I've moved....

... the blog that is.
you can find us @ https://mylifewithmunchandbeans.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post-new.php

once I figure out how to use auto-email I will set up those of you who were on it :)

I will try to update more often.....

First Day of School 2010!

Can you believe it? I can't...today both girls went to Nebo Elementary! Ella started kindergarten & Emily started 2nd grade...

They were so excited they started asking if they could get up & ready for school at 4:59am!!!! I guess that is better than dragging them kicking & screaming out of bed & to school, right?!?!?!
So here's how our morning looked:





So, now on to my day of grocery shopping, cleaning, school supply gathering & parent care-taking (ha ha!)...all before they get off the bus at 2:52pm.
It's going to be a great school year!

a month later...

...and we are in full summer mode! Our days have been filled with sun & the pool!
Grandma & Grandpa from New Jersey sold their house & headed south. Currently they are living with us but will be settled into their own place soon. They have already made an offer on a house about 20 minutes from here, the girls are more than excited!
Other than the pool & hanging out with Grandma & Grandpa we've been enjoying the "lazy days of summer".
We did go for a photo shoot a few weeks back, take a peak:

All Done!

So the school year is over and my peeps are happy, happy girls!!!!! Ella is thrilled that she NEVER has to eat school food (of you can call it that) again! She is also sad that she "will never see some of my best-est friends again!!!!!". It was a bit much for her to handle on Friday... being happy & sad, she wasn't sure what to make of it. Emily is thrilled for 1st grade to be over with as she was bored, bored, bored. She loved her teacher but she said that after Christmas she was ready for 2nd grade. I got a book from the library (for me), I forget the name, but it is an overview of things your child will learn in 2nd grade...she spotted it last night, took it to bed & by 6:45 this morning she had read 65 pages! She can't wait for 2nd grade to start!
Before it does, we have 8 weeks of summer fun: birthday parties, pool, library & movies... not to mention the promise of Grandma & Grandpa moving to Georgia & actually living with us for several weeks... I think it's going to be a great summer!!!!!
Here are a few pictures from the last day of school...


Ella's "crazy hair day" at school


Emily with no teeth


Dressed and ready for the last day (it was pj day for Ella)


Emily and her awards


Emily's Honor Roll award (and ice pop stained face)

Ella's End of Year Picnic

Ella's pre-k doesn't have a graduation but they did have an end of year picnic...she has a great time!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Look!

One more baby tooth gone!

Scoliosis...

So as you may have already heard, Emily's annual Scoliosis x-ray was just done and came back "stable"...meaning that her double curvature - afflicted spine is holding steady at 4% & 5% curves. This is good news! We have to have an x-ray done at least once a year until she is 12, then they might be every 6 months UNTIL she has gone 24 months with out growing in height, at that time we can switch to "as needed". Anyway, I am thrilled that her back hasn't gotten any worse, I hate the idea of her having to wear one of those cumbersome braces for 22-23 hours a day!

I hope to get back to painting this coming week. I took a break 3-4 weeks ago when my parents came to look at houses & just haven't been able to make myself get back to it. Well, there are only 5 more weeks of school so I better get cracking! I want all of the trim painted BEFORE the girls get out for the summer!

In other, far less important news, you may have noticed I changed the title of the blog, I just like it better. The web address stays the same...

I passed!

Last year at Emily's 6 year old well check-up, her doctor eluded to the fact that she was a tad heavier that the doctor would like to see... at that time she was 60lbs 12.8 oz and 48 inches tall. I could see her ribs. I did not think she was heavy at all although I did notice she had plumped up, the kind of plumping they do before they grow. Needless to say, I felt HORRIBLE! As her mother I am 100% responsible for her weight, whether it is too much, too little or just right. Anyway, after a year of very careful monitoring and trying to find a balance between watchdog and a mom letting kids be kids, there was good news at the 7 year old visit! Emily has grown to 50 inches exactly and weighs 63lbs even...this is stupendous!!!!! On another note, the doctor agrees with us that she has a casein allergy, the protein in milk. No need to head to the allergist after all since there is nothing that can be done except avoid milk & milk products (other than cheese and yogurt). This was a great visit!
8 year old check up already scheduled...and the doctor is going to pierce Emily's ears!

