ShannonAlbert.com - June 2009

Haven't had much to post lately since we've been iced in and doing boring things like cleaning and being lazy. Weather is still cold but we aren't stuck in the house as much now. Here's an update on everybody.

• Blake - happy as long as he has something to figure out. Our days are spent with him asking me questions I often don't know the answer to. Things like:
  
  How does the horn make a sound on the outside of the car?
  
  How does it scan?
  
  How is it a clock?
  
  What is a be-donk-a-donk butt?
  
  How does the car slow down?
  
  Why is a _______ called a _______?
  
  
  
  Here he is putting together a track on the refrigerator...
  
  
  And doing a science experiment where you collect smoke from a candle and then blow out smoke rings...
  
  
  I just printed out 5 worksheets for him to do tomorrow and when I buy him workbooks to do, he's done with it within an hour. He's tough to keep up with. I'm not feeling overly optimistic about how exciting kindergarten will be. Every time I come across a kindegarten website for printing worksheets, it's things like drawing numbers and letters. He'd much rather do addition/subtraction and try to read some words so hopefully he will be able to find things to learn once he starts school (for him, probably more on an emotional level than intellectual as he still has much room for improvement in that area!).
  
  
• Payton - has really come out of her shell this year and has gotten involved with a variety of things including volleyball (her team won all 4 games today!). She continues the trend of growing 3 inches a year and is now about 5'2" with no signs of stopping anytime soon. The emphasis for her has definitely switched toward friends which is very normal but means we see a lot less of her than we used to. Her recent report card had all As and one B which seems to be what she's always gotten. The work gets more difficult every year but she's doing a good job keeping up and maintaining good grades. The ipod she got for Christmas has quickly become a fixture in her life and she writes down new song requests almost daily and I download them for her. It takes a long time to build up a playlist but she's getting there.
  
  
• Andy - turning 32 in a week! He's been very busy at work lately and trying to keep up with a heavier workload. He was told by the dr. that he needs to lose weight so that is a new goal for us both.
  
  Andy's weight loss tracker:
  
  
• Me - also going to lose weight as we've both gained together and we'll be losing together. I went and signed all of us up at the gym today so Blake and I will go tomorrow for the first time in a long time. It will be healthy for him as well because he doesn't get enough physical activity being home all the time. I'm in the process of planning out some trips for the year but won't be saying much until they are booked and as everyone knows, trip planning is my favorite thing to do! I plan to write soon about what I'm doing to earn income because it's been an interesting road trying to figure out what I want to do. I'm still in the early phases of working on some things but I'll post more in the near future.
  
  My weight loss tracker: