Waaaay Too Long!

So I realize it has been (ahem) way too long since I've written a blog entry. This is the baby book that never was, it seems!

So now, where to begin?

Ava and Liam both started school on Wednesday, August 7th. It's Liam's first year in Kindergarten! Our baby! It's cray-cray to think he is old enough to be attending "big kid" school now. He is in Mrs. Mckenzie's Macintosh class. Mrs. Mckenzie was Ava's kindergarten teacher, as well. She was also teacher of the year a few years back, as well. We LOVE Mrs. Mckenzie and were hoping Liam would have the benefit of going through her class as a kindergartener. Score!

Ava is in Ms. Beggs' class for 2nd grade. Ms. Beggs is a brand-spankin'
new teacher, having just graduated last year from Kennesaw State. I was a little apprehensive, knowing she was a green bean, but so far, so good. She has all of the newest organizational teaching ideas down pat. She also LOVES penguins. I think she has the added motivation of having to prove herself as a teacher, so hopefully she bolts out of the starting gates! I just hope Ava learns a lot!

Ava continues in the Advanced Learning Program (aka ALP) at Murdock. She took the COGAT test last year (and another test, as well), and qualified for the ALP program in three of the four test areas. Only one area is needed to qualify, or a referral / suggestion by the teacher. Mrs. Lane (Ava's first grade teacher) said she highly recommended Ava for this program. I am so thankful she is able to attend. She goes every week, on Wednesdays, to this special class, where advanced learners go to further bolster their skills. She was doing algebra last year!!! Crazy. She does love learning. She is still an avid fan of art, puzzles and reading. She will have to test again in third grade, to see if she qualifies, to continue from 3rd grade through the end of elementary school.

We started out the summer going to Destin with Andy, Alyson and Keagan White. It was only the seven of us, compared to the 18 we had there last year. The Flanigans welcomed baby Oliver in April, so it was a little to early for them to head to the beach. We plan on going with them in October, during the kids fall break. Ava, Keagan and Liam all played really well together! Pretty neat that Ava and Keagan are just a few weeks apart.

During the summer, the kids attended "camp" at their old day care. Ava took a break for three separate weeks, attending other camps. She also participated in the East Cobb Titans swim team. Liam wasn't old enough to go to the other camps this year (or be part of swim team0, but we're hoping he can attend next year, if old enough. Ava attended Camp Broadway at Mt. Bethel for two weeks; the first week included practice and a production of Alice in Wonderland. She attended another week and was part of the Wizard of Oz production. She also attended Camp Winshape, sponsored by Chick Fil-A. I think of all of them, she would say she liked Camp Winshape the best. I was really impressed with all of the camps!

We also headed up to Michigan for a week and a half, at the beginning of July. Liam was able to celebrate turning five with a party at Jeeper's. All of his grandparents and Grammy were able to attend. How blessed we are. Joe and his family flew in from Arizona a few days later. We were able to attend Kady's first birthday party, part of Log-stock, head to Eastwood Beach at Stoney Creek Metropark. It was a super fun week.

At the end of the summer, I took a few days off work just to hang out with the kids and do a few fun things. We had play dates at the park, ate ice cream, had crepes with Nutella and strawberries and went to see Smurfs2 in 3D.

As of August 7, we were thankful to ditch the day care payments! Wa-hoo! Instead of thinking of it as a pay raise, we're going to throw extra toward the mortgage and work diligently on paying off this house! We're hoping to be done paying a mortgage by the end of 2015. We'll see!

So, house construction-wise, we finished up with our retaining wall, which was pretty brutal. I've never dug deeper holes in my life! (Six feet deep by eight feet long by two feet wide!) I think we output some serious calories during that time. The wall is built to last, though, that is for sure! Doug saw another retaining wall that was under construction when he started working on our wall. He said the other wall is failing already! :\ I have to give him major credit; everything he does is solid.

