Ornaments

I belong to an email moms group and we have been together since our kids were babies.

10 years ago we started a yearly tradition of exchanging ornaments. One person each year is in charge of organizing it, picking the names and letting us all know who our "secret santa" is. Then we pick out an ornament (or other decoration) for that person and mail it to them. Then, after a date is picked in December, we all go to a chat room (it used to be AOL, but too many of us were having problems, so we went to chatzy.com this year) and open our presents on that night.

This is one of my favorite things to do each year. Some of the years our chats get so hilarious and funny, we are laughing our butts off and our family is just looking at us like we are so weird!

I am so looking forward to the day when I will have gotten an ornament from every single member of our group and that I have given an ornament to each on of my friends.

We are a special bunch of gals, inasmuch as we all come from different backgrounds, different lifestyles, and different parts of the country. We all came together because our children were born that same year. And now, while we do still talk about our children, our discussions are more about us and our lives and sharing it with each other.

These are the ornaments I got this year. I love them!!

Trying VERY Hard Here.....

4 years ago on December 19th, was probably the worst day in my life. That whole week was probably the worst week in my life.

When my mom died.

Christmas? Yea, not so much fun AT ALL.

But I vowed that I would not let her death ruin future Christmases for me, considering it IS my favorite holiday.

I LOVE decorating the house, both inside and out. I LOVE getting presents for people. I love MAKING presents for people. I love to see the look on their eyes, or hear it in their voice when I get them something that they wanted, or didn't expect or love.

I LOVE the whole month leading up to Christmas. I LOVE baking Christmas goodies. I love getting the Christmas cards out. I LOVE receiving Christmas cards and find out how loved ones are doing and what they did this year. I LOVE waking up Christmas morning and seeing the anticipation on my girls faces for when they can come out and see what Santa brought them.

I LOVE the ornament exchange that my email moms group does at this time and how we almost always end up having a crazy chat conversation on the computer and laughing.

I LOVE going to look at Christmas lights. I love how the house is so warm and toasty during this time (that is when it's not 85 degrees outside).

4 years ago, I couldn't wait for Christmas to be over. Instead of the excitement leading up to Christmas that last week, I was wishing it would be over as soon as possible. Oh, I tried my best to put up the best front I could that morning for my girls, trying to smile and be happy, but it just wasn't there. And it wasn't there for my sister. We were both faced with the wrapped presents that were under the tree for us from our mom. And the presents that were under there from us for our mom. We did get through it, with the help of hubby, who suggested we each other's presents that we had given to mom the night before, that way they wouldn't be sitting there Christmas morning.

This year circumstances are really testing my love for Christmas again.

Last week we had some heavy rains, and not that we haven't had heavier rains prior to this time, but this time we thought we had it all covered. A new roof, new rain gutters, we thought we were set.

Well, apparently the rain gutter guy didn't install the downspout in the proper positioning, because with as much water that came through the one downspout, it has seeped into the oldest's bedroom and totally ruined her carpet.

So the bonus I got for being Employee of the Year? Now has to pay for a new carpet. We have contacted the contractor who installed it and he, so far has said that he is not responsible for it.

He has yet to talk to me though.

I will be calling him in the next couple of days and try to get him to understand that he is responsible and should do the right thing and pay for it, to avoid going to small claims court.

So in the meantime, hubby has pulled up the carpet to get ready for the new carpet. The oldest did a fabulous job emptying her room for that. It's amazing the nooks and crannies I can find in this house to store her "room".

So he pulls up the carpet and what does he find? Linoleum. Linoleum??!! In a bedroom??!!! WTF?! But then we're thinking okay, maybe that's not such a bad thing. It probably protected the slab.

So hubby goes in there (after putting fans and heaters in there to dry it out) and finds the linoleum loose. So he starts pulling up a few of the tiles.

Yes, water under there!

So now he has to pull up the whole floor (carpet tacks around the edges and everything) so we can dry out the slab. Which pushes back the installation of the carpet by quite a few days.

Because you don't want to put new carpet on a damp slab or an seemingly dry slab, you've got to wait until a few days after that.

