Getting close to...

our final goodbyes. The Bairs are leaving in about two weeks. We had them over for supper and Oreo Shakes. (Dustin's speciality)

This particular group (minus one couple) got together during the last season of the t.v. show 24. We are all dedicated fans. It won't be the same without the Bairs next season, but we will try to manage.

Enjoying Oreo shakes.

Owen had Karis dress up as a princess to match his X-man Wolverine.

I'm thinking it was just so he could chase the princess. They were pretty cute running around. If they don't get married someday it really will be a waste of what would have been an adorable slide show.

I'd highly recommended

A season pass to the zoo when you have little ones. We have used it fairly often this summer, and I'm sure we will use it even more in the months to come.

Last Saturday we went with Dustin's mom, Robin, and His grandma Karen. The girls loved it!

Snuggling with their grandmas. They are blessed to have lots of grandmas that love them!
Gabi really warmed up to Grandma Karen.
Karis already loves her to pieces. :-)
Grandma Robin - Gabi went through a stage where she didn't like it when grandma came over because mommy always leaves. Obviously she has gotten over that. :-)
Help Grandma! The storm is going to get me. Grandma was happy to rescue Karis from the tropical rainstorm.

Sorry Jess

I told Jess I'd get these up here weeks ago, hopefully she saw them on facebook.

Dad asked me if I was sure I wanted to paint it. He has had to strip off paint from so many pieces of furniture, I'm sure it was horrifying to think I was deliberately painting a piece of oak furniture black. :-) I have to say thanks to my Uncle and Aunt who were getting rid of this piece that formally graced their bedroom. I'm glad they asked if anyone wanted it. Nothing like getting a whole pantry area for the price of a bottle of spray paint. I think it cost us a total of $7.00.
This is a little out of order, but I had to share my delight in the fact that I now have a whole drawer for these items. Before they were spread out everywhere. This has to be my favorite feature.
And don't you agree? Much improved. I absolutely LOVE it. Best of all, it only took about twenty minutes to spray paint it. Three more big drawers, and a small pantry part. I love the fact that the remodel has provided beautiful improvements like wood floors, countertops, my black sink (yes, I like black), but my favorite part is that I have more storage space. I actually have empty drawers. Of course, that could be due to my lack of taking time to organize and put things in them, but we won't mention that. The fact is that I have empty drawers just waiting for me to fill them. What a delightful feeling.

Lake

We had an impromptu visit to the lake yesterday. It was just the fresh air we needed.

These two spent the time throwing anything and everything into the lake. They delighted in sending "fragile" rocks, as they called them, crashing to their death on the bigger rocks off the shore.
In case you didn't know, they are standing on the back of a shark, here.

Love this girl.

This little one was a trooper. Her little legs have a hard time keeping up sometimes, but she does her best.
We just asked them to sit on the same rock together.

Karis is all about the posing. I'm thinking we may have some trouble with this one. :-)

On the way back she was tormenting Owen by trying to kiss his head.

Being a boy, he wasn't super thrilled, especially when she started trying to get a few licks in here in there. Why she thinks this is funny, I'm not sure.

After several warnings I finally said, "Keep your tongue in your mouth and your lips to yourself."

I didn't realize how that sounded until after I said it.

Dustin told me we most certainly won't have problems with this when she is older as the boys won't get near her. We shall see...:-) I pray he is right. The last thing I want to do is repeat that to a sixteen year old.

Pinch me

I always said I would never start a child of mine on the violin before six, or at the very least five.

I didn't count on Karis.

For about a year she begged and begged for me to start her. Crying after other students lessons because she didn't have a violin.

I kept putting her off. I knew how hard it would be to teach one of my own.

I was right.

But it is so worth it to see the smile on her face and the delight in her eyes as she realizes she is learning to PLAY!

One thing I didn't count on is the special joy I get when she figures something out, or does something well. I'm satisfied as a teacher, but I'm ecstatic as a mom. I told her today that the best thing about teaching her was that I got to hug her when she did something well. Our lesson today had to be one of the most precious ones yet. I mean look at her!

There just isn't anything cuter than this. :-) I could eat her up.
Honestly, not bad form, considering I am hard put to get her to practice more than five minutes at a time. :-) It is a lesson for me. I'm not just her teacher, I'm her mom. A mom who needs to let her goof off and be imperfect. A hard line to draw, but so far with good results. She doesn't hate it yet, and I am enjoying teaching her.

You may laugh...

But this is a fairly typical image at our house. Our kitchen table has become the home of teenie, weenie, meanie, and teenie and weenie. (there are five of them, but Karis only has three names, so we have to use doubles.) As well as Milo, the Mantis.

My respect for the tadpoles is daily growing. From all reports they are hard to keep alive with as little care as we are giving them, yet, they are thriving - and hardy. They have to be since the daily thrill is to pick the poor things up. We have had several conversations about how they can't breath out of the water yet. How you need to be gentle. Gabi and I tend to have the same reaction when they are close. Ewww... and back away. Not Karis, and obviously not Owen. The highlight of his visit was the fact that they got to take all five of them out so I could clean the tank. You may not know this, but Tadpoles go to the bathroom quite regularly and in vast quantities. Oh the things I get to learn these days. Science class, here I come.

