Problem Solved!

Here's our problem: a lot of kids who like to play outside, even in the summer, and who wear things like rollerblades. Well, okay, that in and of itself is not really a problem. But they need lots of water, and we don't want them skating on inside. Bringing cups outside is also not an ideal solution because rarely do all of them make it back inside, plus they invariably spill or get bugs in them or whatever.

So Bob had to do some deep, heavy thinking to solve this problem. He came up with a Waterdog Pet Fountain.

It's a water fountain that attaches to your faucet with a Y connector, so you can still hook up your hose! It has ultrasonic sensing technology, so when it senses movement in front of it, water starts up, and when it doesn't sense any more movement, it shuts off. Here's a closer view of this wonderful little device.
Obviously it is supposed to be for dogs, LOL. Bob installed it upside down so the water shoots up in an arc, instead of down, where it would go into a dog's mouth. Also, he got a piece of PVC pipe to make it as tall as it could possibly be. It's perfect for Anna and Grace, and a little short for Nathan and Luke, but oh well. Water problem solved! Way to go, Bob, for thinking outside the box!

Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Yesterday was a very momentous day in our family. Not only did Bob retire from active duty, our oldest son Nathan turned 13! Nathan was very gracious to share his special day with Bob! This in turn made his birthday more special, since Uncle Paul and Brandon were here for dinner and ice cream! (We had his cake last Friday--the Penguins jersey.) Nathan really wants ribs for his birthday dinner, but that just wasn't feasible with us being out all afternoon for the retirement ceremony. So we're having the ribs tomorrow night. We're the champs at stretching out birthday celebrations!

Our present, as well as that from Grandma and Grandpa B., is a season of football, along with cleats, mouthguard, and several sessions of conditioning he's been doing with a group Sunday evenings. That all doesn't come cheap, you know, LOL. Nathan was very happy with this, since it is what he really, really, wanted to do this year, his last year to be eligible to play for the county league. My parents gave him books by Alex and Brett Harris--Do Hard Things, and the companion book, Start Here: Doing Hard Things Right Where You Are. These are books written by 2 teenagers, challenging our cultural norm that teenagehood is a time to coast by, with very low expectations. They encouarge teens to do 5 kinds of hard things:

1. Things that are outside your comfort zone.

2. Things that go beyond what is expected or required.

3. Things that are too big to accomplish alone.

4. Things that don't earn an immediate payoff.

5. Things that challenge the cultural norm.

I am looking forward to how the Lord will use Nathan, and I hope these books will help him think through his next few years. I'm also looking forward to reading them myself! You're never too old to do hard things for the glory of the Lord!

Here is a bonus picture of Faith. She is also enjoying Nathan's birthday ice cream. She had chocolate--I bet you couldn't guess! We had spaghetti for dinner, so that combined with the ice cream, led to bathtime immediately following! And since she made it through the entire day with only short naps on the way to and from Bob's work, she then went promptly to bed!

Retirement Ceremony

Yesterday afternoon we had Bob's retirement ceremony. Because of where he works, no cameras, cell phones, any electronic device pretty much, are allowed in the building, so we could not take any pictures. There was an official photographer, and someone from that office told Bob today that he would receive a disk of the pictures next week sometime. But right now, all I have is this picture of our family in our front hallway!

We were honored to have Bob's sister Ann and her daughter Christi come up from Richmond, as well as Bob's brother Paul and his son Brandon come down from PA. My parents were also here. It was so special to have family here to celebrate with us! We were so glad they came! Paul and Brandon spent 2 nights with us, and the kids were lobbying for them just to stay forever, LOL.

Our very good friend Ed L. was the emcee/presiding officer. He also was the one who led the ceremony when Bob pinned on Major back in Colorado. Bob wanted something less formal and more personal than some of the ceremonies he had seen recently, and Ed did such a fantastic job.

My dad gave the invocation at the beginning of the ceremony, and then we all sang the National Anthem. Ed introduced the family members, and then he recounted Bob's Air Force career. They called me up and gave me my certificates of appreciation. Then Bob got a bunch of certificates, medals, and other miscellaneous tokens, including a shovel signed by the people he worked with (the "Ground Component"). Then Ed read the retirement orders, and Bob said a few things, and that was that! Luke commented, "It was good . . . it wasn't too long, but nothing was left out." I was glad it wasn't too long because right as we were sitting down and getting started, Anna whispered that she needed to go potty. She had just had ample time to perform this function, but she refused all those opportunities. In the building, we couldn't go anywhere without Bob escorting us, and we couldn't very well leave the ceremony anyways, so I told her she just had to hold it. So brevity was indeed a very good thing!

Bob and I shook hands with everyone on the way out of the auditorium, and there was a nice reception in the atrium. There was pizza, as well as a chocolate fountain with fruit, and cake. It was nice!

Bob has to work a few days next week, and then he'll pretty much be done, even though his retirement orders are dated 1 August. He's been talking to some companies about jobs, so that will be his focus on these next few weeks. Hopefully it will be a smooth transition to retired life!

That Sinking Feeling . . .

This morning we cleaned and did a bit of school, and this afternoon we left around 2:00 to head to the commissary. The trip was uneventful, and we got less stuff than we normally do. Usually we spend around $650 every 6 weeks there, but this time is was just under $550. I knew it would be less because the two carts were not piled roundly high, where I have to wedge things in so they don't slip off the top of the mountain!

There are 2 ladies who work in the meat department, and they recognize us now, and always come out to talk to us when they see me browsing the meats! They really like the kids, and this time we got around to introducing all the kids. The ladies recognized all the names as Bible names, and said they thought our kids were as well-behaved as the Duggars, LOL. They're both fans of the show, apparently. It's fun to be recognized in a good way, though!

After we brought the car around for the bagger to start loading, I immediately started putting brown paper sacks of groceries on the floor under Faith's feet, as I usually do, while the bagger put stuff in the back. We always have to put stuff at Nathan's feet, and usually on the floor at Luke and Grace's feet too, so I was mildly surprised when the bagger finished up, and shut the door, without needing to put anything on the floor at all! Plus, he was really speedy too. Wow! But it was almost 100 degrees at the Ft. Myer parking lot today, so I didn't stand around cogitating. I hopped back in the van, cranked up the air conditioning and headed home. Who knew spending just $100 less would make such a difference in the amount of bags we had?!

