I am going to try to use this blog again to keep myself and everyone else updated on our family. It was a lot of fun to go back and read over all of the blogs that I wrote last year.

We are having a crazy, busy summer...as always. Baseball is wrapping up. Part of me is glad, but the other part really likes seeing our kids actively involved in something. This week is also Bible School. Drew is going and Kate is being a helper for the classes. Both are really enjoying their time there.

We are in the process of remodeling our porch. Clif, Chip and I worked to take out all of the walls and have now built one new wall to make a new closet. The porch floor is partly laid and I am anxious to get the rest of it in. We are going to be putting a stone wall on the back of the porch and will eventually re-side the house in a light tan color. It will be a great spruce up for the house!

Hope that all who read this are having a great summer!

AAAHHHH.....good things is life

We got to watch Chip play at his second scrimmage tonight. He had a great pass, 2 great catches, and one of those ended up with him running 25 or so yards for a touchdown! It was so much fun. I am definitely turning into one of the sports mom's that I always swore I would not be.....Oh well.

On another note, Drew lost his 1st tooth last night, one of the bottom ones. The other bottom one is loose and both top middle ones are wiggly....we might be singing "All I Want for Christmas is ALL of my Front Teeth." I love kid smiles with missing teeth...not much is sweeter than that!

Off to another busy weekend........

Survival

We all made it through the first day of school. Today was probably the best 1st day I have ever had. Other than being tired, the day went well. The temperatures were great and I think that helped the kids be willing and ready to be in a classroom all day. I really felt like I was ready to go. I suppose that after 11 years of getting ready for a 1st day, I should finally have the hang of it. I told Clif this weekend that the only reason I was stressing was because I was not stressed about school and that did not seem right.

Chip enjoyed his 1st day of 7th grade. He reported that his teachers were funny and he had a good day. Kate had to fill us in on lots of details, but she really liked Mrs. Conrad and had nothing but good things to say. Drew was good to go after a full day of school too.....although he was pretty tired by 8 tonight. After his 1st full day of school, 1st day eating in the cafeteria, and 1st day having to use the busses to get back and forth after school, he had soccer practice. No wonder he was tired.

Well, with one down, we have 179 more to go.....

Well Done Perrymans

We are heading out to the Bremenfest parade. It is 11:30 AM and is already 88 degrees. I am assuming that we will all be a well cooked family by the time we watch the 1 hour parade. We always sit at my sister, Terri's, house and there is NO SHADE in her front yard. Thank goodness the parade is not too long. I can already feel the sunburn even though we are all going to be coated in sunscreen. Ahhh, and there is nothing better than having sweat run from your head, all the way trickling down your back....blech!

Tonight we have the Boy Scout Court of Honor which is, thank goodness, in an air-conditioned building. The past few years it has been at the park....that would be miserable tonight.

We have a busy week ahead of us...making sure kids and mom are ready for school and then I think we are going camping this coming weekend. Clif is anxious to use the new camper. We can swing it, as long as we are just in Ft. Loramie or St. Marys. I am always majorly stressed about school starting so for me, that is not a good weekend, but I know the kids and Clif love to go, so I will have to just put my worrying aside for the weekend and have fun with all of them.

The 2 little ones have started soccer practice every week and are really liking it. Drew gets so excited every time he has just practice, I can hardly wait for him to have a game. Kate likes soccer a lot too, but I think a lot of it is because Clif is her coach. She really likes that he does that with her. Football has been taking a lot of Chip's time. He is whooped at the end of the night after 2 hour practices in this heat and humidity with full pads on. He loves it though. I have not heard one complaint, whine, or excuse from him at all. I am nervous about him getting school work accomplished, football practice, instrument practice, and still have time for a good night's sleep.....I know lots of boys do it, but we are going to have to be pretty disciplined around here to get it all done. Another change for this year is that Kate will be walking Drew home everyday since Chip has football everyday after school. I sure hope that Kate can get him home without having to stop at every single house on the way home to chat....she might not get here until bedtime!

Chip has his first scrimmage this Thursday...I am excited, but scared for him. I cannot wait to see my little guy in football pads...that seems almost unbelievable to me....but I am not sure that I am ready to see him tackling or worse, being tackled. Keep your fingers crossed for me that we (Chip and I) make it through this 1st football game with our sanity (I guess that is mostly a request for me! LOL!)

Here's hoping for a cooler week, especially next week when school starts and Drew and I will be cooking in our classrooms.

