May 2011

It has been awhile since I've posted - sorry about that! It's a testament to how busy we have been.

Emily turned 6, played spring soccer, has now lost 6 teeth total, and is almost done with Kindergarten (less than 6 weeks left)! She told me she doesn't like school because you have homework and only likes art and PE. She doesn't want to go to first grade because they have more homework and it is harder. Ummm..OK - so how do you go to college with a kindergarten education? Can we fast track somehow? Anyone? She will begin horseback riding lessons again soon and wants to do Girl Scouts in the fall. She also took part in the Miss Capital City Scholarship Pageant where she was paired with a contestant and she was a "Carolina Princess" - she walked with the contestant and got a crown. She LOVED this. Shocker - it was like playing dress up for real and you got to be on stage.

Noah turned 3, is attending a Sports Skills class at The Little Gym, and won't stop or sit down! He currently jumps or runs - everywhere. He loves anything with a ball in it and asks all the time when he can play baseball or soccer or football. Mike bought him his first hammer this weekend so he could help build the playset (see below) so I excpect more damage to the house. Noah is always practicing his swimming skills in the bathtub and just going, going, going. Noah also figured out that he could style his own hair using my blow dryer - this is the result.

Both kids will be taking swimming lessons this summer starting in July and we have our camping trip in June and a CA trip in July for my, gasp, 20 year high school reunion. Mike is also planning his annual camping trip with the kids for August.

We survived our trip to Disneyworld in January. The train wasn't too bad and the kids loved all of the visit. They keep asking us to go back. Noah was so excited to see Woody and Jessie (from Toy Story 2,3). Emily loved seeing the pricesses. They thought the train ride was fun, but they weren't as excited about it as I thought they would be. It was great at the park too because there were no crowds. It did rain a little bit, but we bought some cheap ponchos at a store outside the park so we were covered.

We went to the airshow at Seymour Johnson AFB in April and got to see the Thunderbirds fly. The kids liked the ice cream.

Mike has started planting a small garden this year, finished the fire pit project (37 bags of concrete and 27 bags of mortar later - not to mention another batch of fireproof mortar!), and is now attacking a new playset for the kids with a new and improved playhouse section. He's also planted some trees, worked on the motorcycles, my car, his truck, the Jeep, whatever else the kids or I break and pulled out some stumps for the last few trees he's cut down. Here's a picture of the new playset that I took last night.

The floor is off the ground 6 feet. The yard slopes downward and I'm up by the house taking the picture so it's not as off height wise from the old one (in the background) as it seems. There will be a landing at 3 feet as well.

As for me, my company was bought out in October and my job will be ending on 31 Dec 2011. So, for now, it's clean up and get things nice and pretty to deliver to the new parent company with a nice big red bow by the end of this year. I will look for something new probably towards the end of September. Not really sure where I'm going or what I'm going to do but I've got plenty of time (for now) to think about and pray about it. God has a plan and I'm trusting Him to lead me where He wants me to go.

I'm sure I'm missing something, but I'm done with my lunch so I should get back to work.

We hope this finds you well and that you have been having a good 2011 so far.

As always, may God continue to bless you as He has us.

Gretchen, Mike, Emily, Noah, Nikki, and Elsie (and we still have 3 chickens - one got eaten by something - not us, I promise!)