Another Week Down ...

Gosh time is flying by this Summer we are already at the end of June and getting ready for the 4th of July celebrations this coming weekend, not that we have plans other than making use of a long weekend to work more on the house ... how exciting is that, yeah I know but someone has to do it. Dave is working on the garage and the outside of the house and I am doing everything, definitely not a fair split but he figures I am home with Jade all the time so I can do so much more ... there goes the fun for Summer !!! Anyway hopefully another two weeks and we will be able to put the house on the market, I feel like we are dragging our tails here since we know it is probably going to take long to sell our house, this really isn't a good time to sell but it's as I have said before, a great, great time to buy, anyway so we will see.

So that being said the weekend was the normal thing, house hunting like crazy on Saturday and working even crazier on the house on Sunday, not too much excitement there.

I wanted to post some video that I took of Jades week at cheerleading camp, I thought there was no way they would learn that much but I was amazed just how much they did learn, it was very cute and they got to keep the pom pom thingi's which Jade was so excited about.

Anyway this first one is of them warming up :-)

More warm ups ... can you tell Jade is the only one that doesn't know her right from her left (hehehe), she was by far the youngest but still that she should know :-)

This was the cutest one and she has been doing it all weekend, Dave went for a cycle on Saturday night and it started to pour with rain while he was away so Jade and I, me with her old pom poms and her with the new ones, we stood waiting for him in the garage to cheer him on, I think the neighbors thought we were mad but I hope he appreciated it :-)

Then this is the floor routine, for those that haven't seen cheerleaders at the big games, sometimes during the game they cheer but can't stand up because it would be too disruptive so they do it from sitting down, here is an example of what they would kind of do ...

Then last but not least, at the end they did a pyramid which Jade was not part of which she was very sad about but there was only so many people they needed there and anyway, there weren't many that could do cart wheels so she chose those that could to do that, Jade was the only one that could do a round off which you see her doing here, thankfully finally the gymnastics is paying off (hehehe).

Then these last few are some pics of her with the class and then a few of her goofing around after the demonstration ...






Can you tell she really had fun :-)







And that's it, not too much planned for this week, a few playdates and hopefully lots of pool fun since we missed out on the pool the entire week last week, what with her in cheerleading the afternoon and with VBS the evening, thanks again Pam for taking Jade along with you and Anthony, she has such a ball and well the break for Dave and I was nice even though really we didn't do anything fun, except dinner out one night which was a nice treat.

Have a good week.

Cheerleader In Training ...

Here are just two pics of Jade in her cheerleading outfit she wore today, this is not an outfit that she got especially for this camp, I bought it ages ago to add to her dress up collection but she was adamant that she wanted to wear it today, oh well it couldn't hurt so I let her :-) what was funny is I could tell she knew she won that argument (hehehe).

She is really enjoying the camp and is exhausted at the end of every day, I can't wait to see what they put on for the parents on Friday, it should be very cute, I will try and video some of it if I can :-) and I remember to take the camera.





Then this was taken quickly this evening before she went off to Vocational Bible School, she is really having fun there too :-) and going off to sleep really quickly after getting home. Pam of course has spoilt her two nights in a row now, they finish off at 8h30 but she has taken them for ice cream both nights before bringing her home, Jade thinks she is in heaven :-)



Last but not least, another camp Jade will be attending is at the church I work at in the week, on a Wednesday night, I will be helping out at the camp for a week in July and this means that Jade can attend the camp which is a Music and Drama camp which I think will be fun for her so so far, the camps are really working out nicely.

That all being said I thought it was so funny, yesterday she cried because she wanted to go house hunting with me, I wasn't actually going house hunting but she thought I was going to do it without her while she was doing her cheerleading camp, can you believe that, she is excited about house hunting ... you would think going for 7 hours on a Saturday would be enough for her but obviously not, it's cute though, that she is so into it :-) !!!

Until next time ...

Lots of work to be done ...

Well not an exciting update this time around ... it's been a crazy week but nothing I want to get into on here, it would just bore you all have to death but thank God the week is almost over.

Jade and I didn't really do much that was too exciting this week, we hung out at the pool a lot and did some house hunting which I really thought she would find totally boring but as long as we are looking at model homes and not inventory homes she likes to find 'her' room, the poor thing thinks that if we bought that particular model, her room would come with everything she sees gosh is she in for a rude awakening !!!

