Going green

What happens when you take a 6.5 yr old girl and her parents to the Smart House at the Science museum? 

A renewed effort to be better at helping the environment. Stop laughing. We are really going to try this.

What are we going to do you might ask. Well let me tell you.

First of all, Wayne has made a compost bin of sorts. He had already started it but now he's actually going to do it the right way.  So now we have a definite bin and we learned what we can and can't put in it. 

Next, he is going to make a rain barrel.  He will set it up under one of the downspouts from the gutters. We will then use that water for the garden, grass, whatever. Just not for drinking or cooking. That would be gross.

We started this part a couple years ago, but we have been planting a garden. We have already started seeds for carrots and radishes. We will also be planting tomatoes, peppers, broccoli, and not sure what else.  Oh we also have strawberry plants that we planted last year. They are already growing and have about 2-3 dozen flowers on them. I can't wait!

As we do more, I will be sure to post about it.  I will also post on the progress of the garden this year. 

Since we are talking about food. I figure I could add what we had for dinner tonight. We are also trying to eat better as best we can. LOL  It's not going too well but tonight we did well.  I made turkey burgers on the grill and we had corn on the cob.  For "dessert" we had grapes. The kids loved it! 

Off to do laundry and then hopefully head to bed.

New and Improved? Well maybe.....

Ah Spring. What better time to start over than Spring, right? Of course.

A lot has happened in the Kinker household since I last posted. After all it has been almost a year.

Where shall I start.... ah yes, the kids.

Connor is doing wonderful. He brings laughter and love every day. He is quite possibly the funniest kid I have ever met. Sure I might be a LITTLE biased, but I hear it from others too. Especially from his Uncle Don who always insists I get Connor into acting/modeling. Of course we recently found out that Connor has some allergies. Explains the constant "colds" he's been having. He's allergic to dogs, cats and dust mites which unfortunately meant we had to find a new home for the cat. more to come on the cat(s) later. Overall he's doing great. Takes his meds like a champ(nose spray) and rarely complains.

Connor starts Tball next month and we are really looking forward to it! he's going to have so much fun.

Sophia is almost done with Kindergarten. This year has been both a struggle and full of excitement! Sophia has proven to be quite the smarty pants. She is the top reader in her class, reading at a 2nd grade level. In February she was chosen to do a ribbon cutting ceremony at school because she was the top reader out of all the Kindergarten classes!! She's also excelling in other areas in school as well. We have been struggling with behavior issues but we think we have gotten them under control for the most part.

Sophia has been doing cheerleading for the past 3 months. She has a big cheer competition coming in up 2 weeks! She's enjoying but for those that know Sophia personally, she can be a bit stubborn about things. She wants to take the summer off and then possibly start up again in the fall.

Wayne has been working hard, both at his job and getting the yard ready for planting the garden and whatnot. We are trying to be more "green" and coming up with ideas on how we can do that. So look for posts from Wayne about all of that.

I'm done with work for the year. This tax season went so quickly. Now that I'm not working, I've gotten more involved at Sophia's school. PTA, Girl Scouts, helping out in her class. I am really enjoying it. I even went to the state PTA convention this year and had a lot of fun! It's all keeping me busy.

So now about the cats. Unfortunately, they are both gone now. Houdini ran away twice before Christmas. He came back once but then disappeared again. Unfortunately, Wayne found him dead in the garage while we were doing some spring cleaning. :( I am so sad about it, but at least now I know where he is. He is buried next to my peonies in the backyard. RIP Houdini.

The kitten, who never really had a definite name, was taken to the no kill shelter. It was a lot harder on me than I thought it was. I never really bonded with her since Houdini was my cat. I cried so hard when I had to sign the paperwork to turn her over.

So now we have fish. No definite names on them except I think one is named Ben 10. Have I mentioned yet that Connor is Obsessed with all things Ben 10?? Yep.


I have to go pick Sophia up from school and take her to get new glasses. Hopefully I will be back again later or tomorrow to report on our "Going Green" efforts.

Summer

Summer break is quickly coming to an end. Sophia starts kindergarten in 24 days! We've had a good summer.

