Fall Fun!

Today, we went with Matt' parents, sister and kids, and my mom to Barn-n-Bunk for our annual ritual of getting pumpkins for the fall season. This year, both kids are walking well and really got into it! Carleigh was saying "pumpkin! pumpkin!" And Cody can say pumpkin also. Both kept picking up pumpkins and then putting them down...small pumpkins of course! We had lunch there and watched their cousins play in the inflatable climbers for a short bit. We are having very unusually hot weather here and it was expected to reach 90 today. Yuck! I am ready for the cool, fall temps! It is rumored that the highs will be in the low 70s, upper 60s at the end of the week and I cannot wait!

Finding the perfect pumpkin!

The Latest

Carleigh: Carleigh is attending a fall play group through the Early Intervention program that she is in. Matt reports that she is having a blast, making cute crafts, and making new friends. It is so good for her to be around other kids her age AND who has struggles as well. I am just amazed at her progress. If you didn't know her, you wouldn't think she has EVER had any delays. Her physical skills are where she should be, fine motor skills need just a little work and her speech is progressing.

This is my mom's second week of watching the kids in the afternoon. When Carleigh saw me coming in today, she ran to Mamaw's purse, gave it to her and then said, "Thank you!" What a hoot! Mom just laughed! I guess she was telling her bye!! She also was waving bye before she even got off the couch! She is also singing lots of songs now. But most importantly, she is learning the motions to all the songs. She can do all the movements to the Wiggles songs and the B-I-B-L-E. When she turns three, I am putting her in dance...I think it is truly her gift.

Cody: He is having a blast in preschool. He is learning new songs and exploring his
classroom during center time. Tonight, we had to put a special item in a bag and it will be sent to his class for his classmates to guess what it is. We had to write 3 clues. We chose Cody's "Elmo Knows Your Name" because Cody LOVES Elmo and he can actually tell his classmates the name of the item. We are also going to a special Fall event at a farm with his preschool in a couple of weeks. I plan on taking my first personal day of the school year in order to go and also to meet his preschool teacher for the first time. The whole family can attend so we are all planning on having a fun time at the fall event.

Cody is also waiting for his new glasses to arrive. He broke his old pair and the stems of the glasses were bothering him around the ear, so the new ones will hopefully be better and we are hoping and praying he keeps the second pair on as he really needs to wear his glasses. He is also identifying lots of new animals like monkey and chicken. He is really talking more and wanting to tell us what is going on in his world. He just makes me smile every day!

Matt's job was crazy last week...he worked over 40 hours in 4 days, but this week it is slowing down some and he is home around 9pm which is great because he can help me with baths and bedtime! It is taking time to adjust but this week is better than last week.

Ramblings

Matt started his new job yesterday. His normal hours are 1:30 - 10:00pm. I had the kids in bed by 9:30 and Carleigh was asleep by 10pm. I waited for a few minutes and then went to bed. I woke up around midnight and noticed he was not home yet. Of course I was worried so I couldn't go back to sleep and he came home around 12:20am! It was mandatory for everyone to work 10 hours last night! What a rough way to get back into the workforce. So, if he works that late tonight, I wasn't going to have him borrow my parent's truck and then drag the kids out after midnight to drop it back off so they will be missing Wednesday night church until we get a second car. Hopefully that will happen this weekend!

It is a bit hard in the evenings with a 2 and 3 year old on your own. Dinner is ok, but bathtime is CHALLENGING to say the least! By the time I had them bathed, dry and in their pj's, I was exhausted! Usually Matt takes care of Cody and I take care of Carleigh and everything is done quickly. On top of that we had a social worker meeting right when I came home from work so yesterday was not a good day for me! (Two back to back social worker meetings in two days is not fun!)

This evening is a little bit better since I alternate baths every other night and I plan on having them in bed and ASLEEP by 9:30pm so that I can have some ME time for a few minutes before going to bed. We are hoping that Matt doesn't have to work on Saturday so that we can have some family time. We are going on a date the following weekend with my sister, her husband and a few other couples. We are looking forward to that.

