This week has flown by and we are back to our normal crazy schedule…I haven’t had any time to sit and draw or do anything fun.  I did catch a little American Idol yesterday.  That was too funny…the old guy, Larry…who sang “pants on the floor” just cracked me up!  I probably needed a good laugh.

I’ve been a little on edge this week.  I don’t really know why, I mean, I don’t really have a good reason.  It just seems like little things are stressing me out. Today I have been worried all day because I had no one to watch Jasmin tomorrow.  My babysitter is leaving tomorrow on a trip with her family, and I didn’t know about it till a couple of days ago.  I was really stressing out because I really didn’t want to take a day off, but wasn’t sure what else I could do when I had called everyone I could think of.  Finally I called my friend Angie, and she was totally willing to take her for the day.  Didn’t even hesitate!  How awesome is that?  I didn’t even need to worry about it…and won’t need to.  She’ll have a blast with her kids, I am sure.

My emotions have been all over the place…a friend/co-worker of mine passed away yesterday.  She has been battling cancer for over a year.  We knew it would happen soon.  It’s just hard to let her go.  I wasn’t super close to Randi, but just knowing she’s gone is so sad.  She was a great teacher and friend to all of us.  We have missed her…but the best thing is that we know she is with God in Heaven.

I was talking to Savannah the other day when I was tucking her in and she was telling me how one of her classmates keeps saying mean things about her and to her…she is devastated…she cried.  She has also been very scared lately about our house burning down.  We talked about how fear is from Satan and that God protects us and watches over us. Then I remembered that verse that she read in church a while back, and reminded her that if God cares for little birdies and lilies he will certainly take care of us.  I think I need to remind myself of that verse, once in a while, too.

Anyway, busy weekend…Savannah’s birthday…and a bunch of other stuff.

And, I still haven’t taken down any Christmas decorations!  This is the latest I have ever had them up!  Though, when I drove to Walmart tonight, I noticed at least 3 houses that still had lit up Christmas trees inside…so that made me feel better about it.  Maybe I can get to it this weekend.

Sam’s dad got us a new front loading washing machine for Christmas.  I think I am in love!!! It’s so quiet – and SO sparkly!  It even sings a little song when you turn it on!  I love that it uses SO MUCH LESS water and less soap.  I can even use fabric softener in every load because you can add it at the beginning.  Today when the guys brought it, we also had them haul out our chest freezer.  We have been wanting to get rid of it.  We just don’t use it enough to keep it.  We found someone who wanted it, so we had them haul it upstairs for us since they had the equipment and experience of hauling appliances up and down stairs.  I only got one little tiny scratch on my door.  We had them leave the box, so we could make a little fort for the kids.  I did 5 loads of laundry in my new washer yesterday…and while I was drawing this, a load finished and much to my surprise it played an entire little song.  I don’t know what the tune was, but it was so fun and made me smile.  And I just have to say that whoever thought of putting a happy little song on a washing machine was a genius…because now I actually love to do laundry…and hearing that little song makes it even better.  It’s fun to do mediocre chores like laundry when you have a washer that IS SO AWESOME!!!

This post was originally written in my journal on Dec. 30th.

Last night, we took the kids to see the Chipmunk movie, “Squeakuel”.  It was cute.  Jasmin was probably the best she’s ever been for a movie.  I’d say this may have been her 4th or 5th…but some of the earlier movies I wouldn’t even count because I spent most of the movie in the lobby with her because she couldn’t be quiet.

After the movie we went to Bob Evans for dinner.  We ended up having to wait like over 45 minutes for our food.  They took some of the cost of our bill off and we only had to pay $13 something.  Karson was so tired and wouldn’t order, and then fell asleep on the table.  I drew a picture of him on the back of my placemat with a purple crayon.  This drawing is one I drew from that.  I taped it in my journal, but it’s kind of big to scan.  I like how this drawing came out except I messed up the hair, which kind of sucks…but oh well.

Anyway the best thing about today was I took Savannah shopping for some new jeans.  I had to get rid of most of her pants because they are getting to small for her.  We tried on the next size up and they fit great!  We found 2 very cute pairs of jeans at Gap for $13.00 each!  I also dragged her into Gymboree because they had some great sales on some old lines that they may have had like last spring or something…anyway, we found a super cute pair of capris, some sandals, leggings, a swimsuit (for $4.00) and a ballerina skirt for Jazzy.  She just adores that skirt.  Ava brought over a little tutu one day and wore it around and Jasmin was so wanting to wear it too.  And much to her delight, Ava accidentally left it at our house, so Jasmin wore it to bed and most of the following day!  I had to get it for her and it was only like $5.oo!  Savannah also saw some cute charm bracelets at GAP that she mentioned she would like for her birthday.

I did this little sketch in my new journal…kind of a chaotic drawing, I know.