summer vacation starts today...

in approximately 5 hours and 40 minutes.

i have a huge to-do list and can you believe blogging is NOT on it, yet here i am.

i'm so good at procrastinating. hopefully i don't teach the kids that particular skill when we homeschool next year!

speaking of homeschooling, i stayed up til 1:30 this morning playing around with all the kids' books. i must be a bit of a nerd, i want to go through and start filling in the blanks. there's just something about a blank page waiting to be filled out that i just itch to get a pencil and sit down for hours.

however, last night i restrained myself and just organized instead. i also set up a rough calendar for our school, which has yet to earn a name. (yes, we get to NAME our homeschool, isn't that awesome??? one of our friend's school is called 'flying aces academy'.)

we'll be starting early in august, so we can finish in early may (ideally aiming for mid april but i'm trying to be realistic about this first year). that includes a month long trip to iowa through september/october (bringing school with us), a 2 week vacation at christmas, a 4 day break for my birthday in february (maybe we'll head somewhere warm in the middle of the week?), and none of this spring break crap. spring break at this age seems like such a waste of time, parents are ready to power through and just finish the school year which is dragging on and on and on at this point. if we finish soon enough in april, then we'll be able to enjoy the best of virginia's weather in the spring before it gets too hot.

chances are we'll be moving next may anyway, so not worrying about school during that time would be helpful. still no idea where to, rob is thinking either north of seattle, washington or back to southern georgia. i vote for georgia but i know how much rob hates the weather and how much he misses his home state of washington. the real fluke would be if we moved back to connecticut. there's one sub out of groton, CT that will need a skipper when rob finishes training, and rob would love to command a fast attack submarine instead of the 2-crew boomer subs (which would be the WA or GA ports). having 2 crews on a submarine does allow for more family time, however, and i did enjoy our year down in florida when we were there in 2007-2008. all the communities have POOLS! how can you not LOVE that?!?

anyway, back to the list. i only have 5 hours, 20 minutes til summer vacation starts! panic!!

a little jealous of the neighbors

most folks get jealous of their neighbors when they get a shiny new car or get a new toy that keeps their kids entertained for hours on end (reese has been eyeing the neighbor's trampoline for ages). i'm not alone in that, i admit that i felt a little bit envious of our neighbors up the hill over the last few days

they moved out yesterday.

see??? i'm green over here!!

let me share...
we've been living here northern virginia for the last 23 months. the kids have loved attending school and preschool here, the shopping is plentiful (hello IKEA!!), the neighborhood kids are similar ages and always outside, and the weather is generally pleasant. sounds like heaven to most people.

however, i am ready to MOVE on. this is the longest we've lived in one spot in the last 10 years and i'm over it. i'm tired of the house we've been renting, annoyed with the neighbors & their children, frustrated with traffic, pretty much tired of the whole northern virginia scene.

unfortunately, it will be at least another year before we move. rob will be detaching from his DC job in september and heading off to more training before his next sea duty. we will stay here while he completes elements in DC, in norfolk VA, pearl harbor, and rhode island for the next 7-9 months. the navy will tack on an additional few months of training at the end of that, so i'm thinking we'll be here til at least may 2011.

i think i just get all antsy in the summer, all of our moves have occurred during the summer. part of me just thinks that when the weather changes to hot and muggy, then it's time to start planning and packing.

of course i have more than enough to keep me busy, what the hell am i thinking?!?! we have our first year of homeschooling coming up, so it's probably best that we don't plan a household move any time soon. maybe staying here truly is what we need right now, as opposed to what we want.

a new post??? really???

yes, really!

laurie posted pictures of parker's tball shots, so i'm going to copy her. cade had a tball game last night and his very last one is on saturday. i'm so thrilled about tball being over i can barely contain it. i really don't know if we'll do tball/baseball again. not sure i can handle volunteer-managed events. i need better management than that.

here's one of cade suiting up to play catcher. i had to edit out the coach's wife's hoochie shoes. who wears heels to a tball game anyway??



cade making a fist at me. you can barely see him but i liked the fence perspective.



cade running to 3rd, and yes, i am too cheap to buy him baseball shoes.



cade seems to attract little girls like lice, this little girl was teasing him and they were goofing around during the game.



reese has 2 more weeks of tap dance before her recital so prepare yourself for more photos and possibly a video of that. the reserved seats were sold out (?!?! the day after tickets went on sale??? seriously???) so we're in the nosebleed section. i'm bringing binoculars and hoping my camera can zoom in that far.

and now: pedicure and trip to the library i think.

going to have to do something about that music

pretty cheesy, isn't it?!?

off to go edit...