Tuesday, September 30, 2008
YEEEESSSSS!!!!!!
Quick update! We passed inspection this morning and wham bam we're getting plaster tomorrow! YES! That means that we'll be filling the pool tomorrow too! I thought it was pretty much out of the question, but we may still be swimming on Saturday! Stay tuned for more info...
Milestones INDEED!
Bubs is potty trained, and we celebrated with Happy Meals for ALL! I thought since all the boys have helped Bubs be successful at getting to the bathroom in a timely fashion, all of their efforts certainly warranted a reward as well. Last night for family night we ate happy meals and longingly awaited the opening of the happy meal toy (Batman legos- another victory for the boys too!) You see I do not allow them to open the toy in the restaurant, for one often sees discarded toys left behind and that allows for future toy crying emergencies. Besides, what’s the harm in delaying gratification a little while longer?
Cooper has also forgotten about his beloved binki! Well, we are not certain if he has forgotten about it, but alas, he is unable to use one. I decided to cut him off the same day I cut Bubs off from the diapers. All in all it was fine, however, Coop has been battling the sniffles so he has been a little grumpy. Some nights are better than others. He has yet to find one so for now, he appears content without one. I suspect as he gets around his cousin Luke, there will be some serious binki envy. What’s a cousin for if you can’t fight ‘em for his binki.
Gage, Grey, and Aiden LOVE school. I helped out in Greyson’s class last week and let’s just say that Mrs. Bailey put me to work! It was fun, and I continually laughed at the Kindergarteners’ comments. I think every Kindergarten teacher has to have the best material for characters and plots for children’s books! Perhaps my dream to be an author must follow a stint in the Kindergarten classroom.
And the final milestone will be news about the newest Bishop…
I had a little scare this morning when I went to the doctor. As she attempted to hear the baby’s heart rate, she could not find one. Since I am only 16 weeks and I had not yet heard the baby’s heart, this made me a little nervous. I said to myself, “and why is Mitch not here with me?” We went into the ultrasound room (which they never use unless there is a problem) and she said, “no worries!” The baby was moving a ton and kicking everywhere! The heart was strong. She concluded that she was unable to detect it because the baby was cruising all over. Relief coursed through my body. She also searched and searched for a good look at his or her bits and pieces- BUT NOPE. The baby was uncooperative. I told her that I did not want to know, and she said she couldn't hardly stand not knowing, and it was not even her little one. I told her to commiserate with all of my sisters and sisters-in-law. They want my head on a platter for making them wait. Sorry guys. We are still not finding out.
Cooper has also forgotten about his beloved binki! Well, we are not certain if he has forgotten about it, but alas, he is unable to use one. I decided to cut him off the same day I cut Bubs off from the diapers. All in all it was fine, however, Coop has been battling the sniffles so he has been a little grumpy. Some nights are better than others. He has yet to find one so for now, he appears content without one. I suspect as he gets around his cousin Luke, there will be some serious binki envy. What’s a cousin for if you can’t fight ‘em for his binki.
Gage, Grey, and Aiden LOVE school. I helped out in Greyson’s class last week and let’s just say that Mrs. Bailey put me to work! It was fun, and I continually laughed at the Kindergarteners’ comments. I think every Kindergarten teacher has to have the best material for characters and plots for children’s books! Perhaps my dream to be an author must follow a stint in the Kindergarten classroom.
And the final milestone will be news about the newest Bishop…
I had a little scare this morning when I went to the doctor. As she attempted to hear the baby’s heart rate, she could not find one. Since I am only 16 weeks and I had not yet heard the baby’s heart, this made me a little nervous. I said to myself, “and why is Mitch not here with me?” We went into the ultrasound room (which they never use unless there is a problem) and she said, “no worries!” The baby was moving a ton and kicking everywhere! The heart was strong. She concluded that she was unable to detect it because the baby was cruising all over. Relief coursed through my body. She also searched and searched for a good look at his or her bits and pieces- BUT NOPE. The baby was uncooperative. I told her that I did not want to know, and she said she couldn't hardly stand not knowing, and it was not even her little one. I told her to commiserate with all of my sisters and sisters-in-law. They want my head on a platter for making them wait. Sorry guys. We are still not finding out.
Monday, September 29, 2008
May I have your attention please...
Most all of you already know, but we thought we would make it official. Here goes. No, we're not swimming yet. Wait, that wasn't the announcement. Oh yes. I remember now. We're expecting a leprechaun in March! Perhaps this baby will join Aunt Shari and Uncle John on Mar. 17th, since that is the due date (at least right now - we'll know better after the ultrasound). And, no, we don't know what we're having and we will not be finding out.
We have started the arduous task of figuring out a boy name since we have had a girl name picked since before Aiden was born (we've pretty much worn out the baby name book, so I'm pushing for something like Six of Eight).
