This is one of my favorite comics. (There's even a webpage with comic archives!)

"Hammie, would you do me a favor and please stop making that annoying noise?"

Hehe. I've looked forward to Autumn's kindergarten year expecting to have so much time at home to get things done. How could it be otherwise? Only two girls to have around instead of the usual three - I'm bound to get more done. Right? Right? Yeah right!

There seems to be a strange phenomenon taking place in my house! Two children suddenly feel like the same amount of work as three! How do they do it? How is this even possible?

But in all seriousness and in thinking it over, I realize there's more to this than meets the eye. We've been out of our own home for TWO months and only been in our own NEW place for TWO WEEKS.

So we've added to the normal "adjusting to kindergarten" for Autumn and "adjusting to big sis being gone" for Heidi -- a move and a place they can finally call their own after our global summer.

I'll have to remember to cut them some slack. And myself (because those boxes are neverending!).

For the sake of keeping my "journaling" chronological, my "catch-up" posts are listed below this and the horse and noone's looking ones. Hopefully most of you are using Google Reader by now and will just see what exactly is new. If you haven't tried Google Reader yet, give it a whirl! It's great if you check more than one blog daily.

Yesterday as I was unpacking and Esther was playing near-by, I suddenly realized I didn't know where Heidi was. Sound the alarm! I called for her and at first got no response. But after a bit I heard a faint voice and was pretty sure she said "I'm under my bed". She still didn't come to me, but I could hear her. Bad news! You know something's not quite right if they don't want to come to you!

Two minutes later, I'm attempting to clean FOUNDATION out of her CARPET. There's no point in explaining how it happened...we all know. Something gets left out and someone gets curious....

I have yet to remove the stain. Not even two weeks into our new apartment. Sounds about right. :) Initiation for our new home. If it didn't know before, it now knows there are children on board.

Any suggestions on the carpet stain?

Fast forward one hour..
Same child...
Really....
But now we're in the kitchen making lunch and she's HELPING. No sarcasm this time. She opens up the fridge to get our the parmesan cheese and tells me that it's next to the "Cookie Butter". What? "The cookie butter, mom. We use it to make cookies. And we put it on toast." O-kay.... So, if you buy BLUE BONNET margarine with a picture of cookies on the front, it now has a new name - at least it will in OUR house.

This is their saving grace. Children know when they've done something wrong and sense a need to redeem themselves (or else...right?). Either that or they're BIPOLAR. ;)

I must add though -- I was really proud of myself and how I handled the incident. I did not yell.

Whew, I didn't realize it's been such awhile since I've written! But never fear...I have gads and gads of pictures and news. Stay tuned!

For now....our family is reunited, and YES what a sweet thing that is! It's been a great summer, quite an adventure, but we're all glad to be back together. (Name that tune: "Together again....Gee, it's good to be together again...")

We've completed our globe-trotting and are putting down roots in sunny Florida for now. And BOY is it sunny! Luckily, I feel like Japan prepared us for the heat & humidity.

Autumn started KINDERGARTEN this week! She's told me everyday how much she loves school. She even tries to say goodbye to me before we leave the house. :)

We're slowly unpacking and will have updates and pictures up soon.

Yes, that's a 1/2 CUP.

Two days after this, Maddie found a HUGE spider in the backyard. I found a container and Mom caught the spider. We saved it overnight (I had to get over the heeby-jeebies before I could fall asleep...yeesh) to show the girls, especially Heidi. And the first thing Heidi said when she saw it? "Let's open the lid!" Yeah...right...like that's gonna happen. We've done really well encouraging their interests and have read OODLES of bug books from the library, gone on nature walks -- even caught bugs for them -- but I draw the line when it comes to letting spiders loose! I'm not especially squeamish when it comes to bugs and creepy crawlies...but I do admit they're not on my list of favorites. And if you're curious...take a look at your thumb, top joint. That was roughly the size of the spider body -- NOT counting it's LEGS!