Still here...

I know, I know, it's been awhile. But we are still alive, even if there aren't any pics to prove it... I am totally ready for bed, so here's a rambling list of what's been going on here in the Williams' household...

1. We took a 4 day weekend last week and headed to Lake Anna with the boat. Had a good time, even though it was the first time EVER I didn't have a camera to document...

2. I have the new camera. Who knew new cameras need a micro SD memory card instead of a regular one...? Yeah, still need one of those.

3. I just (as in 30 minutes ago) finished up with an entire grad class and submitted all the work. It was due by Thursday, so it was getting down to the wire. Spent a lot of time/energy on it in the past week... Did over 1/3 of the class in a week.

4. Lucas went on a field trip at school. He's finally getting adjusted.

5. Lottie is doing great at daycare and is obsessed with shoes (still!) and books... and dogs.

6. I have been crazy busy at school. With lunch duty 4x per week, I feel like I hardly ever have time to plan, grade, etc. And I'm teaching a brand new curriculum.

7. Tony and I are both complete losers at fantasy football. Looks like team Williams won't be winning the jackpot.

8. And oh yeah, the biggest mooch of our time... working our butts off renovating/cleaning our house so we can get it on the market to sell in about a week! AHHH!!! Surprised, yeah, we were too. We had no intentions of moving, but a short sale home kinda fell into our lap. Much bigger house, open floor plan, more bedrooms, a bigger yard, and 2 doors down from friends. We signed a contract but are still awaiting definite approval. Don't worry - our house won't actually sell if we don't have another home to move to...

So, that's the latest scoop... Stay tuned!

Pre-school

There are no pics here (perfect week for camera to be broken), but I wanted to jot down some things about Lucas' first week at school, so that I'll remember one day... But feel free to read the details of his week!

Tuesday - day #1 - He had been super excited all summer about going, but I figured as the actual day got closer, he'd start getting a little more anxious... Nope. He woke up super excited... Told me he was gonna wear his favorite red Lightning McQueen shirt, asked if I had his bag ready, and demanded to leave the house within 3 minutes of being awake. We dropped Lottie off at Dineyli's. All the way there he told her that he was going to school, but she couldn't cause she was too little. She was not too happy about being left there alone :( We rode to Mt. Providence Child Development Center, which is about 3 minutes from my school and located in a convent. Bizarre, but it has a great reputation... The director is a nun and still wears a habit. The classroom teachers are not nuns, but some of them so help out during the day... When we pulled into the driveway, Lucas said - wow, that's a big school for lots of little people! We parked and went in. The head nun was in the hallway and Lucas ran up to her, hugged her, and said - I love you and you're my best friend. And you're my teacher so I'll do whatever you say! Funny stuff... And going way better than I'd expected... We put all his things in his own blue locker and I walked him to the playroom. "School" doesn't start til 8:30 when the teachers get there, so from 7-8:30, he gets free play there. I gave him a hug and kiss and he told me he was going to play so I could go to school... And I left.

I picked him up just before 3. They had just gotten up from nap, and were in the process of going potty, putting blankets/pillows back in the lockers, and sitting down for snack. I told him that I would just wait while he had snack with his friends. He said - no, I don't want it, let's just go right now. Ok....

So, we left. There is a daily report waiting for me in his locker each afternoon, so that's nice. It tells you what skills they worked on, how they ate/slept, their fav part of the day, and about any behavior issues... It said that he slept well and ate all his food. He did NOT pee during his nap - thank God, cause I was super worried about it! He did cry for me several times through the day and was a little too talkative during circle time.

His teacher's name is Ms. Kathy. Sister Lucia helps their 3.5-4 yr old class all day, and Ms. Otis is the assistant for the afternoon.

Wednesday - day #2 - He says he doesn't want to go to school when he wakes up, but I tell him he has to. He seems ok with it. Charlotte was happier being dropped off today :) When I dropped him off in the playroom, he looked like he was almost going to cry. One of the ladies there took him to the window so he could wave bye. I found out later that he did cry after I left, but was fine all day after that. On the way home in the afternoon, I asked him a million questions. He didn't want to answer. After every one, he'd say super fast - I don't know, nothing, the end! And put his hands over his ears. Little turkey! I don't like not knowing what he does all day...

Thursday - day #3 - Felt guilty. For the first time EVER, I was off work and didn't keep him home with me. I would have if it were a month from now, but I didn't want him to miss any of the routine with his class. To top off my guilty feelings, he started sobbing as soon as we walked into the playroom. Sister Lucia had to pry him off me and take him to the back door for him to wave. When I walked by, he was not waving... just screaming :( Tony went with me to pick him up (he'd never seen the school), and we were a little later than normal. He was out having fun on the playground. Got a good report, and there was no more crying after I left. Ms. Otis said he was a lovely little boy!

