It's a baby!

I was thrilled to post this picture on Facebook today:

That, my friends, is a baby! And it just happens to be growing in my tummy! I'm still in shock, even though I've known for quite a while now. I'm pregnant! I'm going to have a baby! Wow!

So here are the details I know you're dying to know:

• Yes, we were trying. After the miscarriage and the diagnosis of PCOS we were very anxiously waiting for that little pink plus sign. However, we didn't think we would get pregnant for several more months. We were both shocked when it showed up.
• I am currently 9 wks and 2 days along. We are due July 30, 2012. We are hoping the baby decides to come earlier rather than later. DJ starts tennis camp the second week of August and if this baby is too late we'll have a serious problem on our hands!
• We told both sets of parents at Thanksgiving. They are thrilled more than words can say! Our grandparents found out at Christmas.
• I have been good and sick and have honestly loved it! After wanting a baby for so long, having a daily reminder that the baby is still in there is a wonderful blessing. I do not enjoy eating when I'm not hungry, but I am so thrilled to be pregnant I don't mind it that much. :) I don't mind the fact that I've lost 5 pounds, either!
• We will have a Winnie the Pooh nursery. Any contributions (Winnie the Pooh or otherwise) are welcomed!
• I don't have a gut instinct about whether it's a boy or a girl. It depends on the day. Today I truly can't decide. DJ is torn about what the baby will be, but he usually leans towards boy.
• My head is still swimming with questions and dreams and ideas. I am amazed that God has chosen me to be a part of His beautiful miracle. Where once there was nothing, now there's life!
• Seeing the baby and seeing that little heart beat was one of the more memorable moments in my life. I cried, DJ cried, the doctor cried. It was a heck of a moment.

I can't wait to see all the Lord has in store for us in this beautiful new chapter. I'm excited about all of the changes and I'm beyond thrilled to start life as a MOMMY!

Day 21

Today I'm thankful for friends and family that support and love my little family no matter what. My heart is full with the blessings of these friendships!

Day 20

Today I'm thankful for social media and cell phones! It's amazing to me that Facebook didn't even exist when I was in high school yet I now use it on a daily basis to connect with friends - old and new. I can tell you that the past few years would have not looked the same without this mode of communication! I'm also thankful for cell phones. I still remember when our family got our first "car phone" (that was the size of your face!) and we could only use it for emergencies. But now everyone has a phone and everyone can talk easily! I love that we can communicate with our families any time we want! I'm so thankful for the blessings of the modern age...

Days 18 and 19

Yesterday I was thankful for wonderful time with my sister! She has had a string of no good, very bad days over the course of the last month and it did both of us some good to just be together. Plus, I got a start on my Christmas shopping! Woo hoo!

Today, I'm thankful for little things. The little things that I almost always forget to be thankful for. Things like dirty dishes and a ton of laundry. Or stinky puppies, dusty furniture, or a broken vacuum cleaner that's still under waranty. My heart is full of things I forget to be thankful for. Today I want to focus on those things I need to thank God for. :)

Day 17

Today I'm thankful for cheese. (Except for when it dries onto a dish and becomes cheese glue!) I love this versatile food and eat it pretty much every day. I do not, however, love blue cheese. I can't get past the smell and it looks gross. Blue, if you will. But back to my point. I love cheese. (I also love Andrew Peterson.) Bonus points for you if you own that shirt. :)

Day 16

Today I'm thankful for people who speak English! Don't get me wrong, French is a fine language and I'm happy that French people can converse with each other easily. However, when I'm calling customer service for an American company, it's really hard to sort through two hours of someone who doesn't speak English. My vacuum cleaner broke this afternoon and I talked to three different women who had a very difficult time understanding what I needed. I could almost see them flipping through their translation dictionaries and the on-screen script to figure out how to help me. When they finally referred me to a local repair shop I nearly cried when the man who answered was a native English speaker. If it was possible I would have jumped through the phone and hugged him!

I also have several students this year who don't speak English. It is a daily challenge to help them understand what's going on in our classroom. It's even harder for those students who don't speak at all.

So, I'm very thankful for English. Having the same language makes communication so much easier!

Days 14 and 15

Yesterday, I literally never looked at my computer! It was just one of those go-go-go days! However, towards the end of the day I got to spend time with a friend due to deliver any day now and another that has a 7 week old infant. I was kind of expecting the time to put an ache in my heart, but it didn't! I left feeling re-charged and so excited for the new chapters in the lives of these two families. My heart was so refreshed and the whole evening felt like a two hour vacation from life...

