Sunday, August 31, 2008

Helping Around the House

This is Callie's hiding spot. She has to get away sometimes and this is where she goes.
Guess her hiding spot has been discovered.


Saturday morning usually tends to be the morning of grocery shopping and cleaning. Today Hunter decided to help out with the vacuum on his own. I was on the phone with someone and heard the vacuum going in the front part of the house. He had plugged in the vacuum, turned it on, and then proceed to vacuum. He was very precise on where he vacuumed. Boy does he watch my every move. He even went and vacuumed under his little table. The picture above is one of him vacuuming later in the morning.






Saturday, August 30, 2008

New Opportunities


I have always believed in fate. Moving to Naples, Fl, was meant to happen. I was offered a job at the job fair the day I flew down to interview. Found a place to live the next day and then flew back to TN with confidence that Naples was where we were supposed to be.


That was in 2003 and now another door has opened. This door leads to Bristol, VA/TN. Adam has been offered a wonderful position at The Olde Farm. The picture above is one of the many that I had taken this summer when we went to visit. He will begin working as the Caddie Master in March. We are truly excited about beginning a new journey, but sad to see the journey here in Naples end.

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Hunter's Organizational Skills

Putting his books up after he was finished.
Catching him in his moment of reading in his little reading corner.

Hunter amazes me daily. I catch him reading all of the time. He acts like he is reading aloud. The past few mornings I have noticed that he has taken to this little corner and likes to sit and read. There are so many moments I see myself in him and then other moments when I see Adam in him. He definitely has my organizational skills. YEAH! He is really good at putting up his toys once he is done. We work on this consistently and it is paying off.
He does have his messy moments though. The day "Fay" we had the markers out and usually he is really good at not making a mess but for some reason that day he made a mess! I found red marker on the door handles, baby monitors, and then as I was going to be noticed it on our bedspread. LOVE IT! Thank goodness it was Washable markers. I have added a few pictures of Adam and Hunter coloring that day so check out that below.
Whew...even though it was a short week and we are going to have to make up our "hurricane" day, I'm glad it was over. I am really lucky because I have a wonderful class.
Last night Adam kept Hunter for a few hours while I went out and visited with several of my friends who are now former teachers of SPE. It was so good to see them and catch up. We had a lot to discuss, updates on personal lives - engagements, people moving - discussing the year ahead, and sharing exciting news about a parent from the past ;)
This morning I went and burned off the calories I ate last night. I have joined a group of girls that have "hired" a trainer to come and work with us. I LOVE IT! We meet 2 times a week and do one day of weights and one day of cardio. I really have not had time to exercise at home other than chasing after Hunter and riding bikes as a family. This is great! I hope I just keep it up.






Thursday, August 21, 2008

First Week of School

Ok...so this week hasn't been a full week and I still have one more day left. Right now my feet are throbbing and my voice is gone, but hopefully after a full night's rest I will be well energized and ready to face the last day of the week. I love teaching, but the first few days always seem to be the toughest on my body. I don't sit around all of the time during the summer, but something about being in the classroom those first few days really tends to wear me down. We were lucky and had a shorter week due to Fay. Thank goodness for that. Tomorrow night I'm heading out for a "book chat" - the common term that my friends and I use in our work e-mails that refers to getting a beverage after work. I'm looking forward to sitting back and relaxing with a few other of those hard working teachers! Hope to get more pictures up on the blog this weekend. TGIF!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Tropical Storm Fay




Today was suppose to be my first day back at school. Instead...we had a hurricane day. Fortunately Fay was friendly to us. The rains started yesterday during the day and was basically a drizzle all day. Last night the winds started to churn a little more. There were tornado warnings out. I slept on the couch with the TV on mute all night. I wanted to be as close to Hunter as possible without being in the same room. (He's pretty smart, and would expect me to sleep with him again tonight if I did last night.) Throughout the night I woke up hearing horrible winds and rain. This morning we awoke to a pond in the backyard and another in the ditch out front. We were really lucky that this was not more than a Tropical storm because the eye of the storm was within a few miles from our home. The only damage we have is a leak in the wall in our Master Bedroom. There was a crack in the wall outside that slowly let in water throughout the storm. So...1/4 of our bedroom carpet is drenched and needs to be replaced. Which...I'm pretty happy with seeing as I have wanted to have that carpet replaced for 3 years.

Todays agenda started with Hunter waking up around 5:50. We basically stayed around the house and enjoyed the day. Our electricity was out for about 5 hours but was restored rather quickly. Hunter took a good nap and we went out to "town" for a brief outing. Tonight was another "big boy" surprise. Hunter has been noticing when he needs to go to the bathroom, but has refused to sit on the "big boy" potty. Today he pulled at his diaper and ran to the bathroom. He didn't make it. Then tonight he took his diaper off, handed it to me, and he ran to the potty and made it! I'm not sure if this is the beginning of potty training or just as tease, but he is now running around naked. I'm hoping that it is just that easy. Stay tuned....

Monday, August 18, 2008

The Morning After

The "Big Boy" bed was a success! He slept till 6am! He hasn't done that since the middle of July. Unfortunatly, I had to get up at 5:15am to get ready for work, but I'm excited that he is finally happy and will get a good nights rest.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

The World Of Blogging




I welcome myself to the world of blogging. I will go ahead and apologize for my misspellings and grammatical mistakes throughout this experience. I am looking forward to sharing our experiences with everyone through the internet.
As you all know, Hunter is the center of our lives here in Naples, Florida. It is amazing how fast life flies by. The title of our blog is "Where Troubles Melt Like Lemondrops". Thanks to Virginia Reynolds for the idea. One of my favorite songs is "Over the Rainbow" from 50 First Dates. It is by an artist named IZ. I feel like that no matter what our troubles may be, they tend to melt like lemondrops whenever we are around Hunter. Life can come at you hard at times and just the tiniest thing he does can make it all worth it.
These days Hunter is experiencing the "Big Boy World". We have purchased a "big boy" potty and have taken a "tinkle" in it one time and have mainly played with the potty since. He has also decided that he is done with the crib. We purchased a beautiful bed from Craig's List (which is fabulous!) today. I'll post a picture of it once we have everything set up in the "big boy" room. He now goes to the refrigerator and pantry and pulls things out when he is hungry or thirsty. We are working on asking mama and daddy for help with these things. Another thing he has found fun is picking up trash and putting it in the trash can. Of course the recycle freak I am, I go behind him and take out those things that can be recycled. He loves to sit and color with markers at his little picnic table I purchased a garage sale. Today I discovered that he likes to color on an easel. I also discovered him brushing Callie's hair (our dog) with my hair brush. I guess I could continue with the little life lessons that we are learning daily, but I don't know if I would have much else to talk about tomorrow.
We have gotten back into the routine of going to our "friend's" house during the day (his sitter's house) and having mama or daddy picking him up at the end of the day. I am supposed to have my first day with the kiddos on Tuesday, but we have a wonderful hurricane about to hit. So...not sure if we will have school that day. UGH! I'm ready to get things started....been working on my classroom for about 3 weeks now.
Well, I know that I have probably already filled a large amount of space on the blog so I'm going to stop here for now. Stay Tuned for the pictures of the bed and other life experiences with the Boyd Family. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes:
"To the world you are just one person, but to one person you are the world."