McMillan Miracles

Do It Yourself Photo Shoot

2012-02-14T05:15:00.000-05:00

I had every intention of taking Maggie and Ellie to have their pictures taken by a professional, but I haven't forgotten the last time we did that. After thinking about what I liked and what I wanted I just decided to do it myself with my cheap point and shoot camera...not my phone.

Ellie wore the Valentine shirt that Maggie wore once upon a time. Maggie wore a plain white t-shirt that she already had. I made both girls red hairbows and they both wore jeans. I wanted some sort of cute Valentine-y prop, but couldn't come up with anything and I was in the mood to take the pictures right then.

I like white backgrounds, so I grabbed the white comforter off of Ellie's bed and put it in the middle of the living room floor. Then I positioned Maggie (Ellie had ran to her room and locked the door) where I wanted her and I stood up and had her look at me.

Ellie wasn't as easy. I had to offer her a Tootsie Pop. Luckily, I had a red one and it looked appropriate for the "holiday". I was thrilled that she left her hairbow in and her clothes on long enough for me to snap a couple of pictures.

I cropped the pictures and then went to Picnik (so sad that they are closing) and did some changes with the color.

All three of us girls have colds, so I'm not sure what we will be doing to celebrate Valentine's Day. Big Daddy is out of town, so we may just have a little movie night.

You Are Amazing

2012-02-12T20:42:00.004-05:00

We started out our week with a trip to IKEA on Monday. It's a two hour drive, so we talked about leaving you girls with Nana, but we wanted family time. Your dad had phone meetings, but we were able to have some nice family time.

We went to Bass Pro Shops first and you two loved playing on the boats that they had inside. You can make anywhere into your personal playground.

And Maggie, you wore one of my favorite dresses. Forget that you had slept in it from when you wore it to church on Sunday. You decided to change it up a bit and paired it with dark brown leggings and your brown cowboy boots. You looked beautiful and I wish I had taken a picture of the complete outfit. I let you pick out your clothes and I can't help but smile even when you embarrass me.

We walked just inside of the big mall and after one store, I decided that I couldn't do the big mall and IKEA with you two! Of course, we walked right by a chocolate shop and someone wanted a candy apple. That would be you, Maggie.

$10 later, we walked away with a nice dessert (caramel, covered in chocolate with a strawberry drizzle)for after lunch. And Ellie, you met a new friend.

We had Mexican food for lunch and then pulled into IKEA around 12:45. The two of you could totally live on the second floor. You jump from "room" to "room" and are just do excited to look at everything. It wasn't crowded like last time, so you had lots of space to roam.

Since we knew what we were going for, we picked out the two pieces of furniture for your rooms and I picked up a few other things. Your dad and I have looked at furniture for your rooms for so long and finally decided that this was what we want and we really couldn't be any happier. I want to get some cute antique headboards or something, but I like to look until I find exactly what I want. We were back on the road a couple of hours later.

You were both thrilled when Daddy started putting the new furniture together on Tuesday. Both of you are quite handy with a hammer and a screwdriver. You treated your dad like a king and were quick to give him any tool that he needed. The best part was that you were able to help again on Wednesday.

On Thursday, Daddy quit the work at home stuff and went back to the office. Both of you were sad, but we needed to do a little school work, go the library and get the house in order. "We" worked on Valentine stuff and were excited about our homeschool group's party in Friday.

Some of our friends from church are part of the big group now, so Ellie, you played in the toddler area with Kamrynn. The two of you had lots of fun and were so funny trying to sneak off and get into trouble with the big kids. Maggie, you loved decorating cookies, playing games and doing a cake walk. We ended the party with snacks and a puppet show.

Daddy decided that it was time for a certain five year old to get her first gun. A rifle, to be exact. I was (hoping) for something child-sized and pink, but got this instead.

A big, black Ruger.

When I asked you about it, Maggie, you said that you really like black anyway. Then you asked if we could go out and shoot at trees. Your Daddy has already taught you a lot about gun safety and you are anxious to learn how to shoot.

Now, it is Sunday. We are finally getting our first colds of the season. It started with me and I think it's moving to you Ellie. Maggie, you tucked your sister into bed, read her a story and prayed with her tonight. You two can be SO sweet and then sometimes, you're not.

But every single day, you are amazing.

These are the days

2012-01-29T22:09:00.002-05:00

To say that things are not easy right now would be an understatement.

I homeschool.

My husband is working out of town nearly every week.

I'm with the kids all the time.

I don't have time for myself.

I can't get enough sleep.

But, these are the days.

Big Daddy was home for 36 hours. He arrived at 10pm on Friday night and left while I was at church with the girls. He slept in a little on Saturday morning and then we all just hung out in, on and around the bed for a few hours. It was nice. He did two days worth of Bible study with Maggie. (She's doing the children's challenge for reading your Bible everyday for 2012) He watched Betsy's Kindergarten Adventure with Ellie. (She LOVES Betsy!)

These are the days of mostly single parenting.

Maggie and I picked Ellie up from her class and I carried her until we were in the parking lot. Then I just couldn't carry her another step. Of course, I was carrying my purse, her bag and her art. Ellie took two steps and then she grabbed onto my leg. I dragged her a couple of steps before she let go. She would NOT get up. I put our bags in the car and went back to get her. She cried the entire 20 minute drive home and then for another 30 minutes on top of that.

These are the days of two year old tantrums.

Since Big Daddy was only home for a short time. I only completed his laundry. I washed, dried, folded or put it on hangers and then packed his bag. After that, we went out to dinner. That left three loads of laundry that had been washed and dried, but not folded or put away. I've had a headache for the past 8 days and wasn't feeling very well, but decided to force myself to fold the laundry before bed on Sunday night. As I was folding, I found that Maggie had taken it upon herself to fold all of the towels, washcloths, cloth napkins and cleaning cloths. that left me with only two loads of laundry to fold! She was already asleep, so I wrote her a thank you card and left it in her bathroom. She should get it first thing in the morning.

These are the days.

2012-01-23T22:02:00.006-05:00

I had such a highly productive day today!!

I cleaned bathrooms, washed two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen counter tops with granite cleaner (Method) and purged the THREE cabinets that had Maggie & Ellie stuff in them.

Our kitchen has plenty of cabinets, so there's plenty of room for extra stuff. I have one area where most of my actual cooking supplies are and then there's an area where all of the plates and glasses are. Then there's a whole lotta other stuff every where else!

We have a counter where our laptops sit while they are charging and underneath there is what we call the "Art Cabinet". There's a large canvas bin where we put "important" art that will get thrown away when the bin is full. Maggie and Ellie also have their wooden train track and the plastic train track in that cabinet. They love to take everything out so that they can both get in there. And then they whisper!

This is now my homeschool cabinet!!! I had a drawer in my desk that was full of math manipulatives and a wooden bin next to my desk that housed homeschool curriculum that I use weekly to make our lesson plans, as well as a big binder for record-keeping and past lesson plans. Maggie and I each have a binder that we use as we do school work and then there are three or four (depending on the day) books that we use daily.

On the other side of the kitchen...

We have always called this upper cabinet the "Art Supply Cabinet". It houses puzzles, art supplies, and things that need permission before they can be taken out (pop beads, lacing beads, gluepaint). The lower cabinet had our tea set, cups and containers full of seashells and marbles that the girls love to play with. I moved all of that to the upper cabinet and put the art bin and train set in the lower cabinet.

We also had a container in the foyer coat closet with drawers that had boxes of crayons, markers, colored pencils, construction paper, plain paper and magazines for collages. I was able to move all of that to the storage bins connected to the new easel. (For me.) I'm going to put the container with drawers back into the closet with our two toy bins. I'm going to try to sort some of the smaller things (like those darn Little People) into the drawers and then label them.

Quite exciting! Things like this make me feel so accomplished and happy! And I managed to homeschool Maggie, play quite a bit of "Pet Shop" and get the cleaning taken care of. Unfortunately, there's four loads of laundry waiting to be folded and put away.

And one last look at the refrigerator:

This is only a season and one day it will be nice and clean!!

Week 2

2012-01-18T10:33:00.003-05:00

This is week 2 of having Big Daddy home! I think this is the first time that he has been home for two consecutive weeks since the end of July or the first part of August.
Maggie and Ellie have already gotten used to having Daddy at home every night.
Cousin Callie is out of school (again) on Friday, so I'm taking her and Maggie to see Beauty and the Beast. Ellie loves the movie, but we don't think that she would enjoy it in 3D since she will not wear the glasses. She'll be having a "Nana Day" and is already excited about it.
I haven't weighed myself lately, but the diet is still going along. Today is day 18.
I have felt like I was getting sick and had lots of asthma issues the past week or so.
Maggie is thrilled that sign language classes have started back. I already miss having free Tuesdays.
I still want a sewing machine. Bad.
I have lots of crafty ideas in my head (and on pinterest) but really don't want to spend the money on project supplies.
We *need* a new rug for the living room. The one I found that would be perfect is quite expensive. Big Daddy's eyes almost popped out of his head.
I feel like the living, dining, kitchen and hallways of our house need to be painted. I repainted everything in our old house except for the bathroom and master bedroom when Maggie was about 2.5. Now I know why. Even though our kids are not what I would call "rough", our walls have quite a few marks at Maggie & Ellie height. I think I'll wait a couple of years since our house is not even three years old yet.

The Year So Far

2012-01-10T08:26:00.003-05:00

I feel like the first week of the new year was so busy, yet so lazy. Big Daddy was out of town, so the girls and I watched a few movies in the middle of the day...while wearing our pajamas. We jumped back into schoolwork and I would say that it took most of last week to get our groove back.

My diet efforts resulted in a loss of five pounds. I am beyond thrilled! It comes from finding a plan that is restrictive, but easy to follow, I think. I sort of feel good when I deprive myself of things. At the end of the day it feels nice to know that I've stuck with my plan for another day. I still have a lot that I'd like to lose, but I am on the way.

I have started planning for Maggie's second grade year. I must say that we are moving a little faster through first grade than I want to. I want to follow Maggie's lead, but we're not moving into second grade until I'm ready too. Homeschooling is not about getting ahead for us. We only did a month of kindergarten work (which is satisfactory for our state) and that was due to the fact that she could read well, write, was very good at phonics and had completed an entire year of kindergarten math. I get excited, nervous and worried when looking at new curriculum, so we'll be sticking with what we have liked for another year.

We are slowly saying goodbye to so many "baby" things. Diapers, sippy cups and all that stuff. I thought I would be sad and while I am just a little, I am more excited about where we are and where we are going. Maggie & Ellie are at ages where they have so much fun with each other and they want to be together most of the time. It won't be this way forever, so I think we are really enjoying it.

I'm feeling the need to do some sort of family album starting with this year. I feel overwhelmed if I think about trying to dig through thousands of pictures from the past. If I start something now, I think it's still early enough in the girls' lives that it would be very special to look at as they grow up.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T21:35:00.003-05:00

We have had such a happy New Year's Eve today! We had a somewhat lazy Saturday morning. I did Big Daddy's laundry and packed his bags for next week (he'll be gone again). I cooked mini burgers for lunch, we did some fun shopping and then ate Japanese food and went to red mango for frozen yogurt. We ended our day of family fun by watching Toy Story 3.

Maggie and Ellie had a hard time this week after having Big Daddy home for six whole days. They have soaked up every bit of time with him today. We had a very happy day and I can only hope that 2012 holds many more days like this.

Tomorrow will start another attempt at a better lifestyle for me. Eating better, moving more, trying to be more patient and present with the kids, being a better wife and trying to make a little more time for me. I'm going to try to take everything day by day and just try to make it through the day at hand knowing that it will make all of the tomorrows that are coming, a little bit sweeter.

For the past couple of years there has been lots of talk about choosing "one word" for the coming year. I couldn't even come up with one word last year, but it was so easy for me this year.
Patience.
I want to be more patient with Maggie, Ellie, Big Daddy and myself. Doing this will help a lot of other things fall into place.

Monday we will start a few new things in our home school and I'm really excited about that. We took a little Christmas break last week and I feel like I haven't had school in months! Of course, teachable moments are found each and every day.

Happy 2012!

Christmas Recap

2011-12-29T18:17:00.003-05:00

The past few weeks have felt like a bit of a roller coaster with all sorts of "exciting" things going on, but I'm going to skip right over to our Christmas.

For the past several years we have visited Big Daddy's family on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day with my mom, dad and my sister and her family. My extended family (mom's side) gets together on Christmas Eve, so we miss that. I don't mind too much because we see them all on Thanksgiving and throughout the year as well. It's fair to say that I do not enjoy spending Christmas Eve at the in-laws house for a variety of reasons, but this works best for us. (It would no doubt blow your mind if I told you just a few of the things that she "attacked" us with this year, from homeschooling to church all the way to what I do and do not eat.)

Every single year, my mother-in-law waits until a day or two before Christmas and asks what the girls would like. She always waits until my mom, my sister and I have done all of our shopping and most of the Christmas lists have been checked off. This year, I ordered a present for each girl (Disney Princess baby dolls) and gave it to her so that she could give it to them. Therefore, our "Santa" gifts were scaled back by quite a bit.

My mom and dad bought both of the girls "horses on a stick". I had ordered boots for both girls and my mom needed one more gift to give them, so she took the boots. Maggie & Ellie both have new horses, new boots and a new cowgirl hat, as well as a few other things from Nana & Poppy.

After we had opened Christmas gifts on Christmas morning and were getting ready for church, Maggie asked if she had received everything on her (very long) list. I reminded her that we never get everything on our list and as if she wanted to prove my point, she said, "You're right. I really wanted a horse on a stick and I didn't get that." She was very happy to open that gift from my parents.

I wrapped the Santa gifts a day or two before Christmas Eve and realized how little we had purchased for the girls. Big Daddy and I both had the same reaction: go buy more gifts. We didn't and everyone was still happy. While we know and celebrate the true meaning of the Christmas holiday, it's hard not to go all out for the kids. On Christmas morning, Maggie & Ellie each had four gifts and a stocking full of fun things. They also received a (giant) easel to share. They have enjoyed the easel SO much already and we are looking forward to using it when school resumes on January 2!

Our church was only offering one worship service on Christmas morning and there are normally three. They were offering childcare for preschoolers, but the older children were not having children's church or Sunday school. We made it to church plenty early, but it was a full house! We chose to take Ellie into the service with us. She did okay and managed to make it an hour. We missed the last fifteen minutes, so we were pleased.

Now, the pictures!

Maggie & Ellie's stockings and gifts.

Maggie with her new Barbie and her Barbie "styling head", as she calls it.

Ellie loved her new "buggy" and was excited to push around the Snow White that Grandma & Grandpa gave her.

This is the extra large easel. I was reminded that objects inToysRUs appear smaller in that big store. When Ellie starts more homeschooling, we will be turning the bonus room (currently Big Daddy's man cave) into a school room and the easel will live there. Until then, it's happily residing between the living and dining area. Ellie is quite obsessed with Toy Story, so she likes to pretend to be Cowboy Woody or Cowgirl Jessie. The girls love that movie and received several (7) Toy Story books and a couple of Woody and Buzz Lightyear figures too.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-20T11:36:00.003-05:00

We are having a busy and fun-filled week so Merry Christmas! (Just in case I don't make it back for a while!)

Sort of like a dream come true

2011-12-13T14:40:00.004-05:00

Monday mornings are usually pretty nice around here. I try not to have anywhere to go and just concentrate on doing housework and then homeschooling and then more housework. By the afternoon, we are finished with school and housework and ready for dinner and dance class. Yesterday was a different Monday. It sort of felt like my Christmas morning.

Big Daddy left to go out of town again, but he didn't leave for work until sometime after lunch. I loaded up lots of Christmas gifts and the girls and left around 10:00 to go to Sanford to visit our friends.

We started with a great lunch at Cracker Barrel with my friends A, her little girl and K. We had a nice, two hour lunch ans the kids were very well-behaved. We missed having the little boys (they are in school)there, but girls only lunches are fun too. We exchanged gifts and all walked out with big bags of fun goodies. A gave us monogrammed cups and Bath & Body Works goodies. K gave us Bath & Body Works soap and candles and my birthday gift- you guessed it, Bath & Body Works stuff. I gave scarves, candies and my new favorite lip balm.

A, me and K (photography by Maggie)

We drove across town to tell A that yes, she should get that pair of shoes that she's had her eye on and then we tried on hats and scarves. A's hair has started to shed and she is worried that she'll lose all of it when she starts the next kind of chemo.

We said our goodbyes and I took the girls back across town to visit our friends from my old office. We visited, the girls received more treats and then we drove back across town to visit Gammy Gladys. Maggie & Ellie left with a bag full of goodies and new mini Pillow Pets. Gladys gave me something really pretty that I may share a little later. Since we were just a mile or so from my old real estate partner's house, we dropped by there too. We had a nice visit with him and his wife and then hit the road for home around 5:00.

We arrived home at 6:00, the girls had mini-breakdowns and we left at 7:00 for Maggie's parent observation and Christmas party at dance. Ellie went to the potty three times in 20 minutes, but we saw most of the displays of mad dance skills.

We pulled in the driveway a little after 8:30 and were happily in bed by 9:00. I went to bed a little after 10:00 because a day full of fun, wears The Mommy out!

Last week was lots of fun too! Big Daddy arrived home on Tuesday evening just in time to get into the car with us for Maggie's sign language Christmas concert. She did a great job and we really enjoyed all of the performances.

Maggie is the fourth little person from the right.

On Friday night, I took Ellie to the Preschool Birthday Party for Jesus at a local children's museum. She had a blast and they were having a special Curious George exhibit. (Maggie has a bounce birthday party for Jesus this weekend)

Just a bunch of words

2011-12-01T07:14:00.000-05:00

Big Daddy and I send each other multiple texts during the day. I usually end mine with a heart or some sort of smiley.

