaves me home alone all by myself. At first I was overjoyed at the prospect of showering for more than two minutes (and actually getting to take the time to shave my legs in said shower) and the the thoughts of grocery shopping all by myself made me almost giddy with anticipation, but now the time is near and I am starting to panic! My sense of self is defined as mommy. Sad I know- but somehow in the past 8 years, I lost a sense of who I am. Oprah always talks about finding your bliss, but I don't have any idea what my bliss is! I need to quickly figure out the answer to that question because I have been having a recurring nightmare where I am sitting home alone watching TV all day and eating- a lot! Needless to say, I need to "find my bliss," or I will end up gaining a hundred pounds and turning into a hermit! Any suggestions!?

So with school starting we have been busy getting the kids ready and organized. Last week I was tired of Kaitlynn's room looking as though a hurricane had blown through it, and fighting with her to clean it up. I sent her outside to play and then I got to work. I went through everything and just threw it all out! I bagged it up and took it straight down to the curb for the garbage man. She was horrified, but now has a spotlessly clean room with plenty of space for new school clothes. It's too bad that she and I can't agree on appropriate new school clothes so with one week to go she has only one new dress. Kaity wants halter tops with sparkles and I want plaid skirts and hair bows. It looks like we will have to do some major compromising this week or she will be headed to the third grade looking like an orphan in worn out clothes. Good thing that Brayden has zero fashion sense. He would go to school in just his boxers if I would let him. He proudly put on his backpack and new shoes this morning and told me he was "ready to go to my kindergarten!" He was quite disappointed when I told him it wasn't the right day and that next week he has to put clothes on before he puts on his backpack. To be continued...

sea creatures

I haven't blogged in awhile, so hopefully this won't turn into a long ramble that is a waste of stored space on my computer! We have been home from Seattle for 10 days and it has taken me that long to recover from our trip. I think that I must have caught a virus of some kind and it knocked me for a loop. I have hardly been able to function. Just getting up in the morning has been tough and actually accomplishing something- forget about it! I managed to drive the kids to the free movie- then promptly slept through the whole thing- semi clean my house so Braydens new kindergarten teacher wouldn't be too horrified when she came over to meet us, but didn't have the energy to bathe Brayden, and had the strength to go to the Walmart to get groceries but didn't have the stamina to actually shop through the whole store so I came home empty handed! Thankfully Friday I had the energy to shower and my body quit aching so I convinced Travis to take me to the movies. After some drama at the theater we ended up seeing Mama Mia! YAY! I loved this movie! I am sooo gonna own it as soon as it comes out on DVD! I mean it is full of Abba music- NEED I SAY MORE!? I can't wait to watch it all by myself with the blinds closed and the volume on high. I'm gonna have a serious dance party! Wendy I wish you could be here to join me! Anyway, since I am finally feeling better, Travis decided that we needed to spend the weekend at Ponce Inlet playing at the beach. It was wonderful! We discovered many creatures scurrying around us as we floated in the water. For the first time we found a starfish! We also had the usual crabs and a jelly fish that stung me in the leg. Even with the fire burning on my leg, we still had an amazing time. I did have a lot of time to sit and think and ponder some burning questions that have been on my mind. I haven't been able to figure out where women of gigantic proportions get bikini bathing suits, why when the bottoms are teeny tiny they don't show any butt crack ( Is my butt extra strange? I swear that I would be showing some serious crack if I wore some of those suits!) and where do they get their high self esteem from? Even though I had all afternoon to ponder these questions, I still haven't come up with any answers. If any of you have the answers, feel free to enlighten me!

Sorry Aubrey about the long post!:)