When we got into home, we leaped into action, since I told everyone that we had lots of frozen stuff, like a 5 qt. tub of chocolate ice cream--don't want that melting into a puddle! Everyone worked like a well-oiled machine, bringing bags of groceries in, unloading inside bags, and unloading bags in the garage into the outside fridge and freezer. Nathan kept asking where the big ice cream tub was. And the frozen pizzas. Hmmm. We got all the bags out of the van in record time and were almost done stowing them . . . when we realized the ice cream just wasn't there. Neither was the apple juice. Or the big jug of veg. oil. Or any frozen vegetables, lunch meat, 2 family-size packs of boneless chicken breasts, a watermelon, and random cans of tuna, soup, peanut butter, etc. One whole cart of groceries, in other words. No wonder everything fit so easily! We got the receipt and realized it must have been the first cart loaded because it was primarily everything from the beginning of the receipt. So that cart must have been pushed aside while the baggers filled up the other carts, and never brought outside with us. Grrrrrrrrrrr. It was now after 5:00.

Bob came home from work, and we related our sad tale of woe. We called the commissary and left a message, and they finally returned the call. Yes, they had found the cart. They had wheeled it into a walk-in fridge, and they had taken out the bags of frozen stuff and put them in a freezer. At least my ice cream wasn't melting! They offered to take everything out, scan it, and give up a refund, but I needed the stuff! We have company coming tomorrow! Bob's retirement ceremony is Thursday! So clearly I would have to make the trek back into D.C at rush hour to rescue my poor groceries.

I took Nathan with me so I could HOV on the way home. There was tons of traffic, as you might expect, so it took us about 2 hours, round trip. I was glad we went though. There was a bagger number on the receipt, #80, and so I was definitely grumbling about him in my mind. When we got there, the head bagger was quick to help us get our groceries out, and another gentleman pushed everything to the van. As we were walking out, he pointed out another older black gentleman and asked if that was who my bagger was. I told him that man had helped bag, but he wasn't the guy who pushed everything (not) out to the curb and loaded it. The man said the older gentleman was #80, so I was so glad I was there to clear his name, so he wouldn't be blamed for anything! It was this younger kid, and I guess he just wasn't paying much attention. I described him, and the man said, "Ah, yes . . .I know EXACTLY who you are talking about . . ." So I'm thinking things aren't looking so good for that guy.

As Nathan and I were driving home, as soon as we got on the highway, we saw an accident on the other side, where we had been driving maybe 20 minutes before! The police were already there, so it must have happened just moments after we had gone by! We saw a second accident also on that side as we continued on home, so we felt like we left accidents in our wake! I wasn't driving crazily, honest! It was pretty bumper to bumper, though, so I guess people weren't paying attention. So glad I wasn't involved! I am pretty sure that would have made the day rank right down there with our zoo trip last year where my wallet was stolen. Now, to turn into bed early . . .

Happy Father's Day!!

We had a great Father's Day celebration here today! Although, now that I think about it, Bob didn't get much of a break--he was up early making French toast for everyone, and he grilled the chicken we ate for lunch! Well, we are definitely thankful for such a greast dad as Bob. He's so much fun, and he loves his kids well!

Luke and I found the best card for him when we were out a few weeks ago. It's a Star Wars one, with the Millenium Falcon on the front. There's a little bubble saying, "Shut the hatch!! We're not air-conditioning the whole galaxy, you know!" If you have spent any time at our house, you will know that Bob is always reminding the kids to shut the door!

We bought him a new mp3 player for a present. We had one, the one I planned on listening to while in labor in Faith, although I never needed it. Somehow the cord to charge it disappeared, so that one hasn't been useful for awhile, LOL. I didn't like it anyway--it wasn't very user-friendly. This one is a Sansa Clip, like the one Nathan bought for himself with his jerky money. He's been quite pleased with his, so hopefully bob will like this one too.

After church, we came home, and Bob grilled chicken for us. This was actually "mystery chicken", as I really have no idea where we got it. We have been eating down our freezer so I could defrost it (which I did this afternoon--woohoo!), and last week I noticed a gallon-sized Ziploc bag with a big lump of what looked to chicken in some kind of sauce. But I never buy name-brand Ziploc freezer bags, especially not the kind with the zipper, and this meat was double-bagged in them! There was no writing on the bag or anything. I got it out to thaw and determined it was bone-in chicken in some sort of barbeque sauce marinade. I have absolutely no clue where this chicken came from. My mom thought maybe it was a meal someone brought when Faith was born, but I really doubt it. I've cleaned out the freezer since then, and I'm also pretty sure we ate all the meals brought to us during that time! Beside that, Faith is 16 months old now--this chicken didn't taste that old or freezer-burned! (Maybe it was the double-bagging?) Well, wherever it came from, it was delicious! We enjoyed it! We also had roasted asparagus, white bean salad, pineapple and strawberries, and bread. We had leftover birthday cake and ice cream for dessert.

Then we had our small group meeting at our house this evening, so we had more great fellowship with friends from church. A very nice day all around!

Cake For Jonathan and Nathan

Jonathan turned 7 on June 2, and Nathan will be turning 13 on June 24. For the second year in a row, they have agreed on a cake, so I only have to make one for them to share! (Last year it was the aircraft carrier cake .) This year they decided upon the Penguins jersey of their star, Sidney Crosby. I convinced them to have the away jersey, which is mainly white, as opposed to the home jersey, which is mainly black. You can tell this is Crosby's jersey because of the black "C" on the front, as well as the number 8 on the left sleeve and the number 7 on the right sleeve, which you can't really tell in the picture. (His number is 87.)

Although this was a very easy cake to shape, it was quite difficult for me to decorate, and it took over 2 1/2 hours. I would much rather cut and sculpt cake, then painstakingly try to get tiny bits of frosting where I want them to go to make a design, like the Penquins logo! I did the logo free-hand, with just a round tip. Then I tried to smooth out the design with my finger.

Here are the happy birthday boys! Jonathan's candles are in the top left quadrant, and Nathan's are in the bottom section. We had quite a blaze going with 20 candles!

Pulmonary Follow-Up

Yesterday afternoon we took Caleb back to Bethesda for a follow-up appointment at the pediatric pulmonary. Back in September, we had our first appointment , which was the miraculous one where they called US to make the appointment! Nevery happens!

So we took Caleb off his Singulair the end of December, and he has been fine since. He did have some rough times in March and April, which is when he usually suffers, and he did have to have his inhaler for a few weeks. To be honest, however, Luke was the one who really suffered this spring allergy season. He was dramatically allergic to some tree or something, and after being outside for any length of time, his eyes would itch and swell up. In contrast, Caleb seemed just fine!