WARNING: I'm about to discuss "women things" like periods and ovulation. If you're not into that sort of thing, please stop reading now.
Today, I'm thankful for PMS. Yes, I hate PMS (as does the Hubsters!) but right now, it's a beautiful reminder that I'm finally ovulating again. For several months after our miscarriage, I didn't ovulate at all. In August, the doctor decided the reason was Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. Basically, I create all of the hormones I need and then have trouble processing and absorbing it. So we started new medicine in August that will help. So far, it seems to be doing it's job. I am ovulating on schedule and this month I am "thrilled" to add a raging case of PMS to the list of signs that my meds are working!

Day 13

Today I'm thankful for a wonderful home my husband has so graciously given to me! I don't always keep it as clean as I'd like and I'm not the best at keeping the dishes put away, but I'm so blessed to have a wonderful home. We originally wanted to sell the house and buy a new one together, but I am glad God had other plans. I can't wait to fill it with babies and toys and noise!

Days 10-12

Day 10:
I was thankful for the opportunity to attend training for school. It was long and exhausting, but I absolutely love learning and the chance to sepnd TWO days learning about how to help my students succeed really felt like a little dream world.

Day 11:
Friday I was thankful for a God who was bigger than wishes made at 11:11 on 11/11/11. He blows my mind every day and I'm amazed at the depths I have to learn.

Day 12:
Today I'm thankful for a chance to celebrate Thanksgiving TWICE! We had Thanksgiving with the in-laws this weekend and it was a wonderful time! I really enjoyed getting to spend the day together cooking and laughing and loving every moment! Good news - I only gained about 6 pounds!

Day 9

Today I'm thankful for the small group the LORD is growing through our church. We've been a part of a small group since we moved up here two and a half years ago, but we've never felt plugged in or connected like we longed to be. I'd given up and assumed that the friends I had in Waco were rare and unique and I needed to be thankful I'd had close friendships at all. In the course of the past 10 months, the Lord has been stripping everything away until our hearts are left bare. It is only at this point that He has showed us what true fellowship is about - His glory and His renown! Amazingly enough, the Lord's been doing the exact same thing in the hearts of two other couples. And now we're growing the close, heart-to-heart friendships we've been dreaming about. Thank You Lord, for the wonderful and amazing things you're doing through our small group as You transform lives!

Day 8

Today I'm thankful for an amazing mother-in-law and father-in-law that raised my Hubsters to love the Lord and serve others with a passion that leaves me in awe. I am so blessed to have in-laws that love me as their own daughter and would do anything for me. They have taught Hubsters how to love a wife and how to be an amazing daddy, and I am forever thankful for them!

Day 7

In all my brilliant blonde glory, I posted the following post on the wrong blog. Anyone interested in my views on play based learning can now learn about my thankfulness for my sister. Score.


Today I am thankful for my little sister. Megan. Meg. Meg-a-boo. Meggo-my-Eggo. There really aren't words to describe this person in my life. When I was in kindergarten I took her to show and tell as my favorite toy. When we were young, she was a great play mate and a fun room mate. In high school we used to watch The Parent Trap every weekend while we painted our nails.


But I don't know that I appreciated her fully until we grew up. The year after I graduated from college, I lived in Abilene and she was a freshman at ACU. She came over every Sunday afternoon for Sister Day. We would do laundry every week and throw a few things at each other. :) Now that we've grown up a little more we've grown closer and become better friends. And, we still throw things at each other on a regular basis.

Meg-a-boo and I could not be more different! She's quiet and reserved and leads with her head. I'm her total opposite in almost every way! However, I love spending time with her. We are truly sisters by chance and friends by choice.

Day 6

I can't seem to pin down one thing to be thankful for today. My heart seems to be full... So here's a list of what I'm thankful for today!

