Friday, May 30, 2008

Pool time!!!

Taking advantage of the lovely Memorial Day weather, we took the girls to the pool last weekend. I was curious to see Abby's reaction to the munchkin pool because we didn't really go much last year due to my school schedule and her nap schedule which never seemed to line up. Lexi, I knew, would be a crazy girl.

Abby approached the experience very apprehensive at first. She stayed close to Stefan and refused to venture out into the pool despite our urgings.



We tried to have Lexi show her the ropes, but after a few minutes Lexi started bellyflopping into the pool splashing and scaring the little kids. I told her to go to the big pool where that was more appropriate.



When Lexi left, Abby began to gather some bravery. She crouched down and, maintaining a slight squat to keep her center of gravity low, waddled around the pool. She smiled and giggled thinking this was pretty neat until...she fell and got her hair wet. Girl does not appreciate wet locks at all even in the bath. She wanted out immediately. We convinced her to stay in and eventually, she was having an absolute blast wet hair or not.



Meanwhile, Lexi was splashing with Uncle Faron in the big pool.




All-in-all it was a great day. It's always fun spending a family day together and with Stefan deciding to go full-time with his lawn business, we have more of those days which is completely divine!

Lexi's Dance Recital

Lexi's dance recital was last weekend. We secured a babysitter for Abby so this day could be about Lexi without worrying about Abby in a supposedly quiet theater. That turned out to be a great idea. When we arrived at the theater, I took her to the dressing room to put the finishing touches on her costume. Amazingly her nerves were not going crazy. She was actually excited to go on stage (not mortified like last year). I kept telling her how proud she has already made me and Stefan and how beautiful she looked. Finally, I left her in the dressing room with her teacher and took my seat in the auditorium where Stefan's parents, my parents, and Uncle Faron all joined us. The lights went down and the owner of the studio stumbled through her welcome speech. Then the show began. Lexi's first dance (her ballet number)was slated for the sixth slot. We sat through the first 5 dances and finally she came out. She did great! The second number (her tap) was to be the 9th dance. Again, she did superbly! I couldn't have been prouder. I went and got her from the dressing room and rejoined the group in the audience. Nana and Papaw, Grandma and Grandpa, and Mommy and Daddy all got her flowers which she thought was the greatest thing ever.

Afterward, we took these pictures.



Thursday, May 22, 2008

Poor thing!

The night before last Lexi woke up twice crying her eyes out. The first time happened around 12:30 a.m. Stefan got up and went to her room trying to curb her sobs. From the comfort of our bed down the hall, I assumed that she had had a nightmare. Stefan returned to bed shortly thereafter and didn't mention anything for certain that he found to be wrong. We went back to sleep. Suddenly, at 4:20 a.m., the gut-wrenching sobs floated down the hallway and woke me from my slumber. I went in her room assuming that it was another "nightmare". I pulled her close to comfort her when I realized she was warm. I asked her if anything felt bad to which she did not answer. I retrieved the medicine box and took her temperature-100.1 degrees. Not too bad, but I gave her some Motrin anyway.

When it was time to get her up for school she didn't feel warm on her face, but her neck and stomach were still a concern. I considered sending her to school since she didn't have a fever anymore because it was the end-of-the-year Kindergarten Luau and she was looking forward to wearing her grass skirt and coconut bra (over a tank top of course!) for the event. I asked how she was feeling and she said that the medicine helped so much that her throat didn't hurt anymore. Her throat? This was the first time she gave us an actual symptom. Not liking the whole "sore throat and fever" thing I told her that she would be staying home from school and we'd take her to the doctor. It turns out the poor thing has strep. In fact, her tonsils are so swollen that they are almost touching!

After the doctor visit, we went to Publix to fill her antibiotic prescription. While waiting, we walked the aisles of the store trying to get "sore throat friendly" foods that she could consume without gagging from the pain. We returned home but she was acting fine. After laying around and watching TV for a bit, she asked to go play outside. I told her 'no' and explained that she needed to rest. "I've already rested once and I'm tired of it!" she responded. It's pretty sad when a child needs to be told exactly how sick they are!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Kindergarten Awards Day

Although Lexi is officially graduating Kindergarten in two and a half weeks, her class held their end-of-the-year awards ceremony today. The teacher arranged the room with rows of chairs for the parents facing each other with an aisle in between. The class filed into the room and sat on a carpet at the back of the aisle. They performed a few of their favorite songs, the teacher read a poem entitled "Garden" (about hos, and seeds being planted and kids being eaten...or something like that, I don't know), and then the teacher called them one-by-one to receive their Kindergarten diplomas.



