Well, we celebrated three birthdays this month. Allen turned 19. JP made a big pan of pot roast with potatoes. We had individual size sparkling grape juice and a pudding pound cake for dessert. Since Allen eats us out of house and home we bought him his own stash of snacks.
My real true loves that I celebrated, however, were my favorite boys...Ichabod and Toby. Ick turned two on April 22 and Tobers turned two on April 24. They have me wrapped firmly around their little paws.
Last Saturday I watched my babies while T & M went to a concert. We had a lot of fun playing with Legos, reading, watching a movie, laughing about Icky, splashing in the bath and painting toenails and fingernails. Baby boy is talking up a storm. I only get what he's saying about 40% of the time but MJ gets it 100%. It's amazing how she can interpret. My little girl said so many funny things. "Tee, Momma said you couldn't snore with me very long tonight." Translated: You can't snuggle with me very long (she doesn't sleep if someone stays with her but she'll try her hardest to convince you she will).
MJ: "Tee, did you paint your nails for Easter?"
Me: "No, Baby, I didn't."
MJ: Her eyes huge as saucers, "You DIDN'T? WHHHHYYYY?"
MJ: "Tee, you have a bump. What is it?"
Me: "It's like a freckle."
MJ: "I don't have any of those. I'm not old enough."
She sang songs with me after Bubba went to bed. I'll post a couple but I have more. Every time she sang, she wanted me to record her. I LOVE my kiddos. Such excellent medicine.
Of course, I can't forget the furry babies...Sadie and Daisy. Their favorite time is when the babies are down for the night so they can have their "people" to themselves. They are every bit as snuggly as the kids. And, finally, our art work. Whew, we were busy!
The gaps between my blog posts are getting longer and longer. It is because I'm working so much, taking grad courses and, now, looking for a new job. I FINALLY QUIT! I couldn't handle the working conditions and unethical behavior any longer. I knew I wasn't happy but I had no idea how much it was weighing on me until I gave my notice. Immediately it felt like a load had been lifted. I have very little idea of what I'm going to do but I feel confident God is guiding my steps. Whatever He has for me will be the best thing I could do. In the meantime, I'm juggling my various responsibilities and today it kind of struck me as funny, how diverse my life is right now. As my students are in chapel, I'm brushing up on our Physics lesson...Space and Time Relativity. At the same time, my mind keeps wandering to the lesson I will teach online tomorrow night to a preK student -- how to pronounce the letter Bb. Once that's done, it's back to grad work. My brain is all over the place -- from the mind-boggling concepts of space/time travel to the simplicity of early language acquisition. I have to pray just to keep it all straight in my head. Anyway, I'm thankful for this adventure and for the peace and contentment God has provided at this time.
I've been away from the blog longer than ever before. Life has been so busy. When I returned home from Florida I was really sick, then I had dr. and dental appointments like crazy. I'm working 60+ hours a week and started grad school in January. I have two students living with me. One is quite independent while the other is clingy. I bought a new car. I had bluetooth installed and am getting a sunroof next week. So...that's life in a nutshell. I thought I'd put a few pictures up from the last couple of days. We celebrated the Chinese New Year last week and had lots of food. For once, even Allen was full. Yesterday was Kira's birthday so we had several dishes from our local teriyaki place, individual-size sparkling cider and cornbread for her cake (her request). Today in Physics we did a center of gravity lab. I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures but we balanced two forks on a toothpick and then balanced that toothpick on another one. We also balanced on the edge of a cup and burned the remaining piece of wood away so they were balanced strictly at the point of contact. The kids loved it. That's all for now.
I have to break this post down into a couple parts. It was a very long, beautiful day filled with sunshine, a good picnic, exploring an old village and wandering through botanical gardens (during the day and again at night with the Christmas lights). In between we had dinner at The Olive Garden. I'm just posting pictures from Heritage Village today.
