Sorry it's been so long!

Katie is doing well in school. I can definitely see them preparing them for more work. I don't think I had to do this much work in second grade, but then I have no memory, so who knows? With the leaves falling, we have already begun the Christmas list. I know, we haven't even gotten through Halloween yet... speaking of which, I need to find some orange tights... no, not for me. LOL


With the Christmas list has come something I've been trying to avoid. Yesterday an American Girl catalog entered my house uninvited. Before I realized what was going on, my child had noticed it, grabbed it, and RAN with it to the couch so she could start her perusal. Katie has never been introduced to American Girl dolls because, well, I don't think they're worth it. Not for a doll that really won't be a collectible after my daughter gets done with it. And I'm not big on buying toys that don't get played with.


So, dear readers, any opinions? Am I being backwards by not really wanting the American Girl empire in my house? Did I mention that my child has 48 items circled in this catalog - she counted. Not that she would get everything she asked for, of course. And we're having the same issue that we had last year with pricey objects - "but this is going on my SANTA list!" Don't worry, I'm not going to tell her about Santa.... LOL

If it's not one thing it's another.....

Well, it may have been a little late in coming, but I had the "anatomy" talk with Katie this weekend. We were at the zoo and she asked how you can tell a boy camel from a girl camel. I realize that she's seven and should probably know this already, so I decided it was time. I suggested we go sit somewhere and talk about it. I started talking about how the way we go to the bathroom is different because we have different body parts. She kinda got it, but not really. So yesterday when I was going to let the dog out, I told her to come with me. Before I let Sherlock out I told him to sit down and pointed "it" out to her. (I don't want nuts googling and getting my blog. LOL) She said, "Wait, HUMAN boys have that too???" It took all I had not to laugh out loud. After a couple questions and answers regarding exact location and my making sure she didn't think everyone had one covered with fur, I think we have conquered this part. I realize I'm just one step away from where babies come from, but I'm going to hold out on that for a while. LOL

Oh! And I'll have zoo pictures soon!

Well, it happened....

Black and white have entered my child's scope of knowledge. The other night she was talking about something and she said something like "the black and white kids..." and I looked at her and said, "What happened to brown and peach?" She said, "Well, you know sometimes people say black and white instead." But then she switched back to brown and peach. LOL Maybe I bought myself a couple more weeks? I like when we're all crayons.

Pictures, PIctures, Pictures

Well, the pictures seem to be backwards from how I wanted them, so my narrative is a little backwards too. The pictures above are the sidewalk fair at Katie's school this past Saturday. We're hoping that next year she might actually help draw (she did do the multicolored snake by herself). She sketches out a picture and then pretty much directs from there. LOL

Hopefully these pictures will actually come out the way I'm picturing, but since they probably won't, you're going to have to figure out which are which. It shouldn't be too hard. The pictures above, hopefully, are the first day of school. You can see what kind of mood she was in in one of the pictures - can you guess which one? One thing I noticed about this year. She didn't need us around once she got there, she was immediately in the middle of her friends chatting away.

Yes, I know

I have been completely remiss about telling you folks how 2nd grade is. LOL I have pictures, I need to download them. Yes, I also know you've heard that all before.

I was very excited to see Katie's classmates the first day. There are quite a few kids that she was friends with in Kindergarten, didn't see too much in 1st grade that are now in her 2nd grade class. A couple really close friends, so I was happy for her. And the male child that she had a crush on in Kindergarten... and again in first grade.... yep, same room again. I'm going to have to figure out who to bribe next year. LOL

At any rate, I will post pics and the sidewalk fair that we went to is coming up on the 20th, so we're all looking forward to that. I'll be back online soon with photos.

Last Year's Fair

Brief word to FFs

I know some of my FF friends read the blog so I wanted to say good-bye but please keep in touch. I tried to say good-bye before I left but the site and I weren't agreeing about my wanting to share my email address. So, I'm locked out of sending messages or, even replying to posts at the moment, but if they let me back on I'll try to say my good-byes.

Love ya!


EDITED TO ADD: I'm officially completely off of FF. I wasn't able to get back on, just cancel my membership.


I will get back to our regularly scheduled program shortly! Promise!

Okay, one more story before vacation pictures

I've got to get this story out before I forget.

Last week I was talking to JC and he walked out of the room while I was talking. Not necessarily an unusual occurrence, but when he walked out I looked at Katie and said, "Katie, when you get married, please make sure that your husband doesn't walk out of the room while you're talking to him."


Later that day we were stopped at a gas station. Katie had gotten out of the car to stretch and JC was putting her back in the car. She was talking to him when he closed the door. She looked at me and said, "And I GUESS that I should make sure my husband doesn't close the door on me when I'm talking to him either!"


