I BOUGHT A NEW CAR!!!

Yesterday I had an amazing day! I woke up at 3 AM and was bound and determined after much hemming and hawing that I was going to research a new car for me. My 2000 Ford Windstar has, over time, been slowly having cumulative problems, and frankly...I am not one to like to put money into a car I already make a payment for, I therefore am a WARRANTY GAL!!!! I like to not have to worry that the repair person is going to call me back and say " Mrs Hooker...we have some bad news... your repairs will be $555.66...will that be check or charge?" I like to go into the repair station, and hand them my FULLY WARRANTED CAR'S keys, leave and know when I go back I have nothing to pay. That, my friends, is my PIECE OF MIND! You see, neither myself, nor my husband are mechanically inclined, therefore we PAY THROUGH THE EYES for car repairs, and I am SICK OF IT! I wanted a new car with an awesome warranty, and I was going to find the right car for me. After the boys got on the bus, Julia, Jay and I headed to Plattsburgh to the Hyundai Dealer. You see, Julia bought an adorable Hyundai Tucson 2 years ago and she LOVES IT! So I stopped by to see how the Elantra drove. We took a shiny, black, GLS model for a drive. LOVE AT FIRST DRIVE!!!!!! I haggled (the best I could) and got the dealer to give me $1600.00 for my VERY USED VAN, and I BOUGHT IT!!!!!!! It has the most options I have ever seen and it is AMAZINGLY cuter than my van. Oh, and it isn't RED!!! I hate RED cars and I have only had red cars because I was impulsive for those purchases. Here it is, and thanks for reading my long winded tale!!!! Tell me what you drive and why you chose it!!! I would love to hear your tales of travel!

Introducing my nieces... (boy that sounds weird) I only had nephews!!!!

Jay, Sam and I traveled to Rochester to see my in laws this past Tuesday night after work and we had a great time there. While we were there for the 5 days of our "vacation" we got to meet Jays' fraternal twin nieces Ashlyn and Jordyn who were born Sunday the 23rd. They are about the same size as Julia and I were when we were born...4 lbs 11 oz, and 4 lbs 13 oz. They are definitely fraternal as you can see from the pictures...here they are.

Ashlyn (L), Jordyn (R)

They had feeding tubes for about 30 hours to let them rest since they were 6 weeks early, but they are otherwise doing well and are in the special care nursery and not the NICU anymore.
Ashlyn Renee

Jordyn Grace

I must say as nice as it was to be in the presence of babies...there was not a twinge, or a tingle, or a tugging at my uterus strings.
Ahhhhhhhh content with my boy~ Enough said!

Here we are at Chucke E Cheese's for the third time during our 5 day trip!
He is a GREAT pretend ATV driver!

Scrub a dub dub...

I made a pattern today for a scrub top fitted to me exactly! I made one for me, and one for Julia...

This is the one for Julia...she is a brown gal!

This is mine...

Some new back to school creations:

After an inspiration from my twinnie Julia ,

I made these name tags today to keep the boys organized in the school bus shuffle
(I am so nervous that they will not get on the right bus)


and these checklists for our husbands when they have to get their OWN children ready for school in the morning... Oh the horror! LOL


Here they are modeling the name tags...they are encased in packaging bags to protect them from the elements, and little sticky hands.

Ahhhhhh it feels so good to be prepared!!!

Glads, Flocks, and Bee Bomb...Oh my

A smattering of loveliness from my garden! I love the mix of colors. Ahhhhh so nice to have some color on my table.

My poor child...

Is now my lucky child!!! Today after much bad mothering months, I finally provided my son with a REAL BED!!!! Granted, all toll, the kid probably only spent 1/2 a year on the futon mattress (on the floor mind you) since he spent most nights in our bed until we made him start sleeping in his own bed (see old post). But today I bought him a twin mattress, and box spring, and bed skirt. My mother provided some old sheets from my gram, and I used an old full size bed frame I had in the basement that Julia and I tie rapped to fit a twin mattress. I feel like a million bucks and feel so much better to finally have a REAL BED for my precious boy. He could have cared less about what he slept on, but I felt like a loser, and now he has an awesome, spacious, clean, lovely room to spend his nights in and he LOVES IT!!!!!! Now all I have to do is sand and paint the wall seams and walls and Voila...a finished room for my boy!

Desperate times call for desperate measures:

As I am writing this, I am hoping that some of you who have school age, or almost school age children have been where I am right now...
SCARED TO DEATH THEIR KID IS GOING TO BE
THE " DUMB ONE"
in school. The boys are very smart, loving, good boys, but they are by no means an expert when it comes to letter recognition and, as they are now called, "site words". I feel that we have lost all of the ground over the summer that the boys gained while they were under the pleasant, patient, eye of Mrs. Beglin (Pre K teacher extra-ordinaire). So having purged this confession and then realizing that there is less than a month left till the first day of Kindergarten (GASP), I decided to make the following videos. I have tried passing flash cards, that I have made, with letters on them to Julia, to quiz the boys on, time and time again, but they always get lost in the bottom of a bag, or trashed, etc. So I decided to make it fool proof, and uniform. The same explanations, the same cards, and the same system. All WE have to do is go to my youtube channel and click on each of the 3 videos below, and do this 2 times EVERY DAY day and I WILL FEEL BETTER!!!!! The boys are already gaining ground, and it feels awesome!!!!
I can almost see their brains growing~ LOL.

So without further a'do...

Lala's Letter Lesson

Lala's Letter Quiz

Pre K-Kindergarten Site Words

My goal is to prepare them for anything they throw them, so hopefully they will feel confident on the first day of school! I want everyone to think they are as wonderful as I do!
One small step for me, one HUGE STEP FOR THE BOYS!!!