Working and Directors of Traffic

Ok so I know I need to post. The computer and my schedule this week have not wanted to cooperate with me. But here I am I made it. Scott is once again among the working! He starts at his new Quality Director position on Tuesday. He is excited to be employed again, even though he had to take a little bit of a pay cut to do it. But hey, it is a job and it is in Michigan, two things that don't go so well together these days, and we should be just fine on the new salary if I can step things up with my business just a little bit each month, so if anyone you know needs decent interior design consultants...:). He did have a phone interview for a Director of Quality position in Kohler Wisconsin, with surprise surprise...Kohler. We'll see what happens with that, but it sounds like just about the same position he had at the old job, travel etc. I am voting for the pay cut, less stress, and only 2 plants and 150 people to manage. But we'll see what happens.


The kids have been having a grand time being outside on a more regular basis. Yesterday I decided to conduct my own version of a traffic study, and bought two of those little men that you put by the road to tell cars to slow down. I realized that they only work if you have them practically in the middle of the road, but once they are there, people do tend to slow down... so that is what I did, and it is working. Even if they don't slow down as much, they still go around the guy, so I guess that is good. The kids don't really get anywhere near the road, but still it is nice to have the cars close to coming to a stop rather than flying by at 25mph. And it is fun to watch the difference in the speeds when they are there vs. not. Hopefully no one will run over my little yellow man with the orange flag while he is working.

4 Generations and a Date

4 Generations trekked to JcPenny on this lovely day to have their picture taken, finally. I had purchased a frame for GG about 2 years ago as a mothers day present and told her that we would go and have our 4 generation picture taken. 2 years and 3 girls later we finally made it. They did surprisingly well, no major arguments, everyone for the most part was willing to smile at least once or twice and we looked pretty spiffy in our black and white outfits. I would post a picture, but they won't be in until April 5th, so it will have to wait.
Afterwards we headed to a lovely meal at Olgas, GG had the "priveledge" of sitting with us at yet another meal of craziness, but the girls did pretty well again, no major fights or arguments, there was a small tift about whose green crayon was whose, but it was quickly diffused by a trade.
When we got home it was a quick shower for the kids and ready for bed before Deanna the babysitter arrived. Scott and I had planned to go and see a movie, since we have previously been playing volleyball on Monday nights, but with the season over and Deanna still on the schedule, we thought we'd try and get out. We were planning on seeing Amazing Grace which I have been wanting to see for awhile now, but we mixed up the time and thought it started at 7:45 when it actually started at 6:45. So we ended up going to the Tile Store to look at tiles for a future bathroom floor, and to HomeGoods and TJMaxx just because, before grabbing a snack and heading home. We still had fun and it was nice to get out on such a nice night.

A Stitch in Time

GG made a visit to our house this morning to teach me how to use the sewing machine that she gave me months ago when they moved from their old house. Quinn found some fabric that he liked for pillows in his room on Wednesday and has been bugging me since "when are we going to do my pillows? Can we do my pillows? Etc. etc." So GG was nice enough to give me the grand tour of her 1950's Elna Supermatic. It does all kinds of cool things that I will have to study up on, or get more lessons on, to be able to use, but I was excited to have her over to show me. She stayed for lunch and the kids, especially Kaleigh, had a good time looking at and counting books with her. I asked her if things were just as crazy at her house when her kids were little, and she said, she didn't think so, but remembered learning to sew on an old foot pedal machine with Mom and Aunt Pat on either side asking questions and wanting to know what she was doing. She told me it was hard to concentrate, but at the same time she didn't want them not to be interested. It seemed to be quite the full circle moment. It was nice.
P.S. The picture at the top is GG, but the card is an ad I found online that I thought was neat.

Spring Swing

Plenty of springtime fun has been had the last couple of days. Yesterday we were over at Grammy and Grampys the majority of the day because #1 it was nice out and #2 Scott was there sanding and preparing to paint the upstairs doors that we have had off their hinges since we moved in. The "motor" got its fair share of use and Quinn was happy to share with his sisters (a rare thing). He was even so polite as to let Kaleigh get on first, but this backfired on him and her as she tried to get on and stepped on the footpedal which took her and the motor into the ditch. She didn't get hurt, but her pants and boots got mighty wet and she was very upset that she had to go in the house after that. Kaleigh moving along on a wild 4 wheeler would have made a great picture, but I was too busy trying to chase her down as soon as I saw her heading for the ditch. The picture above is after the pants were changed and riding strategies revamped.

Today turned out to be quite nice as well, after the rain gave up. So before the Lenten meal we decided to take the kids up to the local playground to burn off some energy. Uncle Scott got the priveledge of pushing 5 kids all at the same time on the swings. They loved it, and were cracking up the entire time, especially after calamity Quinn let his butt (which was sticking out of his jeans that wouldn't stay up) get a little too far off the swing and kerplopped into the pea gravel. That picture of Ella is her laughing at him. He thought it was pretty funny himself, but not as much as the rest of us I don't think. Nothing like spring to get in some good swing time and some good laughs.

Avery the Fashonista

Avery changed her clothes at LEAST 15 times today, she kept going into the laundry room with one outfit and coming out with another one on. There was pink, and purple, gray and black plaid, clothes that were too big and clothes that were too small, summer clothes and winter clothes etc. etc. etc. All of the outfits included at the very least a skirt, but more often it was a dress. The girl would wear one (or many) every day if we let her. This was the Jungle Princess look which was really Kaleighs leopard dress that she got stuck when she was trying to get it off. The picture came out blurry, but I will post it anyway. She bears a striking resemlance to Pebbles don't you think?

