Blogland

Many of you have noticed my blog was messed up. Welllll, I had it looking really cute for Christmas and had christmas music and everything. Then I did something and wiped out the whole thing. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I was so mad that I went on blogger strike and have not posted since. I have calmed down and am now trying to make it look good again. Please bare with me. Will post more when I get it all back togehter.

Potty Training

Bethany is now potty trained!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We started sometime around the first part of October. She had no interest but it was time. We did the typical stuff (took her to the potty every however minutes, did the rewards, pretty panties, etc,etc..), but she had NO interest. She would kick and scream and cry and throw the biggest fit you've ever seen. She didn't want to be a big girl, she wanted to be a baby! After a few days I had to take a break. So we started over again the next Monday. That day I took her every twenty minutes and made her sit for 5 minutes. I didn't try to make her go like I had the times before where I would make her sit 20-30 minutes before finally giving up. All she had to do was sit for 5 minutes. The first day she was not liking me. The second day was a little better. She went sometimes, but mostly had "accidents". Then on the third day it was just like something clicked or she decided Mommy was going to win this one no matter what. SO she has really taken off with it and has done GREAT. I'm sure it didn't hurt that Grandpa was giving her quarters every time she went in the potty, but whatever works....... I am extremely glad to be done with diapers. I still think potty training has to be my absolute least favorite part of being a parent.

PS She informed us a few weeks ago that I was NOT carrying a diaper bag, it was a "panty bag". LOL

Post #201

I noticed my last post was #200! I know most of those were in the beginning and I've been a terrible blogger. My apologies. I just hate to post without a picture. My computer is ancient and i can't even upload pictures off of my new camera onto it. So that means....I don't post much. The last few months have been CrAZy! As you all probably know already, James got a new job back in July. Things just fell into place and we felt like God was leading us in the direction He wanted us to go. The girls and I stayed here since we couldn't afford to live in both places. James has been staying with friends. He comes up every weekend to see us. Needless to say, it has been a stressful few months. Eventually the girls and I moved in with Mom and Dad and Megan has been going to school in B'ville. Her new teacher is Mrs Dautermann. She has not done as well socially/emotionally in this school, but her intelligence keeps shining through. She has been a trooper and rarely complains. We are getting ready to move here in about two weeks. After much deliberation, we have decided to homeschool next semester. Homeschooling has always been in the back of our minds and now seems like a good time to do it. We will be living with some friends for a little while so that would mean at least one more, maybe two more, schools this year. I just can't do that to her. I will let you know how that is going. Bethany is still our little ornery one. She usually gets up in the morning with a smile on her face and is ready to start playing as soon as her feet hit the floor. Both of my girls are such a delight!
The holidays are coming up and we are READY. I've done quite a bit of my shopping and can't wait to finish up. I've got a lot to do over the next few weeks, but I am ready to get it done. The girls and I are going down on the 22nd to stay. I need to figure out what i need to take/not take and start packing. I also have christmas shopping to do, school curriculum to figure out, and the regular holiday stuff to finish up. Plus I am already thinking about Megan's birthday party. Not to mention all of the emotions that come along with all of the above. It will be a roller coaster ride for sure, but I am going to hang on tight. :)
Hang in there with me on this blog (if you haven't given up yet) and hopefully I will do better in the coming year. I love you guys!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all....

OHHHH It's Thanksgiving! HAHA I hope you all have a great day! I hope you all have lots of turkey, pumpkin pie, and family to share it with! I love you all!!! Gobble, gobble, gobble!!!

Great Cathedrals

If you have not read my sister's post yet, The Invisible Mom, please take a moment to do so. It is a very touching story and something I need to be reminded of every day. It is so easy to get lost in the day-to-day chores of being a mom that I often forget what I am really doing. I need to start out my day every day by reading this story and praying that I am indeed building "great cathedrals".

Princesses Everywhere

What were the girls for Halloween this year you ask?










Princesses OF COURSE! I had the two most beautiful princesses I've EVER seen! This picture was from a party we attended in Dallas on the 24th. Our friends have this party every year and we LOVE it! We have missed it the last couple of years for one reason or another and were so excited to be there this year. On the 30th I took the girls to Trunk or Treat and then on Halloween night we went Trick or Treating at the mall, then we treated Grandpa to a little trick when we got home by ringing the doorbell when we got home. Needless to say they scored big on the candy there. :) Hope you got more treats than tricks this year!

Our Duty

Get out there and VOTE today! We have been given the awesome responsibility in this country to vote for our leaders. So many out there do not get the same privilege. So go and make your opinion matter!

6th folder, 6th picture

Go to your sixth folder and post the 6th picture. Here is what I found in mine...


