Back To School

Okay, it has taken me a few days to get this blogged . . . but we are officially back to school. We started Wednesday and (with the exception of an unexpected trip tot he doctor's office) things are going really well. It's funny b/c this summer has been so crazy and school snuck up on me so fast . . . it has been a source of pretty intense stress for the past few weeks. I REALLY didn't want to start school! I could have pushed it back, but that would have messed up our academic calendar. We do four 9 week quarters with a break in between each (a week of for fall break and spring break and 2 weeks off for Christmas). If I wanted to finish our semester before Christmas, now was the time to start. I managed to get things ready (still dreading it all along!) and we actually started. The reason it's so funny to me is because I'm really loving it! It's so nice to be reminded of the fact that I love teaching my kids! : ) It's also nice because school forces a routine. No more choas . . . it's time to get back into the swing of things . . . and we are all thriving!

I did manage to take real back to school pictures this year (if you remember, last year I went out to take pictures before we started school and then realized that I had left my camera at my mom's house. I ended up using the camera on my phone!). So here are my girls for the '08-'09 academic year.

The fabulous four!
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Ali is starting Third Grade this year. She is really enjoying Geography and always loves Reading. She is dreading Math but is already encouraged by the progress she is seeing in herself with her Math Facts.
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Emma is starting the First Grade (according to her age anyway . . . the Kindergarten cut-off for Rockwood is July 31st and her birthday is August 1st. So she should be in first grade, but all of her work is second grade stuff). She is also enjoying Geography (maps fascinate her). Math is a favorite with her, though she hates practicing those math facts. Language Arts probably ranks at the bottom of her list.
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Aren't they cute?
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Meg is four and is starting reading lessons this year. She is very eager to learn, and her lessons will begin on Monday.
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Julie is 2 and is just plain cute. No real school for her yet, but she loves coloring. Yesterday she sat and colored for a good hour and a half . . . I was impressed! She and Meg are often heard saying "I want to do school!"
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Don't you love the strangle hold?
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Here's Ali, hard at work copying her memory verse for the week.
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Emma working on her reading journal - The Boxcar Children . . . how fun!
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I love this one of Meg! Like I said, she is very eager to learn how to read. She also knows that when you learn how to read you track with your finger. So, here she is "reading" Ali's Bible - no pictures . . . she's just tracking line after line!

For Grammy . . .

Amber's mom wanted to see pictures of all of the stuff I bought now that they're in their places. I know she'll be thrilled to see it all, and undoubtedly, the rest of you couldn't care less! : ) So this one's for you, Grammy! Enjoy! (you can click on the pictures to see them larger)
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(I do feel the need to mention that I did not buy all of this stuff while we were in Indiana! : ) You're seeing years worth of collecting, and gifts that have been given to me . . . with a few newbies sprinkled in . . . We didn't do that much shopping!)

That's your gold colored plate that you gave me . . . I added the "SIMPLIFY" it's one of the Uppercase Living Expressions that Jessica sells.
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On top of my kitchen cabinets

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I have this hanging on the wall in the place where I was planning to put the ladder. I wiped it out after I got home and I love the fact that you can see the rings from the soda bottles in the bottom! (P.S. Amber did all of my shelf arranging for me - I can manage the nails, anchors, screws and drill . . . but I'm a bit of an idiot when it comes to the cute part!)
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This is in the hall bathroom. This shelf is actually hung upside down (Amber and I discovered that as we were trying to figure out how we were going to hang it) I like it better upside down.
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This is in our bedroom (obviously) . . . I love it! Happy Birthday to me . . . thanks Amber!
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This is my dining room wall. Sharon Vincent gave me those star hooks and they were just waiting for candles . . . so see . . . your "old junk" suited me perfectly!
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On top of the entertainment center. The shadows kind of mess with your eyes in this one - the blue heart box in the center is the one I got at the hot Treasure Mart.
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I love this one!! A big hug and kiss to you for the ladder!! It's my favorite!

