Dad gets the dead fish

So that's what I heard as I rounded to corner into the kitchen. The girls were sitting at the kitchen table getting ready for craft time. Tea had received some shrinky dinks for her 5th birthday from a friend and they were about to start coloring. For some (very strange reason) one of the shrinky dinks was of fish bones. They had carefully sorted them out, Tea being gracious and sharing them with her sister. Apparently there was an odd number and the one left after they had taken turns picking their stash was the fish bones. And Dad was to be the lucky fellow to get the remaining one.. the "dead fish." Lucky duck! [ it's very small and hard to see, but Pip is holding it at her eye level ]

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The flu is almost an epidemic here. We have managed to avoid it so far, but hundreds of kids are out of each of the local schools. Only 1 out from my class, but four (out of 12) are gone across the hall. They are giving immunization shots for free at all the schools, but I have decided not to vaccinate for this one after a lot of research and prayer. So we are eating well, taking vitamins, and hand washing like crazy. I have a sinus infection so am running at 80% and hope to stay well for at least the next few days. I leave Friday afternoon for Virginia Beach for my church's women's retreat. I'm excited for a few days of companionship in Christ and spiritual renewal.

I'm back

I've composed so many posts in my mind, but just haven't had the time to come and post anything. I'm finally feeling that I have both feet underneath of me, so I'm hopeful that I can get back on track.

Highlights (for now- maybe full posts will be forthcoming)
- After several weeks, Paul is fully credentialed again and able to resume work.
- Teaching is going well. There is no doubt that God clearly placed me in this position. It has been difficult to find a balance of work/home. I have had an overwhelming amount of responsibilities to get the school year off to the right start and I have been going non-stop for many 12 hour days of family/work/errands/family/bow business. It's exhausting. I believe that I'm now in a groove with school and the girls are as well, so I might free up a bit of time for simply being.
- We received 4 free tickets to the local berry farm and had a wonderful weekend at the farm seeing animals, running the corn maze, riding the tractors to the pumpkin patch and SO much more. I took almost 300 pictures on a glorious Sunday afternoon last week.
-Tea (I'll be using nicknames now) turned 5 and I put together a craft themed party at home. We had 10 little girls as guests and her kindergarten teacher came too (love her!). The weather didn't cooperate, so I had to move it all inside (yikes!) but it went so smoothly.
- Pip lost 3 teeth in less than a week including the top front two. Tea has her first two loose so we bought the material to sew her tooth fairy pillow so we'll be ready. That project has been on the back burner, so hopefully I have another weekend.
- Spent all Saturday sewing. Made super soft fleece robes for the girls now that mornings are starting to have a chill. I love making stuff from scratch. Pip told me this morning it was like I was giving her a hug all the time she was wearing her robe.
-We had a church picnic and I got the chance to catch up with some ladies from our former ABF (Adult Bible Fellowship) class. We switched almost a year ago because Paul wasn't getting anything out of the lessons and needed a different teaching method. Our new class is taught by a wonderful man who runs a full time Men's Ministry and teaches in a way women can learn from too, but really challenges men. It's where we need to be, but I miss some of the women from my former class I never get to see anymore. Several of us have all had similar challenges/struggles in the past 4 months and it was refreshing to talk with them about their walks and faith.
- Paul won a trip to San Antonio for his work performance. We couldn't afford to add me to the trip since the hotel was covered, but airfare and a meal/activity fee were not. My prayer for the past few weeks was that if God wanted me to take this trip, He would provide the money. Guess what... I'm going to Texas the first week on Nov!(this will for sure be an in depth post).

I had about 30 minutes of free time before the bus this afternoon. See...things are getting better!! Off to get my girlies.

Twins?

"No. They are 16 months apart."

