Shoes

-Parker said, "There is one thing I really don't like about kindergarten." I don't know what I was expecting to hear, but it wasn't this........"We have to keep our shoes on all day." Well, that makes sense. Never in his life has he had to keep shoes on all day. And, he has been wearing crocs all summer so tennis shoes probably feel pretty cumbersome. I asked him if his shoes hurt his feet and he said no.
-We almost missed the bus yesterday.
- Jack did not have a great day at preschool orientation yesterday. Very clingy. Great. Here we go again. I envy parents whose children are eager and excited about school.
- Kindergarten is hard on this mom. Just missing my baby.
- I'm sad that summer is almost over but longing for some cooler weather.
- My roots are about 2 inches long--maybe longer. Getting that taken care of tomorrow.
- My cousin Kyra requested this recipe:

Caramel Pecan Cheesecake
2 pkg. (8 oz.) cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
2 eggs
20 caramels
2 tbsp. milk
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1 graham cracker crust
Mix: eggs, cream cheese, sugar and vanilla with electric mixer until well blended. Melt caramels with milk on low heat, stirring frequently until smooth. Stir in pecans.
Pour caramel mixture into crust. Let cool for a few minutes. Top with cream cheese batter.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes or until center is almost set. Cool. Refrigerate 3 hours or overnight.
Hint: It is better if you let it warm up a bit before serving because the cold caramel is hard to cut through right out of the refrigerator.

Rambling on and on

- Parker has recovered almost completely and had no complaints about going to school today. He even asked to eat school lunch. (mini corndogs)
- I just found some wedding gift towels that we had not used yet. Yeah! It's like Christmas. Can you believe they have been in the closet for 7 years?
- Jack starts preschool next week. GULP.
- I can't get anything done around here even with only one child here.
- I MUST lose weight. Even my fat clothes are getting tight.
- Travis brought home 2 boxes of Krispy Kreme doughnuts last night.
- Don't ask how many I have eaten.
I think I will go do a little exercise right now!

School stinks when you're sick

Poor Parker has Hand, Foot and Mouth Disease. It's a virus so there isn't much we can do and it's making him MISERABLE. He went the first day, then missed yesterday and went back today. He just isn't into kindergarten when he feels so lousy. It's the ginormous sores in his mouth that are giving him so much trouble. Hopefully it will clear up this weekend and he will get a fresh start Monday. Just in case you are wondering, he is past the contagious stage AND he is 6 years old. Not a lot of drooling and putting stuff in your mouth at this stage.

Sooooo, not how I imagined his first week of kindergarten!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good and Terrible

I bought a new camera and these are the type of close-up artsy type pictures I was hoping to get with it. These make me happy. However, these are all outside with natural lighting. My indoor pictures are terrible. See some of those below. It's me NOT the camera but I haven't figured out my problem yet.

INDOOR PHOTOS BELOW

I'm in LOVE

For those of you who enjoy having a few cute, trendy things to wear and don't mind so much about the quality, I have the place for you.

STEVE AND BARRY'S

Tracy and the kids and I went here today and I loved it!!!!!!!!! I bought a corduroy jacket for myself and two pairs of jeans for Parker for $35.00 And none of it was on sale! They have a store in Champaign in the old Walmart and it is HUGE! They are putting one at Hickory Point Mall too. I don't think anything in the store is over $20.00. They have women's (including Sarah Jessica Parker's line of clothes), men's (tons of collegiate sweatshirts and athletic wear as well as everyday wear) children's, and infant's. I am dying to go back without the boys so I can try stuff on and have an unlimited amount of time to look.

The birthday blues

Parker is 6 today. Birthdays are always very bittersweet for me. I love to watch my children grow up, but I hate that they are growing up. This birthday coupled with the start of kindergarten in exactly one week has me boo-hooing all over the place. Then I read this on another blog regarding sending a child to kindergarten

The first day of school for me now means learning to trust someone new with the best part of my heart...

GULP......I couldn't have said it better myself.

I'm going to go soak in some Parker. Man, I love that kid!