We made a trip to the library to get her signed up for the Summer reading program which gives kids incentives to work toward with each hour that they read, Jade is excited. I got her a bunch of easy reading books and so far we are through the first two and she knows them pretty well, has to sound some words out but she is well on her way to reading. I really wanted to teach her this Summer so that when she went to Kindergarten she would already be able to read, with her loving books so much it's not too tough a task, we do at least 60 - 90 minutes a day, sometimes more if she reads with daddy at night too. It's so exciting to see her get into reading and being excited about being able to read, the little she is ... but still !!!

We were excited for a night swim on Friday but the weather didn't play along so we passed on that one, we could still have gone down but the water would have been really cold after all the rain we had this week and well it ready just wasn't that hot Friday evening, so Dave treated us to dinner which was a nice treat for me, there was enough for two dinners which is cool, I haven't had to cook much this weekend at all.

Saturday we got an early start to house hunting because Dave didn't cycle, we spent about 7 hours house hunting, can you believe that. We found another nice house we like so really the big thing now is to move our butts and get our house on the market which is what we have been busy doing the entire day today ... and it's not near ready yet.

The scary part is as I told you before our neighbors on both sides have their houses on the market already, but we have been noticing a neighbor which we don't speak to much working on his house inside and out too so we think their house might go on the market too soon, I hate the thought of that 4 houses in the same cul de sac for sale, all with the same house plan ... I don't know and Dave is thinking about doing the For Sale By Owner thing ... not so sure about that. I think I also mentioned that he was thinking of perhaps renting this house, I don't know about that either so there is lot's to think about that is for sure, hold thumbs for us please !!!

Jade is excited tomorrow her cheer leading camp starts, it's in the afternoon which messes up our days some but we will see how it goes. I am sure most of my 'alone' hours will be spent finding goodies to spruce up the house to make it pretty to sell. I am sure I will write more later in the week about her camp, I really hope she enjoys it.

You see I told you it was a boring update but I wanted to at least say hi and say we are all alive and well ... but tired !!! Have a good week.

Fathers Day Weekend

Firstly Happy Fathers Day to all the dads out there, hope you had a great day or Fathers Day weekend :-)

Ok let me back track a little, I cannot believe another week has flown by, Jade and I spent the majority of the week at the pool, we would spend mornings sorting out the house or going shopping or running odd errands but most afternoons we would spend at the pool, either our community pool or at the YMCA pool which Jade totally loves. This week she got qualified to go down the big slides, she was so proud of herself since she was one of the youngest that day going down the slide. To qualify you have to come down the slide and the tread water for 30 seconds in a 6 foot pool without touching the side and then you need to swim to the ladder furthest away. She didn't get the concept of treading water but with mommy's coaching on the side she passed with flying colors and spent the rest of our time at the pool going up and down. Now don't laugh but it was such a hot day mommy joined her and she and I had so much fun racing each other down the slide, there are two side by side and we would start together, she would always win because I would take the longest slide so she was so chuffed with herself that she was always the fastest :-)

Friday Jade and I did a lot of driving around in the morning looking at model houses and looking at new neighborhoods, I try and get out and see as much as possible during the week so that on Saturday when Dave is with me, I can narrow down the field a bit. The afternoon we went to the pool, we have been meeting my friend Pam and her son Anthony there quite a bit which has been nice, they moved out of our neighborhood into a neighborhood that doesn't have a pool so it's nice for them too to have a place to come frequently, I mean we are there all the time, so the company for us is good too. Anthony and Jade are the same age but are now slowly but surely starting to play better together, I don't know what has been up with the two of them.

Anyway after work Dave joined us at the pool, this was a nice surprise and we hung out there till 8pm, there was almost no one at the pool, it was amazing to have the place to ourselves. Next Friday night is a night swim, the pool normally closes at 8pm but on night swim nights they put the pool lights on and you can swim till 10pm, we try to always take advantage of that so we are looking forward to it.

Well Saturday was a very long day, we got a very late start to our house hunting as Dave went riding with some buddies and didn't get home till almost 12. Anyway we house hunted for about 6 hours can you believe that, thank God Jade is enjoying all this for the most part, we play games with her to go find 'her' room etc. and try and not make it too boring but eventually she starts to take strain and well after that long so were Dave and I. We saw many nice houses this Saturday, one we totally loved but we think it is out of our price range, we would love to make an offer on it but with our current house not being on the market, it's difficult to decide what to do. We really need to pick up the pace and complete all that needs to be done on our house and put it on the market, it would make all this so much easier. We need to either do that or decided we will rent our house when we find a house we love, that would be a wise decision in the market right now but still renting to me is such a risk, Dave doesn't think it is but I just don't know ... hopefully in time things will fall into place.