Cousin Callie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs. Maggie writes Taylor Swift-ish love songs, but they are to or about God. It's quiet sweet. I made the decision a year or more ago to really censor what music was playing in the car. While we listened to mostly country music, (which I thought was pretty tame) I realized that a lot of the lyrics were suggestive and almost made me throw up in my mouth when they were being sung from my daughter's lips. (I tried to let her watch a country music awards show one time, but you quickly realize that can't happen when the first song was "Kiss My Country A$$".) So, we we started listening to only Contemporary Christian music in the car and the occasional children's cd. We also have a Taylor Swift cd (which I censor what songs we listen too) and a couple of Big Daddy's cd's in the car. Maggie is a big fan of Casting Crown and David Crowder Band. She loves that the songs we sing at church are also on our radio.

Lots of people don't agree with the way that we parent and think that we are too strict, but I think it has become painfully obvious that too many parents and families aren't strict enough these days. Of course, I also let my children dress like clowns more often than not. I like to think that I'm keeping the balance right.

I write love notes to my best mommy friends. Nine times out of ten, we end our messages to each other with "I Love You" or "xoxoxo". Sometimes I blush. Since Ms. A is dealing with all of the cancer-stuff, I realize how much it means to tell even your friends that you love them. I have spent more time than I can count praying for her, worrying about her and trying to explain all of this to Maggie. Maggie knows so many people that have died from cancer, so it's hard to explain that Ms. A will have treatments that will not be fun (she's going to have a stronger chemo than we thought), she will feel bad, she may look different and yes, she may be bald.

The thought of A losing her hair has been hard for us. I finally talked with her about it on Tuesday night. It's very possoble that she may lose her hair and she's taking that news very well. She's not doing well with all of the other stuff. I told her I would do anything that I could and I told her that I'd totally let her shave my head. She is a beautician, after all. She laughed and then said, "really" in the sweetest tone. And yes, I would. In a heartbeat. Maggie overheard all of this and doesn't want anyone to lose their hair. I think that may be one of her most sincere prayers now! Many times when I have heard that someone was facing a potentially life threatening illness, I would think about how it would impact their, spouse, family or me. With A being sick and especially after talking with her last night, I worry about how she feels and what she fears.

There was a mass shooting just a few miles from our church on the Sunday before last. It happened while we were in church and we only found out about it later that evening. I'll keep the details short, but a lady shot the married man that she had been having a multi-year affair with, two of her children, her son's girlfriend, and two children that had been left in her custody after their mother had passed away and then shot herself. The shootings happened at three different locations, so there was some confusion. There was only one survivor, the married man and five children between 8 and 17 were lost.

Our church is quiet large and literally center of this community and it has been the location of a candlelight vigil and counseling provided by the local school that most of the older children attended. Our pastor shared lots of details about what had been going on at church behind the scenes. None of the families involved had a church family. Some of the youth in our church coordinated the vigil and even picked out and lead the songs for the vigil. The pastor has spent time with all of the families and I can only imagine how hard that has been for him. The visitation for all of the victims will be at our church on Thursday starting in the afternoon. On Friday morning, our pastor will conducting the funeral for the six people that lost their lives and the church will be feeding their families on both days. In all of this, the saddest part for me was that none of these people were affiliated with a church. I have had lots of people say critical things because we don't go to the church that I grew up in and because we go to such a large church, but there is a big reason.

Christmas Is Coming!

2011-11-29T20:09:00.006-05:00

Today marked Maggie's last sign language class for the semester. As we were driving home she said that she felt like class had just started. She has enjoyed it SO much and she will probably take it next semester too. Today was my day clean the downstairs of the church where we meet. Each family signs up for a cleaning day. Two people are assigned for upstairs and two for downstairs. Of course, I was the only one that showed up to clean downstairs (an ongoing problem with the lazy homeschool moms), but Maggie helped. We took out lots of trash, swept and did a little "tidying" in the bathrooms. (Maggie loves the word tidy) My mom was kind enough to keep Ellie so that I wouldn't have two cleaning helpers. I enjoyed quiet time in the car and managed to get our Christmas cards addressed while Maggie practiced for her concert. It's next Tuesday and she's so excited!

I think it's safe to say that I'm finished with Christmas shopping! The attic is holding the presents that need to be wrapped and I'm sure I'll to get to that soon! I bought several things for myself this year, but they'll really be from Big Daddy and the girls. I think I'll probably get a surprise too. Big Daddy is hard to buy for because he buys what he wants/needs throughout the year. Since becoming a SAHM, I limit my "me" things.

I spent nearly all of Friday working on our decorations. Big Daddy was doing homework upstairs, so both of the girls "helped" me. Ellie wasn't all that interested, but Maggie was in the middle of everything! Therefore, it took about 8 hours. The longest it's ever taken. It was fun to go through all of the ornaments and Maggie wanted to know where every single one came from.The Foyer
(I decided to add a little garland to the table because I had some sort of light/garland mishap with the mantle. I used extra garland and lights on the mantle and didn't have enough for outside of our TALL front door, like I did last year.)

The Mantle
(Big Daddy sent me flowers a couple of weeks ago and they came in that vase! I bought a few red berry branches from Hobby Lobby and it worked out great as a little something different!)

Our Tree

Both girls have their own trees again this year. I love the way their rooms look when I tuck them in at night. They look so angelic under the glow of the Christmas tree.

Ellie's tree is white with silver balls and gingerbread men. Maggie's is a pink tinsel tree with multi-colored balls and a few of her small ornaments. I MADE her put her big ornaments on the big tree this year.)

Olivia (the hamster) has her own tree too!!
(White lights and red berries)

We have our first holiday party this week! We'll be going to our homeschool group Christmas party on Thursday afternoon. That evening will be our town's Christmas parade. If the weather cooperates, we'll be there!

Our church has something Christmas-related every weekend in the month of December. There are different musical performances, plays and a "Birthday Party for Jesus" for both preschoolers (at the Children Museum) and K-5 grades (at a bounce place). Lots of opportunities for celebration.

Maggie is counting down to Thursday! She loves the first day of any month, but is especially excited to start the season of Advent and get a chocolate treat from her Advent calendar too.
We will also be doing a daily devotional leading up to Christmas during our morning "Circle Time". It's a great way to share a little bit of the Christmas story everyday.

If you celebrate the season of Advent I'd love to know how!

Long Story Short

2011-11-23T12:17:00.003-05:00

I'm not sure how nearly two weeks have passed since my last post, but a lot has been going on.

I've been raking leaves, having migraines and Christmas shopping to keep me busy.

And speaking of Christmas shopping, my mom bought me that pair of boots that I was really wanting. Big Daddy has told me to buy what I want/ need. I'm thinking that I need something to wear with those boots!

I ordered Christmas cards from shutterfly and cardstore.com this year and the cards have been sitting on my desk waiting to be addressed.

My friend A found out that her cancer has returned. Needless to say, we are devastated. The doctor is hopeful that it will be zapped with one radiation treatment and chemotherapy. They have told her that she will most likely not be able to have any more children, but I haven't had the heart to ask if she'll lose her hair. (It sounds silly, but it's not when it's your best friend) I am able to hold myself together when we talk on the phone, but my heart just breaks for her.

Maggie started tying her shoes...finally. We worked on it for a while and then I decided to out it on the back burner because she would get so frustrated. Sure enough, it finally clicked and she tied them a couple of weeks ago when we were getting ready to leave for Awana. I was in the kitchen and she yelled at me from her room. She was so proud.

Ellie has a new haircut. Of course, we are probably the only ones that would notice, but in my eyes it made a big difference. She has quite a bit less hair than Maggie did at this age.

Big Daddy and I are really longing for Disney World. We talk a lot about our next rip, but it probably will not happen until next fall.

And that's it!

Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving!!

Mid-Week Randoms

2011-11-09T08:12:00.003-05:00

We've had a busy start to our week, so I'm making today a lazy day! We have no place to go until church this evening, so we may even have a pajama day. I always have all these little things going through my mind and I thought I'd share them today. Things like this are always fun for me to go back and read in weeks, months or years.

I googled "What is Pippa Middleton's job?" one day last week. It had been bothering me for months and I was relieved to finally find out where she was "commuting to" in those photos that appear on People.com where they go on and on about her style. Google it for yourself if you're curious.
I have never watched The Duggars (we only have free tv) and probably never will. I don't care how many children they have because it is none of my business. Lots of people seem to think that they shouldn't have so many children when their are orphans that need parents or other couples struggling with infertility. None of that makes sense to me.
We don't watch a lot of reality tv, because it's. not. real. I believe that Survivor was real the first season and then everyone started talking about "alliances". I prefer sitcoms and dramas. Big Daddy and I like Two Broke Girls, Rules of Engagement, The Mentalist, Hawaii Five-0 and The Big Bang Theory. (we only watch these shows if/when the kids are in bed. I also really love and look forward to Revenge! Big Daddy has been out of town every week since it has been on, so I've watched it alone, but it has been a happy place for me.
I have been items to my fantasy Christmas list like crazy. I thought I would jot a few of my wishes down, but it hasn't happened. I still want a sewing machine and I saw a pair of boots at Target that were straight out of my dreams.
About those boots...they were so pretty. I saw a pair last year that I loved and then once I tried them on they were dead to me. I "need" and want so many things that I decided not to walk over to the boots because I may love them if I tried them on. It sounds silly, but if I had them I would also want stuff to go with them and I feel like we spend so much money on things that we have to have to live. While we have plenty of money and live comfortably, I am a stay at home mom, have no income and do not like to buy frivolous things that are just for me.
Potty training Ellie is going well. I felt like all the girls her age were trained, but now that she's pottying I realize there are lots of girls older than her that are still in diapers. I am all about following the child's lead and I think Ellie was ready.
Ellie has a cold today. That means that Maggie and I will probably have it by the weekend and we had an extra-special Saturday planned that I'll probably have to cancel. I will remain hopeful until the weekend, though.
I feel sorry for Kris Humphries. I haven't really followed the whole Kim Kardashian/Kris Humphries thing, but I check People.com daily (guilty pleasure). I don't think the whole wedding was orchestrated for publicity or income, but I think they might have gotten caught up in everything. I had a small, private wedding and would not have wanted to cancel it beforehand. I can only imagine the pressure that they felt to go through when it was a multi-million dollar production and was being filmed for tv. I think marriage should be taken seriously and I'm not so sure that girl knows how to do that. I hope they both find happiness.
I'm one of those people that hopes that everyone else is happy. I
We had Big Daddy home for four days and then he left this morning and will hopefully be back next Wednesday. We picked him up at the airport this past Friday evening and Ellie was almost arrested by the TSA. If you give Ellie a line and tell her not to cross it, she will.
After my post last week declaring that things were going well without our fearless leader, things fell apart. Big time. There are so many times during the day that I just want to say "EPIC FAIL" and hit a restart button.
I pray daily for patience that surpasses all understanding and sanity.
I keep thinking about how much less-stressed I would be if Maggie went to school everyday.
Everyday I am thankful to be homeschooling Maggie.
Ellie is hilarious and sweet and has such a kind heart. She also likes to pull Maggie's hair, but usually it's in self defense.

The New Normal

2011-11-02T11:02:00.002-04:00

I'm trying so hard to get into our routine, but I admit, I am struggling.

We have been homeschooling since July, but changed to first grade curriculum and I had to adjust. Then it was time for Awana, dance and Maggie's homeschool elective class to start. Once you mix all of that with Big Daddy's heavy season of travel, you have one worn out mommy!

Things are going fairly well without Big Daddy at home during the week. He has traveled 7 of the past 9 weeks, but one of those weeks we were in Disney World, so he was traveling with us. Maggie and Ellie usually cry for him at bedtime and Ellie cries for him if she gets in trouble. We went shopping with my mom on Monday and Ellie freaked out and started screaming for him when I got out of her sight. It's hard on all of us.

Big Daddy and I had a little date night this past Saturday. It had been a pretty good while since we had been out for dinner and a movie. We went to see "Courageous" (I cannot recommend it enough- especially for men) and then had Japanese food and walked around a little. It was a much-needed break. Maggie & Ellie stayed with my sister and played with Callie and put on make up!

I went shopping on Monday with my mom and the kids. I'm happy to report that nearly all of my shopping for the kids is complete!! We were able to split up so that I could get a few things without them seeing. There's one thing on Maggie's list that I couldn't get and I still need a couple of things for Ellie. I am very pleased with my progress!

My sister, brother-in-law, nephew and Cousin Callie came over to trick or treat in our neighborhood on Monday evening. We seem to live in THE place for trick or treating. Thankfully, our hose is in a new subdivision at the end of the street and our house is the last one on the street and we kept our lights off and no one came by! I was NOT going to open the door to strangers in costumes when I was the only parent at home. The girls all had fun and we got a small amount of candy.

Other than that, things have been as busy as usual!

Busy is my new normal.

Best. Day. Of. The. Week.

2011-10-27T20:19:00.005-04:00

Another busy week is behind us and I'm finally taking the time to post about it.

Monday was dance day and they let the children wear their Halloween costumes if they wanted too. Maggie chose to be Pocahontas, but I didn't take a picture. :-( There was an excessive amount of drama over wearing full dance gear (footless tights, leotard and tutu skirt) under the Pocahontas vest and skirt and how on earth were we going to incorporate a feather into a ponytail!!?? I was nearly in tears by the time we walked into the studio and just forgot all about snapping a picture.

Tuesday was Maggie's half birthday and I bought the stuff to make Whoopie Pies. (We bought some at the Farmer's Market on Saturday and Maggie is a fan!!)Lots of people (including my mom and sister) thought that celebrating a half birthday was silly, but sometimes a girl just needs to celebrate. Big Daddy has been out of town so much lately and while the kids seem okay, it causes quite a bit of extra drama and sadness and I want my Daddy-fits at home. I thought making Whoopie Pies would be fun and a good way to use math in a practical way.

I woke up around 5am with a horrible headache. I was just going back to sleep around 7:30 when Maggie came into my room to cuddle. And then Ellie woke up and agreed to cuddle with us instead of wanting to eat as soon as her feet hit the floor. We stayed in bed for 30 minutes or so and when I stood up I became extremely nauseated. I assumed and hoped it was from the headache. I waited a little bit and then forced down some toast, coffee and headache medicine. The headache went away, but the nausea remained. I got partially ready so that we could go to sign language that afternoon and then I made Whoopie Pies with my girls while wanting to hurl. Maggie did her homeschool work in the living room while I was on the couch.

To make a too long story short, my sister came by to bring me a bubbly drink to help with the nausea and I started throwing up. She took the kids to my parents house and I was sick and completely alone for the rest of the day. I was still sick that night so Poppy came to get sleepover stuff for Maggie and Ellie. I was alone in our house for 20 hours which has never happened before. I was busy getting sick, wanting to die and trying to sleep. I was awake most of the night, but was better in the morning.

Wednesday started out rough, but I managed to eat breakfast and shower, get gas and then GET MY GIRLS. To say that I was lonely without Big Daddy and them is a huge understatement. I didn't teach my class at church on Wednesday and spent most of the day trying to recover.

Thursday is one of my favorite days. I really enjoy taking Maggie and Ellie to the library and we were also having our Halloween Party. Maggie was "Raggedy Ann" and Ellie was "Cinderella".CinderEllie and Raggedy Maggie

It was fun to see our library friends all dressed up and Ellie was excited about the costumes!

Cousin Callie had an early release day from school, so we had lunch, did our school work and went to Nana and Poppy's house to jump in leaves. It was a really nice day and I was able to sit in the sun with my mom and sister. My sister has some sort of crud and stayed out of work, but we let her sit outside with us anyway!

Fall is quickly becoming my most favorite season because of pictures like the one above! The girls played in the leaves (and dirt) for over 2 hours.

And my girls were worn out at bedtime.

And I totally love homeschooling.

And being SO nauseated for about 12 hours makes a girl never want to be pregnant again.

How Can I Be SO Busy!!??

2011-10-18T20:04:00.002-04:00

I'm a stay at home, homeschooling mom of two little girls and I am SO busy!!

I feel like I live from one load of laundry/ dance class/ sign language class/ Awana to the next that's not even counting all of the homeschool lessons that we do on a daily basis.

I could never have imagined that this would be my life.

I'm completely sure that homeschooling Maggie is right for us and we really do love it.

The highlight of my day today: Doing Maggie's lessons at the dining room table with the windows open. We could hear the acorns falling off of the trees outside and Ellie playing with seashells and muffin tins in the living room floor.

Pure bliss.

2011-10-11T10:58:00.004-04:00

I could go on and on and on about the details of our trip or helpful hints that we have to pass along on how to save money while having the time of your life, but I'm not going to. If you want to plan a trip to Disney World I'd love share our travel agent and a few tips. (Email me!) I completely planned everything, but she booked it. Using a travel agent is a free service and it gave us one person to contact if we had any problems. Thankfully, our trip was perfect!

Big Daddy wanted to go for his girls, but he had a great time too! I had prayed that he would enjoy it since he used a week's vacation and financed our trip. Our only complaint was that we were SO tired at the end of each day. Our hotel had a Disney movie each night by the pool and that was a great time for a little rest before bed. Big daddy watched the movie with the girls while I showered and organized our stuff for the next day.

We arrived on Sunday and departed on Thursday and spent two days in Magic Kingdom and one day in Animal Kingdom. I'm thankful that we didn't stay any longer! Due to the age of our children, three days was about all that we could handle! I'm delighted to say that we are planning another Disney World trip in the not so distant future! We'll probably stay longer the next time.

Now...picture overload!!

The Happiest Place On Earth...

2011-10-08T19:49:00.003-04:00

makes for lots of laundry, lots of housework to catch up on and a very tired Mommy and Daddy.

And two very happy little girls!

Three

2011-09-29T08:21:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure how this is even possible.

It has been three years since we found out that we were expecting our second child.

I'm so thankful that my sweet friend, A, was the first person that I was able to tell the news too in person. Yes, Big Daddy was second.

This morning, Ellie picked out the shirt that Maggie was wearing in the picture that I took of Maggie holding the positive test!

