Otter Botter Anyway...

Little miss loves to sing even though she doesn't always get the words quite right... "Otter Botter Anyway" is her version of "the cold doesn't bother me anyway..."  Makes us laugh.  That, and "Bringing in the cheese."  And "the laundry song" which I think is "When the Roll is Called up Yonder."  She also runs around singing the start of "The circle of life" from the Lion King... it's in Zulu so she does a fairly good job of that...  ha. 

Emmy-girl likes to chew on things.  And smile.  She is fussy/inconsolable sometimes, I promise!  

Ah, the ever present Elsa dress.  *sigh*  One afternoon she was running around waving her arms and I asked her what she was doing: "The ice doesn't work.  I can't make the palace."  I laughed.  A lot. 

I decided I need to be in more pictures.  Too bad I don't have a personal photographer and have to resort to "selfies."  Ugh.  I would be happy if that word went away, it annoys me. 

 This was NOT my idea.  But they were both so happy that I let it continue...  hehe.

The girls and I went to the farm Thursday afternoon to play for a little bit before we all headed to Michelle's house for Kendra's baby shower that evening.  We picked up hedge balls and saw the cows and pigs and Gus and the beanie babies and the doll house...  The shower was nice.  I am not a fan of showers, but they had pie!  And Cecily was good.  She got to help 'Krenda' with her presents so she was happy.   

Bob and I did a puzzle.  Cecily helped.  Emmy even got in on the action and knocked a few pieces off the table.

 For the record- this is NOT an efficient way to cook.  But Emmy stopped fussing and Cecily's always happy to help... sooo... quench not the spirit, right?!  We were making biscuits for biscuits and gravy.  They were not the fluffiest biscuits I've ever eaten.  Little miss 'I can't want sausage' only ate the one bite we made her eat.   *eye roll*

Last night I hosted sewing club, which was a good time as always.  I am perfectly content with the size of our house... until we have people over.  The living room fills up so fast and my kitchen is really only a one cook kitchen.  O well.  I thought the food turned out pretty good; Emmy was a little clingy, but not too bad.

Today we went and got Cecily's three year old pictures taken.  She was very unsure about it all.  She was not very interested in posing or smiling or keeping her hands out of her mouth and her tongue in her mouth.  And her hair was slightly unruly as always.  So we ended up with one picture that is passable...it looks like her and she's smiling nicely.  There were some pretty hilarious pictures I did not get. I told her if she was good we could get ice cream so we went to Cold Stone when we were done, which I love. 

Blessings.

A series of unfortunate events

Ok, that's maybe a liiitle dramatic.  *grin*

Where were we? 

Church lunch went well- we had plenty of food and lots left over.  Which I love.  The girls were tired, but did pretty well considering.  Oh, there almost has to be some kind of donut mix-up, right?  I thought I had ordered white and chocolate cake donuts... they were both white with nutmeg in them, with white or chocolate icing.  And I ordered "old fashioned" donuts and what we got were unfrosted cake donuts... not quite what I thought I was getting.

This is what we did afterwards: 

Cecily had her 3 year doctor appointment.  She's still tall and skinny.  

I canned 6 more pints of whole tomatoes and then I washed all the canning/ freezing stuff and put them away.  Yay!  I have so much more counter space... and no more excuses to not clean the kitchen (oh, I'll just wait until I'm all done with canning and scrub it all down then...). 
Emmy found her feet.

 Naptime after school on Friday.  I'm sensing a trend.

Bob and Cecily went shopping and she got to pick out something with her birthday money.  He said she wanted to go down the costume aisle and would not be dissuaded from this Elsa dress...it's covered in glitter.  There is now glitter all over the house.  Emmy even has it in her hair.  woot. 

So we were planning on going camping in Iowa with some of Bob's cousins Saturday night...  but getting everything together for us to get there was just not going smoothly... it felt like "a series of unfortunate events"... plus Bob wasn't really excited to go in the first place... anyway, we didn't end up going.  I was/ am disappointed.  I haven't been real camping in a long time.  

So instead we went to the Koch Pork Chop Fry and invited Bob's family over for a snack after church like his Grandma used to.  (I refuse to call it lunch call...) 
We're all fighting colds over here... even the smiley one. 

Blessings.

Golden

Cecily turned three yesterday!  Her golden birthday... which she doesn't understand, and I couldn't really think of any creative way to celebrate so... sorry kiddo.  I asked her where the last three years went- "um... I don't know!"

I was perusing pinterest for cake ideas one day and she was looking over my shoulder and said- "Is that my polka dot melon cake?"  Ha.  Watermelon cake it is!  Emmy was in the high chair by me while I was frosting it and Cecily wanted her chair to be there too.

