A 7 year old girl's birthday party

This was a totally girly party, featuring Hannah Montana.
2 girls got to stay all night, one had to leave at 6:30 pm.
They had a blast!

Halloween kids

Here are the kids all dressed up for halloween.
Morgan was a witch.
Orin was a fire fighter.
Hunter (my nephew) was a dragon.
And Hailey (my niece) was a beautiful princess.

My daughter the artist

OMG, I forgot to post about this.
Morgan drew this for me. It is supposed to be me.
Can you believe how well she drew the face. I'm just amazed at her artistic abilities.

Oh, and she got straight A's (and S's = Satisfactory) on her 1st quarter report card!

Trip to Illinois

We went to see Grandpa Main on saturday. We had a great time.
It was me and my two kids, and my brother and his daughter.

Got some good pics. Then, on the way home, I got some much needed quiet time.

Daisy's update

Here's Morgan, wearing MY blue smock from 23 years ago. It's kinda on the small side for her. When I wore it, it went past my butt. lmao. She got her tall jeans from her daddy.
Anywho, she should be getting her very own smock in 1 week, at our next g.s. meeting.
For now, here's a general idea of what she will look like, and I have no idea what's up with the smirk on her face.

She's joining Daisy girlscouts!

Morgan is going to her very first daisy girlscouts meeting tonight.
And this reminded me that I still have my oh so stylish blue smock from 23 years ago, hanging in the back of the closet.
So, I pulled that sucker out and thought I'd share it here. lol

September 11, seven years later

Seven years & 1 day ago, I was pregnant with my first child. I was over the moon with joy. There was nothing wrong in my world.
I went to bed that night reveling in the joy of the precious little girl that was growing inside me.

I woke up early that day, and went in to watch some tv. What came on the screen scared me to death. I was shocked. And scrared. And wasn't completely sure what was happening.

I got my husband out of bed. We watched as they kept showing the same footage over and over of the plane hitting the tower.

Then, we realized that it was a second plane that they were showing. A second tower. A second crash.

This was all so unreal.

I didn't know what was happening. And I was scared for my little girl that wasn't even born yet. Would she BE born? Would we be okay? What about down the road? What did the future hold for us?

I'm happy to say that I have a beautiful 6 1/2 year old daughter now. But I'm so sad for all of the lives that were tragically lost that day. I'm sad for their families that lost them.

And not a day goes by that I don't think about that awful day. Something always reminds me. Like when I see the police/fire trucks/ambulances here in town with 911 on the vehicle. Or when the clock says 9:11.

My heart goes out to all of you who are missing someone today.

stinkin' allergies

Have you ever done an allergy study?
I signed up for one. I have a horrible allergy to ragweed. So they are gonna pay me $225 to be in this 4 week study. For the first week, I had to suffer. This has to be the worst sinus/allergy infection that I've ever had. I'm freakin' miserable.

Tomorrow I get to go and get the medicine that they are studying. Hopefully (and I've got my fingers crossed) they give me medicine and not the placebo.
I need some relief, and I'm not allowed to take any other medications or I'll be booted from the study.

ABC's tag

The rules? answer each question, and tag 4 (or more) friends.
Leave a comment on friends' blogs letting them know that they've been tagged.
Have fun!

A= Attached or Single: married 7 years to the love of my life
B= Best Friend: Jenny/Jody/Lona
C= Cake or Pie: Apple Pie
D= Day of Choice: wednesday, cause it's half over.
E= Essential Item: sandals
F= Flavor of Icecream: chocolate
G= Gummy Bears or Worms: worms
H= Hometown: Granite City, IL
I= Indulgence: root beer floats
J= January or July: January
K= Kids: Morgan and Orin
L= Last movie I saw at a theater: Wallace & Grommit: Curse of the ware rabbit
M= Musician: I don't really have a favorite.
N= Number of Siblings: 3
O= Oranges or Apples: apples
P= Phobias or Fears: my biggest phobia is trains
Q= Quote: Live like you are dying.
R= Reason to Smile: My life is good.
S= Season: Spring.
T= Tag: Stacy, Georgina, Lori, Cassandra
U= Unknown fact: I have 20 moles on my right upper arm
V= vegetarian or oppressor of Animals: I'm a meat eater.
W= Worst habit: biting my nails
X= Xray or Ultrasound: um? Ultrasound.
Y= Your favorite food: chicken
Z= Zodiac sign: Gemini

Somewhere, over the rainbow

Everytime I come to my blog, and I have my volume on, it always takes me by surprise because I forget that I have music set up on here. {lol}

I love, love, love this song. I love the music, the lyrics, this guys voice.