I think the thing that concerns me the most now is Jades schooling ... but I guess we will deal with that when the time comes, for now she is going to Matthews Elementary and if we land up moving before school starts we will just register in the school that is closest to us, if it lands up being after she starts school we will have to decide on whether to move her or not ... and I really don't want to move her but not moving her just makes things more complicated. I am trying to believe that things happen for a reason and let's just wait and see but all that know me know I am a total control freak so all this is tough :-(

Ok so now to Fathers Day, Jade and I snuck down early this morning to make daddy bacon, eggs and cheese on toast and of course he got his fruit juice and coffee too :-) what a treat, Jade so enjoyed helping me put that one together. Then we took it up to him and while watching him eat and in between bites he opened his gifts, a new cycling outfit, Gavin he finally has proper mountain biking shorts :-) and a cycling top so we are getting there. Then a new thermal mug for the pool and a Shop-Vac which is a wet / dry vacuum especially for his garage, all things he hinted for so hopefully we hit the nail on the head and he feels like he hit the jackpot :-)

After that we got ready slowly and got the car packed for a day trip to the lake, Cain Creek Lake, Dave had wanted to go try out their cycling routes so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity, Jade and I could camp out at the lake while he rode his bike and then he could join us when we was done. We got a nice spot under the trees which was great because Dave doesn't like being in the sun all day and well I needed a break from the sun every day and well we could see Jade in the water right in front of us. Lake water is so not my thing but it made for a nice change, Dave enjoyed his bike ride and then him and I pretty much just hung out watching all the goings on from our seats, Jade made lots of new friends which was nice too as it gave Dave a break from having to swim with her all the time :-) so we all had a really nice day there. We were there from about 12 ish till about 5h30'ish.







After getting home we all took showers quickly and went out for a bite to eat, a quick dinner which we all enjoyed and then really it was home and bed time for Jade, what a nice day we had :-) I hope Dave had as a good a day and I think he had :-)





We are all still getting used to Jades short hair, I think she is loving it the most, not once has she said she misses her long hair and the way she swings this style around, I can tell she just loves it. To me it takes more time, every morning I need to work it a little to make it look just right but it's getting easier. Dave says it's a lot easier but I think he misses her long hair even though he was the one that encouraged me to go and get it cut earlier than I had planned. He thinks she looks too boy'ish but Jade couldn't look boy'ish if she tried right now she has turned into such a girlie girl and I really think the cuts suits her too. I bet he will be the first to complain when it gets too long again :-) let's see ...



I love these pics of her and Dave, we take so many pics of her that when we take pics of us with her, I always think we should take more, we really only do that one family pic a year too ... shame on us !!!



Come on ... can you tell she loves the hair ... I think it is so funny but cute !!!





As for the plan for the rest of the week, lots and lots more pool time. It is back to work for me on Wednesday night after having three weeks break but I am looking forward to getting back, I think Jade does too, she loves hanging out with the kids at the church.

We also want to get to the library some time this week so she can be enrolled for the Summer reading program which she did last year and enjoyed. We also have lunch with a new South African we have have come across on Friday so that's something that might be fun too :-) But mostly it is pool pool and more pool time planned for the next week.

Some exciting news is that the week afterwards Jade is going on a cheer leading camp, I think I might have mentioned that, I was looking for a camp for July and August and found one for August, its a High School Musical camp, she is going to love that too, now it's just to find one for July :-) Wish me luck.

Ok that was a long enough update, have a great week.

Electric Slide !!!

I had to add this but it's not as cute as it was at the pool, the other day at the pool party they played the Electric Slide and a huge bunch of both adults and kids went to do the dance moves, Jade actually does Mr Music at school and this is one of the things they do there but Dave and I hadn't seen her do it for real but she kept up with everyone so well, I couldn't believe it. Here she had no one to follow so I guess she really doesn't look that great doing it but anyway, since I video'd it I thought I would add it.

Oh by the way excuse the mess in our computer room, I would love to say it is coz of all the work we are doing on the house but this is one room I have little or no control of to be honest, I think in the new house I should make one room his computer room or den and each night he can lock it when he leaves that way I don't have to look at it on a daily basis, I hate it so bad !!!

