Maria girly girl

Maria wanted to show off her new dress and boots and glasses. Maria is truly a girly girl and a fashion statement. She loves dresses of these kind. When I was getting her clothes I couldnt beleive she wears a size 8 now. She is definitely growing up. Maria is now involved in Girl Scouts here in colorado and in a few weeks she starts soccer and in the spring she will be playing hockey. William will also be playing soccer and hockey at the same time as Maria. William has also joined band and orchestra with school. Patrick still doesn't know if he wants to do anything. They will also be in bowling.

my new car

Well I sold my jeep today to accomodate my medical condition I took the money well part of it and I got this beautiful Mercedes Benz 1991 low miles and beautiful interior not a scratch or tear in it. I will use the other half of the money to pay some bills. This car runs smooth and quiet and it seats all of us. It handles really nice. Its really good on gas. This will now be the family car since the gas on it is alot less expensive. I can't beleive I got the Benz I never thought in a million years I would ever own one. It even has a powered sunroof and all the windows but the windsheild is tinted which is nice. Now I can drive again and not be trapped in my house and when I go in for knee surgery after I come back from philly I can still drive because I won't need the left leg. It was so hard deciding on a car and I just kept going back to the benz. So here it is.

successful 1st day of school

well the kids had a really good 1st 2 days of school. They blended in well with 1/2 their classes being new kids from other states and they are already making new friends. They tell me all about their day and the joy in their eyes makes me feel good to know that they are adjusting. William who has been out of the loop for 1 and 1/2 years is thrilled to be back in school. He came home on his 1st day and said he really had a good time and he didn't even cry. We have been preparing him for several months now and it worked. He made friends with another new student from texas who sits in the desk next to him and since we have tried to get william interested in reading books and had no success I talked to the librararian who is forming a book club for kids who don't like to read and we signed William up and he is excited to start it. He is also interested in joining band and orchestra this year he wants to play the drums. Patrick has made friends with a boy from australia and he likes a few girls which shocked me because he doesn't seem to want to be near them but he leaves in the mornings with a smile on his face and making sure he smells good he did a total turn around. Patrick wants to get into the forensic class I guess he wants to be like the CSI guys. His 1st day didn't go as well. He kept getting lost in the school and I think I embarrased him by staying with him at the bus stop on the 1st day but I wanted to make sure we were in the right place so we waited for kids to start showing up and then I approached the girl to make sure we were wher he needed to be so I asked her if she went to russell and she said yes and she said she was in 8th gr also so I introduced pat to her but he shyed away and I didnt want him to be alone. The second day we dropped him off and left when kids started to arrive. Maria was asking today when school goes again I said monday you are off on the weekends but if it were up to her she would go 7 days a week. She gets herself up at 6 am all by herself and is dressed before we get up at 6:30am. She is just growing up too fast for me. she came home on her 1st day and called her friend andrew from palmyra to tell him all about her 1st day at school. She really misses him and is excited to be coming to Pa with me in 6 weeks because she will get to see her sister whom she misses alot and her grandparents, aunts and uncles and cousins and of course her friend andrew whom she said she will marry someday when shes older. She tries to call him every day. Maria starts girl scouts on monday and is so excited. The kids came home from school on thursday saying how happy they were they are allowed to have candy and gum in school something that Pa didn't allow but the lunch menus are really healthy meals which I like. The school here are really strict even in elementary for bullying because of columbine which we don't live that far of a hike from. The school take action and the parents were informed that any child that gets picked on the parents must report it immediately so the proper actions can be taken. The school will also work with William with his tourettes to make sure he doesnt get teased. He has a really good teacher. In marias class there is a little girl that we think may have autism Maria said she doesnt talk but out of no where starts to scream and make noises and becomes disruptive from it and the teacher told the class to bare with it and it will get better. Maria didnt seem to mind as she is aware that there are alot of kids in that school with all kinds of disabilities and to just bare with them as they adjust to the new settings. She tends to help the children that don't talk or shy away which is nice because she does that too.

1st day of School 8-16-07

Well today is the 1st day of school for William, Patrick and Maria. They had the 1st ay of school jitters. They are in a new place and new school. Maria is now in the 2nd grade and William well we put him in the 5th grade but that may change since we homeschooled him and he already did the 5th grade work. So they said they will test him and put him where he belongs. We went to drop William and Maria off at their new school Patrick Henry Elelmentary and they tried to bolt to the playground but I stopped them for a photo and off they went. They were so excited to get and play before their school day started they go to school from 8:00 am - 2:30 pm. After we dropped them off we drove Patrick to his bus stop since his school is 5 1/2 miles away. We waited with him until he got on the bus because we weren't given instructions on anything regarding his school bus other than what corner to be at so we waited for kids to start showing up so he would be in the right place. His bus picks him up at 8:00 am and drops him off at 4:30 pm his school hours are 8:45 am- 3:40 pm He is in 8th grade at Russell Middle School for the Performing Arts and Science. Patrick I think was the most nervous. I was getting that emotional feeling as my children one by one left for school.I cannot wait until they all get home to see how their 1st day went and i just cannot wait to get the boat loads of paperwork to fill out and get writers cramp. I will repost after I know how they made out so check back tomorrow for the update on their school day.

Double rainbow and progress on house

As we continue to make progress Bill did clear some way in the back. He got rid of the brush around the front and sides of the apple tree that is blossoming very well. The apples are starting to turn red. We also took an awesome picture of a double rainbow which is a rare sight. Because we get weird storms here that are a hit or miss we seem to get these double rainbows. If you look close to the right of the picture you can see the faded one. As I love to use my camera since that seems to be my only thing I can do these days I sometimes go wild with picture taking. Also Bill has started to cut through one of the super huge juniper trees as you can see above it was so big it was overlapping the ground of stones in a circle. It is a very slow removal process since he can only do this on his days off. Today the sun is shining bright but it doesn't compare to the heat on the east coast. I truly don't miss the humid sticky air. At about 5pm every night it kinda reminds me of the shore with the cold breeze that comes through and sweat jackets need to be put on. As I am preparing myself for my trip to Pa next month I am dreading the heat and humid air but I am excited to see my friends and family.

The other night while during high winds and torrential rain I decided to try and capture the winds and instead I captured an image of a person staring at me on my front steps. If you look at the picture closely you can see the eyes, nose, mouth, head, shoulders and torso. There is no explanation but It kinda freaked me out with this thing staring at my camera lens like it wanted in on the action. In the other picture there are orbs that appeared and this was the 2nd photo from the same spot and you can see the other image started to fade away.The pics are reversed so the 1st one is the 2nd shot.

WORK IN PROGRESS

Well Bill is finally getting the front of the house cleaned up. He is starting to cut the Juniper and overgrown weeds down. It will look so nice when it is finished and then we can start working on growing real grass. As the work progresses and the bushes and weeds dwindle down I will post more pictures on the update.

another room furnished

We finally got a Dining Room table off of craigslist so now to complete our dining room we are still checking the site daily for a china cabinet and we still need to get curtains for this room. I also posted pictures of the boys here with their new hair cuts. Yes Patrick finally let us cut it all off. The kids are getting ready for school to go back in two weeks they are excited to make new friends.