Sunday Sunday

Today brought sunny skies, still cooler temps than normal, but at least the sun was shining and we could get back in the yard and continue our work of preparing the yard for spring and summer. We weeded the front beds today while Jackson napped in preparation for mulch which will go down this week. Jackson played outside while we also cleaned our outdoor kitchen and grill area and re-swept the pool deck and took down some lights that Jon had strung up the palm trees for Christmas and finally we accomplished a task I have been wanting to do for about 2 years.......we re-painted our wrought iron table and chairs plain black, they look like new and we will dress them up with some new outdoor pillows for the season. These are chairs and a table Jon was given from Grandma and Grandpa O'Bryant when they replaced their set, he lugged them all the way to Florida and then I painted them beautiful summery colors for our beach condo from the Ohio hunter green that they were. I still liked my beach colors for the set, but it has been almost five years and they needed re-painting and we decided it was time for a new look so we went with classic black and we'll add the color with the pillows. Sam's has some amazing patio sets this season but we're making do with what we have and the new paint and pillows will give new life to the set we have.

Things are starting to look back to normal in our yard after our work the past two weekends but this winter has been so bad here, there is still a lot of brown from the many frosts we have had and we cannot cut it all back until about another month when we are no longer in danger of having another frost. If we expose the hearts of the plants now and it frosts again (like it is supposed to do tonight) then we will likely lose the plants so we'll put up with the brown for a bit longer. We're contemplating making a very small corner of the yard for a vegetable garden or maybe just taking one big pot and doing a variety planting of herbs and trying out one of those topsy turvy tomato bag growers........I would LOVE to do the vegetable garden but the voice of reason in me is saying YOU DO NOT HAVE TIME TO TAKE CARE OF IT and it will just die, or the dogs will wreck it, ugh. Maybe we'll have to aspire to do the real vegetable garden some day later in life and go with the herb pot and tomato bag grower for now.......hope everyone is having a nice Sunday. We have had another great low key weekend filled with lots of down time and famly time and we're counting down the days until Aunt Megan arrives for some fun and sun!!

another weekend rolls around

Its another weekend which means we are able to relax and re-group as a famiy and get ready to take on the coming week! Thankfully we have another quiet weekend on the agenda and we're doing NOTHING special. We slept in a bit today (if you can call 6:47am sleeping in) and then we brought Jack in to our room and we all got to wake up to My Friends Tigger and Pooh thanks to the Disney channel. Seriously though, while I would prefer Jackson not to wake at sunrise like he does, I LOVE the weekend mornings when I can bring him into our room and we can just snuggle and wake up slowly to his shows. He is cuddly in the morning and oftn wakes with warm pink cheeks and it is my favorite time of the day (other than right after nap time as he is equally loving and cuddly then). He loves it too and he knows instantly that it is a fun family day and not a work/school day when I get him out of his bed and I'm still in my pjs and he goes to our room with me.

Unfortunately last weekend's balmy spring weather did not stick around and today goes down as one of the WORST Florida weather days since I've been a Florida resident. It is almost March and it was a HIGH of 46 today with whipping north wind and gray skies for most of the day and then a treat of cold wet pelting rain in the afternoon. Just perfect as that meant we could not get out to finish up our yard work and the frost we got the night before pretty much did in our efforts from last weekend, arrrrghhh!!! Sorry if the yard does not look great when you get here Megan, this winter has been AWFUL here and has ALMOST actually felt like winter, rather than normal Florida weather here. I am hoping for at least 70's for your week here and sun, it has not broken 50 here for the past two days!!

Here are some pictures of Jack from tonight while he was reading his books.......he LOVES reading right now and any time Jon or I sit in a chair, he thinks we should be reading to him and he will go get a stack of books and proceed to plop himself in our laps! Oh well, I like this activity and am glad to see him enjoying reading so I never ever turn him down. Happy weekend everyone!!

spring cleaning outdoors!

Today we were greeted with a WONDERFUL WARM SUNNY spring Florida day that epitomizes why snow birds from up north come here during these winter months! It is in the high 70's and sunny with a light breeze, not a cloud in the sky and NO bugs or humidity. A dream February Florida day after the COLD temps we have had since the beginning of the year.

We decided to take advantage of it and get out in our yard to open the pool, clean the patio furniture, and prune, weed, and clean up our backyard. This is similar to what Ohioans do in about late April to get ready for the summer season. Jack is able to help now as you will see........he loves to sweep the deck and to play in the water as we were hosing off the deck and the patio furniture in anticipation of Aunt Megan's arrival for her spring break in just two weeks!

recent pictures

Here are some recent pictures some from last weekend when we celebrated Valentine's day, and some just lounging around this morning enjoying a lazy Saturday!

internet is back and survival skills....

