July

 I cannot believe how behind I have gotten with this blog. Who knew baby #3 would turn things completely upside down?!

At any rate, this crazy, brilliant, sweet, loving girl turned 7. What?! There is no way that she is seven years old. But there it is. More than anything else, she wanted roller skates. So, she got roller skates. 

 Gaga and Papaw bought her a fashion sketch kit. She is always, ALWAYS, drawing.

 Johnny is a ham. 

 For about a year now Galina has been wearing a little gold ring, the kind that you get out of a gumball machine, with a pink stone on top. She has been so good at keeping it on, not losing it or playing with it, and then it broke. The stone fell right off the top. Not surprising considering it was a ring that Molly gave to me when we were kids. It had been in my jewelry box and I finally let her have it. It may actually have been almost two years ago. She had proved to me that she could keep track of a ring, so we bought her a real, new one with a ruby on top. That's July's birthstone. It's a tad too big, but one of these days (yes, it's October now...) we will get it resized. For now it has a ring-huggie thing on it. She hates it, but she likes having a ring on her pointer finger on her right hand (odd...) so she wears it. Love her. 

 Squirrels planted corn in our back yard, so we let it grow. It didn't look too hot underneath the husk.

 I made Granny and Pop and Brian go to a water park in Kinston. It was p.a.c.k.e.d. Fun, but a bit stressful. Matilda napped and ate and fussed. Fun day for all. 

 This girl did some serious growing in July. Blue, blue eyes that are sticking around. Fair hair, fair skin. All smiles. She finally found her toes (my absolute favorite stage ever!) and really started loving Galina and Johnny (and anyone else under 4 feet tall.)

 Me and Matilda at the water park. This should really be up a few places, but oh well. She loves her giraffe. It makes me happy. 

 I gave her a book one night, around 10 p.m. when she wouldn't go to sleep. This is what she did with it, so I grabbed the camera. Love my little book worms. 

Then she finally zonked out once Brian got home from the Fire Academy and put her to sleep. 

Every day the kids beg to hold her. She doesn't mind, too much, and I don't either!

Johnny and Galina putting the cat in the baby swing. This is why this cat is a perfect fit for our family...he could care less. He only gives them warning bites when he's had enough, never seriously (and 99% of the time they deserved worse) and he only tries to wake me up every once in awhile in the middle of the night. Plus, he killed a HUGE spider the other night. Keeper in my book.

So, that was July. Not very busy. There were fireworks at the farm. We went. We loved it. We enjoyed having Brian for a few weeks between his educational ventures! He did an accelerated EMT class at the school. About six weeks of 7-5 5 days a week, then he started the Fire Academy at Coastal Carolina Community College. He just passed his National EMT certification and took his state test yesterday. We'll know about that one in a few weeks. He's still in the thick of the FA, but he's doing well. It doesn't end until December, when school ends. Brian also took 12 credit hours over the summer in online classes, and has 16 credit hours this semester. He has this very concentrated window of time that he is going to be able to focus on his education as if he was still a single kid living at home. We are grateful for it, and while it is challenging, we know it will be worth it in the end. He has discovered that he has a natural aptitude for math, that he wants to be a nurse (or at least a Paramedic, he says, but he's aiming for nurse first - application is in, fingers crossed) and enjoys being a fire fighter. It has been a blessing to see him come into his own, as it were, since leaving the Marines. I don't think he ever saw himself as anything but a Marine and now, there is an entire world of possibility, he has focus and drive, determination and an entire family (two really) behind him, so he's going for it. We couldn't be more grateful for him. Anyhow, July...it's come and gone. It was wonderful!