Successful Monday....

We had some errands to run bright and early this Monday morning.

First, at 7 AM this morning, we had Kent's initial consultation for his orthodontist appt. for BRACES!!!!

Kent has a slight overbite, and the orthodontist ( who did my braces 5-6 years ago and is fabulous) said if Kent were his son he'd have two teeth pulled and then pull the upper jaw together giving more room to even out the teeth, and to have the back teeth line up better. At first I didn't like the idea of pulling perfectly healthy strong teeth, he said he could fix his teeth with out pulling any but his slight protrusion would be a little more pronounced because of the overbite, he showed a picture of that and it was NOT attractive. He also showed a patient having the same 2 teeth removed that Kent would need and how the teeth close in the gap and it was amazing! So I'm going to think it over... and the price of $5700+ that my dental plan does not cover cause it's considered "cosmetic".

Anyway, here's the funny pictures they take...

Here's a panoramic X-ray they take, pretty interesting, it shows all 4 of his wisdom teeth including the bottom ones trying to come thru that will need to be pulled down the road. Why do teeth have to be so expensive???Also, Kent's high school was having their open house were students could walk the halls to figure out where there classes were.... big sister was helping out...Kent has a pretty heavy schedule... remember he's only a sophomore... I am so proud of him...

1st period.... AAF Math (advanced algebra math- like 3rd year algebra I'm told)

2nd period... AP Chemistry

3rd period... 3rd yr Japanese

Those 3 classes he's taking at the high school.

Then he's being home schooled his other 3 classes which are (I'm provided all the books thur the off-campus program):

4th period... Sophomore Language Arts

5th period... World History

6th period... And his elective is Cartoon Comics- it's a drawing class focused on comic style drawing, he was pretty excited and it is an "easier" class to help balance out his heavy morning...

We're still working out the kinks for Jade's schedule, she's on a waiting list for one of her classes at the college so I'll show her schedule when we know for sure. Pretty exciting year for both kids.

Also, some progress on my craft room clean up, I have rounded up 3 bags of garbage so far... still lots to do though.

Oh ya, I gotta go to work later on today, too! I try not to think about that, I like to pretend I'm a stay at home mom until 3pm rolls around... hahaha!

Have a great Monday!

More cleaning...

Well, I cleaned the kids' class room, I cleaned our bedroom... I'm on a roll... the next project is my craft room. Wow, this room may take a few weeks to complete...

After about an hour or so I've made a little headway, but there's still a long long way to go but I'm heading in the right direction...Our friend Michelle from church came over with lunch today- 4 HUGE pizzas!! Laura and her family also came over to visit for a bit. Jeromy worked the last day at the fair today from 2-6, so it was nice having company. Thanks for lunch Michelle! Here's Tessa holding what was left of the 4th pizza, but it too got eaten up, we all have good eaters in our families!
Have a great week out there!

Odds and ends...

Well, I made Jade a bag for school cause she needs one being a high school senior/college freshman... She wanted one that would go over her shoulder... she likes it, with the cool funky pocket full of new sharpies that I know she's going to use to draw all over the bag to make it her own...

We also went to our friend Michelle's house last weekend, Jeromy was building a pantry for her. Laura and Jason came over and Jason jumped right in to help Jeromy... thank you so much cause I was not looking forward to lifting sheet rock!!! Next Jeromy will be mudding/texturing it, adding 3 doors to the opening, and then eventually getting a new floor put in. Until it gets painted, we all had fun temporarily drawing / painting on the wall....

Julia painting...Also Jeromy has been working at the fair for the last few days with our church spreading the Word. Jade and Kent went with him one day but Jade's memory card got switched with her friends and until we switch them back those pictures are held captive!!

Today I wanted to tackle cleaning our room... there was alot to be done... I probably shouldn't post these pictures, but I have no shame, and you people need a laugh... here's the before... go ahead and laugh...

My vacuum was smelling hot, so I thought I'd take a look under the hood... and no wonder!!!I should be bald with how much hair I cut out of this thing...Well, about 4 hours later, after pledging shelves and all the wood, windexing all the pictures and mirrors, getting cobwebs out of the ceiling, getting rid of a ton of clothes I'll never wear, loads of laundry including the sheets, vacuuming.... it is finished.... (wipe tear from your eye mom lol!)So that's all for now. Time to to go have some dinner, and then we're all headed to Barnes N Noble and some coffee... mmmmm, we have such a good life, I need to remember that when I have to go to work. God gives us so much, I need to learn to not complain.... this is an ongoing process...

Take care!

Getting ready for school....

We're putting the class room back together today. I wish I had taken a before picture. The table were 90' the other way, and I switched which side the kids are on. I don't think Kent likes change... but he'll get used to it. I had to switch all their pictures on the cork boards behind them, but then that encouraged me to thin out old stuff and make room for new stuff....

Yes, cleaning can be exciting... I see that now....Some cute kids...Other good news... that irritating tickle seems to be slightly fading, I felt better this morning than I did yesterday morning!

We're getting excited about school starting. We're thanking God for a fun busy summer, and praying for a smooth successful school year. Soooo much to be thankful for!!

Terrific Tuesday...

OK, I'm trying to be positive. I have a slight tickle in my throat, and it's buggin me... hopefully it just quietly goes away...