It also reminds me of E.R. This is the song that was playing when Mark Green (played by Anthony Edwards) passed away from his brain tumor. So I always think of that when I hear the song.

I could listen to this all day.

Little boys and pull ups

So, Orin is less than 4 months from being 3 years old. I was kinda worried that he was gonna take forever to start potty training.
But today, he has pee'd FOUR times so far, in the potty. ZERO times in the diaper. So, we went out and got him some pullups. It's still dry.

I'm asking him every 10 to 15 minutes if he needs to go potty.

He's such a big boy and very proud of his Cars pullups.



{Oh, and there ya go Jenny....now it's not neglected. ;) }

Tagged by Lori

Here are the rules:
*If you are tagged, you must firstly post the rules:
* Write 7 strange characteristics about yourself. They interest us all!
* Tag 5 other people at the end of your Post.
* Visit everyone that you have tagged and leave a comment on their blog to let them know that they have been tagged.


So here are mine.
1. I like to paint my toenails, but hate my fingernails being painted.

2. I won't eat potatoes unless they're deep fried.

3. My hair hasn't been past my bra strap since I was 6.

4. I've been dying my hair for 12 years now. I started because my dad would always make stupid blonde jokes and it really pi$$ed me off. So I got rid of the blonde.

5. I have 6 toes on my left foot. (just kidding. just trying to see if you're really reading.)

5. (the real #5) I swore I'd never EVER have a cell phone. I got one in December '07 and have already used 1765 minutes of talking (that doesn't even include my TEXTING!)

6. I wear 2 rings all the time (except when sleeping/showering). I have my wedding ring on left hand and a pretty black topaz ring on right hand.

7. I was told on Sunday, by family members that I haven't seen since 1998, "Oh my, you are the spittin' image of your mama." Made me smile.



I tag......
Oscar
Jennifer Sizemore
Lesle M
Georgina
Deanna

1st grade

Today Morgan finishes her 1st week of 1st grade.
She is loving it. Except having to write every number from 1 to 100 all in one sitting. lol
So, here is her picture from Tuesday (that's when school started).

She is so excited because her bff from Kindergarten is in her class this year too, and a couple of her other friends from K are in there too.
And she loves her teacher.

Here's me...same age, 1st grade.

My brother's wedding!

My baby brother got married yesterday! I took 97 pictures! I can't upload all of them here, but here are some of my favs.

My baby brother is getting married!

In just over 2 weeks, Ben will be a married man. Good luck Steph!
Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

He loves to read

And I snuck in and got some great pictures before he even knew what was going on.
His favorite book? "I went walking" written by Sue Williams. http://www.amazon.com/I-Went-Walking-Sue-Williams/dp/0152007717
If you've never heard of this book, you are missing out. It's a simple, but great book for toddlers.
It says, "I went walking", "What did you see?", "I saw a black cat looking at me".
And it goes through 6 or 7 different animals. Orin just giggles and giggles everytime we read this. And we read it every nap and every night.
Sometimes we substitute people we know for the animals. (I went walking, what did you see?, I saw DADDY looking at me!) He LOVES IT!
So anyway, the pics....

4th of July

Here are some pictures of the kids on the 4th of July.
(left to right) Hunter, Morgan and Orin.
We spent the day out at their Grandma's house. Well, I spent the morning (and then went to work) and they all stayed all day and evening and got to see fire works. I missed it all. :(
Got these pictures before I left though.

I had twin sisters

Yep, that's right. I did.

Let me start with saying, that I wanted to post this on Saturday, but never had time to.

In early 1978, my mom got pregnant. Later she found out she was having triplets. TRIPLETS! Can you imagine? Naturally.

