Until we meet again...

Working at a private school, all holidays are celebrated... even the small ones like St. Patricks Day! Today, like the other special days, teachers were running copies of holiday themed pictures, poems, and projects. For some reason our 1st grade teacher decided to make me a copy of her favorite Irish blessing that she was making for her students. The moment she handed it to me, I teared up just slightly. It was my Grandmother's (Mary Lou Coury) favorite and it was used at her funeral 12 years ago. I know that was a long time ago... but she was obviously a special lady to me! I was her only granddaughter! Grandma I miss you, and if you thought I was a special girl... just take a look from heaven at my little Charlotte!!!

Old Irish Blessing

May the road rise up to meet you.

May the wind always be at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face,and rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again,May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

She's #1!

She did it! Thats right... Charlotte went peepee in the potty this weekend- a few times! We still have a long road of potty training ahead of us I am sure (the #2 part won't be as easy)... but we are proud of her for this first step! Yeah Charlotte!

What to wear in this weather???

WHo knows sometimes what to wear in Western Washington... for those of us living here we all know of the crazy day we just had. No joke (for those of you out of town), it snowed inches this morning covering even the roads, then it warmed up enough for me to roll my windows down in the car as I drove, the sun was beautiful... then only minutes after entering the house, it started hailing sideways... then the sun came out... then it rained... and now at 6:20pm I am not kidding I think it is rain, snow, hail mixed in wind blowing sideways... with blue sky in the distance. Crazy!

The Kitchen...

Does anyone remember the original kitchen????

Hard at work at Home!

We have been hard at work on this house over the last two months. We retextured the ceilings in 4 rooms, painted those ceilings, finished setting the counters in the kitchen, added additional hardware (handles), trimmed out the kitchen, added crown molding to the kitchen... and with all of that has come a lot of cleaning!!! Thankfully we had some help with a few of these projects. We hired a few of the youth group kids to come work so that they could earn $$s for their Guatemala trip. And then the next day we had help from a few of Matt's bank employees and family members of employees. Whew... it has been a lot of work! But I think it is really coming along!

CHEESE!

Mother Warriors

So Charlotte is coming up on her second birthday (WOW), and I am already gearing up for the fight at the doctor's office. Yeah, thats right... I feel like going into battle everytime we go because I do not like Charlotte getting the vaccines. When Charlotte was born early- I just had a bad feeling about her getting vaccinated. For crying out loud she was only 4 1/2 pounds and they wanted to give her vaccines??? Then at 2 months (or whenever it was) they insist on like 6 vaccines!!! I opted out of a few but not without a fight and a "you're- are- a- bad- mother- guilt- trip". They told me that the newer vaccines are perfectly fine and kids don't get sick from them. They said it was "very rare" to have any reaction. I tried to explain that I have autoimmune issues so I would like to protect my daughter if she has any of my immune difficiancies. I asked if they could at least be broken up- a few weeks a part ... and the answer to that question was that it would be too inconvenient for them and us. HMMMMMMM..... So she got a handful of vacs and guess what happened??? Yep, she got really really sick. Do you know what the doctor and nurse told me??? "She must have been coming down with the flu that day". So ... a few months later she got more shots... and guess what??? YEP, she got really really sick. Do you know what the doctor and nurse told me this time??? "Well it happens- some kids get sick from the vaccines". Wait just one minute.... didn't you tell me before that it was extremely rare??? Ok, so enough with my rant and rave- you all get my point. Charlotte does NOT do well with the vaccines. I have always known it and yet my pediatrician makes me feel like a bad mom by opting out of any vaccines. So, recently I borrowed this book by Jenny McCarthy, and it is fabulous!!! I don't feel so bad about opting out of vaccines for Charlotte. Of course her son was diagnosed with Autism. I am blessed to have a beautifully healthy little girl- and I want to keep it that way! I highly reccomend this read for any and all moms! Power to the moms!

Gonna be ok

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone who prayed for us. We appreciated the messages, phone calls, and little notes to tell us "that is was gonna be ok"! We are doing well, and I will try to post some recent pics soon. We worked a ton on the house this past week. It is looking pretty good. We scraped the rest of the popcorn off the ceiling- then mudded- then painted! Whew!

It has been crazy at my work recently too! We started enrollment for next fall and within the first week 3 of our classes are overflowing! This is a good thing for the school... a bad (or stressful) thing for the admissions coordinator (AKA...ME!). But, I do love my job! Thank goodness for that! Our school has a 2year olds class, so I enrolled Charlotte for next year!!! WOW! I cannot believe that my baby is going to preschool next fall!!! We all say it all the time... but isn't just amazing how time flies???