Quick Little Tidbit

I forgot to mention that Doodle lost her second tooth Sunday morning before church. I had to sort of put a deadline on it in order to get her back in the wiggling mood. She already had her new tooth through the surface behind it, so it was a necessary thing. She did a fine job pulling it out and was pleasantly reminded that it doesn't hurt to wiggle the pesky things out! The tooth fairy wasn't at her most alert, though, and forgot to deliver on the goods until morning - not a safe time to go sneaking under pillows, if you know what I mean. As a compromise, the payment envelope was left outside the bedroom door. Doodle came out of her room carrying her tooth envelope and said, "Mama, I put my envelope under my pillow and I still have the SAME ENVELOPE!" She was concerned, to put it mildly, until I pointed out the envelope on the floor. With some quick talking about that forgetful tooth fairy, we avoided a crisis! She decided that when Hanny gets her snaggle-tooth out (hopefully soon) we'll put both teeth together so maybe that absent-minded fairy will remember to take them both. I can't speak for her, but I'd say there are no guarantees...

Hanny Pavarotti?

Before I even tell Hanny's story, you should know that as a kid I apparently sang all the time. I've heard stories about me singing at the top of my lungs while on the swings at home. I don't really remember that, but I do know that I'm at my happiest when the music's loud and I'm singing. As the girls have grown up I have always sung to them while they're in the bathtub (and everywhere else, for that matter). When they were little bitty we sang "All the Fish" and "Two Little Dickie Birds" and then moved on to slightly more difficult songs. Anyway, my love of singing has rubbed off on Hanny. It's rubbed off on her sisters as well, but not at the same volume. We always know when Hanny's planning to spend some time in the bathroom because we begin to hear some of her original songs sung at full volume. This afternoon she is playing with a doll house and some Polly Pocket dolls. I'm not totally sure what's going on in the little house, but the conversations and songs have been hilarious. At one point, Polly Pocket must've been losing her clothing because Hanny, speaking for the doll, said, "Oh no! I can't have my boobs showing!" I chuckled to myself when I heard that. Doodle then came skipping over to me to whisper it in my ear because she wanted to be sure I heard the same thing she heard. Nothing gets by these little angels! Now Hanny is singing, much to the disgust of her sisters. They're trying to do an exercise video and Hanny is, according to them, making too much noise for them to hear. She doesn't seem to care. Her song just included the words "I'm right...and if you don't believe it, just ask me..." Pretty confident, isn't she? I tell Gary that he and Hanny are a lot alike. They both have a pretty hard head from time to time and neither of them like to admit when they're wrong! Strangely enough, he agrees on that one.

We had a great work day at church yesterday and the girls made a new friend. They had a ball playing with Sara and can't wait until they get to see her next time we go to church. It was good for them to spend some time playing with a new buddy! I was busy painting most of the time we were there, so they had to entertain themselves. It worked out great for all of us. So right now, Sara is all they can talk about.

They got their school pictures back today and they turned out better than I expected. Hanny's bangs are a little wild, Doodle has a slightly pained smile on her face (but a smile nonetheless!), and Boo looks as apprehensive as she did in her first school picture when she was 10 months old. I put the 8x10's in the frames over the old pictures this afternoon. It was bittersweet to cover up those baby pictures where Boo was still wearing her oxygen cannula. It's such a blessing to have them be healthy and happy and extra-hole-free. It will just always be hard to look back on those first couple years without a twinge of sadness, even though I know what amazing strides they've made. Don't get me started there. Suffice it to say, I will never be able to think about all that early-years stuff without tears. It's who I am... Thank goodness for the good Kindergarten pictures. Now we can look forward to many more years of school pictures. Maybe someday we'll actually get smiles... :)

Happy Girls

It's been such a nice normal day around here today. I took the girls to the library yesterday for the first time and they LOVED it. I had really been wanting to take the time to go so we just packed up and made a fun time of it. We even stopped for happy hour at Sonic before we came home. We all thought it was a nice getaway for us girls. By the end of the evening Boo & Doodle were both able to read the books they brought home (Hanny brought home a book she had no chance of reading to herself!) After Hanny was tucked in last night (she was desperately needing some catch-up sleep) the twins hopped into my bed to tell me stories. That went on for WAY too long! Let me tell you, Boo spent last Friday night awake a good portion of the night with Papa because of her earache and she must've soaked up his story-telling skills. She was telling some real doozeys last night, along with a dud or two! One particularly laughable one was, "Five little piggies were sitting on the wall. One fell off...and the others fell off too. The End."

