Diane and Jim Blog: September 2008

What a week it has been!

Sunday, Rockies Baseball game with the Rush Family. Dinner at Sharlyn and Tracy's with Irene before she left to head back to Michigan after a week long visit. The kids LOVED having Grandma come stay with them one night while Jim and I went to Vail for our Anniversary! They cannot wait for her to come back in October! (We'll get to that in a min.)

Monday, FIRST SWIMMING lesson! Well, let's just say that kids have a very strong survival instinct. I had to laugh at how hard they held on to the instructor. Mr. Ken. They were very reluctant to go under the water, so Mr. Ken did it for them!! Ali CRIED and CRIED. I missed Martin because Ali insisted she had to potty! She did that both days and I missed Martin going under both times. Daddy got to see it the 2nd day, but not Mommy - and for a f

alse alarm! :( False potty alarms are Mommy's LEAST favorite thing (next to accidents!).

Tuesday, FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL!!! They had their new lunch bags and their "tote" for all their school stuff. We said our quick goodbyes (Jim was able to be here for the momentous occasion!) and left! (Mommy might have been getting a little teary eyed, but you'll never know unless you have proper clearance!)

Their teacher is Ms. Beth. They LOVE her. They have a friend in the class already and we are working on learning all the other kids' names. (They can play with someone for hours and never know their name. Aaaaah to be 3.) They received a great report from the teacher for GOOD MANNERS and that they did really well. It was a long day 9:30 - 3:30 with lunch and quiet time, so they were a little on edge for the rest of the day and went to be a little early! (YAY!)

The love to have their turn on the computer and Ali would swear to you that she never gets a turn, but it turns out she's "foofing" us about that!

Wednesday, back to SWIMMING! They did SUPER well the 2nd time. It really went better than the first time and Ali put her head under on her OWN in order to avoid having Mr. Ken do it for her. The pride on her face was priceless! (She also thought she could get out and get warm in her towel then too - but NOPE!) They "jumped" off the side into Mr. Ken's arms. I got a little nervous when he put them out on the wall (they swam with the barbell thing) to hold on by themselves. (This is where the survival instinct was very evident!) Then they climbed out on their own and "jumped" in. Martin did NOT want to leave. He said "I had so much fun swimming" over and over (then, Ali copied him - naturally). They played in the warm shower while I shampoo'd them etc. to get them clean for the day.

Thursday, back to SCHOOL! I thought they would be more upset the 2nd day, but they proved me wrong. Martin's having trouble getting his shoes on alone (they are very hard - in his defense) but over all they did great and are charming the socks off the teacher!

Friday, the played in the "playroom" at the Rec. Center while Mommy played tennis and Daddy worked at home. Then in the evening we had T-ball (2nd class). It's just a madhouse. It's almost silly how many kids they have in there at once. The "coach" is not 3 yr. old savvy and uses words and concepts that are way over their heads. He gives them multiple instructions at once. Like how to play all aspects of baseball. The parents had fun talking about how he needed to "dumb it down" a bit :) They have a friend in t-ball as well. (Jonathan).

Jim and I spent Friday night watching the Weather Channel, Fox News and CNN to see what was happening on the Hurricane Ike front. We admit to being disaster news junkies. We were relieved that it missed Aunt Bob and Uncle Jane in Florida (although, they might have had some beach erosion and lots of rain....we'll have to get in touch with them.)

My Mom and Dad (Grammy and Grampy) are in Croatia right now on a 19 day trip! Mom has a broken foot and they rented a wheel chair type thing to help them get along. We finally received word from them today that they are not missing out on much because of her foot and having a great time.

A busy busy fall and Holiday Season is a brewin'

Jim's 18 mos. of weekly travel is bearing "fruit" finally. His Manager is brilliant enough to recognize his talent and dedication to his work. He nominated Jim for an award. The prize, should you WIN this award was a trip to HAWAII FOR TWO. Are you doing the math - that's SANS kids if you are playing along at home. So, when we found out that he was nominated (it's normally a "prize" for the sales people who reach and exceed their goals and a very few technical people are honored with it!) he went to work on his Mom to see if she would come out and stay with the kids should he win. She's got the patience of a saint! She agreed (thank you Mom!) and we waited. And waited. And waited. I assumed that it wasn't happening because it took so long to find out.

Turns out HE WON! So, we are taking a week and going to Hawaii (ALOHA) in October - alone!! So exciting! I am beyond excited and thrilled. Even with the vacations we take, I'm never really ON vacation from the kids. So this is unbelievable for me. So, while we will miss Halloween with the kids (their first REAL attempt). We'll save $$$ on candy in this kid centered neighborhood we live in and the kids will get to go to Auntie and Unca's house to dress up and trick-or-treat with Kellen and Auntie and Unca! YAY!

In November, we are headed to TX for Thanksgiving. I am flying in with the kids a few days early and going to visit a girlfriend (Trish) and her twins in Austin. We have really enjoyed our last few years going to San Antonio for Thanksgiving to be with Jim's dad (Papa) and Jude (Gigi) and Jude's family. It's always a nice visit and fun things to do with the kids and the kids LOVE being with their Papa and Gigi.

But wait, that would be TOO simple! This is the last season for the Dallas Cowboys to play at Texas Stadium (which we toured 2 yrs. ago) and Jim's been a lifelong fan and had a dream of seeing them play at home. They always play on Thanksgiving day, so he went to work to figure out if we could see them. His Dad and Jude have GENEROUSLY agreed to keep the kids that day and postpone (or we can just eat leftovers from whatever they do) Thanksgiving so that we can fly to Dallas and back in one day to see the Cowboys play! Thank you Jim and Jude! You are incredibly brave and generous! (No wonder the kids love you so much!)

So, that's November (a few weeks after trip #1 to Hawaii). A few weeks after our trip to San Antonio and Austin we depart for our originally scheduled trip to Hawaii for Christmas and New Years (3 weeks in paradise!) We'll go to my parents condo just before Christmas and stay for a while. Jim has a good friend from College that is stationed right there in Kaneohe and we'll enjoy getting together with them as much as we can!

It's a good thing we have little travelers in the family! It's going to be a very fun, wild and wooly Fall and Holiday Season!

A few more pics!