• A church where I can hear solid Biblical teaching each week. I love going and knowing that the Gospel will be proclaimed with no apologies.
• New friends that we get to eat lunch with each week after church. It's been fun getting to know them over the past several weeks.
• A fantastic husband who took care of the house this weekend while I worked through a mountain of school work.
• A beautiful home that keeps us warm and dry (and happy).
• Apples. We're doing an apple unit in Pre-K this week and as I've spent the past several days preparing for it, I've realized how much I love this simple fruit!
• The ability to breathe through my nose. The Hubsters has a cold this weekend and I'm increasingly thankful that it's no longer my nose that's so drippy!
• Cuddly puppies that love to snuggle and warm your heart.
• Mouse traps (that my husband takes care of so faithfully). There's construction behind our house and in one week we've caught 9 mice in our backyard. It's gross but that's 9 mice that won't be coming into my kitchen!
• Thanksgiving decorations! It means fall is here!

Day 5

Yesterday, Brandi posted that she was thankful for the ability to walk. I'm not trying to steal her thunder or take away the true blessing each step is for her. But today I am thankful for my ability to walk. Today, I completed my very first 5K. It was a wonderful, fantastic time, and it was way more of a blessing than I ever imagined it would be. I spent a good part of those 3 miles talking to the Lord and it was a wonderful time! I'm so thankful for the chance I had to raise money for brain cancer research, to walk in celebration of my friend, to spend the day with the Hubsters, and to finally do the 5K I've always wanted to complete! I'm also so thankful for the friends that I supported us as we walked - that prayed and made donations and that cheered me on. It was a wonderful day and my heart is so full!

At the finish line!

Day 4

Today, my heart is thankful for a Mom who gave up everything to stay home with me while I was growing up. She is the best Mom I could have ever imagined and I am blessed to be her daughter - and her friend. I love you Mom and I'm so thankful for you! I would post a picture of the two of us, but she would absolutely kill me. So instead, I'll post a picture of my dog. Enjoy! :)

Day 3

Today, I'm thankful for the wonderful ladies I work with! They teach me so much every day and it is such a blessing to work with them! They're an amazing group of friends and I'm still amazed that I have the job I have! Thank you Dana, Beth, and Leslie! You make my life beautiful!

(That was five exclamation marks in a row. Can you tell I'm excited?)

Thankful

Thanksgiving has been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. Even as a child, I loved everything about this precious day! Now that I'm grown, I still love it with more than a little enthusiasm. Therefore, I'm going to attempt to post every day - between now and then - at least one thing I'm thankful for.

Yesterday, I was so super thankful for the man who makes my face look like this:

He is the love of my life and my rock! Two and a half years have flown by since that picture was taken and I can't imagine living my life any other way. :) Love you babe!

Today, I'm thankful for my friend Brandi. She's overcoming all of the odds, she's fighting for her life, and she's walking through it all with way more grace and dignity than I walk through daily life with. She's blogging her thankfulness this month and inspired me to do so. Thanks B! And, just for fun - here's a picture of my sweet friend. :)

What are you thankful for today?

Summer

Ever since I was a child, I've loved summer for it's freedom and laid back lazy days. When I married a school teacher, I was thrilled that we would both have summers together. The past several years, we have wondered where those lazy days have gone. The summer we started dating, we spent every free moment traveling between our two citites to see one another. The next summer, we got married and I moved into his house. Between moving and my job search, it took up 90% of our summer and there was little time left for the lazy days. Last summer, we were strapped for cash and I was working part time at Chick-Fil-A in order to help. It was a hot, thankless job and my feet ached all summer. It took away from the time we had to spend together and the time we had to spend with family. That being said, we were thrilled that we had this summer to be as free as a bird!

We started the summer by allowing ourselves to be fully addicted to our new favorite TV show. We have spent the past three and a half (almost four) weeks visiting my family in Waco. It was a wonderful time and we enjoyed every moment of it! I especially enjoyed Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. I also got to catch up with several friends that I've missed terribly. It was a blessing to have so much time together.

We are now back home, unpacked, and are loving the last few days of summer. (I have training next week and that's the beginning of school gearing up.) We are packing in as much time as possible with the Hubsters' family and loving every second of it. For all of the wonderful, lazy days of summer I absolutely love the excitment and newness of a new school year. As temperatures (hopefully) cool off, I love the promise of a fresh bundle of pencils or a brand new box of crayons. As the Hubsters and I set up new classrooms, we enjoy every moment of getting things organized and settled.

Continue to pray for my sweet friend Brandi. She is in the fight of her life and is halfway through this round radiation and chemo. They are headed into a gut-wrenching time of waiting to see if the treatments are working and the tumors are shrinking. Please pray as they wait until the last week of August for additional scans and test results. If you'd like to follow their journey through brain cancer, you can get updates on her Caring Bridge website.

