So simple, so wonderful

I found this note on my bed last night from my youngest daughter. Something so short, sweet and simple can sure fill your heart in a second. My heart is full and smiling.


Challenge: Leave a quick note to someone you like or love today.

Anna Plays Violin

Scene: Me hounding Anna once again about practicing her violin.

Me: You know the teacher told you to practice everyday that you eat.

Anna: Then I will not eat on Saturdays.



Ugh, sometimes she is so stubborn... but she also cracks me up.

Green beans and throw up

Girl Scouts April Showers bag drop off.

Scene: Dinner Table (Anna age 8)

Anna: If I eat this green bean and throw up can I not eat the other 9?

Tracy: Sure, if you REALLY throw up all of the food in your stomach. But gaging on a green bean does not count.

_____________________

The odds were with me for this bet... Anna is good at gaging on her veggies, but has never thrown up while eating them.

Happy Birthday Anna - the great 8!

My little spunky monkey has turned 8 today! She is loving, a smarty pants and a giggle bunny all rolled into one.

Loving: She loves to give Brian and I hugs, everyday when we leave for work or school we get wonderful hugs to start our day.

Smarty pants: She likes to get her way and when she doesn't she shuts down pretty fast. She usually curls into a ball and pouts on the couch. She is very stubborn, friends or family can't convince her to do anything she does not want to. This might be a good or bad thing in the future.

Giggle bunny: Anna loves to laugh, from tickles, movies or fun silliness with her big sister. The other day she came out of school with this drawing on her hand, she told me she drew it on her hand to remind her to be happy. Oh, I just love that!

Here is a list of her favorite things right now 11/1/13. 

Color: Orange
Book: Fairy Berry Bake off
Show: Amazing world of Gumball
Movie: Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Animal: Rooster and Chickens
Dinner: Butter Noodles and Cheese Fondue
To do with Mama: make crafts and play games
To do with Pops: jump hugs
Toy: Stuffed Animal "Bella" the lamb

Our 14 hour car ride to Williamsburg, VA

This summer we drove the farthest we have ever gone with the girls. Our vacation was in Williamsburg, VA which is 14 hours from St. Louis, MO. We decided to stop overnight both ways to break up the trip. I knew the girls would be watching several movies on this long trip but I wanted to have some fun breaks from the DVD player.  I looked around for some fun ideas to keep the girls busy for the long trip there and back. 

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First to combat the dreaded, "are we there yet" question I made a map charting our way there. We had a little monkey pin that the girls got to take turns moving along the route. It helped us all know just where we were and how far we had to go, so that question was never asked.

 On our last car trip we played the licence plate game with a scratch piece of paper making a list. This time I printed out a map for each girls to color in or cross off as we saw the licence plates. I really liked this because it also helps with learning all the states.

I found this idea on pinterest. Make copies of your families heads, slip them into plastic sleeves and let the kids draw the bodies, hats, etc.... or bat wings as Amelia drew onto our dog Groucho. This was a lot of fun, we all got a few good laughs from this activity. I also liked that it doesn't take up much room and because we used dry eraser markers they can be reused over and over. I found the idea here on this blog: All For The Boys

I also a bought a few new coloring books to help keep them busy and the snack box was also a big hit. Overall our trip there and back went very well with the girls. Brian and I now know we can all survive the super long car trip. The question now is... where to go next year?

Anna - About Me Homework

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School is in it's second week and homework has started. So far the girls don't mind because it's all very easy work. Above is Anna's homework last night. Can I just say that I LOVE # 9 and #10!

Maybe I am doing something right?

Hat Day

Hat day at school this past Friday. 

My guess is that Anna had the biggest hat at school

and Amelia had the smallest hat.

A box is just a box... or is it?

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In my futile attempt to clean out the basement I brought up a stack of old boxes to recycle. My first mistake was not taking them out to the bin that very minute. Because when the girls got home from school their eyes got big when they saw the mound of boxes. "Can we have those", Amelia asked. I could see her mind twirling with ideas of what grand item she could create.

I said maybe if you get all your homework, etc. done. Here is my second mistake... I should have taken them out to the recycle bin right then and maybe they would have forgotten about them. Out of sight, out of mind.

