School

Our girls did start school earlier this month and I never posted about it so here it is a month late.

Abby is LOVING her school and cheers when I tell her it's a school day. She's just a little sponge soaking it all up.

Abby and her teacher.

Kaitlyn is another story - she cries and clings to mom. The first day of her school (I do a joy school with 4 friends) I got a call saying she hadn't stopped crying and to come pick her up. She never made past the door on day 2. On day 3, I sat in for a little while to get her adjusted. We are finally at the point where she cries just a little and is fine after I leave. This last time she didn't cry for me, she cried for Abby.

2 Things That Have Saved My Family Members Lives...Literally

First the hairspray has saved Todd - twice. He left a pen in his clothes and when it came time to wash, the water and the ink did not mix. It leaked all over his nice expensive shirts along with all of our other clothes. Good old hairspray helped get the black ink out. The second time it was blue ink. The blue wasn't easy to get out. We still have two ruined shorts.

The hairspray and Mr. Clean have saved Kaitlyn. Pink highlighter was scribbled all over the couch. A little hairspray and some Mr. Clean and most of it is gone. The rest we'll have to live with.

And of course there's Abby. Over the past little while she has been decorating all of the kitchen grout with crayon. I love being 5 months pregnant on my hands and knees, scrubbing out crayon with Mr. Clean.

Kids and their "creativity".

Weekend Retreat

We made it to another work retreat. With Todd's job they have these company retreats every 18 months and this time it was at the Greenbrier, West Virginia. A very old hotel out set in some beautiful country.
I really enjoy these trips because they have many activities for the wives to participate in while our husbands are in classes in the morning. I was able to sleep in a little longer, have naps, and not have to worry about cooking! Heaven! These are some of the great perks about the job.

While we were there we also enjoyed great dinners, (one where everyone was dressed in white and ended with fireworks set to music- it felt like something out of the Great Gatsby), spa treatments, I managed a 7 mile hike (thought I might die doing some of the hills 5 months pregnant), Todd and I did some off-roading (part of it was a blind-folded obstacle course) and skeet shooting. Todd came in 2nd overall in the shooting- missed first place by 1 shot. He did great! My friend Katie who had never been before came in 2nd with the woman and I came in 3rd (According to Todd).

Steph with a gun! Look out!

Todd doing the obstacle course and we had to take him through a very large mud puddle. He thought we ended up in a creek.


Several of our close friends were also on this retreat so there were some late nights with hanging out and playing games. It was a great time overall and glad we were able to go. Good job to Todd who was part of the planning team and put A LOT of time and effort into it. Way to go Todd!

Getting ready to leave- there was a nice fog that delayed us an hour.

A Sunday Conversation with Abby

After Abby had gotten in trouble for pushing Kaitlyn, again, Todd calls her over to have a talk with her. Abby has her back to Todd with her arms folded. Todd threatens with Time Out and she turns around but says she wants to talk first.

Abby: "I'm not happy."
Todd: "Why are you not happy?"
A: "Because I can't go over to my friend's house and play."
T: "What day is it?"
A: "Sunday."
T: (Todd proceeds to try and explain Sunday behavior- a talk we have about every two weeks)
A: "Dad stop! I'm not done talking yet." Proceeds to explain how she really wants to go to her friend's house and won't be happy the rest of the afternoon.
T: "Can we do anything to make you happy?"
A: "If you chase me, I'll be happy."
T: "Then you won't be mean to Kaitlyn?"
A: "no"
T: "How long do I have to chase you for?"
A: "Uh...2 minutes."
T: "2 minutes?!"
A: "5 minutes, no 6...no 7 minutes."

And the chase was on.

Tires

Flat, flat tire

Metal sticking out of tire

It was bound to happen, I haven't had a flat tire in over 10 years. It just had to be on our week old van- darn Murphy's Law. Driving home I ran over some big screw/bolt that within two seconds our tire was flat. Luckily, where I pulled over a lady said one of her employees could change the tire for me. (I had parked right behind her store) He had it changed in less than 15 minutes. I was so thankful to him and his service. I've heard other car stories from friends so I'm counting my blessings, it could have been worse.

This is what they pulled out of the tire. The bolt end was inside.

It's a...

Girl! We'll be seeing more pink in our house. Baby girl had her hands between her legs but after a little shaking the Dr. was pretty sure he knew what it was. When he said that, I knew it was a girl. We are all very happy about our new addition.

July & August Book Review

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho This story is "a simple fable, based on simple truths". It follows a shepherd boy who has a dream about a treasure in Egypt. He sells his sheep and is off to follow his dream/personal legend. On his journey he meets "spiritual messengers" and learns a lot about himself and the world in the process.

I felt it was a good story with some great meaning behind it. There were some great quotes from the book also. One of my favorite ones: "The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. And, if you improve on the present, what comes later will also be better. Forget about the future, and live each day according to teachings, confident that God loves his children."

I give the book 4 out of 5. (Don't listen to it on tape -Jeremy Irons will put you to sleep. Easier to read.)

Dracula by Bram Stoker: I read this in High School and one night I saw it on my bookshelf and decided to read it again. Loved it in HS- couldn't put it down. This time, I didn't like it as much. (I still have 30 pages to finish) However, I do see how wrapped up in the suspense you can get. This time I wanted to shout at some of the characters "It's Dracula you idiot!"

The book is set in the late 1800's. A young lawyer, Jonathan Harker heads off to Transylvania to help finish the selling of an estate in London to a Count Dracula. The story follows the "vampire's journey from Transylvania to the nighttime streets of London. There, he searches for the blood of strong men and beautiful women while his enemies plot to rid the world of his frightful power." It is told in several different POVs through journals and the characters themselves.

I guess my tastes have changed a bit or I've just read a whole lot more since HS (probably both). There were parts that I just wanted to move a little faster. It is well written but, I give it 3 out of 5. (In HS I probably would have given it a 6 - I remember absolutely loving this book. Maybe that had to do with the suspense of reading it for the first time.)

The Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer: So I reread books 1-3 before I read 4 (Crazy, I know. And I read a lot of vampire books these past 2 months). I was definitely ready for everything to be over by the time I started #4. I was Bella'd out.

Do I need to write what these are about? Nah, you've all probably read them yourselves. So my thoughts: They are all fun, high schoolish reads. Even though I don't think I'd want my girls reading these until they are adults.

I felt Breaking Dawn could have been so much better towards the end. I was hoping for some big fight and felt the resolution was too easy. Everything was too picture perfect and had a nice big red bow on it. And, I really don't like how Bella is written, too dependent on the men and so over the top with Edward (He's so beautiful....on and on....Blah). Still fun to read and I forget about laundry and all the other house cleaning for a few hours. For the series 3 out of 5. Twilight was my favorite out of the four.