Aruba, Jamaica, Ooh I Wanna Take Ya . . .

I have just returned from Kokomo! Sounds luxurious, doesn't it?

Okay, so my Kokomo was in Indiana . . . and I didn't actually stay in Kokomo (but it was fun to sing the song any time we were there!)

For my birthday, Aaron gave me money and 4 days away with my best bud Amber! What a guy! Amber's parents live in Galveston, IN (just outside of Kokomo) and we decided to spend a few days with them. Amber and I were in serious need of some kid free time! It was so nice to not have to listen to chatter in the back of the van, cut up any one's food, or wake up and make breakfast for 4, etc . . . I have to say that I have the coolest job in the world, but I needed a break! Especially with school starting next week : ) On the other end of the spectrum, Amber's mom has had all of her children out of the house for years and LOVED being able to pamper us! As Amber's dad put it . . . "She's been eating with two feet in the trough this weekend!" So it was a win-win for all of us!

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We left on Sunday after church (we would have left Sunday morning, but Tim Daniels was preaching that morning and I was completely unwilling to miss that! His sermon was awesome!) We arrived Sunday evening and enjoyed a layed back dinner and chat time. The next morning we got to sleep in!!!! : ) We spent Monday shopping at some local places and found some great stuff. Tuesday morning we got up at the crack of dawn to drive 2 hours to Shipshewana, IN. We experienced the flea market of all flea markets, found some fun treasures, and wore ourselves out. We returned to Kokomo for a yummy Pastarrific dinner and ended our evening in our jammies, watching a movie and eating brownies! : )

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The next morning we packed up our bags and our treasures (we even managed to fit it all in the Civic!) and headed home. Overall it was a trip filled with LOTS of laughs, LOTS of shopping, yummy food, and only one trip (going the wrong way) down a one way street. What a blast!

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Thank you hubby! Best birthday present ever! Can we make it an annual event?

Happy Birthday Dear Emma!

I can't believe my little Emma is 7! For some reason, every year I feel like I need to panic right around Emma's birthday. It was no big deal to me that Ali turned 8 . . . but Emma turning 7? I know it's completely illogical . . . but it's a huge shock to the system!


Baby Sheep for Halloween (1 yr)


I have always loved this one of Emma! She tends to be my more melancholy one, so to catch a good grumpy face on her just makes me laugh! (4 yrs)


She looks like such a big girl and I love the toothless grin.

Birthday festivities for today will include Daddy coming home from work early (yeah!!!) and dinner with the Alligoods at Ponderosa (don't ask . . .it was her choice!) Then tonight the Kellers and Mr. Daniels (my old Youth Pastor who is in town from Friday Harbor, WA) are coming over for a visit. In the mean time . . . I have a house to clean! : )

Happy Birthday Emma!

Silly Little Girls

Just a few silly moments from our world . . .

Yesterday morning Meg and Julie came out to me with their sunglasses. Meg said, "Look, I have glasses" Then she picked up the edge of her shirt and started "cleaning" them. What makes this so funny is that she has no idea that she was "cleaning" them. She sees me rubbing my glasses and Ali's, but has no idea why I'm doing it. Then little Monkey-do (who is even more clueless) pulled up her shirt and started rubbing her sunglasses on her belly. I had to grab the camera!
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The great thing about sunglasses pictures is that you can't tell if they are looking at the camera or not. In this case, Meg is nearly choking Julie, but really it just looks like cute sisterly snuggles!
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Julie especially likes to wear her sunglasses on top of her head. Here she is "reading" Brown Bear, Brown Bear to me.

A Hint of Green

Observation: July is a rotten time to try to grow grass in St. Louis!

I know, it doesn't take a genius to figure that out. We really didn't have any choice . . . that was our contractor's job. We will re-seed this fall, but it's nice to at least get a start.