Jack

Laying Low

Just wanted to let anyone who reads this blog know that I'm going to lay low for a while. Nothing is wrong, I just want to lay off for a bit and enjoy the next few weeks with Parker before he starts school.
Thanks,
Sara

sorry, sorry, sorry

I hate it when bloggers don't blog and I have been a very bad blogger. I have just been busy and haven't had time to sit down and write anything.
We went to Six Flags last weekend--well, on Monday. I don't foresee us going back for a few years until BOTH our kids are big enough to ride more rides. They have rides for little kids like Jack but they are kind of babyish for a kid Parker's age. There didn't seem to be a ton of stuff for kids Parker's size. We had fun, but we will have more fun if we wait a few years. And there were so many people at the water park that it was actually hard to get wet. Again, when they are bigger, they will be able to do a little more.
Decatur Celebration started last night. It is usually one of my favorite summer activities, but I'm not very excited this year. I have no idea why. I'll still be there, of course, but I'm not feeling my usual enthusiasm. Oh, but the people watching is as good as ever. LOVE IT! It just makes you wonder, "What are people thinking?!?!?!"
Parker has decided that he doesn't want to go to kindergarten. Great. This should be fun.
Even though he has been driving me nuts lately, I am really going to miss him when he's gone all day. I love talking to my kids all day and watching them play and eating lunch with them--just sharing our days together. However, I won't miss the fighting (Parker and Jack and me and Parker.) And I am looking forward to him being in a structured learning environment. But, I'm still a little sad.
As usual, I have left the room and now all hell is breaking loose.
Talk to you later.

Happy Scrappy

This one (above) is a total scraplift of a Shannon Tidwell layout. Loved it so much I had to do one myself.

The best.

This may be the best picture I have ever taken of Parker and Jack. They both have their true smiles, they look genuinely happy--which they were because we were fishing. Love it. Can't wait to blow this one up and hang it on my wall and scrapbook it too of course!

Jack caught this GINORMOUS snapping turtle. It was really just huge. At least 18 inches long. It's swimming around now with a hook in it's lip. YIPES! He also caught the big bass that he is refusing to touch. If you look close, you can see the little blue gill that Parker caught. Fishing with them is fun except for the agonizing fear I feel worrying about them falling in. I know, they should probably have life-jackets on. They aren't going to drown, they would split their heads open on the rocks first. Maybe a helmet is a good idea.

Connie & Paul

You have to watch this. It is so sweet. If this doesn't make you smile AND tear-up, you are made of stone!
http://www.glumbert.com/media/connie

This is one of my favorites too. I cry every time I watch it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oxTy7KIAaA

Missed Opportunities

Don't you just hate missed opportunities? They come in all shapes and sizes. I have been regretting a missed opportunity since last Wednesday. The boys and I went to the Aldi right by our hotel to buy grapes (so Parker could make wine which is a whole other post.) If you've ever been to Aldi, you know that the prices are great but you pay in the amount of time you spend waiting in line and you have to buy bags or bring your own. We were the 3rd in line and there was an elderly woman in front of us with a whole cart load of groceries. We had grapes and baggies (to squash the grapes in silly!) Anyway, the lady is in the process of paying for her stuff and the cashier says, "Did you bring your own bags today?" The lady says, "Oh no. I forgot. I will have to get in line again." The cashier was already ringing our stuff up and it occurred to me to just reach down and throw a handful of bags in with our stuff BUT I DIDN'T. So then I pay and I turn around and there were like a dozen people after us. That old lady was going to be waiting a long time just to buy some stupid bags. I was so mad at myself for not helping out. It wasn't an afterthought--I thought of it while I could have easily done something about it but I didn't act. It also makes me mad that the cashier didn't just say, "let me just ring you up for some bags" and then ask me to hand them to her. YUCK. I hate the way that whole scene went down--I'm still feeling bad about it. So, the moral of the story is--help when you have the opportunity. Also, bring bags to Aldi.

It feels good to scrapbook again!

World Series

We are back from the USSSA U14 World Series in St. Louis. Let's just say that the Decatur Commodores performance was less than impressive. I couldn't believe how sad I was when they last game was over. I have so enjoyed spending time with these families. They have totally taken us under their wing and helped me with the boys. It has been a pleasure to spend our summer with them the past 2 years. I will miss them. It's so strange to think that we won't see some of these folks again. I just hate that. I'm so sentimental. Parker and Jack had a great time in St. Louis and they weren't too bad. Although, 5 days in a hotel is way too much for us at this point. If we were spending all day sight seeing or doing an activity, it would be different, but this was a one game per day kind of tournament so there was a lot of down time. I'm itching to scrapbook so check back for some new pages.

