"I am a Turkey" ??

I found this while putting away laundry this morning and it really made me laugh. This was Monday nights art project and I'm curious if it was Gillian or Samantha who added the 'a'. At any rate it's a beautiful turkey. The back is fun to read as well. I might scan it too.

I love Jane Austen!

I have always been such a fan of Jane Austen. I remember the first lengthy report I got to do on an author and book of my choice was on Pride & Prejudice. I love that book. I've read it many times. So, when I saw this quiz, I just had to take it. I was pleasingly surprised at the result. For those who know me you'll be amused as well.



Take the Quiz here!

You are Marianne Dashwood of Sense & Sensibility! You are impulsive, romantic, impatient, and perhaps a little to vocal in your honesty. You enjoy romantic poetry and novels, and play the pianoforte beautifully. To boot, your singing voice is captivating. You feel deeply, and love passionately.

What a day!

My rose decided to have one last bloom before it gets cold. It is the most beautiful it has looked since I planted it this summer. It never had this many blooms all at once until now. I think I'll be in for quite a treat next summer. The pity is that they really fade fast. The blooms on the left of the plant really only opened yesterday. By tomorrow they will have lost all of their petals, but they sure are gorgeous while they're there.



Yesterday I spent my birthday gift card to IKEA on a new sideboard for my dining room. It was tough to choose something from there. It's where I do all of my furniture dream building. In the end the number of drawers on this bad boy won me over. Nine new drawers have now been added to my kitchen! I'm so excited!! Now my table linens, trivets, and other goodies for setting the table and serving will have real homes. And that nasty free shelf will be gone from my dining room.

The only thing left to do is to put up chair rails, paint, and change the chandelier out. Oh, and move the larger table over. It'll be splendiferous!

Patrick and I spent almost all day getting this put together. Neither one of us realized the amount of work that would be needed to finish. I think I counted 14 different things that had to be done to each of those nine drawers before they were completed. The drawers alone made us rethink our policy on having someone else assemble our furniture.



Last, but definitely not least ... The best behaved children in the world! I'm biased, I know. They were all so wonderful today! And Oma told us that last night not a single one of them complained about going to bed. They were all even more delicious today than usual, listening, cooperating, cuddling. I don't think we could have gotten through the six hours of labor on that shelf without these three to keep us smiling. Thank you Gillian, Liam, and Cora for making each day so very special. It's an honor being your parents.

How many bites ...

How many bites does it take to get to the center of a Nerf ball? And why are they so yummy? I bought the kids some small Nerf balls yesterday, by evening Cora had discovered she could hold it up without her hands by only using her mouth. She was so proud! She was giggling about it and showing off until time for bed.

Inseparable

I had a friend say to me that I was lucky because I was going to be having another girl while I was pregnant with Cora. We were talking about not having sisters and I thought, yes, but I don't have a sister. She told me that I was lucky because I'd get to see a sister relationship in my own home and family and experience it that way. I didn't really think that she was right. Now I know she was.

Watching Gillian and Cora together, even with their 5 years in age difference is an amazing thing. The way they relate to each other is so different than the way that Gillian relates to Liam or Liam to Cora. They have this special bond. They enjoy just being in the same room together or sitting together.

Just before I took this photo Cora had been in Gillian's chair with her, of course, once the camera was in the room she never did it again. It was quite sweet. They really enjoy each other's company. It is one of those things that makes a parent smile. They played alongside each other until it was time for prayer last night.

My Baby Doll

Another bugger of a day today. Cora got some sort of stomach virus this week. It began on Wednesday with diarhea and shortly before bed she threw up. She did this once more and hasn't gotten back to solidity yet. Her poor little bum is so blistered. She's still quite upset today. I'm feeling like I have my own baby doll and I just hold her and she's limp. She only wants to be held. She doesn't want to eat anything.

She seems to be teething as well, so the poor thing is having such a tough time.

She Does Get Mad

Cora is an absolute joy. We are so happy to have her as part of our family. She really does lift us all up with her happiness and fun loving spirit. Here's a photo of Cora upset, which many people seem to believe never happens, it's just pitiful, isn't it? It's hard to not give in to such a damsel in distress.

May 24, 2007

The day of Gillian's Kindergarten Celebration seemed an alright day to me. We dropped Gillian off at school, went home, got all of the rest of us ready and headed back up there for the 9:30 start. However, as the music began I realized that I had forgotten the one thing I would most be needing: tissues.

They began the program by playing the Sarah McLachlan song from Toy Story 2. I'd never thought of it in that context, but it fit, and I cried. They marched the little kids in their in neatly formed lines, each of them so well behaved you'd hardly believe it. They played two sappy songs whilst the kids sat in their seats and then they began a slideshow.

The slideshow consisted of sad songs (all leaving out God on purpose thanks to a previous year's parental complaint, I found out later) and pictures of the kids in their classrooms and during school days. Priceless!

However the real tear fest didn't start until after they marched the kids across the stage one by one, carefully making sure not to mention the word 'graduate'. They simply said each child's name, posed with their student for a picture, and moved on to the next. No gowns, no hats, and no graduation.

Following this lengthy feat the kids were all filed onto the stage where they sang a group of songs for us. It was incredibly sweet, but the last song really moved me as I realized Gillian was, maybe without knowing it, saying goodbye to her teacher, and her class, and kindergarten. The last song was especially for their teachers and I believe was a little reworded version of 'I Will'. As they sang 'And you know we will remember our kindergarten year', 'Love you forever and forever, love you with all my heart' I broke down. I felt so close to her teacher and I guess I was just melancholic about saying goodbye, something I don't do well. I found it so sweet, however, none of the kids seemed sad about it at all.

They all seemed to find it was just another exciting part of life and it was all good. We should all be more like them. They weren't sad, they were looking forward to the bright things ahead of them instead of crying about what they were leaving.

Writers Block

After a week, and then some, of not posting I'm at a loss of what to post. I either have too many ideas or too few in my head. So, maybe posting nothing will result in something coming into my head.

What's your favorite thing to do with your kids while daddy is at work?

Send a Smile

I must say, I feel a bit spoiled by my mother-in-law. She's great with the children, plays with them, makes me work (and think it's playing), and is willing to take the kids pretty much any time day or night at a moment's notice when she is here.

Today I've been having a very blue day. I got my hair cut yesterday and was a tad hasty in explaining myself to the stylist and ended up with a tragedy. My beautiful long locks that I had finally grown to love are gone. And while I did wish some of the length away, I'm now about two inches minus what I had hoped to have today. And I now have a cut that I really didn't like on me before. I just don't feel it's a good look for me, I've felt like sticking my head in a paper sack. The only redeeming thing is that she didn't cut the layers too short to pull up, so that's what I've been doing. It's been hard to deal with.

The doorbell rang about half an hour ago and the man asked for my signature. He was holding the most beautiful bouquet of tulips I've ever seen, or at least I feel that way. They were for me. I wanted to cry, I had no idea who they were from. My first thought was Patrick, since he knows I'm having such a rough day. But they're from my mother-in-law, who is currently in Germany and wanted to send me a 'Get Well Soon' wish for my ankle. How sweet is that?!

Yep, injured my ankle last week in a step class, which I love, but now I've got this weekend ankle that I'm not sure wants to heal. I hope it well, I'd love to be stepping again soon.

On a Dark and Windy Night

It's been years since I've felt the need to follow a weather forecast. Last night I was , once again, surprised by the weather. I knew that we were going to get rain, but had no idea what kind of thunderstorms they would be. After all, they've said 'severe thunderstorms' before and there was really nothing worth paying attention to.

So last night when Patrick asked about going to a 'surprise meeting' for the EQP, I said 'Yes'. Around 7:30 or 7:45 when the weather really got interesting I sent a text message to him 'WOW', which didn't go through, because there was so much weather activity where I was, moments later I wasn't thinking 'wow' anymore. I was thinking 'WHOA!' and 'Do I need to get the kids up and into the safest room in the house?'. I was terrified.

I was rolling spring rolls in the kitchen and was watching the rain and the wind. I could see it sort of pick the rain up from the roof and then spin it and let it down again. It made me a bit fearful of a tornado. The lights when off and immediately back on again. Then the sliding glass door got suctioned in and back out again. It was all very scary. Luckily, the kids were all in bed and asleep before it got here.

However, our neighborhood seems to have lost quite a few trees as a result of last night's wind and rain. And Gillian didn't have a school to attend today, thanks to there being no electricity.

Join us for our small storm damage tour.

Dogwood Trail We started on Dogwood Trail, one downed tree on their street, just a few doors down from Zoe's house.	Soccer Fields As you can see the soccer fields make a really nice play area for water fowl. My children thought it was a swimming pool.
Highcrest & Northridge This appears to be the largest tree we've seen down and it's caddy corner from us on North Ridge. Poor Paige. Someone's been out there for almost four hours now and is nowhere near finished.	It was a very large Bradford Pear tree that they've spent a lot of time on pruning over this past year. It's scary to see this kind of damage so close to our home.
Rockhill and High Crest The award for most impressive felled tree goes to this neighbor, about three houses away from us. They've always taken pride in their property, it makes me sad to see trees like this. It is their tree at the very top of this page as well. They lost two. So sad.	Rockhill Rd Yet another downed tree. About five houses away.
Central Expressway & Park View Lane A look at the height of the water under the bridges just beneath Hwy 75 at around 9am this morning.	Towne Lake If you've seen the lake very often recently you can see it's much higher. If you look in the background you'll see trucks parked 'in water', really they're on the walking path around the lake. We also saw a small backhoe driving 'in water'.
Wilson Creek You can see how high the waters are in the creek that runs beside the walking path. This picture was taken from the small parking area just to the West of the lake.	Wilson Creek Bridge The waters are still high, but evidence is that they were even higher. Taken from the same place as the picture to the left.
Walking Bridge The bridge on the East side of Towne Lake which is surrounded by water.	Parking? The parking area that runs along the East side of Towne Lake and the West side of the baseball fields.

The 'Bestest', Hands Down

Each Monday evening the adults at the Emonsters house realize that, yet again, we have failed to PREPARE our Family Home Evening lesson. Ugh, again. Yes, I have to admit it, it feels a bit like work, one more thing on virtual to-do list that I didn't participate in making for myself. And I like to be the one in charge.

So, this evening over dinner I thought out an impromptu lessson, yet again. We always let them do artwork at FHE, it's become a tradition, when we've attempted to leave it out we've had to put out riots. So I based the lesson on the activity and figured 'why not let them do something different tonight?' Handprints would be a great way to tie in finger painting with a lesson Heavenly Father having a body like us.

So unfolds a lovely evening, well 20 minutes, of fun with electric blue paint, giggling, fun mess making, and learning. Cora explored the floor the entire lesson, happily learning her surroundings and becoming even more confident with pulling up and standing.

A few minutes after I sent Gillian off to get ready for bath she zipped back into the kitchen to put her arm and around me and say 'That was the bestest Family Home Evening EVER!'. Wow. Can't argue with that, can I?

Happy 10 Months Cora!

What a blessing you are to us!! To me.

Happy 10 Month Birthday Cora!! You've been a wonder to have around. Over this past month you've become so much more personable, like your personality is just bubbling over to everyone and everything you see and do.

Your Favorite Things:

• Using Mommy's Leg to Stand Up
• Begging While Doing the Above
• Crawling on ANY Bed (causing riotous giggles even if at 5am)
• Explore any Room Covered with Things
• Tasting ANY Random Items (preferably inedible)
• Crawling to get Hugs (especially to Mama and Papa)
• Giggling
• Be Tickled (eaten)
• Grabbing eyes, lips, noses (especially Liam's)
• Tasting new Foods (variety is a MUST)
• PEAS!!
• STANDING!
• Eating her socks on or off her feet
• CRAWLING!