Pence Family

I'm killing time at the church waiting to pick up Joanna so there won't be any pics in this post. I have the camera with me but no camera cord. I don't have much to post, but there are a couple of cute pictures I'll upload later...hopefully. Now that Joanna's back in MDO for a little while, Tuesdays after staff is theoretically my time to clean house, do laundry, etc. It's really enjoyable to get it done at least once a week :) However, I keep having other stuff to do -- which is fine because it needs done too, and frankly, most of it's more fun! Like today I met with three other ladies up at the church to practice a song we're going to sing in church. It's funny because four of us in our home group bible study decided to get together and sing something one Sunday this summer and it ended up being the four pregnant ladies in the group. So we are the "Expectant Quartet." And you can bet I'm printing that in the bulletin, too. I think we're doing a great job so far. One of our group actually wrote out parts for us (yeah Kim!) and I think we're sounding pretty good! Anyway so that's why I'm chillin' at the church for a little while. I don't have time to go home, and I'm pretty sure Joanna's sleeping over there so I'm not picking her up any sooner than I have to. That child needs her sleep for sure.

Joanna and I are pet sitting this week over in a sub-division close-by, just up the street from the pool. So after playing with the little dog yesterday morning, we decided to take a swim. I was actually expecting Joanna to have a little more fun than she seemed to. She wasn't sad or anything; she just wasn't her water-loving self. The kiddie pool was very nice -- big and it went from 1ft-2ft, which is pretty snazzy. I think she really wanted to be able to get down on her belly like she does in the bathtub, though, and the water was too deep for that; she kept going under. I will say she handled that very well though. We walked in to the pool to find some friends of ours already swimming. My friend Pam and her twin daughters were there enjoying the sunny day. I think it's funny that neither of us live in this sub-division, but we were both there swimming. It is a nice kiddie pool. Joanna and I also got in the big pool, and she seemed to enjoy that a bit. I think her favorite part of the whole adventure was standing in the water by the side giving a little plastic lamb a bath in a bucket. I have pictures if you can't quite get the mental image. We also brought along our lunch and had a little pool picnic. It was a nice time; I do wish the pool opened up early than 11:00, though. We didn't get to stay too long before we had to head home for a nap.

Joanna is so cute with the little animals we're taking care of this week. The animals are pretty self-sufficient -- there's a doggie-door, so all they need is occasional food and company. The cat is very sweet, and Joanna loves to point at her and say "ow, ow." The dog is also very sweet, but VERY excited. She's a little fluffy thing (I don't know dog brands) named Didi. She's knocked Joanna over a couple of times because she's SO excited to see her. Joanna loves Didi's toys, and for the most part Didi is good about sharing with her. If Joanna would just figure out how to throw them, these two would be quite a pair. We're only over there for a little while every day, but it's pretty tiring keeping up with a toddler and a dog. Especially when the toddler LOVES the dog but doesn't actually want the dog to touch her. Funny little girl.

Last night we had home group, and we took Joanna with us due to her being only 1 and not able to stay by herself. :) She did really well, in my opinion. Sure, she's a major distraction, but that's just because she is the most beautiful, congenial creature ever. Right. She played and played with Miss Abby's toys. I think she especially loved the vacuum cleaner (go figure) and Abby's little soft princess chair. I've been thinking about getting a little chair like this for Joanna so she has a place to sit in the living room. We have her rocking chair, but she loves to stand up in it that it stays in the closet a lot. I realized the other day that with our big 'ol furniture, she really only has the floor to sit on when we're just hanging out in the living room. Especially seeing how much she loved Abby's little chair, I think that's a purchase for the near future. I would love to get something a little more "neutral," like Sesame Street or something, versus Princess or Cars which are pretty gender-specific in their coloring and target audience. The little pink princess chair is really really cute, though. We'll see!

It's time now to go get Joanna and find something fun to do this afternoon. I'll try to post pics soon.