Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Visit with Grandpa Collingwood




Grandpa Collingwood stopped to see us for a few days! It was Sammi's first time to meet him, but her reaction was precious- she leaned right into him, smiling and cuddling, like she has known him forever. Unfortunately, Jerry had to work, but the weather was nice and we spent a lot of time at the park and fed some ducks. Grandpa got to go with us to one of Darren's baseball games and his 1st grade musical. We are so glad he came! We love you, Grandpa Collingwood!

New Job

After being unemployed for almost six months, Jerry has a job!!! (Actually, two. One is just temporary freelance work for an old manager.) He will be working in the area for a company that he's worked for before. We are so happy that we don't have to move. We are thankful for the time we got to spend together as a family. It has been wonderful to realize that we can make do on much less, and that money doesn't buy happiness. We are also thankful for a good savings account, good health, and food storage and all the other little things we were blessed with along the way. We will miss you, Jerry! Good luck!

Jumping Machine


All through the month of February, Darren's school was raising money for the American Heart Association by jumping rope. He got really good - he can even jump rope on the trampoline! One day when I picked Darren up from school and asked him how his day was, he said it was the best day ever - his name got picked out of a hat to win a new jump rope - just what he had been needing!

Spring Break

Spring break was so fun this year!!! We visited Grandma, Grandpa, and Paul. It was Jerry's first week of work, so he couldn't go with us. Samantha was really crabby for a couple days and didn't sleep. My mom and I had to make a midnight run to CVS for some motrin but it didn't help. I took her to the doctor the next day, thinking that she had an ear infection. I ended up paying $160 to find out she must be teething. They also told me we had the worst insurance they had ever seen. This further reinforces my resolve to not go to the doctor unless it seems like a matter of life and death. (Maybe if I had better insurance I wouldn't make my kids wait that long.) Other than that, we had a wonderful week. The weather was really nice. We went to the Clown Park and the Rocket Park almost everyday, and spent one day at the zoo. My mom also made a bunch of Barbie clothes for Claire. We are so thankful to be close enough to my family to visit often. The kids love them, and always ask when we can go back.

Monday, March 15, 2010

Barnyard Moosical

Here's a silly picture of Darren being a cow for the "Barnyard Moosical"

The whole first grade class put on a cute little musical about a farm. Darren's class dressed up like cows. I got to sew his costume - I was glad to see that his looked about the same as everyone else's, because they didn't provide much instruction on how to do it! Claire especially loved it, and came home singing all the songs. They did the macarena and the chicken dance and Darren looked so cute doing it! They were practicing for it on the day of his birthday, and he said that all the girls wanted to be his dance partner that day!

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Picture of the Day: Sammi and "The Bachelor"


Apparently, Sammi is just as taken with this season's bachelor as everyone else is, lol!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Claire's Book of Immodest People

Sorry, there is no picture of this, for obvious reasons (LOL!!!)

Claire has been our little modesty police lately! (Funny that she still thinks it's okay to wear her swimsuit all day long!) Anyway, one day she said she didn't like the girl on the cover of an advertisement because she was wearing a strapless dress. I told her to rip it out and throw it in the trash. Several hours later I saw this picture glued to her water bottle. I asked her why, and she said that she wanted to save it and cut out more pictures of people being immodest and make a book.