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Friday, November 12, 2010

Guidecraft Giveaway!

Go check out the Guidecraft Giveaway on the My Life on a Taffy Pull blog! Mrs. Taffy has reviewed Guidecraft's Animal Train Sort and Match toy, and will be giving one away to a lucky winner! I know it looks like something my Schmooey would enjoy. I poked around at their other toys, and there are LOTS of fabulous things on their site.

Monday, September 27, 2010

Walking with My Boy

Isaac and I took a walk around our neighborhood this morning. Our street is a circle, and it makes a nice walk, about 3/4 of a mile. It's been raining here, so there were lots of puddles. Thankfully, they were mostly small ones. He made sure he stomped in each puddle at least once.

On our last leg, there were several leaves in the road. He had to pick up each one and put it back on the nearest lawn, because, he said, "The weefs need to be with their fam'wies."

Friday, September 03, 2010

Conversations with Isaac, Who Is Very 3

Mom: Isaac, will you hop up please?
Isaac: NO! I DON'T WANT TO HOP UP! I WANT TO HOP DOWN!


Mom: Isaac, do you want some dinner?
Isaac:: NO! I DON'T WANT DINNER! I WANT CAKE!


Isaac (to mom): Do you know my name? [Is this a trick question?]
Mom: I think your name is Orglesnork.
Dad: I think your name is George.
Isaac: I'm not a monkey! I'm a BOY!





(It took me a minute to catch on to that last one. Let me know if you need a hint.)

Monday, August 02, 2010

Horse Camp

The girls went to horse camp this week, at a new stable for us that we found locally. Even though it was EXTREMELY hot, they were so happy to be back on horses, they had a wonderful time.

Emma rode a horse named Pilgrim, and she loved him.

Abbie rode a pony named Pepper, and had a great experience riding her, even though she was a pony. Prior to this week, Abbie took great offense at being asked to ride a pony when Emma was allowed to ride a horse. The thing is that Emma is adult sized, and while Abbie is tall for her age, she is still child-sized and can fit on a pony. Emma is really too tall for most ponies now.

Anyhoo, one of the neat things about this camp is that in addition to horse riding lessons, they were also exposed to driving. THey also got to do vaulting, which involves, I think, getting the horses to jump up onto something, and then back off. I *think* this is a precursor to actual jumping. They'd gone over some very low jumps in lessons at our old barn, crossed poles and the like, but this was a new experience.

Probably the best thing was that our new friend, Christina, was able to come to their end-of-camp performance and saw both girls ride. Getting to know her has made the girls' transition to our new home so much easier. It's wonderful to have a friend!

Friday, July 16, 2010

There's always a little...

There’s always a little truth
behind every "just kidding,"
a little curiosity
behind every "just wondering,"
a little knowledge
behind every "I don’t know,"
and a little emotion
behind every "I don’t care."

Got this little poem from the Generous Husband websiteI was gate-crashing the man version of the Generous Wife site, from whom I receive daily email tips) and thought it was worth pondering.

If you want daily tips on how to improve your marriage, I can recommend The Generous Wife. Not being a husband, I don't know about The Generous Husband, but he seems pretty savvy too. :-) I've found that while not every tip applies to me, they are nearly always thought-provoking, and keeping your marriage in your thoughts is usually a good thing.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Warning: Whining Ahead

Well, here we are, in our new home in our new town. It's a nice enough town, at least as far as I can tell from Target. People keep asking me how I like Hickory, and I tell them, "Target is nice!" It's not a SuperTarget. I was spoiled by the SuperTarget in Apex, but as far as regular Targets go, it's fine. They do carry the new Liberty of London stuff, so I go there frequently to drool.

We have very nice neighbors. Our next door neighbors brought us peanut butter kiss cookies, the first week we were here. They have been wonderful when I need to find something - like Urgent Care, when the Snort had hand-foot-mouth disease and strep all at the same time, and a grocery store other than Food Lion.