So yes, we know this will be six children in eight years. Yes, this means that the minivan is going away - hello gas guzzler. It will mean a lot of things, but most of all I think it will mean that our family is finally complete (I think. I hope.)
The Bishop Babies:
Aiden - aka "A-man" (Kim also called him "Pumpkin" when he was born)
Greyson - aka "Grey" or more often "Grey Grey", also "Greygums"
Gage - aka "Gager", "Gage the Rage" or "Gagezilla"
Jace - aka "The Bubs", "Bubby", "Jaceroo" or "Jellybean"
Cooper - aka "Scoops" or "Super Cooper"
We have started the arduous task of figuring out a boy name since we have had a girl name picked since before Aiden was born (we've pretty much worn out the baby name book, so I'm pushing for something like Six of Eight).
So yes, we know this will be six children in eight years. Yes, this means that the minivan is going away - hello gas guzzler. It will mean a lot of things, but most of all I think it will mean that our family is finally complete (I think. I hope.)
The Bishop Babies:
Aiden - aka "A-man" (Kim also called him "Pumpkin" when he was born)
Greyson - aka "Grey" or more often "Grey Grey", also "Greygums"
Gage - aka "Gager", "Gage the Rage" or "Gagezilla"
Jace - aka "The Bubs", "Bubby", "Jaceroo" or "Jellybean"
Cooper - aka "Scoops" or "Super Cooper"
Friday, September 19, 2008
Shall we move the party out to the patio?
Yes, we can actually say that now. We even got a little cover over the entrance to Mom's casita to keep the rain off the front doors. Of course it impedes her stream of sunshine, but she'll just have to sacrifice. Hopefully we'll have a fun patio and pool for you all to enjoy soon. Stay tuned.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
NO SWIMMING?!?
So we didn't pass our inspection on Monday. Come to find out, the gunite guys thought we were getting pavers up to the edge (don't get me started again on why these guys don't look at plans) so our steps were not tall enough. So the gunite guys were back this morning to add two inches of concrete to the steps so that the entry step won't be more than 12 inches down. Now mind you, with plaster, the step would have been 12 1/2 inches, so that 1/2 inch really would make it unsafe. Whatever. I know there has to be one of those "not dating until you're 16" or some other slippery slope parables in there, but right now it just means that I'm not swimming for a few more days. Oh I will be swimming, even if I have to pull something like this:
Or maybe it will be hot tubbing on Halloween, but I will be swimming sometime soon, dang it!
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Bishop Family Update - September 14, 2008
Greetings!
Because I have a nephew in Raleigh, North Carolina and a nephew in art school in Florida, I decided I needed to write a quick update so that they could get mail. I loved mail in college and when I was away from home!
Just a few things to note about our craziness…
1. The pool is nearly finished! We have our final inspection (the pre-plaster inspection for those who are knowledgeable about the process) tomorrow bright and early. It looks fantastic and I can’t wait to swim in ocean like temperatures! No, I think with the pool cover, we may get a few weeks of swimming in before the season is over. Mitch finished the front gate this weekend and it looks fabulous. The deck guys worked their tails off (and wore sweat shirts while they were doing it- I never figured that out!), the patio cover guys will install on Wednesday, and hopefully the gate gal can come soon after. Plaster will be here on Wednesday as well we hope. Landscaping we are holding a little because the guy we are having do it got a big bid with the city so it may be a few weeks before he can come. We are jazzed! Hope to have a party soon.
2. I taught preschool the last two weeks and we had a fabulous time! Gage did have meltdown one of the days because I did not select him as the weather wizard. Go figure? You think you know your child and, lo and behold, they pull a fast one on you. I felt a little bad since he missed making puppets, hot fudge sundaes, play time, and shaving cream handwriting. The tears and yelling began, and he cried for an hour in his room! Actually I know it sounds dreadful, but truly only dreadful for him. The remaining 7 of us had a terrific time. The kids are truly delightful. It will be a fun year! And then I began thinking about it…I will be teaching preschool for years and years more- funny how that works when you have so many children so close together. I do LOVE IT, though. It is joy- not dread. Jace fits so well with the group, and he does so well. I imagine he will be my earliest reader yet. I can’t help but think of how my sisters taught me how to read at just barely four as we played school each day.
3. Grey and Aiden are loving school as well! (It did not appear from item 2 that Gager loves school, but he truly does. That one day was merely a fluke.) Grey earned 14 hand stamps of a total of 14 hand stamps and can we say proud! Oh he was just beaming with accomplishment! He also comes home and reports to me details about Mrs. Bailey such as her son is also allergic to chocolate, she loves to eat healthy foods, she enjoys reading, and she wore a high school football jersey for spirit week. I hope she knows that she is the topic of nightly dinner. Aiden’s teacher, too, is a gem. She is tough, and Aiden is wiggling a little, but squirm is good. It stretches us. I am anxious to see his progress report. I hope he will be pleased. If it is not perfect, I am sure that he will seek to study more. He did get a perfect score on his spelling test so we got to enjoy ice cream. He has never had spelling tests before and he gets 25 words. He drones on about he will never remember which pattern to pick, but then he does by Thursday.
