Exciting changes...

A lot has happened since I last posted.

Madison is doing well...the same, actually. She's getting excellent grades with the occasional behavior warning sent home. Most of the time it's for talking when she shouldn't be. Sometimes it's for doing something she shouldn't be, like running in the halls. Minor things, really. But they need to be addressed, of course. She's always had difficulty with self-control, though. She gets that from no one strange. *grin* That's why it frustrates me so much. *shaking head*

To my parents: If I haven't apologized lately for how I used to be...I'm sorry. *sigh*

Recently, Madison visited the Franklin Institute on a school trip. She loves it there. She still wants to be a scientist when she grows up...among other things. She has a book of inventions she'd like to make in the laboratory she'll have when she's older.

Kamryn is so funny. She's got such a little personality on her. She's very animated...and chatty. She repeats EVERYTHING you say except, "I love you." Weird since we say that a lot to each other in this house. If she responds at all, she'll either laugh or say, "bye. see ya." She hears me say it on the phone here at home to Michael, other family members and friends. I end the majority of my phone conversations with "I love you." (pause) "Bye." One of the funniest things she does is ask you if you're scared. "oh...you scared? it's okay, you're fine." It's even funnier when she consoles herself, "OH! you scared me! i'm okay...kami's okay", rubbing her belly the whole time. She also likes to praise herself, "good girl!" when she does something good like cleaning up and chastise herself, "kami, no!" when she's caught doing something wrong.

Kamryn is also obsessed with shoes and her new cousin, Colbie. She loves to pull everyone's shoes out and put them on. Her favorite pair right now is Madison's old Spongebob Squarepants croc-like clogs. She calls out to them when she can't find them, "Spuuuunsbooooob wheey ahhh uuuu?"

Michael started his MCSE class at Bucks a few weeks ago. He goes twice a week for 9 months. They finally got the class full enough to hold it. I'm glad. He was really getting frustrated about it. He also got offered a promotion at work. He will be starting in that new role on June 9th.

For those of you who don't know, I'll be starting my new job soon at Kaplan EduNeering in Princeton, NJ as a part-time Production Assistant within the next couple of weeks. I'll be putting in about 20-24 hours a week, split between 3 days a week: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. I'm excited about starting. This is going to be a huge improvement for our quality of life. I found a babysitter who lives three doors down from us. She's fantastic. She's a Christian** woman who ran a day care center out of her home when her kids were young. After they left for school, she stopped doing the day care. Eventually, she ended up home-schooling her own kids, ages 16 and 18 now. Her 18-year-old graduated two years early. I was impressed by that! She's offered to babysit both Kamryn and Madison (after school and all day in the summer) for wages outdated by at least 10 years. But she insists that's all she really needs. I think she's cutting me a break because I'm a neighbor and because she knows I have a long commute (more $ needed for gas). But, even after all of this, it's still worth it to me. Kaplan is paying me what I hoped they would.

I'm not giving up on massage therapy. I'll still be giving massages on Tuesday, Thursday and Friday nights and Saturdays during the day. I love what I do and it's great money. It's just not consistent enough for us right now.

**Why do I say "Christian woman"? Because she's VERY Christian. And, I'm going to have to learn to watch my mouth around her, because it's the respectful thing to do, and Kamryn, because it's the responsible thing to do. *sigh* It hasn't been easy. I hope Kamryn forgets the phrase, "Jesus Christ", that she's been repeating on and off since yesterday. Believe it or not, that's the only one right now I haven't been able to filter out.

So...that's that for us.

My brother, Dan, and my sister-in-law, Mollie, had their baby on May 27th. They named her Colbie Shea. She was a little over 6 lbs and I don't know how long. She's a beautiful babe. Perfect little features and a full head of blonde hair. Mollie was induced on Sunday night and labored and stalled and labored and stalled for TWO DAYS before they finally performed a c-section. She's a little disappointed she didn't have a natural birth, but happy that Colbie was okay. She and Dan both looked very happy and relieved. I just know they're going to be great parents. They seemed at ease with everything. It felt good to share in their joy.

We brought both Madison and Kamryn to see Aunt Mollie, Uncle Dan and the baby. But, I think Kamryn got the biggest kick out of Colbie. She wanted so badly to hold her. She kept reaching for her with a pleading look in her eye and would get upset when you told her she couldn't hold Colbie. But, she was content to kiss her and gently lay her head on Colbie, saying "awwww". It was cute. She kept repeating Colbie name..."COLBIE! Aww, Colbie...Coooolbieee"...only she pronounces it like, Kobe. Kamryn was so impressed by the whole visit that she was still talking about Colbie this morning, "Colbie, yaaaayyyy!" (Clapping) Then she'd ask, "Where's Colbie?"