Happy October!

Wow, it's been almost a month since I last wrote. Where does the time go? Brianna received her first award in kindergarten last week. That was pretty exciting. She was one of 5 in her class to receive the "Alphabet Champion" Award and one of 3 to receive the "Number Nut" Award. The alphabet champion award is for the kids who can recognize all of their letters in upper and lower case and know the sounds that they make. The number nut award is for the kids who can recognize their letters from 0-30. Brianna and her friend, Rio, were the only 2 to get both awards. We were so proud! Just in the last couple of weeks, she has started to read. She is very excited about that. It's amazing how fast she is learning everything. She is still going to ballet once a week and seems to enjoy it. I've been thinking it might be time soon to try something new- maybe piano lessons, soccer, cheerleading, etc. We haven't quite decided yet. Alyssa didn't want to do much dancing in her Mommy and Me class last week. She might be ready for something new too.
We had a wonderful visit with Kimberly, Markus and their 3 beautiful children- Micah, Kate and Emma. They were visiting from Grass Valley this past week. It was so nice to hang out with old friends. There is nothing quite like it. I just wish we could do it more often. Kim and the kids came over on Thurs. We had lunch at the mall and then just hung out here at the house. Everyone played really nice. Then Friday night we met them at Disneyland. My nephew, Connor, was visiting for the weekend so we thought we would take him. I almost got him on Tower of Terror again but the line was too long. I think he was quite relieved about that. He said that the Tower of Terror doesn't put him in a happy place. He's a cute kid!
I've been bummed at work lately with my holiday schedule. They put me to work Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. We usually request what holidays we want to work and I got put on all of the ones I didn't want. Not very good for the 2nd most senior person on night shift. Oh well, I just figure I'll work them now and should get them off next year. It has been very frustrating though. Alyssa just came in and asked me, "What do you have in your belly? A baby?" No, I just ate too much at Souplantation.

Is Summer Over Yet?

Boy are we ready for Fall. On Saturday, our air conditioner started leaking in our hallway. Of course it had to happen when it was 110 degrees. We had someone come out and he said we needed a new air conditioner and heater. I knew they were getting old since our house was built in the 60's. So we went one day without air and that was one day too many. We had to send the girls to my parent's house for the weekend so they could stay cool. I went to work early that night since I couldn't stand being in the house anymore- it was 92 degrees in the house at 6:30pm. The next morning the guys were there working and we were up and running by 1:30pm. It took a big chunk of money so we are looking at getting creative with our bills. The joys of being a homeowner! Brianna is starting to read. It's pretty exciting. She is doing really well in school. No more getting in trouble. Although yesterday she told me that she wanted to get in trouble. When I asked her why she said, "So I can get some attention." Interesting. So I gave her plenty of attention explaining to her that there are better ways to get attention, like doing a good job. She's a funny kid. Happy Birthday to Chad and Cathy yesterday! The pictures are of a PTA BBQ we went to at Brianna's school, Alyssa at the Disney Store (their favorite place to shop) and Brianna at Jonathan's puppy party.

Save the Drama for your Mama

Brianna is in her 4th week of kindergarten and let me tell you, I had no idea there would be so much drama. At the end of her second week she got in trouble for touching a boy where you're not supposed to. I was really surprised and she completely denied it (no teacher saw it, the boy just said she did it). We had the whole weekend to talk about keeping our hands to ourselves and about lying. So on Mon. when she went back, I told her teacher she denied it and her teacher said, she also denied it when she was caught almost pinching a boy's bottom. Now that I could see happening. Aunt Shan knows all about "Pinchy, Pinchy". :) So then we had a talk about what is Ok at home, may not be Ok at school. She has done really well since then and hasn't gotten in any more trouble. Yeah! It was very humbling. Now her only issue is the fire alarms. She is scared of fire alams to the point that we had to take her smoke detector out of her room because she couldn't sleep. There is a huge alarm in their very small bathroom in their class. So, instead of going in there, Brianna holds it all day long. We are working on that. Oh the drama!! Alyssa is doing OK at preschool. She wasn't too sure about it at first but is getting more used to it. She cried one morning when I dropped her off. Since then, Bill has taken her and she's been fine. Her big issue is pinching. Yesterday we went shopping and she pinched and scratched the back of my arm. OUCH! I wasn't very happy. Don't you love those temper tantrums in a store?? Any suggestions on how to stop pinching will be much appreciated. For the most part we are having fun and enjoying each other's company. Bill and I got to go on a date about a week and a half ago. He showed up at the door with a dozen red roses. Then we went to dinner and a movie. It was great. He's such a good husband and dad. I was listening to the radio yesterday morning and they were asking, "If you had to do it all over again, would you still marry your spouse?" Almost all of the callers said, no. It was pretty sad. I would marry Bill again in a heartbeat. I couldn't imagine anyone else!

School Girls

Brianna started kindergarten a week ago and loves it. She said, "Kindergarten is way better than preschool." Well, we won't tell Alyssa that because she started preschool today and was quite excited. I've gotta tell you, I'm pretty excited too. You wouldn't believe how much I've gotten done around the house in just 2 hours. I must admit though, that it is really quiet. Too quiet. I guess I just have to get used to that. Alyssa is going to go 3 half days. 2 of the days I'll be sleeping and the other day is for meetings, errands, etc. Her collarbone is doing much better. She is wearing her brace all the time. She has adapted well to using just one arm. A couple of times she has fallen on it and I'm sure that it hurt. She is a little trooper. We've been doing lots of walking - taking Bri to school and back. The morning walk is nice but the afternoon is way too hot. I can't wait for fall. I was talking to Brianna's teacher this morning and next year her school is going to traditional instead of year round. Yesterday we celebrated my dad's 70th birthday. We had a surprise party for him at their clubhouse. There was a wonderful turnout. He was pretty surprised too. We had fun singing karoeke and playing games. Well, I better go give the dog a bath before I have to pick up Alyssa.