Recipe: Fruit Salsa

For the past year, I have adored/devoured a friend's fruit salsa at every play date she's ever made it for.  I am sure I could have figured out the recipe if I had the gumption to before now, but it just never happened with my sub-par kitchen instincts and motivation.  But last week when I saw a blog post with the recipe, it was just the impetus/reminder I needed to get in gear and try my hand at making some myself.   It's delish.  And so, without further ado, friends: Fruit Salsa!

Fruit Salsa (and Cinnamon Chips)

1. Rinse and dice 12 strawberries.
2. Peel, rinse, and dice 2 kiwi.
3. Dice 1/2 can of peaches in light syrup.
4. Rinse and dice 2 apples.
5. Mix all the fruit in large bowl, adding some juice from the canned peaches, if desired.
6. (Brush 4 tortillas with olive oil and sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar.  Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes.)

I used a few less strawberries and only 1 apple for this first attempt.  And I used Stacy's Cinnamon Pita Chips instead.  Love.   Noah was all about it and by the end of the plate was skipping the chips altogether to shovel the salsa in his face with a spoon. :)

Going On About My Boy

I am not joking, y'all.  This is exactly what went down in my living room just now.

Me:  Noah, when we get back from the fountains today, we are going to take naps and then go get your allergy shots.
Noah: Yaaaaaaay!

Seriously, who gets this lucky? Who gets a little boy this sweet spirited?  Me! That's who! Lucky me!

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Then later on today, a friend had some kind things to say about Noah and Anna being sweet at a playdate.  I said I praise the Lord for the blessing of these well-behaved babies of mine and thanked her for the compliment.  She went on to say this,   

"They really are. They are both so well behaved and so caring to all the other kids. Noah was helping Adrie a few times and when Logan had her cup he told her that Anna likes to share her toys and helped her get another one. I hope mine end up being that nice!"

While my flesh would love to take credit for my kiddos' good days, my spirit stops me and says, "Praise the Lord!"  Thank you, Lord.  Thank you for how true your ways are.  Thank you for wise counselors who teach me how to teach my babies to be Christ-like. I love watching them grow in the knowledge of you.

Ha! While I type this, Noah is in the playroom lightly singing a song to himself that goes like this, "I can .... do all things through ... Christ Jesus who ... strengthens me."  

I could just eat him whole.  The verse, "Taste and see that the Lord is good," comes to mind right now.  That must be why this boy is so delicious to me. Oh, thank you, Lord, for the babies in my life and for your faithful hand upon them. I love them, I love them, I love them.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There's more.  Noah is really laying it on thick today.  He's been telling me for the past hour how delicious dinner smells.  (Anna, btw, disagrees, and tells me it smells "dinky(stinky).")  When I was preparing his plate, he goes, "Oooh, noodles!  Wow, sour cream!  Yessss, cheese! Mom, dis gonna be the best dinner I never made!"

Weekend sans Camera

Sometimes, I wary of taking pictures of all the things the kids do.  It's almost like I can't just enjoy their doing it because I am so preoccupied with capturing it all just right on film.  So this past weekend, I was in one of my moods where I put the camera down to take part in things we did together and did not look back. 

Trouble was, while I was free to take part in everything we had going on, I found myself repeatedly regretting not having the camera.  There were so many great shots I could have taken! {Sigh}  I guess that means I DID look back, huh?

Memo to me:  Just take the dang camera.  At least you'll have the pictures to show for your stress instead of only a list of the memories you made over the weekend.

This weekend we...

• shared in a cookout and campfire smores with some friends (quickly becoming my favorite people to be around) and the kids stayed up WAY past their bedtimes.  Thankfully, our friends did snap a few shots for us.

• did our first day of family errands around town in the new car.  Cramped quarters it was when we unexpectedly picked up an car seat we've been waiting to buy.  Josh smushed himself in the back seat with the kids while the big box got shoved in the passengers seat.  I almost couldn't drive I was laughing so hard at the clown car act we were. 
• took Noah and Anna to the theater to see Cars. (Earlier in the week I took them both to see a kids' matinee movie all by myself.  Big deal!  Even bigger deal was that it was Anna's first theater movie and -grrr- I did not have my camera for that either).
• had some friends keep the kids while Josh and I went and saw X-Men.  It was awesome and not just because we were sans kiddos.
• took Noah and Anna to the skating rink.  This was a first for them both.  What a fun time.  Noah was moving pretty fast by the end of the hour.  I don't know if you could call it quite skating, but he was much more sure footed and certainly more confident on wheels.  Anna, too, but that might be because the trainer skates were as wide as shoes anyway. :)
• ate out a lot.  :(  At one of these stops, Noah bit the fire out of his tongue and it bled and bled and bled.  It was a bit dramatic, too, so thankfully, the restaurant was empty and only us and the employees heard his SCREAMING. I kept telling him to take deep breaths, but in truth, I needed deep breaths, too. :)
• witnessed Anna learning to pedal all by herself on her big wheel.
• went to Monkey Joe's first thing Monday morning and THIS time at least took a few pictures with my tablet.