I find myself saying that, no joke, at least 5 times a week when we are out in public. The girly girls just had their back to school physicals and only 1/2 of a pound separates them in weight (younger good eater having older finicky sister beat there)> as for height, older P still has 1.5" inches on younger T, but it's not that noticeable. Their hair is now the exact same color after a summer of sun has lightened up T a bit. The only difference is one is curly and the other straight. They both wear size 11 shoes and size 5-6 clothes. And since they have identical styles and interests, they both have the exact same shoes, sweaters, rain coats... You get the picture.

They now know the stock response. I've even caught an eye roll followed by the under the breath muttering "16 months apart" on several occasions. After a grocery trip last week P remarked, "Hey, nobody asked if we are twins." It's that common of an occurrence.

I used to wish I had a twin. Anybody else? Even just a sister would have done.

I have a favorite blog I like to follow. They have twins from China and the pictures and stories are so darn cute. The mom, M3, started doing product reviews last month and I sent her a box of bows for her girls to put to the twin test and review. They opened the box yesterday. M3 posted a bunch of pictures of the girls with them. Too cute. The review will come out in a week or so after they are well tested. Can't wait to hear what they think and hopefully get some good press!!

BTS mussings

I love back to school. All of it. Shopping for school supplies has always been pure joy. I was always excited to start a new year. I'm an academic nut who just loves learning. As a teacher the end of summer never bothered me. I couldn't wait to get back, set up my classroom and unpack boxes of newly arrived supplies. I had ordered everything back in the spring and often forgot exactly what I had ordered (art supplies for 700 kids for 9 months worth of projects= about 25 large cardboard boxes to unpack) so it was kind of like Christmas morning present opening. In a word...FUN! There is still a lot of work to be done in my new classrrom, but that will have to wait until I'm officially in my work week next week. My mom even took me BTS shopping for some new work clothes when we visited last week.

The girly girls are all excited too. Thankfully T doesn't appear apprehensive at all about starting kindergarten. She'll ride the bus with her sister, get to walk in hand and hand and go to the same class with her dear friend who lives across the street and has been a preschool classmate for the past two years, and she has Mrs. M!!! A wonderfully kind, loving, all around awesome (and a Christian!) teacher she got to know well last year since she was P's teacher. We even found out last night two friends we adore, one from church and one from dance, are also in her class. Don't know much about P's new 1st grade teacher, but when I talked on the phone yesterday afternoon with Mrs. M and she asked who P got, she told me that the new teacher was fabulous and that her personality and style would be a wonderful fit for P. Cool!! P doesn't have any of her best friends in her class but I'm not surprised that that isn't phasing her a bit. She was Miss popularity last year, so I have no concerns that she'll have a new wide circle of friends in no time. Wish I had been that way.

I have my class list of the 16 recently turned five and almost five year olds that will make up my class. I have brief notes about them and can't wait to put faces to names next week.

About the only thing I'm not looking forward to is our mornings. You see, I'm a night owl. If I'm in bed before midnight, well, that's early. I start the majority of my bow sewing after the girls go to bed, so I'm most productive between 9 and 12AM. We have been rolling out of bed 8ish most of the summer. Now we'll have to be out the door by 7:55. And I'll be ushering two through the morning routine. Last year P and I always made it with less than 2 minutes to spare to the bus stop and T was still soundly asleep. I hate to admit, but there were many mornings we were pulling up to the stop (about 1/4 mile away) as the bus was arriving from the opposite direction. We never did actually miss it though! So in a nutshell, I'm dreading getting all of us up and out on time. The grand plan was to start moving back bedtime and waking up early in preparation. Not happening. In fact we pulled in the driveway Monday night at 9:30 from a play date gone long. But we all had a lot of fun and it is still summer. OK, so we have a few more days to get adjusting going...

This school year will mark a lot of change. First year with both girls in elementary school. First school year back to work for me after six years at home. I know it is going to be a great year! I can clearly see God's hand in placing me in my teaching position and the girly girls in their classes. I'm so excited to get going and see what He has in store for us. That is if I can get us all out the door.

