Thankful Thursday

1. Nadia had fun with Paul wading in a stream (she caught a crayfish) and testing the pH level of the water at her Stream Study class last Thursday.

2. Nadia loves the trophy that Paul and Trisha (other coach) bought for each of the girls on their soccer team. I am grateful that we get a break from practices and games as those ended last week (until the basketball season starts up anyhow). I also kept forgetting to mention that Nadia's team had a name! The last three seasons she really wanted the team to have a name, but they didn't. This fall her team was called the Blue Cheetahs. Blue because of the color of their uniforms, and cheetahs because they run SO fast.

3. The weather turned BEAUTIFUL on Friday, and it continued to be pretty every day since then. In hindsight, it would have been a better weekend for going to Ard's or Knoebels or Hershey Park, but hindsight is always 20/20 as they say! The warmest day was Tuesday when the high was in the high 70's! Wow! We took advantage of the warmer weather by spending time at a playground every day, and we also have been walking farther than usual (3 miles on Monday and 2.8 miles on Tuesday).

4. Oliver slept until EIGHT on Friday morning. The latest he had slept over the previous week was 6:00 although some mornings he woke up at 5:45 and then fell back asleep and got up at 6:30. Ian also usually gets up too early, but he slept until 7:00 that morning and then he fell asleep in bed with me (Paul was at school) until Oliver woke up at 8:00. I was incredibly thankful to get more rest than usual that night, especially as I had stayed up until 10:30 the night before because I couldn't put a book down that I was reading. They boys also slept until 7:00 on Sunday morning, which was appreciated. Hopefully it won't take them TOO long to adjust to the time change happening this weekend.

5. Oliver didn't have any accidents last Thursday, which was the 5th time that happened this month. Then he really surprised me and had four consecutive days without accidents (Thursday-Sunday). Prior to that he hadn't even had two days in a row without accidents so that was impressive. Sadly, he totally fell apart the past three days. He peed on the carpet more yesterday than he had in the past six weeks. I have stopped taking the froggy potty into church on Wednesday nights or
to ladies Bible study on Tuesday mornings. Sunday morning is now the only time I drag the potty into another building, although I frequently still take it in the van.

6. Paul's mom had her 3rd chemo treatment (this cycle anyhow) last Thursday and so far she hasn't gotten pneumonia during her time of a weakened immune system. PTL! Hopefully next month will be her last chemo treatment. We're looking forward to celebrating her 70th birthday with her next week!

7. I finally got back in gear as far as submitting job applications for Paul. Over the past several days I submitted eight more for him, and I have one more on the list yet to do.  The first ten applications for jobs for next year have gone to the following states: PA (3), WV (1), NJ (1), GA (1), SC (1), and NC (3). Please pray that he'll start getting invitations to interview. We'd love for it to take fewer applications this time around, which also would mean fewer months of interviews and being in suspense.

8. The gas prices have been down to $3.05 lately! That is a big improvement and is especially appreciated with the minivan, which doesn't get the greatest gas mileage.

9. I forgot to mention this on a previous "Thankful" post, but I took the kids to a new dentist earlier this month. We had to switch because of the change in our dental insurance. The kids did really well! They didn't have any toys in the waiting room (the other dentist had a train table), but they did have a tv. Next time I'll bring some toys or books for Oliver. I knew that four of Nadia's teeth were wiggly. The dentist said to really work on wiggling one of the loose ones on the bottom because the permanent tooth is really ready to come in there. The kids were bummed about not getting a big balloon at the end (the other dentist gave them out), but they did love their new toothbrushes (Ian's was a mutant ninja turtle one).

10. I switched Nadia to a 6:30-8:00 gymnastics class two weeks ago because Paul can pick her up at 8:00. It has been nice just being able to drop her
off so I don't have to spend 90 minutes at the library with the boys (it's hard to keep them quiet and out of trouble for that length of time there). Now it looks like I'm going to switch them to a homeschooling gymnastics class on Thursday afternoons at the same gym, and Ian and Nadia will both be in the class! It will be a much smaller class so I'm looking forward to the individualized attention they'll receive. Ian isn't going to do basketball so I'm glad he'll have gymnastics.

11. The kids enjoyed attending the Trunk or Treat event at the Methodist church on Sunday afternoon and a Halloween party at the library yesterday evening.

12. We've been enjoying pumpkin raisin cookies this week, and on Tuesday I made some delicious pumpkin waffles (thank goodness they were yummy because the recipe was more complicated than I envisioned when I thought of making waffles).

Can you identify each bumblebee below? Two of the photos were taken in 2011 (Nadia was 3, and Ian was almost 2 years old), and one was taken yesterday.