October 22, 2010

It is amazing how much builders can do in just one week. First, here is the final picture that should have been in the last post but we left that day before they finished the foundation. This picture was taken the next day, Oct. 15th. The builders took the weekend off so nothing changed on Sat. and Sun., the 16th and 17th.
We were not sure if the framers were going to start that Monday or Tuesday. So, on Monday, Oct. 18th, the boys and I drove up just to see if anything was going on and we found this:
When we left that day, before the builders were done for the day, it was looking more like this:
For some reason, I did not take any pictures on Tuesday, Oct. 19th. But this is what we saw when we drove up on Wednesday, Oct. 20th:
And, when we left that day, it was looking more like this:
I didn't take any pics on Thursday, Oct. 21st. We ended up arriving later in the day, after the builders had already left. As it turns out, we arrived just as the storm shelter was being unloaded. That was quite a feat to watch. It is extremely heavy and it was a bit tricky getting it into the spot where it needed to be.

Today (Friday, Oct. 22nd) when we arrived, this is what we saw:
Here it is a bit closer in. This is the front of the house. The first two windows are in the garage. The third window (see pic above) is the laundry room. In the picture below, you can see they are building out the bedrooms on the second floor. Just below that, they are started to frame out the front porch.
Below is a view from the back of the house. The large window in the back is the master bedroom. The square window on the side of the house will be above the tub in the master bath. The four little windows will be, one each, in the, master shower, toilet room, master closet and guest bathroom.
Another view from that same corner of the back of the house. First window is that same window in the master bedroom again. Outside of this window there will be a concrete patio. Next to the concrete patio, you can see where they are starting to frame out the screened back porch. Looking through those windows facing the camera is the eat-in dining area of the kitchen.

Below is a picture looking in through what will be the screened back porch, into the living room. The eat-in dining area is through the windows on the right and you can see there is also a door leading from the dining area to the screened porch. On Monday, they will start building the cathedral ceilings above this living room and screened porch.
And moving down further, to the right of the dining area in the picture above, the picture below is of the gameroom/family room/library/class room/whatever room. Hopefully we will know what to call this room someday. You can see the storm shelter being framed in below the staircase landing. Behind this staircase is the garage and there will be another staircase near the garage entrance to the house that will also lead up to this same landing. They were building it today when we were there but it was not done yet when we left. They are also planning to start framing the cathedral ceiling for this room on Monday.
The boys and I got to walk up stairs and take a look around today, very very carefully, always holding hands and we didn't stay long. But we all enjoyed getting to walk through what will be their rooms and bathroom.

Can you believe this? All of this framing work is only one week of work! I can't believe they work so quickly. They will be starting to frame the roof in the upcoming week, which I know is a big job. And the windows will likely go in the week after that. They predicted two to three weeks of work for framing, which included windows and doors and roof (not shingles), basically getting it to the dried-in stage, depending on the weather. They certainly seem to be on schedule, or maybe even a bit ahead of schedule.

This is so much fun to watch! Ben said something to me the other day, indicating he had not really understood when we talked about building a house but now he gets it. It was really cute. They love going up there and watching. They find loose nails on the ground and use scrap wood to pound them into the dirt or other scrap wood.

We sure are having lovely fall weather these days though. I always forget and think we should be having fall weather in September but it seems it is more an October thing here. The trees are now really just starting to turn. We are in the 70's most days but still getting close to 80 degrees a lot of days. We are definitely still in shorts weather, although we sometimes need a long sleeve shirt or sweat shirt in the mornings (really only a couple of days so far though). It is beautiful.

Tiredness is setting in. Must read, relax and get ready to sleep. Goodnight!

October 15, 2010

Wow! The house is really coming along quickly, considering we are only 2 weeks into it, as of tomorrow. But first, a little something from our little somethings.

Nick riding his bike without training wheels. He goes as fast as he possibly can and tends to be a bit reckless but he sure has fun and he has not had any bad wrecks so I guess he is doing OK.

And here is Ben, riding his bike without training wheels. He is more steady and also goes just as fast as his little legs can pedal. Yes, he is riding a girl's bike. They are now old enough to know it is a girl's bike but they don't care. If anything, they think it's funny. When I talked about getting them bigger bikes, I think it was Ben who said he wanted to keep the girl's bike too.And back to our house story. Since I posted last, we have watched them dig and pour the footings.