I am trying to rember what we did yesterday, oh yeah it was St. Patricks Day... we had green pancakes for breakfast, went to the mall to look for a black suit for Scott for interviews, then it was some time outside and pizza at Grammy and Grampys while Scott was at the hockey game. I am sure there was more, but for some reason I am having trouble recalling. And I didn't even drink anything... man that is bad.

Today was the annual Chili Cook Off at church, then it was back to the mall to purchase the suit that was looked at yesterday (Scott has a friend that got him a nice discount). After that we had free tickets to the Home Improvement and Builders Show at the Farm Council Grounds, so we went and learned alot about how to fix up our house, if we still have it when we get the money to do anything to it. It was fun, even so. I ran into quite a few people I know either clients or contractors, and even a former professor who is an architect in Milan. That is Milan MI not Milan Italy... We finished the day off by using Scotts birthday present from Mom and Dad for a nice meal at Mac's (bonus was kids eat free on Sundays), and then a trip to Quinns new school (next year) playground for some excercise. The kids were so excited to play on a new playground, especially one they might be going to every day next year.

I hope all of you had a safe and fun weekend and have a great week!

Busy Busy Busy

I am going to attempt at least a two post week here, watch out! Although this computer seems to be running mighty slow, so we'll see.
I feel like I haven't sat down all week. I was busy preparing for the yearly membership meeting at the preschool, dealing with health issues and the preschool which included a 3 hour stint at bleaching everything in sight at the school with a couple other moms, and all day answering questions phone with questions. Then two meetings. This morning it was another meeting, this time work related, and then off to school again, this time to assist in Quinns class. Believe it or not, that was the first time I got to sit down all day. Gotta love circle time. After that it was home to clean here, and off to church for dinner. Thank goodness Scott was home for all of that, having the kids to deal with would have added a whole set of other issues.
As for Scott, he has been getting lots of phone calls from recruiters, and has had 1 phone interview with a company in Des Moines, Iowa (not our first choice for sure, but we'll see what happens), and has another interview on Friday with an automotive supplier in Romulus. This could be good, but he may be over qualified (it's a pretty small company). So keep him in your prayers that that would be a good fit... it'd be nice to be able to stay in the area.
Those are the big things going on for Scott and I right now, the kids are loving the warm weather and are out riding bikes on the "chalk streets" in the driveway every chance they get. They are also having fun with the shenanigans going on at school. The leprechauns are turning toilet water green, leaving green glitter everywhere, turning toys upside down etc. in the class room and they are getting the biggest kick out of it. Quinn and his classmates spent most of the day on Monday drawing pictures and signs trying to deter them, it was pretty funny. I of course forgot my camera when I was there today though, so pictures of that will have to wait. The pictures I posted today are from the beach party they had a week or so ago. Miss Bonnie, turns up the heat in the class and they all wear their bathing suits, they go swimming, play beach volleyball, and can buy snacks at the cabana. Gotta love Miss Bonnie, she sure does make school fun!

Routine

With Scott being home all the time I am most definitely out of my routine, thus the cause of the lack of blogging, that and the fact that he has been using my computer to look for jobs.

The lack of routine has been nice I guess, although dare I say I would welcome the return of some sort of regularity... it does make things easier. The beautiful weather this weekend has been a wonderful break and it has been great to get the kids out and running around.

We went to the Autorama on Saturday to see Lighting McQueen and Tow Mater, it was very crowded and crazy, but we had a good time anyway. I much preferred the auto show to this though, and it made me wish we would have gone to the home and garden show instead, but oh well... it was better than sitting home and cleaning toys. Today after church the kids and Scott spent the day outdoors, making a city in the driveway for the bikes, taking walks, making good use of the playground and generally having fun getting dirty. Then it was in for dinner and a trip to Opas (he wasn't there... again... we seem to always miss him when we visit) but we got a quick visit in with Duncan, a ride on the pug for Scott and QUinn and a short hello to the sheep from Avery, Quinn and Scott. Kaleigh was having trouble with the whole time change thing so she slept through the whole thing. After that we stopped by Grammy and Grampys for a longer than intended visit and its home now and time for bed... an hour late... or right on time!

Ok I have more pictures to post, but this computer doesn't want to cooperate right now.

Happy Birthday Super Dad Supreme

Today was Scotts Birthday, and he spent it being Super Dad. He went to the dentist at 9am, spent some time "trudging the pavement" on the internet looking for the perfect job, and then headed off to the preschool with Avery to be the "helping" dad today. It was our turn to help out in class, something we have to do about once or twice a month (for those of you not familiar with the co-op, this is how we keep costs down and have more input on what happens in the classroom). This was his first time with the priveledge and he did a fine job according to Ms. Bonnie. While he was in class I went to the grocery store and prepared the birthday dinner. Emily and the girls, Mom and GG joined us for lasagna, salad, and cake. After dinner Emily and I had to go to a board meeting for the school (this is how I know he did a good job as I got a first hand report from the teacher...she has no doubt now where Quinn comes from), so we left Mom and Scott with the kids...nice birthday present don't you think? Super Dad supreme, he got them all bathed and in bed by the time I got home. Happy Birthday Scott, thanks for being Super Dad supreme even on your birthday!