Held together with glue!

I honestly thought I'd blogged about this. But I've read back through the blog for a couple of months and can't find it. So pardon if you've read this before.

The other day I was snuggling with Caitlin on the couch. She's such a cuddle bug and I'm going to miss her like crazy when school starts. She's quickly loosing those adorable cheeks she was born with. But when she smiles you can see traces of them. 

Me - "Caitlin, I just love your cheeks. I think I'm going to take them and keep them forever."

Caitlin - "Ok. You can have them."

I acted like I was going to take them off.

Me - "I think they're stuck. I can't get them off."

Caitlin - "Yeah, they're glued on."

Me - "What in the world are they glued on with?"

Caitlin - "Gorilla glue."

I think I've let her watch too much HGTV. 

Speaking of TV. . .

My kids rarely watch cartoons. About the only time they see them is when it's raining or too hot and the babysitter lets them watch a few minutes after lunch. 

When I let the kids watch TV it's HGTV, DIY, or one of the cooking channels. Caitlin's favorite is "House Hunters" and Dominic's favorite is "Chopped". So you can imagine his delight when I received the Chopped cookbook to review. He's been pouring over that book almost as much as the Lego magazines he receives every month. I see some crazy cooking in our future.

Vacation Bible School

There is something wonderful and magical about vacation bible school - for the kids.

There is something exhausting and draining about vacation bible school - for adults.

This year was no exception. The leaders picked the wonderful theme of Paul in Athens. I was incredible impressed with the time and effort that was put in to making this a great experience for the kids. They learned so much about Paul, Athens, God, and the Bible. Jon and I are worn out. In fact, my dear husband is napping as I write this. But the kids can't stop talking about everything they experienced this week. All week long they've talked about God sightings. It warms my heart to see and hear them so in-tune with God and His blessings to them.

Since I was the official photographer I have quite a few pictures from vbs. But since I didn't want to appear biased, I don't have as many of my own kids as I would like. But here are a few that I was able to snap.

 

 

 

 

Normal again. . .almost!

We are finally beginning to feel a bit more normal. Our house is clean, with the exception of the cook top area. Almost all of our clothes have been returned. And we are back in our own sweet beds. 

But some things aren't the same. We can't use our stove or oven. So meals have been a bit entertaining and creative. I'm slowly putting things back since all of the items were returned in boxes all mixed up together. We have piles of "discard" bags sitting around that we can't do anything about until we get another visit from an insurance person.

And our sweet kitty hasn't returned home. The fireman scared the stuffings out of him and he ran outside. He always comes back and we spent that first night in our sooty house. I truly expected to hear him at the door that night. So I wasn't too worried. But as each day went by with no kitty we all became concerned. It is now almost 3 weeks later and no one has seen or heard him. I've asked all of the neighbors, posted notices on lsn and facebook, taken pictures to the humane society, and called the current and previous vets. We even, very briefly, considered getting another kitty. But we still miss Tolkie too much and it just didn't feel right. The kids cried on the way home because they saw all of those cats in cages and felt sorry for them and yet they missed their cat too much to get another one. In the words of Dominic "Someday I might want to rescue another kitty. But right now I can't. I miss Tolkie and I don't want to hurt his feelings when he gets home. Because I'm really praying he comes back home soon."

 

So if you get a chance, please send up a prayer that our kitty comes home. We miss him a lot.

We are moving on with the kitchen as best as we can. We've gotten estimates from all of the local cabinet places and have decided on a company. Ironically enough, Lowes is the most expensive. We have picked out tile, colors, etc. Our appliances arrived and are sitting here waiting. So now we just wait for a phone call letting us know that we can proceed with the demolition. 

I've been posting all of the fire updates here on the kids blog. It happened to all of us and affected all of us. But once the real renovations start, I'll move over to the other blog since all of my renovation pictures are there.