Caleb's lung function was checked again yesterday, and all his readings were greater than the predicted 100% value, so he is breathing really well. The doctor did say his nasal linings were still swollen a bit, even after using Flonase daily, so it's probably a good thing he's on it. He's stay on the Zyrtec, and when he has problems, like I'm predicting starting late August, he'll go on his Flovent inhaler twice a day.

The doctor asked when he had last seen an allergist. I told her I had tried to get a referral last June, but the doctor I saw then totally blew me off and said Caleb didn't need to see one. I was going to go back and try another doctor, but I never got around to it, LOL. I really think he is getting less sensitive to milk, but his pecan/walnut allergy is still the biggie. Not sure about peanuts. So I would like to see the allergist! This doctor wrote a referral, so I'll call about that on Monday. And she also wrote new prescriptions for all his meds, so we're set for awhile. Yay!

I was so proud of all the kids. When we were shown back into the exam room, I left Nathan, Luke, Jonathan, Anna, and Grace there, while Caleb, Faith and I went into the room for the lung capacity testing. When we got back into the room, the doctor was already in there, and she told me how impressed she was to walk in and see Nathan reading a book to the others, who were all sitting there quietly! So nice to hear and think back upon when everyone is running around, fussing and bickering, LOL.

Again, I have been so pleased with the pediatric clinic at Bethesda (well, not the one guy who wouldn't give me the allergy referral, but he was the only one! And he wasn't active duty!). And I am so pleased to hear how well Caleb is doing! I would say that there are still some emotional issues that haven't been completely resolved by being off the Singulair (although some of those might just have become habits), but all the physical stomach/muscle pain, shaking, etc. have gone away, praise the Lord.

HEAV

Friday after Busch Gardens, Bob dropped me off in downtown Richmond so I could go shop at HEAV, the annual homeschool convention for Virginia. It's huge. I knew I wouldn't have time to shop and go to workshops, so I just paid to shop. I know, that's crazy! But shipping is free, and there are lots of bargains, so it probably does equal out. It is SO nice to be able to page through things. I am hoping that maybe next year I'll be able to go for more than just one day, so that I can shop and attend workshops. Some of the speakers are so good!

While there, I saw a ton of big families--they had like 7 kids! LOL, I guess I just don't feel like we're that big of a family, but when you see a family where all the girls plus mom are dressed in identical print dresses with matching hair bows pulling back their (long) hair, and the boys plus dad are all wearing coordinating solid color polo shirts with khaki pants--well, they just scream out "Big family!" Or maybe "singing group", LOL. We only coordinate at amusement parks, we don't have long hair, and I don't sew, so that's probably the difference. I did see surprisingly few denim jumpers, although there were a lot of ladies wearing skirts and dresses.

I had SUCH a fun day all by myself (well, along with several thousand strangers). I happily wandered through the entire exhibit hall for several hours. I know even Bob would have been bored to tears! I talked for a long time to Amy Barr, one of the founders of Lukeion Project, which offers online classes about the classical world. She and her husband are the teachers, and they are archeologists who have excavated several sites in Greece and Italy. I have seen many threads about their classes on the Well-Trained Mind board, and everyone has raved about them! I think I would like Nathan and Luke to take some of their classes about Roman history sometime. I think they would really enjoy them.

I was also able to look at some things I was considering for Nathan for English next year. If you recall, I was debating whether or not to do Rod and Staff 8 with him, or maybe something less time-consuming. I actually found an 8th grade grammar workbook at the used sale which I think will be wonderful for him. It will be enough review, plus he'll have the writing assignments in our co-op to put all the concepts he's spent the last many years learning.

I also finally signed up for our $35 membership kit at the parentalrights.org booth. They are trying to get a Constitutional amendment passed to stop the U.N.'s Convention on the Rights of the Child. I don't think people really understand the threat the U.N. poses as far as what we are allowed to do in raising our children, so I encourage you to go over to the website and find out about it! Then you can sign the petition! I have meant to get the membership kit for awhile, but I just never did it when I was on the computer. We have some students at Patrick Henry at our church who are working for Parentalrights.org, and I felt bad when we were talking to them last Sunday, and I had to admit what a slacker I was! Not anymore though, LOL. Now I just need to put the bumper stickers and window decals on our vans, and wear our new t-shirt around!

I was excited to go to the used book sale, since it's really big. The one at the Northern VA conference is set up like your usual curriculum sale, with each person renting a table. You really have to search around to find something you might be looking for. This one, however, is divided by subject and grade, although it still wasn't perfect. For one thing, there was no "miscellaneous" table, and it was hard to think of what subject some books might be located. For example, I wanted to find a Classical Conversations Foundations book for someone in our Bible study who is doing it next year (and I can't give her mine because I like having all the memory work there!). I had no idea where to even look for that! It had categories like "children's fiction", "youth fiction", and "adult fiction", but there was no rhyme or reason about how people decided what books were in what category, so I ended up looking at all the categories. Plus, no one was giving anything away! I think you have a better chance at finding great deals when the individual sellers have all their books right there. But it was fun, and I did find some good books for us. I had a list of books we will need for Tapestry of Grace next year, but I had priced them used on Amazon before we went down there. Most of them were cheaper at Amazon, so I held off buying, although I did find a few things.

I packed a peanut butter sandwich and a small baggie of somewhat stale trail mix from the van for me to munch on. I was pretty hungry by the time Bob and the kids picked me up! And tired. I walked around from 10:30 until 5:30, with just a short break to eat my sandwich at lunchtime.

While I was walking and browsing, Bob and the kids were back at Ann's. They toured Meadow Farm, which is a colonial house near them. They also played in the sprinklers and a little pool. Then they got everything all packed up in the van so we could just continue on home once they picked me up. It was a busy two days, but we had a great time! Now it's good to be home, with everyone sleeping in their own beds!

Busch Gardens!

Wednesday afternoon we drove down to Richmond, where we stayed with Bob's sister Ann and her family. We had a delicious meal of grilled chicken ka-bobs, and we walked over to a really nice playground near their house.

Thursday we were all up bright and early for the trip over to Busch Gardens! Ann and Wally's son Matthew went, as did their daughter Christi and her husband Andres. Again we all wore red shirts, so we could keep track of each other! This was our last time to get the "Here's to the Heroes" passes for 4 of us, since it is Bob's last summer on active duty. Busch Gardens is also celebrating the 1 year anniversary of their Sesame Street Forest of Fun, so they were offering free passes to kids under 5. I had to fill something out on line and bring their birth certificates. So we only paid for Caleb and Jonathan! Actually, when we got to the window and laid out all our IDs, birth certificates, etc., the lady working there said they would have "taken care of us" for Caleb and Jonathan, so we didn't need to buy them tickets. But we couldn't have possibly known that, since everything about the program says "up to 4 free tickets"! We can't complain though--$78 for all 9 of us! Even a better deal than last year!