Later that night I went into the kitchen to find this mess! Brian doing the dishes amongst two feverishly working kids... cutting, taping and creating. They were having so much fun and enjoyed their homemade rocket ships.

I'm glad they had fun, I would never like to stifle anyone's creativity! But you know later that night where those boxes went... into the recycle bin!!

Don't worry, we all had an agreement that these projects could not stay and the girls understood.

Visit with Santa

We went to see Santa the other night. This is the first time both of the girls agreed to sit NEXT to Santa and get a photo. But when we got up there Santa slapped his knee and told them to sit on his lap. They both shot me a look. Santa repeated, "Come on have a seat", patting his knee. Amelia slowly sat on the very edge of his knee and looked at me with this really Mom face.

Anna just shook her head no, so I said, "just sit next to him". As you can see in the photo who is happy and who is not. 

While waiting in line the girls were debating if this is the real Santa or just a Santa helper. At first they said helper but then they said the real Santa. I'm just glad they are debating it and still believe... I fear this might be the last year for Amelia (age 8).

Santa still makes me smile! 

Fruit Family

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Just another cute kids drawing done by Anna, age 7.

Makes me smile.

Bad Words

Anna at Johnson's Shut-Ins

Scene: Driving home from school yesterday. 

Anna: I heard a bad word at school. 

Me: Oh, what was the word?

Anna: I can't tell you.

Me: You can always tell me anything, I'm your Mama.

Anna: Well... we were watching a show about the Mayflower and the guy said it several times!

Me: What word did he say?

Anna: Poop Deck (little giggle) He said it many times!


I then went into the discussion about how it was not a bad word just what they called that part of the ship. Later that night told Brian what she said and he thought it was odd that she would think "poop" is a bad word since she and her sister enjoy funny bathroom humor, including the words poop and pee. 

We don't call those words bad, but I have on several occasions after hearing too much potty talk have told the girls they need to be inside the bathroom to say those words. I just can't take pee and poop talk especially at the dinner table.

The girls know it's one way to get a laugh out of Pops (still a big kid). You can always get a laugh from Pops if you say the word "Poop". I'm a bit out numbered in this house! 2 little kids, 1 big kid, 1 adult and 1 dog.... oh poop!

A Basket of Apples

Anna is in first grade and learning how to write

more and more everyday. 

I love what she wrote the other week.

"I would give my apples to the poor."

What a sweet heart!

Memory Monday : My Frozen Face

Back on November 1st of 2005 I gave birth to my baby girl Anna. It had been seven days since her birth and I was home with her and my 16 month old daughter Amelia. My life juggling two kids under 16 months had just begun.

That morning I  had put on some chapstick and noticed that when I went to press my lips together I had a hard time. I thought that was really odd and kept trying, wondering why I could not control my lips. The next morning checking my lips I noticed I couldn't wrinkle up my nose... here is when I got a bit freaked out. I started to wonder if the epidural I had a week earlier while giving birth to Anna was having some odd side effect to me. I called the doctor to set up an appointment and they told me she was booked up a week out.

The next morning I still could not press my lips together or wrinkle my nose and now I could not wrinkle my forehead... this was moving up my face and I was scared. That morning I also notice that my breakfast had no taste to it. What the heck was going on?

I called the doctor again to try to get in that day. I told the nurse on the phone everything that was going on, hoping they would fine a spot for me, but they still said I had to wait until next week. Talking to the nurse she told me that "maybe I was just having the baby blues"... are you kidding me! I told her no that was not it, my face was not moving and I could not taste anything and I needed to know why.

After talking to Brian and my parents, we decided I should go to the ER and get checked out. They got me right in and seemed very concerned. I was run in to get a CT scan, they thought I might be having a stroke. I remember them also asking me to close my eyes and stick out my tongue and told me they would put something on my tongue to taste. Brian later told me he watched as they pored a whole packet of salt onto my tongue and as I tasted it I had no reaction to it at all, nothing. As I opened my eyes I remembered Brian and the nurse's face looking at me in disbelief.

After running several test I was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, a virus that attacks the muscles in your face. Normally it only effects one side of your face, but mind effected both sides (so rare it only effects 1%). This made me an oddity in the hospital and I had several teams of student doctors come through my ICU room that day, all fascinated with my face and lack of taste. That might have been my fifteen minutes of fame... but I sure hope not!