Speaking of building things "solid"... We had a tree fall on our house and the deck he built onto the front of our house. The tree was right next to our creek. We knew it needed to come out. Since we built the retaining wall, the flow of the creek has been pushed more toward this particular tree's root system. The tree was a "two-fer" (two trees that merged into one trunk at the base). Only one of the trunks fell. When it fell, it fell DIRECTLY onto our deck. Poor Doug. He was planning on painting the deck that weekend and beingg done with it. When the tree fell, it only clipped the corner of our house and dented some of the deckboards. I think it may have compromised one of the joists (barely). The tree hung over our deck, over the stairway, over the driveway (above our mini van!) and over the grass between our house and Paul Wright's house.

As soon as the storm was over, we moved the mini van, in hopes of avoiding payment of TWO deductibles. Fortunately the mini van was okay AND everyone was safe. I think the storm spooked Ava quite a bit. Sadly, I haven't taken ANY storms seriously down here... I was gathering everyone up and moving into our bedroom / bathroom when the tree hit. I saw the trees outside blowing in the wind pretty violently. (It's only so far a tree can bend!)

The good thing about all of this??? We have a deck that INSURANCE paid for! :) And the insurance company felt like the other trunk that was left was compromised, so they took it out... to the tune of $6,000 we didn't have to pay for! Doug is working on patching everything up, but, as everything is with this house, he has to peel back the onion layers to get to a point where he can built onto something solid. He had to place quite a bit of blocking in the overhang area, to have something flat enough into which he could nail the fascia board. Last weekend he finished up adding the fascia board and new plywood for the soffits. Now, we're paint-ready on the house, after which we'll need to price out gutter installation. He will be working on fixing the deck, once the gutters are installed.

Work has been ridiculously crazy for me lately. I moved from the wireless space back into wireline. As of this past July 31, I have worked for Sprint for 15 years! Hard to believe. I'm thankful to have snuck in the door when Sprint still offered a pension. So, for a few years up through 2003, I think, I earned a pension. My pension will be based on the salary I earned from 1998 through 2003. I'll take it! So, as I said, work is crazy. I've never stayed up until 5:30 in the morning, to get a work project done. I can check that off the bucket list now and hope to never repeat... I now support an account - the largest in the Southeast, I'm told. My predecessor didn't exactly have the account in ship-shape status, so I'm doing the janitorial work on the account, trying to get it up to snuff. Everyone seems very thankful for the work I've done on the account so far. I think work will slow down some, once the account has been maintained for a while.

As for extra curriculars, I realized we bit off more than we could chew this fall, so I cut back some. Ava is involved in cheerleading on Tuesday / Thursdays. She will be cheering at varisty games one weekend night, once the football game season starts. She has Chess Club after school on Thursdays, as well. She is also in Brownies, although we haven't yet met this year. I originally had her enrolled in soccer, but I think she has enough going on and I didn't want her to get too worn out for schoolwork. Liam is in karate on Tuesdays after school. He is also in Upwards Soccer, although I'm not sure what days yet.

Liam really seems to be acclimating to kindergarten so well! I was a little worried, being that his birthday is so late in the year. It seems like EVERYONE in this area of Cobb County hold their sons back, if their son's birthday is anywhere from early spring on... I think Liam is completely ready for kindergarten. He wasn't really embracing reading much, but since we've officially started school, he is interested in reading with us every night. He doesn't really sound words out yet when reading, but I'm sure that will come with time. He can look at things and sound them out phoenetically, but I think it frustrates him a little bit yet.

When Liam was assessed for kindergarten, they were impressed with his counting skills. They asked him to build something with five blocks. He did. They then asked him to build something with nine blocks. He added four more blocks onto the existing five blocks, to total nine blocks. So they were impressed that he didn't have to start from scratch and that he could just add onto the existing blocks. He knew all of his letters, could write his name, cut a triangle using scissors, knew his colors and shapes. We had no doubt he would do well!

I guess you could say I have an extra curricular now... Ha. Amanda Strumminger invited me to a Zumba class early last fall. I went the first time and felt like I had two left feet for the first month. I love it now. It definitely seems to strengthen core muscles AND you don't even realize you're getting exercise... Music and dancing! Pretty fun. So Amanda is my Zumba buddy, although I am hit or miss with attendance, due to the kids' extra-curriculars.

Well, I'd say that's enough for now. I will try to do a better job and get this thing off the ground again. :)

Peace, love and busy bees!
Shelly, Doug, Ava and Liam (aka Big Man On Campus)