Well, hello blue eyes.  

 We went to the farm for cake and presents with my family Thursday night.  Everything she opened was- "this is mine." New cooking utensils.

 Candy and a princess.

 Then I stayed up past midnight running through the lab for school and not getting it to work at home.  And then I couldn't sleep because I was nervous it wouldn't work for them and about fires and the toxicity, etc...   And Emmy woke up at 5:30.  I was tired.

The lab at school went ok.  Not everyone got it to work, which was a bummer.  I had decided to go down to the church kitchen for lab because sinks are nice and we were going to use alcohol burners.  They all needed refilling and I must have slopped some denatured alcohol on one of them, because not only was the wick burning, there was fire all over the burner.  So Madi and I were trying to get it out when the table cloth we were using to protect the countertops (paper with plastic backing) caught fire.  Madi blew that out which started a napkin on fire which got tossed in the sink.  And then the burner flared up again so it went in the sink.  Ah. Um. 

Later, one of the boys spilled their Copper Sulfate solution all over. It's mildly toxic.  We were in a kitchen.  We scrubbed it down with lots of water.  Have I mentioned I am pretty much the most timid chemist ever?  I don't like open flames and I miss my fume hood.  And then the pastor wandered through...  nothing to see here...

So once that was over I could relax and enjoy Cecily's birthday.  I made chicken nuggets for supper, which she loved. We let her open one present before we ate. Pay no attention to the small scab on her face where the neighbors dog bit her. *sigh*  

 Then it was time for her 'polka-dot melon birthday.'

 She hasn't quite mastered blowing out candles yet...

 We gave her "Olivia."

 And an owl sleeping bag.

 Indian princess dress for dress up.

 It's the Chief!

 By the shores of Gitchee-gumi...

 She wanted Emmy in the sleeping bag too.

I made milkshakes and she got a special umbrella straw. 

At bedtime, she wanted to sleep in her sleeping bag.  On top of her bed.  I let her. 
We serve lunch at church tomorrow.  Woot.  There's going to be company and I'm really hoping we have enough food.
Blessings.

Is that a pig that just flew by?

Oh these two girls. 

 Lets see, what have we been up to... 

Dave and June had a wiener roast one lovely Sunday evening.  Cecily thinks it's the best thing ever to eat hot dogs around a fire... glad somebody does...

Our new neighbors got married!  Somebody enjoyed the balloons that were tied to their car... and their temporary princess curtains... hehe. 

We got out the excersaucer for Emmy, but I think Cecily has spent more time messing with it so far than Emmy has spent in it. 

 Little miss discovered my Veggie Tunes CD and has been playing it over and over... and over... and over again.  Huzzah.  And then my students decided to have a veggie tales sing along while we were waiting for water to boil in class.   I am tired of Veggie Tales. 

We went to the farm one day for lunch.  We ate at the field, but Cecily didn't want a combine ride so we went back to the farm.  She got to play with Grandma and Gus and Emmy and I went to the doctor to try and deal with a nursing issue.  Woot.  Still not totally resolved... 

The girls and I went to some garage sales this weekend.  Didn't have much luck, but we got lots of exercise.  And Cecily came home with lots of "sprinkles." The ladies at one sale gave her a bunch of bead necklaces for dress up because it was the end of the day... 

My cousin Jesse got baptized this weekend.  I was really excited to go to Gridley- yes Mom, that was a pig that flew past the window... It had been a very long time.  I'm not sure if Bob and I have been there for church since we've been married... yeah.   Cecily played at Steve and Renee's with Christina, aka "Chris-ta-lina," and her cousins Karissa and Lavell during testimonies.  Once again, I didn't even get a backwards glance. I spent most of the evening in the back hall with my squirmy, squishy baby.  But, I got to talk to 'that Bob' and he totally made Emmy giggle so that wasn't all bad.   

Kaleigh offered to let us stay with them overnight which worked out really well.  And it was fun- I don't get to see her nearly often enough anymore!  Little miss was not shy at all.  She walked right in and asked Art, "Are you Kaleigh's daddy?"  And demanded that Kaleigh come play with her...  it's a good thing they are used to kids.  *grin*   The girls both did pretty well at church.  I think Cecily had fun... she's been talking about Chris-ta-lina and Lavell and "that other Susan." 

 

She deigned to share her polka dot blankie... 

 
I tried a reverse French braid... it was cute for about 5 minutes...

