Sorry the posts have been few & far between lately. Thought I'd better play catch up, though. Last week the kids had their first full week of school & it went pretty well. The long weekend definitely helped. This week they have a short week, having Monday off, as well as Friday {there's a annual rodeo in Fort Madison this week & by Friday, it's pretty nuts around there!}. I was pretty much home with the kids all weekend, as Dan was helping my brother roof our rental house. Poor guy, didn't get much of a weekend... he was up at 5:30 Sat, Sun & Mon. They did stop earlier in the day on Sunday since it was so hot, so we traveled to see our new niece/cousin in Marion. They seem to be doing well... we all forgot how tiny & sweet new babies are! We didn't stay too long, Lydia has been teething over the last week or so & she was extremely cranky & restless. Here are some pics of little cutie Ashlyn.
We got news last night from Dan's youngest brother Luke & his wife Barbara that they welcomed a new little girl last night. Hopefully I spell her name right... Ashlyn. This is their first & we are so happy for them to start on this very exciting part of their lives. We can't wait to see them, maybe later this weekend we can make our way up to CR to visit! Congratulations Luke & Barbara, lots of love & prayers coming your way.
This morning we had our first tears... I'd been waiting for it, but to tell you the truth it caught me off gaurd. It wasn't who I expected them to come from. I was telling the boys to get their shoes & backpacks on to wait for the bus & out bursted the tears from Evan! He normally doesn't act like this, but over the past few days I could tell he has acted tired & he seems as if he's thinking about some stuff, but I could never get anything out of him. But this morning the tears ran & I was informed how stupid school was & that he didn't have to go....... oh my. I talked with him calmly & gave him lots of hugs & kisses & reassured him it would be ok & then he was suddenly done & ready to go. Thank goodness! We've had troubles in the past when Collin was in the earlier grades getting him off to school & I've made a few trips to take him to school because he wouldn't get on the bus. Please, Lord I don't need that again! Hopefully it will get better. I think he is just on overload right now, being busy all day with school, then they get off the bus & I drag them off to get Lydia from the babysitter, etc etc. He also has mostly all new kids in his class. Our school has 2 different Kindergarten classes, one in West Point, one in Fort Madison. This year they merged them into 1 first grade, with 2 teachers. In his class he only has him & maybe 3 others that were with him last year, so I think he may be having a harder time with that. He's a very likable kind of guy, though, so I told him I'm sure he'll make more friends over the next few weeks. I think he also misses Collin {gasp!}. Collin, being in the 4th grade, is in a different building, has a different lunch & recess time. So he really only sees him on the bus in the am & pm. Hopefully with some sleep, some pep talks & hopefully some more exciting stuff at school, we'll all be ok. Oh & I have to add this, I thought it was pretty funny. Evan has been waiting for when he would have homework {I know, it won't last}. Last night, he had his first spelling list to study. He had 10 words. So first, I let him write them out while looking at the list. OMG, there was alot of erasing & perfecting. I think it took 20 minutes for this part. So then, I told him I was going to ask him the words & he'd have to write them w/ out looking at the list, but foreseeing that this could take another 20 minutes, he instead spelled them out loud. Good job Evan.... you got 100%.
09.2.2008
