Uh huh, oh YEAH!

For starters, we had Giuliana's parent teacher conference tonight. She is doing awesome in academics and classroom skill. We're very proud of all her effort.

Now, I get to be proud of me too. ;) Several hours & some superglue later (the kids broke a major part while I was building)...Behold, "it seemed like a good idea at the time...":

When we bought it, I had the idea that it would be kind of like legos. Then again, maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, this will be a special father-son bonding thing for future builds.

Miss Stephie

Ok, so I'm not sure what you elevate from sun rising & setting on face to- but Stephanie has again made Giuliana's day, week, year. ;)

She went and took her lunch at school today. Then, she came to visit me (ok, so the littles think she was here for them) and provide the pics. I so love this picture. I'm thinking it should be framed.

FDOS x 3

While the starts were staggered, I chose to combine them all for 1 post.

With 4 first days now under her belt, G's a professional. :) She was up, without an alarm. Ready, no feet dragging.

While they look happy here, they weren't as thrilled to have her gone all day. They missed her, lots. Not to mention, in Tre's world, it wasn't fair that she got to start before him.

The only consolation for him was that Ali didn't start until a week later than he did. Which, thanks to the storm last week, meant she started this week. Which also had to be discussed since she gets to have lunch at school. Now, that's ok because he gets to go 3 times a week and she only gets one. Uhm, no rivalry there.

I know, shocking choice of camo pants. Huge smile. Hardly said goodbye. He's in a class of all boys this year. Not originally intended by the school, just how it all shook out. Awesome teaching team. The lead was his teacher last year. We love her.

He found his hook with no issue. Funny side note- at Sunday school he likes them to call him Angelo. When Mrs. B asked him, he wanted to be Tre at school.

Another runner here. Seriously. She ran into her classroom. No need for coaxing. She had a blast and has decided she needs to use the potty at school. Teacher has asked me to send pull ups. Uhm, ok. I guess she is in fact going to potty train herself. :)

She was ofcourse not fighting nap as soon as we got home.

Riverfront Park, 7/9

Riverfront Park is always fun. However, for some strange reason, we decided on this day to walk back on the suspending bridges.

As you can see in the pic, it was no big deal for my mom & G. What you can't see is that heights don't much appeal to myself of my father. You also can't see that Angelo is either behind or beside me to make sure I make it across the bridge. And yes, on windy days, the bridge moves. Eek.

Need the slideshow code

Photobucket Album

Lake Fiat

Fixing pic links...Scratch that. I think blogger doesn't like the shockwave code (as evidenced by the other "need code" post). I'll figure things out later. Time to get back to organizing.

Rather than posting individual pics, I uploaded it all into a slide show. Being as we're doing a hundred other things right now, the pics aren't edited and I didn't worry about lighting.

While I've never seen so much water & was mildly concerned with our lack of flood insurance, I was blessed with God's peace. Our neighbors all banded together to triage water damage. Cindy's seemed to be hit the worst, so we started over there. Katelyn, the awesome neighbor girl came over to watch the littles (G was still at school)- so yeah, I scored a new babysitter our of it all as well. People just kept showing up. It started with Cindy's pastors & Angelo, then Ryan from across the street...then Ron & Shelley got home. Then people started coming from down the street. (The other side of the street doesn't have the drainage issue we do.) What a way to get to know the neighbors. :) I'm quite thankful to say we had minimal damage. Giuliana's room had the most moisture. Toby (my small group leader) showed up with Candace's dehumidifier & fan, completely ready to step in and help. Talk about blessed. (More below the slideshow.) Edited in: if it takes forever to load, just click on the "view all images" button and it will take you directly to the photo host site. Or, if you don't see the buttons, click



Later in the day, our other neighbor got a load of sand (their basement is unfinished- hence not as big a priority). Angelo had just showered. But, we both felt that conviction to just get out there and help. So, off he went to shovel. I was on the phone with Candace, updating her. She asked how much longer I thought they'd be at shoveling (little did I know, Richard was tying his shoes to head on over and help). "Uhm, I dunno....WAIT, you won't believe this, a large group just showed up." Yep, in total Vineyard-esque fashion, a group showed up with sand bags, shovels and a cooler full of beverages. They gently pushed Brian & Angelo aside and started shoveling. That pile of sand was gone in minutes. This group had been going up and down the street just helping anyone that needed it. I really wish I'd gone out with my camera...

Yes, I took pictures...

We're all good. Thanks to those that prayed, helped, etc. God is good. While we saw more water come down than I've ever seen, we also saw a lot of other cool things. Neighbors pretty much came out of the woodwork. We all worked together sandbagging, sucking up water and laughing hysterically.

My computer is somewhere...in pieces. This laptop might slow down even more if I try to upload pics. We'll see. We're going to do some more clean up and moving stuff around. Just wanted all y'all to know we're ok. If you want to see area pics, go to www.kansas.com :)

Lost something...

She came home wiggling...

Then, while she was playing Webkinz, it just came out. :) We took the picture with my camera phone so it could be messaged to Daddy.

He's Finally 5!

He's finally 5! It's so funny to look at his personality now, compared with when he was less than 24 hours old. When he was first born, I had to pretty well convince him that eating was a good idea. Totally laid back baby. I know, what happened. ;)

He's really excited that not only is it his birthday, but Cubbies starts tonight. Cake, presents & Cubbies!

In mere moments, he'll be opening his Hot Wheels Race Track & accessories!