Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for summer
Summer’s comin’
The signs are all here. Tonight we had Ben’s T-Ball uniform pickup and team pictures and while we were there I heard that the details for the Fun Run have finally been posted! In addition, today I got the kids registered for some Parks and Rec activities including T-Ball for Emma and a drawing and painting class for both kids. Getting ready for all of the fun summer activities is making me very excited to wrap up this school year and enjoy my time off with the kids. Let’s do this…only three more weeks and we have made it to summer for another year!
Another Kindergartener
I’m not sure how this possibly happened, but today I registered Emma for Kindergarten. As of August, I will no longer have any preschoolers and will officially be out of that phase of our lives. It’s unreal.
Emma and I went to Northpoint, and I have to say that it was much more relaxed for me this year. It’s amazing how much better things go when you’ve done them once before. I guess Ben is a little more like me than I thought. Anyway, as we were walking in to the school, Emma said to me, “Now I will be a Knight!”. She was so excited. As we walked into the multi-purpose room where the parents were gathering, we saw Mrs. DeBord, Ben’s teacher. She made a very big fuss about Emma being a Kindergartener next year, and Ems was beaming.
The teachers quickly took the kids into the classrooms where they did some activities and heard a couple of stories. We parents began the endless filling out of forms. But again, it was way easier this time since I knew we were already in the system. I didnt’ have to worry quite so much about getting something wrong. Ha!
As I went to pick up Emma it hit me that everything would now be different in our world. With both kids in the same school things should be a bit easier to keep straight next year, but soon we’ll find ourselves delved deep in the world of homework, school friends and drama. I really hope I’m ready for this.
Two wheelin’
It was a monumental night at the Kerber household last night…we took the training wheels off of both bikes and Ben and Emma made their first attempt at riding two-wheelers. It started while I was making dinner. Emma was watching/helping me and I casually asked her if she would be interested in trying to ride her bike without training wheels. ”NO!” she said emphatically, “it will be too wobbiwy!” So I told her that was fine…she didn’t have to try. But then I casually mentioned that our friend AJ, who just turned 4, could ride his bike without training wheels. I know my kids so well…that was it. ”Why can he do it when he’s littler than me?” she asked. ”Because,” I said, “He tried.” She thought about that for a minute and then said, “Ok, I’ll twy.”
Once Emma makes up her mind about something, she does it, so after dinner we went right outside and took those training wheels off. It was a bit rough at first, but she did really well overall. There was a lot of wobbling, some tipping over, and lots and lots of starting and stopping. But even if she fell over she would jump up and say, “I’m ok!” She was determined.
Meanwhile, Ben had told me that he didn’t want to try. Again, because I know how his mind works, I knew he wouldn’t want to try and I also knew that as soon as Emma did it he would have to try. Sure enough, after a few runs back and forth down the sidewalk he quietly said, “Ok, I’ll try, too.” He was of course more scared, more tentative, and got more frustrated quicker. That’s just the way he is…he has a very difficult time when he’s not good at something right away. I will say at one point he told me that I was the worst bike rider teacher ever. In his words, I was HORRIBLE. You see, Daddy was nice and slow and tentative with him, and I simply ran a few steps and pushed him off. As soon as he tipped over, he was screaming crying. Again, those kids personalities could not be any different. But finally Dave got him back on and he did give it a pretty good try.
So tonight we all wanted to get back out there and try again. And guess what? Tonight they both did it! And I don’t mean they just rode a little bit, either. They were both riding the full length of the sidewalk from one corner to the other. Everyone was thrilled.
I cannot believe it happened so quickly, but I’m really proud of both kids’ determination. I knew they could do it, and I’m glad that they realized it, too.
One last trip to the pool
The weather this week has been unbelievably hot. Like record-breaking hot the last three days. So we decided that instead of sweating at the intercity football game tonight, we’d head to the State Farm pool one last time before it closes on Monday. Our friends the Chaons came with us and Danielle and her daughter Anna met us there. It was the perfect night for the pool; it was hot & sticky outside, and it was the end of a very long two weeks of school.
It was a perfect night. The kids all swam and swam, and although we knew they were all exhausted, it never showed. None of them slowed down a bit. We ended up staying until almost 8:30 because it was so gorgeous there. The kids asked if we could stop for ice cream on the way home and it seemed like a perfect ending to the night. I could not believe how well the kids were holding up…it was well past nine o’clock by this point. We were thrilled.
I think the following picture can best describe our night:
This is what we found in the backseat after the 10 minute trip home from DQ. You know you’ve had a good night when it ends in pure exhaustion.
We’re sad to see our pool days end, but we could not have asked for a better ending to our summer fun. Bring on Fall!
