My BIG 5 year old

I can't believe she is  5 years old. We did two parties so Grandpa and Grandma could be at one, so she got two birthday cakes. Very exciting!
She was so very lucky this year because she got a teddy bear directly from Ireland. A family from my mission that I love very much, sent her an Irish teddy bear for her birthday. They are a very sweet family that I miss very much. 

She is so excited to go to Kindergarten in the fall...Luckily the shock of leaving her at a school won't be an issue because I already went through it at the beginning of this school when she started preschool. It is the same schedule as Kindergarten, so I've already done the crying thing. She loves preschool and has learned probably a lot more than I could teach her at home.  Especially how to relate to and get along with all the other kids in her class. She has many friends and always asks to play at their house. I was doing ok with her getting older, until I made the mistake of going through pictures on the computer and browsing her baby pictures. It's taken me a couple of days to recover, especially since I start thinking about how many birthday's Joe hasn't been here to see. It makes me really sad, but I know it is for a reason, and she is an amazing little girl. She has days that she will tell me she misses him, even though she probably doesn't remember him that much, but she still misses him and asks me tons of questions about him, I love when I get to talk to her about him, especially when she reminds me of him. I tell her little things about how they are similar and she just laughs and loves it. Time goes on, whether I like it or not, and we are adjusting to every situation the best we can, because that is all we can do. I guess my biggest lesson is to hold on and cherish every moment we get to be in because it won't last...things always change, so be grateful for little moments. 

The Dead Bird

As Melissa and I walked up the driveway, Melissa stopped dead in her tracks, her hand flew up to her mouth and she whispered, "Mom, that bird is dead". She put her hands on her hips, sighed and went to find Grandma to bury the thing.  Grandma shoveled the dead bird into a paper bag and handed it to Melissa, and she had no problem holding it. 

It was a really rainy day so the ground was very easy to dig, so Grandma is digging away and came across a HUGE nightcrawler. Keep in mind, Melissa is holding a dead bird with no problem.  Grandma picks the worm up with the shovel to show her and she FREAKS!!! She was holding a dead bird, but terrified of a worm! What a nerd!

As they finished, I was kind of chuckling because she stood there with this very solemn look on her face, like she lost her best friend. I asked her what she thought and she just bowed her head and said, "Poor bird." We were going to leave it at that, but she insisted that it needed a stone, so she stuck a straw with the lid on it.  As we walked in, she kept her head down and kept saying, "Poor bird, I'm really going to miss him." 

She cracks me up! I was thinking that it served it right for pooping so much on my car, but Melissa felt sorry for it, so I had to pretend. I love little children's empathy...I can learn so much from her.

More finished than before.

Yeah...we have a living space and Melissa has her very own bedroom!! We are still in a huge mess, but a lot more progress has been done since the last time. This has been a big project, that I am so happy to get done. 

Getting there

After much planning and working, we are finally seeing some results to months of renovating. Melissa and I decided it would be best to stay where we are at, living with Mom, Dad, and Steve. To make it better long term, Melissa needed her own room, not only for her, but for me too. She is being very helpful in all of our many projects. Some more helpful than others. I can't wait for all of this to be done, but the process has been eventful.

This is the upstairs bathroom. It took a long time, but Mom finally was able to conquer the tiling. She didn't let it get the best of her!! She showed it what she is made of and now, it is one fancy bathroom!!

Here is my bedroom. I took a chance with purple and black, not knowing how it would turn out, but I love it!!!  I'm only showing partial rooms due to the fact that they are not put together all the way...they still turned out great. We are just moving things along nicely!!