It Won't Be Long...

Pretty soon, I'll be in Hawaiian paradise (again!).

Yep, it's only a few more months until Ti and I get to breathe in that ocean air, soak in that Hawaiian sun, and take in all the beautiful sights of God's magnificent creation. (I'm actually smiling as I type this.) And...(drumroll) we get to experience it all with our absolute best friends! (Wahoo!) I haven't traveled to too many places here on earth, but of all the places I have been, I promise Hawaii is the most beautiful of them all. But I didn't need to tell you that, right? You've seen pictures. But, oh, the pictures don't do it justice. Sometime in your life, if you haven't already, you need to go to Hawaii. It will change. your. life.

Back to cloudy (but also pretty in it's own way!) North Carolina:

Lily says her friend Skyler's name about a million times, it seems, in one hour. Maybe sometime I'll get out the video camera and post a clip of her saying "Skyler, Skyler, Skyler" with her little lisp. It really is cute. Maybe annoying to Skyler, but cute to me.

And as I'm praying for direction and wisdom in the school situation, look what God tells me this morning: "I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go, I will counsel you and watch over you." (Psalm 32:8) Just what I need. Clear direction. Speak, Lord. I'm listening.

To Homeschool or Not To Homeschool?

Next Monday, we'll turn in the registration form and deposit for Lily to start attending preschool in the fall. I'm so ready for her to get to go and experience the things that Julia has experienced, but I'm also so sad because she's my baby. And she's going to be starting school. My eyes are really starting to water right now thinking about it. We would've started Lily last year (This was the same age we started Julia out at her school.), but we weren't exactly at a place where we could afford to send them both. So Julia got to go because this is her kindergarten year and I really didn't want to change her over to a public school.

Which leads me to what my title is all about. Julia's school only goes up through kindergarten, so now we're faced with the decision of where to send her in the fall. I know there are some great public school options out there, but for our own personal reasons, we don't want to send Julia to a public school. Period. So the only other two options are Christian private school or homeschool. What further narrows the choice down is the ever-present financial card. It would be a BIG s-t-r-e-t-c-h for us to send Julia to a Christian school here in town and send Lily to preschool.

So what's our final decision? We don't know. We're praying. And waiting on God to give us the thumbs up or down either way. I've heard some really encouraging things about homeschooling lately and have heard other mothers I know talk about it and how they're going to do it, but I'm still scared of it. (I know that sounds stupid. But I am.) So if you're out there reading this, please pray for us as we seek God's will in this situation.

This Week

It's been pretty eventful week already, and it's only Tuesday night!

We got to experience the awesome Great Wolf Lodge again on Sunday and Monday, and I can't believe it, but this is one of only 3 pictures that I took! ONLY THREE! I'm ashamed of myself. But we did have a great time, despite the lack of photographic proof. The girls had been talking (and praying!) about this trip for weeks and weeks now, and they weren't disappointed. They slid down slides, swam in the lazy river, swam (is swam even the past tense verb for swim?) in the wave pool and slid down more slides. Julia even got to play some without her life jacket on this time, since she knows how to swim a little better now. When I asked Lily what her favorite part of the trip was, she said, "going down the blue slide with you!" :) Many, MANY thanks to our wonderful friends, the Askews, for inviting us to come along on their vacation!

Thursday is Julia's 100th day of kindergarten, and they were all asked to come up with a special project marking the event. Ever since we've been given this assignment, Julia's had this idea of drawing 100 raindrops on a piece of paper and turning that in as her project. I have no idea why she came up with that idea. She even drew the drops on a piece of paper the size of a notecard and wanted to turn it in. I thought it should be a little fancier than that, so I went to Michael's today and picked up a few crafting supplies. She was SO excited when I showed her the raindrop stickers I bought! That girls loves to make art!! Anyway, this is the finished product, and she is so proud!

And lastly, tonight, we met with a bunch of our friends for ice cream at Chick-fil-A and to work together on a special little surprise for a sweet little girl's birthday tomorrow!

Not Even Gonna Try.

Nope. I know that sounds apathetic, but to try and catch up on posts since the beginning of November...that would be rough. What I will do though, is catch up with a few bulletpoints.

November:

-traveled to Georgia for Thanksgiving to visit ReRe

-found out that my awesome brother and sister-in-law and niece were moving back to NC

-found out that our best friends were moving away

-put up the Christmas tree and decorated the house for Christmas

December:

-let the girls have their first taste of Starbucks. (sort of. It was only hot chocolate.)

-tried numerous times to get the "perfect" Christmas card picture of the girls

-took the girls to see Disney on Ice!

-tried to spend as much time as possible with our best friends before they left town

-celebrated Julia's 6th birthday at our local pottery painting place and at Logan's (Julia's restaurant choice!)

-enjoyed a before-Christmas visit from ReRe. She gave the girls new bikes for Christmas!

-celebrated Mimi's 60th birthday

-had a wonderful Christmas Day at home with our family

January (so far!)

-said a tearful goodbye to our best friends

-Lily graduated to a big girl bed!

Okay. There it is. The last two months in a nutshell. So maybe I did try a little. I really, really, really hope I can keep up with this blog from now on. (I think I've said that before.)

All treats, no tricks: Part 2

So here's part two of our Halloween series of photos. Our second trick-or-treating adventure was Trunk 'r Treat at our church. Everyone knows how this works, right? Volunteers from the church park their cars around the parking lot, open their trunks, decorate their trunks, and hand out candy to trick-or-treaters that walk through the parking lot.

It's trick-or-treating with ease.

Here's little Rapunzel in all her purple glory.

A group of anxious/excited trunk 'r treaters. (Don't you just LOVE the little peacock's face?!?)

Here's what it's all about, people. Candy. Candy. Candy.

Look at that fine trunk 'r treat craftsmanship.

Who wouldn't be all smiles on a night like this?!?

Julia and her best bud.

I am positive that Lily dreams of swimming in a river flowing with candy.

And this is a remake of a picture I took about 2 years ago.

(Flashback: Here's the original candy-coated picture.)

Back to 2011, here's my friend and her two adorable little girls, out to get some candy.

More candy from the trunk action.

Next up: diehard trick-or-treating...

No tricks, All treats: Part 1

Alas, Halloween has come and gone. But not before my sweet little princesses got not one, not two, but three chances to don their ball gowns in exchange for candy.

First, we attended the Royal Fall Festival.

Okay. It was just Bethel FWB Church's annual fall festival. But I was trying to go with the princess theme.

Whatever you call it, the girls had lots of fun. Mimi had already bought both of them 20 tickets each, and they had no problem spending them.

They fished for candy.

They slid down the giant slide.

And of course they won lots of candy and prizes.

And we couldn't pass up the opportunity to get a shot of the cousins together in costume.

(For some reason, Julia's really proud to be an American in these pictures.)

Random Moments

Two blue-eyed blondies having fun on a Chick-fil-A playdate.

"I want some o' yer tea, Mama!"

And lastly, it turned a raw, windy, blistery 50 degrees outside today, so naturally, some of us put on as many socks as possible.