So Much Fun......

is my new job! I love love love it! Never in my life have I felt like I fit somewhere! This is it. I can see myself doing this job for years and years! I love the kids, the staff, my boss, and even (well so far) the parents. Everyday is new and everyday I teach the kids something they didn't know the day before. They are so expressive and excited about life. They try new things when I ask them to. Everyday I think I try something new and I know I learn from them. I already tear up thinking about the last day of school. It's a great feeling to be where God wants you to be! I know each day won't be perfect and I will face challenges and make mistakes, but WoW to love my job!

This week has been awesome. Topped off today with a pep rally, my girls did awesome! They have been working hard and it shows!

I am so messed up for loving my job even though I say goodbye to my little one every morning? I am awful for being happy that she is somewhere awesome with people who love her and take great care of her? She is doing really well. It is hard some days, to say goodbye! Some days she cries, but I feel at peace about the situation. Can I be a good Christian mom and work? I want so badly to find someone else in the same situation to talk with, to understand with. Why can't play dates happen in the evening some times? We need a WMOPS working moms of preschoolers =)

So much fun was also my mommy daughter date tonight. We picked up some happy meals and headed to park. We tried to shoo away the ducks as we ate fries (no apple dippers for us =) and then we hit the playground. Josie played hard. I love taking her to the playground. We swing and slide and climb and jump. So much fun. I love being able to play with her, and watch her grow in her strength.

Now I am sitting here totally on empty, ready for bed at 8:30pm, but excited for the rest of the school year....

it really is this simple.......

My favorite. hymn.........

What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer.

What a peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Have we trials and temptations, is there trouble anywhere. We should never be discouraged. Take it to the Lord in prayer.

Can we find a friend so faithful who will all our sorrows share, Jesus knows our every weakness. Take it to the Lord in prayer.

I can't feel my left toe, the one by the pinky

It has been a long week around here. I started work and we had big plans to get Josie going on her new schedule. Didn't work out the way we had planned. Jeff's grandpa died the night before I started. It has been tough on him, but he is doing well. Josie stayed with grandma and grandpa, I went to bed at two am! Went to work, I am going to LOVE it! I am so excited about this blessing in the form of a job. Later that day I came home to Jeff and Josie and our air conditioning was broken! The windows are painted shut and it is unbearable. So we go to the pool to get away from everything and figure out where to sleep. Some amazing friends let us stay the night and even have a crib for Josie. WoW it was awesome. The next day I take Josie to the babysitter. Poor girl has been in a different bed each night for three days. She is tired and mad at me ;) But God had given me a wonderful place to take her where she has friends and a babysitter to hug and LOVE her. Then after a full day I pick her up and head back up to Newton to help Jeff's family get ready for the funeral. Again Josie is tired and mad at me. I knew she just wanted to go home. We come home at 11pm to a cold house, Thank you God! This morning I head to work in my funeral clothes, heels and all. Again I have a mad 17 month old who just wants mama! (But she had fun with the babysitter today, got to try out bowling) I sit though meetings, then go to the funeral. The funeral is great, goes really well, family is very happy! I go back to work in my heels to meet ALL of kids (7th graders) and their wonderful ;) PARENTS. It goes really well, they are all so friendly and eager to meet me. I am excited to get going with the school year. Then I head out to the football field for the picnic, still in my heels. Eat and talk to a few people. at 7pm I head home. I take off my shoes and my feet ache like crazy and I cannot feel my toe! It was quite a week, long rough but I am so very blessed in so many ways, so many things have gone right that I cannot say it was bad!

But I am more excited to get Josie on some kind of normal sch. than I am for Christmas presents!

Christmas in and 4th of July

We had our4th with some friends of Jeff's parents. They live on a lake and we loaded up the boat to watch fire works . It was one of the best shows I have ever seen! Josie loved it til she passed out cold in my arms during the final bang! We had Christmas in July with the Johnson's and also celebrated my pop's finishing his PHD! He's the old guy in the pic =)

Josie and her 2nd cousin Presley both received pink and purple trikes, they look really excited huh? =) I LOVE it and can't wait for Josie to figure out the peddles.

She said ohhhhh when she saw it! WE LOVE PINK!

THANK YOU GG! (great grandma)

TODAY

Jeff: Josie what did you learn at church today?

Josie: blank stare

Jeff: did you share your toys?

Josie: grabs what Jeff had in his hands and says, "MINE!"

Story time with Josie Jackson

She loves to play and I can't believe how much she copies me. Today she picked up her pink purse, tinkerbell keys, and baby doll said bye bye and headed for the door. She stood by the door for a few minutes before running back to the living room saying hi-o hi-o (hello) So I asked her, "Josie, where did you go?" She said, "bool,bool!" Which means pool, guess we go to the pool alot =)

Then later she brought me her tu tu to tie around her waist and when I was finished I asked to to ballet dance, she held her hands up above her head and stood on her tip toes. She learned that from Sesame Street, Zoe was teaching Abby how to do it.

She also loves animal nosies and can do doggie, lambie, and cow. Today she was eating animal crackers and started a walking a cat on my shoulder saying mow mow!

She also likes to pick up my cell phone and jabber really loud into it. Oh man do I really talk that loud? =)

She likes to look for birds in the sky or bir and ky!

In her broken baby talk she can repeat almost everything we ask her to........ well it depends on who you ask!

I can't belive she is growing up so fast, her mind anyway. She still wears size 3 shoes (or 3-6 months) and today she found a 0-3 size jacket she wore home from the hospital and it fit her as a cute little 3/4 sleeve jacket! I love watching all of this happen, WOW!

a little list

Of things we did this summer.......

My younger bro was here for just about two months and I want to remember some of the things we did, so that someday when we look back and say, "what did we do that summer?" we will have a record =)

~ We went to the playground and Drew helped Josie climb and slide. (josie loved to slide and called them lides) he pushed her in the swings for what seemed like hours.

~ We went swimming almost everyday and Drew always watched Josie for a bit so I could go down the big slide (lide)

~ We cooked ALOT! Drew and both love veggies and trying new things so we ate well! He baked every week. Cakes, cookies, lemon bars.

~ On the topic of food and eating, we both love doughunts and coffee and so we tried a new doughnut place every week.

~ We left Josie for her first weekend at G-mas and headed to KC for some baseball and waterpark fun. We stayed in a crappy hotel where the lock on the door pulled off when Jeff shut it too hard. A little scary but mostly funny. Drew and I had fun at the water park while Jeff layed out. (really he did, no slides for him)

~ Drew helped me take Josie on her first airplane ride to see grandpa for fathers day.

~ We did a week long gymnastics camp for kids. They loved Drew and one told him he was the coolest guy he ever met!

~Drew babysat a few times, put Josie to bed twice and watched alot of sesame street. He will never know how helpful he was!

~ Oh and to have a few nights off in the kitchen was amazing! (he even did the dishes)

~ We watched Burn Notice and Locked Up Abroad!

~ We waited in the theater for three hours to see Harry Potter.

~ Drew was always down for eating lunch out every once in a while, and even paid a few times =)

We had a lot of fun, and I know the summer is not over but Drew leaves tomorow and I am sad. I will miss having family around. (mine lives in Colorado) I will miss his friendship and company. I will really his willingness to eat dessert with me any time day or night! I moved away to go to college when Drew was in 1st grade and feel like I got to know him this summer. I have a ton of pictures from the two months he was here but you will have to see them on the facebook page for now due to a computer issue. Thanks Drew (or Doo if you ask Josie) for spending the summer with us and everything you did for me!