Randomness...

Lynae is in her bedroom and I only know it's her (and not Brianna) talking because Brianna is out of bed using the bathroom.  She's in her crib saying "Sasha, sasha, sasha, sasha, HI!!!!!!! Sasha, sasha, sasha, sasha....."  Well, you get the idea... :)

Lynae's taken off talking and understanding here lately!  It's great to be able to say "I need to do _________" and be able to put her down and her understand why... WOW! :) LOL

Brianna's now potty trained in the daytime enough to be in underwear except for long drives.  Those, we're still using the pull up... but mostly for security than real need.

Aleksa is also daytime toilet trained, for the most part.  She's having occasional accidents but I think they're mostly avoidable and will disappear soon.

Michael and Kristopher have taken up running at night.  We live on a dead end road and after they cross the highway there's a sidewalk that's pretty far off the road.  They've been going about 3 miles in... well, a long time.  But they're still pretty new to it and they're enjoying it, which is the best part!

Today my dad brought by a rejuvenated Leapster.  I'm thinking he might have been just as much in love with Leapster (and its calming effects) as we were, but my parents were also the ones that originally purchased the Leapster for Kristopher 2 years ago.  In case you're wondering, they're on sale at Target.  HUGE thanks to my parents for that.  Kristopher asked if it was his birthday still and we just rolled with that :).  We're very grateful and we know that it will get a good 20 or more hours of use on it before the week is up!

I have a bunch of videos that I'm putting together of the kids around the house.  Just random stuff, but I love seeing other people's kids "in action" so to speak to see what they're really like.  There's always such a difference between how words can describe a person and how a video can.  So I tried to get video of all the kids but I KNOW that I didn't.  I decided to share anyway with what we've got.  That'll be posting soon (it's uploading now).

I know we're long overdue for another Q&A and since we've brought home the new kiddo's I'm sure there's a stack of Q's in my 'starred' emails... but I haven't sat and answered them yet (ha, NO idea why... ;) ).  So... here's your chance to post up beforehand if you have a question.  A few requested posts that are coming up are about how people treat my kids in public places, how we 'like' or 'don't like' people to respond to us (strangers) in public, how our routines have modified since adding 2 more to the family, an update on our schooling situation for next year, our favorites and flops of toy recommendations, and brands brands brands (and off brands).  So... if you don't have a question but rather want to see a post on a subject, feel free to comment or email me and I'll try to do it.  I admit I EASILY forget things, so if you've made a request previously and I haven't posted, email me and check on it.  Chances are good that I didn't think it was weird, but rather just forgot to do it :).

The iPad give-away was a HUGE success, as I'm sure you've seen if you've watched the Chip In this week.  We also raised money via mailed-in donations and had a total of over $11,500!  Aiming for $5,000 for airfare and really having very little faith myself (I was praying to at least make $2,000!), I am amazed at what God's faithfulness really looks like.  God knew the need of the Dickinsons in order to go get Masha, and God used our little step of faith with finances to do something big.  I'm amazed to be a part of it and look forward to seeing the winner announced (via Shelley Bedford!) tomorrow!

I spent about 2 hours trying to find the bottom of our 'closet' room today while Michael's mom came over and found our sink and counters!  Since everyone's been sick, including myself, all the laundry had been getting washed but then it was being piled up instead of put away.  Add some chaos to that in the form of Brianna going in there and dumping two bins (on two separate occasions!) of clothes that had been pulled out as being too small... and them being mixed in with the current stuff, and it made for quite a job!  At the same time as I sorted and folded and put away clothes, I also arranged clothes (shorts and t-shirts of course) for 5-6 days in everyone's hanging baskets as well as setting aside clothes (long sleeves and long pants!) for our upcoming trip to Philly for my sister's wedding.

Kristopher learned how to hang shirts today and I'm not sure why I didn't teach him earlier!  He's great at it and said "I feel like I work at a store where they hang up clothes!" while he asked if he could hang any MORE shirts (you should see how many he hung!).  He also learned to fold towels, which we've worked on before and still needs a little guidance.  I do have a stack of towels that looks much better than my pile did, but it's a little more leaning tower and a little less Eiffel than I really prefer :).  Ah, well, HE HELPED and that's great news for me :).

The same suitcase that I took to Ukraine for me to have with ALL my things in it for an entire two months, I was able to pack only the clothes for 3 days (not even including pajamas or diapers... etc) for all of our kids.

Ok, that's all my randomness for now, but I'm sure I'll have more later... and videos! :)