When did all of this start you ask?

December 18th & 19th.

The same time my mom had her stroke and died, 4 years ago.

So of course it's bringing back all the feelings of dread and doom and despair I had 4 years ago.

I'm fighting like hell to try and keep my spirits up and push forward to have a wonderful Christmas.

I told hubby last night that I don't want to know all the details anymore. Just let me know when the room will be ready for the carpet.

I want to be in denial on this one.

My Teenager

While taking the "calendar" pictures below, I wanted to take a single picture of my oldest in this "theme" (May). This is my absolute favorite one of her that I have taken in a while.

Calendar Pictures

Okay, so I decided to do a calenday for my MIL for Christmas. I wanted to just go through pictures throughout the year and put them on the corresponding month. The eldest wanted to "dress up" for each month and do a "year of pictures" in a day. She was SO excited to do it, so we did the photo shoot today. I thought I'd share with you their "year in pictures" and the theme she wanted to do for each month. I loved her ideas, they were so cute. :)

Here is January......

February........

March........

April..........

May.............

June..............

July...........

August...........

September.....

October..........

November..............

December.............

Latest Project

I don't know why, but everytime around the holidays I get inspired to start new craft projects. I was at Michaels the other day and they had some yarn on sale for ridiculously low prices, so of course I had to buy some. I do have some patterns that I am working on with it. Yesterday in my youngest's class, one of her friends had this hat on that was SO cute. My youngest said she wanted one like that and I told her I could make one. The pattern I had wasn't exactly like it and I do have to tweak it a little bit for the next one, but I did this last night for her so she could wear it to school today. :)

Conjunction, Junction....

.....what's your function?

Yes, I can hear you all singing that song in your head. :)

I now call myself a "Conjuction Mom".

That's because my children don't call me "Mom" anymore.

It's "And Mom!"

Or "But Mom!"

My little one is famous for calling me "And Mom". She does it ALL the time now. It's not, "Mom!", it's "And Mom!" Like she has some conversation going in her head and she wants to continue it out loud to me and I'm adding to it.

The "But Mom!" has been there for a while, and of course that's them disputing something I've said.

I'm now just waiting for the "Or Mom!" phrase to come out of their mouths. I don't know how they'll use it, but I'm sure they'll figure out a way. Maybe the oldest will use it when she's trying to "counter- offer" something to me.

Body Shots

Okay, apparently Body Shots is not just drinking alcohol off of someone's body anymore.

My oldest told me today that there were guys in the bathroom doing "body shots" today. She asked me if I knew what that was. I totally thought I knew what I was talking about when I told her and she was like, "No mom, that couldn't be it, because they were doing it in the boys' bathroom and one guy came out with bruises."

So I just went and looked it up in the Urban Dictionary, and this is what is says for Defintion #6:

"when two or more people, usually males, get together to fight. the fighting is not malicious but usually between two buddies/friends/acquaintances. the only area hit is the body from the waist up and neck down (torso) and arms. hence, the term body shots. plural is the most common use of this noun."

Nice.

So there's your newest lesson (and mine too, apparently) in the teenage drama that's going on.

Sigh......

Show Not Tell

In my oldest's language class, they have these assignments which are called, "Show Not Tell", in which they have to write about some part of the book they are reading from one of the character's point's of view. The most recent book they read is called Johnny Tremain by Esther Hoskins Forbes. She read us her most recent Show Not Tell last night and I though it was amazing. So amazing that I'm showing it here:

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I stand there, silent and motionless. The fast pace of my pulse is in rhythm with their footsteps. As I look across the green, I see the red stream pouring in, each individual carrying a gun, ready to blow my head off at any given moment. I know this could be the end of me, and that I may never see Rab, Uncle Lorne, or Cilla ever again. However it's too late to back down now. Besides, being able to have a man stand up as a free American is so much more important than my living. All of a sudden, I hear that first shot. That first shot that begins our fight, our determination, for freedom. I lift up my gun to fire, and I pull the trigger. But, it won't shoot. I drop down to the ground to try and safely fix my firearm. At that very moment, a bullet blazes across my head, just barely missing my skull. My gun finally manages to work, so I bound back up to shoot a fire of my own. I find myself staring at the whites of their eyes. Those hungry eyes staring straight through me. Before I can pull the trigger, I feel a bullet, a British, gruesome bullet piercing through my flesh. That bullet knocks me to the ground, leaving me in a pool of my own blood. My mind is telling me to buck and keep fighting, but my body is in debate. The one thing that my mind keeps repeating to me is "One less man to fight, one less chance that a man can stand up."

