10 years

Today is our 10th anniversary and there is no one I'd rather spend my life with! Steve is the most wonderful man in the world!


And if you read Tif's site, then you would know that it's her 10th anniversary as well. Some of you may have read that Tif and I have a history together (believe me, there is much, much more) and part of that history includes us getting married on the same day. Except, Tif & RJ stayed in the Netherlands and got married and Steve and I drove up to Denmark and got married.

So, happy anniversary hon...I love you more today than yesterday. I look forward to our future together. It will only get better.


Happy anniversary to Tif & RJ. Thanks for the memories! I love ya!

My Girls

Here's a couple pictures of my girls. Peaches is my 10 years old golden retriever and of course you know who the beautiful baby is. And in the picture with the white cat in the background, that's Buttons. She's an American Bobtail and the best cat to have with children!

Just because it's been too long

These were taken this morning. This is how she is all the time. A very happy baby. The last picture looks a little different. I was experimenting with natural light and I wanted one without the smile. I love the way it turned out.

For you Tif

Since Tif wanted a new post from me, I thought it proper of me to post about Shadow, who once was Tif's kitten. But first a very quick history lesson...

Tif and I graduated together in Holland in 1994 and after all our classmates left back to the states, we were left. We were inseparable. Every where we went, we passed as sisters, some even believed we were twins. Didn't know I had a twin 6 weeks older than me did ya? We even worked at the PX (well, she was at the PXtra, but still the same company). While I was working one day, she got a little tiny black kitten. Boy was she cute! Tif couldn't think of a name for her and told me to think of one. The last time I named an animal, I was around 6 years old! So, I dropped Tif off at work, took her car back to her parents house. I have no idea where mom and dad were, but I was home by myself with this little kitten. Everywhere I went, she went. I took her back to pick up Tif and we waited out in the grass for Tif to close. I walked back and forth, with kitten in on my heels. It was then I decided that she was my little shadow and what better name than Shadow. Long story short, Tif left for the states for a short time, I kept cat, Tif came back, cat stayed with me. So here we are, 10 1/2 years later.

Now Tif, this is for you...
Steve feeds the animals every night after the boys go to bed. Last night, he opened the front door where Shadow's little house and dishes are and we not only had Shadow, but there was also another black cat. Looks just like Shadow except his eyes are a golden yellow and his hair isn't shiny like Shadow. He was sitting in Shadow's house. I'm not sure if they were in there together or not, but neither one of them were meowing at each other or even looking like they were going to fight. We brought Shadow's dish in for her to eat and then she went back out. The cat was still there. I would love to get a picture of them together. I think I'll have my camera ready, just in case.

Here she is 2 weeks ago. She just got done rolling in the some dirt, so she looks a little "dusty".

Joke of the day

America's Deteriorating Military

I sat, as did millions of other Americans, and watched as our government underwent a peaceful transition of power as I watched George W.Bush take his oath of office. However, all that pride quickly vanished as I later watched William Jefferson Clinton board Air Force One for the last time. I saw 21 Marines, in full dress uniform with rifles, fire a 21-gun salute to the outgoing president. It was then that I realized how far America's military had deteriorated under Clinton. Every last one of them missed all 21 times.

A little of this and a lot of that

Steve finally saved enough money to buy this. And Christian had to try and pull the string back. I couldn't do it without help!












The good news about my daughter is that she still fits in most of her 0-3 month clothes! There are some really cute 3-6 month clothes I'm looking forward to getting her in, but I'm not in a hurry for her to get bigger. Speaking of bigger, she was 2 months old on Sunday.













Yesterday I took her for her 2 month check-up and 3 shots! I always dread them, but it's for their own good. She weighed 11 lbs. 8 oz. and was 22 1/2" long. Going on the principle that newborns (the first 2 months) should gain an oz a day, she's 5 oz. shy of where she should be, but the doc is not concerned. She's healthy and perfect!

Here's the first 3-6 month outfit she wore. It's not my favorite, but I needed something warm since it was below freezing and we were going out.












And this one is Monday night before her and I went to a meeting. She got some new bows and this was the first one she wore. So, daddy took a picture.









That's all the pictures for today. But don't worry, there will be more and you'll be back.

Sad, sad day

This is such a sad day for me. Grandma Sheila and I are going into seclusion. You see, my sweet baby girl is growing and I can't stop it. In my washer right now, as I type this, is all her 3-6 month clothes. I put her in her adorable princess outfit today and it's too short. Even when I pull it down, it barely gets to her socks. She's a long, skinny girl.

So, this outfit will be retired.

I hope there's still some 0-3 month clothes she can wear.

So, until I come to grips with the fact that my baby girl, my one and only girl I'll ever have, my last child, is growing up and there's not a darn thing I can do about it...

I bid you adieu.

To start your weekend right...

There's nothing that I want to share with the internet world today, so I found this joke in my inbox and decided to share it. It's a cute joke with a very important message at the end!


Computer argument

Jesus and Satan were having an on-going argument about who was better on the computer. They had been going at it for days, and frankly God was tired of hearing all the bickering. Finally fed up, God said, "THAT'S IT! I have had enough. I am going to set up a test that will run for two hours, and from those results, I will judge who does the better job."

So Satan and Jesus sat down at the keyboards and typed away.
They moused.
They faxed.
They e-mailed.
They e-mailed with attachments.
They downloaded.
They did spreadsheets!
They wrote reports.
They created labels and cards.
They created charts and graphs.
They did some genealogy reports.
They did every job known to man.
Jesus worked with heavenly efficiency and Satan was faster than hell.

Then, ten minutes before their time was up, lightning suddenly flashed across the sky, thunder rolled, rain poured, and, of course, the power went off. Satan stared at his blank screen and screamed every curse word known in the underworld. Jesus just sighed. Finally the electricity came back on, and each of them restarted their computers.

Satan started searching frantically, screaming: "It's gone! It's all GONE! I lost everything when the power went out!"

Meanwhile, Jesus quietly started printing out all of his files from the past
two hours of work.

Satan observed this and became irate. "Wait!" he screamed. "That's not fair! He cheated! How come he has all his work and I don't have any?" God just shrugged and said,









JESUS SAVES!

SUPERbowl!

Before we left for church, we watched the first 10 minutes of the game. After church was over, we weren't going to come home in case the game was still on. We were getting ready to leave when we got invited over to the Associate Pastor's house with a bunch of our friends. Pretty much everyone there was cheering for Pittsburgh, but that was just because they're all Chief fans and of course, they weren't in the game. Steve was the only die hard Steelers fan, with terrible towel and all, at the house. I of course, was cheering for Pittsburgh or I wouldn't have been allowed in the house last night (his words). And all of use (minus Eliana) were all wearing Pittsburgh stuff. Should have taken a picture...

The game didn't start out to good for Pgh. I was starting to lose hope for them, but I kept telling myself that Pgh is a second half team. There was still hope for them. After watching the Rolling Stones and laughing at them and fast forwarding through quite a bit, the game picked up and we started seeing more of what we were expecting to see out of the Steelers.

The Steelers pulled it off winning the game giving Bill Cowher a superbowl win and giving Jerome Bettis, a.k.a "The Bus" a win in his hometown and probably his last year of ball. What a great way to end the night.

Good friends, good company, good food (which I couldn't eat), good 2nd half and a win for my husband's favorite football team.

My husband is happy. I'm happy.

Now, time for BASEBALL!!!!!

GO SAN FRANSISCO GIANTS!!!

The Middle Wife By an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

This is for all parents and those who deal with young children...


The Middle Wife By an Anonymous 2nd grade teacher

I've been teaching now for about fifteen years. I have two kids myself, but the best birth story I know is the one I saw in my own second-grade classroom a few years back.

When I was a kid, I loved show-and-tell. So I always have a few sessions with my students. It helps them get over shyness and usually, show-and-tell is pretty tame. Kids bring in pet turtles, model airplanes, pictures of fish they catch, stuff like that. And I never, ever place any boundaries or limitations on them. If they want to lug it in to school and talk about it, they're welcome.

Well, one day this little girl, Erica, a very bright, very outgoing kid, takes her turn and waddles up to the front of the class with a pillow stuffed under her sweater. She holds up a snapshot of an infant. "This is Luke, my baby brother, and I'm going to tell you about his birthday.