CUTE SAYING ALERT: Cody started crying this afternoon. So Carleigh goes over to him, bends down, and in her most caring, sweet voice says, "What's wrong?" It blew me away! She also can identify Curious George...she had George on her fruit snack label and said "George!!"

Here's the scoop....

If everyone works like crazy fiends, if all the paperwork, required meetings, appointments with the lawyer works out....we will be finalizing Carleigh's adoption on November 3rd! National Adoption Day is November 17th, but the judge in our county who finalizes adoptions will be out of town on that Saturday, therefore he changed the date. I was a little skeptical that everything can happen that fast (cynical aren't I?) since we have been dealing with foster care adoption for 4 years. However, our adoption worker is great and is really going to help us out and it also helps that we finalized an adoption 7 months ago and are already in the system. Please keep us in your prayers that everything will work out for this special day!

Never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that I would be finalizing BOTH of my children's adoption in the same year, just 9 months apart! What a year 2007 will be for our family! God's plans are absolulely amazing! If He can do this in just 9 months, what other miracles could happen for us?!!

Silly girl

I was taking pictures and Carleigh is such a camera-girl. Here she is! You can't tell from the picture, but she is wearing Cody's shoes. The girl LOVES putting on and wearing shoes. I think I have a shoe fashionista!!

Fall decorations

I started getting out my fall decorations. I am not nearly finished, but Cody and Carleigh loved playing with the pumpkins and it is so cute to hear them say pumpkin. They call it "pun-kin."

Our fur-nephew!

We are dogsitting for the weekend. My sister has a Yorkie named Rudy and she is out of town for the weekend and since we live on the same street as her, we dogsit often. We brought Rudy down so that he could play with Cody and Carleigh and they loved it....or should I saw Cody did! Cody was hesitant and scared at first, but he warmed up mighty quick. He got so comfortable with Rudy that he was kissing and trying to hug him.

Cody's new best friend!

Good news!!

We have a LOT of good news to report! Matt got a job! He will be working second shift at the company that he worked for last fall as a part-time position. He will now be working full time on second shift. My mom has agreed to watch the children for the three hours in the afternoon that overlap with my teaching schedule. She will basically watch them nap which will not be to physically hard for her. Matt got the kids' therapy changed to Friday mornings since Cody doesn't have preschool on Friday. Everything is working out great! I will be single parenting in the evening again, but am excited that God has provided this position for him!

Secondly, we were MATCHED with Carleigh yesterday! Her appeal time is OVER! The next stage will happen on Monday when we turn in our financial paperwork with the adoption worker. Then we will meet with the financial department, set up the "adoptive placement meeting," and then call our lawyer to finalize!!! Woohoo!! We might be finalizing on National Adoption Day in November! That would be sooo cool!

We will be having our first family portrait done on or after Adoption Day. We are just so happy! God is good all the time....all the time, God is good!

Meow....milk?

Today, dh was sitting on our screened porch while the kids were playing. The cats came over and Carleigh said, "Meow.....milk?" Meaning: Can we feed the cats milk? Of course Matt couldn't say no, and brought out milk. Cody and Carleigh LOVE watching the kids drink the milk. Hopefully the cats will stay around for awhile. They have gotten very attached to them.

Another cute story: While Matt was waiting for me in our school playground, Carleigh was looking out the van window and saw some of our school children playing on the playground. A few were playing kickball. When they ran, Carleigh shouted "Run! Run!" and when it was someone's turn to kick, she would shout "Kick! Kick!" I don't know if she was trying to be a cheerleader or wanting to be apart of the action!! He He HE!

"The B.I.B.L.E"

Carleigh's first real song is the "The B-I-B-L-E" from Sunday School. Last week, Matt heard her spelling something and then we figured out she was singing the "Bible" song. It was too cute hearing her spell it while shopping on Saturday. It warms my heart to know that the first word she can spell is Bible! She also does hand motions to the song and stomps when we sing "I stand upon the word of God..." So sweet!

She also has Cody trying to sing the song too. One of Cody's preschool songs from last year apparently has motions and whenever I sing the song to him, he starts moving his arms up and down. They are at such a cute stage. They are learning new words every day!

