The Ant Invasion

It is so hot outside that I think some ants decided to come into the coolness of our house. I noticed them yesterday and they were quickly crawling all over the floor. As you can imangine we have a lot of items on the floor that might appeal to an ant. They came in over by the family room window and then migrated towards the kitchen table. Well, Julia, Matthew and I cleaned them up with, what else, the vaccum. I then moved onto other cleaning matters and put Julia and Matthew on ant detail. They loved the opportunity to suck up some ants.
Here they are in ant removal action.:)

On another note, it is the annual fall picture day up at Macie and Thomas' school. I took pictures of them just incase I don't like the results. Mine aren't all that great, but it is what they look like today August 29, 2008. I can't believe they are in 4th and 3rd grade. How time flies.

We are making progress!!!!! :)

I had a custom closet company come and install the girls closet. We went back and forth on installing ourselves or having a professional. After some consideration we decided on a professional. I know, I know it shouldn't have been that hard of a decision with us being the half done family and all, but the cost of it was the stumbling block. I am so glad we had a professional. It took him a couple of hours and it looks great and is very functional. We are not going to put doors on the closet so we hung a cieling mount curtain rod and put light and airy appliquied curtains up. The girls think they are so cute.

I do have to do a bit of hemming to make sure they don't hit the ground.
What are we going to do with all that room? Julia has lots of toys and we aren't sure how to organize yet, but once her bed gets here we can figure that all out. They are just thrilled to be sleeping in their own room again.

The first day of school

Well everybody had their first day on Tuesday. Matthew had his on Monday. Everyone seemed to like their new situations and classrooms. Thomas has the same teacher and same classroom, but Macie has entered a whole new world. She has a "homeroom" teacher and then goes to another teacher for Social Studies and Math. The other teacher is a man and I think she has a crush on him because she talks an awful lot about him. :) We'll see. Julia goes to a Kindergarten at a school across town and rides the bus once again. Matthew thought that he would be riding the bus because Julia gets to, but his bus happens to be daddy. Matthew has been having a hard time adjusting. I was called on Friday to come sit with him because he was crying for about 40 min. I got there and of course he had stopped crying. The teacher (young and new) wanted me to go outside and see him. I said no because he will start crying again. I then asked what the adjustment policy was. She had no idea what I was talking about, so I had to talk with the director. The director and I were on the same page, let him cry a little bit and he will get used to school. If I come and rescue him every time he cries he will learn that crying gets mom. We still have to get used to the schedule. The way it is now I am never alone with Henry except for the time between Julia getting on the bus and me going to get Matthew. I think that is about 1 hr. Henry has been taking 2 naps this week and seems to be sleeping well.
On another note we finished putting Macie's bed together and the girls are sleeping in their bedroom. Julia's bed is due to arrive next Friday or so, and the closet people are coming Monday. Yippee!!!!
Take a look at the living/bedroom. You can now see why we have been living in such a mess for a few weeks now.
Now I have to concentrate on the boys room.
I think that one might just take us longer because Kelly and Scott are now into Football season and will be traveling to all of Brad's games. We are very proud of Brad he has been chosen as Humboldt State's team captain. We get to watch him at the season opener against Sac State on Saturday. Go Jacks!!!!

5 Minutes For Mom Laptop Contest

I have entered Julia into a contest at 5 minutes for mom. I am hoping that she can win a laptop to help with her communication. Most of you know about our situation with the school district and the talking box. Well, this laptop could help us out with her communication at home and with many of you. It would work just like the talking box. Because the laptop has speakers and sound it could talk for her. We could put the talking box program on it and presto she can talk. Here is my nomination letter. Let's hope we win. Go Julia!!!!
I would love to nominate my daughter, Julia, to have a laptop given to her. She is only 5, but she has a brain disorder, called schizencephaly, that has left her without speech. She was born with the disorder and has struggled to communicate. We have taught her sign language and the school district has purchased her a vantage/vanguard communication device. This is a great talking box, as we call it, but the school does not allow her to bring it home or have it over vacations. A new laptop would make it easier for her to communicate with us and others out in our community. We would be grateful for the opportunity of getting this valuable communication tool for her.

Matthew goes to school

Matthew has turned three and Alta Regional has kicked him out of special services because of it. Matthew was receiving speech, physical, and occupational therapy. He no longer gets them and the school district doesn't feel he qualifies for any of these services as well. So, I started looking into pre-schools that might take him. I applied for Head Start and he got in. They will watch him closely and if they feel he is slipping back into needing speech or any other service they will have the school district out to evaluate him. In the mean time he goes to school 5 days a week, 4 hrs a day. Today was his first day and he was tuckered out when he came home. He seemed to like it, but the teacher said that he was very busy. I tried to tell them that, but I guess you just have to experience Matthew for yourself to believe that he has issues. :) I'm sure he will get used to being away from us for that length of time, but today it was a little hard on him. The rest of the gang starts school tomorrow and we went today to meet the teachers. Julia will be in Kindergarten and is very excited. She will once again be riding the bus. I have a very full schedule of events this year. 4 different start times and 3 different ending times. I guess we will get through it. Anyway doesn't our little Matthew look cute. He got new Diego shoes and wanted a Diego outfit, so of course Grandma had to buy him one. :) Here's to a great 2008-2009 school year. Happy 1st day of school!

Back to School Giveaway

5 Minutes for Mom is having a back to school giveaway. They are giving away a Kodak ESP 5 All-in-One Printer and a Dynamo Personal Label Maker. I would love to win either one. I hope you will go and check it out and enter to win for yourself. Oh and happy back to school! My kids go back on the 19th. Isn't that just a bit early? Oh, well they are looking forward to it.

What am I doing?

Well, we continue to do many different things here at the Hay house. I don't seem to finish any one project. Tom and I for many years have called ourselves the half done family. I hope we don't do that this time with the girls room because I would hate to have them living in the livingroom for the rest of their childhoods. :) Yesterday I took Julia to her PT and OT appts. My parents took Macie, Thomas and Matthew their house and they pulled weeds. They came home and Macie and I canned 3 quarts of refrigerator pickles. I got the recipe from this new website that I found through my blog stalking habit I have. I'm not sure if the pickles will work out, but it was worth a try. I'll let you know in a week after they have been in the fridge for the right amount of time. Check Prudy out and you'll find some great recipes. Yummo.
Everyone in the Gang was very tired from the day before because we had gone school clothes shopping and we went to Aunt Kelly's for dinner. Kelly had a High School friend come to town and we all went up to Sutter Creek for dinner. We had a blast and the kids sere super tired. So anyway yesterday everyone had naps including Julia (yeah) and that is when Macie and I did the pickles. After nap we made some candy that a friend of ours gave us. It was an Easter candy making kit. So here we are in the middle of summer and we are eating Easter candy. :)
I plan to take the kids to the water park today, but things always seem to get in the way of my plans so we will see.
Well I'm off to play with the kids, do the dishes with Macie, help Thomas clean his room, and give Henry a bath, do some laundry. You get the drift.