Awana

Mackenzie and Ainsley got dressed up for Awana for crazy hair night. I wanted to take pictures of both of them but Ainsley didn't want any taken of her. I did get some of Mackenzie as I did her hair like Pippi Longstocking. I thought it looked pretty cute and she won for her class this year so she thought that was fun. We have been pretty busy in the last few weeks and I can't believe I didn't post more! The girls had all of last off due to weather here in KY. We got about 5 inches of snow, topped with 1-2 inches of ice and then 4-5 more inches of snow. Lots of people in parts of KY are still without power and will be till mid February I have heard. I am so thankful that we didn't lose power! Compared to so many others who lost power and have had to manage without many things the last few weeks, we are sooo blessed!
We actually had a pretty fun week with the girls off school. We played outside a lot and went sliding in our backyard. Though Jeff doesn't like our backyard and wants to do landscaping, I keep telling him that it is perfect for sliding! The neighbors also use it too and the all seem to have lots of fun. So even though the first time I got out last week after speech Monday morning was Friday at 4 to take Mackenzie to Drama, it wasn't too bad! We had fun times together playing inside and outside.
Now we are onto a new week and getting back into the swing of things. Of course the kids have today off too because of more snow. It doesn't seem to messy out there though and I will probably go grocery shopping later. We did get probably 2-3 more inches of snow yesterday afternoon and evening but it wasn't too bad, at least that I could see. Roads were a little slick but I guess all the snow we have is supposed to melt by Saturday. Mind boggling if you ask me!
So we are hanging out this morning watching Spiderwick Chronicles.
Ellie had a speech evaluation for Apraxia Monday at Children's Hospital. It went well and she did well. I think the therapist is making the recommendation that she has apraxia in her report that will go to the doctor. We will see what we decide, if anything to do with the information. I was hoping to get more help for services so that we don't have to pay as much our of pocket but I am not sure how many hoops we will have to jump through to get funding or coverage. But she is continuing to make improvements in her speech so that is encouraging. Our regular therapist, whom we saw on Tuesday, gave me lots of things to work on with Ellie in the next few months at home too. So we have some work cut out for us!
I will post some weather pictures and some recent pictures of the girls. Ellie LOVES having her picture taken. Ainsley however DOES NOT. So if you see more of one than the other that's just because capturing Ainsley on film can be difficult.










I also played my first game of scrabble with Mackenzie.  She did a great job and actually beat me.  I need to work on bigger words next time.  I took a picture of the scrabble board for her to show her big win!  I also have a few pictures of my new hair cut and highlights.  Not sure how well you can see them but I will post them anyway.  The last pictures will be of Chinese New Year that we celebrated with our local FCC group in NKY.  I didn't get too many pictures there but I did try to get a picture of each girl.  I didn't get any of them all together which is a bit of a bummer but sometimes that happens:)

MLK Day

So we spent MLK Day with friends in Springfield. The girls had a blast with their "adopted" grandparents and our friends the Nelles'. Kristen and I went to Cedarville together and though it seems we should be able to get together more often than we do, it just doesn't happen. Her oldest in in Kindergarten and with our kids being in school, getting together during the week is difficult. And what with busy weekends...well it just doesn't happen! So MLK was a special day! We spent the day with her parents in Springfield and we had so much fun. They live a bit more in the "country" and have lots of land. And a tractor! Papaw hooked a sled up to the back of the tractor and the kids had a blast. Not to mention the fact that they had probably 6 inches of snow and we have none. Add that to having friends to play with the day was fantastic! It is a lot of travel for one day and the kids really wanted to spend the night. But of course, school beckoned:) I thought I would post a few pictures of our day.

Ellie Loves Dress Up!

Here are some recent pics of Ellie getting dressed up. I loved them and so I thought I would post a few:)






And here is Mackenzie and her recent foray into being a bunny...