Help please?

I have created a new blog (other than the one I created yesterday) for the Pre-K department to use as we communicate with parents. My goal was originally to have the blog posts e-mailed to parents as we created them. The only place I can find to do this will only allow me to enter 10 e-mails. Any idea how we can set it up so that they'll get e-mails?

I have a new blog!

I've started a new blog! My hope is that I can use this blog to post my thoughts about Pre-K as well as my projects and fun discoveries my kiddos make. :) Feel free to check it out! I'm still messing with the format and stuff, so I'd love to hear your input!

Learning As We Play

There are no words...

Tuesday I got a phone call from a friend that turned my world upside down. A very dear, very sweet, very wonderful, very close friend was in the hospital and the doctors feared the worst - brain cancer. This week has been an emotional roller coaster and I still don't have words to describe what we've been walking through this week. Please pray for my sweet friend. She's young and has two small babies at home. My heart aches in a way I can't describe. Please please please pray! You can follow her updates on her Caring Bridge website:

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/brandigreer

There are no words. Just pray.

Pictures and Crafts

Today is Easter! Oh what a glorious day! I saw someone say on Facebook that without Easter, Christmas is just another day on the calendar. It struck a chord in my heart. What a happy day! Unfortunately, I've been sick for a solid 9 days and am still stuck in the house. I'm sad I couldn't go to church to celebrate LIFE today! However, I did get a craft done for my classroom and it turned out so fantastic I just had to share!!

An old sock, a few fabric scraps, and VOILA!

A dinosaur claw for the pretend and learn center! Add another sock and a crazy Hubsters and what do you get?

DJ-a-saurus!

As I was e-mailing pictures to myself, I was scrolling through the pictures on my phone and found a few more that I needed to share - as an apology for not blogging as much lately!!

This is just for you Steph! I have fallen in love with yogurt buffets lately. This one is from Purple Berri in Rockwall. We went twice in two days. We'll be returning soon! From now on, special occassions will be marked by trips to one of these most delightful places! Oh how I am in love!

I'm also in love with this man!

He's a little bit silly, a little bit crazy, and a lot a bit wonderful! He has been the world's best care-taker the past week or so! He's run to the store 8 million times for whatever new medication I needed and made more scrambled eggs than you can imagine! Love you babe!

I found another picture I'd never shared with you. A co-teacher was reading a story with her class and they were keeping track of all the characters in the story. As she attempted to draw one particular character, one of her students confidently said, "Hey! That looks just like the President!"

I'll let you add your own comments...

I also found a picture of this little sign that we discoverd in a small shop while we were on our anniversary trip last summer.



Amen.

Spring

In the past few weeks the fields have exploded with new life. I personally think Texas wildflowers are God's apology for the lack of mountains and trees and the unbearable summers! When I drive on the highway my heart fills with joy over the beauty that explodes around me. Just when everything was so gray and dead we thought hope would never come, new life springs forth! It makes me want to sing and dance...as soon as I stop sneezing!

I often imagine what Heaven will be like. I wonder what streets paved with gold really look like - how it'll feel beneath my feet. I think maybe God gave us wildflowers to give us a sneak peak into the Glory of Heaven where we'll get to spend eternity... (Allergy free, of course!)

God spilled the paint...

Moving On

The past month has been full of emotions for us. In it all, God has revealed His heart and has shown us how breath-taking and beautiful He is.

In the weeks after our miscarriage I was convinced my heart would never heal. I walked around in a stunned fog of pain. I was certain I would always have a giant scar deep inside that I would feel every day. And while I can say that my heart will never be the same, I think God has transformed that ugly scar into something much more beautiful - a heart that continues to follow Him.

I've thought about Heaven a lot lately. I read "Heaven is for Real" about a little boy who went to Heaven during emergency surgery and spent some time with Jesus before coming back to Earth to live the rest of his life. He told his parents stories of heaven and little details for several years before they compiled it into one book. The biggest moment for me was when the little boy shared about a sister he'd never met (or known about). His mom miscarried early in the pregnancy and the baby was in heaven waiting for Mom and Dad. I have clung to those words as I imagined the love my baby must be receiving in the Throne Room. I cherish images of my grandmother, great-aunt, and great-grandmother loving on our baby and spoiling it with the love they lavished on me when I was a child. My child never knew sin. He or she never knew the pain of this world. The first thing my baby ever saw was the Savior's face. That's a pretty beautiful thing, if you ask me.

