Updates on the garage-building experience

I don't think I've posted any more updates on the great big garage project since the beginning of the summer. Gordon's been slowly working on getting all his ducks in a row and getting everything set for the steel building he's ordered. This last week or so has suddenly become a storm of activity, however, when it comes to garage building. I've been good about taking a pic here and there, while still staying out of the way of Gordon and his buddies that are helping him.

Here are a few pics:


Gordon digging out holes for the concrete footings

One of the forms they built to poor the base of the footings in

A random shot of the site after they'd finished preparing the footing bases

The concrete truck pouring the footing bases

Will is out there as often as he can be, shadowing Daddy.....he's really great about not getting in the way of the guys, though!

With the pieces for the garage being delivered sometime between 9/10 & 9/22, we could possibly have everything all completed before the end of next month!

Today was Dianna's first chance to ride the bus and have a full (half) day of Kindergarten. Everyone was ready to go down to the bus stop together at least 20 minutes too soon. When it was time to go, I told the girls it was time to get their backpacks. Will even grabbed his backpack too! Here's a pic of our Little Man, the one who so desperately wants to be a Big Kid.


The girls were thrilled that Will was as excited as he was!



It appeared that Dianna was going to get on the bus quite fearlessly. She almost forgot to turn and give me a hug before stepping forward to get on!

She *must* have been at least a little nervous, though....she didn't hear Debbie (the bus driver) suggest that she turn and smile so I could take a picture the first time. Debbie had to repeat herself. Poor Dianna was a little bewildered, I think.

Dianna got off the bus this afternoon just as excited as she'd been on the way down to the bus this morning. She had a great time at school. She got to have gym today. They 'hopped and skipped and stopped and froze when the teacher said stop or freeze'. She also said that gym made her 'sweaty and energied'!

I spoke too soon

Yeah, when I posted last night, I was all excited for Dianna. Happy she was being such a big girl and taking this new step towards growing up.

BOY, WAS I WRONG!!

I was still pretty excited for her this morning as she was chattering away about going to school and riding the big bus and all that. I was doing great right up until she actually climbed those stairs. I swear, almost instantly, my heart leaped into my throat. It's probably a good thing, too, because I was ready to shout out to her that she needed to get back down and stay home with Momma. Can you imagine the scarring that scene would have caused her?? She'd have been in therapy for years over that little episode.

Anyway, now I'm sitting here. Watching Will and my nephew, Jerod, play in the sand. Sipping my coffee. Trying to get the butterflies in my stomach to settle down enough for me to eat my breakfast.

I took a few more pics today that I'll be uploading probably later on to share. Please be sure to check back!

First Day of School!!

Today was the first day of school!! Grace has had her outfit picked out for seems like forever. Dianna planned on how she was going to wear her hair today about four days ago. I, myself, could have been any more excited myself. The girls excitement must have been contagious!! It's amazing how my reactions/emotions are so completely different than they were two years ago when it was my first baby entering Kindergarten.

Anyway, both girls were up at the crack of dawn. They were both dressed before I even had to tell them to. Actually, Grace was up and dressed before I even got downstairs myself!

Here is a pic of the two of them. You can just see by the way Grace's arm is slung around Di's shoulders that she's looking out for her little sis. Just melts my heart!

I've always taken a picture of Grace standing on our front porch on the first day of school. This first picture of the two girls will always be special to me.

Here in Lebanon, the Kindergarteners don't actually start on the first day of school. They have a one hour orientation and then a bus tour. At the orientation, Dianna got to see her new classroom, play with some of the things in there, and listen to her teacher read a story. The really cool thing about all of this is that Di's new teacher is the same Kindergarten teacher that Grace had two years ago!

As part of the bus tour, the bus driver let each child sit in the drivers seat and pretend to drive the big bus. Dianna LOVED it!!

This final picture was a last-second thought. I was literally ready to turn out the driveway at the school when I decided to pull over and get Dianna back out to take the picture. She was looking at me like I was a mad woman!

Summer's almost over!

This is the last week of August and I'm sitting here, just scratching my head. I wonder what all we've done for these last couple of months??