4. We had a Hat’s Off day for our spirit week where I joined the boys for “breakfast.” We enjoyed Krispy Kreme donuts and Sunny Delight on those crazy cafeteria tables where no adult should use unless no one is seated nearby. I feel like a contortionist every time I attempt to climb in them. I then sent off Aiden to a morning of assessment- nice, eh? Perhaps kids can live on sugar alone.
5. This weekend we enjoyed a PACKED Saturday. We delivered flyers to over 450 homes bright and early at 8:00 a.m. Jace loved getting people’s papers and placing them on the doorstep. Mitch put up the fence and put pavers and dirt under the wall. I went to a primary inservice and enjoyed breakfast with friends. We then loaded in the car for an afternoon at the Springs Preserve. Grandma joined us. It was a company appreciation day so we enjoyed crafts, snowcones, popcorn, and potential face painting, but the boys ALL said no thanks???!! We came home for just a little while and Jace and I ran to the grocery store. I got home put the food away, and we were off for a picnic dinner and a outdoor concert at the government amphitheatre to see Rockapella. It was a fun night. The boys loved it. Towards the end, they all fell asleep except for Gage and Cooper- I know-crazy. We had to wake the dead in Aiden and Grey and man, were they ticked at us. They made it though and Mitch and I fell asleep the instant our heads hit the pillows.
6. Cooper is still not walking- YES! He is my latest walker yet. He stands from sitting and balances and takes 5 to 6 steps, but hates the uneasy feeling so he drops to his knees and crawls. We just laugh at him. Backyard Grandma says that he will walk by Kindergarten. I am taking the binki away on Tuesday from Coop and starting potty training with the Bubs as well. Yes, suicide I know, but when life stops for toddlers, stop it for all I say. I think Jace will do well, but I cannot be certain. Cooper’s health has improved as well. We think that he was allergic to the Zyrtec. Ironic, eh? The child is allergic to allergy medicine. He still eats his daily Activa yogurt, and he is certainly chunking up again. He had lost about 4 pounds and he has gained that all back and more I suspect.
7. And finally, I am taking a class every Tuesday night from 4:00 to 8:30. I need to keep up my licensure and I heard this class is really good so… I liked it last week, and I made a few friends. Hopefully it will not have much homework because I am not certain I can keep up with Aiden’s and my own. Mitch may begin to go crazy every Tuesday night, but he says he knows I have to do it. I then think of women who do no school before they have children and think- there is no way- no absolute way I could do it full time with a family!
Well that’s us in an update form. I hope to keep these coming a little more regularly. I have goals so I hope I can keep ‘em. Love to you all!
Kim
Because I have a nephew in Raleigh, North Carolina and a nephew in art school in Florida, I decided I needed to write a quick update so that they could get mail. I loved mail in college and when I was away from home!
Just a few things to note about our craziness…
1. The pool is nearly finished! We have our final inspection (the pre-plaster inspection for those who are knowledgeable about the process) tomorrow bright and early. It looks fantastic and I can’t wait to swim in ocean like temperatures! No, I think with the pool cover, we may get a few weeks of swimming in before the season is over. Mitch finished the front gate this weekend and it looks fabulous. The deck guys worked their tails off (and wore sweat shirts while they were doing it- I never figured that out!), the patio cover guys will install on Wednesday, and hopefully the gate gal can come soon after. Plaster will be here on Wednesday as well we hope. Landscaping we are holding a little because the guy we are having do it got a big bid with the city so it may be a few weeks before he can come. We are jazzed! Hope to have a party soon.
2. I taught preschool the last two weeks and we had a fabulous time! Gage did have meltdown one of the days because I did not select him as the weather wizard. Go figure? You think you know your child and, lo and behold, they pull a fast one on you. I felt a little bad since he missed making puppets, hot fudge sundaes, play time, and shaving cream handwriting. The tears and yelling began, and he cried for an hour in his room! Actually I know it sounds dreadful, but truly only dreadful for him. The remaining 7 of us had a terrific time. The kids are truly delightful. It will be a fun year! And then I began thinking about it…I will be teaching preschool for years and years more- funny how that works when you have so many children so close together. I do LOVE IT, though. It is joy- not dread. Jace fits so well with the group, and he does so well. I imagine he will be my earliest reader yet. I can’t help but think of how my sisters taught me how to read at just barely four as we played school each day.