Another birthday comes around!

31 years ago, my mom gave birth to me on HER birthday! Yes, it is very unique to give birth to a child on your birthday. Mom had no idea that I would be born on her birthday (no planned births thirty-some years ago!) but she was so excited to find out that we would share the same birthday. September is the birthday month in my family. My niece Britt's birthday is Sept. 3, mom and my birthday is Sept. 15, and my sister's birthday is Sept. 20th. Needless to say that early December was an exciting time of the year!(hahaha!)

Today, my mom, sis, Carleigh and I went bargain shopping for clothes. I found some great deals and didn't spend over $40. I bought a brand-new sweater jacket for Cody, winter coat for Cody, jacket for Carleigh, shirts and a few pants and skirts for Carleigh, a jacket for me, Sesame Street videos (4), a Wiggles video, two skirts for me and a toy truck for Carleigh (such a tomboy!).

We celebrated my birthday with Matt's family at Chili' which is my favorite restaurant. Then my sis and I did a little bit more shopping since she had her great neice Emily and needed to buy her a few things for her overnight stay.

After church tomorrow, my sister, Britt, her boyfriend and I are going to the Pork Festival and I am going to shop ONLY for myself!! Woohoo! Matt has agreed to watch the kids (mostly napping) and to watch the Bengals play the Browns. GO BENGALS!!!

The cat saga continues....

Well, I had heard rumors that this cat was a momma cat. We found out today when I went outside and saw her nursing two of her 3 kittens in the lot behind our backyard. The kittens are not very small and are large enough to get their own food in my opinion. No wonder this momma cat is so skinny. The business office across the street named her "Patches" but her kittens look like carbon copies of her. I can just see all the fun Cody and Carleigh could have with 3 kittens!

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Our little pet (stray)

Our backyard is becoming a haven for lots of God's creatures! We have a groundhog under our shed, lots of spiders (ick) and now we have a stray cat that has been hanging around for over a week. I have never been a big fan of cats, but this little guy/girl is growing on me. We have been calling her "Kitty." Carleigh looks out the porch and talks to her by meowing. It is so cute! Cody loves chasing him/her around the yard. She/He is the sweetest thing. I haven't gotten close enough to tell what gender it is.

We can't have pets due to our landlord rules, so we have adopted this little guy as our outdoor pet. The kids lover her/him.

Cody all smiles because he is watching one of his fave shows "Curious George."
Cody is chasing the cat!

What's happening

Well, Cody caught a little head cold (due to seasonal allergies) and then passed it on to Carleigh since she was kissing him and drinking his sippy cup. So, we have two toddlers with runny noses. What fun! I also have a headache and sore throat which is usually what happens before I get a big sinus infection. I hope it holds off because my birthday is in 6 days and I really don not want to be sick on my birthday.

Last night, I was reading books to Cody and Carleigh. I pointed to a big, yellow bird and asked Cody, "Who is this?" To which Cody replies, "Big Bird!!" He gets Bert and Ernie mixed up but at least he knows that they are a pair! His vocabulary is really exploding! He also can say bucket, thank you, milk, yessss! He has a problem saying the number 6 for some reason, he says "xxxx." It is so cute to hear him say it though. He made it through his first week of preschool and hopefully he is well enough to go tomorrow for the first full week (Monday - Thursday).

This morning, I stepped on the carport from my bedroom to see what the temp. was like and got a little scare when a little black and white cat came up to me! The poor little stray was so skinny and wet from the rain. So, we did a big no-no and gave it a little milk. I just can't stand to see little animals looking pathetic! We haven't seen the little guy/girl ever since. Matt says that he/she hangs around the garage across the street alot. Carleigh saw it Friday night and said "Cat! Meow!"

Our new pet (not!!)