I was able to go home that night since I had a new baby to feed. I had to take steroids to stop the virus and go to physical therapy where the taped wires to my face and shocked it... ouch! I had to sleep with goo in my eyes and patches to cover them because my eyes would not close all the way. (Great for getting up four times a night to nurse a baby). I had to drink from a straw clenched in my teeth and lift  my lips out of the way to brush my teeth.

But the worst part was having no taste, everything was so gross, even my favorite foods were just a lump of texture in my mouth. I remember crying over the food, being a nursing mom you need to eat to nourish your baby and I had to make myself eat for Anna. I also worried for Amelia, how would it be for a 16 month old with a mother that never smiled or gave you any expressions... my face was frozen solid.

It took a full month for my face and taste to start to return to normal. Some people do not full recover and I think that I went back about 98%. There are small differences in my face that I think only I notice. I know I am lucky it could have been much worse.

Me and Anna (3 months old)... both smiling.

Climb that tree

There is one special tree in Blackburn Park that all the kids LOVE to climb.

So many limbs makes it easy and fun... 

it reminds me of the giving tree and I really think this tree smiles when the kids sit up high in it's branches.

What is better than a kid in a tree?  Two kids in a tree!

Thank you Mr. Tree!

Anna's Note

Anna (age 6) wrote me this note yesterday:


"I love my Mom because she does all of the work because I love my Mom."


Then she told me she loved me because I clean the bathroom... almost makes cleaning the bathroom worth this sweet note. I do know what she really means is that she loves me because I clean the bathroom (and the whole house) and she does not have to do it.  At least she realizes all the things I do for them and appreciates it.


Kids are great, I cherish this age... most days... yesterday was a good day!

Oh Anna

The other day Anna yelled down the hall to me and said this... 

"Amelia did something bad to me but I forgot what she did".

What do I say to this one? 

Nothing... I pretended I didn't hear her, there isn't anything to say.

Spring Break Day 1

 The girls have had the same room decor since they were born except for a bed updates. They have been asking for purple walls so we compromised and agreed to paint one of the walls purple. Which actually works well since the other walls are green and their bedding is purple and green. Plus there is a mural of the claddagh symbol that we painted on the wall for the nursery and Brian and I are not really to paint over it just yet.

Today I put the girls to work... they were so excited to help paint. They loved it! I on the other hand I was a bit stressed and had to hold myself back from jumping in and taking over. They actually did do a pretty good job, I did not have to do too much touch up.

Later I pulled almost everything out of their room, wow... were was all this junk hiding! We will need to go through all this junk before any of it goes back into their room. 

Photos of the finished room coming later this week.

Santa likes his cookies

Sorry Santa I guess those cookies do go straight to your hips!

Lovin' this drawing Anna (age 6) made of Santa... so cute!

Happy Birthday Anna

Happy Birthday to my little monkey Anna... 

now 6 years old and keeping me on my toes! 

I love you sweetie!

Here is a list of her favorite things right now 11/1/11.

color: Purple

book: all the Richard Scarry books

t.v show: Amazing world of Gumball

movie: Labyrinth

activity: coloring

food: hamburgers

treat: airheads

sport: swimming

toy: barbie coloring book

thing to do with Mom: cooking

thing to do with Pops: play with his speed racer toys

thing to do with Anna: play polly pockets

thing to do with Groucho: kiss him on the lips

Anna - tickle your heart

Scene: Last Friday Anna and I were walked up to school to pick up Amelia. We had been walking in silence and out of the blue...


Anna: You know how you know God is in your heart?


Me: oh... no how?


Anna: She tickles your heart (Anna waves her fingers in the air in a tickle motion) and that makes it beat.


Me: I love that idea, that sounds wonderful.


Anna: Ya, I think that's how.


I'm not sure what made this idea come to her mind, I think she did she a cartoon where a heart was tickled. But my favorite part is that she calls God a "she". This is not the first time Anna has called God she. I love the fact that she has her own image of God.


I asked her to tell Brian the tickle story and as she was telling the story she asked me "is God a man or a woman". I asked her what she though. She said a woman and she continued her story referring to God as she. For some reason this makes me happy, as a woman with two daughters I guess I like the idea. 


I am going to ask Anna to draw a picture of God... I'm very curious to see what she draws.