A little update

Katy had her first soccer game this past weekend. She did pretty good considering it was her first time to play. Gabriel is doing really, really well in his gifted class. He wants to play basketball this year and that does not start until the winter.

Katy is going to do Girls on the Run this fall. On Dec 9th she will run in a 3.1 mile race. Yea! I am going to train and I think both Mike and I are going to run with her.

Adam took senior pictures last week. Hopefully those will be in soon. He starts in the next few weeks as a shirt manager at Starbucks. Not bad for a senior in high school.

Mike has had at least 3 people scheduled to look at his condo. We are crossing your fingers and St. Joesph's that he gets an offer soon.

We went out this weekend and looked at neighborhoods all over Fairfax and Loundon counties.

We discovered the best little community this weekend in Loudoun called Brambleton. You can walk to the schools, at has very cool park and it even has a small town center with shops right in the middle of the neighborhood. Plus the entire community is wireless and your HOA includes your internet and HDTV. And they are building a brand new elementary and middle school right in the subdivision. They even have a neighborhood poker club.

It is 10 min from AOL and 15 min for me to work. Plus, prices are coming down and cheaper than in Fairfax. And they are new or almost new homes. So, lots of things were are looking for in a house are already built in.

If you want to check it out go to www.brambleton.com.

Funny story -- we had Gabe and Katy when we looked at the model homes. One was a huge thing with 5 bedrooms, 6 baths. Downstairs in the basement was a movie theatre ( I kid you not - it looked better than the one at Camp David the president uses). Well, the kids loved that and when we went to leave and explained that we would not be buying this exact house Gabe had quite a breakdown over the fact. He REALLY, REALLY wanted that house. Plus it had a bedroom decorated in skateboards ready for him just to move into. Of course at 1 million it was a bit out of our price range. Thank goodness no other houses are priced that high out there.

Growing up.......

Today ....I look at my kids and see them growing up before my eyes. Here are some photos I have taken of Katy and Gabe the 1st day of every school year for the past 5 years. (In case you wonder where Adam is..that was the time when it was not "cool" to have your mom following you with a camera. )

Today -- Katy, 3rd and Gabe, 4th grade

2005 - Katy, 2nd and Gabe, 3rd grade

2004 - Katy, 1st and Gabe, 2nd grade

2003 - Katy, Kindergarten and Gabe, 1st grade

2003 - 1st year in Vriginia and Gabriel 1st day of kindergarten. He is getting a hug from big sister Briana, 4th grade, and little sister Katy, who is in pre-k at St. Phillips at that time.

WOW...can you say time flies!!

School starts today.....

An estimated 164,295 students will begin the 2006-07 school year on today in Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS), the nation’s 13th largest school system. My kids are just 3 of the many, many kids who start school today in Fairfax.

For me, it signals to the start of a new year. By the end of this school year many things will be changing. First and most imporant Adam wil be graduating and starting his adventure into college and the adult world. Second, by the end of next summer will be moving out of Annanadale and into a new area of Fairfax (and closer to work and shorter commute) and Katy and Gabe will start to a new elementary school.

Know anyone who wants to buy a condo ?

Ok..last night we put out a "soft" opening of Mike's condo. Which means it is listed on tons of classified site on the internet and the all important Craigs List. (After about a week of seeing what kind of traffic he is geeting then we are going to put it on the MLS.) We buried St. Joesph in the plant and said the prayer but I teased Mike that St. Joe was starting to work before that.

Before we went out to do a few things on Friday I left St. Joe in Mike's condo on the kitchen table. When we got back Mike checked his email and there was a email asking him if he condo was for sale still. Weird thing is we had not adversted it anywhere. The website I built was on the web but no one knew. We guess he did a search for Stonecroft for sale and came up with it. When you do that it is the first thing you see on the internet. OR it could have been St. Joe leading the way. :)

Anyway...if you want to see the listing here it is

Mike's condo