The Tagging Game

I've been tagged...here's the rules:

1. I have to post these rules before I give you the facts.

2. Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.

3. People who are tagged need to write a post on their own blog (about their eight things) and post these rules

4. At the end of your blog, you need to choose eight people to get tagged and list their names.

5. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.


Eight Random Facts About Me

1. I once got sun poinsoning so badly that it made my forehead swell up like a Klingon.

2. I am a huge procrastinator.

3. I have had two surgeries on my left upper eyelid to raise it to the same level as my right upper eyelid. It helped, but they're still not the same.

4. I have always had a problem with popping pimples. I could spend a long time searching every millimeter of my face for anything remotely possible to extract and then work incredibly hard to extract said thing.

5. I am ambitious and independent, but no good at follow-through ... until the last minute, of course.

6. I don't like my knees to be touched.

7. In high school I pierced the second hole in my left ear by myself. The ear lobe on the right has never had a second hole.

8. I love the smell of horses. Even their poop smells good to me.

Okay, that's it! I'll tag Amanda, Kisti, Kristi and Britney. I know that's only four. I'll think about the other four later. ;)

Sometimes there are just more photo opportunities

Suddenly, it seems, my children are doing more interesting things of which to take pictures. Here are a few and the stories that go with them.

Kalleigh loves to look at her baby book. Aren't children good for our egos?! We usually look at them together, and we'll point at her pictures and say, "Kalleigh," as well as whomever else is in them. One morning, I was in the kitchen and heard my little girl say what sounded like, "Kie," in that same down and then up voice inflection as when we say, "Kalleigh." She said it over and over, and knowing her baby book was not where she could reach it, I went to see what she was talking (literally) about. She had found a box containing baby gear that had a picture of a baby on the outside. She was pointing at the baby and saying, "Kie!" Makes sense. Every other picture of a baby is of her, right?!

This morning, before school, we got out Johnathan's baby book. Kalleigh pointed at a baby Johnathan picture and said, of course, "Kie." Johnathan was quick to correct her. :)

My boy can sleep anywhere. This picture was taken at 6:45 last night. We had just gotten home after being out all day, and he had missed his nap. After I took the picture, I proceeded to remove all of his clothes and put a Pull-Up on him. He did not wake up until 7:15 this morning. Bless his heart!

And you thought he fell asleep saying his prayers ...

As I alluded to this morning, this was Johnathan's first day of school. He's in Ms. Melissa's class every MW&F morning. But somehow in the last year, he went from being a baby to being a little boy! (Seems like I posted a first and last day in May, so you're seeing this 2-yr-old picture for the third time.) Check out that tan!

Pictures please

Here are the only pictures I have taken in the month of August. We seem to have been so busy doing so little! Plus I never seem to have my camera when we need it. Like Kalleigh's first trip to the zoo. Or second. Or third. Oops. Johnathan jumping off the diving board for the first time(s). Rats.

So, like I said, these are the pictures I have taken. Hooray!


Johnathan's most commonly used phrase at this stage is "all by myself," and I've been trying to encourage him in that when it's appropriate. So here's what he picked out to wear to dinner a couple of nights ago. And he put it on "all by himself!"


The "back" view.


This is Johnathan's swim suit. He LOVES it.


Showing off "his" muscles.


Kalleigh's little swim outfit.


The front view. The tongue is always out these days feeling the new teeth coming in on top. She has her bottom front two and the top left and the one to its left all mostly in. The other top front one is just about to break through.


She's taking up to four steps now! But I had to snap this one for the tan lines she's developed this summer. I use 50 spf!

Fruity flop

Not entirely a flop; just not what I had planned.

I buy fruit to have something healthy to eat. My kids love all kinds of fruit, so it's not like I have to struggle with picky eaters.

So, I bought all this fruit about a week ago: grapes, peaches, clementine oranges, strawberries. We did well and ate all the grapes and clementines before they went bad. But then there were the strawberries and peaches. I just kept fogetting to get them out.

So what do you do when you have a lot of fruit that needs to be used all at once? You make desserts! A strawberry pie and a peach cobbler later, I look back at my good, healthy intentions and chuckle a little.

I'll do better next time. :)

Boy, they were good!

One of those mornings ...

This morning was just one of those mornings. Crazy things that usually happen very rarely all happened at once.

First, I had gained 2 pounds. Nice.

Then, as I was getting a glass out of the counter, I bumped it on another glass and chipped that one. The glass shot out and landed in my hair and went down the front of my shirt. Thankfully, John was there to keep the children out, so there were no cut feet.

Yesterday I had made some really yummy mango bread -- recipe from Kristi--so I wanted to toast a few slices for breakfast. While the yummy bread was in the oven, Kalleigh started throwing a fit, so I tried several different things to calm her down. And then I smelled that horrible burning smell. Totally black. Ruined. I resorted to putting the next piece in the microwave.

I needed to feel better, so I put on some fun clothes with my favorite black beaded necklace and went to get Kalleigh dressed. As I sat Kalleigh down to put her outfit on, she grabbed my favorite black beaded necklace and ripped it right off. Of course it broke in the back, allowing all of the beads to roll down the back of my shirt, down inside my jeans and some even made it all the way into the underwear. Nice. The beads that didn't get caught in the underwear were all over the carpet, and Kalleigh started going after those. "JOHN!!!" Thankfully, he was still home and came running to get Kalleigh as I tracked beads across the house to take off the string that was once my necklace and to get the vacuum.

Ugh! And what time of the month is it? I bet you can guess. :)

"We'll all look back on this and laugh," right? Let's hope so! It was close to comical even this morning.

7 Years

To the man of my dreams,

I thank God for you ... for your patience with me ... for your leadership in our church family and in our own family ... for the way you dream big ... for your tenderness with our children ... for your example to them and to me ... for your faithfulness. Thank you for loving me! I love you, John!