Ketchup

Thank you, everyone, for all of the lovely comments and support  you've sent our way.  I so appreciate everything you've had to say, and I will repeat what my friend Becky J. just posted:  "Thank goodness our friendships last forever."  I'm so grateful for that, and grateful for the blessings life brings.  TerriLyn's funeral was really wonderful and it brought a lot of happy tears as well as reunions with many friends, which is just what she would have wanted, I think.

Well, despite everything, life has been rolling along as usual, and there are some things I'd like to get down for posterity, so please forgive the lengthy post!

Thing I:  Bitty started Kindergarten

It was a very long two weeks after Stomper got to start, but finally on the the day after Labor Day Bitty got to go to school.  She's enrolled in full-day kindergarten, which I knew would be a tough adjustment for her but that she really needed and would love.  True, the first few days I dropped off a bright shining kindergartner in the morning and came back that afternoon to collect my drooping, wilted and practically limp little girl who had to curl up in a ball on the couch for two hours after school to recover.  She's been in a couple of weeks now and seems like she's doing better.  She sure loves bringing her cute little lunchbox to school - no school lunch for this girl!  She has excitedly reported that she already has a boyfriend - his name is Noah and I have yet to meet him.  Look out, Noah, I'll be watching you. Oh, heaven help me.   


Thing II: A Sink!

Troy does such beautiful work, don't you think?  He built that table for our sink and I think it looks fantastic.  It's lovely to be able to wash my hands in the bathroom, and brush in there too.  Since this photo was taken we also have a cool towel rack installed off to the side - perfect excuse to go buy some nice new hand-towels I'd say.  If we ever move I'm afraid to tell the home buyers that I think the sink is coming with us.


Thing 3: Cousins are awesome

 I don't even remember now when this was....three weeks ago?  Anyway, Peter and Sheri came up for a visit.  I watched their girls on a Friday while they were at a wedding.  Their little baby is so sweet and so different from Bundle.  She's so brown.  Bundle is so white.  She's got this light skiff of shiny white hair and Bundle has this puff of curly caramel-colored stuff all over the place.  They look funny next to each other, like a photo and its negative.  We had a lovely day together, and then on Sunday night I think we had movie night in the back yard which was so much fun.


Thing 4:  Bundle Loves the Hammock

The other day the kids were trying to make a hammock out of blankets and sticks or something like that.  Troy remembered that he had a hammock packed away in his camping stuff someplace so he went and found it and set it up.  Now, I'll say that it has caused its fair share of fighting between the big kids, but now that the novelty has worn off a bit the kids are enjoying it a little more nicely - Stomper loves sitting in it to do his homework and reading - and Bundle absolutely loves it.  Troy puts her in there like a little caterpillar in a cocoon and she holds so still and just smiles while he rocks her as long as he can stand to keep doing it.  The other day I pulled out a box of clothes to go through and she found a frog costume - the very costume that Bitty was wearing in my very first blog post ever in November of 1996 (!!!).  She insisted that I put it on her - I showed her her reflection and I think she understood that she was dressed up as a frog.  She just looked and looked at herself and then would sign 'frog.'  Very cute.  She wore the very warm costume all morning:

Okay.  Not very eloquent blogging, but I'm glad to finally get a chance to record all of these simple little joy-bringing happenings.