A few pictures from Ninny's visit!

Ninny's gone...

We saw Ninny Cindy off to the airport earlier today. She flew into Midway and will spend some time with Great Grandpa Floyd in Wisconsin this week before spending the Chicago Marathon weekend with Jeff and Shawn and rooting Jeff on!

We all had a great visit. Adam has already asked where Ninny was today. The entire Kreidler family is excited to see her in November because there's a chance that Papa Jack might be with her!

A few pictures:

A Visit From Ninny

New Park

One of the things Amy and Adam do together while Emily is at school is explore all the parks around. Last week, they found a close park with a lot of play equipment and a lot of butterflys. Apparently Adam did the driving...

Block Party

Emily takes Teddy for a walk

The Glendale Fire Department stopped by so the kids could see a truck up close

Adam and Anna enjoying the jump house

Don't Worry, Illini

The Illini may have won today's football game, but payback is coming, and it's going to be painful.

A Visit from Aunt Shawn

Nothing but the finest company car for Aunt Shawn?

Emily puts her arm around Aunt Shawn during dinner at Bar Louie


Aunt Shawn was in St. Louis today for work, so she surprised Emily and Adam by stopping by for a few hours. The kids loved seeing her, but were sad she couldn't go to dinner with us!

View from My Window

Amy had a post a while back about the view from our front porch during the day, so I figured I would post about the view from my window at work. I'm working in Clayton, MO which has a relatively small downtown area with a number of large buildings.

Clayton is the county seat of St. Louis, so there is a large government complex there. They way I hear it, a number of businesses moved their headquarters out of the City of St. Louis and built large office buildings in Clayton to take advantages of a more business-friendly tax structure. Clayton's downtown is flush with business people during the day, and features a lot of trendy restaurants and shops.

My office is on the 8th floor and faces east toward Forest Park in St. Louis. The view is much different from my Springfield office which was at street level with lots of pedestrian traffic, but I like it.

As for work? I'm have less moments of "what the hell did I do?" panic each day, and I'm slowly starting to feel like I'm adding value to the organization - even if it's just a matter of completing some really simple analyses. I just have to keep reminding myself that the learning curve is going to be 9-12 months, as this is a big job with a lot of responsibilities.

Luckily, my director is in the same boat as me in terms of being in a new, big job, and she was in my position previously. She understands what I'm going through in terms of getting up to speed, and she is able to help ease me into the position because she knows it backwards and forwards.

In terms of an organization, I feel lucky to be here. Everyone seems to have a genuine interest in fulfilling their organizational mission, everyone seems to feel that they have a stake in the success of the organization, and the organization itself is interested in seeing its employees succeed. These are things that I haven't had in a while.

The only thing I miss about my old job is the people - I had a great staff (both the current and previous staff of the office), great peers to work with in our financial management division, and lots of friends made over time throughout the agency. I especially realize how much I miss everyone when it's time to make a run to Starbucks or to grab some lunch. But then, I consider all the dumb things I had to do there and some of the bad people I had to interact with and I realize that I absolutely made the right decision.

Ready for the Game

We're all ready for the Chiefs vs. Bears game today. We unpacked a box in the garage to find our Bears flag and get it hung up with pride. I put it in a location sure to be seen by the Packers fan across the street.

ABC Adventures

Ninny Kathy sent Adam an ABC Adventure movie with his face in it, which was a big hit with both kids:



Emily liked it so much I made one for her:

Learning the Neighborhood Traditions

The Kirkwood Greentree parade featured a mix of firetrucks, school groups and marching bands

Thanks to neighbors, coworkers, and school, we're beginning to learn the traditions of our town. Today Emily was on a float in the Kirkwood Greentree parade, with Adam and Dad marching behind. This year's theme was "A Celebration of Heroes", so the North Glendale Superstars fit right in with their capes and STARbursts (a few of which never made it to the kids on the curb because Adam ate them).

If you look closely, you'll see Emily on the float

The face of the super hero is Mr. Benben, North Glendale's principal

Emily and her friend Allison (who unfortunately is moving to Colorado next month)

The North Glendale group stretched half a block

Some background on the event - the Greentree Festival started in 1961 when Kirkwood was recovering from a long period of drought, and Dutch Elm blight had taken a toll on the city's trees. The Festival was created as a way to replace the stricken trees. In the weeks leading up to the first Festival, as well as during the event, the City of Kirkwood offered Pin Oaks, Sweet Gum, Thornless Locust, White Birch, and Tulip trees for sale for just $1 each. Thousands of these trees were purchased and planted and to this day, many still flourish, lining a number of Kirkwood streets.

View from my front porch

Even though we live in a new house (we're the first owners), we live in a close-knit, well established, older neighborhood with houses on the street over 100 years old as well as some that 70-80 years old. The house that existed before ours was, so I'm told, in disrepair. Our house (as you can see in earlier posts) doesn't stick out like a sore thumb in the neighborhood. The controversy in the Glendale/Kirkwood area is that many older houses are being torn down and new "McMansions" are being built on small lots. Our house is one of these, but it fits into the character of the neighborhood. Many people, especially in Kirkwood, are up in arms over these "tear downs" as Paul's Grandma Mary would call them. However, everyone we've met in our immediate neighborhood seems thrilled that our house replaced the one that existed here before.

Here's a view from my front porch. The neighbors across the street have some awesome flowers! The husband commented to me last night that he likes coming home from work and seeing kids playing in our yard!

