prayer.

This was our prayer at supper last night...

Sophie: "Dear God, thank you for this food and thank you for all the things you give us and help us to all have a nice supper. Amen."

Lawson: "Hey! What about my hurtie knee?!"

Sophie: "Oh yeah. Thank you God for Lawson's knee. Amen."

raccoon.

I don't know that I've ever seen a real raccoon. In the wild. Just out and about, walking around.

Until now...



Jessi needed this week off, so Sophie and Lawson have been staying with some new friends. They have been having so much fun playing with Ezra and Jobe (and Brooklyn and Jake when they get home from school). But this has been some of the real excitement...



The first day we saw him, he was up in their garage rafters. Just hanging out, sleeping, a couple of his paws hanging over the edge. He woke up and looked at us all, but didn't seem at all concerned.

We saw him again this morning, just sitting in the grass and then scampering through the yard. He headed straight for their garage, in that funny little run/walk they do. Straight for the cat food. Gina yelled at him and tried to shoo him out of the garage, but again, he didn't seem the least bit concerned.

They had put out a trap and about an hour later, Gina sent me these pictures.
Doesn't he look sweet?
Just like Chester from "The Kissing Hand."



A quick trip to the country was added to their morning schedule.
And now Mr. Raccoon has a new home.

hair.

My sister asked what my kids thought of my straight hair...

My own kids... didn't really seem to notice. (But then again, they are used to seeing it really, really curly after I've washed it, and then it suddenly gets less curly the next day. So, Mommy's hair looking different from day to day maybe isn't that unusual for them. )

My school kids... didn't say a word. I wore it in a ponytail, which I often do, but this ponytail looked much skinnier than my usual ones. They didn't seem to notice a change.

A former student (now a 2nd grader)... in the middle of the hallway, in a not-so-quiet voice, in her typical "speak before you think" way, exclaims, "Mrs. Jones! Your hair's not puffy anymore!"

Thank you, Rebekah.
Thank you so much.


Kendall, you're right... they do keep us humble.

style.

This was Sophie's outfit today...
(her after-church outfit)...



a swimsuit
pink skirt
Hello Kitty socks
black Mary Janes

I'm pretty open to whatever on the weekends. At home. This allows me to have a little more say in what she wears to school during the week, or what she wears out in public.

So far, it's working for us.
We'll see how long it lasts.

straight.

We had a Girl's Night last night, and my neighbor, Amy D., wanted to play with her flat iron...

craigslist

Corey spent most of the weekend doing this...



22 fence panels, approximately 150 feet of all American white picket fence.
It will be replaced this week with 6 foot cedar fence and wrought iron.
Miss Marley will be happy to run free in the yard.
Miss Miley won't be jumping the fence anymore.
Mommy will feel safer having little people alone in the backyard.

Corey just wanted to get rid of all this fence.
A FREE sign on the curb. A burn pile. Anything.

I wanted to try listing it on craiglist. Corey thought it was a waste of time, but was willing to humor me. I listed it for $75. After 2 hours, I had a phone call. Later, there were 2 more. This afternoon we helped a really nice guy and his wife load it up in a trailer and happily took our $75.
Yay for me!

our family.

Drawing by Sophie, age 5.