Sisterly Love

I've been meaning to write about this story, but have been forgetting, amidst all of the 'gettin ready for school' stuff we've been doing.

A few weeks ago at the YMCA, I was picking up the girls after my workout and after looking for them for about 1 minute, I began to worry. Usually, KM spots me first and makes a mad dash to me, but not this time. Neither one of the girls were to be found.

--Heart-pounding--

I round the corner and I hear giggling from the girls' bathroom. I peek under the stall and see Elisan's shoes and KM's shoes dangling.

--Heart-rate slowing down now--

I walk up to the stall and tell Elisan to open the door. There is KM on the potty, pooping. If you know me at all, you know I am an anal kind of gal when it comes to matters of the potty and pooping. See, the gist of it is, that I am still wiping KM's botty after she poops. I can't stand the idea of her wiping herself. Nope. Not yet, anyway. I'm a little weird like that.

So, anyway, back to the story... KM is pooping and Elisan is standing there with her. I ask Elisan, "Elle, whatcha doing?"

She says, "Kyla's pooping!" in that "like duh!" voice.

I say, "She can poop by herself, ya know."

She says, "But, she can't wipe her self."

I say, "So, what? Were you going to wipe her booty for her?"

She says, "Yes... but, I didn't want to!"

That, my friends, is sisterly love.

So, next time you are questioning the love you have for your sister, (or brother for that matter...) stop and ask yourself... Would you wipe their booty for them?

First Grade

Tomorrow, Elisan begins first grade. Wow! First grade. I don't feel old enough to have a first grader.

Tonight, we meet the teacher, pick up our school supplies and uniform shirt at Orientation. I'm looking forward to meeting her teacher. Elisan is looking forward to seeing her friends.

I'm ready for school to begin, because seriously, there is only so much swimming I can endure in three months time. Plus, Elisan is going a little stir-crazy!

This year, she'll be in school until 3:30 p.m. That's an hour and a half longer than last year. That's a long day for a newly turned 6 year old. I hope my baby girl doesn't poop out at 2:00.

And, then there's Kyla... she's going to miss Elisan so much! But, I've signed KM up for a six week course of Kinderdance at our local recreation center, so she'll have something that is just for her. Since we've decided to not enroll KM in preschool this year, I've purchased some preschool materials to help give her a kick start in the right direction. And finally, there's the YMCA... we'll be going there first thing in the morning after drop off, so she'll get some playtime with other kids.

Tomorrow, I face the dreaded commute. But, I know what to expect this year and as long as we're out the door by 7:25 a.m., I'll have plenty of time! (Yikes! That's early!)

So, let the school year begin. We're geared up and ready to go!

One last hurrah...

Since our traveling is limited during the school year... what with family living five hours away and Fall soccer games starting up in two weeks... I decided to take the girls on one last trip to visit friends and family.

Our first stop, was Houston to visit my closest friend, Mrs. C. We spent two nights there and had a great time. The kids played beautifully and Mrs. C and I actually had time to visit and catch-up. While there, we ventured out to the Houston Children's Museum and nearly floated away in the flood waters from Tropical Storm Erin.

On Friday, we continued our travels to my hometown. The girls spent the night with Randy's folks and my parent's and I went out to eat. It was the first meal in a long time where I was able to sit and enjoy my food. I had forgotten what that was like!

Saturday, my mom and I did some shopping on Tax-Free weekend and found a few bargains. And, then I visited my friend Angie and her new baby Reed. He is really precious and sweet! We also had dinner together... ANOTHER meal sans kids! It was nice.

Sunday, my brother and his family came over and we celebrated both Elisan's and my nephew, Brady's birthdays with ice cream cake (super easy to make!) and presents.

Monday, we headed home. It's always nice to visit, but it's nicer to come back home. Randy was waiting for us and the girls were so glad to see him.

Today... it's back to the daily grind. This is Elisan's last week before school begins, so I'm sure we'll be swimming as often as possible. We'll also be heading to the gym so I can work off the pounds I'm sure I put back on while we were away.

The countdown begins!

Happy Birthday Elisan!

Oh how time flies!

Dinner blessing as told by Kyla Mae

Kyla Mae insists on giving the dinner blessing every night. Sometimes its the same, sometimes she spices things up. Here's tonight's rendition:

"Dear Jesus. Thank you for Mommy and Daddy and Elisan and Kyla Mae. Thank you for all the blessings. Thank you for the bad things we do. And... Jesus is coming to my birthday party. Amen."

If I've told you once...

If I've told you once, I've told you a million times... Please put your shoes away!

Digi Scrap Fun!

I've been having fun putting together some digi scrapbook pages for the girls. I know, I know... most of you are still paper scrappin', but I'm loving the digi scrap! It's super easy, there is no waste and I can use the materials over and over again!

I just set my page set-up to 8x10, then up-load the final masterpiece to my local photo processing center. To have an 8x10 printed up is only $2.50! Can't beat that!

Here's Elisan's six year old scrap page. Her birthday is THIS week!

Kyla Mae needed a page all to herself and I love this picture of my sweet baby girl!

The sister page is probably my favorite, since it shows the girls throughout the years!
(Doesn't KM look old beyond her years in the black and white photo?

I can "see" her as a teenager in this photo!)

I downloaded the (FREE!) digi scrap files from Two Peas in a Bucket and from Shabby Princess.

Cafe Noir

While we were in Denmark, Randy fell in love with Merrild's Cafe Noir. Cafe Noir was the first brand of coffee we bought - by chance actually, while we were living in Denmark. Since then, Randy has always compared coffee to that of Cafe Noir and has even had me on the look-out for any kind of coffee that was similar to it.

About two years ago, one of our friends from Denmark visited Texas and before he left on his trip, he asked Randy if there was anything he wanted from Denmark. Randy asked for Cafe Noir coffee and the question back to Randy was "What style?"

Well, since Randy doesn't do the food shopping around here and hasn't a clue as to what would be the appropriate style of coffee to request, when given his options of "whole Beans, ground, instant" he chose instant.

So, when Jørgen shows up with two jars of instant coffee, I was thinking to myself, "What?!" It was only later that I found out that Randy told him "instant."

Well, as you can imagine, the instant coffee is... well,... it's instant and no offense to instant coffee drinkers out there, but... I like freshly ground coffee and there is no comparison.

Fast forward to this past weekend... we were in IKEA (as was the entire population of Central Texas) and I spotted a flat of ground coffee manufactured for IKEA. So, we bought a bag of it, hoping it resembled the flavor of Cafe Noir. And, ya know what? It did, in a Swedish kind of way. In fact, it was distributed from Helsingborg, Sweden, which is the only city we visited while we were living in Denmark.

So, Randy now has a way to get his beloved Scandinavian coffee.

(By the way... what did I ask for when our friend Jørgen came to Texas? Danish tabloids, Haribo Click Mix and Pickwick Christmas Tea.)