Momentous Occasions

It's true. I'm back on the blog. Man, the past couple of months have been killers. I haven't even had time to do hardly anything other than work and the basics of life.

But things are getting in order, and I got a new modem, so now I'm back on line.

Surely, that is a momentous event.

But even more momentous . . . Hailey finally lost her first tooth!

More accurately, the dentist forced Hailey to lose her first tooth, and in the process we were presented with a $1,000+ bill. That's right, more than $1,000 in dental work on a 6 1/2 year old girl who will eventually be losing all of those fixed teeth.

Oh well, our baby who cost a quarter of a million dollars to be born, will surely continue costing a lot the rest of her life. We're just thankful we get to have her, so we'll afford her. :-)

Hailey has two grown up teeth growing in behind her baby teeth, so the dentist extracted them with their big long roots and all.



Then she diagnosed her with 4 new cavities and one missing filling.

Today we jetted her back for a last minute cavity filling session during which she became FREAKED out by the whirring of the drill. Oh what a festive experience.

But she's having a great time whistling her "s" sounds through her new tooth hole!

In case, you don't see what we see - check out how far back those big teeth are coming. When I asked the Dentist if they'll straighten out, she was like "Well, there's always a chance that the tongue will help push them forward . . . but . . . " Like I said, our quarter of a million dollar baby keeps getting more and more expensive. That looks like a future brace frace if I ever saw one. OI!

Tali's Fun Day

This post is for my friend Molly.

This is Tali walking up the gangway at the end of the day after lunch. She seemed to do good all day. She wasn't in my group, but I tried to keep an eye on her all day.

The pirate ship was crazy and she seemed to do just fine. She figured out how to make her way up onto the ship and down the crazy fire pole without getting trampled by the masses.

To SG from Hailey

This is a story of a modern dance routine.

The dancer's stretchy and bendy and rarely mean (especially after memorizing Prov 17:17).

Before she dances she stretches her legs.

She pops her back and strikes a pose.

Then she balances on one leg like a crane.

And finishes the dance off with a pose, graceful and elegant.

And now for a little bow.

The End

We love you, SG!

Family Fun Night

We had a great evening on Saturday. Brian went to get a fun craft and came back with light catchers. The girls had a great time.

Shelby's Portrait at the Soccer Game

Ummm . . . I gave birth to a ham. She loves to perform, sing, act, be cute for anyone who wants to watch.

At the game Saturday, Shelby was determined that I needed to take her picture. So, being the accomodating mom that I am, I did. Um, do you see that little look on her face. That has stinker written all over it.



However, then she was very concerned to also get a shot of her back. I have NOOOO idea why.

By the way - that cute dress she has on - I made it, or at least tie dyed it. And it looks really cool. Hailey has one that matches just like it. She wore it because it matched Hailey's soccer shirt, and she said she was the cheerleader. Oh brother, I am NOT going to be a cheerleading mom. Being a soccer mom is bad enough.

After soccer, we always hang out at the playground. Hailey's getting to be a regular monkey!

Field Trip to the Apple Orchard

Last year when Hailey's Kindergarten class went to the Stuckey Farm Apple Orchard I wasn't able to go with her. This year Hailey begged me to go with her. I was so excited that I was able to go.

Here's a picture of Hailey getting ready to start her tour of the Apple Cider processing plant, the beehive, and the hay ride through the orchard.

Here are the kids all lined up to get going.

Here's our first stop on the tour - We got to watch a video about how apple cider is made. We also got to look through the Apple Cider processing window to watch apples get washed and get rolled up a little conveyor belt to the pressing station.

Here's the Beehive demonstration. In the top right hand of the picture you can see a beehive enclosed in glass. We got to learn all about bees and also watch them do their work in a safe way.

Next stop was the Gourd Lady who taught us all about Gourds, pumpkins, and corn.

Next we went to a little area where the kids sat and heard all about how apples grow, and then we got to taste two different kinds of apples and some apple cider. We also got to try on the bags that the apple pickers wear when harvesting. (But I forgot to take pictures there. Oops.)

Next we went on a hay ride through the 4,000 apple trees in the Stucky Farm orchard. We also toured the little fishing pond, the vegetable patch, the corn maze, and finally the pumpkin patch.

At the pumpkin patch the farmer stopped the tractor and let the teachers get off and find a pumpkin for each classroom. The picture below is the kids looking over the edge of the wagon directing the teacher to the pumpkin they thought looked best. Hailey is in the orange shirt kind of in the middle to the right.

When Mrs. McCulley found the perfect pumpkin she raised it high over her head and all the kids cheered. It was hilarious!

Here's Mrs. McCulley loading it up on the wagon under the direction of about 100 little helpers.

It was a beauty!

At the Corn maze Mr. Herron got a photo with each of his classes. Here he is with the PM Kindergarten class. Hailey is in the orange shirt on the end.

At the end of the day we had a little picnic at the pavilion and the kids got to play on the pirate ship playcenter. I ended the day by buying some popcorn from the gift shop for our Family Fun Night the next evening.

It was a really fun day!

2 AM Sunday morning

It's 2 AM Sunday morning. I've been awake since 11:48 pm when my brother texted me and the "Message Received" tone on my phone woke me up. I sleep with it next to my ear, so when there's an emergency at work I hear the phone and it doesn't wake the rest of the house up. So when it goes on in the middle of the night I usually am startled awake.

So, since I was wide awake I decided to check my email to see how the end of shift at VOH went. It's nice to know the play by play minute by minute. I don't sleep well when I don't know how things turned out at work.

Then I was still wide awake so I checked one of my favorite blogs, other than my sisters. I have no idea who she is but she fascinates me, this Joanna and her MyMeanderings blog. She seems so like me, same age, same kids ages, fascination with photography and quotes and the simple life revolving around a real relationship with God.

So here it is two and a half hours later, and I'm still wide awake.

On top of that I got a new Bible and I'm dying to read it, but if I read it I'll be even more wide awake. I'm dying to show it to Brian but he's irritated that I went $25 over budget on the purchase of said Bible. It's a NASB Key Word Bible in Genuine Leather (black) with my name on it. It's the best Bible I've ever had, and I disobeyed my husband's budget to buy it, and now I feel guilty about it. I sinned to get a Bible. Oh my word, that is bad. I need him to wake up so I can ask his forgiveness.

I better go back to bed and try to sleep or I'll never be able to get up in 4 hours to get ready to teach a bunch of 2 year olds that are going to be nuts from staying up too late last night playing outside because it was such a beautiful day here.

I also must say that I feel incredibly lost without my digital camera. I miss being able to organize my thoughts through my shots. Note to self . . . I must think of how to save $800 so I can buy the SLR Digital camera I really, really want. I wonder if I could have a garage sale or something. That's a lot of money. That's probably over Brian's budget too.

I hate budgets!

Speaking of budgets, I'm supposed to be in the thick of organizing a fundraiser for work for Oct 16th. I'm only just starting. Do you ever have one of those projects that's so intense that you can't even get started, because you don't know where to start, and once you do start you going to die from how much work it is, and you're going to be exhausted for weeks, and it probably won't go as good as it needs to go to satisfy the people who are invested in the success of the thing? I need to get working on it.

I need to go back to bed.