She insisted on wearing the too big "jaguar shirt" and no pants. *sigh*  In general, unless you're at the beach, spaghetti straps on little girls just look trashy.  And sometimes animal prints do too.  Especially when they are hand-me-downs like this shirt.  Around the house I don't care but I didn't let her wear it to the grocery store today.    (I probably have too many strong opinions on what looks trashy on little girls:  strappy things with nothing underneath, certain sparkly fabrics, velour, cheap jewelry, finger and toe nail polish- because, really, it NEVER looks nice, etc.... watch, my girls will love all of those things.  But I don't care- never to young to teach modesty and classiness right?! Wow I sound like my Dad...)  

 

 Aaannd, they're out.  

Blessings.

So long sweet summer...

Somehow we went from summer to fall...  I'm not a fan of fall. 

I want some snack too, mom...  hehe.  This "little" girl is in the 99th percentile for weight and height.  And she's very snuggly. Doctor B. thought it was hilarious that we can't use the bumbo seat because it cuts off her circulation in her legs...

 Checking out the Farm and Fleet ad while waiting for supper... and eating a sucker.  Happy little Emmy likes to be up where we are.

 Cecily was raising her foot just like Emmy-geehl.

 She likes to kick.  And those keys.

The second day of "teaching school" (in Cecily-ese) went pretty well... hard for me to gauge since I haven't really seen any of their work yet, so I don't know if they are actually getting it.  Little miss social likes to play with Megan and Ah-cus (Atticus... I'm guess it's from the book "To Kill a Mockingbird").
 
It was cold so we broke out the crayons while we were waiting to go to Shelly's house.

 Michelle and Nathan hosted cousins night last Saturday.  Cecily was pretty excited to go and eat hotdogs.  I was excited to see their house all moved in and decorated.  It's cute. 

We decided to go to W-ton for church the next day... because I can't remember how long it's been since we had been there. 

It's our turn to serve lunch at church in a few weeks so I've been trying to do a little bit of baking here and there.  It keeps the house warm when it's so chilly. 

So the Farm and Fleet grand re-opening sounded like fun and they had a cute kids play tent and sleeping bag set in their ad that would have been perfect for Cecily's birthday.  Yeah.  I did not realize that it was going to be such a crazy madhouse.  So I took both girls in and pretty much made a loop and came back out.  Not worth it.  Haha... as I was coming in the door with Emmy in the stroller and Cecily in a cart, someone waiting in the looong check out line who looked very familiar (but I still can't place her- annoying mushy brain) and was obviously AC offered to watch Emmy while I shopped.  Got to love it.   I had already decided not to buy anything though...

All ready to go on "a jaunt."  Poor girl gets called a boy a lot, but I don't want to put pink on her all the time, especially with her skin tone.  And bows aren't worth the time I would spend putting them back on.

 It was a stripes kind of day.

Thursday evening we went to Brent and Janelle's for potluck babysitting night.  We managed to keep all 13 kids, plus the neighbor girl alive.  Fun times.

The girls and I went to school this morning.  I wore my periodic table shirt.  We did our first lab...  ok, so my high school chemistry teacher must have nerves of steel.  Our first lab at EHS was bending and cutting glass- with open flames and teenagers with sharp objects.  I just went over lab safety and had them do an ionic/ covalent conductivity activity and that was nerve wracking enough. 

Why can't you eat and drink in lab? um... remember Willy? Willy was a chemist, but Willy is no more, what Willy thought was H2O was H2SO4! 

Bob took off work so after lunch we took the girls to the zoo.  Cecily was pretty excited.  She told me, "Shelly found me Masha and Bear at the zoo going to my Birthday!"  She had a great time looking at the animals.  We found the tigers first and she just inserted herself into this group of kids... strangers... and told anyone we saw, "we're going to find the Lions!"

 Emmy just chilled in the stroller.

 Checking out the warthog. 

 She named off pretty much everything we saw on the way home... Daddy lion in the corner and the mommy lion on top of the rock and I saw a snake and the turtles and all the animals...
At some point she got a blister from her sandals so when we got home we put a princess band-aid on it.  She's showing it to Emmy- "here's Belle, and 'Punzel, and Snow Pink."  Ha!  I died laughing.  

She's decided to be very protective of her cute baby (from Ah-cus and the other kids at "my school") and she wanted to read her a book this evening.  Green Eggs and Ham.  From the girl who "I can't want squash" the spaghetti squash I made for supper but who would eat "dead cow" (steak) with plenty of BBQ sauce.

Anyway, that's what we've been up to.  Nothing and everything all at once. 
Blessings.

School Days, School Days...

I am such a wimp about humidity...  so we didn't spend much time outside last week.  Poor Cecily.  She wants to go out, but then she doesn't want to stay out for very long, and she won't go out without me, and it's such a hassle to haul Emmy in and out...  

