We (ok, Josh) has been working hard at getting our porch room back in order.  The new doors have been in for a few weeks, we emptied the room and ripped out the carpets last week, and this weekend, half the room was tiled.

Tiling half that room was a lot of work.  The room is quite long.  It runs the entire length of our house.  Friday night, Josh and his dad set the tile in thin-set.  On Saturday, Josh put the grout on.  So far, I love it!  I can't wait for it to be finished and my house to get back to normal. 

This is our all-purpose room.  It's part eat-in kitchen, part mudroom, part dog room, part music room, part playroom.  For now, all toys, dog food, shoes, coats, etc. are spread throughout the house, mostly in my living room.  And that's making me a little crazy.  We have a busy week with special meetings at church and such, so I don't think things will be back to normal until next week sometime.  Oh well, we'll survive.

• Took Ainsley to school.
• Went to church with Lorelei to work on some things for the Wednesday night kids program.
• As I'm leaving church, Ainsley's school calls and says they think she has pink eye and she must be picked up and taken to the doctor.
• Make phone call to doctor and they tell me to come right away.
• Pick Ainsley up at school.  I know she doesn't have pink eye, that she just has an allergy in one eye (strange, I know), but I must prove to the school that she doesn't have the dreaded contagious pink eye.
• Go to doctor's office.
• Doctor confirms she doesn't have pink eye and tells me to go buy some over-the-counter eye drops.  Get paper to say that she can go back to school tomorrow.
• Go to Target to get eye drops.
• I'm shocked to see that those eye drops cost a whopping $8.42.
• By this time I have two very sad little girls.  One because she missed out on most of her school day  and the other because we couldn't go to playgroup because of the doctor's appointment.
• I agree to take them to the McDonalds playplace.
• Lorelei has a potty accident on the playplace. 
• Thankfully, we are the only ones there and I clean it up as best I can.
• Go home and put girls down for a nap.
• When Lorelei wakes up nap she wiggles her pack-n-play over to the door of the guest room and locks herself inside.
• I work for 45 minutes to free her.
• She screams for 45 minutes straight.  Mostly because she really had to go to the bathroom.  You can imagine how that ended up.
• Daddy finally gets home and frees her.
• New door handle was installed on guest room door.
• Ainsley is so tired she sleeps through that entire ordeal.
• Lorelei and I work on her birthday thank you notes.
• Ainsley and Josh go run and errand.
• Talk to my mom on the phone.
• Make dinner
• Eat dinner
• Get ready for church
• Go to church
• Come home and get girls ready for bed
• Put girls to bed.
• I go to bed

Glad that day is over.  Now, what's going to happen today????

Much has been going on around here, and I don't have the time or energy to write about all of it.  I'll just give you a few highlights.

Last Friday, all three of us girls got our hair cut.  It was Lorelei's first hair cut.  I thought she might be scared, but she loved it, and did just fine.  I decided to go ahead and give her bangs.

A relative of my friend Amanda used to cut hair in a salon until she had her son.  So, we had her come over to Amanda's house and she cut Amanda and her daughter Naomi's hair along with my two girls and me.  It was a little hair cutting party.  It worked out great for everyone involved.

Lorelei didn't want to take a picture right after she got her hair cut, she was too busy playing with Naomi.  So I took this one the next day while she was "helping" me make cupcakes for a friend.

On Saturday I took Ainsley to a birthday party with a princess/knight theme.  It was for four children in our church who are turning 5 this month.  We let her pick out a new princess dress for this occasion and for the harvest party at her school next week.  This is what she chose: Snowflake Princess.  She really wanted to be Ariel, but daddy kept balking at the seashell bra. I can't imagine why he wouldn't want his 4-year-old wearing that.

