Yeah.

This little monkey is getting ready to begin KINDERGARTEN tours!! Sigh...

The random

In an effort to document life since August, this post will be purely stream of consciousness. Not that I'm ever particularly organized in my writing, but I want to fully prepare you for any potential disjointed confusion. I'm watching House Hunters International, it's 10:40 PM, and I'm just now hearing silence from the girls' room. We put them down at 7:24. I made the decision (mayhaps a mistake) to create a "family closet." Adam and I have a ridiculously large bathroom and closet; the bathroom now holds both girls' dressers and the closet used to be a bedroom before a 1980s remodel. Once it's finished, I think it will be brilliant. Adam is making some grunts and ugly faces, so I'm not so sure he's as excited about the potential for organization. The real problem is that in a moment of brilliance?, I decided to change the position of Gracen's bed, so that the end now touches Avery's bed, creating a bedrail. Smart, no? Yeah, until they're awake for over THREE HOURS laughing, playing, singing, screaming, talking etc. because their heads are either right next to each other or because they've just stood up and taken that one step across the footboard to hang out in the other bed. See...maybe not so smart:

So I'm a working girl now. I work part-time, but it doesn't really feel part-time. It's a good job, and most days I feel like I'm making a difference. I'm not really doing as much "counseling" as I would like to be doing, so it's an adjustment. I'm just having to reframe my thinking about it, and since I was willing to look into jobs other than counseling initially, I can sort of be okay with it. Most days. Other days, I just really want to be home with my girls, especially on the days that they cling to me and cry and plead for me not to leave them. We go through waves of this. They're pretty happy at this school, and I'm pretty happy with them there, but I miss our little church preschool right down the road. Adam and Matt just got a new office that is three blocks from my school and less than a mile from the girls. It does feel good knowing that we're all so close together during the day. There is an excellent chance that my job is going to be eliminated next year, due to our budget crisis. I'm not sure how I feel. I know that I wouldn't be devastated to play with my babies a little longer.

We have our Christmas tree up, and the "kittens" haven't destroyed it yet. Ave is more of the problem. Our kittens may not be kittens so much anymore. Jack is a giant of a cat. Other than a few Maine Coons I once knew, I don't know that I've been around a cat quite this large. He's mildly chunky, but really he's just BIG. Bebo (Rainbow), is little and dainty, and really only loves Gracen and Avery (when she's asleep). She tolerates the rest of us.

We also have chickens. Very cute chickens. Lazy ass chickens. They should have started laying a couple of months ago, but nada yet. We have Faline, Thumper, Flower, The Great Prince of the Forest, and Rudolph--all hens. They were all supposed to be Bambi characters (recent book obsession), but Gracen watched "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" during rest time the day we got them.

I had fully intended to write more, but I just realized that "Steel Magnolias" is on, and it wins...