We had tree trimmers out to cut out damaged tree limbs and we have selected a great tree for the future tree house.
Every time we go to the lot the boys have so much fun. They love playing around and climbing on the huge trees that are still laying around the lot, although today Ben fell and scraped his arm on one and he was pretty upset about it. The dad was cleaning it and putting bandages on it and he said to me under his breath, let's hope he never breaks a bone. Based on how he acted today, I think he might just pass out if he broke a bone.
Here they have put up the forms, roughed in the plumbing and they are putting in the fill dirt.
Below is a view from the front corner. The part without the form is the entry to the garage.
These two little dogs really bark up a storm. Unfortunately, the tree that seems to be the best for the tree house is right next to their fence. Hopefully they will get to know us and quit barking at us all the time. They are really cute though. I think my cats are bigger.
Nick playing. Never a still moment the entire time we are there. He is never ready to leave and always covered with dirt. Such a boy!
Ben has been wearing his sun glasses a lot because he injured an eye the other day. He was jumping across the ditch in front of the house and, when he landed, he was bent over at the waist and a long piece of grass poke him in the eye. Fortunately it was on the side of his eye, in the white part, because he scratched it pretty good. We are doing antibiotic eye drops until it heals a bit.
Here they are hauling in and spreading out the fill gravel.
They leave an empty area along the edge, which they will fill with concrete when they pour the slab. This will make the concrete around the edges of the slab thicker.
This is what it looked like today. They had the boom to pour the concrete for the slab.The contractors are all so nice and friendly. He was showing the boys how to use this device to operate the boom. He even let them use it to move the boom around. They thought that was pretty neat.
This was fun to watch. The concrete comes out of the boom thing really fast.
The rest of the guys were moving the concrete around and spreading and smoothing it out.

We ran some errands and then stopped back by to see it again and they were almost finished with pouring the concrete. They were still smoothing it out. We left the camera in the car though so I will have to get that shot next time.

They believe they will start framing either Monday or Tuesday. Is that fast or what?

October 6, 2010

I intended to post these a couple of nights ago but never got around to it. Better late than never:). Here are some pictures taken over the past month or two. The order is wacky but I'm too tired to mess with it today.

This first picture is of the boys playing in the little sandy beach at the 100 acre lake in the community where we are building our house.
This is the same lake and they allow fishing, although it is catch and release. This community is being built on 3,000 acres and there are many ponds around the place. Residents are allowed to fish in any of them but they are all catch and release.
The people running the bulldozer on our lot over the weekend made sure to stop and let the boys climb up for a picture moment. I think they might have been kind of scared because they look like they are hanging on for dear life.
Here we are back at the lake . This is the running/biking track that goes by the lake. I think it will eventually go all the way around.
This little rockery mound is next to the lake. The boys love climbing all over this. The building in the background is a new elementary school that just opened in 2009.
Our new community has an outdoor concert once a month (I think - we have only been to one and that was for the July 4th firework celebration. The band sets up under this small pavillion thing. The land in front of it slopes upward so people can see the band better. There is a huge empty area to the right where kids can run and play and the rock mound is real close by also.
Here are the boys climbing on the rocks again.
Another shot of the small beachy area.
Boys running on the small beach. I think it is kind of odd that they put in the beach but people are not allowed to swim. I guess it is another thing the kids can do while the parents are watching the band.
This is across the street from our lot. It is one of the small ponds and it is even much smaller right now because of the very hot summer.
Here is the bulldozer, taking down trees on our lot. It is sad to see them come down but exciting to see work begin towards building the house.
Putting in the culvert for the temporary driveway that will be used during construction.
The boys really enjoyed pulling the rope to blast the horn on this huge dump truck.
The poor cats have to find anywhere they can to escape from the boys at times. This is Zoe, the one who fell down through the wall from the attic recently.
The boys were so happy that they both got a play rifle and an umbrella for Ben's birthday. I knew they would love this rifle that has a strap on it to carry on their shoulder. Both gifts were a huge gift for Ben. He has played with them constantly since his birthday and tells everyone about them. He still wants to know how old he has to be before he can have a real gun. It is so odd that such a young child can be so crazy about guns when his parents have none and never talk about guns at all.
Another picture of the bulldozer clearing our lot. They had to remove over 28 trees, although I lost count at some point.

