The Last Few Weeks, Potty Training, House Painting, Spring, Libby's Awards & More

First, a couple of days ago, Matthew told us he wanted to read "Monster Box." Umm... not sure about that, so he goes to find it - and of course, fans of Sam McBratney know that it was "A Surprise for the Nutbrown Hares." The little rabbit hides under a box to scare his Daddy, saying, "I'm a box monster!"

Cute.

Libby recently had another hotel stay. This time in Gwinnett, with Mimi and Diddy - and an indoor pool! They stayed following her first trip to the circus.

Their seats were so good that they had to move for some of the acrobats that would have otherwise been performing directly over them.

Lots of performances going on at the three-ring circus.

Elephants, tigers, acrobats and more. Libby's favorite part?

The performing poodles, of course!

Much of my recent "free time" has been spent perusing paint colors and the like for the exterior of our house. I ran options by nearly everyone, looked at hundreds of options online, drove in many nearby neighborhoods I'd never driven though, and even got five samples of paint. I painted stripes on various parts of the house - a grayish hue, a greenish hue, a sage green hue, and a door color option. We always liked our house color, but we needed to replace more boards on the siding and it was time to paint again to preserve the ones in better condition.

Before:

So... after all that, we wound up with one shade greener that the beigey-green we already had. Behr's "Garden Gate" is now Sherwin Williams' "Svelte Sage," and our formerly black door is now "Merlot." I really like the color - and I LOVE the door. Our mailbox got a paint job too, and our bricks and back patio got a heavy-duty pressure wash (along with the whole house before the painting began). It looks almost like new!

After:

Also, our new back patio furniture was delivered. We were down to a broken table and one barely-hanging-together chair. Now we have a six seat, lovely new set. We hope it holds up! Two weekends ago was the painting finishing up and putting the patio furniture together.

AND the kids and Michael got to visit with Aunt Sheryl and Uncle Jim who had stopped through Cedartown to visit Gigi and Papa on Friday night. I missed it because I had to travel down to Valdosta for work. But a practically personal airshow at Moody Air Force Base and visiting with so many great servicemembers just about made up for it. I hated missing the Krotzers, but at least the day was pretty amazing.

This weekend was spent at home potty training Matthew.

We knew it was time, and we had an open weekend, so I seized the opportunity to take care of this thing. Boy is doing just great! We used the three-day method that we used with Libby. He did not have the same concerns about having accidents that she did, so we didn't spend countless hours in the bathroom - or trying to get him to leave the toilet. So there have been some accidents, but he's getting better every single time. And we're figuring out the best tricks, too. And the number two issue has been the easiest part of all. Pretty amazing, really. Of course, it was also "Spring Forward" weekend, so between everything, we're all pretty tired.

Plus, Spring has sprung in our backyard, too.

Work also just jumped back into another gear, so the ten or so weeks ahead just got more interesting. Ugh. Plus, when we aren't catching up on work or trying to get a bit ahead, we've been using nighttimes to watch the last season of Downton Abbey (sniff, sniff) and about a million presidential debates. This election is already one for the books. Let's just say I'm praying.

Here's my final Downton look!

Michael also participated in Leadership Darlington this year! He had a great time along with 20 other alumni, plus faculty, students, administrators and more. Four members of our class attended, including Amanda Penn O'Toole! And she brought Matthew a beautiful quilt she made for him. Check out this beautiful stack we have from her. They are SO special to us.

But it's warmer and lighter outside for longer in the day, so cheers to that!

And cheers to Libby, too! She received a Tolerance award two weeks ago, and last week came home with information about joining a small group of students from her class who will get to attend extra enrichment classes in Math and Language Arts involving critical thinking! We are so proud, but a little concerned considering she IS ALREADY a great critical thinker and performing above grade level. How long will we be able to keep up?!

Way to go, girl!