Now that Mike is starting to finish up his summer classes, we are finally planning our “summer break”. Mostly we’re gonna do some work around the house. Painting the living room and kitchen, painting Rosie’s room, decorating both of the kids’ rooms, organizing our room, and rearranging the living room are all on the list. I also need to get my birth certificate and social security card fixed so that I can apply for financial aid and start taking classes in the fall. We have the kids’ party coming up in a couple weeks and we’re getting Rosie ready to start school. I’m looking into a 2-3 day a week program for Malachi as well, though I have yet to find one we can afford. At some point we need to squeeze a real vacation in to use up Mike’s time off from work as well as to get a break and recharge. With very little money to spend we may just do a home vacation. Lots to do this summer. Some stressful , some fun, but all worth the effort.
I am 95% certain that we have found Rosealyn’s school for this fall. We went today to Little One’s Montessori and toured the school and met the Director and teachers. Mike and I love the way they teach the kids at their own pace, and everything is very hands on and practical life oriented, so the kids can use it and understand it outside of school. The people are all very friendly and the kids enjoyed playing with one of the teachers while we did the tour and grown up stuff. We’re gonna sit on it for a few days before making a definite decision, but like I said, we’re about 95% on this one. It is so exciting and sad at the same time that she is old enough for school. She is thrilled.
We are having cupcakes aqnd presents tonight with Malachi for his birthday because the rest of our weekend is so busy. He will officially be 3 on Monday!! It’s so funny to me how Rosie is obsessed with turning 4 and Malachi could care les about his birthday. He love the card he got in the mail from Nonni and he love the train set we got with his gift card, but he’s pretty blah about the birthday part. Rosealyn wanted to get him balloons and party hats and such for tonight and he kept telling her “No, thank you.” She was pretty annoyed with him about it. Rosie is really looking forward to turning 4 and having a big party. We need to get a date set for that and start planning.
Malachi and I just had a long loud discussion about the doctor. Our conversation:
Me:”Now that we’ve dropped Daddy off, we’re going home for a bit before I take you to Nana’s and go to the doctor.”
Mal:”Don’t want to go doctor’s.”
Me:”You’re not going, I am. You’ll be at Nana’s while I go.”
Mal:”No, don’t want to go doctor’s!”
Me:”You’re not going, I am. You’ll play at Nana’s house while I’m gone.”
Mal:”NO! Don’t want to go doctor! You need stay here. You don’t need doctor. Mommy’s not sick.”
Me:”Ohhhhh, you want me to stay home. Well, I’m not sick but I need to visit the doctor to stay healthy so I don’t get sick.”
Mal:”Oh, ok! We can go now.”
So glad to have his permission. Hahaha. He is talking so much more now. It is unbelievable to me that he is going to be 3 next week. I wish I could just keep him at this point in time. He is getting to be such a big boy, and he has changed so much just in the past few weeks.
Our little vacation was a lot of fun. Stressful and long, but still fun. The kids loved it. They went swimming every day (even Malachi was loving the pool by the end), watched a bunch of new movies, went to the museum, saw mermaids, stayed up late, ate lots of junk food. It was paradise for kids. Malachi woke up around 6-6:30 everyday, so I didn’t get much sleep, and the older kids didn’t really include Rosie and Mal in their playing so I had to watch over them almost constantly. It is sooooo nice to be home where they can’t get into too much trouble and I don’t have to stand watch over them at all times. We’re all very happy to be back in our own beds. I think next time the trip needs to be shorter or Mike needs to be with us. That would make it much more relaxing.
My mom and I are taking the kids to Brooksville for a week starting Monday. I’m trying to get ready for the trip early for once so I’m not rushing last minute nd forgetting things. That means I have to do a ton of laundry in order to pack. I’ve already packed the kids fun bag for the drive there and back. My to do list for the next 2 days is: laundry, pack, clean house, get groceries for Mike so he doesnt eat out every night that we’re gone, sign Rosealyn up for VPK, plus a few other things. I’m hoping to get Mike to take a break from homework to spend some time with the kids out of th house. That way he gets to spend some quality time before we go, and I get some kid-free time to clean.
The kids are really looking forward to this trip. They’re excited to see Mema and Pepa and and all the other kids. We’re probably going to spend most of our time at their house. They have a pool, playset, 4-wheeler, goat, horses, cows, all within walking distance. We’re going to go to the MOSI in Tampa and maybe we’ll go to the zoo or something as well. We’re trying to be as low cost as possible, so we’ll see. It should be a fun, relaxing week.
