Her First Date!

Yes...she is only seven but we decided she was old enough for her first date. Well, that is her first Daddy-Daughter date. It was planned about 2 weeks ago and took place last Tuesday evening. She counted the days...she planned her outfit. She was soooo excited. She even told Daddy that he could wear his "wedding suit" (the tux he wears when he officiates weddings). He said that we were trying to set high standards with this date but he opted for some slacks and a golf shirt.
Daddy took her to Outback where she ordered a kid's sirloin and baked potato. Then they went to the mall. Dinner and Shopping...what more could a girl want? (Hint, hint, Honey!) She got a new purse and a cute little t-shirt. John sent a text to me during the evening that said "this is the coolest thing I have ever done!"
We are currently planning Dynamo's first Mother-Son date. He thinks we should go to Burger King but I am hoping I can coax him into Chili's. Spunky wants to know when her date is going to be. We have apparently started something here.

Two sweets!

Aaaww!

Right back at you!

A pretty pose

The Dynamo hugging big Sisi good bye.

Spunky didn't want to be left out of the action, either.

So excited!!!

Nine Months of Dimples

We went for Dimple's 9 month well check last week. (he will be 10 months on Oct. 13th). He is in the 97 % for height and weight. He was 21 lbs 14 ounces. He is a big boy full of joy and laughter. Everywhere we go, people marvel at how good he is. He loves people and has yet to meet a stranger. This week in Ocala he has been passed around to so many people and smiled at them all. Here he is standing at the front door of the lake house where we have the amazing privelege of staying. Dimples had his first Cheez-it this week. After every bite he had this reaction...
or this reaction. And he kept wanting more. It was so cute!! I think his tastebuds were having a party!!!Because he was sooo big the doctor said we should encourage him to drink water with his meals and cut down on the formula. He was totally into his cup.

And here is my lil' pumpkin with his biggest Sisi.

Blog tweaks and Bulletin Boards!?!

What is with me lately? I have been crazy about messing with my blog. I found a website that tells you how to change the html code so you can have 3 columns instead of 2. ( http://tips-for-new-bloggers.blogspot.com/2007/02/three-columns-blogger-template.html ) It was fun for me to look at the code and mess around with it a little. I took courses in grad school on how to create and teach online courses so I am familiar with a little of what the code looks like. I understand some of it. At least I am not afraid to get in there and mess things up. Sometimes at TFA, I would tell our tech guys that I was just comfortable enough to get things messed up really bad but at least I wasn't afraid to try new things. And besides we always kept a backup, right? I was actually on staff there when we first got computers in our classrooms. I was one of the first to start doing my lesson plans on the computer (in Excel), I spent MANY, MANY hours helping other teachers figure computers out. We had some amazing teachers who hadn't been around computers very much in the beginning. But like all great teachers, they were willing to try new things. Then I got the privelege to work in the tech department. It was fun offically training the teachers and getting them excited about using the computers in their teaching.

I am one of those people that used to put up her bulletin boards and then take them down again and rearrange them. SICK! I know. Especially when I worked at TFA and we changed our literature theme EVERY month and therefore changed all of our bulletin boards EVERY MONTH. Like August was alway the rainforest...picture paper vines hanging from the ceiling and all my bulletin boards coordinated with the theme. YES...Bible bulletin board that month for the character trait of self control had a tree limb with a Chamealeon on it (I think it was an animal in the rain forest). My "Job" board was the "Hop to it" with Frogs and lily pads. There are some really big lily pads in the Rain Forest. I had a book with pictures of them. In November I think we read The Mouse and the Motorcycle...so mice, fall, thanksgiving. It was a cute combination. In the fall I would hang all kinds of magazine and calendar pictures of what fall REALLY looks like. As Floridians we don't have a clue. I felt it my duty to educate my dear sweet second graders about fall...even though I haven't ever lived anywhere that you truly experience it either. I would stick up tonz of construction paper orange, red, brown, and yellow leaves all over the room. In December I remember doing dinosaurs. I actually remember having a poster of a dinosaur dressed in a Santa suit. Shhh!!! I had LOTS of baby Jesus stuff up and a REASON for the SEASON bulletin board. Anyway...It was a sickness...the room decorating. I guess I kind of miss bulletin boards with homeschooling. I do hang posters up on the windows in our school room. And every now and then I go look in my files and see what I have left from teaching that I can hang up. That reminds me I have a bunch of laminated pics of fall I could put up now. (Can you believe after 10 years they still look good...gotta love that laminating machine and the librarian-she did the laminating!!!) Forget seeing out the windows. Hee,hee! We don't have much wall space to hang stuff in the school room.

