Sarah Duval

House Projects Update – yes, again

duval3300 — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 01:51:16 +0000

I have to do it again for several reasons. 1. It seems to consume a lot of my time quoting the jobs, being here when they work, cleaning up after then leave, etc. 2. I’ve had requests as shocking as it my seem!

So here is the half bathroom before and after paint:

And the master bathroom before and after paint:

And the kitchen (finished the painting today):

Halloween (a few weeks overdue)

duval3300 — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 04:00:17 +0000

My parent’s were in town for the big holiday so Doug stayed home and gave out candy while the rest of us went trick-or-treating. We treated one side of the street for a while and then treated our way back home on the other side. At our second house, Chase fell down and hurt his hands. we put his gloves on and he powered through. It was pretty cold, but the kids has a few layers on under their costumes. I had on thermals too, but stayed perfectly warm! We had some costume malfunctions – Karis’ hat wouldn’t stay on, Chase’s Vader jumpsuit kept coming un-velcroed and the mask – he lost it pretty quickly. Bob decided that the mask fit him better and he wore it most of the evening. Kind of reminded me of Michael Myers… I think we were only out about an hour and a half, but it was enough. They were getting tired of walking and carrying their super heavy bags of candy. There were a ton of kids out and you were never alone – much different than in our old neighborhood in Austin. After stripping down out of our layers they each got to pick out three pieces of candy to enjoy. Then it was off to bed. Good times, good times!

Tennis Lessons

duval3300 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:35:28 +0000

The kids started their tennis lessons on Saturday and boy was it a hoot! Their teacher was really good with them. He did running drills with them. He would have them stand on the base line and say run to the service line. So then they are standing on the service line and he would say, run to the service line. Some of the kids would take off when they were supposed to stay there. It was cute! Then he taught them how to swing a ground stroke forehand. Then he let them try to hit three balls. After their three balls they had to go to the other side and pick up three balls. Sometimes he would just throw balls over there and it was like it was raining balls. He did another drill where he would throw up a ball in the air and they had to catch it with two hands. He did another one where they had to run to the net and back to the baseline without getting hit by a ball – he was hitting high balls at them! And at the end he pretended that the ball cart was a bus and that it couldn’t stop. They had to pick up all the balls in front of it before the bus hit the balls. All in all they had a great time and can’t wait to back tomorrow!

Videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3lazWzHlbSk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8pkiw9NeWFA

Pics:

That’s Karis and Chase on the far right in blue shirts.

And them picking up balls – Chase couldn’t figure out how to do three and hold his racket so we got a pretty big giggle watching him try.

Doug’s 42nd Birthday

duval3300 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:14:19 +0000

Yep, Doug is now 42 years young! I made him french toast for breakfast and then we opened presents. The kids got him a snow shovel – I’m sure he will get some good use out of that one fairly soon.

I got him a Garmin. When I said I wanted one, I got so much grief from him about how my car already has a navigation system. Well, you can’t use it when the car is even slightly moving. Karis’ school last year which was in its third year of being open was in the middle of a golf course so it was completely outdated (and expensive to update). Just not user friendly. So when we moved up here, he got me a Garmin and I love it. Turns out he loves it too and said he was thinking of getting one… I have refrained (until now) from saying, “I told you so!!!” His parents got him a very cool (yes, I’m jealous) black/brown reversible sweater! And my parent’s got him a Costco gift card.

Later that day, while Doug went for a jog, the kids and I decorated his birthday cake. I had baked and iced it the day before and unfortunately it split overnight. Oh well, I don’t think you even notice the split due to the fabulous decorating job the kids did… Insert severe sarcasm here!

It said “Happy Birthday Pops” at one point…

I was afraid 42 candles would be a fire hazard so we went the “kid candle” route:

Chase’s Knee

duval3300 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:37:39 +0000

He has been complaining about his leg hurting and not being able to walk for a while now – at least a month, maybe longer. I have chalked it up to Chase being Chase. He can be a bit whiny sometimes… So Monday night he started it again, but this time he had tears and sustained them for a few minutes so I knew he wasn’t faking it. I asked him if it hurt enough that we needed to see the doctor about it and he said yes – he never says yes! So I said that I would make an appointment. I got him to narrow down exactly where it hurt and it was just under the patella (knee cap) at the top of the tibia/fibula. It stopped hurting and he was able to walk around after bath running and all. So I put them to bed and around 7:30 he woke up screaming like I’ve never heard him before – worse than when he split his head open or got a shot! I was holding him and couldn’t get him to calm down. He was coughing so hard I thought he was going to vomit, but wouldn’t take a drink or deep breaths. He was yelling at me that I was hurting his leg when I wasn’t even touching it! I asked him if we needed to go to the hospital and he yelled yes, yes! So I bring him downstairs and wait for Doug to get home (business dinner and he was already on the way home). Chase calms down and feels better by the time Doug gets back. He changed his mind about going to the hospital and slept the rest of the night without incident. I got a 2:30 dr appointment for that afternoon so I just had to pick him up a bit early from school. And when I picked him up he said that his ear was hurting so I was glad I already had the appointment. The doctor said it could be one of three things: growing pains (although he hadn’t heard of any that severe), juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or leukemia. He said he didn’t feel like it was necessary at this point to do a blood draw. He said to do some stretching exercises at night and keep our eyes open for any rashes, joint swelling (heat and redness). It the pain still persists in another month to bring him back for a blood draw.