Another picture of the area across the street from our lot. All of the lots are one acre lots, so far. I think they are planning other areas where they will sell smaller lots intended for townhomes or smaller homes.
Nick made this "pirate hat and patch" himself from a paper bag and played with it for the longest time. He is trying to look very serious and mean, like a pirate.
A picture of Ben when we went to the Oklahoma City zoo.
Here is the hole that the husband had to cut into the wall in our master bath to get the cat out, after she had fallen through the wall from the attic.
The husband stuck the camera into the wall and took a picture upwards so we could see the inside of the wall where she fell. It really is a wonder she was not hurt.
This is a sample of the stone we have picked for our new house. It will be used, along with stucco, on the front of the house. It really looks different in person. The lighter colored stones look more peachy and light brownish in places and the gray colored stones look gray in places and almost blue in other places.
They ended up needing extra dirt for the pad so they hauled that in earlier today and the bulldozer is suppose to be back this evening to finish the pad. The concrete guy is suppose to start on the footers tomorrow morning. Moving right along.

October 3, 2010

I have a bunch of pics I will try to post later today. I don't have a lot of time these days, as the dad is out of town and I am on my fifth day of single parenting. My brother is spending the nights with us lately, as he has a friend who has been in the hospital and is now in rehab for a week or two and he is helping him out. That works out great because I sleep better when there is a man in the house.

Yesterday was a big day! The bulldozer came and cleared out all of the trees that were to be removed for building the house and we got to watch. They did not have time to take the trees away yesterday so they moved some of the to the back of the lot, some to the front of the lot and some to the neighboring empty lot (with permission) so they would have the space needed to build the pad.

They also put in the culvert and made the working driveway, to be used during construction and which will eventually be turned in to our new driveway. And then the dump trucks came, dumping around 20 loads of dirt for the pad. We finally left before they were finished but they were suppose to be done building the pad by the end of the day. I'm not sure when they are suppose to start the footings for the slab but I am hoping it is tomorrow. The sooner the better.

I spent most of the day watching the activity on the lot and taking pictures. The boys found lots of friends to play with and spent most of the day playing with the neighbor-boys. We are moving into the dream neighborhood for any boy. There are many many boys within a block in any direction of where we are building our new house. We met the ones directly behind us and the boys played there for a short time. Then we met the ones across the street, to the right of the pond, and the boys played there for hours. Then they went to the left side of the pond and played with the boys who lived there.

They rode on two zip lines, played on a trampoline and one of those big, wooden play structures, played lots of games, like red light green light and tag and hide and seek and played with a couple of dogs. They had a ball and met some very nice boys and I met their very nice moms.

When it was finally time to go, after hours of playing, Nick started crying because he didn't want to leave. Today he asked me if we needed to go see the lot, only because he wants to play with the boys again. He is our son who would spend all of his time outdoors, if he had someone to play with and Ben is our guy who doesn't enjoy the outdoors as much and even asked me if he could go into one of the neighbor's homes yesterday because he was bored outside (there were about 10 kids and tons of stuff to play with!). So I predict that we will seldom see Nick once we move into our new house.

I have been purging and, thankfully, much of what I am getting rid of is going to be sold via the used homeschool store near here. We are always buying things there so that will work out nicely. I still have more toys and books to get rid of though. With birthdays and Christmas upon us, it is time to get rid of lots and lots of stuff.

The dad comes home late tonight but then has to work 12 hour shifts Mon and Tues, so it will be 7 days straight before I really get a nice mommy break....although yesterday was wonderful, being outside all day and the kids having others to play with. It made for a bit of a break for me and I enjoyed watching the activity on the lot. Hoping there is more activity on Monday:).

September 27, 2010

I am happy to report that we have finally selected a builder. We are meeting with them tomorrow morning at our lot, along with our favorite arborist, to take a look at which trees will have to come out for the house. The arborist will take a look at all of the trees that will remain and decide which are not healthy enough to keep and which ones can be cleaned up and kept. He will also provide us with additional info on how to keep the trees that remain alive and well, as much as possible, during and after the building process. If it is not handled properly, it is quite common for many of the remaining trees to die out over the first year after the house is built, mostly from too much shock to the root systems from large trucks running over them, from digging the foundation and cutting through roots, sometimes from a lack of water, among other things.

We will also meet with the builders tomorrow to sign our contract and go over the detailed specs. We spoke with them this morning and they said their excavation guys were standing by and ready to start preparing our lot for the foundation work. It looks like work will begin this week. I am very excited as I thought it would likely be at least a week or two before anything would begin. The sooner the better. Hopefully, if all goes well, we will be moving into our new house in February or March of 2011.