Landscaping

Yesterday was our anniversary, 12 years!!!! We went out for lunch with the girls & then, of course, on to Home Depot because nothing says love like a home improvement store... ha ha ha! The girls were getting bored as George & I walked the aisles of mulch, plants & trees trying to figure out what to plant in the backyard & some whacked out bed in the front. They were bored, but obviously listening. When we got home they wanted to play outside, look what they did to make the whacked out bed better...


(if you can't see it, they picked azalea's & put them around the border of the bed to make it pretty)

Spring Pictures

Ella's spring pictures just came in... have a peek:

Seven?!?!??!!??!?

I can not believe that Emily is 7 years old. I remember ever single detail of the day she was born like it was just last week. Check out what she has looked like on April 15...

















Happy Birthday sweet girl, I love you bunches!!!!

Spring Break

Things have been busy busy here. Two weeks ago my parents were here on a house hunting trip, the girls couldn't have been more thrilled! They love having them here, they love that they are moving close by and well, let's face it, Ella was thrilled to get to sleep in our room, her favorite thing! They left the day before Easter, I think that made it easier for the girls, they had aster as a distraction... they really don't like when Grandma & Grandpa leave. Then they were off for a week for spring break. Take a peak...

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

(Note: there are not many pictures of our paper mache experiment... it was WAY more than even I could handle... the soap/paint clay was much more my speed)

This week, my parents picked a house, my dad came back for the home inspection and now we eagerly await the closings on both their New Jersey & Georgia houses.

That's all for today... more tomorrow!

The bunnies!

Each year at our church, they bring rescue bunnies for the kids to pet at Easter time. The girls thought they were super cute & cuddly...

Emily

Did I mention I painted Emily's room? She wanted hers redone after she saw Ella's. Here is her old room:


And here it is re-painted:


She also just got her spring pictures back at school. I do think it's odd that they do school pictures twice a year but....here they are:

...and now for the pictures

So here are the park pictures I told you about...

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I did not forget to photograph Ella that day, she was having an unusual "stay away from me with that camera" day...

AND, we got a new stove!!!!! Take a peek at the old nasty one that only worked somewhat and when it felt like doing so...








Here is our pretty new one...




Today was Emily's second parent'/teacher conference...you know I LOVE them!! I was told that she is doing a fantastic job, as I already knew :) She is, in her teacher's words, excelling at everything, a complete sponge. Her teacher even asked the Venture teacher for something to tell me to work on with Emily, she had nothing. I know for a fact that no one, not even Miss Emily, is perfect but as far as school is concerned, she's pretty close. Report cards come out next week, Emily's will read as follows: Reading 98 (she is reading at a rate of 148 words per minute, 4th grade level) Language Arts 99, Math 98 (she goes to fast & makes silly mistakes), Social Studies 100, Science 100. Not perfect, but as close as she can get!!! I am so very proud of Emily...very, very proud!!!!!

In other news, my parents are coming, for good! They sold there house (in less than a week!) and will be here by the end of the month to look for a new house...yipee!!!!

So, it's been a while... I know, sorry! Let's see where I left off...

So it snowed on Friday February 12th...about 4 1/2"...a blizzard to us! It was mostly gone by that Sunday...just the right amount of time for snow. Long enough for the girls to play in but not there long enough to hamper travel about town.

