Have you ever . . .

Been woke up at 11:45 pm by a male voice? I can now say that I have. Steve surprised me and came home a day early for the weekend. I had just fallen asleep at 11:30. At first, I thought "What is my Dad doing here?"

Of course, I was so excited then that I couldn't get back to sleep until almost 1 am, but I am glad we have three days with him instead of two. The best part is that he isn't going to be doing hardly any school work this weekend!!!!!!!!!!!!

The package is in the air

Two cardboard boxes full of art supplies (not children) are on their way to China. We collected art supplies for Lily's orphanage in honor of her birthday and I finally had everything ready to go on Thursday (translations, packing, pictures, etc). Please pray that they both arrive and the children received the packages soon! Hearing back from them is a bonus, but I am not going to count on it.

Happy 9th Anniversary!

We pulled into the driveway just after lunch and my eyes started welling up when I found this :) Lily asked me what was wrong. I told her that I was happy and pointed to the porch. "Our flowers!" I didn't have the heart to tell her Daddy sent them for me.

Thanks Stephen so much! You even remembered that I like cut flowers that will last a decent amount of time. You surprised me and it MADE my (really our) day!

Father's Day

I know this is delayed. If you read the previous post, you probably will understand why. I have also been trying to get the link to a photo book that I made for Steve for Father's Day. Well, you "share" the book via e-mail with the link showing up in the e-mail. I have "shared" it several times and the e-mail isn't showing up. If it shows up, I'll post it here.

Thanks Steve for being a great dad. You are very thoughtful and helpful. I cannot wait until we can live in the same city for more than two days at a time. Lily misses you and we eagerly await your next visit!

Flying with a 3 year old

Lily may not be a tornado or a lightning storm, but we surely felt the effects of summer storms Friday. Kim dropped Lily and I at the airport at around 9:45 am. The flight had been pushed back due to weather in our connecting city - Chicago. We were running just a few minutes behind, so we weren't worried about a 30 min delay. Maybe we should have been . . .

We arrived at my parent's house about 16 hours later. Yes, that means it was 2:45 am. The original flight kept getting pushed back. I almost didn't get on the plane because I didn't want to get stuck in Chicago. To make a long story a little shorter, here is the bare bones time line:

9:45 am arrive at airport for 10:30 flight

11:00 begin boarding

12:30 find out that we are "de-planing" (Lily slept 1 hr of the tarmac time)

1:00 get connecting flight changed

4:00 begin our second chance at boarding

6ish arrive in Chicago

6:15 last flight out of Chicago to home is cancelled (start bawling about being stuck in O-Hare with a 3 year old and missing a wedding the next day)

6:45 get put on 9 pm flight to NC (closest to get home that night)

7 pm Lily is feverish and won't eat dinner proceeds to fall asleep

7:30 automatic exterior doors blow open and they announce ground stop

8 pm our NC flight has been moved back to the gate we started out at

8:30 pack up sleeping Lily, car seat, two back packs and fumble my way up escalator

8:45 begin boarding with sleeping child and previously mentioned stuff

10:45 finally wheels up!

12:00 am wheels down in NC!

12:15 find out out my suspicions were correct - checked luggage didn't make it

2:45 arrive at parent's house and put Lily to bed

3:45 arrive back to L-burg to pack for wedding. I intended to go straight to meet Steve from my parent's house, but alas the luggage issue . . .

4:30 drift off to sleep thankful that I had sent our computer back earlier in the week with my parents

My dear parents drove all the way to G-boro to get us. Thank you. We were assisted by many people, most of which I didn't even get their names! That's why it's helpful having a cute toddler by your side. The cuteness wasn't always helpful, but we did meet lots of interesting people. Thank you to those of you who prayed us through.

There is so MUCH more drama I could add, but I am exhausted. If you want the rest of the story, ask. I could write a book about the day. I am convinced that I could fill pages about the ups and downs. Lily was a trooper considering.

BTW, my luggage showed up at my parents house (not my house) tonight. That is yet another story, but I must go get some rest! I will try and post pics of the trip when I recoup from the loss of sleep. Did I mention that I spent 11 hours in the car to get to and from the wedding in the 36 hours following my 4:30 am bedtime Saturday morning. I am really leaving before I get sucked into making this post any longer than it is already. I am pooped!

