This week...

This week...

* My mother, Mrs. Incredible, worked the shop for me most of the week! It was so great getting to spend so much time with my sweet girls at home!!

* On Sunday night I talked Mr. Wonderful into helping me move two large bookcases out of the dining room and into the "green room," our spare bedroom. First, I had to take all the junk off of the bookshelves. I wasn't sure where to put it, so I just piled it all on the dining room table. Then I spent most of the day Monday cleaning out old toys and lots of other junk that had found its way into the green room over time. I set up one bookshelf with the girls tv and videos. It also has my unsorted photos, my Cricut and lots of craft stuff on it. The other bookshelf now holds my sewing machine, sewing notions, patterns, and fabric. I stuck a table in between them so that I will have a place to work.

I am hoping this will help me be more productive (we'll see how that goes!). You see, I absolutely despise having to clean up all the stuff from a project before I am completely finished with it. With it all in the back bedroom, I won't have to worry about cleaning it up every day.

* After dropping the girls off at school Tuesday morning, I took all the bags of toys I had cleaned up from the green room and several bags of clothes they had outgrown, and I dropped them off at the Hannah Home box sitting in the WalMart parking lot. I was pretty excited about being so productive.

After I picked up the girls from school and got them home, I looked through their bags and found a letter from their teacher. It seems that the school is collecting toys and clothing for a charity. Oops. No matter how hard I try to avoid it, I always seem to end up being "that" mother. You know, the one the teachers all hate because she always forgets things and is always late and is totally unreliable. Yup. I'm "that" mom. 

* I gave both girls a haircut on Tuesday night. I've been trying to talk Avie into it for a while, but she really liked having her hair so long. I loved it long, too, but she didn't love for me to brush it, so it had to go.

Addie decided she wanted her hair to look like Rah Rah's (my oldest sister), so she was brave and went first. I cut almost 5 inches off her hair. When I was finished, she ran to her room to look in the mirror, so I followed her with the camera to catch her reaction. I was already pretty nervous about what she would think, so when I saw her staring into the mirror with this shocked look on her face, my heart started hammering in my chest. When I caught my breath and asked her what she thought, she tilted her head to the side (the way she does when she's acting shy) and said, "it looks so different." I didn't want to upset her more, so I quietly told her that it would grow back soon and look just like it did before. She turned to me and said, "Mommy, I don't want it to grow back! I want it to stay like this forever!" I almost fainted from the relief. She wasn't upset...she loved it! She spent the rest of the night squealing with excitement and flipping it behind her ears. Whew!

After seeing Addie's new 'do, Avie couldn't wait to get hers cut. It was probably more than 6 inches that I cut off her hair. I know. And, yes, I kept a clipping from each :) Avie didn't like sitting still and kept wiggling, so I'm sure her finished cut is pretty much a mess. But then again, maybe nobody will notice since she is never, ever still! She loved her cut almost as much as Addie did.

I think they both look adorable, but it will take a bit of getting used to...they both look much older now!

* On Wednesday, we went to church and sang with the children's choir. The girls love it so much. Mrs. Stephanie is their choir director and she always makes it so much fun for them. They absolutely love her. I can understand why, though. I love her, too! I'm also completely jealous of her creativity and energy...She can, and does, do anything and everything, and she doesn't ever seem to get tired!! So unfair!! After choir, they go to Faith Weaver Friends and do lots of different activities. They come home completely excited to tell me all about everything they did, and they are also completely exhausted. They always sleep well on Wednesday nights :) 

* Today is Friday, and my dining room table is still covered in the stuff I took off of those bookshelves. I'm still just not sure what to do with it. When he has time, Mr. Wonderful is supposed to build me two new built-in bookshelves for the dining room. But as much as he's been working lately, it isn't looking like he'll get to it any time soon...I may never see my dining room table again!

* Mr. Wonderful asked me out on a date. I'm so excited! It's been quite a while since we've been out without the girls. He said he wanted to surprise me, but he also knows me well enough to know that I am not really a huge fan of surprises...so he went ahead and told me last night that he already had a sitter lined up for the girls for tonight. I knew I called him "Mr. Wonderful" for a reason :)

* I am helping plan a father/daughter, mother/son dinner party for our church. It will be next Sunday evening, and I can't wait. I am having so much fun coming up with ideas for it. We'll have dinner, dancing, a photo booth, games, and much more! I know the girls will have such a good time with Mr. Wonderful.

* The weekend is looking like it will be pretty busy. We have two birthday parties and a baby shower on Saturday. And, of course, they are all at the exact same time. It won't be so bad if Mr. Wonderful will be home, because we can just split up the girls and take each where they need to go, then I can go to the shower a bit late and we won't really miss anything. That isn't likely to happen, though. Mr. Wonderful has worked the last 3 weekends in a row. Saturday and Sunday. Yup. That's a lot of days of work with no days off in between. I'm pretty sure we will continue that streak this weekend, too. That means that one party will be missed completely. I feel terrible, but I guess everyone understands that you can't be more than one place at the same time. Or at least I hope they do!

* Last week I got the movie Beauty and the Beast for the girls because they were so good at the shop for me all week. They love it. I mean, they really love it. We have watched it every single night this week. They are already asking if they can watch it again when we get home. Did I mention that they love it?

We had told them that if they were good that we would get them something at the end of the week. Mr. Wonderful had the girls in the bath tub and I held the movie behind my back and surprised them with it. Later, Addie told me that she thought I was going to give them Play Doh. I thought it was so sweet that she was trying to guess what it would be. I asked her if she wished I had given them Play Doh instead. "Uh, no, Mommy. I love the Beauty and Beast......" I'm not sure what she said after that, because she began talking in a high pitch squeal. Then, I'm pretty sure that it was just squealing and jumping.

* Apparently, 4 1/2 years is the "official" age for squealing to begin. That must be the age, because even when Avie joins Addie in the jumping, she doesn't ever squeal. I'm not even sure if she can. Sometimes she makes a face that makes me think either she is trying to figure out how, or she is really annoyed by Addie doing it. Neither would surprise me.

I think squealing is Addie's reaction for pretty much everything now. Surprised? Squeal. Excited? Squeal louder. Happy? High pitched squealing and jumping. Sad? Lower squealing (some would say "growling") and collapsing on the floor. Mad? Alternate high and low pitched squealing while jumping followed by collapsing on the floor. 

As Mr. Wonderful and I discussed this squealy new phenomenon in our lives, I questioned out loud, "if 4 1/2 years old is when this starts, I wonder when it stops?" According to Mr. Wonderful, "Never." I suppose the proof is in my reaction to his asking me out on a date last night. He asked. I was surprised. I squealed.  As it sank in...an entire night to just be Holley and not Mommy...I got excited. I squealed louder. He told me that he already had a sitter to and that he was taking me to see the movie I've been talking about. I was very happy. I started to jump as I squealed. Yeah, I know. I don't get out much. SAHM and all.

I have pictures of the green room, the dining room table, and the girls haircut. Unfortunately, I can't post them because my computer hates me. It refuses to do what I tell it to do and it insists on continuing to catch one virus after another, which it knows I don't have time for. Oh, well. Hope everyone has a great weekend!