Ok, Jenni, this is for you!

My dear friend/sister-in-law Jenni wrote me the following email today:

Subject: I feel bad having to be the one to tell you this, but ......

Body: you haven't posted a blog in over a month and a half. There. Now, I've said it. Get busy.

I wrote back that I was surprised it had been that long.

She responded: June 17th. I'm just sayin'.

So, if you really want me to write that badly, you have to be willing to be IN the blog. Mwa ha ha ha. (that's an evil laugh, for those of you who might be confused or concerned)

Ok, on to more serious things. My kids go back to school in (now) less than a week! Where, oh where has the summer gone? I have thoroughly and completely enjoyed this summer with the kids. Last year, I was ready to be shipped off to the closest loony bin. But really, what good would that have done? They would've found me at the closest one.

But this summer, we found our sweet spot. 8, 6 and 4 is where it's at. They're cute. They're fun. They can dress themselves and (for the most part) they're potty-trained. We've had a blast.

The first part of the summer was just spent at the pool or hanging around the house. Abbey and I sat up late each night watching Phil of the Future on Disney and playing computer games. So much fun, that girl!

Shelby, Scott and the boys spent several weeks here and a miracle occurred the week of VBS. We were able to go out to eat every single night while other people cared for and fed our 5 children. Oh, and my son got saved and baptized. But back to eating out... No, just kidding! Yep, Luke gave his life to the Lord and followed that up with water baptism. He has taken it very seriously for a 6 yr old.

The last part of the Cavender visit, we ALL (Cavenders, Sherry/Mimi, Ryan & Jenni, and us) traveled to Gatlinburg and stayed in a beautiful cabin in the woods. We had SO much fun. We cooked - well, Scott was the grill-meister - we had fireworks and played in the outdoors. I will definitely be posting pictures soon - or I will come back sometime when it's not 12:30am and add pictures to this blog.

A cool thing has happened with Luke this summer. He has become obsessed with the Presidents. No, seriously. He can name nearly all of them. He can name some I didn't even KNOW were Presidents. And he has accumulated these little bits of trivia about them. He googles them and reads as much as he can and asks me the rest. He knows that James Madison was the shortest. FDR was the first ever shown on TV. Which means there has only been a total of 10 shown on TV. Yes, he counted. The list goes on. In addition to the Presidents, he is still pretty obsessed with Star Wars. All 6 episodes. In detail. He googles that, too. Gotta watch that kid.

Lincoln continues to be the comedian of the family. He is just stinkin' funny. And he knows it. He will tell you "I'm hilarious", which makes him slightly less funny. Or, it would - if he wasn't so cute. We have this little packet of cards of - you guessed it - the Presidents and he picked 3 of them and held them up and said "Look, Mom! The Jonas Brothers when they are older!" And he might be little, but he is tougher than a corn-cob. He looks deceivingly small.

Abbey has grown up more than Aaron or I either one want to admit. In so many ways. I see so much of both of us in her. She decided at some point in the summer (about the time Shelby got here!) that she was tired of hanging out with the kids while all the good conversation was with the adults. So, we obliged for the most part and let her partake in some grown-up conversation (censored, of course!). It was hard on here when he had to shoo her from the room so we could talk sometimes, and she didn't go willingly.

Oh! The last thing I will share before scooting off to bed. I don't know if I mentioned that we gave Buster and Bianca to the Bagwells, but we did - in April. The kids were so sad... and so were Aaron and I, to be honest. We just thought they would be happier somewhere where they could get some attention and be around other animals. Boy, were we wrong! While we appreciate Doug and Sue more than they will ever know - we missed our puppies! So, when I took the kids to KY for 2 weeks to visit mom and the gang, Aaron got the dogs back from the farm. They are thrilled to be back and we are thrilled to have them. They are such good dogs.

Ok, that's it, Jenni! I'm all talked out for tonight. YAWN. Off to bed! :-)