And I just had a recent haircut. I brought Mackenzie with me because she wanted to come and she decided to get her haircut too. Apparently it took me a while to get my hair cut because when I went to find her..I couldn't!! At least I didn't recognize the person in the seat she was previously occupying. But I stuck my head around just to make sure and wouldn't you know it..it was her.. with her hair straightened! I had never seen her with her hair straightened and she looked adorable! So I will post a few pics of her hair and mine:)

Star of the Month

Ainsley was selected as star of the month for November. She was honored at this months' PTA meeting and so we decided to go. However it fell on a Tuesday which is cell group night. So we opted to have me go with Ainsley and Jeff take the other two to cell group. She originally wanted to go but as it got closer to the time to leave, she changed her mind. I told her in no uncertain terms that we were going. So we got to the school and she was really nervous. She told me she didn't want to walk up there so I told her that was ok. We would just stay and watch and pick her certificate and prizes at the end. But as the evening wore on and she saw the other kids go up from all of the other classes, she seemed to pick up confidence. At first it was.."I'll go up if you walk me up" and then it was "I think I can go up alone." I wasn't sure if she would do it but she did and I was very proud!

Here are a few pics from the big night!

Christmas Pics

Here are some pictures from Christmas. I you can see the girls did Gingerbread houses. Jeff's mom has brought them the last two years. I think she decided that next year they would all be pre-assembled as Ainsley really had some issues with hers! Faulty construction I say!:) Ellie is also now into dressing up. She loves to get dressed up and get her picture taken. The only problem is that she doesn't stay still very long because she want to see herself in the camera immediately. So it means that often the picture I take don't come out that great. I think she is learning but getting a picture where she is looking at the camera these days can be difficult!

 

Can anybody help me?

I have tried multiple blog layouts and editing and I can not get our blog to post the date for each entry.  I have edited it to post it and several different layouts thinking maybe it was just that layout that wasn't working but that isn't it.  I have removed almost everything and still it won't post the date.  And obviously I really want the date.  It has been missing for months and have tried many times.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me?

I came, I saw and I forgot to blog about it...

As par for the course, I haven't blogged in a number of weeks.  I have been too busy following my friend's blogs to actually keep up with our own!  And my friends..they all seem to be doing great in the New Year:)  We had a wonderful Christmas with family and friends.  Jeff's mom and brother came in the day after Christmas and we spent 5 wonderful days with them.  We received a Wii from Jeff's mom and stepdad and have loved it!  We have had a lot of fun learning how to play multiple different games.  I, of course, have spent the least time on it and Jeff has spent the most. The girls have actually spent a bit of time with it and Mackenzie has reached a World Record on the rowing event on Mario Olympics.  She's pretty happy...Ainsley not so much since she can't beat Mackenzie!  But Ainsley enjoys the bowling a lot and does well at that and they both duke it out on tennis.  I think I may have arrived at my first Wii injury, which is fascinating since I play it the least!  Apparently, I have a very violent throw when I bowl so I need to learn how to bowl without throwing my shoulder out of joint:)

Christmas was just a great break to catch up with each other as a family and we had such a nice and relaxing time.  We didn't travel, didn't actually get out much but had fun together just hanging out!  Our friends, the Lukes, were in for New Year's Eve and stayed till Jan 3 which was a fun treat.  We don't usually get to see them that much over Christmas and we had a blast as of course did the kids!  What could be more fun than having 3 teens give you attention!:)

And now our New Year is off to a great start.  We are looking forward to the New Year and all the exciting things that God has in store for us this year.  The girls are still really enjoying school and Ellie is making some great strides in her speech.  I am hearing her start to say 2 word phrases which is good.  Often it seems to be that she takes some strides forward and then back which I have noticed since every one has gone home from Christmas but I am sure she will settle in and continue to progress.  She seems to have the most difficulty adapting to change in routine but she loved Christmas this year!  It was fun to see her open gifts and have fun.

I will post some pics when I have a few more minutes but thought it was time to catch up and not just follow everyone else's blog!

