This is our life

The picture above fully describes our life every single night! Homework, homework, homework! I get home and the table is covered with it. I instantly begin to breathe fast, my heart races, I get that ache between my eyes and then hear "I need help with..." Calgon, take me away! Hannah's really isn't so bad. I figured she would be the tough student this year, going into Jr. High. She usually has math each night, we study Spelling, maybe some Geography. She's struggling in Math now so I have her do extra work in Math for practice. Noah, on the other hand...the other night he had 11 worksheets to do. Seriously, ELEVEN!! That is insane. Granted, it's usually only about 7 or8...that's still insane! WHY must they send that much homework? Do the teachers not realize that when the kids have to spend their entire evening doing homework there is NO family time?!?! Family time turns into mom running around trying to get dinner ready and help with a problem someone has with homework, get the table cleared after dinner and help with homework, check the homework, try not to get frustrated when you have to have the child correct some of their homework. Noah literally spends 3 hours every night on homework. Aaaggghhh!!! The child has no life! He's getting frustrated with school. In the past, he has always loved school, always came home with A's and B's. His Friday folder is littered with C's, D's and an F here and there. What is going on?? I was told when I found out who his teacher was that we would have problems. Man alive, do we ever! I already spoke with the teacher about this two weeks ago. Of course, she thinks I am the one that is nuts, that she doesn't give too much homework! Is that why there are many parents ready to lynch you, Mrs. Medley?!?!?! Pulease! Well, this Thursday is Parent-Teacher Conference--I plan to do some "discussing" then. (Someone have some extra cash to bail me out if I get out of hand?!?!?)

And here's Hannah's school picture. Isn't it great??? She looks so much older here! Makes me sad. Noah doesn't have his pictures taken until October 24th.

Okay, only 5 more days until we leave for our vacation! Yay! We are soooooooooo excited! I mean, I can't tell you how excited we are! Lyle has all of our hotels planned out for us (9 nights for $375 with tax!), our personal tours of the White House and Capitol Building and we are planning all of our other stops and visits. The kids are more concerned about what they're buying when we go to the Lego Shop!!! :)

Gotta go get ready for chuch. Hope you all have a great week!

Lyle's Birthday Party

Today was Lyle's birthday party. You can see him above with his Happy Birthday hat, left over from Hannah's birthday party! We really had a great time. Our friends -- the Cooks, Jeffers, Ricketts and Ritchies [ minus Jamie, Jessi and Simon :( ] came and enjoyed the beautiful day. The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time playing. By "kids", I mean all those 12 and under AND the guys!!!! :)
Here is the T-shirt Tom Jeffers got him. In case you can't read it, it says "MY OLD LADY SAID SHE'D LEAVE ME IF I BOUGHT ONE MORE GUITAR!...SURE GONNA MISS THAT GIRL!" How perfect is THAT?!?!?!?! Good one Tommy Boy! (Tom just had a birthday too, by the way. Uh, hmm...He's older than Lyle!!)

Here is Lyle with Emma Cook, Brad and Jessi Cook's daugther. He's alwasy been sweet on Emma!! :)

Here's Jessi with Logan. Logan just had his 1st Birthday the day after Lyle's birthday!!! Happy Birthday Logan!

Noah had to show me his new trick on his bicycle. Doesn't he look adorable?!?! The over-protective mom in me wanted to yell "GET YOUR FEET ON THE PEDALS!!!!", but the mom that has understood he just needs to be a kid said "That's awesome!"

Hannah and Lyle had to cheese it up for the camera. GREAT picture of them! I love this!!! Hannah is so pretty!

Ahhhhhh, I'm going to take this opportunity to sit in the chair and do absolutely NOTHING! I'm exhausted. Hope you all have a fantastic week!

2 weeks and 5 days till we leave for Washington DC............

Guitars!

Okay, today is the day that "the boys" go to St. Louis to the big guitar place. Giddy isn't even the word! Oh my gosh. You'd think they were 7 year olds going to Disneyworld! I was still in bed when Brad and Brad got here, but I was awake. Good thing because they totally would have waken me up! I had to ask Lyle if it was JUST Brad and Brad or did they get some others to go because it sounded like a herd of them out there! I made him go outside and tell them people were still asleep at 7:20 in this neighborhood!! And Lyle was all jittery this morning, running around. Toooo funny!

