April Vacation - days 1&2

Monday we had a great day with J ... read previous post about H being at a sleepover. We took her to a nice coastal park where she could ride her bike (she's getting pretty good!), then to a fun playground, out for lunch and then home to relax.

After H came home we headed over to Jake and Sam's for dinner. It was great to catch up with them and see their 3 daschunds --- well, after the dogs stopped barking and the girls stopped crying -- then it was great and all was well! We had a nice evening visiting with them.

Tuesday - our friends Stacey, Hannah, Nick and Abby are visiting from out of town this week. So we met up and went to McD's for lunch, then to a great playground where the kids had a ball for about 2 hours! I enjoyed my iced latte on the ride home ... and now the girls are playing outdoors until dinner is ready. So far the weather has been wonderful and we're enjoying the week - no big, special plans, but still enjoying seeing friends and being outdoors.

More to come ...

Letting go ... little by little.

Sunday night was H's first sleepover. Well, she has slept over with Grandma's, but never at a friend's home before. She was nervous and excited all at the same time. She definitely still needs her Mama to tuck her in at night, and was nervous that she might miss us too much.

Still, she was going to her friend Katie's house, and her other friend Mady was going too. The 3 of them were very excited to have this adventure together. So off she went. I will admit, I missed her ... it's hard to let your kids go. I trust my friend 100% with caring for my kids, but as I lay there trying to fall asleep that night I kept thinking ... I wish I could just go check on her in her bed.

Perhaps the cutest thing was how much J missed her sister. J was not upset about not going to sleep over, in fact we did lots of fun things together - me, Bob and J. It was great to have some time with just one child at a time. But she missed her big sister! She kept asking us if she could call H, or when H would be coming home ... it was neat to see that even though they fight so much, they really do love one another!

H ended up doing great. She had a great time and my friend said she was fine, and also well behaved (something every parent loves to hear!) And even though we missed her, I'm glad she could have this time of fun and for us all to learn that little by little we have to learn to let our kids go ... or maybe I should say, let them grow. =)

Spring Cleaning

Do you do it?
What motivates you?
What is involved in your spring cleaning routine?

This week we have {{finally}} been enjoying some nicer weather. It's been wonderful to be able to open up the windows, let some fresh air in, and start my spring cleaning routine.

I like to go room by room and really 'deep' clean each room. I get motivated by the fact that summer is coming, and I want to be able to enjoy a clean house for those long, lazy summer days.

So far I did the kitchen, the living room and today I'm working on my bedroom. On Thursday when we tackled the living room we decided to rip out the carpet that had been there for the last 6 years. It was nasty, stained and smelly and it was wonderful to get rid of it! The hardwood floors underneath look great, so we got an area rug and will leave it as hardwood.

Some of the things I try to do while deep cleaning are:
-Launder or air out curtains
-move furniture and clean under, behind and inside them (like all the crumbs in the couch!
-get rid of all the built up dust beneath furniture, in the back of closets and any other place it's been hiding
-go through drawers, cabinets and closets and clean out the junk, donate stuff, throw out stuff and re-organize it
-switch the clothes from winter to spring/summer - put winter stuff away in bins
-clean my windows/screens/windowsills
-touch up paint/baseboards/doors, etc
-scrub down walls in areas that sticky/dirty hands have touched them
-wash all bedding including bulky comforters that don't get washed often

Who would have thought that I'd enjoy cleaning this much?? Anyone else share this passion for spring cleaning?

Thankful Thursday - or Saturday?

OOPS, I missed my thankful Thursday! Last night Bob was working and my Mom came over to have supper with us. We had a great dinner, played some board games with the girls, Mom read stories with the girls, and it was great.

I'm so thankful for my Mom, for more reasons than I can count, but I will save all that for another post ... what I'm thankful for this week, is that my Mom lives close enough to visit and to see her on a regular basis.

When I first got married my parents lived in far away from where we chose to live. So for the first 7 years of our marriage I only got to see my parents about once or twice a year when I would visit in them or they would visit in me. It was so hard since my Mom is one of my best friends.

After my Dad died 4 years ago my Mom chose to move to our area to be closer to us and my brother. I never would have chosen my Dad dying as the reason that would bring my Mom to live closer, but I am so thankful that she is now nearby. Love you Mom!

Little Tooter Girls

I think I have a couple of tomboys on my hands, there is NO shame in this house! Including the fact that I'm going to share this story with all of you ... against my better judgment!! It's just too funny though, so even though you might think less of me, I will share!

Last night the girls were going to 'sleep over' in one of their bedrooms. As I was singing their bedtime songs and getting them tucked in I 'passed gas', rather loudly. They burst into laughter and started pointing at one another saying 'It was you, it was you!" -- neither one of them suspected that it could have been Mommy.

So we finish our goodnights and I slowly walk out of the room, as I'm getting ready to shut the door I lean in and whisper "It was ME!" -- when they realized what I'd said they erupted into the biggest fit of laughter, as did I, because it was just SO funny. As they calmed down, I again went to leave the room and passed another round of loud gas as I was leaving the room which got us all started laughing hysterically again! I was laughing so hard I had tears coming from my eyes.

So I know this story paints me in a bad light, and that you all think I'm gross now, but it was such a fun moment where the girls and I were just really enjoying each other, enjoying laughing and being silly and not caring about being proper. So that is why I had to share!

Lately my mission in life has been to 'enjoy my children' ... last night I did just that!

First baseball game

We took the girls to a minor league game on Sunday ... it was SO cold, er, I mean so much fun! They loved being right there near the action and even though it was cold we still had a great time!

