A Hat, Water Bottles, and a Camera

These are the ingredients for cheap entertainment on our roadtrips to and from Wichita.

(Riley sees this picture above, and says he looks like his cousin Aidan.... ?)

Water bottle mustache

My goofballs!

It doesn't take much!

Sneaky Reece

Reece is selling toys to the neighbor boy..... without telling anyone.

Funny story. We were about to walk up to the school, tonight, to attend the open house.... Our neighbor, Jace, was hanging out on the porch, with his mom parked in front of the house. Confusing, but oh well. Then Reece comes in with a dollar and some change.... I had asked where he got this and he said Jace had given it to him. (Reece is used to getting things given to him..... his cousin Aidan usually donates something new, coins included, every time we see him, and then there is our neighbor Casey, who sometimes lets Reece take little inexpensive items from her store Sassy Bags, in which he sings a song, "I didn't have to pay!") I immediately was worried that Jace was just "giving" this money to Reece.... as he often wants Reece to have his things, anyways. I tell Reece to hurry and give the money back, before they drive off. Jace and Reece exchanged the money and a couple of toys that looked familiar. Turns out, Reece was selling a couple toys to Jace. Jace had earned some allowance, and wanted to buy these. I double checked with his mom, and her answer was that he got to choose what he wanted to do with his money, so this was just fine. The toys were old, and I never see the boys play with them, so I was all for getting rid of a couple items I would usually trip over, if anything. So for the 3rd time, the boys exchanged the toys and money. Good times.

So what does Reece plan to do with his income? Buy gum of course...

Week in Review

The first half week of school has come and gone.... overall, we have some happy boys!

Reece LOVES school! At Roosevelt, they loop K and 1st, so he has Mrs. Olander again. It worked this time, because we love her, and she loves Reece! She truly reminds me of my Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Shrouf. Just a kind, grandmotherly figure. She has such a calm sweet voice, and I feel so calm when I talk to her, I can imagine it's the same effect for "most" kindergartners... Reece has already declared that, "I listen to my teacher more than I listen to you," meaning me.... his mom. Not that this was a big secret..... my boys love to follow the rules of the world and discard the rules of this house. Better that way, then the other, I suppose. I can tell he loves school mostly because at bed time, every night, he tells me he wishes school would start again right then. It's just not fair for a little child to get so much energy! He should be forced to share it with the rest of us!

Riley moved up into a new class.... he is in a 4th/5th grade class, and his teacher is Mrs. Stucky. I haven't met her yet (our school doesn't have "Meet the Teacher Night" and it makes me a little sad.) We will meet her at an open house on Tuesday. So far Riley is enjoying it. Not much chatter from him, but he still tells us he's happy and likes school. I kept his brain going all the way from May to July, gave him a brain break through August, and I'm sure he'll pick up right where he left off academically. School fits Riley so well! I'm sure 4th grade will be just as great as 3rd was!

Getting back to school was a bit more difficult for me. As mentioned before, I don't enjoy waking up to an alarm clock.... it's just not natural! LOL These first few days I spent a lot of time observing our "identified" children, in their classrooms. It was a lot of standing on my feet, which I wasn't used to either after summer vacation. It will get easier..... Then Jake and I are still working out 5 days a week, so getting that in has been tough too. The hardest part of my week was sitting at the pool for a couple of hours. Yep! You heard me right..... Friday afternoon, I HAD to chaperone the kids from my school to the city water park, because the PTO paid for us to go ALL Friday afternoon! My job is hard..... ;) The things I get paid for!.... In all honesty, I think sitting in the sun, after the week I had, really zapped all energy from my tired body. It was fun, but I got home on Friday afternoon, and hurt head to toe. My body will adjust one day!

Jake is just going to be adjusting to having days off, where we are all out of the house. I think his "busy body" personality will help him figure it out OK!

Hello School!

(A little side note about the picture above.... Riley consciously chose to just put one shoulder strap on. He said it looked cooler! sigh....)

I have a 1st and 4th grader!! Getting them ready for school was pretty easy.... torturing them by making them smile for the camera was pretty easy too!! Here's to a great year!!

Summer's End...