(Originally posted on November 16, 2008)

Testing...Testing

This is a test post!! No really it is a test post! See the pregnancy test that The Muffin is holding? It says "Pregnant"!
This picture was taken on September 29 and we showed it to Big Daddy when he got home from work. He thought I had taken a picture of The Muffin with a thermometer. (She was just getting over a case of croup and bronchitis, so he wasn't completely crazy!) I took The Muffin to the bathroom, gave her the real test and Big Daddy thought that she wanted to take his temperature!
We spent the rest of the evening talking about the Baby-to be and making plans for the future.

Finally Fall

2011-09-23T15:36:00.003-04:00

Maggie has been patiently waiting for the first day of fall for weeks. When I reminded her that today was the big day she said, "Oh my word, I almost forgot".

We decided to put our fall wreath and scarecrows up last week. Unless something drastic happens, that is the extent of our seasonal decorations for fall. We'll buy a pumpkin in another week or so and I'll be planting pansies as soon as I can, but that's it.

This week has been a busy week! This was the first week of our fall school/activity schedule with Big Daddy home. I guess busy is our new normal.

Ellie has started putting together the most amazing sentences and she is so funny! She loves to ask," Where are we going next?" when we're running errands and getting in and out of the car. Ellie likes her new Sunday School class and going to Mission Friends on Wednesday evenings. She has discovered glue sticks and loves art at church and the library.

Maggie has been something lately! She is still enjoying school and her homeschool elective (sign language) class. She seems to be enjoying her Awana class too. She has been creating lots of fun things this week- from puppets to paper dolls. She has a great imagination and has also started writing songs,

I want, I want, I want!!!

2011-09-15T16:19:00.002-04:00

I'm in one of those moods where I can think of a million relatively small things that I want! These are the days that before I had kids I would have treated myself to a little shopping trip. I started making a list in my head because my wants covered so many different things from paint to a new (Missoni) scarf.

Blessed as I am, I have a free gift coming tomorrow. He should be here shortly after Ellie's nap and Maggie's school and free is always good.

I'm looking forward to the cooler weather that is coming our way for the weekend (Hello, Fall!) and hoping that Big Daddy has a peaceful re-entry back into the family. He is way behind on homework and will probably have a few work-related projects that he'll be addressing over the weekend, but he'll be upstairs!! We're praying that he arrives safely and on time!

Keep The Balance Right

2011-09-12T10:56:00.004-04:00

The past few weeks have been overwhelming at times. We are about to start what will be our "everyday schedule" for fall. I feel like we have fallen into a nice rhythm with first grade schoolwork and I have managed to get Maggie weekly work binder put together in an hour (or an hour and a half) on Saturday afternoon and now we're going to shake things up a bit!

Monday-dance class for an hour in the evening

Tuesday- Maggie's sign language through music class in the afternoon, Ellie will be in a preschool class and I'll help out where needed (these classes cut into ou school time and Ellie's nap, so we may not take them again in January)
Wednesday- Awana- I'll be teaching Cubbies again, Ellie will be in Mission Friends and Maggie and Callie (she's coming along this year) will be in an Awana class
Thursday- Storytime at the library in the morning

Even though the activities only last for an hour or so, I feel a little overwhelmed. I decided that it may be best if Maggie doesn't do children's choir at church on Sunday evenings,but I'm thinking that she'll be doing it in January. If we hadn't already signed up for the sign language and preschool classes through the homeschool network, we'd do it. It's a Christian homeschool network, so the songs that Maggie does will be faith-based. I already have a list of things that we'll be doing or not doing after the first of the year. I want to mix fun and educational things, so Maggie may take a children's literature class or something like that through the network. We'll see how our schedule looks.

Big Daddy and I have always wanted Maggie (and Ellie) to be involved in extra curricular activities, but we have seen too many children that seem to be over-scheduled. I want to have a good balance of fun, educational, free time and family time. I'd like to have a little free time too, but I feel like that will come later. Even though I have only two children and really only work at homeschooling one of them, it takes quite a bit of planning, commitment and time. When things seem so busy, I remember that this is only a season in my life...or maybe two.

I'm going to try and put together a post of Maggie's weekly work binder and our curriculum choices soon. I'd like for her to look back on what we did one day and it may be of interest to someone else that's homeschooling.

Better

2011-09-09T14:01:00.002-04:00

I feel much better and much less "poor me" today. I had a little girl's morning out with Maggie and Ellie. Maggie needs a few things for fall (and before we go on our Disney trip) and we needed a couple of things from Target. We ended our adventure with lunch.

Ellie just woke up from a very short nap and we are baking bread (recipe will come later if it's a success) and going to the library to check out a few movies for an all girl weekend.

I have a feeling we'll be going to the zoo in the morning and then Maggie & Ellie are going to play at my sister's house for a couple of hours. I'm going to dump all three toy boxes out in the living room floor and attempt to throw away, donate and organize our toys. If I do it when the girls are here, they start playing with everything and we both decide that we can't part with half of the stuff. I'm pretty excited about purging the toy boxes without interruption!

Big weekend plans, huh?

So much for plans

2011-09-08T21:48:00.003-04:00

Big Daddy was out of town all of last week and was supposed to be out of town this week and next week, but we had plans for a date this weekend and I was SO excited. He was in a meeting tonight when I sent him a text, so he texted me back to let me know that there was a problem and he wouldn't be home this weekend.

I haven't felt this disappointed since the time that he left for Georgia and I kept telling myself that it was only for the week and then he didn't come back for two weeks. Then there was the time that he was supposed to be away for two weeks and it was three weeks because of a business trip.

Things like this happen and we're always aware that problems come up. Of course, it's hardest on the kids. Ellie has been having trouble going to sleep because she like for Mommy and Daddy to put her to bed. Maggie had a BAD day on Tuesday because she was just so upset that her Daddy was leaving again. Today was great, but I'm not sure how tomorrow will be. I'll be doing something special with the girls this weekend.

Anyway...I actually had a few posts in my head, but they all left and I decided to have a pity party.

Happy Labor Day!

2011-09-05T06:22:00.000-04:00

Kristin over at We Are THAT Family does a Labor (the hardest work she's ever done) Day post every year and I love it!

Baby #1- In the hospital for a scheduled induction at 40 weeks and 4 days. After 4+ hours of PItocin my wonderful midwife broke my water. She left for lunch only to return with a frightened look on her face. She got in bed with me, did an internal exam and didn’t remove her hand/arm until my baby was removed during a crash c-section. I missed her birth because they had to knock me out. We had undiagnosed Vasa Previa, Velamentous Cord Insertion and a succentriate lobed placenta.

Baby #2- In the hospital for a scheduled induction (39 weeks, 6 days)because we moved an hour away exactly one week before. The same awesome midwife was in attendance. I was induced with Pitocin on day one and after 8 hours they stopped my labor. It was started again the next morning and after 15 hours of labor and over 3 HOURS of pushing I had a successful VBAC. Turns out baby wanted to be facing up instead of down and got a little stuck. I’m thankful for vacuums.

A Little Bit of Ellie's Room

2011-08-31T22:18:00.005-04:00

I'm not finished with Ellie's room, but I have finally taken the time to finish a few little projects that have been on my to-do list for quite a while.

Ellie's room has been painted for weeks now, but I tend to take my time when picking out things that I'm going to have to live with. After looking in stores and online, I kept leaning towards a chocolate brown comforter and either chocolate curtains or buying printed fabric with brown and other colors.I read lots of design blogs, and they helped me decide that I wanted to use a shade of orange in her room. I feel like we have plenty of dark brown in our house (living room, kitchen, master bedroom and the girl's bathroom) so I was trying hard to stay away from it. I couldn't find anything with orange in it that I liked. I love the way white looks with the color (Valspar, Blue Whisper) of her walls, so I finally decided to go with a white down comforter and white curtains. I think it looks sweet with her white chest of drawers, toy box and book shelf. And it looks really girl-y! Of course, her room color looks nothing like the way that it photographs.

I always try to let Maggie and Ellie have things that reflect their likes and personalities in their rooms. Maggie's pink and zebra room is sort of sassy just like her. Ellie likes the color blue, so we knew that we wanted a shade of blue for her walls. (I'd share the inspiration for her wall color, but the blog is currently out of order.) She has recently fallen in love with Dorothy, the Tin Man and all things Wizard of Oz. We had an extra print upstairs that we had planned to give to Maggie well over a year ago for her birthday, but sometimes her Mommy buys her presents and then forgets about them. ;-) She was so excited when she saw it on her wall. She also loves her ABC's, which she calls "P's".

I have always thought that scrapbooking seemed like a waste of paper, but I have a great love of scrapbooking paper. I also love the sample sizes of paints that you can have mixed. I had a sample of Olympic's Two To Tango mixed so that I could paint the canvas and the picture frames. Hopefully, I'll get the canvas on the wall tomorrow.

Busy, Busy

2011-08-30T21:48:00.002-04:00

I have been a busy bee this week! Of course, Maggie and Ellie keep me busy, but I've been working on accessories for Ellie's room after they go to bed. Without Big Daddy here to distract me I can accomplish quite a bit!

Maggie is registered for the sign language class that she wanted to take and Ellie will be in a preschoolers class. I'll be helping out or going to bible study.

We have a long meeting tomorrow night at church for our new Awana year and a fun field trip on Friday. Thursday is our free day for this week and I'd love to stay in bed until noon. I've never managed to do that, but I really think I could at this point in my life...if only the children would let me!

Hopefully, I'll have a few pictures of Ellie's big girl room to share on Friday.

Celebrate Good Times!!

2011-08-28T05:38:00.000-04:00

On Sunday evening we celebrated my nephew! His birthday is today and he is 21. I'm still not sure how that happened.

My sister decided that he is a little too old for a "real" birthday party, so we had an informal family gathering and ate finger foods last night. I'm always trying to come up with something that's a little different for functions like these. ..other than my Yogurt Spinach Dip.

When we enrolled in our homeschool group, we had snacks and drinks before the "meeting". I put the tiniest spoonful of an amazing dip on my plate. After I'd had one bite I wanted the recipe. I thought about asking around, but the group is large and the only other person that I knew was my cousin. So, I chit-chatted with the parents (of nine homeschooled children) at my table and thought I'd look online for a similar recipe. The very next day, the homeschool group's founder asked for website help on facebook. I saw where one of the members said that she had a website and could help. I clicked over to her site and found out that it was a food blog. I did a search for the dip and found it. And now we're facebook friends.

So here's the recipe that I'm going to call Homeschool Jalapeno Popper Dip! I'm already thinking this may be a neat dip for Big daddy to take to office parties and such.

Homeschool Jalapeno Popper Dip
2- 8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1 c mayo
8 oz chopped green chiles
2 oz canned/jarred jalapenos, chopped
1/2 c shredded parmesan cheese
Mix first four ingredients in bowl. Transfer to casserole dish and top with shredded parmesan cheese. Bake at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Serve hot with tortilla chips.

This isn't the healthiest dip, but if you're serving it at a party with lots of people you'll probably only eat a bit. To balance things out, I also fixed homemade salsa using a copycat recipe for Chili's Salsa.

Copycat Chili's Salsa

1- 14 oz can of tomatoes and green chiles
1- 14 oz can of whole tomatoes 4t jalapenos (I used canned)
1/4 c onion 1/2 t garlic salt (I used garlic powder)
1/2 t cumin
Put in blender until desired consistency. (I made mine a little runny, just like Chili's.) Transfer to bowl and chill. Serve with tortilla chips. It tastes better after it's a few hours old and all of the flavors have time to blend.

On a completely different note, today also happens to be six year anniversary of the day that we saw Maggie on the ultrasound screen for the first time! After years of ultrasounds and visits to my gynecologists and midwives it was so exciting to see a baby on the screen! It also came after a couple of days of "unexplained" bleeding. Of course, we found out at Maggie's birth that this could have been an early symptom of our vasa previa. It really does only take a moment to diagnose life. I was sure that I had miscarried, so seeing and hearing her little heartbeat was even more amazing.

Another Whirlwind Week!

2011-08-27T11:22:00.003-04:00

I feel like I've made it through another whirlwind week and I'm already looking at a busy calendar for the week that's about to start!!

I have had so many things that I wanted to take the time to blog about. This blog is a scrapbook of our daily lives and lots of things happen that I don't want to forget. Unfortunately, my free time seems to get less and less and homeschooling takes up so many of my thoughts. I plan to post a few things about homeschooling later. There are things that we're doing that I'd like to document for when the girls are older.

Big Daddy will be out of town all of next week. We'll have dance class, registration for homeschool electives, a teacher's meeting for our new Awana year at church and a field trip with our homeschool group on Friday. Thursday will be our only real free day and I think we'll spend it hanging out at home. There are times where I feel busier as a stay at home homeschooling mom of two than I felt on my busiest day in real estate.

I was finally able to finalize our Disney World reservations! Maggie woke up with a fever at 1am on Friday morning, threw up in her bed as soon as she woke up at 7am and spent the rest of the day on the couch. I used naptime to finish up our travel details with the travel agent (Small World Vacations- Annette F.) I cannot recommend them enough! I had already planned out exactly what we wanted, so we were able to do everything by email until time for payment. I feel so relieved...and excited.

Sunady is a special day. We had planned to attend Maggie's Graduation Luncheon at church, but it looks like she'll be staying at home and missing it. She's already asked if we could have a special luncheon at home. She will be leaving the preschool department and going to classes in a different building with all school-aged children. We feel so blessed that we go to this church and that she's had such a positive experience with everything involved in the Preschool Ministry.

Ellie will also changing classes. She will be going to a big girl class and will have the same teachers that she had for Bible School- Mr. Danny and Ms. Virginia. I know that she'll be okay because she talks about them all the time and everyone just thrives in their class. I'll really miss her sweet teachersMs. Alice and Ms. Denise.

The Last Hurrah

2011-08-24T15:46:00.002-04:00

Today is the last day of summer vacation for lots of kids in our area. School starts back tomorrow and the days have gotten so much shorter lately. After I became a stay at home mom I really started to enjoy the change of seasons with fall being my new favorite.

We decided to take Callie to the zoo today in celebration of school starting tomorrow. The parking lot had lots of empty spots and the animals were all out where we could see them. Since school is about to start there were also no school or daycare groups there, so even the picnic tables were empty. We had a great time and we're going to miss being able to spend mornings with Callie.

Our next "field trip" will be in a couple of weeks. We'll be going to an apple orchard with our homeschool group. We also have enrollment for elective classes where Maggie will be taking sign language. Then there's a field trip with the homeschool families from church.

We are so busy, but we are having so much fun. Living and learning together really is going great.

And then the internet died...a catch up post

2011-08-19T09:54:00.003-04:00

So...we went out of town last weekend and came home on Sunday to find out that our internet had unexpectedly passed away. After talking to a few people over the phone throughout the day on Monday, a technician came out and reset something around 7 pm. That was the same time that Maggie had her first dance class. She loved it and Ellie cried (and I cried a little too) because she wanted to take dance lessons too. I tried to explain that money doesn't grow on trees and Ellie would have to wait another year because I am NOT paying for her to take tumbling classes. I immediately had a flash back to Maggie starting Kindermusik classes when she was 17 months old and then starting Gymnastics classes 8 months later. I reminded myself that was when we had one child, a few less monthly expenses and the economy was better. I took Maggie to buy her ballet and tap shoes and Ellie wanted tap shoes too. I told her to get a job. I took the girls shopping to buy them matching tutus (black) and all was well again.

Our new first grade homeschool supplies arrived yesterday. I'm excited about starting first grade math, geography and spelling. We have been doing a first grade writing curriculum for 7 weeks. I am still completely confident in our decision to homeschool and still overwhelmingly amazed at the stupidity, ignorance and rudeness of some people where homeschooling is concerned. We joined a Christian homeschool group and will also be participating in the homeschool group at our church. Maggie will also be taking an elective class this fall and she chose sign language.

Maggie left yesterday evening to go camping with my sister. She was all excited about spending the night with Callie and of course, Ellie said, "I come Fee's (she calls my sister Fee) house. I sleep Callie" a thousand times.

Ellie started running a fever shortly after we put her to bed last night. I'm hanging out with her (alone) today. She asked to "go to Daddy's house" so we are in the bonus room playing. She's playing a combination of dollhouse, cooking and grocery shopping.

And now I'm going to finish working on our Disney World vacation.

Intentions

2011-08-16T12:42:00.002-04:00

I had every intention of blogging all about our little weekend family trip, but we had no internet on Sunday evening. It was finally fixed around 7:30 yesterday evening. Needless to say, since then I have had very little free time. Maggie had her first dance class last night and LOVED it!

We spent the morning shopping for tap and ballet shoes and went to one grocery store. We were home just in time for lunch and then went "shopping" for fall clothes in the attic. Ellie is about to go down for her nap and then I'll be homeschooling Maggie and folding four loads of laundry. After nap we need to go to the library and make our second grocery store run for the day. There's a large pile of clothing (hand me downs for Maggie from Callie and for Ellie from Maggie) on my desk that needs to be sorted and put away for fall. Then it will be time to cook dinner, eat, wash dishes and then go to Nana's house for outside play time. The temperatures here are cooler (especially in the evening) this week so we are trying to enjoy it.

Until next time...

Few Words Wednesday

2011-08-10T21:13:00.005-04:00

We have painted our fingernails and toenails with markers (more than once) joined a homeschool group, played a whole bunch , signed Maggie up for ballet/tap and jazz dance classes, shopped for groceries, mowed the yard and started packing for our family weekend getaway!

I hope to have time words tomorrow, but life is so busy these days!!

This Week

2011-08-04T22:16:00.006-04:00

This week has been amazing! We have been super busy, but in the best kind of way!

