Right Wing Mom

While many families are gearing up for soccer or football season to begin, I am once again reminded of how thankful I am that my daughters chose gymnastics!

With my pasty white pale freckled ivory skin and red hair and living in the south, I am so thankful for indoor sports!

Next year, I’m sure, Jake will get involved with soccer or football and Marc we will spend some time outside cheering and sweating. But for now I am relishing in the fact that my daughters are in an indoor sport.

That being said… there are drawbacks. You see gymnasts are a weird bunch, believe me! In my experience its very rare to find one that can stand for any length of time without popping out a handstand. Or doing something like this:

An then there’s this -

And I have no idea what this is all about, but its freaky!

But as meet season is getting ready to start I see my girls in their new leo’s

And I almost burst at the seams with pride - they rock! Ok, there is a little jealousy there too… you ought the see the muscles on these two! You’d be jealous too!

11 years. Where did it go?

11 years ago, I was in Camp Lester Naval Hospital in Okinawa, Japan.

11 years ago I was arguing with a doctor and my husband on weather or not I had to push when they said I had to.

11 years ago I was worried when I didn’t hear one of my babies cry.

11 years ago Marc flashed me a smile I will never forget. A smile of pure bliss and joy and wonder.

11 years ago I fell in love, a type of love I never knew existed.

11 years ago God blessed me more than I ever deserved.

Last year I was in tears, realizing that my babies were growing up. Seriously… I cried off and one for a week. This year? Not so much.

This year I am choosing to be thankful. Thankful that for some reason, God chose Marc and I to be the parents of Kaitlin and Amanda.

Sure, I am a little biased, but trust me when I say these two girls are one of a kind! Kind, smart, beautiful sweet souls that bless my life everyday.

Thank you Lord for making me a Mother. And thank you for allowing my to mother two of the best kids ever!

Kaitie and Mandy: Words can not express the love and joy you bring to our lives. Happy Birthday sweet girls! I love you!

Its Monday and believe it or not I am semi-happy about that. Why? Its all about getting back on track. We have been kind of fumbling around in the dark here the last few weeks and I am ready to get back on track and get some stuff done!

Lots to talk about this morning - nothing too in depth or really even interesting, just a bunch of stuff floating around in my head.

Watching my dogs “do their outside thing” can be very interesting. (Great topic to start off with right?) So, I am waiting for them to finish to let them back in when I see Buster walk over to a tree and pee on it. Kaya comes running over and pees over Busters “area” then Buster circles around the tree behind where Kaya is and pees over where he just went - kind of remarking. It was funny - they obviously have issues (as do I … talking about my dogs peeing)

Ok.. moving on.

Hitting the gym this morning was quite the chore. After not going for almost 3 weeks it was so hard to drag myself out the door! I got up in time and puttered around for almost an hour. I was trying so hard to justify not going. I am so glad that I ignore myself! It was a great workout and I was so happy to be back!!! I took it a little easier today than normal, doing only 2 sets per circuit verses my normal 3. Getting my food back under control will be my main focus the rest o the week. I have been getting progressively sloppier as I have been getting over being sick. The scale will probably reflect that this week which makes me a little sad - but its all about accountability… I know what I did and should not be surprised at the results.

Have I mentioned before how weird my kids can be sometimes? Kaitie and Mandy have been cracking me up with their choice of entertainment. First off - they begged me to put Bon Jovi - “Living on a Prayer” on their iPod. I think thats funny. Secondly they watched a movie this week that really made me laugh, just because they enjoyed it so much! It was “The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer” starring Myrna Loy, Carry Grant and a teenaged Shirley Temple. And dont get me started on their obsession with Animal Planet.

Oscars - did you watch? What did you think? I loved it! It was very well put together and I really liked how they had some past winners present the acting awards. I could have done without Sean Penn. But then again… I don’t think I have ever liked that butt head. Didn’t really care for the musical montage either… little weird. But I LOVED the opening! Who new Anne Hathaway could belt it out like that?

Jake lost his first tooth Saturday night. Kind of early don’t you think? I forget when the girls lost their first tooth, but I really thought it was much later. He was so happy about it! Sadly the tooth fairy forgot to come - and now that I am thinking about it… I hope he She remembered last night.

Last thing for now. Emma has (finally) started walking. She had been taking a few steps here and there and then last week she decided to get mobile! She is so proud of herself too! Sometimes after she takes 5 or so steps, she gets this big smile and her face and starts laughing - then she loses her balance… it pretty funny. Her favorite thing to do right now is to go across the room and pick something up and bring it to you. What a little helper!

