Catching Up, again

There has been a lot going on around the Calvert home:

• Emma started Kindergarten the end of August
• I went to CA for a scrap book retreat with Julie
• Emma acquired a black eye while at school (and I was in CA)
• The air conditioner downstairs quit working (yes, we have two a/c units - one upstairs and one down)
• Emma also started taking tennis lessons and doing really well.
• I started a Beth Moore Bible Study on Wednesdays and loving it
  

So, I'm taking the lazy way out on some of this :) to hear about my get away with Jules, go here she did a much better job recapping the weekend than I could have done.

Emma was out on the playground when she and another child ran into each other. I'm not sure if I completely understand the whole story as Emma says her face hit the cement, but in this picture you can see on her right eye it looks a little black and blue. Her teacher, Mrs. Baker, said she was such a trooper and didn't even complain.


As you can also see in this picture, she's painting pottery. Yes, that is a monster truck she is working on. And by the way, it turned out awesome! While I was in CA Emma and daddy went pottery painting, which is something she enjoys.

The a/c was fixed in a matter of hours. Thankfully we did not need a new unit but some gadgets and such needed to be replaced, tightened or something like that. All I care about is that it works. However, I am starting to see signs of fall. The weather is cooling off and today we saw some trees starting to turn colors. Aaahhhh.

Emma is also enjoying her tennis. She just finished two lessons, with her coach, Matt, and seems to be really enjoying it. Emma has even been practicing at home with daddy. I'm hoping she found her "thing." It would be so fun to have her play and then her and I, and daddy, can go to the courts and play.

Today is a school day, but Emma's got this cold and last night she was up 3 times blowing her nose and then could not go back to sleep until 3 a.m. So, being the loving, caring, mommy that I am, I decided to keep her home (for the second day in a row). However, she woke up at 7:30 totally mad at me because she was waiting for the alarm to go off so she could go to school. Sigh. Well, she did end up staying home but decided she wanted to make her snack, so we baked brownies.

She's going to school tomorrow.

The Last Month...

has been filled with lots of activity and a lot of fun.

In July we flew to California for vacation and had such a great time with our family. One of the things we did was have an "Open House." We set this up for our friends to be able to come and hang with us for a little bit. We have found that we just can't get around to seeing everyone when we come and the times we have, we leave feeling like we drove all over Southern California. So, my sister was gracious enough to open up her home for our Open House. It was so much fun seeing friends we had not seen in awhile and appreciated their efforts in coming from places as far as Murrieta and Corona! Thank you to all who made it over, it was wonderful to see you!

Some other highlights of our trip:

• Beach at Corona Del Mar
• Long Beach Aquarium
• Old Spaghetti Factory
• Walking down at Balboa
• Seeing The Hammerman Family and their new baby

(Pictures are not in order. I was also having trouble posting, but you get the idea).

Our 4th of July...

Our friends invited us out to their parents (Machelle's) house on lake Conroe to go boating. This was going to be Emma's first time in a boat and she was EXCITED, which is an understatement.

We spent about 3 hours on the lake, inter-tubing and enjoying the water. It was a beautiful day. We then docked the boat and ate some BBQ lunch and afterward we all went back to the White's home where we spent the rest of the day. I took a nap, Emma and Hannah played all afternoon and then we had dinner together and went on home.

The White's are such generous people and have been so kind to us. They feel like family. Thank you Machelle for inviting us to go with you and your parents on a fun outing!

Emma's trying to decide if she likes the inter-tube

We finally got her in the water and she eventually enjoyed it

Robert and Hannah
Can you see Emma trying to hide the smile?

Hannah and Machelle

Barry and I were the first to go

Me and Mrs. White

Trip to NASA

On Wednesday, July 1st Emma and I took a trip with Robert, Machelle and Hannah to the Space Center. We have been before, but Emma really enjoys it there. Barry was suppose to be on a trip, but ended up sick so was home in bed, instead.

Quite a bit has happened in the last few weeks...

On June 8th I had the first, of two, procedures to rid myself of varicose veins. Over the last several years I have had increasing pain in my left leg due to these things. It had gotten so bad that when my feet hit the floor in the morning my leg was already hurting. Standing for a long period of time was painful, but I would just push through it. Until finally I went to the doctor to talk about my options. Endovenous Ablation was what was recommended. My doctor said it would only continue to get worse if I did not do anything. So, on that Monday afternoon Barry drove me to the doctor where they numbed my leg and threaded a tiny catheter through my vein from the ankle all the way to the groin. (I know, can you feel the pain too). At that point they used a laser to kill off the vein and start to close it up. The whole procedure took only 45 minutes and was relatively pain free. I had to wear a compression stocking from my toes to my waist for a week, taking it off only at night and to shower.

Then a week later, I had a second vein, on the same leg treated, only this was on the back of the calf muscle, so it didn't seem so invasive. This procedure seemed to be the most painful in recovering as the vein was pulling away from the tissues and I had more inflammation. The nurses described veins like children, "No two are a like." However, now three weeks later, my leg is in no pain and looks like a normal leg, with no bulging veins. Ah, sweet relief.

Barry was going to be gone most of the week, during my second procedure, so my mom flew to Texas to help me and Emma. Now, my mom has not stepped on an airplane in 21 years so this was a HUGE deal. We were so excited to have her come and be with us and proud of her for taking that step to fly. Thanks mom for making that sacrifice!

Between all of this-

• Emma had swim lessons twice a week
• Has had summer school the other two days, during the week
  
• Hung out with her friends
• Been swimming at the pool a lot
• Barry's been traveling
• Staying cool from the 100 degree plus heat
  

In the next few days I'll post pictures of our trip to NASA and our 4th of July adventure.

Stay tuned....

