Raffle Tickets to Support Rachel's School

Instead of putting our friends and family on the spot I thought I'd put out a general announcement...

Rachel's school is having their annual Fall auction. A drawing will take place that night.

1st Prize: $1000 Hy-Vee Gift Card
2nd Prize: $500
3rd Prize: $250
4th Prize: $100

Tickets are $5 each and you do not need to be present to win. All entries must be turned in by Sunday, October 12th and the drawing will take place Saturday, October 18th.

If you are interested, let me know at at meighano@gmail.com and I will submit your ticket and send you the stub.

Thanks!

Fall is here!

Rachel started preschool last week and seems to love it. It's hard to get details out of her though. I'll ask her if she had fun. "Yeah." What did you do? "Nothing." Back-to-School Night is next week, so I guess I'll find out then. She did tell me that she wants a uniform like the older girls. Already, she wants to grow up too fast!

She also started her 2nd year of dance (ballet & tap). I finally found a studio that focuses more on traditional dance instruction rather than jumping around to Barney tapes. She hated the other classes but loves her new studio. She's learning all the ballet poses and terminology. Pretty cool.

Rachel began her 2nd year of speech therapy. Her speech pathologist said she is now at the level she should be for her age. But to be sure that she doesn't fall behind, she'll continue having sessions twice a week. She's working on Kindergarten-level sounds and is mentoring a three-year-old boy who is having the same articulation problems she had when she started speech.

All of the sudden Lauren is really starting to grow up. She still looks like my little baby but she talks...a lot! She's constantly asking questions or making demands. "Where mommy at?" "Where Rachel at?" "Want milk, Mommy." "Let's go!" "Shoe-shoes, go bye-bye." "Diaper, mommy." She also insists on helping me with everything; from buckling my belt in the morning to opening and closing doors and carrying groceries to the kitchen. It's still cute at this point, but I feel the terrible twos coming.

It's official, Jason has signed his year-long contract for the Catastrophe Corp and is currently on week 3 of his most recent deployment. He loves that he's being kept busy and seems to be on a roll. The girls and I have adjusted but we can't wait for the contract to end.

Well, this coming week will be birthday week for us. Rachel will have a small party in her preschool classroom on Thursday. Aunt Maggie takes her out to lunch and shopping on Friday. Saturday is the family birthday party. And Sunday, her actual birthday, we'll spend with Grandma and Grandpa Ott who have traveled from Ohio to spend the weekend with us. She's so excited!!! And an added bonus (she doesn't know yet) Jason should be home that weekend, too!

Ohio Visit

It took us 10 long months, but we finally made it up to Ohio again. The girls loved visiting family, going to the Akron Zoo, and making smores with Grandpa and Grandma Ott.

Rachel & Grandpa

Grandpa, Rachel, Grandma Ott, & Lauren

Jiggle Jam 2008

Rachel and I went to the 1st Annual Jiggle Jam Family Festival in Kansas City. We had a great time! Face painting, craft making, funnel cake eating, and to top it off we saw They Might Be Giants. We can't wait to go back next year.

Easter 2008

It's a few days past Easter but the sugar highs are still going strong. My girls LOVE their chocolate!

We did our usual this year...a community egg hunt and Easter Day with the Scherman side. We had planned to travel to Ohio this year, but with Jason's job change (within the company) we have to put that trip on hold. A very hard thing to explain to Rachel. I'll ask her what she wants to do each morning and nearly every day she says "Fly a plane to Ohio. I have to make cupcakes with Grandma Ott".

Other news, Rachel will go to British Soccer Camp this summer. It's a week-long camp, one hour each morning, with 3 and 4 year olds. Jason, who played soccer in high school, can't wait to take her shopping for her gear. Rachel has been wanting to try a sport for awhile now, but is just now old enough. She's so excited!

Lauren is such a talker. I keep telling myself I need to write down all her words, so here goes... Mama, Dada, Gah-ma (grandma), Omo (Elmo), lolo (Yellow), pupo (Purple), bye-bye, nigh-nigh (Night-night), Raw-Ro (Rachel), Lala (Lauren), Ah-da (Audrey), buh-baw (bubbles), baw (ball), dah (dog), key-ka (kitty cat), uh-uh (while shaking her head), and of course "no".

Preschool & A New Job

Rachel is so excited. Yesterday, we enrolled her in preschool. She won't start until the Fall but she was ready for me to drop her off that day. She'll be in the new Early Education Center our Parish is opening next month. In the meantime, to help pass the time, I'll be keeping Rachel busy. She's about to finish up her second session of tumbling classes and will start swimming lessons in April. Not sure what she'll do over the Summer but she's interested in ballet, soccer, and basketball.

Lauren is growing up so fast. She's such a little monkey. She'll climb on just about anything. Scary! She's also talking more, "ball", "purple", "kitty cat", "lala" (her way of saying her name).

Other news...Jason has taken a contractual job offered by his company. In two weeks he'll join the Catastrophe Team (CAT Team). When things like Hurricane Katrina, the wildfires in California, or small catastrophes like hail storms of floods hit he'll be deployed to the area to assess damages and give checks to help repair and rebuild.

It's a difficult job that requires long hours and a lot of time away from home. We're prepared for him to be deployed 80% of the year, seeing him every three weeks or so. But it's also a contractual job that only lasts one year. The company looks very favorably on anyone who has been on the CAT Team so this will open doors for him and give Jason a chance to branch out. He's sort of hit the ceiling at the Help Point.

We're still keeping out eye out for a house, but with the job change we may wait to buy or build until Jason's contract is up. It's fun to look though.