Now I would say there is more green than brown, and it's definitely a step up from what we had when we moved in:

Happy Birthday to Me

Yes . . . I'm offically 31. It's funny how when you're little the anticipation building up to your birthday is almost too much. You wake up at 5:30 b/c you can't wait for the day to begin. I don't remember when that stopped for me, but this morning I completely forgot about my birthday until Ali said something to me.

Happy Birthday Amber!

Usually blog birthday greetings are just posted for our family, but today I must make an exception. (Let's face it . . . she's practically family anyways!) My sweet, awesome, wonderful & amazing friend Amber turns 33 today! This lucky lady got to spend the first half of her day at VBS with 21 busy 3 & 4 year olds! What a trooper!

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I hope you get to soak in the tub with bath salts and candles, eat chocolate and read a good book! Happy Birthday to you . . . and many more!

A Visit with the Schafers

We have just ended a 9 day visit with our friends, Kent & Jenny Schafer. Jenny was a college friend of ours, and she and her husband are now missionaries with New Tribes Mission. They will be leaving in about a month to go to Portugal for a year of language study. Once they have a year of Portuguese under their belts they will head for Mozambique, Africa. There they will (Lord willing) eventually move in with and bring the gospel to an unreached tribe in Northern Mozambique. Our Church supports them, so they were wanting to come and spend some time here getting to know the people of NCC a little better. They stayed with us twice last fall, and this will be their last visit with us for four years (when they expect to be home again on furlough).
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We had such a wonderful time with them! It was a busy week, but they are delightful guests and it's always awesome see their heart for Christ and their desire to bring the gospel to the lost.
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I must mention that my kids were completely nuts! Experiences like this are always humbling for me. My girls LOVE the Schafers and wanted to spend every waking minute with them. Unfortunately, the first few days that they were here, they were really busy and the girls barely saw them. So, when they did see them they shifted right into silly mode. Meg and Julie in particular! If you have kids you certainly know what I mean . . . constant giggling . . . constant "Mr. Schafer! Mrs. Schafer! Look at this!" Etc . . . It was really rather irritating (to me anyway . . Kent and Jenny just laughed at them.) If you ever want to see how rude and inappropriate your kids can really be, just have guests over for a couple days . . . here are a few choice morsels:
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Meg still doesn't close the door when she goes potty. Granted, she just turned four, has 3 sisters and sometimes still needs help wiping her bottom . . . but she didn't understand why Mr. Schafer didn't want to stand in the bathroom and talk to her! Imagine that!
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Julie is fascinated with bodily functions . . . yes, burping and farting in particular! (Who needs boys when you have Meg & Julie!?) Her "silly mode" usually involved pretending to burp or fart, then exclaiming, "I tooted!" followed by and annoying giggle. I know, such a little lady!
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When Julie was first starting to talk (well over a year ago!) she would call Megan "Gegan." It has been ages since she has actually called her that, but poor Mr. & Mrs. Schafer heard that over and over again! "Hey Mr. Schafer! Julie says Gegan!" hee hee hee! or "Misser Schafer! I say Megan Gegan!" Ha Ha Ha! All this time I was wondering why children don't come with a mute button!
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Then there's my particular favorite! While we were at Grant's Farm on Saturday Megan saw a man with a prosthetic leg and proceeded to shout, "Look, he doesn't have a leg!" Ahhh . . . Megan!
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I could go on and on! As the week passed by they seemed to mellow out . . . but let's just say that I am now very aware of some areas that I need to work on with my girls! But as Bruce Keller so eloquently put it . . . "That's why we have company"
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Here are a few highlights from our week:
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Jenny playing the piano while Meg "accompanies" her
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Jenny teaching Emma to play Chopsticks
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Kent reading to the littles . . . they could have done this all week long!
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Action shot! Julie jumping into the Geldmeier's pool
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Meg enjoying the water. (A big step for her - she's deathly afraid of the water!)
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Ali in the pool
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Emma in the pool - wearing floaties after a scare when she realized that she couldn't touch in the middle
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The whole group: Mr. Geldmeier, Emma, Kent, Julie, Me, Jenny, Meg & Ali
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Our group at Grant's farm.
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Like I said, it was a busy week, but a great one. I almost cried when we said goodbye. We look forward to another visit in 4 years!

