Laundry Day.

Since Brent was home yesterday, I didn't get around to laundry. (Love, love, love Holiday weekends. Especially when it's your anniversary weekend which means that Brent took off Friday too!)

So Hadleigh and I have been working on it today. I don't mind doing laundry. I don't mind folding and putting things away.

But I really don't like the laundry when it involves bed linens. I just really don't like putting sheets on the beds.

Don't get me wrong. I love clean sheets! But I just don't like dealing with fitted sheets. Especially on beds (like Hadleigh's) that are up against one wall. Or on cribs.

I remember once Oprah saying on her show that she HAS to have clean sheets every other day. Now that would be nice.

Very nice. But I bet you she doesn't EVER change her own sheets!

But today was fun because Hadleigh and I snuggled in the pile of fresh, warm-from-the-dryer sheets on my bed.

She thought it was fabulous. Kept smelling the sheets and her blanket! Kept smiling.

I had to take a picture ... didn't get a good one of us together...but I thought this one was cute.

A silver lining for making the bed!

Hide

and

seek.

This is Hadleigh's new favorite game.
She counts.
"1...2...8.9.10!"
She laughs when she finds me and then says
"One more." Holding up one finger.
Sometimes she tells me which room to hide in.
Sometimes she points to where she wants me to hide.

(I hid in a different spot than directed once just to see her expression.

Priceless.)

Sometimes she walks right past me when it is so evident that I am in her
peripheral vision. (I don't think I spelled that right.)

She never wants to hide. Only find.

Very entertaining.

We went to the zoo with another family in OKC over the weekend. Had fun although it was

Way Too Hot.

(Only the African animals moved around. Elephants. Rhinos. Hippos. Giraffes. The other animals all slept in the shade. Seems like a smart idea!)

And then Hadleigh decided to play hide and seek.
Actually, she decided to walk back to me from her daddy buying water.
And she started following two mommies with strollers.
But they weren't the right mommies.

We split up. Scoured our section of the zoo.
It felt like thirty minutes.
It was probably only 5. Maybe 8.
Our friend found her.


Praise the Lord.

Have you felt that sinking pit in your stomach before?
Felt something beyond desperation?
Watched the two and a half years of your baby's life race through your mind?
Feel like you've just let God's precious gift to you slide through your fingers?

I don't think Hadleigh even knew we weren't around her.
(This kind of concerns me :) )
But it wasn't until we left the zoo, several hours later that the feeling left me.

And even now, when I think about it

I get that feeling.

I look at Hadleigh a million times a day and I am so thankful for her.
Because for five minutes I had a glimpse of what life would be like without her.
I pray I never know that feeling again.

A side note.

I am now taking back all the thoughts I've ever thought about "those" people that have those kid harnesses at the airport. If I ever fly by myself with the kids...don't be surprised to see me with one. It's not because me or my child is "undisciplined"...but because she is precious...and oh so curious!

Mimi.

It's always wonderful to have family for a visit.

I love watching my children love my mom.

Hadleigh adores her.
Wants to be wherever she is.
Doesn't want to get up from her nap until Mimi is back from the store. Wow.
Hadleigh loves her Mimi. Thinks Mimi exists solely for Hadleigh :) Cute. She's learning to share Mimi.

Nathanael grins at her.
She loves that.
Loves his giggles...his smiles...all his "boy" sounds that a 6-month old is discovering he can make already.

It's fun to see them interact and remember things from my childhood...the same songs Mom sings...the same games she plays...

It's amazing how love abounds, generation after generation.

Perfect.

Thunder in the afternoon! I love it!

We have had several days now of "severe weather" each night.

I love the thunderstorms.

Not so much on the hail. Or the thought of a tornado touching down and taking us to Oz.

But I love the rain and the thunder...and isn't lightning just magnificent?

Give me a summer rainstorm any day. Makes me want to take Hadleigh out and splash in puddles. Maybe we will when she "wakes up" from her nap. That is, if she falls asleep to begin with. She is still just playing in her room.

But back to the rain.

It makes me want to make *another* cup of tea this afternoon! Right now, my choice is Vanilla Almond, from The Republic of Tea.

Curl up with a good book under a blanket.

Darn. Here comes the hail. Glad the car is in the garage. Amazing how in Texas we can hardly get any snow in the winter, and yet, in 60-70 degree (and hotter) weather, we can get frozen balls of ice everywhere.

Some crazy lightning...and the sky isn't even very dark. If you were to go outside, you would probably describe it as bright, though not quite sunny.

Now just rain. Steady and soaking. I hope this weather pattern keeps up all summer. Because if I haven't already mentioned it,

I love rain.

Refreshed.