3. Grey and Aiden are loving school as well! (It did not appear from item 2 that Gager loves school, but he truly does. That one day was merely a fluke.) Grey earned 14 hand stamps of a total of 14 hand stamps and can we say proud! Oh he was just beaming with accomplishment! He also comes home and reports to me details about Mrs. Bailey such as her son is also allergic to chocolate, she loves to eat healthy foods, she enjoys reading, and she wore a high school football jersey for spirit week. I hope she knows that she is the topic of nightly dinner. Aiden’s teacher, too, is a gem. She is tough, and Aiden is wiggling a little, but squirm is good. It stretches us. I am anxious to see his progress report. I hope he will be pleased. If it is not perfect, I am sure that he will seek to study more. He did get a perfect score on his spelling test so we got to enjoy ice cream. He has never had spelling tests before and he gets 25 words. He drones on about he will never remember which pattern to pick, but then he does by Thursday.
4. We had a Hat’s Off day for our spirit week where I joined the boys for “breakfast.” We enjoyed Krispy Kreme donuts and Sunny Delight on those crazy cafeteria tables where no adult should use unless no one is seated nearby. I feel like a contortionist every time I attempt to climb in them. I then sent off Aiden to a morning of assessment- nice, eh? Perhaps kids can live on sugar alone.
5. This weekend we enjoyed a PACKED Saturday. We delivered flyers to over 450 homes bright and early at 8:00 a.m. Jace loved getting people’s papers and placing them on the doorstep. Mitch put up the fence and put pavers and dirt under the wall. I went to a primary inservice and enjoyed breakfast with friends. We then loaded in the car for an afternoon at the Springs Preserve. Grandma joined us. It was a company appreciation day so we enjoyed crafts, snowcones, popcorn, and potential face painting, but the boys ALL said no thanks???!! We came home for just a little while and Jace and I ran to the grocery store. I got home put the food away, and we were off for a picnic dinner and a outdoor concert at the government amphitheatre to see Rockapella. It was a fun night. The boys loved it. Towards the end, they all fell asleep except for Gage and Cooper- I know-crazy. We had to wake the dead in Aiden and Grey and man, were they ticked at us. They made it though and Mitch and I fell asleep the instant our heads hit the pillows.
6. Cooper is still not walking- YES! He is my latest walker yet. He stands from sitting and balances and takes 5 to 6 steps, but hates the uneasy feeling so he drops to his knees and crawls. We just laugh at him. Backyard Grandma says that he will walk by Kindergarten. I am taking the binki away on Tuesday from Coop and starting potty training with the Bubs as well. Yes, suicide I know, but when life stops for toddlers, stop it for all I say. I think Jace will do well, but I cannot be certain. Cooper’s health has improved as well. We think that he was allergic to the Zyrtec. Ironic, eh? The child is allergic to allergy medicine. He still eats his daily Activa yogurt, and he is certainly chunking up again. He had lost about 4 pounds and he has gained that all back and more I suspect.
7. And finally, I am taking a class every Tuesday night from 4:00 to 8:30. I need to keep up my licensure and I heard this class is really good so… I liked it last week, and I made a few friends. Hopefully it will not have much homework because I am not certain I can keep up with Aiden’s and my own. Mitch may begin to go crazy every Tuesday night, but he says he knows I have to do it. I then think of women who do no school before they have children and think- there is no way- no absolute way I could do it full time with a family!
Well that’s us in an update form. I hope to keep these coming a little more regularly. I have goals so I hope I can keep ‘em. Love to you all!
Kim
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Pre-plaster, here we come!
I never thought words like "pre-plaster" would get me so excited, but dadgum...I'm all flittery inside. Monday, we have one of our last inspections and just a couple of things more and then...AGUA! The deck is done thanks to the great work of Dave and Neal Williams and their guys (ArtCon). Also, we got the gate put up today thanks to great help from our friend, Mike Mumford, who basically made us a custom gate by welding two gates together, and Sondra from TIWG. If you ever need wrought iron work, give TIWG a call. They have been awesome so far. So here's some more photos of the deck and gate. Can you almost taste the ozonated H2O? I can and it tastes AWESOME!
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Hit the deck
So here's the latest on the pool. The deck is just about done. We really only are lacking the final work on the patio cover, the fence, plaster and some final plumbing and electrical. That's it. We're also doing a little bit of landscaping work, but the landscape will gradually be installed over the next months (or years, knowing me.) The boys can not wait to get outside and play and swim. We're all ready to have a little retreat and not the big dirt pile out back.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
And the beat goes on
For the most part, we have something going on everyday with the pool. It is crazy just how these projects seem to consume us. Here's the latest photos. We're expecting in probably about 2 weeks we can put the water in. There's still so much to do beyond that (landscaping, barbecue, etc.) that it will be nice, but hardly seem like we're done. This week, deck, patio cover and fence!
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