I'm here, really!

Wow! Talk about being out of the loop and off radar. This is what happens when you live in the country and have satellite internet. It is way better than dial-up, but when it goes down, it goes down for days and days. As was the case last Tuesday, as in not 2 days ago but the Tuesday before that! I am so far behind on accounts and email and the blog! We have been go-go-go since Asher started summer vacation. The time is flying by and I am amazed that July is just around the corner. I am spending Allie's naptime with Asher, and since we are out of the house at least 4 mornings a week, I am not left with much time to be in the office or my craft room. Today is the first day since before we left for our Memphis trip at the beginning of the month that I spent naptime in the craft room. I finally got a baby gift sewn and ready to go, and am pleased with it! Will post pics later. I don't feel like messing with pics today. I made it down to the craft room maybe last week or the week before for about an hour after the kids went to bed and John had gotten called back in to work. I got two layouts done and that felt good to do. I am missing scrapbooking - there just isn't time for everything I want to do, especially in the summer! Speaking of summer! We are loving it! Asher is as brown as a berry and his hair has turned almost white from the sun. He adores being outside and that is where he would spend from sun-up to sun-down if he could. He is an amazing helper on the farm and I am really enjoying the break from school and having him home. Allie decided she was ready to potty train last week, and we jumped in head first and she is doing great. She has come a long way in just a week and I couldn't be more thrilled! I never expected her to train before age 3. Last Friday John was off work and we spent the day in Cincinnati shopping. There was a Lego Build going on for the Grand Opening of the Lego Store at a mall there. The Master Builder was creating an 8-foot R2D2 and Asher got to build a brick for it. I hope they leave it on display for awhile so we can make it back to see the completed project! We went the first day of the 3-day build and only about 1-2 feet was built. Ash was so excited for the build and to visit the new Lego Store. He had brought some of his own money and everything. We started walking down the mall to the other end where the store is located, and we start noticing a line of people. I thought, Surely this isn't for the Lego Store. Sure enough, it was. The line had a wait of 2.5 to 3 hours!!!!!! Just to get into the store! There wasn't a chance we would be waiting. Once Asher realized we weren't going to wait in line, he started bawling and completely lost it. He had built up in his mind going there so much. We felt terrible for him but waiting just wasn't an option. I said, Look there's a GameStop! Let's go in there! So off we went to GameStop and half an hour later left with 2 games for the Wii and a new Nintendo DS Lite for Asher (a handheld gaming system) along with 3 games for it. We have, ahem I should say I have, been wanting him to have the DS for months and had been trying to talk him into buying it with his birthday money. I knew he would LOVE it. John felt so bad for Ash being so disappointed that he offered to pay for the rest of the system/games if Ash wanted to put the money he had brought (for Legos) towards it. Ash readily agreed once he actually got to hold a DS and play it for a few minutes to test it out. He absolutely loves it and I am so glad he finally got it! John was off work today and was able to rake and bale the @18 acres of hay he cut on Tuesday. He also moved the 18 bales he rolled. We figured it took 10 hours to cut/rake/bale/move. We need to fertilize the fields but not sure we want to come off of the $$ right now. The new kitties are doing great. They are allowed free roam in the house (upstairs) all day and put in the laundry room at night. This is basically just because they are too little to jump up on the bed and will sit and meow for you to pick them up. Unfortunately Anna has to also be put in the laundry room at night too as that is where the box/food/h2o is. However, Anna has completed accepted the kitties and will even clean them and tolerate them playing with her tail. The kitties are wonderful with the children, especially Allie who likes to haul them around. Oh! We named them Patches (the calico female) and Yoda (the striped male). OK, it's 5p and time to get dinner going!