Just another typical day

I wanted to share some of the pics of Mili in our normal routine from day to day. We take a walk every morning. Mili LOVES outside and everything that lives outside (this is the cheesy smile I see every morning when we get dressed to go out). She would much rather be outside watching the birds, squirrels and people walking their dogs than to be inside. I am so thankful for that. I would rather her be outside than in front of the TV all day long.

Speaking of TV, we have limited TV in our house these days. We find other things to do. Mili will dance and sing to music (after demanding that I turn it on). We also color a lot. We like to bring in things from outside to use in our craft time as well (our leaf collage). We also color a picture related to our Bible story (the internet is awesome for printing off coloring sheets). For those of you that don't know, I also love to color. It has been a stress reliever for me most of my life (a box of crayons is much less expensive than therapy sessions). As you can tell our story was about Jonah and the big, big fish (Mili can say Jonah (sounds like doe-nah) and fish (sounds like ish)).

Just wanted to share our lovely day with you. We have fun everyday together.

Love and Hugs to all!

Everyday with Mili !!!

What a great girl to have as a daughter. Look at what kind of personality she has. These pics where taken in the last two weeks (some of them today). You can see that Mili likes to help Mommy "fold" laundry. She is a fantastic unfolder. I think she is learning how to pose for the camera these days (I don't know why, her picture is never taken).

The pictures of Mili with the striped capris on is one of my favorite. I have no idea what made her do this but she pushed her head thru the blinds all the way to the sliding glass doors.

In the one with the pink shirt and striped skirt, if you look closely you will see that she is coming out of it. She has one leg in and one leg out (I have no idea how this happened, I looked up and she was standing like this one Sunday after church).

I am so thankful for technology. Many days Brian is greeted when he arrives home from work with the pictures on the camera that I took of Mili that day. I am just hoping to give him some of the day that he missed out on. It is usually the cute or unusual things she does, but I think it helps him to feel more connected to her. Technology has also changed how our long distance relationships from our family and friends has been. We have been able to keep them as updated as possible.

Hope you enjoy the pics. That's all for now.
Love to all...and a big smack!

A ZOO-tabulas Day!

We visited the National Zoo in DC today. What a great place to go for FREE! Yes, you read correctly, I said "FREE"!!!! We only had to pay for our fare on the Metro. The Metro actually drops us off about four blocks from the Zoo. We started off the day cool, breezy and misty. The weatherman said it was not suppose to rain. Well he was half right. It didn't ever fully rain but it was misty off and on all day (at some points hard enough to take cover for a bit). The sun hid while we were at the Zoo (a little peep of the sun when we were on the way back to the Metro station, isn't that the way it always goes). Despite the dreary weather, it was a great day.

Watching Mili see these enormous animals so close up for the first time was worth every drop of water (Mili was quite dry under her stroller canopy). She enjoyed signing giraffe over and over again as it came very close, just to visit Mili, of course. Her eyes were wide and glistening when she first saw the momma panda (the baby was hanging out in the trees and very hard for us to see, much less Mili). She signed dog when she saw the horses and prairie dogs (I guess she was half right on that one). When we stopped for lunch and a diaper change (we took our lunch in a cooler, meal prices are terrible in a place like that, so we went prepared)Mili watched some birds eat everything that the children had dropped on the ground. I think she may have enjoyed that more than the zoo animals. Oh, well as long as she was having fun, I didn't care how or what kind of animal she was looking at. Mili soon fell asleep (as you can tell in the photos) for her nap and slept a good while. We walked for a bit longer and then made our way back to the Metro station.

After our day at the Zoo, we needed a few things at Sam's. Sam's here and Sam's in Arkansas are two very different things. We could shop for five minutes here and stand in line for well over 30 minutes sometimes longer depending on the day. We had our cheap date (pizza and a coke for $5.27). We then picked up what we needed to get. Don't know how long we stood in line because now I try not to look so I don't get uptight about how long it takes.

We left the house at about 10:00 this morning and returned home at about 6:00 this evening. We had a long day but a very fun one. We didn't get to see everything so we will be going back. Plus it is cheap entertainment for us and Mili.

Hope all is well with all of your families and sorry I have not posted in a while. Been very busy with church and Mili (oh and I have a husband in there somewhere).
LOVE YA'LL

What a dreary day

Here in the DC area it was rather dark and rainy today (in more ways than one). Lots of talk about 9/11 today since it is the mark of five years since the towers, pentagon, and flight 93 were all attacked (and our country as a whole).

