Poulin-Gil Family: Blog Fail

I failed miserably at keeping up with my blog. i am pretty sure that anyone who used to read it no longer even bothers to check. i dont blame you. why check whenthere is nothing to read! anyway, a lot has happened in the past few months. work is going ok, a lot of stuff IS happening at work but most i can't write about for legal reasons (that should clue you in to the funness of the situations there) but overall its still a good place to be. it definately isnt perfect, no where is especially in todays economy and education system but from everything ive experienced in education i wouldnt want to be anywhere else right now. i am thankful that i have a job and am getting paid. i really couldnt ask for more. some people are really upset about the possibility of us not getting all or part of our "normal"raises next year, but seriously, i would even take a pay cut just to ensure that i have a job next year. so many people around me are loosing their jobs, getting laid off, taking huge pay cuts etc and i am seriously thankful that i am not one of them.
E is also doing well at work. currently he is on a 2 weeks business trip which sucks. playing single parent is a lot of work (i have much respect for those who are single parents full time). it means i am out of bed at 5am and showering by 5:10 and then getting myself ready and then EJ and out the door by 6:10am. and then it is non stop until he goes to bed at 7pm at which point i have to clean up after dinner and get all his stuff (lunch) ready for the next day. super tired. but its ok. but again, we are thankful he has a job that pays well and pays the bills. a few weeks away here and there is just fine.
Here are some random other things that have been going on in no particular order:
i started playing soccer again on monday nights. its fun but exhausting.
I developed a major allergic skin reaction to somethingunknown a few weeks ago. ended up in the ER and was put on high dose steriods and other stuff. Doc Obvious looked at me and said "yup, that sure is a severe allergic reaction to something" and said i would probably never know what it was and walked out. i was home in a little over an hour (door to door). i cant even get in and out of a doctors appointment that fast. i was sent home full of whatever drugs they gave me and within hours it was gone. still dont know hat it was
EJ starts soccer in march. yay. the program is called soccertots. super cute. i'll post pictures when he starts.
We did some landscaping. the yard in the house was pretty terrible. or rather non existant. we had a starnge layer of greenish brown stuff growing all over. dont know what it was but it wasnt grass. so E spent several days ripping it all out and then laying down sod. we even bought plants and some flowers. we have no idea if they will survive as neither one of us know anything about flowery things with leaves and such. but they look pretty.
Most of the pictures below (except the first one) are of EJ helping with the landscaping project. the first is ofhim sweeping. he loves to sweep. and carry the broom around. so i dressed him up in an apron (thanks sara!)

Here he is "helping" withthe big rake. way to big for him but he had fun....notice the beautiful "lawn" we have here.
So the next day i went to Lowes's and bought him his own rake, much morehis size and not as easy for him to hurt himself. if you notice there is no more green, just dirt. we let EJ run around in the dirt and play.