The First Full Week

Whew!  We have almost made it.  Today is that last day of a full week of school for the girls.  It has been quite challenging at times.  Meghan is having to adjust to a new schedule and how to be able to function peacefully in the afternoons.  Completely normal for one who has just started kindergarten.  I watched my two oldest go through a similar adjustment.  Alyson has for sure felt the loss of some freedom she had during the summer.  There are just not enough hours after school for everything she wants to do after homework is done.

I'm looking forward to next week to see how much progress we have all made.  In the meantime, my baby is soon to be turning 4!!!!  What?????  That's right, 4, on Tuesday!  It is so hard to think of my baby as not a baby.  I have had so much fun having a whole day with just her.  She is funny and can play for long periods of time by herself.  My favorite thing to do is pretend I'm doing something on the computer or read and just watch and listen to her play.  It is so completely sweet!  She'll be starting preschool soon, and then I won't have all these hours with her.  You would think I'd be sad (and I am a little bit), but I am so excited for her to be able to do what her big sisters are doing and to begin learning in a new environment.  So fun!

Well, I guess I'll write more about her on her birthday, so I'll quite now.  Have a blessed day!

A Very Exciting First Day

Today was Meghan's first day of kindergarten.  She waited so patiently yesterday to be able to have her day and I was amazed at how well she handled it.  She watched her two older sisters go off to school and never said, "That's not fair!"  Good for her.

So, many of my friends have posted pictures of their little girls, dressed in cute skirts and matching shirts with adorable shoes and little bows in their hair.  I couldn't help but notice the stark contrast of my little girl.  She had on her green capri pants with her blue Spiderman shirt and tennis shoes.  Her hair was back in a regular ol' ponytail.  I sorta laughed inside about that.

I thought I might cry when I dropped her off at school.  I did with my first two and sort of expected to with her, but for some unknown reason, I didn't.  Maybe it's because she was beyond excited.  I don't know.  I was so anticipating her homecoming so I could hear how much she loved it!  When I heard the bus stop, I looked out the window, and saw her running all the way from her bus stop to our house with one of the biggest smiles on her face.  I didn't really NEED to ask how her day was, but I did anyway.  Needless to say, it was fabulous!

A local church donated backpacks and school supplies this year, so today she got her backpack.  Do you know what she got?  A Spiderman bag!  Perfect!  After she told me about their hunt for the cookies the mouse stole and how she must walk in the hall, she asked me if she was going tomorrow.  Slight disappointment followed when I told her no, that it was Saturday and she would have to wait two more days.  Then, she got over it.  I am so proud of her and hope she keeps that love for school like her two older sisters.

A Very Frustrating Last Day

So, today was the last day of summer break for the kids.  Thank goodness!!!!!  Don't get me wrong.  I really do love these kids, but they were at their worst  today.  I got so frustrated with them that I ended up sitting outside on the front steps to cool off.  Kind of ironic since it was so HOT and HUMID!!!

Anyway, while sitting there, I hear Meghan say, "I just want to find out why mommy is mad."  Alyson yelled, "No!"  Meghan responded, "Maybe she just needs a good night's sleep."  I just about busted up.  I probably would have if I weren't so mad.

My Week

So last Tuesday just feels like a few hours ago and yet, it is actually Sunday night as I write this.  Tuesday, my big brother and his daughter flew in to visit from Washington state.  They left early this morning, but the visit seems like a whirlwind.  While they were here we managed to do the following:

Visit the zoo on two different days
Go to Family Night at Edventure
Skating at the Plex in NE Columbia
Swimming at the Temples house
and lots and lots of visiting and playing at the grandparents house.

My kids were 4 tired little puppies by the time we got them back home.  It was a great visit to say the least.  We finished this most fabulous weekend by going to church and it was almost beyond words how great it was!  After church we had a some friends over to celebrate a birthday!

I feel so completely blessed!  This was a great last week before school starts.  I'm sitting here trying to figure what else to say, but can't come up with anything.  Have a great next week!  I'm know I will!

Twitter and my Thursday night

Okay, I finally did it.  Why?  I don't know.  Just wondered what all they hype was about.  Everyone got facebook and I held off for a loooooong time.  Then, finally, I gave in and got an account and have for the most part, enjoyed following people on it.  Then came Twitter and a lot of people jumped on that band wagon.  Again, I held off.  But, now, my curiosity has gotten best of me.  I got a Twitter account.  Not sure what all they hoopla is all about, but maybe over the next few days I will find out.

So, it's Thursday night and instead of worship practice (which was moved to Tuesday nights), we had MOB!  That stands for Meeting Of Believers!  Basically, it's a small group.  This group is made up of our worship team members.  Tonight was our first meeting and it was amazing.  We began with dinner and laughed...a lot!  What a funny bunch of people.  We then moved on to our sharing time and it was truly amazing.  I am so blessed by this group of people who are seeking after God and push me to want more of God as well.

And, to top all of that off!  My kids are spending the night at my parents house with their cousin.  What could be better!!!!!

Washing Herself

A couple days ago, Hanna had an ice cream cone along with her sisters.  At some point the younger two decided to take off their shirts and be "boys!"  The oldest three finished their cones and moved on to other things (Meghan put her shirt back on).  Hanna, however, still had her shirt off.  She came into the living room rubbing her underarms.  I asked her what she was doing and she said, "Washing myself!"  So the question I had was what was she washing herself with?  Well, leave it to Hanna to use her ice cream to wash herself in.  She had it all over her belly and her underarms and part of her back!  Yuck!  She was a sticky mess.

A Lunch Time Conversation

There is nothing like talking about childbirth with your children over a nice lunch.  Alyson started off the whole conversation by asking if I "took that medicine so it wouldn't hurt to have a baby."  When I told her yes, she asked me what it tasted like.  Ha!  That was surprise number 1.  It gets better.  So, I proceeded to describe the way you get this medicine.  At the mention of the needle, the eyes got really big.  I stated, "It doesn't hurt near as much as labor does!"  Oops!  Didn't take into consideration that they didn't know what labor meant.  So, now I had to talk about that.

I told them that labor was when the thing (the uterus) that the baby was in basically squeezes or contracts to help get the baby out.  At the mention of this, Meghan looks completely disgusted and says, "Well, I'm not having any babies when I have kids."  And, here comes surprise number 2.  "They cut you in half!  At least, that's what someone at my school told me."  That was Meghan.  Truly wasn't expecting that comment.  Then surprise number 3 followed right after that by Kelli, "No, they just squeeze the baby out!"  I was almost in tears after this conversation!!!!  Oh, my!  I'm not sure if I did any good by having this conversation with them.