But back to today... As is the norm on Saturday mornings, I ran in to get groceries. Today was one of the few days I actually got to go alone. I do enjoy having one or all of them with me, but sometimes it's nice to not have to be on mommy duty. When I got home I was greeted by the little floor-cleaners as they had seen me drive into the driveway and knew they'd better get the floor picked up. They told me that they had been exercising. Yeah, that's right. They had been digging through my workout videos and were trying them out. Apparently there had been some dancing going on as well as some walking and Pilates. They could've at least chosen some of the good ones! :) While I was working in the kitchen, Hanny & Doodle found the yoga video (my personal favorite) and began about 10 minutes of yoga. It was one of the funniest things I've seen! The video begins in a seated position practicing breathing techniques. You'd have had to see it to really appreciate it, but they were both sitting cross-legged with their eyes closed, the corners of their mouths slightly turned up and their hands resting palms-up on their thighs. Too cute. It's such a relaxing workout for me and it looked like they were almost enjoying it as well.

This afternoon they are drawing some fantastic pictures. (Will, they're making very good use of the paper you brought!) Boo & Doodle drew the picture above together and were thoughtful enough to label who's who. Apparently they're in particularly good moods today as they are both labeled as "Happy" rather than "Cranky" or some other descriptive word. They've also drawn some pretty accurate family portraits. They drew one of Papa that pretty much looked like everyone else except that he had a mouth twice as big as the others... Guess I'll let you draw your own conclusion there! ;) We've already read books for an hour, Dad has played close to 20 games of Candy Land and we've baked a cake for tomorrow's church dinner. It's been nice to have a relatively quiet day at home with everybody feeling good. They are such a joy to be around, even when they're cranky... Well, maybe not so much a "joy" when they're cranky, but still a blessing.

So, we had an unexpected haircut...

Yeah. You read right. We had a TOTALLY unexpected haircut this afternoon. Hopefully I've made it an undesirable enough experience to keep it from happening again. This afternoon the three girls were playing in their respective bedrooms. I thought to myself how nicely they were playing and how little arguing, complaining, etc. I had heard for quite awhile. I really thought I was beyond the years of childhood when silence is such a BAD thing, but I was so wrong. Shortly after the 10 minutes of quiet solitude, I was greeted by Boo & Doodle who were very slowly easing their way into the living room. Boo quietly uttered, "We did something kinda interesting to ourselves." Now, that's not a phrase that leaves me feeling confident that nothing bad has happened. In my experience raising these three girls, "interesting" does not ever equal anything good. Interesting is just another way of saying "something you're not gonna like" or some equivalent to that. I asked what they had done to which Boo replied, "Are we gonna get in trouble?" Again, not a response that left me feeling good about the situation. Chances are, if you have to ask that question, you've probably done something worthy of trouble. Remaining calm, I responded, "You're only going to get in trouble if you lie to me." It was then that they informed me that they cut their hair. Thankfully it wasn't immediately obvious where the chopping had taken place, so I was slightly relieved by that. To be honest, I couldn't even tell where Doodle had done her cutting, so I didn't even worry about fixing it. Boo's self-inflicted haircut was a little more obvious, so I had to do some evening up. I wanted to prolong the discomfort of the situation a little so I could be relatively certain it wouldn't happen again. By the time I was done cutting her hair she was tired of standing, so hopefully she'll think twice before doing this again. I also made sure I took a few pictures of the new "do" which further irritated her. I don't think she was thrilled with the prospect of me having pictures of her after such a bad idea. Maybe she'll remember this the next time she decides she's got an "interesting" idea! I had thought in the past few weeks about giving her a little trim because Doodle's hair is so cute at the length it is. Right now Boo's hair is just a little shorter than Doodle's and is awfully cute, even if it was the result of an unexpected haircut. She's got just enough length to get us a really cute, curly ponytail. I have to admit I laughed when I really thought about the situation. I also admit that they saw me laugh...I'm not ashamed. This isn't worthy of getting upset about. It's just one of those things we'll look back on and laugh about in years to come.