Matt noticed that a rather large spider made a HUGE web at the corner of our house. Of course that is the corner where Carleigh's bedroom is! He wanted me to see the little creature but on Thursday it disappeared. Well, today our pet was back with a bigger web and was sitting right in the middle of the web. Matt came and got me and I slowly and carefully looked at the spider. I am TERRIFIED of spiders! I do not like insects, especially spiders. They give me the creeps! I think I was having a small panic attack while walking up close enough to see it. I went back into the house to grab my camera so I could take a few pics to show my class (we will be studying spiders in a week or so). It was still there to my dismay...um joy and I took a few shots. If you are scared, just ignore this post!!

I have been searching the internet to find what kind it is but still haven't identified it yet. I am glad that we can safely saw it was not a brown recluse or brown widow spiders (the posionous spiders here in Ohio). If anyone knows what type of spider this is, please let me know! I am curious enough thought scared!

First Day of School!

Today was Cody's first day or preschool for the 2007-2008 school year. He began preschool in January when he turned 3 years old. Matt said he was in a good mood getting on and off the bus so hopefully he had fun and learned something new today!!

I want another ride!!

Although she didn't like the hills, she wanted another ride!
This is one of her favorite pasttimes, playing with rocks!!

Riding with Aunt Connie!

Walking with Papaw!
Hiking with Daddy!

Hiking in the woods!

Labor Day 2007!

Matt and Carleigh walking along the campout area.
Cody, taking a rest with Papaw!

Today was my niece's 18th birthday, so sister had a party for her at her in-law's farm in Indiana. I cannot believe that Brittany is 18 years old! I remember being up at the hospital when she was born (I was almost 13 years old at the time.) and seeing her right after she was born. It is amazing how time flies!

We took Cody and Carleigh on a hike back in the woods of their farm. They have a blast! Cody got tired toward the end and Papaw (Jen's dad) carried him the rest of the way back. Carleigh was a trooper and walked the entire way! There were lots of hills and ditches to climb and they had a lot of fun getting dirty, collecting rocks and finding treasures like walnuts!

The highlight of the day was getting rides from my sister on her four-wheeler. Cody would squeal when we would hit bumps!!

Gotta brag again!

Matt took Cody to meet his new preschool teacher today. Matt was telling her and Cody's new aide about all the progress he has made. On cue, Cody went to the rug with the alphabet and numbers and starting pointing to a letter and saying the name! He also started counting for them. They were blown away by his progress! Just makes this mommy very proud!! He starts preschool on Tuesday, September 4th. He goes four days a week in the mornings. Preschool is such a positive influence on him and I noticed that he was maturing and just aware of his environment more since sending him last January.

Possible exciting news!

Today was our regular monthly meeting with Carleigh's adoption worker. She told us that the deadline for the birthfamily to appeal to the highest court is September 20th. (They highly doubt that they will appeal to the highest court.) If we have our paperwork ready on that day and if the financial and matching meeting is scheduled quickly, we may be able to finalized on a very special day and month......NATIONAL ADOPTION MONTH....and possibly on NATIONAL ADOPTION DAY!! On National Adoption Day, the judge in our county finalizes quite a few adoptions on a special day....SATURDAY! A Saturday in November is National Adoption Day and our agency has a special celebration then for all those who adopt on the special day and sometimes, the newspaper is also there. Woohoo! I have always wanted to finalize an adoption on that special day! It would also be great because family and friends would not have to take off work and we can have a small adoption celebration afterwards!! It would make 2007 awesome because we would have finalized BOTH adoptions in one year!! Woohooo! Is our family complete you ask? Well....we are really leading that up to the Lord. I would love to adopt one more, we are just going to wait and see what the Lord has planned for our family. We are not sure when #3 would arrive or HOW #3 would become a part of our family, I just know in my heart that the Lord has some awesome plans for us in the coming years.

We are going to have THE family portrait when Carleigh's adoption is finalized. I have been waiting for this for such a time as this. We really wanted both adoptions to be finalized so it would make the family portrait more special. We are so excited that our family may (possibly) be complete this year.

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More 'do pics

New do's!

We went up our street this morning and visited Aunt Connie (Jen's sister) and Aunt Connie styled our hair. Don't they look stylin'?

Is it Friday yet????