PS

If nurses, doctors, or pretty much anyone else in the science field were as inaccurate as weather forecasters, I feel confident in saying they would probably be out of a job.  If I was only 10-20% accurate in starting IV's, or doctors were only 10-20% sure on diagnoses ( though there are times I think that's the case..), we would certainly not succeed and thrive in our respective fields. They call weather forecasting a science but it seems like there accuracy rate, at least locally, is really poor.  How do they still have jobs or is it really not a science?  I am baffled and perplexed by how often they are actually just dead wrong.  Not even close.  Its like saying you have a brain tumor when you actually have the flu.  Though obviously not the same degree of seriousness, still it seems that they should have some level of accountability and improvement for their complete inaccuracy.  Yet, I haven't seen much change in the last few years.  Since in all honesty I hardly ever pay attention to the weather, for that very reason, maybe I am not a good measure of whether there has been improvement.  Maybe they have improved and I just don't pay any attention. Or maybe I am rambling on because I actually have time to write.  Better stop writing so that I don't confirm to everyone how certifiably crazy I am!

A week without Jeff

Well we have survived almost a whole week without daddy home.  Jeff's travel schedule seems to have picked up a bit and we are pretty used to him traveling.  But this week he left on Monday earlier in the day to beat the storm that never happened to materialize on Monday.  He was scheduled to fly out at 8:45 Monday night but instead he came home early from work and was gone before the girls got out of school.  He left early so that he would actually be able to get out before "the storm."  "The storm" was going to be 1-3 inches of snow followed maybe by some ice.  It was "supposed" to start Monday evening during the rush hour commute and close schools for the following day and apparently cause utter chaos.  The last time I looked out my window, prior to heading for bed, there was no precipitation falling from the sky.  I got up the next morning and wonder of all wonders..still no precipitation of any form falling from the skies.  The kids had school but it did start snowing around 10 and some schools did get out early but not ours.  However they did manage to cancel afternoon preschool and kindergarten throwing a serious wrench into my plans.  I have a sitter who comes on Tuesday for 2 hours.  She gets Ellie on the bus and transport Ainsley to school and then leaves.  I had already left for work even though it was snowing because it wasn't snowing the hard.  I get to work only to find out that they cancelled afternoon preschool and kindergarten.  I only worked 45 minutes or so before I had to turn around and head home because my sitter had to pick her son up at preschool and didn't have enough car seats for all three (my two and her son).  What normally take 30 minutes, took over an hour.  Mind you there was less than an inch of snow but apparently this warrants all the crazy people to take to the roads and drive 5 miles  and hour!  I think there are certain states, meaning any states that don't receives tons of snow, that should require special driving permits when they do receive snow.  The only people who are allowed to be on the roads are people who were born in states that did receive lots of snow and they actually know how to drive.  All other people should be forced to stay home.  By the time I got home, I was tired and a bit frazzled and had only managed a mere 45 minutes of work!  So what is one to do in that condition..play in the snow!  Since my sitter put Ellie down for a nap prior to me getting home, Ainsley and I went and played in the snow and then she helped me shovel the driveway:)  So needless to say, when it was time to pick up the other kids from school, the snow had stopped and the roads, though not perfect, were definitely ok to drive on.  No more snow since then thankfully!  I would like to get to at least Christmas break without having to go to school in June.  The schools here don't build in snow days anymore so every time we use a snow day, which was fairly significant last year, they just tack it on to the last day of school.  That would seem to make sense if you don't use a lot of snow days but they use a lot here so it makes no sense to me.  But then again, there's a lot of things in life that don't always make sense to me so it's probably just me!

The rest of the week has been busy but we have survived the week without daddy and everyone is very excited that he is coming home tonight!

