Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Abby's prayer

Abby really likes to pray, specifically at bed times and at meal times. Granted, some of this is a delay maneuver on her part. Little does she know that she's actually doing what we want her to do...ha.

Until last night, Abby has always been free and easy with making prayer requests. We pray for every member of both of our families every night (it takes about 2 seconds per person), some of them repeatedly (Uncle Sam and Uncle Don...you get a lot of prayer requests). And sometimes, other things strike her fancy and must be prayed about as well--the sandbox, the swings, the slide, her stuffed kitty, etc.

Last night at supper, Abby made her prayer request; except for the first time, she wanted to say it herself, and the proceeded with this gem:

"Dear Lord, I love Mommy and Daddy. A-MEN!!"

At that point, I think that Ben and I were each adding our own silent prayers of thanksgiving for our little sweetie.

Monday, July 11, 2011

If I had extravagant amounts of tangible wealth...

This is my thought process during my shower this morning.

If I had extravagant amounts of tangible wealth, I would make these splurges priorities:
*a daily trip to Starbucks for a grande hazelnut latte, skim of course
*a Kuerig/Tassimo deluxe coffee station
*a membership to a wine club (by the way, I'm open to sharing this with someone out there who would like to get together maybe once or twice a month just to have dinner and try new things...seriously)...this makes it seem like I'm a pretty serious drinker, which I'm definitely not. I just kinda like the idea of trying new wines once in a while.
*a gym membership so that I could take yoga classes
*a summer vacation that would last for about 2 months and would take us to visit every MLB ballpark, once Abby was older
*someone to do my hair EVERY day
*weekly pedicures/manicures
*my dream kitchen
*a greenhouse
*a nanny who would not live at my house

I think that's about it. Do-able on a teacher's salary?!?!?

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Busy, busy, busy!

June was a veritable whirlwind! It included, but was not limited to
4 office visits for Abby (various doctoral needs)
2 visits to the zoo
1 trip to Ft. Wayne
1 trip to the lake
4 times running the Coyote Kids race (a Kokomo thing for kids)
4 story times at the library
4 playdates
potty training part I and then potty training part II
daily walks
visits to various parks nearly every day
2 visits with two of my best buddies
1 babyshower
1 anniversary
at least 8 trips to the library, maybe closer to 12
2 trips to N. Manchester
1 meeting at church about sharing a pastor
1 cabin/camping trip with the in-law clan
1 day spent driving around looking at houses

And I thought that July was going to slow down. Not at all!

Now, Abby's turning into a potty pro, but it's still an adventure every day. And coming up soon, we have a trip the fair, a reunion, a possible trip to Jungle Jim's in Cincinnati, a definite trip to Cincinnati with a stay at a sweet little B & B and a Reds game with club seating (there will be a blog posting about this...SO excited, our first baseball game since before Abby was born, *and* club seats), a whole day ordeal so that Abby can have a couple of cavities filled which involves sedation (curse you, antibiotics!), another day where Abby gets tubes put in, a green team meeting at church, and the possibility of three more playdates/swimdates coming up. Oy! I'm kind of in a sunshine and family stupor right now as I'm typing this, too. We just came from another lake trip-then-afternoon with the in-laws that included an eye doctor trip & unexpected lunch out with the boy. How much can you jam into 18 hours? A lot!!

In the meantime, I thought about writing an entire post about our zoo trips, but it's been 3 weeks now, and I finally have my pictures put on the computer and labeled (I took around 200 just in June), so I'll just throw on some from the last month. Fun times!




This is from the Coyote Kids race last week. After every kid finishes, they get a popsicle and a...


...ribbon. :-)


Abby is BIG into "ready-set-start," and this is one of her two runner's poses. This is (as Ben informs me) her 2-count start. She sometimes chooses to start "from the blocks" in a 3-count start. I'll let Ben be the running coach. He gets paid to do it; I don't. But, I will say that this isn't her best starting form. She's preparing to run up a ramp here, and her balance is thrown off a bit. I'll just cheer and hold out a little cup of water as she zips by me.


This isn't the best picture of Ben, but it's the only one where Abby didn't have a hand in front of her mouth. Silly goose. Look how many clothes we're wearing mid-morning at the end of June! It was beautiful camping weather!!


Sometimes, you have to eat where and when you have the chance. Sometimes, you're not wearing pants when you eat.


Zoo #2: trying to be a giraffe or pet a giraffe



Zoo #2: serious. concentration.


Zoo #1: typical pose



After zoo trip #1: This isn't Abby's best picture, but Ben's face was extra goofy and his eyes are open in the picture for once, so hey, why not? She thinks that it's funny when she and Daddy wear his Colts hats together.

This has been a seriously fun summer...so far!