Monday- For my birthday, Big Daddy took the girls out and they came back with breakfast. We spent a little time together as a family before Big Daddy left for his business trip. Maggie and Ellie watched a 30 minute DVD while I cleaned the hardwood floors and did lots of housework. To end my birthday-day, we went to my parents' house for play time...after a trip to the grocery store. Happy Birthday to me...not really. Both girls had rough days=Mommy had a rough day too. I shared my birthday with my grandmother who passed away in October. This was the first time I'd ever had a birthday all to myself. I only cried once.
Tuesday- We met other preschoolers from our church at a local children's museum. Maggie and Ellie had the best time! I think the regular admission is ridiculous, so I'm not sure we'll be going back. We got a great deal for a group rate, so it was a fair price for 4 hours of air conditioned fun. Their favorite things were the grocery store, the hospital/baby nursery, Nonie's House, the t.v. studio and a pretend train.
Wednesday- We met two of my best friends from high school and their two kids for lunch. She homeschools and he's a college professor. We had great conversation and even though our kids aren't the same age (their kids are 10 and 8) everybody had a great time. After lunch, they came back to our house for dessert. I LOVED spending time with them.
Thursday- Today was like my birthday gift!!!!! We went to Sanford to visit our friends! We started out by driving across town (checked out some of the tornado damage and were able to see the new Lowes that is replacing the one that was destroyed in April) to see what had changed. We went to my old office to visit and catch up in all of the local real estate happenings. After that, we met my Mommy friends and their kids at a local church playground and then went to eat lunch. (Of course, I forgot my camera, had to use my phone and the subjects would not be still!!!)The Original Lunch Bunch!! Ellie and Baby T were hanging on the other side of the table.

We had to wait a loooong time for our food, but the kids behaved well. When you have a part of eight and five of those are kids you just don't want to wait 50 minutes for your food. It was one of the little boys' birthdays and we celebrated my birthday too. We had a great free dessert and I got some sweet gifts too. We ended our trip "home" by visiting "Gammy Gladys". I feel so fortunate that I met Gladys when we started selling real estate on the same day. My favorite part of selling real estate was going to look at houses with her!! I would never have guessed that she would have become the adopted grandmother to my children!Ms. A had forgotten a gift, so I stopped by her house to pick it up after we had spent two hours of pure JOY with Gammy Gladys!. She wasn't at home and had left it for me with a sweet note about driving safe and how she loved me and missed me already. I only cried once during my hour long car ride home.

Friday- We plan to catch up on the homeschool work that we haven't finished, clean a little and rest a whole lot! Maggie is also attending Vacation Bible School at the church where my grandparents were members and where my grandmother attended before she passed away. Big Daddy will arrive home late in the evening and then we'll have a busy weekend! More on that later!!

Birthday Wishes

2011-07-29T21:03:00.007-04:00

So, I thought my birthday was this coming Tuesday, but it's Monday.

Much to my surprise, Big Daddy brought home birthday gifts Thursday night and he wrapped them with the help of Maggie and Ellie. I can't wait to see what they are since Maggie had no idea what they were even after she had seen them!

After the kids were in bed Big Daddy told me that he didn't get me what I had asked for (a CD) because Maggie had just told him what I wanted. I have been telling her for at least a month so that Big Daddy would have an easy, inexpensive gift idea.

One of the sacrifices I made when I became a stay at home mom was my income which allowed me to buy what I wanted, when I wanted it. Big Daddy always tells me to buy what I want or need, but I have a hard time buying stuff unless it's needed. Everything seems so expensive these days and seeing how much money I spend on things that we need makes it hard to buy things that I want.

One thing that I didn't want for my birthday was another full week of single parenting. But that's exactly what I'm getting. We are planning to go out for breakfast to celebrate my birthday before Big Daddy leaves for his trip and then the day will proceed as normal.

Playing Catch Up

2011-07-26T10:26:00.004-04:00

The past couple of weeks have been challenging. I have had daily headaches, Maggie has been VERY Maggie, we had bible school and Big Daddy was out of town.

This week has already been so much better. I went to the doctor yesterday for my second spinal manipulation and I really think that Dr. M has magic fingers. I woke up this morning without a headache and had the housework complete before 9 am
.
Next week we have three special activities during the week and one on the weekend. We also have a special visitor coming to town. Of course, my birthday is next Tuesday, but we'll be celebrating with my family this coming weekend.

Our week of bible school was wonderful! Our church calls it "Week of Wonder" and it's open to everyone. They also do Preschool Summer Day Camp in June for preschoolers and Camp SONshine in August for K-5th grade and an overnight camp for middle school and an overnight beach trip for the high schoolers. Maggie will be attending Camp SONshine next year, Ellie will go to Preschool Summer Day Camp and both will go to Week of Wonder- it looks like I'll be busy for one week in June, July and August!!

I'm still working on Ellie's big girl room. She has her bed, comforter and one set of butterfly sheets that make me want to puke. I have been looking for more sheets and fabric for curtains and pillows, but haven't found exactly what I have in mind. I have several ideas for wall art, but I'm still waiting on fabric so that I know what colors to use.

Homeschooling Maggie is my saving grace some days. She loves it and is always eager to "do more". She will be finished with her kindergarten math curriculum soon. It was the only kindergarten curriculum that we've been using, so I guess that she'll sort of be in first grade. I love that she can work at her pace on not have to wait on anyone before she moves on. She loves math and has really enjoyed our Singapore Math curriculum. The time that I used to have as "free" (relatively) I know spend teaching Maggie, reading to Maggie or looking up more homeschool ideas. I have found that many of the moms that can't believe I would want to homeschool my children feel that way because they don't want to be with their children all the time or they want that free time when their children are in school. Believe me, there are days where I want to ship Maggie & Ellie off to Nana's or drive Maggie to the nearest public school and put her out on the curb. LOTS of people seem to think that you have all the patience in the world to homeschool, but I promise that I have my moments. I have felt more fulfilled and useful as a mommy in the past six weeks. So...homeschooling works for us, for now.

We have a family trip coming up in August and we have decided that we will be going to Disney World (unless something happens) in the fall!

And then there's Pinterest. I received my first invitation a few months ago when I had NO idea what Pinterest was. I decided not to do it and I continued to rely on my memory, bookmarking and writing down the web address to things that I may want in the future. Time passed and I thought that I should jump on the Pinterest bandwagon and then I got an invitation from someone and the love affair began. You can request an invite from Pinterest, but I've heard that it takes a while to get accepted. I'd be happy to invite you if you want to leave your email address in the comments or email me.

Is it Friday yet?

2011-07-20T15:47:00.004-04:00

I posted this picture on Sunday, but I really love it! It's also the only picture that I have of Maggie from this week. She loved the "Block Party" on Sunday and has had a great time every night this week.

All of the two year old classes are on the playground at the same time, so I've been able to see Ellie play with her friends.

I have to pick Ellie up (right next door to my class) and then go to another building to get Maggie. Then, I go to another floor of that building to get Callie. The "Worship Rally" was still in progress on Monday night so we joined in. Maggie loved it! Our church is quite large and it was nice to see that every seat was full of Kindergarten through 5th graders. Maggie loved the music and wants the set to stay there "forever"...especially the fountain.

Ellie is a huge fan of the slides on the playground!

We have had a great time this week, but the later nights and Daddy being out of town have not mixed well. Maggie & Ellie are both extra tired and missing their Daddy.

The Week Ahead

2011-07-17T23:13:00.004-04:00

This is our "Week of Wonder" at church so I'll be teaching bible school. I'll also be homeschooling Maggie, cooking dinner and feeding the kids extra early, putting the kids to bed extra late and being a single parent. And I'm not feeling well.

In other words,
I'm going to be away from the computer a whole lot this week and could use some prayers.

We had a nice Sunday evening as a family at our church Block Party. I wish I had taken more pictures, but my hands were full. There were all kinds of food, several bounce houses/slides and great music. It was a community-wide, free event, so hopefully lots of people came to church that might not normally come.

I think everyone found out why Maggie wears shorts under all of her dresses, too.

I Should Be Folding Laundry

2011-07-12T15:38:00.003-04:00

I should be folding the three loads of laundry that are waiting for me in the laundry room, but I decided to make a list of the things that I've done today. Maggie and Ellie are "hunting for trash"with some cardboard boxes. I'm not sure what gave them the idea, but I think they are really trying to look for treasures, more than trash.

6:45-I woke up when Big Daddy woke up, but sort of dozed back off until Maggie came and got in bed with me at 7:00. Just as Big Daddy was coming out of the bathroom after his shower, Ellie woke up. He brought her in and we cuddled for 15 seconds before she told me to "gup", a.k.a. get up.
7:20- I fixed Ellie oatmeal and Maggie asked for cereal. While they were eating I put the dishes from last night away.
Fixed the coffee pot and prayed that the coffee grinder wouldn't die because I'm pretty sure that it's on it's last leg.
Helped the girls get a blanket, coloring books and crayons set up in the living room floor.
"Worked" on the computer while the girls were coloring and I was waiting on the coffee.
I ate breakfast in the living room so that I could watch Maggie and Ellie play.
Brushed teeth, washed faces, dressed the girls.
I made up the beds and Maggie fixed the pillows on them.
Put in a "Signing Time" movie in per Maggie & Ellie's request.
Cleaned all of the mirrors in the house, the front of the stove, front door, french doors and fireplace-basically everywhere that little hands like to leave prints.
Cleaned the toilets.
Started a load of laundry only to realize that there was a load still in the laundry basket and another one in the dryer. Uggh.
Wiped off the counters in both bathrooms.
Cleaned up Olivia's mess from last night.
Put the movie up and told Maggie & Ellie to have a little play time.
Wiped down (dusted) everything in the living room, dining room and all of the bedrooms with a micro fiber cloth. Declared the house as clean as it was going to get for today.
Fixed homemade trail mix for Maggie & Ellie's snack.
Sat down in the living room with Maggie and Ellie for about 15 minutes until Nana came to get Maggie for a "Nana Day" at 9:30.
Walked outside to wave goodbye to Nana, Maggie & Callie. Told Ellie that she had free reign of the dollhouse in Maggie's room!
Went straight to the kitchen and cleaned out the set of cabinets where Maggie puts all of her preschool, church and library art.
Checked under Maggie's bed for more art and found a few pieces of construction paper.
I needed to make a phone call so I let Ellie watch a Barney movie.
Turned movie off and played with Ellie.
Took Ellie out to the garage and we wiped down all of the surfaces in the van.
It was SO hot outside, so we came in and played until about 11:20.
Went to Nana's to have lunch and pick up Maggie.
Came home around 1:20, put Ellie down for a nap, set Maggie up with a computer game.
Mowed the little bit of the yard that needed mowing and did a little bit of weed eating.
Came in and did a math lesson with Maggie and then set her up on another computer game.
Did more weed eating and told the yard not to grow until after Daddy 's trip next week.
Taught Maggie another math lesson and gave her beads and made up word problems using subtraction.
Ellie woke up-2:30.
Fixed snack, finished math and discussed our new curriculum that arrived today!!
Ellie requested another "Signing Time" movie. Normally two movies per day is the max, but I let them watch it again.
While they were occupied, I went over the curriculum and made out our revised lesson plan for the week. I also got all of my materials together so that I can prepare a few things for tomorrows lessons.
Turned movie off.
Washed collard greens and started cooking them for dinner tonight. Sniffed of cantaloupe and decided that I would cut it while preparing dinner.
Maggie & Ellie found their cardboard boxes from the delivery and decided to get a blanket and crayons out so that they could decorate them.

And that brings us to right now!!

Today was a high tv day which is rare. We also had much less school time than usual. Since I needed to get the yard taken care of and it's so hot (like 100) today, we'll do a little more school work tonight. Maggie did double some of her work yesterday so that she could have less work and enjoy a "Nana Day". We usually read several books in the morning, but since Maggie was away I tried to let Ellie have a little time to do what she wanted to do: Barney movie and dollhouse play in Maggie's room...without a big sister to bother her.

Of course, I still have lots of stuff to do!

Finish dinner: chicken in mushroom sauce, steamed broccoli, wild rice and collard greens. Cantaloupe for Maggie, fresh strawberries for Ellie.
Clean up kitchen and wash dishes (I only use the dishwasher a couple of times a month-max) while girls play with Play Doh at the table.
Clean up Play Doh, do school work, read and play.
Big Daddy comes home (7-ish) and has dinner then we'll play outside and go for a walk,
Bring kids in for bath, pajamas and brushing teeth. (7:30-8:00)
Read and play until bedtime.
8:30-Put girls to bed, fold laundry, plan for tomorrow, check email and spend time with Big Daddy watching tv or playing on our separate laptops.
10-10:30- shower, watch tv with Big Daddy until 11ish and then go to bed.

Something Sweet

2011-07-08T22:46:00.004-04:00

I very seldom share recipes because I don't use them that often. I have always enjoyed reading recipes and I can remember doing it at my Grandma's house when I was really young. I can remember hanging out in the kitchen with my mom or one of my grandmothers and just watching the things that they would do.

My first experience making anything from scratch was in high school in a home economics type class. I took a Teen Living class and a Foods and Nutrition class which taught the basics of sewing and cooking. This is around the time that I became an active member in FHA, also known as The Future Homemakers of America. I guess I sort of have my dream job after all!!

I made a pecan pie from scratch one day and I think this was my first fail! I had made biscuits and muffins from scratch in school, so I decided to try making my Grandma's Pecan Pie recipe. I didn't think it looked right and called my Grandma to describe it so that she could tell me if it sounded normal. I had planned to take the pie to work and I went along with my plans even though the filling never set up and was quite runny. My Grandma assured me that I did everything okay. Years later, I got pretty good at making her pound cake, but they were never as good as hers. I really wish I had watched a little closer when my other Grandma made her famous biscuits, but I'm sure I would have messed them up!!

My mom was going through my Grandma's recipes and found a "pie" recipe that she had cut out of a magazine. My mom made it and it was a hit. I looked over the recipe and was happy to see that it had simple ingredients that I had on hand. I copied the recipe, came home, put Ellie to nap, mixed up the pie and hoped it would come out okay while I homeschooled Maggie.

The good news is that it was yummy! I made a simple mistake (as I think I always do), but it didn't ruin it! I don't bake very many sweets because I'd eat all of them myself. This recipe was simple and everybody enjoyed it, so I think I'll make it again sometime. It's called apie, but it's really like a brownie.

Fudge Brownie Pie

2 eggs
1 cup sugar
1/2 c melted butter/margarine (I only use real butter)
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa (I used special dark)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped nuts- optional (I didn't use nuts)

Beat eggs and vanilla and blend in sugar and melted butter. Combine flour, salt and cocoa and add to the egg mixture. Pour into a greased 8 inch pie plate and bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Pie will not test done.
Cut in wedges and top with ice cream and hot fudge. (I didn't do this)

Butterflies

2011-07-07T14:15:00.004-04:00

Our church plans "H.A.P.P.P.Y" (Hands-On Activities for Preschoolers, Parents and You) Days field trips once a month during the summer months. We've never attended a HAPPY Day before, but we wanted to go to the butterfly farm and they have inconvenient hours for us, so we decided to skip the library and go.The butterflies were very friendly and I think every single person had at least one on their feeding pad, skin or clothes. I was the only one that was "fortunate" enough to have one in their hair...almost the entire time.

It was quite warm and Ellie was very hot. Both girls had been under the misting pergola and were pretty wet which attracted the butterflies even more!

I think my favorite part was looking at the butterflies in their chrysalis. There were several that were clear and ready to "hatch" and we were able to watch one as it emerged. It happened so fast, so I wasn't able to get a picture, but it was the chrysalis right beside of the butterfly with wet wings that is on the far right. That one had hatched just a few minutes before and was drying out.www.all-a-flutter.com

The Adventure of School At Home

2011-07-01T11:51:00.001-04:00

To say that I was nervous and stressed about homeschooling Maggie is an understatement. I was totally overwhelmed with information.

After the first few days of "formal" work I felt SO much better about our ability to make this work. I found out that Maggie is a bit of a work-hog and was able to double the amount of lessons that I'd planned for us to do. I decided to do weekly lesson plans so that I could plan to cover certain things over a weekly period.

One of the reasons that we like the idea of homeschool, is because you can allow your child(ren) to work at their own pace, whether it's fast or slow. Starting next week, she'll be required to do the amount that I've planned, but she'll also be able to do an extra lesson or two if that's what she wants, but she is required to do a certain amount of work. I'm not letting her run our classroom. Allowing her to work at her own pace will mean that I'll have to do lesson plan work on a daily basis, but that's okay. We really want to feed her love of learning when she's just starting out. I really think that keeping children engaged helps to foster a love of learning, hopefully for a lifetime.

Maggie often does her phonics and handwriting work shortly before Ellie's nap because she is eager to "get to work". During Ellie's nap we focus on math, reading, history and geography. She loves looking at maps and finding things on our globe. Next week we are doing lots of geography, thanks to a great book I checked out at the library yesterday.
Ellie is pretty serious about her work too!!

I didn't think that I would love doing this, but I do! I can truly say that I adore teaching Maggie math concepts and how to read a map and crazy things like that! I have felt more fulfilled and this adventure has been such a blessing so far.

And on a completely different note...
Today is the birthday of a very special young lady. On July 1, 1994 a sweet baby girl was born. Her mom had undiagnosed Vasa Previa, just like we had with Maggie. Unfortunately, Kayla wasn't born completely healthy like our Maggie was. Kayla has never spoken, never eaten and never taken a first step. Kayla's mom has been such a source of inspiration for me and Kayla is very loved and well-taken care of. Just a reminder to me that we are so very blessed.

Pictures From Our Week

2011-06-30T14:21:00.006-04:00

I mentioned before that Big Daddy and I were changing cell phone providers and getting new phones. I finally have a smart phone and I'm enjoying it so far. Big Daddy has had lots of different phones through work, so it was easy for him to pick one that he thought would work well for us. We haven't had a land line phone since we moved nearly two years ago, so we use our cell phones quite a bit. Big Daddy loves for me to send him quick texts and random pictures during the day. He has been out of town all of this week, so these are a few pictures that I've sent him.

