Oldies, but goodies

One of the last times I was in Decatur, I was going through old pictures.  Old, old pictures. I finally got some scanned in from one of my last visits, sort of in preparation for grandpa's 90th birthday party (in April...yes, I KNOW!! bad, bad blogger!) 

Me and grandpa at Adelaide...circa 1977, maybe?? (you can see Mom's long hair in the side of the photo...) 

Me and grandpa, Park Lane.  This one is a little younger (if I can say that?) Let's say 1982? 

I think these photos may be going BACK in time...this maybe 1978 at Adelaide? Grama at the left hand side. 

This is just sweet.  Around the '77-'78 time frame I'm still guessing. Adelaide.  (notice a trend here?? All Adelaide?) 

Yup.  Almost all Adelaide.  This one looks like I am quite a bit older.  

I think I need to find a 5 picture frame and frame these because they are some of the best.  I know the quality isn't great, but the place that they hold in my heart is so much more important than a crystal clear photo. 

Let's start with Easter...

Shall we? So, it's now the middle of September, and I think we'll backtrack to Easter.

My little girl still believes in the Easter bunny, I struggle with this a bit, but decided that she needed to have her Easter bunny time this year. I'm not sure how much longer this will last, and could be this is the last year.  Or maybe I'm hoping it will be.  But darned if they don't look pretty cute together.

Mom and Kelsey.  Totally not planned that they wore alike colors (or at least I don't remember this being planned!!)  Kelsey is a girly girl.  Spring was really, really warm, but it's good because at least at Easter we weren't all wearing our long sleeves!!

Welcome back

Is 8 months too long to wait to make a blog post? LOL. I did it.  I could have continued to neglect it, but I am needing some sort of outlet.  Here it is!

I think the time from last December through, well, now, has just gotten away from me a bit.  How time flies. Now I understand.  It really does fly.  Wasn't it just Christmas? And now it's almost September? How did that happen?  I guess life is what happens to you when you are not looking!

In May, we celebrated our 11 year anninversary.  Honestly, I don't know how that happened either! Didn't I just get married? Wait, didn't I just have my first child? (who is 9 !?!?!?! ) Maybe my memory is getting bad too.  It's just the tip of the iceberg, or so I hear.

I want to make sure I blog in order of events, from pretty much the beginning of this year, so bear with me. I think I need to go through photos first, to figure out what actually happened!  Spring isn't terribly busy for us; it's when we get to May or so that things get more fun!

a child's ten commandments

I found this through pinterest.com.  It actually links back to a blog, http://theloganfamily.wordpress.com/2010/12/10/a-childs-ten-commandments-to-parents/

What a fantastic piece of writing.  I think it's so true.  Perhaps it could teach me a lesson or two. 

1. My hands are small; please don’t expect perfection whenever I make a bed, draw a picture, or throw a ball. My legs are short; please slow down so that I can keep up with you.

2. My eyes have not seen the world as yours have; please let me explore safely: don’t restrict me unnecessarily.

3. Housework will always be there. I’m only little such a short time—please take time to explain things to me about this wonderful world, and do so willingly.

4. My feelings are tender; please be sensitive to my needs; don’t nag me all day long. (You wouldn’t want to be nagged for your inquisitiveness.) Treat me as you would like to be treated.

5. I am a special gift from God; please treasure me as God intended you to do, holding me accountable for my actions, giving me guidelines to live by, and disciplining me in a loving manner.

6. I need your encouragement, but not your praise, to grow. Please go easy on the criticism; remember you can criticize the things I do without criticizing me.

7. Please give me the freedom to make decisions concerning myself. Permit me to fail, so that I can learn from my mistakes. Then someday I’ll be prepared to make the kind of decisions life requires of me.

8. Please don’t do things over for me. Somehow that makes me feel that my efforts didn’t quite measure up to your expectations. I know it’s hard, but please don’t try to compare me with my brother or my sister.

9. Please don’t be afraid to leave for a weekend together.  Kids need vacations from parents, just as parents need vacations from kids. Besides, it’s a great way to show us kids that your marriage is very special.

