Life, kids and so forth

Life is fast and furious here. I was "off' today which means I run my tail off trying to get all the stuff done that needs to be done. I had a an appt, went to weight watchers, out to lunch with Eric, passport pics taken, searched for a birthday gift (went to 3 stores) for a party that Emme is going to tomorrow, raked leaves, washed my car, made dinner, helped Eric (dry fit) tile the basement bathroom, bathed Allie, collected Greer's must have items for next week at school, separately went through cupboards with both kids so they can bring in stuff for the food drive at school next week and now paying bills and catching up with the kids "Friday folders". Typical day in my life. I am not complaining, but I seriously wonder what the heck I did with all my time before kids.
I relish my day off, seriously. When I was pulling my 5 days per week, I was loosing my mind. In retrospect, I have no idea how I kept up.

The kids are great, spent every day this week in some type of activity. Greer has swimming on Monday nights, Tuesday we went to a free play about body image at the Frauenthal, Wednesday we had the girls gymnastics and Thursday.... ah, we went to the kids conferences.

I am SO PROUD of both of them. They are excelling in school. Emme is one of those well rounded students. Her teacher really enjoys her and has come up with new ways to challenge her. She now gives her the work that she used when she was teaching her fourth grade kids. (per her teacher: Emme is her top reader and is reading mid 4th grade now). It makes me very happy! Greer is also doing wonderfully. He has a brain like no other, fluent reading, math and everything in between. He has far surpassed the "benchmarks" set forth by the school for the end of the kindergarten year. He has far surpassed many of the 1st grade benchmarks also. Because he only is in actual kindergarten 3 hrs a day, she has not been able to push him further yet (she thinks she will really be able to in April- I asked). Apparently, that is when she normally gets the kids caught up to standards and she can really push the kids who are more advanced. I know I am bragging, but if you can't brag to your friends and family, then who can you brag to? I really am just so proud of all of them all (Allie too, we just haven't had a conference yet).
Allie goes to preschool 2 days a week and daycare the other 2. I keep her home with me on my day off. We have some good one on one girlie time. She was so well behaved today out and about. So many of the ladies at Weight Watchers came up to us at the end and commented on her good behavior. Another proud mom moment.

My mom is good, she is moving into her new home in FL. She now has 2 homes there and none here in MI. They are golf-a haulics. Their social life is so full there, they don't have time to be retired. I know, rough sounding, isn't it?

My dad is good too. He officially retired in the fall. He had taken a voluntary lay off since the beginning of 2009 but finally made the "real" leap more recently. Ironically, he has intermittently worked here and there these last two weeks (for a few days) due to need but he is not out of retirement. Dad is my daycare when school is out or kids are sick. It works out nice and I am so thankful he is here and willing to do that for us. The kids love spending time with him.

Eric is feverishly working on the basement bathroom. The tiles are all cut and some are actually down, but we couldn't finish last Sunday when we started and our mud hardened overnight. He is not mixing new mud, nor putting it down, until the job can be completed. It looks awesome. I can't wait to see the final product. Now that I am getting small glimpses, I am getting more excited. On that note, he is probably cursing me now, as he is trying to get to sleep and I am typing away. Until next time.