We Have Arrived

We have spent almost a week in our new house now and things are finally starting to fall into place that make it feel more like our "home." I've been trying to get through as many boxes per day as I can, but there's also a priority factor that comes into play: first, make sure the kids aren't causing any harm to themselves or each other (or anything valuable in their path) and THEN I can go hunt for the most important boxes in the garage. We were in such a hurry to move that we stopped labeling boxes about 1/4 of the way through, so it's a big treasure hunt to dig around and see what you can find. My biggest prize today was Katelyn's Computer Cool School. She almost cried when I took it out of the box and then she ran upstairs as fast as she could to plug it in and play it. I haven't been the only one this week that's felt the pain of no internet; Katelyn's had a rough time as well! A lot of our favorite learning activities are online and we've had to do a lot of improvisation to our preschool time this week.

Hy the way, here are some of our favorite web sites (which I also have shared on WilmingtonMommies):

Letter of the week

Enchanted Learning

Fun Shine Express

Successful Homeschooling

Learning Planet

No Time for Flash Cards

First School

PBS Kids <--Especially on the Island - that's an interactive site that requires a parent to log in so that it can keep tabs on your child's progress. You can see a report card that shows your child's strengths:



Then your child is redirected to an area where they can play learning games to earn tickets (which can be exchanged for prizes such as printable coloring sheets, Sesame Street videos, or things to decorate their virtual treehouse with). Playing all of the different games successfully in a level will unlock a more difficult level. So far, Katelyn seems to be really taken to this particular learn/earn/reward style. She's also caught on to reading SO MUCH in the past few weeks. We're trying to teach a combination of a lot of basic phonics with some whole-word reading as well. She enjoys playing with her chalkboard a lot, and we're introducing both reading skills and simple addition via that medium.

In other Dowell news, Scott is still enjoying his job very much! I haven't heard him this excited about his work in a LONG time. The only drawback is the long hours. He leaves around 5 each morning, and tonight he's working at the office with the branch manager until 11. BUT, he said he'd rather do 70 hours a week than no hours a week! :)

We have to return to Wilmington this weekend to clean and paint our house before the tenants move in next weekend. I have a Facebook acquaintance, South-Eastern Commecial Services, scheduled to come on Friday to clean the great room carpet (let's hear it for networking!) and then Saturday will be a full work day and hopefully we will be able to return to Linden on Sunday knowing that the work is all done!

I also have a lot of work to do in the coming days on the new business I'm starting. I haven't quite settled on a name yet, so suggestions are still welcome! I'm planning a social media/internet management company that will (hopefully) stay focused on hospitality. I hope to market ~5 non-competing businesses in different geographical areas via the internet. The basic services that I will provide will be akin to what I do for the Holiday Inn Express:

• Manage private and/or franchise web sites
• Manage Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Ning, etc. accounts
• Work closely with sales department to ensure that sales and marketing efforts are all on the same page
• Monitor the internet for customer comments and complaints
• Respond to communications received from customers (in the form of surveys, emails, etc.)
• Attend local business networking events
• Publish employee or client newsletters.

I would also love it if anyone wants to write a brief recommendation of my skills for the web site I will be putting up advertising my services. If you'd be interested in doing something like this, please let me know!!! This is very exciting for me (and I am TERRIFIED of failing...but I will never know if I can do it until I try); it's a great opportunity for me to keep my children out of daycare and for me to do what I love - meet other people and market brands that I love! So, wish me luck as I take this big step!

I hope that you all enjoy the rest of your week! I'll keep you posted on our lives, and please keep in touch about yours!

All my love,