10. Please take me to Sunday school and church regularly, setting a good example for me to follow. I enjoy learning more about God.

Thankful

I am thankful for so many things in my life, and I wish I remembered them better the whole year through, not just at this time of year when we are all "supposed" to be thankful.

1. Recently, I got pulled over (I have been successfully able to avoid being pulled over by the police for a long, long time so this was a bit of a shock for me!) for having expired tags.  Wait, not recently expired tags, expired almost 2 years ago!!! How does this happen!?!?  Well, it did and I thought for sure the police officer was going to take me to jail (and the kids, they were with me!) and write me a huge ticket, which I was not looking forward to.  After much thought, he let me off on a WARNING!!!  I don't know how I got that lucky, but you'd better believe the next day, I hightailed it to Jiffy Lube for the inspection and made the trek down to DMV to get a new tag.  However, I am thankful that this happened because if it hadn't, I would still be driving around with highly expired tags and the next police officer might not have been so nice :-)

2.  I am thankful to have my mom and David here in Raleigh.  Mom had surgery about 6 weeks ago, and  I am thankful to be here and to help when I can.  I am thankful that my kids have 2 grandparents who love spending time with them and we can do this pretty much anytime we want to.

3.  I am thankful for my in laws, who still come to visit us twice a year even though my father in law is pushing 70 years old.  They also love the kids, and harrass them as much as possible.  I am thankful that my father in law still wants to come and do house projects with us and for us.  We are in the process of finishing a patio which was started when they were here over Thanksgiving and for which they stayed an additional day to try and finish.  We didn't get it all done, but Tim's dad really put his heart and soul in to finishing this thing before they left.  I am thankful that he is a finisher because sometimes (er, most of the time) Tim is not a finisher.

4. I am thankful for Tim.  He is my husband, my support and my partner.  We may not always get along or get to talk to each other, but he is the only one that I want to be married to.   He is a great dad and a wonderful role model for the kids.

5. I am thankful for my kids.  They are the light of my life and I do not know what I would do without them.  They drive me crazy, but these are the moments (like today at Kyle's basketball game when he made the 2nd basket, but the first of the season for him) that I live for.

6. Thankful, of course, for my friends.  My friend Christy Iannelli came out last Sunday to do family pictures with our family.  I believe that she even went so far to kindly carry a tick home with her, which grossed her out immensely.

7.  And I am thankful for those who live with my crap, put up with me and forgive me when it is needed.  I love you all!!!

A very ghoul-ish night!

My kids are so cute. I am so biased, but that's just how they came out.  Cute.  How they got that way, I'm not sure I completely understand!

I mean, look...how can you NOT love this girl???  The cutest Minnie Mouse, ever!

So, Halloween started with trunk or treat at church last Saturday. COLD!!!! brrsie is what I have to say about THAT!  But, at least it was not wet, which is what we got here on October 31st.  Wet, and semi cold does not make for a particularly pleasant romp around the neighborhood.  Alas, we are good parents, so out we went with our raincoats, umbrellas and wine. :-)

Halloween seemed to blow in and out very quickly!!! It's hard to believe that there is a mere 2 months left in the year!

A splash of fall!

My girl at the patch!  I was lucky enough to go with Kelsey on her first field trip to the farm!  Gorgeous day, 70s, and lots of fun....hayrides, mazes, slides and jumping in corn! She is really cute with her classmates.  She loves them all. 

We went to pick out our pumpkins earlier in the week.  Life is just cruising by too fast.  I cannot believe it is Halloween tomorrow. 

Kelsey has her mini pumpkin from the pumpkin patch.  She told us while we were carving that she was supposed to bring it back to school tomorrow so she can decorate it.  Um, oops! 

Our "big pumpkin" was the mack daddy of all pumpkins.  We bought our little book of pumpkin patterns and had punched it out on the pumpkin.  Tim tried to cut it and the knife would not go through!! It did though, finally.  Tomorrow there will be more pumpkin pictures! 

Mom had her surgery this week for diverticulitis.  She is home and doing really well!! I am so happy and relieved! 

Can't wait for Halloween tomorrow! Boooooooooooo!