Searching for Lost Treasure

That's what's going on here right now. About once every 3 weeks or so we (that is to say the girls) have to have a massive treasure hunt under Hanny's bed. This time they're searching for a specific smaller-than-a-penny-size puppy that refuses to be located. I'm pretty sure they won't find it, but that won't stop them from looking. Chances are, they'll find something else and lose all memory of what it was they were actually searching for from the beginning. It's humorous to listen to them interact with each other. Hanny is usually the one crawling under the bed while one of her sisters holds the rattlesnake flashlight. When the space gets a little tight, though, one of the smaller siblings is sent in for duty, often pulling out something really exciting from the deep dark caves beneath the bed. It kinda makes me want to hide something good under my bed and forget about it for awhile just so I can have that joy of looking for and finding it in a couple months. Uh-oh.... That's the phrase I just heard and it's never good. Apparently they have just messed up the bed. That's no surprise since they have figured out how easy it is to move the top mattress wherever they need it to go in order to reach into the crack between the bed and the wall. Hopefully they'll get it fixed...

They're back into the swing of school again after being sick most of the last week. They are sounding out, spelling, reading and writing words all the time now. Everything we have around the house is fair-game for reading, just so they can find all the words they know. In fact, the last two times we've been at the doctor's office they have had to read the words they know on the signs on the walls. They're such sponges now soaking up everything. They got some book order books that they are able to read already, so hopefully we're raising readers like their mama. There's nothing more relaxing to me than a good book (and a little bit of quiet), so I hope they enjoy reading as much as I do. Their teacher also sends home some fun activities for them to do in the afternoons after we get schoolwork done. They loved making shapes, letters and numbers on geoboards and have recently fallen in love with some other learning activity (I have no idea what it is as the writing on the box is all in French) that she sent home yesterday and today. We're going to make some crayon shaving leaves this afternoon to celebrate the arrival of Fall. The days fly by, so we want to fill them with all the fun we possibly can. They're already counting down the days to birthday #6. I'm not sure I'm ready for them to be that grown up...

Looking Up!

Things are improving today for the first time in over a week. Yea!!! It's exciting for us after the week we've had. I kept the girlies home today to give them one more day to improve and rest. They've already got so much more spunk than they have in many days. I have a lot more energy as well today, so I might actually accomplish something by the end of the day. It would definitely be a nice change. A lot of things have gone undone for several days - laundry, basic cleaning, running Bob (if you know us well, you know that's the name the girls gave the sweeper when they were first talking - it stuck!). Hopefully I can get a thing or two done by the end of the day. We'll also get some schoolwork in and hopefully get something cooked.

Okay, I've got to interrupt this for a second. The girls are currently playing school with some of their stuffed animals. They are, of course, the teachers of the group. In fact, they are two teachers and a principal (Hope's aiming high!). Anyway... They've been writing names for their animals for the past ten minutes. I heard Hanny ask if the others needed to use the restroom (that's another funny topic as they thought it was hilarious that they call it a "restroom" at school instead of a bathroom - Hanny thought they took naps in there for the first day or two!). The other girls replied that yes, they did need to use the restroom, to which Hanny replied, "I thought so. I could tell by looking at their eyes." I'm pretty sure she picked that up by my telling them I could tell they were coming down with a cold by looking at their eyes. I'm not exactly sure how that made it over to the "needs to go to the restroom" realm. Funny kids!

Now, back to the whole "looking up" thing. I am so excited this morning because I (drumroll, please) have made it to the 65-pound weight loss mark! Woo hoo!!! I've been trying to get to that for quite some time and have been getting a little impatient. Sure enough, when I quit worrying about it and stop trying to make it happen, God brings me to it. I'm just amazed. Yesterday when I was lifting Hanny up onto the examining table I could hardly lift all 54 pounds of her. It frightens me to think that I was carrying around Hanny plus an additional 11 pounds for no good reason. Why on earth did I allow myself to do that for so long? I still don't know. I may never know. I do know that it will NOT happen again. God blessed me with this body and I intend to take care of it. I remember how miserable I was before and I know how great I feel now (when I'm actually healthy!) and it doesn't even compare. So that's my latest goal reached. My initial goal was to lose 70. Maybe I'll do it, maybe I won't. I'm not really concerned at this point. I just want to be strong and healthy. Well, I'd also like to wear cute clothes, but that'll have to wait awhile! Maybe for Christmas this year I'll just ask for gift certificates so I have to buy some new clothes. Yeah...good plan! :)

Ear Infections...

