Life on Fairhope Oak

It's finally the weekend! I had a whole summer off and I've only been back to work for about three weeks, but boy do I look forward to the weekends off. My school day makes for a loooong day:

5:00 am -- Wake up and get myself groomed and ready for the day.
6:00 am -- Wake Jayden up and get him dressed
6:15 am -- Breakfast
6:30 am -- Leave the house and drop Jayden off at his school which opens at 6:30. He's usually the first or second one there.
6:45 am -- I arrive at my school and get the last of the stuff ready for the day.
7:00 am -- Kids arrive and have breakfast.
7:15 am -- First period starts. Our classes are 72 minutes long and that is a looooong class. Teenagers have an attention span of about 15 minutes they usually miss the last hour of class.
2:30 pm -- Kids leave and I collapse into my chair for about 5 minutes and hope that I don't have any sort of meeting or training that day.
2:40 pm -- Start getting stuff ready for the next day and working on stuff for when I'll be out.
4:30-5:00 pm -- Leave work to pick up Jayden and we head to the store or run errands or (if we're lucky) go straight home.

Once the baby comes, I'll have to wake up even earlier to make time for her to eat and get her ready for the day. At least Jeff doesn't have to wake up so early all alone now! I know during the summer he would curse me as I got to stay in bed until about 8 while he had to get up at 4:30 and get ready for a long day at work. Don't deny it Jeff...you know it's true!

Jeff usually gets home around 6:30 and we have (like he said) a few short hours of quality family time -- here lately the boys have been playing a lot of baseball, so I'll sit in a chair outside and watch them master the skills of throwing and catching. Jeff especially loves whenever he has to do yard work and I sit and watch. I think he's secretly plotting how he can run me over with the lawnmower or hack me up with the weedeater because he has to do everything himself right now. I promised that I'll help after the baby, but he seems suspicious. Now that I think about it, someone has to watch the baby inside... ;)

This weekend is even better because everyone is home!! Jeff is off work this weekend (he starts nights Sunday night) and Jayden is here this weekend. That means pancakes for breakfast (just ate them) and all of us actually getting to BEEEEE together. I think we're going to go swimming here in a bit. Well, the boys will swim...I'll kind of bob around.

Two other things that Jayden has mastered lately: riding his bike and taking a shower:

In June/July we rented the movie "Three Ninjas." This movie is old school -- my sister and I used to watch it and crush on the little boys in the movies because they were so cute. When I saw it at Blockbuster I convinced him that he wanted to watch it...and since it's about boys who are ninjas (like him, NinjaJayden) the convincing wasn't that hard. In the movie there's a part where the boys are riding their bikes to school and doing little jumps off dirt piles and standing up while pedaling, normal boys-riding-their-bikes things. The next day when we get home from school Jayden asks, "Mom, can we go outside so I can ride my bike?" Heck yeah we can!! He's had this bike since Christmas and had ridden it a grand total of about 3 times -- he wasn't so great at getting it started and was nervous because it wobbled a little (training wheels). Every time we suggested he ride, he would ride his BigWheels instead. I was ecstatic that he wanted to ride so off we went. And the next day. And the next. He started riding his bike like crazy and now he's a pro -- he'll drive up the driveway and around the sidewalk, down the next driveway; he'll try to stand up and pedal; he makes fast turns rather than practically coming to a complete stop. He's a bike-riding fool.

Jayden and Jeff have been taking care of bathtime lately and Jeff has convinced Jayden how it's fun and cool to put your face in the water. Jayden used to be afraid of water in his face in the shower, but fine with it while swimming. Now he's walking through the water with it all over his head, putting his face right in there, and even filling his mouth with water and spouting it out like a whale. Baths used to be good because he liked to sit and play with his toys for a while, but these days taking a shower is a lot easier to fit into the schedule, so it's a good thing he likes it!

Now it's time to enjoy this Saturday -- time for our swim!

Hope everyone has a great weekend!
The Mrs.

P.S. Happy 24th anniversary to my wonderful parents!! Love you!