It was a very LOUD and entertaining evening....

 

Tonight was Julia's nursery school performance. She has been soooo excited and to say it showed on stage is a major understatement. When I say she was yelling the words so loudly that I thought she was going to pop a blood vessel, I'm not exaggerating. It was completely Julia. She had a blast.

 

On the way home she said her mouth hurt because she was singing so much. I asked why she was singing so loudly and she said, "So the people in the back could hear." A born performer.

 

All of Julia's supportive grandparents came to watch and we then toured her classroom's artwork and had refreshments. It was so ridiculously (and stressfully) crowded, but it was super special.

 

Our LIttle BUBBA

 

This is a picture I came across from the end of March, that I had to take because it was so true to him during the time. He had a super rough spell with awful sleeping, major fussiness and constant clingyness.

 

Recently he's been much more happy, although he still has his moments. I think a lot of has to do with his talking. All the sudden he is a chatterbox! I absolutely LOVE observing the talking evolution. He was calling his toy animals "booties" for the longest time. Now he says "I pay amals, Mommy."
I think another reason he is more content is because he can be more active outside. He loves to jump and do boy things, like play in the dirt, throw rocks and ride bikes.

 

Andrew is still my cuddle boy most of the time. Except when he breaks my heart and says "Dop it Mommy." when I try to hug and kiss him too much.

 

Of course he still loves/can't stand his favorite sibling. Julia has to adjust to his increasing independence. But she still helps out with "babysitting" him and sometimes they will even play together nicely for an extended period of time.

The CVS Game

Okay, so about a month and a half ago, I started following this money saving blog and have been attempting to "score" free and cheap items at CVS. There are also lots of other heads-ups on great deals and couponing tips. I've been doing pretty well at saving and am trying to keep on top of tracking my savings. It is all pretty time consuming, but I enjoy it (who doesn't love saving money!) and I'm trying to look at it as another part-time job. I just have to be careful not to get carried away bc there are TONS of money-saving blogs out there. It can be addicting in a weird sort of way and end up being a time waster.



Anyway, here is the short of my loooong CVS experience today:
I spent $13.00 and got $50 of products that we will use, along with $4 more ECB to use (so really it will be like spending only $9.00), plus...and (this may kinda be the shady part...) I have a $20 Glucose test kit-that I bought to make $5.00! Was it worth the approx 2 hours of my day? I"m still trying to reason that one out...I like to look at it as I saved us $41 dollars...that equals out to approx $20 an hour and as my ever-so-thrifty dad also helped me realize, that is payment that I don't have to pay taxes on!!! Plus, I am a newbie...I hope to get better at it. The hard-core gamers spend only $1 a trip! Plus,it is good for the brain, it takes a lot of reasoning and math skills-once a teacher always a teacher:).

A trip back to McKinley Elementary

The adorable IVNS Kindergartners counting the book donations

A couple of months ago we did a book drive at IVNS and it was a huge success thanks to the generousity of the kids' families. We raised about 750 books in great condition to donate to McKinley Elementary in Allentown School District. I always wished there was more I could do for that school, and was so excited to be able to bless them in this way. I know many of those homes have minimal books, so it's a reading teacher's delight to get books in the hands of as many kids as possible. It brought back memories of one of the most difficult experiences of my life. I often wish I could have a second chance at teaching that class of kids, but for some reason God had me there at that time--10 years ago. My heart still cries out for the hurting families of the community, but I was encouraged today. There is a new prinicpal with a lot of energy and it seems like parents are getting involved more and there is more activities centered around reading improvement.

Missing my Momma

Here is a response to a blog of a friend of mine who lost her mom shortly after i lost mom.
the last line she had written was something along the lines of it seems impossible to know that i will never be able to see you again....

yes, it still does seem impossible. i've kinda lost track of the time since my mom's been gone (not sure why i now have to seriously think about and count the years...). anyway, most of the time the sadness is not constantly there, but-when it hits, it sometimes hits hard. this week, i unfortunatley revisited the pain. i wonder how i will experience the rest of my life without her. i sit in disbelief of the fact that she will never hold my little girl on her lap, or watch her own little grown-up girl laugh with her children. thanks for giving me a chance to share...i needed some empathy this week:)

Wish I had my camera at Peace Valley

We took the bikes and the kids to Peace Valley Park this afternoon...the weather was a crazy 90 degrees, but it felt nice with the bike breeze. The kids did so well (they don't always). jeff rides with andrew on the bike seat and pulling julia in the trailer (yes he's a mighty man--when he was trucking up the hills, the kids were saying "go, daddy go!"). i uh, just ride my bike and make sure everything is rolling smoothly. Anyway, we stopped to throw rocks in the lake and it was so sweet to see how they interacted with the simplicity of rocks and water. julia asked if she could take her shoes and socks off to put her feet in the water (despite the the fact that the water was mucky-looking). sure, why not...what's a little muck btw the toes? so she was having fun getting all mucky, andrew and daddy were having a blast throwing rocks in the waters. "i whan big yahk.' he was so happy and proud. definitely would have been some precious photo-ops-guess my mental pictures will have to do...or this



okay...so this is not jeff. or julia or andrew. and no, i didn't take pictures of a random family. let's just pretend i remembered my camera for now.....


anyway, it began to get late and we knew if we didn't start to head home to prepare dinner soon or all heck would break loose. and boy did it ever. andrew bit the dust in the parking lot, julia had a melt down about coming inside, andrew got into a "no!" battle with daddy and this was all even before the end of our dinner....again--are lives are a toss up between bliss and madness:)