And the Winner Is....

Deborah! She wins the retired "Basket Full of Fun" set.

Thank you to all who played and scoured my blogs. Thanks for all the lovely comments! I had a lot of fun with the blog candy. Keep reading, I may do this again sometime (or two or three!).

The correct post I had you all search for was dated October 21, 2006. There were 26 comments made. I used a random number generator and up popped 11. So counting down 11 comments, we get...

Deborah said...

WOWZER! You are doing great! Congrats on 10,000 big ones! Deb

8:30 PM

Deborah - I followed the link to your blog. I used the email address listed. Please contact me for your blog candy.

Almost up to 10,000 - blog candy alert!

So this little family blog that I started the second to the last day of 2004 has grown to almost 10,000 hits. The first year around this time we were just at about 2,000. Then the second year around this time we were at just about 6,000. And now, well, you've seen the title!

I do know that we do get a few random hits from people googling certain words, and we just pop up. About a fourth of the hits are close friends and family. The majority of the hits are stampers brought here from splitcoastbloggers.blogspot.com. This a HUGE listing of blogging stampers that read and post at splitcoaststampers.com. I know a lot of them are expecting to see a stampin' blog, so that's why I added the link to my stampin' blog up above. (Check that one out too! It's been averaging about 1,000 hits per month.)

So if you ARE a stamper, here is your chance for some blog candy. Here's the deal. Find the post on this blog where I originally posted about this blog reaching 6,000 hits. Post a comment in *that* thread. I will randomly choose one poster to receive last Stampin' Up! catalog's retired Level 3 hostess set "Basket Full of Fun". (Sorry there is no picture, you can find samples in the gallery on splitcoast or in last year's catalog.)

Here's a bonus. Go over to my stampin' blog (see link above). If you post a comment over there AND are the winner over here, I will throw in a few extra goodies with your stamp set. Happy posting!

Kyle Goes to School!

So my baby boy is officially a preschooler!

One of the things that I was bummed about when we found out that we were moving was that Kyle was going to lose his spot in the school district run Preschool. This preschool was very affordable compared to what private preschools charged. Around here at our new place, people put their kids on preschool waiting lists before the kids turn one year old, so the chances of Kyle getting into an affordable preschool was not looking good.

So when we get here, I start calling around. I can find space at Preschools, but I am getting ridiculous quotes most of them were anywhere from $106-119 per week for part time two days a week. Eight hours total per week. That comes out to be roughly $13-15 per hour. Well, I thought that was just a bit too pricey for us. I had resigned to the fact that Kyle was just not going to be going to preschool and next year would have to go right into Kindergarten without any kind of social prep. Of all my kids, Kyle is the most clingy to me and the slowest to warm up. He is constantly attached to me in social settings, such as picking up Kevin and Kaela from school or at family parties where there are lots of unfamiliar Aunties, Uncles and cousins. Not to mention all the Lolos and Lolas.

Anyway, I see an ad for a preschool that is run by the Parks and Recreation department. It isn't an academic program but rather a social program. Perfect! This is exactly what Kyle needs. So of course when I call the first week of September to inquire, there is no space available, but if we wanted to be on the waiting list, we could come by and have a tour. So, I tell Kyle that we are going to look at a school that he might be going to. He is very excited so I have to explain to him that there isn't a space for him and that we were only going to look. Kyle says, "Maybe we can ask a kid to move over so I can have a spot to sit." Too cute. I had to explain to him that I didn't mean that kind of spot.

SoO, we get to the school, and he is all excited. But, as soon as the door opens for us to go inside, he immediately super glues himself to me and won't let go. I try to encourage him to play with stuff while I talk to the teacher, but he just isn't having it. He wont talk to the teacher or to any other kids. He doesn't utter one word the whole time we are there. So, now I am totally worried that he won't do well at parting at school and if he did get a spot, he would be crying every morning.

So, the teacher is nice, the school is nice and on we go to the waiting list. I'm thinking that he'll never get in. BUT, not two weeks later, the new session is starting and they have an opening or two. So, we go back to fill out the paperwork and to pay the tuition, VERY affordable at what works out to be $5.50 an hour. Kyle still does not want to talk to anyone and is definitely not straying from my side. The teacher explains to me that when Kyle starts it'll be fine. There will be tears, but they are experts at handling it. Some kids cry for a week every morning, others cry everyday for the whole year. I thought, "Great. That'll be Kyle."

