Happy Birthday to me.....

Yesterday was my 32nd birthday. It was a pretty good day as birthdays tend to go. Eli had his second day of preschool and only mildly freaked out and clung to my legs. My friend Amy whose son is also at the same preschool invited me to coffee while the boys were in school. We had a really nice time. She has a new baby boy and I had Addison with me. I had a Starbucks Pumpkin spice latte for the first time this Fall! Oh, I love Fall. It is my favorite season. I love the colors, the crispness in the air on a sunny day. I love wearing sweaters but no jackets and I love mums and soup and apple cider and hot chocolate. Of course, the temperature is still a little too warm for some of that but it is starting! I will always think of September as Fall. I grew up in Alaska and it WAS Fall at this time. School had started and it was cold and the leaves were falling. My husband insists that September is still Summer. Whatever.

I was even brave and met the other Mom of the little boy in Eli's class. I saw her last week and seriously, I call her Model Mom. She looks like a model. Beautiful, skinny, stylish. A little intimidating. She was very nice though and has a little boy just a smidge older than Addison. I am determined to be friendly and maybe make a new friend. Oh, I also spotted a THIRD boy in Eli's class. They must have done some moving around. Yeah for boys!

A little side note. Last night I asked Eli if any of the kids in his class were nice. He said there was one girl he didn't like. She wore yucky pants. She looked like a clown, no a scarecrow and her clothes were yucky. Oh my goodness. I am not so totally outwardly judgemental. Where is this coming from? I explained to him how it is not nice to judge people on what they wear and that I wanted him to be friendly to her. He went on to say she was mean and didn't share. Hmmm...maybe there are some underlying reasons for the yucky clothes comments. I'm not sure how to deal with this new attitude.

Last night we went to dinner with Greg's family. Despite everything taking forever we had a really nice dinner. My Mother in law got me a gift certificate to an Aveda salon and spa. I'm not sure what I'm going to use if for. Either yummy smelling Aveda products or a spa treatment perhaps? Never done anything like that. My Mom bought my ticket to the first show on the tour for So You Think You Can Dance?. Woo Hoo. So excited for that one. I'm going with my sissy on the 20th. We are leaving the kids with the guys and are going to have such a fun time!

Here are a couple of shots from the restaurant. I seem to smirk a lot when I smile for the camera so I'm not including any of myself.

Thank you Grandpa Tom!

A big thank you to my Father in law for risking life and limb to help us save money! Tom and Greg cut down our big maple along our driveway on Sunday. Do you remember how a few weeks ago we had a big windstorm that knocked a rather large tree branch down? We had a couple of tree guys come out to give us estimates on how much it would be to take it down. They all determined that the tree was on it's way out and needed to come down. The lowest estimate was $400 and required us to track down the owner of the vacant house next to us to get a letter of permission since no one knows where our property line is. My father in law came out to check it out and thought they could do it no problem. I, of course was a little concerned by the prospect. Don't people die doing things like this?
Sunday arrived and with it Tom and his 25 foot ladder and chain saw. Yikes! The second cut brought down the power line connected to the house. I was immediately on the phone with the power company asking them to come out and put it back up. Meanwhile they kept working. Here are some shots of them in process. This was a BIG tree. Two of the limbs came down right against the side of our house. While it was scary, no damage was done.
You can see the ladder leaned up against the tree in the background. Oh my, Grandpa Tom is so brave! We even had some nice neighbors from down the street whom we had never met take a break from their walk and help out. When the power company guys got there they even waited while Tom and Greg finished taking down the two big tree stumps AND they helped Greg pull them down. They were so nice and I need to let their company know that! We still have a lot of tree to clear from our driveway and we need to get an electrician out here to fix some frayed wires from when the power line came down. But over all it went well, helpful people and God answered my prayers and kept them safe!

The first day.....

Yesterday was Eli's first day of preschool. Here it goes. It all starts here. I'm never just going to have him all to myself again. I'll always have to share him with school. That is a little sad but it is exciting to see the little man growing up and doing what all little guys do. Here he is right before we left for school. Of course, little sister is at his side.

Here he is standing in front of his name above his coat hook. When we visited for the barbecue they had "Elias" on his label. We told them he would probably never answer to that name so they changed it. He does sometimes tell people his name is "Elilas" though. So cute.

His teacher gave them all name tags for the first day. Although I don't suppose she will have trouble remembering his name since he is one of only two boys in the class.

This month they will be learning how Jesus is their "beary" best friend as well as learning their shapes and colors. Every Tuesday he gets to bring something in for show and tell....we might have a hard time remembering that one! His teacher also sent home Scholastic book order forms! Oh the nostalgia! That brought me back! I loved those book order forms. I remember them so well from Elementary school. Greg doesn't remember them at all but I suppose he wasn't as excited about books as I was. I was always a big reader. They get to do some fun things throughout the year: picnics in the park, a Christmas pageant, a day to honor their Fathers and a Mother's Day tea. Oh, and a trip to a local pumpkin patch next month, oh and pajama day! As sad as it is for him to start school it is also fun to be a part of these little experiences that I remember so fondly from elementary school. He was a little nervous at first but ended up doing great. He told me in the car that he "guessed I was right" that preschool was fun. Well, Mom is always right, isn't she.