somebody turned 7 months old last week!

here's rachel at 7 months:




whoa. a lot of posts in one day.

I WANT EVERYONE TO WATCH THIS...

...because someone out there must know what these people were thinking. if you do, please tell me. i'm dying to know.

sunday night is becoming my weekly sit-down-and-see-what-sales-there-are-this-week night.

just in case anyone cares and/or shops at kroger, it's 10 for $10 MANIA at kroger this week. there's a lot of stuff you can get 10 of for $10.

dude, i'm stocking up on rice!



and in more interesting news, not only is lucas a crawling machine, but he definitely pulled up to his knees today, then let go... the child balanced upright on his knees! next week he's going to be on the roof at this rate.

Supermodel Babies

Quote (or Conversation) of the Day

rachel: "you should make some laundry." 

me: "i should make some laundry? why?"

rachel: "so the clothes can be clean."

me: "what clothes?"

r: "the clothes in the closet."

me: "well, the clothes in the closet are clean."

r: "oh... (*pause*)  you should make some laundry. put the clothes in the washing mcwasher."

this week's cubbies verse: God is true...  John 3:33

My New Hobby

coupons.

and weekly store circulars.

i think i'm addicted.

i've started a nice little collection of coupons and i've been regularly checking harris teeter's, kroger's, walgreen's, and cvs's store circulars for a couple weeks now. i went to harris teeter on saturday b/c their sales were ridiculous. i always thought harris teeter was too expensive (and if you just go and shop without paying attention to the sales it's waaaay too expensive), but there were a bunch of things that were buy 2 get 3 free (i definitely came home with 10 boxes of hamburger helper, 10 boxes of macaroni and cheese, and 10 boxes or spaghetti noodles... i paid for 12 of the 30 boxes!) and a cart load (literally) of buy 1 get 1 free things. when i checked out i had about $100 worth of groceries in my cart. the sort-of friendly cashier lady hit the total button and it was cut almost in half to $54! i had a coupon for the hamburger helpers (that she oh so friendily scanned a few times) that brought it down to $50!

i'm sure i'm boring most of you, but this is a lot more fun that i thought it would be. it's kind of like a challenging game.

Uh-Oh! Here We Go!

in other news, i had my first night of symphony rehearsal last night and i really enjoyed it. i was nervous b/c i didn't know what to expect. fortunately, everyone was sightreading all the music (and it's not easy music) so my mistakes had a lot of company :). i forgot how exciting it is to sit right in front of the basses and the brass section. i forgot how challenging it is to follow an unfamiliar conductor. i forgot how hard it is to sightread something that you don't know how it goes. i forgot how much my back could hurt after 3 hours of playing. i seriously felt like i had just done an intense tae-bo workout. stringed instruments take a lot more muscle than you'd originally think! i must have been a beast in high school. i have some practicing to do!

since a lot of people have asked, here's the concert info i know so far. i thought there were 2 concerts but it looks like there's only 1 this semester. it's on november 16th @ 4pm in the stewart theater at nc state. i don't know how much tickets are or if you need to buy them ahead of time or not. i'm sure there are answers online :).

Lucas News

since i've been writing a lot about rachel lately, i figure it's time for a little man lucas update. when he was trying to figure out how to sit up, all he wanted to do was for you to sit behind him so he could practice sitting. he didn't want to be on his back or belly, he just wanted to sit up. well, sitting up is old news now. he's currently spending all his time back on his belly trying to crawl. he's probably spending about 92% of his awake time trying to crawl. seriously. and he's really close. he can take an honest-to-goodness crawling step with a leg and a hand, then he'll usually fall on his belly. instantly, he's back on his hands and knees ready for another go. it's slow going, but he does manage to get himself across a room, usually towards something he shouldn't touch. i haven't had to think about baby-proofing for a while now! here we go!

more pictures to come.

Cubbies Night #3

rachel was the most excited about cubbies last night than she's ever been. when we got home she actually asked if she could go to cubbies again. she had 2 verses to say this week, which she did successfully (she yelled it to me from across the children's center when she saw me come in).

all the kids that did their verses last night were completing the cubbies brochure and were then able to get their very own cubbies handbook. again, i tried to prepare myself just in case she got shy and didn't say her verses and didn't get her book... i mean, she's only 2 (3 next month!). all the parents came in and they had a little mini-ceremony to announce who was getting their book. i wish i had known they were doing this b/c i would have brought my camera! i definitely felt like some kind of pta mom standing in the back watching all the kids sitting in their seats. if they got their name called they got to run up and give their teacher a high five accompanied by thunderous applause. i still didn't know if she would be getting a book so i was almost holding my breath... then i heard "and last, but certainly not least, rachel wade!" she wasn't really paying attention due to the fact she was sitting backwards in her seat so she could smile at me, but once she realized it was her turn she ran up to the front. 

little cubbies handbook is the first thing (that i can think of) that my daughter has actually earned. they don't just pass them out if your kid shows up. they have to have completed 2 weeks of their verses. every kid didn't get a book last night. now the verses she says will earn her little patches i get to put on her cubbies vest (which she'll earn in another 2 weeks!).

this week's verse: ...everything He had made was very good... Genesis 1:31

in other news, i start the symphony tonight @ 7:15pm. hopefully i won't make a complete spectacle of myself.

so there a million products out there that are supposed to make your kid smart for you. you're supposed to dangle all kinds of stimulating, brightly colored educational toys in their faces that teach them the alphabet, the canterbury tales, and classical greek, all the while blasting the mozart in the background. i'm all about educating children, but there's something i've noticed over the past almost 3 years...

even with all of these amazing educational tools at her disposal in this amazing country we call america, she'd much rather play with rocks and tufts of our dog's hair. maybe i should make my own line of toys consisting of cardboard boxes, clumps of dirt, and dried up baby wipes. gotta give the public what they want.

A Day At A Farm

a couple weekends ago we got the privilege of feeding some farm animals belonging to our good church friends, the graingers. rachel couldn't have been more thrilled to see the animals (3 cats, 4 kittens, daisy the dog, sarah the other dog, muffin the basset hound, twinkie the pig, pippin the goat, and some very intrusive ducks). it was a fun family saturday :).

Fun Day at the Park for a Labor Day Picnic :)

Since I Know You're All On the Edge of Your Seats With Anticipation...

... rachel said her verse to her cubbies teacher on sunday night and got a sticker! if she does it again this week, she'll be able to move on to her big girl official cubbies handbook.

she was so excited when i picked her up from cubbies. she told me they played with bubbles and that she used the potty and that she said her verse and then she proceeded to sing "he's got the whole world in his hands" for about 3 minutes straight, including such verses as "he's got you and me and michael..." and "he's got all our friends..." i think they sang that song in cubbies. call it a hunch.

this week's memory verses:

"...all have sinned..." romans 3:23

"while we were sinners, Christ died for us..." romans 5:8

rachel has them down all expect for the 3:23 and the word "died." :)