Back to school

Austin started first grade this morning.  Sigh...she was very excited but the feeling is not mutual for Joe and I and especially Goose.  Who looked incredibly sad when we left the school this morning, knowing that she wouldn't have her partner in crime around for the next 8 hours.  It was heart breaking to watch.  At least she gets to start preschool next week so that will help in the afternoons.


And look who is big enough to sit in the front of the cart rather than in his car seat.  He was pretty proud of himself.

What does a control freak do when she thinks she may be gone for the first day of school?!?!? Creates a school tub with all the school clothes, a package of special school type items for treats, and first day of school zip locks with everything from panties to shoes all packed up and cards that I wrote to each girl while I sobbed at the thought of not being there.  Thankfully I was here for Austin's first day, hopefully the same will be true for Tyler's.

We had to go to school on Friday to meet the teachers and get the class assignments.  While waiting on the teachers to be ready we visited the playground...Jackson loved the swings!!!

And my productivity plummets...

And my productivity plummets...all thanks to this little mobile guy.

Oh yeah and can you spot the Cheerios on the floor...that's because my silly dogs refuse to eat them and Jackson gets every fourth one in his mouth.  Where's our old boy Ty when you need him, he would have helped me clean up.

Purple lips...

As some people may or may not know, when you eat something with a lot of vinegar in it...your lips will turn a purple~ish tint.  Tadd and I just call them our purple lips, which basically is our way of saying we just ate some really good salad dressing.  So while my kids may all be DiFabios on paper, they definitely all have their Wells' purple lips.  Here's Jackson today after sharing my Italian submarine sandwich...his first purple lips. :-)  And that smile just melts my heart and makes me so thankful to not be in Pittsburgh right now.

The waiting game.

And so it begins.  Since the unions did not sign the contract or strike on Sunday morning we start the waiting game.  Luckily I just put in my notice and chose to accept a layoff package rather than move to the east coast so I only have to wait around until March to see if they will strike at all.  Hopefully not, hopefully they know that Verizon was not going to back down this time, in fact they had all 15,000 of us ready to fly out and take over.  Unfortunately we all have to "leave our bags packed" in the event of a strike and fly to our new jobs within a day or so.

The news made for a stressful night, while I was ecstatic to not be leaving my family Sunday morning...it makes you feel sick to your stomach to know that you are merely a puppet in someone else's life.  When they say jump I have to ask how high.  Sigh.  

Nesting

Nesting...or so it feels.  I suppose when you know that you will be gone and everyone around you will be picking up your jobs, you try and make sure that everything is in it's place.  So I finally cleaned out the junk drawer, going through the kids clothes, painting the playroom.  You know...nesting.


While Joe was in Indiana visiting we went to the El Paso County fair.  Goose is finally just about brave enough to ride the rides.  She was trying to be so brave.

This little ham bone.  In the midst of my nesting we are also trying to ween him off of milk so frequently and get him to sleep through the night.  So he has been introduced to all new foods very quickly.  Here he is last night enjoying his first rib bone.

Work...still a four letter word.

I think I have even used this title before, and not that long ago.

Ol' pesky work is back at it again.  First the union contracts are set to expire on August 1st, last time I filed for an exception since I was a food source for another human being (when Tyler was very little) and Verizon accepted the reason and allowed me to not go.  This time however either the need is greater or they feel as though Jackson is old enough, I am being asked to fill in a position for one of the union workers.  Last time I pulled forklift operator in Philly but this time I got billing and collections in a call center in Pittsburgh PA.  Starting bright and early Monday August 3rd I will be answering phone calls six days a week, 12 hours a day completely broken hearted away from my family.  It will be hard to sound empathetic on the phone as someone describes why they can't pay their bill on time.  While I prepare for this assignment (read cry myself to sleep at night) Verizon dropped another bomb shell on us.  Our VP believes that we would have better synergy if we all worked together in the office, so she has demanded that we either move to the east coast to one of the five main Verizon centers out there or train our replacement and pack our things.  The only tempting part about this terrorist threat is that of the cities listed three of them sound wonderful - Long Island NY, Boston MA and Washington DC.  It would be such a new and exciting place to live in any of those but it would mean that we pick up and leave here and even when I get there I would no longer be able to work from home.  It would definitely be a complete change of life style.  The sadness surrounding me right now is palpable.  So I have three weeks to state my decision in writing and then would have to either relocate or have someone else trained by March 2016.  Blah!

Lake of the Ozarks

We took our trip to Lake of the Ozarks this year and decided to extend it to 8 days since I will more than likely be stuck in Pittsburgh for the month of August and won't be taking vacation.

Here's a picture dump of our trip.

We're all packed up and getting ready to leave the house.

Joe and the kiddos in the hotel bed, we drove as far as Junction City, KS the first night and then finished the trip in the morning.

Girls were staying up super late and hanging out at the bonfire with us.

The next morning the view from our porch.

Joe managed to save this turtle off the road and bring it home to a very excited Austin.

Breakfast the first morning at Jolly Roger's.

Paddle boatin' with Dad.

When my parents got there the kids and I spent pretty much all our time on their boat.

Joe was able to put on a professional level fireworks display at the house.

The expectant parents. :-D

It rained a ton a couple of the nights and caused the whole lake to rise up over our sea wall.  Which in turn caused the Governor of Missouri to declare the lake a no wake lake until the water drained.

So we went on very slow cruises.  Complete with Jackson's jumpy seat.

And Austin driving.

And Goose and Helen laying out.

I kept him in the shade most of the time but moved the towel to take this picture.

 'I love Austin's perplexed look here.  Not sure what she is confused about.

These boys, it's always so much fun to watch lifelong friends hang out together.

Lord only knows what Moorehouse has on the other end of this.