Here's What Has Been Going On In The Jordan Household...

School ends next week on the 25th we all can’t wait. The girls are soooo ready for it to be done and they have worked so hard this year that I just want to keep them home for the next week.

Audrey was on the front cover of the Marcellus New's paper dressed as a duck from her school play, this was very exciting.

Wes’s schedule changed at work so he gets to come home an hour earlier this is a great big smiley face:)

Next Friday is the last day we will be babysitting the boy next door and I am so thankful this is coming to an end. We have been doing it for a year and the girls need their summer to themselves, I probably sound horrid but all good things must come to an end. Wes and I have also decided that I am going to stop cleaning houses and find a part time job working in the Skaneateles Village at one of the shops for the summer…I am burnt out cleaning up after rich people and ready to move on to the next chapter of my professional life. I am hoping to work for the school district when the new school year starts. The district office is right (I mean right) across the street from our house.

Danielle is coming for a visit at the end of July till September and we are very excited to have her. Grandma is coming August 12th till the 25th and the girls are counting down the days and so am I.

I weigh 104lbs!!! This is monumental I have been able to gain 12 pounds this last year. It is a struggle to keep it on (I lost 2 lbs on vacation) … I have to eat constantly but am very proud of myself. I am hoping to gain 6 more.

Other than packing and doing routine Mommy stuff that is all for now.

Skaneateles Here We Come

We are moving on July 11th to our new house and it not a duplex!!! Yay!!! This is the third duplex we lived in a row and I am so ready for my OWN single family house.

We are moving to a village called Skaneateles (skinny-at-less) right on the Skaneateles Lake, the house is about 5 blocks away. Wes’s work is only a 3.5 minute drive. Audrey’s school is right around the corner to the left (grades 3-5) and Hannah’s school is a few blocks away around the corner to the right (grades K-2). I am VERY HAPPY Audrey is not going into middle school next year, that would have happened if we had chosen to stay in Marcellus. 4th grade is too young for middle school.

The house is a Victorian Colonial built in 1894 and has been completely refurbished except for the kitchen but we will tackle that problem later. It reminds me of a house that Anne of Green Gables would have lived in and I fell in love with it instantly. It is a smaller house, living room, dining room, 3 bedrooms 2 full bath (washer and dryer in the downstairs bath, which I love). It has a great big backyard with extensive flower gardens (lets pray I get hit with lightening and all of a sudden my black thumb turns to green) and a large front porch that wraps around the front of the house. Porch Swing here I come!!! We are in a great neighborhood… so no more band sessions at 11:00 at night, no more pitbulls and partying teenagers and inconsiderate neighbors. I can’t wait till the 11th.

The house does have some downfalls, the kitchen is really small and I only have one counter. It is the only room in the house not to have had a major renovation so it still has the orginal one-basin kitchen sink with a place for your dish rack but no counters. There are no counters around the fridge or the stove (the stove is electric, that will be remedied … I need the flame). There is no light switch and it has the old paneling for the ceiling and I am not going to even talk about the tile on the floor. The kitchen has white and red wallpaper …horrible. Wes and I found a beautiful Tuscan wallpaper with grapes and I am going to make it look like an old world Italian Mamas kitchen. The rest of the house makes up for the kitchen though: there is the most beautiful Victorian wall paper in all the rooms, real hardwood floors, the bathroom downstairs has a vaulted ceiling and the bathroom upstairs has the original claw bathtub … so classic. It has a spiral staircase and windows abound, all the light in the house is amazing. There is a stain glass window in the front foyer of the house and it makes me smile just thinking about it.

I am going to have a lot of fun making this house our home.

Holy Cow

Audrey went on a field trip a couple of weeks ago to a local "working" farm. I thought that this was going to be a good experience for her. She has not been exposed to the "country" side of life, it's no secret we are "city" gals.

Audrey comes home from school and tells me that she witnessed the birth of a calf and that it was stillborn. I asked her to repeat herself because I thought I had misheard and she said that she had seen the birth of a stillborn calf and that it was really sad and gross. She then went on to explain that the Farmer told them the calf suffocated and had the cord wrapped around its neck. Some children started to cry and others thought it was cool. Audrey told me that it made her really sad and hurt her heart.

Has everyone lost their frakken minds, not to mention their good judgment? I did not give permission for my daughter to witness a birth and if I had I would of thought the minute the farmers knew the calf was having problems they would have taken the children out of the barn. Well, I had a COW and it was not pretty.
Audrey is not a sheltered child as many of you know, but it is Wes' and my responsibility to introduce certain situation to her...there is not this big rush to let her know everything about everything at the tender age of 8...Call me Crazy. This like me saying, "well we live in the city so lets go down to the local gang and watch them blow someone away because that is normal for this area" (I am not exaggerating either...West Valley anyone?)

True to form Wes and I went and saw the Principle the next day and let him know how disappointed and unhappy this "High Maintance Mother" was. We called into question the judgment of the Teachers and Workers. He told me that it is a "working" farm and is suggested by that title...well excuse my naivety. I have written a letter to the farm expressing my outrage and just because it is a "working" farm does not mean that everything has to be shown...why don't you just take the kids down to see the cows get slaughtered and dressed if that is your attitude.