It's very possible we'll be back at the skating rink again soon so I can snap the pictures I should have snapped yesterday.  Stay tuned! :)

Anna's Room Updated

At first glance you may not notice the changes that have been made in Anna's room, but they're there. (For pics of her room before, see here.)

Her toy shelf that used to be on this wall has been replaced by her little vanity.

Her dresser and changing table have been replaced on this wall by her lamp and the aforementioned toy shelf.

And the now-unnecessary changing table has been relocated to her closet and serves us solely as a dresser.

Her little bitty room now feels, surprisingly, much bigger.  Same goes for her closet now that I don't have the bottom storing random odds and ends.  It feels much, much longer now with the furniture inside it.

Insert {exhale} here. I do so love a good room reorganizing. :)

Sweet Relief

I know, I know. This room in our house just looks like another mess, too. But it's still functioning as a playroom at the moment so at least it's a contained mess.

What I mean to be showing off in this picture is the fact that two very big steps have been accomplished in this space as of late - two things that have been a long time coming - ergo, the "sweet relief" I entitled this post.  

1. The elliptical is no longer housed in this room which means it's not the first thing people see when they walk in the door.  
2. The changing table has been removed once and for all leaving room for us to once again set up and use our dining table.  For the moment it's moved over to the right so the floor is open for my little people, but the important thing here is that it is THERE.  Baby steps, people, baby steps.  

The dining room WILL be reclaimed! 

And hopefully by the end of the year ...

Parden Our Mess

Our new-to-us rec room is still QUITE under construction.

(and possibly a contender for a new paint job)

We have big plans for this multi-purpose space now that it's not dedicated solely to Noah's quarters. It makes so much more sense to use it for all the following since it's the biggest room in the house (not counting the living room).

1.  Guest Bedroom - obviously, judging by the bed.
2.  Crafting Space - the dresser to the left wall, the shelf to the right wall, and the open floor in the middle.
3.  Kids' Computer - in the far right corner.
4.  Wii and Kids' TV - in the front right corner, not quite in the picture, but the chairs are facing it.
5.  Exercise Room - the elliptical is behind that room divider in the far left corner.
6.  Consignment Staging Area - to the left in the corner, you can see the pile growing there.
7.  Extra Storage Space - proven by all the other crap in the room and the two full closets you can't see here. :)

We just got the elliptical up there and we are moving out Josh's eBay selling stuff and shipping materials to his old office off our bedroom that he doesn't need anymore.  Once we get our organizational act together, maybe I can document a much more pulled-together "After" shot of this room. ;)

What Cousins are Good For

We got back Monday afternoon from an extended weekend at my sister's in Warner Robins, GA.  The main reason we went was because we had yet to meet our newest nephew/cousin, Jack, who was born last month.

But the other reason we braved the long drive there was because it'd been too long.  We hadn't gotten together in over 6 months!  That is a LONG time in cousin years, especially when so much changes with toddlers and preschoolers in that time frame.



The proof of all of such change is in the fact that THIS visit, Natalie and Anna actually interacted with each other and Noah and Brooklyn did not irritate the fire out of each other.  It was such a fun low-key weekend whereby we lived to tell what cousins are good for.

Playing in the sprinkler. 

Wrestling large animals.

Bounding around a room full of big jumpy equipment.

Water gun target practice.

And everything else water related.

Trampolining.

Weather watching.

Popcorn eating and Movie watching.

Swimming!

Playing at the park.

Baby watching.

Playing dress-up.  (ghosts)

Playing doctor.

Video chatting with Papa.

Making mud soup.

And more baby watching. :)

Yes, it was a wonderful weekend with the Brown/Talmadge clan.

My Valiant Helper

I don't know what's more precious. 

