Memorial Day weekend

Memorial Day weekend was extra nice this year because Heather drove in to spend time with us.  She made it in time for Garrett's tee ball game Friday night, which made his day.  It was her first ever tee ball game.  I'm not sure it knocked her socks off, but I know she enjoyed it.  Afterwards we ran to Koppe Bridge and had some burgers and let the kids run around.  The weekend flew by, much to fast.  We had a bday party for a 3 year old on Saturday, she opted to come with me since Matt couldn't, then on Sunday we had a pool party to go to, Matt cooked an amazing dinner of ribs and chicken, then Heather left and we went back to the pool party.  Monday we got up and packed some stuff and headed to Matt's parents for the afternoon.  We decided to just lay Payton down for her nap there.  She was exhausted and I"m pretty sure she didn't even move for her entire nap.  Both kids got to shoot Garrett's bb gun, and they played in the pool and just had fun.  We took some new play doh out there and both kids had a blast.  We had dinner with all of Matt's family and headed home for baths and bedtime.  All in all, it was a very nice weekend!

Preschool Graduation

I cannot believe Garrett is going to Kindergarten next year!  I had to leave work to go watch his pre-k graduation and it got super busy just as I was leaving so I felt horrible running out, and of course I was a bit late and the parking lot was insanely full, but thankfully they were running behind and I didn't miss anything!  I will admit I teared up when the kids came filing in, I didn't expect that, I'm the least sappy person I know.  But watching him march in with this huge grin on his face, I just got choked up!  All the classes had little performances they did, they did one song as a school then the 3 year olds, then Payton's class did Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Pat the Dough, Pizza man, which I'd never heard.  She did not do any of the arm movements but she sang everything, it was very cute.  For some reason she had no shoes on though, lol.  Then the 4 year olds went and then Garrett's group.  They sang 2 songs and then walked across the stage to receive their "diplomas", he could not stop smiling!  He also received a certificate for being a stellar reader, he read 31 books since January!  Garrett is so excited to start Kindergarten.  He will continue to go to Powersports until he starts school in the fall, so he was a bit confused.  He woke up on the Monday after graduation at 5:15 to go to kindergarten.  He is enjoying the summer program so far, he'll continue on with MiMi's reading class, he loves reading and I want to make sure he keeps up with it.

Mother's Day

Mother's Day ended up being a very nice day.  It started off a bit rocky around here, but turned around and ended on a high note.  We decided to go to the park after eating breakfast and we all just played, so that was a lot of fun.  After that we went to Home Depot and I got to pick out some new plants for the house.  I bought a new Hibiscus, I had one years ago and it ended up dying, I was pretty upset but then found out they only live 5-7 years and I'd definitely had mine at least that long, so I think it's time was just up.  We also bought a hanging basket for the back porch, which was getting burned up by the afternoon sun, so it now resides on the front porch with the hibiscus.  We also bought some yellow marigolds, Garrett helped me plant these while Payton napped and I have to say I'm impressed at how well they are doing.  Only one has died, and I"m honestly not even sure why!  After Payton's nap we headed to dinner with Matt's family and then home for a relaxing evening.  I love the flowers that I got and the fact that I can look at them everyday and be reminded of my children :-)  Both kids bade me cards in their classrooms, Garrett wrote his out all by himself and Payton's is a hand and foot print =, and everyone knows I"m a sucker for hand print art!!

Dentist

So, after months of trying, I finally got the kids approved and their insurance choices selected.  It all went into effect on May 1, once I knew this, I started calling and making Dr's apts for the kids.  For Garrett I needed a dentist apt, an eye Dr apt and a well check up, Payton just needed a well check up.  The dentist won for quickest apt, they got my in May 2, the eye Dr is June 6 and the well visits are June 13 and June 19.

Garrett's regular dentist didn't take his new insurance, so we tried out a new office, Element Dental.  I know someone who works there, so I figured it couldn't be all bad.  And it wasn't.  The office staff was all very nice, but every one was very young, or maybe I'm just getting old!!  I was a bit nervous when we first arrive, our apt was at 3, and there were 7 kids waiting in the waiting room when we got there, but we got called back a little after 3, so not bad at all.  It is not advertised as a pediatric office, but all I saw in there were kids.  The hygienist was great, she was super nice and it was obvious she had worked with kids before.  I thought the Dentist was the hygienist, she was SO young!  But, she was also really, really nice.  Garrett did have a cavity, I knew this though, he had the starts of one last year but we just could never afford to get it fixed :-(  She fixed the cavity and sealed a couple other molars, just to be safe.  Garrett did great, he didn't seem to mind anything, the gloves were grape flavored and the nitrous was bubble gum scented.  The thing he cried over?  The fluoride treatment.  The hygienist said it really does taste horrible, and Garrett wouldn't swallow for a long time.  At that one appointment we used up almost all his benefits, I have enough left for one cleaning, so as long as he doesn't need any more fillings this year, we're set. 

In total, the visit cost me $3, without insurance it would have been close to $800!!! 