Last year, the weather was absolutely perfect--overcast and cool, looking the entire day as if rain were imminent. Thursday was hot with nary a cloud in the sky. I was so glad I wasn't carrying a nursing baby in a frontpack, like I was last year, or pregnant! Our niece Christi is pregnant, however, so I really felt for her! I always really felt the heat while pregnant. The park was more crowded than last year, but it was still not "crowded", so there was hardly any waiting in line, and everyone could ride as much as they wanted to.

Anna and Grace both enjoyed all the kiddie rides. Anna was tall enough this year to ride the Elmo roller coaster in the Sesame Forest of Fun, so that was VERY exciting and monumental for her, LOL. Grace managed to lose her hat on one of the first rides she rode on. I was bummed because it was a light khaki Old Navy hat of which I have one of every kid size, from 12 months up to medium. But as we were walking out of the park at night, I stopped by Lost and Found, and voila, there it was! Someone had turned it in! I was very excited! I don't think she cared much either way. It wasn't purple, LOL.
Jonathan was still just a hair too short to be able to ride the big roller coasters, much to his disappointment. Here he is on the Battering Ram with Andres and Ann. He said he had a good time when he got off, but Luke, Bob, and Nathan were sitting on the other side of the ram, looking across at him, and they said he looked terrified! I was watching too, and I saw him clutching Andres for dear life! He tells me it was his favorite ride, though, so he did like it!

Caleb could have ridden the roller coasters, but he had no desire to do so. He even held back on some of the other rides. His favorite one was the Roman Rapids, where everyone got soaked. He rode that a few times! The water felt very refreshing!

Luke also held back on the roller coasters, but he rode the other rides. He still likes going in circles, but not the slamming aorund of the g-forces in roller coasters. His favorite ride was also the Battering Ram.

Nathan was a super-coaster rider, riding all the coasters at the park, even the Griffon, a floorless dive coaster. Here is a description: Each train consists of three rows of ten seats. Once strapped in, the loading platform floor drops and a voice recording says, "Now, prepare to enjoy the power and speed of the mythical Griffon!" After a right turn out of the station, riders climb a 45-degree lift hill running about 10 feet per second (6.8 mph), 205 feet up. Then they make another turn to the right and face the Royal Palace Theatre. The trains pause on a holding brake for six seconds before dropping 205 feet at 90° hitting 71 mph. The ride then goes into a 146-foot Immelmann loop before making a sweeping turn upward to the left and into the block brake. Riders will then drop 130 feet down at 87° toward The Rhine River and into another 100-foot Immelmann inversion briefly showing the Loch Ness Monster. Finally, riders will exit a bunny hop into a water splash pool. Each of the three trains produces a different water spray pattern up to 45 feet high. Riders then encounter a small dip just before the final brake run and station.

Andres was the convincing factor here, and he was proved right--they ended up riding it 5 times! First they were in the back row, then the middle, and then 3 times in the very front. Bob said that was really windy, though. It was Nathan's favorite ride.

Bob rode the Griffon and also the Loch Ness Monster, but that was all the roller coasters for him. He did accompany Jonathan and Caleb on a few of the "spider"-type rides, where your car spins around and goes up and down, and he was glad for that to be over!

Faith's favorite thing to do was watch, LOL. She did not want to be in the stroller, but she also was not a big fan of any of the rides. We had to stop 2 of them to get her off! She even fussed on the carousel, sitting with me on a BENCH! After lunch we played for while in the very shallow wading pool area, and she was very happy there. Just as long as no one is making her go in circles or up and down!

As for me, I rode on a few rides. Like the teacups. And one kiddie ride. And, let's see . . . well, the carousel. That's about it. I used to really enjoy going around, like in the teacups. Wednesday night, at the playground, they had these neat little cups on a bent pole, and when you sat in them, you twirled around. It was so fun! I rode around and around! And when I got off, I started not feeling so good, LOL. I had a headache and a bit of a stomachache for the rest of the evening. I never was big into rides, and now it looks like I'm just done. I'm definitely getting old! Hey, someone's got to watch the stroller. (Maybe that's why we keep having babies?!) Here is a picture of Luke in the crazy cup thing at the playground:

We didn't eat lunch until about 2:30. Nathan had been busy Tuesday, so we had a wide selection of dehydrated fare to tide us over--strawbery fruit leather, pineapple, and jerky. Plus, who wants to go on roller coasters after eating lunch? Although after lunch is when the Griffon was ridden, LOL. We had a nice picnic on the grass by our vans. This is a picture of all of us excpet Matthew and me.

Once again we closed out the park. On our way home, we stopped for pizza in Williamsburg at Sal's, like last year, although Sal's is in a different location right now. That's because just shortly after our visit there last year, it burned down! So they are in a temporary locationw hile rebuilding. The pizza was still so good! We were all ravenous, and we consumed 3 extra-large pizzas in very short order. We got back to Ann and Wally's house around 10:30. Everyone slept well that night because we were so exhausted!

Proof in Pictures

This morning Bob took most of the kids swimming at our local rec center. Luke and I stayed home, and we tackled the garage. We made some serious progress (sorry, no "before" pictures, LOL), and we wanted to be sure to record that progress because I am sure before a day or two goes by, the garage will somehow fall out of order, and everything will be strewn about all over the floor. But for right now--look at all that floor!
In fact, if it weren't for the lovely red pole in the middle of the garage, and the fact that we have 2 doors, we could actually park a van in here! But since we can't park in the middle, we instead have a set of shelves and all Bob's tool stuff there. It's like the tool corral at Home Depot.

Speaking of the 2 garage doors, Bob came up with a brilliant use of that space awhile back. He made a plywood box with rubber on the bottom to fit in the space between the 2 garage doors. This is where the boys put all their hockey sticks (theoretically of course. In practice, they dump them on the floor wherever they happen to land, until Luke and I clean the garage . . .) Then he screwed a green kitchen trashcan (our old one before we got our lovely stainless one) to the box, and this is where their Rip Stiks go. Then in front of that is a 5 gallon Lowes bucket with a circle drilled out of the top, which is lined with a piece of a pool noodle. That is where the lacrosse sticks go, as well as the big plastic hockey sticks for Anna and Grace. Isn't that nice?