I was laughing so hard when JC got in the car that I had to tell him both conversations. That kid cracks me up.

No pictures yet but.....

I do have a couple stories. While we were in Wisconsin we had a couple meals at a place called the Wolfpack Cafe - highly recommended by the way. Anyhow, when you come in they give the kids some crayons and a picture of a wolf to color while they are waiting for their food. My darling daughter colors the wolf and then asks JC to draw a deer in the background. At this point, I wasn't paying too much attention to what was being drawn. When I looked over to see how her picture was coming, I realized that she had made JC draw the deer lying down. And then she colored it red. And colored the mouth and snout of the wolf red. Eek.

P E T A - People for the eating of tasty animals. Yep. That's my kid. JC is going to turn her into a hunter yet.

Back from Vacation

I'm sorry, the cheese went bad on the way home. It was way too hot back there and it cooked. Sorry. I'll bring a cooler next time.


I have some pictures of Katie fishing but I have to figure out how to get them out of JC's camera. My camera, having been fixed right before we left, died as soon as we got there. I tried to get pictures of her riding a horse, but cameras weren't allowed on the trail. But she definitely had fun riding a big horse for the first time. I was worried watching her (being on the horse right behind her) but didn't have too much time to worry about hers as mine was trying to break the world's slowest horse record...until it would decide to trot. Did I mention the bed we were on was possibly filled with bricks and my back was already annoyed with me? Trotting horses - do. not. help. I can't wait to go to bed tonight.


Oh, and I think I forgot to mention the bike riding. That was the night before the trotting horse. Do you know how long it has been since I've been on a bike? Eight years. Do you know what a bike seat feels like after not having been on one for eight years? A trotting horse. Did I mention that I was wearing open backed gym shoes on this trotting horse? Not a good idea. I am sore from my ankles to my neck. But I had fun! Somewhere in there... I think it was the fishing. I didn't hurt myself during the fishing. And luckily the shoulder that hurt from the horse - don't ask, I don't know how - was not my casting shoulder.


Okay, I'm going to go try to figure out JC's camera.

We are on vacation!!! Be back next week!!!!

YAY!!!!! Off to Wisconsin! Can't wait! We'll be back in a week. Hopefully with a ton of pics.

Birthday Pics!!!!

Okay, here are some pics. Tomorrow we're going to Medieval Times, so hopefully I'll have some good pics to share after that.

GUESS WHAT DAY IT IS??????

You know if you've been reading the blog long enough that it's a National Holiday today!!!!

My baby turns 7 today!!!!



I'll be back with details!!!!

Must remember that Katie is reading....

Yesterday Katie and I went grocery shopping. When I was letting her in the car I noticed a Sun Times (local newspaper) on her booster seat. I moved it over, she climbed in and put her seatbelt on . I was driving to the store and realized that she was very quiet. I looked back and saw her sitting with the paper on her lap and a look of concentration on her face. She said, "I can read the headline." I said, "I'm sure you can." Which she then proceeded to do. The headline you ask? (I'm guessing on the actual wording here since I don't remember, but you'll get the idea.) "My baby didn't deserve this." Uh-oh. Not a newstory I was hoping she'd glom onto. She continued to read the blurb under the headline which discussed how someone had stabbed a 9 year old little girl to death.

Katie: What does stabbed mean?

Me: When you push a knife into someone.

Katie: And they die?

Me: If they are stabbed to death, yes.

Katie: Why would anyone do that to a kid???

Me: Honey, I have absolutely no idea what the answer to that question is.

Katie: She had a really short life.

Me: I know.

Katie: You're supposed to get to be an adult.

Me: You're right.

I have to admit I was tearing up at this point. It's one thing to talk about these news stories with adults but to be discussing it with her and hearing her reaction was a whole different thing. Part of me wants to shield her from stories like this so she doesn't become afraid, but the other part realizes that stories like this (heard occasionally, not as often as they happen) just reinforce our teachings regarding "bad" strangers. They prove that we're teaching her the things we've gone over for a reason. She doesn't seem to have long lasting affects from hearing stories like this on occasion. She probably knows that there are eyes on her at all times and feels comfortable because of that. I can't tell you how many times either Cynthia, JC or I have said "I have to be able to see you."

I promise my next post will be more upbeat.

When I'm Queen

I know I have to tell you people when I'm writing in the other blog since I do it so rarely these days... LOL But there are new posts. http://whenqueen.blogspot.com/

Catch up

I finally downloaded pictures so I'm going to catch up on all the stuff that I've been posting about. First - just to prove that we did have icky intruders in our home, LOL, a picture of the darlings while they were still alive...

And Katie's last day of 1st grade....



I'd add a picture of Katie that I absolutely love, but I've been fighting with this darn blogger trying to get these pictures in order for so long that I'm just going to add it later. Ugh.