Kindergaten Round up

Kindergarten round up was so fun!!  It was a week long here, we waited until Thursday to go, we figured it might not be as busy.  Stefani and Keira went with us, since Keira will be in kindergarten next year as well.  The school sent Garrett a personalized letter to come take a tour so he was SO excited about that!!  We were lucky enough to be the only ones that morning and since Stafani's son Louden already goes to school at Bowen, the principal let him give us a tour, all 3 of the kids thought this was great.  Garrett's favorite part was the library, lol!  They had 3 classrooms, so we were able to interrupt all three, the teachers were all very nice.  Garrett loved it all!  The principal did say they had record early enrollment this year, so to keep the classroom sizes manageable there will most likely be 4 kindergarten classes next year.  I know Garrett is so ready to go to school, he asks me every day how many more months until he starts.  I am so glad he enjoys school so much.  I feel like most kids do at this age, I just hope he takes after me and enjoy school a lot!

T ball

Wow, I'm not sure whether I like t ball or not, it's a huge time commitment!!  We started out practicing twice a week, then the week I started working we had opening ceremonies and ever since then we've had 3 t ball things a week, either practices or games.  They all start at 6, so on the weeks I get out of work at 2, this is super easy, but on the 5pm days it's a nightmare!  I race out of work to get the kids, his teacher is kind enough to change him and we have just enough time to eat something I've packed in the car and jump out for him to go play.  This has involved a lot of tears and too much yelling.  It's too much for him, he's tired from school and then has to race off to practice, which he doesn't really like at all, or to a game, which he does like.  But, he's usually starving by the time it's all over and usually pretty dirty and sweaty, so we race home and have just enough time to do baths and read his reading assignment and then he's in bed.  He complains he doesn't get to play and misses watching tv.  I'm not even sure he likes baseball, I think he plays because we've signed him up, but given the choice, he'd not be playing ;-(  Matt love it and is his coach again this year, so I feel bad that Garrett doesn't love it more.  You can tell the kids who love it, they want to stay after and hit more balls, they come running up at practice and quite frankly they're pretty good at it!! I hope he eventually decides he likes it, but if not I"m not doing this too many more years in a row!!

Daycare

Daycare-I knew this would be an easy transition for Garrett, he was already upset that he could never stay after school to play like some of the kids did.  I figured Payton would be ok since she's been going up there to pick Garrett up a couple times a week since she was born, but she would not be in the same room with Garrett and had never napped anywhere but home.  I knew from experience she would adapt, but I also was worried about her first few days.  And I was right, the first day she didn't nap at all, and her first week she had a TON of pee accidents.  About her 4th day there, we got out of work early, so I got them and brought them home and P took a 4 hour nap!!  But, 4 weeks later, she's fully adjusted.  She's having no trouble napping, no pee accidents since the first week, and hugs and kisses her teacher in the morning and when I pick them up.  And I see genuine love on her teachers face, she seems happy to see Payton in the morning and always has great things to tell me when I pick her up.  Plus, I can tell she's learning a lot, she's talking more and more, and yesterday, out of the blue, she counted to 10 unassisted and got about halfway through her alphabet, she was not doing this a month ago, despite my best efforts.  So, there are days I miss them terribly and thing I'm horrible for taking them to daycare and there are days I see it was best for everyone.  I often get off early enough that I can run errands and quickly clean the house before I pick them up and then I can spend time with them and my focus is on them, not me cleaning or dragging them all over running errands.  And, I have to time the pickup just right because Payton doesn't nap until 2:15, so I can't go between 2:15 and 4:15, otherwise I wake her up, so that helps me feel less guilty about not picking them up until 4:30 or 5.

Work

Work - It took me a couple weeks to decide if I really liked it there.  The hours are great, but I seemed to be having trouble with one of the co-workers, sadly, she was the one training me.  It all started out just fine and then she slowly started getting kind of mean.  I'm not even entirely sure how to describe it, but she would show me how to do stuff about 95% complete, so I was getting into trouble for not completing tasks, she was constantly talking and not working, I had to keep interrupting her to ask questions, and I was getting a lot of sighs and eye rolls.  But, she was also leaving, so I was determined to stick it out until she left and see if things changed.  About 2 days before she left, the girl I was going to be working with, Cindy,  pulled me aside and said she was really sorry I was being treated poorly, but she promised me it would be better in a few days and boy has it ever!  This week has been great.  Cindy has been filling in the gaps on the things the other girl left off, she's been extremely patient with my questions and has been showing me my mistakes and how to fix them.  No more me feeling like a complete idiot because I had entered something in the computer wrong.  I also have noticed I'm making a lot fewer mistakes, I think the stress and anxiety of my cranky coworker was making it hard for me to concentrate.  I'm sure the fact that I've been there a month is helping a lot too, I'm really getting to understand the insurance side of things and even competently answering patients questions.  Now, I just need to get up the nerve to ask about a raise.  I was told I'd be on the training pay for a short period of time, but honestly, the training pay doesn't even cover daycare, so if he doesn't give me a raise soon, I may have to quit and I really don't want to have to do that!!

April

The month of April was crazy busy for us!!  I went back to work (finally, some might say), both kids started going to day care full time, Garrett started t ball, and we went to Kindergarten round up!