Monday -- McDonald's

Our routine for Monday is Daddy takes her to preschool and Granny picks her up, then takes her to McDonald's. I meet them there and have to be the mean Mommy when I drag her away from the play area. Granny told me that right before she leaves school, the teacher leads them in "Go Cats" while sitting in their circle to be picked up -- how cute is that! Lib is really into walking Cougar right now -- I can't wait for it to cool back down! I usually do the morning walk before we head to school. Daddy gets the evening walk, but they are learning to be a bit more careful since she ran head on into a truck (in the driveway, silly!) They have just dropped Coug off and are headed out for some more running -- she wears herself out before bedtime! I may try to get her those NB running shoes again, since she won't wear anything but tennies for her walks. This afternoon she did the sweetest thing. We are still working on poo-poo on the potty but she sneaked a nighttime diaper to do her business in. She climbed up on the changing table since I have that set up in the baby's room now at the Aria house and I cleaned her up. She went to change clothes (any excuse will do for her) and I headed back downstairs to read my book, In The Likeness of God by Philip Yancey and Dr. Paul Brand, which I highly recommend. I noticed it was quiet and when I went to check on her, she had crawled into her daybed and put herself to sleep for a nap -- what a darling! She did wake up early this morning -- 6:15. Bobby was up so she said, "If someone is up, I am up!" (oh, brother!) He is not usually up that early but had to leave for the golf course at seven. They won the scramble by the way -- can't wait to see the ugly golf shirt he got (his words not mine.) Back to our potty training issue, I read a great tip in one of my parenting magazine. To get her daughter to go potty, she told her she got to call a princess. What a great idea -- which one of you wants to be my go-to girl to call and pretend to be a princess -- hopefully she won't recognize you voice. Tonight she did a litte business in the potty and that was the first thing she said, "I get to call Belle!" Please help, we will be calling soon! TTFN, akml

First Day of Autumn

I realized I haven't posted in over a month -- please forgive. I haven't had my usual time on Saturdays but yesterday was the first time in along time that Libby has gone with her Granny for their usual Saturday playdate. Rather than fiddle with the computer, I spent the day at the Twin Pines house doing laundry, which has overtaken Libby's playroom, and catching up on Tivo since we don't have television at the Aria house. It was the absolute best day! Our friends from OH were in with their daughter so they came over to watch the UK v Arkansas game -- which was great for the Big Blue Nation! We were all into the game but took our respective turns checking on the girls but when they got ready to leave, we all made our way upstairs to find two little Indian girls -- they had marked on each other's faces and arms with Crayola markers! I tried to get a picture with Libby's digital camera but it was too dark and since I had our camera at the other house, a golden opportunity slipped by! Sorry about that. I will try to make a fresh start with this blog -- it is a new season. Here's to fresh starts! kml

Tuesday's Two Minute Wrap up

9:00 AM Libby's Three Year Old Check Up Weight: almost 30 pounds (the poor girl did not want to stand on the scale -- who can blame her! When I tried to demostrate, the darn thing read 145.5 -- surely not! I was holding my big VB Rooster purse which surely weighed a few pounds and I had on my big honking heeled & open toed sandals (no idea it was going to rain!) Height -- no standing against the wall either so we had to lie her flat on the examination table and make head/toe marks to measure the old fashioned way. Not quiet 40 inches. Blood Pressure -- her first time, how precious! 88/50 would somebody tell me what those numbers mean, please? Also for the first time she had to wear a robe which she did not want to do either. It wasn't very soft so I can understand. Luckily at the grocery I had bought a five dollar nurse/doctor kit and put away in the closet for such a time as this. She enjoyed playing with that during the fifteen minutes we waited back in the room! If you asked her, probably her favorite thing was getting her hand stamped after she was done. That made her day -- much more so than a sticker even. We pay, she gets a lollipop to put in her medical kit and then we are off to run to the car in the rain -- yippee! I had my students fill out a questionnair that Libby had gotten from Great Escape and one question was "What do you like to do in the rain?" and one of my precious high schoolers said "play -- of course!" how darlin' 9:30 Drop Libby off at MaMa's and head to Life Group at SCC Love these ladies! I just have to share about our answers to prayer: Janet's sister in law has had a turn for the better after looking like she was not going to be able to go home for awhile and Martha, who is doing the job of three people after two have left, we prayed for rain so that she could come to LG on Tuesday mornings. (She was a pro golfer so she does give lessons in the rain and therefore can come to group) She called during group to say she couldn't be there but to keep praying for rain on Tuesdays! We all had a great laugh. 11:10 drive thru Fazzoli's to get lunch on my way to school 11:30 wander the halls since the students are have a Leadership Team meeting in my room noon -- Study Hall -- Can you pray that they would open their Assignment notebooks at the beginning of class so that I could go around the room and check their homework? They did work well today on their homework -- six boys, no girls. I know God has been laying on my heart to adopt a son but somehow I think this teaching job is that answer. 1:00 sit in on Science class -- I really don't know anything about science! Classifications of living and non-living things -- you try it! 2:00 US History -- Yesterday was Benjamin Harrison's birthday (8.20.1833 i think) our 23rd president from 1889-1893 so we read about him in a little fun facts book I had. When he became president, there were 38 states in the union. By the time he left office, six other states had joined -- can you name them? Also what sport was invented during his term in office? (hint: very big in our state) Also, today's fun fact was Hawaii joined the union on this day in 1959 -- who was president? I am learning alot -- are they? 3:15 head out to pick up Libby 4:00 she falls asleep in the car on the way home from MaMa & PaPa's I read my Daily Chronological bible, eat a snack and flip through the mail, and then I veg. For some reason, I am stressed about school today. The house is a mess, dinner was soupy and it shouldn't have been. Did I make the right decision going back to teach? Too early to tell. I'll check back in on a good day when I am not plagued with doubts. I tried to download the pictures from my Mom's camera of my trip this weekend. Well, her memory card is different than mine and it didn't work. That's the reason for no pictures and just a journal entry. 8:30 signing off for now, akml

Hi-5 Live!

Libby is worn out after a long fun day of singing & dancing with her Hi-5 friends.


Libby NOT wanting her picture made! She is holding her Jump N Jive with Hi-5 cd book and jup-jup. This is all we listen to in the car now -- please pray for me!

Kimmee reading a story -- the show is almost over!

Libby hugging Jup-Jup during intermission -- just starting to get the hang of this concert thing!

This is Jenn & Chats, her second favorite characters.

This is Kimmee, her favorite character. You'll see more pictures of her, but not with Jup-Jup her sidekick.

Bobby & Libby before the show began. This is pretty much what she did for the first part of the show -- suck her thumb!

OK! I don't get this blog! Earlier I lost all my journaling so I am too mad to retype it right now and all the pictures are backwards with all this space in between! Love/hate relationship going on here. I had so much fun reading Mel and Shannon's blog and I haven't had my usual Saturdays to update what has been going on with us. Can't believe it is August 1st today! Maybe my entry just sucked and that was God's way of not posting it! Who knows! I am going to heat up a nice slice of apple pie with caramel topping on top with side scoop of HD Dulce de leche ice cream and relax for the evening. What a way to end the day! Hope to hear from ya'll soon -- akml