A day in the life

Here is a day in the life of the Foreman's:
- woke the boys up at the crack of dawn (that's 6:30 at our house) to have time to get them ready to take Parker to golf all the way across town
-fairly good start to the day
-making good time so decide to stop at McDonald's for breakfast.
-realize I have left my wallet at home
-drop Parker off at golf
-drive all the way back home to get wallet
-turn around and drive back to the golf course
-time spent driving 1 hour--seriously
-pick Parker up and go back to McDonald's
-drive to Staples parking lot to eat
-eat our yummy, fattening food
-go into Staples and enjoy all the goodies at an office supply store
-go to church to make copies
-go home to work on preschool stuff
-go to post office to send preschool stuff
-go back to church to make more copies
-go home to eat lunch
-go to Walmart to buy drinks for baseball pizza party
-forget ice
-don't care
-come home and do two loads of laundry
-work on more preschool stuff
-Jack comes down and says, "I pooped on the potty."
- I don't believe him and he says, "I'll show you"
-He leads me up the stairs.
-I notice that his little booty is bare and he still has a bit of poop there so he definitely pooped--I just don't know where
- Go to the bathroom--POOP IN THE POTTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- big celebration
-back to the preschool stuff
- Travis comes home
-head to the party
-lots of nice visiting and happy little baseball players
-go home
-bathe filthy children
-Parker crashes from a very long day
-Jack runs around because of a late nap
-Fall into bed at 10:30.

Accomplishments for the day--well, the only thing that really matters is poop in the potty and happy little baseball players.

I'd say it was a pretty good day.

I like this picture--sitting together looking at a toy magazine. Love their opposite coloring.

The next Albert Pujols

The season is over. He LOVED every minute of it! He is so into baseball and how the game is played. He exceeded our expectations which is always fun. Way to go Parker!!!!

Parker to the rescue

For about the past two weeks, I have been consumed with worrying about the future of our preschool. In order to keep a highly qualified teacher, it was necessary to seek exemption approval from DCFS. It's honestly mostly an administrative type thing and will have little or no affect on the quality or high standards of our preschool. However, emotions became involved and when you think with your heart instead of your head in matters like this, it usually leads to trouble. You forget logic and reasoning and focus on hurt feelings. Anyway, it appears that we temporarily have a solution and can move forward. I know it isn't over yet, but at least we took some action in order to get going with plans for the new school year. And to think, I volunteered for this position! NEVER AGAIN!!!

Anyway, I have spent a ton of time on the phone and on the computer and sorting through paperwork dealing with all of this and I haven't got to spend much quality time with my boys. Parker is so perceptive and sensitive and quite a good eavesdropper so he understands a lot of what is happening. He definitely knows that his mommy has been upset and stressed out. So he brought this to me.

Thanks Parker. I needed that. I love you, I love you, I love you too buddy.

@#$%^&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is what happened to my dining room rug. That is latex paint. You might recognize it Dawn.
This is who is responsible. I banished him to his room for the rest of the day. I was alternately crying and cussing while I cleaned it up and Parker was observing the whole thing and trying to console me and help out. Then he said, in the sweetest possible voice, "You know mommy, you probably should have put the lid on tight." He's right, but it still sucks. So much for that rug I guess.

UGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just Jack

I have begun buying "school" clothes for Parker. He is holding on to the "no cuffs" requirement still so I have learned that when I see a shirt with no cuffs--buy it. In every color they have. Good old Target is coming through for me as usual. Jack will be getting a whole bunch of never-worn shirts this fall because the ones with cuffs that Parker refused to wear will fit Jack now.

Lots and lots of stuff going on but it's either confidential or boring so I guess that's all I have to say for now.

Enjoy these little firecrackers. By the way, the outfit that Jacob has on was Parker's. However, Parker wore it when he was 11 months old. Jacob is almost 5 months old. Big boy (and Parker was a runt too!)