Old pictures, new text

So, I've had these pictures here waiting for text for months, meaning to get to it on Sunday, but somehow that never happens - meetings, visiting Jim's dad at the care center, vegging with the munchkin, whatever. So miraculously Lauren is taking a reasonably long nap and my brains are tired of school stuff, so here I am creating some text so I can post the thing!

This is our new truck. Wahoo! Jim's Jimmy was getting old, and we weren't sure if it was worth the money to fix it, so he started looking into alternatives. He fell in love with the Chevy Avalanche, and hunted up one that was old enough that we could actually afford it. Here 'tis. Note the big smile on my honey's face.




I can't believe we are posting Christmas pictures in June, but here they are. Hopefully it will become a tradition (taking a Christmas picture, not posting them in June...)









Right around Christmas, Lauren got into the tub of popcorn, with predictable results. She ate, threw on the floor, and stomped in much popcorn, and also got in the way as I was trying to sweep it up. She had much fun though. Hey, at least it wasn't sticky.





Lauren also discovered drawing. This was the first (and only) time she got to do it with pens.




I tried the ColorWonder pens that only write on the special paper, but there is too much of a time delay between writing and appearance of color, and she didn't make the connection between what she was drawing and what showed up. I tried colored pencils, which don't write too well on everything else in sight, but they were rather pointy and not very bright. Then I hit the jackpot with these roll out crayons that have a plastic case through which a crayon stick rolls up, like a glue stick. These are the greatest! She doesn't break them, and they don't write on her skin or clothes, and she can make quite a lot of color with them. They are a staple of creative time on Momma's lap, and church. I actually retired the first notebook we filled together as a keepsake. I'm not really too great at drawing, but I can make flowers, butterflies, hearts, squares, circles, triangles, sheep, snowmen, balloon letters spelling Lauren, moons, stars, smiley faces, grass, cacti, hexagons, apple trees, stick Lauren's, and rainbows (if she will let me get to all of the colors. She has now gotten to the point where she tries to color in spaces, not by any prompting of mine, except perhaps by example. Her favorite thing lately is a page full of shapes to color in.

There, at least that's something. Now I'll have to see what other pictures I should upload to comment on.

Sarah