Friday - day #4 - On the way to school, he told me that he was not going to cry today... He would just smile and wave and then go play... And he did! A very smooth drop off. Tony picked him up and Ms. Kathy wrote on his report that he'd had a great week! Here's to hoping next week is good too, with a few less tears in the mornings :P

And get this - Bill Cosby is spending the morning at his school on Tuesday! Crazy!!!

Labor Day

We took the boat out last Monday (yes, I'm that behind!) with Jeff, Chasity, Lily, and Nathan. Headed over to Hart Miller Island. Instead of going to the main part that was pretty crowded, we went to a different part of the island and had a sandy little island end all to ourselves. The kids were super well behaved and occupied themselves on the beach for almost 4 hours! Awesome day :) Except for the part where my camera (which has been having small issues all summer) fell in the sand and won't turn on anymore. Oh well, I ordered a new model of the same camera that is waterproof! Now I can take it anywhere and not have to worry about dropping it in the water or getting dirt on it... But that's why I haven't been able to take pics all last week :(

Here comes the bride...

2 weekends ago, we headed to Connecticut for the weekend for Tony's cousin's (Beth) wedding. We missed the family reunion in Maine this year, so we were looking forward to seeing Tony's mom's side of the family.

We had plans to leave Friday around lunchtime. It was my last prep day at school, and I busted my butt all week to make sure I was all set. All I had to do was go to a faculty meeting. Tony was off work... Of course, something had to foil our plans :) Tony went mountain biking and ended up taking a trip over his handlebars and into a tree - which ended in a trip to the ER. A bruised thumb and huge scrapes/bruises all over his back and butt only delayed our trip about an hour. The one good thing about it was that as soon as I found out about the accident, I left the faculty meeting to go get the kids... Yes! Missed an hour of meeting!

The drive up was kinda sucky... Took 7.5 hours :( The kids slept the first 2 hours, but we hit NYC right at 4:30 and 95 in CT was brutal. We took the laptop and let Lucas watch some DVDs in the back seat. We were hoping that would keep Lottie quiet too - no deal! But they were as good as you could've expected 2 toddlers to be. Before going to our hotel, we went to Dave and Nancy's house to visit with them since we knew they'd be busy the next day at the wedding. When we lived up there, we loved going to visit with them! They fed us and we hung out for about 2 hours before heading 10 minutes up the road to the Ramada. The kids went right to sleep, and so did we!!!

We were up around 6 Saturday morning. Headed to a local diner for breakfast and then walked some river trails that we used to go on when we lived up there...
Then we went to a local elementary school playground...
And back to the hotel to clean up and get dressed. We're probably the only family of 4 with 2 small kids that can not rush and be showered/dressed in under 40 minutes... Anyway, I borrowed a suit for Lucas from one of my friends at school... It was the cutest thing you've ever seen... except his skinny waist didn't keep the pants up. We had to stop at the dollar store on the way to the wedding to get a belt! And Charlotte... this is the ultimate story of how "spirited" Charlotte is at this point... she was all dressed in her white/pink lacy dress. We were all dressed and just about to walk out the door. I turned around for one second to grab her shoes... She ran into the bathroom and fell in the bathtub (that was still draining). Completely soaked - hair, dress, everything... Luckily, I brought a spare dress.

We had a little trouble finding the wedding location, but made it with about 5 minutes to spare. And Lottie took a short nap on the way over :) Beth and Matt got married outside, and it was a gorgeous day. A justice of the peace performed the ceremony and it was over in about 6 minutes (tell me again why we had a Catholic mass?!?)
The reception was at the same place, so it was nice to not have to drive anywhere. While the bridal party got the family pics taken, we went inside to have snacks and mingle with Tony's family. We were at the reception for about 4 hours and the kids were great, especially considering they didn't get naps. The wedding favor was a candy bar, so you could fill up a bag with all sorts of candies. Lucas filled up his bag and was running across the wooden dance floor to get to Tony, when he fell and dropped the bag and candies scattered everywhere! It was hysterical!!! I still can't believe he didn't cry. We picked it up and put it right back in the bag... Lucas and Charlotte both loved dancing and everyone loved watching them run around.
Lottie fell asleep on the way back to the hotel and stayed asleep while we carried her to the room and put her in the crib. Tony and Lucas went to the pool... Lottie slept for a few hours and then was up and ready to party... right when we were ready to go to bed. Grrr.... So we watched football, ordered pizza, and hung out in bed. Lucas finally fell asleep and Charlotte wasn't having any part of going back in the crib. She ended up sleeping in bed with me for the first time ever. And she was up at 5 am... Good times.

We were planning on stopping by Dave and Nancy's on the way home for a quick visit, but the kids were cranky and we were just ready to be home. So, we hit the road and made it home in 5 hours... Nice!