Ouch

I just sat down to review the next steps in our journey and they're going to be painful.Painful as in about $4,000. That means I need to sell 267 bracelets folks. Which at 30 minutes a bracelet, is 8,010 hours of work. That would be 334 days if I made 2 bracelets an hour for 24 hours without stopping. That's not going to happen. Not even close. But have no fear, I'm an idealist. I love dreaming up the impossible. And if I can't come up with something, I'll recruit bracelet makers. :)Please join us in praying for God's hand to move and for hearts to be open to our cause. Now, let's see what else is going on around here... Hayes: His vocabulary has exploded in the last week. It honestly is the most adorable thing to listen as he proudly points at something and says the word. He calls all other things "bink". I have no idea where that came from but he asks for bink, referes to bink, and has conversations about bink all of the time. Of the words he does know, they all end in T. Moont. Ament. Downt. He calls Aisley "sissy" and thinks she hung the moont. She's become somewhat annoyed by that in the last day or two though. Hayes is everything boy and loves to play vroom vrooms, dig in the dirt, play basketball, ride bikes (trike), drive his sister's barbie jeep into the deep, dark corners of the backyard, run around with sticks, and especially show you his amazing running and jumping skills. He still sucks his thumb most of the time and for now, goes to bed quite easily. That was not the case for the month of July, however. At bedtime he loves to review the names of my facial features (because now he know chint), give butterfly kisses, eskimo kisses, and make fish faces. His bedtime routine takes all of 2 minutes. He will pat the pillow beside his bed and say "night night, Momma. Night night" and it takes every ounce of me not to crawl in beside him and squeeze that sweet boy all night. He is a chunky, ornery, smelly, ball of precious energy that I can't get enough of. He also has an odd obsession with hats. Today he wore his dad's large sombrero, a princess helmet, and a cowboy hat, for much of the day. Not all at once, obviously. That boy loves bath time. Say the word and he'll drop everything run to the bath tub and be inside with the water running before I even hit the door. With all close and both shoes on, of course. He is sure to meet every passerby with a loud and cheerful hello, doesn't know a stranger, and will settle in anyone's lap if they are willing to read him a story. He adores his pets and any other animal he runs into. Hayes is also growing more fearful of heights by the day. Don't dare throw that boy up in the air, he'll be sure to make you regret it. Elmo is his favorite T.V show and his favorite toys are animals, tractors, cars, choo choos, and puzzles. His favorite songs are Twinkle Little Star and If you're Happy and You Know it. Ask him where Jesus lives and he'll point to his heart. He sure melts mine. Aisley: Oh my, this girl warms my heart. Now, some of what I'll say about her at this stage may seem negative, but it's not. I love and adore this child with my whole being, but I do need to document how she tortures us, just for future reference. :)My sweet Aisley prays all of the time and I love it. We pray over our meals, anytime we hear sirens or see ANY vehicle with lights on top-whether they are the water meter reader, electric company, or an emergency vehicle, and even if the lights are off. She's very much into princess stuff, dress up, playing barbies and babies, and anything girlie. She's super bossy and sassy, and drags her poor brother around dressing him up in butterfly headbands and clip-on earrings. She learned to read and spell her 1st word this summer: Z-O-O. She writes her first name and struggles with the S and E. She wishes her new sister was already here and calls orphans "orphadivers". This is really weird to me, is that like orphan and cadiver? Or maybe scubadiver? I'm going with that one...Aisley LOVES to sing and twirl and put on shows. With the windows open now, our neightbors are getting an earful!Her favorite color is pink. Someday she wants a car with pink and white polka dots, just like her favorite leggings. She refuses to go to sleep and comes downstairs every few minutes insisting that she just can't fall asleep. She's not much for digging in dirt, freaks out if her brother touches her with dirty hands, and refuses to touch random fuzz on the floor because it's "gross". She really is a demanding,prissy, drama queen, and I couldn't love her more. Aisley's favorite song is Matt Redman's 10,000 Reasons and she only knows this part "Bless the Lord, Oh my soul, Oo-oo-oh my soul". Her favorite movie is My Little Pony, she still carries her tattered, old lovie pony around, and she asks me all of the time when she'll get to be a grown up. Too soon, my love, too soon. Carey:He just returned from our neighbor's front porch where he's been sipping beverages for an hour. I could hear our neightbor's amazing laugh through the windows. He has the kind of laugh that makes you laugh when you hear it, even from across the street. I love to hear Mark laugh and I'm so grateful for awesome neighbors to laugh with. Carey performed surgery on 40 mice last week. He did 40 mouse transplant surgeries. Crazy, huh? He said that after doing surgery on a teeny, tiny mouse, humans should be easy. Right, except that there are 15 other people in the room with humans and we actually care that they live. I didn't mention that part to him though. I'll let him enjoy his no pressure, one-on-one mouse surgeries for a few years. He deserves that much. Sometime I'll fill y'all in on the crazy crap they have for these mice. Seriously high-tech stuff for lab mice these days. Back to Carey, he doesn't do any of his old stuff anymore. No watching football, studying at coffee shops, or going to the gym. If he sits, he sleeps. If he sits with the kids around, they crawl all over him while he sleeps. His favorite color is still green. He doesn't have a favorite movie because he hasn't seen one in ages, and his favorite song is Twinkle Little Star too. Because Hayes makes sure of it. He's given up all OCD tendancies for pure survival mode and just prays he'll keep his hair. :) Me: I'm not very exciting. I spend lots of time running circles around two cute kiddos, avoiding laundry, and walking dogs. This summer consisted of swimming pools, sprinkler parties, and parks. I garden when I can, craft when I can, and facebook too often. My favorite color is turquoise, I don't watch t.v. or movies, and my favorite song is anything not on that blasted toddler CD. I have to regain musical authority in my car before my theme song becomes Farmer and the Dale. That just can't happen. There you have it. Complete updates on all four of us. My, aren't we fascinating!