One hot afternoon's activity- lining up the princess dominos.  Emmy just happily plays with whatever we hand her. 

Friday morning we were up bright and early.  Yikes.  I haven't seen 7 on my alarm clock in a loooong time.  Cecily was so excited to go to "teaching school" that she asked to go to bed early the night before and woke up when she heard me get up. 

So we were all out the door on time.  Cecily got to play with some other little kids in the church nursery- we will have no trouble getting her to go to Sunday school, or kindergarten, she's already 'you can go now Mom'...   Emmy slept the entire time we were there, thankfully.

I have 10 kids in my class (I thought there were 8... ah well, the more the merrier!).  I pulled out my old molecular modeling kit and made a bunch of water molecules and scattered them in front of the door- with a "Caution, wet floor" sign... because Chemistry jokes are the best.  And I made them fill out notecards with things like, 'one word to describe how you feel about Chemistry.'  "Unenthusiastic" um...  "mathematically intimidated"  (that kid probably had the math figured out the best...).  Since I've never lesson planned before, or lectured before, or taught anything, really, I was pleasantly surprised that what I planned to go over fit the class period perfectly.  And I wasn't super nervous.  So hooray!  I also told them to cherish their new laminated periodic tables.  Not sure what they went home and told their parents...

As my mother reminded me, I do know more than they do.  hehe.  And I have permission to use all of my old HS teacher's material.  Mr. Bill is the best.  I shall never achieve his level of teaching excellence... or his corny jokes.  I've also been reminding myself that Prof. Peter Beak is on my list of top 5 chemistry teachers, and he was probably the most boring lecturer I've had... but he cared about us, and he cared if we understood what he was teaching.  Anyway.  Hopefully it continues to be fun for me.     I'm trying to decide if I need to buy a "I wear this shirt periodically" periodic table shirt. Probably yes.

Little miss I-still-hate-pants was pretty sure she needed to double check my measurements.  We were covering wipes boxes with fabric for more pretty toy storage. 

 Since it cooled off, Bob took the girls on a bike ride in the bike trailer.  Emmy seemed to enjoy it... Cecily loves bike rides.

We attempted freezing potatoes on Saturday.  Some of them were already getting moldy, so Bob helped me peel and blanch a safeguard bucket full.  It was a lot of work- not sure it was worth it.  There's still a 5-gallon bucket's worth of potatoes in the basement that I'm not sure if I want to freeze or just try and eat before they go bad. 

She doesn't like to be left in her bouncy when we're eating, and Cecily decided she doesn't want to sit in the high chair anymore, sooo... Emmy-girl got to try it out with some blankets to keep her sitting up.  She was quite pleased with herself.

Otherwise, we had a quiet weekend.  Church today and the ordination service this evening... oh, and I have a cold.  But I think I'm getting better. 
Blessings.

Labor Day

How is summer almost over? 

Oh, these two.  I guess I'm glad that Cecily likes her now... and Emmy is so chill...

We had a good weekend... we "camped."  Ha.  The idea of tent camping with a baby who wasn't sleeping through the night (she is now! yay!!) with the forecast of rain every day...  I wasn't too sad to just hang out at the cabin Friday evening.

Emmy fell asleep next to Greg on the couch.  Hehe.  She slept there for quite a while.  

Saturday morning we ate breakfast at the cabin and then the men left to dig a hole.  And plant the tree our potluck got B and J in memory of Derek.  The ladies and kids went swimming.  I'm not sure who had the more difficult task... oh wait... that would be us.  *grin*

Cecily totally freaked out about swimming.  I'm not sure if it was the moss, or the muddy bottom, or the water temperature but she did not want to swim and she was mad at me.  She decided she liked Nichole and wanted nothing to do with me.  *eye roll* 

 These two make me smile.

 There are a lot of little kids in our camping group.  Yeah. 

 Sunday evening it had dried out a little bit and the rain in the forecast never materialized so we ate supper out at the timber. 
Cecily was pretty excited to play with the kids again.  She keeps asking me if we're going to 'eat at the fire at the cabin with the kids'.  It was a good weekend, even without the camping.

 Cecily has been using the word "shall" in everyday conversation.  It's amusing.  The funniest yet has been, "shall you buy me polka dot bundies 'amorrow?"  Um...  not planning on it little girl... ha!

I spent Monday laboring... haha. Family tradition I guess.  We got some bushes for the back of our yard and I dug a bunch of holes for them.  There are a ton of tree roots back there so it was not an entirely pleasant job.  

Tuesday evening I went to a meeting for school.... ayiyiyi I'm nervous.  And today I practiced making a density column.  Little miss thought the "rainbow" was pretty cool.   

 Blessings.