Living, Loving, Learning

Well friends, this is my 500Th Post!!! Can you believe it?? Wow, I guess I've had a lot to say. I cannot tell y'all what a great experience writing this blog has been. I have loved the interaction with friends and family and being able to become and remain close to those living far away. I love the stories and memories it will provide for Griffin and Lucy, many years from now. For me it has been the perfect mix of journaling, scrap booking and letter writing. Knowing there are people out there that enjoying reading and keeping up with us makes me feel loved and comforted in my loneliest moments. And to those of you that comment, you don't know how much that means to me. Keep 'em coming. To hear what I truly want to say to you, readers of this blog, click here. ***OK, so just a little bit of business too...we have decided to drop the home phone and just use our cell phones. I am keeping my same cell number but Bruce's has changed. If you need either of o...

Bruce was on call this week and has been called in Monday night, Friday night, twice on Saturday and already this morning. Whew, he is exhausted!! So...the kids and I were on our own to amuse ourselves. These days, all I have to say to Lucy is, "Bathtime." and she takes off for the bathroom and the bottle of bubbles. They both love it and I had to try to capture some of their magic. At this point, I was trying to to get Lucy's hair washed so she could get out, but she was not having that!! Now that is a wet n' wild Friday night. HA!

We spent Saturday afternoon (while Bruce was taking his big exam that he PASSED!!) at the zoo with our friends Mandy, Jacob and Carlie. It was a lovely day, sunny and a balmy 75 - PERFECT. (Boy, I guess I still have that southern CA blood!) The kids were so great!! For the first time, Lucy was hyper aware of the animals, squealing with delight at each new discovery. Griffin and Jacob had such a great time together. They were so enthusiastic the WHOLE TIME. People around us couldn't help but smile at them. Mandy and I joked that the zoo should use them in a commercial. I love having a child that always is interested, aware and involved even if we are doing something that he has done many times before. Lucy and Carlie are great stroller buddies, but I think they were a little jealous of their brothers freedom. Little Monkeys.

Awww, that is so cute, Sushine and Lucy have really bonded. Because Lucy is her vending machine!!!

Lucy was taking a moment to smell the roses... or so I thought. Time for a snack, I guess.

Well, I think we have got this school thing down now. We have a lunch that he seems to like because he requests that it be exactly this, EVERY DAY. That sure makes it easy for me. We know which days to wear tennis shoes because of P.E. We know what time to leave the house to get to school without rushing. It is starting to feel like a routine. The best part: We got a behavior report on Friday. Their behavior is rated by color, purple being the best. Griffin got purple every day. And in the special comments section his teacher wrote, "Griffin is a joy." And ya, it made me cry.

Lucy and her best buddy, Carlie. These girls are going to have quite a time together, while their big brothers are in school.

I went to a great herb club meeting last night. The program was on cooking with herbs. It motivated me to get going this morning and prune the herb gardens. My bundles are made, now I just need to find a good place to dry them. Did you know that you use 3 x's the amount of fresh herbs than you do of dried herbs? I did not and it is such a handy conversion to know!

So, a few people have asked about the bathroom repairs and, of course, I have taken photos along the way. I'll show you how far we have gotten. I was actually kind of surprised at how few layers of decorating choices there were once they got done to demolishing the walls. Day 1 - Demolition Day 2 - Tiles placed (I LOVE these!) Day 3 - Tiles grouted (we chose a color as similar to the tile as we could find.)

I got my new battery charger and I am back in action!! Just because I could, I took a bunch of videos of Lulu walking last night. Loving it!! And, not to be outdone, Griffin wanted to make a movie too. Here he is, telling his favorite joke.

I just got the pictures from our little disposable camera developed and I went back and added pics to these posts: Lucy's first camping trip and Day 2 without Griffin . I have to post this photo too. A couple of weekends ago we went to a local Bluegrass music festival. We were only there for 3 hours or so because it was in the 90's and SUPER humid. Griffin looks so hot in this photo! And about that horrendous t-shirt Bruce is wearing....ugh, it's all my fault, you can blame me. See, Bruce LOVES ju ju bees and always needs a box for road trips. I think they are super GROSS but, you know, whatever, if he likes them and it helps him drive, groovy. He made a point a few months ago to show me how on the box there is an order form for a ju ju bees t-shirt. So, for his 40th, mostly as a joke, I got him the t-shirt. (I think I may be the only person to ever order 1 from their website as they were not sure how to charge me for shipping as they usually ship them by the box to stores...

