Please pray for Kayleigh

I'm sorry I haven't written in a while. I've been busy with many projects at home, most of them involving painting or other home improvement items, as well as spring break vacation, extra choir practices for Easter, and the usual housework. I will have to post an update soon, but the main reason I am posting is to ask for prayers for Kayleigh. She was born last June, 3 months early, and has never left the hospital. After a recent surgery, something went wrong and after several EEGs, her brain activity is flat, although she is breathing some on her own. She is not expected to live much longer. Her parents are hoping to take her home to pass on, but she's got feeding issues that must be figured out first. Please pray that she doesn't suffer, and that her parents get their wishes. You can read about her at http://kayleighannefreeman.blogspot.com/

It's a small world after all!

Last week, the girls and I made a trip to Disneyland on a day off from school. The last time we visited, Small World was closed for renovations, but this time it was open and nicely refurbished, right down to the boats!


I know the song is kind of cheesy, but you can see something neat and new every time you go on the ride, and this time was no exception. New characters had been added, old ones refurbished. It was all shiny and new looking! New additions would be Peter Pan and Tinkerbell, Nemo and Dory, Ariel, Woody, Jessie and Bulls Eye.


Of course, some of the old favorites still make an appearance as well:


It was nice to see our "old friend" up and running again!

Julia starts school!

Before School- Outside the classroom

I had plans of enrolling Julia in the pre-kindergarten program at Sarah's school for the next school year. There are a lot of preschools around town, but this was the ONLY chance we would ever have to have both girls at the same school. Next year, when Julia is in pre-k, Sarah will be in 5th grade. Besides that, the teacher has a California teaching credential and can teach other elementary grades, something not always common in other preschools. The teachers may have completed a 2 year program to become a childcare worker/teacher, but it's not often they are this qualified. I also know the teacher after all these years of volunteering at the school, and would prefer her to anyone else. So, I decided to enroll Julia for the fall semester. When I get there, I run into the principal, who suggests that since she's already 4 and just misses the cutoff for starting kinder next year by a month, that I should go ahead and start her now and then of course do pre-k again next year, because there was an opening! Julia has been begging to go to school with Sarah for some time now, and I wasn't about to turn that opporunity down!

So, last Thursday, we woke Julia up and got her dressed for her first day of school. She was pretty excited and had a pretty good first day, especially for having started after all the kids are already into the routine and way ahead of her. She doesn't like circle time, but otherwise seems to be adapting well. She goes 5 days a week for 3 hours. The best part? I get peace and quiet. I get to take a shower in an empty house. I get to sort through things in her room and get rid of them without her ever knowing. And we are BOTH a lot happier!

After school- on the walk home

Kindle....the sequel

Today a special box came for me from http://www.amazon.com/. I assumed it was a book of some sort that James had ordered for Christmas or my birthday, but instead, it was the surprise of my life. In t was a brand new Kindle 2.0 wireless e-book reader. It was not something I would have expected in my wildest fantasies. And I knew that this had been in the works for a while (apparently more than 2 months) because the Kindle is so popular that they are always on backorder. James actually ordered it before they had announced the Kindle 2.0, but later received notification that the newer version would be shipped. I was and still am floored. I would have never bought on for myself, because I think that is an awful lot of money to spend. In fact, I was hoping that after the Kindle 2.0 was released that perhaps I could get a good deal on someone's used Kindle 1.0.

The Kindle is going to open up a whole new world for me. I absolutely love to read, and now I can have hundreds or thousands of books saved on one little book-sized electronic device. AND I can download each book in a minute or less, and wireless downloads at that! I've discovered a number of sites with free books in the Kindle format, plus I can transfer word documents or .pdf files to my kindle as well. I may try to see if I can store and view sheet music in .pdf format as well. I realize that the music will be smaller than I wish, but to be able to have all my music available at a moment's notice without having to carry around my expandable file full of sheet music would be a dream come true!

I'm sure I will review the Kindle more in the future, but I did have to share my current musings while I am still so excited about my new toy...

Down for the count....

For the past 1+ week, I have been sick with some respiratory bug. Until Sunday, I had a fever most every day, and stuffy nose, cough and just felt like dirt. Last Friday, I had gone to the doctor because after 5 days of a fever, James insisted I go. So, I went, and he gave me antibiotics (though I really think this was viral) and he gave me a wonderful cough syrup that helped me sleep. I only take it at night, though, because sleeping all day wouldn't be good. Now I'm mostly better, which means I have to take care of all the things that either didn't get done while I was in bed, or that should have been taken care of and weren't. Fun stuff!

People are ruining our world!

Julia inspired today's post. A couple of weeks ago, we were walking back from the park and she noticed a lot of litter and other things along the way. She was getting very upset. She has watched the movie Wall-e and trash is a big deal on it, so she's starting to become aware that it's not good to just throw things on the ground. I only wish her big sister Sarah were as aware! She throws trash on the floor at our home- disgusting!




One of the litter items seen on our trip to the park.


Yep, a cigarette butt. Julia almost picked that one up. NASTY!


Just another piece of litter that is ruining our world!

I like purple

Those who know me, know that my favorite color is purple. I think this happened sometime around when Julia was a baby. I was pretty disgusted that most baby girl clothing was pink. Well, then they started coming out with some more cool stuff, in lavender and purple, so I started buying that up. I really didn't like pink much at all, although I did and still do like pink a heck of a lot better than orange or yellow. So, when Julia develops her first favorite color, it was orange. Now what is it? Pink. Yep, she likes to pick the colors I don't have an affinity for. Sarah, though, she's my buddy. Her absolute favorite color is blue. After that, she probably would pick sky blue or purple. Her least favorite color is absolutely, positively, without a doubt, pink. If you wish to annoy her, just buy her something in that color. She hates princesses, too, now. Oh, and for the record, James has a favorite color, sort of, BLACK. He said he wished that during school, he'd been able to respond more smartly to the teachers who complained that black wasn't really a color, but really, black absorbs all the colors so it is a representation of all colors, therefor he likes all the colors of the rainbow. But don't tell him I said so, because he likes black, that's his story and he's sticking to it.