So I took Hanny & Doodle to the doctor this morning because Doodle started complaining last night of an earache. Now we have four of us on antibiotics for infections, so we should be up and going again soon. I hope so! Hopefully we can get a night or two of catch-up sleep - we all desperately need it. We made our pharmacy stop at Target so they were thrilled to get to get some Halloween Peeps (Hanny) and Ring Pops (Doodle) for being brave. They're pretty easy to please, I have to admit. Boo got to have some one-on-one time with Dad as well. That's good for both of them. It's not very often that anyone gets any one-on-one time around here, so we have to take advantage of what we get. With any luck we'll be running races again in the next few days. Until then we're just going to take it easy.

Lazy Sunday Afternoon

We've had an exceptionally lazy Sunday afternoon. Actually, we've had a lazy all day Sunday. The twins and I all got naps that we've needed for the past week, so it was worth it. I had planned to go to KC yesterday with Gary but had to punt that plan. While spending the night Friday night with Meme & Papa, Boo woke up with an earache and spent most of the night awake. I had felt worse Friday than I had all week too, so I wasn't exactly ready for a day of politic-ing. I ended up making a trip south and took Boo, Hanny and myself to the doctor. As it turns out, it was definitely for the best as I have a sinus infection, Boo has an ear infection and Hanny just needed something to dry up some of her massive amounts of drainage. I'm glad we went. Hanny slept in our bed with Gary last night and the twins & I bedded down on the living room floor. It's not really the most comfortable place to sleep, but it's the only place that will comfortably accommodate all three of us. Everyone slept through the night - woo hoo - but still needed a nap for some catch-up sleep. I will be glad when we're back to normal as this has been a miserable cold.

So that's all for us. There's been no big accomplishments, no fun, no good excitement. I think we're just about due for something good! :)

The Artist

First, the girls are coming along with their colds. It's been slow going, but I hope they'll be back to normal soon. I'm definitely ready to be rid of it myself, so I'm sure they are too.

Boo and I spent last night drawing pictures together. We were not doing any serious drawing as I am certainly no artist. I'm not so sure about her, though! She drew this picture of me and thought it was hilarious. The dark area between my little circle nose and my dark circle mouth is, according to the artist, snot. Disgusting, I know. And, for the record, it was not an accurate portrait of me at that moment! :) Also, on my body, the small circle is my belly button and I'll let you guess what the two larger circles are above the belly button. Again, not an accurate portrait as I make every attempt to not sit around shirtless with snot running down my face. She was kind enough to write "This is Mama" on it as well, just so there was no doubt. Needless to say, I quickly scanned it and am saving the original because it was too good to pass up. She was such a giggle-box and was unable to draw for a while because she was laughing so hard. It was fun and something I hope I never forget.

And then I poked a hole in my ball...

I was all set to type up a blog when the unthinkable happened. I have used a stability ball at my computer for the past 2 years because I felt like I must be using one or more muscles by doing that than I would if I was just using a chair. Also, having used a chair in the past, the ball was so much more soothing on my back because I actually had to focus to stay upright. Today, much to my disgust, the ball got a hole in it. I thought maybe I could cover it with duct tape to patch it until I could make a trip to Wal-Mart, but that was a massive failure. For the record, duct tape does NOT fix everything. Maybe if I was a man I could make it work, but I'm not and it didn't. Oh well... So until I make my next trip to town I am without a seat at the computer. It's rough, I know.

The girls had picture day at school today, so we packed their pockets full of kleenexes and off they went. They had a good morning and had to show me how they smiled when I picked them up. To be honest, I asked them to show me how they smiled. Sometimes they have a tendency to have sort of a pained smile when they are posing, so we practiced before they went to school today to try to avoid those. I'll be anxious to see how they turn out!

I'm sick of having sick kids and sick of being sick myself. They seem to feel a little better today, so by tomorrow I should be feeling better too. Hopefully it'll work out that way. It's these nights I spend sleeping on the couch so I can hear anyone who's coughing that are wearing me out. It's the joy of being Mama! :)

Still Puny

It's another beautiful day out there, but we're still sick. Hanny slept good last night but Doodle has been up with me since 4:50 this morning because she was coughing. We only have one vaporizer, so Meme's bringing hers up today so we can have one in both bedrooms. It's amazing how much that helps with the coughing. I hope to have them feeling better by tomorrow as it's picture day at school. We'll just have to see... At least they don't seem to be getting worse.

Hanny & Boo are playing together again today. It's so nice to see that! Those two never used to be able to get along long enough to play together for any length of time. I think they're both so extremely strong-willed that neither of them would ever give in to the other. Somehow that has changed (not the strong-willed business, but their willingness to play together!) and we're loving it. Well, we're almost loving it. Doodle sometimes feels a little left-out and sometimes gets ganged up on a little. She's always on "my team" when we wrestle against them or play Candy Land or whatever. It's just the phase they're going through right now. Sometimes they all three play together, sometimes it's a different twosome, I just never know how it will be in the end.

This is totally off the wall, but I just had a flashback to Senior English with Miss Cross. As I was typing the last sentence of the previous paragraph I almost typed "you just never know" before I caught myself. I have to say, she made me a real English/grammar fiend. There are some things that bother me, but incorrect grammar is a real deal-breaker for me! Granted, I don't always catch everything in what I write myself, but I'm always aware of misspellings, usage errors, etc. in anything I read. Gary just laughs at me when I get stirred up about a national publication, book or newspaper having errors. I know...I'm a freak. It's my dream job to be a book editor. For me, that would be the best of both worlds. I could read and also use that red pen to make sure nobody else had to be exposed to unnecessary errors. Ahh, life would be good! :)

Bright Sunny Day

I know I've commented before on how much I like cool cloudy days, but it is so nice to have some sunshine beaming through the windows this morning. It's especially nice to have a bright sunny morning with that refreshing cool air that I love in the fall. We woke up this morning to coughing girls, so they're home today. They probably could have survived the three hours at school, but I didn't want to take any chances. We'll do some "Mama schoolwork" this morning. I try to supplement what they're doing at school anyway, so we'll do a little extra of that today. There are so many wonderful websites with worksheets to print, learning ideas, etc. that we can always find something new and educational to do.

On to other things... If you didn't get a chance to see Saturday Night Live this past weekend, you really should take the time to watch Tina Fey's dead-on impersonation of Sarah Palin. She nailed it! We stayed up just to watch that one segment and I was so glad we did. It's all over the internet right now, so I'm sure you can do a search and find it. I know The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) has a link to watch it as well. Gary likes to get me stirred up on the whole Sarah Palin thing. I was so disgusted after watching her "answer" (I use that term VERY loosely) the questions Charles Gibson posed to her last week that I couldn't stand to watch the entire interview. I've never seen someone use so many words to say so little. Are all politicians so incapable of answering a yes/no question with a yes or a no? Yes, there are some questions that require a more descriptive answer, but there are also questions that simply require a one word answer. Those in which the interviewer actually asks for a yes or no answer should probably be answered with one word. It just angers me when people refuse to answer valid questions. And it's not just in politics. We all know people who refuse to answer valid questions, possibly because their hypocrisy would become public knowledge. Maybe that's why the politicians refuse to answer as well. Hypocrisy isn't hard to recognize, and in the case of the politicians, it's not hard to prove.

I'm headed for a hot game of Candy Land with Doodle. Her sisters are playing together and **gasp** they just took her pile of movies so she's needing a little extra attention. I'm sure this will be the first of about 500 games of Candy Land today, so wish me luck. We have other games, but this is by far the favorite. Hannah even taught a little boy at school the other day how to play as he had never played before. Doodle and Boo helped other kids put together puzzles. They were all three amazed that other kids didn't know how to do these things. I was thrilled to see them shine. I asked if they told their teacher they do 300 piece puzzles at home...they didn't. They are amazing little people!

A New Look...

So I just decided to update my blog look a little. I didn't realize just how much time it was going to take... Some of the older posts are going to be a little more difficult to read, but if you really want to read them you can highlight them and read that way. I got a little tired of going back in to change the font color on each individual post. Lesson learned...I'll just set my font color the way I want it and leave it as is from now on! I did go back and look at some of the older posts, though, so that was almost fun. And now I'm headed outside to enjoy a little fresh air. There's nothing like a quiet (relatively speaking) Sunday afternoon with nice cool air blowing in through open windows. It's my kind of a day. :)

Rain, Rain, Go Away!

To put it mildly, we're sick of the rain. We did have a break for a few hours today, but it didn't seem to last quite long enough. Our yard is a swamp with a very healthy supply of toadstools. I'm sure we won't be venturing out to play for a few days since we'd need hip waders to do it. No, it's not really that bad, but it's so muddy I wouldn't dare step out there right now. Guess we'll have to stay busy in the house for a few days.