I, like everyone else was remembering what I was doing when the attack took place. Like any other day I arrived at work ready to tackle another day. At that time I was an educational interpreter at the middle school in the town I lived in. The student I interpreted for was in speech class and I had slipped out to run to the restroom. While walking down the hall I saw one of the substitute teachers that I knew well from working with her at the elementary school for several years. She came running down the hall announcing what had just happened. We were all a bit confused until the second plane hit and then things kept getting worse with more planes being hi-jacked. We were instructed NOT to tell the kids anything (with today's society, kids have family members scattered all over the world, not to know if any of the kids had family members in the towers or on the planes). Parents started coming to pick up their children and we ended up with about half the kids by the end of the day. The hard part was the next couple of weeks trying to answer questions that the kids had and try to comfort some of them that lost family members.

The most important thing that changed in my life after 9/11/2001 was that I promised I would not be silent anymore. I would live my life with love for all people and show them that Jesus loves them even more than I could. The inspiration for this was a true story that was told on a radio station sometime after 9/11. The story was about a Christian woman that was trying to convince her co-worker that she needed Jesus in her life. The co-worker stated that she was not ready to give up her worldly lifestyle. The Christian woman would walk by the co-workers office and say, "Let me know when you want to get on the bus." (meaning when she wanted to develop a personal relationship with Jesus). This was a common statement between the two woman for many days or even weeks. When the towers were hit, the women started their descent down the stairs to find out that they had been separated. Just as the Christian woman ran free from the building, one of the towers started to crumble. The woman ran to the nearest cover, which happened to be a bus. She climbed up in the bus and took cover only to hear someone crying in the bus. Guess who, none other than her co-worker friend. The co-worker asked the Christian woman if she could help her "get on the bus". Right there in the middle of pure chaos two co-workers were praying. One showing God's great love to the other. Sharing the incredible joy she holds in her heart with the other. The co-worker asked Jesus to forgive her and to start a new life with Him. She gave Him control. Coincidence, I don't think so.

Another thing that 9/11 reminds me of is that we are not promised tomorrow or even our next breath. So kiss your kids, your spouses, your parents (mom here comes some electronic xoxo, I love you) everyday before work. If you are not "on the bus" GET ON before it is too late (remember 9/11 was just another day). All those people went to work or got on a plane fully expecting to go home to their families at the end of the day. To the families that ended the day without a family member, you have been in my prayers this week.

To everyone reading this.....I love you lots. Didn't want to go to bed without letting you know that.

Dress up

We have a dress up queen on our hands. Mili loves shoes, hats and purses so much it scares me. She is starting to be a Miss Priss. Mili doesn't talk much but she sure can say "shoes". We have been trying on a lot of shoes recently (only the ones she will let me put on her feet). We are very opinionated these days.

Tonight was a wild night. It was my first night to teach the middle schoolers at our new church (thank God it was not my first time ever, I taught middle schoolers at my church back home). I think we had 19 all together but it sounded like 50. The sixth graders coming in for the first time were so excited about coming to the class that they were wild. There are very few girls and lots of boys. The boys were quite active and didn't want to be quiet while I was teaching. I warned some of them that they would be going back to their fifth grade class if they can't behave in this class. It is definitely going to be a challenge but I am up for it. I will get plenty of prayer time in on Wednesdays before I tackle this class each week. It should be fun. I planned too many things to do tonight and didn't feel like I accomplished any of them. I will do better next Wednesday.

After cleaning up and locking up the room tonight, I saw a crowd or people around my car. In the middle of that crowd was none other than my precious Mili Bear (her daddy holding her, of course). All the teenage girls were admiring her and watching her sign. She was putting on a show for them. They thought it was too cute the way she communicates and she ended up saying Bye-Bye to them when they were leaving. All the girls said "aaaaaawwwww". The thing I love the most about Mili is that she always seems to make people smile. It doesn't matter where we are she is waving or smiling (or both) at someone and they just have to respond.
The other day at the mall I saw Mili get frustrated for the first time that someone didn't respond to her wave. She grunted and looked up at me like, "mommy why don't those people want to wave at me, I am cute you know."

I forgot how tired I get after teaching. I am going to rest for now. Hugs and Kisses to all!