Just REALLY busy

Haven't posted in a while. Haven't posted to the blogs I love to follow in a while (thought I have quickly scanned a few). Just been REALLY busy!!

There has been a lot to do to get ready for the new job. I've spent a few days in training and prep and a ton of hours at home. We have made two more trips to grandma and grandpa's (and plan one last hoorah for this Fri/Sat). T has had a severe double ear infection and we are on round two of meds and P has a sinus infection and is on meds as well. Then we had the back to school physicals and I had to have one as well. I gathered, prepped, tagged and delivered 90 items to a consignment sale. I donate a Girly Girl Bowtique gift card to the volunteer prizes, so I get to shop early with the volunteers. We went this afternoon and found a few fall dresses and some really neat king, queen, prince and princess puppets. Also was tickled to find a Language Learners Mandarin speaking doll for $5. She's way cool!!

Girls were expecting postcards from their teachers today. P's came but T's did not. She was so sad. We had been hanging out in the cul de sac for over an hour with friends waiting for the mailman. Thankfully the little girl across the street's didn't come too, so we weren't the only one. Still, she was sad all day. Around 4pm I remembered that I had P's last years teachers cell phone number in my phone- the same teacher we really wanted T to have this year (and she requested that T be in her class as well.) I debated if I'd seem a neurotic Mom to call, but decided to go ahead give her a ring and am so pleased I did. She has T in her class and also has little A across the street in her class as well!! Thrilled!!!

A new sweetie

Our family had the honor of sponsoring a dear child living at New Day for eight months. In that time, we contributed $35 a month to go toward her care, sent gifts, celebrated her milestones, but most importantly prayed for her by name and lifted her up to the Almighty. To put it mildly, we fell in love with her. Last month, fifteen month old Gracie was adopted into a forever family in country. A local Chinese family now will forever call her daughter. I had pictures of Gracie around our home as a daily reminder for myself and for the girly girls to pray for this sweet orphan. Now that she has a family, we still pray for her. Our prayer is that she and her family will know the saving grace of Jesus.


Gracie with bows and the bear we sent her


Melody




This is Melody in what I believe is our blue Bumbo seat we sent for Gracie in January

Our little T in the Bumbo at the same age. Notice she was sporting two little pigtails like Melody's one above


It's time to pick out our next sweetie to sponsor. When I saw the picture of Melody, a new arrival at New Day, I was captivated. To me, she has quite a resemblance to our younger girly girl at the same age of 4 months. All that hair- she fits right in!! Her given name of Melody is a name the girls have picked out for some of their dolls, so I hear it daily. As I read the brief information about her I was struck by one more thing- her birthday is the same as Gracie's. So that sealed it- we should sponsor Melody. I emailed Rita and she put us in the database for Melody. She won't be a long term resident, she is there for surgery and then will return to her home orphanage. But she'll forever be in our hearts as our second sponsor child. Her picture has gone up in our home alongside Gracie. We have begun to pray for her by name, lifting her up to our Lord. We are asking for His healing hand when she undergoes surgery. For her family to quickly find her. And for her to know the love of her savior.

It is an honor to sponsor. There are many organizations and you can email me if you'd like suggestions. Won't you consider? It truly is a blessing.

There is still time

Yes, friends, there is still time to place your order for key fobs, hair bows, clippies, headbands, ponytrailers-- basically anything girly hair related- to benefit this family in their fundraising needs to bring home Hailee. If you haven't been by and seen what I'm up to before, I'm donating 100% of profits from sales off my website to the Salem adoption fund. They need $24,000, fast, to bring home Hailee from Eastern Europe. The fundraiser has been going for a few days and ends tomorrow, Wednesday, at midnight. So please spread the word, post on your blog, grab the button from my left sidebar, link to this post, email any friends who buy bows- there is no code or anything- every sale that comes in goes to this family. Keep me busy!!! Get those orders in!!