What a week...

It's been crazy here. Liam is playing lacrosse again, we just spent a bunch of money for his school camping trip (who knew one pair of wool socks could be $9?!?), our stove went out on Sunday night...right after we bought a weeks worth of groceries...and a replacement won't arrive until tomorrow. Throw in the fact that Phil's job STILL has not been listed and we're trying to make arrangements for continuing medical and life insurance (while seeing how fast his retirement check is going to disappear)...and the fact that we now have a month-and-a-half until his retirement is official - it's getting pretty stressed around here.

However, on a good note - we just got Liam's report card for the 2nd trimester, and he's doing excellent. He's meeting all standards, and he is even exceeding a few (geometry, reading comprehension, and speaking). He is now doing rock climbing for P.E. and he just conquered a big fear to make it all the way to the top of the smaller wall. His teacher also had this to say:

"In writing Liam is creating action-packed sagas. He loves to read his stories to the class and is proud of his work. He wins the award for most awesome sound effects; Liam is a very active and social guy who gets along well with most everyone in the class."

All-in-all, we're quite proud of him. He's also learning about saving money for a goal - we have put the kibosh on anyone buying him random gifts for the time being. He has these lego sets that he wants to have, so he has to save his allowance for them. He has already been informed that if he gets any of these for his birthday, they will be taken away until he can earn them. Phil and I firmly believe that he needs to start learning that he can't expect everything to be given to him, and what it means to save money towards a goal. So far he's already gotten himself one set, and he spends much of his free time plotting which one to go for next...to the point that Phil and I have asked him to stop talking about them for at least a little while!

Ceana is also doing well. She is becoming quite the chatterbox, and is picking up words left and right. We really have to watch what we say now, because little Miss Mimic will happily repeat anything and everything. We just got a membership at the Children's Museum, and she likes to go there. She also loves to play outside when the weather cooperates - we spent most of Saturday and Sunday running errands and playing outside...she was absolutely EXHAUSTED every night. Especially now that she no longer takes naps...

Anyway, that's the news around here. Here are a few photos to enjoy: