A Day with Gracie

Dear Gracie,

What a fun day we had together! Today, you are exactly 15 1/2 months old and getting cuter by the day! After I worked this morning, I texted your Daddy and asked if you and Seth were up to coming to play with me today. Daddy said you were both sleeping, but then he texted and said you had just awakened! I was very excited and so we decided to let Seth sleep longer and stay with Scotty for the afternoon. Daddy dropped you off around 1:30pm and Uncle Jimmy was blowing up the little pool! We put it on the front porch and I added lots of warm water because today's temp was a beautiful 78 degrees and not quite cold water swimming! You splashed around in the little pool for close to an hour. Your favorite thing to do was dip your tush in the water and stand up, peeking through your legs to watch the water drip down...if I had a dollar for every time you did this, we could go to Sesame Place this weekend and take the whole family! haha!

Afterwards, I had to start dinner and while I was cooking you ran back and forth between your toys in the living room and my legs in the kitchen. I love it when you run in and yell "hiiiiii!", it makes me laugh! I made us horseradish and wasabi grilled chicken, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies. While I was cooking I noticed you had gotten very quiet in the other room and I peeked around the corner to the family room and you were sitting on the couch with your two favorite bears, you were so adorable I had to sneak to take your photo!

As dinner was cooking away, Noel, from the neighborhood stopped by and asked to play with you. She is 9 years old and very nice, so I asked her if she would like to stay for dinner. She ran home to ask and came back smiling and very happy to join us. Dinner was delicious and we had a great time talking and laughing and you like to burst out in random laughter in attempt to join in, which is waaaayyyyyyyy too cute for words! It took a few tries to get you to keep the broccoli in your mouth, but eventually you caught on, but would only eat it if I spoon fed it to you! haha

When dinner was finished we cleaned up and headed to the park. Noel was allowed to join us and we had a super fantastic time! You loved, loved, loved going down the blue slide and shrieked at every opportunity you got! Noel went on the big twisty slide, but you didn't look too sure about the size of it, so we stuck with the tinier slide. One day you'll be big enough for that and even taller ones!

Once playtime at the park was finished Uncle Jimmy and I decided to surprise you and Noel by taking you for ice cream! Although I tried to sneak on the back roads, Noel knows South River so well, that she announced in a loud excited voice "We're going to the CAUSEWAY ICE CREAM, aren't we??" There's no tricking her! haha!
Ice cream was YUMMY! You and I shared a small cup of cake batter ice cream, which you ate most of, I might add. Noel had a cotton candy ice cream sundae and Uncle Jimmy had peanut butter ice cream in a cup. Guess what else? I discovered that when you're done with your ice cream, you take a big mouthful and let it fall out of your mouth onto your clothes and smear it with your hands all in a matter of 1.2 seconds! You're fast! =}

With ice cream all finished and your sticky hands wiped as best I could without wipes, it was time to drop you off at Aunt June's house. You were tired and laying your head on my shoulder as I carried you into her house. I handed you to Aunt Donna and you burst into tears and lunged back into my arms. You held me tight in a hug and closed your eyes. I can think of only one thing when you do that..."my cup runneth over!..."

I kissed you goodbye and told you I love you. You cried as I walked out the door...OK, more like shrieked hysterically, so I'd better pray for Aunt Donna's hearing =}

I love you so much baby-girl. From the top of your head to the tippy, tippy, tips of your toey, toey, toes! I'll see you soon my lovish! Thank you for a wonderful day!
I love you!
Love,
Aunt Pooka

The joys of working with kids!

The following is a journal entry from April 2008...I thought you might all enjoy...(one of my sister June's favorite stories of mine=)....Jay and Jess LOVE when I tell this story and often laugh until their sides ache!...and for the record, they are STILL scared to death of any kind of bugs!

April 3, 2008- So here I am at work. The kids just got home. Their karaoke machine in the basement comes on (for some reason it’s on a timer) and I tell them to go down and shut it off. They head downstairs to the basement

I’m at the sink when I hear a blood curling SCREAM!!!

Screaming , crying and hollering for me to "help them" and "save them".

All that’s running through my head is "OH MY WORD! There must be someone in the house and they are hiding in the basement attacking my kids!! Grab a knife and cut ’em down! Don’t touch my kids on my time!!"

I get to the basement door, butcher knife in hand, and the kids are hysterically screaming the whole way up running at full force like someone is CHASING them!

It was surreal, nerve wracking and absolutely SCARY but I was ready to protect these kids from this psycho.


They reach the top and I’m ready to throw them outside, tell them to call 911 and go after this person when I scream "What’s the matter" into their screeching, tear-streaked faces they yell back

"It’s a bug!!!!"

I wanted to KILL them!!! The next five min I was shaking violently from my adrenaline rush and chastising them for taking 10 years off my life!

10 years I CAN’T afford, mind you, I am almost 30 after all!!!!!!

As I calm my nerves at the sink and put the knife away, I hear the dog bark and suddenly the blood curling screams and tears return. I holler out, "What’s the matter NOW!!!!!!" They are at the closed basement door sobbing for their barking dog in the basement sure that he’s met his demise by the strange bug. "HELLO" I called, "He’s only barking cause you need to open the door and let him up!!" Walking over to the basement door and flipping the door open, sure enough, there’s Lucky just waiting to be let up.



The kids stand with huge eyes as I grab a bottle of Windex and head down the stairs to kill this stupid trouble-making pain of a bug. I close the door behind me and laugh to myself about their reactions to such a small creation!


I had to bite back the urge to scream on the top of my lungs "OH NO! IT GOT ME!!!!!" But, I was sure if I did that I would have come upstairs to find two passed out children and then I would have to revive them!

I head to the karaoke machine which has been playing this whole time and flick it off in annoyance, sticking my tongue at it because it started this whole situation.


I turn to my left and there laying on the floor is the poor bug. Barely moving and clearly close to death I sprayed the thing with 2 shots of Windex and put it out of it’s misery. It wouldn’t have survived out in the wild. No doubt the shrilling screams of the kids severed and destroyed any type of hearing and/or direction sense the poor thing every had.


At this point, I hear more screaming upstairs and I yell up asking what is it. They apparently had been calling me and didn’t get a response and assumed this helpless dead bug had eaten me and was coming for them.


This whole situation was becoming less and less funny and I was pretty sure with all their high pitched shrilling screams that all the dogs in the neighborhood have fallen over whining with their paws jammed into their ears

Scooping up the dead bug I marched up the stairs calling for the kids to get away from the garbage, lest they be there when I throw this dumb thing out and pass out at the sight of it.


I round the corner and where are they hovered, hugging each other and crying, in the closest chair to the GARBAGE CAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tossing the dead thing into the trash I stared at them in disbelief and shook my head....such sissy-la-la's


So hear I am smiling at the end of this all and wondering.....

Did that bug have a sibling that we’ll meet one day soon?????

...and so it begins

BLOG...what is it? I looked it up! It's a portmanteau (pronounced port-man-toe) of the words "web log"...very cool, ya learn something new every day! That's why I'm here....no, not to teach you new, hard-to-pronounce words, but to learn something new.

I decided to start my own blog after reading, with oodles of interest, the blogs of some very godly women. Suzette and Kristi have both been blogging for a long while now, and while I have just recently began reading their posts, I decided very quickly that this is something of increasing interest to me.

I was feeling kind of stalker-ish, hovering over their blog posts the past few days. The stories they shared, the life lessons they've learned, the family fun photos, the memories...all of them were so addicting to me! I wanted to read more! I wanted to laugh (2 year old Julia's interaction with 1 year old brother Mark) and cry (Suzette's tribute to her Mama, who is with Jesus). I have a good handful of new recipes to try now (thank you, ladies!) and even some awesome life applications regarding how to treat my husband, and how to organize my clutter!

I look forward to sharing my life: my past, my present and my hopes for the future...so much to share, so much to learn...

Psalm 71:5 "For you have been my hope, O Sovereign LORD, my confidence since my youth. From birth I have relied on you; you brought me forth from my mother's womb. I will ever praise you."