Family

Lily and I are enjoying spending time with family that we don't get to se often enough. It has been two years since I have seen my brother. Lily is getting used to playing with siblings. I am noticing that her control issues are coming out more here. I think it is partly because she is sharing toys and sharing her mommy with three cousins.

Thanks Chris and Kim for being so laid back and opening your home to us. I have taken a couple pics, but I have relied heavily on others for the picture taking. We are a picture heavy family if you know what I mean. I need to have Chris put the pics on my computer (which I brought to be seen by "Dr." Chris).

This morning the three eldest (Luke- 3 years 8 mths, Lily - 3 years 2 mths, Hannah- 2 years 4 mths) were playing restaurant. Yesterday, Grandma made them menus.

Lily: "Whacha want?" holding her "menu"
Grandma: "How about some blueberry pancakes?"
Lily: "Don't have any those." looking down a her menu
Grandma: "What about some eggs?"
Lily: "Yes, be right back."

Comments

I have had several people who have mentioned they can't figure out how to comment on the posts here.

Here are the steps to comment:

1. Click on comments
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1. Click on Sign up here.
2. Just fill in all the blanks requested using a current e-mail address.
3. You will need to create a password. I suggest that you use the same password that you use to log into that specific e-mail address, so you will be able to remember it.
4. Choose a display name.
5. Type in the word verification word.
6. Click the box next to "I accept the Terms of Service"
7. Click continue.

Any questions? Just e-mail at my yahoo address.

Schools Out!

Here's part of that old song:

No more pencils
No more books
No more teacher's dirty looks

Out for summer
Out till fall
We might not go back at all

School's out forever
School's out for summer
School's out with fever
School's out completely

I can NOT explain the sense of relief I felt as the buses pulled away from school on Friday!

VA Republican Convention

Sunrise on the way - imagine it 5 minutes sooner :)

The VA Republican ticket for November 2009

My parents raised me to vote and to vote my values - not by party. Our country's government functions mainly as a two party system and more often than not you need to be attached to one of the two major parties in order to get your issue recognized. Or to get others on board. The republican party matches up best with my values when compared with the democratic party.

My main issues are the sanctity of human life (unborn and end of life) and the value of traditional marriage. There are other issues that are important, but those are of utmost importance to me. I went as a delegate to my first convention. I was going mainly to try and get a certain attorney on the ticket for Attorney General of VA for the fall election. We succeeded. Check out KC here.

I don't get into the hype of who a person is or how ga-ga others get over someone. I heard many speeches. Some good, some not-no-much! Sean Hannity and a cadet from VA Tech were probably the two that I enjoyed the most.

Cutting Circles

We worked on cutting yesterday morning while I was home from school with Lily. She did okay cutting out the circles. She found her hearts and put one on each circle and started singing Happy Birthday to me!

A Sick Little Girl

Lily and her friend Logan

Tuesday, I got my first "come and get your child" phone call while we were finishing up our last station at field day. "We have one sick little girl." She told me in the morning that she didn't feel good, but she didn't have a temperature at the time. I gave her some Motrin and dropped her at school. Fortunately, there was a sub there for someone for the a.m.. He was willing to stay for the afternoon. My three full days and 2 half days for this week turned into 1 full day and 4 half days.

She went back today, but is still not herself completely. She gets tired pretty quickly and isn't playing as hard yet. Tonight was her pre-school's end-of-year program. Lily's class were the flag bearers. I was a little unsure of how it would go as it was her first time "performing." I was afraid that she would see me and come running, but she was awesome.

Our visitor

We had visitor yesterday while I was home with Lily. Initially, I saw Cassie digging at the ground behind the garden. I saw her flip something up and went to chase her away. I found a turtle. He was completely holed up in himself. I told Lily if we left him alone for awhile, he might come out. I put Cassie inside. His head peaked out, but we never saw his legs up close.

Wonderful!

I missed my count down post yesterday, because I was called to come get Lily from school yesterday. More on that later.

A neighbor is going to watch Lily this afternoon, so I can go to school for the afternoon. I would've just taken a full day, but today is Kindergarten graduation. So . . . . I am home this morning. The house needed a bit of sweeping, so I was doing that about 30 minutes ago. I asked Lily to help pick up her toys which she did.

She came back from her room and this is what she announced, "Good job, Mommy. You're doing such a good job. Yeah! Wonderful!" She took more stuff to her room and came back with a very similar reply!

If we all could get those kinds of accolades =)