We've had a nice day, even with the crummy weather. Boo wanted to go to get groceries with me (and miraculously, nobody else did) so we had a morning out. She's just a hoot and is so fun to be around. They all are, to be quite honest. No, really, I'm not the least bit biased. When we got home we had dinner and Dad told us if we'd help him load up some wood he'd buy us supper. It sounded like a good trade-off to all of us, but Hanny was concerned about the kind of wood it would be. Specifically she wondered what kind of bugs it would be harboring. She said, "I hope it doesn't have any of those green bugs... They scare me to DEATH!" She was totally serious. Apparently during one of her visits with Meme & Papa she came into contact with a horrifying green bug. Now that I type this I vaguely remember an incident with a shiny green beetle around the wood stove down there. As I recall, she and Boo were both truly scared silly by the thing, even though it was dead and crunchy (and missing a couple legs). She was thrilled that our wood didn't seem to have any of those deadly bugs.

This evening I played Candy Land with Doodle while her sisters were playing together. When we play together we have to be on a team and gang up against someone else (usually Dad). Since nobody else is really playing with us, we sometimes stack the cards against the opponent, in a manner of speaking. We don't actually stack the cards, we just change things around if we end up with the dreaded Gingerbread Man or Candy Cane cards. She laughed so hard I thought she'd explode when we did that. If you know her, you know how she giggles. It sort of begins in her nose then travels down to her toes and settles in her belly. She has an absolutely infectious laugh that spread to both of us repeatedly throughout the 10 games we played. They say laughter adds years to your life, so I'm feeling pretty young this evening!

Hanny is in the process of growing out her bangs. It's been harder on me than it has her. I just can't stand to see them hanging in her eyes when they sneak out from under the hold of the barrettes we put in repeatedly throughout the day. I've been thinking about giving her a little haircut since it was getting so long. Maybe it was just that since I couldn't cut her bangs I needed something to cut. Anyway, we gave her a haircut this evening that turned out very cute. I probably took 2-3 inchess off the back and we both love it. It's much less ratty and she's still able to put it in a ponytail. As far as she's concerned, that's the only important thing.

We've been having wrestling matches every night for the past 4 nights. Somehow Dad ends up doing other things during most of them, but the other four of us are in the midst of a war. It's always Boo & Hanny against Doodle and me. Hanny is sort of the screaming banshee of the conflict and Boo is the muscle. (I know, it makes no sense, but it is what it is.) Boo is a wild woman! She could probably take me down if she put her mind to it. Hanny runs like she's being chased by a big green bug as soon as I take a stride toward her, but Boo comes after me with a snarl on her face. Doodle likes to crawl in toward them announcing that "Mama's with me!" so they'll run and hide. Tonight, however, she was bait. She thought that was the funniest thing she'd ever heard. I hid behind the chair while she lured them in so I could grab them. It worked exceptionally well! :) They have been just hilarious. As quickly as it starts it typically ends. Tonight after we wrestled we had to have a 45 minute coloring session in the floor together. What a day. I got to spend it with the most wonderful family in the world. I'm feeling lucky! :)

Tooth-loss count: Hanny - 3; Doodle - 1; Boo - 2

We are right in the middle of a massive tooth-loss around here. With three kiddos the same age, it's bound to happen that way, I guess. It seems like there's always somebody who has either just lost a tooth or has a loose one. Boo just lost her second one on Labor Day, and Hanny & Doodle each have a tooth that is hanging by a thread. I should tell you (or maybe I shouldn't even admit it) that of all the things I've had to see in their short lives - the many tests, changing their Mic-Key buttons, re-dressing their g-tube holes, etc. - the thing that grosses me out the most is those wiggly, wobbly, barely-hanging-on teeth. Oh yeah, when their buttons would accidentally be pulled out after a feeding and we had all their stomach contents on their shirts and a gaping hole into their abdomens, that I could handle. Watching their teeth hang sideways in their mouths gives me the creeps. But I digress... Hanny was wiggling her tooth (not with her fingers - it's now loose enough to wiggle with her lips) this evening and told me, "Mama, I can wiggle my tooth and make it feel like my heart beeping."