The girls are getting geared up for their first days of school. Grace was already looking through her new clothes to pick out the perfect outfit for her return to Elementary School.

Now that we're returning to the scheduled life that school brings, I hope to get Will on a better nap schedule. This summer has wrecked havoc with the one we'd established during the spring months. I figure that I can plan on giving Will his lunch around 11:15 -- 11:30ish and then it'll be naptime directly after. Of course, nothing is set in stone. It may all need to change once I figure out Di's school bus schedule. According to the letter I got from the school, she should be dropped off at 12:02pm. When Grace was in Kindergarten, she was home by 11:45 at the latest. So, we'll see...we may have to roll with the punches.

Gordon's garage building project is starting to make serious progress. He's got the building permit from the town. He's ordered the steel building from a building manufacturer. We're scheduled to take delivery sometime between 9/10 - 9/22. Gordon & his buddy dug out the holes and built frames to pour the footings in. Once he gets the go-ahead from the town inspector, Gordon will be able to pour those footings and backfill and then will be able to prepare the site for the next step.

I took a couple of pics from when they were digging for the footings. I'll try to get those uploaded and posted here in the next couple of days!

Winding down the summer

August is more than half-way through. I can count on my two hands how many days until school officially starts again. (Which loosely translates to me counting down till I can try to find my sanity again!) Since you last heard from us here at the Rodgers' household, we've attended the Lebanon Lion's Club annual Lebanon Agricultural Fair, celebrated Grammie's birthday, enjoyed a campfire under the stars at our friend's house, and relaxed at our own annual BBQ here at the homestead.

And I have NO pictures from any of that to share! Sorry!

The girls will start school next week on the 29th. After Grace gets on the bus for the first time as a second grader, my Dad will be coming over to keep an eye on Jerod & William. That way, Dianna & I can head over to the elementary school for her First Day Orientation. We'll get to meet with her Kindergarten teacher (who happens to be Grace's old Kindergarten teacher!), check out her classroom, get a little tour of the playgroud area, and get a tour of a school bus. Dianna's first full day of Kindergarten won't actually be until Thursday, the 30th.

I promise to have my camera in hand to record all of these momentous firsts to save for all of posterity.

Both girls are super excited about school starting! Mommy couldn't be any happier, either! ;)

Swim lessons

Ever since Grace had that traumatic experience at the town's swim lessons two years ago, we've been taking it slow. I wanted to allow the girls to regain their confidence in water and know that they wouldn't have to do anything they weren't comfortable with.

Fast forward to last week when I was on the phone with the mom of one of Grace's school friends. She had called to arrange a playdate with Grace. While we were chatting, she mentioned that they had an inground pool and that she had a certified lifeguard who came over to their pool twice a week to do private swim lessons for her two kids. I was commenting on how awesome that must be and explained that I'd like to get the girls in swim lessons again and then explained what happened two years ago. She offered to have the girls come over and do lessons with her two kids.

So, last night I brought the girls over for their first swim lesson. They did AWESOME! The instructor even got the girls to put their faces in the water while swimming, a feat which I would have never been able to convince them of!! The problem is that the instructor charges $12.50 per kid, per session. That translates to $50/week for both girls. I really don't think we can afford that. As great as this instructor is, I can't see spending $200+/mo on lessons.

The good thing is that I'm now definitely certain the girls are ready for formal lessons and can now enroll them in a swim school confident in the knowledge that the tuition monies won't be wasted. Now I just need to find a swim school that has an indoor pool for lessons year round!

Busy, busy, busy.....

My sisters and I threw a surprise 45th Anniversary party for our parents on the 28th. Everyone's been asking for pics, but I have yet to upload them all into my photobucket account. Here's one (of the 250+) that was taken with my camera. (My twin and one of my nieces were grabbing my camera left & right and taking pics the entire night)

For those of you who didn't know, and couldn't guess, those are my mom & dad.

Grace lost her fourth tooth today. Now she's got a bit of a gap on the top front! Still as cute as ever.....

July was the busiest month I've had in a long long long time. I'm hoping for a much more calm, relaxing August! I promise to be back with more pics of the Anniversary party soon.