Dirty Money

My favorite things that Josie says these days are:

"Hep-ping, Hep-ping, Hep-ping, Hepping...." in a little sing-song voice as she sweeps the floor with her little broom. Also "Lub you Mommy! Lub you... Mo mutch!"

So the other day Josie gave new meaning to the term "making a deposit." Uncle Darryl babysat for me while I was doing a bridal fair (which went great, by the way). Josie began emitting an unpleasant odor, shall we say, and when he went to change her he noticed that she felt 3 or 4 pounds heavier than normal. When he opened up her diaper, he found not only a "deposit," but also about two dollars in pennies!!! No, she didn't eat them... she just stuck them down her pants when she was helping clean up the mess of change from Grammy's room earlier in the day. Darryl immediately called Jesse and told him to quit his job because he has a kid who poops money. Now what can we feed her to turn this into quarters instead of pennies...?

Yesterday was such a beautiful day that we spent almost all of our time outside. We had a picnic (Sadie packed our basket and carried outside to our blanket), we had popsicles, we put up our egg tree (Sadie learned that Easter is all about "Jesus died on the cross but then, HEY! He came back to life!"), we played basketball, drew with chalk on the driveway, cleaned the garage, planted seeds for our garden, and best of all: Jesse put the kids' wagon together. They got it for Christmas from Lyd and Darryl, but it has been so stinkin' cold and snowy that yesterday was the first day that they actually got to play with it. And what a hit it was!!! We pulled them all over the driveway, up and down the street, all over the yard... they couldn't get enough. Once, as we were passing a neighbor's house, Sadie suddenly squealed with delight. I said, "What is it, Sade?" She answered, "I am just SO happy that we have this wagon! Yippee!"

Mommy, My Mommy

Wow... I think this is the longest hiatus from blogging that I have ever been on! Where shall I begin? On our trip home, the kids did not sleep AT ALL. Thankfully, they didn't fuss at all, either. They just sat back in the backseat, minding their own business, playing with their Magnadoodles, My Little Ponys, animal books, notepads, and pens. Oh, and listening to Raffi... for about THREE HOURS. Eeples and Beneenees was quite the hit this trip... I can't remember how to say the real words now. :)

The kids had a ball at home, and there was much feeding of birds, playing outside, braiding of hair (Natasha), playing of ball (Papaw), reading of stories (Mamaw), riding of 4 wheeled vehicles (Scotty), eating of livermush (Great Grandma), learning to be mean (Uncle Thomas) and the like. Sadie's birthday party on Saturday drew a record crowd of about 40 people, and she kept running up and saying, "This is so wonderful!" and then running away again, holding on to her Tinkerbell party hat. It WAS fun, and we got to see all of her cousins, and lots of family and friends. Thank goodness for Angela, who ran the party for me (my back went out on Friday when my scoliosis starting acting up and I could hardly walk!) and Derek and Theda, who brought tons of food and even cleaned up for me! We have the best friends ever. Sadie got lots of cool stuff for her birthday, and even sweet-talked my Daddy into taking her and Josie for ice cream on top of all that.

The trip home was LONG and annoying... there was road construction, and we sat completely still for at least an hour. Josie took this opportunity to say, "Mommy, my mommy, mommy my mommy mommy my mommy my mommy mommy" at least a million times. No one without small children knows the pain of an hour of sitting still in a car on an intrastate. Yikes. But, we did make it home safely, and I have never seen two girls to glad to see their daddy! Sadie and Josie both went to sleep with these huge goofy grins on their faces.

Well, I must go find a heating pad and get back to work... both bridal fairs are this week, and I'm hoping to drum up some business!

Heh Heh

Josie fell flat on her face this afternoon. I was ready for some wailing, but she stayed down for a minute, lifted her head up, looked around and said, "Heh-heh. Fall down! Ouchie! Heh-heh!"

Tonight, after supper, Sebastian was following Sadie and Josie around the house while they were having a parade. Let's just say that the parade excited him just a little too much. Sadie said, "Mommy, why is that pee-pee there? Why does he have that? Why? WHY?" So, I launched into an explanation for her, citing specific words and examples (like how cousin James looks different than she does, because he's a boy and she's a girl) and how Sebastian is a boy too, so he looks different than girl dogs, etc., etc. She listens intently for a while, then somewhere along the line she interrupts me and with a perfect deadpan says, "Mommy. Nevermind." And walks away. Apparently, I put too much thought into it! :)

Tonight, after I got her out of the bathtub, Josie peed all over my foot. She looked down at her legs, looked at my foot, looked up at me, and said, "Heh-heh. Pee-pee!"