So I just looked out the kitchen window and noticed out parking lot it is mostly under water. When I mentioned this to Mike he said it wasn’t so bad compared to the other side of our neighborhood across the pond. They had o park out on the street last night because of the flooding. I went outside after he left to look and HOLY COW THE POND IS A LAKE!!! Its up to the house on the other side and has flooded several of them. On our side we only have another 1-2 feet before it hits our neighbors behind us. I called my mom to check on them, one side of the back yard is flooded almost 1 foot deep and is getting close to their house and the front yard is halfway up to the house. They can’t take mch more either. It really needs to NOT rain today or any other time this week until the water goes down. That would be a big help.
While I get that we needed some rain, this is getting ridiculous. The kids have cabin fever, our house has lots of fun leaks, and I have errands that need to be run. Good times all around! After this finally passes, I have to get some goop to seal up all the cracks around our sliding doors, we need to get gutters installed to prevent future crazy rain from funneling onto our porch area, and I am finally going to paint. I got a little sample can of the red that I like and painted up 3 walls with it to show Mike how awesome it’ll look and he actually likes it. Not just “Eh, do what you want” likes it, but “Hey, that does look good” likes it. So the wall on either side of the fireplace, the wall opposite the fireplace, and the kitchen will all be red, and I’m going to try to paint the cabinets a chocolate brown. I picked the blue for Malachi’s room as well. Now I just need to find a green for Rosealyn and a tan for Mal and we’re set. The kids love the colors and are super excited to have everything “colored”. We also only have a few more boxes and bags to sort through before everything is unpacked. Once that stuff is out of the way, I’m going to rearrange the furniture in the living a bit to hopefully give us more space, or at least the illusion of more space. But first, the rain has to stop. It’s hard to get the motivation to anything when it is pouring rain and grey and dark all day long.
Friday we’re registering Rosealyn for VPK and hopefully touring the preschool we want to send her to. Grace will be sleeping over that night and hanging out Saturday as well. Noah might be sleeping over Sunday night. The following Thursday I’m having my very first ever cavity filled. Not fun. Then the first week of June the kids and I will be staying in Brooksville along with my mom and siblings for about a week. We’re hoping to do all the fun Tampa stuff while we’re there, like the science museum, Lowry Park Zoo, Cypress Garden, possibly Busch Gardens as well. We’ll see what we can cram in/afford. Hahaha!! The kids are really excited about the trip. Mike wants to plan a camping trip for sometime this summer and some other cheapish vacation as well. The kids are finally getting old enough to really enjoy vacations and for us to enjoy vacationing with them.
We’re going to combine the kids birthday parties again this year, probably for the last time sadly. Rosealyn has requested a pool party, so I think we’re going to do a luau/pirate/castaway a la Backyardigans style party. Hopefully that’ll work for both of them. I still have to work out the date and time, but it’ll most likely be closer to Rosealyn’s birthday than Malachi’s.
I am so sick of being sick. I am so sick of the kids being sick. We need to fix the roof a.s.a.p. We also need to start looking into a new water heater and a new a/c. Not to mention that my laptop is dying a slow miserable death and needs replacing soon. *sigh* It’ll be nice to not have so many things to stress about at once. Hopefully Mike will pick a roofer soon, and then maybe we can treat the mold and stuff and fix the ceilings. Here’s hoping.
Bike week is coming up again. I really look forward to getting out of the house for a few days and doing something more grown up. It’s nice to feel productive. This time around though, Mike and Lan are not working with me, so that’s kind of a bummer. It’ll still be good though.
Malachi, Rosealyn, and I have all bee sick, again. We all caught a cold at the same time. Malachi also has a possible ear infection, poor kid. We’ve all been homebodies the past few days while we get better, but the kids are getting stir crazy. I think we’re going to try to go to the park today, or at the very least play outside. They’ll be spending some quality time with daddy and nonni while I’m working next week. That should be a nice change of pace for them. I think Rosealyn gets tired of me after awhile. hahaha Mike and I spent some time last night looking at schools for her since she’ll be in the VPK program this fall, and I think we found a winner. I have to get the VPK paperwork filled out and then call the school for a tour/meeting and see if looks like a good fit for her. She is so excited about school. So am I. We’ll both be starting school at the same time. Good times all around.
