Way to long

I would like to apologize for not posting anything for awhile. It's been busy around here and I let time get away from me. After my cousin and his wife mentioned to me that I need to start blogging again, it was nice to hear that people actually read this. I'm never sure....so I will be more diligent about updating this...thanks Jason and Nikki!

So much has happened since I've last posted. Let's see what I can actually remember here. School is out for the summer! Dylan is now considered to be in first grade (which completely blows my mind) and Ethan has one more year of preschool before he enters kindergarten. My babies are growing up. Dylan is psyched to go to school with "big kids." I'm not so excited about it....but I gotta cut the strings sometime I guess.

Dylan played two sports lately, soccer and baseball. Let me tell you, and I'm not saying this as just his mother, but that boy can play. He is amazing! A great athlete all around. He truly excels in soccer and he enjoys both. Near the end of the baseball season he was getting really good at that also. I enjoyed yelling for him! Yes, I'm one of those "loud moms" but thats my right isn't it? I gave birth to him, I can yell for him as loud as I want! Both seasons are over for now, but Dylan can't wait for the next season to start.

Ethan wants to play both also so I will be signing him up as soon as he is old enough. I love that the boys enjoy sports.

My brother-in-law Joe, Jeromy's brother, is being deported to Iraq. He is in Wisconsin now for training, but come August he will be in Iraq. Jeromy and I had a big party for him here at our home. We had about 100 people here and tons of fun! We did a pig roast, everyone brought food, lots of beer and wine was consumed, corn hole was played...good times! It was almost bitter sweet. The following week Jeromy and I attended his Call to Duty Ceremony and I was never so humbled about anything before. It was the most amazing thing ever. There are 175 soldiers that are being deployed with him and the whole church was packed. As you walked in they had every news station there interviewing different soldiers and family members. You received a program explaining what was going to be happening during the ceremony, then you were given a flag. I have never seen so much red, white and blue in my life. I saw soldiers crying...pregnant women crying, knowing that their husbands weren't going to be with them during delivery...I saw kids crying and parents crying. I guess what I am saying is, there wasn't a dry eye anywhere. These men and women are going to fight for our freedom and I don't take that lightly. It's good to see that others don't take it lightly either. I'm proud to be an American and I'm so very proud of my brother-in-law. I love him truly and I pray daily for his safe return to our family.

That's all I'm going to post for now as I'm getting teary eyed. There is so much to talk about and you can be sure that I will do a better job of posting in the future!

Love to all! =)

It Passed!!

Yeah - the levy passed!! It passed by 328 votes, but it still passed!! It's been a good week around here...looking forward to Mother's Day tomorrow and spending time with my family. Got lot's to do today so I will post more later.

Plain Local School District

Today is the day that Plain Local has been working toward for the past 3 months (if not more.) Today is the day the Plain Twp community will vote on Issue 14. This is an operating levy for the school district. We have not had an operating levy pass since 1996, so it is WAY over due. I am on the Keep Plain Proud Committee and let me tell you, this committee has been working nonstop to get the word out about the importance of this levy. We have gone door to door, made endless phone calls, worked at school functions, painted cars....and so much more. The one thing I heard over and over again when I made calls was that it wasn't "for the kids" it was for the teacher's wages. My response to that (I actually didn't say this, but I so wanted to) is so what? I want the people that are teaching our children to make a good living. I want them to know that we love and support our school district. Our teachers have not received a raise in over 3 years. They asked for a wage freeze to help out the school district. I find that amazing and I completely respect them for making that decision. In my humble opinion being a teacher has got to be one of the hardest professions ever. It takes a very special person to get up every morning and walk into the classroom with a smile on their face, school lessons planned and ready for the day. I don't care what grade is being taught, kids are difficult. And I only have two of them!! Our teachers and staff DESERVE a raise. Yes, times are tough, trust me our family knows first hand...but at the risk of sounding like a Hallmark card, our kids are the future of America. They deserve all the opportunities that come their way. Don't you think it's selfish to vote no on this issue? I hope that tomorrow I can post here that our community came together and a big YES is what you will hear! Til then....

I hate you..give me a kiss.

Ethan is going through this new phase...I call it - "I hate you mommy - give me a kiss." I call it that because that's what it pretty much is. Monday mornings are always difficult around our house. Let's face it, I'm not the most organized person. I'm pretty happy that Dylan makes it to the bus in time - with clean underwear on, clean clothes, teeth brushed and face washed. I can't tell you the amount of times we skip combing the hair. Luckily for me, he's a boy and he can get away with the "messy" look. Back to Ethan, he woke up this morning looking for daddy. Daddy has been home with us for the past 2 days because of the weekend, so he just assumed daddy would be home this morning. Of course he wasn't and all craziness happened. My sweet angelic child turned into the devil! Somehow it's my fault that daddy had to go to work today. "I hate you mommy. I don't want you to take me to school today, I want daddy to. You are so mean to me. Go away, I don't want to see you." Meanwhile, after I got over the initial shock of being yelled at by my 4 year old I proceeded to tell him that he's not being nice and if he says hate one more time he will get his mouth washed out with soap. Ethan, of course, thinks this is hysterically funny and proceeds to crack up over that idea. He did stop yelling at me though, when he realized I was completely serious. So a few minutes later he said to me, "Mommy, you know I really do hate you" I turned and looked at him and he said, "Give me a kiss." I had to give the kid a kiss, meanwhile I was trying not to laugh. I hope I got through to him that he cannot say "hate" about anything. It's not a nice word to say and it's not appropriate, especially for a preschooler. I don't know though, we will see......but just to be on the save side, I will keep a bottle of soap nearby.

Blogging

I attempted to blog before, but wasn't very good at keeping up with it. I tried to log in and start all over with our existing account, but couldn't remember my password...so now I'm starting all over again. Let's hope this one works out for everyone.

I think this blog will be basicly about our the fabulous 4 Philpott's - Jeromy, Emily, Dylan and Ethan. But I also think it might just be some thoughts I have about life in general, and pretty much anything else I feel like writing about. I will also try to download photo's as much as possible, but I canNOT figure that out yet. If anyone can walk me thru that, I would appreciate it.

Dylan is 6 years old now...can you believe it? When he was born everyone told me to hold on to the baby years as much as I can because it goes so fast. We've all heard that haven't we? It goes so fast...enjoy it while you can....before you know it they are in college.....but am I the only one that thought the baby years were the longest ever? I never thought he would turn 1, at least during the first year I never thought that. It just dragged on and on. While I loved being a mommy, and I obviously love Dylan more then anything, I couldn't wait til he could talk. I wasn't trying to "rush" it really, at least that's what I told myself at the time. Maybe I was...I'm not sure. What it comes down to now is that I have a 6 year old kindergartener with an attitude the size of the pacific ocean, but with the same amount of love and adoration for his family. He loves that mommy can volunteer at his school and that I'm a room mother. He's not embarrassed by me yet!! He loves that I'm home when he gets off the bus and we can chat about his day. He loves his little brother because he always has someone to play with. They fight of course, but they are also as Ethan says "best buddies." Yes, now my oldest son is 6 years old, and will be 7 soon enough. But for now, I am going to take it one day at a time, to hold on to these years as much as I can, to enjoy it because before I know it he will be going to college and I am definitely not ready for that.