A New Look

It finally happened. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that it has taken this long. Little A gave herself a hair cut. And the evidence on her sister's bedroom floor:


Little A had been asking for a pair of scissors which she ended up borrowing from her older sister. The next think I know both girls are running up the stairs, and the stories begin.

A: "This side [pointing] is just shorter than this side. That's just the way God made me!"

Me: "Oh really?! Tell me the truth, A."

A: "I did NOT cut my hair. I swear! It was Jesus! The scissors just floated up and cut my curls."

Chris and Alexis in my peripheral view were in the next room trying to not laugh out loud. Thanks guys. How can you not laugh at that?!? Her denial and horror as to what happened was too funny. She was so serious about her story telling that I think she even started believing her own lies. How does she come up with these things?!

And to think I just spent $30 on my own hair cut yesterday!

School Days Are Back

Big changes are going on in this household. BIG changes.

Today is not only the first day of middle school for my oldest and the first day of fourth grade for Mr. Raasch, but it’s also the first day of new daycare rooms for my littlest two. Little A started in the preschool, “4” year old, room. E is officially not a baby anymore and started in the 18 month toddler room, which means no more trekking downstairs twice a day to where they store all the babies! A & E are just a door apart from each other now. This can only mean potty training is in our now very real future. A day full of changes, and I can’t believe it’s here already.

Happy “first” day everyone!!

Thunder Run!

This morning's race was on the airport runway!

5K National Guard Thunder Run + nice cool morning = great run

28:31

A personal best. Woohoo!

FOUR Friday!

Happy 4th Birthday, Little Miss A!!!!

Last night the festivities begun with a pre-birthday frosted chocolate chip cookie. She just could not wait! Her parents also had some pinot noir with their cookie, so enjoyment was had by all. And yes, of course, a slice (or two) of cookie at 8:00 meant no real sleeping until 11:00 for this birthday princess. More like chatting. And bouncing. All over.

This morning she awoke rather cheerful for not having gone to bed at a decent hour. The first words that came out of her mouth were, "Can I have cake for breakfast??" Note: As I am all about spoiling on birthdays, cake was not had by the birthday girl. Instead she settled for taking a slew of cupcakes to daycare to share with all her friends. On the way to daycare, A was very quiet and asked me "Am I really FOUR?" :)

I got off work a few hours early so we could get an early start on our adventures at the county fair! Wouldn't you know that after weeks of having little to no rain, we got a really good soaking today. Woke up to rain and ended up with .71 inches before the day was over. So besides being a little wet, the fair adventure was a success.

This year we thought we'd splurge and get Little A a wrist band to ride unlimited. She is at a good age and height (which may have been slightly under the roller coaster requirements - good thing she's cute!). At first she was apprehensive with a few rides, and we were afraid she wouldn't get our money's worth. She got braver and braver and soon she was riding the roller coaster! After about the tenth time on the roller coaster, she had her arms high up in the air and laughing. It was hilarious. Later in the evening, the lines got longer and longer, which made us glad that we got there early and had no wait for the first couple of hours. She had so much fun at the Midway that she hardly noticed the sporadic rain that fell. At one point, it was coming down pretty good so we took a Midway break to explore some of the animal barns. E was a big fan of the horses this year.

As 9:00 came, E was sound asleep in her stroller, and A still did not want to leave, but the lines were long and crowded. I was very impressed with E's behavior as she just sat in her stroller for five hours as we wandered. It was a great birthday!!

Cookie!!

Exotic petting zoo at the county fair with African tortoise

Midway fun!
LOVED the swings

First rollercoaster ride!

Must-Have Product

The entire month of June was spent without a microwave! It is insane how much you depend on a microwave. Especially when it's broken. Ours had some terrible malfunction, which was determined to be fatal from the sounds of various google searches. We ordered a black one from Sears to match our other appliances. We picked it up July 5th.

The first picture is two-fold. 1) new microwave installed! and 2) Lemi Shine! Our new favorite product. Over the past 6-12 months or so, we have noticed that the tried-and-true powder Cascade was not cleaning our dishes in the dishwasher as well. Every load left white stains, clouded glasses and just a yucky-feeling film over everything.

As I was talking with some coworkers who had experienced the same thing, I came to find out this. Over the past year dishwashing soaps (name brand or not) have taken out an ingredient in their detergents that prevented this type of film. Lemi Shine is a product that is used in conjunction with dishwasher soaps that prevents hard water buildup and stains. It's truly amazing. No more white film! Our dishes are nice and smooth once again. I've taken some before and after photos for proof!