On Monday, we slept late and had an "at home" morning. After Ellie's nap we went to the library and ran in the grocery store for fresh fruit. We don't buy any canned fruit, so I find myself shopping for fresh fruit at least twice a week. Ellie wanted to wear her favorite shirt that just happens to be long sleeved. We had to run by the bank too, so they both had suckers. The race car shopping cart is my nemesis right now.
After our errands and cooking and eating dinner, we went to my mom and dad's even though my mom and Callie had visited during the day (and played with the kids on the swings and in the pool while I mowed the back yard). I don't mind being home in the evenings without Big Daddy, but Maggie was missing him lots.

I decided to have and "at home" day on Tuesday. I wanted to do the housework and just be at home. I saw an idea on a homeschool blog and decided that it would save us time and money and allow Maggie to work more at her own (very fast) pace if I implemented the idea immediately. We found ourselves at the not so supercenter to buy school supplies. The idea worked exactly like I'd hoped it would and has already made a big difference in our "schedule".

We found ourselves at my parents again that evening after dinner. My mom had something for me (more on that in a minute) and Maggie "needed" to play with Callie. Of course, Ellie really wanted to see her "Papa" too. We hadn't been at their house for long when the skies grew dark, the wind began to blow and the thunder and lightning started. Maggie didn't want to leave, so my mom asked if she'd like to spend the day with her on Wednesday. My mom made plans to pick her up at 9:00 the next morning and Maggie was happy. We came home, had baths and put our jammies on. Both girls are a little scared of thunder (thanks to Cousin Callie) so I built a little fort in the living room and they read library books for 45 minutes before bed.

Thankfully, we had an inch (to add to the half an inch from the night before) of rain in the rain gauge on Wednesday morning. Truly an answered prayer. It has been SO dry here.

My mom and Callie came to pick Maggie up and Ellie wanted her shoes because she wanted to go too. My mom told me to get the car seat and she would take Ellie too.
I found myself childless! I washed my cabinets, swept and mopped the hardwood floors and mowed the front yard. I went to my mom's, had lunch and then brought Ellie home for her nap. When she woke up, we picked Maggie up and fixed that special thing that my mom had for me for our dinner!

Ellie doesn't usually eat corn, but she really enjoyed it this time!

I've had lots of stuff on my mind this week and had planned to write several times, but it hasn't happened. Doing school work with Maggie has been wonderful (more on that later), but it takes up all of my "free" time during Ellie's nap.

Olivia

2011-06-27T12:37:00.003-04:00

I mentioned last week that we were getting a family pet and here she is!

This is Olivia Ian Rosie McMillan, but we call her Olivia. She is a hamster (NOT a gerbil) and she is SO loved!

I casually suggested the name Olivia and Maggie loved it. of course, Olivia is after Olivia the pig after our new favorite book character. Olivia the pig has a little brother named Ian, so that's where Ian came from. Rosie is after Cousin Callie's pet fiddler crab that passed away on Father's Day.

We picked her up on Thursday and Maggie and Ellie both cried at bedtime that night because they wanted to sleep with her. We have already enjoyed her so much and she is a wonderful addition to our family.

2011-06-24T06:41:00.000-04:00

Today is the eleventh anniversary of the day that Big Daddy and I said "I do".

The first thing that comes to mind when I say that, is why in the world did my parents let me get married when I was so young!?! Now, when I think of someone getting married at the age of 22, I just think they are babies. Babies. Of course, my parents had no issues with me getting married, but my goodness that sounds SO young now that I'm eleven years older. It took quite a while of living an hour away and being married before I stopped wondering (in the back of my mind) why they didn't call to see where I was. It was because I was a married adult. Silly me.

I have no pictures to share of the big day because I'm not going upstairs to turn on the desk top and find the file where I scanned a few pictures in. I don't even have a single wedding picture displayed in the house.

One of the things that I found out recently is that you think a certain day is so special until the next special day comes along. I wasn't sad at all to say goodbye to Maggie's preschool days because something bigger and better always seems to be around the corner. I feel the same way about wedding days.

When I think back on the past eleven years, our wedding day was just the beginning and doesn't seem that important at all. All of the decisions and fights and trips and fun times and babies that we've had since then seem so much more important. (Although I do think that eleven years of being married is a pretty big deal!)

My sister asked to keep the kids so that Big Daddy and I could do something fun together. So far, we'll be eating dinner (I have no idea what) and cleaning out the garage while they are having a sleepover. It doesn't sound like fun, but it will be nice to do it without children helping. On Saturday morning we may take his new kayak (Father's Day & anniversary gift) out to the lake, but we haven't decided yet. We are with the children nearly all of the time, so doing even the most mundane thing without them can seem pretty neat!

Oh The Things You Say!

2011-06-22T16:13:00.005-04:00

We were driving down the road and Maggie saw a two-story house that was getting a new roof. She said- "Oh, they're really high up. I wouldn't want to do that job. I don't think I want to do anything when I grow up. I'll just stay with you and be a pretend nun".

If you ask Ellie, "how are you" or something that sounds like that question she either says "good" or "two".

BIG Stuff!!

2011-06-20T20:45:00.002-04:00

We have had so much going on the past few weekends, but we decided to take a "family time out" on Saturday morning and go to the zoo...again. We visited the same section that I took Maggie, Ellie and Cousin Callie to on Wednesday. We were there early and everyone else seems to start at the other end of the zoo, so it was very nice. The pictures are somewhere on my camera, but Ellie was able to ride the gorilla on the Carousel and we witnessed the big gorilla "going pee pee". Truly one of the highlights for Ellie! Maggie's favorite part was going to eat lunch and being able to play on a new playground. The best part is that we were home in plenty of time for Ellie's nap!

On Saturday evening, we went to a 50th Wedding Anniversary dinner for some of my cousins. We had a great time and Maggie caught her first really little frog/toad. I know the difference between a frog and a toad when they're big, but this one was really small and I couldn't tell which it was. Of course, I broke her heart by not letting her bring it home. She was devastated and tired and that's just not a good combination.

So, big news: we're getting a family pet. We know what we're getting and what we'll be naming it and I'll share as soon as we are able to pick it up. I like it's name because I just told Big Daddy that I was so in love with a particular children's book series that I wanted to name something after the characters in the book. I casually mentioned a few of the names to Maggie and she thought naming our pet after this main character was a wonderful idea!

The other really big news is that I have a new phone. Big Daddy picked out my last phone when Ellie was a week or so old. I told him to get the most basic one and he did and I hated it. (Mostly because it was hard to open.) It was time for Big Daddy to upgrade and we also decided that I "needed" a smart phone. We switched carriers, have new phones and can instant message each other all day. I have the "no texting" plan because he said there was nobody for me to text or receive text from...and he's pretty much right.

One, Two, Three!!

2011-06-17T09:15:00.004-04:00

The first part of this week we had great weather! Sunny, breezy and the high temperatures were in the 80's with little humidity.
On Wednesday morning, Maggie asked me to take her to the zoo. One of the benefits of being a Stay At Home Mom and having a zoo membership is going to the zoo with the intention of only seeing part of it. We called Nana, packed a lunch, picked up Callie and were on our way!

Ellie wanted to ride the gorilla on The Carousel! It was the first time that she was able to ride on an animal that goes up and down without crying, screaming and trying to jump off!

Of course, I was right beside of her the entire time that the ride was moving.

My three girls watching the gorilla.

Posing in an egg.

Playing on dung beetles.

Flying a helicopter.

And playing with the lions.

We'll be going to the other half of the zoo maybe next week.

Less Words Wednesday

2011-06-15T08:33:00.002-04:00

Ellie has discovered the magic of a pretty tutu. The only one that she has (until I make her another one) is the one I made her when she was a few months old. This video was taken right after we came home from the beach (hence all of the stuff on the counters and stove) and of course, they thought I was just messing with the camera. My favorite part is when Ellie says "excuse me" at the 23 second mark.

This Week

2011-06-14T09:06:00.002-04:00

I feel like the past few weeks have been so busy with homeschool and our beach trip during the weeks and then birthday parties and such on the weekends.

This past Saturday we celebrated Ellie's birthday with my family (pictures tomorrow) . She managed to stretch her birthday out so that she could really enjoy it! Having her "party" (I use the word loosely) reminds me that I'm not a party person. I'd love to plan out little parties months ahead and come up with a really personal theme, but I just order napkins, plates and cups of something and go with it. For Ellie's party we had pizza, salad and cupcakes. Maggie & I chose "Pinkalicious" for Ellie's party because we all three love the Pinkalicious books. Of course, we fell in love with "Olivia" (the pig) right before the party and I totally wanted to have everything Olivia. Maybe for my birthday in August!!

On Sunday we went to a baby sprinkle for my friend T. We think we've known each other since we were toddlers...we think. We grew up together in church, but sort of lost touch over the years. Ahhh, the beauty of social networking. If not for facebook and blogging what would we do? I was also able to see my cousin, T's best friend from childhood, and also one of my best playmates when I was growing up. Again, social networking brought them back together. T will be welcoming her second child, a girl this time. Ellie has started rubbing her belly and saying "baby" since she rubbed T's pregnant belly. Ha!!

After the baby sprinkle we had a double birthday party to go to. One of Maggie's preschool friends and her sister celebrated their birthdays with a bounce party. It's nice to go to a party that is for 5 and 2 year old girls. Maggie and Ellie had lots of fun and were SO tired when we left.

On Monday, I pulled out our real homeschool books and we started kindergarten work. The past few weeks I had been using different things just to satisfy Maggie's need to do something school-related. I worked on a lesson plan last week and we will be doing writing/spelling, reading, math, literature, geography, history and science. Of course, we will still read and have art opportunities throughout the day and have themed art activities too.

I was pretty excited about the upcoming weekend because I didn't think we had any plans . Big Daddy is buying himself a kayak (finally, after years of talking about it) on Friday (with my nephew's work discount). I thought that we might go to a local lake and watch him try it out on Saturday evening. Then, I realized that we have a 50th wedding anniversary celebration to go to. Sunday is Father's Day so we'll be eating with my family after church and then going to Big Daddy's parents house after that.

Another busy weekend.

After looking at the calendar, I'm not sure when we'll have a free weekend. Our anniversary is coming up and my sister is having Maggie and Ellie for an overnight visit. Maggie decided that the sleepover sounded like more fun than the birthday party that she has been invited to for that weekend. I was willing to skip our anniversary celebration so that I could take her to the party, but I was SO happy that she'd rather stay with my sister. Big Daddy and I are unsure of our plans, but I'm hoping for something fun. Maybe hiking or a kayak excursion, but we're not sure yet.

Finally...

2011-06-10T20:47:00.003-04:00

I don't like family pictures where the family is at the beach wearing khakis, white shirts and sitting near sand dunes. I like coordinating outfits just fine, but the match-y stuff gets me.
I LOVE pictures of kids in matching outfits! Finally getting a picture of Maggie & Ellie in their matching dresses (even if it wasn't the matching dresses I wanted) made me happy!!

These girls LOVE each other, but they aren't allowed to touch for pictures. It causes Maggie to scrunch down and Ellie to push her away and say, "no,no".

Ellie's official two year old picture.
Of course, Maggie had to wear her favorite American flag flip flops on the beach, but she'd had her nice sandals on all evening.

We have found that we take less pictures since we have two kids, so I think I only have a little over a hundred pictures of our four day trip. This was another one of those times where Big Daddy and I were amazed at how much our lives have changed since becoming parents. Watching Maggie and Ellie play in the sand and waves for a few minutes beats relaxing on the beach for hours without a care in the world any day.
Well, almost. It's a different kind of relaxing.

Turning 2 At The Beach

2011-06-08T22:14:00.000-04:00

We are back from the beach and I think we are all pretty happy to be home! I love to travel, but I LOVE to get home too. It seems that Maggie and Ellie are the same!

Ellie had a delightful 2nd birthday on Monday! We were up very bright and early and made it out on the beach to enjoy a perfect day! We happened to be right beside of Life Guard #2.

If you said "Happy Birthday" to Ellie, she would say, "ME!!!! Two!" and hold up two fingers.

We spent the morning on the beach and in the lazy river at our hotel, had nap time and then Maggie & Daddy went for a helicopter ride. They both loved it and we all may go next year.

After that excitement, we decided to ride a few (hundred) rides to celebrate Ellie a little bit more!

We went out to dinner and Ellie was so tired, but...

still managed to smile for the camera!

After dinner at Hard Rock, we had more fun on more rides and then we were SO ready for bed!!

Should have a few more pictures tomorrow!

Two

2011-06-06T05:30:00.002-04:00

It's so hard to believe that we welcomed Ellie two years ago. I think back to her birth just as much as I do Maggie's and that is such a blessing.

We have been so blessed to have Ellie and she has brought so much joy to her Mommy, Daddy and "Sissy".
The only thing better than having one, really is having two!

These days...

Ellie loves "Goodnight Moon" and "The ABC Library" book. She also loves "Once Upon A Potty" and "The Potty Train", but they are both library books.

Her vocabulary is finally growing...by leaps and bounds. There are still some thing that only I understand, but I sort of like that.

Ellie's favorite phrase is "Hollllme" a.k.a hold me. She says it All. The. Time. And I hold her a whole lot.

Ellie LOVES Barney. I'm not even sure how it happened, but she loves him. She asks to watch him at least ten times everyday. I usually let the girls watch a Barney DVD while I cook dinner. Ellie always cries when it goes off.

She loves anything that belongs to "Sissy".

Ellie always calls Maggie "Sissy". I love to hear it, but I also like to hear her say Maggie.
She's dramatic. If she gets mad, she runs to her room and then closes the door and gets in her bed. If I don't check on her soon, she'll come back into the room and act like it never happened.

Ellie loves her "Papa' and she's the only grandchild that doesn't call him "Pawpaw". It's always about Papa, all the time. She likes Nana, Braxton, Auntie Charles and Uncle Duh Duh too.

Ellie adores church and loves to pray which currently consists of folding her hands and saying "God" over and over and then "Amen".

She sings and hums while she's playing. (My mom and I hum all the time.)

Ellie's favorite songs are "You Are My Sunshine" and "Jesus Loves Me'. She also LOVES Kindermusik CD's.

Ellie loves real babies and baby dolls.

She currently sleeps in her daybed (converted from her crib) with her head on her Boppy pillow. She has been sleeping with a baby that my friend Ms. A gave her for Christmas for months and this past week has started sleeping with "Llammy"- the Llama from "Llama, Llama Red Pajama" which she'll be getting for her birthday.

It's funny how you feel complete until you welcome someone new into your life and you just know that they were meant for you and are the perfect match for your daughter and Maggie's sister.
That's our Ellie.

I'll have a full post up sometime tomorrow (maybe) of how we spent Ellie's birthday.

Laundry. It's what I do.

2011-06-03T13:01:00.004-04:00

I'm in full we're-going-to the-beach-and-I-have-to-get-everything-packed mode today. I folded two loads of laundry, packed Maggie and Ellie's bags, took the sheets off of all the beds, washed two loads of laundry, went to two grocery stores and now I need to fold two more loads of laundry.

I'm also starting to get a headache.

Ellie will be turning two on Monday and Big Daddy and I aren't sure how that happened. We find ourselves thrilled to be at a stage where we can go on outings or to a restaurant with ease, having a 5 (!!!) year old and an almost two year old.

We don't like to think of her as our last baby even though she very well could be. It's just too hard to think of it that way. Big Daddy and I prefer to whisper back and forth when we're having a good day in parenting about the possibility of having another baby. Of course, I occasionally spend time (while folding laundry or cleaning) listing the baby names that I like, but only in my head. We liked the names Maggie and Ellie and didn't plan for them to both end in "i-e", but I feel like if we ever had another girl it would be sad if her name didn't end in "i-e" too. Silly? Yes. No announcements are coming up, but it's fun not to completely close that door when it seems that everyone you know is having their third child.

Anyway...

I painted Ellie's room yesterday while my mom kept the girls. I was able to complete it start to finish in three hours. I rock. Ellie loves it and Maggie thinks it's the prettiest room in the house! Maybe I'll post pictures soon, but here's the inspiration for the color. It sort of coordinates with her bedding, but we'll try to really decorate once we decide to move her from toddler bed to big girl bed.

I haven't washed my hair in two weeks. I've been using baking soda and water to "wash" it and apple cider vinegar and water to "condition" it. I LOVE the results. I have also been using apple cider vinegar on my face after I shower and alternating between coconut oil and my normal Aveeno moisturizer. (You can read a little more about it here.) I mentioned a few weeks ago that my skin was breaking out and that problem cleared up a couple of days after I started this.

And that's all for now!!

Happy Friday!!

Mid-Week Randoms

2011-06-01T15:37:00.003-04:00

This week has really been something else!!

Big Daddy was off work on Monday for Memorial Day and I decided to take advantage of having him home by painting Ellie's room. Of course, it was just my luck that I had a killer headache on Sunday. It started at church and continued for the rest of the day. I took a muscle relaxer (that the doctor gave me last week which I haven't even shared about) and went to bed hoping that the headache would be history on Monday morning. The headache was there when I woke up and didn't leave until late that afternoon when it was too late to start painting. My mom offered to keep Maggie & Ellie so that I could spend tomorrow painting and I'm hopeful that will happen as planned.

Maggie was anxious to start homeschooling as soon as preschool was over. I had hoped to start in August when schools around here start, but she is adamant about learning and we really want to foster that. I talked her into waiting until yesterday. She loves worksheets and writing exercises, so she went through all of the work that I had planned for the rest of this week. Needless to say, I have had to change the different exercises that we'll be doing. We won't start using the curriculum that I ordered until June 13 which will be our official start of Kindergarten.

Tonight we are having our Awana Family Fun Night at a local fun place with arcade games, go carts, bumper boats and mini golf. Maggie has wanted to go for SO long, but I convinced her that you could only go if you were having a party...which isn't exactly true. She is very excited! We have had temperatures in the upper 90's all week, so I'm hoping for a cool breeze or something to keep us from melting.