We got the internet back yesterday at home...I SERIOUSLY CHALLENGE ANY OF YOU TO GO WITHOUT IT FOR OVER A WEEK AT HOME..........so I am thankful for that and I am also thankful that we have survived another terribly crazy busy week. I filed two new lawsuits today (sorry about the luck of the two defendants) and also I had two will signings today.........that is like two days of lawyer work for anyone who is wondering and I did it all today between 8:30am and 3pm (no lunch) because I had an eye appointment at 4, ha!! It was crazy and really my whole career is like that now, never a dull moment but hey, I would not be doing enough work to justify my existence or salary any other way so I am thankful that I am beyond busy these days.

The Hospital District attorney job is challenging but I am enjoying it so much and finally beginning to feel comfortable in the new shoes that I am living in, we had our February public board meeting last night again (these are televised monthly) so that is a whole new realm of law that I am getting used to. Jon has also been super busy with work, he had a regional sales meeting last week in Orlando one day and then was up there again today to represent his company at the annual pool show.

Jackson is also busy too in his BIG KID TODDLER class and LOVING IT. This class gets to go once a week for "cooking with Kevin" (The in house day care chef) and today his class went for cooking time and made smoothies. His teacher, Ms. Anna, was out today and just his luck, his favorite teahcher from the infant room, Ms. Brandee, was covering his class!! He was over-joyed to see her this morning in his new class (although a bit confused) and started yelling "nandee, nandee" as soon as he saw her, so cute. She sent me a text photo from the cooking lesson in the midst of my crazy lawyer day..........have I commented on how THANKFUL I AM FOR OUR AMAZING DAY CARE AND THE STAFF THERE, I LOVE THEM! They truly are like a family away from home for Jackson and I am so thankful we found them and paid the extra money to send him there. IT IS WORTH EVERY EXTRA CENT.

We have NO plans for this weekend, that's right, NO plans.........that has not happened in like 5 months so we are excited. We're going to get our plans together for when Aunt Megan comes in just a few weeks for her spring break:)

Happy Friday night everyone:):)

still no internet, ahhh

Seriously, we still have NO internet at the house and I am tired of it. Jon says whatever part we need from AT&T will arrive tomorrow. I am off today and enjoying a day to myself (the first one in a LONG time) and I'm at a Starbucks now just to get online and check email, blogs etc.!!

Jackson and I had a relaxing Valentine's day together since Jon went to the Daytona 500 with people from hsi work. We did a lot of great one on one activities, painted with his paint set, played play dough and used cookie cutters to cut out hearts, then he took a nice long nap which gave me a chance to shower and take a break myself. Then I took him to a great place in town called Crazy Frogs. Lots of jumping aparratus' and they even have a small area for kids under 3. As we jumped together his face was pure glee and it helped to burn off some energy too. Then he was a great shopping buddy at Target as we picked up some things we needed to get through the week.

Today I dropped him at school and he transitioned perfectly into his new class. He did not even cry or look back at me and he was getting ready for circle time where they read their morning Bible story! He gave me a funny look when we went into the new class room like "where are we going, mom'?? but then he was eager to play with his new buddies (actually all buddies he has been with since an infant and they all recogonize each other and greeted him at the door to size him up) it was pretty funny!! They are all the same size which is great, he was like twice the size of some of the younger toddlers in the other class:) I am sure he will have a great day!

As for me, I then headed to the gym to work out and then showered and dressed there, came to Starbucks for some internet and now I am headed back to Target (to get 50% off Valentine's day stuff, it was not on sale yet yesterday)! Then I'm headed home to finish the daunting project of putting the last 6-8 months of our lives into photo albums...I ordered all the photos from the internet at the end of my Christmas vacation, it has taken me nearly 3 months to now get them labeled and into albums but hey, at least I'm keeping up with it, it is NOT easy being a busy working attorney mom:)

The rest of the week is going to be jam packed with work obligations and post-work meetings and we even have cousin Scott staying with us Tuesday and Wednesday (some business he has to take care of down here near our house) so it will be a busy week but for now I am relaxing........have a great week everyone, Frances, watch out for the snow, while I was excercising I saw the weather channel and they said 6-9inches for Columbus on south today..........

