Ethans preschool Memories

We went in for Ethan's preschool screenings this week and I can truly say that I am very proud of him. He loves to learn and I love it when he feels so good about himself. He has meet some great friends through preschool and has made great strides in every area. I would like to show off some of his hard work and pictures of the year. It is hard to believe that he has another year of preschool before he going to Kindergarten- (which by the way is All day here.) This is a great project that his teacher did this year- They had a week about feelings. The children were encouraged to drawn what they were feeling that day at school, it seem as thought Ethan is almost always happy.

Through out the school year they had letters of the week. The letter is the week was A. His teacher has letter books and they were encouraged to draw an "A" item: This week the letter of the week was invitation, He told his teacher that the invitation read: Happy Birthday, Ethan, so that is why it is on the bottom of the page.

The next two pictures were done after reading a book about 10 dots. The kids were then encouraged to draw a picture of there own that had dots. The Motorcycle does not surprise me, (the dots are the Wheels) If you notice the wind is blowing through his hair and he is leaving a dust cloud behind him.

"This is not a person it is a Human" is what Ethan told his teacher. the dots are his fingers and eyes.

The next two pics are of play plans. Before the children were able to go play they had to draw where they wanted to go play on or with. This is Ethan going up and down the slide. And the second is him playing with the peg boards, he made sure to tell Trent and I that his hands were in his pockets.

I just loved his " When I grow up" because he has such am imagination. And I loved his drawing. He has noticed that "humans wear clothes and most of his people now wear clothes when he draws them.

And last are two pictures of his yearbook that I thought were perfect examples of Ethan personality.

I don't know who loved Preschool more- him or me. He had a great teacher, but what made it even nice was that it is free preschool through the school district. There are some great things in Laramie :)

Diamond Joe

As I picked up Ethan from preschool on Thursday Ethan was trying to find all of the worms on the sidewalk. He asked if he could take one home, I thought worms are pretty harmless so why not. Well on the way home Ethan names his "new pet" Diamond Joe- I have no idea where he got the name but I thought that it was pretty funny. So..please meet Diamond Joe

Ethan is so proud to hold his new pet. Addison on the other hand wants to be like Ethan so she thinks she want to hold Diamond Joe until she really is and then she kinda freaks out.

What she really likes to do is hold the plastic jar that he lives in and just stare are the dirt or just carry the jar around. At least she is trying to be brave.

Tornados

Although we were about an hour and a half from the Colorado tornado we also had a few close calls our selves. I had no idea that we were in tornado watch until Trent calls and tells me that I should get into the crawl space, because they were also evacuating into the basement of their building- it is then that panic set in. I then noticed the sky outside was black and that the rain was turning in to hail and the winds were Crazy strong. So I quickly got the 72 hours backpacks and water into the crawl space and the kids. Then you have to wait it out- this for me was the hardest part, our crawl space is not my favorite place to be, dark, damp and spider webs are everywhere. I had to know what was going on so I left the top up and started calling family members so they could get online and give me minute by minute reports- Which they did and I want to thank them because it really helped me. Our crawl space is in Ethan closet- this is what it looks like when closed This is what it looks like when it is opened- as you can see at the bottom of the step the ground is wet, the water table is really high here- and it looks like a complete mess. but I am to afraid to go down and clean it up. I laid an old shower curtain down so we didn't have to sit on the cold damp ground. This is the weight bench that Trent found down here, I tried to keep our blankets on it the best that I could so they would not get too dirty- that was until Ethan decided that the weight bench was his machine to shoot down tornadoes-- needless to say the blankets are pretty dirty- but who really cares at a time like that. This is where we spent 3 long hours of our life yesterday. I the bright side- there is light down there. The report today is that there was a possible touch down near the center of town, there was three confirmed touchdowns- one to the north about 20 miles, on to the East about 5 miles and one to the south about 30-40 miles, that may or may not seem like a lot to you but to me it was WAY to close for comfort. Needless to say we learned a lot, like how to keep Mom calm. But we learned what was really important. We are all doing fine and no one that I know was hurt here in Laramie, I can only image the pain that those around the world feel when Mother nature gets nasty. Thanks for all of the phone calls to see if we are doing ok. Today was Ethan last day of Preschool, I am sure that it was great therapy for the children to get together and talk about what they went through- It only intensified the last day of school. Here are a few pictures around our house this morning, you really would not know that is was the end of May or that the day before was so scary.

This is out our front door, and do notice that we do not have paved roads, so that make a really big muddy mess.

This is out our back door. On the right side next to the fence is part of our garden- we really hope that it survives. We covered it with plastic and they seem to be doing ok, but we will have to wait and see.

This is the back side of our house, and another part of our garden, I had the idea to cut the bottoms of plastic pop bottles off to protect our plants from the wind until they got bigger we were very glad that we had covered them the day before the storm got here.

What a learning Adventure!!!!

Sunburns and Gardens

My kids how there offical sunburn for the season. We were playing and swimming at friends and I did not think to apply the sunscreen, then I noticed that Addison looked a little pink so I quickly applied sunscreen on her, and her sun buren is not to bad. (this is where I was not the smarest mom) Then I thought Ethan has that skin that tans so I wont worry to much about him- well he did get burnt pretty bad- but NO blisters -just that really uncomfortable heat and no one better touch me felling . I fell really bad that I made such a bad choice- a life lesson. Well we planted most of our starter plants tonight- we are really hoping that things work out and we will be able to eat from our very own garden. I will post pictures when and if the plants survive and "Look Good" The man down the street has given tons of help and we check in with him about daily to see what he is doing so that we dont miss anything.

Memories

What Valerie - means, what do you think??

What Valerie Means

You are very hyper. You never slow down, even when it's killing you. You're the type of person who can be a workaholic during the day... and still have the energy to party all night. Your energy is definitely a magnet for those around you. People are addicted to your vibe. You are usually the best at everything ... you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You tend to be pretty tightly wound. It's easy to get you excited... which can be a good or bad thing. You have a lot of enthusiasm, but it fades rather quickly. You don't stick with any one thing for very long. You have the drive to accomplish a lot in a short amount of time. Your biggest problem is making sure you finish the projects you start.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

Warm Weather- YES

The kids and I have been in Cedar for three days now and we have been loving the warm weather! The week before we were able to spend about a week in Logan with Bridget and my cousin Danette- It was really fun and the cousins got to reconnect. (Thanks for allowing us to stay with you guys) We have been able to hang out with quite a few of our Cedar friends. And I love seeing all of the new changes that the town has made- We have a week and a half left but we are missing our own house and our Daddy- We love you dad!!

For those of you that live in West Laramie

West Laramie Drainage Meeting May 15th 6:00pm-8:00pm at Howard Jonhson's Please read if you live in West Laramie- Thanks Please attend: For the first time the city has requested that our group be present for the unveiling of the updated drainage plan. Janine Jordan, city manager, and Richard Elliott, city engineer along with SEH the consultants would like to present their solutions and receive feedback. We expect this meeting to require 60-90 minutes, Mary Walsh has booked the room at the Howard Johnson conference room on the corner of Snowy Range and Adams street. This will be an informal meeting designed to gather input from those in attendance. We would request that everyone attend, if you can’t find a sitter for your kids bring them if you are running a little late still come, we need your attendance. Please try to invite at least one individual that is interested in drainage improvements to the meeting.