First day of Co-op

It has been crazy busy in the Greene household. Friday was the first day of co-op. I am teaching 3rd and 4th grade World History.

I took the annual first day of school picture and as you can tell they are jumping for joy.
They were not happy one bit about having assigned seats in their class.

Mason gave me a sweet big smile anyway.

The kid sitting next to Aussie tried to change the name tags around so he could sit next to his friend.

I know it is a good thing for them to be seperated, but it did break my heart a bit when Mason said that the other 2 got to at least be at the same table.

Then Ashley and Aussie had ballet. I looked all over for a leotard that would look good on a boy. I found one that had kind of shorts on it with sequence. I thought I would just take off the sequence. But he didn't like it, he thought it looked like a girl. So I bought him a regular leotard. I didn't see it until he put it on at school. Now it did look girlish. I put a black t-shirt underneath- but yikes! It didn't help that his sister yelled out in the hallway, you look like a girl. So I talked to his teacher, and told her I was uncomfortable with what he had to wear and asked if I could change it. So I bought him shorts and a shirt.

They both love that class so much. Emily is young but a great teacher.

While they were in ballet, Mason played some games. They have a really cool game room. Unfortunately, we were told we are not to play in there anymore, because the preschool downstairs couldn't get their children to sleep during that hour.

My class went fine, but it was really crazy! It took me at least 20 minutes just to get the boys to sit down. We ran out of time and I was basically throwing papers at them at the end. But I have gotten feedback from several of the kids saying they love my class. So I'm glad about that. I asked for help next week, so I think it will go smoother. AND the teacher ahead of me is going to put them girl/boy/girl/boy assigned seating next week and they will have to stay that way for my class. :)

I got my haircut.

I got my hair cut and colored. I haven't had my hair colored in YEARS. I love the color!

Mason took these pictures.

You ask- does Greg like it? He says he does, but right now he is mad at me because I ran out the door and forgot my cell phone. It normally takes 1 hour to cut my hair when I have it cut every 6 weeks and it had been since September. Plus getting it colored too. It took at least 2.5 hours. He was worried. But still I was hoping for WOW! And not the kind of WOW that means that looks different. I wanted the WOW-you look sexy. {from my husband}

Locks of Love

I am so very proud of my 7 year old daughter! Today she donated 10 inches of hair to Locks of Love.

AND... she got a little pink strip put into her hair. It will wash out after 4 shampoos.

She LOVES it! I think she is so cute too! The timing was perfect! We have been talking about this for a long time. And typically she is terrible with change! I remember when I got my haircut short, for MONTHS she would cry at bed time and say I want my old Mommy back. So I wasn't sure how she was going to do with this. She waivered back and forth saying, "I'm not sure if I'm ready." But yesterday, her friend Abby asked her to spend the night tonight. Abby has a cute short haircut, much like what Ashley got. And Ashley said, I want to surprise Abby and get my haircut before I see her tomorrow night. So you bet, I made it happen today. She's got the support of her friend and that makes all the difference. Oh and she is such a diva at the beauty salon. She loves it! And everybody was doting over her.

Tomorrow, I get my hair cut. I'm excited! I haven't had my hair cut since September. Greg is a little freaked out! He said if I would allow my daughter to get a pink strip in HER hair, what will I allow them to do with mine. And since he won't read this before I go...I let you in on the secret.

I'm going darker. About 2 shades darker. I've never really been a brunette. I'm so excited! We talked about a very "light"-that is not the right word..."mellow" is not quite right either but a very mellow redish highlight. But I think I will pass on that. I'm not sure how I'm getting it cut. I'm torn. I like the fact that I can put my hair in a ponytail, but I also really like a haircut much like Ashley's. Wish me luck!

Their last day being 6 years old

Alright, I guess I will have to post out of order because I keep forgetting to get the first half of our trip's pictures off of Greg's PC. So this was Sunday, July 26.

I found this gorgeous dress at Goodwill for $6.00. I couldn't resist. I thought I might be able to get some good pictures in the church bathroom since it was the same color as her dress. But as Ashley pointed out here she said, "Look I'm camoflaged!"
I still kind of like these pictures by the mirror though.

