Too Early to Be This HOT

Jack came over this morning hoping we could finish the chimney before it got too hot. Little did we know it was going to be the hottest day of the year in Atlanta. I tried taking pictures of the fabulous work we've done, but I burned my hands trying to hold the camera, then the damn thing just melted it was so hot, so there won't be any pictures with this post.

The A/C's are struggling today with the heat and humidity (had I mentioned it was hot). I still need to cut the grass too, but that may wait until later this evening when it's cooled off a touch. Been eating frozen icee's trying to keep cool, not really helping.

Well, it's a good excuse to work on some the stuff inside. The shower keeps calling me so I may have to heeds it's cries and tend to my work. So long for now.

Final Day of Down on the Farm

This was Joshua's final day at Preschool Summer Camp. He was pretty tired and cranky this morning before we left. Quite the whiny 3 year old.

Here is Joshua sitting in front of the poster for Summer Camp. I at least got a cute smile.

We had fun having the 3 boys together some this week. Jacob and Zackary don't seem to see each other very much and I think they had fun being together part of this week. I appreciate Grandma and Papa Jack helping them spend time together.

Wendy dropped Zackary off at the house this morning and he and Jacob went with me to take Joshua to camp.



Alright - I am down here on the computer working on the blog, this is the conversation from upstairs:

joshua "whose underwear is this? it is huge."

matthew, chuckling "I don't know Joshua"

me, "is it my underwear that he says is huge?"

joshua "no, it's underwear for a giant"

yes, at this point Matthew lost it, and is loudly laughing

me "that really isn't funny"

then later on I hear from matthew "wow, this underwear must be for a skinny person"

do you know what my son says???????????

joshua "No, it's mommy underwear"

I think Joshua just got himself a lifetime of doing his own laundry!

I need to get packed for the trip to Aunt Melanie's for the week. Joshua, Jacob and I will be leaving tomorrow. I miss Layne. Not sure Matthew will miss us this week, though.

I will try and update some this week, too.

Final Day of Cub Scout Camp

This is Jacob sitting with his Den before the final "show" started for the parents and families. He was having such a great time.

I got to meet his Den Leader, Michelle Kern, when we first got there tonight. She was very nice about Jacob. She said he has a great sense of humor and was great kid this week. She then shared with me a story from this past week to demonstrate his humor. There was a time during the week that they were playing a game with plungers and balls. She said there was another woman that was explaining to the boys how to play the game and when she finished she asked if anyone had questions. Miss Michelle said that Jacob was the only one who had a question. His question - wait for it - "have these plungers been previously used?". She said everyone cracked up. Yep - that's my Jacob.

Each Den had a cheer they had to come up with for the week and the "show" consisted of each Den performing their cheer and the Boy Scouts leading the camp doing some skits in between. It was fun to watch as you really got a feel for how excited the kids were and how much fun they had this week.

This is Jacob with his Den doing their cheer. He is hiding in the back. This is the best picture I got. I was distracted trying to record the cheer with the camcorder (didn't know Matthew had left with Joshua for another potty break) and by the time I got situated it was over. Oh, well. I tried.

And a great picture of Joshua who was very proud of his big brother Jacob.

And one final one of Jacob and his friend Zackary. It worked out great for me to share carpool with Wendy - I got to do the pickup at the end of the day. I feel guilty as I got the end of day chatter of everything the boys did - it was great!

Joshua is having a good time at Church Camp. Glad he is having his own stuff to do and that he also has time with his brother and sister this summer.

Jacob is finished for the week.

Joshua has one more day.

Next week I will go to Knoxville with the boys and all 3 kids and I will stay for the week with Aunt Melanie.

Another day with the boys

Joshua had a great morning. He ate 3 full size waffles and asked for a 4th - but he didn't eat the 4th. Not sure where he put that breakfast. Jacob went with me to take Joshua to church camp. Our only issues have been Joshua's need for independence. We ran later than I expected as he insisted on putting his clothes on all by himself. That was a little painful to watch when you needed to get out the door. Since we were running a little late, when we pulled in to the parking lot I told the boys to go ahead and work on getting their seat belts off. Jacob started to and Joshua put out his hand and screamed "Jacob, No! Not now". I said "Yes, Joshua please work on your seat belt" (because, as I said earlier he MUST do everything himself") and by that point I had pulled in to the parking spot and then Joshua announced "Okay, Jacob, now you can take your seat belt off".

Kind of hard to argue with a kid wanting to do the right thing.

