Still goin'

Oh.....sometimes I feel like the little engine that could...I think I can, I think I can. Paul is still working a lot. The positive thing is that Lauren's behavior is gettting better! Maybe this won't last forever! I have begun to realize how much little ears hear things. I was talking to someone on the phone the other day and I thought Lauren was playing and not paying attention to me. I proceeded to tell my friend that I was irritated and suddenly my little girl comes up to me and pulls on her ears and says " Mommy, my ears are tated ,too! " I had to laugh! She has been so wonderful during this hard time of Daddy not being home very much. She has handled it better than I thought she would.

gravity, friction and a little blood

Well now. The bicycle training has begun. Lauren is getting the concept slowly. She know that you have to do something with your legs, and that by doing that she is supposed to move. What she didn't know was that when you turn left you do not lean right.

So gravity and friction happened (I was able to throw in a science lesson while I was consoling her). Well, the asphalt won this battle. She has a nice cut on her leg, some road rash on her arms and she'll have some nice bruising in a couple of days. She was a trooper though. After the crying, she got back on her bike and let me push her home. She didn't even want a bandage.

We are together again!

Is it common for children to come home from their grandparents and act like they are demon possessed? Someone took our sweet child! I think she is in there somewhere, but it is deeply hidden! I was very wrong. There IS something called the terrible two's/threes.... I am so tired and she has only been home since Thursday! She had a lot of fun with her cousins and keeps asking to see them daily. Their poor grandma is trying to recover! Would I let her go again...maybe, but not for so long and I will make sure that my husband has time off to spend with me!

Finally!

Lauren is coming home tomorrow! I do have to say that nine days was a little long to have her away. I also wish that I could say that I got my to-do list completed while she was away. I am proud to report that the dishes are done and all the laundry is clean, not put away, but clean! That doesn't usually happen daily at our house!

I made it!

Oh, my gosh! What was supposed to be a one day drive to pick up my friend's little boy in Sevierville, TN turnd into a nightmare! Things I have learned...1) when your friend says everything will be fine and her car is 15 years old, well.....rethink your choices! 2) Thank God for AAA! 3) Always carry a change of clothes and toothbrush with you whenever you take a road trip! We did find a hotel, but I really don't recommend wearing the same clothes for two days straight! eww! Anyway, my friend's car ended up with a severly blown transmission, so she chose not put a transmission in a car that wasn't worth fixing. ok, that's fine. Not a decision you want to make when you are five hours from home! The AAA tow truck people actually salvaged the car and paid her for it! Anyway, we managed to end up in town that had a rental car place that didn't open up until Monday! This town had no taxi, no bus, not even one nice person we could pay to drive us to the next nearest car rental place! We ended up in a hotel waitng for my friend's wonderful boyfriend to come and pick us up! So...48 hrs later my friend has no car and I can say that I have now ridden in the cab of a tow truck! My poor husband. Not only was his baby girl away on father's day, but his wife was stranded in a very unfriendly town in TN! His manager was very nice and decicided to let them come in a little later today since it was father's day! Believe it or not I actually walked in the door five minutes before he needed to leave! YAY! Now he is at work and I am here still sitting in two day old clothes sharing my adventures!

Update on Lauren: She is having a blast. She got to vist the Smithsonian with her grandparents! My heart strings tugged a little when I heard her say she missed her mommy!

Well, Stuff Happens!

As Betsy has said in the previous post, I have been working alot. Today completed my 7th day, 6 of them lasting over 12 hours. And I am going in tomorrow as well. So, Betsy was offered the opportunity to travel this weekend. She rode with a friend of ours to North Carolina. She was supposed to be back this evening before I came home. Well, guess who calls and says, "Oh yeah, by the way. We broke down." Yeah, they are stuck some where inbetween knoxville, TN. and Ashville, NC. They should, hopefully be home tomorrow evening. So thats it.

Bye

Time together? What's that?

This had been an interesting week. I was really looking forward to the weekend because I thought Paul would be off from work. I had a really cool weekend planned and then....guess who calls me and says he has to work all weekend! I know it isn't his fault, but it sure is annoying! Sometimes I don't think I will ever get used to this 2nd shift stuff. Anyway, it probably would have been a good idea to help my friend Leah paint her living room! At least I would have had something to occupy myself. Five more days and Lauren comes home! I have heard that she is having a great time and has been going swimming a lot with her grandma and her cousins!

Well......things are bittersweet around here today. Lauren is getting ready to go to her Grandma and Granpa's to visit with her cousins for awhile. I am happy that she gets to go because she doesn't see them that often, but I am sad to not have her with me. It amazes me how much activity one little person can bring to your life! I think that both of us are looking forward to some "us" time, though. Our schedule doesn't permit a lot of dates!

I just thought that I'd add this in here. The frustration of a three year old when she just doesn't get it.

Well....it's time to try a new activity. We thought maybe a bike with training wheels would go over pretty well. She loved it! We forgot how hard it was to get the peddles going. A few tears and frustrations and she almost has it!

Horses!

When you live in the area that we do, you have to go visit Churchill Downs at least once. We decided to go yesterday. It was so much fun. Lauren even got to pet a horse!

Our first major injury

This has been an exciting day! While Lauren was at the babysitter today she managed to fall off the couch and cut open the inside of her lip pretty badly. They don't stitch up the inside of lips, so...not much we could do. She started to calm down the tears when she realized that she got to eat posicles and ice cream for awhile. We all got through it. I realized that I don't really like the sight of blood, especially when it is coming from my child!

Lauren and Daddy! We can't take any pictures anymore without getting a pose with the girl!

These are our two other family members. Samson and Delilah. We call them " The Beasts" !

Gardening 5/30

We decided that we needed some color in our lives, we went on an outing to pick out some flowers to plant. Lauren wanted pink and purple flowers. She even helped plant them in our really big flower pot. We had a lot fun!