camp

Rachel's been at Girl Scout day camp this week.  She's really enjoying it, though she misses me being there (I was a leader there with her last year...all I can say is that I'm VERY happy not to be there this year.  This is where I wrote about it last year).  

http://worldofweed.blogspot.com/2012/07/the-good-bad-and-ugly.html

Today is cooking day.  They take their lunch all week, except for one day when they vote on what to cook over the fire.  Their unit voted on spaghetti, garlic bread, and s'more cones (chocolate chips and marshmallows in an ice cream cone).  We'll see how she liked it.  I offered to send a lunch for her in case she didn't like it....she's my ultra-picky little eater...but she said no, that she'd eat it!  I hope she did!

Update: She liked it!  The garlic bread was "better than yours, Mom, because we made it on the FIRE!  The spaghetti was "great, but I didn't eat the meat" and she "LOOOOOOVED" her dessert.  

our little ham

I've been working in the basement to get things ready for a garage sale next weekend.  Today I went through some boxes of toys that had been Rachel but Rebecca wasn't quite ready for yet.  One of the things I took out to let her play with was a toy Cinderella piano.  She didn't care so much about the piano, but the attached MICROPHONE!

Oh my.....her eyes lit up.  She couldn't wait to try it, once she found out it would magnify her voice.

She keeps telling me that she wants to be a rock star when she grows up.  Given her obsession with guitars and now this microphone, I'm not surprised....

popcorn pops

A month or so ago I won tickets....again!  It was for a Popcorn Pops concert, which is an outdoor kids/family concert that the symphony puts on in the summer downtown.  Unfortunately the concert was the same night we were headed up to drop the girls off with my parents on our way to Mackinac Island. I saw that my friend, Sara, had entered to win tickets too (you enter on Facebook, and I had seen her post there) so I gave the tickets to her.  

So imagine my surprise when she won tickets to the second concert, couldn't use them, and asked if we wanted them!  "Turnabout is fair play," she told me.  

The concert was last night.  It was supposed to be humid and 91 degrees, and we talked about not going, because we were afraid of being miserable.  I hadn't told the girls about it, so they wouldn't know they were missing it, but we didn't want the tickets to  go  to waste, so we decided to try it, knowing we could always leave if we were miserable.

A storm came through in the afternoon, which cooled things off a little bit, which helped.  It was still pretty hot, but not as bad as we had anticipated.

Before the concert they have inflatables, carousel rides, a youth orchestra concert, and other kids activities (a parachute, crafts, places to try playing different instruments, face painting, corn hole, big building materials, etc).  So we got there early, enjoyed those, and then had a picnic as the concert began.

The girls had a great time and we were glad we went, despite the heat.

princesses

This week is VBS, and both girls are having a great time.  Today was dress like a princess day.  Although Rachel isn't quite as into princesses and playing dress up as she used to be, she still dresses up more days than not at some point during the day.  So she couldn't WAIT to wear her princess dress to VBS today.

Rebecca is suddenly really into purple, so she was excited when we found a purple dress up dress in our collection that fit her.  She didn't want a crown to wear, she wanted to wear the purple hat. 

Yesterday Rebecca was pretty nervous about going--except for grandma's house, the nursery at church, or an occasional friend's house, she hasn't been left anywhere before.  But she knew two of the other kids in her class, and had a great time yesterday, so she was really excited to go back today.

And I'm enjoying mornings to myself!  What a treat!  It's too far away for me to drive home, so I've been running errands, enjoying a kid-free trip to browse around Target, and things like that.  Heaven!

And this is a picture from a few weeks ago, waiting to watch the fireworks on July 4th.  It was Rebecca's first fireworks (except for when she was about 6 weeks old and we took her and laid her on a blanket, and she was oblivious to the fireworks).  She loved them, and for several nights afterwards whenever she got her PJs on, she asked if it was time to go to the fireworks again (because we took her in her PJs, so she'd be able to get right in bed when we got home).

And just to update those who care, we have our truck back, but now our van is in the shop, and I'm enjoying being able to drive my dad's car until we get the van back.  Our new AC is wonderful and I've never been more thankful for it, as it's been in the 90s for days.  This week is infinitely better than the last few have been. 

when it rains, it pours....

I haven't written a whole lot lately because I haven't felt much like being cheery.  Sometimes life is just hard and you can't fake your way through, trying to write happy blog posts.  The last few weeks have kind of felt that way, so I haven't written.

When we got home from our trip, we opened our windows to air out the house, then it got hot, so we turned on our air conditioning to cool it off.  Only it didn't cool off.  It just kept running and running without really changing temperature.  We knew we needed to have it looked at, but we weren't anticipating the news that it was past the point of no return and we needed to replace the entire system....AC, furnace, heat pump....the works.  

Before we left on our trip our antilock brake light on my van came on.  The squeal we'd been experiencing for awhile was getting worse, and my husband thought they were related.  We ended up not taking the van on our trip.  We knew we needed to take that in to get fixed, but I needed the car for a couple of days first, after we got back, so we were going to wait until then, and then take it in.  Also that day we got home from our trip I drove it to the grocery to restock the cupboards.  I turned on the AC in the van, and it wouldn't cool off.   One more repair needed.....

Then my husband was driving home from work a couple of days later and his transmission went out.  He was able to drive it straight to the shop safely, and it's been there ever since, receiving a very  expensive fix.  He's been driving my van for two weeks and I've been without a car.  Stuck at home in a house with no AC for a week, before we finally got that replaced last weekend, so at least we can be stuck at home in a cool house.

Thankfully, on Monday, my dad was able to come rescue the girls and me, so I had a car to take Rachel to dacne class, and then he drove us up to their house for a few days so I wouldn't be trapped for another week at home with no car.  We came back yesterday.  

Next week is VBS for the girls and we still have no truck, and after that my van still has to go in, so I have no way of getting them to VBS each morning.  Thank goodness my parents are going to save the day again and let me use their car until we get ours back so I can take them.

In addition to all of this, the girls had well visits at the doctor last week, and as a result, Rebecca needs a physical therapy evaluation for her ongoing intoeing issue and Rachel had to go off dairy to see if she is lactose intolerant, as a result she's losing weight, which her tiny little body can't afford (she's already in the 5th %ile for weight), and I'm really concerned about her.  The girl doesn't eat anything.  She may need further testing if her digestion issues continue.   Today I finally let her have milk again, after a week and a half of no dairy at all, so we'll see how her digestive system handles it.  And to top it all off, she has started sleepwalking almost every night, and Rebecca is having lots of accidents after almost none for months.  Ugh.

And in addition to my own trials, a good friend of mine is going through even harder trials...really hard stuff...and I've been doing a lot of listening and being with her (which help make mine seem like nothing....I even feel guilty writing this and being at all annoyed with my own stuff because its really nothing compared with what's going on in her world).  

But that's what's going on and why I haven't written.  Hopefully I'll feel more cheerful soon.  Thankfully things could be lots worse and none of it is life or death.  It's just all a lot to take at once.

happy 4th!