Then the teachers gave awards to each student. Let me tell you, some of them were a stretch (i.e. Most Energetic) and were nice ways of saying things that were a source of frustration throughout the year. Then there were awards that any parent would've been proud for their child to receive (i.e. Best Friend, Most Polite, Class Peacemaker, etc.). Lexi's award fell into the second category. She received the award for Best Author...and yes, we are very proud of her for that.



Afterwards, there were some refreshments and picture opportunities with the teachers and then it was over. There were a couple of times I felt a tear well up in my eye or a lump form in my throat. I can't help it. Words cannot describe how proud of her and her accomplishments I am. I guess it's just nice to see others recognize her for them too.



Sunday, May 11, 2008

Abby's 2!!!!

Yesterday was a busy day. I woke up with Abby around 6:15. We went downstairs where she discovered her Rose Petal Cottage and her very first scooter. She played with these for a bit, before the day's activities swept us away.





We got ready and left for Lexi's soccer game (see previous postin the morning. When we returned, we only had time to give Abby a very short nap before we had to go set up for her party at the playground. Thankfully, Uncle Faron helped a lot to pull this off. He helped assemble toys, wrap gifts, set up for the party, cook the food, etc. What a helper! Here are some pics of the guests enjoying Uncle Faron's cuisine...

















After lunch, we did the pinata. Uncle Faron had made a Jojo pinata that was really cute. He even bought a Jojo costume and attached it (and its hat) to the paper mache head so it looked really cool. When it came time to attack the creation, the hat/hair and costume were removed and the kids were taking shots at nothing but a head. When you think about it, that's kind of gruesome, but it didn't seem to bother anyone except little Katelynn.



















Then we did cake-a yummy circus-themed pull apart cupcake cake. No luck on her blowing out her own candles, but YUM!!





Here are some other random shots taken at the party.







Happy Birthday, Abby!

Lexi's Last Soccer Game

Lexi's last soccer game of the Spring 2008 season was yesterday. She was really pumped up but when we got there and the coach put her on defense she shuffled around as though she wasn't having any fun. Finally, the coach put her on offense and she came to life. She was hustling this way and that until her energy bottomed out.





Anyway, the game ended typically. Lexi's team did not score any goals and the other team obliterated us. I blame the coach. Parent volunteer coaches do the best they can in most situations and that is understandable. But THIS one had triplets on the team that he spent most of his time focusing on. Not exactly a recipe for fairness when the other kids are involved. But I digress.

After they game, the kids had cake and were given their trophies.





This season was a rollercoaster ride. Lexi really looked forward to it because she had so much fun toward the end of last season. Since she moved up in divisions, the rules had increased and the pace of the game was very quick compared to what Lexi was used to. The field was larger, there were more kids on the field, the goals were much bigger, and there were goalies protecting the goals--all changes that seemed wonky to Lexi. Some games she'd slough around like she was bored and others she'd really come alive. I think we'll give her some time off to think about whether she wants to continue with the sport or not since this really doesn't seem to be her cup of tea.

It happened

In my last post, it seemed as though a layoff was imminent and it was. Stefan went in that day as I had speculated would happen and was given his walking papers. It sucks. Apparently they didn't close Bowne of Atlanta altogether, they just shut down the manufacturing aspect. This leaves sales and customer service untouched. They will be relocating to a highrise downtown. According to Stefan, they will be hiring 8 people for various jobs in the NEW Bowne one of which he is considering applying for. It may be a long shot because so many others will also be applying, but it would be silly not to give it a try for the sake of maintaining all of his time and benefits.

Anyway, he's kicked SGL Lawn Services into high gear while I spend muchas horas searching job websites and submitting his resume. When he is home, I'm trying to stay on top of housework which includes cooking more. The other day, he worked on lawns while me and Abby played outside for most of the day. When he came home I started dinner while he and Abby watched one of Abby's favorite shows. After I got dinner in the oven, I realized how quiet and still the had been for the last few minutes. This is what I found.

Thursday, May 08, 2008

A Guilty Conscience

A few years ago, Stefan planted some flowering plants on top of the retaining wall in our backyard. As the plants have come back year after year they have doubled in size and are quite big now. We have clematis plants, fire witches, and some yellow, flowering plant that I'm not sure what it is. Lexi, like most girls, loves to pick the flowers but this has gotten out of hand. Stefan tried to limit her to picking one flower a day, but I told him that was unrealistic because girls don't just pick flowers...they pick bouquets.

