Ella...our Diva

As Trent and I finished lunch today we were lucky enough to be serenaded by Ella on the piano. We thought that you all should be able to witness Ella's talent so here's a short clip of her concert. Sorry that it's so dark...she is holding and singing into a microphone as she plays. She caught me taping her - it's hard to hear her but she says, "whatta you doing Mommy?"

For my "Gardener"...a check of the front yard

As some of you know, my Mom took on the time consuming job of becoming my "gardener" when we moved into our house in 2001. I am not by any means a GREEN THUMB. And now that she is living in Atlanta I know that she worries about the status of my yard - especially the flower beds surrounding my house. So in order to put her worries to rest I would like to share a few pictures so she (and the rest of the online community, for that matter) can see how well I've been doing since their departure earlier this year.

I have been sure to water each of the plants on a fairly regular basis, and with the exception of one holly, they are all thriving. I have also mananged (with the help of my father-in-law and the "plant book" at the hardware) to treat one of my older holly bushes for a fungus! As my mother directed me, I went and purchased the biggest bottle of Round-Up I could find. So I have included a picture of my dying weeds, that way my mother can see that not only can I buy Round-Up but I can also use it.

Mom- I neglected to photograph my gardenia earlier this month when it was blooming. I am waiting for the second round of blooms to appear and then I will try to remember to post a picture. It is very pretty! I also apologize for not getting a picture of the day lilies in the daytime. It really is a lot prettier in the morning.

I hope you enjoy!

Relay for Life

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would let you all know what's been going on with the family. Friday night Trent, Ella, and I spent the night at Green Hill Park for the American Cancer Association's Relay for Life. John had to video a wedding on Saturday so he came, walked, and went home to sleep. I was a little worried about Ella in the tent, but she did wonderfully! Trent was excited for simple fact that he was campling in the tent in a place other than our family room or the backyard. Our small East Salem team raised $500 for the ACA and had walkers on the course the entire night. I took the camera but was so busy that I forgot to take pictures.

This week is Vacation Bible School at church. We are having a lot of fun, but it's just hard to go directly into teaching VBS when we just got out of school. Ella has her 3rd ballet class this afternoon also!

I will post more at a later date.

Trent's First Pair of Glasses

We just picked up Trent's first pair of glasses about 2 hours ago. So far, so good! I must say he is very distinguished looking. It will take a while to get used to looking at him with glasses.

Today was the last day of school and the last time I went to pick up Trent at Central Afterschool. Luckily, Mrs. Debbie/Mrs. Stratton was at graduation so it was not a very teary good-bye. Trent will miss all his teachers and friends at Central next year, but he is very excited about getting to stay afterschool with Thomas and Vincent. Dr. Seibert has agreed to allow the teachers to come together and hire one person to keep our children until our contract hour is up at 3:00. So that means that Trent will be watched by one of the aides from 2:30-3:00 each day and then he is allowed to come in my room and stay until we leave. This will make it much easier to pick up the kids each afternoon and it is a lot cheaper!

Trent Receives the Camp Shining Star Citizenship Award!

Today was a very busy day. First of all, it was the last full day of school - tomorrow the kids will be getting out 2 hours early. And the last full day of school is always Awards Assembly Day. John and I are very proud of Trent receiving the citizenship award again this year for his class.

Trent also had his last baseball game this evening and John got to be the Head Coach. Coach Mike's son was graduating from 5th grade this evening so John was able to take over. Trent had to sit out the 1st inning because of a minor injury - he got hit in the chest with a bat...he's fine Mom. He will have a nice bruise across his upper rib cage tomorrow but other than that it's fine. Just another boy injury to go along with the nice scar he has on his arm from hugging the blacktop at afterschool.

Tomorrow is Ella's second ballet class. Hopefully it will go as well as last week.

Oh yeah, TOMORROW'S THE LAST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Trent Loses Tooth #8

Many thanks to Grammy for the removal of tooth number eight tonight. I didn't get a picture before he went to bed but there will definately be one in the near future.

ONLY ONE AND A HALF DAYS OF SCHOOL LEFT!!! John and I are so proud of Trent and all his accomplishments...he will once again be receiving the citizenship award for his class as voted upon by his classmates! Second year in a row - WAY TO GO TRENT!!

Trying Out Something New!

Ever since my Mom and Dad moved to Georgia (and now since Abby has also become a GA Peach) I've been thinking of new ways that would be good to communicate with all of them. Phone calls are nice, except life during the school year with 2 children can be quite busy and by the time we are able to sit and make the call it's time to be somewhere else (like in bed). Email is great, except Trent still requires a great amount of monitoring and once again we run into not enough time. SO, I'm going to try a blog...we'll see how it goes. Not only will it be great for my parents to read and to keep up with the kids, but other family members can keep up with us also especially during our extended stay in Atlanta this summer!

Many thanks goes out to Mommavia for creating her blog that I read from time to time. Reading her blog gave me the great idea of trying this new technology. Cynthia and I went to high school together, were "band nerds" together, and after graduation we simply lost touch. It wasn't until this past autumn that our 10 year high school reunion put us back in touch. Even though Cynthia wasn't able to attend our reunion I was able to catch up with her through the class website. It's amazing how things have changed over the past ten years!! Thanks Cynthia for the idea - and by the way...John, Trent, Ella, and I will be walking at Relay for Life this weekend at Green Hill. We will be thinking about you and your continued efforts in the fight against cancer. Trent is VERY excited to be taking part in his first Relay and "camping out."

So let me know how you like the blog Mom and Dad (and Abby...and anybody else for that matter). And a reminder to my Mom that there are to be no penalties for spelling or grammatical errors - You are not allowed to correct the TEACHER!!! :-)