A friend of mine called me today (the one with the twin girls) and, for a variety of reasons, she has decided to pull her girls out of public K and homeschool them. I am happy about this as it gives me a local friend who will be homeschooling. It is nice to have a local friend now who is homeschooling.

In other news, the boys have both learned how to ride their bikes without training wheels and they are so very proud of themselves. They are still using the little bitty 12'' bikes, as it made for easier learning to ride without the training wheels. It is so funny to watch them because they pedal really really fast, so fast that their little feet look like they are going up and down. It looks like a cartoon or something. Very cute. They love riding and it has given me a bit more exercise, as I walk the neighborhood with them while they ride. My bike has another flat tire so I can't ride with them yet.

The weather finally turned cooler here and it is lovely. I think I may have to go shopping for additional clothes soon though.

We are still plugging away at reading and the boys are doing great. We recently finished listening to the audio book of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. The boys liked it so much that we checked out the book from the library and I am reading it aloud to them now. We are all enjoying it. We actually have at least two copies of this series but they are all somewhere in storage. Thankfully we have the library, which we use often and really appreciate. We normally go there about once a week these days.

This is birthday celebration week for Ben. He will be five years old this week and he is very excited. We are taking the boys to Incredible Pizza this evening for an early celebration but they don't know that yet. They are going to be so excited, especially Ben. He has been asking to go there often since the last time they went, when I was at the homeschool conference in the spring. It is his favorite place, lots of great food and lots of games to play. It will be fun evening.

The dad is off today and tomorrow, works Wed and then leaves for a medical conference on Thurs so we will do some early celebrating with him. My mom and sister will be coming to see us towards the end of the week to celebrate also. So Ben will have a couple of different celebrations. In about six weeks or so, we will have two five year olds. Yikes! They sure grow up fast!

September 20, 2010

The boys and I recently listened to Little House in the Big Woods on CD and we are just at the end of the last chapter of Little House on the Prairie now. Lately the boys have started pretending about this a lot and it is so funny. I was just sitting here eating my lunch (the boys have already finished and gone off to play) and I overheard one of them saying "Ma?" to the other one. So they are "pretending Ma and Pa"; this is what they tell me when I ask what they are doing.

This morning, they came downstairs and Nick was carrying a teddy bear and a stuffed frog and he was telling Ben that they were Mary and Laura. Ben walked by carrying a stuffed duck that was wearing a pull up and he said, "this is Baby Carrie, the duck".

Now it sounds like they are pretending they are hunting.

I recently checked out a DVD of the old TV show Little House on the Prairie because I thought they would get a kick out of seeing all of the characters in action. One day last week, it was Ben's turn to pick their movie and he was tired of watching it so he picked something else. Nick was very disappointed because he wanted "to see what Mary and Laura and Baby Carrie were doing". So I let them watch one episode of Little House on the Prairie after they watched the movie that Ben picked (David and Goliath). After the movies were over, Ben looked at me, smiled and said, "I don't which one to pretend first".

Funny funny boys!

September 15, 2010

I have not been too good at updating the blog lately. I think of things to write about but then get busy and forget. Here are some of the things that have been going on around here:

- The boys were rough housing while with the dad and they knocked the lamp off of the coffee table. It actually still works but is quite broken and crooked. Oh well. The funny thing is that I seem to do much better with things like this if I am not the one in charge when it happens:).

- We had a 'cat-astrophy' the other evening. This rental house has two doors upstairs that lead into the attic (two very large, separate attic spaces). The boys have been told that they are not to go into the attic without an adult and, up until now, we had not had any issues with this. A couple of days ago, Mr. Ben decided attics are interesting, I guess. He opened the door and let the cat in. I let him know that this is not allowed but, very unfortunately and unbeknownst to me, he ended up doing it again later that evening. I went into the master bathroom and I heard a cat meowing very loudly. After looking for her (Zoe), I quickly realized that she was IN THE WALL between the shower and the toilet. I ran up stairs to find the attic door was not tightly closed, my first clue as to how she had managed to end up in a wall. I went into the attic and called her, thinking she might be able to climb back out the way she got in. My other cat, Dancer, came out of the attic while I was calling Zoe. 2nd clue that the attic door had again been opened. The dear husband ended up having to cut a whole in the wall to get the very unhappy cat out. While I read to the boys before bed, dear husband was changing out the attic door knobs to a kind that lock, so we won't have to worry about this again.