One day last week, she picked hundreds of fire witch flowers just to throw them in the air. She did this while I was trying to fix dinner so I was unaware of what exactly she was doing. By the time I figured it out, she had pulled handful-after-handful and our backyard was a carpet of pink fire witches. Lexi knew she was completely wrong and her punishment was to rake up all the flowers and bag them. I told her that she was off limits from picking flowers until further notice.

Well, yesterday I was fixing dinner while Stefan was on his death march home after getting the ax at work so, to say that I was distracted is an understatement. The girls were playing in the backyard. Lexi came in with a cup full of clematis blooms. I was almost angry at her until she presented me with a note that said, "Happy Mother's Day. I love you, Mommy." Who could be mad at that? I let it slide.

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Taking the Good with the Bad

Things have been a bit tense around here the last few weeks. Stefan has been speculating that Bowne (the company he has worked for for 10 years) will either do major layoffs or close the doors to the Atlanta plant completely. I've tried to stay optimistic. Yes, this has been the slowest proxy (three months out of the year the require massive overtime) season since we met, but I was thinking it would pick up.

Rumors have been swirling and it's hard not to listen to them. The gossipmongers are saying either

1) the plant will be relocating to save on rent costs,
2) massive layoffs will occur in departments other than Stefan's,
3) the plant will close all together.

The third option sucks. It's the one I wanted to believe the least, but it seems as though this will become reality today. Worried by the stark inventory of necessary means in a print shop (i.e. paper)Stefan believed that something would happen this week. It appears he was right. He called the shop this morning and was informed that just about every non-management employee was herded into a conference room this morning. The inside source stated that the employees were being pulled out one-by-one to sign their release papers. I suppose the unemployment office will be pretty busy in the not-so-distant future.

In a situation like this you have to try to find positives. I've been trying. Maybe Stefan will find a first or third shift job that will enable him to spend more time with us as a family. Maybe he'll find something closer to home. Maybe he'll be able to increase the family business to a level that can support a family of four until I finish school in about a year and a half. Maybe he'll land a job that is less stressful. Maybe he'll find something right away and we can collect his severance as well as a new paycheck at the same time (that would be sweet!). Thank God we didn't plan an expensive family vacation this summer. And Thank God for the government tax rebate check that will hit our account later this week!

Then again, it's hard to ignore the negatives. He's worked for this company for 10 years and will lose all the benefits he has accumulated over that time. He will most likely have to take a massive pay cut. I could go on... but I won't. Maybe it's denial. Maybe it's optimism. Maybe it's just plain naivety, but I prefer to look at the positives.

I just hate (knowing what we know) that he has to drive downtown only to be given his walking papers and have to turn around and drive home in rush hour traffic. That sucks.

Needless to say, times are changing around here.

Oh, and the cherry on the sundae? Our Altima is in need of a new engine because of a badly designed exhaust system in which the catalytic converter is actually two units - a pre-cat that is closer to the engine and the standard catalytic converter. The pre-cat apparently is situated too close to the engine and, because of the heat, disintegrates from the inside while all the pieces get sucked back into the engine wreaking all sorts of havoc. This is apparently a problem for 2002 and 2003 models (so if you know anyone with one of these in their garage, be a friend and inform them of the problem) yet the repair is so costly that Nissan chooses to deal with it on a one-by-one basis rather than doing a mass recall. Anyway, we dropped the car off the day before yesterday. They told us that we'd get a call by 5 p.m. yesterday to let us know if Nissan will cover the new engine and all the costs involved (including the rental car in our driveway). We have yet to hear from them. Keep your fingers crossed that they'll do the right thing as we can't afford the repairs or the cost of replacing the car now of all times (as you can imagine). Hopefully, Nissan will do the right thing and replace the engine. If so, that buys us more time with this car which, given the current job situation, would be nice to not have to worry about for awhile.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

Thursday, May 01, 2008

It's Ovuh!!!!

Another semester and six credit hours under my belt. I passed both my classes with A's which will boost my GPA back over the hump from a 3.69. Don't be fooled. This "college thing" is the hardest thing I've done in my life given the fact that I decided to get serious about it after marriage and kids. But it'll be worth it when I can be an example to my girls that when you put your mind to something, you can do it no AND that a college education is valuable. I just hope they're smarter than me when it comes to the timing of their own educations.

Anyway, I now have 107 credit hours behind me. My degree program is 124 but since I added my Spanish minor that adds another 25 hours. I will be taking 6 in the summer, 15 in the fall, 9 in the spring, take next summer off, and student teach/graduate in the fall of '09. It's so close, I can taste it and boy is it delicious!

Now, for the next 3 weeks, I get to relax, do some things around the house, and focus on the girls. Oh, did I mention relax?