I finished!

I finished my *@!* final! I answered the last question around 10pm tonight. I did a brief proofreading. I am so sick of looking at that beast that part of me doesn't care one single bit if there are any typos or mistakes. Perhaps a night of sleep will help me look at it with fresh eyes tomorrow to check for any errors. I can't mail it until late in the afternoon anyway.
The point is I finished. Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Now I feel like I can get on with my life. I can do the reading I am behind on, catch up on our budget, emails, phone calls. There is no way I could have finished it if I didn't have an extension. It took me 2 months to complete 72 essay questions and 88 vocabulary words. I don't think it would have taken quite as long if Jon hadn't been traveling so much during the summer and our vacation of course put the final on hold (sort of). I carried a mini-cassette recorder around so I could talk into the recorder and answer questions that way. If I had to guess at how many hours it took to work on that final--thinking and typing included I would guess 150ish.
Now I have to wait until they grade it and tell me whether or not I passed it. Unfortunately it can take up to 2 months or sometimes longer. Of course I am hoping it takes about 6 weeks. It ended up being 30 pages long. Longer than my InterVarsity staff application was!
Thank you Lord for giving me the perseverance to finish that final! Hallelujah!

104 DEGREE WEATHER SUCKS!

Why does 100+ degree weather bring out the worst in me? Me and the kids were getting home just as Jon was heading out the door to spend the evening at Baylor (which is almost 2 hours away). He was trying to talk to me about some plans for him to meet with students at their planning retreat to have a super cool New Student Outreach. I was concerned about getting the groceries and our new fish out of the blazing car and hurrying fast because the kids were whining in the car the last 10 minutes about being hungry and wanting a snack NOW. Well, try to calmly explain to a 3 year and 2 year old (basically 2--acts like a 2 year old, anyway) that we have to wait a few more minutes and we can get a snack. The 3 year old can wait but the 22 month old just doesn't completely understand the concept quite yet.
I felt grumpy that Jon was trying to get me to decide something I didn't have time to think about (and knowing he couldn't dilly dally getting out the door to make it to his meeting on time)while taking care of the aforementioned scenario. I snapped at him and gave him a lousy kiss as he was leaving. Sigh.
Then of course I get freaked out because (here is my morbid mind) what if he got in a freak car accident and died on his way to this meeting? I would be widowed and left feeling horrible that I didn't cherish those last few moments together because I was flustered over something totally dumb. Who cares about a $1.50 fish that might get overheated if your husband is killed in a car crash? Hungry children can get a snack in a few minutes and they will be happy.
I remembered to pray and ask forgiveness for my crummy attitude and pray that Jon gets to and from his meeting safely.
He did call for directions and even though I didn't get a chance to say I was sorry for my crummy attitude, I helped him get his directions with a great attitude and told him I love him.
Back to the hot weather....it seems like it sucks the life and grace out of me. I think we have about 6 more weeks of this oppressive heat. ---Of course I know that the sin in my heart is what makes me respond that way--not the heat--but the heat helps bring it out.
Ready for the cool weather to come......

Diaper Ammo!

Look closely at this picture. It's diaper ammo!

Corn should not be allowed to ANY child under the age of 10 in my opinion. Obviously, Isaac thought this corn was soooo good it was worthy of sucking on the cob to get every morsel off of it. Well let me tell what happened later.....that's right, you guessed it...what goes in MUST come out. Oh, it came out all right---

in 7 movements!

Never again people, never again. At least until he is 10--or out of diapers at least.

An update on my Final

Well, I am definitely making progress on my final. I still have 2 sections left to go and I am finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Some of these questions are so maddening and make me want to pull my hair out! So far it is about 20 pages long and I think by the time I am finished it will be between 25 and 30 pages. Then I have to wait about 2 months so get the results. I was trying to finish in early August so I would have 6 weeks between turning in the final before my next class starts. I have to keep doing evaluations after my classes until I get my final back saying that I am affiliated (which frankly, I just can't stand doing). I will get a chance to work on it today because Jon is taking the kids to get their haircut after work and that will leave me a few hours to work on it. I think if I had a good 4-5 hours to work on it I would finish it. I think I can....I think I can....I think I can....

Ewan turns 3!

