The Long Holiday

Well, we had a good Labor day holiday, but it was busy and there were disasters. My aunt and uncle came up from Texas and all the rest of my family lives down there, so we did a lot of shopping and eating out and we celebrated Bella's birthday - one of her three parties. She got everything she wanted and she was so excited. She told me she couldn't wait until we got home so she could open up her gifts. We got to Joliet fine, but when we were coming home from getting dinner out and we were on the highway, the car started to over-heat and then the police came and helped us out like five minutes later and then a tow truck one minute later. Yikes. They towed it almost to my parents house - they live right off the highway and we got it worked on a couple of days later. I hate spending money on car repair. Yuck! We were late getting home - we hadn't intended on staying so long. These next couple of weeks are going to be busy, like everyone else I guess. The girls enjoyed spending time with Grammy and Pop and Bella already misses them. She didn't want to come home with us:( Of course, she loves her Aunt Carrie and hero worships her. She gets the biggest reaction from Bella. I know how special aunties can be. I'm so happy for family and feel so blessed to have such a wonderful one. I wished we weren't all separated from one another by such distance. Bella managed to hurt herself everyday we were away and is covered in scratches and bumps. She had more than Natalie for a change. I'll be doing their pictures when ever she doesn't look like she's back from war! I hope everyone else had a good holiday weekend and school started off without too many hitches.

Out of the Mouths of Babes!

OK, this update is going to be a painfully honest update, because I owe it to Bella. Last night she got in trouble about six times: not cleaning up her room, ling that she did, bringing glasses full of water into her room and dumping them all over herself and the carpet - the third warning in three days, not going to bed when she was suppose to and not staying in bed when she was put there. Well, Aaron and I were frustrated with her and I was getting angrier and angrier and then Aaron and I got into it about that and other of life's frustrations, in front of her, while we were cleaning up her disaster of a room. The next day I was telling Bella how much I loved her and she was hugging me and she said "mom, if I give you a big hug, will you promise to never fight with Daddy again? I don't like the words you say when you fight with him". Then she proceeded to tell me if I would just wave my hands side to side "like this", she said as she imitated what looked like the hula dance. "Your anger will just go away". I'll have to remember that;) Out of the mouths of babes! That was quite a reality check for me. I have been battling with my Meniere's disease all summer and it makes me very tired, on top of which, the medicine I take to help me feel better does the same thing. Sometimes I just get so discouraged, feeling miserable so much of the time and I take it out on my family. I will definitely be working on that! Later after nap, she was having her snack and was talking about her snow globe she got for Christmas - it was only a very tiny little thing, but recently Natalie Jane broke it and Bella was pretty sad. Bella said "I really miss my snow globe" and I said "why don't you ask for one for Christmas" and she said "I don't think Santa does those". Natalie learned how to say no and Bella among other important words. She's showing a stubborn streak a mile long and keeps throwing small fits. It's been a taxing week with that little one!

Funny Little Girls

I always wanted a little girl - always - so let me just say that I am over the moon that I have two and one's with hilarious personalities as well. I feel very blessed and lucky although I don't really believe in luck, you know what I mean all the same. The other night Aaron went up to put Bella to bed and there she was already in bed with her helmet, knee pads and elbow pads on. Aaron asked her what she was doing and she said "they are for in case I fall out of the bed - I won't get hurt". What a funny little person. She's always so cautious and so safe. I had to fill out a form for her school asking questions about her personality, fears and likes and I asked her what are you afraid of and she said "I'm afraid someone will take me and I am afraid of bridges". Well, we tried to talk about stranger danger with her without scarring her, because she is such a friendly, sweet and trusting little girl, but She thinks about things well after our discussions. How much is too much? I just don't seem to know. The other fear she mentioned was funny to me, because it is my fear. I despise driving over bridges above water. I don't ever remember telling her about this fear and since she was born, I have made it a point to now speak about it out loud. I don't want her to have learned fears. I want her to be braver and more sure of herself than I was when I was little. Natalie is funny too, but in a naughty way. I could write a book about her naughtiness, but she's still cute and lovable, so that is how I get through the day - with endless kisses and hugs from this little person who continues to show us who she is every new day.

This weekend

Well, my parents came up to visit this weekend and we had a blast. Bella liked swimming in the hotel pool and even Natalie Jane got in! I finished a couple of stained glass projects I was working on, so I have a nice sense of satisfaction and Aaron and I got to go on another date this weekend! I'm excited to watch women's gymnastics at the Olympics and share it with Bella. Natalie learned that the remote does indeed change channels on the TV, much to the dismay of Bella:) I found naughty Natty feeding fat Bosley dog biscuits through the hole in the screen. She was going back for seconds when I caught her. I think she is his new best friend!