Katie is enjoying her summer so far, although she is studying too. She's been spending alot of time downtown doing different things. Today we went to the Museum of Science & Industry. I forgot how much I liked that museum. But we didn't have enough time to see everything (and we were there from 11 until 5:30). More adventures on another day!


Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July!!!!

Last Day of School

Someone is happy today. I'm sure pictures will be posted. Cynthia mentioned grabbing the camera to take some pictures of Katie & her friends.

Oh... and on a sad note.... none of the praying mantis' made it. Well, that's not entirely accurate. Some got out of the habitat - outside - and may be living in our landscaping. If we see any of the creepy crawlers after they've grown, we'll probably let one live in the habitat.

Help! I have icky looking intruders - and I have to FEED them

For Christmas, Katie received a praying mantis kit. She has two egg sacs. There are supposed to be 50-100 in an egg sac. AAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Okay, the little buggers have hatched. Unfortunately, the flightless fruit flies that we bought to feed them, not so alive. There's some in the container, but not a heck of alot that I can see. And I think these guys are hungry.

I'm sure it's just a matter of time before they start eating each other, but I think they are too small for that right now. From what I've read, at this size, fruitflies are basically it.

Anybody got any spare fruitflies? Ew.

I did take pictures, I'll add those later when I'm back home depending on how they came out.

Ew.

And wouldn't you know it, the stupid things hatch when JC's not going to be home for two days.

Ew.

Zoo pictures

Our first zoo trip of the season. I let Katie spend time in the one building full of activities that we don't usually get to spend time in. So we painted her face, she got to act like a Lemar keeper (not pictured), she played vet to an Aardvark, misted some plants and set up her own exhibit, isn't it lovely? It's full of plastic bugs, but the picture didn't pick them up so well. We also went through the butterfly house. The butterfly on the T-shirt is not her, it's the friend that she made in the butterfly house. I didn't want to show her face on the web, although we have plenty of pictures of her - I gave Katie the camera.

Happy Memorial Day

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!!!!


Have a fun and safe holiday!!!

Yippee!!!

Okay, we had a little vision scare. Katie did not pass the school's vision test so we had an official eye exam today. She did well and does not need glasses, although the doctor said to bring her back in a year.

Katie had said that she didn't need glasses, but I told her we'd make sure we picked out a cute pair if she needed them. Then she asked if she could get contacts. Um, no. Ugh. 'Cause I can see her sticking a contact in her eye. I told her if she needed glasses, she could get contacts when she was 16. She then proceeded to act like that was 100 years from now.

Saturday we will be going to the zoo, so I'll make sure I post pictures after that trip. I promise. Notice I'm not saying when. LOL

Oh! Note to all family members - if you have any pictures that have both JC and I in them, please email them to me. I'd like to get started on our family profile for our adoption process and I've noticed that there are no pictures of JC and I together. Okay, one. I need to have proof that he's more than some acquaintance that I met once. LOL

Mother's Day and stuff

Katie made me a bunch of stuff for Mother's Day, but what I thought was really cool was that she wrote me a song... she wouldn't sing it for me, but she wrote it. She got shy about singing it and I couldn't coax it out of her. I even asked her if she wanted to sing it to me while I was in the shower so I wouldn't be looking at her, but no luck.

I talked to Katie and told her that we were going to be thinking about adoption now and she agreed it was a good idea. Then she told me if we didn't have enough money we could have some from her piggy bank. Such a sweetie. Then she asked if we could buy two. Um, YIKES! I said (after clearing up that we're not buying a baby) I think one is enough. She suggested that we get another one in 10 years, but after I told her how old I would be in ten years and watching her eyes pop out, I think she got the idea that I probably wasn't going to be wanting to go down this path again in 10 years. LOL

Hello All

Okay, this post is more of an update on me, which I never do, then one on Katie. I'm sure that one of those will be coming soon. I'm afraid if it doesn't Christine may try to hunt me down. :)

As Katie has been requesting a sibling for some time now, I'm beginning to believe that she would like a baby sister - or brother - but if she had her way..... We have been trying, and anyone that knows me IRL knows that we have been battling secondary infertility. We have decided recently to look into domestic infant adoption. I'm not planning on telling Katie any of this until there's something positive and permanent to tell her, but I did mention a while ago that if God wasn't giving us a baby we would think about adopting. I'm just not sure she completely got it, but she probably did and just doesn't remember. You know, that selective hearing that children - and men - seem to have.

We are also going to talk to my doctor about one more thing we can try medically, but the waiting list for that could be as long as an adoption, so I'm not holding my breath.

So, I just wanted to let you know that I hadn't forgotten about you. I'm just spending more time when I'm on the internet researching than I am blogging. But I promise a new Katie post soon. I hear she has a surprise for me on Mother's Day so I'm sure I'll be posting something then!