18 years together

I forgot to mention yesterday that Brian and I have shared 18 years of our lives together. September 4th is our "dating" anniversary. I say that with quotes because we were not old enough to date. It was called "going together" way back then. We have come a long way in our relationship.

Our natural birthing experience was probably when I realized we could endure anything in our relationship. It really showed me how compatible we are. Brian knew exactly what I needed when I needed it and we had almost no verbal communication during hard labor (he is a fantastic coach). He kept me very calm through the whole process (being calm is the key to a successful natural childbirth). He knew how important it was to me and we did it together. We were awarded an adorable prize out of the adventure too.

Our move to Maryland is probably the second most stressful thing that we have endured together. This was a true test because we would have to rely solely on each other for everything. Even though we have always spent our free time together and especially did after we had Mili as a family, I was still scared to be here with no family or friends. We have grown much closer together since we moved away from everyone and everything we have ever known.

Enough about us love birds. Just wanted you to know we have been together more than half of our lives. I am not sure my sister, Erin, remembers much of her life before Brian started coming around (but who would want to remember life without Brian, I don't).

Park Play

What a great day. Don't even know where to start. The weather was terrific today. In the 70's. We journeyed off to the park this morning. This park experience was different from any other because Mili is now walking. When she is let loose she can run wild if we are not careful (I was thankful for the wood chips, they slowed her down....actually putting her down at least once). As you can see from the pictures, Mili enjoyed swinging, more swinging, sliding and just exploring. We also took a short walk. In one of the swing pictures Mili is signing more (her favorite sign in the whole world.....if a little is good, more must be better.....right). She absolutely loves the feeling of air going through her hair. If you look closely at one of the swing pictures you will see Mili's first battle scars on her face. One of the little girls took a claw at her face at church Sunday. Those things happen when you get the munchgins together. Mili took it like a trooper but I am surprised she didn't try to bite her.

In one of the pictures you will see Mili and I standing in the fort before going into the slide. I only did that one time. After getting halfway up I found out that the rest of the way was a tunnel up to the slide. If you have never tried to push, pull, and stoop to get a 25 lb kid that doesn't know what you want her to do, through a tunnel it is very difficult. After all that work she didn't like the slide that much anyway (my back is thankful that that was a one time event).

After fun at the park, we were on our way in search of some shoes for Mili. She is growing so fast that I can't keep up with her sizes. We didn't buy any today but got a good idea of how much they cost and what we need to get her. She is quite picky about what goes on her foot. I will post some pictures tomorrow or soon that show Mili dressing up with shoes and all.

We ended our perfect day with a walk around the complex. We have gone for a walk after dinner they last couple of days. With the weather being so fantastic, we hate to let it pass by without enjoying it.

I am going to bed now. Hope you enjoy the snapshots of the park today.
Love to all!!

Quality Time

For those of you that have been watching the news. No worries, Ernesto did not show it's ugly face to badly here. We had rain all day Friday and the trees were waving at us due to the major winds but it was nothing like we expected here. We expected some flooding but Ernesto only dropped about 2-3 inches on us then went about its way. Today was down right cool. We had to wear jackets out (first I had to buy one for Mili). I didn't expect cool enough weather for a jacket in early September (never in Arkansas). "We are not in Arkansas anymore".


We have enjoyed some family time in the last couple of days. Brian made a surprise arrival home at 5:00 PM on Friday afternoon. Mili and I are much happier people when Brian is home. We had an eventful evening trying to get Mili to bed. We were so frustrated when she finally went to sleep (after 2 hours of off and on crying). Today we had no problems at naptime or bedtime. It must have been teething again. It finally stopped raining enough for our family walk. We walked the complex. Mili was screaming at the dogs and some of the owners who were walking their dogs were nice enough to stop and let Mili look at them for a while. I challenged Brian to some sprints up the hill. He was pushing Mili and I would take off running and Brian would chase me with the stroller and Mili laughed so hard she got the hiccups. She got the pattern down before long and was telling me when I should run. We both got our heart rates up playing this game with Mili (it is amazing what we will do for our kids to get a laugh). I am sure it really was funny for anyone watching. Mili and I are looking forward to also having Brian home on Monday as well. We love having family days.

I am going for now. Need some sleep before I serve tomorrow at church. I am excited about meeting all the students I will be teaching on Wednesday nights. I am also helping out in the Sunday morning class for a short time and it will give me some time to get to know the students better. It is very important that I get to know them and they get to know me (that is the only way trust can be formed).

Love to all.....take care!