This is Ainsley and one of her best friends in the whole world.  She and Abigail have been buddies since they were born just a month a part 4 and a half years ago.  This past week we had to tell her that Abigail is moving away soon.   As a mother, it broke my heart to have to tell her something so sad.  We want to protect our children from all disappointment and hurt, even though it's impossible to do so.  I cried as we tried to explain to her what was going to happen.  Ainsley, the child who finds joy in everything, who absolutely loves every minute of life, seemed to be undisturbed.  She said she was sad Abigail was moving, but that she still had other friends.  I'm not sure she completely understands what moving away means, even after we explained it many times.  I'm sure the reality will hit her in two weeks when Abigail isn't in her Sunday School class anymore.  And that's when she's going to really need her mommy.

It sounds like I'm getting a new job.  I went on an interview today at the Christian school where Ainsley is attending.  They need someone to do all their publicity.  Right now, it's not being done by anyone, so I would get to start up everything.  The job includes writing press releases, making brochures and flyers, coming up with ways to get their name out in the community, setting up booths at community events, etc.  It's basically a lot of the same things I'm already doing for my own church, but I'M GOING TO GET PAID FOR IT!!!

For the moment I'll only be working a total of about 8 hours a week and just about all of it will be from home.  We haven't yet decided if the money I'll make will be applied to Ainsley's school bill or if I'll be paid directly, but either way, it will help.  I'll probably still write newspaper articles, too, so that money will now just be extra money for us.

I'm very excited about this.  This a great way for me to do something that I enjoy and that fits my skills while also fulfilling my desire to stay home with my children.  God does supply every need, sometimes in unusual ways. 

This all happened pretty fast.  My father-in-law (my in-laws attend the church the school is affiliated with) happened to see a notice at church that they needed someone with my capabilities, he mentioned me to the pastor last week and almost immediately I was getting calls from both the pastor and the school principal.  I had an interview today where I was given the job, I just have some paperwork to fill out. 

So, that's what's going on around here...

Now, a few more pictures from last weekend...

Lorelei, showing off her new dress she got from Uncle Jim and Aunt Hannah.  She loves wearing dresses and always holds them up like that when someone says something about her pretty dress.

At the pumpkin patch...

On Monday we went to the Mystic Seaport.  It has tall ships and is a museum about the 18th century shipbuilding and fishing industry.  It was fun and interesting.

These are of the Charles W. Morgan the only wooden whaling boat left in the world.  Unfortunately, they were working on the boat that day, so we didn't get to go on it.  But we did get to go on another tall ship. 

Do you see Ainsley and Josh?

Lorelei is trying to listen to a shell.  We kept trying to tell her that the little ones wouldn't work, but she didn't care.  She just kept picking them up and and saying "I hear ocean!"

Watch out, Ainsley's at the helm!

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

I am sitting next to my little birthday girl at the kitchen table as she plays with play-doh.  She got a whole bunch for her birthday.  Every few minutes she puts the color she has away and asks me to open the pink one or the blue one or the purple one.  It's very, very cute.  I'm going to try to keep all the colors separate this time.  We'll see how this goes...

We are trying to get back to normal schedules today.  My parents left last evening.  We had such a fun-filled few days, but everyone is a little off now.  This morning I had to take Lorelei for her two-year check up.  She is perfectly healthy and doing great.  He checked her legs again and everything appears to be fine.  One is still slightly longer, but it's not affecting her and she has knock-knees, but she'll grow out of that.  It amazes me that she's only been walking well for about six months.  And for all the grandparent-types who read this she is 28 pounds (66th percentile) and 35 inches tall (77th percentile).

I have so many pictures from our weekend.  I'll probably spread them out this week.

On Friday we went to a local children's museum.  The girls had fun seeing some small animals and playing with the hands-on exhibits.  Lorelei loves turtles right now and she really enjoyed the whole room full of turtles.  They also got to pretend they were turtles.

Friday night we had Lorelei's "party" of sorts.  It was only for family and it ended up being quite small because Josh's parents and brother were not able to come at the last minute.
Her pony cake did not come as good this time as it did during my practice cake, but she still liked it.

She couldn't wait to blow out her candles.

She loved all the ponies she got as presents.  She hugged each one and said "I love her."

What's better than reading a story with Grandma and Grandpa?

Saturday morning we spent at Ainsley's soccer game and then we went to Six Flags.  We didn't ride too many adult rides, but the girls certainly had their fill of rides.

