Ben Said....

Jason and I were watching the news this morning and a commercial for the fancy 1 cup coffee maker was on, you know the one, Geneve something. Jason commented how one of those would be so nice to have.
Ben appears from nowhere and says, "Dad you want to go spend your money on that! Go ahead, but I'm not!"

Grandpa Walter has a very bad eye infection and has not been feeling well for a few days. For dinner Ben puts all the drinks on the table and get Grandpa his beer. So we are sitting there and I said to Ben he didn't get Grandpa his beer.
With the most serious look on his face he says, "Mom, seriously do you think Grandpa needs a beer. He has an infection. He does not need a beer tonight."
Katie then adds, "Yeah, he might get addicted to it."

Yesterday we were driving in the car and as usual Katie and Ben were bickering about something ( I can't remember...). When they both don't like what the other is saying they will tell the other one, "You are not the parent!".
Well yesterday Ben actually knew the answer and I didn't. He was trying to tell Katie and she kept saying "You're not my parent so be quiet." Ben finally yells, "I am the parent about this!".

Where Do I Begin....

I know it's been awhile. I have a really good excuse though. Our house was broken into and our laptop was stolen. Yes we do have a desktop but it runs soooooo s-l-o-w and it constantly crashes! It's very frustrating to use for any amount of time longer than 15 mins. We really need to ask Grandpa Phil to check on it or take it to Geek Squad. Jason is fed up with it but I say let's try to salvage it because at the very least the kids can use it and you can still use Word on it! Anyway...

So we've recovered from the break-in. I will admit for the first few weeks I was scared to come home to the house alone. We were skittish at night and just feeling uneasy. We did our best not to let it show b/c of the kids. They were troopers and showed no fear. In fact they put up a security system of their own on their bedroom door. Walter took time to get over it too.

After a lot of prayer I told myself I can not live in fear. It's not good for me or for my family. I was so sad that all my jewelery from my grandma, parents and special pieces from Jason were taken. I was very freaked out that they/he/she was in our room. But, life goes on and I can not live worrying that they would be back. Prayer is a wonderful thing!!!

So in the midst of all that we started on making some changes to the house. We needed to make two rooms for Katie and Ben. Although Katie loved having the loft for all of her "stuff" she did not like sleeping up there and usually slept on the top bunk of Ben's bed. Well as you can imagine, that was starting to cause "issues". Basically she needs privacy.

Jason had a wonderful idea to divide the living room in half and make a small bedroom and the other half be a dining room. We then made the rock room/dinning room the living room. Jason did a fantastic job of doing this with keeping cost down and making it functional and able to be taken down if we ever wanted to.

A HUGE thank you to Ryan (Jason's brother) for helping with moving furniture! It was a big job!!!! Thank you Uncle Ryan.
A HUGE thank you and then some to my Dad for helping Jason sheet rock and do the electrical work!!
I of course thought this would be a "QUICK" project....no, but boy does it look awesome!!!
Here are a few pics of the new dining room...





Here's the living room...





Katie's Room- It's really, really pink! Passion Pink.



Ben's New Room. He chose a skate board theme. His room is still in process, but the majority is done. Jason is going to make a loft bed for him, to give him a little more floor space. Now, enjoy these pics you have no idea what I went through trying to get him to clean his room!!!




So that's the update with the house. I'll be back for another update soon, I need to go whip their butts in Crazy 8 card game! Our new favorite game.

Need Your Help?

So, I need some feedback on who can view my blog pictures that I put up on the LEFT side in Picasa Slideshow.
I will take it off if you tell me it's not working.
I'm not sure if it only works for those of you who have Picasa on your computer.
Not sure.
Let me know.

Need Your Help?

First Day of School

Today was the 1st Day of School for K & B! They both had great days! I added new pictures on the LEFT side bar. Just click on Katie and it will take you to my web album of K orientation and 1st day of school pics!

Ben goes to school till 12:30 and I was able to take a half day today to be home when he got off the bus! He was very excited and talked all about his day. After each part of the day he would say, "Well that's about all. Then we..." too cute! He showed the most excitement when he told me about how some of the kids got to go get hot lunch and pick out their OWN DRINK! He told me I never have to make him lunch again!

