Life In The Libby Fastlane

This morning I woke up, looked at my planner and went, "HOLY CRAP!! IT'S JULY 15TH?!?!?!" How does that happen? One day you're frantically trying to get all of your last minute Christmas shopping done and then the next thing ya know - it's July 15th. Wow. That just makes me feel old. I am less than a year away from the big 3-0, so maybe that's my problem.

Well, I decided it was time for a quick re-cap on life in Libby Land. Summer's scootin' on by and I'm preparing to open up my garage sale tomorrow for a third go-around. Yes, that's right. I did say a THIRD go-around. The first time we were rained out for day 2 and the second time we sold some stuff, but we still have SO MUCH STUFF LEFT!!! And my neighbor is having a sale, so I figured what the heck...let's see if we can get rid of a few more things and make a few bucks while work is a little slow. I've totally become "that" neighbor that everyone is secretly wondering when I'll get the hint that no one wants my stupid crap I keep putting out at my garage sale. Trust me, it's good crap, though. If my brother's lived close by and saw their insane sister opening up the garage every Wednesday, they'd probably start calling me the Japanese war weapons lady. It's an inside joke...good 'ole Frederic, WI had a few nut cases who opened up their shed every weekend selling Japanese war weapons - we drove past them every Sunday on our way to church. And yes, I know you're all shocked that their could be nut cases in Frederic. Didn't they catch a terrorist there just recently? I'll keep ya posted on the third and final attempt at the garage sale.

Last weekend Chad and I headed up to Duluth for a weekend of enjoying "the good life". Okay, maybe it really wasn't "the good life" not having the kids with us, but it was nice to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time and to be able to go out and do something after 8pm. We had a lot of fun just hanging out with my brothers and their significant others. We splurged and stayed at The Canal Park Lodge - what a fabulous hotel that is!!! It was pretty sweet Friday night - we all went out to eat at Red Lobster, then headed over to the hotel to sit in the hot tub. We were able to sit there relaxing as we watched the big storm pass over Lake Superior...probably some of the best lightning I've ever seen! Saturday morning I went to a baby shower for my sister-in-law Katie and we had a lot of fun doing "girl stuff" there while the guys played basketball. We were thrilled to find out that Aaron & Katie will be heading to Ethiopia to bring home Matea at the end of this month!!! YAY!! We also got to meet our friends Jon & Jo's little sweetie, Kylie. It was fun catching up with them and playing with Kylie! Anyway, the kids did pretty well overall while we were gone. They stayed at Grandma & Grandpa Libby's house, which was a first for the kids. We sure do appreciate them taking the kids for the weekend!!! Hope you've both recovered! :)






Yesterday Peyton started back up with summer preschool. She's got three more weeks, then she'll have a break until school starts. As much as I sometimes wish we could just be home and do stuff with the kids, it's becoming more and more obvious that Peyton really enjoys her "routine" of school and therapy. The last two weeks when Peyton had a break from school was, well, let's just say a bit trying. Peyton is so used to having "something" every day that she really is thrown for a loop if there's a day during the week where we're just home playing. I guess that makes sense though, since she's been in therapy of some sort since she was 4 weeks old. It makes me feel better, though, seeing that she really does enjoy working with the different therapists. Sometimes as a Mom I feel like she's just so overwhelmed with preschool AND therapy 4 afternoons per week. I guess I just want to make sure she still has time to just be a kid. Peyton's making such great progress with her speech. She's moved from barely being able to imitate word beginnings to putting on word endings to now stringing words together...unprompted!! That has made communicating SOOO much easier with her. She still gets frustrated at times when we can't quite figure out what she wants, but it's encouraging to see how far she's come even in the past 6 months. A special thanks to all of you who have been praying for Peyton and her progress. Keep the prayers coming - they're working!!!





Carson continues to make us laugh pretty much non-stop. The kid is absolutely hilarious...even when he's naughty. We're working on potty training right now - he's SO capable, but he's just playing the "control" game with us. This morning he says to me, "Mommy, I be right back - I'm going to the kitchen to poop, then I get you a diaper and wipes to change me". Seriously, child. Just poop on the toilet. You obviously get the concept! Grrrrrrr! He did the same thing in Target the other day, "Mom, I go in next aisle to poop...be right back". I hope some unsuspecting shopper in aisle 14 got a nice wiff of his little present. Even though potty training is a bit frustrating, we're extremely thankful that Carson's vocabulary has exploded so early. It's been a huge help to Peyton as she's trying to copy a lot of what he does and says. The two of them are pretty good friends and play well together for the most part. I've really enjoyed watching how Carson looks out for Peyton and is always worried that she's included in things. They're so sweet together.

Last but not least, work for me has been a little slow these days. I've still had some projects coming in, just not many larger ones like I had before. So the summer has been a cakewalk for Chad so far since I've been able to handle most of my workload at naptime and in the evenings. Chad's doing some curriculum writing and is serving on a few other teams within the district, so that's been nice to have a little extra income as a result of that, too. All in all, we're doing well.

I'll leave you with one final picture...Daddy showing how the "cool kids" stick their heads in the sprinkler. :)