May the festivities begin...and go on and on and on

This year, you might have noticed that I've featured a few family members on their birthdays, like my my Grandpa in Iowa, Grandpa in Tennessee, my mom (who I did not do justice to), and my Dad.  I only have three more biological relatives left that aren't cousins, aunts or uncles*.  All three are Grandmas and all three have a birthday in the next three weeks!  How fun is that!?

Well, our first celebrant is.......Grandma J in Tennessee!!!  Happy Birthday Grandma!  
I'm so sorry, I am having some technical problems and I can't access any of my pictures right now.  I've been trying all day.  Sorry, Grandma!!


I'm very thankful for you and hope your day was super special!  love you...




*My in-laws have adopted me and made me family in so many ways that I hesitate to say this sentence.  I do hope to acknowledge them next year as their many birthdays roll around so watch out family!!!!

Anybody make underwear?

Right now I'm holding a sleeping Juju who is donning two little pigtails in back for the first time and my heart is melting.  She's like concentrated cuteness.  I'd take a picture but alas, the camera story.

I decided to go as cheap as possible and it backfired.  After spending weeks searching for a used camera that would work, I settled on a decent one, I thought, and took it to do a virtual tour and it ran out of memory half way through the house AND in reviewing the pics many of them had lines going through them.  So, I spent all last week searching for something that would do what I want and meet my affordability criteria.  I really want to get a used one.  Without any oaths or promises, I've been trying to only  buy used or homemade this year, I did search for underwear on etsy.com, but they were $35 a pair!  Hence, I've had to make some compromises. I found the camera I wanted on e-bay, it's used, but has a guarantee, so if I have problems (within the first week) I can return it.  It's being shipped from the UK and I'm counting down the days till it arrives on Friday.  It's an Olympus Pen (e-p/1).  My Dad really encouraged me to get a DSLR for quicker picture taking.  I'm so tired of missing the best shots of the kids because my point and shoot cameras have taken so long to respond.  So, there you go, the camera story.  I will take a picture of Juju's cuteness on Friday.   For now you can enjoy one of my recent virtual tours...the million dollar house!  

He likes hunting, can you tell? It's a good house for a hunter.  Anyways, I don't do a ton of virtual tours, like 2-3 a month lately.  I had hoped that the income from that job would at least pay my school loan payment (our last debt, may it go away and soon!!), but since that's not always happening, I was excited when I was asked to do another job!  It fits me well and gets me back into the world of psychology.  There's a brand new girl's group home starting in Gnadenhutten, Ohio (20 min. away) that needed a contract licensed counselor to sign their paperwork, like intake, treatment plans, reviews, discharge paperwork and so on.  Thanks to a connection from my old Kung Fu class I got the job!  I helped write my own job description as Clinical Supervisor of the home and go out this week to help in the creation of the documents that I will at some point sign.  Others complete the paperwork, I sign it.  We're in the process of recruiting girls for the home still, so I'm really getting involved from the ground up.  It won't be a lot of hours either, but it'll be a good way to keep my resume up to date and not get too far out of the loop while I'm busy homeschooling the kids.

Speaking of which, I should really get up and do some school with Buddy.  Later!

Weekend of Squeezes

A couple of weekends ago Juju and I got on a little plane and flew out West to see my grandparents in Iowa.  My middle name is the same as my grandma's there (Irene) and Juju's middle name is the same as her great great grandma (Eleanor) who was also there for us to soak up. All the greats can get confusing, so for the sake of this article, I'm going to reference them as from Juju's perspective.

 

Can you tell that we soaked each other up?  We did and how.  I got videos of  Great Great Grandma telling stories about her Great Grandma (to be shared soon!) and pictures galore as you can see.  I think we all hugged as much as physically possible in a three day period.  Juju ran around like an only child and danced and sang and strutted her stuff because she had the perfect audience who clapped when she paused.  She took to her Great Grandpa quickly and led him around by the finger wherever she willed.  She had a special game she would play with Great Great Grandma at the dinner table where their pointy fingers would run along the table edge until they would meet then they'd bounce up into the air, then they'd laugh.  Great Grandpa and Grandma would play peek-a-boo with a toy froggy at the table too.  Dinners were my favorite part for lots of reasons, the food was so good!!  

We decided to celebrate Juju's birthday a week early together and Great Grandma made a perfect angel food cake with pink icing.  Juju eyed it all day and was SO excited about her party.  After we sang to her and she blew out her candles (which, of course caused us to applaud wildly), I began to cut the cake.  Juju had a look of horror on her face and shouted, "Don't cut the cake!!!" She reached for the candles (which she had already licked) and stuffed them back into the cake and with her hands tried to push the cake back together to fix what Mommy had done.  Under some pressure from soft hearted grandmas I agreed to relight the candles and let her have another go.  We repeated the previously stated lighting and clapping and this time I insisted on cutting the cake afterwards.  Juju, ever stubborn, protested, calmed down to open presents, but did not eat the cut cake.  She did partake of some ice cream however.  

We had a wonderful visit and can't wait to go back!