Katie got off the bus with a big smile and told us she loves 3rd grade and LOVES her teacher!! WooHoo!! She has a few classmates she knows, but mostly are kids she's never been in class with before. She makes friends easily so I'm sure she'll be fine.

As for me, well I had a little cry after they left on the bus. I can't believe they are both in school! I have a lot of emotions rolling around inside but trying very hard not to let them out (most are guilt related to working) and just enjoy the time and watch how happy they are!

Summer Pics...

Over on the LEFT SIDE -The Picasa Gallery.
If you click on each picture individually, you can see them bigger. I can't get the slide show to work.
I added captions to help you see some summer pics.

I'm Back!!!

So I'm going to skip the pictures for now. I'm a little frustrated right now with the hole picture thing!
Our camera died the day before the Last Day of School in June!! My friend Kathy lent me her camera, THANK YOU, all summer!! The problem started when I went to use Picasa. I like it all the things you could do with it, but found myself getting very frustrated. It didn't help that I changed my background on my blog and that wasn't going well either.
So, I'm REALLY behind. Sorry.
I had to jump on because I feel like so much is happening I'm going to forget stuff!
Here's a quick SHE SAID/HE SAID....To get you back in the mood for checking in on my Blog.
*Driving in the car: The kids were acting really silly and I told them that they better not act like maniacs when we get (where we were going. Katie says, "Mom our brains are just crazy." Ben says, "Yeah we are maniacs and you're our maniac Mom!"
*Katie loves to tease me about how she is getting older. I think she likes to see me cry. So her favorite thing to do is tell me only 2 more years and then she's going to Middle School! Yikes!
*Ben telling me the morning of his kindergarten orientation. "Mom I have 3 tests today. I have to go to my new school. See my class and then take the bus home to see if I like it for a test."
*Ben told me since he's going to kindergarten tomorrow I HAVE to make him a surprise breakfast! Katie can not have a surprise breakfast because it's not her first day of kindergarten.
Do you think I've been making a really big deal of kindergarten?

Speaking of Ben going to kindergarten, honestly I can't talk about Katie. I get weepy every time I think about how much older she is getting. No joke.
So Ben hasn't really said much about going to school all summer. Whenever anyone said anything to him he didn't really say much. We went out (w/Katie) to get backpacks. It was a big decision. G.I. Joe, Transformers, Spiderman...Well, I thought it was going to be Transformers, but he picked Super Heroes! Then we needed to pick a lunch box...Spiderman! Katie wanted the messenger bag this year. She wanted Hannah Montana, I said no. Then she wanted High School Musical but we couldn't find one in that style anywhere. Finally she found a very cute heart pattern messenger bag style at Target. Phew.

Today we went to Ben's kindergarten orientation. Ben was able to visit his classroom for an hour and the parents left to go listen to the principal talk. He was a little nervous. On the way in he wouldn't let me take his picture. Stinker. He told me his tummy hurt a little. He wanted to wait at the door for his Daddy. He wanted to make sure Daddy knew where to go. Very sweet.
We went into the room and found his name on a set of tables. He was very serious. No smiles. No running in. We found his table. He looked at the name, hm, BENJAMIN. I saw his quizzical look. I said with excitement in my voice that he was going to learn how to write his BIG name just like Katie did! Oh. Then he checked his crayon box. Hmmm. Same thing. Then he moved on. Phew.
When we got back to the room, it was time to get his bus tag and go ride the bus home! He was excited and we had talked to him a lot about the ride and what to expect so I think that helped. We saw the very serious look again, but he got on the bus. Around him, there were several kids who needed reassurance that their parents were going to be at the house to get them off the bus!
Well, the ride went fine. He ran right off the bus and grabbed my hand. Ah, he held my hand. Okay, he still wants to hold my hand. I'm so happy. He didn't talk much about his day right away. Once I got home from work, he told me all about it. He had fun and is really looking forward to going back tomorrow.
Don't worry, we went over the bus rules again.