Moving Slowly!!!

This week has been CRAZY!!!   We did get the bulk of Lauren's things out of the old room, so today we have moved the computer room to Megan's room.  Mike is in the room scraping the texture off the walls, so he can add new texture.  Megan's current room is PACKED full of my stuff!!!  Since Mike is scraping, I'm sitting her taking a study break, to update the blog!!  I will go back to studying as soon as I finish here!  Promise!  

School is going good for everyone!  Megan has already gotten her folder signed for.....................talking, of course!!!  I don't think there is anything I can do to keep her from talking at school except to maybe super glue her lips and I'm sure she will still find a way to talk!!!  

Hopefully, Mike can get the scraping finished, the room taped up and textured today.  Then we can paint tomorrow and move on Monday!!  I'll keep you posted on how things are going.  

Toodles, 

Chelley

V for V-I-C-T-O-R-Y!!!

Tonight the varsity volleyball played Garland.  They swept them in three games.  Lauren played a great defensive game.  She actually pancaked a ball for a save.  Which means Lauren landed on the floor with her hand landing between the ball right before it hits the floor.   Here are some pictures of Lauren in action.

Toodles,

Chelley

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!

Today was the first day of school.   Unfortunately, I had to be at work early, but the girls did good and got pictures of each other before they left.  Lauren now has late arrival, which means she doesn't have to be at school until 8:30 am, which means SHE CAN TAKE MEGAN TO SCHOOL!!!!  Thank you Lord!!!  Mike and I have been going crazy thinking about Megan leaving the house alone, etc.  PROBLEM SOLVED!!

Here are the pictures of the girls....Lauren is a senior and Megan is a 5th grader.  We don't have uniforms at our school...just a modified dress code ;)

Toodles,

Chelley

2008 volleyball poster picture

I took the volleyball girls throughout Duncanville yesterday taking pictures for the poster.  I got some good shots, now I need to try to decide which one to use.  Here are a couple of my favorites.

I don't like the way blogger restricts the picture...you can't appreciate the full effect.

These are the 4 senior girls...Jennifer, Lauren J, Taylor & Lauren S.

This is my favorite of the group.  I'm a real fan of the black & white photos.  I know, it's off centered....I'll crop it when I decide on the print size.

Toodles,

Chelley

B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!!

We have had some unusually cool weather with rain.  But, the past few days, the HOT weather is back.  Tonight, there is a great cool-breeze blowing!!!  I'm sitting on my porch listening to my wind chimes in the breeze and blogging!!  I do have a citronella candle going to help with the bugs.  Tink, Itchi & JoJo have popped up to see what is going on.  Today, I went and got Lantanas to put in my new planter boxes.  Right now, the pots are sitting too high in the boxes, but Mike will be fixing that soon.

I have found that if I need him to do something, I should blog about it, he reads it and figures he better get it done!!  Lauren's room is ready for paint.  I got that today, too.  She will have light taupe walls with a blue trim.  Right now the mud is drying where we had the walls retextured.  Her room should be ready to start moving on Monday.  Darn....I have class Monday Night!  :)  Oh well, Mike, Lauren & Meg can take care of it!!  I'm sure not everything will be moved on Monday or Tuesday or even Wednesday!!!  

All of Megan's supplies have been bought, her backpack is full of everything and she now has school shoes and clothes ready to start 5th grade!!!!!!  I finally got the morning plans ironed out.  She will be riding or walking with the neighbor.  She so wants to walk to school and to have her key to lock the house (THAT scares me to death!!!)  I have to remember that I was that age when I was staying alone and locking the house up, too.  But it just seems like MY baby is too young to be doing this!!!  Reality BITES!!!  

Matt is back from Waco this weekend.  He got moved in and got his room set up.  He will be starting classes on Monday, too. 

Lauren has been at a tournament this weekend.  They didn't do too well.  This young team still has some work to do before the season starts!!  Lauren did a chance to set.  She hasn't done this in a while, but enjoys it.  She also got on the front row with a block or two!!

So, that's a update on my crew.  Stay tuned there should be some pictures this week!!

Toodles, 

Chelley

Oy!!!

Things are crazy right now and I'm afraid to think how much more crazy it is going to get!!!!

--Matt's room has been totally cleaned out.  Wallpaper has been torn off.  Should be re-textured this weekend.  Lauren has to pick out paint samples so we (she) can paint.  After the room is finished, Lauren is moving in.

--After Lauren moves out, we are moving the craft/computer room into Lauren's old spot in the room.  We are removing the wallpaper in that room (original nursery paper from when Matt was a baby).  Megan wants pink and brown wall paper.  We will fix that room up and move her into it.  

--Then we will be fixing Megan and Lauren's old room and making it the computer/tv/craft/storage room.  Plus, we're putting a futon in there, so Matt has a place to sleep when he is home.

This is all going on with school starting on Monday.  Volleyball on Tue/Fri, Church on Wed. Soccer on Tue/Thur and I have classes on Mon/Wed, soccer games on Sat & Church on Sunday!!  Plus the three classes I'm taking online, in addition to a full time job and basic household chores.  What in the world are we doing???!!!!  I think my sanity needs to be checked!!!

So, no visitors to our house for a while!!!  It's going to be a mess!  We already have moved the couch while we move some of Matt's furniture in there.

Will keep you updated as things go on and will post pictures of finished rooms as they are completed.

Toodles,

Chelley

He's gone.