Well, the first week of school is almost coming to a close and the best word to describe it is....SURVIVAL! Each day got better, but due to a whole summer of taking it easy and just playing with my kiddos, I have been exhausted by the end of the day. The first three afternoons, I have fallen asleep on the couch.

Then, I find out today that I will be getting a new student on Monday for a grand total of 20 students. Yikes! I haven't had a class of 20 students in several years. It will take a few organizational strategies to handle 20 or more. The most students I have ever taught was 29 students (in a local suburban public school ) when I was student teaching in 4th grade. The max number I have taught in second grade at my school is 24 students and that was 6 years ago.

Matt tells me that our lovable, sweet Cody is the boyfriend of a cute little girl from church. Her mother told Matt yesterday that she prays for Cody and talks about Cody alot. There is nothing sweeter than preschool love!! He He He

Carleigh is obsessed with bugs, frogs and other creepy crawlies. Her Wed. night church teacher gave all the kids bug kits with plastic bugs, creepers and gear to study bugs. She has been fascinated by the little things and loves to put them back into their bug container.

1 down and 179 more days to go!

Well, I survived the first day of school! I have to get up around 5:30am (not good for a non-morning person like myself) and I was dragging. Once I got to school, I was ok. Boy do I have a lively or should I say talkative group! I have 19 students and just one of me which was challenging today because their minds were still in summerland. Oh, how do I forget each year about how they come in like first graders who needs lots of attention and then by the end of the year, I have molded them into independent third graders. I need to grab some extra patience in the morning with my cup of oj!!

All in all, they seem like a good group who wants to please and who are very kind to others (which wasn't the case last year). Hopefully by the end of the week, they will be used to the routine and start following directions!!

Cody and Carleigh slept in which was nice for Matt because it gave him time to himself and take care of a few things.

Being thankful!

Being a teacher, the salary is lacking (um REALLY lacking in Christian schools!) but the rewards and blessings are too many to count! I love teaching and know that God called me to the profession. When I first started out, I wanted to teach in public as I graduated from a public university and student taught in a public school. Try as I may, God showed me in His infinite wisdom that He had other plans for me. I subbed in public for half of a year and was depressed and deflated. A friend from church told me about this long-term sub position at a small Christian school and I jumped at it (subbing was really getting to me). I taught all day Kindergarten with the traditional Christian A-Beka curriculum. Very eye opening indeed! The distance was too much for me and I began searching for a new position and God led me to my present Christian school. There were a few years that I questioned if I should remain there, but God's still voice told me to stay. He called me to be a Christian teacher, not just A teacher. It is my ministry in life and how I can serve. I am just so thankful to be able to teach the Bible and true scientific concepts that do not go against my faith. It is exciting to teach a semester long unit on Moses and the Israelites and then switch to the life of Jesus the second half of the school year. It is also great to have parents praying for me and my family. I am just so thankful to be working with fellow believers and know that we are making a difference in the lives that we teach. Thankful, thankful, thankful!

More classroom pics

When you first walk into my classroom this is what you see.
My classroom reading corner!

Classroom Pics

My room is almost finished! Now I am just lesson and unit planning and preparing for the first day of school. I have 19 students this year which is the same number that I had last year.

Back to the ole' grind!

Today was the official first day back for teachers at my school (although the elementary teachers had a 2 hour training on Monday) and yes, I have the glossed over look that I get every August! I have been slaving over my room and came in last weekend. I have most of the room together and am now in the lesson planning and unit planning part of first day preparation. I plan on bringing my camera to school tomorrow and will post a few pics(hopefully) tomorrow. Today was a long day of insurance, leadership and staff meetings in a cold high school sanctuary. Lesson learned: bring a sweater because the a/c is cranked on a 94 degree day!

Cody Update: Cody is starting to use words more to tell us what he wants. Today, I was eating a fry and he said "fry?" To which I rewarded him and he was thrilled. I have been really trying to get him to vocalize what he wants and not just grunt and point. He is absolutely thrilled when I figure out what he wants so I am hoping that it will be a big motivator to get him to talk more. His vocabulary is increasing every week and I am just so proud of the little guy! No progress on the bed/crib issue. I plan on trying again this weekend.

