Father, I come in agreement...

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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I have a little update for ...

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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Emma will be starting first grade on the 2nd.  So, it's coming up fast!  Next week is the Open House night to see her classroom and meet her teacher, so that will be nice.  I'm a little bummed because last spring, one of the first grade teachers retired (I think she was there when Randy was in school!) but she was AWESOME!  I haven't met Emma's teacher yet, but I'm sure it will be great.

Two weeks ago, Emma spent a week with my parents.  (Timothy had his turn back in May.)  Mom had planned to take Emma shopping one afternoon for some school clothes and supplies.  It ended up turning into a 2-day deal, since they spent 3 hours the first day just buying her supplies.  Yeah.  Mom said it took Emma an hour to pick out her backpack.  After half hour, she had it narrowed down to 4, and it took another half hour to pick her favorite.  And see, that's one of the benefits of shopping with Grammy- PATIENCE!!!!!  If she had been with me, it would have been about 5 minutes of looking at them before I would be saying "I am counting to 3, and if you haven't picked one, I will, and that's the one you will have!"  So the next afternoon they went clothes shopping and Emma decided that she really loved everything she tried on.  Again, a benefit of shopping with Grammy.   So, they had an awesome bonding time, and we saved a lot of time and money (which is greatly appreciated!).  Mom and Dad also bought a backpack for Timothy, and I am still holding on to the hope that he will be able to use it this year.  We'll see what happens!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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That is AWESOME news, LeeAnn!!!  I am SO happy to hear that!  Praise God!  Keep us posted and we will continue to pray that everything continues to go the way it should! 

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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I agree!  It does get pretty ridiculous!

Here is Emma's list:

1 White Elmer's School Glue

4 Large glue sticks

2 packs of 24 (only 24) crayons

12 #2 pencils- sharpened

2 large erasers

4 wide-ruled notebooks

4  2-pocket folders

1-  1/2-inch 3-ring binder with plastic front cover

2 packs of washable markers

1 large box of Kleenex

1 paint shirt (old t-shirts only)

1 pencil box

1 pack colored pencils

1 Fiskars scissor

1 hand-held, self-contained pencil sharpener

1 backpack (no rollers)

3 boxes of healthy cereal to share with the class

And Emma's only in 1st grade!!!  Also, there are 2 elementary schools in our district, and they both have different supply lists (the other school is a LOT shorter!!!) so I don't know what that's about!

And yeah, we are all about recycling whatever we can too.  Emma would have reused her folders from last year, but they got pretty worn out (plus she needs twice as many this year!).  She did use the same backpack for 2 years of preschool and kindergarten.  This year, my mom took Emma shopping for all of her supplies and new school clothes (which I am VERY thankful for!) so that really helped.  But yeah, it does get crazy, that's for sure!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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I totally agree with Bren! 

First and foremost for me is also definitely Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior

My mom (my very best friend) and my Dad (totally rocks!!!)

My brother and sister (and my sil and bil-to-be)

Randy's sisters (all 5 of them are the bomb!)

My best friends (including but not limited to Cheri, Shannon, Becca, Amie, Kyla and Holly)

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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How completely adorable!!!  So sweet!!!!

That's a tough call.  We let the kids help pick Belle's name when we got her last summer.  They can come up with some very interesting suggestions.  Timothy's suggestion was that we name her "E". 

But yeah, I wish you the best, whatever you decide on!  Have fun!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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Absolutely!  It's definitely a natural part of motherhood.  

Now that both of them are potty-trained, there is somewhat less discussion of poop between Randy and I, but Timothy especially loves to talk about his poop.  For awhile, he would "name" his poop (this one is daddy, there's me, that one is a dog, etc).  It's just all part of the fun!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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I do agree that the supply lists get really long, and things get VERY expensive for a lot of families.  But I do agree that it is better than the alternative (not having any supplies for them to use).  And I do also agree that the teachers should not have to supply everything out of their own money. 

The Salvation Army here does have a program where they have volunteers help put together backpacks full of supplies for kids whose families cannot afford them (you have to sign up ahead of time to have your name on the list). 

I know that for a lot of families, it does become a hardship, especially with rapidly rising costs on everything right now.  But especially when you live in a small district like ours, there doesn't seem to be much of an alternative.  For me the one thing that really stood out as not making a lot of sense is that our elementary school had a significantly larger supply list than the other one in our district.  That just seems odd to me.

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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We actually have had to deal with this question also.  My bioparents divorced when I was 3.  However, since we have no contact with my bio father and his family, and my stepdad adopted my brother and I when he and Mom got married, that's not really an issue there.  As far as I'm concerned, my "stepdad" is, has always been and always will be my dad.

Randy's parents just finalized their divorce early this year.  The process started 3 months after Timothy was born, so he has never known them living in the same town, let alone the same house.  But Emma remembers.  We spent a LOT of time their when she was little, and Randy's mom would babysit her quite a bit.  A few months ago, Emma asked when Grammy is coming home from her vacation, since she has been gone for a really long time.  I said that Grammy and Pa have decided not to live together anymore, and now she lives by Emma's cousins and Pa still lives by us.  I told her that they did not know how to work together and talk about their problems like we do.  I said when Emma and Timothy are fighting or have a problem, we talk about it and work together to fix it, just like Mommy and Daddy do, so we don't have to worry about that.  (Randy and I made a commited decision that divorce is simply not an option in our home, and we made that decision before we got married.  I know that divorce has become very common, and I understand how it happens, but it is a choice and we are choosing to work through our issues- and believe me, we do have them!  But it's worth too much to us not to make things work.  That's just our decision.)  I wish you the best in finding the right words for your family.

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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Great news about the new car and computer!  That should make things nice.

Please do keep us posted on your situation.  You will definitely be in my prayers!  Take care and God bless!

"I will praise you, O Lord, among the nations; I will sing of you among the peoples.  For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth." -Psalm 57:9-11. 

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