A Tiring Weekend To Say The Least ...

Well another week down, I can't believe it. We had a very tiring weekend, on Saturday we did almost 5 hours of house hunting, Jade managed pretty well considering it must be pretty boring for her, she loves the model homes and all the goodies in them but when we look at inventory homes that are empty it's not so much fun ... for me neither !!!

Anyway we looked at a bunch of homes and actually found a model or floor plan we might like. I had always said I wanted my Master bedroom upstairs and this one has the Master bedroom downstairs so I will have to think it through long and hard but there is still so much more to see so no decisions are being made quiet yet but at least we found one we liked and it was a nice size, around 3700 square feet and in a nice neighborhood too.

After that we went to our official pool opening party which was a Fiesta party and a pot luck at that, you had to take a Mexican dish of sorts to share, I have a nice Fiesta dip so mine was easy, just dip and some blue tortilla chips. This was right up Daves alley, he loves that food, Jade and I well, we picked a bit but didn't eat all that much. Jade had a ball as there were many kids to play with, also the water had warmed up enough for even us to get in so we had a good time and it was refreshing after a long day out in the heat, it has finally hit Summer here, that is for sure. We left the party at 8pm which is when the pool closes. Again I forgot my camera, sorry ...

Then yesterday, oh my gosh what a day, it was time to paint a large part of our upstairs to get the house ready for resale, well we got started with moving everything out of the loft which is Jades playroom, into all the other rooms upstairs, this was around 9h30 and we finished painting by about 10h30 last night, it was hectic but thank God it is done, now we just have to do the touch ups. There is still a lot of other painting to be done but this was the biggest part so thank God it is over with. Now we need to move everything back again, only we have packed up at least half of it and put it up in the Attic because we need to reduce the clutter for resale too.

Gosh there is so much work to be done but I am glad we got that done yesterday, through the week the upstairs will get cleaned and well Saturday I am sure we will be house hunting again and Sunday being Fathers Day and all, I think we will have to take a break, I don't have a plan for Fathers Day yet, we will have to see how the weather goes, you see we are into thunder storm season so rain is predicted almost every day, very weird but refreshing sometimes when it is so hot.

Otherwise, this week, I have a few thing on but for the most part I want to get a good deal of time at the pool, last week we didn't go at all and that was just bad. Friday Jade and I are going with Tina and her kids to Carowinds which is our local amusement park and water park, so that is something we will also be looking forward to.

We are getting used to Jades hair being short, it was great at the pool :-) but it does take more maintenance than long hair believe it or not.

Last but not least it is Daves dads birthday today, many happy returns, I know you will be spoilt rotten so will have a good birthday :-) We will be thinking of you especially today :-)

That's all for now, more later.

The New Do !!!

Ok so this morning I got up early so I could bath Jade and wash her long hair one last time, it takes forever to blow dry but it always looks so pretty when it just gets down but then 10 minutes later it is scruffy again.





So off to Sweet and Sassy we went, now a hair cut there is normally quite expensive but because the hair is being donated to Locks of Love, I was pleasantly surprised to hair the cut was free. That being said I know that Jade has always wanted to go to Sweet and Sassy to be pampered so I thought today was a good day for that, the school year being over with, her traumatic shots yesterday and now this extreme haircut so hopefully daddy won't mind too much but his little girl had a manicure and pedicure which she totally loved, oh boy hopefully she didn't get too used to that treatment (hehehe) that quickly.

It's too cute there, one of these years I think that Jade will have her birthday party there, it's expensive but if you take just 5 best friends I think it would be an awesome party !!!







Well there you go, there's the new do :-) Funny to me it looks so similar to how she had her hair cut just before Gavins wedding that to me she looks so much younger again. Here you can see her with her two pony tails to be donated.



I think it looks cute, I like it but more importantly she likes it and she likes that she can swing her head from side to side and her hair follows (hehehe).





Here she is showing off her manicure and pedicure :-) Hopefully it stays on a few days, it should stay on longer but she is so rough, we will see. Oh and she loved the stars on her face, I bought that little kit so I could put it on her on special occasions.





Anyway, let me know what you think :-)

Screamed Bloody Blue Murder ...

Well today was Jade full physical for Kindergarten and well we knew there were 4 shots to be had at this appointment but Jade is so brave when it comes to anything to do with pain or discomfort that I was more worried about me and my reaction to it all knowing my fears when it comes to needles.