After church we ate at Barnacle Bills. I was disappointed that they didn't make the chicken salad on a croissant on the weekends. Honestly, several years ago I had ordered this and that is how I came to even like chicken salad in the first place. When I noticed it was not on the menu, I asked the waitress about it. She said, that they only serve it on the week days and that she wasn't even able to put it into the system for them to make it on Sunday. They didn't have much on the menu that was not seafood. And since I am allergic to seafood, that made it quite difficult for me to find something. I said I would have chicken fingers, but I really didn't want them. So I decided to ask the manager about it, not that I was angry, but disappointed. And lo and behold...Guess What? All of a sudden it was available! Hey it doesn't hurt to ask! So I got my chicken salad on a croissant and it was yummy!

Greg wanted a picture of the brown-eyed Greens, but Mason was much too silly and kept making faces. As you can see in this picture, he couldn't even stand still.

After lunch we went to visit a graveyard where many of Greg's relatives are buried. It is a VERY beautiful graveyard! Every day for the last 3 months or so Ashley has been praying that she could see MeMaw again. We told her we will see her someday when we all get to Heaven. But she kept praying to see her before that point. So specifically we wanted to show Ashley MeMaw's grave, maybe hoping for some resolution. Ashley has stopped praying that, so maybe it worked. The boys on the other hand had no interest. I think Mason's comment was, "You mean we are standing on top of their dead bodies?"
Effie is Greg's Grandma who died 2 years before he was born. Effie made a scrapbook, which we got to bring home with us this last trip. When I first saw this scrapbook over 13 years ago, I felt like I knew her. Her scrapbook is one of the main reasons I got into scrapbooking.

I found this gorgeous spot there that I thought I could take a few pictures. The mosquitoes were rampant though, so I had to take my pictures fast.

And on our way out, Greg wanted me to take a picture of this angel with the trees in the background. I didn't really get what he saw in it at first. I took a couple of pictures, showed him and then he got out of the car and took several more. I'm glad he did. He took this picture and I can now see the beauty of what he was talking about.

Then we went home and packed for Disney World. I wanted to get to our hotel so that we could swim. But unfortunately the pool was outdoors and it had been storming. But we did get to see a rainbow. And this is the first time Ashley had gotten to see one. There was actually 2 but the 2nd one was really hard to see.


Here is Aussie snuggling with his CatLink blanket. He LOVES it and he was SO surprised to see his character on the blanket.

And here is Ashley taking a picture with her new BRIGHT PINK camera. She is a shutterbug just like her Mama!

And here is Mason in his new Pokemon shirt. I think he would wear it everyday if I let him.

OK that's it for now!

Project Morning person begins

We are back from our wonderful trip to Florida! Nana gave the kids a fabulous birthday party! And we went to Disney World on their actual birthday! I have tons and tons of pictures to edit and post. I will try to do a blog entry per day we were gone. All my pictures are on Greg's computer, so I need to get them transfered on here.

Today starts project Morning Person. My goal is to go to bed by 11:00PM and get up at 7:00AM.

School starts next week and I have LOTS and LOTS of preparing to do.

Please pray that I can become a morning person and also be able to get my class syllabus completed by next weekend.

Birthday presents

And this would be why I haven't blog in a very long time....

I have been creating presents for my kids for their birthday.

This is the blanket I made for Mason. This is Link from Windwaker Zelda game. He has many favorites, but this is the one he told Ashley was his favorite character right now.

This is the blanket I created for Aussie. He made up this character called Cat Link and I copied it from one of his drawings.
This is the planet Saturn. One day Aussie said out of the blue, I wish I had a stuffed Saturn. So I tried my best. It was tremendously hard to make. The ball part was easy, it was the rings that put me over the edge. I broke 5 needles on my sewing machine creating these projects.

This is a Tiger pillow that I created for Ashley, hoping that it would satiate her desire for a tiger blanket. She has been begging for a tiger blanket every 5 minutes for days.And here is the tiger blanket that I FINALLY finished tonight. The sewing on it is absolutely terrible. I had the worst time sewing it. The fabric would slide and move on me. The tension on the sewing machine, I could never get right and it would leave big messes of string on the underside. I think she will love it, I just hope it stays together!

I still have a few things to make. I need to paint the sheilds and possibly make swords. I want to create a few other sewing projects, but I just may not have the time.

Wish me luck!

{{{{{{{SIGH}}}}}}}}

Just when things are looking up....

KERPLUNK!

That would be the exhaust pipe on Greg's car.

