10 on Monday (well, Tuesday, but who’s counting)

• We went to the zoo on Saturday.  It was fun, but a LONG day!  EJ took lots of pics.  Check out his blog to see them. 

• We bought a pool this weekend.  A 14 foot diameter by 42 inches deep pool.  One with a pump, and chlorine, and stuff.  We leave on Sunday for 6 weeks.  hmmm.
• We are leaving on Sunday for 6 weeks!!!  Holy monkey! Week 1 is at Edisto Island.  Week 2 is MAYBE at the river (depends on Bible School and whatnot) and Week 3-6 is in the mountains!  I’m really excited, but a little nervous at the same time.  I’m sure that I will be totally exhausted when we get home, but I also think it will be a total blast!  We will miss Jerry SOOOOO much, but we’ll talk and stuff.  And he’ll be busy with school.
• How on earth is this the last day of May?  This has been one long ass month!  It does NOT seem like just at the beginning of this month my littlest turned one.  Seriously… it was NOT 30 days ago… It seems like YEARS, well, at least months.  So much has happened.
• It has been Holy Hell Hot this week.  Ugh.  The pool has feels good, but is direct sun all morning.  So this morning, we hit the Splash Pad… cause while also in the direct sun, they have shade and you don’t have to totally submerge yourself to cool off.

• I love Mayfield’s Extreme Moose Track Ice Cream.  I think I will have a bowl soon.  Sooooo good!
• And the heat… ugh, the heat.  I woke up at 5:15 and was out the door at 5:39… and yet it was 73 degrees and so humid.  Still, I made it through my hardest week yet.  Check out my progress.
• I am adjusting to Jerry working late and being in school… and being home with both kids all day every day.  Jerry mentioned that probably we are all having an adjustment period.  It has been a REALLY long time where the idea of school hasn’t been right there.   We are having to adjust to each other… all the time.  It will be fine, but it is an adjustment.
• Elijah has officially given up his nap.  I have seriously done everything I can think of to get this child to sleep at nap.  Gone to the beach, ridden bikes, made him run… a lot… and nope. not a one.  So he has to sit quietly in another room and he can read his comics or another book, but he has to stay on the bed.  So far, it has worked out fine.  Grace still sleeps.  I still get a break.  It’s a win win… quasi-win.
• I HAVE to find more blackberries… I don’t know when, and I don’t know how, but I MUST make more jam.  I’m already down two jars.  It’s SOOO freakin’ good… especially on hot biscuits.  Seriously… mmmmmmmm…
• I am taking next week (and possibly the following 5) off due to vacation.  I will try to keep up, but there are no promises!

A little bit of Grace

I know she had a birthday post…. but she had her well child check today.  So here is a pic study on Grace, her well child stats, and a story…ah, my little Gracie Bear.

