Kindergarten!

I can't believe today at 1:30 I will register my baby boy for Kindergarten next year. Where has the time gone. I remember when he was born thinking about Bianca being in 6th grade when Matthew starts Kindergarten. I thought that was just light years away. He actually thinks he is going to school today, LOL. He put on his backpack this morning!



And again, he is tilting his head!

Catching Up!

Spring Break was fun, Bianca had a blast at the lake. I had a nice peaceful week home with Matthew. (Did I just use peaceful and Matthew in the same sentence?) No really, it is always so much easier with just one of them home. No fighting, pushing, yelling, etc. Bianca and I did her spring clothes shopping before she left for the lake. She is so funny though, picked out this St. Patrick's day outfit, WOW! Matching green hat and everything. I wish I had been there at lake to take pictures, but my mom said it was a site to see.

Easter we spent at the Petruska house feasting on lots of yummy food and egg hunt for the kids. Here are some pictures from Easter.






I have no idea why Matthew tilts his head in every picture. I think he thinks it's cute!

The last couple weekends we have spent working on the home improvements. We cleaned out our garage and we had a new patio poured last week. We finally were able to clear out all the patio furniture from the garage! Maybe now I can actually park in the garage!

Spring Break

Spring Break officially starts today at 2:45 when Bianca gets out of school. Jerry left yesterday for Savannah to visit his sister and attend one of the biggest St. Patricks Day Party in U.S. He really needed a break because he has been working so hard getting the business off the ground. His hard work has paid off and now he is enjoying a few days of R&R.

Bianca is going to my parent's lake house in East Texas with Grandma, Poppy, The Karlis Family and the Petruska Family. She is really excited, she loves the lake and exploring and having fund with her cousins.

So that just leaves me and Matthew for the weekend. Tomorrow we will go my grandmothers retirement home and attend a Mardi Gras party with her for a few hours. Not sure yet what else Matthew and I will do, probably go the park, get ice cream and grab dinner somewhere. I will check the movie listings for Sunday and possibly go see a movie with him or maybe the zoo. It will be a nice relaxing weekend! :-)

Great Weekend!

Gotta love those tax refunds! I had a good time this weekend spending most of it :-)

Friday night was mommy and Matthew night. Bianca spent the evening with my mom and grandmother and Matthew and I went to Chili's for dinner (his favorite)and then to target so browse.

Saturday Bianca had a basketball game (they won, Yeah!) Then I was off on my shopping spree. I'm still trying to get my house done (see New Years Resolution post). We moved the leather sectional downstairs so far. I went to buy new coffee table yesterday because the room just did not look right with my rectangle table. I think with all the square and rectangle furniture it needed a round table. So I scored a deal at Haverty's. The table I picked out was acutally discontinued so they sold me the floor sample for $75 off and then I got the matching end table for only $100! I'm a bit disappointed because I love my rectangle table and I just got it a year ago at Thomasville. I guess I will put it in the new living room.

Then I was on a mission for a new TV stand. I went to 5 stores before finding one at Charter Furniture. So I bought it and then this morning Jerry and had a lightbulb moment and decided to keep the one we have from upstairs and just move it caddy corner. DUH! So I have to go return it, so that saves me $600!

Then I hit the mall for spring clothes for Matthew and Mommy. I cleaned out the kids closets this week and packed up the stuff that does not fit them anymore. So I got me some stuff at Macy's (shirts and spring sandals) and then GAP, Gymboree and Old Navy for Matthew. I was tempted to buy a new spring Coach but decided to wait until I tally up my damage :-) Next weekend I take Bianca which is always so much fun! She is at the age where she is getting into clothes. We have so much fun at Limited Too and Justice picking out clothes and accessories! :-)

Today, is Jerry's days since I was gone all day shopping yesterday. He is playing golf with his business partners and I'm taking the kids to do accessory shopping for the family room. I need a lamp, accessories for the new coffee table, and a new area rug. I did buy a new piece of art for above the fireplace. I got it off ebay. This artist was featured on Good Morning America and love her stuff. It's a signed original. I ended up just doing one for a buy it now. I was bidding on another one but I got outbid at $350. I was too impatient at trying another auction so just bought one.