Our nephew Brock sitting in his chair at Grammy's house. I think he was eating breakfast or was it lunch?

Height

I was playing on the internet tonight and decided to see how tall the girls are predicted to be. Megan: She is currently 6 yrs and 9 months old, she weighs 45 pounds and is 3 ft 10 in. They predict her to be 5'4" to 5'5". Bethany: She is currently 3 yrs 2 monthsold, she weighs 31 pounds and is 37 inches. They predict her to be 5'5" to 5'6". So my girls should be right about my height (not too tall, not too short, just a nice, normal height). Interesting!

Apple Fritters

Oops, i never posted what we did for "Johnny Appleseed Week". We talked it over and decided to make apple fritters. They were easy, fun, and 2-bite size. Megan helped cut the dough, fill, fold, and press them. I did the cooking. She is still too little to be frying things. We took them to her class on Friday. They had apple bread, apple muffins, caramel apples, apples, apple fritters, apple streudel, apple sauce, and apple cider. They have a cute apple tree out in the hallway. They wrote their names on these big apples and colored them then put them all over the tree. It is really cute. I should take Megan's picture by it. I will try to do a good update soon. Just wanted to make the apple post before I forgot.....again.

An Apple A Day....

Did you know that this is "Johnny Appleseed Week"? Me either, but according to Megan's school it is. They have been doing cute little things with apples all week. On Friday they are supposed to bring an apple dish to share with their class. So, do you have any great recipes that you'd like to share? I am stumped on what to make. It needs to be something that 1st graders would like and something Megan can eat. She can eat things with milk products baked in (butter, milk, etc.) No cheese, sour cream, or yogurt, the milk concentration still bugs her even when cooked. We keep praying she will completely outgrow this. Anyway, we would love to have your apple recipes. We will share on Friday what we have decided to make. Love you all!

Megan School Picture 2008-09

As promised, here is Megan's school picture! We got the printed copies on Friday and the cd today! Isn't she TOO cute! I love it!

And here is last years....just thought you might want to see the two together. Where, oh where, is my baby girl going?

Once Upon A Time

As we were driving home tonight Bethany decided to "read us a story". Here is a sample of what I heard from the backseat.

"Once time, there's a wors (horse)....and giddyup, and neeeiiiighhh! Once time, a cake, not fall down.... once time, this and this (she was looking at a book, I'm not sure what it was).... Once time, a sandwich, don't cook it.... Once time, big cows, MOOOOOOOO..... Once time, not the end, not the end...."

I think you get the idea. SOOOO CUTE! I love to listen to what goes through their little minds.

An Extra Prayer Today!

We should all take a moment today to pray for the families

affected by the terrorist attacks of 9/11...



Those who lost loved ones on that fateful day...



Those who have loved ones fighting the war on terror...



The men and women serving in our military...





...God Bless America!

Megan's School Fundraiser

Hello Family and Friends. My school is having a fund raiser to help raise money for some new computers and other cool new stuff for our school. I know a lot of you live far away, but you can order from the online store and they will ship everything directly to you. They have some pretty awesome stuff on there. My goal is to sell 27 more items so I can win the Ballistic Arm Monkey. Can you help me? You can go to www.all4kidsinc.com and take a look. My seller id is gle5757. Don't forget to enter my id so that I can get credit. The last days for orders is Sunday (Sept. 14)so that I can turn everything in on Monday morning. A great big thank you to those of have already ordered! Love you all lots, Megan

PS We should be getting our school pictures in soon. Mom promises to post it on here asap so y'all can see it! :}

The Crafty Gene

I think the "crafty gene" somehow passed me by. I can be a little crafty when I want to be, but not like Amy. For those of you who don't know my sister, Amy, she got the best of that gene. Wish I was more like her in that area. You can check out her "craftiness" on her blog here. You may have to scroll down a little, but it is worth it.

