Funnies....

Been blogging up a storm tonight! I'll leave you with this....
Cackie is definitely growing up and starting to notice that not everyone is alike... especially Mommy & Daddy.
Since the weather has gotten warmer and we're busier in the evenings, instead of taking baths at night she has started taking showers with me in the morning. She really used to hate showers, but now she looks forward to them... and she loves to SING in the shower!
So, poor thing, she knows all about what Mommy looks like. Well, this morning she took a shower with me and then was in the bathroom with us when Michael got out of the shower (we're trying to be open with her, so we don't hide our bodies... we don't strut around, either... just natural). He was drying off and she pointed and said you have a.... (didn't finish the sentence, lol). So, Michael said, yes Daddy is different than you and Mommy.... my wee wee is different. Cackie stared a little and then told him... "mine hasn't grown yet... not Mommy either" (and it never will, darling!). It's really hard to keep a straight face when she gets thoughtful!

OK, another....
Last week she started transitioning to the "big kids class" at school. There are a handfull of her friends who had already transitioned to that class and she has missed them soo much. So, I think she was glad to be joining them again. Well, on Wednesday when I went to pick her up we got called into the director's office. I was informed that one of the little boys in the new class (one of her old buds) was holding Cackie's hand on the playground when another little boy got very upset and pushed him away and then grabbed Cackie's hand and ran off with her. Little boy #1 got hurt and they had to fill out an accident report. I was able to figure out which little boys were involved, but I'll keep their names secret to protect the innocent... but, I'll say that both are considered highly for future boyfriends by Mom & Dad! She's only 2 and they're already fighting over her! She's definitely her Aunt Caryn's niece! Michael is going gun shopping this weekend, figures he can't be prepared too early! LOL! We are soooo in trouble!

You know you communicate by email too much when...

You recieve something via inter-office mail and it has a sticky note on it with a question. You want to respond to the question, so you start to write your answer on the sticky figuring the sender will get it.
This really happened yesterday!
This is my life folks, ain't it great???!!!!!!
Either I'm going nuts or I need a vacation... maybe both?

Pictures from the zoo...

Our new baby giraffe...

Isn't he cute???

Pictures from Sunset symphony...

Finally! I was able to upload pictures...



This is one of my all time favorites!

Yes, there is a smudge on the lens....

Help is on the way! (hopefully)

Well, I ready to admit it... I can't do it all! I am absolutely worn out! Work, Cackie, laundry, cleaning the house, trying to have a life... and now school have me worn out.
So, tomorrow I have someone coming over to clean the house. If it works out we'll set up a regular schedule for her to come by and clean. If it doesn't work out, I'll be looking for someone else to do the job. It's just too much for me! I either spend my whole weekend worrying about vacuuming & dusting or I ditch it all and then feel guilty for living in a pig pen. Michael is totally on board with me... that means one of two things.... He's tired of hearing me complain that we're living in a pig pen, or the house has really gotten bad! I think it's a combination of the two. He also wants me to be able to relax and enjoy time with Cackie, just as he wants to. So, we'll try out this person and see how well they do. If not, I have someone on reserve.
Hopefully it will help my stress level immensely!

Ladybug Alert!

OK, so it may not be the best news, but here's what came out of the CCAA today...

This represents 6 days worth of Log in Dates receiving referrals. Sad for CCAI families... they had no LID from 11/2/05 thru 11/7/05, so they're still waiting. I've updated the ticker to represent the current wait.

Grad School via the Web

I'm now officially a student at Tennessee Tech! Last Tuesday I registered for classes and ordered my books and class started on Wednesday. I'm taking Organizational Leadership and I think I'm going to like the course. We've already had some reading to do and when I finally received my course DVDs on Saturday, I had some video classes to watch. It worked out really well... I filled up Cackie's new pool on Saturday morning and after her nap while she played in the pool, I sat beside her with my new laptop watching my videos and reading. I have a feeling we'll be doing quite a bit of that this summer.
I have a lot of reading to do for class, so that will be a little bit of a struggle to keep up. Not sure if I'll be able to handle a courseload of 2 classes at one time. I'll just have to see what classes are available each semester and what life is like at that time. The way I figure it, one class is better than none!