1.  That Noah said this to me first thing in the morning?

"Mommy, when we go to the store today, I want to walk with you.  I want to help you get things because I am 5 years old now.  I can help you with EVERYTHING. I am 5."

2. Or the fact that he said it while I was wiping his little bootie on the pot?

I swear, y'all, I could eat. him. whole. 

At the Words Again

While out of town this past weekend, I finished another great book by Tosca Lee.  It's called Havah and it tells the life of Eve from Eve's perspective.  So very interesting.  I devoured the interpretation as well as the very words used to tell the story. Go ahead and havah look (hee, hee, hee) at my word collection from Havah.

New-to-me Words:  polyphony, sloe, alluvial, welter, sonance, fulmination, snick, fulgent, raiment, lintel, hillock, jinked, glumes, hale, cosseted, cairn, weft, harridans, cyclamen, kvetch

Words I just love the sound/use/look of:  startlement, artless, wombtight, adroit, decried, apricot, hyssop, birdsong, ochre, scythe, untruth, askance, beatific, foibles, ewe, compote, wanderlust, hillock

All on a Summer's Day

Today we went to the pool with friends,

we admired an Anna original (her first actual person),

 we planted Noah's apple tree, a surprise from Daddy, ...

we played (or ran screamingly) in the rain,

and we tried out a bicycle built for two 

before we headed out for ice cream.

Sounds like summer to me.

Memory Lane

As Josh was cleaning out his email account recently, he came across this email I sent to our friends not long after we brought a newborn Noah home from FL.  I knew not a soul at the time since we had also just up and moved from GA to AL and, clearly, I needed an outlet for all the new and wide-eyed baby experiences we were accumulating. I still marvel at the fact that we had only 3 mos. to get our act together and prepare our minds and hearts for a baby.  Anyway, that email read as follows (and make sure you don't miss my PUN-tastic subject line):

From: Kimberly Brown [mailto:kimberlyhbrown@gmail.com ]
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2006 11:43 AM
To: Deanna; David Conner; Kasey (work); Gina; Heather Henderson; Petra; Heather Bendix; Jenn; Laura Koslowsky; Shannon; Christen; Kim; Amanda; Lee and Emily Talmadge
Subject: Things we didn't knowa until Noah ... ok, that was way cheesy.

1.   How normal and frequent (and interesting) conversations about baby poop can be (or as we like to refer to it- "poopie")
2.   How nasty formula smells and how expensive it is (did you know Walmart keeps it behind special counters to prevent theft, which is apparently a big problem?)
3.   How mesmerizing babies are... you just keep staring whether they are awake or asleep
4.   How many strangers will stop you and talk to you and the baby
5.   How cute other babies appear to us now that we have one of our own
6.   How much diaper changes on a screaming baby have spiritual parallels  (hint...we are the screaming babies to God during necessary, difficult, trying times that grow/protect us)
7.   How OK I can be with the idea of staying home
8.   How often you can say the word "nipple" and it not be weird
9.   How people will say things to a baby at least twice in a row ("You are sweet, yes, you are. You are so sweet")
10.   Lactose free does not necessarily mean milk free (btw - Noah has a milk allergy)

Stay tuned for future new parenthood epiphanies...and more importantly - pictures of Noah.  Love you all!  Kimberly and Josh 

Oh my word, I wish I had started blogging back in 2005/2006.  I missed recording SO MUCH STUFF from that time til I came to my blogging senses in 2008.  Maybe starting a Memory Lane series will help me remember some more stuff I should have saved from those precious new parent years.  Maybe even more fun stuff to document from before that ... going back to mine and Josh's childhoods.  Josh, by the way, has deleted his blog (that he forgot about awhile back anyway) and has agreed to start just blogging here on Scrapbook Brown (under his own label) when the mood hits him.  :)

The Farmer Brown Report

Our tomato crop has been rolling in for a couple weeks now, picking up steam with every passing day.  We like to pick them when they first start turning any shade of red and let them ripen in the kitchen so the bugs can't get to them first.  We've harvested quite a few MORE beautiful, red ones that I would've posted pictures of sooner...

... but THIS character likes to gobble them down before I can even get them in the house!  

We are really excited by this time to see a bunch of these little cucumbers taking form and growing bigger every day.  I'm crossing my fingers Chewie doesn't discover them.