Brave Little Baby

I don't have a digital video camera, and therefore have never posted video before. Recently we went swimming with our friends, the Geldmeiers. They have a camera that can do short videos and I love this one! (Of course, I'm the mama, so I would probably love video of my kids sleeping!) Julie has been gradually becoming more comfortable in the water over these past several weeks. She now just wears arm floaties and loves to jump in the pool . . . in fact, her entire time in the pool is typically spent doing exactly what you see in the video . . . over and over again! Enjoy!

P.S. The "Mr. Schafer! Mr. Schafer!" that you're hearing in the background is just a sampling of what I've been listening to all week . . . It's a miracle that I haven't heard it in my dreams! And poor Mr. & Mrs. Schafer . . . Certainly they're enjoying some peace and quiet now that they're home! (More on our visit with them coming soon!)

So Much Time . . . So Little to Do . . .

Strike that . . . reverse it!

I just looked at my calendar and realized that we start school 5 weeks from tomorrow. That makes me feel like I need to cry.

Overall our summer has been great. Our move went really well, and we are settled in . . . but I still have stacks of boxes in the basement (mostly books - which will need to be unpacked here soon to start preparing for school!) I feel like our move has left us scrambling from one event to the next and I hate that feeling. I'm in the middle of one of those right now . . .

On Saturday evening we have our friends, The Schafers (missionaries that our church supports who are headed to Mozambique), coming to stay with us for 9 days. We are really looking forward to having them here, but our Fourth of July weekend left us in a frazzled mess that we need to recover from before we'll be welcoming anyone into our home. Thankfully, they are easy guests and a joy to have around!

On top of that, Aaron has the high school summer retreat this weekend. Jason is going too (he is no longer the youth pastor, and therefore doesn't do retreats anymore, but some of the seniors requested him as the speaker this summer.) I was totally excited b/c that means that I get to spend the weekend with Amber - a tradition that went on for several years until Jason was no longer in youth ministry. Now it's a bummer b/c when Aaron goes on those retreats, Amber has her hubby home with her . . . it just isn't the same! Anyways . . . Yeah! I get to hang with Amber this weekend.

Here is where I need to mention that my calendar has been sadly neglected this summer. I've just been keeping track of things in my head (since my calendar was packed for a while). Well, now I'm paying for that! : ) All of these things that were once in the distant future are now here and I'm realizing that many of them are overlapping! Here's our July:

3rd: Slumber Party at Jessica's
4th: 4th of July
5th: Baby shower and Meg's Bday celebration at my parent's house
6th: Church, then lunch out with the Pattons for Meg's birthday, evening pool party at the Delaney's
7th: Start getting my house back in order, evening with Aaron's Grandma
8th: Meg's actual birthday, dinner with the Alligood's at McDonald's
9th: More cleaning!
10th: Pay Day! Grocery shopping, redo Missions Bulletin Board at Church
11th: Aaron leaves. Day and night spent with Amber
12th: Afternoon spent swimming at Jodi's house. Schafer's to arrive sometime after dinner.
13th: Church followed by a mandatory VBS meeting (with no husband to take the kids!)
14th-17th: Soccer camp. 9:00-11:30 IN BRENTWOOD! We have recently decided to nix this one. Time to breath a sigh of relief and enjoy my company! Also time to finish up some VBS planning.
18th: Hosting a get-together at our place for some families from church to hang out with the Schafers.
19th: Recover!
20th: Church, then VBS decorating afterwards
21st-25th: VBS
23rd: Amber's birthday
24th: VBS Parents Night
25th: My birthday and VBS cleanup
26th: Recover

I'll stop there. You get the idea. From the time that VBS ends, I have 2 1/2 weeks until school starts. Yikes! The sad thing is that even though we are totally booked for this month, we are looking forward to all of it . . . let's just hope that we have the stamina to make it through!