- We had a meeting with the last builder yesterday and it went very well. We really like these builders a lot and I believe we will end up going with them. They are currently coming up with some suggestions of how we might reduce the cost a bit more. I am hopeful we will come to a final agreement within a week or so. They said that we could start clearing the land and preparing for the foundation work within a week after we sign up with them so I am hoping we will start within the next two weeks. I AM READY! We are close.

- We have started visiting churches in the town where we will be building our house. We visited one church the week before last but quickly knew that we had major doctrinal differences. We visited another church this past Sunday and I really liked it a lot. I think this will probably be the church where we will attend and I am excited about getting involved there.

- We are slowly moving ahead with learning to read, using The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I slacked off a bit for a week or so, although the boys were still reading to us from their readers. We started back up this morning and did lesson #53. Last night I prepared lessons for us through #70, or something like that. Basically right up to where they would start learning long vowel words. I am anxious for us to get to the long vowels because, without them, we are very limited with our readers. The readers cover short vowel words first but then they cover long vowel words next. In OPGTR, they cover short vowels and then lots of beginning and ending blends and digraphs before they get to long vowels. So, for the most part, we can't practice the beginning and ending blends and digraphs using our readers until we get through long vowels. I find that frustrating, although the boys are really get good at short vowel words.

Well, that's long enough for today. I can't think of anything else to write about right now. I need to start thinking of what to get the boys for their birthdays. Ben's birthday is just around the corner now. If you have any good ideas for a 5 year old, let me know.

August 30, 2010

We took a couple of days off of school work because the boys were really complaining and throwing fits about it and, of course, that is not how I want it to be. After giving it some thought, I have cut way back on how much we do so that their lessons are very quick.

Now we will do a lesson in OPGTR on one day and then practice reading the next day. And we will learn how to properly write a new letter one day and then practice writing it more the next day. We will move through things more slowly overall but I think it will work out better for them. Eventually they will build up more tolerance and then we can start extending lessons a bit more. We started this today and it went very well.

Another thing I started doing was typing up the OPGTR lessons so I could leave out all of the instructions to me. This makes the lesson seem much shorter to them. When they would look at the page in the book with the instructions to me, it would be a bit overwhelming to them. It made them think the lesson was much bigger/longer than it really was. So I did this today and I printed out a page for each of us to hold, which they loved. Then I had a highlighter and I would highlight some words/sentences for Ben to read and some for Nick to read. They really liked this. Of course, for children their age, novelty is fun and exciting so everything is great the first time we do it. We'll see how they are doing with it a week from now.

They love doing our Bible devotional so that is not an issue. They love being read to so that is not an issue either. Today we started re-reading My Father's Dragon. It's been quite a while since we read it and I think they had forgotten parts of it. They really enjoyed it today and kept wanting me to read more.

We are still listening to the unabridged version of Peter Pan when we are riding in the car. We have all really enjoyed this so much. I think we have probably listened to it 10 times by now and I think I have enjoyed it as much as they have, most of the time. I really enjoy the accent of the guy who reads it and the way he does the voices. It sure makes for quiet car rides. I just ordered two more audio books, Little House in the Big Woods and Treasure Island. I hope we will enjoy these as much as we have Peter Pan. We also listen to Just So stories and a CD of poems by various authors. The poems are ones that boys in particular would enjoy and we have all enjoyed those too. We listen to Peter and the Wolf, various classical composers and scripture verses that have been put to music while we are in the house, usually while we are preparing, eating and cleaning up after meals, while I am doing chores and the boys are playing, etc. We all enjoy that a lot too.

I was also thinking about how to give them incentive to read aloud more to us and to also strive for better behavior. So today I introduced the marble jar and a large bowl of marbles. They get to put a marble in the jar when they read a book (Bob books and some other readers I ordered from Modern Curriculum Press). This is great because they immediately wanted to read more books to us. They ended up reading two or three books to me and then another two or three to their daddy. I am amazed at how well they are both reading. I have ordered some more difficult books that have the more recent ending blends we have already studied.

In other news, they are really into this children's charades game that they picked up at a garage sale recently. It is really fun for everyone and it is funny to watch them try to act things out.

And, in still other news, we are hoping to receive estimates from three different builders this week. We have actually already received one but need some clarification about it. Another one has said he is ready to meet to go over his numbers and we are trying to coordinate a time. The third one I happened to see out at a burger place on Sunday afternoon and he said they are hoping to have their numbers ready this week too. Who knows, maybe we will actually be ready to make this decision within the next week. I hope! It is very interesting to see how this has evolved and where we have ended up. I have no doubts that God is in control and is leading this effort. I am at peace knowing His timing is perfect and He knows what is best for us.

