Sunday, September 6, 2009

Three cheers for three-day-weekends...

First of all, a huge congratulations to my two newly-pregnant dearies... Becky and Laura, I'm so excited for you both!!!

Let's see... there's a lot to catch up on!

Elliott started going to a public daycare when I started back to school in mid-August. Over the last three weeks, he's been there a total of 8 days. It's been wonderful to be able to ease him into in a few days at a time, thanks to Jeff's schedule being so flexible at the moment. At first, Elliott cried when Jeff would leave (and Jeff is my hero for leaving him there so I don't have to). Then, it got to where Elliott would start screaming when they pulled into the parking lot each morning and cry throughout the dropping off process. But, as if by magic, at the start of the third week, he didn't cry at all, just reached for his teacher and then turned around to wave bye-bye to Jeff. Hooray!

More Elliott news... we had him fitted for braces and were finally able to pick them up this past week. He doesn't completely hate them... they probably bother Jeff and I more than they do him. They're a bit bulkier than we were expecting... okay, a lot bulkier. They slow down Elliott's butt scooting, the velcro sometimes sticks to the carpet, and he has trouble going from sitting to standing in them, but he does seem to stand more solidly and that's the whole point. We're finding it impossible to find shoes to go over them, though we're supposed to be able to. We're going to have to call the office on Tuesday and find out what can be done to save us from buying shoes 3+ sizes bigger than usual.

Non-Elliott news... I'm in full swing with the new school year. I don't want to jinx it, but I think my kids are going to be a really good group. There are always a few exceptions, but I think they're things I can handle pretty easily - a big change over last year. My room looks really great... I'll share photos eventually.

In the world of football... Jeff and I just drafted our private fantasy league... I'm really excited about it because Noah, Daddy, Joanna and others are in it with us. Jeff and I joined another league together last weekend, just so we'd have the opportunity to beat on each other some more. As far as REAL football, Bama rolled all over Virginia Tech last night in the season opener. We're optimistic. Hopefully we'll be able to get a babysitter next weekend and go watch Bama's pay-per-view game at our favorite sports bar - Beef's.

It's been a great weekend... Jeff hasn't had to work at all, so it's been that much better. We shopped a bit (unsuccessfully looking for shoes) and watched a lot of football yesterday. Today we went to church (which was great), and had a very relaxing afternoon of napping and watching How I Met Your Mother. Tomorrow we're headed to the beach in the morning, and then to Chick-fil-A donned in our Bama gear to get free sandwiches. Score. Hope everyone else's Labor Day weekend is proving as relaxing and enjoyable as ours.

Monday, August 3, 2009

Getting ready...

There are LOTS of things for us to get ready for this week... but we have to review last week so that you'll see what's coming up this week.

On Monday (a week ago), we took Elliott to physical therapy again. Jeff went with me so I wouldn't have to talk about him getting braces all on my own. The therapist, Beth, said that she'd sent her recommendation to the pediatrician and the actual prescription would come from him. Since we were seeing him on Wednesday, we figured we'd just see what he thought in person. Well, turns out that the appointment was with the nurse practitioner (whom we've seen before and really like), and she hadn't seen Beth's fax about the braces, so wasn't a whole lot of help there. However, she did say that Elliott was growing just like he's supposed to, looks completely healthy, is an absolute doll, and she's sure he'll be walking in a month (see why we like her?). Then that afternoon, the nurse, Anne, called back about the braces (she'd found the fax and talked to the doctor) and said they thought we should go for it. So, Jeff picked up the prescription, then we called the insurance. We found out that "durable medical equipment"--like these braces--unfortunately fall under our deductible. So today, I called to make an appointment to have him measured/fitted/casted/whatever... and found out the price. Not as bad as we'd imagined, but still not cheap. If we applied and were accepted we'd be able to get them at no cost through the Shriner's hospital in Tampa... but that would require several trips to Tampa and lots more time, so I'm just not sure if it's worth it.

Let's see... what else happened last week? Um, Jeff went back to his doctor for a check-up and found out that his sugar is still completely normal... hooray for that! I went to school and did my "sit and stare" day of getting in back-to-school-mode. I moved a few things around... then went back this morning to change some of the things I moved and get officially started on my room. In the course of last week, I also booked flights for Elliott and I to go to Zion for the last week before school starts, so I'll be working on my room a lot this week to get ready. By the time we get back, I'll only have one day before pre-planning meetings start. I'm excited to go north and see everyone... and VERY excited for it to not be 95 degrees everyday. Unfortunately Jeff's not going to be able to go with us, again. It's just too expensive! Plus, with his work schedule, the trip just kept getting shorter. So, though disappointing to not have him going, it is better than not going at all.

Yesterday was (to me) the most exciting part of this past week... we went to the Cubs game! They only come to play the Marlins once each year, and I almost missed them. But, I did get tickets and Jeff had the day off, so we decided to leave Elliott at home and go! Our babysitter forgot (and I forgot to remind her), so by the time we called her and she made it over here, we left about 45 minutes later than we'd hoped and ended up missing the first two innings. :-( And then the Cubs lost when the Marlins hit two back-to-back first pitch home runs in the ninth inning! :-( But, it was still great fun... I love going to Cubs games! Plus I got to wear my new Derrek Lee jersey (thanks, Daddy!) and the best part was that Jeff wore my Cubs visor and thinks he might be turning into a Cubs fan now! Hooray!

Alright... so now to sum up all of the things we're getting ready for... Elliott's getting braces, he and I are flying to Illinois, and I'm in full-blown-back-to-school-mode. Also, Jeff and I are taking Elliott to see his first movie in a theater this week... wish us luck!

Sunday, July 26, 2009

A Social Weekend

The Weisses have had (and are going to continue to have) a very social weekend, which is exciting for us in a town where we have no family and not that many friends. Here's the rundown...

Friday night we had our friends Erik and Ivana (who just got married a week ago!) over for dinner. It was great fun, but bittersweet because they're moving to Texas on Friday. We had yummy finger foods for dinner and played Balderdash. Jeff destroyed us all and was quite proud of himself.

Then, Saturday night we got to go to Riverwalk for dinner with out-of-town friends. We only go there if someone's here from out of town. This time it was a professor friend of Jeff's and his wife. Greg, the professor, worked with the theatre department at Southwest Baptist University when Jeff was there ages ago and they've kept in touch since then. So much so that when Greg (now teaching at Indiana Wesleyan) needed a place for a student to do a summer internship, he called Jeff. So, all summer Jeff's been working with Rob-the-Intern (as he is known here in Naples). I guess Greg and another professor had quite the debate about who got to travel to Naples to observe Rob in his internship, but Greg won, so he and his wife came down for the weekend. They're seeing the two shows currently running at the theatre and took the three Weisses and Rob-the-Intern out to dinner last night. They even came to church with us this morning!

Jeff played with the band at the new church we've been visiting (we can't call it "our new church" just yet... we're still undecided if it's where we're staying) this morning for the first time. I have to say, they rocked a bit more than usual with him up there - I know that's not a surprise to anyone. Now, this evening, to finish up our weekend of being social, we're going back to church for a potluck game night. I'm looking forward to it. We're big board game nerds, so it should be fun. Plus, there's a really great nursery, so Elliott gets to play with kids his age... all of them girls... it's just him with 4 girls! That means that I'm spending the rest of my Sunday afternoon watching baseball (GO CUBS!) and cooking... I'm taking meatballs and Reese's squares. Yum.

Hope everyone else has had a great weekend, especially Noah, on his birthday. :)