School's Out!!!

Well, it's official... Madison and Gabrielle are out of school for the year. I can't believe that Madison will be in 5th grade and Gabrielle in 1st. Time is moving too quickly. They are so grown up already!!! This shot was taken after they got off the bus on their last day (they are posing with their pet gerbil, Pepper). Another big part of news from our neck of the woods is that I went in last week to take my "off probation" checkride. You are not part of the union until you have been with the company for a year. Up until that point, you are on your own and under the magnifying glass if they want to keep you or not. Needless to say, it is a relief to have passed my checkride and to be moving past that milepost. Now I need to hang in there and not do anything completely stupid for a few more weeks until my one year anniversary with SWA on June 13th. I can't believe it has almost been a year already. Time flies when you are having fun. I can't wait to officially be part of the SW pilot union, and almost as important, I can't wait to be done with my probationary salary and moving up to 2nd year pay. The girls are tired of eating nothing but ramen noodles...

We're Moving!!!

Well, after having our home on the market since Feb, we finally had an offer come through. It was lower than we had hoped, so we countered with something we thought was more realistic. They came back with an extra 5K added to their first offer. We did some thinking and just decided to be done with the whole process. It is a relief to have accepted it in a way, but completely frustrating in another. At least we bought five years ago. I can't imagine what it would be like for so many people who are upside down on their home values right now. We made some money, so hopefully we will be able to turn around a low ball some poor sap desperate to sell in Vegas. We are set to close on the 16th of June and then need to be moved out by the 24th. Talk about fast and furious. Anyway, I figured I would include these pictures for the fun of it. Both were done by Madison. The first is a letter she wrote and photocopied to her whole class. You can read it, but it basically says they need to come up with ways to get out of moving. Then she gave them a few weeks to have their ideas submitted. The second one was put in an envelope and addressed to us (no stamp, though) and placed in our mailbox, supposedly from our realtor telling us he couldn't sell our home. I was amazed at her creative ways of trying to get out of this. I can't wait to see what her creative mind comes up with when she is a teenager. Yikes!!!

Gabrielle's 6th B-day

Gabrielle celebrated her 6th b-day at Skate Country this year. She had all her friends from school come on over. We all had a blast. Her friends gave her all sorts of crafts and projects to have fun with, so Heather and I waited until the next day to give her the other presents (overload). We had our own party the next day. Gabrielle loved her Nientendo DS and is excited to be able to play with Madison now. She also loves her racing car game we got for the WII. It is halarious to watch Madison and Gabrielle with two steering wheels on the couch, frantically steering their way to victory. Lastly, we got her a pair of rollerskates so she can go crazy outside. Madison is going to save up her allowance so she can get a pair as well.

Gabrielle and her friend Shea

I couldn't resist this picture of Gabs and her friend Shea. They play (and fight) almost on a daily basis. How can you resist a smile like that?

Webkinz

This was actually done a while ago, but I couldn't resist putting it in the blog. Madison is always doing creative things. This one even surprised me. She took a bunch of shoe boxes that Mom had laying around and decorated each one differently so she could make a Webkinz parade out of them. Each one of them had a Webkinz to ride on them along with a dedicated song from her Zune to play. Gabrielle helped her out with it all once the ball got rolling and they had a blast giving me the final show.

NATALIA

On one of my last trips I was able to stay overnight in Indiana where my brother Ben and his family live. I had a pretty long overnight, so I was able to spend some fun time with them before I had to fly out the next day. They have a daughter that makes me laugh so dang hard. She is so mischevious and silly. It is like you are taking a bunch of qualities of Madison and Gabrielle and rolling them all together. I love her to peices. Anyway, here is a shot of us about to decimate some Twix bars. She loves junk food and the SUGAR HIGH!!! (and so do I :))

Marble Tower

The girls and I had a blast putting this together. Unfortunately, we had to take it down pretty quickly after it was perfected because we got a call from someone wanting to see the house. It spoiled Madison's plans for her grand unveiling (She put a sheet over the whole thing and was going to give Mom a show when she got home). We've had about thirty people see the house since Feb, but no takers. About three have wanted to, but haven't been able to get financing. Pretty crazy times right now. Anyway, things keep plugging along with our family. The girls started swim team this week. They will be swimming every day after school, then in the mornings once school is out. Hopefully it will help wear them out so they will sleep at night. I doubt it, but I can dream...

Marble Creation

Here's a video of the finished product...