Dikke just sent me a link to this video and I loved it. I really want to share it with you. I love when music transcends nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender and just connects everyone on a human level. Thank you to everyone who stood by me this week. All of your calls, e-mails,comments,texts and facebook messages meant SO MUCH to me.

I worked up my courage (and at the encouragement of my Mom) and wrote a letter to the editor of our local newspaper, The Madisonville Messenger. And guess what - it was published yesterday!!! SO EXCITING for me. I wish I could link to it, but you can only view it with a subscription to the paper. Many of you have already basically read it, as I just shortened this blog entry to 250 words. You know, it can be really scary to speak your mind, especially when your opinion is that of a minority (in this geographical region). I have decided though, to be respectful of myself and out of the love I have for my children and my concern for their future, I MUST speak my truth. Even if it is unpopular or progressive. And it is scary, scary that someone will think I am stupid or a terrible writer, tease me or make fun of me, but I will forge ahead anyway. I pledge that to myself and my children. Now, I am sure it will be a good long while before anything works me up to quite the same passion, bu...

Today is going MUCH better than yesterday. I was so eager to pick Griffin up yesterday, waiting in the pickup line was torture and produced tears of frustration. I started crying again when I saw him walking out of the school, him looking like such a big boy. Even Lucy let out a cry of glee when he got into the car! Griffin was soooo exhausted after school. After a few "Yeah, it was a good day."'s and "I don't remember" 's, I let him have a snack a veg out for a few minutes. We had a great dinner party and I think Griffin really felt excited, realizing this is a big moment for him. This morning he woke up GRUMPY. I had to wake him up and that started us out on the wrong foot. So much so that by the time it came to dropping him off this morning, I did not feel like crying...in fact, it felt ok to let him go. Lucy on the other hand, did not like seeing Griffin get out of the car alone and cried for "Brutha!!" the whole way home. It was cute in a...

Today has been a rough one friends, I am not gonna lie. Griffin woke up this morning complaining of a stomach ache, then it was too hot, then he didn't want any breakfast, then his tummy hurt and finally, "but I don't want to go to school today!" But, after a good breakfast, and putting on his favorite shirt, he was eager to go. To understand what happened at school, one needs to have read "The Kissing Hand" by Audrey Penn. It is a book about a little racoon that doesn't want to go to school. His Mama kisses the palm of his hand and urges him to hold onto that kiss all day to make him feel strong. Last night was Bruce's turn to put Griffin to bed so I suggested this as the perfect book for that night. So, back to this morning. I walked Griffin into the gym where all the teachers were meeting their students and delivered him into the capable hands of his teacher. We spoke for a moment and then it was clearly time for me to leave. The teachers wanted t...

Oh WOW - Griffin starts kindergarten TOMORROW!!! ALL DAY, 5 DAYS A WEEK, KINDERGARTEN!! I can hardly believe this day is here, yet I have anticipated it for soooo long. I am a jumbled up bag of emotions right now. I feel so confident that Griffin is ready - emotionally, intellectually, physically. He is such an amazing little kid, so much personality, imagination, passion and I am really super proud of who he is becoming. I am excited for him - all the things he will be learning, new experiences, new friends. We went to his school last night for orientation and met his wonderful teacher, Ms. Howard, her energetic aide, and the super competent principal. His classroom is super cute, everything feeling fresh and clean and organized. So all that is really good. But then there is the other side, the ripping off a band aid side. The pain I feel at our impending separation is almost a physical pain, it's that acute. Sometimes I feel like I can't breathe, I am that over...

Wow, it seems like blogging has been scarce lately. Mainly this is due to my lack of a camera. I lost my battery charger somewhere this summer. While I am trying to figure out where it is or if I can replace it, we have just been using a little disposable number. Griffin and Lucy helping set up the inside of the tent. We had a fantastic time camping last weekend. Griffin had a birthday party for one of his pre-school pals to attend on Saturday morning so we did not hit the road until noon. We headed straight over to Rough River Dam State Park, about 1 1/2 hours away. The campground was ok. Some of the spots were really terrible - small, no shade, tightly packed together. Luckily, we were able to grab a spot on the outer loop that was a little more private and shady. After setting up camp, which took awhile because we had a new tent and Griffin and Lucy were "helping", we took a great walk in the woods. We came upon this little cabin in the woods....felt like I was about to...