Driving home tonight I heard a bonk and metal dragging on the ground. I thought maybe I had a flat tire and I was hearing the rim. I pulled over immediately into the liquor store parking lot. For some reason that seems to be the place I stop when I have a problem. LOL. (Last time was when there was terrible traffic and I had to pee so bad for miles and that was the first place I came to.) I got out and looked and didn't see anything. I got back in the car and drove a couple inches and knew something was wrong. I called Greg, got out of the car again and this time looked under the car. Yep- that big pipe fell down. Greg came to the rescue. He brought wire, got under the car and wired it into place. Of course, that is just a temporary fix. So we dropped it off at the car repair place. I have to get up early and take him to work and that is why I'm going to bed early (ha ha ha) 1:30AM instead of 2:00AM.

OK so now I'm being silly.... Do you know that song...The rythym is gonna get you by Gloria Estefan?

I'm singing The devil is tryin' to get you, the devil is tryin' to get you tonight! Away Away! Away Away! Go away go away!

OK off to bed now.

Stuff

Well recently I've been down a bit, but I think I'm back now. I hate, hate, hate money issues. Everything is breaking and there is just not enough moolah to fix everything. But Greg and I sat down and carefully went over our plan for this month. At first I wasn't allowed to buy the kids birthday presents. That had me more depressed than anything. Now don't get me wrong- they wouldn't be going without. We plan to go to Disney World for their Birthday. That's a pretty awesome present. Everyone gets in FREE on their birthday this year, which makes it really nice when you have multiples. So we would only have to pay for the 2 of us. However, travelling is not cheap, hence the strict budget. But is was SO NICE to have Greg sit down with me and go over the budget. Both of us are on a plan and on the same page- that is such a relief! And by working together we have been able to get our Y membership back and have enough money to buy presents.

Thank you!!!!!

And I need to give a HUGE Thank you to my in-laws who helped us purchase a dryer. And it is a nice one too. I am so excited when the little chime goes off and the clothes are actually dry THE FIRST TIME!!!!! Our other dryer was taking at least 3 times to go through and I wouldn't hear when it went off so many times wet clothes would just sit in the dryer. I LOVE this one! Thank you guys so much!!!!! I did all of my laundry in one day, and even folded and put them away. That is HUGE!!!!

---Catchin' You Up!---

Many good things are going on so I need to catch you up...

My little peanut pulled out her tooth July 4th. She did it! Aussie has had one as loose as hers for weeks and he won't let anyone touch it. She was so excited. She kept going around the house and saying "CHEESE". meaning take my picture, take my picture.

She said, "I wonder if the tooth fairy will bring THREE dollars this time." I said, "I don't think so." And she said, "Oh yah it's not the threeth fairy it's the TWOth fairy."

Many people told me my kids will despise me dressing them a like- not that I cared I did it anyway. But now Mason and Aussie WANT to look alike. And it needs to be EXACT. Aussie even said, "Did you get us the same underwear?"

Sunday Aussie had a fit because it wasn't exact. I had everyone wearing orange, but it wasn't the SAME shirt.

---MY Project---

So I was given a budget of $50 to purchase materials to make the kids something for their birthday. They LOVE blankets. They have several, but they play with them. So I planned to make them blankets with special characters on them. I loaded up with coupons for JoAnn's and was hoping to get everything I needed on sale, etc. I started adding up how much material I would need and all the different colors and I didn't think I could stay within that budget. So I went to a local thrift store. I got just about everything I need for $36. YAY!!!!

Have you ever purchased anything where you were actually embarrassed to put it in your cart? Well I did. Check out this bed spread.... There was even curtains to match, but I only needed the yellow fabric from the bed spread.

Tonight I started making a Saturn plush toy for Aussie. I have a very strange son! One day he said he really wished he had a one. So I thought this fabric was perfect. I saw a bag of fiber fill for $1.50, but I also saw a pillow for $.50. So I thought hey, I'll buy the pillow and pull out the stuffing.

I will try just about any craft, sometimes they work out and sometimes they don't. The stuffing....Oh boy! Little teeny tiny balls! Not only are the teeny tiny little balls EVERYWHERE, sticking to my legs, my arms, the floor, my clothes, everything, the ball I started for Saturn looks like a yellow tomato and not a circle. Good thing I have a lot more fabric. It is too small anyway. So here is hoping I make it right tomorrow. This time I'll get the right stuffing!

I'll keep you updated on the process.