Week in the Life: Day 1

So here's a little project that I will try my hardest to participate in all week long. Ali Edwards, the scrapbooking genius, was my inspiration for this. Please check out her blog, if you're interested.

So rather than keep notes on a million little pieces of paper, I decided that I should utilize the ol' blog to put down my thoughts for the day.

Week in the Life: Day 1
Originally uploaded by emmayrand

Our Monday went a little like this:
Cereal for breakfast, Aidan off to school, come home, finish getting Olivia ready, drop her off too. Come home, check e-mail, blogs, etc. Remember that I need to start taking pictures for this project.
Dishes, laundry, pick Olivia up from preschool.
Go directly to McDonald's for some lunch. Olivia 4-piece nugget meal with "lullaby munchkin" as her toy. Me Double Cheeseburger, fries, and sharing some of Olivia's lemonade. Spent a long time at McD's. Practiced writing her name on some scraps of paper from my purse. Thanked a worker on the way out for her food. Went to Target, and spent a long time browsing the aisles. The main purpose of the trip was to get fabric softener... and $50 later we left. Didn't splurge on too many things though.
Met a rapper/r&b singer named "Young Voice" in the Target parking lot--kinda strange, but whatever....
Olivia almost fell asleep on the way home. Got inside and made some coffee. Olivia had me make her a cup too. After I finished pouring mine, I couldn't figure out where she went. I called to her, and there she was already perched in front of the computer ready to check e-mail. (She knows this is "my thing". Coffee & computer.) Hung around the house for a bit, then it was off to pick Aidan up from school. Had to make sure I was there on time, since it was the first time the first-graders were coming out of the building by themselves.(kinda a scary thought!)
Went to Sendiks after school. Had to figure out what to make for dinner--the end results was rotini pasta with Italian sausage crumbles, red bell & onions, a little mozzarella baked on top. Broccoli for the kids, and zucchini for me & Ryan.
Squeezed in a couple afternoon cartoons, a little math homework, and then ate dinner. After dinner we read 3 books together as a family. No TV. Was nice to have "quiet" for a change. Early bed time since Olivia didn't have a nap, and Aidan was being pretty teary tonight.
Finished doing some more laundry. Ryan worked on his lap-top. I looked through some old journaling form my semester in Germany in 1997. Interesting to see everything that I had done while there. Called to Mom and talked for about half an hour. Trying to finalize plans for camping this weekend. Looking forward to that upcoming adventure. Ryan came upstairs to spend a little time with me before heading back down to work again. He had me laughing so hard that I started coughing and had to use my inhaler! 10:30 in bed, ready to sleep.

thankful for us

layout made with Studio Calico September kit, Iconic

These pictures aren't the greatest, but I decided to use them on this layout anyhow. I figure that there's not nearly enough pictures of Ryan & I together. Photos are from Trisha & Matt's wedding in November of 2004. I was 8 months pregnant at the time, and wore this really pretty paisley print maternity dress. I know I never wore it again. So this is the only way to remember it.

In other news, Ryan quit his job this week after receiving a job offer from Kohls. This will be a major change in our family, as he's only worked for DS since college, almost 10 years at the same company. I'm hoping that the transition will be smooth, and will be beneficial for our entire family. In addition to a raise, I'm mostly looking forward to more family time. (Really, really hoping for this!)

Congrats, honey. I'm very proud of your perseverance.

Looking back on first day photos.

1st grade(2008)



Senior Kindergarten (2007)


Junior Kindergarten (2006)



I didn't realize it was our tradition to take a picture in front of the big tree until Ryan mentioned it on the first day of school this year. Looking back, I think Aidan looks pretty much the same. Taller, of course. And a couple less teeth this year!

A day of endings...

So far today I've...
Walked Aidan to his last day of Summer playground.
Went to Olivia's dance recital on the last day of class.


And in the midst of the fun stuff I've also...

Showered.
Done 4 loads of laundry.
Swept the basement steps.
Swept up all the dead ants from the kitchen floor (seriously, it's been an infestation since yesterday...really, I don't know why they've decided to come indoors now)
Helped Aidan build a new lego truck.
Made PB & J for lunch.
Had 2 giant cups of coffee.
Managed to get Olivia to take a nap.
Uploaded pics from the recital to post on the blog.
Checked e-mail. (And I also promised a quick trip to the library...I must be crazy!)

Pretty soon I'll have to start getting myself and the kiddos ready to head up by Ryan's work, so that I can go to work tonight. Boo! to having to work tonight, but Yay! for getting so much accomplished today. And just in case you want the quick highlights of the dance recital, here you go:

Summer update...

Okay, this first picture is for all the grandma's that will be reading this!!!!
Yes, Ryan is responsible for Aidan's new summer haircut--so what do you think?
Although it probably won't last very long it's kinda fun for right now. It definately will be gone by the time school pictures roll around in September!



I can't believe how the summer just keeps screeching forward. One day before August. The last month of vacation. Aidan's summer playground will be finished next week... and then I'm afraid the days may begin to start dragging.
It's finally getting HOT around here...The dog-days of summer as it may be. I'm definately not a big fan of the hot weather, but I guess that's what summer is all about. I gave in and turned on the air conditioning this morning, the humidity was killing me! The hot weather gives us an excuse to hang out inside for a while today...then maybe the movies tomorrow...or maybe the pool!


A couple weekends ago we were at my brother & sister in-laws for a picnic and fireworks and my brother was so kind to take me for a ride on his new motorcycle, (and I arrived back in one piece too!) Aidan also got to try out my nephew's mini-motorcycle with training wheels! Who knew you could do that?

Happy 4th!

Auntie Amy came bright and early this morning to wake up the kids and then head off to the parade. Luckily we live just 3 blocks away from the parade route, so we walk down and visit with the rest of the neighbors.
Off to a little party (hopefully some swimming, if it's warm enough) and then fireworks tonight!

Look Mom, No Teeth!

Yesterday on the way home from visiting family, we stopped to pick strawberries. It was the first time the kids had picked strawberries, and the first time that I had gone since I was a kid. We had an absolutely perfect day for picking. Mid 70's, sunny and enough wind to keep the bugs away.Aidan was a champ and quickly filled up 2 quart baskets. Between the 3 of us we picked over 8 pounds in just 30 minutes or so! Olivia and I snuck a couple berries while picking, but Aidan insisted that we needed to wash them first. (Maybe that's why he picked more than we did!)
Here's the fruits of our labor and some quick highlights from our little adventure...















In other exciting news...
In the last 24 hours my boy went from looking like this:














To looking like this:


Last night he lost his left one while brushing his teeth... and by 6am the other one had come out too.

That tooth fairy is sure gonna have a busy night, tonight!