Carleigh Update: She has slept in her bed every night! However, she regressed during naptime (due to Daddy being home and Mommy being gone :-( ) so she is still taking her nap in the crib. I hope to curb the crib nap habit this weekend. I told Carleigh to rub my back last night (sore from moving things around my classroom) and she REALLY starting rubbing it (as well as a toddler can)! New words: triangle,circle, square, elephant, fork, bed, and she has learned lots of new animal sounds. I am just amazed at how much spoken (receptive) lanuage she understands.

No!

Lately, when we ask Carleigh a question, she answers "No" and shakes her head matter of factly. It is so cute. However, I am already noticing a little backtalk from her. At two? Oh my! I will tell her "No!" and she replies by saying "Yes!!" I am proud of my girl, though. She has slept in her bed 3 nights now and naps in her bed as well. I can officially take her crib down. *tears* Don't know if we will ever have a newborn or infant again, unless it is God's will. Our next task with Carleigh is potty training, but I am still waiting a few more months because she isn't giving me good indicators that she is ready.



Cody is still in the crib. He is such a creature of habit that it will be more challenging with him. We are being extra patient with him. He just doesn't understand that a bed is for sleeping and he can't get up and start playing!! He is so sweet...I get over 100 kisses from him every day. I hope he never loses that special sweet spirit.



I am starting to get that Back to School stress that I get every year. I think it is partly because I haven't been able to do alot of work in my classroom since Matt has been working 6 days a week for a couple of weeks. I have been working in the evenings, however, the laminator, die-cut machine and copier is in the office now and I can only access that during the day and of course I can't get anything done with two toddlers in tow! Next week, I will be putting in some long hours and of course there is the all exciting teacher inservice meetings! Woohoo! (note the sarcasm in my voice)



I will post a pic of my classroom again once it is complete....it should be done late next week. Well, it has to be done because our Back to School Night is Saturday, August 18th.

Update and Major Praise!

Update from last night: Carleigh slept the whole night in her big girl bed!! Woohoo!! I had to sit with her in the dark until she went to sleep. Once I started getting sore from sitting on the ground, I moved to the twin bed in her room and she fell asleep after 45 minutes or so of playing and jabbering. Cody had to sleep in his crib again. However, I am going to be with Cody tonight and let Matt take the easier of the two.

Major Praise to God: I checked the court website, and Carleigh's appeal case was affirmed in our favor which means, she will be ADOPTED very soon! Praise the Lord! I am thinking October or November!!! Thank you Lord! It is over!!

Such a big boy!

Transition to beds

Today, Papaw (Jen's dad) put the beds together. Cody and Carleigh wanted to be helpers although they took things apart more than helping! Tonight, Cody and Carleigh will (hopefully) sleep in their big kid beds. They are so fascinated with them and love getting in and hiding under the covers. Hopefully everyone will get a good night's sleep! If it goes well, then I have the challenge of napping tomorrow which I have a feeling will be a bigger challenge since there will be light in their room's and they will want to play in their rooms. I will update our progress tomorrow.

Their beds

Cody's bed......notice the duo standing on the bed. Don't try that at home!
Carleigh's bed..... I love white furniture!

Big Girl!

Carleigh in her big girl bed!

Oh my!

Yesterday, I decided to go to school to get some of my teacher curriculum books to start planning for the new school year. I loaded up the wagon with the kiddos and we went to my classroom. Cody and Carleigh LOVED my room. Cody found my globe and was spinning and spinning it. Carleigh sat down in one of my student's desk and looked like a REAL student. When we were getting ready to leave, I open the classroom door and strap Cody into the wagon. As I was reaching to grab Carleigh, she took off down the hallway at lightning speed. She looks back, smiles her mischievous grin, and yells "Run! Run! Run!" So I abandon Cody (he's safe in the wagon) and take off chasing her. She goes into the gym, finds a basketball and plays with it and then kicks it around like a soccer ball. I finally catch her and we hurry to get back to poor lonely Cody! I never know what to expect from Carleigh!!