A little of this and a little of that...

It's hard to believe that in a little over a month we'll be back to start another school year.  I still can't believe this will be my 9th year of teaching.  That means I've taught over 1,000 students so far in my career.  Where did all that time go?

It's hard to get all excited for the start of the school year when I'm still technically there.  I have 7 days left of the summer school program I've been running and I can't wait!  This was not what it seemed, but I gave it a whirl.  With it being the first time offering foreign language online, there were bound to be kinks.  Unfortunately, kinks = more work for me.  At least it still gives me plenty of time for family outings.

Aside from summer school in the mornings, we are knee deep in summer projects.  The to-do list continues to get longer with no end in sight!  But, that's the beauty of the summer off.  All those things we think about and compartmentalize during the school year comes to fruition in the summer.  Here's what's new in our world...

1.  I joined Weight Watchers yesterday.  After Evan was born, I dropped the first 15 pounds immediately, but the rest of the baby weight stayed on.  Since then, it's fluctuated both up and down by 5 pounds.  I haven't been happy with the way I look or feel since he was born, but I finally reached my limit this past weekend and decided to join WW.  A few of my friends have had great success with the program and I'm confident that with my new found motivation and the support of the meetings, I can lose 30 pounds!  3 hours of meal planning and making a grocery list last night and a $265 trip to Kroger, I'm ready to change my eating habits and portions.  So, here's a "before" shot that I can hopefully compare to a much thinner "after" in a few months!

2.  Birthday party planning has commenced.  We decided it would be easier to have a joint party for the boys this year, so it was easy to decide on a Bubble Guppies theme since they're both border-line obsessed.  The invitations have been ordered, some of the decor has been purchased (Walmart has an incredible selection!), and the favors are coming together.  I'm busy making centerpieces, working on an idea for the cake, and thinking of the menu.  The invites will have to go out a month in advance, which is only a few weeks away!

This is the invite we personalized off of Etsy

3.  We updated our mailbox and our front flower beds.  The majority of the flower beds were full of bulbs that only bloomed in the spring and left the rest of the year looking bare and plain.  So, we pulled out the bulbs and planted a ton of new things like shasta daisies, stonecrop, tickseed, and cone flowers.  We put in a shepherd's hook with a nice hanging basket and bought some of those garden sticks made out of metal that look like a bumble bee and dragon fly from Art in the Park to add some color.  Pictures to follow in a future blog.  The mailbox is my favorite...with a vinyl sticker with our address and monogram!  I love it!

4.  The half bathroom is about to get a makeover!  The tiles on the floor are my favorite part of this bathroom.  We've kept the walls an off white color since we moved in and just used black as the accent color to match the tiles.  But, I'm ready for a change.  The walls are going to be painted a pale gray and I bought a yellow rug and yellow hand towel from Target this past Friday during their Black Friday in July sale online (20% off and free shipping on home items!).

We're considering painting the trim white since it's currently a very dark brown.  We'll do the walls first and see, but I'm leaning towards the white trim.  Now...what to put on the walls?

5.  I've started tutoring the daycare director's son just this past weekend to get him ready for Spanish 2 in the fall and she's passed my name on to two other parents.  I'm excited for the possibility of tutoring 3 students a week for some extra cash.  Disney fund?  New camera lens?  The possibilities are endless...

6.  Plans are being made for the fall with the boys getting enrolled in some sports/activities and to figure out which room Sean belongs in at school.  The debate was another year of preschool for a total of 2 years of preschool or move him up to Pre-K and do 2 years of Pre-K.  The director and I are both leaning towards moving him up to see how he does with the Pre-K curriculum to help us decide next time this year whether he's ready to start kindergarten (with a waiver signed allowing him to go a month before his 5th birthday) or to hold him back another year.  Lots of important decisions and it seems crazy we're already thinking about this!

Sean will be signed up to try indoor soccer again (he wasn't a fan last winter), but this time he'll take it with his cousin, Adelaide.  We will sign Evan up for the parent involvement class, as well.  I know Evan will love it!  I'm hoping playing outside with Sean this summer with the cheap net we bought on sale at Target has paid off and he enjoys the class this time around.  Both boys will start back up with swim lessons.  Once Sean turns 4, he'll be able to take a class without us in the water and I definitely think he's ready.  He'll wear the kickboard backpack that forces him to tread water for 30 seconds at a time!

That's all for now.  I've been going to bed later than I should be nightly because I've been busy planning all these things once the kids go to bed.  It's hard to shut things down at night when there's this many exciting things going on!  I love feeling productive!