Viral Videos For Our Lives

Hilarious. If you haven't seen these videos, you MUST take 10 minutes and watch these.

This is my life, folks. And I love every minute of it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ql-N3F1FhW4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOKuSQIJlog

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqbkT3PnwkQ

Back To Work

After six weeks off, Andy finally had to go back to work yesterday. To me, having six weeks off is awesome. However Andy feels otherwise. He wants his 9 weeks off that he normally has! You see, he started his first day yesterday as the Assistant Principle of the main campus. (He was formally the Dean at the Freshman Campus.) All administrators have to go back to school 3 weeks before school starts. Which means lots of conferences, meetings, and other "fun" stuff.

He's very excited about the change. He's nervous, but that's always a good sign that you've moved on to a more challenging position. I'm happy that he's not going to be constantly dealing with disciple. That was taking a tole on him. I think just earlier this year, I was looking at him thinking, "Man, he looks beat down." (And I mean that in the most loving way.) Dealing with kid's discipline problems, emotional problems, the parent's problems...is hard one's body. So we are both happy and welcoming of this change!

And for my own selfish reasons: I'm excited to be getting back to a routine! With Andy off during the summer, the kid's got to stay up later, which meant absolutely NO downtime for me or Andy; which also means bedtime for me got pushed back to 11:00. I think I only got an average of 5-6 hours of sleep during the workdays. Ugh.

St. Pius X

This past Sunday was our first day at our new church, St. Pius. It was a bittersweet decision to transfer parishes. We have been members of Christ the King since we were married. Andy has been a member for even longer; his family, in fact, have been going to CTK for over 40 years. Father Tony, the priest at CTK, holds a special place in our hearts. Andy was baptized there by him, he married us, he baptized both our children, and he laid his nana to rest...all at Christ the King. However, at 71st and Dean/Keystone, St. Pius is closer to us. All the kids in our neighborhood seem to go to St. Pius, so we thought it would only be fair to Emma and Drewbie as they get older. I want them to be close to their friends.

So we finally made the decision and submitted the official paperwork to transfer parishes. And the result? So far = so good. We (well, Andy) saw 3 people we knew, all of whom highly recommend the school. And I'm almost positive there's no waiting list!

Cookout

This past weekend, we hosted our annual BBQ. It's always a good time to have friends and family over just to relax in the steaming hot sun! And WOW, was it a hot one! Luckily, we have a lot of mature trees in our backyard, so it was quite shaded for the kids. The adults just had to strategically place themselves on the deck...but all-in-all it was a good time. It was a kid's heaven, between the bounce house, trampoline, and play set. I wish I would've taken more pictures of everybody; especially the kids. But it's hard to manage kids, food, and conversation! :) (Oh, and that large ball-looking-thing?!?.....that's the Party Ball. Youtsey brought his famous mojitos in this crowd pleaser. It was a hit!)

Emma's Swimming Lessons

Emma started her first official swimming lessons at the Carmel Monon Center. And wow--let me just tell you--that place is AWESOME! This place is like Summer Heaven to little ones. Heck, it's heaven to me! It has about a gazillion pools, all of different depths, lots of water play zones for kids, a "lazy river," plenty of shaded area, 2 slides, and snacks galore. We enrolled her in "Preschool Level 2" which means she is comfortable in the water, able to fully submerge herself in water, paddle & kick, and lie comfortably on her front and back with support. All of which Emma is. From the moment we put her in water, she loved it. She's like a little fish, that girlie, so we knew she'd love swimming lessons.

And it's great that she's in a class with only 2 other children. So the one-on-one care is fantastic! The only negative to this whole experience is that we don't have a membership, so it's a battle getting her to leave everyday. We're definitely going to get a summer pass next year!

Spending the Night at Papa's

While Andy spent a couple of days in Chicago with his buddies, I took the kids to my dad's house. Emma always loves spending time with her Papa, and I know Papa just loves seeing his grandbabies. We started the day off with a trip to the neighborhood pool, which was actually very nice! It had two rather large pools; one for the "babies" and one for the "big kids." Emma couldn't decide what she wanted to be, so we spent a lot of time going back and forth between the two. Drew didn't make an appearance at the pool this day; he stayed back with Grandma Ann.

Later that afternoon, Emma helped Papa pitch a tent in their backyard. We had planned on "camping" out, however the weather and the mosquitos thought otherwise. Poor Emma--her skin is just so sensitive and the mosquitoes just went to town on her poor arms and legs. But it was still fun, nonetheless (as you can tell from the pictures, of her rolling down their "big mountain.")

Nicknames

While having lunch with a couple girlfriends the other day, we started talking about names. Elizabeth is pregnant with her first (a boy!), so she was talking about the list of names she and her husband have. So, of course, that led us to all the possible nicknames that could come out of the choices. So I thought I'd take a minute to write down all the nicknames that my children have. Because some of them have already died off and I want to remember them 15 years from now.

DREW
Drewbie
Drewbie-Doobie
Drewbers
Drewber-Dubber-Du
Drew Boo
McDruber
Mr. Man
Mugbu
Muggies
McMubbers

EMMA
Emme
Missy Lucille
Em
Foofa
Chica