Sidewalks, Driveways, and Grass! Oh My!

There's been alot of action lately on West Ham Circle.

We had our 6 month walk through with the builder to do minor repairs. I still can't believe we've been here 6 months! We still have builder white walls and no window treatments throughout most of the house - oh well, all in time. We do have to work on the window treatments before we get neighbors next door!! HAHA

They installed our driveway last week - that was exciting. The kids & I sat on the front steps and watched the guys put down the asphalt and do their thing - a little stinky, but still fun to watch!

Next came sidewalks and trees. The builder plants a tree between the sidewalk and the road for each home. I was home when they planted the trees and paved the sidewalk. I attempted to carve a small 'H' in the wet concrete sidewalk but they caught me and smoothed out my work - darn!

And finally, they have graded and seeded our lot yesterday!! :-) We lost our hose in the move so Scott had to run out last night and purchase a new hose and sprinkler so we could get to work on growing some grass. It's supposed to rain all day today so that should be good for the grass! I'm so excited to get a lawn - it's been very difficult (more like dirty) to have small children and no grass to play in. Now, I know what you're thinking and yes, dirt is fun - but everyday is a bit much. They get so dirty that they have to strip off all their clothes when they enter the house. Thank goodness the laundry room is right next to the garage entrance!

Here is a picture of the homestead yesterday.

The builder plants one tree off the front corner of the house. Anyone know what this tree is?

Hardware

Well this year's Johnson and Johnson North American Cup tournament was a rousing success for the OCD team .

Yep, that's a trophy. And we earned it in only our third tournament as a team. What you can't read in the fine print is that it is the "B" Division Consolation trophy. And what it means is that we were the best of the losers.

In all sincerity, though, every team that lost its first game got put into the consolation bracket. And believe me , we lost our first game. Badly. But our other "consolation" was that the team that beat us did take the "B" division championship. So realistically, we earned this trophy. We went on to win our final two games of the weekend, and secured enough points (based on wins and fewest penalty minutes taken) to take home the inaugural consolation trophy. Yep, not only was it our first, but it was the first year this prize was awarded. After all, there were 24 teams in the B division this year. We'll just have to work harder next year to claim the "real" championship.

And of course, not only was the weekend successful for the OCD team, but for Shoot-for-a-Cure as well, as the tournament raised over $115,000 toward spinal cord research. Our Johnson and Johnson brethren in Toronto were great hosts, and agreed to do it again next year.

Thank you to everyone who sponsored me for this excellent tournament. You helped me to become the top fundraiser at OCD, and top 5 overall across all of the participants. And yes, I got to play in the Alumni game this year, this time against the Toronto Maple Leafs alumni. Included in the festivities was one special guest who wasn't actually an alumni because he hasn't yet retired. That's right, I got to play against a current NHL player by the name of Alexei Ponikarovsky (yes, I had to check the spelling). And he was pretty good too. I think we made him play at at least 1/2 speed.

Updates for the Week

Some recent happenings:
1 - We attended Kindergarten parents night at Ryan's school last Thursday. They discussed what to expect in the next year. We met all the Kindergarten teachers, found out what needs to be packed in his backpack, we visited the gym, cafeteria & library, and they wrapped up with some advice on how to be brave for your kid on his first day of school!! My eye's welled many couple times just thinking about that first day of school! September 3rd is gonna be tougher on mom than Ryan! And thanks to my niece Abby for babysitting so we could attend!

2 - Saturday we went to the Spencerport Carnival - the kids rode all the kiddie rides and had a blast! It's funny how different they are -- Ryan has always been a bit nervous & cautious but Jessica has no fear at all -- she loves all the rides. The two of them rode everything together - it was great!

3 - Happy Father's Day to everyone. Scott enjoyed the morning golfing with his Dad. We then did our gifts - wonderful drawings and coloring art - then off for a BBQ dinner at Famous Daves.

4 - Today is just an ordinary Monday - we did haircuts and visited the library. Here are some shots from their hair appointment. My hairdresser Sue lets the kids play with the spray bottle so the last picture is Ryan spraying Jess - look closely, her face is pretty wet!

Catholic Schools

St Charles, the school I attended from 5th grade to 8th grade, is closing its doors for good this year. Very sad -- all three Catholic schools I attended will now be closed!
The school opened its doors yesterday and allowed the alumni to wander the halls and reminisce. Same school smells, same squeaky floors, same principal's office - all slightly smaller than I remember! They did a nice job - in the gym they set up tables with pictures and old yearbooks for us to browse through - we had some laughs!
Look at the pages below - can you guess which one is me? Hint - I'm on the left page :-)

Some memories Donna and I laughed about:

- walking into the library to find my sister Donna kissing a boy! Obviously no nuns were around!

- I was picked to be a Safety Girl and I thought I was just the coolest 6th grader ever. Looking back now...I was just a girl who wore a BRIGHT orange saftey belt and opened the gate to let the school buses in. Not so cool after all...

- I saw my 5th grade classroom - never will forget that classrom. Let me expand on that a little >> I entered St. Chucks in 5th grade. At my old school I was in a class of 18 students total. In my new school the 5th grade had 85 students. Wow, that scared the heck out of me!! So everyday, as I got on the bus, I'd suddenly get bad stomach pains & cry until the the bus driver let me off the bus. This went on for almost a week. My parents were smart & figured out what I was doing. So my Dad took the morning off work and drove his crying daughter to school. He walked me right to the classroom door and forced me to go in -- and ya know what - everything turned out ok. I made some good friends that I still keep in touch with today! Parents sure are smart huh!

As I think about my Ryan starting school in the fall I'm excited for him. I'm sure he'll enjoy creating his own memories and I look forward to hearing all about his school days!