Wordless Wednesday

Rebecca's First Day Of School 2009

Well it is Rebecca's turn for the whole first day of school fun! She was pretty excited to be going to a new school. She went to a local church run preschool last year in their 3 year old program but this year she is at the public school in their pre-k program. She will be there Monday through Friday from 9:15am until 11:30am. She will miss her teachers and friends from last year but I am hoping she will do well in this school.



















On a side note:
Boy this economy sure stinks! I am so upset about taking out of the other school. She really loved it but we just couldn't squeeze her tuition out of our budget this year. I may even have to *gasp* get a job! I know...you are all saying "It's about time you lazy schmuck". I really like being a stay at home mom. I am hoping to find something overnight so that I won't have to worry about childcare but that remains to be seen. Unfortunately, most of the overnight shifts in this area seem to get off at 8am and I have to be off before 7am. Since Dan leaves for work at 5am and the older two leave for the school bus at 7am, someone has to be there for Rebecca and Jaquelyn, so the time is non-negotiable.
Well I suppose I should get ready to go pick her up. I hope her first day went well. School actually started two weeks ago so she is starting a bit late but I didn't even realize they had opened their pre-k program up to everyone this year until last week.

A Couple First Day Of School Events

I am sure that everyone who normally reads my blog has completely given up on me but that doesn't mean I have given up on blogging. I know I have been full of excuses all summer but I am hoping things will settle back down now that 3 out of 4 are back in school. Rebecca will be in shortly too, just not sure what day yet...but that's a whole different story.
So anyhow...since I completely dropped the ball last week when Taylor and Teresa started, I will combine them with Jaquelyn's first day.

My sweet oldest daughter is starting her last year of high school. What a shock to the system to realize that time has flown by so quickly. Where did all the years go? Well, I still obligated her with first day of school pictures but at least she doesn't have to worry about me taking her to school to do the "sitting at your desk" picture. That one went away when they started middle school and changed classrooms. Lucky them!
She has most of her credits already so she is able to get out at 12:15 each day (lucky me, the chauffeur). She is hoping to find a job at a local restaurant soon to save up some money for college next year.



















Teresa is starting her sophomore year. WE are going to get started on earining her service learning hours this year so we don't have to try to cram them in before she graduates. (In case you are not from Maryland, the requirements to graduate are 75 hours of service learning...which are different somehow from community service but I'm not totally clear on how) We are keeping our fingers crossed that this years grades are much better than last years. We'll see...




















Jaquelyn's first day of 5th grade was yesterday. It went much better than the orientation the day before. The orientation day was totally unorganized (just the 5th graders part of course)and the parents spent the time just hanging around and chatting rather than figuring out the schedules (since they didn't have any schedules printed out for the 5th graders). For the first day of school that was fixed and we now have a schedule for each period and know when all her specials (library, art, gym, etc) are each week. I can't believe she's into a kilt and oxford already...sniff, sniff. She's just too young. I wish this school changed in 6th grade like most schools do. But she really likes it so that's all that really matters...not her mother's broken heart.

Happy Birthday Taylor!!

Today is my sweet Taylor's 17th birthday. Can someone please tell me where all the time has gone?!? It feels like yesterday she was taking her first steps and now she starting her senior year of high school next week. It just doesn't seem possible. Since we are away visiting family I am unable to put a great post together with pictures through the years so that will have to wait until next week. I will just include a few that are from our recent travels.

Blogger Is Sooooo ANNOYING

Will someone please explain something to me??? Why is it that my blog is so different on Explorer and Firefox. If I get the spacing correct on Explorer it is totally messed up on Firefox. Once I fix it for Firefox, there are a million extra spaces on Explorer. Why can't everything just work the same way!!!

Our Trip To California - Part One

We spent the first half of our California vacation in San Francisco visiting my mother. We started out by hitting the beach....can you say brrrr. It was a tad chillier that day than we expected but lots of fun was had by all.



























We spent a day hanging out at the house making totally cute owls! The girls all had a blast picking out different materials and piecing them together. We helped Jaquelyn and Rebecca but Taylor and Teresa did their own sewing!!





















Here is adorable Porter posing with all the owls we made.














There is a dog walking area near my mom's house that she takes Porter each day and the girls really enjoyed going up there several times and checking out the sites. You can see for miles (if it's not foggy...this is San Francisco after all). On a clear day you can see both the Golden Gate Bridge and Bay Bridge, Candlestick(3Com) Park, Oakland and tons of other places that you may or may not have heard of.




































































We spent a day down at Fisherman's Wharf/Pier 39 doing the touristy thing. We saw lots of cool stuff and the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. They especially enjoyed seeing the funny street performers that were all over the place. There was one guy who had a big bush in front of himself and he would pop out at people walking by who weren't paying attention.









































We also went to another beach on a day that it was a bit warmer. Everyone had fun and played hard. There must have been something going on because there were tons of kite boarders out in the Bay all in a big group. There are lots of things I would like to try but kite boarding or wind surfing out in the Bay...definitely NOT on my list.





























We did lots of other little things while we were there but there is really too much to mention so here are just a few pictures of hanging out and chillin'. We stopped off at a little park and I thought the sign they had up was soooo funny!

A Quick Update... With More To Come Soon

Hello, Hello, Hello....
I know it's been ages since I posted last but we have been globe trotting and computer access is few and far between. We had a great time in California and there will be many future posts detailing all of our fun with pictures galore. We had a few days at home when we returned and then hightailed it up to the Boston area to spend some time with hubby's kin. He is the oldest of 7 and most still live near their parents so it's lots of fun with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins & Grandparents. Plus we lived up here for a year a few years ago and we all made friends that we try to meet up with when we are here for an extended time.
Anyhoo.....I will try to put some posts together so you can see all the fun things we did while visiting the West Coast. In between all the fun we'll be having on the East Coat that is....

Here is a quick pic of us at Ghiradelli Square doing the whole "tourist" thing.

We Are Outta Here!! (Again)

We are once again going out of town. This time we are heading to California to visit my mom and dad. We will be gone for about 2 weeks so we can spend a week with each of them. I am hoping we actually get out of here on time so I will end this post now so we have a chance of making our flight.
TTFN!!


OH...I am supposed to mention how it's just the girls and I going since my husband used up all of his leave on our last trip. So we are abandoning him (his words not mine) and leaving him to fend for himself for the whole time. Poor thing...

(of course I have spent a TON of money stocking up on everything he should need so that he won't go to the store and pay way too much for what ever he is in the mood for)

What's Happening Now...

I know I have been a very sporadic blogger of late but life in the summer seems to fly by at amazing speeds. Here are a few things we have been up to recently...

Teresa has been wanting to dye her hair and we finally relented when she found a NON-permanent dye at Hot Topic. Why was is at Hot Topic you ask?? Because her color of choice was blue!! Unfortunately, since we were unwilling to let her strip her hair first, it didn't really come out very well. Then it completely came out when we went swimming. Oh well, live and learn.

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Taylor has also been nagging to dye her hair but she wanted something a bit more permanent. My friend Pam and I finally talked her into trying out a longer non-permanent type that will last for about 30 days. Especially since we were unsure of how it would look in her hair. THANK GOODNESS. She was looking for a brown with red tints...it did NOT come out like that. I now have Ariel living with me and I cannot wait for it to wash out.


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