Valentine's Day weekend

Please be patient with us, we are without photos right now as our internet is down at the house so we are "catching a wave" with my lap top to get online until our new AT&T modem arrives to hook us back up! As a result, I don't have photos as my computer does not have the adapter to upload directly from the camera:(

I am just happy to be online though.....I did not realize how much I depend on the internet now to stay in touch with family and friends near and far until it was taken away from me this week!! Thank goodness I remembered to bring my lap top home for the long THREE DAY WEEKEND. That's right, I have a THREE DAY WEEKEND and I am SO excited and not even phased by our chillier than normal temps and gray weather!!

We kicked off the Valentine's Day weekend in style yesterday when Jack brought home-made white fluffy cupcakes with pink frosting and heart shaped sprinkles to school (I stayed up to 11 baking them Thursday night)along with Valentine's day treat bags for his classmates including mini heart shaped necklaces filled with bubbles and a bubble wand, fruit snacks, and hershey's kisses and of course little Valentines. He wore his cute red Valentine's day long sleeve T- to school from Mimi and Papa and he was so handsome. He came home on a bit of a sugar high with a bag full of treats from his teachers and classmates. He also had special valelntine's gifts we gave to his teachers.

This morning we celebrated Valentine's day as a family since Jon is going to the Daytona 500 with co-workers tomorrow. Jon and Jack had set up a trail of rose petals from my room to the kitchen table where "hearty" (giver of all Valentine's treats thanks to Aunt Megan's tradition started years ago at the Donahue household) left treats for us at our seats at the kitchen table. Jon let me sleep in which was SO NICE and had cinnamon rolls and a fresh fruit salad made including fresh pineapple, mango, melon and bananas he sliced this morning. There were red roses as a centerpiece adn a beautiful frame filled with a collage photo he ordered comprised of different photos we have from recent events. I had a card as well and a bag of sweets and in the card it had the plan for the day including that our babysitter is coming tonight at 6 and we are going out. He just told me to dress up so I guess I'll have to wait and see where we are going later!!

Jack was of course spoiled with all kinds of Valentine's treats including a fisher price airplane with real little people passengers that he has been wanting for a while, valentine's day books, stickers, a little valentine's plant we are going to pot, candy, mini race cars (his favorite as usual) and a Disney Sing along DVD from Grandma and Grandpa (we watched the dvd this morning, he LOVES it and was dancing all over the place) Thanks to everyone for your wonderful Valentine's Day cards, books, games, stickers, dvd's, shirts, and treats for Jackson.

From our house to yours, HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!! Pictures coming soon:)

our big boy

Jackson is going to take another big boy step on Monday! The director at his school told me this week that he will be moving up to the next classroom on Monday! There is a bit more structure in this classroom and the kids will all be closer to his age (right now he is one of the older ones in the class) and the class he is moving to will be mostly kids a bit older than him for now. He is currently in young toddlers, then he will move to toddlers, and then the next step is 2's. I think he will stay in this toddlers class about 6-7 months and once they reach or begin to near 2.5 I think he moves again. This move should not be nearly as traumatic as the last move as the schedule is very similar and he has been with all of the kids he will move up with at some point in the progression. The teachers also cover each others rooms so he already knows his new teacher, Miss Anna! Luckily I am off on Monday for President's Day (and I am taking a day off not working) so if the drop off takes a bit longer due to the transition, it will be no big deal!!

wheels on the bus

Lately Jackson has an obsession with school buses which is rather funny! I am now conscious of the fact that we pass about a half dozen school buses each morning on the way to his school from our house! If I spot one first I tell him that one is coming and tell him where to look, if he spots one first he starts yelling "bussss" or occasionally "school bussss" which sounds more like "scooo bussss" emphasis on the "s" sound at the end of bus. With all of this school bus infatuation, I remembered when we got home yesterday that Mimi and Papa bought him a blinking moving school bus for Christmas with kids and a driver and everything that ride inside. He is so fortunate to have SO many toys that I don't keep them all out where he can see them all the time......I like to rotate them around so they are like new! I dug out the bus from the cabinet and I think he would have taken it to bed with him last night if I had let him and this morning first thing he was asking for the bus and cried when we had to leave to go to his school.......luckily I have a fisher price kids' song cd in my car and we got to listen to "wheels on the bus" over and over and over as we spotted real school buses this morning on our drive. I wish I knew a way to get him a ride on a school bus..........soon enough for sure!!

very exciting and busy weekend!

