Hello! Well, last night I nursed the baby only ONE time. The two previous nights I didn't nurse her at all during the night. On average, now, she's being nursed once a day (so I won't be engorged...) and I will soon eliminate that feeding. The past three nights have been rough, and I've had very little sleep, but I know things will get better. She's eating solid foods better, too. She still eats quite a bit of baby food, but every day she's eating more and more "table foods."

She knows a bit of signs now, too: milk, bye-bye, cat, eat, book and night-night. I think that's pretty good for being only 13 months old! She can say the following words: Mama, Dada, duck and cat. I'm trying to teach her signs for Josephine and Maureen, too... I think she'll catch on to those pretty soon.

Josephine and Maureen are doing well. They've been playing pretty good together lately... they have their moments, but don't we all! I try to go outside and play at least once a day, either in the back yard or to the park. I am working very hard preparing Josephine's and Maureen's schoolwork for next month or the 1st monday in sept..... I haven't decided yet when I'm going to start... I am actually going to take a complete break from the blog after this post until I've got their stuff 100% complete. I need to spend any free time I have in finishing things up. I'd like to start the year sooner than later... Josephine's is 95% prepared... Maureen's is only about 40% prepared. Not that preschool is hard or anything, but I'm having to actually MAKE a ton of "learning games" and prepare arts & crafts for her. I want it all done now so when I start, it will make the school year go smoother. I'm sure it will take some adjusting to homeschooling two children, even though Maureen's will be pretty easy, but I'd like everything prepared so I have one less thing to worry about!

Next time I post, which may be a few weeks from now, I'll share with you all the materials I'm using and the subjects we'll be covering for both girls. I'm very excited about our upcoming year. I even got them both "Catholic report cards" to record their grades and for keepsake. I hope everyone has a good rest of the summer! We will be going to LA in the middle of August so Michael can go to a pre-season Saints game. I wish I could say I'd be visiting Florida, too!

Well, here's a bunch of pictures again. We finally got sand for the sandbox... it only took us almost a year to get some!!! Josephine and Maureen had a blast in it. The day after we got the sand, they played in it again, and I spontaneously decided to turn on the sprinkler while they were playing in the sandbox... that's why they're in clothes getting all wet, instead of in bathing suits. I hadn't planned on turning the sprinkler on, but they had a kick out of playing in the water with their clothes on. I have a lot of pictures of Veronica this time, but she was being so darn cute, I couldn't stop taking pictures of her!

She's trying to drink the water!!!





Veronica LOVES playing ball!


Josephine and Maureen hid "treasure" in the sand (old Mardi Gras doubloons and necklaces, and other trinkets) and pretended to dig up the treasure over and over again!

I'm not going to write much, just wanted to post some pictures. Sorry, I didn't get much of grandparents! I promise to take pictures with grandparents next time... We plan on going to the zoo again, this Saturday. We only covered about half or 3/4 of the zoo when we went with my Mom. I'm sure we'll have more pictures then.

Well, I'm off to put Veronica to bed... another late bedtime for her!

Hello!!!! It's been quite a while since I've posted, sorry about that... I have to admit it was kind of nice taking a break from it! We had WONDERFUL visits from my parents and Michaels' parents
last week. We didn't take a lot of pictures... I haven't uploaded them to the computer yet, either. Having the job at Arby's, even though it's 20 hrs. a week or less, really does take away time that I'd normally be doing other things, and blogging has been pushed to the back burner lately... For those of you who haven't heard yet, Michael got the job at the airport (I think his title is a "groundskeeper" or something along those lines). He started yesterday, and will be working 40 hrs. per week, mon.-fri. I'll still keep the arby's job and work around his schedule. So our financial woes will be over for now, thank God!!! Once Michael goes back to school next month, I will quit the Arby's job and Michael will continue his job as long as he can. Neither of us want his grades to suffer, though... so we'll see.

Well, I'm off to do other stuff before Veronica wakes up. I actually had all three of them in bed by 9:20!!! That's really good for me! I'm still working on weaning Veronica. We're down to one or two daytime nursing and in the middle of the night. Starting tomorrow I'm going to make it only one per day and the middle of the night... stick with that schedule for a few days, and then eliminate the one daytime feeding altogether. Then, we have the nighttime feedings to work on eliminating!!!

Veronica's 1st birthday was last saturday, June 21st. We had a simple, but great family celebration with cake and presents. We bought her a set of musical instruments, and with money from grandparents we bought her some board books and Fridge Phonics by Leap frog (Thank you grandparents!!!). I actually had to FORCE her to take a taste of cake! She spit it out, can you believe it?! she didn't want anything to do with the cake after that! She seemed to enjoy the excitement of the kids, all the attention and of course, some new toys to play with.

I took her to the doctor last tuesday for her 1 year check-up. She's 22 lbs, 29 inches and healthy. Her iron is back to normal, but the doctor said to continue giving her the iron supplement to build up her iron stores. Poor baby also got 5 shots! She's already recovered from those...

Here's a lot of pictures, a couple from Veronica's Birthday and some others.

I forgot to mention two things yesterday...

We did have pest control come to our house to spray for bugs, mostly spiders! We saw lots of dead spiders afterwards...

I mentioned on a previous post, that I'd post a video of Veronica walking. The one we took isn't worth posting. It's VERY dark and hard to see. We'll have to take another video and make sure we have plenty of light next time.

Well, Josephine finished school (except math) last friday! I'm very proud of her and I am greatly relieved to be done! I'm enjoying our break from homeschooling, but am already anxious to start her 2nd grade stuff, and so is Josephine... just today she said, "I can't WAIT to get my new 2nd grade books! When will we get them?" After I told her it would be a week or two, she said "AWWW, man!!" something along those lines...

I've already begun putting away 1st grade stuff, and pulling out anything that can be used for 2nd grade and all of my preschool and Pre-K materials. Maureen seems excited to have more schoolwork materials that she can call hers. I've made space on our "school shelf" so Josephine and Maureen can each have their own shelf. I'll be spending the next several weeks going over and preparing lesson plans for both girls, and trying to figure out a schedule which will allow me to teach both of them! I'll probably only formally sit down w/ Maureen 3 days a week, more if time allows...

Well, most of you already know this, but I figured it's worth posting... Out of all the job searching Michael and I have both done, only ONE employer called us. Arby's called me about a week ago, I had an interview, and was hired! My first fast-food job!!! It will only be for the summer, thank goodness. We need the money, so I don't mind doing it. So far, it's been fine. My co-workers are nice and friendly and the work is pretty easy, just fast-paced at times. It's definitely an experience that will make me appreciate people who work in the fast-food business more!

Yesterday, the library called me about applying for a PT position in filing books... I will apply for that job too. That's a job I'd like to keep even after the summer is over... if I get it, that is.