Hopefully, I'll be sharing some pictures of Ellie's painted room in the near future. She'll get new bedding once we move her into a big girl bed.

Where do I start?

2011-05-30T20:45:00.003-04:00

The last thing that I blogged about was Maggie's graduation and it seems like lots has happened since then!!

We celebrated the end of Awana with Cubbies Award Night last Wednesday. Maggie won the award for "Sweetest Clubber" in her class.Why yes, she did wear this outfit to church.

Thursday was our "Storytime in the Park" for the end of preschool Storytime until the new school year begins. Ellie wore pigtails for the first time...
and loved them!!

After Storytime and playing in the park, we were hot, tired and hungry, but I really needed to get a few things at the grocery store.
This was the first time I had my camera so I had to take a picture of my nemesis, the "Race Car Buggy". Thankfully, Ellie stayed in the shopping cart the whole time!

We invited Cousin Callie over to "swim" with us that evening. My mom and sister were getting things ready for my nephew's graduation party.
We had a pool full of girls!

I think that sort of catches everything up!!

Less Words Wednesday

2011-05-25T22:17:00.004-04:00

Sweet Maggie graduated from preschool today and she had the honor of leading the three graduating classes in!

This is Bubba (real name Joshua, but he prefers his nickname Bubba and that's what I call him since that's the name in his cubbie) , one of Maggie's best friends that happens to be a boy. He often walks up as soon as we enter the classroom and says, "Maggie, you look beautiful today" or "Maggie, your hair looks beautiful like that". He is the sweetest, most genuine and sincerely happy kid. Maggie said she wanted popcorn while they were playing with Ellie on the playground and he didn't miss a beat offering to get some for her.
I sort of love him.

Maggie's preschool teacher this year was perfect for her!

Big Day!!

2011-05-24T22:57:00.003-04:00

Maggie will graduate preschool on Wednesday morning and we are so excited!!! Occasions like these are the days where I look at her more amazed than usual and realize that we could have so easily lost her to Vasa Previa on the day that she was born.

Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to post of her big day! We also have our Awana Awards Night, so it's a really big day!!

I've got a post rattling around in my head that I'm really excited to share. I should have time post it before the end of the week.

The Pool Is Open

2011-05-23T14:10:00.002-04:00

Big Daddy and I bought a pool for the girls on Friday evening and they have already enjoyed it SO much!!

They were in and out with balls and cups and water guns and just had the best time!

I've been battling migraine-ish headaches since last Tuesday and I think I may be getting better. I have been taking lots of medicine, but haven't been able to nap, which always seems to help. I had my first meeting for Week of Wonder ( Vacation Bible School) at church last night and managed to take a two hour nap before. To my surprise, I woke up feeling even worse. After medicine, caffeine and sunshine I felt like I could tolerate the pain and went to my meeting. I still had (and I'm still having) some pain and waves of nausea.

Of course, this week is super busy. Big Daddy's uncle passed away so we have a funeral tomorrow. Maggie has preschool graduation and Awana award night on Wednesday. We have our last Storytime on Thursday and we're meeting Big Daddy for lunch on Friday. We also have two birthday parties on Saturday. After this week, I think we'll be ready for our family beach trip!

On My Mind Today

2011-05-18T09:36:00.007-04:00

I have been at complete peace with our decision to homeschool Maggie for quite some time, but I have still had a lot of worry and fears. I have put all of that aside over the past week and I ordered our first little batch of curriculum. I'm taking the advice of several other homeschool moms and we're going to start on kindergarten as soon as we get our order. Right now, my plan is to start on first grade work as soon as we can. Maggie can read, write and recognizes the letters and the sounds that they make and that is what most of kindergarten is all about. Maggie is very anxious to "do" kindergarten, so we're going to get started and work at our own pace. Working at Maggie's pace is one of the biggest reasons that we want to homeschool. I could go on and on about how children are "on the same level" in public (and many private) schools, but I don't want to climb on my soap box. Big Daddy and I saw first hand how everyone works on the same level this year in preschool. Maggie's preschool uses "H@ndwriting Without Te@rs" and I definitely think it's better than no handwriting curriculum, but we don't like the idea of only teaching uppercase letters, so she lost much of her lowercase writing skills. I talked to her teacher about it when I met with her before school started and told her that I didn't agree and would like for Maggie to continue writing with upper and lowercase letters, but of course Maggie wanted to do as the teacher told everyone else to do. I'm still blown away that over half of the class couldn't write their names at the beginning of the year- at four plus years old. I think back to when I taught preschool and the majority of our kids could write their own names well before their fourth birthday. (Most of the children in my Awana class can't recognize their names and they are all young fours now, so I've decided that I just have high expectations.)
I have joined a couple of homeschool-networking sites and I now subscribe to many homeschool newsletters and blogs. What has my life become?? Never in my wildest dreams did Big Daddy and I think that we would really be doing this. I really am living the dream...

I have the urge to do something creative. I'm still working on ideas for Ellie's room: looking at fabric and paint choices. I'm still thinking about buying a sewing machine, but I hate to spend the money on it when I don't really have time to sew right now. It would frustrate me that Maggie, Ellie, Big Daddy and the sewing machine were all wanting my attention. ;-)

Our family beach trip is coming up fast, but we have to get through Maggie's graduation and Awana awards and several birthday parties for friends.

My nephew will graduate BLET next week. Nephew + Career in Law Enforcement = Valium for me, my mom and my sister We've already given him his graduation gifts, so I feel like we've already celebrated. Big Daddy bought him a new gun (because nothing says "we're proud of you" like a Gl.ock) and a nice, expensive Sure Fire flashlight. Big Daddy truly believes that a good flashlight and a gun are the two most important things you can own. Therefore, we have plenty of both.

Big Daddy is very busy at work and summer school is in full swing. That means we won't be seeing very much of him for the next few weeks. :-(

My favorite pair of flip flops are five years old and cost $20. I think it's time to invest in a new pair of OKA b's. I bought them after I tried on R@inbows and found out that they just don't fit my feet. I'm already having trouble deciding which ones I want, but I need a pair in black. I bought black, cork-wedged flip flop-like sandals last week, but they're more to wear with dresses to church. So...

All of the moms that I talk to seem to be having the same feeling as me: it costs so much just to live these days. I do all of the grocery and household shopping and I shop without Big Daddy for most clothes for Maggie and Ellie. It seems like I spend sr o much for so little. After LOTS of people told me I should try Aldi, I did. My mom and I decided to go one day when we were killing time before picking Maggie up. OH MY! We both fell in love. Very few of their products are name brand, but I buy lots of "store brand" stuff anyway. The only things I've bought at Aldi are fresh fruits and vegetables, nuts and meat and dairy products, but the savings are unbelievable. We REALLY like the things that we've bought more than at the "normal' stores and we think that the produce is fresher. I usually save around $1 per gallon of milk and we drink lots of milk. I think it's really important to shop different places. Big Daddy and I LOVE to go to the Farmer's Market, but we can only go on weekends and not usually every week.

Maggie wanted her hair to grow LONG, but she started asking for a haircut a few days ago. I caved yesterday and gave her a trim. I couldn't bear to throw her hair away, so I saved it in a bag. Is that lame or what??? She's five.

Maggie used her allowance and birthday money to buy a digital camera. OH MY!!! She snapped about 100 pictures in the first few hours. Lots of pictures of Ellie, fruit and furniture. I think she's really going to enjoy it. She has to buy her own batteries, so she's learning to view pictures on the laptop and save her batteries.

Planning for the future

2011-05-13T13:25:00.003-04:00

I feel like the past few weeks I have been spending most of my free time (during nap and after the kids are in bed) researching different things for homeschooling Maggie. I took a 24 hour break from that to work on plans for our Disney World trip.

I had put together a list of hotels that are on the Disney property, but not Disney operated and then picked my favorite one. The price was more than I thought it would be and nearly the same as the Disney hotel that Big Daddy had selected for us. Big Daddy gets some discounts on entertainment an travel through his employer, so we will be saving nearly $700 on the same hotel room. Since the hotel is a five minute walk to Downtown Disney, it will also save us a shuttle ride or two! I was so excited to call Big Daddy and tell him and he was pretty happy too! We still have to decide which parks we'll visit (Magic Kingdom is a definite!) and then I'll work on a detailed itinerary.

I don't think (well, I thought I had, but can't find where I did) that I even mentioned that my sister had graciously offered to keep Maggie & Ellie the weekend of our anniversary. As in the whole weekend: Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Of course, we were excited and anxious and immediately started trying to decide where we would go and what we would do. After a few days of excitement and anticipation, Big Daddy realized that he has a major project that has something big happening that weekend. Which equals, Big Daddy will most likely be out of town for five days including that very Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We talked about me tagging a long on the business trip, but that would put us being away for five days and in Maryland in a hotel conveniently located next to a Pilsbury dough factory (which has nothing to do with Big Daddy's job at all). We'll see what happens with our anniversary plans, but it's not looking like we'll be going on a trip.

We have a somewhat exciting weekend planned. We'll be going t Sanford for a birthday party, so I'll be spending a couple of hours with my two favorite mommies!

The Happiest Place On Earth

2011-05-11T09:38:00.006-04:00

Around this time last year Big Daddy and I (well, really not Big Daddy at all) started planning a trip to Disney World. We had a few dates picked out and then narrowed it down to one week in December. Of course, as luck would have it, Big Daddy's exams were that week. Our next available travel time would have put us getting home right at Christmas Eve. Can you say sensory overload? We decided to save the trip for later and then the whole Georgia-thing happened and we were apart for most of December and January anyway.

Well, I'm determined to go to Disney World this fall. I'm once again in the thick of all sorts of planning (which I love) and we have a few weeks that we're looking at. AND we have to get the schedule for Big Daddy's exams. He shouldn't have any issues with work and one of the benefits of this job is that it has LOTS of vacation time, but grad school is a different story.

And yes, Big Daddy has been in grad school forever. Of course, he also works long hours and travels a lot for work and took time off for us to have a baby and move. There have been a few times where he didn't get to take a class that he needed because it was full and that's delayed things too. "We" have a graduation date in mind and are hoping that everything will work out. And then we'll be planning a big trip to celebrate. (Maybe Hawaii, he says.)

So...I've only been to Disney World one time. (I know, sad.) It was when I was in high school and since we went as a group we didn't have to plan anything at all. We were performing in one of the parades and we had a nice itinerary planned for us. (Bonus: I was able to experience everything with some of my greatest friends.) I wanted to go a couple of years after we were married, but Big Daddy had no interest. at. all. Add a few years and two little girls and he's totally on board! I think that it's one of those places that every single person should go and I'm excited to experience it with Big and the kids.

We are driving, so that should be fun. YAY for minivans!! We'll probably drive straight there (12-ish hours) and then take a couple of days on the way home to explore and drive home. While experiencing magic, we had planned to stay at a Disney resort, but we're still deciding. Big Daddy can get hotel discounts right across from Downtown Disney, so we're weighing all of our options. Right now, we are thinking that we may only visit Magic Kingdom and just totally do everything there. (I'm already thinking that we'll go back for a longer trip in a couple of years!) Lots of people think that it would be best to go when Ellie's older, but we want both girls to experience the magic now.

If you have any planning tips, stories, advice, websites or anything that you'd like to share I would be so happy and thankful! maggielousmommy@yahoo.com

I think taking a five year old and a two year old to Disney World will be magical!!

And then she came to her senses

2011-05-09T16:36:00.003-04:00

I have recovered from the nervous breakdown that I had last week. And yes, I seriously thought I might have a nervous breakdown or a panic attack. (I'm blaming my dramatics last week on hormones because my face never breaks out and it's awful right now.)

I thought this whole stay-at-home-mom-to-two-kids-and-wife-thing would be so much easier.

I feel blessed that my mommy-friend April is in a situation that is so much like mine. Our children are very different, but close in age and her husband works long hours and she's trying to do it all too. Of course, no situation is the same because every single child and parent is different. We can share funny stories about what the oldest child does to the youngest and about the things that happen when we're mowing the yard. Today, I almost wet my pants when she told me that her almost 5 year old called 911 while his dad was taking a shower and told the operator that no one was taking care of him. That hasn't happened to me...yet. April decided that maybe she wasn't meant to be a part-time beautician and decided to stick to being "just" a stay at home mom.

I'm not going to mow the yard this week while watching the children. I'll watch the kids while Big Daddy mows it. He's not out of town any this week, so I'm letting him take that chore from me. Taking care of the yard is one of the things that I try to do so that it's one less thing for him to do after working 10+ hours a day, but something's gotta give. It's always easy to skip laundry or cleaning, but then I just have that much more to do later, so I choose to stay on top of that...as much as I can.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-07T23:43:00.002-04:00

Mother's Day has been in full celebration around here!!

Maggie has given me presents from preschool and the library and we planted the hydrangea (that I asked for) a few days ago. Of course, I'm so thankful to both Maggie, Ellie and Big Daddy for making me a mother.

I really don't think that you have to have a child to be a mother because I mothered quite a few children before ever giving birth myself. Happy Mother's Day to those who take care of their pets, their husbands or other mother's children and to all of those that dream of having babies one day.

Be Back Soon

2011-05-03T15:21:00.003-04:00

I'm having a terribly "off" week (and it's only Tuesday!).
The house is a mess, the laundry is piling up (some clean and some dirty) and we have all sorts of places to be and things to do.

Be back soon.

Spring Break Makes Mommy Tired

2011-04-30T21:50:00.004-04:00

I just realized that "Spring Break" is over. We had a nice week, but it went by so fast.

I flipped the calendar to May and did not like what I saw! Maggie has her school birthday party Monday, a doctor's appointment on Tuesday, a field trip on Wednesday and then of course, our usual Thursday and Friday with Library and preschool.

We had a nice break with our zoo trip and visit to Sanford (and delivery of donations for tornado victims). Maggie & Ellie loved seeing Gammy Gladys and having lunch and going to the park with our friends.
On Friday evening, I realized that I had to come up with food for Maggie's party on Monday at preschool. Over an hour of my Saturday was spent making these...
Cake Pops!

I have a hard time making anything that you have to roll into balls or dip into a chocolate or candy coating. Thank goodness, Maggie said they were "the most beautiful things" her eyes had ever seen. The lavender candy coating matches the Disney Pricess plates, napkins and cups that we are using. I'll be stepping on those darn sprinkles for the next week or so even though I have swept and mopped and swept again!

Turning Five

2011-04-27T06:28:00.000-04:00

We saw almost all of the animals up close when we went to the zoo, but the day was really about Maggie turning five! I took lots of pictures of her, not just because it was her birthday, but because she actually asked me to. Very rare these days!This is a five year old walking backwards up a hill.

Maggie wanted to wear a shirt that I bought her last week, but she wanted to wear it with capris. The only capris that she has for this year are the orange pair that Aunt Lisa gave her for her birthday. Imagine that, she doesn't match.

I'm not sure how it happened, but we missed these beetles last time and Maggie LOVES beetles! They're right up there with caterpillars in her book!

She chose the bird nest-spinny-thing on the carousel. Of course, Ellie wanted to ride with her, but she didn't like so many different rotations. I think she would have enjoyed a normal animal a little more.

Ellie carried an umbrella 95% of the time. I put it in the stroller because it seemed extra cloudy when we arrived at the zoo. We had perfect weather, but Ellie liked the extra protection.

Of course, it's always fun until someone gets hurt. We were getting in the car (minivan) to go to the Library to deliver a birthday card to one of our special librarians when Ellie had an accident. She was following Maggie and they bumped (Maggie really smashed into her) in the driveway and Ellie's face smacked the concrete pretty hard with her face. I reminded Maggie that it wouldn't have happened if they had stayed in the garage like they were supposed to.

Ellie's face changed colors several times after the fall and before bed last night.

Maggie was in the floor and reached for a book just as Ellie was handing/throwing it to her and of course, it hit her in the eye. She had two little marks that bled and started to swell...and then bruise.

It turns out that five is just as dramatic as four!

And that is how we celebrated turning five and how both of my children ended a most perfect day with black eyes.

Pictures will have to follow

2011-04-25T21:34:00.004-04:00

I have four loads of laundry sitting in (on and around) the basket waiting to be folded.

I spent the first half of the day at the zoo with my two girls celebrating the five year old that may want to be four "just a little longer". Amazing. (Maggie wore clothes that totally didn't match and thought she looked great...again.)

Big Daddy's overnight trip is now one night longer.

Both of my girls have black eyes from two separate accidents and both involved a little help from a sister.

The house is a wreck and it looks like I'll be mowing the yard again tomorrow.

Thank goodness it's Spring break from preschool!!

Today You Are 5!!!

2011-04-25T11:32:00.000-04:00

April 25, 2006
12:28 pm
8 pounds, 8 ounces and 21.5 inches long

We weren't sure that you would make it or that we would be able to celebrate your birth.

Here we are five years later celebrating the anniversary of the day that you were born...

and remembering all of the Vasa Previa babies that haven't had this chance.

M-Miracle
A-Amazing
G-Girly
G-Giggly
I-Independent
E-Endearing

L-Loving
O-Over dramatic
U-Under estimated
I-In love with your sister
S-Sweet, Sensitive, Strong-Willed
E-Easy to love

BIG Weekend!!

2011-04-24T22:36:00.003-04:00

We sort of started our weekend on Thursday since Big Daddy had been out of town all week! We went out to dinner and then to buy a tree.

Maggie helped pick out a Weeping Cherry tree. Since it was April 21, I told her it was her due date present. :-) Both girls LOVE it! It is their job to water it every evening.Ellie's new favorite thing is to pick out her own clothes. I know that Maggie started doing this early, but not this early! Ellie's favorite thing is to wear two shirts at the same time. We call it "Ellie's layered look". I tried to ignore her when she wanted a second shirt, but she put it half of the way on by herself and I gave in.

Maggie came down with a fever (and puked on the couch) on Saturday. She was fine by mid-afternoon, but the fever came back before bed and was till there on Sunday morning. Ellie and I went to church alone.

