If You Leave Me Now

I am a little ashamed that I'm not the typical mom who cries on the first day of preschool. I am LOVING having a few hours every once in a while to clean out drawers and volunteer and finally work on my family history. I have to admit, on that first day of dropping the last kid off I felt a little empty inside and almost even teary-eyed when the Chicago song, "If You Leave Me Now", came on in the car.
Tolkien was pretty excited to go to finally go to school like his sisters. On the way home he said, "School is fun!" and then 2 minutes later when we pulled into the driveway he said, "I sure am glad to be home with my mommy now."

A Room for Braunté

I promised Braunté I'd put some photos of her new room in here. It's her early Christmas present, but she has to wait until December to decorate. We finally had a new window put in and we finished painting on July 24th.

before...

and after...

Ouch

Here are some photos of Odessa over the past couple of months. Don't look if you're really squeamish. She had all 4 pins removed and stitches out on August 3rd and I'm happy to report that her second cast came off on August 17th. She started school a week later. She has been a little self-conscious about her scars, but she's doing better at dealing with it. I'm proud of her.

At 7 weeks in Lava Hot Springs
(made possible by an awesome waterproof cast cover).