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Legoland

This past Tuesday, Veteran's Day, the girls had off from school. Since hubby was able to get the day off as well, we decided to go to Legoland. We had never been before, and the oldest was on the cusp of really being too old to enjoy it. It really is a park for little kids.


There was this one ride near the beginning of the park that the youngest REALLY wanted to go on. But here's the thing, you might get wet. Hubby and I were NOT in the mood to get wet that day, so the youngest and the oldest were able to go on this ride together. They had a blast with it!

And yet, here's another ride for them to go on, just the two of them. Hmmmm......wow, this might not be a bad thing. Hubby and I get to sit and watch the girls stand in line to go on a ride?? That was nice! Now, don't get me wrong, hubby and I LOVE to go on the rides. We love Disneyland, we love roller coasters, etc. It's just the waiting in line and having to deal with rude people that's the pits. Plus these lines here at Legoland were NOT long at all.

Oh, and yet ANOTHER ride that we got to watch them.....

Oh, and at Legoland, they have a parking area that is a "Reserved" parking area, and Volvo sponsors it. So they have this little display right next to it and so, of course, the girls had to pose with it. Yes, the woman and baby are made out of Legos!

There were Lego displays all over the park (hence the "Legoland" name...) that were just so cute!

Then there was this car ride that the girls got to go on where the cars are NOT on a track and they can drive them all by themselves! There were stop signs and stoplights as well! (I worry about my oldest when she DOES start driving because she paid no attention to the stop signs, yikes!!) Oh, and don't worry, I think the cars go MAYBE 5 mph at the most? Hubby said that the oldest looked like she was riding in a rollerskate because she was so big for it. LOL!!

This was a ride that only the youngest could go on. The horse just rides around a little track and goes slow around it. It was VERY cute!

Now, there were a few roller coasters there too that we all could go on and that was fun. The youngest, at first did not want to go on them, but then after she was on them, she was like, "That was fun!!" Ahhhhhh....we love it!!

Now, back to the Lego displays they had there......

Elvis, baby, uh-huh! (We took this one for grandma, she loves Elvis)

And hubby had to get his picture taken with "Darth Vadar"

Now, the oldest likes to take goofy pictures with displays........

SpongeBob!!!!!

Another goofy pic with the oldest.....

Mount Rushmore.......

San Francisco.......

Oh, no!!! It's attack of the Killer Birds!!!!! (yes that is a real bird invading the display)

Window Washers in NYC....

Vegas Baby!!

We had a good time there, definitely a park you can do it one day, but I don't really see us going back there again. I would HIGHLY recommend it if you lived nearby and had little ones though!! If you do, get a season pass and go there all the time, the kids would LOVE it!!!

Next stop....Disneyland in a week and a half......

A First...

Okay, so I'm at Michaels on Sunday, doing some craft shopping (actually I was buying frames, because I'm switching out all the frames I have) and so I go to my car and open up the door.

All of the sudden I'm having severe pain in my right hand and I'm like, "OWWWWW!!!" So I shook my hand because I think I felt something on it and this BIG BLACK THING gets shooken off my hand onto the seat on the inside of the car. I'm thinking, "HOLY SHIT, I just got bit by a Black Widow spider!" And then the thing flies off. Yikes!! No, I did not get bit by a spider, I got STUNG by a bee! (Oh yea, and I was screaming about it and there was a car next to me, but did they do anything? Oh, no....they just drove off!)

