The Minton Family.com

So much has been happening lately…

1. We are having no luck getting people to even look at our house, and there have been no offers.

2.  The contingent offer on the Summerwood house expires the 7th which is probably good because

3. I don’t have a job for next year…yet

4.  The girls are out of school for the summer!  They are spending this week at Grammy’s.  From all of the pictures and emails we have gotten from them, I’m guessing that they aren’t going to want to come home tomorrow!  Grammy is bringing them home tomorrow and then heading back to Marion on Sunday. The boys have asked about the girls a lot.  On the way to Janet’s this morning Levi said “I’m sad”.  When I asked him why he was sad, he told me that he misses Jada and Lana.

5. The boys love mud.  I know, big surprise, right?!  We have had a lot of rain lately and there is a mud puddle/pit that just doesn’t want to dry up.  Every day the boys have their cars going through it.  I bought them sandals last weekend and they have been a godsend..it is so much easier to wash those every night than it was the gym shoes!

6.  We are trying to plan some things for the summer.  Lana wants to go to Chicago for her birthday.  We are also trying to coordinate a trip to Holiday World with my brother and his family.  And, we are planning a weekend at their house in August.

7.  Bill got an iPad as a late birthday gift….it has become another appendage…

8. Levi turns 4 in a few weeks….time sure does fly!

It’s been awhile, I know, but it just seems like it takes longer and longer now. Instead of one camera for the family, we have 4, Mine & Jackie’s, Jackie’s, Jada’s, and Lana’s. Also, we use the Flip for video, and I tag people in those videos as well. I’ve been working on them for probably an hour or so already, and I’m maybe 1/4 of the way done. *sigh*

Ok, the tagging, uploading, etc. is finish. There are now an additional 272 pictures and 9 videos for your viewing pleasure.

Yesterday was Jada’s 8th birthday!  I’m not quite sure how she got to be that old.  I remember bringing her home from the hospital…so tiny and perfect! Now she is a big girl with the brains and attitude to match!

Last night Bill took her to Dick’s Sporting Goods.  She got a new bike for her birthday that she picked out.  It is turquoise and it has hand brakes.  She was skidding all over the place.  The weather was pretty good.  It was sunny in the afternoon, but pretty breezy.  Typically it is cold and rainy on her birthday.  The day before was gorgeous!

She had requested people send her money instead of gifts so she could put her money together and get another American Girl doll.  However, she had changed her mind by last night…so who knows what she will do with all of her cash.

On Monday, she came home from school and informed me that she gave out birthday invitations.  The only problem was that we didn’t have a party planned!  So now we are having a party at Chuck E Cheese!

The main word to describe our household lately is crazy!  Bill and I have been working hard to get the house ready to sell.  The kids have been working hard at being bored and distracting us from our chores!  The realtor is supposed to come tomorrow to take pictures, but I’m not sure we are going to be ready.  There is still a lot of clutter that needs to disappear and there are several little projects that need to be completed…in addition to the daily life things like laundry, meals and grocery shopping!  We have someone working on the roof and finishing some stuff in the bathroom.  Mom is here for a little over a week to try and help out where she can.

Jada’s birthday is quickly approaching.  Bill took Jada and Madelyn (the neighbor girl) out yesterday to look at bicycles.  Jada chose a turquoise one.  We haven’t purchased it yet, but she is ready for it!

Both girls have been begging me to take them to the bookstore for books.  They are supposed to read every night as their homework and they are tired of the books they have.  Lana’s reading anthology from school is too easy for her and Jada’s chapter books are too hard.  Both girls got their report cards on Friday and did really well 3rd quarter!

The boys have been enjoying the warm weather.  They go outside and run their dump trucks through the yard.  Levi has been picking up nails in the yard with a magnetic roller…he really likes it!

I ran outside a couple of days last week…it was really nice.  Now it is cold again…blah!

Bill has been doing a lot of painting lately.  We are almost done with that.  He has to spray the laundry room door and we need to paint the posts outside.

Whew…I need a vacation!!!!!

Levi – On the way to the babysitter this morning, Levi was singing, but not your typical nursery school song…he was singing “Cheer Up Sleepy Jean, Oh What Can It Mean” – Daydream Believer by The Monkees. Think the girls watch that a little too often?

