Hanson Crew

We have been really enjoying the Olympics this past week (hence our lack of blog posts)...we love to jump up and down during swimming the most.  We don't have cable so our antenna gets in our way sometimes.  The athlete will be reaching for the wall and the screen goes black and reads "Weak or bad Signal".  Then it pops back up and everyone is cheering.  It's so frustrating!  Because the election is John's one event he will follow on TV constantly (instead of sports like most), we ended up trading in our home phone for cable.  It gets installed tomorrow so we can enjoy the rest of the Olympics too.  The best news, we will save $5/mo.  So instead of phone/internet, we will now pay $50/mo for internet/cable.  We are a little excited since the kids have never had cable!  John and I did back in CO when we were first married.  Oh, and we get a free DVR so we can record some HGTV shows or Food Network shows and watch them on the weekend...

After filling in at the Maids for 2 weeks, almost full time, I have finally been able to get our routine back to normal.  It's amazing how many crock pot meals we enjoyed and how high the laundry got stacked up while I was working more.  But this past week, I feel like things are finally back to normal.  We enjoyed a few playdates with friends who we hadn't been able to see most of July, enjoyed some $.50 cent ice cream cones, and a few Blockbuster movies.  I even got all caught up on the laundry again!  We bought school supplies for all 3 boys (we had already ordered all their curriculum a while back) and started making Ashlyn's homeschool lesson plans.  Oh, we started our Rosetta Stone program too :)  The next few weeks will most likely fly by, so in case I don't blog much, that is why.  School starts on Aug 15 for Jonathan and Aug 20th for the other 3.  Wow!

When going on a walk this past month, Joshua pronounced a neighborhood street a little different than we do.  The street name is "BEAMAN", which we pronounce Bee - Man. He calls it "Be A Man" street....and he is serious.  Funny how lefty's think so different than the rest of us!

John is going to go on a juice fast in August, in hopes to lose 40 pounds.  This is going to be my motivator to try the Insanity workout again (since I will never do a juice fast!).  He bought this juicer in preparation and has been supplementing his lighter diet with juice all week.  The juice ingredients include only fruits and vegetables, along with some fresh ginger and salt.  The kids like most of them so far too.  I will post some before and after pics as he goes along...

We finished our basement this past month. First, we painted Ashlyn's new room, built her a new bathroom, and now painted the living room area down there. We decided to make it a movie room since we recently received a new HDTV and bought a new couch for there. We have enjoyed most of our summer nights down there with the AC and a Blockbuster or Netflix movie. We painted the walls a slate grey (which has a tint of blue in it) and will soon paint the stairwell too. Here is how it turned out..

Last week while I was working at the Maids, Grandma Sue watched the kids.  They watched the first 2 Ice Age movies in preparation for the new one that came out.  They ran out of time to watch number 3 so we are watching it Thurs.  Then we plan on meeting Grandma Sue on Friday morning to see the new one.  The kids are pretty excited!  Any new movies out there you recommend as well?  We love watching movies, especially cheap ones.  We plan to go see Dolphin Tale tomorrow for $1 at the Cinemark on the Plaza as part of their $1 Summer Movies Deal.  Nothing like free Air Conditioning and a morning out of the house for $5 :)

It's official.  We have finally made our decision about school for each of our children next year.  We are excited about the new change and are anticipating what life with 3 different school schedules will be like: Jonathan will be a full-time Kindergartener in the Park Hill School District (where Caleb attended for K). He will transfer into FCA in 2013 as a first grader. He is excited about his new school and the bus he might ride sometimes. Caleb will be in 2nd grade at FCA next year attending MWF. He will continue to be home with me on Tues/Thurs where I am sure we will spend hours and hours enjoying second grade together.  We are most excited about his new teacher who will be moving from Colorado with much classical school experience. Joshua will be in 3rd at FCA and will also attend MWF.  His class continues to be big enough for 2 classes so we are eagerly waiting to see which home room teacher he will be assigned as well as which good friends will be in h...

Great night together at the drive-in.  We saw the new Amazing Spiderman movie with Men in Black 3.  It was only 75 when we left, which is amazing for July!  Today the high is 100 again.  We love paying $16 for all 6 of us to enjoy 2 newer movies and bring our own popcorn and QT pops.  Loving summer nights!

