Pure Joy

For weeks and weeks, Kerri's been complaining about the injustice and unfairness of the fact that she has no loose teeth in sight, even though Emma Lee had loose teeth when she was five. While we were eating tonight she kept complaining about a "boo-boo in her mouth." I finally checked it out and realized that it was a new tooth coming in and that she has one pretty loose baby tooth. I have seriously never ever ever seen her more excited about anything. She was absolutely giddy!

I have a feeling I'm going to be seeing a lot of this until she gets that thing out of there!

If...

If you give a girl a tutu, 

she's going to want to twirl!

All's Well That Ends Well

After an unfortunate incident with scissors, it was pretty essential that Emma Lee get a  haircut (Side note: WHY does my SIX year old lure me into a false sense of security that she is getting to be pretty trustworthy when left in her room alone and then do something like chop off a hunk of hair from her own head like a TWO year old??? AND why would that same six year old then proceed to cry herself to sleep because she doesn't want to get a haircut??)

I also thought it would be a pretty good time for Kerri to get a haircut, but she's been consistently resisting the idea for quite a while. Sooooo, I did what any good mommy would do - I resorted to some manipulation along with a tad of bribery thrown in there for good measure - and she actually agreed (as long as it was still longer than Emma Lee's!).

In the long run, they both ended up loving their new looks!

(Click picture for a larger view)

For All My Northern Friends

who are so tired of the cold and now more snow. I know you might be thinking that the grass is greener on the other side down here, and you're probably right.

Don't worry, though - it's just the pollen! Enjoy breathing up there!

A Time for Everything

There is a time for "fun" school,

and there is a time for worksheets.

(Especially when mommy has a busy season with extra proofreading demands that requires a lot of time spent at the computer.)

Fortunately for me, the girls think (at least for today) that it's new and exciting to be holed up in the office with me! 

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Click on the collage to see larger pictures

I'm afraid I set a precedent last year, and the girls remembered and planned all year for the day you get to wear green and eat green food. Kerri insisted that we couldn't do all the same things - we had to have some new things and everything had to be green. Last year, Emma Lee's preschool made quite a big deal about leprechauns, so they were really excited to find masks that they could paint. We also made rainbow cupcakes (a few actually had the rainbow layers like they were "supposed" to but most ended up being a pretty rainbow swirl. For lunch, they had broccoli, cucumber, and celery sticks with green ranch, green grapes, green goldfish (yes! I picked out every single green fish from a big container of colored goldfish - slightly obsessive, I know!), mini sandwiches made with green bread, and green sprite! All in all, a very fun and green filled day to celebrate a missionary and the country he served (since we're not the slightest bit Irish!)

Love and Marriage

 

After over 8 years of marriage, Andy and I finally had the opportunity to attend our first marriage conference (FamilyLife Weekend to Remember) this past weekend. With the busy past year we've had, full of changes in our lives, we felt like we really needed the chance to get away and reconnect. We both feel like we have a very healthy marriage, so we didn't feel like we needed to "fix" anything. It was so amazing and worth it to just have so much uninterrupted quality time together. I think that we each even learned a little something new about the other person, and I know that we were definitely reminded of the fact that all healthy marriages take work. 

The very first sentence of the conference was one of the things that stuck with me the most throughout the whole weekend: "Every marriage is either moving toward oneness or drifting toward isolation." There is no stagnancy in marriage - you are either moving toward one another or drifting away from each other. Wow! That's kind of a scary thought considering how many other things are vying for our attention and how easy it is to take care of the "problem" things in our lives first and leave the "healthy" things alone until they develop problems. No wonder so many people wake up one day and feel like they're married to a stranger!

We enjoyed ourselves so much that we made the decision to set aside one weekend every year just to focus on our marriage. It won't be a conference every year, probably more often than not, it will involve us getting away and going through some type of marriage book together and making it a point to spend some quality time with just each other.

I'm so grateful for the amazing husband God has given to me and for the 8+ years that we have had together!

3-11-11

I've made it three months in my challenge to myself. Just for the fun of it, I threw in a couple extra from today's photo shoot.

Rain, Rain

You can stay,
If you wash my allergies away!

Overheard

Scene: Driving around doing errands with the girls in the back seat...

Emma Lee: But Kerri, she's my BFF.

Kerri: Your "bff"?

Emma Lee: No, my B-F-F.

Kerri: Your "bff"???

Emma Lee: NO, my B--F--F! It means best friends forever!

Kerri: Oh, that's weird; I thought you were spelling "bff"!

Father/Daughter Banquet (plus mommy/daughter fun!)

Emma Lee and Andy attended the annual Father/Daughter banquet at our church last night (Kerri won't be old enough until next year).

Emma Lee got all "fancied up" and picked everything out herself, from her dress (which we literally shopped until we about dropped trying to find!) to her hairstyle.

Her date treated her right by cleaning up his ride and showing up with her first corsage.

Of course, Kerri and I had to do something special too, so Kerri's choice was dinner at her favorite restaurant

followed by roller skating for the first time. We had tons of laughs and learned that some things that happen at the roller skating rink stay at the roller skating rink!

Tons of fun was had by all! Click here if you want to see more pictures of our evening.

So Long...

As much as I had to battle feeling like a traitor, I had to give in to reason and find a new home for our sweet Oreo. His sweetness was well overshadowed by his energy (to put it mildly). I kept hoping that he would settle into a happy medium, but the truth is that he was much too rough for the girls, even though it was all in the spirit of playing. It dawned on me that the girls were the ones that I had gotten a dog for and they weren't even playing with him or enjoying him at all. They were too busy being upset with him for jumping on them, play biting them, grabbing things from them, etc. I worked hard to find him a new (hopefully permanent, for his sake!) home, and I hope that he's happy there.

Despite everything, when the time came for him to walk out the door, the girls (and myself) were all upset. I shared an important life lesson with them tonight: there are times when cuddling in front of the tv with some tissues and chocolate is just the right kind of medicine for a sad heart.

...Farewell, Oreo. We'll always love you, buddy!

*This post is not supported by nor does it reflect the thoughts and feelings of Andy Johnson or Felix! Not everyone was exactly sad to see him go.

Green(ish)

Ok, ok, who am I fooling? I'm not even really a little "green," unless it doesn't involve too much of me going out of my way, OR it saves me money - which leads me to my latest project: making my own laundry detergent. I'll admit it; it's one thing I NEVER thought I'd do. I don't even remember what made me first look into it. The turning point in my mind was when I realized how much cheaper it is than buying a big box of Tide. So, I'm not green, but I AM always looking for a "deal."

Yesterday just so happened to be the day when I ran out of laundry detergent and made my own for the first time. It also happened to be a full day spent playing outside, which resulted in clothes with grass stains, dirt, and mud: the perfect test.

After some online research, here's the "recipe" I used (I wanted to do a powdered detergent because the homemade liquid just looks gross and sounds like too much work). All three of these ingredients were available at my Kroger. I barely made a dent in the boxes of borax and washing soda, so they'll last me a long time.

1 bar laundry soap (I used Fels Naptha - $1.29)
1 cup of borax (76 oz. box $3.99)
1 cup of washing (not baking!) soda (55 oz box $2.79)
(I think this is supposed to equal 40 loads worth, using 2 tablespoons per load - not bad for about $2!)


I grated the bar of soap and mixed the ingredients. Done! So easy. So simple. So fast. So cheap!
(I actually ended up dumping it all into the blender to get the soap bits it a little more "powdery," but I really don't think that was necessary.)

Best of all, the true test is that my load of clothes came fresh and clean (without any pre-treating). Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to stick with this!