Karis was combing my hair last night, being surprisingly gentle.

"You are being so gentle, Karis. Thank you."

"Your welcome. I'm as gentle as a whale shark."

"Oh, a whale shark?"

"Yes, whale sharks only eat tiny little fish."

I must say that no one has ever told me they are as gentle as a whale shark. :-)

We have adopted

While we were at the lake this weekend Karis, ever curious, went up to a family by the shore and asked them what they were doing.

After all, they had a big white bucket and were bending down in the water putting something in it. Too much for my curious little girl to resist.

It turned out that they were collecting tadpoles. Karis dove right in and helped. It was funny because they had a six year old boy with them who wouldn't touch them, and here was my little "princess" chucking them in with the best of them.

Well, my mom thought it would be a great science project to take them home and watch them turn into frogs.

Notice it was me taking them home, not her.

We looked everywhere for a container. None to be found. I was secretly relieved, but don't tell anyone.

Did I really want tadpoles in my house?

No.

Then...

to my horror, I remembered there was a plastic container out on the dock.

How did I know this? My daughter tried to eat the remaining walmart chicken nuggets out of it the other day before I made her spit it out.

I ran down to the end of the dock. Yes, ran. Why I'm not sure, but who can resist their pleading four year old? Fortunately, or maybe unfortunately, it was still there. I grabbed it, emptied it out, rinsed it, and told Karis she could take four tadpoles home.

Somehow four turned into five....

And now, look for yourself.

We went out, bought a fish tank, some food...

I'm not sure what I think of this as a decoration for my kitchen, and I'm told we now need a bubbler for their oxygen. Really? I have to buy these tadpoles more stuff?

Not to mention the heebie jeebies I get when Karis walks down the stairs saying, "Mommy, look, he doesn't even try to get out of my hand". Maybe we should go with a puppy after all.

Oh, and did I mention that my mom caught a Praying Mantis yesterday and thinks we should add it to our collection??

I beginning to believe....

I'll admit, I've been a little discouraged about my Dr. in St Louis. I want a quick fix. Results now. No, yesterday.

On my first visit he clearly told me that it could take trying two, or maybe three different things before we figure out exactly what my problem is. But I didn't want to believe it. Yesterday I was really down. I felt awful, and I was so discouraged. After all, it's been a year and a half. Why can't he fix me now? Never mind that he has only had three visits and as many months. Aren't these more natural Dr. supposed to be able to heal you immediately? I was ready to quit the whole thing and go get my lung cut out. I'm afraid I let my attitude and discouragement pour out to my mom. God bless mom's. They put up with a lot.

It wasn't until last night that I realized Dr. Yu might actually be on to something with me. My blood test showed that I was extremely allergic to Spinach. My thoughts about that were, "Whatever, who is really allergic to spinach?" Well, I had some spinach lasagna for supper Saturday night. The spinach, the dairy, lots of dairy, the chocolate, the sugar.... mmmm....everything on my do not have list. Well, Sunday I felt fine, Monday.... health crash. All the symptoms he said I would have I had. Irritated, depressed, tired,no energy, insomnia, etc. I had it. So, I'm taking my supplements to balance out my body and being a good girl and avoiding all those yummy but bad for me foods. Maybe the good Dr. knows what he is talking about, after all. I guess I'm willing go keep on for awhile. :-) God has led this way for the moment, so I need to trust. I also need to be open for when He leads another way, as well. We may be headed up to Mayo Clinic the first of next year. We'll see.

Out of order

I am so far behind, that I'm not going to even follow any kind of order. Just know that it happened sometime in the last two months.

This weekend the girls and I went to Okaboji with my parents for a family reunion. I haven't been in years, but knew that the girls would love it. And they did. Here are just some of the things we did.

Early morning walk to the lake with Grandma and Grandpa. Believe it or not, this was our second of the morning, and this picture was taken at 7:30a.m. Before that our itinerary goes as follows. Wake up at 6:00. Sneak out for a walk at 6:20, grabbing a chocolate chip cookie on the way out (we were hungry). Take a walk through the dark, scary woods to the sunrise. Realize that the sun didn't want to rise, yet (too early, can you blame him?) and returned at 6:45 to see if Grandma and Grandpa were up yet to take the girls on a Kayak ride. Thankfully they were.
Karis was THRILLED to sleep on the top bunk. I wasn't sure how it would go, but it was as smooth as can be. She is super excited to get a bunk bed in her room. Hopefully in the next couple of months.
Grandpa took them on a fun bike ride.
The best seat in the house.
Loved the teeter totter, oh excuse me, the see saw. Karis informed me that there was no such thing as a teeter totter. :-)
This park may have been the highlight. We spent several happy hours here. Karis loved the rocket slide and adored the pony swings.
All in all a fun weekend. I'm sure, if at all possible, we will be back next year. Next time we will take Daddy with us.