Not all of our storage is high-tech, however. We have boxes full of bike helmets, wrist and knee pads, and roller blades. And since no one can immediately find their pair, the whole box inevitably gets dumped out. Grrr. So we need a better system, but 6-7 pairs of roller blades do not take up a trivial amount of space! Clearly we need, at the very least, a bigger box!

Here is one last bonus picture. Faith is eating yogurt and demonstrating her ability to make a huge mess. You should see the garage once she's had a shot at it! She does have a lovely strawberry on her forehead. This is a result of a faceplant she did on the street during one of our nightly walks. She wanted to be out of the stroller and walking with everyone else, but she went a little fast and tripped. She still didn't want to be in the stroller though, LOL. Anna and Grace are always glad to take her place for awhile.

Simple Necessities

Our church started a food pantry back in January, and they have been distributing food once a month, as well as for emergency situations. Although we live in a county with one of the highest average incomes in the US, there are also a lot of people just barely scraping by. Our food pantry is definitely filling a need, and we all love to bring food in for it. Pretty much whenever we are out shopping, we try to spend about $10 and see how much we can get. We've found some amazing loss leaders, especially at Wegmans. Twice they have had bottles of laundry detergent for $1.99 a bottle! That is an amazing price, and we've bought 12 or 15 of them at a time for the food pantry.

Anyhow, we have wanted to serve in other ways, so when there was a meeting, I volunteered to help sort food for the shelves. The pantry is getting lots of donations from various local stores. Sorting and organizing is one of my loves--you just can't tell from my own house, LOL. I love to organize other people's stuff! So today Nathan, Luke, and I went over to the church in the afternoon to get oriented so we can just help whenever we have time and they have a need. It was a lot of fun! Bob was on leave today, which is happening more often than not lately, since he is trying to burn his "use or lose" leave before going on terminal leave and retiring. This meant I could take both older boys, which rarely happens! The plan is that every so often I'll go work for awhile, taking 1 of the boys along to help, and for me just to spend time with the boys one on one.

The pantry had gotten some boxes of stuff donated from Target, lots of toiletries, medicines, and vitamens/supplements. I was really excited to see some of this stuff--some basic important things like infant tylenol and children's allergy medicine, and also stuff like anti-smoking lozenges. I would think stopping smoking would be such a great step for someone in hard times, but what a difficult thing to try to do with no help! There were a ton of multivitamens, which I would also think would be such an important resource for someone without much money. It's definitely great if they can stay healthy! I had no idea stores gave this sort of thing to food pantries, and all we had to do was sort them and check the expiration dates on the cartons!

There were also some . . . less basic things, LOL. Like the eyelash curler. I am sure when someone has lost a job and is struggling, the first thing they think is, "Oh no! I don't have an eyelash curler!" Also, there were 2 "Mangroomers". For those not in the know and who are too lazy to click the link, these are "do-it-yourself electric back shavers". We were cracking up at those ones! Funny to see that there, along with the flour, spaghetti noodles, cereal, and canned goods! Well, just because someone has fallen on hard times doesn't mean their personal back grooming should have to fall by the wayside. There was also a refill bottle of butane(!). It said on the bottle that it was to refill your creme brulee torch. So if you are needy and are in the D.C. metro area, we can hook you up so that your creme brulee torch never has to go out! At least we can all stay civilized, even in hard times.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Jonathan turned 7 today! We celebrated by having his choice of dinner, going swimming at the rec center, then opening his presents and having ice cream when we got back. I'll make him and Nathan a joint cake again this year, since I really like only making one cake in June, LOL. We are hoping to bring that cake to Bible study June 18, so I've got a few weeks. In the meantime, we'll just keep celebrating Jonathan's birthday, especially seeing as how I ordered him a present late last week from Timberdoodle that still hasn't come yet.

You might think that being the 4th boy in a row, Jonathan would just fall in line with his brothers, but that's not how it is! Jonathan has such a funny streak, and he is definitely his own little man! He also has a real heart for the Lord and for others. He has said before that he would like to be a pastor, like our Pastor Mike, and I can see him doing this. We pray that the Lord will use Jonathan in a special way, and that we will be able to prepare him for whatever that use will be!

Seven Years Ago Today . . .

. . . I was not in labor. This was unfortunate because I was quite heavily pregnant. In fact, I was 2 weeks overdue!! That is really not a nice thing to do to someone expecting her 4th baby! My first baby was 1 week early; my second one was about 5 days early. My third was born on his due date . . . and why wasn't this baby not even considering coming out into the big wide world?! I never even had any false laborto get my hopes up! He simply was not interested in moving on out!

So Jonathan should have been born in May, since his due date was May 22. Instead, 7 years ago today, on June 1, Bob and I were dropping the 3 other boys off at my parents' house on a Sunday evening so that the next morning we could go into the hospital at WPAFB bright and early--6:00!--to be induced. I was terrified. Bob was also nervous. So nervous that he backed the minivan straight into a tree at the end of my parents' driveway, shattering the back windshield. Ack! I just had to totally block that out of my thinking, however,and I can honestly say that I did not think about it one time during the next day. I just refused to go there! And it turned out fine. As I recall, it was fixed before we even came home from the hospital!

I was so worried about this induction, my first one. It also went fine, however. There was a friendly face on the OB ward there--the husband of a couple in our OCF Bible study was a nurse there, and he got me all checked in before he went off-duty. They finally started the pitocin around 8:30, but as the morning wore on, I could tell the contractions weren't doing anything. The contractions weren't any different than the ones for me in a non-induced labor, which was a huge relief for me. I never had any trouble dealing with them.

Finally they broke my water around noon, and that convinced Jonathan that his time inside me was at an end. I had to lay on my side and have an oxygen mask because his heart rate was decelerating during contractions. As I lay there, I was fully dilated, and I had a strong urge to push. But I had a thing about only giving birth in the standard half-sitting, with rear-end hanging off the end of the bed position, so I sat up right away. I never had such a strong urge to push again, which I have remembered in all 3 of my later births! I like laboring on my side during transition, and then I stay there and push a time or 2 to get the baby under my pelvic bone. After that, no problems! I had to push with Jonathan for 20 minutes, which is a pretty long time for a 4th baby. I think it would have been faster if I had stayed on my side a little longer. But he made his grand appearance at 2:40 p.m., and he was another big one--9 pounds, 6 ounces, and 21 inches long. My biggest one, 1 ounce bigger than Caleb! My Ohio babies were big--not sure why! I was ravenously hungry after delivering. Breakfast was a long time ago!