Okay, now for all of you out there who are saying, "Okay, big whoop, you got stung by a bee".......well, I'm 40 years old and this was the VERY FIRST TIME I have EVER gotten STUNG by a bee!!! So it's a little traumatic for me, give me some leeway here people.

So automatic reaction happens and I squeeze it and the little stinger that it had popped out. Whew! But of course that freaks me out too! So I start searching through my car for the first aid kits. Yes you read that correctly, KITS. Plural. I think I have like 2 or 3 in there. Hey, I just haven't gotten around to condensing them into one. And you'd think that with all the first aid kits I had in there there would be SOMETHING for insect stings. Was there? Oh no, of course not.

So I have this "cleansing wipe" where I got stung on the inside of my hand, and I'm getting ready to call hubby when I see that he's calling me. So I answer the phone and start going off on how I got stung, and then I had to remind him that I had NEVER been stung before. (hey people, I suffer from anxiety, so I'm freaking out a little, worrying that I'm allergic or something). And THEN I start cursing, dropping the F-bomb everywhere because I'm FORTY YEARS OLD and I've gone THIS long without being stung, WHY NOW? So not only am I in intense pain, but I'm pissed. I'm pissed that this stupid ass bee stung me and ruined my perfectly good record of never have been stung.

So since you're reading this, and I'm not dead, it's pretty safe to say that I'm not allergic to bee stings. Not that I want to go out and get stung ever again......

Halloween

Halloween.

I've always loved this holiday. I love seeing the girls all dressed up, but I also love seeing what others come up with as far as costumes go.

Me? I could never come up with that cool creative costume. I have a friend, Sue, who dressed up like a Sea Monkey with her husband (then boyfriend). My sister dressed up as a "Noid" (remember "Avoid the Noid" from Dominos WAY back when?) once. Those two have always come up with the most fun costumes.

This year may very well have been the last year my oldest dresses up to go trick-or-treating. Wow, I feel so old.......

She was a pirate last year and I told her I was not going to buy her a new costume this year, so we altered the costume she had from last year to make her a "Queen of Hearts" in a way.

My youngest wanted to be a skeleton. So I found this on on ebay. She was going to have her face done up too, but after we put the white makeup on her face, she got uncomfortable with it on, and plus her skin was a little sore and raw underneath her bottom lip (dry weather, licking your lips, you get the picture), so we took the makeup off.


We went trick-or-treating with good friends of ours in their neighborhood. Ours sucks. Hubby said he got like 5 trick-or-treaters all night. So sad.

The oldest got out the decorations a couple of weeks before Halloween. Here's our little Halloween "village".........

And since I have a thing for snowglobes, we have to have one for Halloween too....

One decoration we did forget to get out was the little Trick Or Treater guy we made years and years ago. By the time I remembered it, it was the day before Halloween and I didn't feel like going into the shed to get him out.

All the Halloween decorations are now put away and the few Thanksgiving ones that I have (and they were all my mom's because she loved decorations for EVERY season, so when we went through her stuff, I took some) are now up. That literally took all of about 5 minutes.

My Chi-Chi's are good to go

I had a mammogram done last week. It was my very first one. Not the most comfortable thing, but certainly not THAT uncomfortable, at least for me.

Yesterday I got a call from Mammography saying that I needed to come in for an additional look. Uh-oh. My heart immediately started racing. Another look? Why? What do they see that they need to take an additional look?

Well, apparently for the bigger breasted gals, sometimes there is a lot of "density" there and they need to zoom in on it.

So this morning I went back down there. When I get in the room, I have to put the little cape on to "cover me up". While I'm waiting, I see my mammogram up on the light box from last week and they have a certain area highlighted. Uh-oh. Does this mean they found something suspicious? Immediately my heart starts racing again and I'm on the verge of an anxiety attack. But I calm myself down and relax and try to reassure myself that there is nothing to get worried about before they even tell me anything.

So after they squeeze my right one in a vice (that's pretty much what it is, in my opinion), the tech tells me to sit and wait. After a few minutes go by the doctor comes in and tells me that everything is alright. There were just a few calcifications spots they wanted to look at.