At the soccer game...

Riding rides with Grandpa...

Riding Thomas the Train...

That's it for today.  More pictures to come...

Thanks for all kind words and prayers about my jaw.  It is getting better.  I can open my mouth almost all the way now.  It is still a little sore, but the pain is much better than it was on Monday.

Yesterday was our big door and window day.  It was a blessing that my father in law sent over his work crew from his construction company to help.  We have new windows in the whole house and four of our sliding glass doors in the porch room have been replaced with French doors.  They look so nice. And you can already tell the difference.  The house is much quieter, and I know both the doors and windows are going to save us a ton of money this winter.  Our old windows were so drafty. The 5th sliding glass door will be replaced with a fireplace insert and shelving at some point.  Not sure when that's going to happen...

After all that work, the house was a disaster.  There were paint chips EVERYWHERE.  I spent all day today cleaning, scrubbing, dusting, etc.  My mother in law graciously watched Lorelei this morning so I could clean the house without distractions after I read a story to Ainsley's class.  And then both my girls took a nap this afternoon.  That helped a lot, too. I just have to clean the sink and vacuum the stairs tomorrow and then I'll be all ready for my parents to get here.

They arrive at 11:45, so we'll be picking them up right after I get Ainsley from school. They will be here until Tuesday.  I am so looking forward to their visit.  I know they are, too.

I think we'll be celebrating Lorelei's birthday on Friday night.  I'll be sure to put up pictures of that famous pony cake. 

• First of all, a prayer request:  I woke up with a jaw that doesn't work.  I can barely open my mouth and am in moderate pain.   I have had previous problems with this, but not of this magnitude.  I called my dentist this morning and they fit me in.  I am now on a muscle relaxer and anti-inflammatory, and we just wait to see what happens. 
• I am feeling very blog uninspired right now.  I have been posting only about once a week because I don't want to bore you with the every day goings on of my life, but I really don't have anything else inspiring to say.
• Having said that, we're very busy around the house right now.  We are busily painting our enclosed porch room.  We don't think it has been painted in about 20 years or so.  It is very labor-intensive because we are painting over natural wood with slats in it (I'm not quite sure how to describe it.)  Anyway, it has been a lot of hand-painting, and it has been taking a lot of time.  We have to get the painting finished by tonight because the rest of our new doors for that room will be installed tomorrow.  Also, I had to take down all of our curtains and blinds today because our new windows (thank you federal government for that rebate you gave us a few months ago.) will also be installed tomorrow.  The windows are arriving as I type this.
• Oh, and my parents arrive on Thursday, so I need to try to get my house somewhat back in order by then.  I know they won't care how messy my house is, but I will.
• My parents are coming because Saturday is my baby's second birthday!  I can't believe she's going to be two!  I am having some problems with this.  She's not a baby anymore!  It's gone by way too fast.
• I figured out how to make that pony cake I was asking for advice on.  I think it's going to be really cute.
• Ainsley is going on her first field trip tomorrow.  They're going to an apple orchard.  I think she's more excited about getting to ride a bus for the first time, though.
• On Wednesday, I'm going to read some books to Ainsley's class.  That should be fun.
• Yesterday was the parade for our town's 375th birthday.  We took the girls down the street to it.  It was a nice, small-town parade.  (I did not take even one picture.)
• Remember I asked prayer for Josh's job situation and possible moving to another location within his company?   Well, we prayed and prayed, and we think God wants him to stay right where he's at.  We're not going to worry about possible layoffs because we can't control it.  God has promised to supply our needs and we know He will.
• Oh, and we bought tile for that back porch room I was talking about.  I can't wait to rip up that nasty carpet that's back there.  Once the tile is down, there will be no room in my house that is carpeted.
• Lorelei is still doing well going potty.  She has the occasional accident (a couple times a week), but for the most part, potty is going where potty is supposed to go.
• We have an associate pastor coming to candidate at our church this weekend.  He would be an excellent music pastor.  We need that!
• I think that has you all caught up on us.  I am going to try to come up with something to keep my blog a little more interesting...  I'll let you know.