There are moments when I wonder how God must feel, watching His children reject Him every day. Then I imagine how He must have felt when He chose for His Child to die for people who didn't deserve to live. The ache in my heart seems like nothing compared to what God did for me. Nothing.

Not all of my moments have been so happy. There have been times when I wanted to beat my fists against God and scream and yell at Him for taking the baby I wanted so desperately. I've wanted to storm the gates of Heaven and take my baby back. I've wanted to demand that God give me a healthy pregnancy now! I have cried so hard I thought my face was going to break. I have hurt in ways I've never hurt before. I have been fearful and teary and I've complained about my lot in life. I've told Hubsters a thousand times that life was NOT suppossed to go this way!

But in the end, my heart knows that God is still God. This hurt doesn't make sense right now, but I know God's not sitting in Heaven completely shocked at what's going on in my life. I know He's in control and He's working everything out for my good and His Glory. I've clung to the promises in Scripture - especially:
"I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who call you by your name." (Isaiah 45:3)
God is revealing His treasures of darkness. I am hearing His voice as He calls me by name. My ugly, painful scar is being transformed into a heart that beats for Him alone. In it all, God is still God and I am His child.

Breaking the silence

I've been writting this post in my head for a while. Now that I sit down to write, my heart is racing at the thought of giving my thoughts a voice.

It is no secret that what I want more than just about anything in this life is to be a mom. I came out of the womb ready to cradle a baby and have built my career around having young children in my life. After the Hubsters and I had been married for a little over a year, we stopped taking the birth control pills and started looking towards the next chapter in our life. I was amazed by the things that no one told me! When I was 13 and hated my period each month, I never could have imagined how disappointing it would be to see it come right on schedule. I never could have dreamed how many people I would be drawn to in Wal-Mart simply because they had a baby on their hip or in their belly. No one ever told me how my heart would ache to see a pregnant woman just walking by. Everyone did say that in order to get pregnant, I needed to "not want it". I've heard it countless times from a hundred different friends. However, if we didn't want a pregnancy right now, we would still be on the pill. There is nothing in my heart that knows how to "not want" a baby! I eventually had to stop checking my Facebook feed. With 23 pregnant friends, my heart couldn't take much more pregnancy news!

I finally came to a place where I was at peace waiting for the Lord's timing. I still wanted to have a baby as much (if not more) than ever before. However, I was content to wait until the Lord's perfect timing came to pass. Then, on March 3rd, the pregnancy test finally showed what I feared would never happen. That beautiful blue line confirmed that my upset stomach was not a stomach bug - but a baby! There aren't words to describe that moment. My heart soared and the Hubsters and I started dreaming and planning. We couldn't believe the Lord had chosen us to be parents for this sweet angel growing inside.

One week later, I heard the words every woman fears. The words I will never forget as long as I live. "I'm sorry, but you've had a miscarriage." Seven words brought our dreams and plans and joy to a screaching hault. The baby was gone. There was nothing we did or didn't do. There's no reason. The baby probably never had a chance at surviving so it died.

It's been 5 days and my heart is still in shock. The doctor doesn't feel it's a cause for concern for any future pregnancies and was very optimistic that we got pregnant as quickly as we did. However, my heart feels forever changed. I will forever have a past miscarriage. I will forever have a baby I can't meet until heaven. I know we'll be OK. We'll continue to plan and dream and move towards having the big family we've always wanted.

But for now, this is healing time. Time for me draw close to my husband and my King. Time to rest on the promises the Lord has given that He has plans and His plans are perfect.

Snowmaggedon 2011



My brother and his family live in Indiana. They are used to snow and cold and the like. I live in Texas for a reason - I do not like bitterly cold weather and I only like snow in small doses. That being said, last week in Texas was NOT my cup of tea!

Monday was a beautiful day. My students were out of school and I spent the day doing parent-teacher conferences.
Tuesday, February 1st came in screaming with sleet and ice. It made travel impossible and locked everyone indoors. School was canceled and when we checked the weather, we were so very thankful they had!


 


17 degrees with a wind chill of -1?!?! No thank you!

 It didn't get above freezing until Saturday. I tucked my tail between my legs and planted myself here:





Warm fire!



