Preschool Bound

This week Merrick experienced a milestone first. Monday was his first day of preschool. Since he still has three years until kindergarten (due to his late birthday), I had not planned on putting him in preschool until next year. This changed however, when I got the harebrained idea to start my own preschool. Instead he is my little helper in my two classes three days a week.

Here are our first day pictures.

My favorite things about this experience so far are that if you ask Merrick he will tell you he goes to snickerdoodle preschool.com and that after the first day when we were waiting for Nana (my co-teacher) he asked "Where is Ms. Rae?" Man I love that kid!

Birthday and Birth Day

This past week my baby turned three. It seems like every year around this time I end up scratching my head trying to figure out how time has gone so quickly. This year is no exception. The difference this year is that with just returning from our trip to Disneyland, Jeremy starting school, and starting my own business, I did not have the time or energy for a big party. Instead we had several small celebrations and I tried my best to suppress my mommy guilt about the lack of a big party.

As I mentioned last week our first celebration was in California with grandpa, lollie, Bryce, and Jensen. Our next celebration was on Merrick's acutal birthday. It was difficult to really celebrate that day because Jeremy was at school and my "to do" list was a mile long, but I was able to set it aside for a day and focus on Merrick. We started the day at the bounce house, had lunch at McDonald's and then went to the library.

That night when Jeremy got home we had dinner and mini cupcakes for desert. Don't feel too bad for Merrick about how tiny the cupcakes were because he ate three!

We opened a few gifts from nana and papa, great grandparents, and friends. Jeremy and I have one gift for him, but had kind of dropped the ball on the gift front, hence celebration number three.

On Friday night Jeremy and I took Merrick out on a special mommy, daddy date. We went to dinner and to the toy store so he could pick out a special birthday present. After a few missteps we ended up with a Buzz Lightyear Scooter. He has been practicing some special tricks, I promise I will get some pictures soon.

So that was Merrick's birthday in a nutshell. Nothing too over the top, but hopefully he was happy and felt loved.

One other thing that I have to mention, this week Ben and Becca had their baby, Lincoln Nils Brown. Merrick was so cute. He wanted to hold him and and kept saying "he's so tiny". He is going to be a great big brother one day.

Disneyland

Last week I posted about waiting and while we are still waiting for most things on that list, this week our Disneyland vacation came and went.

We got home last night from the perfect week of vacation. We spent Monday and Wednesday at the beach, Tuesday and Thursday at Disneyland and California Adventure and Friday and Saturday relaxing, shopping, and celebrating Merrick's birthday.

I don't know how many times in one post I can say perfect, but there really is not another way to describe our days at Disneyland other than perfect. I had been worried about crowds and that Merrick would be too scared for many of the rides. It turns out I did not need to be worried about either.

The lines were the shortest I have ever seen them. The longest we ever waited for a ride was 30 minutes and we frequently walked straight on to rides. Because of these short lines Merrick was able to ride his favorite ride, Winnie the Pooh, seven times!

Merrick was such a trooper in every sense of the word. I think he whined once in the two LONG days we spent in the parks. He walked, stayed up late, and was happy as could be. He was also so brave on the rides. He is tall enough to go on most rides and he wanted to be big like his uncles so he cheerfully went on most rides. We were so impressed with how brave he was that we even decided to take him on space mountain, which did prove to be too much for him (and daddy who was holding Merrick's head the entire time to prevent it from being whipped all around).

We are so grateful to Grandpa and Lollie for making the trip possible. If it had not been for their incredible generosity, we would never have been able to afford it. It was such a nice escape from reality and a great way to end the summer.

Let me also apologize in advance for the ridiculous number of pictures. Believe it or not this is just a fraction of all the pictures we took.

Tick Tock

The overriding theme of this week has been "wait...wait...wait...". Honestly, one of my biggest struggles is to live life in the moment and not miss out because I am too focused on waiting for some future event. This has been a particularly big challenge this week as there is so much to wait for.

We are waiting for baby Lincoln to make his appearance. We had a false alarm last Sunday, but now it could be five minutes from now or it could be next week.

We are waiting for a job offer for my dad. He has been out of work for a little over a month and it is definitely time for something to work out. Last Friday he had a very promising last interview with a local company and now we wait.

We are waiting for enrollments for the preschool. All in all this was a good week for enrollments. We met and then passed our break even point with more enrollment forms allegedly on there way, but I am really trying hard to not count my chickens before they hatch.

We are waiting for Disney. It has been a busy and stressful summer and our reward at the end of it is a family trip to Disneyland. All that stands in our way now is some laundry, packing, and a few hours.

While I have spent this week waiting I really need to savor every moment of the coming week. Not only is it vacation week, it is the last week before Jeremy disappears back into school and the last week I have a two-year-old. Here is to deep breathes and enjoying every moment.

The Project(s)

This was the week of big projects. Monday was just a normal day with no hinting at the craziness the week would ultimately bring.

Tuesday was supposed to start with making our vinyl banner to advertise for the preschool with several activities to follow. Instead the banner would turn into an all day (actually more like all week) project. Becca is going to have a baby any day so we begged and pleaded her to help us before her big day came. We spent one day cutting the vinyl, one day assembling and hung it on another day.

On top of this, on Tuesday, while making the banner, we decided to throw a baby shower for Becca...on Saturday. Somehow over the next few days we sent out invitations, planned food, decorations, and games.

It was such a crazy week. I feel like I ran non-stop from Tuesday on. I would run out of time each day and things from the "to do" list would get pushed to the next day, but somehow in the end we got it all done. The banner is awesome and up on the main highway running through the town and the shower was great. Hooray for being productive!

Summertime and the Livin's Easy

Ok so this summer hasn't exactly been easy. Between work and school for Jeremy and starting my own business, life has been very busy and stressful to say the least, but it has had its positive moments. Portland in the summer definitely has its perks.

This week was a prime example of this. We spent the week going to countless parks and by Friday morning Merrick and I were looking for a change. We decided take on a Oregon summer pastime and go berry picking.

Right around the corner from our house (not an uncommon site in these parts) there is a wonderful place to pick blackberries. The weather was perfect and we decided to take a little walk and get some fresh berries.

The down side of blackberry picking is the thorns and Merrick and I both were stuck a few times. We walked away with a few scratches and several containers of blackberries.

Since Friday we have already been back for round two of picking. I see lots of blackberry ice cream and cobblers in our future.

I know the winters can get long and dreary, but nothing beats Portland in the summer.

P.S. Yes, Merrick did wear the hat the entire time we picked

Lucky Number 7

Today is Jeremy's and my anniversary. For seven years we have stood side by side through the good times and the challenges. I thought today I might recap what the last seven years have brought us as a couple:

1 child-who happens to be the most perfect little boy you can imagine.
2 states-six years in Arizona and one in Oregon
3 houses-from our first condo to our first house and now living with my parents
4 major medical/health issues-all in the year before Merrick was born
5 schools-starting with community college and ending (hopefully) with law school
6+ (depending on how you count them) different jobs
7 perfect years-I would not change a thing

Here's to a the first seven years and on to eternity.