What a Great Summer

We were just taking advantage of this great summer weather with the girls and I was thinking of how blessed we were this season. The temp. outside has never been too hot for more than three or four days in a row when a nice cool breeze would blow in and it would be comfortable again. It has rained quite a few nights and we have not had to water the grass at all and it's now August 3rd! We have never had a summer like that. Aaron burned the grass accidentally with weed killer, so today we are trying to revive it, but I am so thankful that we got exactly what we have needed in the months when it is usually so hot you don't want to set foot outside for weeks at a time. We finished our softball season and we again are the league champs. We didn't come in first in the tournament yesterday, but I think most of us were ok with that since we didn't want to be outside in the sun for 8 or 9 hours. Five was enough for us. We had fun and that really in the end, is all that counts! Praise God not one of us got injured this season. Not even accident-prone me! We missed the annual family reunion on Aaron's side this year because of the tournament. We are looking forward to next years already. I am getting better at my glass cutting and that is also very exciting. Creatively it is very exhilerating to conquer another challenge that I thought I never would never be able to. I wish it weren't such an expensive hobby. You have to practice a lot to get better and glass and supplies aren't cheap. I'm so happy that Aaron's mom has given her time to help me learn this skill. I bet everyone can guess what there are getting for christmas:) Well, Natalie Jane said her first sentence! When my mom told her she loved her over the phone she said "I wub you". She said it back to me the next day and then I was sure she really did say it and it wasn't wishful thinking. She's such a sweet-heart. Bella is getting ready for preschool and we got all her form in and paid for the year and so now we are looking forward to what the school year will bring. I'm sure Natalie will enjoy having me to herself three mornings a week. She's a different kid when she has me to herself. We put the slide in the pool after church today and the girls took turns sliding into the water. Nat loved it! She learned to pull herself out of the water and get out over the big inflated side of the whale pool all by herself! She never seases to amaze me by her independence. We also learned this summer that the girls love freeze pops. All of these summer-time treats that we take advantage of will soon be a distant memory before we know it. Time goes by so fast! Ok, well I think I solved the mouse problem and I didn't have to do anything myself. I was painting the basement hallway a few days ago and I took the vent plate off to paint around it and I found a dead mouse. I think it's the one Zoe has been smelling in the vent, so I am thankful he died of his own doing and I didn't have to make that desicion for him. Whew! God is so good! Take care everyone.

There's a Mouse in the House

OK, bad day part two! All was well when Aaron called this morning from the airport to check in on us and I reported the everything was fine, but I spoke too soon. A few minutes later I kept hearing a strange noise upstairs and I yelled up to Bella and asked if Natalie was playing upstairs with her and she said "no, but Zoe is and she is ripping up my carpet. (Those who don't know - Zoe is our dog) Well, I go running upstairs to find Zoe tearing up the carpet with her teeth and claws. Apparently she smelled what I can only imagine as a mouse coming from our vent and was ripping the vent out of the floor along with our carpet and floor boards. (scream!) The carpet is burbur (spell?)and is a huge mess. Bella's room is the largest room in our house with carpet, so there's no way I'm replacing it. Ugggg! So after I clean up that mess, I go downstairs and notice there is a huge rainbow sized scratch on the wood floor by the toys - probably from Natalie and it didn't come off when I rubbed it. Ugggggggggggg again!!!!!!!!!! A little while later I'm trying to make lunch and hand Natalie her sippy cup, which she discovered did not have a leak lock in her cup and proceeded to put her cup upside down and walk around the perimeter of our kitchen table and dump the whole thing full of sticky milk all over the floor, so I flip out and start trying to wipe up and then Natalie slips in it and hits her head and starts screaming and I jump up trying to help her and hit my head on the table where I decided it was time for Aaron to be home before I checked myself into Pine Rest (cookoo). Later, Bella didn't shut her door and Zoe started ripping the floor up again. (she was finally let out of her bed for the day). It was my fault, but Aaron had just gotten home and it was chaotic.Well he's home now and I got to go to Bible study which I really needed and things are calm now, but given my love for animals, I've never allowed Aaron to kill any rodent or pest which has taken up residence in our house, so I'm not sure what to do about the mouse situation. Yikes.

More Weekends with Aaron away!

Ok, Aaron had to go away on short notice this time, and I had one of the worst Mommy moments ever. Thank you Jessica for taking Bella to dinner with you Friday and to the museum on Saturday. It was a great help! We had a house-warming party at Aaron's cousin's house and visited Aaron's parents where Bella got to swing in the coolest swing ever and she loved playing with Buster and Penny their dogs. We came home and Bella was letting the dogs out and I ran to the bathroom and come back running to crying, where aparently Natalie had climbed up on the table and fell off on her head and has a goose egg. Then she proceeded to hit her head two more times in a row on the table because she didn't want me looking at it. She was screaming, the dogs were barking, Bella was crying about not getting her way and I was trying to get dinner ready. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!! I had a major melt down of the screaming variety and surprised everyone for a moment. They all just looked on at me in awe. Anyway, after dinner I tried to print something off the computer and Natalie was under - foot, so I put my glass full of Coke up on my glass shelves and a couple of minutes the top shelf gave way and all the glass shelves full of glass vases and my glass of pop caming crashing to the floor which Natalie decided was a good time to go running through it, as well as the dogs. This one I handled much better though. I washed the glass out of Nat's feet, which she handled just fine and then everyone went to bed! The end! Today was better, we had our church picnic and Bella got to ride horses and jump in the moon walk. Natalie was in good spirits and it was a beautiful day - a little windy, but cool. Thanks again to Beth and Randy for helping watch the girls and thanks to Trevor I was able to fill our plates and get everyone to their seats with little fuss. I just got to plant a bunch of things Aaron's mom gave me for my garden, so I feel like the weekend is getting better and the girls are napping so I even have time to rest before I start on my next stain-glass project. What would I ever do without my friends- God bless you all!