My Guys

Just thought I'd post a few new pics that I took today. They are growing up too fast!!!

Buddies

Logan is REALLY appreciating Mason now that he is starting to do things like laugh, roll over, reach and grab things, eat baby food, etc. Logan constantly wants to hold him and tells Mason that he loves him over and over. Undoubtedly there will be times when they'll fight like cats and dogs, but for now we're enjoying the adoration that Logan shows to his little brother.

On a different note, I think I'm finally starting to get used to the short hair. There are days when I wish I could just put it up, but overall I think it suits me.

The house is REALLY coming along nicely (trying to get my brother to update the construction blog.....stay tuned......). We are looking at a completion date of November 7. Needless to say, we will be very busy over the next couple of weeks.

Lovin' our evenings and weekends!

Good times, good times. Although
we are busy right now with work,
planning for the new house, running
here and there, etc., we're finding
time to enjoy ourselves. We watch
a lot of football in the fall -- PSU and
the Steelers mostly, but tonight we
are heading to Qville to watch my
Solanco Mules take on Elizabethtown. Logan is very excited, even though he thinks he is going to watch the Steelers (same team colors). He is LOVING preschool, Mason is growing by the day and doing new things. Fun, fun, fun.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Life is good. We are seeing exciting progress with the house almost every day and are right on schedule for it to be completed on November 7. Mark and I have also fallen into a fairly good routine in the evenings with the boys. We do the "assembly line" bath/shower thing every night and we're fortunate that both Logan and Mason are great when it comes to going to bed. Both of them are fast asleep by 8:30 on most nights. That is such a good thing for me because I had been very concerned about having to still get up during the night to feed Mason and try to work all day. I am still managing to fit in some lesson planning and grading in the evenings and a workout session in the mornings. I'm so thankful that God is taking care of me :)
We are trying to sell our house. It has been a challenge due to the market not being very good right now as well as about six other houses in our area also being up for sale. We are praying that we get some activity soon. There was a showing here tonight and an Open House is scheduled for Sunday the 28th. Please keep your fingers crossed for us! I will try to post some new pictures when I get the opportunity.

Hard Life Lessons

This weekend provided for me and Mark the latest challenge in parenting - explaining death.
On Friday, Logan had his preschool orientation at Maple Grove Church. We took the opportunity to visit his Aunt Missy's grave while we were there. For those of you who don't know, Mark's sister died of cancer in 2006 at age 34. Logan had a hard time understanding why he couldn't physically see Miss. We explained that she is now an angel in heaven who watches over him but he still didn't quite understand.....what a tough one for kids to "get." This was also a pretty emotional visit for Mark and I, because we realized that Logan had, in fact, remembered Missy and her "pretty red hair" as he said.

This morning, we found Logan's pet fish, "Blue", dead. Logan said, "But I don't want Blue to die, I want him to swim." It was completely heartbreaking. We had a little service for Blue at the toilet and Logan did the honors of flushing. Now, however, he doesn't want to use the potty for fear of "peeing on Blue." Sigh........... No one ever said parenting is easy. On a happier note, Mark took Logan to PetSmart to pick out a new fish. This one he has affectionately named "Batfish."

Are you ready for some football....and a sleepover?!

We've had an eventful beginning to our Labor Day weekend. Our niece and nephew, Sidnie and Shane, spent the day with us on Friday and then stayed overnight Friday night. It was Logan's first official "sleepover" and they had SO much fun despite the rain that kept us inside. This weekend also brought with it a Steelers' game and PSU's home opener. Mommom and Poppop (Mom and Dad) were at the game, of course, so Logan enjoyed scanning the crowd on TV to look for them :) Now that I am back to school, I'm really cherishing the weekend time that we can spend togehter. It's awesome! On a different note, we were in Cochranville today, as well, to check out the progress on the house. It's amazing how quickly things are moving! We purchased furniture for our Great Room today at Wolf's and love it!

Back to School

Where did the summer go? One minute I'm HUGE, nine months pregnant and saying goodbye to my students on May 9. I blink, and it's August 24 and the eve of the first day of school. We've had a wonderful but very busy summer with the addition of Mason and getting our house off (or should I say "on") the ground. The boys continue to grow like weeds and our house is framed already! The shingles arrive on Tuesday! We have a very exciting year ahead of us - moving into our new place, the arrival of Adam and Kristi's little guy.....lots to look forward to. I will have to keep telling myself that when I'm in the midst of the chaos of what teaching is today. I often feel like if I could just go to school and teach, my job would be rather easy. Instead, teachers today are also playing the role of parent and social worker in a lot of cases. It's tough. I try to take it all in stride and tell myself that God will never give me more than I can handle - both professionally and personally. Every day is an adventure :)