Odds and Ends: The boys and I have colds. We went to the church near our old house for the last time yesterday. We plan to start visiting churches in the town where we will be building our new house now. The boys are doing well in both swimming and soccer and are enjoying both. Both are once a week now. When it cools down a bit, we are planning to move our piano from my sister's house to our rental house. Hopefully by then I will have found someone who gives piano lessons.

Here are a few more pictures of the boys. I really need to start taking more pictures. I have not been as good about that lately. Must do better.

These pics were taken just before we moved. I think this was their last bath in our old house. I told them to show me their muscles and these were the poses I got.




This was when Ben was totally into shooting his bow and arrows. He is actually quite good at it. Their cousin gave them this shirt and they use it for dressing up like a hunter.
I need to get some things done while the boys are out running through the sprinklers. Until later.

August 24, 2010

The boys are doing very well with their reading and writing lessons and we are enjoying our daily devotionals. We are at lesson 50 in The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading, which is where we start learning the beginning two consonant blends (TR, FR, etc.). We just finished the ending 2 consonant blends and they are reading 4 letter words now. We try to spend some time with them reading to me also.

Yesterday was not a very good day for us, for several reasons. But one thing I am learning is how much is enough for them and when to stop. It is easy to fall into that mode of "let's just finish this lesson" because I like to finish things:). But it is better to leave them feeling successful and wanting more. So, I need to remember that and make our lessons a bit shorter.

I need to remind myself that they would not be going to Kindergarten until next year so there is no reason to push. Everything they learn this year is gravy and really next year too, as we really don't HAVE to start homeschooling here until 1st grade.

It has continued to be 100+ here most days. Combine that with our new back yard, which is not very big and is sloped to the point that we cannot put up the swingset, and you get two little boys that are not spending enough time outside and not getting enough exercise. We try to get out to the parks first thing in the mornings but we can't do it every day and we really have not found a great park near here. Some OK ones but not great. We may need to drive further.

Well, short post because quiet time is over and boys need some attention from mom. Later.

August 11, 2010

We are getting back in to our routines around here and that feels nice. I can tell everyone is feeling a bit more settled and behavior has improved greatly.

I am noticing a number of changes as the boys approach the 5 year-old mark.

They are now spending time each day very contentedly playing alone. Typically this means that Ben is pretending something, which is what he spends the majority of his time doing, and Nick is building, coloring or playing with some type of vehicle.

Behavior is improving in ways I have read about for 5 year olds, that generally they tend to want to obey and please more.

They are really getting tall and really looking like older boys rather than little guys. Maybe it is just that they recently got their hair cut and it had gotten so much longer but they just look so different to me.

I am constantly amazed at how much they can do for themselves and how well they do it. It is a pleasure to watch them. What a blessing it is to watch them grow and change each day and, my goodness, how much I learn and change along with them.

We had a long meeting with our potential GC guy. In short, he is still coming in very high on his numbers, although he is still gathering numbers and trying to fine tune them. He ended up staying in our guest room Friday night and we all drove up to the property on Saturday. We had a chance to go through a house that is being built so he was able to see how these homes are really being decked out. We also had a chance to pick up a flyer at the office that listed new homes for sell and square footage, so we all saw how overpriced his numbers were. It was definitely what we all needed to see. So he is reworking his numbers and we have contacted three local builders who have all built multiple homes in the community where we own our lot. All three of them are going to provide bids and we have also just received a new bid from another SIP dealer. This is all great because it ensures that we will end up getting a decent, fair price for the SIP materials and also for the rest of the materials and labor. The husband and I are both feeling much better about the situation this week. I am just hoping that we can get these numbers together quickly so we can get moving. It would be nice to have the house dried in before winter weather hits.

Of course, we are still dealing with 100+ degree weather around here. This is the hottest summer we have experienced since moving to Oklahoma. It is so hot that you really just can't stand being outside unless you are swimming or playing in water in some form or another. Even if we go out first thing in the morning, it is not long before the boys are wanting to come back in because they are too hot. It really is brutal. I have lost track of how many consecutive days we have had of 100+ degree weather but I would not be surprised if we are setting a record. I really feel bad for the boys because I know they miss playing outside and we all end up feeling a bit couped up. I try to think of things that we can go do but I know they are not getting the exercise their bodies really need. We still have swimming once a week and soccer once a week so that helps a little...but not enough.