Anyway we got there early because the doctors offices had moved and they were running late so we had a long wait, the nurse then took her height which is 44 1/2 inches and her weight was 50 pounds on the dot. That brought her to 75 percentile for height and weight which was fine as far as they were concerned.

She then had an eye exam and well ... that didn't go too well I am sad to say. Jade I have always thought had the most amazing eyes, she can find the smallest thing at a glace and the tiny bugs she sees that we almost can't, I always thought her eyes were amazing, well apparently at her last exam her eyes were amazing, she saw two rows lower than she needed to on the chart which made her eyes be above average and today, although they weren't too bad, they were far worse than last time which the doctor was concerned about. Now I think that it was more about the fact she has been out of school two weeks now and she has perhaps forgotten some of her letters, I hope that is it but they want us to go see an eye specialist so that we will do over the next while, please say a prayer all turns out well.

Then they asked her a bunch of questions, like name, middle name and last name, her phone number which thank God we practised in the car over there, can she spell her last name, that too we practised (hehehe) and a bunch of other thing, they asked her to give them a couple of opposites which she was confused at because we really haven't done that but when the doctor said, big and she said small and she said tall and Jade said short, they were happy with that :-)

Then she had to have an hemoglobin finger prick which I had not banked on but that went well, in fact Jade watched it all and even laughed that it was not sore which amazed me but then all of a sudden fear overcame her and she totally freaked out, started crying and saying she didn't want the shots, this surprised me. Well it was all downhill from there, she screamed bloody blue murder for each of the 4 shots she had, it was over quickly but she screamed so loud, I am amazed. Thank God she calmed down quickly and now seems fine. She had already taken off all her bandaids and seems fine, especially since I bought her a new craft and all. But my golly what an experience, thank God there are no more shots till she turns 11.



Unless I take more pics in the morning, this might be the last time you see that long beautiful hair. I had planned on growing it another inch before cutting it because I didn't want to have it cut too short when we cut off the 10 inches for Locks of Love but after a weekend at the pool, Dave said, it's time to just cut it off. He is probably right considering her hair that we are going to donate will probably get ruined from the pool in the Summer, this way at least the hair we send them will still be in good shape.



So tomorrow, Tuesday, we are off for that big step ... I know as much as it is going to make our lives so much easier, I probably will cry when they cut it off, I did when we had that first cut just before my brothers wedding, that was terrible. Anyway Jade is very excited, both at donating the hair to a good cause and just, she is really excited to have shorter hair.

We are going to have it cut at Sweet and Sassy, that too has raised huge excitement because she has wanted to go there in forever, it is a salon for little girls where they get pampered with haircuts, make up and manicures and pedicures. If you have your hair cut there for Locks of Love the cut is free which is amazing since you are dealing with really good hairdressers but they are doing it for the cause too so I think I will treat Jade to some of the other treatments there just because this is such a special thing she is doing and well for me, I think just to soften the trauma ... for me :-)



Of course I will take photo's and send them as soon as possible but hold thumbs that we get a nice cute cut, that just scares me, you never know what you are going to get ???



So keep a lookout for the 'modelling' pics tomorrow.

Sunday Night Bath Pics ...

You all know by now how much I like to take bath pics so here are just a few more that I took tonight before she came out the bath ...



Jade still loves her bath and can be in there till the bath water is almost frozen and we wouldn't know unless she told us, thankfully as she has gotten older she has learnt to run more warm water in when the water gets too cool.



She still has way too many toys in there too but one of these days mommy is going to have to clean out and throw out but since she is on Summer vacation maybe we can make that a team effort and then throwing out some stuff won't be so bad.





We have such a smiler for a daughter that it is seldom in front of the camera that you get a face not smiling but when she gets tired of playing model this is the kind of face you start to get and it only gets worse from here but this one wasn't too bad yet :-)





It's also weird to see her weird to see her without a her hair in her face or even a fringe, lately she has spoken about not having a fringe but I don't think mommy is ready for that yet, the Locks of Love is going to be bad enough ... she is so excited for that, I can hardly believe it.



I forgot to take the camera to the pool yesterday, we had a nice time and it would have been nice to get some pics from the party and of the live band but I am sure you guys get enough from me ... anyway I will post more this week so keep a look out.

In the meantime have a great week.