Just a goofy pic of him eating Doug’s birthday cake:

School Conferences

duval3300 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:35:39 +0000

Karis’ conference went very well. She had brought home her report card a few days before and she had all high marks. On a scale from 1 to 4 she had 4′s in all areas. And in the rest of the areas you could either get an X or a + and she got +’s on everything. At her conference, Mr. B said she was doing amazing. He said she had a ton of friends and they everybody wants to pick her for their partner in the classroom and on the playground at recess. He said her reading and writing was “phenomenal.” He was very impressed that she has adjusted so well. He said normally kids either accell in academics or socially like she has. Only negative thing is that she hasn’t tested well. They did this one test and she only scored a 70 something. He said you could tell that she just wasn’t paying attention in parts. She started doodling on the pages, circling the answer in big filled in circles, writing “I like “Texes.” He said that he doesn’t want her to get bored and is trying to encourage her to do more. For example, when they are asked to write a sentence about something, he wants her to try and write more – write a few more descriptive sentences. But all in all a glowing conference.

Chase is doing well in school also. They said he has a lot of friends and is doing fabulous academically. He is doing great in the Montessori program and works the room as he is supposed to. They said the one thing he needs to work on is his confidence in his work/skills. When sounding out words, he trys to say that he can’t do it when we all know he can. However, socially he is fully confident. They said he is just starting to try and test the boundaries, but responds very well when they tell him no or simply redirect him. I told them my concerns with him were his pencil grip and pronunciation of certain sounds (L, R, TH). They said those things will come in time, but that they will work on that with him also.

Our little thief

duval3300 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:30:37 +0000

So Doug was at the grocery store on Saturday morning and called home asking me if I had taken $200 from his wallet. I said no, but I was running low on cash. He then told me that he was missing some money and didn’t know where it could be. He had it the night before at a happy hour and couldn’t figure out where it could have gone. After the kid’s tennis lesson, we told them that we’d take them to Costco on Sunday if they wanted to spend some allowance. So when we got home they found their wallets and started counting their money. Chase was starting to count his money and when he started pulling out $20′s I knew where Doug’s money had gone – the day before he only had four five dollar bills… I secretly thought it was hysterical, but we had to have the stealing talk. Chase was actually crying because he thought he could just have all that money. So good news is that Doug wasn’t crazy and didn’t lose $200, bad news is that Chase is a thief! He sure is a cute thief though…

Chase

duval3300 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:21:29 +0000

Chase’s class is doing a Thanksgiving play today. Last weekend he was practicing his lines and then he proceeded to do everybody’s lines! It goes something like this: A is for Americans – Some of the earliest Americans were the pilgrims. They wanted to be free to have their own religion. B is for Big Ship – The pilgrims saild across the Atlantic ocean in a big ship called the Mayflower. C is for Crowded – The ship was crowded and cramped. There was little foom for children to play. Many people became sick. Etc, etc, etc. Well, Chase knows the entire alphabet – seriously, I couldn’t believe it! He was just doing the first few for fun and then I asked him to keep going and he did. He stumbled a tad around QRS, but I was seriously impressed!!! His letters are L and Y. L is for Land – They learned how to hunt and fish in the new land. Y is for Yelling – The children laughed and played and yelled. It starts in a few hours and I can’t wait – we get to stay and have dessert after the play and then he has karate.

Apple Orchard

duval3300 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 01:36:55 +0000

The morning of Halloween we went to Macqueen’s Apple Orchard. Chase had gone there for a field trip with his school and loved it. He got to pick four apples and had eaten two by the time he came home. So Karis was jealous and wanted to go to the orchard. Plus Judy wanted to go and get a few boxes of apples to take home with her so off we went! Unfortunately, they had just picked all the apples from the trees the day before so you couldn’t go and pick your own bag! They did have a tree around back that we could grab some from so we did. We also wandered around the orchard and came upon a ladder that just screamed to be climbed upon. Good times were had by all and we went home with a bag of apples, some apple fritters, apple dumplings and some other misc. treats. I would have gotten some of their cider, but I already had a jug at home. A lady working at the store let us try a few varieties so that we could decide what type we wanted to buy. Chase was more interested in eating his apple than picking!

Leaf Fight!

duval3300 — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:56:38 +0000

I remember a few years back we made a pile of leaves on the driveway and the kids had a blast jumping in them – I scrapbooked it of course… Well, this was a completely different experience! We have this tree in front that turned a beautiful red. Well, literally in one or two days all the leaves fell off and the leaves were soft (not all hard and crunchy like those Texas leaves)! It was amazing! So we were playing outside the day Bob and Judy came to visit and it turned into an hour and a half of fun in the leaves. We jumped in them, threw them at each other, burried the kids, stuffed them up our shirts, etc. It was a blast and here are a few pics to document the event: