Personality

It's good to see that my personality type hasn't changed in the last 11 years. It is also good to see homemaker, teacher, musician, and actor among the list of good job matches for my personality. At first I was surpsised to not see photographer on there, but then when I thought about how much I stuggle with the technical concepts of photography, and how much I rely on my gut and not my vision/visual skills (or lack thereof) to take good photos, it kinda makes sense.

I also find it hilarious (though this is probably more common than not) that my husband (at least the last time he took a test like this) is the EXACT OPPOSITE personality.

Preschool

We started preschool this week. A friend from my Catholic Mothers After Infertility list mentioned this free online curriculum a while back, and I decided to start it now that Katie is showing some interest in letters and reading, too.

Here is their artwork from today. Although you can't tell it from the end result, Sammy did a good job tracing the outside of his letter with the paintbrush. Katie had more fun rubbing her paintbrush on Sammy's paper than on her own.

Peh-Puhr--uh-NOni

That's how Sammy says "pepperoni."

Katie

...is becoming quite the little artist!

(she may have had a little help with the more solid areas)

That's MawMaw's Grandson!

This morning Katie and I were getting out the ingredients to make pancakes. I got most of them out, and said, mostly to myself, "What else do we need to make pancakes?" Sammy walks in the kitchen at that moment and says, rather excitedly, "Chocolate chips!!!" (I don't know where that came from, as we have never had chocolate chip pancakes before. He is getting pretty creative these days!)

Okay, THIS makes me feel old!

It was twenty years ago today!?!?!?

My baby loves babies

My SIL had her ultrasound today, and called today to tell us that we need to send Brooke's clothes back to her, not Lance's. When we got off the phone, I told Sammy and Katie, "Aunt Jena's little baby is a girl. Lance and Brooke are going to have a little sister." Katie abruptly stopped nursing, sat up, pointed at the door, and made her little "hu-huh!" squeal. I said "What?" She held up her hands to make her new "hold" sign. She wanted to go hold the baby. RIGHT NOW, Mama!!! ;)

Where has the time gone?

Katie is as old today as Sammy was the day she was born. Why does it seem like my time with just Sammy was SOOOOOOOO much longer than the time I've had with both of them?

Rave: Free Electronic Catholic Prayer Tools

• Add the General Roman Calendar to your Outlook (or other iCal-reading) calendar.
• Listen to daily Mass readings on your computer. (and if you figure out how a way to automatically download these to PDA please let me know!) Or read them online. Or read them on your PDA.
• Pray the Liturgy of the Hours on your computer or PDA.
• Pray the Rosary on your PC or PDA.
• Use your calendar or task list to set prayer reminders when people ask you to pray for them, novenas you want to pray, etc. You can put details or pre-written prayers in the notes section of the appointment or task.
• Make yearly-recurring calendar events for the saint of the day. Put details about the saint in the notes section, and read it on the relevant day.
  
  If you know of some that I don't, please comment. I would also love to hear how other people (Catholic or not) are using their electronics as prayer tools.
  
  God Bless you all!

A LOT of photos

Here are some of the people we visited while on our trip. These are in no particular order (certainly not chronological!)

We visited Roomie


We visited Addie and her parents



My high school buddy Bianca moved about 5 miles away from my parents' house. We were happy to see her and meet her awesome kiddos, Ethan and Eva. Katie made up her own sign for hold, wrists together and up, to let us know she wanted to hold the baby.


Dakota, his big sister Chelsea, and his MawNan came to visit us at MawMaw's house, and kept us up way past our bedtime. (And we enjoyed every minute of it!)


Mason came to visit us, and met us at Studio Rouge to take portraits (will be posted later)


Cousin Cameron came to play with us at Maw Maw's house


And we visited him at his house. His mom and dad were working, so Aunt Donna was there taking care of him. Granny came with us. It was quite a nice day! Except for the excessive heat and humidity! We all loved Aunt Donna's garden. (Christmas present hint -- ) I just wish I'd had a good zoom lens to get the photos I really wanted.


We visited Mrs. Rosann and Mr. Ray, and went swimming in their pool. Katie, as I expected from her reaction to Grampy's pool, wanted nothing to do with it. Sammy OTOH is a little fish boy! By the time we left, he was jumping into the water from the side of the pool.


Of course we visited MawMaw and PawPaw and Uncle Scott. PawPaw's hat was a big hit, as was the "house" under the computer table. Uncle Scott is lots of fun (so much that we took him home with us for a while, and want him to come back soon!) PawPaw took us for a wagon ride, and we loved going outside on the deck.


We visited Ander and his mommy and daddy. He is a real cutie!!! You will notice he is picking at his toes. Poor baby had hand foot and mouth disease (although nobody knew it until the day or two after we left). Katie ended up catching it from him, which made for a terribly hard and fussy trip back home. She also passed it on to Sammy and me, which made our first week back home not so fun either!


And we also stopped at Grammy's on the way back home.