Oh my goodness.....You mean I'm alright? It's okay?? Are you absolutely SURE, doctor??

Damn......

And yes, I know I didn't really have extensive tests done, and I know it's considered common to come back for an additional look so they can be sure, but this was my first one and to have to come back a 2nd time, did get a little worrisome for me.

Of course now it makes me want to proudly display them. (well, covered up anyway) LOL!!

See world? They are okay!

And if you knew me growing up, I was not one to display them more than they already were.

Out of the Mouth of Babes

In the car while we're driving..............

"There are 26 letters in the alphabet. Wow, mom, that's younger than you!!! You're 40!!"

"Thanks Hon"

Blast From The Past

Living in Southern California often means that you make a trip down to Tijuana at least once in your life. (Some a LOT more than others).

In 1993 friends of ours came down and we went down to TJ to party. This was my one and only time I ever went there. And for some reason you have to take these group shots while you're down there.
Yes, I had an absolute blast down there, but that was 15 years ago. I have no desire to go back now...

And apparently going down to TJ is something my family does, because here is a picture of my grandma and my grandpa John down there in 1946.......



My grandma went back down there again in 1959, to marry her 2nd husband.

Then my mom went down there to marry my father in 1967.

At least hubby and I stayed up here to get married.............

I've Been Tagged

My friend, Michelle tagged me on her blog.

What to Do:

Go to your photo files, pick the 6th folder and the 6th picture and post it! Then tag 5 of your unsuspecting friends!

My oldest folder is from 2005. This picture is of my youngest on Easter morning enjoying a chocolate egg, yummy!!! She has such intense eyes! She gets them from her Daddy, although when my mom was alive, she swore she had my eyes. I think she has her Daddy's though too.

So now I'm tagging: Stacie, McCabe, My Sassy Friend, Sueberry, and if Di had a blog, I would tag her. :)

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Tag your it!
Please consider yourself tagged!
If you play along please leave a comment so I can come over and
see what you came up with!

I Need To Get My Rollerskates Out

...because apparently I need them to help me get around faster.

SO busy today!!

But then again, Tuesdays usually are for me.

It's my "Monday" at work (I don't work on the "real" Monday, as that's my ME day), the girls have school, then I have to rush to get them home from school so the oldest can get ready for soccer practice. Then, this evening, my youngest's teacher had an individual "Open House" for her class, as she wasn't able to do it last week with the rest of the school.

So, of course, I'm short on time, so my oldest's coach keeps them late, in the meantime, I have groceries in the car that I'm hoping aren't going to melt in this horrid heat we've been having this week.

I race her home, don't even get a chance to eat dinner with family, so I grab a piece of bread and head on back to the school.

My youngest's teacher had our kids' names spelled out vertically and wanted us to write something about them using each letter of their name.

Now, I love my youngest's name, but when it came to using those letters to start describing her, I'm thinking, "Dang, why did I give her THIS name???" I did manage to write some descriptives of her though.

Then I had to race back home to help the youngest with her homework, get her into bed, read to her (I've always read to my girls, starting when they are wee ones) and tucked her into bed.

All the while getting lunches ready for tomorrow, making a sandwich for myself to eat for dinner.

Hubby did make dinner and ran the dishwasher, so I was very grateful for that.

And tomorrow? A little less stressful, but not much.

Oh, and yesterday I made appointments for a mammogram (this will be my first, but I've heard that breastfeeding is more painful than a mammogram, so I'm hoping that's a good thing for me, since I did the breastfeeding thing with each girls for 18 months each), and I also have to get a bone scan because my stupid right foot doesn't want to cooperate and is causing me pain. Yea, I found out that they inject me with something to make my bones "glow" under the scan so they can see it better.

Nice.

SOOOOOOOOOO True

If you've ever had to take your child to the bathroom and they feel like they need to talk a lot in a public restroom, you've GOT to read this. And if you have we ones, yes, one day this may happen to you........

http://amazingtrips.blogspot.com/

I laughed so hard reading this because my youngest one is SOOOO known for talking in a louder than normal (or so it seems in a public restroom), or maybe it's the fact that she IS talking in a public restroom when people usually DON'T talk in there that makes it seem so loud.