I haven't found the school books yet, so the girls have had quite a long break from school work. I am going to make a concerted effort to find everything this weekend, and if not, we're going to start something next week.

We do find ways to amuse ourselves. We have a huge back yard, and a nice playset left by the previous owners. Everyone enjoys going outside to play. There is even a nice bench swing for the adults. The kids can ride bikes and scooters in the garage and driveway. I can let Isaac "scoot" in the garage while I'm making dinner, if the girls don't want to be out there with him, as long as the garage door is closed. That's quite handy.

We go to town a lot. As I mentioned, Target is a frequent destination. We have also found PetSmart and Petco. We have been to the mall a couple of times, for sheets for Isaac's new bed and in search of things to put in our new house. Sometimes we even go for ice cream!



This week was quite productive. We found a preschool for Isaac right near our house, and he can start next week if we want him to! That's very exciting. My homeschooling friends will think I've lost my mind, but you know, it will be good for him. The classes are small, the teachers are wonderful, and he will get to play with some children his own age. I'm pleased about that.

I also stopped by the local hospice facility and picked up a volunteer application. I should be able to take the training in the middle of May, and then start working with patients.

We went to the library and got library cards today, the girls and I. They are excited to have their own cards! The librarians were really nice, and it looks to be a good library. They have lots of audio books, as well as movies and computer games. Their children's area has Legos, a fish tank, and lots of tables for small people. Isaac loved it, and when I caught him running around barefoot and asked him to put his shoes back on, he said "No! I just walkin' in the libraries!" Hard to be stern in the face of such cuteness.

After the library, I took the kids to Barnes & Noble. We can't check books out at the library yet, due to the red tape requirements, and I was in dire need of reading material. I have lots I could read to improve myself, but that's no fun. I didn't really know what I wanted, but managed to have a nice conversation with the young woman working in the children's books.

You know what, though? I'm lonely. I believe I have reached my quota for loneliness. Being here every day with only the kids for company is starting to take its toll. They are fabulous, but I crave some adult company. My heart says I can't take too much more. This either means I am stronger than I think I am, or God is about to bring some wonderful friends my way. Here's hoping it's the friends option.

See, I told you there would be whining.

Thursday, April 22, 2010

Junk Posse Giveaway at Into the Streets of Ethiopia!

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted! Since Todd accepted his job offer from Apple in December, I've been pretending we weren't moving, then looking for houses, then pretending we weren't going to move, then buying a house, then pretending we weren't moving, and then finally saying goodbye to friends and moving over to western North Carolina! Well, more western than we were, anyway; I think there is a fair amount of NC still to the west of us.

Anyhoo, my friend Susan brought this lovely giveaway to my attention, and I would like to enter, and you should too!

First, take a look at Into the Streets of Ethiopia. The Portilla family has started this mission to help street children living in Ethiopia. My dear friend Susan and her family adopted the most fabulous little boy from Ethiopia, and since then have been working to educate everyone around them on the needs of the people, specifically the children, there. The motto of Into the Streets of Ethiopia is "Tackling poverty and loneliness one child at a time." After just the briefest of glimpses into what life is like in Ethiopia, thanks to William and Susan, my heart goes out to the people there and I would love to be able to help them. I hope you will take a little time and read about Into the Streets of Ethiopia.

Now for the giveaway! Tracy at JunkPosse sells a lot of beautiful adoption and Africa-related original silver creation on esty.com. After reading about Into the Streets of Ethiopia, she has donated $80 in credit toward a necklace (your choice!) with FREE shipping for Into the Streets of Ethiopia to give away so that they can get people looking at the site and HELPING these kids! (I completely plagiarized Susan's paragraph.)

So, click on over and take a look at the jewelry! It's lovely stuff. What a great conversations starter, eh? My favorite is this one:



It's called Circle of Hope. It's lovely. Go enter the drawing! You know you want to!