She Leaves Me Speechless (or exhausted) ....

Sunday night ....

O: "Daddy, can we pleeeeeaaaasssee go to McDonald's for dinner?"

Eric: "I don't think so. I think we'll go home".

O: "But, Daddy. I won't cheat with fries (we've ALL been on a fry-fast for over 2 months!). I'll get apples instead".

Eric doesn't answer. After a few minutes ...

O: "See how I just did that? I say things like that to get what I want."

Ummm .... needless to say, we went straight home.

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Monday morning .....

When O walks in the room, I see lots of dried, blue gel on the back of her leg and foot.

Me: "O, what is all over your leg?"

O: "Oh, that's toothpaste."

Me: "But, you haven't brushed your teeth yet this morning. Is that from last night?"

O: "Yep."

Me: "How did you get toothpaste all over the back of your leg?"

O: "Mom, it was so weird. I went to spit and I promise I spit in the sink but then the toothpaste jumped out of the sink and went down my leg."

Seriously????

Me: "Why didn't you wipe it off?"

O: "I thought it looked pretty so I wanted to sleep like that."

I've always been pretty quick-witted, but honestly, O says things that blow my mind and leave me speechless.

Monday

Wow, the weekend flew by, didn't it?

Between tea parties, naps (for me! - yay!), church, painting and cookouts, the past few days have flown by.

We have a busy week ahead, but all with GOOD THINGS. Here's what we'll be up to ...

** I finish painting O's room today. Hint: It's Bibbidi Bobbidi Blue. I'm not kidding. But, I have magnetic/chalkboard paint that is bright green. Fun! But, sounds odd, doesn't it? We'll see ....

** We have a birthday in our house this week -woohoo! O is a 4th of July baby, but her party is tomorrow night. I have some things to get together for that today. When I got back from my run this morning, she was sitting at the breakfast table frowning. "What's wrong", I asked. She says, "I am NOT happy today because it's not Tuesday!" Drama.

This picture isn't from this morning, but rather from last week. I don't know - I think it applies :) Actually, she's trying really hard to look tough while trying not to laugh. I have you figured out, O!

** If all goes as planned (is that laughing I hear?), we have 2 really fun playdates this week. Can't wait.

** In this heat, there WILL BE swimming.

** I'm making this treat today that I found here.

Then, I'm going to pray I don't eat it all. Or even half of it. "It's for the kids, it's for the kids".

Okay, I better get going if I'm going to get anything done. Have a great week!

Blessings & Keeping It Real

Yesterday was spent unpacking from our trip, doing laundry, cleaning and resting. I'm still trying to get things put back together in my bonus room and it's a slow process. Maybe if we stayed home for awhile I could get things done. Ha!

After dinner last night, we were contemplating renting a movie when our doorbell rang. It was some friends of ours we haven't seen in way too long. What makes it even worse is they live only 2 miles from us. Aren't people's schedules ridiculous?? We can never find time for what truly matters.

Anyway, we were all SO happy to see them! Our kids played and played. E has been friends with the daughter since they were 18 months old!

When it came time for them to leave, I saw E and her friend start whispering. And I knew what was up. They were plotting a sleepover.

An impromtu sleepover - the very best kind.

I went into our clean bonus room after 11:00 pm and this is what I found ....
Three girls playing away with no concept of time.

Clean is overrated, right?

I was so sleepy I was trying hard to hold my eyes open. I really wanted everyone in bed.

Then, this is what I found .....

Eric playing Wii.

I think he was enjoying not having to be the playmate for a change ;)

An 8 Year Old's World

I had a beautiful room growing up. It's not that we had a lot of money, because we didn't, but my Mom took the time to decorate it and fill it with things I loved. It was yellow and white gingham and had a beautiful full-size canopy bed. Truly, I loved my room! I spent a lot of time in there, too which is why my big brother always said I was retreating to my castle - ha! In fact, I re-arranged it every week. I loved doing that.

I'm getting O's room ready to paint. It's taking a bit of time just to prepare because we've had so much going on, but I think I'm ready. While unpacking from our trip today and cleaning E's room, I noticed how much of her room reflects who she is. It isn't filled with things I would pick necessarily, but it does reflect who she is.E was very sad when we left our other house. We all were, actually but it was definitely God's will that we did. We talked with E about what she would want in her new room and she insisted on blue only! No pink! That was so weird for me to hear because she was so in love with pink for everything else. Call it phase, but she did not want it.

