Ouch!

You're gonna love this.....

OK, last night Amanda, Andrew, and I are all up in my room about 8:00. It's the Season Premier of Jon and Kate Plus 8 (we have free cable in our new house for awhile, so we're all in awe of the shows we NEVER get to see!). Anyway, I've been watching it off and on for a couple of weeks and am have lately been reading about their marriage troubles and am anxious to see how they handle things tonight.

So, I'm in the shower and miss the first couple of minutes while Jon is talking, but I walk into the room to hear Kate admit that she "has been pretty rough on Jon". I pipe in and add my own "yeah, she's a real rip sometimes". Andrew, as usual, is in his own little world not paying attention and messing with some toy. But Amanda asks "Mom, what is a rip?" I begin to explain that she is often very harsh with him and that she is pretty controlling. Then, without a hesitation and completely out of the blue Andrew pops in with his take on the whole thing and says: "Yeah Mom, not at ALL like you!"

Ouch.

Happy Birthday, Andrew!

Oh, my baby is getting SO big!! Seriously, I can barely even pick him up anymore! Mr. Andrew turns 8 years old today. Can't believe it. He is an amazing little man....for all the gray hairs he's given me, there are a hundred more laughs and smiles....and even more hugs and kisses!

If you haven't heard me admit this before, I totally wanted him to be a girl....thought it would just be neat to have a girl, then a boy, and then another girl...had it ALL planned out. :-) But, God had other plans! ( and now that Amanda has hit the "wonderful world of pre-teen-age-dom" MAN am I glad that God doesn't answer to me.)

My Andrew is all-boy in so many ways, yet is still the first one to hop up onto my lap and give me a BIG hug for no reason at all. He still loves to curl and read books with me and always wants someone to play a game with him. He's also the one who can count by 9's further than ANYONE should be able to and has his piano assignment memorized one or two days after he gets it. I can not wait to see what God has planned for this kid!!

Andrew is one-of-a-kind in SO many ways and as I tell him often, "I'm SO thankful that God chose ME to be his Mommy."

Settling in

We got most of our stuff moved into the new house this weekend and are settling in. We still have lots of boxes to get unpacked, and we even still have plenty of stuff over at the other house. We don't close on that house until June 5th, so we have a whole month to finish clearing it out, so Bruce is just taking a vanload each day when he comes home from work.

This place is wonderful - so peaceful and relaxing. We have seen the wild turkeys out back several times already, and yesterday we had 4 deer walking through our backyard. One stopped to eat blossoms off of a tree, and the rest just strolled along taking their own sweet time on their way down to the creek. The kids(and Molly!!) have really enjoyed exploring through the trees and tonight they found part of a rabbit skeleton....cool stuff for little kids!

We're really enjoying being so close to school, too. I let the kids sleep all the way to 7am today and we were home by 3:35. I used to wake them at 6:15 and we'd get home a little after 4:00. I was able to spend the afternoon at home, too.....so now my part- time job is officially more part-time! Fun changes!