Our tomato plants have grown so tall and so heavy that some of them fell flat over despite the stakes we've had around them all along.  So yesterday, Josh built a fence of jute to help support them.  Thankfully, cucumbers just do their thing on the ground. :)

Hello, Hyundai

We just got home from Louisville, KY, where we picked up Josh's new car, a 2011 Hyndai Elantra.  We are really pumped about this purchase, about paying cash for a car again, and for the reason we needed this car to begin with.  The countdown begins til Pearson comes and picks up the company car and THEN it will really feel official. :)

I'm thinking I might be glad I gave in and agreed to Josh's color choice.  The gray looks really good.  The whole thing looks really good actually. :)  What fun. So fun, in fact, that Noah rode the whole 3 hours home with Josh instead of with me and Anna and the DVD player.

Anna this Morning

We're headed out of town today to go pick up Josh's new car.  Anna is rushing around with her My Little Pony backpack urgently filling it with toys for herself, Noah, Josh, and me.  Yes, you read that right. She is packing toys for Josh and me.  I could repeat the chant she is saying to prove it if you like.  :)

I love watching her eagerness to do big jobs she sees us doing - in this case, packing.  She just rushed over with wide and serious eyes and asked me if the hotel would have a potty seat.  No, I said, I don't think they do.  So NOW she is trying to finagle her potty seat into her backpack.  It's important, you know. 

As I dressed her, she had to be forced to wear her white shirt with her red skirt.  She does not believe they match and I cannot for the life of me figure out how to make her understand that they do.  She has another dressing quirk that I don't mind as much.  She HAS TO HAVE shorts/pants on under all her skirts.  She'll tolerate bloomers if I make her, but she much prefers to have pants on instead. 

I just caught her eating a booger again.  She does this ALL the time.  I made her spit it out and throw it away and she came back saying, "Sgusting!"  Yeah, right.  I don't believe she thinks that for even a second.  She is just trying on the big word I just said.

Earlier this morning, Noah taught her to hum/sing the Batman music:  Dah nah nuh nah nuh nah nuh nah. Dah nah nuh nah nuh nah nuh nah, BATMAN!  She totally does it, too. He sings it, she repeats. He sings it, she repeats.  He even feeds her lines and answers to say in response to what he says.  And she says them every time.  She's sort of like a parrot for him.

Anna has almost totally ignored every baby doll she has.  But suddenly, she started feeding a bottle to a new one our neighbor gave her.  It's too adorable to behold.

And while I am typing, she pulls her desk chair over next to me and sits down.  She says, "I wike dis pwace." I say, beside me? She says, "Uh-huh. It makes my heart feel bedder."

Wordless Wednesday

Well, almost wordless. :)  Pics from this week...

Fireflies!

Opry!

"Eargreens!"

Down with Peanuts

I have not been shy lately about telling my friends that I feel such anxiety building in me this year about Noah's peanut allergy.  I am really having to stare down a spirit of fear.  Just writing it out makes my eyes water with emotion.

Ridiculous.  How can such a stupid little thing be such a fear-invoking thing? A tiny little piece of food?!

Down with Peanuts, y'all!  Down!

This morning we dropped Noah off at VBS and I had to physically put one foot in front of the other to walk away and not turn around and get my baby and keep him with me where I can be sure he is safe.  I communicated with his VBS sub (yes a sub on day 1 did not instill much confidence in me at all) about his allergy, I pointed out the eip-pen i had STRAPPED TO HIS BODY, I even slapped stickers on the front and back of him that said he has a peanut allergy.  I told the lady to call 911 before she calls us in case of an emergency and I made her write down our number.  And I may have certainly hounded Noah about a hundred times to be sure he doesn't put AN-Y-THING in his mouth without checking with a grownup first. And yet still, Josh and I did not feel ok leaving the boy to get lost in the crowd of kids and activity and ... foods.  We did it - but it was not easy. Josh seriously was ready to turn the car around a little ways down the road the more we talked about how uneasy we felt at how the drop off played out.  Then I laughed and told him we could not let ourselves turn into Nemo's dad.  Ha!

WHY am I weeping again about this?!  Y'all, I know you can't understand, but it is just. not. easy. doing this peanut-free lifestyle thing in a world of people and things that are not peanut-free.

I had to spank Noah at a birthday party this weekend when for the THIRD time in a row I caught him chowing down on candy/treats that he didn't even stop to wonder, let alone ASK someone, if it might contain peanuts.  That was the first time the peanut thing has needed a spank to make the point ... and the consequences are just too severe not to.  From here on out, he will get spanks for anything he eats without checking with a grown-up first.  In our lives, it is as dangerous as him crossing the street without looking.