A word that describes exactly how I feel anytime I get to visit with my best friends and college roomies!

We had a great time together for lunch on Saturday...it was a spur-of-the-moment trip, but it couldn't have been better unless Steph (our other roomie) had also been able to make it. But Alabama is a few states over...so thank you Shawna, for flying down and getting us all together. It was so worth the drive! Hard to believe it has been 5-6 whole years since we were all together on a daily basis...miss those days SO much. But I am thankful for the times we are given to be together now!

Fun to see how much has changed since those "good 'ol days". Let's see: I have two kiddos, Shannon and Courtney are both pregnant with their first, everyone is married now and the five of us live in 4 different states (two of us in Texas!) Hair is longer ... shorter ... highlighted ... unhighlighted... Careers are blossoming and changing...

What is the same?

We still laugh together.

We still cry together. (Okay, so usually I start the tears...)

We still have a blast no matter what we do!

We still talk into the wee hours of the morning.

We know we can still count on one another for anything. at any moment.

We are still {real} with one another. Transparent. Genuine. Heart-to-heart.

God has blessed us beyond what we could ever ask for in a friend.

These girls are still my very best friends in the world.

That will never change.

Peek a boo.

This is Hadleigh.

Around the corner of the couch.
Around the door frame.
Around the door.
Around Daddy.
Around the chair.
Around just about anything as long as she can play
peek-a-boo
with Nathanael.

And he LOVES her.
ADORES her.
His face just lights up when she looks at him.
She runs in circles and his eyes try to keep up with her.
She walks by and he tries to catch her attention.

This morning during breakfast, I was putting dishes away.
The two of them just started laughing together.
Two precious giggles egging the other on.
I'm not quite sure who started it...did Nathanael laugh and challenge Hadleigh to keep making him laugh? Or was it the other way around...
Wish I had had the video camera handy...but you know how that goes.

Bluebonnets.

One of the amazing beauties of Texas.

A field of green that turns to blue.

Such a fleeting time.

And we missed it last year while in Alabama for 6 weeks...so I made sure we captured it this year.

Happy Easter!

We've had a great Easter weekend...my sister Katy got to come visit for a looong weekend...so fun for her to get to stay for more than just 2 days! We had a blast teaching Hadleigh how to dye eggs...she did a great job. Her favorite color egg of course? "Mink."

Then Katy and I created these *gorgeous* (if I do say so myself) eggs. You can read about how to make them here. You use silk ties to color them, and it is SO easy! Thanks Mom for making sure I watched Martha that day :)

Had a wonderful Easter Sunday with a visit from a pastor who could be our new pastor! Very fun to interact with him and his wife...and they have a two-year old daughter and little boy on the way!!!! Exciting to think our year without a pastor may be coming to a close soon! Praise God!

day thirteen and ramblings...

I really like my little birdie! (And she's sparkly...I rediscovered my Sakura Gelly Roll sparkle pens...and I had F-U-N!) I love the thought of flight...although for some reason it is bringing to mind The Awakening by Kate Chopin right now.

Have you read it? One of my favorite novels from high school and one that I LOVED teaching to my eleventh graders...which seems like so long ago, even though my last year was only 4 years ago. I miss teaching literature...but I SO enjoy being home with my little chickadees! I wouldn't trade being home for the world. Looking forward to beginning some "homeschool preschool" with Hadleigh next fall...and of course, we'll start with reading :) (Childrens books are so fun at any age...another flashback to my eleventh AP student's "children book class"--such fun!)

Hadleigh amazes me by leaps and bounds...just when I think she will never show interest in the ABC's she surprises me with "V. Vvvvvv. V." "N. Naniel." And now she's getting close to recognizing the majority...though not in any order....but now that I think about it, why does the order really matter? Anyone out there have any ideas?

Off to make my grocery list...or finish a scrapbook page....

days eleven and twelve

Okay, silly me. I have had a tough time with numbering my pages...they have been off twice, once for the day number and once for the date. You would think this would not be hard, since all I have to do is look at the day before and then write the correct day next.

But I think that is the problem. I am one of those people who write what I hear...if I'm writing a letter or journaling or anything and someone is talking to me...I start writing what they say. So I think I am looking at the page number ahead and then thinking it and then writing down the same number.

So, for all of you who are noticing the *details*, day eleven's page accidentally reads day 10. Oops. I'll fix it in the journal.

I've kind of hit a half-wall...both in exercising and in journaling. Feeling uncreative and feeling a lack of TIME for the exercise part. But I'm still doing both...just struggling a little with each. Maybe tomorrow I will feel more motivated.

And hopefully I can catch up in my journal so that on Day {21} I have finished it! That will be my goal!