Obviously, that isn't the case now and we've been able to add it back little by little :)

Another request was a chandelier, which at the time cracked Eric and me up. Why a chandelier?But, we found one. She wanted more jewels so she saved her money to buy the magnetic ones you see hanging from Hobby Lobby.

This is her keyboard where she practices piano. We don't have room in this house for a real piano, so this is what we settled for. It really sounds great and like a real piano. We hear this being played daily and often. But, I love that.


Oh, and see that picture in the top right corner ... Starry Night by Van Gogh? E wanted that print last year, so she saved some more and we found one at Hobby Lobby for $7. Score. It's her favorite, I think.

And the print of the girl above her keyboard is one she bought this weekend. A Renoir, she says. I'll have to take her word for it 'cause I wouldn't know!


The 2 prints hanging here are some I just framed today. They are the ones she bought as souveniors from the National Art Gallery in Washington. Both are Claude Monet and both were $5. Score again!

We bought that armoir at an outlet when I was pregnant with E. It's always been in her room and is FULL of books.

I covered her bulletin board in scrapbook paper. On it are her New Year's Resolutions, copies of sermon notes she took, a picture from O and ...

... a brochure for 'Weddings at Biltmore'. Look closely at the top where she wrote 'My Dream'. Ha! Dream BIG, baby!

The view from the window ....

American girls, ofcourse!

Her rock collection .....

Each rock is named. She writes about them in her rock journal documenting when and where she picked up each one. Also, each stuffed animal seen here is very special and not to be messed with by anyone :)

Her bookshelf beside her bed, complete with American Girl magazines, chapter books and devotion books.

How about a shout-out to me. Back in her blue period, I could not find a lamp to match. So, I made this one myself out of scrapbook jewel stickers.

A lava lamp?

She recently dug this brown light box out of storage that her Pappaw Johnny made her. It has different scenes you switch out and the light shines through. It was in her nursery when she was born and both girls have one. He sells them, by the way :)

That's it. A great interpretation of who E is. Eclectic, yet simple.

She's one of a kind!

Home

We are finally home.

I can't tell you how great it was to break up our trip and stay a night in Virginia. We didn't do anything but hang out at the hotel (and ofcourse, the pool!), but it was so nice.

The area we stayed at in Maryland - just outside of Washington - was NOT a good area and I was an absolute nervous wreck the entire time. I was thankful there wasn't a pool because I would have been too afraid to swim. It's not my fears in the way, either. I have had several people confirm since then that the area we were in was not good.

Whew!

When we got to the hotel in Virginia, I was so happy. I slept so good.

We ate breakfast at Panera (a favorite of my girls) before we hit the road.

After a day in the car, we are happy to be home and thankful God kept us safe. We really had a great time away.

Now I have a moutain of laundry calling my name ....

Just One More Day

Eric had a meeting this morning in Maryland, and since it is the reason we were traveling in the first place, we were okay to let him go. The girls and I just stayed in our hotel room and rested.

When we decided to come on this trip with Eric, we just had one request ..... that the hotel would have a pool. We really thought it did. When we arrived Sunday night, the girls were SO ready to put on their swimsuits. We asked how to get to the pool.

"What pool?"

Uh - oh.

The girls were crying, but saw how upset Eric was over it and that upset them. I was so proud of them - they told him not to worry about it since they get to swim at my parents all the time. I knew they were heartbroken, but they didn't act like it for long. Honestly, cooling off in the pool would have been nice after such HOT days in Washington.

So, Eric and I decided to take an extra day (or actually Eric would take an extra day off work) and stop on the way home and stay in another hotel.

Here they are ready to load up our luggage to leave.
We stopped right across the Virginia state line at IKEA. I had never been before and wanted to go so badly. Good grief. That place is huge! I loved it and could do some serious shopping there. I did pick up a few things, but saw so much I wanted :)

We drove to Richmond and found a hotel. Only requirement was a pool and Daddy delivered. The excitement was off-the-hook! Here they are arriving at Richmond hotel.


Isn't it funny that children are excited over the things you would never think of? Forget traveling to Washington .... all they want is a hotel with a pool.
We swam and swam and swam.