Not. ok.

That same party I crossed a line I haven't had to before.  I got severe with him about the severity of his allergy.  I tried to scare him into remembering how important this issue is.  (Although, how could he possibly not know already?)  I had to use the words - die, choke to death, dead.  THIS is how dangerous foods can be for him if he is not careful.  (and the people around him, for that matter, too)

Who wants to talk to their 5 yr. old about death?  Even worse, his own death.  No.  Awful.

Down with peanuts, y'all.  Down.

Signed, Seriously Struggling

PS- Don't even get me started about what it's like to be THAT mom at get-togethers and restaurants that has to bug people about what ingredients are in all the foods.  That's a post for another day - I've touched on it before actually.  I seriously need to find a support group.

10 Ways it's a New Day

We've got a number of changes going on around here as we prepare for Josh to start his new job on July 1.  Here are 10 ways we feel our new day/life fast approaching. :)

1.  NEW JOB: Is it possible I haven't yet said what the new job actually is?  Too funny.  The official title is  Project Manager for Effective Teaching and Learning.  What that means is that he's a district-level administrator in charge of projects relating to core curriculum, providing professional developments for teachers and parents, managing data systems, working with other directors and principals on standards and data, building individualized student achievement plans, directing technology and Race to the Top initiatives, etc.  I say it sounds like he'll just fill in the gaps where they tell him to.  :)  

2.  NEW CAR:  This was the change that we were most excited about after his actually getting the job.  Josh's current car belongs to Pearson, so we had to pony up the cash to buy our own set of wheels for Josh to drive.  Josh's must-have for this car was that it must get at least 30 mpg.  My must-have was simple - I had to like how it looked.  :)  After months of scoping, researching, comparing, and waiting, we settled on a titanium gray 2011 Hyundai Elantra.  It arrives this week, we are told, and we can't wait to go get it in Kentucky.  An added perk to the new car feel is how good it'll feel to drive it off the lot knowing we saved up the cash completely and are not taking on any car payments. :)

3.  NEW PHONE/NUMBER: It's actually a little bittersweet to say goodbye to Josh's ATL phone number that he's had since 2004.  I don't know if I'll ever really get it out of my head - 678-249-8224.  That number has seen us through every single big thing in our married lives (minus our first move) and every single trip Josh has gone on since then.  While he may have been out of town often, that 678-249-8224 was our lifeline to him and it's gonna be SO WEIRD to learn a new number for reaching him.  Alas, like the car, it was a Pearson-provided perk and it goes with the job that we are leaving behind.  Along those lines, we actually have to pay for him a phone now ... as well as internet again.  :(

4.  NEW INSURANCE/COSTS:  Josh is poring over insurance booklets for his LSSD (Lebanon Special School District) benefits lately trying to decide which plans will suit us best.  One thing is clear though, medical insurance is gonna cost us more now - boo on that.  And the coverage won't be as comprehensive - Ugh.  Thank you, Pearson, for the wonderful medical insurance you've gotten us thus far.  In this case, we know again that you don't know what a good thing you had until it's gone. :(

5.  NEW DENTISTS:  While we can at least keep our current doctors, pediatrician, and allergist, what we do have to sacrifice is our dentists - ours and the kids.  :(  I am so put off about not having a dental plan that covers pediatric dentists that we are discussing just paying for Anna out of pocket so she can continue at the current pediatric dental office for another year at least.  Noah, at least, should be fine going to whatever new dentist we end up with - though I don't like it still. :(

6.  NEW PHARMACY (maybe):  With the new insurance, we can't do the current mail-order pharmacy fills and discounts we have enjoyed the past few years.  Oh well.  We can still use Walgreen's, but apparently, they recommend and have some discount plan if we use CVS.  I'm sure we will switch, but I'm also sure I'll have to warm up to it first.  : /

7.  NEW NORMAL:  There's the obvious new normal we are excited to get used to - and that is knowing when Josh will be gone (during the school day) and when he will be home (EVERY afternoon).  To that same end, I will also always know exactly where he is - ha!  He's so all over the place traveling with Pearson, that when he is gone on trips I don't usually even remember what state or town he's in.  Goodbye to that life!  Now I can participate in evening bible studies because I know he'll be home with the kids.  We can develop a regular family devo time now that Daddy's schedule is reliable.  I WILL have to step it up with the menu-planning and actually cook for a full weeks menu, but I don't mind.  One downer is that we won't get to have Josh home in the middle of the day sometimes like we did when he was working from home, but again, that is a sacrifice we are willing to make. :)