Two

Two was a lucky number for us last week. On Tuesday we celebrated the two month anniversary of our log in date for Mei Mei. No news yet on the next batch of referrals, but we're another month into the wait.

Then on Wednesday we celebrated our two year anniversary of Cackie's "Gotcha Day". We both had busy days at work, but even though we were running late getting home we took Cackie out to dinner to celebrate. We gave her a Chinese drum with a monkey on it as a celebration gift. This was one of the gifts that we bought while in China and it has a monkey because she was born in 2004, the Year of the Monkey.

We went to PF Chang's for dinner and although Cackie enjoyed her chicken fried rice, she really enjoyed sneaking the broccoli from Michael's broccoli chicken! She has really developed a love of broccoli! We regularly hear "more broccoli please" from her, definitely not what I thought I'd be hearing from her at age 2!

After dinner the 3 of us shared a "Great Wall of Chocolate" . It was sooo bad for us, but sooo good! When we got home I had to whip out the Shout to spray down the entire front of Cackie's dress.

Memorial Day weekend

I've been trying to post this for 2 days... grrr! Our internet connection at home has been spotty at best and every time I try to do something from there it takes forever! Ever since our new cable provider took over we've had problems that make me want to scream. They're coming out this week to see if they can fix it.

So, I'm going to write my message and post the pictures later!

We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We were VERY busy, but we had a great time.

On Friday night Cackie & I went shopping to get some stuff for the weekend and she was really well behaved. I think it's the first time in months that she had been to Walmart with me, so I was a bit worried. She's definitely growing up and her good behavior that night was just another sign of that.

On Saturday morning she & I went to a birthday party for one of her friends at school. It was a perfect party for 3 year olds. They had a huge moonwalk boucey for the kids and they loved it.

Then, on Saturday night we went to the Memphis Sunset Symphony, sort of. I had a huge picnic planned and we loaded up the truck with Cackie's wagon & stroller and we headed downtown to the park where the symphony is held. We get down there to the gate and security tells us that we can't take in any glass, anything sharp, etc. None of this was advertised, so we had a bottle of wine with us, a knife for our cheese, a wine bottle opener, salsa jars, etc. We were pretty peeved that we packed everything up and went down there just to find out that we would have to get rid of half our picnic. So, we protested and went up on the bluff to a small park and set up our picnic there. It wasn't long before other people started to join us and we ended up having a perfect picnic. We could easily hear the symphony and the Temptations who were there to perform with the symphony. Tamela & Gili joined us and the girls had a wonderful time. They danced for hours and had the best time.

On Sunday we worked around the house and met the gang for pizza before heading over to the zoo for a member's party. We love the member's parties at the zoo and this one was really great. The weather was nice and we got to spend a nice leisurely night walking around. Before we left we all hung out near the entrance and danced with the girls to the live band. I think my arms are still tired from picking Cackie up! After the zoo we headed over to get some ice cream. Cackie is just like her Mommy... she loves ice cream!

Monday we spent the day at home just trying to get stuff done. I worked on a quilt, Michael worked on his brick sidewalk and Cackie messed up her room.... good day!

Another baseball game

Aren't they cute? This was just before we left the house for a baseball game.

Cackie enjoying a drink at the game...

These are the new shoes that I bought for her, aren't they too cute?

Here she's upset with us because she wasn't listening to us. We see this face a lot!

Something for Mei Mei

There have been a million things that I've been wanting to write about. Life has been just crazy around here and I haven't gotten to spend much time at the computer. So, I went back through my pictures to see how best to catch up.

Two weeks ago Build a Bear Workshop held an event where you could go in and make a bear for free that would be given to charity. They do this annually and this year's charity was JCICS (Joint Council on International Children's Services) and the donated bears would be given to orphans. Cackie was with Nita & Billy and I had a full day planned, but I was able to get out to the mall and build a bear for Mei Mei. So, here's me and the bear...

Hopefully this bear will make a child very happy.