Amy J. Bennett

I mentioned awhile back Emma had really taken to reading this summer.  Since the school year started I’ve been working 15 minutes with her in the reading book every night (you know, ALL 6 days. Except for Friday and Saturday night. OK, so we’ve read 3 nights. whatever.).  I’ve been amazed at how she’s picked it up.  I was able to catch some on video.  And really, I know it’s painful to listen to a new reader sound it out and all but she hits a stride about two minutes 3:30 into it and says several words without sounding it out.  I’m really excited to do this again later in the year and see how she progresses.

Emma did not cry one little bit today.  Even when I dropped her off, she went in, hung up her bag in her cubby, turned around and gave me a kiss and that was it!  She was SO HAPPY to tell me when I got home from work that she didn’t cry at all.  Next task: get her to walk into the school by herself!

If you follow me on twitter, you’d know last night, Scott decided randomly to make a new play table for the playroom and completely uprooted every single toy in the playroom.  I was left looking at this mess.  Toys were literally waist high.

While I was at the office today though Lexi and Scott were stuck in the house because of the rain and Scott and his OCD got BUSY (just for the record, he’s never been tested but anyone that cleans as much as him must have a disorder.  either that or I do.  something called cleanophobia or something.  ANYWAY).  I came home to this:

Isn’t that amazing??  And he didn’t stop there…he did the same thing for Emma’s room which has almost as many toys..filling up a laundry basket full of junk and tossing it.  He also made our bed and straightened up every other surface of the house.  And THEN.  THEN, he had cooked the roast I had asked him to, also went to the store and bought, salad, potatoes and gravy to make, invited a couple over for dinner and had it all ready for me when I got home.  Can we say the man earned some points today???

• One Tree Hill premieres NEXT Monday.  My site went down tonight after a RERUN of the finale.  Oh boy.  This season is going to be FUN!
• I’m sorta kinda winning that Hot Blogger Calendar contest with about 400 votes.  We have amazing readers over at that little OTHBlog I mentioned and they account for the bulk of the votes.  I wish I could have been submitted under both blogs.  I emailed one of the organizers and they’re having the shoot in 3 or 4 weeks!  UM, sure, I can hop on a plane for the weekend!  I do have the option to submit a picture without going to the shoot but I really, really would like to go.  We’ll see though.
• Speaking of OTH, I added a second BlogHerAds ad and WOW, that’s going to be GREAT!
• Scott and I picked out tile tonight to finally replace the last bit of linoleum in the laundry room.  I think materials are going to cost less than $50.  Sweet!
• Our neighbor wanted Scott to sleep in our hammock all night to keep an eye out for him.  Scott was going to just tell him he did and not.  It’s pouring rain tonight so they actually called and said it was up to him whether he slept outside or not.  Really.
• Emma didn’t cry except for a very short time this morning at school.  The teacher brought her to the car and said she had an excellent day!  Yippee!
• I’m going to work tomorrow so no posts until the evening.  Ya’ll have a great Tuesday!

This morning at the school drop-off a lot of parents stopped walking their children in and made use of the car line.  Emma and I of course walked in together but we saw a Dad tell his son bye at the school door and ask if he was sure he knew where to go.  The little boy nodded in assurance and walked off.  Emma and I got away from him in the crowd and I was asking her the way to make sure she knew where her class was.  After our last turn into her long hallway, I happened to look up and beside me was that same dad.  You could see he was craning his neck, watching his little boy walk down that last hallway to make sure he got to his class. The boy had no clue his dad was watching him.

And in that moment, I almost teared up.  No, not because I was getting ready to leave Emma in class again but because I realized that was a perfect picture of us and God.  How many times have we gone along in our lives not realizing our Heavenly Father was right behind watching our steps?  I’m sure if the little boy had gotten lost or someone had tried to do something to him, his dad would have stepped in.  I think that’s how God works a lot.  He watches our every step.  If we choose to turn around and acknowledge Him, He’s right there watching.  But sometimes I don’t think we even realize what He’s doing for us without us knowing about it.  How many times has He put just the person we need in our path after a bad day or stopped a car just a bit shy of hitting us or even given us a sense of peace after bad news without us even asking.

It reminds of Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the LORD your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.

Alrighty, I just need a moment of your time to vote!  I’m listed as Amy (Permission to Peruse).

*Update – or here’s the actual poll…

A long, long time ago I was really into Enrique Iglesias.  Ok, I still really, really like him but don’t really follow him closely anymore.  I even wrote fanfiction.  Yeah, I was one of THOSE girls.  Anyway, I found Chapter 10 of the one story I wrote on my computer tonight.  I can’t even remember the rest of the story or where the other chapters might be.  It actually wasn’t AS BAD as I thought it might be but like I said, if I ever write a book, it probably won’t be fiction.  Click through to read the whole chapter…

Enrique bent his head to Gracie’s neck as he stood behind her, holding her lightly at her shoulders. Gracie’s hands holding her cup and spoon at her tea stilled and moved to the edge of the counter to hold up her weak knees. Enrique moved to turn her around and…

[Read more…] about Chapter 10