Zachary and Jackie are doing great. They are pictured to the right wearing their "My Sister Drives Me Nuts" and "My Brother Drives Me Bananas" shirts. While known to bicker on occasion, the kids truly are very close despite the 5 year age difference between them. When just hanging out at home, they spend about 90% of their time together. It doesn't hurt that Jackie is interested in everything that her big brother does and Zack is always willing to teach her all about it.

Peter and I are still thoroughly enjoying life in Ohio. Nothing terrible has happened despite my fears that things were going too well and something bad was sure to occur. Peter and I were pretty stressed out during the period leading up to our decision to leave New York, but we no longer have any of the same external stressors that we once had. Our relationship now is very reminiscent of how it was in the care-free days early in our marriage. And that is awesome!

SCHOOL
Zachary is now 10 years old and is in 5th grade. As usual, he is doing awesome in school. He made the High Honor Roll which was extra special because he was one of only two kids in his class that got straight A's last quarter.

Zack qualified for the accelerated math program and is enjoying the challenge of the faster paced curriculum. Most days he manages to get all of his homework done at school so he's been able to easily juggle his after school activities of soccer, piano and religion.

INSECTS, REPTILES AND OTHER CREEPY-CRAWLIES
Zachary has recently become interested in insects and bugs. In the warmer months he could be seen catching all sorts of flying, crawling and icky creatures. He would then set up a lovely living environment for them in a small tank, which he was subsequently forbidden to bring into the house.

We lovingly blame our local entomological expert, his friend Jacob, for this new interest in insects. In addition to the turtle he's had for 6 years, Zack has now asked for a Western Banded Leopard Gecko for Christmas. Again, this is definitely Jacob's fault. :-) Good thing we like him so much!

SCHOOL
Jackie is now 5 years old and loves kindergarten! She seems to be following in her brother's brilliant footsteps. She enjoys practicing her new writing and reading skills, has met some sweet friends and caught the attention of several boys in her class. This morning Jackie completed some extra math worksheets, on her own, before any of us were even awake!

GIRLIE-STUFF
Sometimes Jackie is such a girlie-girl. A few months ago she decided she only wanted to wear dresses. That lasted for a while until she discovered it can be difficult to climb, jump and slide in a dress, and how easily tights rip. For the most part she's back in jeans now - although they are decked out in sparkles, sequins and jewels. She still loves purses, jewelry and make-up.

Unlike most girls her age, Jackie has no interest in horses or Hannah Montana, but she loves, loves, loves the Disney Princesses. After going as Cinderella for Halloween three years in a row I pushed her to try something different. She chose to be Sleeping Beauty instead.

WORK
After a year and a half, Peter switched jobs and is now working as a Project Manager for a web design company. He has a slightly longer commute than before (20 minutes), but it's still nowhere near his NY commute. His new toys include a company-issued iPhone, a few flat-screen TVs, a sawzall, and Guitar Hero for the Wii (he's usually the lead singer as the kids play the instruments.)

AROUND THE HOUSE
After going on a painting spree and painting almost every room in the house, Peter decided to take the plunge and change out the doors from the ugly luan kind to 6 panel doors. He also decided to paint them white and subsequently paint all the molding. This ended up being a quite a project. Apparently it's a huge pain in the butt to paint over stained wood, the process which required using Kilz primer and several coats of paint. He was very happy with how it came out - it made a huge difference and really makes the wall colors "pop." His thinks his next project might be tiling the downstairs bathroom.

WORK
After several years as a Sleep-At-Home-Mom (Peter trademark), I am semi-happy to report that I am once again gainfully employed - full-time! I completed the requirements for my Ohio teaching licensure (including passing two state exams and completing two online courses that were a TON of work!) and half-heartedly applied for September teaching jobs. I went on a few interviews but felt very out of touch being so far removed from college and the classroom. Honestly I was not crushed when nothing materialized - after all, it was another year off - SWEET!

In late September I was offered a ParaPro "Teacher Assistant" position in special education and it was too good to pass up. The school is only 7 minutes from my house and it's been a wonderful way to immerse myself in a school environment without all the responsibility of being a traditional classroom teacher. The teachers and students I work with are great! I have learned a lot and feel much more confident to earnestly start my job search for next year.

Things really fell into place because one of Jackie's friends goes to a babysitter just a few houses down from us. Since Jackie is in half-day kindergarten I needed someone to watch her after she gets home from school. For the most part this is working out well, although some days she gets sad because she misses me. AWWWWWWW!!!! I was able to arrange to take off to go to her class Christmas party this week, so I'm excited for that. The only bad part of the whole experience is the sickness. I manage to get every germ that is coughed, sneezed or drooled onto me. Yes, I have been drooled on. Several times. To quote my sister-in-law Kathy, working in an elementary school is like working in a petri-dish. I'm going to have to start taking lessons from my friend Dave and learn to carry hand sanitizer on me at all times to continuously keep myself disinfected. On the left is my official school portrait!

CLEANING, IRONING & COOKING
Knowing that the house cleaning would begin to seriously suffer once I started working, Peter proposed I reopen the search for a cleaning lady. What's not to love about this guy??? Shortly thereafter I rounded up a few recommendations and had an interview lined up with the top contender. I hired Bernadette, who now comes every other week. I'm so fortunate to have her help - she's wonderful!

In other news, I have lifted the ban on ironing and begrudgingly bought a small ironing board! I could no longer stand to pay the $2.00-$2.50 each to have Peter's shirts dry-cleaned. I can't say I'm happy about it, and some of the striped shirts make me dizzy while I'm ironing them, but I do it.. At least the money I save pays for part of the house cleaning.

Recently I have been seen cooking. Really, I'm not kidding. (shhhh! don't tell anyone) And not just hamburgers and bland baked chicken. But don't be too impressed - I'm still not a GOOD cook - the kids refer to the smoke detector going off as the "dinner bell." My new cooking attempts can be largely attributed to the fact that Peter begged me to stop making the same things over and over again, as well as the purchase of the Cooking Light: 5 Ingredient 15 Minute Cookbook which has helped greatly with ideas for healthy-ish meals I can make when I get home from work.

I have also been seen baking (again, mum is the word.) At this point my baking has been restricted to banana bread and Christmas cookies, but it's a start! So far, so good!

PIANO
This year I asked for piano lessons for my birthday. The kids have been taking lessons for a year now, and I've learned quite a bit through osmosis during their lessons. Building on my flute knowledge, and some long-ago childhood piano instruction from my sister Leah, I taught myself as much as I could on my own. I was helped a great deal from my friend Kyle (a piano teacher in New York) who would, over the phone, listen to me play to figure out what I was doing wrong. He taught me scale fingerings and patiently explained musical terms I had forgotten like andante and allegro, as well as what a trill was (my high school band conductor would die if he knew!) I finally decided I was ready and have now been taking lessons for a few months. I love it! I love Ms. Lana, our piano teacher, and the weekly lessons definitely keep me practicing!

That evening they broke into programming on TV to track another storm coming through the area that was capable of producing tornadoes. They basically zoom in and track the storm street by street.

The weatherman was calling out the areas the storm was approaching. At one point he said, "if you live between these streets, then you need to get to your safe place... NOW!" Well, here's an illustration of the streets he mentioned (marked in red) and where our house is.