I am just so very thankful that we have air conditioning. I can't imagine going through this without it. I don't know how we did it when I was a child because we did not have air conditioning until I was in 7th grade. We slept with the windows open and the fans on, but the world was a safer place back then, or at least it seemed like it was (of course I was living in a small town of around 900 people at that time, where everyone knew everyone).

Oh, the other news worthy thing is that we have started having an official reading lesson every day. Now, we have only done this for three days so far but it has really gone well. The boys are really enjoying it and Ben even asked to do it this morning. And they are both doing extremely well with it too. Today we were learning about words that end with 'ck'. One interesting thing is that Nick seems to be catching on very very quickly right now, even faster than Ben, but Ben was catching on faster the last time we were working on it.  Interesting how they bounce back and forth. Probably has something to do with who is going through a growth spurt or something.

Regardless, it is so fun to see them learning to read and to watch them get excited about their successes. They really enjoy learning to spell also so that is probably the next thing I will introduce 'officially', once we get a routine down with the reading lessons. I am starting slow and adding on as we go, a little at a time, and we will be keeping it fun and lessons will be short. Today we finished our reading lesson in probably about 10 or 15 minutes tops. Yesterday's was a bit longer. Tomorrow they are so short we will probably be able to do two but I will play it by ear and see what they are up for, as I don't want to push too hard.

I am just so relieved that we have this year to learn to read and start getting used to the idea of doing school. Hopefully by next year, when they officially have to start K, it will be easy for all of us because we will already know the routine and we will simply be adding some additional subjects.

It's late. Time for bed. Goodnight.

August 5, 2010 Part 2

We are just starting to get back to a somewhat normal routine. We closed on our house last Friday, which was such a relief. It was a relief to be finished cleaning it and watering the plants every other day. I was so done with that. The buyers have big plans for remodeling and updating pretty much everything. From the sounds of it, it will be very beautiful and up to date when they are finished. I hope they will be very happy there.

We are now living in a rental home and I think it is going to work out very well for us. It has the same number of bedrooms and baths as our old house, although it does not have an office so we are using one of the bedrooms for the husband's office. The rooms are all smaller across the board, with the exception of the master bedroom which is huge.

We are using the small dining room as a school room / arts and crafts room. It is really coming in very handy to have an extra table set up with all of the crayons, markers, glue, etc. that does not have to be put away before every meal. The boys are in there drawing, coloring or making something at least a couple of times a day, if not more.

The downside is that there is much less floor space for the boys to just get down on the floor and play. There is a nice sized playroom upstairs and they do play up there regularly but, unless I am up there, they spend much more time overall playing downstairs and they bring their toys downstairs to play. Even though it means things are a bit messier, I am really OK with that because I enjoy having them nearby. So, we are making it work.

We have put tubs of some of the most used toys under the ottoman in the living room, we still have the two big baskets of toys in there but we are still constantly having to tote things back and forth between upstairs and down. It really is not too bad though. We place things on the bottom steps and the person who goes up next is suppose to take a load with them. It's working for us and I am more patient about letting things be a bit more strewn about.

Overall, it is a great rental house (although the yard is not) so I am very thankful to be able to live here for now.

The boys are still in swimming classes. They took lessons twice a week during June and July and just switched back to once a week in August. They have had some great instructors at this place. One in particular was a favorite this summer. Mr. Michael stole their hearts at the first lesson in June when he pretended pirates with them. They had him all through June and most of July and then he left to get ready to go back to college. He was so fun and they really learned a lot with him.

They are now back with the teacher they had last fall, whom they love, so we are happy about that. Funny thing is that I ended up kind of having a preference for the men teachers (they have had two men and two women so far) because they seem to push them a bit more. Also, I think the boys tend to prefer them more because they would throw them in the air a bit when sending them off for a swim. I think they were a bit more rough-ish, in a good way, for the boys and they will likely miss that.

They are both swimming under water for about 5 to 7 feet. Ben requires less assistance then Nick currently, although this tends to switch back and forth. Nick was having an issue with trying to go too fast and ended up thrashing a lot but Mr. Michael was able to get him to slow down a bit and he is now improving fast. They are learning to dive (sitting and kneeling on the side) and they jump off the diving board and swim to the side.

