i have the flu....

and it stinks! some little bug has been buzzing all around our house in the last week or so, and i thought i was going to escape it. hopefully it will be short-lived and by tomorrow i'll be feeling better.

georgia has a birthday on sunday so i'm still taking suggestions for what to get a five-year-old! anyone who knows me knows i am the WORST present-picker in america. seriously. it's pretty bad. she believes in the birthday fairy (all my fault) and has spoken to her twice in the last week. she found a quiet spot in the aisle at target or wherever and said: 'hey birthday fairy, i hope you see me and you are listening. i think i'd like a SURPRISE this year instead of me giving you an idea.' GREAT. the birthday fairy just LOVES having to come up with ideas!

how much longer till the weekend? in my feverish state, i seem to be losing all track of time. i must be hallucinating because my computer clock says 9:34 and i am CERTAIN i've been here six hours at least!

happy labor day weekend!

last time we can wear bathing suits and head to the pool. we intend to do just that tomorrow-- it will be our last chance to see if georgia will actually put her face in the water.

special note: bathing suits are on close-out at target. each of these was $4.48 last weekend. do what you will with that information! my intent was to buy suits for next year but clearly i did a bad job. they both fit now!

the girls loved them so much we have been literally bathing in them this week.

see for yourself:





have a great long weekend....

monkey joe's has moved into town!

nope, not overstimulating AT ALL.

rainbow row

we had three goals this summer for home projects. i am happy to say that we've completed two of them. (for us, that's really good, so we'll just write off the third project until we are re-energized!) ....

we have just finished painting two more rooms. the living room is now bright parsley-ish green. (see how good i am with colors? everything has to be '-ish'!) we think it's fabulous. the girls' room was lavender and baby lime green with three -- yes, three-- layers of wallpaper borders. it took forever to get that bad boy off the wall. wallpaper is not my friend and i was more than happy to see it go. now, we've got a nicer shade of purple going on in there.

it's finally starting to come together! after all, it's been a whole year. it's time we had the house in the colors we like. here are some pictures since today it's actually clean.

...it's gettin' hot in here...

so it is probably idiotic that we are choosing to paint rooms in the house when there's not even enough air flow to dry the paint! but we've spent the last week painting the last two rooms of the house that needed a major color overhaul. i may not have lots of good stuff on the walls, but hopefully the bright colors will offset that fact and noone will notice! i'll post some pictures as soon as the furniture is back in place.

jake

thank you to those people who are always asking how jake is doing. it's been close to two years ago that he moved to north carolina and became a permanent part of our family. we have tremendous support from his mom and dad in our efforts to get him working and living independently. jake moved into a group home fifteen minutes from our house about five months ago. he adjusted beautifully and is happy there, and in our new house we are close enough to him to see him on a regular basis. we are in the process of finding competitive employment in monroe for him. he's been working full-time at a sheltered workshop since he arrived here, but is ready for a bigger challenge. here's a picture of jake and his nieces around his birthday in april.

...to keep me inspired today...

i ran across this passage this morning, written by mother theresa, and i thought it was lovely.

ANYWAY

People are often unreasonable, illogical and self-centered;

forgive them anyway.

If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;

be kind anyway.

If you are successful you will win some false friends and some true enemies;

succeed anyway.

If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;

be honest and frank anyway.

What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;

build it anyway.

If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;

be happy anyway.

The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;

do good anyway.

Give the world your best, and it may never be enough;

give the world your best anyway.

You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;

it was never between you and them anyway.

our favorite knucklehead

we rescued delilah exactly a year ago today. she is still terrified of most noises, quick movements, and anything that resembles a man! she's finally stopped running away and mostly follows me around when she's otherwise unoccupied. happy gotcha day, knucklehead!

last ones for today: i promise!

another lakefront view...they call this part
the biddy pool....


juliet: you didn't see me do that,
did you?????

georgia: turn your attention to me
and forget what you just saw!


i ain't afraid of no lake!!!!


i'm staying where i don't have
to get my hair or face (or bathing
suit) wet!

...and here are some more...

the 'fun run' -- or the 'fun carry-me-on-your-
shoulders'....they looked cute, at least!


...trying to pick up lilypads. who knew
they were stuck to the water?? :)


helping daddy get on the boat. note Brown Bear,
who needed help too....


saying the blessing before supper for all the
guests at kanuga. georgia was loving
all the microphone time she could get!


...the beautiful waterfront at kanuga....

vacation pictures

daddy's girls...


yeah, so we're a little dressy for hanging out in
a creek, but who cares?....


carnival night and juliet has instructed this poor
girl EXACTLY how to paint her face....


...happy fourth of july! we are in
pretty happy moods, all of us!....


isn't it beautiful here????

semi-homemade cookies, a la plue

it must be PERFECT...
it must be a MESS to be perfect!

first time (sorta) at the beach...

georgia was loving the ocean! she's usually such a fraidy-cat in the water so i was pleasantly pleased.












...and here's jules campbell, as she likes to
be called now.

so, we visited my parents this past weekend and drove down to atlantic beach on saturday morning. georgia and juliet have seen the beach from afar or in the winter, but this was the first time they got to play-- even if for only a very short time!

...sign me up!!!

if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. i am new to blogworld but think this must be my way of finally getting organized. i hope it's not like when i was eleven and i started on my diary kick. i have several cute little diaries filled with about four pages of juicy entries. the rest of it is completely blank. (probably a sign of how dull my life was back then...)

anyway, news on us is not too spectacular. kevin has a new job as principal of east union middle school. it will certainly be a challenge but we know he'll be successful here. . you can see his school at http://eums.ucps.k12.nc.us/. he's so busy this summer, hiring and diving headfirst into the world of middle schoolers, but i think he's remembering how much fun it can be to work with older kids.

i'm back working full-time again, for the arc of union county (advocacy/supports for people with developmental disabilities). it's been a long road of doing odd jobs and working from a home office in order to avoid sending my kids to daycare. it has been an enjoyable time but there is no question that mama is a happier person now when she's working away from home. georgia and juliet really love 'school' and the adjustment has been quite painless. it's nice to see that i'm bringing home more money than i'm shelling out these days. just ask kevin!! :)

we took our first family vacation in july (yes, i did say FIRST). we went to kanuga, which is located in hendersonville, nc. a true vacation for me is: no cooking-cleaning-planning activities and lots of reading-napping-QT with my family. kanuga was perfect for us. if i could figure out the picture inserting part of this thingy, it would be no problem to post some pics! check back later.