And because of the football game, Zachary now does not want to spend the night with me on Friday. But, he's staying with me. He'll get to have a good time and I hope he'll forget the fact that he's not watching football. Zachary is going to be 4 on Thursday, but because Steve is in class on Thursday nights, we're going to celebrate it probably on Saturday. I'll do something special just us during the day, but we're going to do something as a family when we can all be together. He's going back and forth between 2 different ideas, so at this time, I don't know for sure what he wants to do. I'm also going to make him something to share with his Rainbow class on Wednesday night. Knowing him, he'll be very embarassed. He's starting to show a lot more interest in writing and being a part of school. Yesterday afternoon he was playing with alphabet cards/puzzle and he brought some of them to me and I asked him what the letters were, he was able to tell me some of them! I was so excited. I love seeing stuff "click" with them.

Eliana continues to grow, despite my protests and my talks with her. She's becoming more confident on her feet and now when she's cruising, she's letting go of whatever it is she's cruising along and taking a step or two by herself. Her vocabulary now consists of mama, dada, bubba, cat, dog, meow (her version), uh-oh (one of her personal favorites) and the many "signs" that she has mastered. I'm so glad the boys love signing with her; makes it much easier for her to pick up on them. She has 4 teeth now (the 4th one came in this morning) and is handling it very well! The close up of her is one of her favorite faces to make and one that invokes a great deal of laughter from all of us, no matter how often she does it.

As for me, well to say that I have a lot going on is an understatement. Some things I'm not going to share, but others well, not that you'll care, but here it is. This Friday is the Missionettes sleepover and it's a nation wide (big deal) thing. So, I've got decorating to do, goody bags, crafts, games, devotions, dinner, breakfast and snacks, awards, advertising. Add that to bow making, homeschooling, homeschooling co-ops, paying attention to my children, cleaning the house...oh sheesh, the list goes on. No need for all of us to have a headache! I do however need to get as much done as I can by Thursday night because come 9pm, the children WILL be in bed and I will be laying back on my bed for the season opener of my show. I survived the summer without it, but I'm ready for my Thursday "date" night with my tv!!

Steve figured out how much time he spends on the road (Monday through Friday)..12 hours. It's even more depressing how many hours I see and even more depressing than that is how many hours the children see him. No need to share the depressing number, but I can tell you that when he puts the boys to bed on Sunday night, if I didn't take them out to meet him at our rendezvous point, they wouldn't see him until Wednesday evening, for a short few minutes before we're walking out the door to go to church. It's the sacrifices we have to make to do what God has told us to do and He never promised us that it would be easy, but it sure does SUCK!!! He went hunting with our pastor on Friday and although he saw a couple doe, heard a deer under his tree stand (sounded like a big one) and almost got attacked by a squirrel (like 8 inches away...Jen, you're the squirrel expert, do they "protect" their trees?) he did not catch a deer. They are making plans to go out again, when it's actually cooler and the deer move a bit more.

That's all folks.

Tune in next time when you get to find out if I survived the night with 30-40 girls!