now other news for this week.....

Well as you can tell from the pictures I posted last week - school started and they finished painting our house.
The boys (and Brad & I) seem to be adjusting well to the back to school routine. Alec had his first day of STRETCH yesterday. STRETCH stands for "Students Reach Excellence Through Challenge" and is the Blue Springs Gifted program. He will be traveling to a different school one day a week and working on special projects. He seems excited about it. There are only 3 other 3rd graders in his class so they should get lots of personalized attention!
Last night was curriculum night at Jason's school - so I got to meet all his teachers and hear what he will be doing this year. He has all the general classes as well as Family and Consumer Science (FACS) and French.
Taryn and Brady arrived last night for the weekend. They have tickets to the American Idol tour at the Sprint Center. All 10 finalists will perform but they are really going to see David Cook.
Taryn, Brady and I actually got to see David Cook live and in person just an hour ago. They unveiled a mural that had been created in his honor in downtown Blue Springs. It is very nice. I need to get a picture of it from Taryn. I failed to take my camera or my camera phone with me. It was a nice event because it wasn't well publicized so it wasn't horribly crowded. It was just a nice little home town event.
Taryn and Brady have gone to downtown KC right now to pick up their tickets for tonight. The boys are at school. Brad and I both have the day off. And how we spending it? - We are in separate rooms both on the computer. Oh well. :)
Sunday we are having a big party for Mom's 70th birthday - so I guess I better go clean house or something. I'll post pics of the party next week.
TTFN!

Donna

An old friend of mine passed away this week. It is very sad. I haven't seen her much in the last several years - but I remember fondly the years I worked with her at UMB. Her name was Donna Otto Moeller and she died much too young. You can read her obituary if you click on her name. It was a great pleasure to have had her as my boss, mentor and friend at UMB. She was such a terrific person. I know she will be sorely missed by her husband, son, father and many siblings. When I was searching for her obit - I actually found her mother's too. She also died of cancer - less than 1 month ago. My deepest sympathy to all of Donna's family.

Exterior Painting - Before and After

oh how they've grown....

2002

2005

2008

Scouts, School and House

It is about time for scouts to start again. We will start den meetings again in a few weeks. We had our August pack get-together on Sunday. It was 'Anything on wheels and water toys'. Alec took his Rip-Stick and a spray bottle. I think he had a good time and was soaked by the time we went home.


Last night was 'meet the teacher' at Alec's school. I had not met his teacher before. She seems very nice. The school population increased a lot over the summer and they are having to add teachers and a mobile unit for more classrooms. The new 3rd grade teacher they hired happens to be Jason's teacher from kindergarten. That is not the teacher Alec got - but it is a small world.

The painter's started on our house this week. So far so good. Here is a before picture and an 'in progress' picture. I will of course post the after when it is all done.


Before


In progress - they have the new main color on the front and 1/2 of the back. The trim has not yet been painted.

08/08/08

Today is 8/8/08. The 3 moms and 6 kids in our cul-de-sac went to Super Splash today. It is a small water park in Raytown. The mom's mostly sat and talked and the kids went on the Avalanche and other water slides over and over again. It was a nice afternoon. There wasn't much humidity and the temperature was in the 80's.

Right now the boys are next door at their friend Jacob's 11th birthday party. Brad is not yet home from work so it is pretty quiet here.

Other things we did this week:
Saturday - Alec went to a sleepover birthday party for his friend Michael B. Brad, Jason and I went out to eat at Outback Steakhouse and then school supply shopping. I bought a new printer too. It was Missouri's back to school tax free weekend.
Sunday - Cleaned the carpets
Monday - Jay, Al and I saw the movie Swing Vote
Tuesday - I worked from home
Wednesday - I took the afternoon off and took the boys to register for school
Thursday - The boys spent the day with grandpa and grandma and I went into the office and worked.

Exciting stuff! :P

not much to report this week

Since I just wrote Monday - not much to say today - but thought I would post anyway to keep up my momentum. I have been enjoying updating this every Friday - even if no one reads it. :)

This week has been routine - work for me and Brad - play for the boys.
We have been dealing a lot with insurance companies trying to get a good rate for Hunter's car. It is ridiculous how much it costs to insure a 17 year old boy. And the fact that he is in South Dakota and we are here- complicates it even more. Oh well - such is life.

Today I have just been making a list of all the things that need to be done around here. It seems to keep getting longer all the time. We do have someone hired to paint the house - but they don't know yet when they can start. We have also talked to someone about working on our landscaping - but we are having a hard time finding a time to meet with him. We've GOT to do something with the stupid pond - which right now is pretty much just a mud hole.

That's about it. I guess I did have more to say than I thought - mostly complaining though.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and week!