I think my dates were probably a bit off with Jonathan, since I was finishing up nursing with Caleb when I got pregnant. But when you are expecting to see a baby in May, and it comes into a whole new month with still no baby . . . you feel very, very, very overdue!!

A Family Prophet??

So this evening the girls and I were sitting on the front swing watching the boys play tennis in the street before we all went on a walk. A propos of absolutely nothing, Anna says, "I'm going to take care of the baby boy we're going to have!"

Me: "What?"

Anna (happily): "We're going to have TWO new babies!"

Me: "Ummmm . . . did God reveal this to you . . . ?!?!"

I don't know where she got that from! So funny!

Happy Memorial Day!!

Since this is Bob's last Memorial Day on active duty, you might think we would do something really patriotic to celebrate. You would be wrong, however. We have wanted for a few years now to go to the free Marine Corps concert at Wolftrap which is always the Sunday before Memorial Day. Instead, last night Nathan went to a conditioning workout thing (more on that in another post). It was soooo hot and humid yesterday that I was really not that enthusiastic about an outdoor concert. Maybe next year . . . which is what we've said the past few years, LOL.

Yesterday was already busy because after church I had another co-op meeting for this new little junior high co-op we're planning for next year. It looks like it is going to be so good!! One family dropped out, the other family from our church with 5 boys. They live the farthest out, and they also have never done a co-op before, so it was just a bridge too far for them. The mom was just getting too stressed about it all. But that's okay, and we still have enough people! Yesterday we hammered out which literature books we would be covering from Tapestry of Grace, and we talked about the history books too. Siri is going to teach 2 years of Spanish, so she showed us the resources we'll be using for that. I had already sent out an email with all the science books/specimens needed. It was so exciting! I just really like these other 3 ladies and their boys, so I think it is going to be so fun!

Today we woke up without any real plans (other than for sleeping in, LOL), but when we found the driver-side front tire of the Sienna completely flat, something was put on our agenda. We knew it had a leak, but it all of a sudden became more of a priority! So Bob and I dropped it off at Walmart this afternoon, then we contiuned on in the big van for a hot date at Wegmans. I know our amazingly romantic life makes all of you jealous out there! We brought home 2 enormous pizzas from Wegmans for dinner, so we didn't even do a traditional barbeque! Bob did get some corn on the cob, so we will have that later this week.

Box Turtle Mama

Virginia is home to Eastern Box Turtles. We have seen ones before, traversing our yard, so we knew they were in our area. Last evening we were on an after-dinner walk, and we noticed a box turtle beside the road. We investigated closer and discovered she had just laid eggs in a hole she had dug! There were about 4-5 of them. She was at that time slowly putting the dirt back in the hole to cover them.

After we got home, we did a little research on box turtles. We discovered that "box turtles generally grow slowly, reaching sexual maturity at between 7 and 10 years old and 5 or 6 inches in length. Once mature, a female box turtle will lay between 3 and 6 eggs each spring in a shallow nest. The eggs are left unguarded and hatch in the late summer or early fall when hatching occurs."

The mama did a pretty good job of covering back over the next, don't you think? You can hardly see where she dug! We went back at the end of our walk to check on her progress! Unfortunately, she didn't do such a red hot job in choosing the place in which to dig the actual nest--the median between the road into our subdivision and the sidewalk!

We will keep an eye on the nest as it gets closer to fall, but I doubt we can do too much. The nest is at the opposite end of our little neighborhood, close to where the main road is. If only she had dug closer to our house! At the end of our cul-de-sac, there is a wooded area and a creek! If any of the eggs (1.)do not get dug up and eaten by skunks or racoons, (2.)manage to actually hatch and get out from underground, and (3.) aren't immediately eaten by a bird or dog, or run over by a car, then we might try to move them (if we can ever even see any) down by the creek. Again, quoting from the website, "When a box turtle first hatches from its egg it is a mere 1.25 inches long. Little is known about the lives of young box turtles because they are so secretive and hard to find. In fact, it is very rare to find a box turtle much smaller than about 3.5 or 4 inches long. It is thought that these young turtles spend most of their time concealed in brush and leaf litter and feed primarily on insects." So it sounds like it would be a rare feat indeed to actually see a tiny baby box turtle! It would be really, really cool though. There is no "brush and leaf litter" where the mama decided to make the nest, however! Just the shadow of a stop sign and plenty of grass!

Something Rare . . .

. . . A family picture with all 9 of us in it! We went to a wedding Monday afternoon of 2 people in our church. We were all cleaned up, so we figured this was as good a chance of any. If only Faith was looking, LOL.

You can see our boys wearing blue polo shirts and khaki pants. The McC boys were all wearing blue sports coats and khaki pants. Together, they all looked like some kind of boys school, with the casual everyday uniform, and the dress one!

New Semester

Once again I see it has been a week since I posted. This past week has been very productive, I am happy to say! In fact, I feel like we are finally in a good rhythym, something we were really lacking this entire past year. Of course it helped that we had NOWHERE to go in 5 mornings. Well, actually I did have to run Luke to the orthodontist's for a quick check Thursday, but even that was at 11:30, and I only took him. But that was it!

As we start this new "summer term", I have begun doing some school with Anna and Grace. All it is is a preschool workbook from Sam's. They already know their colors and most of their shapes, but it's good practice in tracing and coloring in the lines. I notice they have much better fine motor skills than the boys did at their ages. The girls don't really know all their letters yet, or the sounds that go with them, so this should help with that. Really they just like the attention, LOL. We usually read some books together too. I picked up a copy of Madeline in a free box at the end of our co-op, and that is Anna's new absolute favorite. We read that at least once every day. Nathan and I went to the library last night, and I got out some different ones so that I wouldn't go crazy, LOL.

In the fall, I am planning on doing Phonics Pathways with Anna (and I am sure Grace will be right there), and starting Saxon 1. I'm not sure what to do with Grace for that. Maybe I can find some other something to do with her to she doesn't feel left out because I just don't think she needs to start Saxon at 3. For one thing, once the girls get to the hardcover Saxon books, I only have 1 copy! So they can't be doing the same book at the same time!