I still have lots of stuff left to do though:

Family Room:
Move TV and stand from upstairs and family room should be done.

New Office:
Still need to repaint the new office, hang the new curtains and move the office furniture.

New Dining Room:
Buy new chandeleir and move the furniture. Should not need anything else

New Living Room:
move couch and sofa
buy 2 chairs
Will need some accessorizing

The Game Room is Jerry's so I have no idea what he has planned.

I think I will be painting next weekend!

Summer Vacation

I've been trying to decide what we should do for summer vacation this year. Jerry cannot take more than a week off at a time so I had to find something that the kids and I can do and Jerry join us later.

I think we decided to go to California this year. It's been a while since all of us have gone and since we have lots of family and friends we have not spent quality time with in a while.

So I got the spreadsheet out, LOL and started my planning. Yes every vacation of mine always starts with spreadsheet to outline a daily itinerary and budget! :-

Jerry and I already decided the week he is there he and I are going to do adults only trip to wine country and leave the kids with his parents:-). We're not going to go up to San Francisco but we will go to Carmel/Monterrey and then down to Paso Robles and Santa Barbara.

So I'm still planning the other 2 weeks. Being the Disney freak I am DisneyLand is definitely on the list. My two ideas are:

1. Do a theme park vacation. They have this thing called Southern California City pass which gives you 3 day park hopper to DisneyLand and California Adventure, 1 admission into Universal, 1 admission to Sea World, and 1 admission to San Diego Zoo. You can buy them at Costco for $217 for adults. If we do this we will do a couple days at the beach too and then just some relaxtion days visiting family and friends.

2. Do Disney Land and then a 5 day cruise out of San Diego to Cabo and back and then some beach days and relaxtion days.

I'm still on the fence. I would love to do the 7 day Disney Cruise from LA but it is so expensive and I really want Jerry to go with us if I'm going to spend that kind of money. Not sure I'm brave enough to take both kids on a cruise by myself :-)

Decisions, Decisions!

New Dishes

Yes, I am a nut. I love to cook and entertain but we never have enough time to do it as often as I like. I was at Macy's yesterday and had some coupons and gift card to spend. I found some dishes on clearance that were so cute. They only had 6 plates which was fine, 1 large serving bowl and then 2 large Square plates that could be used as serving platters. The plates had a paisley pattern with reds, greens, corals, yellows. Then there was a coordinating pattern that was not clearanced that had the same colors but in solids. They were on sale though so I bought some square salad plates to match. All of it only cost me $80.

My mom and dad are coming over for dinner tonight so I guess I will breaking them in. We are having Lasagna Rolls, antipasta and chocolate hazlenut raviolis for dessert courtesy of Giada. YUM!!!

I finally did it!

I hired a housekeeper. I used to have one a few years ago (actually a few housekeepers) but decided I would just do it myself because I could not find anybody who would do it to my specifications. Yes I am very anal and if I'm going to pay somebody $100 to clean my house I want it done right.

Jerry has been working crazy hours since the business took off this past month. He leaves by 6AM and has not been getting home until 8,9, 10 sometimes even 11PM. Not to mention he has had to do several long haul trips himself because they did not have enough drivers. So this has left me to deal with majority of household duties, work full time and go to school part time, and I just cannot keep up with it. We're spending good part of our weekends catching up on everything instead of enjoying time as a family.

So I decided to take the plunge and hire a housekeeper again. I had to mentally prepare myself that I know they will not do it perfect but I have to just deal with it. At least they will accomplish 90% of it and that is time I dont have to spend doing it.

I found these ladies as a recommendation off message boards for my mom's neighborhood. They came with very good reviews so I gave it a shot. They actually did a good job and I'm happy with their work! Jerry was totally sweating it yesterday after we returned to the house after they left for the inspection, LOL :-)

So they are coming every other Saturday to do the entire house and then one lady is coming every other Thursday opposite of the Saturdays to do just the downstairs.

It's going to set me back $320/month but I think its totally worth it to save my sanity and my husband's, LOL :-)