I will (hopefully) be back on a little later to get my Monday Meal Plan up

So, as you can see I did not fall of the face of the Earth. I just haven’t been in much of a blogging mood and when the mood has struck I can’t think of anything profound to say and for some reason, I felt like I needed to be profound. (and write really long run-on sentences too)

I can’t believe its December! Holy cow! Where did this year go? Did you know that my little baby Emma will be one year old Tuesday? Weird huh? It makes me want to cry.

In other news, our trip to Slidell was great! We had a wonderful time catching up with some old friends and meeting some new little ones that have been added the past few years. Jake made a two new friends, Wyatt and Jeffery. Kaitie and Mandy got to spend the night with their friend Emily.

The whole reason for our Slidell trip was to visit our friends, Adam and Andrea and their little one Aashini. You should really check out their blogs. They are living in South Asia and doing some awesome work for the Lord. Don’t tell them I said so this… but they are kind of like my heros now

They have actually inspired us to do something cool this year for a family Christmas present! We are going to sponsor a child through Compassion International! If you aren’t familiar with this organization, please check out the link!

Also… if you are looking to do a little extra giving this time of year, may I suggest International Mission Board. This organization helps people just like Adam and Andrea to help spread the message of the Gospel. I bet by doing this… you can pretty much guarantee that you will not be on the naughty list this year

And finally… Thanksgiving! What a great day We had some wonderful friends come over and ate way too much food. I was actually thinking of taking some pictures of the feast, but I totally forgot! (Just like I totally forgot to take my camera to Slidell - duh!) But, I will tell you what I prepared! The menu was:
Fried Turkey (Marc took care of this and did a wonderful job!), Mashed Potatoes, Sweet Potato Casserole, Green Bean Casserole (from scratch… and oh baby! Yummy!), Corn Bread Stuffing, Yankee Stuffing (what I grew up on) and Honey Butter Rolls. For dessert we had Pumpkin Pie and Pecan Pie (another killer recipe!) Please let me know if you are interested in any of the recipes

Hopefully I can get another post up today. Just a fair warning… it will be political and will probably be a little on the “rantish” side.

So - here are some pictures of my baby Kaitie kicking some bootay on the beam! (sadly - some of these fell on the soft to down right off focus pictues… blah!)

“AIR KAITIE”

Can I just take a moment and tell you how proud I am of both Kaitie and Mandy? WOW! Sometimes I take it for granted what they can do on while at gymanstics. I am at the gym all the time and see so many girls doing some crazy stuff! But, sometimes, I can take a step back and marvel at what their bodies can do! Truthfully… I am totally jealous. Yep - I will admit, I am 100% jealous and envious at my 10 year old bodies and what they can do with them. So sad.

You go girls!

With my inconsistent blogging lately, I have fallen very behind in both updating and posting pictures. I thought I would try and break things down a bit - so here goes:

The last month we have celebrated both Kaitie and Mandy’s 10th birthday and Jake’s 5th birthday. Both were celebrated very differently. The girls had wonderful tea party, while Jake’s birthday was a little more low key - dinner, cake and presents.

I present you: Birthdays Part 1; Cake

So - if you can’t read (or tell) this is Kaitie and Mandy’s cake. Homemade Vanilla cake with butter cream frosting, filled with Strawberry preserves.

See those? Gum paste flowers…I made those Sorry - a little proud there. I had never worked with gum paste before, I think it turned out nicely! The girls loved it!!!

And it sharp contrast:

Jake’s cake. Homemade chocolate with butter cream frosting, filled with butter cream. Dusted with Cocoa and decorated with Star Wars figures. It take a little creativity to decorate a cake for a boy who can’t eat artificial colors.

Monsieur Jacob - from the great country of Batter Bowl, showing off his stylish batter bowl mustache.

But it is… My babies, my girls, my chickies, my “girlfriends”, my firstborn… they turn 10 today. And as I type that, I cry. Not Boo-hooing, bawling type of cry. But, my eyes are swollen with tears and I feel a bit of sadness.

You know, when Marc and I first got married, I was even sure I wanted kids. It’s not that I was totally against it, but really, I could have done without kids… or so I thought.

When Marc and I found out we were pregnant - I was excited. Sure, a little scared, but mostly excited. The thought of having a child grew on me. It made me happy. Then just a few weeks later, we found out the really big news. I was not pregnant with “a” baby… nope - I was pregnant with “babies!” Umm, ’scuse me? Two? Really? I was so freaked out, I think I just stared at the wall for a week, every now and then I would say “twins?” quietly to myself and get all kinds of freaked out.

I don’t know what I was worried about. God knew what he was doing, and wow! He did a really good thing! He gave me two of the most perfect creatures ever put on the earth. They have changed me in so many ways. They are truly incredible! I know how could gush about them all day long, but I will spare you.