We went in to church and straight to his room and he walked right in, said "Hi Miss Lori", put his lunchbox in his cubby and sat down to play cars. I didn't even get a "good bye, mom".

They talked about pigs, today. He made a pig snout that he could wear and painted "Joshua's little piggies".



Jacob had another good day. Not as hungry today, so he may be getting used to the activity a little bit more. There was no "big" project today. They learned about bunnies and owls today. Jacob tells me that "bunnies have lots of babies all the time" and that owl's poop is called "pellets" and he got to dig for pellets but he remembered to use hand sanitizer after he finished.

He had a great day. Lots to tell me. Tomorrow after we drop Joshua off at church we will take Zackary with us to Grandma and Papa Jack's house to hang out with Jacob until time for Cub Scout Camp. They both seem pretty excited about it and I think they will try to go to the pool for a bit.

This is Jacob after her got home - watching TV and having a snack - no surprises, there, right?

Joshua's 1st Day of Camp and Day 2 for Jacob

Joshua was very sleepy this morning. But, we got him up early enough to take his time. Matthew took Jacob to Mom and Dad's for me so I could get Joshua to his camp. I only heard from Joshua once "I don't want to go to camp" (said his best whiney, 3 year old voice). I was trying to come up with ways to make him feel good about camp and at one point I mentioned "and you get to see Miss Wendy".

We got to church. My very big 3 year old got his lunch box and climbed out of the car with me without any hesitation. We found our room just fine. When we started to walk in to the room he burst in to tears asking me "where's Miss Wendy???? I want Miss Wendy". It was at that point I realized I had made a mistake. We had some very helpful people but I felt like I didn't have a choice but to take Joshua to Wendy so he could see where she was going to be while he was in his classroom.

Wendy did great (of course) and took Joshua down to his room and she knew Joshua's teacher because Miss Lori was Lauren's teacher last year. Wendy was able to leave Joshua with the teachers and he was no longer crying - and I did the "good mommy" thing and snuck out why he was happy and distracting.

The theme for this week's camp is "Down on the Farm". Joshua made a cow and decorated a barn with his favorite animals.



This was Jacob's 2nd day at Cub Scout Twilight camp. He had another fantastic day. Cannot believe the woodworking they are doing. He is so proud of his bench.

The best part was that Jacob has 2 crickets he has from something they did. He has part of a potato for the crickets to live on and he says he can keep them for "8 months". But the following is the conversation I hear from the back seat between Jacob and Zackary:

Jacob "Zack I have 2 crickets."

Zack "What do you mean?"

Jacob "In here, I can keep them for 8 months."

Zack "I only see one. Oh, there's another one, I think it's dead."

Jacob "No it isn't. Just shake it around and you will see it move."

Zack "Oh, I see - there it moved."

Jacob "They haven't had an anniversary yet but I know they are married."

I am shocked at this point that Zackary has no questions about this statement so I felt I needed to inquire.

Mom "Jacob, how do you know they are married?"

Jacob "Because I saw them sniff each other's butts like dogs do."

Yeah, kind of sorry I asked. I did laugh a little. And I did stop asking questions.

Here he is with his bench:

Cub Scout Camp

This was Jacob's first day of Cub Scout Twilight Camp. He had an incredible time. As soon as he got in the car he was non-stop chatter. They made a walking stick tonight. It has measurements marked on it so that he can measure water up to 24", it has a bandanna on it that he says he could get wet and put over his face if he was caught in a fire, it has a first aid pouch with a fishing hook, and it has a leather handle that he can place anywhere on the stick so he has a good grip.

They also did some target shooting - which is the sheet he is holding up - but I didn't quite understand what that was about.

He goes from 4:00 p.m. to 8:45 p.m. through Thursday night. Wendy Gilbert's son Zackary is also doing the camp - but is in a different group because he is a year behind Jacob. So Wendy is taking the boys to camp and I am picking them up. I go there at 8:35 tonight and they dens did not come down for pick up unit after 9:00 p.m. I was so worried that Zackary would think I forgot him since I was so late getting up to the next car pool line.

He was hungry when he got home. He ate everything I sent for him tonight. So I packed a little bit more for tomorrow. He was also filthy and I made him take a bath.


Layne went with Aunt Melanie, Marisa, and Mitchell today to Knoxville. Layne and Marisa will be doing a Girl Scout Day Camp this week. Layne seems very excited and I know she will have a lot of fun.

Joshua had another exhausting day. He had a little bit of everything. Some time this morning with his brother and sister, then some time this afternoon with his cousins before they left for Knoxville, and then he got to play with Papa Jack with his Hot Wheels cars and run some errands. Then we ate cheeseburgers that Papa Jack cooked on the grill and Granma had corn, grapes, and potato chips to go with our hamburgers.

