1. Five things I plan to do before I die:
a. Visit Europe
b. Get a Degree
c. Raise our child (maybe children) and hopefully get her out of the house before she's 30.
d. Travel up the East Coast....and West Coast
c. Influence someone positively

2. Five things I can do:
a. Math...love it...want to major in it one day.
b. Be flexible
c. Get along with just about anybody...don't know if that' s good or bad.
d. Feel enormous amounts of compassion for people fooled by the world's lies.
e. Teach my daughter animal noises and parts of her body!

3. Five things I can't do:
a. Anything creative! Well....anything without specific directions.
b. Talk on the phone for long periods of time
c. Come up with meals out of my head....again, require specific directions.
d. Keep the house as clean as I would like it.
e. Trust God as much as I know He deserves to be

4. Five things that attract me to the opposite sex:
a. Confidence
b. Stability
c. Responsibility
d. A sense of humor
e. A nice smile

5. Five things I say most often:
a. Ya know?
b. For crying out loud
c. Honest to Pete (thanks, mom)
d. "Turn it off"---as in little child screaming for no reason.
e. "That's enough!" Can you tell I work with kiddos?

6. Five celebrity crushes:
a. Superman (don't know his name....the guy on Smallville)
b. Christian Bale
c. Colin Firth
d. Dr. Phil....the man just makes sense!
e. Micheal Jackson (when I was five....couldn't think of another)

7. Five people I want to do this:
a. Kendra
b. Brenda
That's all I could think of at the moment....don't know who else reads this thing.

Wow! A month without postings! Our hard drive crashed and because it was four years old we couldn't just replace it. So, Justin built a new computer and did an excellent job!

Something amazing has happened!! This past Thursday, Kayleigh actually looked at me and said "Mama"!!! I never thought I would get so excited about a simple little word! I just melted! I wanted to hug and kiss her forever! Finally, some reward for all those months of tough work.

Kayleigh is my little routine baby. Justin usually gives her a bath at night and gets her dressed for bed. The second he is done brushing her hair she starts reaching for me because I brush her teeth and read to her before laying her down. And if I forget a step, she is sure to remind me. We started saying our prayers at night right after I read from her little kid Bible. Our prayers are only about 20 seconds long, but she gets the picture.

I am completely spoiled by her! Then again she is pretty stubborn and adventuresome. She does things I would never imagine a child thinking of. For example, she knows she is not supposed to go into a corner behind one of our chairs, so she has started sitting on the edge of the hearth and purposefully falling to the side to get behind it. The little sneak! And I can't have the windows open in the living room unless I'm in there with her. One day she popped out the screen and climbed out! I didn't think she would actually climb out the window! I'm struggling with this part of her personality a bit. My personality wants to be laid back, but with her I need to be more attentive and consistent. Really I'm just being selfish. I want to be able to tell her once and that's it. I don't want to have to continually redirect her from something she isn't supposed to do. And I've learned that redirection and time out are probably going to be my tools with her. I've tried smacks on the hand and on the back of the leg, but they don't phase her. It's like she thinks whatever the punishment the forbidden thing is worth doing. I think she gets that from me, I'm sorry to say.

Well there's the update!