Aww Man!

That is what Allie says all the time now, when something doesn't go her way. "Awww Man!" It is hilarious coming out of this little sprite's mouth! Not sure where she picked it up, maybe Asher? She is talking up a storm now! Most of the time you can actually understand what she is saying or getting at. Some words of course are still garbled, but she may tell you 2 or 3 sentences all at once about something and usually you can catch the gist of it. She is becoming more interested in the potty as well, but we are certainly not in full training mode yet. She loves to count and tries to say her ABCs. She also is really into singing. She can sing the Happy Birthday song, and she also knows the theme songs to Star Wars, Pink Panther, Clifford, and some other kid shows. Pretty cool! She is growing so fast!! I love seeing her learn and grown. I'm ready to move out of baby-phase, but at the same time it is bittersweet as I know with my experience with Ash that it goes by all too quickly. :) Asher's Parent/Teacher Conference is tomorrow, at 3:45 pm. I emailed with his teacher that only one of us would be able to attend, as one of us needs to be home to get Asher off the bus at 4p. She offered to let Asher stay after school with her, as we are the first conference, and that he and Allie could play in the classroom while John and I talk with her. She said it was also fine if only one of us wanted to come, as this conference wouldn't be "nearly as intense" as the last one, he has "no behavior issues" and is "doing wonderfully!" Oh that is music to my ears as most of you know how we were struggling last Fall. I am seriously multi-tasking here. I have a stack of paperwork, bills to pay, Allie's watching Clifford, phone calls to make, and I need to be out of the house in 45 minutes. I am (finally!) going to the chiropractor this morning, it has been since mid-Jan! I need it desperately! I also have to drop off a bag of kids' clothes at Goodwill, a full load of recyclables, and go to WalMart. Today is early dismissal for Ash, so he will be home at 2:45p instead of 4p, and it is his Wii day as long as he has good behavior, which he should. He has been doing incredibly well this semester. I think he has only not been on blue or green (the good ones) only ONE time! Last week was Spring Break, and wow was our schedule completely off and crazy! It was great sleeping in and having a break from school. We enjoyed John being off of work, although by the end of the week I think he was ready to get back! lol. We ended up not doing any overnight trips. The weather was gorgeous and we got a lot of time in outside, even got some color on these faces! Yesterday was Playgroup here. The weather was awesome and we were outside most of the time. The kids all had a good time in the sandbox and seeing the chickens and taking tractor and 4 wheeler rides. Allie was so excited to see her friends, it had been over a month! I was excited to see my friends too! :) We had a raccoon issue that I have to blog about. We were feeding Cooper, our outside cat, down in the barn. We keep the food in a cat carrier so other critters would stay out. Well, I had just put a brand new bag of food in there, and when I went down to the barn on Monday afternoon, the cat carrier was OPEN and the bag of food completely demolished with only a cup or so left!!!! I couldn't believe some critter had gotten the carrier OPEN!! So I set the trap with the remainder of the food in the bag, and hoped to catch whatever it was - figuring it was a raccoon. Yesterday morning, John was off work. He went down to check the trap and lo and behold there are TWO raccoons in the trap! We couldn't believe we trapped TWO raccoons at the same time! I had to have John take a pic. Craziness! One other thing and then I have got to log off here. I received a jury summons letter in the mail last Saturday. I have never been called for jury duty before, and I would love to do it! I think it would be really interesting. However, with our current situation - between John's work schedule, the kiddos and the farm duties - it would be very difficult for me to serve, so I wrote a letter requesting to be excused. We'll see what happens. I hear it is very hard to get excused in this area.