Jonah – he’s been really fussy lately, terrible two’s I think, but he did let us know he likes to watching “Tigger and Poop”.

Lana – she’s lost a 2nd tooth, but it’s ok, she gained a boyfriend. A teacher emailed Jackie, evidently Lana isn’t too fond of the boy, but he’s got quite the crush on her.

Levi – We had a guy over working on our bathroom floor for a couple of days. Levi went in to check on him and let him know he’d come check on him later. What was funny was that he made him confirm receipt of that by saying “got it”. Something Daddy makes Levi say when he’s in trouble to make sure he knows what to/not to do.

Jada – Well, just don’t talk to her in the morning unless she talks first…otherwise, you get to deal w/the wrath of Jackie…I mean Jada. Heh

Levi – I have two monitors (beside one another) hooked to my PC. Before heading upstairs, I turned them off. Levi asked me why I closed the computer’s eyes.

We’ve been pretty busy lately, so no pictures or videos uploaded. We’re trying to get the house ready to put on the market. We’ve painted the living room, dining, room, part of the kitch, the foyer, the utility room, and part or all of 3 rooms in the basement. We put trim up in the basement, cleaned out a couple of the storage areas, and have boxed up a ton of stuff. We’ve also changed out all of the outlets for the 3 prong kind, replaced a switch, and had the bathroom floor redone (we didn’t do that part). We have some things to give away (old treadmill, two old workout benches, a stepper, etc.), but still have way too much if you ask me.

The title pretty much says it. He’s 3 1/2 now, and trying to figure out if he’s the man around here. He’s talking back quite a bit, manhandles Jonah at every opportunity, and is testing the waters with Lana. Jada is still so much stronger he can only take her with a blind shot but if I were her, I’d be on the lookout.

The other day, he picked up a whiffle ball bat and Jonah ran and hid under the train table. That tells you what Jonah thought was going to happen next. I took the bat from him, but not without a struggle.

Tonight, he popped 3 or 4 keys off of Jackie’s (relatively new) laptop. He broke one of them, and I couldn’t get another one to work after popping it back on, so I went ahead and ordered a new one. After shipping it was about $45. Let’s just hope I can get it changed without breaking something else. If there’s one type of computer I hate working on physically, it’s a laptop.

“Gas Day”, days where I get gas, have turned into “Gas and Doughnut Day”. I like the kids to have little things to look forward to, little surprises and such, and the last couple of times I’ve stopped to get gas on the way to work, I’ve gone in and gotten the boys doughnuts. They of course love that, and while I don’t get myself any, I do love hearing how excited they are all the way to daycare over something as simple as doughnuts.

Levi and Jonah have been saying more and more funny things lately. I can’t remember them all, but this morning, Levi was singing “Cars! Cars!” followed by what I assume to be the rest of the song, but I couldn’t understand it. After 4 times in, Jonah begins saying “Lebi, ‘ats noying”. I think that’s hilarious.

Last night, Jackie was correcting Levi and the way he says certain letters. As he came walking over to her, she told him to say something and shaking his hand left & right, he said “I can say it, don’t worry about it.”. We were cracking up.

10 new kid videos were just uploaded, as well as family pictures, and pictures Jada and Lana took. Be sure to check them out!

When Jada was in kindergarten, kids in her class started losing their teeth. Jada, however, did not. She has been waiting patiently for over 2 years to lose a tooth. She will be 8 in April! It has been wiggly since right before Christmas and today it finally twisted out! It happened while she was at school. She was pushing it with her tongue and another student told her to twist it. She did and out it came! She was very excited to show me when I picked her up from school. Bill could barely get in the door and she was rushing to show him!

Lana has a wiggly tooth as well. She really wanted to beat Jada and lose hers first, but it just didn’t happen. She has been wiggling it like crazy. I suspect it will be out by the end of the week as well!

Jada posted a story about it on her blog, read it and send her some comments!

On our way home from Wal-Mart, the kids were being very loud and driving us nuts.  We repeatedly asked them to be quiet.  Levi kept making a high-pitched weird sound.  Here is the conversation that occurred as a result:

Billy:  Levi, do you want me to spank you?

Levi:  You can’t

Billy:  Yes, I can!

Levi: No, you can’t.  You are to far away.  You can’t reach me!

When do the kids get smarter than the parents?  I thought we’d at least make it past 3!