If you like ice cream, say "Yeah!"

Well, I guess the first piece of news to share is that Jimmy got a job today. YES! We're not sure when he's starting but now I am just waiting for the inevitable tearing off of the band-aid, meaning, when I'm by myself with no one else to, at the very least, sacrifice to these rabid monkeys that are my children before they come for me. Jimmy is going to be an IT (runs anything related to technology) employee at a middle school just down the street. A job he is going to be great at and for which we thought he was more than qualified but since he has not been a "technology" employee for two years he has been forced to take a 10 percent pay cut. Don't we love the school system? But we are still VERY grateful for the job. He will be great at it. It is an answer to prayer.

In other news, Jimmy has been talking about buying a LCD TV that's cheap at Sam's. I told him if he buys a TV, then I get to buy a couch. We're not buying either of course, but Jackson has picked up on it and for some reason thinks it's called a "Light screen TV" and so when Jimmy got a job today he ran around saying, "We're getting a light screen TV! We're getting a light screen TV!" I asked Jimmy what LCD stands for and he didn't know. Maybe he does need that 10% pay cut. Just kidding, babe. ;-)

Tonight at dinner Libby announced, "I want to tell you my favorite junk." And then she named, complete with counting on her fingers for each one..."Cookies, ice cream, chips, hot dogs, cake, and cup cakes." I think she thought it was only going to be one or two things but then she just got on a roll. In other Libby news, yesterday I asked the kids what they wanted to be when they grow up. Libby immediately said, "Jackson, I think you can be a man!"

Cash is talking a lot more and I usually repeat what I think he has said to me just to make sure I understand him. If I get it right, he says, "Yeah." Only it comes out sounding like he has a thick German accent so it really sounds like, "Yahh." It is really funny and I must admit sometimes I repeat him even when I know what he's said just so I can hear him say it. The other day Libby kept saying over and over, "If you like _______ (it was a number of different foods and things) say, 'Yeah!'" and Jackson or Jimmy or I would say, "Yeah!" (If we liked the item in question of course.) We all lost interest but Libby kept going and when we were all quiet finally Cash responded, "Yahh!" If you like sauerkraut and beer say, "Yahh!"

Well, this month marks five years in a row that I have been either pregnant or breastfeeding (or both). It's pretty amazing to think that I have been, essentially, feeding someone else for the past five years. I thought about this landmark in time coming a few months ago. It's really pretty anti-climatic now that it's here. And just for the record, I am currently breastfeeding. I am NOT pregnant.

What seems almost more amazing to me than the aforementioned landmark is that today I almost exceeded, in the number of dirty diapers changed in this house, the number of plastic bags in my arsenal. I save pretty much all my grocery and Wal-Mart bags because when I change a dirty diaper I tie it up in a plastic bag and throw it outside next to the trash can. When I open the cabinet where I shove the bags, they have, in the past, been so plentiful they practically jump out at me. But today I changed a diaper and used the LAST plastic bag. It was sort of depressing. Do I really change that many diapers? But, tonight we went to the grocery store before anyone else pooped so the bags are still winning out. Whew.

I have been going through all our pictures from the last seven months or so because I'm way behind on cataloging, saving, and printing everything as I usually do. I found some gems along the way. Here's a few...Libby and Cash enjoying baby equipment, one of MANY self portraits I found by Jackson, (he just picks up the camera and goes at it) and Penelope at six months old. She is approaching a year and I can't believe it. We love her! Sorry the pictures are so big I'm too lazy to shrink them. I've got to go eat my favorite junk--ice cream--while I still have the excuse of breastfeeding.