We had a great week of classes. It’s amazing how humbling it can be to walk into a room where you’re going to learn about having better personal skills. I felt a little prideful like “What do I need to learn about? Good grief, are they saying I don’t know how to talk to people?” And you kind of want to blow raspberries like “pfffft”

After the walls break down a bit, you start to realize, Hmm, yeah, actually I do kind of need help in that area. And it was refreshing to be so honest with others and learn from each other. We covered everything from managing stress to conflict resolution to dealing with grief.

My favorite topic- as in the one I needed the most help with- was Being a Better Listener. Ay yi yi. I always assumed that people were either born a listener or not. And that because almost everyone in my family doesn’t really listen to anyone else in the family- I thought we were just doomed in that area. It seems like we’re always doing 35 things at once and not really paying any attention to each other. The gold sign of that is when you have to say “I’m sorry, I wasn’t really listening, can you tell me that story again?” How terrible that we do that to the people we love the most! But I thought that was just the way we were.

This might not be a huge revelation to some of you, but it was for me. And learning that being a listener is truly a choice- I can choose to show someone love by *really* listening to them or I can choose to show them indifference by not really listening to them. I don’t think I’ll be perfect at this overnight, but I do think my eyes are being opened in that area.

We hosted a dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings on Thursday so all of us could get off campus and get out and have a relaxing night. That was a blast. Tonight I’m hosting a ladies’ coffee night so we can share our hearts together (and hopefully listen to each other using our new skillz!).

It’s been good! Busy busy, but really good! And I have a new understanding of some crazy British words! Who knew they wore swimming “costumes” vs swimming suits?

And here’s a scrap page- really missing the kids today so I was scrapping some pics of Katie…

This is seriously the funniest video!

Go watch it >>here<<.  It is a clean, funny video by Bob Newhart on MadTV.

We watched this during our class today (we were learning about being effective listeners and helping people solve problems– this was the what NOT to do obviously!).

Have a great night!

Yep, sounds like a landslide vote for y’all! Thanks for the input.  I had a much-needed laugh over several of those responses on grammar topics!!!  Hilarious!

We started classes here in Indy today- I’m sure the blogging will be sparse this week- we’re pretty wiped out after the first day of classes!  We are meeting some really neat people though- there are 8 families involved in this training week- 3 from the UK, 4 from the US, and 1 from South Africa.  It is pretty cool to hear so many perspectives on things!  And the cultural and language differences are pretty fun/ny!

I had a little unwinding with a scrapbook page tonight of Katie…

Don’tcha love that pouty little face??  Little stinker!!

Alright, off to bed!  If you want to think of us, please think of our stamina in the next days.  We want to be open in mind, heart, and spirit- to be teachable and willing to learn.

Stimulating discussion tonight! Keith’s parents have the girls while we are up in Indianapolis for some training. Driving through Kentucky today, we were talking about the word “y’all”. I’ve always thought it was a contraction of you and all, therefore the ‘ should go after the y because you are replacing the letters “ou”. But I’ve seen a LOT of people write “ya’ll” and now I’m wavering on my initial position.

Soooo, here’s our unofficial poll….


Thanks- we’re eager to see the results here!

In other stuff- we were ROLLING laughing today in the car over something totally silly.  Keith saw a sign that read “Speed shatters lives.”  The sign isn’t funny, yeah, I know.  But Keith was STUMPED on it.  He was reading it as “lives” with a short i like “He lives in a funny house”.  So he says “Honey, what DOES that sign mean?”  I read it outloud (correctly) and he laughed and laughed until we were both nearly crying.  Maybe you had to be there but it was priceless.

Last story for the day.  This is actually my little grammar moment of the week.  Drive smart Kentucky.  That’s on the signs all over Kentucky.  However, since drive is a verb, smart is not the proper word choice there. Drive intelligently would work though!  But then that’s kind of a big word for y’all in Kentucky, ain’t it? Teehee, just kiddin’.

What’s your grammar pet peeve?

6 weeks from tomorrow we leave for China!  Woot!

We spent the morning meeting up with a friend of mine- Karen- who moved to Lexington this fall. She met all of us at the farmers’ market in downtown Lexington this morning. It was really fun to see her again- last time I saw her she was pregnant with her little guy who is now 16 months old! (oh, and the purple on my face is a shadow from Lib’s balloon)

We took the girls up to go swimming at Eric’s golf course in the afternoon.  And then we had a little family bbq tonight with lotsa grilled goodies.  Here’s some pics of the evening…

Just the 4 of us…

Keith, me, Eric

Grandpa Jim, Libby, Grandma Patty, Katie

Eric and the girls

And we got to meet Eric’s new girlfriend, Megan…

Headin’ up to Indianapolis tomorrow!  Have a great day!

