Playing at the lake

**Two stories totally unrelated to the lake that I must share...

I've been reading some books to Kylie that have just one big picture and one word per page. Lately I've been pointing to the word as I say it and then pointing to the picture. It seems that the light bulb clicked on yesterday as she pointed to the word ball and then said, "Is that the name for ball mommy?" I replied yes and then that continued for the rest of the book until she slipped into blissful slumber for her nap. Last night we went to church for supper and Mama had a styrofoam cup with her name written on it. Kylie looked at the cup, pointed to the writing, and said, "Dat your name Dahma?"

My former little hair bow princess has become rotten lately and won't let me put bows in her hair or pull it back in a ponytail ("one up" to Kylie) or pigtails ("two up"). Or if she does let me, she waits until we are somewhere in public ~ usually after she has gotten sweaty so her hair has funny kinks in it ~ and then will grab the offending hair accessory, give me a sly grin, and pull it out, handing it to me with a victorious look on her face. Last night at church she heard me discussing with Vicki getting her hair cut shorter or styled up or something because it drives me crazy when it is just hanging in her eyes. Kylie protested and said that she didn't want her hair cut. Sometimes she doesn't want to change her diaper either, so I just figured we'd deal with it when it came. So today I call Vicki to schedule an appointment and when I hang up Kylie says, "Who was dat?" I told her I had been talking to Ms. Vicki. She was quiet for a second and then announced, "I want to wear a hair bow mommy." I wasn't sure where she was going with that, so I asked why and she said, "I want to wear a hair bow and not get my hair cut, okay?" Guess we'll negotiate over the week and see how that goes...**

Okay, so the lake. Despite the fact that our house looked like a bomb went off Saturday night after Traci and I took EVERY picture off the wall and EVERY decoration down to "restage" the house and we still needed to fix all the nail holes, do laundry, contact a realtor, finish boxing up knick-knacks, do a complete spring cleaning, transport the stuff for a yard sale to Traci's house, make a trip to the storage unit, search for an apartment or house, and start seriously preparing to make a life changing trip to China, we decided to leave our stress behind for a day and accept the invite from friends for our praise team to spend the day at their lake house.

Man am I glad we did. With every mile we drove away from the current chaos we are in, I felt stress melting away. (I knew it would be at home waiting for me when we got back, but it was nice to leave it behind for a few hours!)

We did the fun stuff you do at a lake, floated, ate, water skied, wake boarded, rode on the boat, and just sat around on the dock enjoying the fellowship of a group we love dearly.

"You want me to get in that water and swim? Do you see the size of those fish?"

"Go Aunt CiCi! "

At first she wasn't too sure of the lake, but after I put on my life jacket (ever try to help support a 31 pound kiddo while treading water?) she eventually relaxed. Then it was difficult to get her out of the water...

Kylie at her happiest ~ a belly full of watermelon! The evidence is still on her face!

What a great day!

Update on my uncle ~ his surgery took longer than expected, but his condition was stable last I heard. Please continue to pray for his recovery! Of course don't forget to lift up Susannah and her family too!