Recent Pics of the Boys

Here are some pictures of the boys. I sent some of these out in emails to family, but thought I would go ahead and post them here too.

Summer projects

Ok, so the pictures are of the 2 summer projects we took on over the hot summer. Speaking of which, it has been an unusually HOT summer here. It has also been really humid. That's why the pool project has been the best thing we have done this summer. We had help from Joshua's friends. They came and helped with the pool setup and the landscaping we did around the pool. The boys have enjoyed hours and hours in the pool. It is nice for me too, because I can take a book and read while they swim. It gives me an excuse to take a break from housework so I can watch them swim while catching up on some reading.

The other project was replacing the curb on the driveway. It was really old and broken up especially around the curve of the driveway. In fact, in some places the curb was pushed out over 12 inches by the soil. Myself and the boys hauled all the broken curbing away and then I started the long tedious project of digging out all the dirt so I could place the new retaining wall which I decided to install rather than new curbing. Jimmy was a great help with all the digging and hauling of dirt. He also did the majority of the hauling of the sand, stone and concrete wall pieces. I did the slow work of trying to get the first row of pavers perfectly level. At times I felt like I would never finish and I hated being so hot and sweaty and dirty everyday from working on it. The kids were pretty much on their own and since we had to take down the fence between the driveway and backyard temporarily while we worked on the wall, the boys spent a lot of time in the pool while we kept an eye on them during our work. All in all, I think the project took 2 weeks from start to finish. Maybe a little longer.

Next, we want to install artificial grass in the front yard. We saw some used in Las Vegas that looked almost real and we decided we loved the idea of having that in our yard since we have too many trees to allow decent grass to grow. But that is a big project too. We have to dig out 4 inches of dirt and then lay crushed limestone before we place the artificial grass on top of it. Then we use long nails to stake it down. But, that is for next year. :)

Wow.....what a day!

This is breakfast this morning. :) I was trying to use up things before we leave for 2 weeks to go to Oklahoma and New Mexico. So, I made Italian donuts, a sour cherry sauce (used up cherries and a lemon) and french vanilla pudding (used up some milk). Then we assembled it in cute little bowls. First, the cherry sauce, then the donuts, then to top it off, the french vanilla pudding. Of course, the kids LOVED it! I mean, how could you not? ;)

Today was a day of stress, and not just because of getting all the last minute details taken care of for the trip tomorrow. Last night Jimmy came home at 10pm from a looooong meeting with the 2 top engineers in the company and the plant manager. His facility where he works had a huge fire because of a furnace malfunction. This did a lot of damage. There has been a lot of collateral damage because of it. Last night, it was suggested by these 2 engineers that they close down Tuscola (the plant where Jimmy works) for good. Too much damage they said and too expensive to fix. Already a plant had been closed down for this reason in Beaumont, TX. Jimmy was totally freaking out inside, but handled his bosses quite well. :) At the end of the meeting the possibility of closing the plant was still on the table, but Jimmy had talked them through why they should keep Tuscola open. He knew he had a full day of meetings to look forward to tomorrow in which he was going to have to work hard to save his plant and his job because if the plant closes, he is laid off work. I just got a call from Jimmy saying that Tuscola will stay open! :) Yay Jimmy!!!!

Now, I have to run some more errands. Just a few last minute details before tomorrow morning. :)

Preparing for our Vacation....

Well, I made a list and I'm checking it over and over and over again. :) It turns out leaving for 2 weeks means a lot of preparation is required. We have a large white board and cork board on the wall in the hallway leading from the basement. I made 2 lists, one list for things to buy for the trip, the other list for all the things I have to finish before we leave. I am actually going to be finished tomorrow with my list 2 days before we leave. :) Yay!!!

Today we went on another bus ride to N. Prospect shopping area. It is unsafe to bike there because of traffic, so the bus ride was chosen. The boys were great on the bus as usual. We got almost all our shopping finished with only a few items left to purchase at a store close to home that we can bike to. With the use of the reusable shopping bags, I split the purchases between 5 bags so each boy carried their own bag and I carried 2. So, it wasn't too bad to carry back on the bus all our purchases. One thing that was very different this day on the bus was that it was packed with people! We were lucky to get seats. A lot of people had to stand. I was really proud of the boys today because a man on the bus offered them candy and they politely refused without me having to say anything. Since the bus was so crowded, Christopher did mention it smelled weird on the bus, lol.

Oh...I should share what our vacation plans are. We are leaving early Saturday morning after we pick up a minivan from the car rental place. We will be driving to Mildred's house first and spending Sunday, Monday and Tuesday just relaxing in Norman, OK. Then, we are leaving *very* early Wednesday morning to drive to Albuquerque, NM. We will stay at a great hotel with 2 rooms that night and the next day we will go see an ice cave and Bandera volcano. Then, we will leave and drive to Las Cruces to see White Sands National Park. We will again stay at a great all-suite hotel in Las Cruces. Next, we drive to Carlsbad and stay at an awesome boutique hotel chosen solely for my pleasure. :) http://www.thetrinityhotel.com/ I'm including the link because I'm so excited about the hotel! We will stay in the room that has 2 rooms so we can have our privacy from the boys. We will stay 3 nights in Carlsbad and spend the weekend exploring the caverns. I'm hoping Jimmy and I can go on one of the advanced cave tours that takes 4 hours. We'll see. :) I have to mention, the inspiration for this trip came after reading the book, Blind Descent by James Tabor. http://www.amazon.com/Blind-Descent-Quest-Discover-Deepest/dp/1400067677 Excellent, excellent book! So interesting and quite shocking account of what people will endure to be the first to discover the deepest cave on earth.