And to satisfy those Grandmas/Grandpas that look at the blog looking for Adam/Emily pictures, here's a bonus picture of Adam.

Notice Adam has on his shark shirt! In addition to his bug fascination, he also loves sharks!

Paul will be blogging this weekend as I am off to lovely Pittsfield, IL for a girls weekend at a hunting lodge. We'll be scrapbooking, hot tubbing, and getting massages (we've hired a massage therapist to come out to the lodge). I'll be back on Sunday afternoon to share once again in the parenting duties!

Until then, have a great weekend!

Amy

The next coming of Wonder Woman!

I finsihed Emily's cape this morning. I don't know when I sewed this much! I kept thinking how fast it would be if I had a sewing machine! When Emily modeled her cape, I felt like I was looking at the next coming of Wonder Woman!

The back:

Emily doing her Wonder Woman inpersonation:

Since she's only 7, I doubt she knows who Wonder Woman is, so maybe these twirling moves come naturally to her? Maybe she's a born crime fighter super hero?? Time will tell!

Cape Update II

One down (Adam's) one to go!

I tried to put Adam's on him yesterday - he hated it! All that hard work for nothing...

Odds and Ends and a Cape Update!

Adam's first day at preschool without Mom was today. He did GREAT! The teachers said he had no tears. I didn't think he would as he said goodbye to me and walked away to play immediately!




After I picked Adam up, we went to Hancock Fabrics to buy Emily some material for her cape. She wouldn't hear of wearing a cape with Superman on it! She wanted a pink cape so I found some cool material on sale and will make hers today - right after I make Adam's! Where do my days go? I never got around to making his cape yesterday, but will as son as I get him down to nap! Will have another "Cape Update" later!


A bonus picture of Adam. After the fabric store, we went to Sam's Club since I needed a few things. Here's Adam enjoying his lunch - a hot dog, Cheetos and a slushy:


More Later!

Super Hero

I forgot to mention that the theme of the Greentree Parade is "Super Heros". Guess who is going to sew her kids capes???

More later. Adam and I are off to get his hair cut and while he's napping, I'm going to attempt to sew...If it works out, we'll go back to Hancock Fabrics tomorrow to get Emily pink material for a pink cape! God forbid she wear one with Superman on it! Adam likes Superman though, he calls his "my guy".

Where is Grandma Kathy when I need her??? :)

Adam's first day of school - sort of!

Adam started school today at Glendale Presbyterian Preschool. He only went for an hour and I was with him the entire time. He handled it well probably because he went to day care before I started this stay at home gig! He's the oldest in his class of 3 boys and 1 girl. I think Adam (and I!) will enjoy preschool this year! Here's a few pics:

Bus vs. Dinosaur!

And because I don't want to leave out our girl, here's a picture of Emily on her way to school this morning.

Emily stayed after school to work on the North Glendale float entry for this weekend's Greentree Parade. I won't see the final product since I'll be scrappin' in beautiful Pittsfield Illinois with my friends! It's nice not running her to dance class during the week, but I need to make some calls and find a dance studio. Emily's old studio in Springfield offered to get me a list of some traditional studios since they have some St. Louis contacts, but the dance school has failed to reply to my numerous emails! Does not surprise me in the least...oh well. Guess I'll have to take a shot in the dark at finding a dance school we'll be happy with!

Lastly, Emily and I are growing our hair out for Locks of Love (see http://www.locksoflove.org/). Her hair is growing so much faster than mine! Here's a pic of her hair. I'll have to add one of mine soon. I think we're both ready to get all our hair cut off!

Amy's Perfect Lunch!

Rex Stinks

Rex stinks.

Benson is not the answer and RB.

Mike Brown hurt AGAIN? Gee, there's a shock.

Adam Archuleta is 200 years old and too slow.

Our defense is great, but they're on the field too much.

Too bad the Bears lost, but NFL Sundy Ticket on DirecTV is pretty awesome.

9/9/07 - GAME ON - GO BEARS!

Whew - got DirecTV just in time so that I'm not stuck watching the Rams today!

Missin' his sis...

Not only does Adam miss Daddy during the day, but he misses Emily! He asks about her often and today wanted to wear her sweatshirt. It's a little big, but he looks cute in pink camo, don't you think?

It's a rainy day here in Missouri. We're hanging inside today and have been playing "cho chos", coloring, and watching Nemo on TV! Adam keeps asking about the rain and when it'll stop!

Are you ready for some football???

It's that time of the year, assume the position:

Nice!

The Day is Done...

Day one as a full-time stay at home mom of 2 in St. Louis: DONE! And I didn't kill either of the children!

We were happy to see Paul come home at about 7:45. I was putting Adam to bed and Adam looked up at me and said in a very contented voice "Daddy's home..." Adam was going through withdrawl today!

Paul said his first day went well and he was surprised at how "put together" people were at the county building! Such a difference from what we both knew in Springfield.

All on my own...

Hi Everyone! I just wanted to inform everyone that Paul started this thing called "work" today! He left the house only to encounter traffic on the way to Clayton, but he arrived with time to spare.

It was my first morning with both kids and I want everyone to know that I did great - not that any of you were worried about me! I got a shower in and even made Emily homemade French Toast for breakfast! It's amazing the things you can get done when you aren't rushing to get yourself ready for work.
However, dealing with Adam has been work today. I think he's going through Daddy withdrawl! He's currently watching "Eo and Stitch" and is headed for an early lunch and naptime! He and I will leave the house around 3:25 to pick Emily up from school.