Our new Maids Billboard is on South Hwy 71 a little after Swope Pwk exit.  If you live in KC and want to see it live, just drive south on 71 :)

Jonathan: "Mom, can I be accused?" Everyone: Laughing... Ashlyn: "Yes, Jonathan, you can be accused, but of what?" Jonathan: "huh?" "Can I be ACCUSED?" Caleb: Really loud laugh. "Yes, Jonathan!" Jonathan: "I am done eating, can I get up?" Ashlyn: Some kind of explanation of what accused means...Jonathan laughing, but still not really understanding what excused means!

Caleb is much more comfortable in the pool this year.  He keeps bugging us to get Micah back over to teach him more things...this week, he learned to dive with correct form from the diving board. John worked with him a couple evenings in a row, and he is very proud of him!  I wanted to document it on the blog.

This week at the Maids,  we have 3 normal office people on vacation all at once.  Our sales person, who does a majority of our customer service and all of our sales calls is included in that group.  Before she left, she prepped me and a couple other gals to help fill in for her while she was gone. (Things could really fall apart if her work was just left for her when she returned).  Haley is doing the majority of her work and is amazing just like her at estimates and sales.  So Brenda and I have had to only juggle answering phones, moving cleans, and a couple other crisis moments while we have been there this week. Monday was a true nightmare, but the week is slowly getting better I think... You see, I am actually working at the Maids this week, everyday, more than my typical 5 hours a week I have been doing since January.  I haven't made it on time though, and look forward to the lunch part of the day the most!  But I am actually physically there, d...

So this weekend while driving to Powell Gardens, Ashlyn made me laugh a little and then think alot.  We were driving down 71 Hwy, which at certain times isn't in the best part of town.  There are a few stoplights on the highway in these parts of town.  When we stopped at the first stoplight, I told Ashlyn a story I heard once about a women in her 20s who was shot and killed at the stoplight.  She was leaving an outdoor theatre in the area, and was shot by a drive by shooter or something.  Ashlyn was in the front seat, and was surprised by the story.  By the time we got to the second stoplight, right when I had finished the story, she bent over in her seat (she was in the passenger seat of the car).  I asked her if she was tying her shoe or something because it was taking her awhile to come back up, and she said no, just hiding.  She then stayed bent over the next 3 stoplights until we were out of those neck of the woods.  I saw fear for the f...

On Saturday, John had to go to work while our new GPS trackers were installed in all of our Maids vans.  While he was working, our crew decided to take advantage of "Kids Free" day at Powell Gardens in Kingsville, MO and save $20 on our admission (Thanks Lori).  It is about 45 minutes outside of Kansas City.  Their exhibit right now is "Fairies and Forts" so we were able to hunt for the fun forts around the pretty gardens.  Those forts, along with the wonderful splash fountain were our favorite parts.  The high was 107 and there was not much shade there.  So we got soaked, walked around and then got soaked again at the end.  We were there about 2 hours.  It was fun, but probably not worth the normal $30 admission in the summer - maybe Spring when the flowers are more alive.  Here are a few pics from the day...

Every year on the 3rd of July, our crew goes back to Kearney for the annual fireworks show. There is a live concert, free watermelon, and this year some bouncy things. We enjoyed hanging out with some church friends we ran into there too. Our car was right under the fireworks and they were so loud. Here are some pics from my camera phone. The quality is not that great, sorry...

After we went to meet Molly at the hospital, our crew headed up to Smithville to celebrate the fourth with the Knorrs. This is our third year and fun tradition. We cooked out, had fun with fireworks and then headed to the lake. We played on the playground for a while and had a water balloon fight. When it got dark, we enjoyed another wonderful fireworks display over the lake. Here are a few pics...

Our crew got to meet a new cousin this afternoon who we nicknamed "Little Firecracker". Molly Grace Cordova was born this Independence Day morning at 4:50 am. She weighed 7.1 lbs and is 20 1/2 inches long. The labor was only about an hour and a half at the hospital...everyone is very happy and healthy.

"How many lightning bugs do you think had to die to make my glow stick?" - Joshua Paul

would find pure joy in cleaning every piece of glass in our house and car today with a new glass cleaner he found would want to go clean with the Maids tomorrow when we are short handed would offer to go cut the grass in 105 degree weather (I didn't let him) would throw our precious Penny behind a very heavy shelf today and freeze B in the freezer (Jonathan's two favorite best friends since birth) would tell me the dining room chandelier is hanging from the ceiling after he barely touched the glass part today while Ashlyn was babysitting for my massage would give up on his July Summer School curriculum on the second day  would wake up and barely open his eyes so he could drive with me to the car wash to vacuum the entire car this morning We'll see what tomorrow brings...this just about sums up today!