August 30th

Alex had his 2nd football game today! I couldn't watch his game last week because it overlapped with the party at our house. I was happy to get to go today. He is on the B team, but he played at least half the game on defense today. YAY Alex!! His team crushed the other team - 46 to 24.

I took pictures of everyone today. I caught Bill before he could make a face or turn away.



**Sigh** I'm getting so sick of this face from Billy...


And the little girl =)


Finally, yours truly. I'm having a bad hair day, okay??

August 29

Tonight Alex slammed the tip of his finger in the door of the car. Poor kid. He was howlin' and bleeding all over the place. We were at Blockbuster when it happened. Thank goodness a woman saw us and had a first aid kit in her car. We were able to bandage him up until we could get home. We stopped at the pharmacy on our way home and I bought him a splint and things to dress his finger with. He's probably going to lose the nail. He was having a tough time - sweaty, thirsty, and really tired. I think he was truly traumatized. He was NOT happy I took his picture.

Here he is after I bandaged and splinted his finger.

August 28

Happy Birthday, Billy Boy! Eleven years old - wow! Now stop growing already! You'd never guess he was my smallest newborn.

For those that have asked, Billy is 5'5" without his shoes on. He's started calling me Little Mommy...

August 27

BIL is good - he got the trench dug and all the PVC moved to the other end of the basement today. You can see where he filled in the old trench (and there is another hole by that pile of stone) and dug the new one. God bless him.

August 26

O.M.G! Today was the plumbing inspection for the basement. BIL put all the PVC in and the inspector came out to look. The plumbing was fine - we passed the inspection with two minor changes needing to be made. As the inspector is leaving he notices the circuit box and tells BIL "You may want to check the code on the circuit box to make sure it isn't too close to the toilet". So BIL calls the Village. Guess what. You can't have an electrical circuit box in a bathroom!! It is a major code violation. So now we have two choices. We can violate the code after the fact - cap the pipes, continue framing, have the insulation inspection, then reopen the pipes and finish the plumbing, have the drywall inspection, and then go back into the floor and walls after that inspection and install the fixtures. Choice B is to rip out all the plumbing we've done so far, dig another trench into the concrete, and flip the bathroom and bedroom moving the bathroom to the other side of the basement and not violating the code. After many phone calls we sat down and redid the plans so that the bathroom would end up on the other side of the basement - taking Choice B. This means more holes in the floor, more money having to be spent on PVC, and more time to move everything. UGH! Curse you circuit box!!!

August 25

First day of school for me - waaaaaaaah!!!! Teachers in my district had to report back today. It wasn't a bad day. Ron Clark was the keynote speaker at our Back to School Rally (click that link - he is so awesome!). He was excellent - very energetic and inspiring. The denial and dread I was feeling about the pending start of school was lifted and I felt enthusiastic and ready to go by the end of the rally. My whole team went to lunch together - even Lisa and her assistants. It was a good day. Unfortunately, taking pictures was the last thing on my mind. The sunset was all I got. It was a pretty one, though.

August 24

Today Billy was invited to "Buddy's" birthday party. Buddy was in Billy's class at school for the last four years. He talks about "Buddy" and another friend ALL THE TIME. This was Billy's best friend. Unfortunately, Billy isn't going to the same school this year, so this was likely one of the last times he will see Buddy. He didn't want to go to the birthday party - didn't want to go to the bowling alley. Of course, he was also making faces every time a camera was pointed at him. I was so aggravated when I saw these. I didn't get a single nice picture of him and Buddy to hold on to.

PS: Billy and Buddy are a year apart in age - LOL!

August 23

I don't have a photo for today. I spent all day yesterday and half of today getting ready for the big Family Birthday party that we hosted at our house. With Bill having six brothers and sisters, there are 15 nieces and nephews on his side of the family. Today we had one big party to celebrate all 15 birthdays. The party was a great success and the house looked great. It was the first time most of Bill's family has seen our house since we put the hardwood floor down (last December), painted, replaced the carpet, got new furniture, etc.

August 22

Today my BIL dug the trenches in the floor and put the plumbing in place in the basement (click to see it bigger. Those piles or stone are from under the concrete floor that had to be busted out). I won't even get into the Village "forgetting" to charge us for the plumbing inspections when we went in to pick up the permit on Tuesday or that we have to wait until NEXT Tuesday for the inspector to come out. *sigh* You can't change what you can't control, right? I'll have to keep reminding myself of this.

August 21

I've been trying to get a picture of Milo like this all summer. He's sitting on the ledge of our grill, meowing into the opened window. This is where he is every morning if he didn't come in when Bill got up. It cracks me up how he sits up there and looks in the window. It's funnier when he is meowing but the window is shut so it looks like he is just opening his mouth.

August 20

She is so excited this year - four of her five best friends are in her class =)

Do you see that? He really CAN smile for a picture!

Billy was really excited for school today. He practically skipped to the bus stop.

UGH! Here come the faces. If I ever get a decent picture of all three of them it might have to be considered a miracle.


FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL 2008. Holy cow - summer went by FAST this year! Here's the gang, all ready to start 2nd, 4th, and 5th grades. =)

August 19

Studly! The construction on the basement started today with the studs going up on the back wall. Woo hoo!!

I don't have a picture for the 19th - super busy day and no camera. ACK!

August 17

The kids start school this week so today, to celebrate the last weekend of summer vacation, we went to the quarry beach. Alex and Billy were both bribed to jump off the 6' platform board. At first, they were nervous about the height. I told Billy I'd buy him a dvd he wanted if he jumped off. He walked right up there and didn't even hesitate to jump off after that. Not to be outdone, Alex promptly followed with the promise of a Webkinz.

