New Furniture

So the majority of our new furniture arrived yesterday afternoon. Thank goodness, since Terry's parents had come up Monday afternoon to help him move the couch and two chairs to our basement. We have had no furniture in the living room for two days, so if we used the DVR to tape a show, we ended up sitting on the floor to watch it. Needless to say, we are glad the furniture is here. We decided to get new furniture when one day Madison says to me, "Mom, can I show you something?" The look on her face told me she thought she was in trouble. I looked at the spot on the couch she was pointing to and noticed the fabric had split and there were small tears in both seat cushions. Terry had the previous couch and chair since before we were married and it is off-white in color, so it was time for a change and the fabric was just wearing thin. We put that furniture in the basement and I hope to get slip covers for them, so the holes don't get worse!A new end table with lots of space on top for pictures and lots of storage that I can hide a lot of junk in!
A new couch!

The other new end table!

Our new chair and ottoman - notice that Chester, our cat, is lying in the chair. He was on the chair or couch last night since they arrived. I think he even spent the night in this chair instead of being in bed at my feet. Who knew it would be so easy to get him to sleep somewhere else??

Now the only thing that we are waiting for is our new recliner. It was ordered to be of the same fabric as the couch, chair, and ottoman. Since it was a special order it will take a little longer to arrive and should be here around July 20th!

Yard Tour

So it was a "tradition" with my mom to tour the yard to look at all of the plants and flowers she had growing around the house. Now she takes us on tours of her yard in town where she lives with Rich also. This is a brief tour of my yard - the flowers were looking great the other day and I couldn't resist taking a few shots to share! This is one clematis I have growing on the corner of the house by our garage. It was here from the people who owned the house before us and it is so heavy it doesn't really want to climb the trellis very well. My mom says she is going to steal it one of these days.
Another clematis - I got this one from my mom and had it at our house in Waterloo. When we moved to Denver, I moved it with us. It is behind our shed.

This is the final clematis I have. The people who lived here before us had these growing behind the deck. They always were climbing the deck and getting into everything, so I moved them. There are actually two different clematis growing together here, but only one was blooming.

Not just flowers in the yard when I was doing my tour the other night. Laci popped up and wanted her picture taken. There are some nice lilies behind her at least.

A nice rose bush. It seems to be more of the miniature variety, but it sure helped to trim it back. At least the Japanese beetles aren't getting into them yet.

My other rose bush. It is a bigger bush and had lots of flowers and buds on it the other night.

Fallin' Behind

So since summer has began, it has flown by already. The girls and I are staying busy to say the least. Last week, Terry was on shutdown for work also, so we enjoyed spending time with Daddy (although we spent many days home because we couldn't go many places due to having to detour around the flooding). Iowa was and still is a mess and some places are still getting flooded. It will be interesting to see what Iowa City and Coralville look like on Friday, since we have to take Madison to the University of Iowa Hospital to see a gastroentrologist. These are some of my favorite pictures from recently.
Madi and Laci before going to swimming lessons. They started lessons this week. Madison loves it and always has. This is her third year of swimming lessons. Laci is on her first year of lessons and she does some of what she is supposed to, but a lot of the time, I notice her just watching the other kids. Also, not sure if she really talks to her teacher, but just shakes her head yes or no.

Madison had braids for lessons today. I put them in last night after her bath. I remember when Mom used to do the same with my hair after baths. I think she still has the braids in tonight when going to bed and tomorrow she will want curly ponytails. I was the same way, felt like having a perm (however, much cheaper).

I put braids in Laci's hair after her bath last night too! However, her hair was a disaster this morning when she woke up, so I just fixed it up into two curly ponytails. Cute!

Terry and the girls on Father's Day! Laci was sick from Friday night until Monday. She ran a pretty high temperature Friday night and all of Saturday and Sunday. Monday her temperature was more normal and she started acting more like herself on Tuesday. So on Father's Day, we went to Terry's parents for a short visit to see Terry's dad. Laci was ready to go shortly after we got there and when we got home, she was in bed the rest of the day. Glad she is feeling better. She is truly a daddy's girl, she calls Terry, her "big guy". I remember being a daddy's girl too - a very special relationship. Madison seems to be a lot more snuggly with her daddy lately too. I guess my growing belly may be the reason she can't be so snuggly with me.

Madison playing at one of her t-ball games. She currently has practice for an hour every Thursday evening. She has 4 games total on Saturdays in June. She doesn't have one this Saturday and next Saturday is her last game already. She seems to be enjoying it and is getting much better with every practice/game.

One day, Laci was sitting at the table in the kitchen with the newspaper. She acted really interested in it and so I got a quick shot.

School is out for Summer!

So I had my last day of classes with students yesterday. Today was another day for me to get things done to go home for summer. It is amazing how much "stuff" I have accumulated in 10 years in my classroom. It was also hard to get a lot done since we had a breakfast at 7:30 a.m., a high school meeting at 9:00 a.m., a middle school meeting at 10:00 a.m., and then the retirement luncheon at 11:00 a.m. I kept thinking to myself, "Don't they understand that I have work to do??"

In the hours that I was actually in my classroom today, I packed up items because I will be in a room in the high school next year. I kept many things in boxes in the middle school room, stored out of the way for another teacher. There are plenty of things to move down to the high school, but I just packed it up, someone else can move it! I also cleaned out and threw away many things today. It was great to feel like my room was cleaned out and organized. Too bad it will be someone else's room next year. By 4:00 p.m., I was pretty much done. I have a couple of items to write up and turn in to the office some day this week and I also have some bulletin boards to take down. I am hoping that tomorrow Madison feels better and that we can go to school for a little while to get those things done! (She is still sick today - Sunday, Monday and today. Hopefully, by tomorrow it will have run its course and she will be more like her normal self.)

Although school is out for summer, I am still not able to just sit and do nothing. I am taking an on-line American History course through Hawkeye Community College this summer (June-July). That has started already and I have a quiz, test, or discussion item every week, sometimes more than one per week! I will also need to get some planning done for another new class that I will be teaching this fall. My summer will fly by! Well, hoping that you will all enjoy your summer, I am going to try to enjoy mine also even though I know it will go all too fast!

Braids

So this weekend the girls were both sick. Laci ended up getting sick Friday night about 10 p.m. She threw up and was running a fever. She didn't sleep very well at all on Friday night, so Saturday I was tired! She ran a slight fever most of Saturday and Madison had a slight fever also, but seemed like she felt okay.

Today Madison woke up with a higher fever and she also threw up. I am hoping tomorrow that she wakes up feeling better!! It is hard to see them both not feeling good. Terry is staying home with them since tomorrow is the last day of school with students.

Tonight before bed, the girls took a bath. Madison said she felt a little better afterward. Laci has felt fine today and she wanted braids after she got out of the tub (like her big sister). Their hair is so different! Madison's hair is thick and she has lots of it. Laci's is thin and fine. Both tend to be hard to work with at times. Here is a picture of what Laci looked like when I got the braids in!