At 4 months pregnant, one of them miscarried. They got her stabalized and were certain the other two were gonna be fine.
At 5 months pregnant, she went into labor, from what they believe was complications due to the first miscarrage.

She gave birth to two little girls. She named them Sara and Tara. Sara was born first. And then 3 minutes later Tara was born.

They were so tiny. Sara was 6 oz and Tara was 5 oz. Together they weighed less than a can of pepsi. They were so tiny. My dad says they were smaller than his hand.

Sara lived for 35 minutes. And Tara lived for 19 minutes.

It was less than 3 months later that she got pregnant with me. My dad said she called me her miracle girl. She was praying I'd be a girl.

Saturday, June 28, 2008 would've been their 30th birthday.

Happy birthday Sara and Tara! I wish I could've known you.

The new do!

OK, so we were gonna wait until December, AFTER her birthday party, to get her hair cut. But we got to thinking about that. If she wanted to have Hannah Montana hair for her Hannah Montana party, we'd have to cut her bangs. And I was NOT going there.
So I found her a Hannah Montana wig, and it's not a trashy wig. It looks like the real deal.
SO, she got her hair cut yesterday. 13 inches were taken off and donated to Locks Of Love! I am so proud of my little girl.
(Click on the picture for a larger view)

Long overdue update

I meant to post sooner, but as some of you already know, I got a promotion at work. Yeah! I am evening shift manager now! Got a 45 cent raise, guaranteed 40 hours per week and guaranteed mondays and tuesdays off every week.


Just had a birthday. I'm 29 now. The closer I get to 35, the more scared I get. I don't wanna discuss why right now, but I don't wanna be 35. If I could just skip it and go straight from 34 to 36, that would be perfectly fine by me.

Going to IL next weekend. Gonna visit my Grandpa, and a cousin on the other side of the family. Then heading to O'Fallon to visit some friends.

Not much else going on right now.

Morgan got her ears pierced!

Well, she did it! She actually got her ears pierced.
She sat perfectly still. Didn't even flinch...until it was done. She jumped. She let out a scream. And she cried for about 10 minutes. But then she was done.
She actually went through with it.













Next mission....she wants to get her hair cut and donate her pony tail to Locks of Love. { http://www.locksoflove.org/ }
I've convinced her to wait until she has her birthday party in December, because she's wanting to have a Hannah Montana party complete with the long blonde hair.
Right now, she's got a 13 inch pony tail, imagine what it will be in 6 months.

This was her idea...not mine.

Orin's a big boy now!

No, he's not potty trained yet.
BUT...he's sleeping on the bottom bunk of Morgan's bunk beds at night now. No more baby bed. We took it apart.

Last night was night #3 of sleeping on the big boy bed. He's doing great. BUT, there's too much light in there during the day, so he won't nap in there.
So today, we decided to let him nap in OUR bed, because it's so dark in there. He was out within 10 minutes!

My job situation got better!

Same place of business, but it suddenly got better.
A LOT better. Will post more about it next week, when I can.
But wanted to update y'all that I am happy at my job now.

4 random facts

I've been tagged by Stacy.

Here are the rules:

1. Link your tagger and list these rules on your blog.
2. Share 4 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 4 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog .


My Four Facts

1. I miss my mom.

2. I have 20 moles on my right arm alone. I think they are breeding because they keep multiplying.

3. I have only been to 4 states in my life. Illinois, Missouri, Kansas & Kentucky.

4. If it weren't for my husband, I wouldn't have the great life that I do. Yes, there are some really bad things that have happened in my life, but I am happy where I am today because of him.

OK now I tag....

Georgina
Vanya
Nancyroo
Kristin

Morgan is talented

She is so smart and talented, she never ceases to amaze me.
On their first day of kindergarten, all of the kids did a self portrait. It stayed in the classroom until a couple of days ago, when they flipped them over and did a new self portrait on the other side. WOW! What a difference in the way she sees herself and how well she can draw. This is going into a frame and will hang on our wall forever!

Baby turtle

Morgan found this baby turtle this weekend at Grandma's house. She kept it inside all weekend and then brought it to our house and set it free.
Morgan, Orin and Hunter all had fun watching it. The boys were leery of touching it though.