This is what life looks like 30 minutes after we get home from picking Analise up at school.

Analise had changed into her princess costume briefly, before she collapsed into a nap on my bed.

My sweet boy loves his afternoon naps.  “I sweepy…” he’ll say on our way home.  He’ll go right into his room, asking for his ‘fier (“fire”, short for pacifier), curl up with his knees tucked under him, butt in the air and go right to sleep.  Thomas the Train kept him company today.  In fact, when I came in to check on him, battery-powered Thomas was still whirring awy in J’s hand.

(Edited to add: I just found this photo of Analise, from April 2005, when she was just 10 months old.  Still curled on her side, thumb in her mouth…)

A couple weeks ago I hosted an Uppercase Living party… decorative lettering that you can use on walls, mirrors, canvases and other places around your home.  They’ve got a huge selection of beautiful things to choose from, but I custom ordered this phrase, the table grace I grew up saying, to go in our dining room.  The conultant I ordered from, Michelle, came over and helped me put it up today, and I’m so impressed!  She was really excited at how well it turned out.  I love these… wondering if maybe I should go into business 🙂  I’ve got a couple more things coming in the next few weeks, so I’ll post those when they get here!

The public schools here in Alabama started back in early August, Brian started last Monday, and today was finally Analise’s first day back at school.  She’s in the 4-year-old kindergarten program, Tuesday through Friday.  To be honest, I’ve been pretty ready to send her back to school.  She’s very busy, and we’re having a hard time finding enough creative activities to keep her out of trouble around here.  And she loves the social aspect of school.  And I love having one-on-one time with Josiah.  He plays very well by himself these days, too, so that gives me some much needed time to get things done for myself.  It will be a big change for us to have 4 days instead of the 2 days a week we’ve had the last 2 years, but it will be a good preparation for kindergarten next year.

Kindergarten!  Crazy to think that next year at this time, I’ll have one child in school 5 days a week at kindergarten, and Josiah will be in preschool 2 days a week.  What in the world will I do with 2 days entirely to myself?  I can’t even imagine all the things I might actually get accomplished!  Still, the thought of Analise in kindergarten tugs at my heart.  I can’t believe how fast she’s growing up!

A glimpse from last year’s first day of school…

Brian walks Analise to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays when he’s available.  Believe it or not, she still rides in the backpack, as she has has since she started 2 years ago.  They love their walk over!  Josiah usually hates to see her go on the backpack adventure without him, but this morning, he and I joined them for part of the walk, so there were no tears.  Then we both enjoyed our walk… I, particularly, enjoyed pushing just 1 child in the stroller… 50lbs of weight versus 85+! Josiah and I also went to the mall to get him some new shoes, picked up some yummy Auntie Annie’s pretzel stix, then played with the Thomas train table at the bookstore. It’s so fun to chat with him these days! And it sure is easy taking one child out and about, rather than 2!

(Added by Brian): Here’s her “first day of school” picture from 2006, too!

That’s what this week has felt like to me at least that’s what it’s felt like in my head.  Sorry I’ve not been on here!   Feels like not much to write about, although I have lots that I still INTEND to post about… notably more about my parents’ visit with pictures.

Brian raced this past weekend in Mississippi (more details on his blog), and we had Kim, Lauren and Anna over for lunch and playtime after church on Sunday.  Always fun to hang out with them!  I snuck out Sunday evening to the coffee shop for a meeting… which got canceled at the last minute, but I still stayed and relaxed with my book.

Monday we had a quiet day at home while Brian was busy at school getting ready for classes to start next week.  We enjoyed a new sandbox on our back porch, which I had been looking forward to for a long time.  Yes, the kids thoroughly enjoyed it.  They buried each other, dug, sifted, molded and tossed sand everywhere.  For all the fun they had, I sure got grumpy trying to get them to keep it in the sandbox and not get sand in each other’s eyes.  And then when they were done, I pretty much didn’t want to let them inside.  We ended up having to take baths at 11am, and sand got tracked everywhere.  Was this supposed to be fun??  I’m learning, slowly, that trying to be the over-controlling-clean mom only really hampers the fun for everyone.  I’ve got to find a balance.  One tip, though… baby powder really works well to brush the sand off!!

Monday evening I got to go to a faculty dinner with Brian, which was fun.  The other professors and their spouses in his department are great company, and I always look forward to these events.

Tuesday we had friends over to play, and we made edible peanutty play-doh.  To top it off, I gave the kids each a package of M&Ms, which was more exciting than the play-doh.  I had also invited Brian’s parents over for dinner, and while I was getting the table ready, Josiah fell off the couch and cracked his lip open.  Poor little hard-luck guy.  He bled all over me, but a popsicle finally soothed him.  And of course, Analise had to have one too, even though it was before dinner.  Thankfully, they were Pure Fruit pops 🙂

Today started out with Josiah and I at Children’s Hospital for his yearly tests to follow up on his vesico-urethral reflux issues (VUR).  I was pretty worried about it, because back in April it took 3 tries to get a catheter in for a urine sample, and he had pain for several days.  The test today (a VCUG) involved a catheter, but it went as smoothly as could be expected.  Still painful, tears on both our parts, but he did well.  I’m so proud of my little guy.

Tonight was back to our weekly Wednesday Life Group routine.  Brian’s parents are now taking both kids to church with them for dinner and their Missions Friends and choir programs.  We arranged to have my invaluable babysitter, Abigail, here when they got home at 8 to put them to bed, while we’re at our Life Group for dinner and discussion.  It went smoothly tonight, and Analise was even asleep when we got home, which has NEVER happened on a Wednesday!!

Tomorrow we may get some haircuts (everyone but me needs one!!), and get ready for a weekend of fun and racing in Chattanooga.  The season is winding down…