My blog has kind of been put on the back burner (hee hee, new oven humor) lately.  To be honest, I'm kind of having some kind of blog-block, I think.  I just have had nothing to say and no time to say it.  So, I need to catch up on some pictures I took over the last week, I guess.

Last Monday, we made our first batch of cookies with the new oven.  Yes, that is my giant husband wearing one of my aprons. Ainsley insisted he wear it.  Josh just said, "I know this is going on your blog, so I might as well just get over it."  He's such a good sport, living in this house full of girls.

We had to really document this first use of the oven for some reason.

The cookies were a definite hit.

Little Lorelei is just about crawling now.  She is definitely moving around, but not officially crawling... I wouldn't even call it the army crawl, but she's getting around.  It will just be a matter of days, I think, before she's officially mobile.

 
I've been having such a lovely day with my girls.  We've worked outside in the garden, took a walk and got in the pool. We just bought this one for Ainsley. Yes, even I got in, too.  (You won't be seeing a picture of that.)  Ainsley just loves the water.
This is what Lorelei thought of it:

Poor thing.  She has her own little pool, because I'm not putting my timid little 8 month old in the water with my crazy, no fear 3 year old. 

So, there's a picture update.  Hopefully I can get past the rest of my blogging-block this week.

5:30 a.m.: Husband kisses me good-bye for the day.
7:00 a.m.: Ainsley wakes up for the day and crawls into bed with me.  I have to rub my eyes to make sure the clock really says 7:00 a.m.  She NEVER sleeps that late.
7:05 a.m.Get up and go downstairs with Ainsley.  Give her some milk and start making myself some tea.
7:15 a.m. Baby wakes up
7:20 a.m. Nurse baby/cuddle with baby
8:00 a.m. Make breakfast/eat with girls
8:30 a.m. Girls play/I have devotions
9:00 a.m. Put baby in exersaucer while I put dishes away that were used for a ladies tea at church.  Do some other picking up.
9:20 a.m.  Pick up baby from exersaucer/realize lovely diaper accident has occurred/hold baby at arms length while carrying her to bath tub.
9:23 a.m. Bathe baby
9:35 a.m. Put baby down for a nap/put 3 year old in bath tub
9:50 a.m. Get in shower
10:00 a.m. Come downstairs and realize exersaucer was never cleaned up.  Scrub down exersaucer.
10:10 a.m. Play with Ainsley
10:30 a.m. Baby wakes up/nurse baby
10:45 a.m.  Leave for Target/library run
11:00 a.m. 3 year old has huge tantrum in Target/get necessities and leave
11:30 a.m. Get home and discipline three year old who is very upset that her behavior meant no library trip.
11:45 a.m. Make lunch
11:50 a.m. Eat lunch
12:30 p.m. Read "If You Give A Mouse A Cookie"
12:45 p.m. Put both girls to bed.  They both fell asleep without a peep.
12:50 p.m. Rest/check e-mail/xanga/etc.
1:30 p.m. Vacuum downstairs, mop downstairs, dust downstairs, clean downstairs bathroom and sliding glass doors
2:45 p.m. Sit down to work on church brochure, write e-mail to pastor, company doing brochure
2:46 p.m. Ainsley wakes up
2:50 p.m. Work on brochure and e-mails while being examined by Doctor Ainsley
3:15 p.m. Baby wakes up/nurse baby
3:50 p.m. Husband gets home/ we all walk to library together
5:15 p.m. Get home from library/ start working on dinner
5:30 p.m. New oven door slips out of my hand, slams hard, shutting the whole oven off/ I think I broke it.
5:35 p.m. Husband discovers oven is on its own breaker and it had blown a fuse.  WHEW!
6:00 p.m. Eat dinner
6:30 p.m. Nurse baby/ put baby to bed/excited that she made the whole day without a supplement because I had been losing my milk
6:45 p.m. Make cookies with husband and three year old
7:30 p.m. Put 3 year old to bed
8:00 p.m. Console crying baby who woke up for no apparent reason/start writing this blog
8:15 p.m.  So much for excitement over the no supplement thing.
8:30 p.m. Finish writing this blog

That was my Monday.  How was yours?

Here it is:  My Brand New Stove!

I am so excited about it.  I'm like my three year old with a new toy. 