So you get the picture. You would think I would be crazy organized and decorated like this in my home...oh, well...I suppose I am venting that energy to my blog. It bothers me that I don't have all the fonts and backgrounds coordinating like I really want. I keep thinking if I had the software I could create these backgrounds and stuff that I find for free. But why? Why do I feel the need to spend the time doing this. I mean some people read it but WHO really cares what it looks like except ME, ME, ME!

I should go do dishes or maybe go sit in the same room with my hubbie...he did get home from New Mexico today. He's really tired though and has serious jet lag!

Falling!

Fall....in Florida that means it is somewhere in the mid-80's. At least in our backyard we have lots of shade so it is really nice. In El Paso...John says it was in the 60's on Friday.

Friday we played outside all afternoon. It was so relaxing. The kids really had fun until we had to scurry and clean everything up when the lawn guys got here. But praise God they bless us with free lawn care! They can come whenever they need to.

Spunky sat in my lap and told me Saturday morning that she wanted me to go away and stay in a hotel and Dad could come back. She said she didn't like me anymore. We talked for a little while and she did admit to loving me and said that I didn't have to leave. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that she wanted pancakes for breakfast and I just wasn't up for that right then. So I figured I should try and make things a little fun. So it ended up being "backwards day" for us, as Lady declared. I told them we could have pancakes for dinner and that led to having dinner for breakfast. Yes, we ate cheese pizza bagel bites for breakfast and had chocolate chip cookies for dessert. The kids thought it was fun. I did slide back into my slave driver role and we worked awhile on cleaning up around the house before lunch and then napped. After that we hung outside playing with the neighbor boys...one of my kids' favorite things to do on the planet.
I found some Black Widow spider sacks and the mommy spider. ICK!!! They were hiding on the bottom side of Dynamo's little plastic basketball hoop. I decided to be a big girl and take care of them. UGH! I am okay with killing bugs typically but Black Widow spiders FREAK me out. Anyway, I sprayed them with wasp killer spray and smushed the mommy with a stick. Then after texting John for some wisdom on what to do for the egg sacks I used the stick to plop them in a ziplock bag and put them in the trash. Now the dump can deal with them. I should probably do some research on destroying them. I have the heebie-jeebies just thinking about it. I should probably save that research for sometime other than when I actually want to be asleep.

We went for a walk around the block and stopped to chat with some other neighbors. While we were chatting, Dynamo was pushing Dimples around and around and around in the stroller on the asphalt road. And I am sure you can see where this is going...one turn a bit too sharp and the stroller some how ended on top of Dimples. He has some VERY minor pink scrapes on his face and hand and knee. I felt so bad. He was OK very quickly... it was not as bad as it sounds but I am going to hate to have to explain this one to the nursery tomorrow. It goes very nicely with the small slightly purple bump on his forhead that he got from bumping the ceramic tile on the floor when he was pulling up on something yesterday. I suppose it may be Dimples' first fall but I know it won't be his last. Ha, ha, ha...how punny!

Thankful 25-

32.For Dimple's rolls on his legs, hee, hee! The only time in life that big ole' chunky thighs are actually cute. ( 9 month well check today...97 percentile in height AND in weight- Big BOY!)
31.For a 3 year old that FINALLY goes potty and wears big girl panties!!! Go Spunky!
30.For a blogger friend that took care of Lady's tooth that fell out at her very first ballet class. (THANK YOU JONATHA!!!!)
29.For Madison Street Baptist Church, where John spoke on Tuesday and Wednesday.
28.For hearts that will spend eternity in heaven now!!!
27. For the way God intertwines the hearts of believers. (He did this at MSBC).
26. For kindred spirits.
25. For cool wind in Boston and now in Florida!