Father/Daughter Dance and HONOR ROLL!!!!

Okay, the denim jacket/skirt set I just had to show you because I absolutely love it. I want that jacket in my size.



The pictures of Katie and JC are the Father/Daughter dance if you didn't figure that one out for yourself.


















This one is my crazy child trying to make it look like my fish is swimming into her mouth. I have a round tank and the fish look like they're swimming right out of it sometimes.

















Oh! And guess who made the Honor Roll!!!!! Katie is so proud of herself, and so are we!!!!

I know I promised pictures but....

I haven't downloaded them yet. However, I have a few snippets of conversation that I thought I'd share.

Katie: How do you tell a boy cat from a girl cat?

Me: What's that stain on your sleeve?

Katie: (brushes the hair off my forehead like she's inspecting me)

Me: What are you doing?

Katie: Looking for wrinkles. You don't have any.

(I'm a little worried this is going to turn into a weekly routine.)

Katie: How do we know that Sherlock's a boy?

Cynthia: Go ask your father.

And yes, I can see that a talk needs to be had. I attempted the other night but she was watching a movie and not listening to me.

Fun Filled Weekend

This Friday (tomorrow - I'm having trouble with my days right now) Katie's class is having a Dr. Seuss party. I had to work pretty much 24 hours a day for the first four days of the week to make sure I could take Friday off. I'm so happy I have it off though, she seemed really worried that we weren't going to be there.

Saturday is the Father/Daughter dance at her school. There will definitely be pictures!!! We have to pick between two dresses and get her dolled up Saturday. I can't wait. And I'd add a dancing smiley now but Firefox has apparently decided to unload smiley central again. I hate when it does that.

"6 Year Old Gets Political"

Anyone who knows me, knows that I'm not a big Hillary fan. At all. Ever. So even though I'm usually a Republican by nature, I've been supporting Barack during the primaries. Katie seems to have caught onto this. There have been two comments from her that have cracked me up. One was in front of me, one was a conversation with Cynthia.


The first was during a conversation that she and I were having. Primary returns have been on the TV in my house alot, so she's gotten a little lesson on what's going on. I was explaining the race for the presidency to her and told her that whoever wins the primaries will run in November to find out who's going to be president (okay, did not get into superdelegates with her - I hardly understand them - or the need, but that's for another post on another blog on another day). Once I said the president would be voted for in November she said "Well, I HOPE it's not Hillary Clinton."


That's my girl. I cracked up.


Second story. Katie and Cynthia were at a McDonald's with a TV the other day and they were talking politics on the TV. Katie said, "ssshhh, ssshhhh, they're talking about the presidency, this is important to me." Then she was annoyed when Hillary came on the screen, but rallied when she saw Obama. She made Cynthia read the closed caption to her so she would know what they were saying. I've created a monster.


Now, the question, what happens if I decide in the real election to go back to Republican? I'm going to have alot of explaining to do. LOL

I really haven't disappeared off the face of the earth....

It just feels like it. Work is just crazy and there's barely any time for anything else these days.

Katie is doing really well. Although I have to have a talk with the school. They celebrate the 100th day of school. So after they hit the 100th day and made such a big deal out of it, Katie decided that they were done. They made it to 100 and there really was no point to continue. She tried explaining this to anyone who would listen, but didn't find any takers.


OH! I may have mentioned last year that one of my daughter's classsmates Mom's wanted to get the kids together for a lunch "date". Her classmate is a little boy. Last year she had mentioned to Cynthia that he had already had a girlfriend but that she had moved away. I never called her. I thought it was a ridiculous idea. My child did not have to be "dating" at the age of 5. A couple days ago, Katie came home with this same little boy's phone number because they want to set up a playdate. UUUUGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!!! Out of her whole Kindergarten class she only had three end up in her 1st grade class, he just had to be one of them. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against this little boy, I just think that he may be raised to have ideas that I am just not comfortable with. But hey, at least my daughter was calling it a play date. Of course, that may have been for my benefit.

I think I need to be worried

This is a recent conversation with Katie:

Katie: I'm going to chop you up and feed you to an eagle. (she started with a duck but I didn't think they ate meat).

Me: So then you aren't going to have a mommy?

Katie: I'll get another one.

Me: Where?

Katie: The computer.

Me: dot.com? (chuckling - uneasily)

Katie: No, I'll email everyone and tell them I don't have a mommy anymore.

Me: Well, no one is going to want to be your mommy once they hear what you did to your last one.

Katie: Well I'm not going to include that in the email.

I'm going to go change my will now.....

ALOHA!!!!!!

Here are some pictures from our trip.

Yes those are penguins.
New Years Eve. LOL Katie was so excited that she got to stay up until midnight.