The Most Used Word in Our House This Week.....

Is panties. As in, "Kate, where are your panties?"  "Why are there panties on the kitchen counter?" "I'm going to wash the 85th load of Minnie Mouse panties." And finally, "KATE, put on your panties!!!"  I imagine the only real difference between a 3 year old potty training and a resident of a nudist colony is the level of celebration that goes on when a person goes wee. I must admit, I myself find it more exciting to use the bathroom now that I have a person there to high five me and squeal, "You go!" Despite the level of nekedness in this house, I am still thrilled to announce that Kate is FINALLY potty trained! I honestly didn't know if this day would ever come. I won't lie, I've realized that I haven't been in much of a hurry to encourage any further development for Kate. She's my baby, y'all. Sarah was potty trained as soon as she could stand up. Not really, but it felt like it. Eli was a little bit later. And now, finally Kate. Let's face it, if I had any more kids they'd be packing pull-ups to take to their dorm room. I had a slight emotional breakdown the other day as I realized  I will have no reason to visit the baby section regularly. Josh, on the other hand, did a little happy dance and began calculating how many packs of pull-ups equal his dream boat. :)

I wanted to show you a recent pic of Kate and this is the best I can do. Photographing her has become a challenge that requires the skill of the CIA and FBI combined. What I'm saying is, she ain't havin' it!

This is Kate on the way to dance. She is such a mess. Did I tell you that one of my dance Mom's told me that her daughter makes them pretend like they are me and Kate? Isn't that hilarious? I asked her if the way they pretended to be us was for her to go around hollerin', "KATE! Get over here!"  "Kate, show me your ballet arms!"  "KATE! Come back in here right now!"  Yep, cuz that's how dance is going for us right now.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the baby of my brood. I am smitten with her. Y'all just please pray she is not completely rotten. She totally gets away with things my other two would never dream of. I like to think that I have just become a much more patient mother, but to tell the truth I think her curls and dimples just do me in.

In other dance news, costumes have officially been ordered. Sarah and I are performing a duet in the recital and I am a little giddy about it. When I was growing up I always loved to watch my teachers dance with their daughters and it is literally a little dream come true to get to do this with Sarah. I had all of my costumes picked out for my classes a month ago, but I literally just picked out mine and Sarah's yesterday.  I had no choice, they were being ordered today! As you can imagine, my excitement is a little bit tempered by two things. First, it has been a LONG time since I have performed for an audience. At least I will have a cute kid that everyone will be watching. And two, I HAVE TO WEAR A DANCE COSTUME!! In my baby ballet class yesterday we did our usual stretch where we pretended to fly to their houses. For some reason everybody was on a food kick. Instead of playing with toys they wanted to eat. We pretended to eat sandwiches and ice cream and cookies. I was thinking how pretend eating is all I'm going to be able to do until May!

Of course, I'm kidding. While I'm at dance I always decide I will eat only vegetables or live on soup or something crazy like that. Then, I get home and the pantry calls my name. This is thing. I have to feed my people. And I don't think it's fair to slave over a meal for them and then eat a rice cake. Know what I mean? I've just taken to pretending that walking down the hall carrying massive loads of laundry and drinking a bottle of water at night equal a 3 hour workout and cancel out any eating I'm doing. So far, this hasn't worked according to the scale, but psychologically, I feel better.

Speaking of food, I am feeling pretty proud of myself. We have officically done without eating out to the point that our kids feel totally deprived. "We never go get supper anymore!" What a tragedy. Pretty much all the years we've been married Josh and I have set goals to eat at home more for health and financial reasons. But, it just never seems to happen. Finally, we've had several weeks of success. This week (yes, I know it is only Tues. Baby steps, y'all) I owe our success to blogging. Seriously, how did women ever know how to do anything before google and blogging? Last night I made Pioneer Woman's enchiladas and tonight I made Suzy Home Maker's roasted chicken. They tasted like real food, y'all. And I made them. From scratch. I finally learned what in the world you use Thyme, Rosemary, and Sage for!  For the first time, my spice rack was used for something other than decorative purposes! So exciting. Between the saved money on fast food and pull-ups, we're movin' on up!

Please don't fret that I am becoming too overconfident these days. I was so proud that I had dinner ready and on the table by 6:00. Well, during our meal we received a phone call that the water treatment plant had a power outage and we weren't supposed to use the water. Our neighbors had gotten the news and wanted to pass it along. So, we're not exactly sure at what point that went into effect. Suddenly, everything on the table was in question. Everyone stopped to stare at their plates. You just never know. If you think about it would you just stop and say a little prayer for my family tonight? I mean, water issues or not, my family has had to eat a lot of my cooking lately. And this might not seem like a big deal, but my kids are freaking out. "What happens if you don't have food and water?" "Will we die?"  Good to know the melodrama gene got passed on good and strong. :) Josh even said the school may be closed tomorrow if the problem is not fixed. It's high drama around here. But really, I think everyone overlooked the important issue here. How will this affect the fountain machines at Mr. Cheap Butts? I'll be able to get my Diet Coke, right???????

Hey, I just realized I can't do laundry! Woo-hoo! Oh.....wait......we're potty training......IT'S THE APOCOLYPSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!