So apparently we are out of the loop.  We’d never heard of Cornhole before.  But Keith’s brother- the Cornhole champ of greater Lexington, Kentucky taught us all about it tonight…

That’s the Cornhole master himself, demonstrating his corn-bag tossing prowess.

Libby (yeah, she got to step a little closer than the rest of us!)

It’s a fun little game- pretty addictive for a simple game!   The kids also played with sidewalk chalk and did some hopscotch (they are so obsessed with hopscotch!).

And a sweet moment with Grandma Patty!  It’s been a fun visit!

I’m gonna keep nagging the hotel and see if we can eventually get it, but the prospects were looking bleak (i.e. “We’ll know in 1-5 days if we have it or not ma’am.”) so I thought it was time to pony up- got a universal adapter and yay, at least I don’t have a very very expensive large paperweight anymore!!!

If I get the other one back I can ebay this one… if not, it is my $100 stupid tax and I will learn an important lesson!!

Here’s a scrapbook page I made *before* the laptop died and I realized I had no power cord!

We had a little going away party with some of Keith’s family tonight…. it was good to see his family again!  They’re almost all in the Louisville area, so we see them only a few times a year if that.

Libby wore her very first braids tonight- a little short but they’re so cute! (unbiased mother here)

We are going to Keith’s brother’s house in Lexington tomorrow!  Fun stuff!  Just a quickie little drive (less than 2 hours I think).

Apparently!!!

Cause I left my power cord for the laptop in Memphis at the hotel!!!! Seriously!!!!!

The receptionist tonight would not look for it, but I will call back during the hours she recommended tomorrow and beg and plead for someone to look!

Oh, and this is Kimberly on Keith’s laptop, not Keith.

Ahhhh! So scary!

We ran into a real, live monster in Memphis.

Seriously, is that not the funniest “scary” face??  Gotta love it!  I think Katie’s mouth is pure elastic- she is a little facial contortionist!

We’re in Memphis tonight on our way to Louisville to visit Keith’s family.   We’re staying near the airport- okay, we’re practically on the runway- when we got out of our van to go inside, it sounded like a sonic jet was going off behind us- turned around and saw an airplane landing on the runway like 200 feet behind us.  I’ve never seen an airplane land SO close!  Crazy, kinda cool!

Went down to Beale Street for dinner- a pedestrian street with little shops and outdoor blues music and restaurants.  I think we were a little out of place with 2 kiddos- it seemed to be a little more “nightlife” than “family” if you get my drift!   But it was nice to get out and walk after being in the car all day!  Ate some delicious crepes frome CrepeMaker and they were sooooo yummy!  And cheap cause kids eat free on Tuesdays!     Mine was chock full of portabello mushrooms, spinach, and tomatoes- Keith got something tex-mex-y with steak in it.  Yum!

We didn’t get dessert (Libby’s not feeling very well, so we headed back to the hotel)– but they were making the most awesome looking thing- a crepe filled with apples, walnuts, caramel sauce, topped with ice cream and more caramel sauce.  Yum!!!

Tomorrow’s agenda: Drive to Louisville, avoiding all scary restrooms along the way.  (Katie is not a fan of dirty bathrooms and says “I to like that potty.  I to need go potty anymore.” <to is her word for don’t- we don’t know why!  she uses it all the time in place of don’t though>)

Alright, here’s a topic that I was thinking about today.

Who invented the concept of reusing toilet paper tubes for children’s crafts? Was someone sitting on the potty and looked over and thought, “Hey, I could make a pair of binoculars out of those?” I’m serious, here.

Because I think it is a little gross. I mean, we all know what we do in the restroom. And then we want to take something that handled and used in that area of our home and then make a craft out of it? Flower stems, binoculars, snowflakes, whatever you want- a toilet paper tube can do it all! But eww!

This is not a personal diss on anyone who is a toilet paper tube craft lover. I’ve done it before!  I think it is right up there with baby food jars on the list of things we “collect” for crafts….. but I just hadn’t really thought about it. So, am I weird? Or is it really kinda gross?

On other topics, I had to scrap this today- Katie has a new habit of saying “I rock!” and it is soooo cute!

Tomorrow’s agenda? PACK for our big 6 weeks of travel! I have packed a grand total of NOTHING so far!