After Anna and Grace's "schoolwork", I read Leading Little Ones to God. We started this in September and I read it sporadically this past year. Then we are once again praying through Operation World, which is another thing that went by the wayside with our lack of a set daily routine. I do miss having the maps on the wall when we search out the days country and try to find the capital. I'm keeping my eye out for another set of maps at Sam's so I can have them up on the wall again, but still have the ones on the table. We are still reviewing the CC memory work, especially the timeline (and the presidents for the younger boys, since Nathan and Luke already knew those well). We're also working on Philippians 2, which we started I think maybe a year ago, but never got very far. We just started over!

I've also started going through Famous Men of Rome with everyone. I've had this forever, along with the Memoria Press teacher's guide, but we've never gotten around to it. I figured it would be a good thing to go through over the summer, and so far the boys are loving it! I want Nathan and Luke to take the National Latin Exam in another year or 2, so we need to focus some on Roman history and mythology. This is a good intro. The teacher's guide has comprehension questions, vocabulary, maps, and other activities.

For everything else, we will just keep plugging away. Caleb and Jonathan still have a little ways to go to finish their math books for the year (Saxon 2 and 1 respectively). They'll probably finish in August, then move right into their next books. We've got a few more lessons in First Language Lessons and Prima Latina as well.

Nathan is finishing Algebra 1/2 this week, and he'll go right into Algebra 1. No sense in letting all that learning fall out his ears! I just want to say that Nathan actually did every single lesson in his book, including all the extra topic at the end of the book, which introduced among other things, transformational geometry, polynomials, advanced graphing, and some trig concepts. I know I never actually completed 100% of any math book when I was in school!

Luke is close to finishing his Saxon 7/6 book, and he will go right into Nathan's Algebra 1/2 book. Good thing Nathan is finishing it up!

They are both still working through First Form Latin. They didn't get as far as I had hoped this year, but we'll just keep at it. I want to go into Henle when they finish, and I think we'll be able to move quickly through that, since they will have had this good strong introduction to it with FFL. I haven't done FFL with them, but I want to keep learning more, so I am planning on doing Henle with them. They will be ahead of me, though, so it will be a challenge! I wish I had kept up with Latin this past year. Oh well, something had to go. It might as well have been Latin!

Both boys are only about halfway through their Rod and Staff grammar books for this year, I would say. They'll keep on going, but I am not sure what to do for Nathan next year, after he finishes R&S 7. This is one thing I want to look at during the NOVA conference in July. I may get R&S 8, or I might try something new. Nathan has been doing R&S since 3rd grade, and he has an EXTREMELY solid grammar background. I love R&S! But maybe he doesn't need it again for 8th grade. It does take a lot of time. Really, a lot of his diagramming is stuff I remember learning in high school with Mr. Sundburg! I think if he can just keep fresh with his knowledge, maybe he doesn't need another whole year of it. But then the anal part of me thinks, "It would be so much cleaner to stop after 8th grade . . . I am sure Nathan will read this in the morning, and I know what he will say: "Anything else!" LOL!

So that's where we are. I am feeling so much more organized and productive. Having a routine does that for you! I hope next year will not be so crazy and draining like this past one!

Good Neighbors

We have a book called The Berenstain Bears and the Eager Beavers. In this classic tale, the Berenstains get some new neighbors--a family of beavers. The Bear family is a real casual, fun-loving family who would rather play games than take care of things around the house. The Beavers, however, are hardworking and industrious,and they never "waste" time playing games. So they immediately embark on all these ambitious projects around their house to make it look nicer. I won't spoil the ending, but let's just say that eventually Junior Beaver turns out to be a natural at paddle ball.

Well, I am sure you can imagine what kind of family we are more like. We have a lot of kids, all of whom love being outside. And of course we have lots of outside toys for all those kids, the newest one being the very large trampoline. And we don't have any sort of "professional" landscaping.

Our next door neighbors are a very nice family of fellow believers. They have 2 daughters who are spaced a respectable 4 years apart so one of them is finishing her second year of college, and one is finishing her second year of high school. They are all quiet and very, very hardworking. The mom, "Rose", is very talented with flowers and landscaping, and their yard is a place of beauty and curb appeal.

Their yard got hit pretty hard with all the snow we had this part winter, so they lost some trees in the back. One tree in particular fell onto the deck of the house behind them. It was a large evergreen tree, so when they took it down, it really left a big hole in the yard, and now the house behind them is quite visible from their kitchen and family room. Also, their yard has had some issues with drainage over the years, with water rushing down through the back from up the street. So several weeks ago they started working on their back yard. And they worked like real troopers--out there all day, digging ditches for a drainage pipe with pickaxes, renting equipment, etc. They put in a sprinkler system and and a big pipe for drainage, and they tore up all their grass. They ended up resodding, and on the Saturday before we left for VA Beach, Rose planted a bunch of shrubs and flowers in the back corner of the yard, where it adjoins with ours.

That same Saturday Bob had been working out in our yard. Our yard always looks like it has 7 kids running through it, and this year we have tried hard to reseed parts of it to make it thicker. Bob also bought a few very small trees and planted them. He bought a pine tree for the front yard, over on the side where our yards adjoin, and was planning on planting it, but "David" told him he didn't want him to plant it. So Bob took it back and told the lady at Lowes, "My neighbor didn't approve." LOL!

Anyhow, David mentioned to Bob that we aren't supposed to keep our trash cans on the side of the house. This is true--it actually says that in our HOA covenants, stupid things. We're supposed to keep them "out of public view", but a lot of people in our neighborhood just keep them wherever is convenient--on the side, in the front in between the 2 garage doors, etc.--so we didn't really think much about it. I mean they are those rolling trash containers that everyone has. Who cares?! Well, evidently our neighbors do, and we hadn't realized exactly how deeply they care. So Bob decided to move our trash cans into the back yard, and not just in the back yard. He would move them all the way into the back yard, into the far corner, so that they were as far away from the front yard as possible, which is what he figured they wanted. So he did.

I was innocently cleaning out the big van in preparation for our trip when Rose came storming out of her house to me. She told me she had NEVER been as furious as she was now, and she didn't know WHAT Bob thought he was doing, but she had spent ALL DAY working to make a FOCAL POINT in her back yard, and now he MOVED. THOSE. TRASH. CANS. RIGHT where she could see them out her back windows!!!!! She went on for awhile more, but the gist of it all was that she tried really hard to make her house and yard a place of peace and serenity, and she couldn't do that with us around. Ack! I sat there and was very humble and contrite and calm, and assured her I would move the cans immediately. She was mollified and went back inside. I was shaking and felt so bad because it was very obvious that these things had been building up for quite awhile, and we had no idea.

