Even though fall is very much still in the air, we spent today getting ready for winter!  The dreaded day arrived when I had to change the clothes in the girls’ dressers/closets from summer clothes to winter.  That process takes nearly a whole day.  We have to make sure all the summer clothes are clean and take them out of the dressers/closets, get all the storage totes out of the attic, put the winter clothes in and pack away the summer clothes.  There are always some clothes that we decide not to keep.  Our donation to Goodwill is always huge after the change!  Then, there are the clothes that Avery will not be able to wear by next spring/summer.  I always hate giving those away, but we do not keep anything under the size she now wears.   A lot of those clothes are ones that we have had for about 8 years!  I have the hardest time parting with the things that have been passed down through all of them.  There were several pairs of pj’s that I had to put in the donation pile today that about made me cry!  And, since we don’t donate old panties, I had to throw about about 10 pairs of Barney, Blue’s Clues and Elmo panties that all the girls potty trained in.

We also had the pictures done today that will be our Christmas card…we took the girls to the photographer that did our family photo 2 years ago in Kinston, NC.  She is fabulous!  If you are on Facebook, you can get a sneak peak because she added 7 of the shots from today on my profile.  I’ll never be able to pick which one I want once I get the whole gallery on Monday.  I am so amazed at how beautiful and unique they all are.  Each one is so different and special!  Julia is looking like a teenager, and Bailey is already in that sort of awkward pre-teen stage.  Madi won’t smile with her mouth open because of all the teeth missing (the tooth fairy has nearly gone broke in the last month at our house!  Bailey lost 2 in one day and Julia lost 2 in that same week!).  Avery is just Avery…she is so hilarious and had an absolute blast at the shoot today.  She picked out her sassy little dress and insisted on that flower headband. She won’t even wear hair bows anymore, but would not let me leave Target without that headband.  If you aren’t on Facebook, don’t worry…I’ll have your cards to you in less than a month!

I am being allowed to decorate for Christmas early this year.  Thayer’s rule used to be not until after the Thanksgiving meal is over.  Last year, I got to do a little the week before because I had gotten burned out decorating at church 2 years ago and almost didn’t finish my own house.  Since I adore Christmas, I made a deal with him that if he wants me in charge of the church decorating, my house has to be completed first.  So, this year, because the girls’ play (Miracle on 34th Street) is the weekend before Thanksgiving and we’ll be swamped that whole weekend, and we’ll be gone most of the Saturday before that for Matthan’s birthday (I can’t believe that sweet boy is already turning 3!), I get to start on Veteran’s Day!!!  Since the girls and I are out of school, we’ll be getting a start on the decorating then.  I know, I’m nuts!

This has been one wild week!  We actually haven’t slowed down the entire month…I can’t believe tomorrow is November already!  We took Madi to the Shriner’s Hospital in Greenville, SC on Wed. -  Thurs.   She had a good report…the braces are helping.  We go back in Feb. to see the genetics clinic.  Vanessa and Matthan came to take care of the other three while we were gone.  She said she would do it anytime, but I wonder…we did at least simplify the schedule while she was here!

The girls were excited to be able to trick or treat in 80 degree weather tonight!  They had fun and I am sooooo thankful for that extra hour of sleep we are going to get tonight ( and its going to start as soon as I finish this post!)!

Here are my girls in their costumes (Julia stayed home to  pass out candy, but did decide to dress up!):

Madi – the Pop Star Diva

Bailey – the Pirate

Julia – the Good Witch

Avery – the Pink Unicorn

All three going Trick or Treating

I found this on my camera—I guess Vanessa took it while we gone.

Avery enjoyed a great day at the Pumpkin Festival at preschool today.  Here are a few pictures:

Tonight was the first night both of the older girls attended The Carolina Cotillion.  Julia went last year and Bailey joined this year as a 5th grader.  The first dance this season was three weeks ago.  But, Bailey had a fever that day and wasn’t able to go and that was the day we thought our dog was dying…I didn’t even take a picture of Julia that night…so tonight was kinda like the first one for the Stampers. 

Bailey goes at 6 pm and gets picked up at 7:30.  Julia starts at 8 and finishes up at 9:30.  Fortunately, Bailey convinced our neighbor and friend, Logan, to join too, so she rode with him.  His mom and I had a good chuckle at the two of them tonight.  Logan has been taught well and came to the door to get her.  He even let me take their picture!  (Notice how far apart they are standing!)  Then, when they got to the car, he opened the door for her.  It was really cute!  Don’t tell them, though!

