It is finally over...

At times I couldn't wait for the end of the school year. Either a rough day at school or realizing how much Lydia was changing made me wish that I could stay home. Now that it is here, I'm going to miss my class. Don't get me wrong, there are some student's attitudes that I won't miss, but I will miss the student. I got beautiful flowers and letters today that got me a little teary. At this age they can be so sweet and caring. I think they start to appreciate what other people do for them.

Now I am looking forward to all of the things I'll get to do with Lydia. I'm teaching summer school, of course, but no after school program. I'll be able to go right home and play, go for walks, and swim. Oh, I can't wait. We have a week off before summer school starts and a TON of other activities coming up in the next few weeks. We have birthday parties, class reunions, family reunions, family visitors, friends to go and visit. Truly a busy summer. Before having Lydia I don't remember being this busy. Maybe it just seems that we are busier because we can't just get in the car and go somewhere. It is actually has to be planned around a feeding and napping schedule, pack for anything, and worry about getting home late. Oh, the joys of parenthood. And I wouldn't change it for the world.

I hope all the teachers have a wonderful summer vacation and enjoy the time off.

Until next time...

Not a good weekend...

I called our accountant about our stimulus check. It was the correct amount. The government didn't explain themselves very well when they announced the whole stimulus thing. Oh well, we just have to deal with it.

On a worse note, we have a water leak in our yard. Gail and I noticed that the side yard was a little wetter that usual, but chalked it up to the "flood" we had in the basement in March and all the rain we have been getting. However, it keeps getting worse not better. When I mowed the yard on Sunday I spun in all the mud. Now we have to call and get the utility lines marked so we can start digging and find the leak. Hopefully not a big deal. Although the ground is pretty soggy. "The flood" happened in early March. Gail called my cell phone while I was a work and told me that we had a *&#@$%* problem. I thought our German Shepherd had torn something up. I called him back to find out there was 4-5 inches of water in our basement. The basement that has furniture, carpet, a kitchen, washer and dryer, baby clothing, Christmas decorations, and a bathroom. All that went through my head was all the stuff that had gotten ruined. In the end, after many many hours of cleaning and having a professional cleaning company come and dry out the basement (Thanks Serve Pro) we have a new bathroom and everything else was OK. So that actually worked out. Hopefully the outside water leak will as well.

On a lighter note, there are only three days of school left, YEAH!!!

Until next time...

Too good to be true...

So Gail and I got our "stimulus" check yesterday. Not very stimulating. I understood the situation to be that all adults would get $600 and children would get $300. However, that was too good to be true. We didn't even get the $1200 for ourselves. Other people I've talking to did get the $600 and $300, so why didn't we. Obviously this was upsetting when we were expecting the whole amount. Leave it to the government to tell one thing and do another. Why are we surprised?

On a better note, I was able to get my flowers all planted today and they look beautiful. I love all the color they add to my house. If I get around to it I'll take some pictures and post them. We also got most of the garden planted. We'll have some wildflowers, green beans, corn, and pumpkins. Still need to get some tomatoes and green peppers. In a few weeks we are planting more beans and corn so it will last all summer. We can never get pumpkins to grow very well, but we are hopeful this year to get some to carve with Lydia for Halloween.

Lydia has gotten her fourth tooth this weekend. They are all on the bottom. Starting to look a little funny with no top teeth, but I guess they will come in soon enough.

Until next time...

Everything's CRAZY...

Any of you who have been in a public elementary school the last few days of the school years will understand where I'm coming from on this. Everything's CRAZY!!! Students, schedules, activities, even the teachers. Just this week we have had to miss specials three times (that is precious time for me), Field Day (in the cold), year book signing party will 200 fourth graders, and Safety Day. Next week will be worse. In fact, we will only be at school 1 out of 4 days. The other days wll be field trips. I can't wait for school to get out.

I did get some flowers the other day. I really scored and got all the flowers for all of my flower pots (15 of them) for only $20. I was thrilled. I only have three pots planted and am starting to wonder how long they will stay alive in those little plastic containers. It is a lot harder to find the time to do such things will a baby.

Speaking of Lydia, she is going, going , gone. She is now up to 25-30 steps at once. I just can't believe it. She is changing to quickly.

Until next time...

Let's try this again...

Ok, I started a blog once before, but I wasn't faithful to it at all. I guess I was just too busy with teaching, taking care of Lydia, and life in general. Not that things are calming down a little bit I'll try again.

Lydia is growing by leaps and bounds. It is hard to believe that she was once the little helpless babies that I see people with. She started crawling at 6 months, and now at 10 months she is starting to WALK!!! And both times is has been an "all at once" experience. She took her first step on April 19 (Gail's birthday) and just a few weeks later she was taking 3 and 4 steps. Now she is making it clear across a room before either falling down or reaching her destination. Here come the cuts and bruises from falling down.

On the home front we have been really busy. We had a flooded basement in March and are still trying to get the bathroom remodeled. It is a slow process with everything else going on. With the warm weather starting we have to get our cows turned out into the pasture. We are renting some pasture land this year and have been working on building and repairing fence over there. We are almost ready to take the cows there, YEAH!!! That means no more high water bills. I can hardly wait. I'm also trying to get the outside of the house cleaned up. Lydia and I planted some flowers last night on the front porch. They look pretty, but we need more. Hopefully soon we'll get it all finished.

Until next time...