Have I lost my mind????

You might be wondering what is going to keep me busy now that Cameron and Sarah Brooke are back in school? Well the laundry, food purchasing and prep and general up keep of the house is the same but I thought I would take some college courses. Aaaak!
The opportunity has come up for David and I to take classes through Liberty Universtity's Distance learning program. Our first 2 were recommended by the advisor as being good first time classes. Contemporary Worldview and a computer class. It is looking a little daunting but we will do our best. The classes started yesterday so here we goooo!!!
It's back to school!!!

Meet the teacher night....

Last evening we went to the school to meet our kids teachers. Sarah Brooke is sitting at her desk

Sarah Brooke with Miss Chambers. This is Miss Chambers second year to teach. I guess Sarah Brooke is just going with her first name this year. I'm kinda sad about that but I do know it is longer to right and it is her choice soooo....

Cameron at his desk. He is in a group of 4 students. His class has 22 kids.

Cameron with Mrs. Riegle. I think we are really going to like her. She said she has been teaching since before dirt but we noticed that she is willing to try new things. Great sense of humor it seemed like.

It's back to school today......

Today is bitter/sweet for me. It is a way of life and a realization of how big my "babies" are.

Sarah Brooke is in first grade and Cameron is in third. They woke up excited and nervous.

Today felt like a test run since it was only a half day. Sarah Brooke came out very calmly and whispered in my ear that it was the best day ever. She must have been jumping up and down inside. ha Cameron was pumped because with good behavior he can earn the privilege of the teacher buying him lunch from his choice of fast food place.

We have one more year at home with Miss Ashley. She has been on a home movie marathon today. One of her favorite things to do. Tomorrow night we get to meet the kids teachers and I'll be snapping pics with them. David took the day off to be able to take them to school and pick them up. We noticed that alot of the kids just came on their own. It's back into a routine for me and I'm happy about that actually.

I'm the winner...

This weekend I had opportunity to see a fellow blogger Karla and she brought me some things that I had won by commenting on her posts. What a fun surprise it was! She made a dish cloth and matching srubby in a delightful yellow and white. Then I also won a copy of this Gary Chapman book "Love as a way of life". Thank you so much Karla!!! I'm a happy blogger today because of your generosity.

A live baby doll comes to our house...

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I took care of my friends 2 little girls. My heart got wrapped around them again. "Big" sissy chatters like an auctioner and when you catch what she says it makes you smile and try to repeat it. She has naturally curly hair that I adore. Literally big ringlets of curls. Her little sissy is a delightful newborn.

Baby Faith smiles with her eyes and loves to "talk". This picture is blurry but it was the best one I was able to get.

Sarah Brooke loved taking care of the baby and entertaining Isabel. Getting dressed and combing hair was low on the to do list apparantly :-)

Ashley getting her turn!

Nicole, I love your children. Thanks for letting us take care of them.

Sarah Brooke looses a tooth...

It has been since Thanksgiving that Sarah Brooke has lost a tooth and that was technically teeth---2 in the same evening.

She was out playing in the front yard with a water gun and and needed to open the cap to refill it. It was a tight fit so she decided to use her teeth (bad, bad). Her already loose tooth popped right out. She came running in, in a panic. That evening was the planned sleepover so we told her to wait for the tooth fairy until she got back home.

With Mother and Daddy here we forgot to put the tooth under the pillow the first night after she got home and so it was Saturday night before she remembered. Wellll the tooth fairy was "T I R E D" I guess and forgot much to her dismay Sunday morning. In the busy-ness of Mother and Daddy leaving that morning Mother slipped the money under Sarah Brooke's pillow and I somehow got the tooth (our tooth fairy takes the tooth). She was perplexed a bit when she later discovered that the fairy had indeed been there but was elated at the $2. Thanks Mom!! The fairy may have a few more opportunities before she is discovered. Makes me nervous for Santa :-)

The playhouse comes to Indiana....

We had a phone message when we got home last Wednesday night that Mother and Daddy decided that this weekend would be the better one after all to bring the playhouse. The kids were scheduled for a sleep over at the Englands the night that they would arrive. We decided to keep those plans and surprise the kids with the "finished" playhouse. It felt funny not having them but it was by far the better plan since they would have been wanting to be in the big middle of the construction. We finished it up just in time to go meet them on Friday. Boy, were the kids surprised to see Grandpa and Grandma. Then we brought them home to a playhouse in the backyard. It is an ongoing project but I think it is adorable like it is. Dad had saved the roof job until Saturday morning. We used up the pleasant morning hrs. sipping coffee and chatting, waiting on the kids to get up. Then the day got hot and the kids wanted to play in the pool. Before long it started to look like rain so Dad had to go put on the tar paper in his swimming clothes (hence the green shorts). We have had shingles in the garage from when they built our house and now we are finally able to use them. We had just enough too! A light was installed because they may want to play in there after dark. :-) Thank you Mother and Daddy for a delightful and whimsical playhouse. We LOVE it!

Playhouse 2008