I'm back

I'm really not on strike.  I guess I'm just taking a little vacation from blogging.  I love taking pictures and writing about what we are doing, but it's also nice to put the camera away and just be there.  Over the last week, while I wasn't blogging, we worried about my mom, who fell and hit her head for still unknown reasons.  She is currently wearing a monitor on her heart so they can get to the heart of the matter.  Pun intended : ) 

We did some shopping at the Goodwill, where we scored some clothes and games.  Guess what our little lady bug is going to be for Halloween this year.

You can't beat a costume for under $2.00

For $1.00, we got the games Chutes and Ladders and Hi Ho Cherry O, hours of fun, and just as many hours picking up tiny, plastic cherries that have been thrown all over. 

This was another sweet find:

I did a little reorganizing to get our "classroom" ready for next school year, when my baby will be in kindergarten. 

I must have been in the reorganizing mood, because I also did some in Kamdyn's room.  I slightly moved some furniture and put up a shelf with bins for her toys.

We stranded ourselves at home, while we put our van into the shop for a tune up, new tires, and such.  $1,200, 4 new tires, rotars (is that how you spell it?), breaks, and an oil change later, our van still smells like old french fries and bodily fluids.  You'd think for $1,200 somebody might help us out by vacuuming the layer of crumbs that has made its home on the seats under the car seats. 

I bought $1.00 flip flops from Old Navy. 

Madison and Austin loved them.  They had to put them on as soon as we got to the van, and by the end of the day, they looked they had been wearing them for a year.  But they were $1, so who cares. 

We spent most of our Saturday at a "Go Local" Fair, where my husband and his lab cronies tried to round up some more clients for their business.  There was a coffee stand, who sells organic freshly ground coffee.  After talking with the guy manning the stand, we learned the story behind the company, and I think I have a new coffee supplier.  Sorry, Maxwell House, but you're out.  This guy, who lives in a subdivision called Furnace Hills in the town where Brad works, has a daughter with Down syndrome.  After she finished her schooling and other things, her parents felt like there weren't any good options for her in our area, so they decided to make one.  They started this coffee company out of their house in Furnace Hills, naming it Furnace Hills Coffee Company.  Their daughter with Down syndrome is responsible for roasting the beans and grinding the coffee to be sold.  Even though they only started a year ago, they are moving to a new location on Main Street in Westminster, next to Harry's (for anyone who knows Westminster).  This family has a vision to expand their business to make job opportunities for individuals with disabilities.  Could I love these people any more, I don't think so.  We spent the rest of our time at the fair learning some American History, because the fair was at the Carroll County Farm Museum.  I love learning about how people used to live and seeing where we have come from.  It brings out that teacher excitement in me.  We walked from room to room, seeing a piece of history right in front of us.  And the smells..... There were so many..... old leather, creaky, worn wood floors, cured and smoked meat.  And my kids, they soaked it all in.  I pulled from my memories of Justus' field trip that he took when he was in the sixth grade, and I told them whatever I remembered.  They listened, and they asked more.  Trying to explain why the children would pee into a flowery pot was a hard one, though.  I guess it's hard for a 5 year old to imagine not having a bathroom right next to your room.  There is no doubt in my mind that little tid bit of information will resurface at the most awkward time, I'm sure.  And she will remember it, and she will remember that day.  And that makes me happy, because it was a good day.

I looked back to my last pictures, and they are from Madison's birthday party.  So we may have lost a week of pictures, but hopefully some of those memories will stay.  Here's a little memory from Madison's party:  Once she got comfortable on the skates, Madison was not content to just slowly, roll around the floor anymore.

No, she had to boot scoot as fast as she could. Every muscle in her body is propelling her as fast as she could possibly go. I just love it. 

working on a second video, but it doesn't want to upload.....

By the time she makes it around the floor, she is exhausted, resting on her roller skate walker.  She even gets a Pirate escort.  "Arggg, matey, move it off me floor a little faster."

After my little hiatus, I think I'm back.