Summer Is Here!

The smell of sweat, sunscreen, sticky ice cream cones and fresh cut grass. Summer arrived in Indiana this weekend. We mowed our grass for the first time, ate ice cream cones on the front porch swing and even flew a kite. Ahhh....I love this time of year. Things I do forget from summer to summer....(1) how much the kids HATE putting on sunscreen; (2) how dirty the girls get daily; (3) how dirty the bathtub gets after bathing the girls each night (which leads to more cleaning of the tub - ughh); (4) how good a cold beer tastes after working in the yard all day and (5) how much I sweat now that I am in my mid-30's. I never used to sweat. We had such a great weekend just playing around the house and getting dirty. The girls have been diligently working on their "fairy garden" - pictures and blog of that to come, which will be written by Carlie. She has been bugging me about getting into this blogging thing, and I think this would be a great opportunity. Hope everybody enjoyed their weekends as much as we did ours. Time to shower and pour myself a glass of wine and sit on my front porch swing with my best friend and enjoy our blessings.

Our Little Mack Truck

We had Lucy back to the doctor today. She hasn't been able to kick this flimy cough, snotty nose and this morning she was running a low temp - so back to good ole's Dr. Barnes we went. As I originally thought she has a sinus infection. I knew this last week, but the doctor is so darn conservative with his diagnosis! So we are on the pink bubble gum antibiotics for 10 days. We leave for Florida in 17 days...cross our fingers she gets better. Today while she was sleeping I had to take this video (she will really hate me one day for all these videos..) so you can see what I mean when I say "she snores like a Mack truck." The snoring is directly contributed to the giant tonsils, so once those babies come out, hopefully she will be sleeping much better. We meet with the ENT next Tuesday, and again, my mommy gut tells me we will be scheduling surgery shortly after we return from Florida. Removing the tonsils from Carlie was so successful, I am almost looking forward to having it done! Well, not so much the recovery part...but we'll get through it!

same kind of different as me

Yes, I know I read lots and lots of books. And sometimes a certain book will just touch me so much I have to share it with the world. I just finished Same Kind of Different As Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. Incredible true story, and I am telling everybody about it. I cried, I laughed, at times I struggled believing it was a true story - but in the end it made me look at my relationship with Christ and ask myself, "Am I doing all I can to further His kingdom?" I am considering buying this book just to read it again and lend it out....okay, I am done advertising now. But seriously...read the book and let me know what you think!

The Easter Song

Carlie made up an Easter song, which I had to video because I thought it was just too cute not to share. Her heart is truly in the right place. Two nights ago while doing our Bible time the question was asked, "what is the ending to our story?" When I asked Carlie, she told me "she was going to hell." My heart literally stopped. Of course, I tried not to panic (too much) and asked her why she would say that? And she said because she hasn't asked Jesus in to my heart and asked Him for forgiveness. At this point, she breaks into crocodile tears and says she "really wants to go to Heaven." At this point, I am crying, and I say, "Darling, let's ask Jesus into your heart right now." We prayed together and after we were done her face was glowing with a huge, tear stained smile. She told me she felt warm inside. My adult logic is skeptical that she really knows what all this means, but my gut-heart-mom insides tell me she really does know. At this point, we are going to look into getting her baptized. I am not sure if we'll do in front of our church, or perhaps just our House Church, she is really nervous about being wet in front of people. Funny, that's the same comment her dad had about baptism. Keep praying for our family. We're growing in ways God can only understand, and I am going to continue trusting in hopes that I don't miss any of His blessings along the way.

The Egg Hunt

The is the "before" shot of the girls before their Easter Egg hunt at The Promise bookstore in New Haven. Carlie attends school with three of the four girls (not sure how that fourth girl is...I think she just jumped in the picture). I am loving being a part of a small community where we run into friends wherever we go. I may eat those words in a few years, but right now, I can truly consider New Haven my home. Odd. Never thought those words would come out of my mouth. We scored lots of candy and some Mancino's coupons...fun day!

Cooter...err...I mean Jesse

Meet the new member to my mom and dad's family. Jesse, the lost pup. Isn't he just adorable? He is so good with the kids, and I am excited my girls finally get a pet that I don't have to take care of! The only person that has some what of a problem with Jesse is little Eli. He tends to run screaming in the opposite direction whenever Jesse is around. Too funny. I have a feeling this is going to be a big dog...wonder what kind it is? The vet estimated him to be around 8-9 weeks old. Any guesses?

Another PT Conference

Tonight we had another PT Conference for Carlie. Good news ~ Carlie is ready to move onto 1st Grade! She is "extremely gifted" for her age, and is like a "giant sponge" with whatever is taught to her. On the other hand....cliques have started at CLS. Yes, you read right. Cliques...in...Kindergarten. Jeff, nor I, was ready for this. It seems as if Carlie and two other girls have created a clique of which several other girls continually want to "join" - which resulted in a bit of a confrontation today in the lunch room. Yes, again, you read right...confrontation...Kindergarten...today. It seems as if one little girl wants more of Carlie's time and attention, and Carlie doesn't want to give this little girl attention, but instead wants to remain with her two "clique" friends. Following me, here? So our little Jesus hearted Carlie is one of the problem clique-ish girls here. I am not going to lie here, I cried about this. Tears. I wasn't ready for this yet. We had a long talk with Carlie tonight, prayed with her and will continue to work with her on this issue of expanding her group of friends. My heart is a little sad tonight that it's starting. Her teacher also advised us that this "group" (i.e. Kindergarten class) is a group of very strong willed children, and she sees lots of struggles with this class in the years to come. Oh joy, thanks teacher. *sigh*

Spring Break 2009

Spring Break 2009. Our first official Spring Break. Since we are planning on traveling to Florida in May, we decided on a low key Spring Break outing. Using a gift certificate given to Jeff, we spent two nights at the Kalahari Water Park in Sandusky, Ohio. Giant water slides, wave pools, lazy river, indoor/outdoor hot tubs, arcades, putt putt golf -- this place had it all. Jeff convinced Carlie to ride a couple of the big slides with him, and after once - she was hooked. Lucy was too small to ride any of them, and quite honestly, I rode a couple - and they were scary! So Jeff and I took turns on the lazy river with Lucy. With her life jacket on, she would "jog" around the river while I floated on an inner tube. At one point, I lost count with 36 laps. We would go between that and the hot tub, which Lucy used as a swimming pool. The girl just doesn't have enough body fat to keep her warm! We had a great (but short!) mini-vacation, and by the end I was once again reminded why I married Jeff. At 9:30p last night, we had promised Carlie she could stay at the water park until it closed (what were we thinking??). Anyway, Lucy was spent, so Jeff and I were bickering on "who got to take Lucy up to the room." We both wanted to go! But the best daddy in the world stayed extra late with his daughter and they played in the water more. By this morning...I was watered out! Lucy must take after her Grandma Everett, because she loved the arcade best of all. Her favorite game was "Deal or No Deal" and the bowling game, during which she had a special dance she did. She is becoming quite the personality. Both girls could not have been better, and I look forward to many more trips with them both. Except Jeff informed me that in about 10 years, our girls are not allowed to wear two piece bathing suits....or visit the Kalahari. You should have seen some of those young girls .... whooo eeeee. But that is a struggle for another day.

Deal or No Deal

Bowling Good Luck Dance (sadly, I think I do something very similar when I bowl...or is it when I bowl when I have had a few drinks?)