Opposites!

The European Space Agencies online publication on March 5, 2008 reported that "The new observations show that, despite the differences in size and distance from the Sun, Mars and Venus are surprisingly similar." I am curious what the author of the book, "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" would think of that statement.

John and I made the trip to Boston to see UCF play Boston College and to have a romantic weekend away.

Today, as John and I prepared for a day in Boston, I would have thought that Mars and Venus weren't nearly far enough apart or could ever be different enough to encompass the differences between us. Yes, I married my polar opposite in so many ways and it was very evident today. I had the thought to go ride one of the trolley excursions with scripted guides. I didn't want to miss out on any of the things you are "supposed to do" while in Boston. John however wasn't too concerned about what one is "supposed to do" and wanted to take the car and make our own tour. If you know us very well, doesn't that sum us up? Me overly concerned about the appropriate-ness of EVERYTHING and John out to experience everything to the FULLEST that God would allow. How did the two of us ever get together?

Well we did end up having a GREAT day...at least after arguing in the Harvard Square. How many people can say they took part in a debate at Harvard? We wandered through Harvard's Campus and touched the toe of the statue of the guy HArvard was named after. Not sure why we touched the toe but everyone else was doing it and that spot on the statue was rubbed shiny. We ate lunch in an Irish Pub and then headed into downtown.

We ended up spending quite a bit of time in Boston Common. We road the Swan boats there. If you have read E.B.White's "Trumpet of the Swan" this is a part of that book. That was a part of our curriculum when I taught second grade. It was the last day of the year that the boats ran and they actually locked our boat up for the season when we got off of it. We saw the "Make Way for the Ducklings" sculpture there too. (Another children's book.)

We walked around town for awhile and then drove over to Fenway Park. John was in awe. We found a little bar that actually was inside the park and you could stand down at field level. I think he will HAVE to come back someday and experience a game there now.

Well, we didn't see all the historical things that you SHOULD see when you are here. We did see some of that. But we did see things that mean something to us and had a great time today.

It is kind of like our life, I suppose. We have NEVER done things how everyone else has done it. When other young couples were settling into buying houses and having babies, John was finishing school and then stepping into youth ministry. After we finally bought our house and started having our babies, then we stepped out into a faith based ministry. We have experienced some amazing things in life by walking the path less traveled. But somehow I still keep trying to pull us back there. I am sure glad I married this man...this man that pulls me out of the box. I would have had a pretty boring life, I think, if I hadn't. I guess opposites can enjoy life together.

Check!!! Check!!! Check!!!

TODAY....
Dining room reclaimed from being school room...CHECK!
Book shelf moved and items reorganized in back room which is now the school room again since it had been the baby's bedroom for a while...CHECK!
Laundry washed and dried...CHECK!
Hubby's slideshow presentation created...CHECK!
School taught...CHECK!
Dishes done...CHECK!
Floors swept...CHECK!
Baby toys and pack-n-play sanitized...CHECK!
Kids fed multiple times...CHECK!
Baths given...CHECK!
Spunky successfully wore panties all day...CHECK!
List to do tomorrow written...CHECK!
Took shower and changed from last night's pajamas into tonight's pajamas...CHECK!!!
I was too busy to get dressed. SHHH!!! I kept the blinds closed. And there would just be more laundry if I had to get dressed just to sweat in my clothes that I was going to stay inside wearing all day, right? I need to take notes from Layton Family's blog and think about taking a shower in the morning and put makeup on. At least Hubby wasn't home since 10 a.m.
Off to fold clothes and see if there is anything else to add to tomorrow's list. There always is.
Oh...I think I here Hubbie coming in from church. He is currently serving as the interim youth pastor at a church about an hour and a half away. He called earlier and said 6 souls saved tonight. WOOHOO!!! CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!
THAT is something worth checking off the list!