I wrote this post twice, so enjoy it

Tuesday morning Kate did not come until 8:15. I was glad to have the opportunity to exercise and shower before she arrived. The plan was to eat as well, but that didn't quite happen... So the two of us had breakfast together.

After adoring Kate for a bit, Mom, Ava, and Gabe went to Bubble Land. (Mia had a stuffy nose and stayed behind.) 

As the attempts at a nap for me Kate failed, I decided to take her and Mia to the park after feeding Kate again. 

Taking the two of them somewhere by myself was really fun, but also really weird. Even though I'm 18, I find it hard to believe that I'm allowed to drive and get to be responsible for so many kids throughout the week. 

Kate really enjoyed the various swings and my swinging-with-a-baby skills have greatly improved since my siblings were little. I have dropped each and every one of them off of a swing as a baby. Thankfully, there have been no signs of trauma and therapy has not been necessary. 

Mia had a blast "climbing to new heights" on the playground structure and concurring the fireman's pole. 

How can you not love her? 

Back at home I got Mia and Kate lunch and prepared mine one-handed. After Kate went down for a two hour nap (!!) I got to eat my food, do some school, read, and start preparing the house for small group. 

1 quart of green smoothie, a banana muffin,

and a spoonful of unrolled peanut butter ball stuff. 

The others returned about 3:00 and eventually headed to have some rest time. Meanwhile, Kate played with blocks until she left early (3:30). 

At 4:30 serious small group preparations began. All hands on deck! 

When you are making pasta for 30 people. 

I love small group nights... After eating, (that comma is very important, it saved the lives of many people) the adults and Chloe and I gathered in the living room. Praise after praise of ways God has been working the past 6 weeks were shared and then each couple shared prayer requests for their individual families. Even though I'm more of an observer, I always am so encouraged. 

Wednesday was a more normal school and work day. I babysat that night. (This time there was some dinner left over for me when I returned.) 

In the afternoon I got to start a drawing...

Please, please don't give up the things you are passionate about.

Make time for the things that cause your heart to sing and 

make smiles dance across your face.

Those things are important. 

How Chloe feels about raw chicken. 

Thursday I left the house at 9:00. 

Morning in our house.

After a pit stop at the bank for Dad I drove to the Starbucks I thought me and my friend were meeting at. I finished fighting the construction confusion and resulting traffic and realized that we had ended up at different locations. 

On my way to me her at the one she'd been abandoned dropped off at the power went out in that entire strip-center. So I picked her up and we fought our way back to the one I'd gone to originally. Finally we were able to get our Salted Carmel Mocas and (after a few minutes of chatting and sharing helpful study tips) begin school and work stuff. 

We both accomplished a great deal and had fun. 

I was going to take her to the church where her family had been doing science classes, but...we sort of kind of couldn't find it. We pulled over and found the address to the park her family was headed to and went 20 minutes the other direction to meet them there. The nice thing was we had lots of extra time to visit! 

Upon arriving at the park we discovered that it had been recently torn down and is now in the process of being rebuilt by volunteers. It was so sad! Both our families have lots of fun memories in that old park. The reason it has to be rebuilt is because it had been originally constructed with toxic material that, if eaten, would be fatal. I'm wondering who decided it was a good idea to eat the park and thus make everyone aware of the hazardous situation...

Mom and Chloe left for an eye appointment before I got home and a little while later Christian and I headed to speech and debate. (Chloe is getting glasses.) 

We met Mom and Chloe at club and got things set up in record time. 

Chloe and I got lots of good help with our duo and Chloe and Christian got to debate the most experienced team in our club! The report was they did really well. 

I left after speech time to run an errand for Mom and then deliver some things to Gramma and Aunt Candice. 

By 8:00 pm I was headed home, in the dark and pouring rain. (That description is not for added color and/or humor. It actually was storming and very dark.) It took me well over an hour to get home and I was praying for alertness and safety the whole way. It was probably the scariest drive I've ever done alone so far. 

The others weren't too far behind me, but thankfully the rain had mostly stopped by the time they set out. 

That Moment When...

You decide that it's cloudy outside so you don't need to take your sunglasses. Then the second you leave the driveway the sun comes out.

You are driving and realize you have no idea where you are going, or why, or how to get there.

You have not eaten in 9 hours and the last thing you ate was a snack.

You realize you spent 5 hours of your day driving and 3 of those hours were in the rain.

You try to publish the blog post you spent two hours on and it deletes EVERYTHING.


The Herd: Quoted

"That just had me freaking out, I'm going to do it again!" -Mia after climbing the rock wall at the park and sliding down the fireman pole. 

"I'm sorry, Dad, we can't serve the cookies..." -Me (aka they are so good I don't want to share them with the small group)

"Ava, stop eating like you are hungry!" -Christian 

"I am hungry!" -Ava

"I'm just going to name my child...oh what's his name...?" -Mia

"Please don't name him 'what's his name.'" -Mom

"That's just some fudgey marshmallow thing." -Mom 

"Veggie marshmallow thing." -Christian 

"How many sticky notes do I need to see in order to remember to close the piano lid?" -Me referring to the 3 notes stuck on the piano.

"Well, you keep leaving it open!" -Dad 

"I do? I was positive that I was closing it!" -Me

"Nope, every time I come in, it's open." -Dad

"Well, whenever I come in it's closed so I figure I remembered to close it." -Me starting to laugh

"No...that's because I'm closing it..." -Dad laughing too

"I want a Mango Penut Butter Sandwich..." -Dad referring to the sandwiches in Maui that "save puppies from burning buildings."

"Me too... We haven't even been home as long as we were there yet!" -Me

"It's still probably over 300 days before we go back." -Dad sighing

"Yes, but it is less than 11 months!" -Me 

"Can I go next door?" -Mia at 5:45 am
"Why?" -Dad
"I don't know..." -Mia
"You are still asleep." -Dad