They're enjoying school, although by this time of the week they're looking forward to having the weekend off. They got their first book order books last week and are having so much fun reading them. We got one set of 5 early reader books that they can read now. It's so much fun to have them be able to read to us now. We still spend part of each day reading to them, but it's nice to see them developing into readers already. I was inconspicuously watching/listening to them this afternoon reading to their animals. After reading the books they could actually read they moved on to books that they could pick a few words out of but make up the story as they went. I peeked at Doodle just in time to see her holding the book in front of her and showing the pictures to her stuffed animals. Too cute! I hope the develop the same love of books that I have. I love to curl up with a good book and some hot tea. Sounds like a good thing to do right now...

Mama, we had a Subs-ma-toot!

Out of the mouths of babes... The girls had a sub at school today and proclaimed the above to Dad when he got home. We thought it was cute! Also, while I was finishing my shower, the girls were performing their nursery rhymes from Grandparents' Day for Dad. I overheard them do the first couple and then tell Dad, "You can be the grandparent." Poor guy! They keep us humble...and laughing!

Expect the Unexpected

Good news! We had another tear-free day, although there was a moment when I was concerned that our streak was broken. Doodle was a little more reluctant this morning than she was yesterday but she pushed through it beautifully! I'm so proud of them! It was not a morning without catastrophes, though. I was impressed at how smoothly everything was going this morning when they were eating their breakfast and I was getting ready to dry my hair at 7:15. It was at that point I heard the splash of chocolate milk being splattered all over the dining room floor. Let me just say how thankful I am that we no longer have carpet in there. It was a mess. On the plus side, I did have the kitchen and dining room floors mopped by 7:30 this morning. We had to change Doodle's clothes as well, but we managed to get everything done and still look ready for the day on time. I've come to realize that the only normal thing around here is that no two days are alike. We are forced to be flexible and patient. Sometimes we think we know what to expect but are quickly proven wrong. So rather than get upset about it, I think I'll thank God for blessing me with a variety of experiences. Wouldn't life be boring if every day presented the same obstacles? How would I ever learn to adapt? Any situation can be positive or negative, depending on how I choose to see it. I think I'll stick to the positive and wait patiently to see what's next. :)

Ahh...Monday

Here we go with another week. Hopefully it'll be a good one! We actually ended up with two tear-free days last week and another one this morning. Things are definitely looking up! The girls were very excited Friday because it was Grandparents' Day at school. They couldn't wait to be Little Bo Peep sheep in front of Meme & Papa & Grandma & Grandpa. I picked them up at the usual time then took them back at 2:00 so they could take part in the fun at 2:30. Before the grandparents were divided up to go with the classes they were all (about 300 of them, they think) in the multi-purpose room right outside the girls' classroom. All the classes stood out there while the principal made a few remarks. I was standing just inside their classroom door and really enjoyed watching all those grandparents as the kids walked out. I saw several people who I could just tell had a special relationship with their grandchildren by the way their faces lit up when the kids walked out. Several of those papas were waving & making silly faces. What better sign of love is that than to lose all sense of looking silly just to make that angel laugh?! It was a very nice afternoon.

I have to say not much else has gone on around here lately. I went shopping yesterday and found some new jeans & khaki pants. This whole weight-loss thing has been great, but having such a limited wardrobe does get a little old. On the plus side, I'm officially down to a size 8 jeans. I never ever thought I'd see the day when I could wear a single-digit size. It's a nice feeling, to put it mildly. :)

Politics?

Okay, so I never dreamed there would come a day when I had a strong political opinion. I certainly never dreamed that I, pretty conservative (not politically, just by actions & words) from head to toe, would be leaning almost sideways to the left just to distance myself from the right. The upcoming election interests me more than it ever has before. While I have always voted before, I always felt like I was voting for the lesser of two evils. This might be true this time as well, but never before have I felt like the greater of the evils was so frighteningly great. So here it is: I'm an Obama supporter. No, I'm not a liberal freak. But the prospect of having the Republican party in the presidency for another four years scares the snot out of me. And even scarier is the prospect that the so-called "hockey mom" could be the next VP with the man who decided she was his best possible running mate as the President. I am still offended that anyone would think that just because I'm a woman I would forego all intelligence and vote for someone based only on the fact that they share the same plumbing. Um, no. Nope. I'm a conservative white woman who is actually concerned about the issues. Even better, I am a stay at home mom who can actually make an intelligent decision based on the issues. I don't identify with Sarah Palin. I don't identify with someone who is willing to drag her children through the ringer for her own gain. I don't identify with her at all. While I didn't see all of the speeches from last night, I saw enough to form the opinion that there was no talk of issues. I didn't hear anything mentioned about what the McCain/Palin ticket plans to do to improve the economy or anything else. What I did hear was their non-stop digs at their opponents. I heard sarcasm and hatefulness. Is this a fair demonstration of what conservative people are really like? Not me. Does the religious right not want someone who is at least attempting to live a Christ-like life? These are the people who are supposedly so big on family values? I just don't see it.