A short getaway–day 2
After the fun we had Saturday, today had a lot to live up to. We woke up relatively early and had breakfast in the hotel. The kids were both super excited because our destination for the day was the Shedd Aquarium in the city. I’m not sure that either of them really knew what to expect, but they were excited to see sea creatures…real live ones, too! We drove into the city and since it was still only 9:30 we found a great meter parking spot just past the Aquarium. It was nice to be able to park that easily and cheaply. We headed into the Shedd and the kids were immediately hooked.
Two of the special things we purchased tickets for were the aquatic show (which was basically a dolphin show) and the jellyfish exhibit. We had tickets to the dolphin show early in the day. The kids were mesmerized when the dolphins were performing, but there was also a LOT of talking about how they trained the dolphins, and that kind of lost Emma.
The jellyfish exhibit was next, and it was amazing. It was also really crowded, so we couldn’t spend as much time in there as we would have liked to. Emma was just not handling the crowd very well and was borderline melting. Even though it was a quick run through the exhibit, I was totally impressed. Those things are truly amazing creatures.
We headed over to see the penguins, and they had an awesome kids’ play area near it. The kids absolutely loved it there, especially when they discovered the dress-up penguin suits. They put them on and were sliding down the slide (which looked like an iceburg) on their tummies. They must have gone on that thing a hundred times, I swear.
After we dragged them away from playing, we hit the regional fish area. In the Great Lakes room, there was a little campsite that Emma was drawn to immediately. She could not have cared less about the fish in there…she was busy grilling up some vittles. I think Dave loved this more than anything else he saw today.
Our last stop for the day was, of course, the gift shop. Those kids love picking something out as a souvenir. I have mixed feelings about letting them get new toys when we go to places like this, but they always pick little things, so it hasn’t been too bad yet.
Ben got more tiny little animals in a tube…always his choice. Emma picked a stuffed dolphin…because Lord knows she doesn’t have enough stuffed animals! Once we left the Shedd we stopped to get a quick family picture in front of the city. It was such a beautiful day…I just wish the picture would have been better. But what can you do when you ask a stranger to take a picture of your family?
We had some ice cream in a park before we left the city, and then we headed home tired, but happy. It was such a nice weekend together as a family. I am so looking forward to our next get-away.
First day ’11 – ’12
Well, the inevitable happened, and I found myself setting the old alarm clock last night. Today was my first day of school. Today and tomorrow are institute days, which means that I will be sitting in meetings for most of them. But the great thing about these days is that all of us get to catch up with our work friends. We all share stories from the summer, and look forward to new things happening this year.
I have to admit that I was ready for school to start. Last year was so ridiculous that I can’t even explain how demoralizing it was for me. This year has already started off better because of my new co-worker at West. Tera has replaced the librarian who was at West from its opening 16 years ago, and she is very excited about making the transition to the library. Even better for me, she is excited to work with me and appreciates my experience and knowledge in the job. She asks me a million questions, appreciates my input, and truly wants to work together as co-workers. It’s such a refreshing difference than being ignored, set up for failure, or put down last year.
Although I’m still not thrilled with traveling between two buildings, I know that it will be much, MUCH better than it was last year. It’s amazing how much simply being treated like a human being helps even the crappiest of situations.
The new Emma
Emma and I have been battling her hair all summer. She was to the point that she HATED getting her hair combed in the morning, and putting any ponytails in was out of the question. You see she’s been blessed with my baby-fine hair, and it does get tangled really easily. Ponytails had to be really tight to stay in, and then getting them out was painful to her, too. She began telling me that she watned to get her hair cut a couple of weeks ago, but Dave wasn’t really excited about it. Finally, after an especially rough morning a few days ago, I told him that I was getting it cut because I couldn’t stand the crying and screaming each morning.
I got her an appointment with Jodi, the girl who cuts my hair, this afternoon. We were both excited for her to go to Mommy’s hair cutting place, and of course I documented the whole thing.
First she got shampooed. It was a bit uncomfortable for her being so small, but she did have a big grin on her face most of the time.
Jodi got her all combed out without any crying. That in itself is pretty amazing!
During the cut, Ems sat so still and cooperated really well. I was impressed and pretty proud of her for being such a big girl.
After she was done cutting, Jodi blew Emma’s hair dry. It is pretty amazing how well it fell without any product or styling.
Emma was very excited when Jodi was all finished. I couldn’t believe how much she looked like me now that we have similar hair.
The finished product. I think she was more excited about getting the lollipop than the actual cut, but she does like it a lot. Let’s hope this solves some of our tangle troubles in the mornings. I’m really ready for the crying to be done.