We got back from the beach Thursday afternoon, and a few hours after we were home, Rose came over with a letter. In it she explained how they feel we fall short in the yard-upkeep area, and how they dislike our trampoline, which we never even got approval for from our architectural review board before we bought. Also, our kids are distracting for her while they are on it, and they want us to move it farther from their house. Also, she feels that although we say we want a good relationship with them, our actions fall short because we deliberately do things to antagonize them, like move the trash cans right to where they can see them even better.

So even though Bob and I were very tired and I had a huge headache, we stayed up composing a letter back to them. Obviously the first and most important thing is that Rose feels that we were doing things on purpose, when in fact we were cluelessly just bumbling along, thinking we were doing what they wanted, not realizing what their actual real beef was. She was putting motives on our actions that simply were not there at all! We addressed their other issues as well. We said that moving the trampoline would be difficult because we have such a small backyard, and it would involve cutting off several larger branches. We said we were willing to move it, but we wanted them to come over and help us figure out where, because we didn't want to move it and have them not be satisfied with it, since it appears the issue really is the existence of the trampoline. Also, it never even occurred to us to seek approval from the ARB, since it's not some big building thing, and other houses in the neighborhood have trampolines right out in the open.

I went over Friday afternoon with the letter, and Rose and I had a great conversation. I reiterated how we were absolutely not doing anything too deliberately provoke them, and we were so sorry that was how it had appeared. We talked about the trampoline, and she said they were getting used to it. I told her that the kids wouldn't be on it as often as they had been. For one thing, it was still new. For another thing, we had been doing the test review, and I was sending all the other kids outside while I was working with each individual child. The weather was so beautiful, and it worked out really well. I told her we homeschool year-around, and the kids really aren't outside before the afternoon. She said she couldn't ask us to not be on it in the morning, so she was a lot more reasonable about everything. I think having communication was really helpful, and we both felt better about the whole situation.

But I still have struggles. For one thing, I know we will disappoint them again. We simply can't keep our yard to their standards, and our kids love to play outside! The boys picked up a second hockey goal from the trash pile of a house up the street, so now we have 2 "rescued" goals on the side of the house where the trash cans used to sit. Is that any better to look at?! I'm sure not, although there are no covenants about that I don't think. But that doesn't mean Rose won't simmer with resentment over them for a few years.

The strange dichotomy for our area is that everyone has really large houses. Everyone. Our house is over 4000 sq. feet, with 6 bedrooms. It's wonderful for our big family! I don't know what everyone else does with all the space, LOL. But our yard is small--only 1/4 acre, and our house footprint is fairly large--and so it our garage. It's a 2 car garage, with a big post in the middle of it, and no extra room on any of the 3 sides. In Ohio we had a one story, 4 bedroom house with an ENORMOUS garage--3 cars, with all sorts of extra room! It was bigger than many apartments! So now we have 8 bikes, a wagon, several different strollers, hockey quipment, roller blades, soccer stuff, baseball stuff, Bob's tools, extra toilet paper and paper towels, a freezer, a refrigerater . . . in a small garage. We don't have room for our trash cans! (The garage is where Rose thinks we should keep our trash cans, since that is where they keep theirs.)

So now I just worry that our kids are being too loud, that we have too much stuff, even though it's all played with, that we are just a source of stress for other people. It's hard to just relax outside anymore. And it's hard to understand the different priorities. Obviously they value their yard and peace more than children. But they are Christians! Even if they decided not to have as many as we do, it would seem like they would still see the value of children! And our kids really aren't wild and loud, tearing up stuff and causing huge scenes. They just play outside like kids USED to play, before everything was scheduled and there was no informal play and childhood obesity was a huge problem. Except we don't have that problem here. Hmmmm.

I'm also struggling with exactly what is expected of us, as far as being good neighbors. How much of it is our responsibility to ensure people around us don't take offence at us and our big family, and how much of it is just us living normally and their needing to relax. It's a hard balance, especially with us being Christians and wanting to be a good testimony to Christ. We really don't want to cause confrontations and problems, but we also just want to live in the house the WE purchased, and enjoy our own yard! Three acres in the country has never before looked so tempting . . .

Light Week

This week the boys did their Stanford Achievement Tests. I am always nervous about these, but the boys all assured me that they were "so easy". We'll see in a few weeks . . . I had lots of great plans for how much I was going to get done while they were gone Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning. I did get some things done, but never as much as I hope, sigh. How does the time pass so quickly?! It might have something to do with the fact that with all the older boys gone, I am left with 3 needy little girls. Just think--that could be my life everyday if I did what everyone random stranger thinks will make my life so much easier and just send the boys off to school! No thanks.

We aren't doing any school this week. Nathan went to Medieval Times on Thursday with the L's and the high school co-op group associated with our elementary group. He had a great time! They had front row seats. I spent a lot of time going through old papers inside and stuff in the garage. We've been composting, so Nathan is always looking for paper to shred to add to the compost container. Well, he has enough to keep him busy for quite awhile now! The garage is not "clean" per se--that will take another day or so, plus another set of shelves--but it is easier to navigate through, so that is a start. We had some of those wires shelves that make cubes. I despise those things. They fall down at the drop of a hat, and they are SUCH a hassle to rebuild! So we put those out on the curb, in hopes someone who doesn't know how bad they are will want to take them, LOL, and we are waiting for some regular metal shelves to go on sale somewhere.

I also was finally able to put away the clothes at the bottom of Jonathan's closet that no longer fit him. I had to get another plastic storage tub for that. This is an instance where, if we had moved, I would not have kept this stuff, but since we are still here, and since we could potentially have another boy, and since we do have storage space in the basement, I keep the stuff. We'll see if it ends up bveing worth the space it takes up! At least all my out-grown clothes are in the basement in stackable clear tubs, so they really don't take up all that much space, and they are organized by size.

Today we are cleaning the house this morning, and we'll make a commissary trip this afternoon. I am dreading that because everyone is really crabby today. I gave them all haircuts last night, and somehow everyone ended up going to bed late. Anna and Grace have been waking up MUCH earlier than usual for the past few nights. We had told Grace that when she was ready to give up her pacifier at night (the only time she was using it), then she would REALLY be a big girl, and she could move out of her crib, and into the double futon bed that Anna sleeps in. So she decided she was ready to do that a few nights ago. She's been doing fine, getting herself off to sleep just fine and sleeping through the night without waking up. BUT she wakes up early, and I know if she had her binky, she would go back off to sleep. And she wakes up Anna with her singing, LOL. Oh well. Next week, it's back to regular schoolwork. I can hear the cries of joy already! LOL