HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BABY BOY!

My baby is 4 YEARS old today! I can hardly believe it has been that long! Where does the time go?!?

We've had a wonderful day so far. Jayden woke up pretty early this morning and came tip-toeing in to my room. He asked in the sweetest little voice, "Is today my birthday?" :) I couldn't help but laugh he was so cute! I said yes, but then I told him to lay down and rest some more because it was really early! But, he was too wound up already. I let him watch TV until everyone else was up. About 8:30, he couldn't contain himself anymore. So, we got Dave up and came downstairs "for breakfast". Little did Jayden know that his presents were waiting for him. He was very excited to see the huge box that Grandma and Papa had waiting. He played a bit with the little Diego bicycle we bought for him. But, he couldn't wait to open the wrapping paper! He got a little toy Sarge that Grandma has been hunting for for weeks; the bike from us, and Grandma and Papa gave him his own mini-jumping house. It's shaped like a boxing ring and 7 ft square. We have yet to set it up, but we probably will this evening. He was very excited by all of this, but he liked the Sarge the best. Go figure!

After breakfast, we headed down to Gilroy Gardens for the afternoon. It was a nice family birthday event. Dave got tired before any of the rest of us, but Eliana is the one napping now. Thinking I might take Jayden to the park later to meet up with some of our friends. Then, we will come home for a family dinner and Spiderman birthday cake that I made myself! Yeah...I didn't think I would venture one of these fancy cakes, but I did it and it doesn't look TOO bad. I'll have to post pics later. In fact, I'll get some pics of the whole day in a while so check back for them.

There's too much...

going on these days to keep up! My dad is doing well after his surgery. He is still really tired, but is recovering well. He seems encouraged by the weight-loss from his surgery and is planning to keep it up. YAY!

My dear Davey had his tonsils out on Wednesday last week. Despite all of his plans to the contrary, he was laid up for the whole weekend. He was hoping he would feel well enough to work on the house at least Saturday and Sunday and perhaps even Friday. But...he slept all day on Friday and most of Saturday and Sunday. He is off to work today for a least a part of the day. He doesn't anticipate being able to be there all day.

I am off to take Jayden to his very first real dentist appointment. He had his teeth "counted" the last time we were there, but he is in for the full cleaning today. Fingers crossed that it all goes well! :)

UPDATE------------------
So, Dave, who said he was going to work a half-day ended up being there all day. And Jayden, who was all excited about going to the dentist, did a great job! He got his teeth cleaned and flossed by the hygienist. Then, she tried to put the flouride on with those little cups. But, it was too big for him and he was gagging on it. She kept insisting it would work, but he threw-up on her. But, she still wanted to get the fluoride on. So, she painted it on and held his tongue out of the way. That worked much better! All in all, it was a good visit!

Electrician anyone?

I worked my butt off at the house last weekend. Dave showed me how to wire up electrical boxes and I spent the weekend running wires to various parts of the upstairs and making up boxes. It was actually a lot of fun. I wish I had more time in the earlier stages of the project to have worked at the house because I bet I would have liked doing that too! But, alas, the kids were not independent enough. Anyway, my fingers are really sore from putting those little screw-on wire caps on the ends of the wires...Dave says they are called "pigtails". I think that is a cute little name for "manly men doing manly men things" to call the work they are doing. But, who am I to judge. :)

The good news is that Dave thinks we only have 2-3 more days of work on our part left before we can call in the inspector, the insulation people, the air conditioning people and then the drywall guy. I am looking forward to the drywall going in. That really puts a time-frame to our moving home and I, for one, really want to move home! I think not living in my own home is hindering me from making and maintaining relationships with other moms and families. It could just be my imagination, but I don't think so. I want to reconnect with my neighborhood and my playgroups. I am hoping that when I move home, I can have some play dates for both Eliana and Jayden. They are such social kids that I feel bad when they don't have any friends to play with.

Actually, I felt even worse for Jayden today because a little boy at the park told Jayden that they couldn't be friends because they didn't go to the same school. I think it broke my heart. Jayden was sad for a short bit, but then like water off a duck's back, he was back to his normal self. Wish I were that resilient.

Helloooooooooooooooo Summertime!

Well--the first bit of good news is that Dad is home! He came home this morning. He still has post-surgical aches and pains, but nothing terribly unexpected in a 73-yr-old man who just spent a week in the hospital. He seems to be moving with less and less discomfort. Although, he can't find a comfortable place to sleep. Nothing like those reclining hospital beds to spoil a man! :)

The second bit of good news is that today was the last day of summer school! YAY!! I didn't enjoy teaching this class nearly as much as I had hoped that I would. Part of the problem was that they let kids in the class whose mommies made them take it rather than limiting the class to those kids who needed it to move on in math. It's not a public school, they don't have to take just anyone! But, it's over now! I also signed my contract for the school year today. I will teach just one class from 7:50 to 8:35 M-Th. I get all Fridays and regular holidays off! :) We are thinking the extra money will come in handy when we need things like carpet and Dave's new car....oh yeah...Dave needs a new car. We are thinking a used Prius with carpool stickers. They want a fortune for them, but with Dave's savings in gasoline, we can probably afford it! He will be sad to give up his truck, but I told him we didn't have to get rid of it. As long as he drives it once a week or so, it will stay in usable condition and we should be able to afford to keep it. Any more major repairs and it's toast though!

Update on Dad

He is doing much better today. The doctor said that he is treating him as if his appendix burst and that's why they are keeping him in the hospital. I think it's a good thing because he needs time to heal before he comes home to the house with all of here. The dr. said perhaps Thursday...oh! That's tomorrow!

The rest of us are doing fine. Hanging in and hanging out, but nothing fancy to report.

A week full of activity!

This week was chock full of activity. I went to work on June 18 teaching summer school at Notre Dame. I started then teaching just one class of Algebra 1 skills. This week I picked up a second class for SAT Preparation in Math. This class is way more fun than the first. Both of them have one more week!

But, during this last week we had a lot of fun at Kayleigh's 4th birthday party. My mom is watching the kids for me while I work. So, she took them over to Daniela and Kayleigh's house for the party and left as soon as I got there. That was fun. Then, Uncle Max came over to babysit on Friday while I tutored. I sure am working a lot of hours!

Saturday was busy, too. I started out the day with the pile-up of laundry that I didn't get to for the last 2 weeks while I was busy with working. So, there was a lot of clean stuff to put away and tons of dirty stuff to wash. I got started on the washing and managed to put away all the clean stuff. Additionally, I cleaned out drawers and the closet of all the crappy stuff to get tossed and out of season/size things to be stashed until they come handy again. I even found a stashed bag of clothes for Eliana today at our house that is perfect size and season for her right now! I now even have room to put them away! :) After I got laundry going, I took my mom out to lunch and we took lunch over to Dave and Jayden who were stranded at my house. Dave took his truck in to get fixed AGAIN! We're hoping this'll be the last repair on the truck before we might be able to afford a replacement vehicle.

All seemed to be fine after that, but my dad was feeling less than great. He declined dinner which turned out to be a good thing, because he had appendicitis and had emergency surgery this morning. He is recovering nicely and seems to be of good spirit at this time. Hopefully, he will be home in a couple of days. My mom is not nearly as good-spirited as he is....she is worried...with good reason, but even so.

I am off to bed...I have to teach in the morning.