"First, Mom and Dad made him as a symbol of their love, and then Dad put a seed in my Mom's stomach, and Luke grew in there. He ate for nine months through an umbrella cord." She's standing there with her hands on the pillow, and I'm trying not to laugh and wishing I had my camcorder with me. The kids are watching her in amazement.

"Then, about two Saturdays ago, my Mom starts saying and going, 'Oh, oh, oh, oh!' " Erica puts a hand behind her back and groans. "She walked around the house for, like an hour, 'Oh, oh, oh!'" Now this kid is doing a hysterical duck walk and groaning.

"My Dad called the middle wife. She delivers babies, but she doesn't have a sign on the car like the Domino's man. They got my Mom to lie down in bed like this." Then Erica lies down with her back against the wall.

"And then, pop! My Mom had this bag of water she kept in there in case he got thirsty, and it just blew up and spilled all over the bed, like psshhheew!" This kid has her legs spread and with her little hands are miming water flowing away. It was too much!

"Then the middle wife starts saying 'push, push,' and 'breathe, breathe.' They started counting, but never even got past ten. Then, all of a sudden, out comes my brother. He was covered in yucky stuff, they all said it was from Mom's play-center!, so there must be a lot of stuff inside there."

Then Erica stood up, took a big theatrical bow and returned to her seat.

I'm sure I applauded the loudest. Ever since then, if it's show-and-tell day, I bring my camcorder, just in case another Erica comes along.

Pinewood Derby Race

Last night we had the annual Pinewood Derby Race for Royal Rangers. The kids (and many parents) worked hard to create the best car! The boys had a lot of fun, which was what it was all about. I'm just glad that they don't think like I do cause there are somethings that I think (and some other parents as well) should have been done differently. Each car raced 3 times on 3 different tracks, just in case one track was faster, or slower, than others. At the end of the 3 races, the computer would average the times to see who was the fastest. Ribbons were given out for the first heat, but not the 2nd or 3rd.

Christian got first place in the first heat and 11th over all. Zachary (raceing his daddy's car) got 3rd in his heat and 8th over all. Steve raced his car in the commander's race and his first heat he got 3rd place.

Neither of them won for best in show. Christian's car is a cantaloupe and Zachary's (a.k.a. Daddy's) is a nail with blood on the end. There were some that got trophies that were not very creative at all. How they won is beyond me. There was one car that looked like a sword (very cool!) and he got 2nd. I think he should have got first place. They wouldn't have liked me as a judge if they're picking cars with no originality to them.

There's a race in Springfield on the 11th against a bunch of churches in our district. We're planning on going so that Christian can race again.

The first picture is of Eliana before the race. You can tell she was real excited to be there. The second picture is of Christian holding his car and his awards. The third picture is of both cars and the awards (Zachary didn't want to get his picture taken). And the last picture is the side view of Christian's car so that you can see that it's a cantaloupe.






Maybe I should write on Christian's car...

"Eat my seeds"

Photo shoot

Here's a couple of my favorite pictures from the photo shoot last weekend. When I get the ones I'm gonna order back, I'll scan them in and share them.

The best big brother...

that would be Christian.

On Saturday, the boys took a few dollars of their Christmas money from Grandma and bought themselves a bow and arrow set. Well, Zachary at 3 isn't quite ready for that yet, but had to do what his big brother was doing. Except Zachary has broken the 3 arrows. So, Steve told him he wasn't going to get anymore. Christian said that he would share his arrows. Steve told him no. What did Christian start doing? He cried. Steve felt really bad, after all, we're always telling him that God likes it when we share (which he throws back at us, all the time!) Steve told him that the reason we don't want him to share the arrows is because we don't want Zachary to break his. That seemed to calm him down, but he still wants to share. Can't fault him for doing the right thing!

What a great big brother (and son for listening to what he's been told!)

Today during my shower, Eliana was sitting in her bouncy chair. Christian wanted to be with her. I look out the curtain and Christian is sitting next to her, reading a book. So cute! Where's the camera??? A few minutes later Christian asks where the burp wrag is. He retrieved it and cleaned up a tiny bit of spit up. Anything that comes out of her mouth must be cleaned up. And if she cries, she MUST be attended to. I tell the boys all the time that it won't hurt her if she's crying.

What a great big brother Zachary and Eliana have in Christian!