Having A Little Bit Of Fun......

.........telling my oldest a little bit about my "early days", if that's what you want to call them. LOL!!

We had just finished watching Project Runway where the designers had to design certain genres of music for the other designers. So we were talking about rock 'n roll and such and I told my oldest about how I had danced on a table once, danced in a DJ booth and at one time I wanted to be a cage dancer. No.....not a STRIPPER, but a cage dancer. Hey, it sounded like fun then. I never did it though.

I always get a kick out of telling her a little bit about my past. She's always like, "EWWWWW, MOM, I CANNOT picture you doing THAT!!!" Teehee!!

I actually do not consider myself to have a wild past. I know too many people who were way more wild than me. Yes, sometimes we were wild, and sometimes I look back on that and think, "Holy Cow, were were SO lucky to survive that! Imagine what COULD have happened"

And while I do tell her some things, there are plenty of other things I'd rather not say, but when the time comes and she asks me, I will have to ponder on what I do tell her. I don't like having "skeletons in the closet". There were too many of those in my family.

I do want her to focus on her education, which she does seem to be doing, very well at the moment. I just need to make sure she continues that when she gets in high school.

I was an Honor Roll student in high school, and had I applied myself more, I probably could have been near the top of my class. But high school became more than just education for me. It was a time where I had fun as well. And I need to teach her the balance in that. And we always talk about WHEN she's going to college, not if.

Bubble Overload

Okay, so yesterday I come home from the gym and get ready to make dinner. The oldest emptied the dishwasher for me (as part of her chores.....) and I load it up quickly and start it. So I get the chicken out, getting ready to prepare it to cook it and I turn around and look at the dishwasher and I see bubbles coming out from it....WHILE IT'S CLOSED AND RUNNING!!!! Umm....I don't think it's supposed to do that.......

Shit.

So that just put me in a bad mood for quite a while. I think I'm starting "peri"-menopause.

Because I've been moody.

Just ask my husband.

Well, it turns out that the dishwasher episode was ACTUALLY both my fault AND my husband's fault. It's his fault because he decided to make a GAZILLION scrambled eggs in a pan that left it stuck on the pan. My fault because I coated it with regular dishwashing soap, left it to soak and totally forgot about it when I threw it in the dishwasher.

So hello bubble overload.

At least it's nice and sparkly clean now.

A Moment In Time

Hubby is learning to play the guitar and the youngest wanted to "play" with daddy.

It's Official....I'm The Mom Of A Teenager

This week my oldest turned 13. Wow. I can't believe that my baby is a teenager now! Of course she's been acting like one for quite a while now. Well, she always has been advanced........except for the delivery part.

I was in labor for 16 hours, they had me push for 3 hours and I ended up having a c-section with her. Well, she was 10 pounds, 6 ounces, so no wonder she wouldn't come out!! I remember my sister-in-law down by the doctor saying, "I can see her head!!" Hubby and one of my closest friends were helping me on either side of me as they doctor would say over and over again, "Let's try pushing again" I would spend all of my energy pushing and then when they would tell me to stop I would literally fall back down and not even move until it was time to push again.

When she came into this world (and I was conscious again - I could feel them cutting me and so the "drug doctor" upped my dosage of whatever he gave me and I was out in LaLa Land when she was born) I was so happy and blessed that my beautiful baby girl was in the world. The one who I had been waiting for and dreaming of my whole life (just ask my friends, they'll all tell you I always wanted a baby).

Wow.......

Here is a picture of her at 1 week old.......

At this time she was sporting the George Clooney look from when he was first on ER.

I was SO blessed to have her!!! Hubby went out to sea for 6 months though when she was only 3 months old. Since we were moving out of state when he got back, and I didn't plan on going back to work, I moved in with mom and mom and my sister. When he got back, we moved out of state, but then shortly afterwards, I realized how much I missed my family and after he was done with a school he was at, he was lucky enough to get orders back near my family.