We have had a VERY exciting and busy weekend. Let's start with the best thing that happened.......little baby Lucy (Jackson's third cousin) was born last night just ahead of midnight.......CONGRATULATIONS to Uncle Denny and Aunt Frances, we cannot wait to meet Lucy in June,for now we'll just have to get to know her via the blog, thank goodness for the internet:)

Besides the excitement of Lucy's birth, Jon had tickets from his work for us to go to Daytona for the Budweiser Shootout (not really my thing but didn't I say I would compromise and be a good wife somewhere in my wedding vows)..........really, this is not my thing but it was nice to go last night and spend time just with Jon and while I'm not an avid Nascar fan, I must say that going to one of these races and seeing, feeling and hearing the sheer speed of these cars is something to do at least once in one's life and we were at the Mecca of it all at Daytona International Speedway.

Besides Daytona, we had family photos taken yesterday morning first thing in some cool places around our town with our favorite photographer, Martina, who has been photographing Jackson since he was born, and then I took Jackson to a special Valentine's Day Mommy and Me party that we were invited to at a gymnastics place in town where they do gymboree for the little ones. HE LOVED IT. I mean it was like every single thing he loves in one place at one time. It was a real gymnastics room with a platform floor, pads everywhere, big blow ups, ball and foam pits, trampolines, you name it, and then they put on music that the litte ones like and the workers walked around and blew bubbles, etc. He had so much space to run and jump, he worked up a sweat and literally did not stop moving until it was time for lunch and snacks, or as he says it "naks"!! I think his favorite part was what was like a runway along one end of the room that was a floor level trampoline the entire length and at the end was a foam pit. He was not scared at all (as a lot of the kids his age were) and would run full speed and then jump right into the foam pit! He must have done that 50 times. The other thing he liked the best was the circle time parachute game. The parents got in a circle with the instructors and waved the parachute up and down to the music and the kids got to run in and out of the parachute, he laughed the entire time and had a blast. After all of that you can imagine he was tired and went right down for a late nap when we got hom around 1. I had about 30 minutes to get my act togehter, our babysitter came at 2 and we left for the drive to Daytona. What a day. In the midst of Daytona we were getting play by play texts from Denny on the status of Frances' progression in labor..........and just ahead of midnight as we were almost home we got a text that Lucy was here, what a great weekend:) Tonight we will watch the superbowl at our house with Great Grandma Peshke and Jackson's grandpa and grandma Peshke (or as they like to be called Nanu and Pops)!!

up and up diapers and visit to the pediatric dentist

No photos in this post, just a mid-week update! I have been meaning to blog about up and up diapers (this is the target brand) for a while now. A few weeks ago we ran out of our supply of Huggies which we have faithfully used since Jackson was out of the newborn expensive special belly button cut pampers diapers so I ran to Target and just bought a small bag of the target brand since we buy large boxes of the huggies at Sam's. I was leery of going with an off brand for a diaper because I have had bad experiences with generic diapers in that they are usually thin, flimsy with the tabs and leaky. I especially destest Luvs for anyone out there looking to try different brands. I got some luvs diapers in a diaper cake and they were nothing but leaks! The Up and UPs are great though and I may just switch to them full time (too bad that I discovered this just as we are approaching potty training in the next few months) but better late than never. They are a HUGE savings compared to the other brands and while they are thinner, they do not leak, even at night!! Jackson is very active and they stay put.......give them a try, they even have a cute polka dot design!!

In other news, yesterday morning I took Jackson for his first dentist appointment. We have two pediatric dentists in town and I love the one we picked. She is young and has a beautiful new office. It was the neatest lobby I've ever seen, it had so much cool stuff, it looked like we were at Jackson's school and he did not want to leave the lobby and the cool trucks behind when it was time for his check up!! (You know I scrubbed his hands down vigorously after he touched the toys in the lobby, not to worry). He did not like the check up too much, even though it was PAINLESS and all they did was look at his teeth, no cleaning, but we got through it. We did get a shiny new toothbrush and some cool tooth wipes and toothpaste and a waterbottle for the bath tub!! We go back in a year as long as everything seems to come in ok. Then after that he goes twice a year like the rest of us once he reaches 3. The next thing we have to concur is getting rid of his darn pacis!! I told the dentist my goal is to start weaning him at 2 and she agreed. He has had a bit of movement in his front two teeth due to the paci but she said as soon as he stops using it, it will go back.......these things are a life saver but we don't want him to have buck teeth as a result so we're really just trying to limit the use to sleeping and then we'll drop it eventually......pray for poor Jackson as he goes through this process!!

We are having a pretty normal work week this week which is nice. Great Grandma Peshke arrived for two weeks this past weekend so we'll be seeing a lot of her in the time that she is here and we're also anxiously awaiting news on the arrival of Jackson's third cousin, Lucy! Go Frances, I am checking my phone constantly now when I hear a text or email come across!!!