O is learning to swim without floaties. She is so excited to be able to practice some more.

The fitness room was open to the pool. It was lit up .... mocking me .... and all the bad stuff I ate while in Washington. So, I left the party and worked out while watching Eric and the girls swim another hour. I decided I could get a lot more exercise in if I had an open fitness room at home. Ha!

Not going to happen.

So, we're stretching this mini-vacation out as much as we can and enjoying every minute.

Still not ready to go home ......

Washington - The Day We Thought We Would Catch On Fire

So it's still hot as fire here in Washington. In fact, I'm quite sure it's hotter today than yesterday. It's 100 degrees and you feel every bit of it. Also, I pulled out my good camera and realized I left the battery in the charger in the room. Luckily, I had E's camera to use but the quality isn't that great.

We were all pretty tired from our day yesterday, but got up early to catch the train into the city. We were scheduled to tour the Capitol Building. Our day started here where we visited our local Congressman's office to get our tickets and meet our tour guide.

Our tour intern (Scott) was a guy from my hometown so that was cool. As it turns out, Eric has worked with his Dad in the past. Small, small world.

As soon as we got to Patrick McHenry's office, he walked in to meet us, which was a nice surprise. We were able to talk with him for awhile and he invited the girls to sit in his office chair.

O started to laugh at him, which told me she was growing very comfortable there.

That is not a good thing sometimes. Comfortable to O means 'anything goes'. While he was graciously explaining his job to E, O decided to do a riverdance in his office.

I'm not kidding.

Thought I would die.

I was glad to leave and start our tour of the Capitol Building. Connecting the Cannon Building (where the Congressmen's offices are) and the Capitol Building are underground corridors. Very neat (thank you, Patrick B for the tip - we loved it!)

There is just so much to take in, with so much history. It was fascinating to all of us.

Well, not really to O. She mainly loved the escalators and doors. She thought there were lots and lots of doors.

This stone the girls are standing on is the very center of the city. E thought this was cool.
The ceiling of the Rotunda. Beautiful.

This particular sculpture was of women who have changed the course of history, one being Susan B. Anthony. I didn't get a good picture of it, but it appears to be unfinished. Our tour guide told us many believe the remaining place was meant to be a bust of the first female president. E whispered to me she wanted her picture taken beside of it since she would be the first female President.
After I took it, she told me she actually wanted to be a first lady instead of President because no one tries to kill the first lady :) ha! She's been seeing a lot about President assassinations (or attempts) over the last 2 days and she's very curious about it.

Eric and I have been on mission trips to Washington in the past, working with homeless people. Before we came, we talked about this trip being very different. However, we've still seen quite a few homeless people, one of which was digging through trash and eating what he found. This broke E's heart and prompted her to stop and pray for him.

In my heart, I know God will use her to change the world, by impacting either one person, one family, one community or who knows ... one nation. The sky is the limit! She has such a compassionate heart for people.



Because she's so sweet, we didn't mind making the next stop at the National Gallery of Art.
Eric and I wouldn't have chosen this as one of our stops on such a short trip, but it was very important to E! She loves art and reads about different artists more than I ever thought of. Actually, I've never thought to - ha!

When we arrived and she got her map, she came to life and to say she loved it was an understatment. I just pretended to know what she was talking about half the time. Interestingly enough, this is where she spent her souvenior money, buying prints of her favorite artists for her room. She adores Claude Monet, which reminds me of this post.

What was O doing during this time?

Enjoying snacks ofcourse! She may be the first and only person to eat peanut butter crackers on the viewing sofas in the middle of the impressionists gallery.

She said they gave her remarkable energy! (her words), which was great because we had quite a walk to the National Museum of Natural History.


At this point, the heat was really getting to us so after looking at a few exhibits (this entire museum would take a whole day to go through!), we started walking to catch the train back to our hotel. It really is miserably hot here. It's so hard to even catch your breath.

It's been a short trip, but we've packed a lot in for such a short amount of time.

Most of all, it has been GREAT to get away for a little while and enjoy each other.

I asked O on the train to give me a face showing me how she felt about leaving Washington and this is what I got ...

I don't think she means it, though. She tells us every 20 seconds how she is dying to go back to the hotel and cool off.

Today, I think we all agree with her :)