Potty Time

I have sort of avoided potty training Natalie to date. I won't lie. She hasn't acted like she's ready. She hasn't shown too much interest in using the bathroom. Besides, Katie was slightly older than Natalie is now when we started her, and she turned out OK. I figured I had time.

Well, surprise!

Natalie has spontaneously decided to start using the bathroom. Over the past 2 weeks or so, Natalie has been using the toilet every day at daycare and most of the time at home. Her pull-up is still wet sometimes so I haven't made the transition to underwear just yet. But I am so proud of her! I don't know what sparked this sudden interest, possibly that some of her friends are using the bathroom. I'm excited, though. I guess I'd better get myself ready for this new adventure, because Natalie has shown us that she's ready herself. Way to go, sweetheart!!!

Kindergarten Readiness

Can you believe Princess Katie will start kindergarten in the fall???

We are preparing ourselves, starting with collecting all the information she'll need for kindergarten roundup and registration this spring.

Colin and I attended a parent-teacher conference about Katie on Monday where we heard a lot of nice things about our daughter. She does very well in pre-K, and we found out that she also likes to help her classmates when they are struggling. That was nice to hear. Her teacher has no doubts that she'll do well in school!

I also took Katie to the doctor yesterday for her physical and immunizations. Katie doesn't do well with shots, so I guess the good news here is that those are the last ones she'll need until middle school. Other than that, it was a very good appointment. Dr. Smith deemed her ready for school!

It doesn't seem like it was that long ago when Katie was born. Yet she'll be 5 soon, a big girl, ready for school! Time has really flown. I'm so proud of our big girl!

Winter Basketball

Saturday started the new season of winter basketball at the Y! Again this season, Cherie and I are coaching a lively team of 3 and 4-year-old coeds, the Alligators.

Our first opponent: the Waves. Two of our teammates from last season, Logan and Jonathan, now play for the Waves. I was really glad to see Jon back out there. He has Down Syndrome and has made significant improvement since last season! He has a lot more focus and is paying more attention to what's going on, which is awesome to see.

The Alligators had a pretty good game, too. We are still working on passing the ball to make sure everyone gets a turn to shoot. Katie scored a basket and had several defensive rebounds, bringing the ball all the way down the court afterward to either shoot or pass. She was sad that she didn't make more baskets, but I did point out how good those rebounds were in terms of helping her team. Katie is also more assertive this year and not afraid of the other kids when going after the ball. She is fast, and Jon's mom was calling her Lightning. Will the nickname stick? :) With Katie and with the rest of the Alligators, my goal is to improve their dribbling skills this year. The referees are extremely lenient for this age group, but not so much when they move up to the 5 and 6-year-old league. If I can help them improve their skills for next year, I will be happy.

New Microwave!

Hooray! We got our new microwave today!

This past Sunday, Colin was trying to heat up his breakfast hot pockets (a favorite for both he and Natalie), when the microwave started making a terrible noise. Then we smelled wires burning. Then he stopped it and unplugged it, afraid of having an electrical fire at our house.

I really didn't think I was so dependent on the microwave until I had to live without it for a week! But we really didn't have time to go out shopping for one until today. Colin's parents' came over as the girls were going down for nap. Colin and I went out and picked out this one, basically the same as our old one, only brand new. We were happy that it was in stock and we could bring it home today. Colin and his dad installed it this afternoon.


So clean and shiny... Looks beautiful! And did a great job with our celebratory bag of microwave popcorn. :)

Tim Tebow

Love him or hate him, you can't deny that Tim Tebow has accumulated some impressive statistics as the quarterback for the Florida Gators. And if you watch their games, you may notice that he writes a Bible verse on his eye black for every game. I know his dad (Bob Tebow) is a missionary, so I guess that shouldn't surprise me. But here's a guy who's walking the walk, not just talking the talk.


It's hard for our pastor to talk about Tim Tebow at church. Our congregation is about 40% Gator, 30% FSU Seminole, 25% Auburn Tiger, and 5% other, so bringing up Gator news sometimes brings a few groans. But this was a good story, one that made me melt.


Tim Tebow was recently at Disney World for the College Football Awards Show. While there for the weekend, he met a young lady, Kelly Faughnan, who is a major fan of his. Kelly has suffered from a lot of health issues and her wish for her recovery after surgery was to go to the Awards Show with the dream of just seeing Tim Tebow in person. Kelly actually got to meet Tim, and he invited her to be his date to walk the red carpet. How awesome is that? You can read about it and see the video here.


Pastor Richard was talking about people with a servant's heart, and he thinks that Tim has one. A guy like Tim Tebow probably has to ward off hundreds of women throwing themself at him. And here, out of the crowd, he sees a young lady with a tremor, one who has hearing loss, and he gets to know her and makes her feel like a princess for a day. He really is a good person, and I'm sure his parents are so proud of him. I know that as a mom, as a Christian, and as a girl who still has a tendency to swoon over famous athletes, I am really impressed with Tim Tebow. God bless him.

My 4-day Weekend

Today is the Martin Luther King Jr Holiday, so I was home again, making this a 4-day weekend. Our Saturday and Sunday were fairly typical ones, but today I was back into cleanup mode! My activities included:

• Lifting weights at the Y after taking the girls to school;
• Moving Katie's old size 3T clothes into Natalie's dresser, and moving out things that I know are too small for Miss Natalie;
• Sorting through the rest of the girls' clothes to decide what to donate, and what needed to be thrown out due to excessive staining (darn chocolate pudding!);
• Sorting through my own clothes to find items to donate;
• Sorting through the "donate" pile Colin made and throwing out things that his blind male eyes could not see were too gross to give to another person;
• Going to an appointment at my new dentist since I am ditching my old one due to personality conflicts;
• Dropping off 6 garbage bags of clothes at Goodwill;
• Going to lunch and shopping at the mall for things for the girls, our house, and myself; and
• Working on other general cleanup items around the house before picking up the girls.