A Taste of Fall

I love Fall! I love the cool air. I love the cloudy days. I love the energy I draw from days like this. Today is an absolutely ideal day as far as I'm concerned. It's cloudy, 62 degrees, and it's been sprinkling off and on all morning. This is the breath of fresh air I needed today. Even though my allergies have been off the charts this morning, I have the house opened up to enjoy the nice cool air. It's almost chilly in here. I could easily be wearing a long-sleeved shirt with my jeans. Ah - life is good! :) We had an average day going to school today. Average, in that Hope cried. Although I have to admit that yesterday was MUCH worse; Hope cried for an hour before we even left for school. Today she didn't begin crying until we got there. I guess that's progress. I have thoroughly enjoyed my morning, though. I came home and started the first of four loads of laundry, stirred up a double batch of peanut butter cookies (the girls like to have cookies in the freezer for snacks), made bread dough that is in the fridge for now. I'll make vegetable soup with some homemade noodles this afternoon and bake the bread so we can have it hot with our soup. Is your mouth watering yet?! This is what I wait for all Summer. I endure the heat all the while looking forward to the cool, refreshing air of Fall. I'll be thanking God all day today for giving me a taste of Fall. Granted, it probably won't last too long, but at least it will hold me over until every day is this way. Bring on the day!

I Can't Believe We're Watching This!!!

Much to my dismay, Doodle decided to watch a Barney video this afternoon. Yes, Barney. Barney, who I was just sure had made his final exit from our DVD player last spring. She must be getting sick or something. Actually, I think that might be the case. Boo has had some very explosive (to put it somewhat less disgustingly) sneezes today. It's probably just the beginning of the next cold. After all, we did make it through a full week of school. How could I possibly expect to make it two weeks?! Doodle has also been a little too quiet this afternoon. This mama's intuition knows there's something not quite right. So Barney's back. Will he ever leave? Probably not until I get up the nerve to destroy the DVD's. And I don't imagine that will happen anytime soon. There's something comforting about the idea that my growing-up-too-fast girls still have enough of the little girl left in them to not gag at the idea of watching Barney. I guess that's why I don't get too upset when Barney makes his appearance again after months of being tucked away behind all the other movies.

We had a very nice weekend. We made our first trip down to visit the grandparents since school started. Papa had found 3 kittens in his shed, so the girls spent both days this weekend catching, holding, petting and fawning over those kittens. That's not totally true. They were very attached to Pokey and Snowball, but Penny didn't really spend much time in their good graces. Penny was too much of a Mama's-Kitty. She/He (I'm not really sure which) was not at all content to be held and only wanted her/his mother. On the plus side, Doodle wasn't terribly interested in holding any of the kittens after the one she was holding moved its paw (after which she promptly tossed it to the ground). It's a good thing, I'm sure, that we only had two girls interested in holding kittens and only two kittens interested in being held. We got to enjoy some time with our family and let the girls make use of the good country air. They also made use of the country mud. They played in the yard after it had been flooded Friday and looked like mud-balls by the time I made them head to the house. They were so filthy, in fact, that they had to strip down and be hosed off before I even allowed them into the house. They had fun. It was worth washing their clothes three times in a row. No, really, it was worth it to see them have so much good dirty fun.

Today we got to enjoy some time with Uncle Jim & cousins Jonathan & Kerri. The girls love being able to play with someone new. They even played Pretty Pretty Princess with Jim & Jonathan. Yes, I took pictures. Yes, I'm willing to use them for blackmail. Kerri also got the joy of holding Addie as she wiggled her second loose tooth out of her mouth. Hopefully the tooth fairy can remember there's work for her to do tonight!

All in all we've had a nice three days and are not totally ready to get back into the swing of things. Well, I'm ready, but nobody else really seems to be. I'm afraid it's not going to be a totally normal week as they're just not acting quite like themselves today. It looks like we're going to be making use of the Kleenexes again this week. Such is life...