Matt left this morning.  He has made it to Waco safely.  He has unloaded the truck and is in the process of unpacking everything.  He will be home on the weekends because he works at Mt. Lebanon on the weekend.  As soon as I can get it, I'll post his mailing address, so you can send him letters if you want.  You can send him an email, too.   drummerboy07@sbcglobal.net

I'll admit it----I was a bit weepy this morning.  I've been looking forward for him to go, but it is really hard to believe that he is old enough be move away and not need his mommy to be with him!!!

Toodles,

Chelley

Volleyball tonight!

Tonight the girls played Euless Trinity.  It wasn't a great game.  Trinity beat us in three straight sets.  This is a young team:  4 seniors, 4 juniors & 4 sophomores with only three lettermen returning.  There are good players on the team, but they have not played at the varsity level and you can tell.  Hopefully, they will improve with time.  Here are a couple of pics of Lauren in action tonight.  She was perfect on the serving line with three aces!!  She also had a kill and a block.  Not just a block, but one of those where you hear the smack!  She was so excited when she left the court after that!!!  We were excited, too!

Lauren's Kill!

Blocking at the net

Killer serves!!

Waiting for the serve.

Toodles,

Chelley

Bad News on the Porch!!

A month of so ago, the city inspector was driving by and noticed our porch.  He stopped and did some measuring.....we are 3 ft. beyond the build line.  So, out of the goodness of their hearts, they are letting us keep the flat floor, but all of the posts and beams have to come down!!!  That really stinks!!!  The posts and beams really give it a personality!!!  Our neighbors have told us that the inspector has been driving by several times this past week looking at the porch.....they gave us some time because of the triple-digit heat, to get the posts down.  So, Mike is out there now, taking them down  :(

He is going to use the wood to build wooden planter boxes to put at the front of the porch, to give it a bit of personality, still!!!  

Lauren and I had already planned how we were going to hang and wrap our Christmas lights around the posts, etc. .......I guess it is back to the drawing board!!!

Toodles,

Chelley

Let the season begin!!!

Yesterday was the first scrimmage of the volleyball season!!  They played three 50 minute games.  No score was kept.  These games gave the coaches a chance to see the girls play and work together.  All sorts of different lineups.  She said in the meeting afterwards that starters have not been set and that this team is farther along than any other team as far as playing together as a team!!  So, they have a good dynamic.  Lauren looked good, but like everyone, she had some oops.  For the most part, her serves were great!  She had some good digs and good hits from the back row and front row.  Here are some pics of her in action.

Nice Dig!

ACE!!!

Digging LOW!!!

Backrow Attack!!

Lauren & her bff Taylor (aka Thelma & Louise), Yea, they get into all sorts of trouble together!!

Toodles,

Chelley

Olympics Opening Ceremony

I'm sitting here watching the opening ceremonies and in awe of what the Chinese people have done.  The technical aspect is so amazing.  It's easy to see that it cost $300 MILLION dollars to produce!!!

As the parade of nations make their way through, the United States finally make it in and I'm proud to say that I personally know an Olympic athlete!!!  Luis Yanez, a boxer who was a student at Duncanville High School while I worked there!!!!  I remember when I worked at the 9th grade school in the attendance office, his father would bring his belts that he won while he was away at competitions.  

GO LUIS!!!  GO USA!!!!!!

Toodles,

Chelley

IT'S OFFICIAL!!!!!

Monday started Lauren's last year of volleyball tryouts!!  Tonight the list was posted...

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drum roll, please

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SHE MADE IT!!!!

We knew she would.  She's been working out HARD all summer getting ready for her SENIOR year!!  Even though school hasn't started, her summer is officially over.  She has practice tomorrow and scrimmages this weekend.  Our BIG Duncanville tournament will be the weekend of the 15 & 16.  I will keep you posted and post pictures as her season progresses.  We are looking forward to a really good season!!

Toodles,

Chelley

Wow, this is weird and hard!!!

If you read a few blogs down, you know Matt is leaving in a couple of weeks to go to school in Waco.  So, technically, he's only an hour and a half away,  but he will be living on his own in an apartment.  He will be rooming with two guys he went to school with, Bryce & Fergie.  So, this means we are setting up a whole new household for him.......towels, sheets, trash cans, toiletries, cleaning supplies, food and school supplies, too!!!  We went to the joint base last weekend and bought him a laptop  and printer (tax free!!!).  I've gotten sheets, towels, laundry baskets, cleaning supplies, first aid kit and school stuff.  I just keep adding a little each week.  I think he will be moving on the 20th and Mike and I will make a trip down on the weekend to make sure he has everything he needs.  I'll probably have to get his computer and printer set up to the Wi-Fi.  Unfortunately, Matt is like his dad, electronically/technically challenged!!!

Now the plans are being made with what to do with the room.  We have decided to move Lauren to Matt's room and Megan will be going to the computer/craft room and the computer/craft room will be moved to the girls room.  There is a lot more room in there, so we will be getting a futon so Matt will have a place to sleep and this way all of our rooms will be on the same side of the house.  Lauren is thrilled not to have to share a room anymore.  

We need to strip the Bunnies having a tea party wall paper off the wall and we're going to texture the walls and paint the room, then we will be playing musical rooms!!!  I also found this great wall unit at IKEA that we'll put in the craft room to hold all my supplies.  It matches the computer desk, too!!  

Ok, so the weird part is the fact that Matt is old enough to move away!!  The hard part is getting him ready to move and him actually moving away!!!

Toodles,

Chelley