Emily was supposed to go for a CAT scan during the week of the 15th to determine if she needed to have her adenoids removed. Partly due to the realization that our insurance is only good if you don't need it and partly due to my fear of Emily being put under general anesthesia, I canceled the scan & called her ENT. A fabulous nutritionist I know (HI!) casually stated, after hearing Emily's symptoms, that it could be a milk allergy. What? A food allergy? No. She doesn't have one of those. Well, she is only sick during school and that is the only time she drinks mils daily. Milk allergies do cause excessive mucus... maybe I should ask the ENT what he thinks. Yes, that is what I will do. So then, while waiting to hear back from the ENT, I started researching this milk allergy thing on my own. Hey Miss Fab Nutritionist, I think you're on to something! Milk allergies in kids are the NUMBER ONE cause of ear & sinus infections! In addition to excessive mucus production, allergic kids have "bits" (for lack of a better word) of the allergy causing protein in the mucus (yuck!) which is a yummy meal for nasty bacteria! Couple that with the fact that Emily has NO good bacteria in her body any longer (12 different antibiotics in 1 year) and we have the perfect set up for chronic sinusitis & ear infections! I can't wait to to tell the ENT....well, that was more 15 days & 3 messages ago, I don't think I'll hear from the ENT anytime soon. I guess if I wasn't going to jump to the CAT scan & surgery, he has no use for me...oh well. Emily has been off of antibiotics for 21 days & (knock on wood) she's not sick! She hasn't been off medication this long since the summer! So let's see, her new daily regiment is Culturelle for Kids (10x the pro-biotics that are in yogurt), Kefir (fermented milk with billions of good bacteria, apparently the fermenting makes it tolerable), extra vitamin C with echinacea and a neti-pot rinse (sometimes plain saline sometimes with xylitol). The hardest part for Emily is the neti-pot, she's just not a fan & I don't blame her...but she does it with only a "ugh, really?" I remind her we are just trying to keep her from getting sick & she says okay! In April, we'll be start her on milk again (if I can) and see if she gets sick, if so, then we get to have a blood test, yipee!

What else has happened? Well, there were the Olympics! The first week, the girls were out of school & watched lots of figure skating and asked lots & lots of questions about the different countries. Two good comments were, Ella - "What is China's 'spangled-banner'?" (she thought that every country's national anthem was called a spangled-banner)...Emily -"Ella, we need to root for American because we are American, then we root for England because we are also English. If neither one of our country's are doing good, root for Canada because it's their Olympics." They were fascinated by all the different flags & the different number of people that each country sent to the games. They can't wait for the next Olympics. Emily already told me that we HAVE to go to visit Grandma & Grandpa in England in 2012 so that we can go to the London games...sorry Em, it probably won't happen.

One day, while the girls were home from school, it was almost 70! We headed to the park. I would show you pictures but I have NO IDEA how to get to them from the secret place that George has hidden them on the computer. Perhaps now that we are caught up I can show them to you at a later date :)

SNOW!

It is snowing here in Dallas, Georgia! I took these after about 30 minutes...






Since there is no school tomorrow & we don't have to go anywhere, we are thrilled with the snow! There is a possibility of us getting 3 inches or more of snow...I'll believe that if we see it.

This week...

...George has been in California, leaving me here alone with my girlie-girls. While George has been at his convention (being honored as Toro's "Rookie" Service Man of the Year!!! I hope I got that right)I had a few things to do...

I took Emily went to the ENT today. He is pretty sure all her ear infections and sinus infections are due to chronic sinusitis (like me) or adenoids. We will go for a CAT scan (next week I hope) and then see if surgery will fix it or if she is destined to be sick every winter like her mother. I honestly don't know which is the better option...I hate her getting sick, I hate the idea of her having surgery.

I needed to paint Ella's closet. I knew it needed to be done but the other day i saw the black hand prints on the wall that were NOT from anyone in my family and realized it could not be put off any longer.
Ella's room before:


Now it looks like this:



all because I needed to paint her closet.

Speaking of closets, I don't have one. Well, there is one in our bedroom but it is FILLED with George's things, look:

That is my queen size bed COVERED with all of his clothing...I wish I had taken a before photo (I had to sleep on the couch!)... this photo just doesn't show how much is there, it was overwhelming. After I emptied it, it looked like this:

The closet was still the green that our bedroom was when we moved here. I thought the dark brown would be too dark for the closet, especially since it isn't very big.
Now it's all painted:



I tried to get everything back together but, well, something broke in the closet. There are these silly little plastic things on the wall that help support the shelves & when I tried to hang the shelves back up I broke almost every single one. So now, I need to go but a dozen more & then I can hang up all his clothes (I think I counted 100 shirts...and he has some with him). Tonight, the clothes are lying in a neat stack on freshly vacuumed carpet...tonight, I get to sleep in my bed.