Sophia spent a week by herself with her grandparents and then Connor and I went down to join them. Had fun. The most exciting part was when sophia got up on waterskis with Uncle Paul! That girl is fearless!! Maybe next year she will do it alone.

The other thing Sophia is looking forward to is Cheer Camp! She is going to a one day(5hour) camp. Then a week later she will get to cheer at the first home football game for highland high. She is so excited.

Trying to think of some fun things I can do with Connor while Sophia is in school all day. Maybe I can sign him up for a sport or something.

Ok kids are fighting over the slide. Gotta run.

Yard sale and missing my girl

So today I went to my friend Katie's to do a yard sale. We did it from 9-4. I only made $12.95. Bummer. I hope tomorrow is better. I won't be there on Sunday because I'm going to the lake.

Speaking of the lake, Sophia has been down there with her grandparents since Tues! I miss her so very much. This is the longest she has EVER been away from me. When Connor was born, she was only gone for 4 days! I cried almost all the way home from Todd's on Tuesday morning after I dropped her off. I missed her already. So I can't wait to see her!!

Connor, Billy and I will be driving down on Sunday morning, then Wayne will be joining us on Tues since he has to work. Then he will drive home Wed evening. I'm not sure if the kids and I are staying longer or not. Probably not. Guess it depends on how things are going.

Well I'm tired and need to get some rest before tomorrow.

Update

4th of July was great this year despite the rain. Went to the Highland parade on Friday night. Kids had a blast! Saturday we went to the Whiting parade. Connor enjoyed it. Sophia was tired and spent the whole parade sitting on Aunt Marilyn's lap.

After the parade we came home and had friends over for a BBQ. It was fun but most everyone left early so we over to Todd's and partied with the family. We had so much fun and didn't get home til midnight!!

Yesterday Sophia had a routine hearing test at Childrens. It went really well. The audiologist thinks she may not have to come back. Fingers crossed!

After her appt we went back and spent the day with mom and dad. So tired today!

So that's about it.

Testing this out...

Just uploaded an app to the iPod so I could post here. Seeing if it works!

An update

Here's a brief(maybe) summary of what is going on at Casa de Kinker!


Sophia graduated from Preschool at the end of May. She is now officially a Kindergartener! woohoo. She is enjoying her summer vacation so far. The best part is that she has actually started riding her bike and is showing a small interest in learning to ride without the training wheels. So far she just freaks out.

Connor is finally done with speech therapy. His last day of that was 2 days before Sophia's last day of school. He's also enjoying the summer. We have slowly started potty training. It's going VERY slowly. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will have him done by end of summer. wish us luck.

Wayne has been working a lot. Picked up some overtime here and there. It's helped. Sunday is his birthday. Sucks that his bday and Father's day are the same day but he's okay with it. We are going camping for the week as his birthday gift. :) We bought him a weed whacker a few weeks ago as an early Father's day gift.

I've been busy too. The first weekend in June I went on a whirlwind trip to Massachusetts. I went to meet a friend that I met online and have known for 7 yrs!! We are best friends but have never met in person. It was great. It was like I had always been a part of the family. I flew in on Friday afternoon, spent all day Saturday in Boston and then flew home on Sunday evening. It was too short because I wanted to see more, but just long enough because I missed my kiddos. Yes I went alone!!! Jules and i have already made plans for next year at this time for us to get together again but next time I'm taking Wayne and the Kids. :)

The biggest news we have is that we bought a MINIVAN!!! I love it. It's a 2006 Dodge Grand Caravan. it's soo roomy and comfy. It has plenty of room for the kids and has stow and go seats so we can fold down the back seats and put stuff back there. We also paid off our Saturn this month!! Today actually. It felt soo good but would have felt better if we hadn't just added on another car payment. Oh well. We really needed a 2nd car AND something bigger!! Love it!!

Lilke I said earlier, we are going camping next week. We will be gone from June 21-28. I can't wait. A whole week in the tent, swimming in the lake or pool, hanging out w/ just Wayne and the kids! it's going to be great!!

well, my fingers aren't functioning very well tonight for some reason so I must end here!! If you've made it this far! Great!!!!