A shout out...

First and foremost....

A HUGE shoutout to my very dear friends, Sheri & Mike, who will be getting married next fall. They were just engaged this past weekend in my very favorite place on Earth, northern Michigan.

This shout out was supposed to happen on my last Hodge Podge post. It was supposed to be about all of these different things I wanted to write about, but of course, I end up losing out to my exhaustion and my posts are cut way shorter than I intend.

I am so excited for their wedding. I think maybe because it's in the fall when Aaron and I got married. Maybe I am so excited because I know how great our wedding was...how much fun we had...how we didn't even spend a whole lot of time together while we were at our reception, but he caught me starting at him a whole lot and I caught him staring at me a whole lot that night. I wouldn't change one thing about it. I can't believe that it'll be 6 years next month.

He truly is my best friend and my rock. He is the head of our home and having him as a husband and a father to my children is more of a blessing than I deserve. He is the one person I am not afraid to tell anything to and I know that it won't change the way he sees me...not even for one second.

Oh how I miss him...I don't know how wives send off their husbands for these long extended tours of duty. May God Bless them.

Let's see...what have we been up to???

Aaron came home to visit last weekend. Molly is seen up above working on the blueberry pie she made for him. I think she was more interested in eating as many blueberries and as much cool whip as she possibly could everytime I turned my back to stir the filling. She has taken a nice turn in her behavior lately. We made a sticker chart and who knew that stickers would be so powerful in Molly's world. The last thing she wants to happen is for her mom to take a sticker away from her. She LOVES her stickers.

A few things out of Molly's mouth lately:

"I hate you Max."

"Momma, this tape is really pissin' me off."

"Momma, it was my fault."

"Absolutely, Momma."

"I want my daddy."

The first was because the 2 of them were fighting. They were arguing b/c Molly insists on teasing Max. They were in the back of the van. She kept telling him that he was 2 and that she was 4. Well....that drove Max CRAZY. He started yelling at her. She yelled back.....back and forth back and forth. Finally, Molly said, "you aren't my friend anymore. I hate you Max". I felt awful. We had a nice long talk about how our brothers are very important to us...especially to their sister and that it's ok to be mad at him, but not to say those hurtful words. Last weeks bible verse has helped alot..."be kind and loving". It has really come in handy over the past few weeks. (It's a real testament on just how the bible can truly get us through our days!)

Molly's verse this week, in case you were wondering, "God knows everything about me". Thank goodness because I am not sure I want to know everything about Molly. It's a little scary to think about if I am being honest.

Now, the tape thing. I said it under my breath in the kitchen. She was in the living room. 10 minutes after the fact she comes in the kitchen with her own scotch tape saying the same thing.

Unbelievable.

That is another one of their words lately. They love unbelievable.

Max is doing great. Loves school. Loves Awana. Loves Sunday School. I really couldn't be more proud of him. He comes home singing a new song. Telling me stories about his day. He loves going to bed at night knowing that when he wakes up in the morning he gets to go to school. He spends Fri-Mon. night asking when he gets to go back. I hope this enthusiasm for school will last. If he is anything like his father it will.

Maggie is doing wonderfully. She is getting on a bit of a routine and I can't say enough how lucky and blessed we are with 3 healthy children who sleep thru the night regularly. Her smiles melt my heart and remind me in an instant that I have absolutely nothing to complain about.

I told her she can't move into her crib until her daddy gets home.

Oh, that reminds me. When Aaron came home this past weekend he brought gifts for the kids. One of the gifts was a stuffed snake for each of them. The second night Max had a horrible nightmare. Monday night he brought the snakes downstairs to me telling me, "Momma, their eyes are too big. I want daddy to get me a new snake with small and nice eyes". The snakes now hang out on the chair with me at night.

Again, here I go with the bobbing head and droopy eyelids.