Three-year-old babblings

Isaac has started singing now. He has been asking for a few select songs at bedtime, but hasn't always sung along. Now he'll just break into song whenever, and he sometimes gets the words right. A few snippets of his favorites:

* Yes, Daddy loves me, yes, Daddy loves me, yes, Jesus loves me, yes, Jesus loves me . . . the Bible tells me so - the Bible - God's Word written - God made the world and everything in it.

* Hold up, wait a minute, put looove in it. Can't kick the habit, I've got to have it, I'm what they call a looove in it.

* The B-I-B-L-E, yes, book for me, I stand on God, the B-I-B-L-E!!!

* I may never march in the intry, ride the cavalry, shoot tillery. I may never zoom enemy, YES SIR!

* Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to Mommy, happy birthday to Isaac, happy birthday cake for Naundry, Mommy and Naundry share birthday cake with me, at my birthday party, happy birthday to me!

And a recent phone conversation:

"Hi, Ben. It's me, Isaac. What are you doing? Are you at your house? I'm at my house. I'm in my room. Mommy is busy. No, I don't want to go to Tricia's house [Tricia being Ben's mom]. You want to come to my house? We can play with my toys. Bring your baby. My Daddy is at work. Do you want to go to church? I'm going to church with my Daddy. I like to play with you at church. I have fun! See you later!"

He has many phone conversations with his church friends, using our old phone. He pauses like he's listening, and even throws in a "Yeah?" or "umm hmm" at times. I love listening to his developing language.

Birthday Party!

After a few minor glitches, Audrey's party got into full swing. Of course we had food (Papa John's) and pop, which people tend to like. There was a straw bale maze set up for the kids, and they loved that! At the end was a little kid-sized playbarn, and the kids spent most of the time chasing each other through the maze and around the barn. The adults spent their time mingling and admiring the birthday girl, both in person and via the picture boards. I know they take a lot of time to prepare, but I truly believe the display is the most important aspect of the party.

After dinner, we went on a hayride. We went through the pumpkin patch and along a trail through the woods, where scarecrows abounded. Audrey thought the scarecrows were hilarious! She also loved throwing the straw around with Elayna (a friend from church).

After the hayride came cake. I had made Audrey a small layer cake (dark chocolate fudge with seafoam frosting). She didn't really get into the cake so much, but at least she didn't smear it into her hair. She did start to eat some a little later, but I think she was scared of the frosting texture. Plus, she hadn't eaten her dinner yet, so she was in need of real food.

Next were gifts! She (I) opened Grandma and Grandpa DePeal's gift first, since they had to leave, and she loved the toy. She played with that while I opened the remainder of the gifts for her. She received a lot of clothes! They're all very cute, but I think she'll need a bigger dresser now :)

All in all, it was a great party. The best part was not having to worry about keeping my house spotless to host 25 people.

Incredibly busy week

LAst Sunday, I decided to drive down to Lexington, Kentucky, to see Monte. He has been down there for work for five weeks, with only a couple of visits home. Even though he was working 12-hour days, and I knew I wouldn't see him much, I decided a little bit of time was better than nothing.

While technically I had nothing major going on from Sunday until Wednesday night, I had a lot of work that I should have done for the kids' programming, plus review that I needed to do to run the projector for adult service. That's right, I volunteered for that, too. Plus, I have curtains that still need to be finished, a Halloween costume to start (I have at least cut the pattern), and a birthday party to finalize.

We had a great time in Kentucky, and I managed to keep all of my other duties to the back of my mind, but coming home was too much of a reality check. I arrived back just in time to put together Sunday's presentation, but not very well - it was my first time, and someone was supposed to be there to walk me through it, and she wasn't. So I planned on arriving early Sunday to clean it up. Thursday was take the kids to the beach so I don't kill them day, and Friday was spent preparing learning materials for the alternate kids' worship leader (but they didn't work, so it was a lot of wasted time - sorry, Bec). Saturday was a baby shower for Sarah, which was fun, and then I rushed home to get the babysitter back to her house, briefly cleaned, and then spent a couple of hours with Ken (more in a different post). Then the kids went to bed, and I finished up more church stuff and went to bed at 10:30.

The plan was to wake at 7, leave for church at 8:15, and tie up a few loose ends before anyone needed me. I didn't set my alarm, since the kids serve as my alarm clock, rarely letting me sleep past 7. Oops - I didn't wake up until 8, and we ended up leaving the house at 8:45 - the time I was really supposed to be at church. I actually did get everything done, when I needed to, but I was so frazzled. It was great, though, to sit through service and know that I was done for the day.

I came home from church and decided to set aside all responsibility and just be a mom. I was not going to be a wife, daughter, sister, neighbor, friend, housekeeper, seamstress, laundress, or anything else except the immediate needs of me and my kids (food and potty). Audrey took a nap, Isaac and I played golf and basketball, we ate lunch, danced to Trans-Siberian Orchestra, took a walk to the park, played more basketball, ate dinner, and now we're winding down before bed.

It feels good to recharge. Especially since this is another busy week. Curtains and costume still need to be done, more work for church is needed, and Audrey's party is still not fully planned. But I'll sleep well tonight and start afresh tomorrow.

Important poll!

Please see my poll in the sidebar. I really have no idea how to manage the logistics of Audrey's party. Having this party away from home has its drawbacks.

Cell phones

While we have had cell phones for awhile, and use them for much of our calling (especially long distance), we have not yet given up our land line. Part of it is fear that we'll be without power for a few days and wouldn't be able to charge our cells; part of it is reluctance to share our private numbers with strangers (even though it's much harder to track a cell number); another part is that we have DSL, which is bundled with our land line. So we're really in no hurry to give it up, even though it does seem like a waste of $30 a month.

I realized today another reason for maintaining a land line. Most of us have people in our lives that we talk to incidentally. Here's a common scenario - you call your mom every Sunday, but every now and then, your dad answers; you end up having a great conversation with him instead - one you would have missed had you been able to reach your mom directly via her cell.

I noticed this today when I called my sister-in-law. I really wanted to talk to only her anyway, but I used to just call her house, not her cell. A nephew might answer, and I'd talk to him for a bit. Then my brother would get on the phone and talk for a bit. We didn't often talk about anything important enough to warrant separate phone calls, but we had connecting moments in the midst of our busy lives. I miss that.

Love you guys :)

Silver Lake

I realize I am posting this very late. I could have just posted it with the date it happened, but it'd have been buried, so here's old news.

In the midst of our busy summer, we decided to spend our one non-busy Saturday doing something fun. So we headed up to Silver Lake to ride the dunes, play at Craig's Cruisers, and relax at the beach.

Isaac loved every moment of it. We all did, but it was especially fun for him, as we basically gave him everything he asked for. He loved the dune ride, and we bought him a t-shirt and frisbee to commemorate our visit to Mac Wood's Dune Rides. Then we headed over to Craig's Cruisers for mini golf, bumper boats, and go-carts. Monte and Isaac did all that, while I toted Audrey around and took pictures. Lots of pictures. They had a blast!

We planned to go to the lighthouse at the state park, but it was packed and we just didn't feel like fighting for a parking space and then trekking over the dune. SO we settled for a public access area north of the park, where we played frisbee for a while.

What an incredibly relaxing, fun day. Too bad we don't have the time or money to do it every weekend, although it'd lose some of its specialness if we did.

Here are some highlights of the day:

Single parenthood, round 2

OK, Monte's home for three days, not four. He went into work this morning, and his boss told him he needed to return to site tomorrow instead of waiting until Wednesday as planned. So our fun Tuesday (Monte was planning on taking a vacation day) is no more. We were planning on heading out to the driving range for the last nice day of the year.

Today was spent doing laundry from his last trip, just to pack it all up for tomorrow's 11-day trip. I have spent time getting pictures off the computer that I need for Audrey's birthday, and the computer has been giving me fits. What should have taken about 15-20 minutes took over an hour. But it had to be done before Monte took the computer with him, so I can work on cropping them while he is gone.

Audrey didn't go down for a nap today until 4. Right about the time that we wanted to head out for the beach. So we'll see if we can squeeze in one more trip yet tonight. Wake up, baby girl! And Monte and Isaac, both of whom fell asleep in the living room.

This should be the last trip for awhile. Thank goodness. It'll be nice to have him home again.

Single parenthood

Monte has been traveling a lot for work. He was gone five days, then home for three, then gone for 11 days, and currently home for four before heading out on another 10-day trip. Thankfully, he was home for his birthday and our anniversary, and will be home for the important October birthdays as well. But his absence has been really difficult for us all.

I believe that Audrey had an ear infection the last week of September. So she was grouchy! She was waking up 5-6 times a night, just screaming. Tylenol is great, but I can't give it to her every hour. So I did not get a lot of sleep, which led to very cranky days. Add to that the stress of everyone missing Monte, and we had a really bad time of it.

I was able to get some things done around the house. OK, one thing - I finally made my roman shades for the kitchen and eating area. You know, what I had purchased supplies for 2.5 years ago. So those are sewn and hanging, although we've been having issues with the weight of the one in the eating area and need to adjust the eyelets. We can't raise them yet, so it's really dark in there. But I am happy with the final product.

Next on my list is Kira's Halloween costume. She will be Katara from Avatar, a show that the Blanns have recently gotten into. Since she actually has a Halloween event (at school), her costume is more important than my own children's, which I have decided not to do this year. Lack of time and little interest in spending money decided that for me.

I still have Audrey's party to plan. I seriously don't know when I will get everything done. There's not really a lot to do, but it's all at once, and I don't do well with that.

We're really enjoying our Indian Summer. Last night, we headed out to the beach to watch the sunset. Unfortunately, we all needed the restroom once we arrived, and they're closed for the season. So we decided to head out of the park, eat at KFC, use the bathroom, and return. This all took awhile, because the beach was packed. I have never seen so many people there in the off-season, with about half of the south lot full. And there was a ranger on duty, actually collecting money for day-users. I have never seen that in October. We didn't get as much time at the lake as we'd hoped, but we were able to see the sunset. We stayed until the ranger kicked everyone out. It was a gorgeous evening, and I'm glad that we had that time together at the beach, short as it was.

Back to the kiddos. They sure are demanding.