We are thankful the electricity was out for only an hour this morning. Apparently 26 homes were effected because a fuse blew. It's been like a 100 degrees people!

We made our decision and we are not taking home the dog. Barry and I were a little surprised by Emma's reaction. She didn't really want to get done and play with the dog, but I almost could not blame her; the dog kept going for her toes...well, make that EVERYONE'S. It became a little bothersome. I know we could change that behavior, but we just felt this was not the one for us.

She was a good dog in other ways. She never barked, knew where the door was to go out and potty, was on the small side. You did need to be aware of which side you were approaching her on because of her only having one eye, but other than that she was a good doggy.

I think I might have my heart set on a puppy; one that Emma can "grow" with and we can train from the beginning (people, I know puppies bite and nip too...but it's one thing when your trying to break that behavior and then stick your fingers in their mouth to nip on). Anyways, we have put it on hold. The breeder I found does have a male and female ready to go so we're debating if now is good or not. They will have some other pups ready in a month or so.

So, we'll see what happens.

Dog Possible

Post by Barry:
Today we went to visit a possible addition to the family. Different gene pool though. This one is four legged, monocular but still cute like a little dog should be. She was rescued from a bad situation and is being fostered by a sweet family with 2 other little dogs.

We are praying to make a decision about this little dog. Good thing is that she would free to acquire meaning we would not have to buy her from a rescue or breeder. We would just need to take her to a vet and get her spaded. We have friends that would be willing to care for the little dog when we go on vacation.

Now the tough part... what would a good name be for a one eyed little girl dog? Emma likes Winkie. Debbie is not a big fan. Debbie likes Lola, Lucy or Gigi. Emma is not a big fan. Barry suggested Winkie with the nick name of Winkers but he does not really care.

So now the decision making process. I am sure you will all know if we get a new little dog.

The End of a Season...

...and the beginning of a new one.

Friday was Emma's last day of preschool. No longer will she be going back to preschool. Kindergarten is her next step. Hassler Elementary will be her school. I didn't think I would feel sad, but I did. She's growing up. More and more she keeps saying, "I'm a big girl now." I loved her teachers, Mrs. Baxter and Mrs. Kersh. They had a great class of kids and I got to know some of the moms pretty well. More than 1/2 the class will be heading to Hassler too, so I'm hoping Emma will get at least one friend from preschool in her class.

The last day was Splash Day, which included a pizza party. This school has a real pool, age appropriate, for the kids to play in and they had a great time. I went to help and I almost jumped in, it was hot standing out there.

So, we move on to bigger and better things. In fact, tonight was the first time Emma went over to her friends house without having one of us go with her. Kate and Jenna live across the street and they are 5 also. They like to call over the fence and ask Emma to come play. So, I walked her over and their mom said, "Go get a few things done." I was so excited that Emma had "graduated" to not needing us there. We feel totally comfortable with Theresa and Haas so it was a great moment. After I got Emma home and we were getting ready for bed, she said:

"I had a fantastic time"!

What did you do today?...

Here's what we did today - (sorry for the sideways picture, I did rotate it but it did not want to uploaded properly).

My Daily/Weekly Chore chart from Motivated Moms. You can Google it for the website, I'm to tired to post the link; it's 12:20 a.m. do you think I should be in bed right now? I started this chore chart in March and after some trial and error, making it work for me and my schedule, it's now going pretty well. I just cross things out that either don't apply to me or I do it on a different day then what they have. It has really helped me keep the house clean and still feel like I can "play" during the week and have some "me" time.

I keep my list on a pretty clip board I purchased from Etsey. It goes with the kitchen and I just love it.

Front and back view

After the chores were done, I did this:

I had spray painted this (or I should say, Barry did), a few weeks ago, but I felt like it needed a little color. So, today that's what I did. After that was done, I did this:

Then we did this:

And yes, I let Emma paint my toes, literally.

Oh, and we ran to Target, picked up Subway for lunch, and I made a few phone calls, talked to my sis, answered some emails, and gave Emma a shower. What did you do today?

Hopscotch Anyone?

We've been doing a lot of this lately:

Emma learned how to play Hopscotch the other day and now she's playing it all the time. She's even gotten better as the days have gone on. She's very excited with herself.

Thankful Thursday...

I am thankful for my Pam. She does hair and every time I leave her salon I feel happy. She just makes me happy. Her daughter, Ashlee, and I play tennis together and Pam's granddaughters attend the same preschool and soon elementary school, so we have some things in common.

I saw Pam yesterday to have my hair done. And wouldn't know, something "happy" happened. As you may have read, we're thinking about getting a dog. So, Pam's next customer comes in and I find out she's the head of the Pets in our subdivision. She knows of a breeder and some good places to get a rescue dog. She even mentioned that she would be willing to go with me to help find the "right" one. On top of that, she would help take care of the dog when we're on vacation. How nice is that? She was very lovely to talk with and again I felt happy.

Then, I give her my card and she flips it over and see's that I sell Cookie Lee Jewelry. She says she would like me to do a show for her. Wow.

So, you see, that's one reason why I need to keep my hair short; I love going to Pam's! She just makes people feel happy.

Thankful Thursday...

* no rain

* a washing machine and dryer so I don't have to do the work by hand

I know it's short, but that's all I've got right now.

Maybe Lola?

Emma (and I) want one of these...

How can you not. We're working on Barry and I think he's breaking a little. Our friends have a Shih Tzu, named Maggie, and Emma has done tremendously well with her. So, this is all I hear about these days. "When can I get my dog?"

Catch of the Day...

Saturday we went with our friends, the Sweitzer's to Lake Conroe to go fishing. Within 10 minutes Emma had caught her very first fish. She was pretty excited, but didn't want to get to close to it.