I took off after work last night for Decatur to go shopping. I had a great time! Went to the mall and did a mad dash in about 2 hours. It was funny--I was in the fitting room at JCPenney and kept hearing a voice I thought I recognized. Finally the voice said "Kate". Aha! "Jamie? Katie?" It was Jamie and Katie Jeffers right next to me! Anyway, I did Penneys, Old Navy, Kohls and Payless and spent too much money at every single place!! Then off to Target to find some luggage for our trip. Found a great set for a great price. (2 weeks and 6 days till we leave!!!) Then off to Wal Mart for more stuff! Lyle asked me this morning how much was in the checking account (he has the debit card today!)...I said probably $5 after last night!!!! :) hahahahahaaa!

Noah has a soccer game today. It's nice and CHILLY out there for it too. Oh well, glad it's not raining or 85 degrees!

Hope you all have a great weekend!! :-)

Family

I stole a picture of my new cousin from his mommy's blog!!

Here is Evan Glenn Emery, son of Robert and Saranne Emery. Robert's dad is Brad, my mom's brother. For those of you who knew Bob growing up, check out their blog http://rsemery.blogspot.com/ Little Bobby is a daddy! :0

Hope your week is going well so far. Lyle has his 35th birthday tomorrow, September 12th. He calls it his middle birthday. Don't know if it's middle of 30 and 40 or middle of his life. He swears he won't make it past 70, so he's at the middle of his life. I dunno. He's a freak!! :) He's going to St. Louis with two of his guitar buddies Saturday to check out a big guitar store. Ha! Like he needs to get anymore ideas! Nah, he needs the time away. I'm glad, because I finally get a Saturday off that I can see Noah play soccer! Then it's home to clean, clean, clean! We're having a get together with some of Lyle's closest friends from church to celebrate his "middle" birthday! Can't wait.

Just 3 weeks and 3 days until we leave for Washington DC!!! We are all so excited. Lyle got us a GREAT deal on a hotel in downtown DC. 2 Room Suite, super nice, normally $349 a night---$40 a night!!!!! It's all about who you know! Noah is stoked about going to the Lego store!!!!! That kid dreams of Legos! :) Hannah really wanted to see the American Girl store but it's not anywhere near where we'll be. Maybe an extra trip to Chicago sometime....We're planning to stop in Louisville, KY on our way home to see Wayne and Greta Meece, go to church with them. That will be very nice.

Everyone have a great week! Enjoy this cooler weather. I LOVE IT!!!!!!

More Days Gone By....

I found this piece of notepaper that Noah had written. I have no idea when he wrote it! In case you can't read it, it says "Dear Diary, I love Jinx (our cat) but I'm acting like I hate him and Hannah doesn't know." I love it!

This is Christmas 2000. Hannah is 5, Noah just turned 3. I can't remember what he was mad about, but isn't that lip cute?!? I tell ya, he was born with that lip sticking out like that! I'm not kidding. His first pictures, he's sticking his lip out!!! He's such a blessing!

These two pics are Easter 1996. Hannah was 9 months old. That was probably the first time she even wore a dress! Look how young we look! And look how dark Mark's hair and beard are below...hahahaha! And this was the day we began attending church!!

We didn't have a bathtub in the trailer so the kids had to bathe in a storage tub!! :-) This is Noah at about 9 months old... ***we didn't have a tub but we DID have a shower!!*** :-)

And here's Noah out in the snow, 1998/1999 (just over a year old). I clearly remember this day! He hated the snow at first!! It was sooooo funny! Hannah was having a blast, making snow angels but all Noah could do was cry! See the lip sticking out?!?!?!?!

Pana Labor Day Parade

Hannah got to march with the Pana Jr. High Band in the Labor Day parade this year! She has started playing the flute and is taking extra lessons with Mr. Dean but was not quite ready to play her flute in the parade. So she got to hold the banner. She did a FANTASTIC job! I was so proud of her! I don't think I've ever seen anyone have such straight posture and hold a banner so well before!! :-) She loved it. The long walk hurt her legs but she's okay. It was different for her--she's used to riding on the church float every year.