Let me just say this - they are awesome! Loving, caring, thoughtful, smart, sweet, beautiful, little girls… that aren’t so little anymore. Which brings me back to square one… sadness. I guess its not really sadness, but more bittersweet. I see them growing into these awesome young ladies and it make me so happy and proud, but it also brings the realization that each day that passes is one day closer to my girls, my babies, growing up, getting married and well, not being my babies anymore.

Want to take a look back with me?

Amanda Rose, born 7/24/98 at 9:01pm, weighing 4lbs 7 oz

Kaitlin Mae, born 7/24/98 at 8:55pm, weighing 4lbs 13oz

Those pictures prove a mother’s love is blind… those two look like aliens!

2 years old. Their Grandma bought these outfits for them so they could cheer their Uncle Dave playing football.

Their first year in gymnastics

Halloween, age 5

Getting their ears pierced at age 6

Their 7th birthday

Pensacola Beach, age 8

Homeschool - age 9

ok… I think I am going to curl up in a ball and cry a bit. Or - I can fix lunch and take my ladies shopping!!! Hmm, tough choice!

We had such a great time at the home school convention, I have a ton of things to talk about. But, I first want to talk to you about a very special meeting that took place Saturday afternoon.

Two years ago at the convention I was introduced to a wonderful product from a good friend of mine. It is a series of CD’s put out by Greathall Productions, that are narrated by a man named Jim Weiss. The girls got a few from the convention last year and a bunch more for Christmas. They have fairy tales from around the world and some classic stuff like Sherlock Holmes, 20,000 Leagues and Tom Sawyer. They absolutely love them!

Friday, Marc and I were walking along with the girls when we saw the booth and noticed that he was going to be storytelling later on in the day. We asked the girls if they wanted to go and of course they jumped at the chance! We swung back around the booth to see what room it was in and I spied Jim Weiss. I pointed him out to the girls who immediately got all giggly and well… weird. It was really funny to see! Marc and I were almost stunned, we had never seen act that way before. Sadly, we found out that the storytelling was only for the kids that were in the kids program. So, we didn’t get to hear him.

Saturday, as the girls and I were walking past his booth again (oh yes, lots of shopping was done!) I saw him there and told the girls… blushing and giggling ensued. I encouraged them to go and talk to him. They bravely went over to the booth and quickly looked down at the piles of CD’s, too shy to speak. Yep - my girls were speechless… first time for everything! I was standing behind them as Mr Weiss walked by and started up a conversation with me. I told him what huge fans my girls were and he started talking to them. It was so cute! Their eyes were as big as saucers and their smiles were just priceless!

He ended up having a very nice conversation with them and even gave them a CD, autographed, of course!

Kaitie and Mandy showed all their friends they saw that day their autographed Jim Weiss CD.

I am so thankful that my almost 10 year olds got giddy over a storyteller. Yep - a plain old storyteller. Not Paris, or Lindsey or even Hannah… but, Jim Weiss.

Things are starting to get a little saner around here. Marc is back from Canada. All the activities have wound down. The homeschool conference was this past weekend and decisions regarding the next school year are set. WHEW!!! What a crazy time it has been

Hopefully I will be able to get back to posting on a semi-regular basis. I have lots of “stuff” to talk about and oodles of great pictures!

But - until then, someone funny things said in the last two days.

Jake (as we were driving home from the conference Friday): “Daddy, when we get home, can we play “Duck, Duck, Goose, Alligator?”

Jake : “Daddy, will you build blocks with me?’” “Sure” says Marc, “What do you want to build?” Jake: “London”

Ok, the next one requires a little set up. We are eating out Friday night and the girls were discussing inventors. They ask us who invented the television. Marc and I rack our brains and can’t come up with anything. I say “Hmm, I don’t know, but I know who invented the radio” (I’m thinking Wow! Great segue into a teachable moment” Katie says “umm, duh! Marconi!” Oh. Sorry. Do they even need me? LOL!

I was getting ready to just type in “Pictures” for my title when all of a sudden “picture Pages” popped in my mind. Do you guys remember Picture Pages with Bill Cosby? It was on some PBS show or maybe just from Fat Albert. There was a little song - “picture pages, picture pages (something, something, something), Lots of fun with crayons and with pencils.”

Ok - weirdness over - Let the pictures begin!

Nothing says “COOL” like a girl with a power tool


Kaitie and Mandy helping put their beds together

Putting the Gerber baby to shame

Look Ma! No Hands!!!

The Pretty Princess taking a bath

The Pretty Princess splashing

I have a beautiful picture of her scratching her butt too… seriously debating about posting it….

Cause when Jake’s happy - everyone’s happy!