Happy Birthday Meg!

My #3 is officially four today! It's hard to believe. This morning I walked into her room and said, "Happy Birthday Meg!" to which she responded, "Happy Birthday!" She's a hoot!

6 months: Look at that sweet baby grin!


2 years: Nothing like a yummy thumb caked with dirt!


Current: What a big girl!
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Sweet natured. Always smiling and laughing. Very thoughtful. Hilarious sense of humor. Answers to (and is proud of) the name "Meganator." Frequently heard saying "I hope you have a good time, Mommy!" when I leave.
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A few weeks ago Meg came up to Aaron and I and said "You don't need more of me, right?" We were kind of puzzled by this comment, but Aaron responded with "No Meg, one is enough" She then put on her cute, matter-of-fact smile and said, "Yeah, because I'm just right." She hit the nail right on the head . . . Just right!
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Happy Birthday Meganator!

Fun on the Fourth

The fourth is now over and I have 132 pictures to show for it! : ) I won't post them all, but we have some cuties to show off!
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This year our fourth was altered a bit by a slumber party that I went to the night before with Ali & Emma (yes, the mommies stayed too!) It was great fun, but the birthday girl woke up in the night with some bad growing pains, which woke up Ali, Emma and Karis. By the time I got to sleep it was 4:00 am! My days of being able to stay up so late are long gone, so it meant that we all needed a nap the next day. (Of course, Julie would be the only one who didn't sleep, and it was obvious!!) SO . . . my plans of getting to the Pattons by 3:00 and then to the Alligoods shortly after 4:00 were completely unreasonable. We only stayed at the Pattons for half an hour and were still an hour and 15 minutes late to the Alligoods. Oh well . . . That's just life . . . This year at the Alligoods house we were treated by being able to have Grammy and Papa in town (Amber's parents from Indiana). They are like Grandparents to my kids, and it's always a treat to have them with us!
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This year for 4th of July T-shirts (a Patton family tradition) Amber and I did tie dye with the kids. There's something about those bright shirts that just begs for group pictures. So, after a yummy dinner, we headed out to the back yard. Of course getting 7 kids to look at the same time can take a while, but we managed it! (Praise the Lord for my Canon Rebel! So wonderful to be able to take 30 pictures in the time I could normally take 3!) Unfortunately I completely spaced on the bug spray, so today my kids look like they've been eaten alive!

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After group shots I went for some individual candids . . . Aren't they cute? : )

Aubrey
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Julie
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Jonah
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Emma
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Meg
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Karis
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While it's no secret that I don't do fireworks (there's just something about having a kid that's already blind in one eye that makes me a little extra sensitive!), we still like to do the kid-friendly stuff. So after Julie went to bed (at 6:45 due to that missed nap!) we went out front to watch Mr. Alligood do the black snakes (the kids waffled between "That's awesome, it looks like it's growing right out of the ground" and "That's really kind of creepy!") We also did the little whipper snappers and the party poppers. Aubrey and Meg were hilarious with the whipper snappers - they couldn't throw them hard enough to make them snap!

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Next on the agenda: dessert! Mrs Alligood and Grammy made red, white and blue popsicles - what a treat!

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After dessert the kids all settled down to watch a movie, so the grown ups could enjoy some peace : ) The Eureka fireworks were set to start at 9:00, so we headed out a bit early for Sparklers. Here's where I had a blast with my camera. I have a nighttime portrait setting that captured some really cool sparkler action!

Ali
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Jonah
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Meg
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Karis
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Emma
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Aubrey (with Jason)
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And here's Jason having fun with the camera! He almost got in a full figure 8!
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Then last, but not least we have the real fireworks! The kids had to be down in the yard to really see them, but they thought it was awesome!