I just love this little girl.  Even when she is driving me crazy, she steals my heart.  Here are her stats from her well child check: 28.4 pounds (25%), 37.5 inches (50%) practically perfect in every way! Love her.
And now… why she probably will need therapy when she is older:
Jerry is in class Monday and Thursday nights.  This past Monday, Jerry had a hardcore dental cleaning and he took the afternoon off for this and to come see Elijah play tennis. Afterward, we stopped by Chic-Fil-A for dinner to go.  He dropped us off at home and went to school.  We ate and played until bedtime.  And then off to bed with the kiddos.  Now, Grace has a hard time shutting the hell up lying down quietly sometimes.  She will stand on her bed and try to see Elijah on the top bunk (he is not innocent as he often encourages this and then plays innocent… sigh.)   Whatever.  Not okay, but whatever.  But this night… sigh.  THIS night, the little jerk of a child girl was trying to SWING herself up onto Elijah’s bed.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? “Grace to the back room!!! NOW!”  Grace puts her hands over her ears and (I kid you not) at the top of her lungs says, “LALALALALALALALALALALA!” (Oh Lord, help this child.) I snatched picked her up calmly and threw placed her on the guest room bed and slammed  closed the door, telling her that she needed to stay in this room until I came back to get her.  Then I proceeded to count to 4689 (this is how high I need to count in order to not beat my child senseless calm down.)  During my counting, I heard the door open.  I thought she just wanted the door open.  So I didn’t get up until I reached my calming number.  I REALLY should have kept counting.  I went in to get her.  To take her back to her bed.  AND then I went in… and this is what I saw.  Grace.  on the bed.  on her tummy, with her little legs kicking behind her.  reading her brother’s comic books.  DRINKING lemonade.  EATING chicken nuggets.  At this point, my body went through a transformation: I grew to about 10 feet tall, horns SPROUTED from my head, my eyes BULGDED from my head, and my voice took on a demonic tone.  I took the lemonade and chicken nuggets and THREW place them gently on the table.  I turned around and the following words came out of my mouth, “IF YOU OPEN THIS DOOR AGAIN, YOU WILL SLEEP OUTSIDE!!!!!!”  This in the demon voice.  I then slammed the door, thinking that she was very lucky there was not a Grace sized hole in the wall.  I went back and started counting again.  Cause I felt like a total jerk… but REALLY?  drinking and eating in bed when you KNOW you are in trouble are never a good thing.  If only, this is where the evening ended.  If only she had gone back to bed and gone the fuck to sleep (seriously need THIS book.)  BUT she didn’t.  I did put her in her bed.  I hugged her and kissed her goodnight.  I THOUGHT that things were going to be calm now.   sigh.  “water, water,water, water,water WAter, WATer, WATEr, WATER, WATER, WATER (really trying to ignore her.  REEEEEAAAALLLLLLYYYYY…I mean House was on.) WATERWATERWATERWATER.” 
“Grace, you had lemonade, you may not have water.  You—“ “WATERWATERWATER”
“EHEM, if you would stop screaming, you wouldn’t need water.  you MAY NOT have water.”
“I NEEEEEEDWATERMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMAMA!!!!  WATERWATERWATER!!!”
“SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!!!!”  At this point, I yank her up by her hair help her out of bed, drag walk her to the kitchen, and shove the goddamn water down her throat give her a sip of water, then marched her back to bed, told her to shut the fuck up and go the hell to sleep lie down and be quiet.  To which she looked at me and said, “Mama, I don’t like you.”  to which I responded, “I could really care less.  Cause right now, I love you, but REALLLLLLY don’t like you. AT. ALL.”
And, of course, I felt like a total ass.  After crying a little calming down, I went in and snuggled with her a little bit and gave lots of hugs and kisses.  And she said she was sorry and gave me huge squeezes and kisses.  So, ya know, the insanity of that 45 minutes melted a bit and she went to sleep and slept soundly. 
When these moments happen, I can only hope that the lasting damage isn’t permanent.  I do love her wholeheartedly, I FEAR that when she nears her teenage…or even preteen years we are going to have some knock down drag out fights.  And that hurts my heart.  But I hope she remembers that I do love her with every ounce of my being.  Who wouldn’t love this face?

10 on Monday

• I survived Saturday with Jerry in school and the kids at the beach.  In fact, we had a really good day.  It was hot enough to be in the water, but cool enough to not feel like we were going to bake.  We tried out our new shelter and it worked great!  I even changed clothes in it! 

• I also survived Elijah’s graduation.  We got there in plenty of time to get a good seat.  The kids processed in, the priest said a prayer, the director said some words, the kids sang and got their diplomas, then marched out.  It was very sweet and very quick.  Following the graduation, there was picnic on the lawn.  I went to retrieve Elijah and Jerry took Grace outside and ended up getting a place in line to get food (good thinking!!)  It was a very bittersweet day.

• Last week I took Grace to the library to go to Dance Day.  She had a lot of fun and, of course, had to dress the part.  On Saturday night, we dropped the kids off for a Parent’s Night Out and one of the “teachers” said that Grace was showing them all some impressive dance moves.  I guess we have made the right choice in putting her into a creative movement class next fall at the local Dance Coop.
                               
• Elijah opted to dress a Batman for his “pick a letter and dress as something that starts with that letter.”  I knew it was a toss up between Batman and Spiderman.  Had to do some quick artwork on a t-shirt the night before, but it turned out okay.