We have them signed up through December and will likely have them go through the spring also, with plans to make sure they get plenty of pool time next summer. We'll see how it goes. I would not mind if one or both of the boys decided, at some time, they want this to be their sport and would like to do competition swimming. But, everyone has their own favorites so I will wait until they are older and see what they choose.

Their soccer lessons will be over in another couple of weeks and I'm not sure right now if we are going to sign them up for the fall. I have to talk to the dad about that. The boys are game, although I think Ben is a bit half hearted about it at times.

We are planning to start a little 'official' schooling soon. The boys have friends who are starting kindergarten this year so they want to start school too. We'll see how much they really want to do it once it becomes more routine. I think Ben will be into it but Nick might not. I am thankful that we have another year before they are officially required to start so we can play it by ear this year. We will be focusing on learning to read, write and spell this year. Once we get going and get comfortable with our new routine, we will likely throw in some math also.

I was unpacking all of the homeschool materials the other day and Nick saw the readers. I had put them up a while back, when they had lost interest and we were too busy with other things. I wanted them to be out of sight for a while so they would be fresh and new when we brought them back out. Nick was so happy to see them, he sat down and read 3 or 4 of them in a row to me and then read another one to the dad, while Ben was reading one to me. I was very impressed that they really had not lost anything we had learned, even though we had not done anything in months. If anything, Nick was reading better than before. They have amazing memories and such a natural desire to learn, it is awesome.

We have so many letters and books and learning materials around that they are always learning even when it is not my focus. They are both wanting to learn to read so I think they will be into the reading lessons we do. They are also always asking me how to spell words, as they write notes or lists or whatever. Ben knows how to write all of his capital letters and is working on lower case. Nick probably does not know how to write all of his capital letters yet but he knows many, if not most. Today he showed me that he had learned how to write a small h. He was so pleased with himself. It really is amazing how much they learn just because they are interested. I think if I keep giving them real life reasons to learn to spell and write, they will be into that also. Today I was telling them that once they learned to write and spell, they could write secret notes to daddy and sneak them into his lunch or briefcase and he would find them at work. They absolutely loved that idea and were wanting to do it right away.

We will continue to use The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading. We will be using All About Spelling, Zaner-Bloser Handwriting and, if we get to it, Right Start Math. We have some other fun things to add into the mix for literature related art projects and some phonics workbook pages, just in case someone wants to do them here and there. Ben did one today but Nick was busy doing something else.

Add to all of this, the building of the new house. We have a meeting scheduled tomorrow morning with the potential GC to go over the detailed estimates he has developed. This should be an interesting meeting. I am very hopeful that we will be ready to move ahead after this meeting but it would not surprise me if we have to revisit a few things first. My mom, sister and niece (and maybe my nephew) are coming tomorrow for a visit and will play with the boys while we meet with the GC.

Well, it's getting late and, as usual, this is getting very long so I had better sign off for now. Nick will most likely be up sometime between 6:00 and 6:30 in the morning, no matter what time he got to bed, so I need to get some rest:). Goodnight.

August 5, 2010

It has been a long time since I have posted any pictures and the boys have really grown. These are from this afternoon at soccer practice.

Below is Ben. Hasn't he grown? His hair is longer than ever, I think. Funny enough, I am really liking both of the boys with longer-ish hair right now, although I think the dad is planning to cut it this weekend.


Cousin Jana got the boys these cricket jerserys when she was in India recently for a mission trip sponsored by her university. It was good timing because they have worked out perfectly for soccer.
Below is Nick. He was not very interested in posing for me so I just took some action shots of him. This kid is an enigma. He is all action and movement or he is all sit and read/color/play with legos, etc. He is all happy-go-lucky or he is all angry/fit-throwing/yelling (reminds me of what they said about Tinkerbell in Peter Pan, which we listen to often when driving in the car). His behavior seems to indicate that he has struggled with adjusting to the upheaval of the move, although I think we may be leveling out now. He really needs a lot of consistency and routine or at least lots of notice when our schedule is going to change. Last minute changes, unless they are exciting and fun, are difficult for him. I am learning and we are working on it and I think we are making good progress.
He loves loves loves anything to do with sports.
Nick had stopped long enough for me to take a quick picture. As soon as Ben saw this, he stepped into the picture also. Just as I was snapping the picture, Nick started to put his arm around Ben. How sweet is that? They are the best of friends. They play together for long periods of time and then, at times, they also purposely irritate each other (and me) for long periods of time. But, they are definitely the best of buds.

This is a start; more to come....