We shopped all Friday night for a new stove, going to all the usual places.  My requirements for the stove were that it have a smooth top, (The cost has come down considerably for these over the last few years.  They weren't that much more than getting those awful coils.)  it also had to be self-cleaning and have the delay start feature, so that I could put my Sunday dinner in the oven and have it start cooking while I am at church.  I love this feature and would hate to live without it.  So, I did my research, (I love to research, you know.) and we were deciding between two different stoves Friday night.  They were both at Sears and we going to go back and buy one of them on Saturday.  Josh went in to work a few hours on Saturday morning and someone there told him about a Sears Scratch and Dent store that we didn't know about.  We are always in search of a bargain and I must check out all places that could possibly have a lower price, so it was necessary that we go there.  This place was huge.  I couldn't believe how much stuff was there.  To make a long story short, we found exactly what we wanted with some extra features... expandable elements, a warming element, a warming drawer, a warm and hold function that will keep my delayed start foods warm if we end up having to stay at church longer than expected and a simmer function all for just about what we were going to pay just for the basic necessities.  It also had a gray top rather than a white top which my friend Karen suggested as her white top stains easily.  There is one very minor scratch that you can actually see, but you wouldn't notice it unless I pointed it out. 

It's first official duty: boiling a pot of water so I could make tea.

I made a pot roast today for lunch so I could test the delay start and warm and hold features.  Everything worked perfectly.  For those of you who have eaten at my house before, you'll be happy to know that the crescent rolls I also made came out perfectly brown... without me moving them around in the oven.

Now I can't wait to make cookies this week with my girls.

It's finally dead.  The thing that has been the bane of my baking existence since moving to this house four years ago, finally, finally bit the dust and in fine fashion, I might add.  If you have ever been to my house for dinner, you probably heard me complain about my oven.  It does not cook evenly or very well at all.  I have to adjust the temperature, length of cooking time and even move things around on different racks in my oven to avoid things burning or drying out.  One of the burners on the stovetop barely works, they're crooked... and well... can you tell I really hate this thing.  I have been waiting (and not very patiently) for it to finally die.

Last night as we worked to cook dinner and eat outside on our patio, it finally decided it was time to put me out of my misery.  I had a pot of water boiling with some ears of corn inside.  I had just finished cutting up some vegetables for our salad.  Everyone else was outside as Josh was grilling our chicken.  Just as I had walked out the door with the salad, there was a loud pop and some steam... and boiling water was going everywhere in my kitchen... including the inner workings of my electric oven.  Water and electricity... good times.  Anyway, somehow, the burner I was using to cook the corn exploded, burning a hole in my T-Fal pot.  That's quite an accomplishment. 

The oven is now not safe to use.  And I am terribly disappointed that now I am going to put my comparison shopping skills to the test and take a holiday from cooking anything that can't be warmed in the microwave. (Insert sarcastic voice, if you didn't already detect it.

However, in all this, I am very thankful that God protected me and everyone else from harm.  I had just been standing right next to that pot.  I surely would have been showered (or worse) with boiling water had I still been there.  On most nights, when we eat inside, there would have been likely at least one child in the room with me and thankfully, they were both outside at the time.

But most of all I'm thankful my oven is dead... now... I'm going oven shopping!!

 I have finally returned from my xanga vacation.   I just have been so busy, I haven't had time to get on and post or visit any of my friends' sites.  I hope all of you will understand.  My parents, brother, sister-in-law and their two boys were all here from last Monday until last Saturday.  We had such a wonderful and very busy time.  I'll just post a bunch of pictures to fill you all in...

We went to Six Flags on Tuesday.  Everyone had a great time and came home very tired.

She really loves her mommy.

  Cousins... Lorelei and Ben.  For those of you who don't know, Ben is just two days older than Lorelei.  But he looks like he's about two or three MONTHS older.  Ben is huge, several pounds and several inches bigger than my L., and L. isn't exactly a little thing.  He is full of laughter... this little guy laughs all the time... and eats all the time, too.  The two little ones had a great time checking each other out.

We went to a small zoo on Wednesday and this Camel had a thing for Luke. 

The sprinkler park was a huge hit with Ainsley, Luke wasn't so sure.

Grandma and Lorelei.  L. hates the hat.  She spent the entire time fighting to get it off.

Our attempts to get pictures of everyone together.  Don't Luke and Lorelei look like they'd rather be doing just about anything else in the last picture?

I have spent this week continuing to get my house back in order and trying to get Ainsley into swimming lessons.  As I've written before, the child has no fear and has no understanding of danger.  So, I really want her to have some grasp of water safety and often it's better if the lesson doesn't come from mom.  I know you other mothers can identify with this.  Our town doesn't give lessons to children under four and my attempts to get her in other places were not going well, or we couldn't afford the extraordinary costs. 

So, yesterday we tried one last place where the class began the next day (today).  We have been talking to Ainsley a lot about prayer this week.  So, before we walked in, I told her we should pray about getting into the lessons, so we did, right in the parking lot.  We asked that if it was God's Will for Ainsley to have lessons this summer that we would get into this class.  Turns out, there were only three children already signed up for this class, so they were more than happy to sign her up, too.  She was so excited to see an immediate answer to prayer, and I was, too.  It is so wonderful to see God give us the desires of our heart, even the small ones... and to teach our children about how exciting it is to see God work in our lives.