Maggie stayed with Daddy and enjoyed wearing her jammies a bit longer.

Ellie's getting so big! Her teacher said that she'll probably move into the "big" class next week. I know she'll love it because it has centers and tables where the class that she's in know is just a nursery for "movers".

Maggie's first concern when she was ick was missing her little party on Sunday afternoon. She was fever-free and feeling good, so we had the party.

I could ask every single day, but how on earth did they get so big????

Happy Easter!!

2011-04-23T21:38:00.003-04:00

He is not here. He is risen, just as He said.

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-20T14:04:00.002-04:00

Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow

2011-04-19T20:30:00.003-04:00

Yesterday evening, I hit a really low point. I have been checking facebook constantly for updates on the Sanford tornado donation needs. They were asking for baby bottles, formula, diapers and onesies. It really broke my heart to think of mothers that had babies that needed things that they couldn't provide. (I also think of orphans sometimes in the middle of the night because that is what I do.) It bothered me all night and then first thing this morning too.

I decided to go through clothes and ask people that I know for any donations. Big Daddy called and when I told him about it he said he thought we should plan to go to Sanford on Friday. We both feel like we need to do something. So, I have a friend that lives close by that had felt like she should donate some clothes that she needed to get rid of. She was just about to try and find a donation sight when she received my email. Right now, my minivan has a little less room in the back because we went over after dinner and picked up the clothes! I'm going to check with a few local groups on Friday and then Big Daddy are planning to purchase some of the most needed items and deliver them to Sanford asap.

**I just had another facebook friend from high school contact me to let me know that his church will also be collecting items for me to deliver!!**

I spent my morning getting things together and then right before lunch, the children lost their minds. Oh.My.Goodness. I'm not sure what happened, but they have taken turns crying all day. Maggie's excuse when Big Daddy is out of town is always "I just miss my Daddy". Of course, Maggie can't stand for Ellie to be upset so she read books to her (in her bed) for at least thirty peaceful minutes. Then she said, "Well, Ellie whined the whole time I read books and I gave her all of her babies so I think she just misses her Daddy".

Tomorrow has to be better. Maggie has an Easter parade at preschool. Ellie will have a "Nana Day" so that I can walk with Maggie three blocks to an old theater, see a magic show and then hunt for Easter eggs. Sounds fun, right?

Long Story Short

2011-04-17T22:35:00.002-04:00

Maggie & I had SO much fun at the Preschool Pajama Party at our church on Friday night. I love spending alone time with her! Ellie stayed with Nana & Pawpaw and didn't want to come home. The kids didn't go to bed until after 10:00 Friday night!
Saturday afternoon we went to a special Awana event at church. Maggie raced in a Pinewood Derby at church. She built a car with her Daddy and it was fast! She came in fourth place out of 42 cars in her age group. We were very proud! (pictures to follow when I remember to upload them)
On Saturday afternoon, a tornado hit out old hometown, Sanford. It really devastated our small town. We were at church from 3:30-7:30 on Saturday, so we didn't even find out about it until my sweet friend A called me Sunday morning before church. Land lines and cell phones had been out of service and she wanted to let me know that she was okay. (She knows that I'm a worrier!) I was hoping that she was exaggerating when she told me about the damage, but she wasn't. As soon as we were home from church, Big Daddy looked up news footage from the storm. We are SO thankful that we've been able to talk to most of our friends. Thankfully, Gammy Gladys lives on the opposite side of town and was safe. Maggie was really worried about her.

And that, is all I have.

This week is going to be big with Maggie's preschool Easter party, parade and egg hunt. we also have an egg hunt with our library friends on Thursday.
Of course, a certain four year old will be celebrating her birthday on Sunday. Maggie will be turning FIVE on Monday.
She's still an amazing miracle!

What a week!!!

2011-04-12T13:20:00.002-04:00

I can't believe that it's only Tuesday! I have had a crazy-busy week so far, but really nothing exciting to share.

I mowed the yard (or is is cut the grass?) last Monday. Big Daddy did it again on Friday. I have just finished it AGAIN today. Can you say "they spent a lot of money on grass seed and fertilize and then God sent the rain, warm temperatures and sunshine"?

We went to a bakery today and ordered Maggie's birthday cake... for her fifth birthday! I still can't believe it.

I fold LOTS of laundry and sometimes I put Ellie's pants in Maggie's stack of clean laundry. Then, I find a pair of Maggie's pants and realize that she really is that big.

We converted Ellie's crib into a toddler bed. That means that I've gotten no more than four hours of sleep the past two nights. At 2am this morning she cried out. When I went into her room she was missing. Big Daddy and I looked for a few minutes and then he found her on the couch in the living room. Pray for Mommy!

My friend A is having surgery again on Friday. She'll be having more of her bottom lip removed. Hopefully, she will be cancer free and it will NOT come back this time. The surgery is incredibly painful and she is really worrying about it. Please pray for her.

Also, my friend C that delivered a stillborn baby boy in February is having a really hard time. We don't talk a lot in person because it's really hard for her, but we email often. She is having a hard time with going about daily activities and is just trying to figure out how to make it through each day. Big sister S is having a hard time too. I can only imagine how difficult this is and I pray for her so much.

Big Daddy's going to be traveling a bunch during the rest of April. Please pray that Maggie & Ellie can survive while he's away. They are both turning into Daddy's girls and they miss him so much when he's away.

We spent the day at the zoo, bless our hearts!

2011-04-08T16:16:00.006-04:00

Today was Maggie's preschool "field trip" to the zoo. We all met at the entrance and then went our separate ways. Big Daddy went along and we made sure that we were far away from the preschool group. I like the students at the preschool just fine when they're at school. When you put them in a public place with their parents, things sort of go bad.

At the first exhibit, one of the parents from Maggie's class asked her if she'd registered for kindergarten on Tuesday night. When I told her that we were homeschooling, she said, "Bless your heart". It is a total rumor that you can say "bless your heart" after anything in the South and get away with it.
Big Daddy had never experienced the whole mommy unsolicited advice/opinion thing. He has now and he doesn't like it. I have never criticized people who send their kids to public school and I'd really like the same courtesy.

Mom, we need more toilet paper!

2011-04-04T19:34:00.003-04:00

"Mom, we need more toilet paper!"
I hear that all the time.
I left the bathroom for a few seconds today and found this when I went back in:

Big Daddy is out of town, so Maggie and I went outside to mow the yard today while Ellie took a nap. I had been mowing for a only a few minutes when I saw a really long black snake. Of course, everyone says that they are perfectly harmless, but I'm not so sure. Maggie was riding her bike in the driveway and came over to see "him". It only took her a fraction of a second before she asked, "Are you going to shoot it with your gun or with Daddy's?"

I explained that I wasn't going to shoot him because he was supposedly harmless. (Even though I can usually hit a target exactly where I want, I hated to shoot and miss and risk him charging at me!) Since he was barely out of the woods and in the edge of our yard I told her that he would most likely go back to where he came from.
Then I told him that if he slithered any closer to our house I'd shoot his head off.

Finished . . . I think.

2011-04-01T10:28:00.006-04:00

I'm very happy with how my little desk/vanity project turned out. I have to get liner for the drawers and then I'll have a place to put my sewing stuff and husby's bill paying stuff and my homeschool stuff. Very exciting!

I sat everyone down last night and explained that it was mine and that no one else could put there stuff on it or in it without my permission. I still have to find a little chair for it and figure out what I'm going to put on it and think about something to hang above it and maybe find more knobs for it.

So, here's our hodge-podge bedroom!

The bed is the first thing that you see from the little "bedroom foyer". (If a master bedroom has an entrance with walls on each side, I refer to it as a bedroom foyer. I have been doing this for years and started using the term when I was real estate broker, so it's completely legitimate.)

This is to the left: walk-in closet (out of picture), armoire, master bathroom and Big Daddy's night table.

To the right-I gave up my kidney-shaped night table (it's now a sofa table in the bonus room) and we slip-covered my VERY expensive chair to coordinate with the room. Then there's my hope chest (now painted) and the desk on the other wall.

I have always wanted real bedroom furniture that matches, but the mix and match stuff is really what I like. My parents gave us the armoire the first Christmas after we were married and my dad made our headboard (I drew out what I wanted) a year or so after we bought our first house. The chair was an expensive purchase after my first big real estate closing. (For my second big closing, I bought perfume, so my celebration purchases went down in price!) We had planned on putting the chair upstairs with the loveseat, but we really love it in the bedroom. We have started spending lots of time in there just hanging out watching the kids do flips on the yoga mat or pretending to sleep in our bed.

No April Fools from me today.

The Longest Project of All Time

2011-03-30T09:33:00.003-04:00

I have decided that my desk/vanity project may be the longest. project. ever. I have also decided that it's just part of being a mom. Every single thing seems to take a little longer when you know that you have very limited periods of time to work on something and you are almost guaranteed to be interrupted.

So...I had this idea and somewhere in my mind I knew that it wouldn't work out, but I think I really hoped that it would in my heart. I finally had a few minutes free yesterday (after I had folded three loads of laundry and cleaned the ENTIRE house) while Ellie napped and tried it. Epic fail. I fixed the part I had messed up and decided to distress the desk a little and then I'll apply a coat of something that I'm supposed to use now that it's all painted. I have never been afraid of messing it up or having to start all over. I am afraid of wasting the precious time and then trying to find the time to fix it.

With the way things are going, I'm not setting a completion date.

Big Daddy was away on a business trip and as soon as he parked in the garage I started distressing (and de-stressing) with my sandpaper. I'm going to try and finish that today.

In other news, I am feeling much better, but did wake up with ear/neck/head pain this morning. I took my beloved migraine medicine and feel much better. Ellie and I both have a cough and runny nose. She'll be staying with Daddy tonight while Maggie & I go to Awana.

Today is my mom's birthday. Maggie is determined that there is a surprise party planned at Nana's house today. She really doesn't believe me when I tell her that we're celebrating it on another day. Should be fun when reality comes crashing down on her.

Sick Day

2011-03-28T10:43:00.004-04:00

I'm officially taking today off. Whatever that means.

I had a horrible headache on Saturday and by the end of the day it was a mild migraine. I say mild, because I was still able to function. On Sunday, I still had a headache, both of my ears were hurting and my throat was so sore. I felt bad when I first woke up, but we were taking Cousin Callie to church with us for "Friend Day" so I made myself feel better. It was during church when my throat started hurting and then when we arrived home I realized how bad I really felt. I decided to go to the local urgent care and was diagnosed with a bad sinus infection. The doctor also said that I had so much "stuff" in my head that it had caused a vacuum and was making my ear drums do something funny.

I felt really horrible again this morning, but Big Daddy had an early meeting so I had to take Maggie to school. I took a little extra Ex.cedrin Migraine to give myself a few good hours. I'm really hoping for a nap today.

Even though I have felt really bad all weekend Big Daddy and I did take the girls to get Easter portraits taken. Ellie was NOT happy about it, but we got a few that were decent of her and Maggie together. Ellie wanted to sit on anything that didn't coordinate or hold a giant rubber ducky or a basketball...or her Daddy. This was her favorite chair until she saw a black and white letter block. I HATE this chair. We didn't buy any of this pose, but she was tickled to sit in the chair.

Today, I have decided that I'm doing laundry and taking care of the kids, but not much else. The hardwood floors need some lovin' but I'm not up to it today. I haven't done anything except fold laundry since Friday night. I'm really hoping that I'll feel well enough to get my work done tomorrow. I need to feel better so that I can put the finishing touches on my second little project.

The Projects

2011-03-25T15:45:00.003-04:00

So, I have finished the first project. The chest started out oak (no picture) and then I moved it to the bathroom, put a coat of Kilz on it and two coats of V@alspar paint in Chocolate Turtle.

Big Daddy and I agree that it's an improvement, but we both would like it to be a darker brown. More dark chocolate and less milk chocolate. Of course, it looks nothing like it does in this picture and the walls are a completely different shade of green. (Sherwin Williams Svelte Sage)

Project #2 is the desk/vanity thing. I'm not sure why I love it so much, but I do!

I removed the knobs and washed it two times with Murphy's Oil Soap.

After that, I sanded down nearly the whole thing, but put lots of focus on the top which was pretty rough.

After it was sanded, I washed it again and I have the first coat of paint on. If all goes as planned, I'll do another coat after Maggie and Ellie are in bed tonight. We have sort of a busy day tomorrow, so I'm not sure when it will find a home in the master bedroom. Luckily, there's plenty of room for it and two cars in the garage!

Taking Another Risk

2011-03-24T14:45:00.004-04:00

I'm taking another risk!!

There's this little shop (the old Jitterburger) in town that sells used furniture and appliances that often catch my eye. I usually call my mom and tell her what I want and she goes by to check it out to see if it's in good condition. So far, I've scored an old dining room chair (that has arms and everything!) that we use in the kitchen. It needed to be cleaned (really bad) and painted, but it was only $15. My mom bought it for me, so it was technically free.

For quite a while I have wanted a small desk/vanity for our bedroom. We have plenty of floor space and I thought it would be a nice place to keep bills that need to be paid (tucked neatly into drawers) and mailing supplies and a nice place for me to sit and use the laptop (or maybe a sewing machine if I ever get one). I saw THE perfect desk at the shop a few weeks ago, but when I stopped to check it out, found that it was in horrible condition and not even solid wood.

I was excited to see that the "junk man" (I say this with a heart full of love for this man) had lots of "new" stuff out. We were on our way to my mom's for lunch after our Storytime and I could barely get a glimpse of a desk/vanity that he had. After lunch, I told my mom about it and she said she wanted to talk to him about a certain kind of old chair that she was looking for so I suggested that we take a little drive over to look around. The desk-thingy I wanted was only $35 and solid wood and in good working condition. It needs to be cleaned and painted, but I had planned to paint it anyway. And he had a gorgeous antique rocker that I REALLY want for $35, but I'm not sure Big Daddy will go for that. We did a major de-clutter when we moved and he really likes to know where anything new will go or what it's going to be used for. I'm not sure that saying "it just makes my heart happy" will work for me since it doesn't work for him when he wants to buy a new gun.

I called to ask Big Daddy about it as they were loading it into the back of the minivan (YAY! for minivans). I also had to borrow money from my mom because I didn't have enough cash.

So, I have one project finished and another one ready to start. The new piece is still in the minivan, so I might post pictures of both pieces tomorrow.

Taking A Risk

2011-03-22T14:10:00.003-04:00

When I saw The Nester talking about "Take A Risk Day" I didn't think about anything that I had (really, really) wanted to do, but worried about the risk. Then this morning, I read the post for the "holiday" and still didn't think of anything.

I spent a few hours outside this morning, cleaning windows and playing with Maggie and Ellie. We came in tired, hungry and ready for a little inside play time. I put both girls down for a nap and was surprised to find that Maggie went to sleep too. Before I knew it, I was in the bathroom painting the "hope chest" that I'd had for years.

Suddenly, I was participating in the holiday and had never thought I would.

Our master bathroom is my sanctuary. It is the only place that I have alone time. Of course, there's also lots of little girls playing in there time, too. I lock the door on Sunday mornings so that I can get ready for church without interruption. I take a shower after Maggie and Ellie are asleep and enjoy the peace and quiet. And, the chest was really heavy and the bathroom seemed like the perfect place to start painting it. I can shut the door, turn on the exhaust fan and not have to worry that someone will play in wet paint.

I have a coat of Kilz on it and I'll try to paint it tomorrow, but it may not happen until Thursday.

I already had the Kilz and the paint was a free sample from V@lspar- in Chocolate Turtle. Right now my biggest is risk is having an angry husband. If he gets a little upset that the chest is in our bathroom I'm going to remind of the time that the gun safe was in our foyer. For days.

School At Home

2011-03-21T13:07:00.006-04:00

As kindergarten registration gets closer and closer more people are finding out that we are going to be homeschooling Maggie. I haven't really explained our reasons to many people at all. I have found that many moms start defending their reasons for sending their kids to public or private school.

I have been pretty vague to most people and just said that we had decided to homeschool Maggie and that she's eager to learn and we're up for the challenge. I don't defend our decision to homeschool her, but I do stay up late at night reading and researching and shopping for curriculum. I don't want to mess this up and I take it very seriously. Sometimes I wake up during the night and think about all of the stuff that I need to do to get us registered.

So far, I feel pretty good. I'm the one who has taught Maggie to write and now she's reading too. I didn't wait on preschool to teach her how to write or recognize letters. I haven't had to force Maggie to do anything and I have followed her lead and tried to teach her things as she became curious about them.

Maggie is also completely on board with going to school at home. She knows that she will have assignments to do every single day and she loves the idea. She will also be taking dance classes, attending choir at church, going to Awana and at sometime getting involved in a homeschool group. She'll get plenty of socialization, which I think may be the top (and worst) excuse that I've heard for not homeschooling. I think moms need to be more supportive of each other. This job isn't easy and hopefully, we all do what we think is best for us and our kids. Moms are critical about so many aspects of parenting from how you birth your baby to what/when you feed them.

I decided to go out on a limb last night and look at the private schools that I would like to send Maggie to. One of them was over $11,000 a year for kindergarten. So in a few years her tuition would go up and then Ellie would be in kindergarten and I would be missing a kidney!

"...most of them thought we

were strange long before we announced we'd decided to homeschool the
kids".
~Mary McCarthy, homeschool mom

A Happy Birthday

2011-03-16T12:26:00.003-04:00

Maggie's birthday is one month and nine days away. She has started counting down.

I have not.

I have really struggled with her birthday in the past for different reasons. This year I have struggled with her party.

We have been invited to all different kinds of parties. The first birthday party that we attended was for a three year old. There was a bounce/jump thing, sandbox and her parents cooked hot dogs and hamburgers.

Here's little Maggie at her friend Maddie's third birthday party! She wasn't even two years old.

We have also been invited to big parties with family and friends attending, parties at bounce places, swim parties, museums, McDonald's and of course, the children's spa.