Here are a few more of Julia and Bailey.  After looking at them tonight, I realized how old I am!  Julia came downstairs wearing my velvet, pointy heels from high school…she couldn’t believe those shoes are 21 years old!  I do enjoy each new stage with them (contrary to my last post!) but I really wish I could freeze time sometimes!

Fifth graders have to wear white gloves.  They found years ago that the boys and girls acted silly when they had to hold hands to dance and the gloves sloved that!  She also got her hair cut (in layers, by mom!) before she left.  She loved it…I dried it and used a curling brush to make it flip up at the ends.  We’ll see if she hates it tomorrow like Julia did.  Although, Julia got a flat iron and has been happy with it ever since.

I have been seeing the signs for months…probably a year, but we have a teenager.  She is only 12 in actual age, but we are so there in attitude!!  Actually, she is a dream most days, but we are having those moments.  She told me on Friday that she really wanted layers in her hair.  She has very thick hair, so I thought that would be nice.  I decided  I could cut it myself.  How hard could that be, right?  As I was cutting, she told me to make a few bangs that blend down into the layers on the side.  OK…no problem.  I was pretty proud of myself.  It looked good, she was happy and I saved 22 bucks!  The  next day, she got up and still loved it.  Bailey asked if I would cut hers and Julia got all huffy and said, “No, you just want some because I got some!”  Then, several of our friends saw her that afternoon and told her how good it looked and that it made her look older.  She was beaming!

I was thinking the whole thing had gone pretty well  until she washed her hair and dried it Saturday night.  She has natural wave in her hair, she the bangs that she wanted straight weren’t cooperating.  Also, you know how it is when you get a new style.  It takes a while to learn to fix it right.  Anyway, she came downstairs, crying and telling us how she hated it, she had never liked it, she had not wanted layers but had only wanted it cut short.  As calmly as I could, I replayed all the comments she had made over the last day about it and how everyone had liked it.  She was still upset and shaking her head, telling me she hadn’t ever liked it from the moment I cut it.  I did what any parent would do:  I called her a liar.

After rewetting it and me helping her dry it, it was some better.  I will have to buy a hair straightener for her but she has to understand that you can’t use it everyday or she’ll fry off those bangs!  It actually looked really cute this morning but I didn’t dare ask her if she liked it.   But, she’ll have to wash it again tonight, so we’ll probably have some more drama.

I can’t complain much though…she is so very helpful to us at home.  She is finally keeping her room clean and she watches her sisters a lot for us!  She also is so great at church.  She volunteers on Sunday mornings and watches the kids at our Life Group on Sunday night.  I remember the days when I didn’t mind watching little kids…but, by the time you really need to be earning money, you are too busy and don’t want to watch kids anymore!

In other teenager news, I had to write checks for her to go on 2 field trips this morning.  They are going to a camp to learn about “common ground plan.”  Who knows!  Anyway, that was $40.  Then, she is going with the Beta Club to tutor some 3rd graders.  That costs $5 to go but they need $10 to eat lunch out somewhere.  She never eats $10 worth!  So, for her to help a 3rd grader, it is costing me $15!  Then, she also needed $12 for a band t-shirt.  Geez!!!  I’m glad we send them to public school!  I guess I’m just uptight because I just sent $23 for Bailey’s field trip last week, Madi went swimming everyday with school last week and that cost $20 and she’ll go to the NC Zoo later this year and that will be $40.

For anyone wondering, our dog,  Maizey, is doing better!!!  It was still touch and go until last Monday or so and we realized she was getting back to her old, normal self.  She still has limited time due to the tumor and heart disease, but she is enjoying being with the Stampers.  I am thrilled because we love her so much and I really didn’t want to have to make a decision.  The girls have been so wonderful:  I don’t know the last time they have wanted to do things for her, but I don’t even have to ask them to help feed her every morning and each evening.