Sadie then informed me that in order for her to go potty, she needed "some privacy, please, Mommy." I know the feeling! There's nothing like trying to take a bath while 4 little hands are reaching through the crack in the door and everyone is yelling, "Momm-ee! Whatcha doin' in dere? I need you! Hode me! Hode me!"

'Lissa

Well, she's gone. I don't know if I even mentioned this before (I've been in denial for a couple of months now), but Melissa, my best friend in this state, is moving to Virginia. Yay for her, bad for me. What is it about me that my best friends seem to move as far away as they can get? Sigh.

We had a little "celebratory" dinner for her tonight... and this is the kind of person Melissa is: She brought food over, cooked it for us, brought gourmet dessert, helped get the kids ready for bed, helped clean up, made me laugh my head off when she tried on Jesse's pants (both her legs and her butt went into one leg of his pants - I told her that she is half the man he is, hehee), and then left with a quick hug because she knew that I would start crying if we dragged out our goodbyes. I didn't realize how much I'm going to miss her until I closed the door behind her and she pulled out of the driveway.

Now I'm sitting here crying and thinking, "What am I going to do now? There is no one else in this town who hates living here! No one else who likes pick-up trucks and grits and Carhardt and gun racks and Southern Scrabble! No one I can talk to about Jan Karon books and sappy movies and 'going deeper' in Bible study and plan Bible Day Camp with and life in general!"
Somehow over the past 2 years, our relationship has evolved into something special... an actual "adult" friendship - the first one that I think I've ever had, honestly. One thing I love about Melissa is that she has always been so considerate of me... she ALWAYS comes over to my house so I don't have to lug the kids around, she ALWAYS helps with food/cleanup/whatever, she ALWAYS helps out when I need her to - babysitting, picking stuff up at the store, a shoulder to cry on, etc. That's just the kind of person she's always been to me. I honestly don't think I could've made it up here without her.

Don't get me wrong. I'm really happy for her. She needs this move more than anyone else I know. She's going to be great there, and she's going to have a great life.

It's just so hard not to be selfish and throw my arms around her leg and beg her not to go.

Do I Make You Proud

Still working feverishly on the TWO bridal fairs that I now have coming up at the end of the month, but I had to record the following for posterity:

Josie turned a somersault for the very first time! This happened at Grandma & Grandpa's house. I thought it was a fluke the first time, but then when I told her to show Grandpa and Daddy, she did it again, effortlessly! My little acrobat.

Yesterday at church, Sadie decided that she wanted to say the "23rd Song" at church. On the stage. With the microphone. In front of EVERYONE. She did such a good job, and then she took a little bow. Jesse cried. :) We were SO PROUD!

Hard Workin' Girls

It's been over a week since my last post - highly unusual, isn't it? I've just been working feverishly on trying to get my business going again. I now may have two bridal fairs this month, and I may possibly have a wedding booked over the next week! Yay! I just finished a cheesy brochure that looks pretty good, if I do say so myself. Now I just have to get it all printed up and figure out who the heck I'm going to send it to. Churches, maybe? Is that too presumptuous? I don't know. Anyway, that's what I've been doing.

Today, I went to the OB. I have an announcement to make. I am NOT pregnant. Hehehe!! Scared you, didn't I? Seriously, I'm not. Don't start any rumors.

Every night when I put Josie to bed, we sit in her rocking chair, read "Goodnight Moon," and say prayers. At least we TRY to say prayers. Josie gets distracted somewhat easily, and always ends up putting her blanket over both our heads and saying, "Me hide! Me hide!" and laughing uncontrollably. What a nut.

Sadie and Josie are both now doing "chores" in the morning before they can watch Sesame Street. They're making their beds, helping "fold" laundry, helping clean out the dishwasher, straighten up, vacuum, etc. They love it! I think it gives them a feeling of purpose and accomplishment. I love it, too... it means that I never have to wrap up the vacuum cord again - that's Sadie's favorite part! The other day, after I got home from work (Jesse had done their chores with them that morning), Sadie met me at the door and said, "Mommy, can I have another chore to do?" OH! That this would last into their teen years!!