If

...I've run a proverbial nursing marathon then this must the "sprint" (if there's any left) to the finish. From this vantage point the past 26 miles weren't as hard as I thought they would be. Next week I'll reflect and likely think they were harder than they really were.

Another hodgepodge of things to remember

According to my sweet son, I am "cuter than a baby baboon". I smile every time I think about him saying that.

We took the kids to the NCAA Final Four team practices and college All Star game last week. It was a beautiful day in Indy and we made some fun memories. The kids didn't care so much about the basketball, just that it was at Lucas Oil Stadium. Funniest thing of the day was when McKenna was watching the game and a Hershey's player drove the lane and hit a lay up with the Reece's players not playing much defense. With binoculars at her eyes she yells, "Don't they know how to block?!" The kids were also thrilled to be able to try Steak 'n Shake's new tropical punch kool-aid milkshakes. I tasted one. They taste just like the name sounds.

Anna is nearing the end of her kindergarten year at our (still unnamed) homeschool. I realized today that I have subconsciously been stretching this out as long as I can. She could have met all of her required days a couple of weeks ago. I'm just hanging onto the fact that my oldest is still IN kindergarten and hasn't yet completed it.

Perhaps most remarkably, we were able to get a good picture of the kids together, each child separately, and our whole family on Easter. No, that's not the remarkable part, though in itself it really is. The most remarkable part is that EACH of those was obtained on the first try. I never thought the day would come...

48 Capstone hours done, 64 to go. Graduation is one month away.

What a fantastic day...a Mommy-date with the kids at Starbucks (hooray for free pastry day! and dark cherry mochas!), a day of fun and learning at the Children's Museum (without losing any children, even for a minute!), the girls' class at the library (and one on one reading about trucks and spiderman with Samuel), playtime in the yard (the wagon and super-fun swing are fixed!), almost an hour of reading to the kiddos (about Ruby Bridges followed by Little House on the Prairie)...

This week's quotables:

Anna playing with her dolls this week asking them which one wanted to do the "dusting and brooming"

McKenna asked me if the reason for my success in the wii fit games was "because of all my weight".

Samuel sang an original song to me in the car on the way to the museum. (He does this a lot, usually to 'sing me to sleep' during the middle of the day.) He sang "I love you, I love you, you love us so much, you love us so much, you love Jesus too, you love Jesus too, I love you, I love you". Of course I asked him to sing it again. The second rendition had completely different lyrics. "Please be nice all day, don't be upset with me, I love you, I love you".

Couldn't make this up

In a random moment while getting ready for bed Samuel announced, "I'm going to change my socks every day 'til Jesus comes back." Oh, these kiddos make me smile...

I love when Samuel speaks...

In a recent prayer Samuel was "thankful for Kansas", essentially so that they could keep all the tornados.

When I mentioned at home that our cohort lost a classmate after last semester Samuel sat quietly. Then he asked me if we looked everywhere for her.

In the spirit of the Olympics and having fun with the new wii game we taught Samuel how to ski jump with the balance board. He told my mom about it but it went more like, "I did the new game and I was a snowball but not every time". We had to fill in the gap. When the mii character falls off of the jump it tumbles down the hill and forms a large snowball around the person. After some practice Samuel was able to go from snowball to successful.

Samuel still tells me almost every day that we're best buddies.

Vitual hide and seek

Mom? Mom! MOMMY! MOMMMMMEEEEEEE!! Where arrrrrrre you?

Since my last post McKenna turned 5, we managed to make it through finals and a miserable retail schedule, celebrated a wonderful Christmas, Samuel turned 4, 24 started again, and I started my last semester of nursing school.

I'm not feeling very witty because I'm still in resume writing mode. Ugh.

I should document, though, that one of my favorite parts of Christmas was when Samuel made me an ornament that said, "Hallelujah! I love you! I hope you don't get in a tornado. Love, Samuel"

Countdown to graduation...Three months and 6 days

At bedtime...again

Me: Samuel, try to keep your pull-up dry tonight, okay?

Sam: Why?

Me: Well, I just know that you can. And pull-ups are kind of expensive. I don't want us to have to keep spending money on pull-ups if you don't need them.

Sam: Well...I would want to spend money on pull-ups.