August 16

He drives around...all over the town...Toonces, the driving cat.

Anyone remember that from Saturday Night Live?? LOL!

Milo somehow got closed into our truck tonight. I was pretty funny to come outside and see a cat pop up in the driver's seat.

August 15

This weekend is our town's annual festival. There is a parade down Main Street (yes, it's really called Main Street) and then a big carnival at the park. Alex's football team marched in the parade and afterward we went to the carnival. The carnival isn't my kind of thing - way too crowded and noisy for my nerves to handle - but Bill and the kids enjoyed it. I had my camera so I had something to keep my mind off the overload.

Twice last night the parade had to stop because a train came through town - LOL! Half of the football teams were on the other side of the tracks.

The Fest is a HUGE event every year. I swear, every single resident of our town was at the carnival last night. All of our friends from our neighborhood were there. This is Alex and some boys from our block on The Tornado.

Caty was dying to go on the Ferris Wheel. Im- afraid of them - hate it when they stop at the top - so Bill took her and Alex for a ride. She white knuckled the bar the entire time - LOL!


Lastly, we hit the bumper cars. Caty was big enough to drive her own car - not that she or Billy had an idea how to steer them! LOL! After the bumper cars we played a couple of games and then called it a night.

August 14

Haircut day! Caty wanted her hair cut like Jenny McCarthy. I think it looks cute on her =)

August 13

Sadly, this is the only picture I took today - Alex's custom made, half-cheese pizza.

We had a crazy afternoon. We needed to be out of the house because THEY were working on the plumbing in the basement. So we left at 1:15 and our plan was to go to my classroom for a few hours, then go shoe and supply shopping for school, then grab a bite to eat, and finally take Billy to karate. We left my classroom at 3:30 and didn't have the supply list so we had to run home. While home, I checked the football schedule and sure enough, AJ had practice at 5:30. We only had time to run and get shoes before having to turn around and come home again so Alex could get ready for practice. I dropped him at practice, then drove Billy to karate and waited for him, grabbed Taco Bell on the way home (jerks screwed up the ENTIRE order - I have a free meal for my family the next time we go there), picked up Alex, and finally got home to eat at 7:45. UGH!

On the plus side, the plumbing in the basement has been moved and we finally have a final plan that we both like. Framing starts on Tuesday =)

August 12

She was just following directions.....(click to read the sticker. And yes, I know it's blurry. Had to use a flash because I was inside and the darn kid never holds still)

August 11

It was a really nice day today - sunny and somewhat cool temperatures (under 80 degrees). Caty was willing to pose so I took a bunch of pictures of her outside in the sunshine. This was my favorite of the bunch.

August 10

Today was a long day at home. Bill and his brother had plans to start breaking up the floor in the basement to see what the plumbing looked like under it. I had plans to take the kids to my mom's to avoid the noise of this project. My plans ended up changing and I ended up staying home. At some point I was on the computer and Billy parked his Po in the chair across from me. This is what I saw when I looked up.

August 9

Nothing really exciting happened today. I busted ass and scoured the two bathrooms upstairs in addition to the first floor cleaning that I normally do on Saturdays. Bill cut the grass when he got home from work. A steady rain started as he was finishing up and he got soaked. No more than five minutes after he got in the house the skies opened and let out a deluge that sent us scrambling to close the windows on the front of the house. I took this picture looking out the living room window during the storm.

August 8

I couldn't decide which one I liked best - LOL! I took a really nice picture of Billy while we were waiting for Caty to finish up her "barn class" last night. The lighting was hitting his face so nicely. I played around with different actions on them and came out with different effects. What do you think?

August 7

So, the decision has been made to finish out the basement. Today the Home Depot truck came to deliver our materials. EVERYTHING on that truck got left in my garage and driveway! The empty spot behind the cab is where the sheetrock was (it was already in my garage when I took this picture).

August 6

I've really got to stop trying to take pictures at dusk. Even with the aperture wide open, it's just too dark and I end up with shutter speeds that don't jive with hand-held photography. This was the best I could do with what I got today.

August 5

My baby dog. Yes, he is 3.5 years old, but he is still my "baby". He's going to be so sad when we all go back to school.

August 4

We had some "red" storms move through our area last night. You know - storms that look red on the radar, indicating the torrential rains and winds that are coming? Anyway, we could see them coming long before they got here and were prepared. The power faded on and off a couple of times, but otherwise it was just a nasty thunderstorm. I will say, I have NEVER seen a storm blow in as fast as this one did. One second it was dead calm and the next - literally - the rain was coming down in buckets....SIDEWAYS!

After the rain cleared there was still lightning and thunder for some time. Perfect for trying out the Manual mode on my camera. I managed to get a couple of streaks and a ton of "flashes". Here are my favorites:

August 3

I think it must be a "boy thing" - making faces when a camera is pointed in your direction. Bill was riding his bike past me which is why the background is blurry.

August 2

A variety of pictures today. First off, we have Caty with a baby toad. It was trapped in one of the window wells by our house. My girly girl isn't ALL sugar and spice - I can't even imagine picking up a toad myself - blech!!

Next, when we were walking back from the pond - where we deposited the baby toad - I noticed some leaves on our lawn that I thought looked really cool. The leaf was dead, but you could see all the veining in it still.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that our tree was full of leaves that looked like this. Then, upon even further insepction, I noticed that our tree was infested with beetles!! YUCK!! The other night I was hanging out with some friends of mine from my block and they were talking about some sort of beetle infestation in the trees on the parkway. Guess our tree got hit. I get the heebie jeebies just looking at this picture and knowing that these things are ALL OVER the tree out there. ((TREE))