Matthew has been fighting a GI bug since Friday. Feeling very nauseous and sick to his stomach. Hopefully he had a little bit of a break today and is on the mend.

Tomorrow Joshua starts his Preschool Summer Day Camp at Johns Creek United Methodist Church from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. I know he will have fun but it is hard to help him understand what he is getting ready to do.

Busy week - but the kids should have a blast.

Trustee Day

Matthew and I did something today we never expected. Went for our court hearing in Bankruptcy Court with the Trustee. The representative from our attorney starts out by telling us we have "the most difficult Trustee in the Court". Yippee.

She was quite the interesting woman, our Trustee. She started about mumbling to herself (but, of course loud enough for everyone in the room to hear) how she hates this room, there are not enough outlets (for her laptop, voice recorder, etc.), that she doesn't know where any of the paperwork in this room is located "but it's up here somewhere and I am not going to pass it out to you".

Lovely, she's pissed and no one has even started.

Essentially we are in a run down, HOT, crowded room in the Russell Federal Building in downtown Atlanta. There are 19 people in a room about the size of our kitchen and family room combined. Everyone looks nervous (except for the obvious lawyer types).

Not quite sure why the Trustee did this - but when she called each individual up to her table, she had us put our IDs in a clear page protector to hand to her. I still haven't figured that out. I don't really think it was a "germ" issue because we were all touching the page protector and passing it back forth. That still puzzles me.

We listened to 2 others before us. The first man had 3 children, an older child in college and 2 twin special needs sons. He had the income in the family - a failed Internet support business and a house in foreclosure. The Trustee grilled him! I felt terrible for him. For me, who works in health care and is terrified to speak about anything outside of my office for fear of violating HIPPA laws, this felt like a terrible breach of privacy. It is none of my business, that he has 2 failed loans from his mother, that his twin sons have $700 / month in medical expenses, that he is in his home until he is evicted, and it goes on. He actually could not close his case today and had to be rescheduled until late June. I can't imagine going through this more than once.

The next guy was just as sad. A young father, lost his job in 2008, had his home foreclosed in 2009, the 2nd mortgage company was suing him so he had to file bankruptcy. His attorney was the stereotype of every attorney that you hate. Matthew and I both had a hard time staying in the same room with him. He "knew" everyone - brought "candy bars" for another Trustee in another room. Jokes with all the people sitting in the room. Explained to us how bringing candy to the other Trustee was not "bribery, it was just smart". Ewwwwwww.

Next was our turn. The Trustee starts out by reminding our attorney representative that she has told "Mr. Salata that he needs submit paperwork with full names and she hopes that she would not have to remind again" - great - she doesn't even like our attorney. But, in light of the previous 2 and the "irritable" mood of our Trustee - she let us off light. She even smiled at Matthew once! Our attorney representative, Susan G. did a great job and even made me feel more prepared. Matthew said "she was nice, but wasn't going to take any crap". I think that sums it up pretty well.

I think it is done. We should have our final paperwork of discharge July 27, 2010 - which Susan (the attorney rep for us) told us we should receive at some point in August.

It took me hours to settle. I don't think I have had a full night's sleep since Sunday night. I was getting increasingly irritable at work - I know they are glad to have a break from me today. I still feel a little anxious, hopefully that continues to improve.

I am glad that Jacob and Layne were home last night. I missed them. Not sure Joshua missed them so much, though. He was a little irritable after they got home "Jacob that's my spot", "Layne mooove", "Nooooo, that is mine". He really did like being King of the House. At one point on Wednesday evening Joshua was sitting in the den watching TV while I was doing some work on the computer. Matthew was putting away the dishes in the dishwasher. Testing out his new ability to have his needs met immediately, he yells from the couch

(Joshua) "Dad, I need a snack."

(Dad) "what kind of snack, food snack or drink snack?"

(Joshua) "Just bring me a snack, I don't care!" (translation "just do what I say, I am in charge now")

Matthew and the kids are on their way to Louisville. I will miss them. I can't believe it will be almost 3 weeks without Layne around here. She asked last night why Aunt Melanie gets to stay home and I don't. That was hard to answer - I only came up with the non-committal Mom answer "that's just the way it is".

Okay - we have been dealing with creditors, lawsuits, process servers, multiple collection calls daily for 9 months now. Hopefully it won't take 9 months for me to get rid of some of the stress.

Thank you family for your support.

Jennifer