This is it! My first real summer vacation is just hours from ending. Boy, are my emotions mixed! I had really hoped to get on a "summer routine".... but that just did not happen. Instead it was no routine, and for the most part I loved it! I had very few obligations, and my stress level truly appreciates that. The few reasons I'm not ready for school to begin are.... actually there is just one real reason. JACQUE IS NOT A MORNING PERSON!! Haha! I really am not! The worst feeling in the world to me, is waking up to an alarm clock, and to add to that, when the time changes, when it's DARK outside! It's the ABSOLUTE worst!! My friends this summer shared a funny quote with me.... "Morning people are lying to themselves," (author unknown to me) but it was a perfect quote for how I feel about the wee hours of daytime!

Why I'm excited to return back to my job at the school..... first, of course, is getting back on the payroll. Wow! Jake and I have stretched our pockets pretty thin this summer. Next summer we'll need to plan ahead and save a little more. It doesn't help that we have back to school shopping and tags, both in August. Then the projects we chose to do..... it's not like those were free! Even if he does work at Lowes. Back to the subject.... I work with some great ladies! They really make my job feel more like social hour. We are all so different, but really work together so great! I look forward to seeing them daily again! Lastly, the boredom of summer, has finally set in with the boys this past week. We even went to the pool one last time on Saturday, and they were actually bored of it! That was a first!! This no routine for them, has finally caught up with them. It affects them at home with just the 2 of them and even with neighbor friends. They need school again! I know I already said "lastly" but I should put in that with school starting, comes fall, football, and eventually COLLEGE BASKETBALL!!! Yay!! By the time college basketball is over, it will be so close to summer vacation, I'll wonder where the year went!! LOL

So, Farewell Summer!! You were good to us!

FYI: You've noticed I was a blogging machine this summer.... don't hold me to any expectations from here on out! This is where I'll get crazy busy, and amazingly life might be crazy boring!! ;)

"Nose Tears"

Reece had an emotional time getting to bed tonight. See, we took the mattress away. He really wasn't happy. Jake and him tried working it out, but it didn't quite work out, so I stepped in, and finally got him into his bed. When I started tucking him in, he said, "I don't like it when my crying makes tears come out of my nose!"

So sad and so funny at the same time.

More Progress

Jake calls it a "Steelers" room now.

Essential Gray, Knights Armor (dark gray) and Peach Tea (the same color bedroom was before this never ending project.)

Stripe Inspiration

(eclectic dining room design by other metros interior designer Cynthia Mason Interiors.....)

Just with Jody and I's own twist.....

I've finished taping the stripes, now I need some luck painting and seeing how it turns out!!

My floors and wall are so uneven, in this old house, that horizontal stripes might come back to haunt me!! Fingers crossed!!

Making Progress....

.....slowly, but surely!

Our ceiling is up, and painted..... next it's painting the walls. But I couldn't just paint them one color, which might become an overwhelming project.

Can I do it?

YES I ..... don't know!!

What cracks?? =)

This was taken before the ceiling paint dried.... FYI, I would NEVER recommend ceiling paint. Just use regular paint.... this stuff won't look even or the same sheen EVER!!

Lesson learned!

Painting the room Essential Gray!

I love Gray!!!

And this is just the beginning of the taping for stripes.... anyone who wants to donate to the "Paint Tape" fund, feel free!! It's gonna look awesome!

Swimming With Froggy

Yesterday, we went swimming with cousins and friends. It was interesting..... for one, there were so many crazy boys in the pool, that I felt I needed a lifeguard chair. And two, Reece made a friend and named him "Froggy." Reece is such a clever namer..... LOL.

Sadly, Froggy couldn't handle the excitement of swimming with 8 crazy boys, and with me not knowing any details..... he didn't survive long. Sad.

RIP Froggy!! =(

New Toy

My boys have a new toy in their room.

Can you pick it out?

Here's a hint: It's the queen size mattress on the floor!

In this old house we have very little "extra" space.... so ever since we started working on the 3rd bedroom's ceiling, this was our best option. The other option was to throw it on our bed, and I could feel the "Princess and the Pea."

The boys are actually sleeping on it at night, and flipping on it during the day. Reece made this bed before I took the picture (If you couldn't tell.... all the teddy bears should have been your clue.) They are in heaven..... it's like their very own, indoor jungle gym. Who would have ever thought a mattress on your floor would be so fun? I think these boys will be sad, when we do put it back in the room....and I wonder what the quality of our mattress will be after all the jumping, bouncing and flipping?

*sigh*