So, Kyle starts that following Monday, the 17th. One of the forms I fill out is a list of Kyle's favorites and one of the things that was asked was his favorite color. I wrote down blue. So, the teacher reads the list and knows from the times she's met Kyle that he would have to be coaxed into letting go of my hand. Let me back track here a bit... the weekend before he started school, we went to pick out a lunch box and a water bottle. I had run through different situations with Kyle on what to do at school. What if you have to go to the bathroom? Tell the teacher. What if a kid is being mean? Tell the teacher. So, he knows he is going to school Monday and is very excited about and he is talking all about how he is going to be in Preschool. Totally looking forward to it.

We get to school and yes, he is attached. And no, he won't say a word. So back to the list. The teacher reads that his favorite color is Blue and totally gets him with that. "Kyle, we need to get you a cubby (a container where they keep their stuff). What's your favorite color?" Silence. "Is it blue?" she asks. Kyle gets a big smile on his face and nods. She takes his hand and leads him away. He waves at me. Whew, he's going to do fine. But, McKenna is now following them. "Kenna come here. We are going home. Only Kyle is going to school." So, McKenna crumples to the floor and cries. The teachers thought it was cute. She was upset because she didn't want to leave her brother. Um no, not cute. Baby crying!

So, one last thing about this list. They had asked if there was anything in particular to know about Kyle. Well, they wouldn't have guessed this because Kyle appears at first glance to be extremely shy. When he is comfortable, he is LOUD. He is my loudest child. When I went to pick him up from this first day, I could hear him through the door. When I saw his teacher, I say, "I see he warmed up." "Um, yeah he did!" she says with a disbelieving look on her face. He is now in his second week. He loves it. The teachers never would've guessed he was the same kid they met before school started.

Keith

Keith doesn't like to get his picture taken, but he does indulge me every once and a while. He'll even crack a smile! He probably won't be too happy about me posting this picture, but I really like this picture. I took this while we were at the Zoo with Dad and Mary...

A Bit of Silliness

So, it was HOT here a few days ago. VERY hot. It was in the high 90s for several days and the nights were even in the mid 80s. This is not fun weather for us spoiled SoCal people!

Well, since it was so hot, we didn't really go out. We all just tried to stay cool here at home. Our new house doesn't have AC and there wasn't much of a breeze. I ended up buying two more fans. We have 5 free standing floor fans. They really did help.

Anyway, this is what we did one day when it was HOT. I took out my camera and was just fooling around taking pictures of the kids and me and Keith. So, since we were all kind of in the picture taking mood (everyone except Kevin), I wanted to do a family picture. This is what we got...

Falling into a Routine

So school has been in session for just under three weeks, but it seems to me that three months have gone by. Our schedules are jam packed and the kids aren't in any activities yet other than school.

I keep my calendar in Outlook. It is a very neat program because you can assign a color to each person and then keep it all on the same calendar. When you look at the month view you can see who has what going on just with a glance. It works really well for us. Anyway, my calendar is blocked solid for the next few weeks. Kevin is starting up scouts this week. Michaela has gone on a play date already and has a birthday party coming up. Not to mention all the swaps that I have to finish off and mail.

I need a vacation!

So my last post talked about the traffic around the school. Well, last week we tried walking in the morning. It worked out pretty well. It has been Africa hot (as my friend Julie says) for about a week, but it has cooled down considerably. So, walking in the morning is quite nice. It takes about 15 minutes to get there are a nice pace and 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. McKenna is in the umbrella stroller and Kyle walks like the big kids. Kyle does pretty good!

Michaela started with home work two weeks ago, but Kevin brought homework home for the first time just today. The school Open House was last Thursday night. Keith went to Kaela's class and I went to Kevin's. I was pleasantly surprised that Kevin has less homework here than he did at his other school. Kevin was happy about it too.

At Open House, there was a call for Room Moms/Dads. Since I was a Room Mom for Kevin last year, I decided to do it for Michaela's class this year. Well, seven other Moms had the same idea. For Kevin's class there was only one volunteer, so I decided to step away from Michaela's class and help out with Kevin's.

We will see how busy all the school stuff keeps me! I'll keep you posted.