Minivan

We got a minivan! We've been looking for a while now and couldn't find anything "used" enough for our price range in our area. Kyle had no desire to travel to look at a van possibility, b/c he was afraid it wouldn't work out and we would have traveled for nothing. But I prayed about it (maybe once or twice) and hoped we would find one. I never thought we would find one that we could afford. I thank the Lord that we did.

In other news, Tommy is getting lots of teeth. And that makes for one unhappy little man. I have been using baby orajel and occasionally tylenol. The orajel makes me nervous b/c you hear about how it can be a choking hazard, but it really helps and so far no choking at all. Right now he officially has four teeth and it feels like three more and working their way in. Tommy can now point to your nose and mouth when you ask him where they are. He randomly points to my eyes now, without me asking, b/c I have been trying to teach him where eyes are. He laughs now in response to us laughing. I love his sweet laughter.

Kyle will be taking three classes in the fall. He's glad we got the minvan too. He said he's always liked them. We've really been enjoying our time together this summer. Lately we've been watching some Redbox movies. Since I've been making more dinners lately, Kyle has been helping me out a lot more. He's playing with Tommy more, and deep cleaned the stovetop for me! He also has some kind of anniversary surprise he's working on for me. We'll have been married four wonderful years in August. I love him very much and I am so blessed to have him to help me with Tommy. Sometimes I tease him and give him a hard time for not helping me enough, but I can't imagine raising Tommy without him. Just the other day, when Tommy was extremely fussy, and I was worn out - Kyle stepped in and took care of me by taking care of Tommy. Kyle is becoming more and more helpful as Tommy gets older and I am very appreciative of that.

As far as the meal planning goes, I'm really really enjoying it! Kyle just made fun of me the other night for talking about how much I like it so often. I am keeping a list in a Word Document to keep up with things I like to make. It has really helped take a load off my mind to know I have options of what to make for dinner with all the ingredients (or most anyway I usually have to make a quick trip to the store every now and then to get a missing ingredient). My goal is to have around 25-30 meals on my list so we can have options. And we've found that planning for four meals a week seems to be best. Six a week was a little overkill. I'm also looking into making more crockpot meals so I can have easy options for busy days. This week we're having my Mom's Sloppy Joes (waaaay better than regular sloppy joes), roast, white chilie, and italian chicken. But first I have to go to the grocery store. dun dun dun. I hate going grocery shopping but it will be fun to do in the minivan!!!