Thirteen Dollars

Thirteen dollars,

$13,

is approximately...

the cash I had in my wallet Friday night

3.644 gallons of gas

( I never can stop at zero cents!!)

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday's Large Java Chillers from America's favorite drive-in

( which I think are gross anyway)

2 happy meals and a grilled chicken salad from the Golden Arches

1/2 of my gas bill for the month of July

6 lunches for this kid at his school



and one month of food for this kid in his home

If you can give, please do

just click here

If you can't, if your funds go elsewhere to help, if you have other passions, please pray. 

If you donate by noon today, you have a part in raising money in honor of MB, my friend's little boy who is waiting in Ethiopia to be reunited with his brother Taz and the rest of his forever family.

You can leave sweet MB a note here.

thank you, from me, from MB's family, from FOVC who is supporting these struggling families

Toddler Trick Tuesday

This little girl,

this sweet little thing,

was supposed to be eating one of these

but instead, she smashed it in a towel and it looked like this



and she exclaimed, with great joy and pride,

"IT POOPED!!!"

Someone. please. help. me. now!!!!!

Perfect Afternoon

Ya know how when you see something cute/cool/great/awe-inspiring/beautiful, you just want to take a picture of it so you can always look back at it and remember how cute/cool/great/awe-inspiring/beautiful it really was??  Well, I had that happen today, and I wanted to take a picture so desperately, but I didn't have my camera, and well, it really was more of a moment or a span of moments, and so I just laid there, in my "boat" aka raft, in the pool, watching my 2 sweet babies interacting with each other and nature with no words shared. I stared to intently at them, as if to engrave their actions and movements into my forever memory bank. 

My sweet Cale had was chasing some sort of bugs.  Was it a grasshopper, butterfly, locust, fly?  I have no idea. I never saw what the sweet boy was chasing.  He would investigate it intently, hands on bent knees, focused on the spot of grass in front of him, then he would JUMP UP and run this way and that, until the tiny creature landed again.  And he would assume his inquisitive stance, knees bent, hands on knees, face toward the spot of grass. This continued on for some time, so sweet, so innocent, so wonderful. 

Just a little behind Cale, I could see Miss Jenna, doing her own little thing.  Wet headed, arms stuck straight out because of her flowery floaties, and her little self bopping up and down in her ruffled two piece swimming suit, she was much entertained by the tomato garden. She slowly walked up and down the rows of plants, no doubt on her tippy toes, so as to spare her tiny feet some of the pain of the hard dirt, up and down each row, looking at the tall plants, the green leaves, the red tomatoes.  She finally popped out of the garden and toddled over to the swing set, pushing each empty swing into the air, singing "swing, swing, swing, swing."  After a few minutes of swinging the swings, she decided to join her brother in the bug investigation.  So then they both assume the investigation stance...so. aboslutely.  adorable.  All the while, I was laying in my raft, skin warm from the sun and  heart warm with love for my kids and filled with awe of God's creations, cool water beneath me, blue skies above me, fluffy white clouds just still, like my heart, like my kids, for just these few moments.
Eventually they tired of this, Cale got hot and jumped back in the pool, Jenna started running and hollering. Sweet moment over.  Engraving done. 

IT Happened and I Couldn't Stop It!!!

IT would be that my child, my first born, my little love, my little boy, my sweet sweet son is in first grade!  I know, I know, I can't stop time, I can't put a brick on his head (sorry Calvin, it just doesn't work!), I can't keep him little.  And now Cale is officially in first grade.  So without further ado, here is the cutie patootie on his meet the teacher night and first day of first grade!!

How cute is this little guy?  And he kindly obliged his mama when I said, "let's take a picture in front of the sign (while you stare directly into the sun)!!"

Smiling, squinting, sunset!!!



His sweet teacher, Mrs. Meyer, made us this first grade survival kit. There was a darling little poem with these fun little things attached. Very cute, very nice.  Well, you can see that there is candy...which Cale promptly had to take off. So we took a quick pic!

Here's my 2 sweeties on the first day!  Notice Jenna has her backpack on too. Must. Be. Like. Cale.  Jenna has the sweetest, most genuine smile right here.  And then there's Bub. He's got the "clenched teeth I'm a boy taking a picture" smile going on.

Funny Jenna story...I took her to Ann's on the 2nd day of school and asked Bub to stay in the car. Bossy Pants, as I take her out of her car seat, says "Cale, get out."  I said, "No, Jenna, Cale is staying in the car. You are going to Ann's and he's going to school."  Sassy Bossy Pants screams "CALE GET OUT!!"  Needless to say, she is deliriously angry NOT happy about Cale not going with her to Ann's or should I say Cale going to school without her!

Second try, hmmmmm, little better and then sissy was outta there!

Cale's on his own and I get the good smile, finally!!! 

Please don't look at the white patches on my wall.  Unless of course, you look at it and it makes you want to come paint my whole living room, kitchen, entry and hallway. Then please, look all you want, and then run to Home Depot for paint!!!

 I took his 1st day of Kindergarten picture here (there weren't white patches then) and so then I had to take 1st day of 1st grade here, you know, to mark his growth against the light switch plate. Genius, huh???

Cale with his teacher. He is very very very kinda nervous about first grade.  I guess they did some some project in there at the end of kindergarten, and Cale remembers it as being "hard."  So he has this idea that Mrs. Meyer is going to be "really really hard."  She seems pretty darn nice to me. Sorry Cale, but hard is good!   It makes ya think!

Big first grader at his desk.  What a doll he is!!!

I took the day off so I could take him and pick him up (have I mentioned lately how wonderful and flexible my boss is....I never have to miss these moments because of her!) and this is what I was greeted with. Actually, I was greeted with the most giant hug in the world, a big kiss and a sweet smile!  Then I dug this darling hat out of his bag and captured this moment of joy on my big 1st Grader's face.