We had another whirlwind weekend!  I hate that I can’t blog more than I do…I really don’t know how I ever wrote something every day or so.  Its all I can do to get to the end of each day without collapsing…and then when I finally get upstairs, I have to move all the laundry off the bed that didn’t get folded that day.  Then, I put it back on my bed the next morning in hopeful anticipation of getting folded.  Mostly, we just pull clean stuff out of a pile and wear it.  I don’t know if life will ever slow down, but I really hope it does…if not, I’ll just look forward to a vacation and SOON!!!  Christmas can’t get her fast enough!

I realized tonight that I have a very big mouth.  I am on the costume committee for the play the girls are in.  I have done that committee before and it has never been a tremendous amount of work.  Well, so far, we had 4 people show up for the first meeting on Sunday and only 3 of us were back tonight for the first fitting.  I’m not sure how many people are on the committee, but it is considered a “major” committee and every parent has to be on one major and one minor committee.  Anyway, as we were fitting the costumes tonight, I realized I kept saying, “oh that just needs to be hemmed.  I can do that.”  Or, “oh, we just need to add a little fabric to make that skirt be able to button.  I can do that.”  And so it continued until I had a pile of 8 things to alter (one is not just altering…it is completely making a skirt from scratch).  I knew I was in trouble when the one lady said, “well, you’re the seamstress, so you might better decide which dress looks best on her.”  Seamstress??!!?  Oh my!  And this was just from the first group of characters to be fitted.  I will go to the rest of the meetings/fittings, but I will keep my mouth shut!!!  I’m not sure when I thought I could fit all this work in my schedule…maybe I can convince my mom to come visit me and help!!! 

***As an update on my  last post about our dog, Maizey:  she is still here but not really better and not really worse.  I don’t think she is hurting…or at least she is not letting us know…and I just can not make myself make a decision to put her to sleep.  Please pray for us all…we have all been on a roller coaster of emotions since last Thursday night.  I know she will not get better.  I know the end is near.  I just want it to come naturally and peacefully…please pray God will be merciful on us all by letting her go pain-free in the night.***

Last week was one that was so busy, I had to keep my calendar with me at all times!  I never even used to keep a calendar…I would write down important dates on notes on the fridge.  But, now I almost need a color-coded 3 ring binder to keep our schedules straight.  Between our jobs, dance, play practice, various after school activities, we were non-stop last week.

To top it off, our 10 year old dog, Maizey, started acting strange on Thursday  night.  She has been showing signs of age for about 2 years.  We got the new dog last year hoping to see some rejuvenation…and we have.  She is also taking senior adult dog vitamins and a chronic joint medicine.  This, in addition to sleeping in the garage where it isn’t so cold in the winter has seemed to help somewhat.  But, Thursday night, her breathing was very labored and she was “crying.”  There was no change Friday morning, so Thayer called the vet.  They could not see her until 2 pm.  We always thought we would have time to see a gradual diminishing before we had to make tough decisions, but she was very sick and we love her too much to watch her suffer.  She had not been eating or drinking for about 12 hours.  The girls were devastated and ended up not going to school.  We all cried all day.

When we went to the vet’s, she rallied.  He said that happens a lot due to animals being so nervous about being there.  She seemed like she was back to her normal, but aged, self.  We found out she does have a mammary tumor and probable heart disease based on the exam.  Her time is limited…the life expectancy for labs is around 11 or 12 years and she 10 1/2.  But, I couldn’t do it.  I begged the vet and Thayer to let us bring her home for observation for another day or so.  I was hoping it was just an infection or something temporary.

By late Friday night,  I was thinking I had made a mistake…she was no better when we got home.  I had to pick up Julia from her first Cotillion of the year and when we got back about 10 pm, Maizey was walking around the yard.  She had eaten all the food I had left out and drank a bowl of water.  Then, this morning, she ate again and drank tons of water.  But,  she is still walking very slowly and sleeps all the time. She ate a little more before bed time tonight.

We are so torn!  We know we have one more day to observe her:  the vet isn’t open on Sunday.  She is so special to all of us…most especially to Thayer.  He trained her and spent hours and hours with her.  She even brought her ball to him on Friday morning when she was so sick.  We wish that she’d either be totally back to her normal self  (which is still old and we know there isn’t that much time left) or that she would pass away peacefully in her sleep.  We do not want to have to decide whether or not to take her back next week.