As for the lessons, they went very well today.  The class is for 3,4,5 year olds, but they are all three, and they are all girls, so it's perfect.  She did wonderfully, of course, having no fear or anything.  She gladly jumped right into the water and put her face in.  This child is going to give me a heart attack before I'm 30.

Ainsley and I took time out of our busy week to go to a tea party this week.  It was a "Please and Thank You" tea party at the library for 3-6 year old girls.  The girls were told to dress up in their finest, and it doesn't take much to encourage most little girls to dress up.  This picture is of us before we left.  We dropped little Lorelei off at grandma's and off we went, just us.  All the little girls were dressed up so sweetly, some even had hats and gloves on.  It was the sweetest thing.  They were instructed to sit like ladies in their chairs, put their napkins in their laps, and, of course, say please and thank you.  It was about the cutest thing I've ever seen.  They were all sitting like proper little ladies.

Ainsley and I had such a nice time and she was so well-behaved.  I remember moms tell me that each stage of their child's life was their favorite.  Now, I am not so sure that the age of 2 will ever be my favorite stage of Ainsley's life, but I must say that I am truly enjoying seeing her grow up into a little girl, even if I wish it would slow down sometimes.  She's so interesting to me, the perfect mix of just enough girly girl and plenty rough and tumble to make her a lot of fun.

When we found out we were pregnant with her, we both wanted a girl.  Boys are very prominent in my husband's family.  There were three boys and no girls in his family, seven of his eight cousins are boys and my in-laws already had four grandchildren when Ainsley was born, three of them were boys.  We thought a girl would be a great (and more calm) addition to the family.  I was determined to not find out the gender of our first-born and so I waited and prayed the whole nine months for a healthy baby... and if the Lord saw fit, a baby girl.  Even though I am not a girly-girl myself really, I had visions of ribbons, bows, lots of sitting and reading girly books, fancy dresses and tea parties.  What I got was Ainsley, a girl full of fiery energy and temperment. A girl who loves to get dressed up and get dirty.  A strong-willed child who is not afraid of anything or anyone, who loves new situations and just loves life.    She has been a test of every ounce of patience I have and has given a new meaning of prayer to me.  I think having that child rejuvenated my prayer life in a way nothing else could have.  I know that there is no way that I can raise her properly without the Lord's help.  I am woefully inadequate. 

With all that said, I don't really even remember what life was like without her.  Those nearly five years of childless marriage are a blur now.  Sometimes when I get frustrated with her misbehavior I wonder why she can't act more like this child or that child, but she's not any other child, she's Ainsley.  And I am so thankful that God gave her to me.  As I have been told so often by wise women who had already navigated the waters of toddlerdom with difficult children, I am the only person who could ever be her mother.  That's why God gave her to me.

I don't handle injustice well.  I want to be treated fairly, and if someone does not treat my husband or children fairly... watch out... mother bear is on the loose.  But God does not promise that life would be fair.  Often he sends trials of unfairness into our lives to teach us.  This is certainly one of those times.

Remember when I told you a few weeks back about my husband beginning to work on his Master's degree?  Well, that class has become the bane of our existence since last Friday.  Here's the background: Josh and I graduated from Bob Jones University, which if you haven't heard of it, is a Christian liberal arts university in South Carolina.  (Think of the 2000 presidential election and news of the university may come to mind.)  Anyway, for a long time, BJU did not get accredited because it feared being told how or what to teach by an accreditation agency.  The school did get accredited through a Christian organization in 2005.  Although the situation is unusual, most graduates do not have any trouble getting into other schools because the BJU curriculum is excellent. 

All that being said, after initially being accepted by this nationally known online school and finishing three weeks of class-work, the school has come back and said they take back their acceptance of him into the Master's program.  The reason they are giving is that Josh was never a student following the time BJU became accredited. (He graduated in 1999.)  There is an appeals process and we initially pursued it, playing phone tag and leaving numerous messages with people.  However, I called BJU yesterday in the hopes of getting some help in handling this because the problem comes up often, but is generally easily resolved.  I was told by the Registrar that this particular University has decided to not allow any BJU graduates into its program.  After hearing that, I knew it was a lost cause.  So now we are in a fight with the university to make sure Josh does not have to pay for any of this class, that he is dropped from it with no penalty and we can get out of this as quickly and as painlessly as possible with our testimonies in tact.  It is a frustrating experience to say the least.  No one wants to call us back or give us a straight answer.  We also need to get a letter from them stating it was not his fault that he had to drop the class.  His company is paying for the classes, but if any classes are dropped, he will not have the opportunity to take any more. 

So please pray for us, as this whole situation is weighing heavily on our minds right now.