Piles

that was the photo assignment for yesterday. I don't do piles, it causes my brain to
shut down and not function correctly. So as I glanced around my home for something
that could possible qualify for this pic my eyes landed on this pile...a pile of scrapbook
layouts just waiting to be assembled. That is my optimistic hope that if I stack them
I will actually complete them since I don't like piles...I'm happy to say it worked. The
pile along with two more are now history as of 10 pm last night... The completed pages
filled two albums. Cassandra's books are currently up to date...and that is a very good
thing..

this would be...

her alternative attire to her mermaid outfit. When I suggested to her the other day that perhaps we
should give the mermaid outfit a rest (I lost count the number of days she actually wore it in a row) this is what she came down in, you can't quite see it but under that sundress is her swimsuit. I believe the day this pic was taken the temp was -3. I guess the boots were a nod to the cold temps. My answer to this? She's two. So do you suppose in July she will wear all the jeans and sweaters currently residing in her drawer? One can only wonder. I have to admit she was a ray of sunshine bopping around the house that day..how can you not smile at that cute face and those bright fun colors? Maybe we should all wear our swimsuits in February to remind ourselves that summer is coming........then again maybe not.

Book Fair...

Last night was the annual Book Fair at the Elementary school. Love going to these things. Love that buying books helps out the school, and love that we get to add new books to our library. Anthony and Alonso joined me, so fun listening to them decide on the perfect book. The book Anthony is holding in eachof the pictures was his choice, in fact it has yet to leave his hands...he is so loving this book. Rosie was so excited when she saw all the books..I think we read most of them last night, each time I finished one she would quickly replace it with another...If I pause or get distracted she will tap the book to remind me to continue reading...what a fun way to spend a cold winter night, snuggled up with little people reading books.

the last dance.....

Senior year is full of "last" moments. The last Homecoming game, the last game or match, the last prom, so many last's you can get caught up in the sadness and not see all
the amazing moments that senior year can bring....and we wonder why our kids get so moody and difficult during this final year of high school. Cassandra reached one of those sad lasts on Tuesday night. Her final dance performance. The mood behind the scenes was more mellow than on other performance nights,all the girls knew it was the end. For the underclassmen it was the end of the season, for the seniors the end took on a completely different meaning. Cassandra said later "It was the last time I will ever walk out on that floor and perform, the last time" She made it to the end of the dance, but the tears found her as she walked off the floor...most of the seniors did not leave the floor with dry eyes...backstage, complete meltdown. It almost felt intrusive seeing these girls say goodbye to something that had been a part of their lives for the past 3-4 years. They
practice together 2-3 hours a day almost every day during their season which runs from
September to February...it's rather hard to not develop friendships, of course they will
still be able to be friends, it's just going to be different. I think letting go of the routine
you share is perhaps harder than finishing a season. Her last dance was an amazing
routine... she did a great job.

Happy Valentine's Day!

28 days

A photo a day for the entire month of February. This is the idea behind a class I am taking this month. Each morning in my inbox is an email waiting. Inside the email is the "assignment" for the day, it simply tells me what to take a picture of that day.
As you can see by the pictures it has been a mix of locations. A mixture of places inside and outside my home. Most I have been excited about, realizing I had yet to capture places and things that are such an intricate part of my day to day life.. a couple made me pause, the one of the refrigerator, well I wondered how photo ready the inside would be, that email did come with a caution, no cleaning allowed before the picture, so what you see is what I see every day. One email has me a bit stumped, the assignment "a picture of a place you would like to go but haven't visited yet" with an added condition it needs to be local. Sigh, I realized on Saturday as I drove down main street that there isn't a single store I haven't been in, not a one. Stretching it a bit to non retail locations didn't prove any more successful. So for now that picture remains untaken...still hoping to discover some location in my town that I haven't visited.
The three pictures shown are 1. something I use every day. 2. my refrigerator 3. my mailbox
Truly having fun with this class, and the album that will come together at the end. What a great peek into the day to day things that are such a part of my life. I am enjoying the picture a day routine..thinking I may continue with this in other areas of my world...(like I need to take more pics )

Backpacks

Anthony and Alonso both have preschool in the afternoon. Lately their backpacks have
grown due to all the winter gear now packed in them. The other day as they both were
trying to navigate down the stairs to go meet their bus I had to laugh, it looked as tho one wrong move and they both would have tumbled to their backs. The backpacks aren't heavy it is just snow pants and such, but just bulky and thus awkward...add that to the puffy winter coats and any movements seems to be exaggerated. Winter is just so fun!

Sick days....