Ewan turned 3 while we were in Canada. We didn't do anything very formal to celebrate his birthday there. We had some leftover cake from Papa's 90th birthday party so we sang happy birthday and he got some presents from his great-grandparents. We had a formal birthday party for him when we got home. I'll post pictures of that when I get them--we forgot our cameras (drat!) so I have to get them from Mimi.












Here is Mimi (a grandma), Riley, and Halley (cousins) eating cake at our mini-celebration.















Isaac is getting so good at eating with utensils! He loves cake too!

Boat Riding

Here we are getting ready to go in the boat. Isaac didn't mind wearing the life jacket at all (thank goodness!). He liked being able to walk around in the boat while we were coasting. It made my mommy nervous-o-meter go a little haywire but he did pretty good sitting in my lap and holding onto the sides when he did want to get around. One day he was so tired from taking a very short nap that he crawled in my arms, laid his head on my chest and fell asleep for about 45 minutes. I guess the fresh air of the boat ride made him relax.



Ewan LOVED the boat. He got excited about going on the boat every time we did. Some days he would say, "I have a good idea--let's go on the boat!" He didn't mind wearing his life jacket either and followed directions very well in the boat. Again, my mommy nervous-o-meter went off and I felt like I needed to be at an arms reach of both the boys while Jon drove the boat. Ewan liked point out all the ducks, water planes, and other boats on the lake. We got to watch the water skiers and wake boarders too. One day we got about 30 feet away from some Loons and that was really neat. We were so close to them and got to watch them dive under water to look for fish.



Here are both the boys in their life jackets--and Ewan's sword that went almost everywhere with him while we were there. I realized not too long ago that I only have a few pictures of both boys together. Of course I tried while we were up there to get some more for my collection but getting them both to cooperate at the same time is like herding cats.

Check out my cool sling!

I absolutely LOVE this sling. We used it almost daily on our trip. We went into town and showed the kids the Bala Falls and just walked around. This is a picture of us looking at the Moon River. Isn't it beautiful? If you like the sling I have a friend that makes them--here is her website www.naturalpleasures.net They are great!

Picking Berries

I hope this posts well, I am still figuring out how to best post pictures. We went blueberry picking a few times and the kids had a great time. They could pick all the blueberries they wanted and eat them fresh off the vine.
Here is Ewan eating blueberries. He is surrounded by the blueberry patch.




Isaac liked to follow me or Jon around and try to swipe them out of our baskets. We had to keep feeding him blueberries to keep him out of the take home basket. He also like climbing on the rocks. The blueberry patch is a part of a star viewing park and hiking trails. The best part about it is that it is FREE!





Here is Isaac doing the sign for more blueberries. More blueberries, please! He only does a few signs now but more is one of the lingering ones. He says the word and does the sign at the same time.

A word about the humidity in Canada

This year it rained a lot in Canada. Of the 12 days we were there, I think there were only 4 days it didn't rain at some point during the day. Do you remember the Friends episode--The One in Barbados? The one where they go to hear Ross speak at a conference and Monica's hair swells to the size of an afro? (I would post a picture if I could find one.) I think my hair was trying to compete for volume. I wore a bandana on my head every day to keep the frizz level down. When I packed I decided not to bring my hair dryer and straightener. I am glad I didn't bring it because there is no way my hair would have stayed straight.

"But I'm so cute!"

My mom took the kids for an overnight stay yesterday. (Thank God for Grandmas!) She picked the kids up Friday afternoon so we could go get Ewan birthday presents and party decorations and have a date night. I talked to my mom this morning and she told me that Isaac had a rather large poopie.

What's new about that? Well, let me tell you. Mom said, "ooohh, Isaac you're so stinky!" His response...."But I so cute!" All this out of the mouth of a 21 month old. The truth is that he is terribly cute!

So Much to DO!

Hey everyone!
I can't wait to post pictures about our trip to Canada. It was awesome and relaxing! Unfortunately I am super behind on emails, catching up on our budget (boooo)and doing my Bradley® final (bigger boooooo!) and I taught 2 classes this week instead of 1. One of the couples from my series needed to finish sooner than the series would end so we are doing an extra class a week. So, as soon as I start making some headway on my to do list I will post some pictures and some commentary. I have to say, I can't wait until I get that final turned in! That thing is just breathing down my neck and adds a low level of anxiety to my life every day. I guess I should stop procastinating and doing fun things like blogging and get my bootie in gear and start working on all those essay questions! Bye!