Faster than a speeding bullet

Sometimes I am completely and utterly perplexed as to where the time goes.  I am amazed to get to the end of a week and not remember how on earth I got there.  The last few months have been a whirl of activity for me and I am learning yet again how to balance my time.  About two months or so ago I started working part-time as an administrative assistant for my church.  Now I am know that some of you are wondering why on earth  I would do this when I have a perfectly good 4 year degree in Nursing.  I wondered it myself.  But since I hadn't found a Nursing job that I even remotely liked, it seemed like a good option at the time.  And in reflecting on this choice, I am so thankful I took it.  I LOVE my job.  I do things that fit with my personality and my gifting and it is fun.  I never have been able to say that about Nursing.  Though I would love to find SOMETHING in nursing that I like, for now I am content and even happy not to be in the field:) Which leads me to this post.  Though I love my job, learning how to balance working part-time with all the others things that I do has been rough for me.  I only technically work 10 hours a week.  But since our church office building is 30 minutes away on the days that I work I have to an hour for travel.  I also swap child care to be able to work because even though I think I am fairly paid, I am not raking in the dough by any stretch and can't afford any kind of traditional childcare and actually bring home money.  So I swap child care with a good friend of mine.  She watches my two youngest on Friday and I watch her two youngest on Wed..for 6 hours.  So that knocks off some time that I can accomplish much.  Her youngest son is a gem when he is a asleep but when he is awake, he is a gem that is a hurricane of activity.  I am pretty sure he will have something to do with engineering in his future...and he is also very cute.  I am certain that is what saves him a majority of the time.  Her daughter and Ainsley are close to the same age and usually do great together.  They are like two peas in a pod, which causes conflict some of the time but most of the time they go off and I don't hear much from them accept when can we eat:)  So learning how to use my time more effectively has become my goal.  What I have found out for me is that I truly do need to let some things slide.  I can't do it all and still function properly.  I can't have the perfectly clean house, with every one's stuff in the perfect spot, time with the kids, dinner on the table, devotions and exercising done...you get the drift.  I just can't and trying to makes me frustrated, snappy and crazy.  So the cleaning is not going to happen as often, and I will have to learn some other concessions so that I don't give up one of the things that really matters to me...my family.  Spending time with my kids and watching them grow up.  Not missing the day to day fun time of playing hide-and-seek with them.  Playing Memory and Go Fish as often as they want without feeling like I have millions of other things I could be doing.  Just hanging out on the couch and cuddling with them.  Not acting like a drill sergeant in the morning because we always are on the go means that I have given up going to the gym as much as I would like for right now.  But it is only temporary.  Someday my kids will be in school all day and I won't have the same opportunities that I do now.  And so for now I want to be able to enjoy just hanging out with my girls and Jeff without the constant stress of something else I need to do.  Taking more time to just enjoy life, reaching out to those in need around me and being sensitive to what God has for me each and every day are some of my goals for 2009.  

More Thanksgiving Pics

The girls also had to get pictures taken in the matching dresses that my mom bought last year since we forgot to take pictures last year.  They all look really cute!

Back again

 We had a really great Thanksgiving with our family.  The weather was beautiful except for the last day and the kids had so much fun with their cousins.  Janice and I went out shopping the day after Thanksgiving and had a lot of fun.  We left really early...somewhere around 4:30 but honestly were done before lunchtime!  We got some great deals and had fun.  I did have to wait for what seemed like forever at McDonalds for my cappuccino though as they had to change something out in the machine and it took them a really long time.  I thought that might be my biggest wait till I was standing in line at the Christian bookstore.  Those lines were lengthy and they only had two cash registers going even though there were more people there that could run one.  Janice and I couldn't figure it out...but it was still lots of fun!  Janice also gave all the girls haircuts.  I didn't take any new pics of Mackenzie or Ainsley as it wasn't a big change.  But Ellie looks really different with her hair in a bob so I took a few pics!  We have been busy since getting back and I think I am looking forward to the weekend already!  I helped out in Ellie's class yesterday and tomorrow I am helping out with Santa's workshop, where the kids can go buy cheap gifts for people they want to buy something for Christmas.  The girls decided to buy for their sisters this year:)

Here are some pics from the Moody gathering.  Hope you enjoy!  

Jackson, Madelyne, Mackenzie, Jessica, Ainsley, Molly, Ellie, Jenna

  

Ainsley

Mackenzie, Madelyne and Jessica

Ellie

Jessica, Ellie, Molly and Jenna