A few gems

The girls have been great so far this week and thankfully Tuesday evening was much better than Monday evening overall. We had a picnic supper in the front yard while Maddie and Jessie were rewarded for leaving us alone and given rawhide bones. We played and played outside in the awesome weather (mid 80s at 5:30! 90 earlier!) and then I had a church meeting at 6:30. We had a plan in place and it went about as smoothly as I could have hoped. They sort of watched their DVD, ate their snack, and drank every drop of liquid we brought with us while I tried my best to participate in the meeting. I'm looking forward to another evening outside tonight since it's going to get cold and rainy again for a good stretch. Sigh. I like playing outside in a tank and shorts much better.

I think this is the summer our a/c is going to finally kick the bucket. I'm pretty sure it's as old as the house (which means as old as we are) and it needs to be replaced. Adam's NOT thrilled. Neither am I, but the thought of being in a hot house all summer has me even LESS thrilled. That said, I'm a little thankful it's going to be cooler out the next few days so we're not roastin' and toastin' for a week to come. The girls' rooms were in the low/mid 80s the entire night - NOT ideal sleeping weather.

This evening, Julie suggested we take the kids to McDonald's (like we do when the guys travel sometimes for a change of pace and not having to cook) and I suggested we get it to go and have a picnic at our house much like last night. It went well, we had fun (while Hadley thought she was the funniest kid ever and got too close to the road 1,383,002 times), ate, played in the sandbox, and swung a bit. Bath, snack, bed, and night 3 of Adam traveling this week is complete. It's still hot as blazes in their rooms but the temp changed VERY quickly after bedtime so I cracked their windows for an hour or two to help cool it down. I've had to close some windows already b/c the temp is dropping so fast. Now comes the yucky, cold, rainy weather. Sigh. We really liked the 80s (except when we had to be in the house roasting).

Items of note:
Adam comes home in 2 days (less, actually!).
Sherri booked our vacation to WI Dells today so there will be 8.4 Schmidts storming the city and waterpark Memorial Day weekend! We will be meeting Al, Sherri, Tommy, & Carrie there for a fun-filled weekend. We've been wanting to do this kind of vacation with them for quite some time and we're all eager to go.
24.5 days left in this school year's contract. Score.
One of my students who has stalled out for a long time in speech made HUGE breakthroughs today. I couldn't be more proud of him and was so happy to get his mother's reply email after telling her how wonderfully he had done. I love this part of my job.

Annndddd finally, a few gems to note from the girls:

• Morgan on the way to Mary's this morning: "Mom, I'm not feeling so talky today." Oh. We'll see how long that lasts. 
• Opposite of gem - Hadley's been doing quite well with undies on at home and going on the potty. She does NOT, however, have pooping on the potty down and I got to clean out her first poop undies last night. So. Gross. Diapers are way easier, as hard as that might be to believe. 
• While I was "assisting" Morgan in the bathroom for a #2 trip this evening, she informed me, "Mommies are for wiping butts." Fantastic, Morgan.
• Hadley smiling = gem every time.