New Month ~ New Day ~ Fresh Start to the Blogging ~ Again!!! :)

November 1st ~ WOW!!! Days seem like grains of sand slipping through my fingers lately.
Earlier today I spent a couple of hours catching up on friends blogs that I haven't read in a long while. It has been a good reminder to me of why I started this blog in the first place.
We had a fun Halloween yesterday. All of my daycare kiddo's dressed up and we had a little party. I made homemade chili and corn bread and then headed off to Trunk or Treat at the Church. Gotta love it when the kids can fill their bags in 15 minutes. We did come home though and Doug went with Marlee, Ian, Hannah and her parents John and Kathy around the neighborhood. Hannah is one of my daycare kids whom I've had in my care for over 4 years now. Marlee and her are good buddies and her Mom Kathy is our fabulous Bi-lingual Kindergarten teacher at WSLA (West Salem Language Academy)where Marlee and Ian go to school. Anyway long story short they usually trick or treat with us every year as they are from a small little town about 20 minutes west of us. Marlee was a girl pirate, Ian was the red power ranger and Hannah was a Chinese Princess. They all had a really good time which makes all the hustle and bustle of the day worth it.

Tonight I have been finishing up all of my last minute paperwork for my final daycare check tomorrow. I will be happy when it's over. Back in the first part of September my lovely neighbors next door to me filed a complaint about my daycare kids being too loud. When they came to investigate they found the complaint to be invalid which was nice. However, they gave me a few dings which has in turn made me bump up my certification level from being a Registered Daycare provider to being a Licensed In-Home Daycare Provider. In the end it's all worth the trouble but I had to jump thru some pretty big hoops, endure a lot of stress, lose some families who were not happy with the changes being made (more kids), which in turn led to a big loss of income. It's been pretty scary since we still have the old house for sale. But we have tried to rely on the Lord and of course we couldn't have made it this far without the help, love and support of family and friends. You all know who you are ~ I thank you!!!

On a lighter note in trying to catch up with whats been happening around the Bowling household ~(technically not our household but exciting none the less)we have two new Nieces. Dave & Jessica added another baby girl to their family her name is Lilly Ann which makes three for them. Craig & Anne also more recently had their second child ~ a baby girl they named Parker. Fun to see the family growing bigger and bigger.

On October 30th Tuesday night Marlee and I went to the Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus concert up in Portland. The Jonas Bros. opened for her and also sang with her for a couple of songs. My Mom had helped Doug and I purchase the tickets for her Birthday but luckily for us we got them the first day they started selling them so they were only $55.00 each. Scalpers were selling them for upwards of $600-700 dollars. CRAZEEEE. We had a good time. It was Marlee's first official concert. A lot of people stood during the whole concert which didn't make her a happy camper but I reminded her that we were there in person and what a fun experience that is in itself. After Hannah Montana went off stage and came back on for the encore she sang solo with her guitar, a beautiful song about and dedicated to her Pappy (Grandpa) who passed away a couple of years ago. Wow ~ Marlee just sobbed and sobbed. Sometimes I forget how empathetic she is to others and their feelings. She talked about it all the way home and Salem is 50 miles south of Portland. She is such a special little girl. Doug and Ian had a boys night out too - they had a little bite to eat with a applebee's gift certificate we had and then grabbed a jamba juice and headed to our little local video game store "Gamers Oasis" and played video games for an hour. They both had a good time. Ian had been pretty bummed about not being able to come along because he loves the Jonas Bros. ~ but in the end he was good - he's an awesome little man. I will post some pictures from the concert and of Halloween with this.

Well, I am hoping to be a better blogger. I know I know - none of you will hold your breath! LOL...