Where do I start?

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

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!!

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

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

• 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

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

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

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

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

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.