I thought we may have missed a full blown flu invasion after Anthony was sick on Wednesday, and no one else got sick. By friday I thought we were home free...I was wrong. Very wrong!
Rose started us out early saturday morning, thus the first round of laundry, all her bedding. Rosie was in the bathtub by 6am, sigh the start of a very long day.
Yahaira came next, she decided the van would be a great place to get sick, three times. Double sigh, it was a long drive home.
Once home they decided to take turns with new versions of this bug, Rosie decided a fever would be good to add in, 102 is not fun. Yahaira just needed to be changed every 10 minutes, that brings us to round 6 of laundry, (and yes my washer and dryer are still running as of 10am this sunday morning) and not to be left out, Yahaira also decided to run a temp...why not? (I briefly wondered what else, then stopped because I realized I really don't want to know what else she could come up with, this is so Yahaira) I slept in minute batches last night, but hey I did sleep...things calmed down around 2:30 this morning, with just a minor encore by Yahaira, fever again...at 6 this morning.
So far the rest of the inhabitants of the house seem healthy, so far. Cassandra requested a room at the hotel...smart girl. She has resorted to calling them little germ monsters, and simply hiding from them.
I am ready for this round of sickness to move on...so very ready.

so much excitement

last night when Josh walked in the door. He is home for the weekend and these three
were super excited to see him. Love hearing Rosie say "Josh". Watching Yahaira follow him around, she becomes his shadow. So good to see him.... Enjoy your weekend, may you find moments to laugh.

Baking Cookies....

Yahaira and Rosie helped me make cookies the other night. Ok, help involved opening the
package and placing the little round preformed cookies on the cookie sheet. Hey I did have
to turn on the oven :) Trust me with these two that was a challenge. Loved watching them as
they placed each cookie just so on the pan, and as they "watched" the cookies bake. The excitement when the buzzer sounded and naturally the best part eating those still warm cookies. I discovered
that Rosie's reach now extends up to the counter top, it just seems like last week she still had to pull a chair over to reach anything that was on top of the counter. That night she was reaching cookies with no effort, sigh when did that happen. There is just something about a fresh from the oven cookie that
just makes life better, sharing it with two little people who always make life interesting and better is just a bonus!

My Creativity is back!

....and this is what broke that rut I was stuck in.

I have not been creative since last fall. Not a craft
item, no cards, nothing crafty...I haven't even completed
a scrapbook page, sigh! you should see the
stack of pictures, it would circle the earth once..(ok so
I might be exaggerating a bit, just a bit) Ok for those
of you who are thinking "seriously Deb, I have years of
pictures to do" just remember the compulsively organized
brain of mine in going into shock that I don't have
Christmas done! You know how I am.

Oh, I've tried, pulled stuff out looked at it and just walked
away, major creativity block. Even rearranging my "space"
didn't work, and so I just simply let it go. Thinking if I never
scrapped another page than "Que Sera Sera" ok I did have
moments when I didn't want to look at the pile of scrapping
supplies, wondering which child's college education they could
have paid for...ok I wish that were an exaggeration :) Simply none of the old tricks that
in the past have jogged me out of a rut seemed to be working, it was in a word sad!

Then Kelly called, she wanted a candy jar like the one I had sent her last fall. That was in early
December...I blocked it, avoided it, tried to make one, and then just simply ignored the request.
She was quite patient with me...only asking once how it was going.. I said I couldn't start since I didn't
have a jar. When I finally did buy the jar, well that required two trips to Target, since the first one
decided to jump out of the van and shatter into a million little pieces in the parking lot of Michael's.
Sigh, it wasn't a good sign. So it has sat on the counter, taunting me, mocking me, guilting me. Yesterday
I decided enough already, and Voila! in 30 minutes it was complete.

and what a floodgate it opened, I have pages stacked and ready to scrap, pictures are organized, projects
are floating around in my head, I am ready to cut paper and play with glue all in the name of art. And
that is just so cool!

Do not dry clean

do not wash in machine. That is what the label on this outfit says.
To clean wipe with a damp sponge. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?
This is an outfit designed for a child, sold in the toy section of Target. So one could reason it was meant to be played with. One should never reason, especially when it comes to toy makers.
I think perhaps the person who wrote that tag, exists in a small
windowless room far removed from anything that could
remotely be associated with preschool children. Has never encountered a two year old example of a preschool child. Does not even know what a child is.

Honestly I should be writing tags for children's products. Like for the outfit pictured. The tag should say, Outfit is designed to be worn for extended periods of time (we are on day 4, seriously 4 days in a row) Washing outfit and child together in bathtub is completely acceptable. (It is a mermaid outfit, mermaids love the water) No your child will not need therapy, despite what numerous "old" adults in your life might be saying, repetition is how they learn. (I have no idea what she is learning by wearing the same darn outfit day in and day out) No idea at all!