Only 2 More Weeks!!!!

Wow, I can hardly believe that it is just 2 more weeks until school starts. I have really enjoyed summer this year and it has seemed to last a long time. Of course, it is finally hot out today, and will probably continue into the school year...no big deal for some, but there is no AC in our building....bleck!

I think the kids, at least the 2 younger ones, are anxious to get back into school. Chip is busy concentrating on football so school seems far away for him. He has practice for 2 hours every day and he loves it. He comes home everyday telling about things that happen and what he is learning to do. This week is the first week of full contact practice. That kind of freaks me out, but he has no concerns at all. I guess that should make me feel better, but really, it does not. It is just the mom in me I know, but it is going to be really hard to just sit there and watch him get tackled....aaahhhhh!!

This weekend was the Alumni Softball tournament and I played with Clif's class of '90 again this year. We played on Saturday at noon and lost 3-2 and then at 3 and lost 14-2 or something like that. The tournament was done at that point. Although I really like playing, it is nice to have all day Sunday to do whatever we like. Today, that was a big shopping trip to WalMart for new shoes and clothes for school and groceries. $200 later, we had a car full and I think we had content kids.

This week is a no school week for me since they are waxing the main hall outside of my classroom. I think that my room is 90% ready, now I just have to get myself ready. That is a much bigger job. I do have to admit that it will be nice to have a routine in our house again. We are going to start working on school bedtimes and alarms in the mornings to make that first week a little easier for all of us.

Here's hoping that the week is warm (not blazing hot) and sunny so that I can get in a few more good pool days!

Another Busy, but Great, Weekend

We had another crazy busy weekend at our house this past weekend...
Friday started with a Dayton Dragons Game that we went to with our great friends Wes and Angie. We really enjoy their company and they are great friends to hang around with. The Dragons won their game which made the night even nicer. The drive home was crappy. I75 was down to driving on one lane...the berm, so traffic was SLOW! We had a new sitter for Kate and Drew since Chip was playing in a ball tournament in Celina. While we were at the Dragons Game, we got a call from the sitter saying that Drew was missing. Apparently, when Sam told Drew to get his jammies on, Drew did not want to so he took off on his bike. He was found pretty quickly, but in big trouble on Saturday morning.

Saturday we had lots to do. Chip went back to Celina for another ball game, Kate and Drew went with my mom and dad to Camp Lakota to hang out for family day, Clif did recycling and went to watch Chip, and I had a hair appointment. ( I have the BEST stylist...love her!!). Clif and I went to Dayton, again, to celebrate Abby Weiland and Wes Bradens wedding at the Schuster Center. It was a fabulous night. The music was great and Clif and I were able to dance nearly all night. It has been a long time since we have danced so it was really fun. They also had a martini bar....very dangerous, but also delicious. About midnight, we headed to a bar down the street with a lot of the family. We had a great time sitting and talking...actually for about 2 1/2 hours. We finally got a cab for the hotel about 3 AM.....we were toast! Exhausted! Tired! Wiped out!
The cab driver was funny. He told us that he had just taken Ty Pennington to his hotel...and we were sitting in the same seat that he had just sat in...how cool is that!

Sunday morning, Clif and I had a nice breakfast and then headed home to host our niece's 1st birthday party at our house. It worked out perfectly since Milwaukee, Indiana, Toledo, and Minster could all gather at one place. Josie enjoyed her first taste of cake! We all liked ours too!
Finally, tonight, we went on a family walk with Riley to the Tasty and then went up to the gazebo to listen to 2 acoustic guitar players. It was a really nice evening hanging out with the kids.

Only 23 more days til school starts....I am not ready for summer to end :(

Introducing.....

The house sure was quiet without Bailey here.....so we went to a shelter and rescued the cutest little (okay, not really little) dog that they had. Meet Riley. She is a Spanador (spaniel/labrador mix) that is all black. The vet is guessing that she is about 4 months old and we got a clean bill of health from him yesterday.

The kids are loving her. Riley is a lover! She is already sitting, laying down, rolling over and Chip has even gotten her to shake a couple of times. She wants to be good and you can see in her face that she does not like to be told NO. It makes her cower when you say it to her.

Please feel free to stop over and see her....no more dog jumping on you or yipping your ears off....she is quiet and docile and beautiful. And Clif is going to move the electric fence so that she cannot go on the driveway...that makes me feel better!