We're trying to get some cleaning done to get ready for the new school year. We drug everything out of the kids' class room... so my craft room is kind of a wreck...

But I was able to steam clean the carpets!! Woo-hoo!!! Tomorrow we'll put everything back in it's place...Kent also is vacuuming the living room...Now the kids are going to fold this mountain of laundry....Also this morning, we got Jade all registered for her fall quarter at OC- that's Olympic College! She got a high enough grade for her summer english 99 class so she's good to go for Running Start this fall.

The running start program basically pays for the college credits... I'm still getting this all figured out myself.... each credit is $81, and she's taking 15 credits this fall, so I did the math and the Running Start program is saving us $1,215.00. Crazy how much it costs, and that's for a community college! But Running start doesn't pay for books or for their misc. fees.... so we're paying about $325.00 for her fall quarter... lame!! But but we're not paying that $1,215.00!!

Also we got her scheduled for all her classes at the campus in Poulsbo! I like that cause it's smaller, newer and close to Grandma- walking distance even! Here she is with her books and schedule....She also has a couple classes to take thru the off-campus program to meet her high school graduation requirements. Busy girl... her senior year is just going to fly by, we gotta try to enjoy every moment of it!

Happy Birthday Jade!!!

HAPPY 17th BIRTHDAY JADE!!!

My baby is now officially 17 years old!

Her official birthday was last Thursday, so I was able to take the day off and just have fun with her all day! We had a huge party planned later in the day, but we thought we would take a little quiet time in the morning with just Jade, mom and grandma Cindy!

First, we went out to breakfast at Shari's.... grandma and Jade...

Jade and mom....

Then, the 3 of us went to get pedicures... my mom took this picture of Jade and I... Here's our toes drying... mine are purple, Jade's are green and my mom didn't want a color- she got just a clear coat....
Then it was party time... YUMA close up of my watermelon fruit bowl...
Time for presents... Jade scored almost $200 in cash and gift cards... spoiled, but she does appreciate everything she's given...
Just LOOK at her SWEET face.... Laura and Hannah.... so cute!!Jade blowing out her candles.... Some pretty awesome teenage boys... Austin, Kyle, Kent and Philip... As the party was dying down, we started to make dinner.... Julia helped me with the taco meat for our taco salads/ burritos we were having for dinner...Grandma Claire stopped by a little bit later....After dinner, the kids had been anxiously waiting for the game we were going to play, because I kept saying how fun it was going to be but I wouldn't tell them what it was! It was a scavenger hunt! Here's all the kids with the treasure map... they were pretty excited to get started...Here's a close up of the map.... there were several clues they had to figure out, some easy some hard. But each clue led them to 3x5 card that had a single letter on it...

When they found all the letters they had to unscramble the letters to find out where their treasure was. Here's the kids all trying to rearrange the letters to find the treasure.... I have to tell you I personally had alot of fun making this map and hiding all the clues....After a while, Julia figured out the letters spelled out "microwave" so all the kids ran to the microwave, and this is what they found... treasure- to teen/pre-teen girls anyway!There was nail polish, lip gloss, socks, gum, candy, ding dongs, wavy straws, suckers and a ton of curly cue ribbon to make it fun.... they dumped it all out and divided up the prizes, there was one of everything for every girl....The girls were diggin' the socks...Then we played board games late into the night, some kids played video games while others watched movies..... I have to add that my team one the game, our team was myself, Julia and Shane...Then we all crashed!
The next morning we had breakfast, cleaned a little and that rolled into lunch, and then finally we had our banana splits! I meant to have these the night before, but we all just had so much fun (and sugar) that there was just no time (to eat any more sugar). So we had it the next day, but worth the wait!

We had ice-cream, raspberries, strawberries, bananas, crumbled chocolate cookies, crumbled oreos, chocolate and caramel syrup, whip cream and sprinkles.... the kids loved it! (Me, too!)

The infamous twins.... Tea' and Nadia...

Tessa....
All the kids....
My baby girl... can she really be 17??? Well, I guess she doesn't look 3 any more... sniff sniff...
Ok, get ready to jump topics here, Jeromy has been so busy working lately with his handyman business (his T-shirt business for that matter, too) but he did have a little accident on friday. Poor baby! But he did say in all his years working in all the different environments, this is the worst injury he's had. He was using a mallet, and smashed his finger, taking off some skin and part of his finger nail... OUCH!!!
Ok, jumping topics again, today we had Jeromy's grandpa's 80th birthday party to go to. Here's Jeromy in the middle of his grandpa- the birthday boy, and his grandma who is 90!

Here are those "J" people: Jeromy and Jade, can she get any cuter??? Love that girl!

Jeromy and I....
My kiddos.... Jade and Kent....
And as if you haven't had enough of our cute faces, we got our family pictures back, and I love them! I love all the purples, of course Jeromy's not wearing purple, he's wearing plum.... hahaha!

I usually don't care for the pictures when they ask us to do something goofy. But after they told the girls to kiss their brother on the cheek (first I have to say that I'm surprised that none of them refused!) and I saw the expression on Kent's face, I though it was hilarious, so I only got a couple....
So now I am going to bed, sorry this took so long mom to get Jade's b-day posted. I wanted to get it sooner but was so busy! See you soon, to give you your pick of our fabulous family pictures!