Another busy day!

And although I didn't set out to do so, I ended up with a new pair of shoes while out and about. I got a pair of Saucony Hurricanes. Usually I run my shoes until they're worn out. My current shoes aren't that bad, but I figured with all the training, it wouldn't hurt to have another pair of shoes. And these are oh, so comfy! Can't wait to try them out. :)

Furlough Day #2

Yesterday was our unpaid furlough day #2 due to budget cuts. After dropping the girls off at school, my activities included:

• Running 4 miles and lifting weights per my half marathon training program;
• Sorting through all the upstairs toys, deciding what to keep, what to donate, and what needs to be thrown out;
• Making a run past the Goodwill donation station to drop off some toys;
• Meeting Colin for lunch and then making a failed attempt to get new cell phones (lines were too long and customer service slow);
• Using my gift card to pick up some new jeans at Kohl's;
• Sorting through all the downstairs toys;
• Dropping off the rest of the "donate" pile at Goodwill; and
• Picking up the girls at the end of their day.

This toy cleanup was serious. Although I'd done a little here and there earlier in the week, I really needed the whole day, by myself, to devote to this. Here are some photos I took today to see the fruits of my labor:

Living room: Down from 4 cubes of toys to only 2, plus some blocks, tea set, potato head, and a couple games in that space between the love seat and chair. It was previously overflowing!

Dining room (Colin calls it the omni room): Cleaned and reorganized the toy storage. Again, previously overflowing. Now the bottom bin is all puzzles and games, and the top is only toys. We'll see how long it stays that way...

Natalie's room: Cleaned out a lot of stuffed animals, some board books, and the ride-on toys that she's really too old for now. I also moved the Dora toy box from Katie's room into here.

Katie's room: With the Dora toy box out, I replaced it with the 2 cubes that were previously in the living room. One is for Barbies, the other for anything else. Again, we'll see how long it stays that way. I also donated stuffed animals and some board books from her room.

And I moved all the toy food, scattered around the house, to the play kitchen where it belongs!

It was a lot of work, but it was worth it. Colin said we now look like we're at 90% capacity when before we were at about 140% capacity. The toys we don't use any more will go on to another family that will love to play with them, and I'm happy about that. We have more room to move around without tripping over things all the time. And it just looks so much nicer, less cluttered, and I think we all like that.

Next up, sorting through clothes to donate!

Funundrum!

This weekend we went to Barnum's Funundrum!, the latest tour of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Greatest Show on Earth. Katie has been asking about the circus for a while (not realizing it only comes once a year), and since I hadn't been in YEARS, I figured this would be a good family outing.

I was right! We had a fabulous time! The Funundrum (I just like to say that) focused more on acrobatics and less on the animals than I seem to remember from circus trips in my childhood, but we still got to see tigers, elephants, horses, ponies, llamas, and a dog that liked to ride many of them. :) The elephants were Natalie's favorite. Katie loved the high-wire act. I don't know what Colin and I liked best -- either the guys doing backflips while on stilts (yikes!), or the family of motorcyclists speeding around the inside of the metal sphere, perfectly choreographed, looking dangerous but with no close encounters.

Truly the Greatest Show on Earth, and a good value for the money. We had almost 2 hours of entertainment in very good seats for less than $100 total for the family. Even if you add in parking, concessions, and dinner out afterward, it still wasn't that expensive. I think we'll do it again next year!

Undercover Boss

Have you seen previews for the new CBS show, Undercover Boss? It looks interesting, to say the least. High level executives are going undercover to work entry-level jobs at their own company. This has been all the buzz at the office lately as the premier will feature the head of Waste Management. We work with WM often and can't wait to see how Mr. O'Donnell does with the front-line work of WM employees. I'm sure future episodes will be just as entertaining, but the garbage one holds a special place in our heart!

Tune in and let me know what you think!!!

Harry!

We got tickets to Harry Connick Jr! The show is February 12. :) I can't wait. This will be my 4th time seeing him and I am just as excited as the first time.

Woohoo!!!

Welcome, New Little One

Congratulations to Anne and Sean on their new arrival! Eisley Elizabeth was born Wednesday evening, 1/6/2010, weighing in at 7 lb 9 oz and measuring 19.5". Congratulations also to the proud siblings, Tristan, Keira, and Lexi.

Eisley was a little early, and we continue to pray for her in the hospital. Much love to your family, Anne!

I Signed Up!

I've mentioned on here before how I would like to tackle running a longer distance than a 5K. To that end, I have signed up for the Disney Princess Half Marathon to be held in March! I did sign up prior to January 1 so I could receive a personalized race bib. How cool is that?

But my preparations began before I even registered. They had to. I've never run 13.1 miles before, and that's a long way! After looking at various training programs online, I felt that the Half Marathon Training: Novice by Hal Higdon would suit me well. And so far, so good! I'm starting week 4 out of 12, and made it through my 5-mile training run yesterday with no problems.

Colin is doing his best to accommodate my training schedule, and the girls are excited that I want to run a long race. Well, Katie is. Natalie doesn't quite grasp it yet. I just haven't told them yet that it's at Disney World! I figured that would be a nice surprise. :) Princesses, here we come!!!