The Wednesday News, July 21, 2010

Before I begin, I want to give a shout-out to the SITS Girls who are hosting the "31 Day Pro Blogger Challenge" in their BlogFrog Community!  We're on Day 3 and each day, they give us bloggers a task to do to improve our blogs.  Today, I'm working on promoting my blog with social networking.  So far, you can see my tweets, click on my "follow me" button for Twitter, follow on my Networked Blogs button and "like" me to connect with on Facebook!  I'm looking forward to learning SO much more!  Tune in daily for my improvements!

Mom

We ended the week of bliss camp last Friday.  The kids had a terrific time.  Dave and I got a lot done.  We even moved the "new" furniture up to our bedroom.  This was used furniture we purchased years ago but never had a chance to move upstairs.

So, the garage got seriously purged, the garden got done (I'm still on cloud 9 about that) and the bedroom got organized.  These tasks were HUGE and looming before last week.  Now, it's up to me to keep purging all of the boxed up stuff.  At least we were able to pack up stuff and put aside in order to make paths in these areas!

I was kind of back to the day-to-day Mommy stuff on the weekend (which was a downer after a week of accomplishing SO much backlog).  We had Harry and Malcolm's birthday party FINALLY on Sunday.  Since there hasn't been much to do as far as kids' activities this week, I've been doing the lazy thing again.  I definitely need to have a place to go and a time to go to it to get me moving.  The trick is, HOW do I get MOVING when I don't have to GO anywhere?  Any suggestions?

However, I have been working a lot on my blog which makes me happy!  Any feedback at all is welcomed in that department as well!  Leave a comment and a link and I'll visit you too!  I want to make my blog the best that it can be for myself as well as my readers!  I really have to enlist my husband's help in getting my old computer back so I can post photos.  My computer's illness has come at a bad time...during the Blogger Challenge and all, but hang in there!  Thanks for your patience!

Andersen

Andy didn't have a lot going on this past weekend or this week.  He continued to swim in our new pool and join a neighbor in his inground, fully-grown pool.  Both Monday and today, there have been some nasty storm warnings in the Northeast.  If there's any kind of warning, my kids will NOT go outside.  On Monday, there were funnel clouds spotted about 40 minutes from here so all of the kids were convinced we were all going to die.

They've been keeping busy today making an emergency-preparedness kit for the impending thunderstorms predicted for later today.  On Monday evening, I have NEVER seen such hysteria!  I was getting angry at them even though they were crying because they were scared.  They would not LISTEN to anything I said to reassure them.  See, my daughter can't turn off The Weather Channel or STOP commenting on wind speeds or cloud formations.

My husband finally took them downstairs to watch a movie on Lilly's portable DVD player.  I was told to stand "on watch" watching The Weather Channel upstairs.  Even though we did not have a tornado warning in our county, NO ONE would believe me.  AGH!  We ended up with just some rain, but since tornadoes are rare for us, it was a bit nervewracking, even for me.

So, today they're sure we're going to have a repeat of Monday.  Um, who's going to tell Andy we're leaving for OUTDOOR baseball in a 1/2 hour!?

Lillian

Lilly got a chance to spend some time with a friend who moved away to a neighboring town.  Even though they haven't gone to school together since 2nd grade (Lilly will be entering 5th grade this fall), they see each other several times a year.

The friend had her annual, birthday sleepover on Saturday night.  She had a great time.  What I like about sleepovers is that Lilly ALWAYS falls asleep early the following night.  It's great because she can catch up on the sleep she missed giggling and gossiping with her friends!

She misses camp, but is already counting down the days until she can go next summer!

Malcolm

Malcolm and Harry were given a choice mid-week last week.  We had had terrible luck finding friends who were available for their scheduled birthday party this past Sunday.  The party had already been postponed several times for the same reason..

We told them that they could postpone once again OR just go ahead and do the party with whomever can come.  They were tired of waiting so we went ahead and did the party.  Lilly and Andy also invited some of their friends along.  We had so much fun even though it was small.  It was at Chuck E. Cheese's, which was where they both wanted to go, and they got some terrific goodies to take home.  They both felt really special for the day and are still enjoying their party favors!

Harrison

Harry, like often occurs, had a very similar week and weekend to Malcolm.  He loved camp and enjoyed his birthday party completely.  He has also had fun swimming in our pool.  He was no exception to the "twyster hysteria" (hey, I just coined that term!).

Dad

After a working vacation last week, Dad is back to work at his job.  We both were sad to see it end even though it was a lot of work last week.  We loved our lunch dates everyday and just the sense of accomplishment that we both felt!

I am so proud of all of the work he did and it makes me smile when he's happy with all we've accomplished!