Summer Randomness

Wedding

This summer so far has been kind of a whirlwind for us.  As soon as school was out, we headed up to Lawrence, Ks for my baby brother's wedding. It was great to see them and my dad's family that we don't get to see very often at all.  Tom, Jaycee, and I spent a lot of time with my cousin Bianca and her son Nathaniel.  It was great to just talk about old and new times and to see how things have been going for them lately.




Here is the happy couple Brandon, Corinne, and their little guy Ethan.



My parents getting ready before the big event.

 Friends

I got the chance to watch my friends little boy for a couple of hours while she took care of some appointments.  Since we had some days that our babysitter could not watch Jaycee towards the end of the school year, she graciously offered to watch Jaycee (which can be a chore) for us.  So I thought that I would return the favor for her.  Her little boy Corbin is about 6 months younger than Jaycee so it is fun to see what they learn from each other.  Jaycee decided that she didn't want to share that day.  So she got a lot of timeouts.  Corbin just kept watching her wondering why she kept crying.  Oh the joys of having an almost 2 year old.  She wants to be so independent, but just isn't there yet, at least from mom's standpoint.

We put her and Corbin in a recliner together to get a quick picture, but it was very shortlived.  Jaycee just doesn't sit still for pics anymore.  It will be hard to get any good ones of her from her on out.  But we will keep working on it.




Jaycee and Corbin


Hairdo

I decided that Jaycee's hair was just too much in her face one day and decided to put it in a ponytail, and got the brilliant plan of putting it in one of those ponytails that I use to do when I was a kid.  It looked really cute, and Jaycee was amazingly still for it.  I could have been b/c she was eating breakfast while I did it.  Anyway here is what I decided to try.  By the end of the day it had all fallen out, but it was cute for most of the day until after she woke up from her nap.  Gotta love those naps!!!  I think she sleeps like me, all crazy like tossing and turning until everything feel just perfect.



Front view.
She looks so grown up here.




Back view
So cute!!!

 Summer List

So I have been reading several teacher friends blogs and have noticed that they made summer lists.  As I read through them, I kept thinking to myself that this would not be the greatest thing for me b/c lists overwhelm me when things don't get done.  But I thought what they hey, why not!!!  After coming back from Lawrence, I kept thinking about lots of projects that we had wanted to do over the summer.  Being that Tom and I are both teachers, a lot of things get put aside until then.  So I thought that a way to make my summer more meaningful and to feel a sense of accomplishment, I would create a list that encompassed a lot of things for Tom, Me, and Jaycee.  I want to be able to look back on our summer and see that we did more than just hang out and sleep in (which I have done plenty of).  Thank the Lord for a kiddo that likes to sleep as much as we do.  So here is my first attempt at a summer list.  I made this with while keeping in my mind that I probably will not get to everything, but that the thought of being more intentional with how I spend my time with my family.  We have already checked several things off the list.  It hangs on our pantry door so that we can see it everytime we aren't sure what to do.




Tom decided that he liked this and added more things to the bottom.

Discipline

We are entering a new stage in our lives.  We are trying out various styles of discipline.  Time out seems to be effective most of the time, spankings too.  Not sure she completely understands, but she knows more than what we even think sometimes.  One challenge is that she screams.  These aren't little kids screams, these are blood curdling, break the glass screams, and they not only really annoy me, but it is also really embarassing when we are out in public.  We are trying to teach her how to get our attention in other ways besides screaming, but it is a long hard battle that I just sometimes don't want to deal with.  What happened to the sweet little girl that just did what she was supposed to do?  I know she is still there, but the screaming is just one thing that I have a hard time with.  If you have any solutions, I'm all ears. 

You would think that since I spend my days dealing with 3rd graders, and Tom with middle schoolers, that between the two of us, we would have something a little more figured out.  No, I have come to the conclusion that 3rd graders are a lot easier to discipline than and almost 2 year old.  One thing that I found completely by accident is a behavior chart.  I was actually looking for some type of meal tracker, or menu planner or something to help with groceries and such, but I digress.  Anyway, I found this chart and put it on our pantry door low enough for Jaycee to be able to reach it.  I am using it as a positive reinforcement for her.  We are trying to teach her how to put her things away and to clean up after herself, and she even has the chore of feeding the dog after the afternoon walk.  When she does these things, she gets to put a sticker on her chart.  I am not really picky about where, or really very consistent about it, but when I see her helping and doing really positive things that are kind and helpful, I let her choose from my box of stickers.  This is her second chart.  When she fills up her chart (to the point where no stickers will fit), we try to get her a prize that we wouldn't normally get her.  This isn't anything too big or fancy, just something to reward her good behavior.  I don't think it really means anything to her now, but it is a start.  Her first prize was a toy from the dollar section at Target.  Gotta love that!!! 



Gotta love that she stacks them all together.



Patio Door

One of our long time projects has been to replace our patio door.  It has long since been overdue.  The old door was the original and like almost everything else in our house, it will be brand new too.  I could make a huge list of the things we've replaced in the last 8 1/2 years.  Like any other home improvement project, it always takes longer than you expect it to.  I am blessed with a handy husband who studies things before he does them and knows what he is doing before he puts it in without having to hire someone.  We are also blessed to have friends that will come over and help us on hot days to work on it. Even though, we still had to take a couple of extra days to finish it, and then it decided to rain, so we had a hole in the back of our house, and rain coming.  Tom secured a tarp to the hole and prayed that it would hold up through the storm just long enough until he could get the new door in.



Here is the hole in our house.




Old door.



New door.

More of the new door.
Now we don't have to worry if it rains.

Tom still has a little of the inside trim work to do, but it is pretty secure.  Soon we will be ready to tackle the next project "paint".  More on that in another post.