Catch Up

I somewhat feel like it's about time for one of those "catch up" blog posts, but it seems as though I have blogged more than I thought I had, even though it's not very much!

So, what is it that we have been doing?? Well, after we spent the day in Portland for Gunnar's birthday, Grandma with the puppies came to visit overnight. We had a good time hanging out with Grandma for a little while. She bought Gunnar a remote control boat which he totally loved driving around and around in the pool. Then the next Saturday, we had a Livingston family party at the Moses Lake Aquatic Center - pictures on Shutterfly.

As you can see in this picture of Grandma and the boys, we have a red-ish, orange-ish looking wall in the background. I did paint our entry way, maybe I mentioned that before. I got on a little kick during the summer that we were going to get the painting done in our house. Well, I got a start on it. We still need to get a frame made for a picture (all the Georgia boots lined up) we had made about 2 feet long by 10.5 inches tall in sepia to put on the wall. It's going to look good. Then I am going to buy a couple of tin/metal signs, rustic looking, to put in the entry way too. I picked out paint for the dining room, but the curtains I bought might have to make me change the wall color a little. Anyhoo . . .

Then, Gunnar went to stay with Grandma with the puppies for a few days (which I don't seem to have any pictures of, hint, mom). While he was gone, Neil took Paden over/down to Union where there was an attempt at a Livingston Family Reunion. I had meetings in Tri-cities, so I couldn't go. Gunnar was gone and Neil didn't want to take Fischer overnight with just him and Paden. So, just papa and Paden went down. Paden has wanted to go fishing and keep a fish to eat for a long time. They loaded up their fishing poles and headed out to Catherine Creek. Paden caught these two little trout and brought them home. We fried them up with some butter, flour, salt and pepper. Paden thought they were really good, but a little hard to eat. But, he ate them.

Not too long after that, school was about to start. Yippee!! Routine!! It seemed so exciting. Now, it's hard. But, it's a little better routine than the lolly-gag summer the boys had.

The first day of school, Paden was sporting some camouflage pants, Cars t-shirt and a Hawaiian shirt - all of which were fabulous finds at Goodwill. It was a hot day, but for some reason school meant summer was over like the flip of a switch. The next day he realized that it was still hot out and it's ok to wear shorts to school. Gunnar has gotten really finicky about clothes lately and won't wear anything but athletic shorts, even though during the summer he wore other shorts. I also bought some at Goodwill before school started and specifically asked him if he liked them, to which he replied in the affirmative. But, no - not enough to wear to school I found out on the first day of school. Hmph.

Along with school came soccer. Both boys are playing soccer this year. Paden is really enjoying it much more than he did the first year he played. He plays goalie for one quarter usually and he loves it. He lays down while the ball is on the other end of the field and when it gets to mid field, he pops up and dances around ready for the ball. There might be a little too much dancing around, he does let some balls get by him. But, he is having fun, he's playing aggressively and so, it's all good.

Gunnar is playing soccer too. I am the coach. I know nothing about soccer and Gunnar doesn't listen to me really well sometimes, so that is your indication of how well that works out. We don't have enough people who will volunteer their time, so sometimes suckers like me get stuck doing stuff like coaching 8 & 9 year old boys soccer. So, it's been interesting. I do have an assistant, but he's the head coach of another team. So far, it's fine, just a little more challenging that maybe expected. I did pick up another assistant a few days ago thanks to a boy's mother. I hope that works well.

Fischer insists on coming to every practice and game and usually wears his soccer cleats - which were Paden's from his first year of soccer. The shoes are too big for Fischer by a little bit, but he doesn't trip over them or anything, so they aren't that much too big. He's two. Paden was kind of a small kid at 4, I guess. I found out today that Paden is the youngest kid on his team, but you couldn't really tell.

Open House at the school was interesting and good. Paden has Mrs. Files, which is who Gunnar had for both of his second grade years. Her class is a first/second grade split this year, like it was last year. So, Paden is in with half first graders and half second graders, but has recess with the big kids. We like her, she did well with Gunnar and we are happy she's got Paden. What a difference those two are though. Paden's only issue is that he tries to read too fast and puts his own words in the book. So, that's what we have to work on him. He's in the highest first grade reading group reading up to third grade level - as far as what he tests as at school. The other day he was looking for Harry Potter to start reading . . .

Gunnar is in third grade and has the teacher that we had hoped for, although we didn't really know any of the third grade teachers. His teacher said that he doesn't have any behavioral problems with Gunnar in school. Gunnar just doesn't get his work done. He stalls and just doesn't focus, therefore he doesn't have any completed work. So, we'll be staying on top of that one. I am glad to hear he's got no behavioral issues, he did have a run-in with the PE teacher the first week and his reading teacher the third week. Gunnar served some extra chore time for those, hopefully he'll be better. He did one thing that was awesome though - he didn't make excuses for his behavior. He started to, then stopped himself and just admitted he was screwing around and that he would work harder. So, it's a start. :) He is doing well with wearing contacts - which reminds me I keep forgetting to go pick up the rest of his year-supply. We got him the 30-day throw away ones. They said those are better for kids since they often get dirty and it's better to have fresh ones every month. So far, so good. He's had a few small issues of frustration getting one in here and there, but overall it's fine. He doesn't notice them and doesn't realize he's wearing them. He know the alternative is back to his glasses, so he seems to be motivated to make the contacts work for him.

We decided to replace the kitchen cabinets with the old doors from my sister-in-law's kitchen remodel. They are all cut and hopefully will get sanded this week. I have paint to paint the bases - need to test a spot, maybe tomorrow, to see if I am going to like it. We also should be able to secure the extra back-splash tiles from my sister-in-law which shall look quite nice in our kitchen as well. :-)

So, I suppose that about catches us up to today when I snapped a photo of Paden playing Monopoly Jr by himself. I was supposed to be playing with him, but he was just playing my guy for me. Funny kid.