Kids

It snowed here again last night, sigh. Winter can seem so endless. I'll share with you a few pics of the kids that I took a couple of weekends ago.No they don't all live under our roof at the same time all the time, Beckie and Josh were both home from college on the same weekend, which naturally meant I needed to take a picture or two. What a group this is they range in age from 21 - 7months, and when everyone is under the roof at the same time it is simply chaotic and crazy. Life is certainly busy with this crew, never a dull moment.

Happy Birthday...

my blog is 1 year old today! Unbelievable!
365 days
52 weeks
12 months
525,600 minutes...

ok enough with the numbers....
it has been a year since I began to share my thoughts,
musings, ideas, or as some might say, my ramblings.
a year...yikes! That is a lot of ramblings.

I spent some time last night reading thru some of those
previous entries. So cool to have the year in review
just a mouse click away. How fun to revisit some of
those moments that time has a way of sifting to the
back of your memory. How exhausting to read some
of those posts and realize I actually lived that :) sometimes
forgetting is a good thing.

Thanks for joining me this past year...

25 years ago...

We were seniors in high school. Most likely we posed for a pic similar to this somewhere inside the walls of the high school. We were classmates, we were friends, we were Seniors. The most important thing to me 25 years ago was graduating and getting out of town. I wasn't concerned with 25 years in the future, I really wasn't even concerned with 1 year into the future. I simply lived for June and the freedom I imagined that diploma would bring me. I wanted to escape the confines of small town life.
I lasted a month and returned home...each of us journeyed the paths we chose, each of us ended back here in the town we grew up in. Our paths crossed often at events or activities for our kids. This pic was snapped at a dance performance. We each have a daughter on the team, and yes those daughters are all seniors. Someone said we should get a pic of the mom's who take so many pics, thus the picture you see. It wasn't until later when I loaded my pics onto my computer did the significance of that picture click. It has been 25 years, since we stood in those hallways as seniors, a lifetime ago, and yet it seems like just a moment has passed.
Our daughters are the ones now waiting for June and all the possibilities it will bring. it really has been 25 years...

why buy toys?

When laundry baskets are so much fun! These
two find fun in the most unexpected places. They
especially love the kitchen, my cupboards are constantly
being rearranged, apparently my method just doesn't
click with them, and of course there is the
bathroom, their most favorite place to be, sigh
my heart stops when I realize they have once again
snuck past the defense system put in place to keep them out
of this room, it is never a pretty picture ever! Enjoy your
Saturday, it is -10 here this morning. Our hi for the day -1
I really really do not like cold weather.

Faces

of the friends and family who were at Saturday's
Extravaganza. Beckie and Josh both came home
from college to be there for Cassandra's last
show. Grandpa even made a rare appearance.
Some might say the Haycraft's filled half the
auditorium, they might just be right :) of course
that is easy to do when so many live with you.
ok, now for a promise I won't post any more pics
from the extravaganza, at least for a few days.

mini saintette's

Saturday night was a big night for Yahaira, she got to perform with the Saintette's. Excited doesn't even come close to describing her. All season she has watched various groups of girls practice at our home. Sitting off to the side, watching. Rarely would she join in if they asked her to, too shy. Once they left tho she would often be seen doing the moves they had been practicing. So when the extravaganza approached naturally I chose to enroll her in the clinic held for little girls. She is a bit young most of the girls were 4-5 and older, but since this is Cassandra's last year on the team I thought it would cool for the two of them to participate together. The day of the first practice Yahaira was ready to go hours before. She kept telling me "I go dance?" "you stay home" excited I tell you. I didn't stay for practice concerned that if she saw me she may not participate. I did catch that last few minutes, which had me wondering just how good of an idea this was. As soon as she saw me she was on and off the stage, not good. The night of the extravaganza arrived and suddenly she is Miss Clingy...didn't expect she would even go on stage. She did one of the Saintettes picked her up and away they went...for the most part she stood there and watched, towards the end she actually did a few moves. Once she came offstage she was jumping with happiness "I danced mommy, I danced!" Yes she did. After that she wanted to go up with every group of little girls, sigh, she was quite vocal about this, guess being in the spotlight was just too much fun. The last performance by the little saintettes had her on stage beside Cassandra, where she stood and watched, so cute, so her, so glad they were able to perform together just this once. Gracie also participated, she is a pro by now having done this for three years, yes she started at age 2 also. That year was Beckie's last year and we had thought it would be great for the two of them to participate together. If I remember correctly that first year Gracie stood and watched too...and this year she was showing them how to dance, amazing what a little time can do.