• Not to be outdone, Gracie wanted to be a princess.  This is well and good, but we were heading to playgroup.  So Made her a princess.  We went to the park.  I wanted to do a loop first to check for blackberries.  This prompted THIS face:

• On the loop, that Grace went on grudgingly, I found not a few blackberries, but a TON!!  Enough to make 10 jars of jam and have enough left over for at least a pie.  SO yummy.  SO hard to stop picking. Sigh.  Grace and her friend (and mine) got to go out for ice cream when we were done.  The kids were very patient!
• I am so proud of the kiddos.  Both were holding their own on the boogie boards at the beach.  Twice Grace went head first over the front into the water, and twice she shook herself off and went again.  She is going to rock the swim lessons this summer!
• Elijah has learned to read the waves and knows when to jump on and ride.  He very much wants to surf, but I think we have a few more years (and mom’s heart needs that amount of time, at least, to prepare) before this to happen.
• This week has a feeling of a bit of insanity to it.  I have moved up a notch on the C25K, Elijah is home full time now, he is winding down his tennis lessons, Jerry is in class two nights a week, I and Grace have doc appointments on the same day within 2 hours of each other.  But playgroup is going to the beach, we are going to a playdate tomorrow, and this weekend is a long weekend with more beach time and possibly a trip to the zoo!
• Two weeks from yesterday we are heading to Edisto Island.  I’m SOOOO ready.  I’m also ready to head up to the mountains for a long visit.
• Jerry and I celebrated 11 years of marriage Saturday.  We went out to dinner and then to a movie.  My parents are celebrating 41 years today.  They are spending it in a posh Biltmore condo (they won at a silent auction.)  They are an inspiration to me.  May they have many more and may we strive to meet their standard.

10 on Monday

• Today is Jerry’s first day as an MBA student.  His books arrived after he had to leave for class.  Poor guy.  I still hope that today is a great first day for him!
• Today is the first day of Elijah’s last week of school.  I’m in denial that my boy is not a baby anymore.  sigh.
• Last week Grace and I went strawberry picking.  After a morning deluge, the rain stopped long enough for us to pick two buckets of strawberries.  And by us, I mean I.  I took a bunch of pics, but this has got to be my favorite!

She ate 6087234870 strawberries and I had taken as many pics and I think she was a little sick of both. heh.

• We have introduced the kids to Looney Tunes.  I love Looney Tunes!  There is one on a disc that has Porky Pig in it wondering why he has to learn about history.  At the end he says the Pledge of Allegiance.  In this episode he does NOT say “under God”!!  Yet further proof that it was added.  *eye roll*
• I am supposed to make cupcakes for Elijah’s graduation on Friday.  I’m not sure when I will find the time for this to happen.  But happen it will.
• We leave for a massive vacation in a couple weeks.  Stop #1 is Edisto Island!  I love this place.  It’s so peaceful and quiet and family friendly.  There are no fast food joints (unless you count Subway) and no real shopping and no movie theatres.  It’s pretty much the antithesis of Myrtle Beach (which, don’t get me wrong, I love too…)  Anyway, we go there with my folks for a week.  Then the kids and I are heading to the mountains with a quick stop in Denmark to enjoy the river for a bit.  We will stay up there until mid-July!!  It’s a long stay, but I’m sure it will be fun and action packed.
• The kids will do swim lessons again up in the mountains.  Elijah is so excited.  We have a small pool in the yard and he is already trying to do the crawl in it.  heh.  He has been talking lessons up to Gracie (who is still a little unsure.)  They will both do great.  I’m considering going on and signing Elijah up for the next level of classes…but we’ll see.  I don’t want to overwhelm him.
• A side note that I forgot on the weekend update: While running back and forth with Elijah to the bathroom.  The occasional break found them sitting on our bed watching TV (we have the Netflix Instant Watch in there) and I was working on something out in the living room.  Elijah yells out that Grace is eating Jerry’s candy.  I didn’t think that Jerry HAD any candy in the room, so I go in to see what’s going on.  Grace had taken the wrappers off of about 10 of Jerry’s cough drops, popped each one in her mouth, and then spit it out…on the floor.  Sigh.  Why there is not a Grace shape hole in the wall, I’m not sure.  I must have been having a quasi-calm moment.  sigh.
• This weekend (since Elijah saw to it that we stayed home…) Jerry and I went through most of the boxes we pulled out of storage and sorted through them.  We had about three HUGE boxes of books.  We went through all of them and pared it down to about half a box, which I was able to fit onto our shelves in the office.   It feels good to purge.
• Elijah is doing very well in his tennis class.  He pays attention and concentrates on what he’s doing intently.  This is his “I’m concentrating intently on what I’m doing” face:

• And a little bonus.  Hopefully, if my mom or mother in law are reading this, they have received their Mother’s Day gifts in the mail.  If not… please stop reading…  heh.  I made three gifts last Friday.  One was a Tree of Education pendant.  I have a picture on my phone, but haven’t posted it yet.  I made this for Elijah’s teacher.  We gave it to her Monday and she loved it!  I made my mother a Family Tree pendant.  I didn’t take a picture of it, because I’m an idiot.  Finally, I made a Family Tree Wall Hanging for Jerry’s mom.  I made it bigger, because 1) she doesn’t wear jewelry and 2) she has 5 kids and 8 (almost 9) grandkids.  It could have been done on a smaller scale, but I think it turned out really nice on a larger scale.

At the base are Jerry’s parents: From left to right: Jerry with our two kids branching off, Lisa with her four kids branching off, Ron (no kids yet), Matthew with his two, and Carry with her one (due in October.)  Beads can be added if more kids come into the lives of the siblings.  I thought it turned out quite nice.
So that’s it for this Monday!  Check out the C25K blog to see how that’s going.  I try to update every morning that I run!

Today was...

You be the judge...  (warning: this post is not for those that cannot handle people talking about kid poop... seriously.  Stop reading if you can't handle it.)

We were supposed to go to the zoo today, but there was a 50% chance of rain and that's about 40% more of a chance than I want to take with two kids in a place with little shelter.  So we opted out.  We THOUGHT about the aquarium, but there were some looming errands and the kids woke up in good moods, so errands it was.  We needed gas, so our trip started at Costco.  3.74.  Not as bad as it is next to the house.  After filling up we went into Costco to purchase a pop up sun tent for the beach.  After having to walk through the toy section, we checked out, got the kiddos a snack and left.  Next stop, Target.  The kids needed summer shoes that could get sandy, wet, and something they could also hike and play in.  Target had some that fit Grace, but none that fit Elijah.  Fine.  We'll look at the next stop, which was Dick's Sporting Goods.  We bought a DIFFERENT not-so-much pop up from them, that with one gust of wind was on the ground.  Also it was impossible to refit into the bag in which it came.  Once I DID cram back into the bag, the box popped open.  Secured with duck tape, they still took it back, gave us a refund, only asked why we returned it and we went to look at the shoes.  Found some in Elijah's size, $50...not so much.  So across the street to Kmart.  Kmart had shoes, but not in Elijah's size.  They also had a golf thing that Jerry has been wanting, so we got that instead.  Poor Elijah was super sad that he didn't have summer shoes, so off to the mall to search Payless.  Arriving at the mall means a trip on the carousel.  Great.  Done.  Down to Payless.  Found a pair. On sale.  They were broken.  They called another store in town.  They had the shoes, in his size.  They had them pulled AND gave us a coupon for $3 off!  Great.  On to lunch.  Chic-Fil-A.  mmm.  eh.  Out of the mall without too much trouble, into the car, drive to the other Payless.  They can't find the shoes.  Sigh.  They look.  Get the manager.  HE finds them in the back. Okay.  Great.  Walk out with $22 shoes for 7.56.  Great.  Drive home. Kids happy with their new shoes.  Decide to try out the pop up sun shade cause MAYBE we'll go to the beach this afternoon.  BAM, almost poke out an eye as one of the poles is broken. So, I go back to Costco (which has 76023847098 people in the parking lot) to exchange the pop up sunshade for one that will NOT blind me whilst at the beach.  MEANWHILE, Elijah is "resting" on floor in our bedroom (thank goodness he's in a pull up) and tries to toot.  When he tries to do this, he has diarrhea in his diaper.  Jerry puts him on the toilet and for some ungodly reason the child bends over at the waist and is looking in between the toilet seat and toilet when he has more diarrhea and some toilet water comes up and splashes him in the face.  (I pause here to say that I was not in the house at this point, but in my head the scene went something like the following: and play...) Elijah starts screaming his head off as if some snake has crawled up the actual toilet and is trying to kill him slowly.  Grace, already refusing to sleep, is out of her bed asking 870238470 questions about what is going on.  Jerry grabs a syringe (that we haven't used in 2 years and probably haven't cleaned in as long) and started flushing Elijah's eyes out with water.  To which Elijah screams even louder, causing Grace to ask questions at a louder decibel, not to be drowned out.  Jerry turns on the water in the shower and throws Elijah, at a speed which has not been recoded by man, into the shower to clean up.  Tells Grace to shut it, which prompts tears and a melt down that would put Scarlett herself to shame.  To add insult to injury, Elijah gets to take a hot shower and she does not.  Her world has officially ended.  Until Jerry tells her that she can watch Dora in our bedroom.  