Because it was so cold, the stands were EMPTY! There were probably only about 50 people in the whole place ... but that was OK. In case you are wondering what I consider cold, it was 41 degrees with no sun and it was windy. We were super bundled up, and had a big blanket, but I was still freezing! We only stayed for about 6 innings.


Bob and the girls...
Toothless girl ...
I love this picture of J...
Group shot ...
Did I mention that it was COLD???
The kids got free t-shirts - the shirts are way too big, but the girls were super excited! We will definitely do this again when the weather warms up!

Mommy's ONLY - no kids allowed!

We had a fabulous overnight adventure this past weekend. Just me and my 3 girlfriends. We were celebrating someone's birthday ... she looks a little red after having the handsome waiter sing Happy Birthday to her!!
So we went to a fun Mexican place for dinner Friday night, then drove halfway across the state to a hotel where we spent the night, and then went to an all day scrapbook event on Saturday that was held right there in the hotel. It was so much fun! Lynn's birthday was great and we laughed and laughed (as usual!). Her sister Amy and Amy's friend Fran also met us there to scrap and it was great to meet them. Here are some fun pictures ...

Caroline and Lynn at dinner...

Myself and Sandy ... Lynn scrappin' ... it may look disorganized, but there's a method to her madness! =)
A fave layout I was working on ...
I was on a mission to complete LOTS of pages!
Sandy, always stampin' ... Caroline, always laughin' ... notice no pages being worked on!! =) Yes we are nerds ... with our matching bags! I think they are rather cute!
Lynn and Amy ... Amy was very impressed with our stamp collection!
Getting ready to leave the hotel, that is ALL our scrap stuff, no clothes, just scrap stuff for ONE day of scrappin'!!! So heavy Lynn can hardly push it!

Thankful Thursday

This week I'm thankful for ... FRIENDS and SCRAPBOOKING and MY IN-LAWS watching the kids this Friday night so I can go spend time with my friends to scrapbook! I can't wait ... this is a much needed girls OVERnight out!

I will *try* to take lots of fun pictures ... but being that I'm on a mission to complete a lot of pages I might forget ... we'll see!

This was the last BIG scrap event we did, over a year ago ...

News

So, I have already been asked by several people what our big news is. You know the big change for our family that I mentioned a couple of posts ago??

Well, now that I know more information for sure I feel better about sharing with all of you. Really, it's not THAT big of news, I hope you won't all be disappointed that it isn't something more noteworthy!!

Anyway, the day after Easter we went and visited this nice little Christian school which is right around the corner from our house. For the 7 years we've lived here it has been right around the corner, probably only a little over a mile away, but we had never been there to actually check it out. We'd heard that it was pricey and just sort of dismissed it as something we couldn't afford.

So we finally decided to check it out. And we loved it! It is small, only 88 kids from kindergarten to 8th grade. It is a nice facility and the staff were wonderful. We also got all the information we'd need about how much it would cost. And yes, it is expensive. At least for us with only Bob working full time.

So we decided to pray and see what happened. We weren't even sure that we wanted to send the kids there. We like homeschooling and might even continue to homeschool H ... but we wanted to pray and see what decisions we'd come up with in a month or two.

Well our answer came in 2 days!! We received news that we would be able to get financial aid that was enough to cover 3/4 of the yearly tuition! And for 1/2 day kindergarten it would be paid 100%. We were so excited! I truly couldn't believe that our answer came so quickly!!

So we are now sure that J will go for (at least) kindergarten, and are pretty sure H will stay home for homeschool for at least another year. For those of you that don't know, one of our biggest reasons for homeschooling her is that she would never get to see Bob (because of his work shift) if she were gone to school all day and he were gone by the time she got home. So we will probably keep her home for a while longer and see what happens. Maybe his shift will change sometime in the future ... maybe we will continue to homeschool for many years ... maybe we will just wait and trust that God alone knows the future and we have no need to worry about it right now!

"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of it's own." Matthew 6:34

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

Thieves!!

You've heard about people who have been abducted and had
their kidneys removed by black-market organ thieves. Well,
this kind of cruel theft is happening with other body parts
as well!

My thighs were stolen from me during the night a few years
ago. I went to sleep and woke up with someone else's thighs.
The replacements had the texture of cooked oatmeal. Those
thighs were these and what happened to mine? I spent the
entire summer looking for my thighs. Finally, hurt and
angry, I resigned myself to living out my life in jeans.

And then the thieves struck again. My rear end was next. I
knew it was the same gang, because they took pains to match
my new rear end to the thighs they had stuck me with earlier.
But my new butt was attached at least three inches lower than
my original! I realized I'd have to give up my jeans in
favor of long skirts.

Two years ago I realized my arms had been switched. One
morning I was fixing my hair and was horrified to see the
flesh of my upper arms swing to and fro with the motion of
the hair brush. This was really getting scary - my body was
being replaced one section at a time. What could they do to
me next?

When my poor neck suddenly disappeared and was replaced with
a turkey neck, I decided to tell my story. Women of the
world, wake up and smell the coffee! Those 'plastic'
surgeons are using REAL replacement body parts - stolen from
you and me!
The next time someone you know has something 'lifted', look
again - was it lifted from you?

THIS IS NOT A HOAX. This is happening to women everywhere
every night. WARN YOUR FRIENDS!

P.S.
Last year I thought someone had stolen my breasts. I was
lying in bed and they were gone! But when I jumped out of
bed, I was relieved to see that they had just been hiding in
my armpits as I slept. Now I keep them hidden in my
waistband.