8.  NEW OFFICE: This week when Josh was looking for a new phone, he held up his current Blackberry and said, "How will you email me during the day now?  - Oh that's right, I'll have an office! You'll just email me there!"  We cracked up at that, at how we really have to switch gears now.  It will take awhile for our brains to catch up to our new reality. :)

9.  NEW SCHEDULE: Josh was looking over the school calendar and some event dates his boss expects him to plan on.  He started to tell them to me so I could mark them on the calendar that he would be gone before he remembered that he won't be gone in the same sense that we're used to, "Oh, that's right, I don't have to tell when something is coming up at work.  I'll just...go to work!"  How novel that work duties will fall within set hours every day.  End of story!  Can you tell we are so excited about this new chapter, new life we are getting?! :)

10.  NEW FAMILY:  With Pearson, Josh works from home or on the road.  There has been no office he reports to at all.  It's sort of an isolating job, not counting conference calls, conventions, and such with the rest of his sales team and/or clients. Josh hasn't really minded that aspect of his sales job, but he IS, surprisingly, really excited to have a face-to-face community of co-workers again.  Feels like going back in time a little to when we were both in the school system before Noah came along.  Worlds are sort of colliding - in a good way.  :)  I have been pleased about Josh's new start with LSSD, too, because while he IS the new guy, he isn't really. They all know him because he's been working with this district as their Pearson sales guy.  That's how he got wind and invite to apply for this job to begin with. :)

John Free Sixteen

Noah learned 26 verses at school this year, but this one was the longest and took the most practice.  I am in love with his ward/world, shun/son, whoshowever/whosoever, and everwasting/everlasting.  And of course, John FREE sixteen. 

Finally Official: A New Job

It's official!  Josh got himself a new job that we are all so giddy about that it's hard to actually speak of because we are grinning so hard and we get these dreamy satisfied looks on our faces...and just sort of drift out of conversation and such.  :) We are so, so, so amazed at how this new position has worked its way into our lives and we will not stop thanking the Lord for it forever I think.

Monday, the email went out to Josh's team with Pearson about his leaving...

From: Shufelt, Susan J.

To: Low, Teresa; Naab, Steve; McGilvray, Shari; Mundis, Melinda; Duncan, Shane; Foster, Pamela K; Sansom, Anne; Haire, Ron

Sent: Tue May 31 20:03:52 2011

Subject: Joshua Brown

Good evening SE team! It is with mixed emotions that I share with each of you that Joshua Brown has resigned from his position with Pearson, effective July 1. He has accepted a district level position with Lebanon Special School District in TN. While we will miss him GREATLY, this position will allow him to spend more time with his family and do what he LOVES to do…mentor teachers.

Joshua, I know you will do a fantastic job! They are so lucky to have you!!!!

You will be missed!!!!!

Susan

P.S. Joshua shared with me that he will be overseeing the SM implementation. This sounds like a “best practice” site to me! Line up the customers, team! :)

Over the weekend, Josh showed us how to get to his new job just 30 minutes down the road.  We got all silly and grinning again and took pictures like tourists. 

And for the first time in YEARS (6-7 maybe?), Josh has an actual office outside our home to report to!  The novelty made him swoon, so I took this picture for him.  This, folks, is Josh's very own window to his very own office.  :)  Hee, hee, hee.

For now, Josh has a month of limbo/juggling between jobs which has turned out to give him more free time than he anticipated.  But it's been fun to do some spur-of-the-moment stuff with daddy right smack in the middle of the week.  Just yesterday he went sailing down the Cumberland River with us, as a matter of fact!  But today, he got up bright and early to report to his first meeting that his new boss asked him to attend in Nashville on behalf of his new school system, Lebanon Special School District.  Noah all morning keeps reminding me that "Daddy go to his SKOO (school) job," and "Anna, Daddy be home by dinner!"  :)  Seriously, it might be awhile before we come up for air from this new job euphoria we are happily drunk on.

So proud of you, Josh, and so excited to know we'll get to have you around more and on a regular basis, too.  Now, how to make Noah and Anna share you with me?  Hmmmmm......