And then all is right again in her world.  This is about the time that I arrive home.  I find out what has happened, and we decide to try the NEW new pop up sun shade.  It works perfectly.  great.  Elijah gets out of the shower.  He goes and watches TV with Grace and then comes back out needing to poop again.  You guessed it diarrhea... again.  Sigh.  We aren't going ANYWHERE this evening. Fine.  Our DVD player has bitten the dust.  Jerry finds a Blue Ray player with internet capability at HH Gregg and decides to go out and get it and a movie for the kiddos, along with Gatorade and bananas for the kiddo.  Off he goes.  The kids are calm and quiet for a bit, and I am thinking about starting some rice for dinner.  Elijah comes out of the bedroom.  He needs to poop.  Here we go again.  Except this time as he is telling me he is done, he burps and throws up... not a little bit either.  And it doesn't stop.  I'm frozen.  Help the kid?  Get a trash bag for the overflowing trash can and a bag for him?  I run to the kitchen and grab a bag of bags.  I get back in time for round two of vomit.  I manage to get a bag under his mouth.  Though the whole floor, toilet, kid, step stool are already covered.  I think he is done, so I grab a towel to throw over the vomit on the floor and he throws up again.  (Again, I pause briefly to say that I do NOT handle throw up well.  If I know it's coming, I can sometimes prepare and be okay.  But this had no warning, "Mom, I'm going to throw up."  And I had to fight... HARD... to not throw up all over my child.  end pause.)  I grab a cloth and run cold water on it and put it on his neck.  I try to think of happy rose filled gardens with butterflies.  He tells me he is finished.  I wipe him off as best I can and back in the shower he goes.  I somehow clean up the rose petals puke and throw the towel outside.  It's all I can do.  I grab the bleach water and spray the toilet, bathroom floor, and step stool down.  As I am getting ready to scour my hands with the hottest water imaginable, I hear, "Mom I gotta poop."  WHAT THE HELL???  There cannot be a THING left in this kid. I literally just cleaned up his lunch and dinner from yesterday and his breakfast and lunch from today.  There cannot be anymore poop in his little body.  But there is.  He makes it to the toilet for which I am extraordinarily glad... cause I would maybe move to Australia tomorrow if I had to clean poop out of a shower.  As he is sitting on the toilet.  I hear, "Mommy, I need to go poop.  Will you hold my hand?"  REALLLLLY???  (back story... Grace gets constipated on a weekly basis.  We help her out with daily doses of prunes, but even that doesn't solve everything.  Lately she has been having blood with even her normal, non constipated poops.  We are calling the doctor on Monday as it has gotten worse and we want to make sure we are doing everything we can.  okay...)  So Grace has been eating a TON today.  She is a good eater, but today she has really packed it away.  She has already pooped once at Kmart (ah, remember Kmart, when everyone was well?  sigh.) And now here she is again, pooping.  All I could think of was DAMNIT.  Not her too. But her poop was fine.  I held her hand.  She said it hurt a little bit, and there was a little blood.  Poor kiddo.  Granted after she has these "hurting" poops, it doesn't seem to bother her at all.  Still.  So she is cleaned up.  Elijah finishes.  He wants back in the shower.  Great.  I bring him ice water to sip in the shower and put the trash can (the I finally got cleaned out and bagged) by the shower in case he needed to throw up. and finally...FINALLY I get the rice on for dinner.  Jerry comes home without the movie as there was a line and he thought I may need to get out of the house.  But we take our time and put the new player together and get the kids plates served (rice, chicken, apples, and a greek yogurt/banana/honey/dab of juice smoothie) and I take off.  Jerry texts me that we need ham and more yogurt.   I call my folks and tell them about my day.  And in retrospect.  It really wasn't that bad.  Just allot of bad in a short amount of time.  There are MANY at leasts: we weren't at the zoo, we weren't at the aquarium, we weren't at the beach, we weren't still at the mall, we weren't (Cause Oh.MY.God.) in the car, we have the where with all tho handle the sickies, it wasn't in the middle of Elijah's last week of school, we know our limits and when we each need a break.  And, of course, at least it wasn't worse.  Elijah seems fine now.  He doesn't have a fever, and while tied, he is not lethargic.  He has been playing, while quieter than normal, with Gracie.  He is alert.  He downed the smoothie and ate chicken for dinner.  He is finally sleeping.  I am hoping for a peaceful night, but fully expecting to be up several times with him.  Tomorrow is Sunday.  We will stay home and Jerry and I will take turns taking the recycling (yes there is enough to take turns... several turns... *blush*) and do some stuff around the house that NEEDS to be done.  Hopefully, this is a thing that is done with tonight.  I would be sad for my son to miss any of his last week of preschool.