Here she is at 1 year old. We bought this ball pit for her, and she loved it so much!!! Hubby also wanted to get her a Tickle Me Elmo, which we still have to this day. It's in my youngest's room right now.....

She has always loved to color and do crafty things. Must get it from me, although hubby is very crafty himself (although he'll tell you he's not, but he is). I've always been so glad she loves the creative side of her. I learned so much from my mom, and I hope to be able to pass that along to both of my girls.

This is her at 2 years old.......

Christmas has always been a favorite holiday in our family. Here, at 3 years old, we had just gotten back from some holiday event where they had face painting......
At 4 years old she wanted to take dance. Here she is at a Christmas Pageant.....
School. Kindergarten... My email mom's group and I were discussing on if you were a crier or a non crier when it came to your kids and them starting school. For the most part I'm a "non-crier", but I certainly did get very choked up when she started Kindergarten. What a milestone in a child's life and your own! You flash back to all the events and times leading up to this moment, and though it's only 5 years of memories, there are plenty! She was SO happy to start Kindergarten and has excelled in school since the beginning. When she started Kindergarten, she already knew how to read and say the alphabet backwards! Even the teacher was impressed about the alphabet thing!
At 6 years old, she started going fishing with Daddy every so often. She loved doing that, although I don't know how fond she was of the fish! Here she is just as they're getting ready to go fishing.
Ahhh.....7 years old. 2nd grade. She was a big sister now, and has ALWAYS been great with her sister from the very beginning (well, okay, not ALWAYS, as they argue and fight like most sisters do). She was SUCH a big help with her little sister. Hubby left to go out to sea when the youngest was 3 months old (yea, I know, freaky, huh???? ) This time I wasn't at home, living with my mom. I was out, doing it all myself, plus taking her to school, and everything else. She truly has a wonderful giving heart.
8 years old. (Of course as you can see with the birthday card she's holding up)

3rd grade. During this year she participated in her talent show at school, doing a gymnastics routine. She did SO well!! (yes, after dance, she wanted to do gymnastics...oh and has been playing soccer as well). She got to be very good at gymnastics and had it not been for an accident involving a door and her toe, she probably would still be doing it. But she was out of commission for a month and then when was well enough, she lost the desire for gymnastics.

9 years old. The start of braces.....Phase 1. (she will be in Phase 2 in a couple of years from now). She also started a new school, because she became GATE (Gifted And Talented Education) Identified, so she qualified to go into the advanced class, and because her current school didn't have it, we moved her to a new school, the one she is still at right now.

This was a hard year for her. Moving to a new school can be hard on children. And while she is a strong and determined girl, she's also shy.

But she got through it.

10 years old. Double digits. I remember thinking, WOW....she's TEN years OLD now! Where has the time gone????

She had the most wonderful teacher in 5th grade. He is truly a gifted teacher to inspire his students the way he does.

It was also this year, just before she turned 10 that she cut her long hair and donated it to Locks Of Love.

Also, this was the year of Hurricane Katrina and she was the driving force in starting a Hurricane Katrina Relief Fund at her school. She also helped to raise money for the Pandas this year as well.

11 years old.

Yes, as you can see in this picture, she's no longer my little girl. She's growing up. Gone is the "baby face", and now, even though there's still 2 more years until she was an official "teenager", the teenage "attitude" started. It was definitely more about the clothes as well.

12 years old.

7th grade.

This was a hard year for her too. Her school is a K-8 school, and they separate the 7th & 8th graders to the "junior high" part of the school.

So now, not only do you have school, but the "cliques" definitely start forming here.

And last (for now) but certainly not least, by any means......

13.

My little baby (well, okay, so she wasn't so "little" when she was born) is now a teenager.

For part of her present she got to upgrade her cell phone to a nice one. As I'm sure you can see, she is EXTREMELY happy about it. Daddy also got her a pink electric guitar for her birthday too. She can't wait until she can learn how to play it.

I am SO proud of her! She has SO many talents and sometimes I think she wishes she could clone herself so she could have more time to do all of them.

Happy Birthday my baby.