I'm Back!!

Okay, I'm really far behind. Let's see how much of the past week I can recall. I will start with saying that Maggie returned home from school on Tuesday of last week much happier then she left and she was glad that she had gone to school. We haven't had another crying spell about school since then.

Wednesday, Cacki came down to babysit Molly so I could go to the school and enjoy lunch for the first time as a First Grade Mom. It was fun getting to put faces with all of the names that Maggie has been talking about. Thank goodness for Annabella and Shelby or I wouldn't know any of the boy's names. Maggie was too embarrassed to tell me who the boys were. After they finished their lunch, I took this picture you see and within minutes the assistant principle was greeting me. He was very "politically correct" in telling me that I am not allowed to take pictures of any other kids besides Maggie. What kind of world do we live in that they honestly expect that our kids are not going to have pictures from their school days that include their friends. Molly was miserable after I got home. I think she was "sick" of me. She was tired and there was nothing I could do to make her happy, so I fed, bathed and had her in bed at 5:30. Maggie came downstairs at 6:00 and proudly announced that she got her sister to sleep by reading to her. If only it was that easy every night. Thursday, Marci brought the kids up to swim after school and the Pack kids came, too. We enjoyed some last laughs with them since they were leaving on Saturday to move back to St. Louis. I wish we had met them sooner. We all ended up going to Wild Wings for dinner as our first and last hoorah with them.

Friday, Jenny and Kim came to swim with us. Molly enjoyed having a play date with kids her age. After we picked Maggie up at school, we headed to the mall to pick out some new tennis shoes and then Maggie decided she wanted to get her hair cut. I was a little apprehensive, but I have to say it is very cute and low maintenance in comparison to long hair. She is able to fix it herself. We stayed in the west area and met Daddy for dinner at S&S and then we went by to show off Maggie's new hair-do to Cacki and Grandbob. Both of my children acted like they were on crack while they were there. I don't think I have ever seen them that hyper. I was glad to take them home and put them to bed.

Saturday, the Pelots were so sweet to invite us out on their boat with them. Maggie and Molly had a blast. It made me wish we had a boat. Molly tried tubing, but it wasn't for her. Maggie on the other hand loved it!! She is getting braver in her older days. I was very proud of her since Julia was very skeptical about getting on it with her. Maggie was definitely not shy while we were with them. If she wanted to go faster, she told them. If she wanted to swim, she told them. I finally told her she was out of requests and that she needed to go with the flow. Mike and I both got to ski and it has been years since I did that. Molly was so sweet. She clapped when we stood up or crossed a wave. Then when we got finished she said "you did a good job". Her little voice is so sweet and tender. When we got in the car to come home, Maggie and Molly argued about what we were going to do when we got home. Maggie wanted to watch High School Musical 2 and Molly would say "no, we're swimming!". The next thing I knew, she was sound asleep. The lake wore her out. She slept in the car for over an hour and Maggie watched tv. It was the first time that I an remember that Mike and I had so much time by ourselves in the pool and of course the wasps had to interrupt the peacefulness. We took the girls to my parents later that evening and Mike and I went to see Rush Hour 3.

Sunday, we went to church and of course, I had nursery duty. Only 11 little people this week. The church was very kind and fed all of the nursery workers lunch after church, so that took some stress out of our day. I hurt Maggie's feelings when we were getting in the car because I didn't let her get in on Molly's side and she screamed all the way home - to the point she fell asleep and continued to scream in her sleep. Of course when we got home she woke up. We played in the pool all afternoon and my parents and the Pack's came over to swim. My mom had to go to work at 3:30 and my Dad left shortly after her. The guys ended up getting dinner at Five Guys and we had burgers out by the pool.

Monday, I met Melissa at the gym and then we ruined our workout by going to Wild Wings for lunch. After school, Erica brought the kids over to swim and they hung out with me while she went to her parent night for Sydney at the school.

Tuesday was our first PepMom meeting of the year. Our speaker was Candy Linley and her testimony was unbelievable. She battled cancer at age 30 and miraculously she is alive today to talk about it. After the meeting it was time to pick up Maggie and we had Hailee and Lainey over to swim. We had to get cleaned up early so we could go to our parent night with Mrs. Shedden. My parents watched the girls and they were excited to get to play with Cameron and Meghan. After the meeting we were surprised to find out that Annabella is having a really hard time adjusting to the new teacher. Maggie is okay with her. She of course will always hold a special spot for Mrs. Stouder, but she's doing okay with the change. Annabella on the other hand isn't. I just pray things work out for her because it would kill Maggie if she her best friend had to move to another class.

Wednesday - that's today - hooray!! I'm caught back up. I went to the gym this morning and I surprised myself by running 3 miles on the treadmill without walking once. That's huge for me!! After the gym, we went to the grocery and then came home for a quick cleanup since Julianna, and the kids were coming over to swim. When I got home, there was a message on the answering machine that said Annabella didn't go to school and at first my heart sunk because I knew Maggie would be disappointed. Then she went on to say that they were still coming. Of course Maggie's first question when she got in the car was "is Annabella still coming over?" Maggie is not one to really share a lot of details about her day, but she asked me why she had to raise her hand. She went on to say that Mrs. Shedden said "right, Maggie?". I think what happened was everyone was talking out of turn except Maggie and she was just pointing out that Maggie was doing the right thing. I don't think Maggie knew if she had gotten in trouble or what. Being called out obviously caught her off guard.

There's no one particular day I can say it happened, but Molly can SWIM!!! She can swim from the diving board to the ladder. She's amazing. I have already forgotten how amazing it was to watch Maggie learn something so huge like swimming!

The picture of Maggie up close is to show off her new hair-do and it will probably be the last picture with her oh-so-cute baby teeth in the front. The one on her right side is hanging by a thread. I will be shocked if she makes it home from school with it.