So you tell me.  Today was....

Kindergarten Orientation...

We went last night to see Elijah's school for next year.  The boy was less than thrilled.  He said he only wants Ms. Sullivan to be his teacher (his current Pre-K teacher.)  I totally get it kid.  I am not a huge fan of change, but alas, we must all go through it.  After seeing the classrooms and the school and seeing what he was going to learn next year, I think that he started to feel a bit better about the whole thing.  I have already signed up to be a room mom, a volunteer with the school, and to help with the Fall Festival next year.  I plan on being as involved as possible.  I want our children to succeed in whatever they do, and I plan on helping out in any way possible to make sure this happens.
The teachers all seemed kind and ready to help.  They seemed excited about the new year as well.  The principal was there and ready to answer questions and greet parents.  And while there was not a huge turn out, there was enough to get an idea of what his class will be like.
I'm sad that my little guy is growing up so dang quick.  He has recently started the "I don't like you" when he's mad at us.  I tell him that it's fine to not like me, but to know that I will always love him.... which is hard to remember and to say when you feel like you want to wring his little neck Simpsons style.  Sigh. But it's true.  No matter how mad they make me, I will always love them.  Always.  And watching him go to kindergarten will probably have me in a fit of tears for at least a week, but then I think of all the cool things he'll learn and I'm so excited for him.
So here's to a fun summer!  To back to school shopping, and the getting ready.  I'm buckling in for this roller coaster and stocking up on kleenex!

10 on Monday!

• This Saturday was massively busy but so good!  We dropped Jerry of for his MBA orientation and then headed to Memory Lane Comics.   The kids really enjoyed it and racked up on the stuff. They each got 4 comic books, a Star Wars action figure with commemorative glass, a Star Wars plane, and a fishing pole. They each purchased some action figures and overall had a great time.  There were no action heroes there while we were there, and in retrospect that was good.  Elijah isn't the most thrilled with larger than life things in costume.  So we went to Dunkin Donuts and had bagels and then went to the park.

• Saturday evening we went to the beach to celebrate a friend's birthday.  It was really fun and we all had a great time!  All the kids have no sense of how freezing the water feels, and played until their teeth were chattering and their lips were blue.  So fun!!

• Mother's Day was really nice.  Jerry helped the kids make me some gifts and he got me a watch and new headphones for my MP3 player. 
• We went to Chris's Cosmic Kitchen for breakfast and since I'm a mom, I got a free slice of cheese cake...mmmmmm.....
• We went to Dick's and got a sunshade for the beach.  We came home and set it up in the yard...it was awesome!  We went to the beach and tried it in pretty bad evening wind... and not so much. We will try it again on a not so windy day and hopefully it will be better.  
• Today was my first day doing the Couch to 5K.  I have started a website to track my progress.  This is a link to the website.
• Today was also Elijah's first day at tennis lessons.  And though I am completely biased, he rocked!  He is so athletic!  

• Tomorrow is beach day for Elijah's class. I am going to take Grace to yoga at the library... I feel like I am driving all the time these days, but soon school will be over and I will feel very stuck at home.  But that will only last for a couple weeks because...
• We go on vacation the fifth of June. We will be in Edisto Island for the week and then the kids and I will go home with my folks to stay for quite a few weeks.  YAY for summer!!!
• Finally, my parents rock for many reasons, but recently they have offered us their car.  We are thrilled with this as being a one car family while Jerry will be in school AND Elijah will be in Kindergarten AND Grace will be in Pre-K.  Phew!  I will still be driving very much, but it's nice to have the option of the second car.  So thanks mom and dad!!!