All those boys
There truly is nothing like old friends, and today I had the pleasure of getting together with two of mine. Patty and Lisa and I used to be so great about getting together regularly. Of course, that was when we all lived in Northern Illinois and we were either single or kidless. Once they started having kids, we still worked hard to get together pretty often. Then I moved two hours away, and that complicated things exponentially. But we still try. And somehow, amazingly, we found that we were all free today. As an added bonus, my kids had been in Sycamore at Mom & Dad’s over the weekend. Patty lives just north of Sycamore, so I could combine my trip up with a pick-up from the grandparents.
All of their kids are older than mine, and all of them are boys. Lisa has two boys and Patty has three. They love getting together because they’re all close in age. My kids didn’t really remember them, but they still had a great time swimming and playing together. Emma was not thrilled that she was the only girl, but Patty also has a dog, so Rocky entertained her most of the day.
It was so nice to see my dear friends. We had a great chance to talk because the kids are getting so much more self-sufficient. In a few more years my kids will be past the point of neediness (I hope) and it will get even better. Like I said before, there’s nothing like old friends. And I think Emma summed up the day perfectly. As we were leaving, she said to me, “Mommy, I had a wot of fun pwaying…even though it was wif awe those boys.”
A moment
Things have been so crazy around our here lately with all of the house stuff. There’s radon tests, insect inspections, house inspections, moving prep, etc, etc, etc. The kids have been troopers through it all even though they really have no idea what any of it is. Every time we have someone come to our house or we have to run an errand to drop of some paperwork, I just tell them that we have to go do something to get ready to buy our new house.
So, we keep trying to keep some semblance of normalcy around here. Tonight, Ben asked Dave to play catch, and this is one of the shots I got of their game.
I love this picture for many reasons, but mainly I love that it reminds me of what summer is all about: spending time together as a family and having as much simple fun as possible. When we look back on this summer we’ll remember that it was the one in which we moved from Pinehurst to Eagle Ridge. But I hope we never forget the moments like this…playing catch, scootering on the sidewalk, drawing chalk pictures on the driveway, swinging in the backyard, and sitting on our glider together on the front porch. These are the important moments that I want to cherish and document as much as possible.
Sold
Just as quickly as we bought our new house, we sold our current one. Last night a realtor called and asked if she could come show the house to her client who has been looking at houses all week. This client is relocating from Pittsburgh and had to find a home this week. Dave and I decided that even though we weren’t thrilled with the idea of paying the 3% commission to a realtor, getting someone in the door was a good thing. So we said yes.
They came this morning at 10:30. It was weird having people mill around the house while I was sitting on the porch, but it didn’t take them too long, so I handled it ok. When the woman, who was there with her three boys and her in-laws, came out of the house, she was very complimentary . She told me that she had seen a lot of houses in the last week, and it was obvious that ours was very well maintained and the exact word she used was “lovely”. That really felt good to hear. We’ve worked hard to make our house look good over the years, so I’m glad it was noticed.
After they left I went over to the neighbors to pick up the kids (they were playing over there while the showing took place) and we came home to get some lunch. I was just starting to make it when my phone rang and it was the realtor asking if they could come back to see it again at 1:00. I was thrilled, because to me this seemed like a really good sign. I quickly threw everything back in the fridge and called another friend to see if the kids could come there. Thankfully, because I have some of the greatest friends ever, one of them was willing to take our kids with them to the pool. This was a huge relief off my mind. I ran through a drive through for some lunch for them and dropped them off at the friend’s house just in time to get back home to put a few things away again and make sure that the house was still in tip-top shape.
When the people came back to look at the place they took a lot longer this time. Again, I thought this was a good sign, but I was also trying not get my hopes up too much. They left and I tried to get it out of my mind. I mowed, went to pick up the kids, and then the three of us ran to the grocery store to pick up a couple of things. As I was trying to wrangle both kids, who were literally running around like wild animals, and go through the self checkout, my phone rang and it was the realtor saying she had an offer for us. I was thrilled.
By 5:15 she was at our house, and after a relatively short negotiation, we were signing papers and had sold our house. I’m not sure that it’s sunk in totally yet, but I do know that we’re thrilled with the news. Since the buyers are relocating, they want to be in by the time school starts so they set the closing for August 12th. We instantly contacted our realtor to see if it would be possible to move the closing on our new house up to August 5th. Yeah, the week between those two dates is one of the busiest for me with registration going on, but oh well…we’ll make do with any situation to ensure that we don’t have to pay two mortgages.
Thanks for all the good thoughts for a quick sale. They obviously worked. 
