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.

Work In Progress

That's me.

I went to the doctor's a few days ago for refills on my blood pressure medication.

Yes, I have high blood pressure, and it sucks sometimes.

It's hereditary for me, so no matter how much weight I lose, I'll have it.

So because it's a yearly thing, I have to get blood work done to make sure everything is functioning okay inside.

Good news, my glucose levels are fabulous (which is a good thing because I had gestational diabetes with both of my girls).

My thyroid levels are great.

All the other numbers came back fabulous.

Except one.

Yes, that darned cholesterol.

It came back a little high.

I'm not on medication for it, thank goodness, but she's giving me six months to get it down with diet.

Well............I've done it before.

Granted I did have help with cholesterol medication before, but I followed that way of eating so well, I lost weight as well.

So I pulled out paperwork that I have that lists what foods I can eat that are recommended for keeping a low cholesterol diet.

I'm getting back on track, because I am choosing to do this so I can lower my cholesterol, lose the weight.......AGAIN.......and keep it off.

Last time I did this I was SOOOOOOOO good!!!

Then I went and started having panic attacks.

Oh joy.

Now that I'm through the panic attacks (for the majority of it, I still get anxiety, but with the help of therapy - which I highly recommend to anyone - I can recognize them and work through them), and healed, for the most part, in regards to my mom's death, I can work on this for me.

Yea, so that's it.

I'm a constant work in progress, I guess....................

1st Day of School

Tuesday was their first day of school.

Yea me! LOL!!!

Every single year I always take the same pictures of them going to school. Even when the oldest was just going to school.

Here is my youngest in her "Mitchie" outfit (Camp Rock movie). She LOVES this outfit and so it was fitting she picked it for her first day of school outfit.


Wow, I can't believe she's in 1st grade. She is now the age that my oldest was when I got pregnant with her. I can't believe THAT much time has already gone by!!!
And here is my oldest. Her top is from Hollister, "of course". I'm telling you, I felt like SUCH a "MOM" when I took her shopping there last week. It's one of the HIP stores to shop at (meaning expensive, of course), but she usually finds stuff in the clearance section, because even though she loves their stuff, even she thinks it's expensive.
She still loves her hair too. (Thanks Aunt!!)

Wow, time flies, huh??
After we took these pictures, we were off to school and then yea, I was free!!! LOL!!

Actually I don't get my first "me" day until Thursday. I am very much looking forward to it! :) I love my girls with all my heart, but I do enjoy my "me" time. :)