Speaking of church float....here's the float THCC made! Okay, I think it was mostly the Ritchies, Hicks and Hardys...big thanks to you guys for your hard work! The theme this year was Fable and Folklore. Hmmm....what does a church do with that?!?! THCC took the standpoint of Fable, Folklore or Truth! See the Bible the kids are sitting on? Karen did a fantastic job on the lettering. That's Noah at the far left sitting in the desk. He had fun! And I was so proud of him for smiling and waving so much!

We had a busy weekend--took the kids to the Pana Tri-County Fair on Saturday. They had horse races at the Grandstand. That was fun to watch. And it was FREE!!! Of course, they had to play games before we left, since they do not ride rides. Hmpf! I think I spent about $20 for a few 50 cent toys!! Plus the Lemon Shake-Up, Snow-Cone and Funnel Cake for the kids!

Sunday we had a great time with Derrick and Karen Ritchie at Pizza Hut after church. Josiah spent the afternoon with us afterwards. Man, those boys can talk 100 miles a minute!!! They are the greatest buddies.

Monday we had a great time being able to visit with family at the parade--my mom, Lyle's mom and dad, Grandma and Grandpa Vincent and Aunt Janie. Janie sat on the curb and got all the candy for my kids! She was great! Then Lyle spent part of his afternoon doing phone work for my Grandma and Grandpa Kime in their new house. Was great to visit.

Lyle began teaching his class tonight. He started early this morning, will be home late. This is going to wear him out pretty bad! And my day was BUSY! Margaret is on vacation so I'm her all week. "Monday" after a holiday--I ran almost 500 prescriptions today! My fingers are tired!

Hope you all had a great weekend. I'm ready for the cooler weather to come our way!

Days Gone By...

I've neglected my blog here recently--I ran out of pictures to put on! So I got out a box of old pictures from the basement and chose some to put on. I'll do that periodically, to bring back some memories--for you and me!

It amazes me how much my kids have grown. I almost can't remember them being so small. There are times I wish I could turn back the clock...do so many things over again, pay closer attention, do more things with them. But that's life! I'm sure we all feel the same way.

I have so many great pictures, so it was hard to choose. I lost a ton of pics though, when our basement flooded in 2002. You know, after we moved in, had a huge rain and had about 2 foot of water in our "dry" basement (according to Phil Dressen!) Oh, I was sick! Crying like crazy for days, if not weeks! I lost pictures of the kids, our wedding, Hannah's baby book (hmmmm....where did Noah's go???), a few yearbooks, a few dolls were soaked, old papers...it was horrible! Anyway, before I get upset again.....here's a few on memory lane..........

****these are a little blurry because I took pictures of the pictures!! I know--lazy!***

Where we began--October 28, 1989. We had officially been dating 1 month. It was Tower Hill school's Halloween dance and my mom made us Raggedy Ann and Andy costumes. Ahhhh, he HAD to have loved me, huh?!?!? This was the first night he told me he loved me!

This was Lyle's Senior Prom--May 4, 1990. I must say I looked great that night! :-) Oooooh, I loved that dress! Ruffled back, slit up the front. Beautiful necklace. I loved that night!

Lyle and me on Labor Day, 1991.

Wow, I wish I still looked like that! :-)

September 26, 1992--Mr. and Mrs. Lyle Cutler!!

Our mini vacation to Southern Illinois in June of 1997. I was about 5 months pregnant with Noah and we hiked and hiked. Phew! It was soooo hot! But we had a great time. See Hannah's pigtails?? She was so cute!

Noah was probably 2 years old here. Looks like the fall of 1999. What a ham!

I LOOOOOOOVVVVVVVE this picture! I forgot I even had it! Hannah's looking out the shower door at Noah. 1998

And here's my cuties in the backyard when we lived on Park Avenue, leaned up against Grandpa Kim's old boat. My, how they've grown!

Lyle and Hannah wearing their Pull-Ups hats!!! They're sooo cute! I had Noah just 12 days after this pic was taken.

Noah playing in the front yard in the fall of 1998.