Megan's First Full Week of First Grade

Megan is now done with her first full week of first grade. Thought I might recap what has happened so far.....
Megan's classroom has four rows of desks with four desk in each row except the last row that only has 3. She sits in the last row with only 3. She was on the end but her teacher put her between the two boys because they talked too much. Well, Megan tells me she can't get her work done because they are talking. So her teacher separated the desks, but according to Megan today that didn't work either. Guess I will be back up there Monday morning. She also was left in the room by herself for a whole recess because her teacher forgot that she told her to come back during recess to finish her work. Of course I am not happy that my child was missing for 25 minutes and no one noticed. Megan said she was all by herself and afraid. The more I think about it, the more upset I am about it. I did talk to her teacher yesterday and she has apologized and assured me it won't happen again. Megan also has instructions to go to the office and tell them to find her teacher if it does happen again. Other than that, it has been a good week. She says her teacher is "AWESOME" and fun! So far they are still reviewing Kindergarten stuff, but she seems to be doing well. I can already see improvement in her penmanship. Cassandra is her best friend (at least for this week) and Cassandra says that Megan is her sister. She was telling me this the other day and she looks at me with these big, sweet eyes and says "She's not really my sister though, is she Mama?" She said it like she really needed me to confirm that Cassandra is not her sister. She comes home every day excited about something and full of so much information that she doesn't share all at once but has gotten it all by bedtime. She really loves school and loves to learn. During the talk with her teacher she told me that Megan is very quiet and very meticulous about her work. Nothing I didn't know, but I'm glad her teacher is learning who she is on her own. Her teacher also told me about something that happened this week.... Megan was working on a paper and it was time to move on to something else. It wasn't a paper that had to be finished so she took it from Megan and told her she could finish it at home. When she was telling me this, I knew exactly what happened next. She said she turned around and Megan had huge tears rolling down her face. She just wanted to finish her paper. Her teacher ended up giving it back, which is good and bad. Good because she stopped crying, but bad because she needs to learn that if you don't finish then you have to do it later. You can't get your way all of the time. Her teacher may have set herself up for some hard times later. Megan also told me about not wanting to lose her lunchbox. Shortly after we moved here last year, Megan did lose a lunchbox and that tragedy has stuck with her. The first few days they didn't go back by their rooms between lunch and recess, so they had to take their lunch boxes outside and set them on a bench during recess. Megan was so afraid she was going to lose her lunchbox that she just sat there by it for the whole recess. Lots of kids were forgetting to come back and get them, so they have now changed their route to recess and they can put them in their rooms on the way out. Maybe Megan can relax now. She had already asked me if she could take a paper sack instead. I am glad she can now take her lunchbox without worry. I didn't want to pay $8 for a lunchbox she used only 5-6 times. This is turning out to be an interesting year already. Please pray that she will have a great first grade year and that some of the kinks will all be worked out soon.

Just FYI and for nostalgia purposes... Megan has bacon and juice every morning for breakfast. I pack her lunch with a peanut butter and grape jelly sandwich, potato chips (Lay's are her favorite), cookies, and a bottle of water every day. She eats about half of it and then eats the other half after school. I try to change it up, but this is what she always wants.

First Day of First Grade!!!

Megan started the first grade this morning. She was so excited last night and this morning! She was being so big and didn't want me to walk her to class! I told her that it was too bad, I was going to walk her to class anyway. She walked right to her class and pretty much ignored me. Oh well, I gave her a kiss and went on my way. It was much easier this time than it was last year. I didn't cry all day this time. There were a couple of little tears, but not great big tears ALL day! I can't wait to go pick her up and see how her day went. Please pray for my little girl while she is in school. I always worry about her when she is away from me.

This has NOT been my day!!!!!!!!!!

I am not asking what else can go wrong today, because I don't want to think about it. It is Megan's first day of school and she is doing great, I am not. :( My bad day started when I somehow accidently deleted EVERY picture off my camera. It made me physically ill to think of all I lost. Bethany's birthday, Megan's 1/2 birthday, pictures of the girls at the library, the girls with their cousins, girls with their friends, some family pictures, etc.... I am so sad and sick about it, I just can't stand it!!!!!!!!! All of those great pictures I had to share with you are now gone. UGGGGGH! I also realized that when the fireplace leaked it messed up Bethany's little handprint from when she was one. I might can find a way to salvage it somewhat but it won't be the same. Then I had to deal with psycho man this morning. He indentified himself as "Spanky". That should have been my first clue. He had called the church building wanting help and it has our number on there to call in case of emergency. Long story short...I called every one I could think of from church. They didn't call him back. He keeps calling me wanting to know if someone was going to call him back. I finally told him that I had called every one I could think of and there was nothing else I could do to help. He said that he guessed I didn't care just like every one else. I did call the police and they said they knew who he was, yes he did need a ride to Joplin, and that he had just gotten out of the mental hospital here. WHAT!?! Some crazy guy is out there that has just gotten out of a mental hospital and he has my phone number!?! G-R-E-A-T, just GREAT, that's just what i need right now. So Mom calls Dad, and he called a member at the church and said he really needed to call this guy! So they are doing something to help him, not sure what, but they are helping him. He also told the guy at church that I had gotten smart with him and he threw my number away, he didn't want to talk to me anymore. AWWW, that really hurts my feelings! HA! I say good riddance.
I did bake a cake today that turned out great, so I guess there are small things to be thankful for!;)

HaPpY BiRtHdAy BETHANY!!!!

My precious baby girl is 3 years old today!!! How, oh how, did she get this big so fast!!!?!!!