Ok, time to sign off. Jimmy and I are off to take a walk. :)

Public Transportation

We have 2 cars. One we have basically had since we were married. Our Honda Civic. The other, a 7 year old VW Jetta. Both small cars and as the boys get bigger, the cars feel smaller..... Not to mention the fact that the Civic has 240,000 miles and the VW has 140,000. I HATE car payments. I don't want to have to buy another car, but lately the VW has cost us a lot of money in maitenance work and the Civic will need major work again in about 60,000 miles. This has led me to change some things about our driving habits. First, I decided Jimmy should drive the Jetta to work instead of the Civic. It has less miles and since it's a diesel, I think the engine may last longer.

Now, for my part. I live in town, close to everything and most importantly close to public transportation. I have to admit, I have always been afraid riding the city bus. All the transfers, schedules, different bus lines, etc. But, on the days when it's really hot, or raining, riding a bike is not always convenient. Not to mention, riding a bike in certain places is just not safe. So....I finally bit the bullet and decided to drag the boys with me as I learned the bus system. I say "drag" them, but they were very excited to try it. Our first bus ride I purposely made sure it was a straight shot to the mall, with no transfers. It was raining that day, so 3 minutes before the bus was scheduled to arrive at the bus stop across the street from our house, we trudged over with our umbrella. The boys had fun watching for the bus and carefully clutched their 4 quarters for the bus fare. I have to admit, I was surprised to see the bus we needed actually show up at the right time. Our first bus ride was on 2N Red. We got on the bus, dropped our coins into the money slot and found seats on an almost empty bus. Matthew sat next to me and Joshua and Christopher found their own seats. Once the bus picked up more passengers, Christopher joined Joshua in his seat. Our first bus ride was great! I learned a lot just from observing people. I was happy that our first ride did not require any transfers. Just a straight shot to the mall. Since then, we have ridden the bus many more times and have made transfers with no problem. It is pretty cheap to ride the bus, $1 with free transfers. I plan to get a bus pass for myself and maybe the kids too. A pass for the entire year is only $60 per person.

Here are my observations of riding the bus:

1. It really saves on miles put on the car

2. The kids prefer the bus over the car and over riding their bikes all over town

3. The bus gives Joshua freedom to go places he would otherwise have to rely on me to drive him to.

4. The boys behave like angels on the bus, maybe afraid of making the bus driver mad or afraid of upsetting the other passengers....

5. I am teaching the boys how to use public transportation, a valuable lesson in my opinion

6. Because the boys don't fight on the bus, the errands I run with them start off much better than if we drive.

7. The boys now prefer the bus over the car even though it can take twice as long to get where we want to go.

So.....for now, we are a family that uses the bus system and rides our bikes instead of using the car. Admittedly, the idea of it being more environmentally friendly doesn't really factor into my decision to forgo the car.....it is really completely tied into saving money on car maitenance and trying to coax as many years as possible out of our cars. For now, the only time I drive the car is to take the boys twice a week to horseback riding lessons. The stable is out in the country and no bus service out there, plus it is not a safe place to ride the bikes, so I have to use the car. We are really lucky to live where we do and have access to great public transportation and a city that is easy to get around on bike. :)

New Blog.... ;p

As most of you know, I had a blog before and which is typical of me, I started it, but lost interest. I have a renewed interest, but wanted to start a new one rather than go back to the old one. It's funny, but I have a lot to share about our crazy life here in Urbana, IL. :)

Having three boys with strong personalities leaves me with a lot of material to write about. :) I find myself always thinking of things I would love to share with people as I go about my daily activities. Nighttime is the worst and it actually keeps me awake, so I heard that writing in a journal helps get things off your mind so you can sleep easier. I'm willing to give it a try. :) I hope I don't bore you too much with my ramblings....

Let's start this blog out with mine and Jimmy's philosophy on raising our kids. We see our job as parents to give our kids their sense of self and most importantly to give them high self-esteem. We work hard to avoid yelling and harsh punishments. I need to stress, we "work hard" at it, not that we always succeed.... Another philosophy of ours, as long as our kids don't do something that causes us to lose trust in them, we trust them completely (with limits). Joshua obviously has the most freedom since he is 13. He knows that as long as he doesn't do something that lets his parents down, we give him lots of freedom. We don't believe in holding onto our kids too tightly, we don't want to be overly controlling parents. We see the negative impacts on Joshua's friends who are overly controlled by their parents and we try not get to into that rut.

So.....because of our parental philosophy....our house is the favorite house for the kids to hangout at. :) Well.....it could also be because of the comfortable basement with the two TV's and game systems. Not to mention the pool..... :)

More posts to come.....this is a good place to start. :)