Watching her is horrible.  She doesn’t appear to be in that much pain…that is the only consolation for us.  The breathing has gotten better and she is eating, but she still is not right.  Why or why do we let ourselves get so close to our pets?!?  I’ll risk being thought of as a crazy lady and go ahead and ask for prayer for her, but mainly for us as we deal with decisions and possibly the loss of our sweet Maizey this week.

Well, over the last two weeks, my life has gotten crazy!  When school started back, I expected it to be so busy, busy, busy like it usually is, but it wasn’t.  We had some quiet nights and lazy weekends.  I didn’t say anything though, because I was afraid to jinx us.  And, it appears I did anyway.  We really cut back on the activities for the girls (or so I thought!) this year.  No soccer or piano lessons this year.  Thayer had to take over the youth at church over the summer and we wanted to make sure that, since our church responsibilities were more, we didn’t overschedule ourselves.

Bailey, Madi and Avery all take 1 hour of dance…and its all on Thursday, except that there is a 2 hour gap between two of their classes.  Julia and Bailey are both in the Carolina Cotillion, which only meets one weekend night a month beginning next week.  Now, Julia, Bailey and Madi have all auditioned for and got a part in a play that will run Nov. 20-22 and that requires 3 practices a week.  Julia is playing in the student band on Wednesday, so she has to be at church  around 4 that day for rehearsal.  Bailey is also on the Safety Patrol so she has to be at school early or stay late.  And, the dropping off/picking up at 2 schools is no fun!  We got spoiled last year when we carpooled with a neighbor.  It doesn’t seem like that much compared to some schedules we’ve had, but between school, church work, homework and trying to keep up with laundry and housework, I am always going!

We have made a committment to eat at home so I have been cooking Monday and Tuesday nights.  That leaves leftovers for Wednesday and Thursday (or we do frozen pizzas) and we usually have invitations to eat with someone on one of the weekend nights.  Our Life Group meets here on Sunday nights, and we all contribute to the meal for that night.  I am enjoying being at home more for meals because we really talk more when we are around our own table…less distractions, I guess.

So, I guess its just not in the cards for us to be home-bodies!  We love the craziness of it, but wish that we could just relax and have nothing to do every now and then.  Nah, we’d be bored and find something to do anyway!

I’ve mentioned before that this is the longest we have lived in one house since we got married.  After  moving 8 times in 10 years, we settled in this brand new construction on May 25, 2005.  A few weeks ago, I was walking to the bathroom downstairs and got a little too close to the french door that goes out to the patio.  There was a dip in the floor right next to the door.  I called Thayer down to look at it and he said it was probably rotten wood where the water splashes up from the patio or termite damage.

We called someone to look at it, and sure enough, it is rotten wood from water damage…but they saw a few small termites.  So, we’ll have a bill to fix the floor (and the linoleum had to be cut to get to the damage…that will just be glued back down and covered with a large rug), put up gutters on the back of the house and we’ll have to have a termite treatment.  Yay!  Just what I wanted to be paying on right when I normally start Christmas shopping.

I know when you own a home, you have to be ready for repairs, but honestly, after just 4 years!  My parents have lived in their house over 30 years and they have never had rotten wood by their door leading out to their patio.  The neighborhood we live in has nice houses, but people are having issues you shouldn’t be having this soon.  Our carpet began “buckle-ing” last year in every room.  The guys who did the carpet at church for us told us that when you use fairly cheap carpet and don’t uses an electric stretcher, that happens.  Oneof our neighbors had theirs fixed and the guy had to cut almost 3 inches off the edge of each room when he had finished stretching it.

All of this right when we wanted to start changing some of the paint colors…when you’ve never lived anywhere over 3 1/2 years, you are not used to being stuck with the same color bedrooms!  We are actually going out today to check out a clearance sale at Target.  We saw the comforters on clearance last Thursday and I told the girls if they were still there this week, we’d get them.  But, we aren’t redecorating until next summer.  They were a really good deal (twins for just $14) but we don’t have time to paint during the school year.  Now, I’m wondering if we should be worried about paint and bedspreads, or if we should put our money away for the next big project due to a shoddy builder.

Here’s the hole in my floor…they are getting supplies at Lowe’s to fix it right now.  The cats are locked in my bedroom…the old one wouldn’t mean to, but might fall in.  The younger one would jump in on purpose!

Even the beams under the floor are damaged.

These are the pieces of wood they tore out…don’t know why the dogs’ bowls are on the wood!