In the past I had always worried that Maggie would be too shy or embarrassed to have a big party with friends. I decided that this year was the year for her to have her first party with friends. She went to a party at a bounce place last Summer and really enjoyed it, so I thought that is what she would want. I asked and she said...
"I'd just like a party with family."

Of course, that's fine with me if that's what she wants. Especially since her birthday falls over the Easter holiday and schools will be out for Spring break. I would be so sad if we planned a big party and then many of her friends couldn't make it.

I didn't want to do anything over the top, but I thought this was the year for a big party.

Two posts in one day

2011-03-15T18:54:00.003-04:00

I have had a really good day. The kids have played well and I have been extra productive. When things go this well, especially when Big Daddy's away, I always feel like I'm in for a little bit of bad. I'm not superstitious, but I just feel like something not so good is bound to happen. I just usually expect one of the kids to do something crazy or to make a big mess.

I managed to cook dinner, feed the kids and clean the kitchen when the phone rang. It was my very special mommy-friend A. After having surgery to remove skin cancer from her lip at the end of January, she called to tell me that it seems to have returned. We were only able to talk for a couple of minutes, so I only have limited details. Her doctor thinks that this is a very aggressive form of cancer. She had to have several rushed biopsies today and also had to get six stitches.

I called our other mommy-friend to tell her the news and neither of us could help but cry over the phone. As I've said before, A has kids nearly the exact same age as Maggie and Ellie and she is a great woman of faith. Please join me in praying for her.

Spring Fever

2011-03-15T13:05:00.004-04:00

It's cold, cloudy and threatening rain today, but I think I have Spring fever! I just put Ellie down for a nap and Maggie and I are going outside to cut daffodils for a vase. We have spent most of the day cleaning, purging and organizing. I'm trying to finish my work so that I can work on an Easter shirt for Ellie. Maggie and Callie have one like this:

I used the tutorial here (this is now one of my favorite blogs) but stitched around the edges with embroidery thread and stitched on a little button for the tail.

I may fix Maggie a "5" shirt and Ellie a "2" shirt to wear at their birthday celebrations. We'll see!

Now back to working in my kitchen cabinets.

Happy Tuesday!

Back to Normal

2011-03-14T13:47:00.004-04:00

I was able to have my alone time on Saturday and these two crazy girls loved spending time with their Daddy.

Maggie was finally back to her old self on Saturday. She had energy and was able to play and back talk and have tantrums again. It was good to have her back!

She was sick from Tuesday evening until she went to bed on Friday night. She felt well enough on Thursday evening to give Ellie tattoos all over her belly.

Ellie loves them. I'm pretty sure that she'll be sad when they wear off.

Alone Time

2011-03-11T16:11:00.004-05:00

Alone time is terribly underrated.

There was a time before we had kids that I spent lots of time alone and I took advantage of it, but I was happy to welcome Maggie, my constant companion. Becoming a stay at home mom of two and having a husband that sometimes works long hours doesn't leave a lot of room for me to have alone time...unless you count my nightly shower. Big Daddy and I have made a conscious decision to spend as much time as we can as a family. We didn't have kids so that we could constantly leave them with someone else, but we try to make time for a date every now and then.

This weekend I'm (supposed) to get both alone time and Big Daddy time.

After Monday's trip to T@arget and the grocery store I decided that I needed to go shopping without a companion. (Really just without Ellie. Maggie is a joy to shop with, but Ellie just isn't right now.) Ellie goes to the grocery store with me while Maggie's at preschool and any extra shopping that we do is usually as a family, but sometimes a girl needs to be alone. I'm planning to leave early on Saturday morning to do a little shopping for myself and for Maggie and Ellie's birthday gifts.

Big Daddy and I have a date planned for Sunday afternoon too. There's a movie that he wants to see and then we'll go to dinner. I'm excited about going out to eat and not having to supervise children.

Of course, when you have children all plans are subject to change. Maggie has had a fever since Tuesday evening. After a trip to the pediatrician yesterday, she was diagnosed with an adenoid virus. It has to run it's course and will hopefully be over in another couple of days. My sister said she would keep the kids regardless of their health, but I'll have to decide what to do come Sunday.

Ellie had a low grade fever on Saturday and Sunday, so I stayed home from church with her last Sunday. I decided to go ahead and take her to the doctor too. You know, the two for one special that doesn't really exist. Dr. Brett diagnosed her with "possible teething and a two year old attitude". (That's what he wrote on our paper!) He was so sweet and told me that he gets more parents bringing their 18-24 month olds in because something must be wrong. Ellie woke up on Tuesday morning with a sudden personality change. Big Daddy and I were trying to decide if she could have what Maggie had so I took her to be checked out. Ellie has been stuck in the house a lot and Maggie hasn't played with her very much. Hopefully, she'll be back to normal soon. Right now there's lots of "I want it" and "I have to have it" stuff coming from her. Her latest obsession is drinking from my water bottle. She tries to swipe it out of the fridge every chance she gets. She has a fit when we tell her no.

Parenting is a humbling experience.

Every Once In A While

2011-03-09T09:25:00.003-05:00

I try to make lists of things about me once in a while. Things I like and things I don't like and random stuff that's in my head. I started writing out my lists sometime right after I got married. I don't think I have any of my earlier lists, but I read all of them a couple of years ago when we put our house on the market and were getting ready to move here. It's funny to see the things that were big and on my mind then that I had totally forgotten about.

So...about today.

Maggie is home from preschool because she woke up (several times) during the night with a fever. I'm hoping that it's the same short-lived fever that Ellie had on Sunday that was accompanied by no other symptoms. Unfortunately, Maggie often throws up when she has a fever.

I emailed my Awana director and called my co-teacher to let them know that I wouldn't be at class tonight. Big Daddy offered to stay at home with Maggie, but I told him to go ahead and go to the gym. He's in a fight this weekend and I'd like him to be prepared. BUT, I'm totally bummed that I'm missing class for the first time.

Pete Wilson posted this verse on facebook today and I thought it was special. Ephesians 2:10 "For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do." And I adore Pete Wilson.

I took the girls to T@rget on Monday morning and then we met Big Daddy for lunch. Ellie screamed like you wouldn't believe because I put her in the shopping cart. Once I realized that she wasn't going to stop, I carried her...and pushed a heavy buggy.

I want a sewing machine. Sew bad. I confessed this to Big Daddy and of course, he told me to buy one. It makes me feel good that he wants me to have things that I want, but I don't feel like I need another distraction right now. I have crazy ideas of things that I would make, but time is limited and I am often in high demand. And I only average 6 hours of sleep most nights anyway. I would make things that we don't need, like curtains and blankets and things. Maybe I'll get one the next time it hits me! ( I know how to sew because I took one of those classes in high school. I was also a proud member of FHA... Future Homemakers of America. So, I really do have my dream job.)

Ellie is really good at communicating, but she doesn't talk much at all. Sometimes I find it annoying, but Maggie talks enough for all of us.

Maggie was up so much last night that I'm thinking that she may take a nap today. If so, I can't wait to do yoga in peace and quiet.

I hate it when someone likes a certain ____ and they feel like they have to put down all other _____s. I think it's one of my biggest pet peeves.

I took the girls to the grocery store on Monday afternoon. Ellie screamed like you wouldn't believe because I put her in the shopping cart. Once I realized that she wasn't going to stop, I carried her...and pushed a heavy buggy. (sound familiar?)

Big Daddy and I have a date planned for Sunday afternoon. I'm going shopping alone on Saturday morning (alone!!!!!) so that we don't have so much to do on our date. We'll be able to see a movie, have dinner and still pick up the girls from my sister's before bedtime without being rushed.

You Can Tell Me Anything

2011-03-05T21:47:00.007-05:00

Sometimes I can't believe she's mine.

I thought this would wear off after nearly five years, but it hasn't.

I spent the first few days after her birth saying that I couldn't believe she was mine. Big Daddy assured me that he had stayed with her the whole time from the moment that they brought her out and that she was definitely mine.

Now she has droopy, brown eyes and bruises up and down both legs just like me.

And she's strong-willed. Apparently I am too because we can really give each other a hard time.

I can't believe how long and skinny her legs are. When she's sitting in the floor I am amazed at how far it is from the bottom of her head to where her bottom meets the floor.

One of her most used phrases is, "Can I tell you something"? If you say no, it makes her mad. I usually answer by saying "you can tell me anything". There's no telling what she'll say. She still asks me to tell her what happened on the day she was born all the time. This morning, she whispered,

"Could you tell me again what happened to Martin Luther King"?

Of course, I had explained what happened to Martin Luther King, the civil rights movement, segregation and even a little bit about slavery when she was out of school for the Martin Luther King holiday.

I Must Be Getting Old

2011-03-02T04:58:00.001-05:00

Today is the anniversary of the first time that Big Daddy and I had a date. It has been fifteen years.

I still can't believe that we are old enough to remember fifteen years ago, much less have started dating that long ago.

We had met several months before when I was dating a friend of his. After that ended, we both just happened to go to the same spot on the same day at the same time hoping to run into each other.

And we did.

We went to eat (but I didn't eat) and rode around to different car lots ( he loves cars...still) and decided to go see a movie that we both wanted to see the following weekend. We also planned to eat dinner and then go to my house and watch a movie on video (yes, video).

I guess the rest is history.

And yes, we were babies.

The Diagnosis

2011-02-28T09:31:00.002-05:00

After complaining all week long, Big Daddy finally went to the doctor on Friday afternoon. His diagnosis: bronchitis.

I have had bronchitis at least 8 times in the past ten years and once while I was pregnant. Never did I react the way that Big Daddy did. Thank goodness he doesn't have asthma too (like I do) or he would have really thought he was dying.

Maggie and Ellie were both better on Saturday and then both had coughs and runny noses on Sunday morning. Big Daddy kept the girls home from church and I went...and it was glorious for so many reasons.

Now it's Monday, and Maggie is back at school and feeling pretty good. I gave her cough medicine (we usually just use honey) so she may be a little hyped up today.

Should be fun!

It's Here...

2011-02-25T12:22:00.002-05:00

I have sort of been waiting for us to get one of the many "bugs" that's going around and it finally happened!

On Sunday afternoon Big Daddy and I took the girls outside to play. It was a little cool and breezy so we were only outside for a few minutes. After we came in, I started getting a sore throat and Big Daddy did too. It wasn't long before he was huffing and puffing and acting "ill and hateful" (as Maggie says) over what appeared to be nothing. I finally got tired of the way that he was acting and asked what in the world was wrong with him. He said, and I quote, " Haven't you noticed? I've been sick for the past hour".

That sort of sums up how my sweetheart is when he's sick. He continued to get worse and had a fever on Monday, but seems to just have a cold. One of my friends calls it a "man-cold". He was raised to think that the common cold is like a debilitating disease. He also states each and every symptom he has and repeats it every few minutes...just like his mom does. (I'm freezing, my head hurts and my throat is sore. 1 hour later, I'm still freezing, my throat is sore and my nose is runny.)

On Tuesday evening I left Big Daddy alone with the kids so that I could go to the store to get NyQuil for him. When I came back Maggie was on the couch, wrapped in a blanket and complaining of all of the same symptoms as her father. I told her to get ready for her bath and she jumped up and acted normal. After bath, she fell asleep on the couch which she does once in a while when she's had a long day with no nap. I was still trying to decide if she was being a copy cat or coming down with something. Around 1am Wednesday morning, she woke me up because she was cold and I could tell she had a fever. When we woke up for the day couldn't really sit up because she felt "so bad" and spent the entire day on the couch wrapped in a blanket...except for when she ventured into the kitchen to vegetate in the floor while I fixed lunch. That's when she threw up everywhere.

Thursday morning around 1:30 am is when Maggie and Ellie started taking turns waking me up. They both had fevers. Ellie would sleep for a few minutes and then start crying. I was able to get around 3 hours of sleep. Ellie spent the day crying for an hour and then playing for two hours and then crying for another hour. Maggie was able to eat a little and talked some so I could tell that she was feeling better. They both went to sleep and I ran to the couch for a nap. Of course, ten minutes later Ellie was awake.

That brings us to Friday. Ellie woke up several times during the night, starting at 10:50. She was up for the day at 5:00 and had been up numerous times before then. Maggie woke up a little before 6:00 with no fever. The girls have played quite a bit today and Ellie has only cried for about an hour and a half. I'm still in my jammies and about to take a nap myself...hopefully.

I have spent most of the day trying to decide if I should take Ellie to the doctor or wait until tomorrow. The office doesn't take appointments on the weekend, but I won't mind waiting if she's still sick. I'm hoping this is a 24 hour thing and will be out of her system by then. If I go to the doctor she may catch something even worse.

Feel free to pray that everyone gets better soon and that I will not catch it. If I do, I'm going to post my symptoms every hour!

Stay Healthy!!

In Recovery

2011-02-22T12:52:00.002-05:00

I feel like I have been in recovery for the past couple of weeks. For some reason I have been going in circles with housework and laundry and everything else. Right now, I feel like there is a load of laundry to wash, dry, fold and put away every single time I turn around.

On Saturday, we decided (spur of the moment) to go to Ikea. It had been on my to-do list for nearly 10 years. I first heard about Ikea from a friend who was from the North. I looked at a catalog and HAD to go. I checked and the closest store was in Northern Virginia,, a few hours away. A couple of years ago, a store opened in Charlotte and I was so excited. For the past few weeks I had shopped their site and picked out things that I wanted to look at. After 1.5+ hours in the car, eating lunch out and visiting the big mall close to our destination, the kids were getting tired. They managed to make the best of our shopping experience and were thrilled to roam from "room" to "room" looking at things and trying out every chair, bed and drawer in sight. We didn't need to check out the indoor playground because the store was playground enough for them. We left after going all over the top floor and didn't buy anything. We decided it would work out best if we go back without the kids and buy quite a few things that we have picked out. I'm starting on my list today!

Today was our "stay at home" day. I normally have a little housework list, but today my focus was on getting the girls' spring/summer clothes organized. For Ellie, I had to pack up some of the fall/winter clothes that she's outgrown and get out Maggie's old clothes that she'll be wearing when warm weather comes. I LOVE having two girls for lots of reasons, but one of my favorites is pulling out the sweet dresses. Maggie & Ellie will have four matching dresses for the warm seasons. Maggie had to try on different things to see what would still fit from last year. I really try not to have so many clothes for them, but it's easy to get carried away when shopping. Maggie will need play clothes, but she has quite a few dresses already in her closet.

Now, I need to figure out what in the world I'll be wearing for spring and summer! I have had very little interest in clothes for myself since becoming a stay at home mom nearly five years ago. It's not exactly fun shopping for Mommy's clothes when Maggie and Ellie are in tow.

All Over Again

2011-02-18T13:38:00.003-05:00

At least once or twice a week Big Daddy makes a comment about Ellie being just like Maggie was at this age. I realized today that the time around Maggie's second birthday was one of our happiest times. We had just found a church that we loved and we were planning on having a second baby. Maggie was doing Kindermusik and gymnastics and I was hanging out with my mommy friends. We went to the greenhouse, the Library and to visit Gammy Gladys and Paul at least once every week. Maggie and I had picnics for lunch on warm days and we often had picnics after church as a family.

Now I have picnics with two little girls that aren't so little anymore. We are taking full advantage of the Spring-like weather that we've been having the past few days. Maggie and Ellie loved having a picnic for lunch and Maggie's already making plans for a "family picnic" for tomorrow.

Ellie loves her sister and it's really starting to show!

I feel a little like I have twins sometimes because Ellie and Maggie like to do the same things.

Ellie has discovered a love of being naked. All Maggie has to do is say the word and Ellie will take off her pants or shirt on command.

Ellie has started trying to use the toilet before she gets into the bath tub at night. so I brought the potty from my parents' house. This morning before I dressed her Maggie told her to "pee pee on the potty" and she did.
Maybe Maggie will potty-train Ellie for me!

A Happy Heart Day

2011-02-15T13:44:00.003-05:00

We celebrated Valentine's Day on Sunday just because it was a little easier. Big Daddy bought Ellie a train track (with Thomas & Mavis) and we picked out Pre-K/K level reading books for Maggie. Both girls received Cinderella Pez dispensers for their sweet treat. Ellie loves her train track and Maggie really enjoys having books where she can easily read nearly all of the words on a page. Big Daddy and the girls gave me new perfume (!!!) and a sweet card. We didn't get Big Daddy anything, which is just the way he likes it.

Sunday evening was "Spice Up Your Marriage Date Night" at Church. They provided free dinner and childcare for the children (so we were all over that) and the parents had finger foods and educational entertainment. The church Family Life Center was full and I think everyone had a great time. We had fun and found out that we're not as different from other couples as we may have thought.

For Valentine's Day, we went to a local burger place where our family of four had diner for $12. After that we went to Lowe's for hooks to help organize the garage. Maggie and Ellie looked at light fixtures, riding mowers, washer and dryers and the ever popular toilets. Big Daddy bought me a level and we picked up hooks for the garage. After we put the kids to bed, we had homemade angel food cake with fresh strawberries and Big Daddy said it was "the best Valentine's ever".

The Greatest Show On Earth

2011-02-12T22:00:00.004-05:00

We left Ellie with Nana and Callie...
(photo by Maggie)

and we took Maggie to the circus!

Turns out, the clowns aren't scary at all and were Maggie's favorite part.

And $22 can by a little bit of happiness.

($22 for a twirly, light up thing.)

I liked the elephants most of all...

and Big Daddy liked the tigers.

Overheard

2011-02-10T12:31:00.002-05:00

Maggie: "Mom, come put the library books in the bag".
"Ewwww. There's snot coming out of Ellie's nose."
"There's snot coming out of Ellie's nose and she breathing it back in."

Ellie doesn't even have a runny nose, but I wiped it after all of this.

Ellie has a hard time going to bed on Awana nights and last night was no different. At 1am, she started waking up every hour on the hour.

I think it's time for a nap...for all of us.