This made it even better:



Cua's the black puppy, Marley's the white one



I stayed put (and read three books) until they made me go to work for a few hours on Thursday. When I got home, I returned to my chair by the fire and didn't move again until Friday morning. That's when I realized my backyard looked like this:



7 inches of snow!!!!



With school clearly canceled, the Hubsters and I bundled up and went to play! We found a hill and some nice people let us borrow their boogie board to slide down over and over and over. Sadly, the pictures don't do it justice! We had fun but quickly realized why my brother complains about snow as much as he does.



Snow laundry! Wow!

 Temperatures finally climbed above freezing on Saturday and we ventured to Wal Mart - along with everyone else in town!
 



Toilet paper shelves





The egg case

Clearly, we didn't get the eggs we needed. Wal Mart hadn't gotten any trucks in three days and was severely short handed. They were stocking shelves as fast as customers were clearing it out!

Things returned to normal for a few days and we actually got to work Monday and Tuesday! However, this morning another storm blew through and now we're iced in. Again.





Today's weather

From the looks of it, I won't be venturing outdoors anytime soon! In fact, I think I'll go find those puppies and take another nap. This winter weather makes me feel like it's time to hibernate!

Confessions of a (part-time) housewife

• I have a hate-hate relationship with my vacuum cleaner. It hates picking up dirt, I hate picking up after it...
• I honestly cannot remember the last time I mopped my kitchen floor. I wouldn't recommend eating anything that falls on my floor. Just sayin'...
• The Hubsters and I gave up caffeine. However, I cannot let go of my two cups of coffee each morning. Something about the flavor gets me going each morning!
• I know 18 pregnant women and 7 who have given birth in the last month or so. (I counted.)
• We're watching "Everybody Loves Raymond" right now. The sound is off. Hubsters and I find this extremely annoying.
• I've discovered that my newest pet peeve is when someone doesn't put the trash in the trash can because it's either too big or the trash is full. Take the trash out to the garage people!
• No matter what I do, I cannot keep the dust off of our TV screen. It's the world's worst dust magnet!
• I miss my Christmas decorations. The house seems lonely without them.
• A few years ago my mom and dad sold their home of 30 years. Today my mom called that the new owner couldn't make payments and the bank took the house. My mom, sister, and I all feel very sorry for the house!
• I love knee socks!
• I hate having cold toes.
• Today for lunch, I ate a huge salad with ham and a little seasoned rice vinegar dressing. It was the best salad I've had in a very long time! I inhaled it! I'm already planning on when I can eat it again.

Catching Up

It's been a while since I've posted a blog. There are about a million reasons - none of which I'll go into right now. There are lots of updates and stories to share, but I won't bore you with details you care nothing about.

This December, my brother got married in Indiana. The day before the wedding, we got up 3am and headed to the airport. After two very uneventful flights (we flew from Dallas to Kansas City, and then on to Indianapolis), we met up with my dad and little sister and loaded her car full to overflowing in blowing snow. It was beautiful, but we just about froze! When we arrived in Fort Wayne, we met up with my brother and joined in the pre-wedding festivities. We hadn't seen his kids since I got married a year and a half ago and we were thrilled to be with them again!

The wedding was beautiful and I was thrilled to have a new sister! In true Allison fashion, I cried through the entire wedding and a good chunk of the reception.

The next morning, we planned on leaving nice and early so we could make it to a special dinner in Missouri. However, when we woke up we discovered that our hotel had a water main burst and there was no hot water. But with five girls with hair full of hairspray and a good amount of post-wedding stink we were desperate. So we warmed cups of hot water in the microwave and attempted to wash off. (It was 6 degrees outside. Washing your hands after going to the bathroom was so painful it was almost impossible! You can forget about washing your body or hair in that water!) Then, we got creative. We poured our cups of hot water into the ice bucket and poured it over the head of the unlucky person with their head in the tub. Through it all, the kids were amazing! The girls were willing to sit patiently while we heated water in little bitty cups. They were such helps carrying cups of water back and forth and the boys played quietly while we slowly washed the hairspray out. I was amazed at what happy hearts everyone had. We laughed and sang songs and told funny stories and had a good time over all!

We planned to leave Fort Wayne no later than 11. We left closer to 2pm. However, I don't think anyone was too upset. We enjoyed the time together and loved laughing together! Nonetheless, we cheered when we saw the Illinois state line! We were so happy to be on our way!!!