wordless wednesday

no 1 new chapter: fast pitch softball

This child is so excited. She is so not the sporty type, but her best girl friend talked her into joining the girls softball team at school. So, as any fashionista would have it, we went straightaway to the sports store.

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  fast pitch glove size 13 (wasn't able to get the brown one with pink accents, or the black with pink, or the black with lime green, but she says it is the most comfortable one of the 4, so ok)


• 
  
  cleats (addidas black with stylish pink accents - oh yeahhhh - scored already!!!!)


• 
  
  visor (in school colors even!)


• 
  
  new hair elastics (for that perfect, perky ponytail)


• 
  
  eye blacking stick (to keep that pesky sun from blinding a girl while she is trying to catch pop flies)

When we got home, she tried on all her gear (right down to the eye blacking stuff) and when she looked in the mirror, she started jumping up and down squealing! "This is so cute!"

I haven't broken the news to her that her make-up might melt out there. Or that there might be gnats. No way I'm popping her bubble! She hasn't been this excited since she was three and the Teletubbies were coming on tv.

whoot whoot

Let's just say at no 2's graduation from the 8th grade, he was awarded with a math award...Algebra must suit him. It's pretty cool considering that last year he was really struggling.
Just to make sure she had her figures right, after graduation at the reception I asked his teacher if it was a mistake. She laughed and assured me it was true,

"He has worked really hard. This last 6 weeks I introduced a new concept and he got it. A lot of the students didn't, but he did. Also he has been participating a lot more in class since that leadership scholarship that he won a couple of months back."

No matter how you add it up, King and I are quite proud of his accomplishments. I just hope I didn't disturb too many people in the church when I clambered around to pick my jaw up off the floor.

sixteen years ago today

Our no 1 turns 16 today.

Wowza.

It is amazing to watch the unfolding of the young woman God created her to be.

Though headstrong, she is not impulsive. She takes logic to a new level. For example, realizing she needs more experience behind the wheel of a car, she has made up her mind that she will wait until the end of summer break to get her license. After watching their shenanigans, she has decided that all her BFF girlfriends aren't really friends at all when they boy they like is around. So, my girl who has a love for roller coasters has invited her two best guy friends to go with her (and King) on a trip to a regional amusement park. What could be more fun? Smart girl she is, she realizes that there won't be any DRAMA if she goes with people who are emotionally stable. Besides that, these two young men make her laugh like no one else.... well, except her wonderful mother. (tee hee hee)

make no mistake

Big Brother is watching.

It makes me want to toss our computers, our phones, and televisions all out into a garbage pit.

no 4-isms

Handing me a deck of cards,

"Mommy, can you please scramble these cards for me?"

***********************

Talking to my grandparents and my dad's cousin & her husband,

"I LOVE the weather channel.

It's my favorite channel.

I love watching all about storms and tornadoes and hurricanes and tsunamis and earthquakes and floods - because

I love disasters!"

garden update

The tomato plants and squash plants are huge and all have flowers which mean that the fruits will be just around the corner. I was able to harvest a ton of basil (see today's wordless wednesday pic) and the butter crunch lettuce has not only recovered from the day I planted it and broke all of it's leaves, but is enormously full and ready to again be harvested. It is about the size of a head of Romaine that you'd see in the grocery store.

I haven't checked the blueberry bushes, but the strawberry plant is at least growing. It isn't really producing. Wonder if it, like the blueberry, needs to have more than one to really produce well?

I cut back the broccoli because it had gotten leggy and I have heard it is a winter veggie anyway. But I think I will keep it around in spite of that fact because the little bit of it I tasted was wonderful.

I know you prolly want pics don't you? Oh simmer down... I'll get to it. I promise. It's just that this is the busiest month of them all-

MAY:

the month that's like a huge bowl of granola with crispy wheat, raisins, and almonds...

chock full of surprises in every bite.

nummy lunch

Broccoli, cheese, and bacon salad

&

pecan-chicken salad..

why do I ever fall off the wagon?

wordless wednesday

file under: people you just enjoy being around

Aren't good friends awesome? I think it is so neat how God designed friendships. Each friend appeals to a different part of the personality of an individual.

For instance, there are friends who you just. make. you. laugh. They point out the silliness of life.
There are other friends who help you learn to take things with a grain of salt. They roll with the punches.
There are friends who bring out your creative side.
Friends who share your same idiosyncrasies.
There are friends who are always there to lend a helping hand.
There are friends who always need a helping hand... only you don't mind so much and it never feels as though they are taking advantage of you.

The list goes on and on.

Then there are just some people who are just. plain. easy to be around. You can sit for hours on the front porch rockers and talk about whatever. I am lucky to have a couple of friends like this. They have a calming effect. Sort of like blood pressure lowering meds.

Thank God for great friends!

and here we go again

Hot flavored Pork Rinds are in da howwwse.

That can only mean one thing.

Mamma started back on low carb.

cinco de whatzit?

Happy

"Justanotherreasonforpeopletogetdrunk"

Day

to ya!

yard update

Guess who has babies?

Mr. and Mrs. Red Bellied Woodpecker!

They are so sweet up there tweeting when they know a bug is nearby (check the beak).

Mr. and Mrs. Thrasher must have had to go into the witness protection program, bc they are no where to be found. Interestingly there are two other thrasher nests nearby. What are they trying to trick someone? Like the neighborhood cat perhaps?

ouch

Sort of sad when a Catholic school has a function where siblings are not allowed.

after school snack disaster

Hut, two, three, four,
Cottage cheese is on the floor.
Five, six, seven, eight,
What a mess! I'm so irate.

the little things

Let's face it: King babies our youngest child.

I could cite examples.

Lately, though, there is this thing they do in the morning. She gets dressed while he is downstairs maintaining order with all the lunchbox packing/cereal & milk pouring. When she is ready, she walks to the top of the staircase and says, "Daddyyyyy! I'm readyyyy! I'm standing at the stationnnnn!"

Then he comes upstairs and picks her up and carries her downstairs.

He does occasionally protest. On the other hand, he started the habit.

But what I think is sweet is that in a very few short years this little routine will have passed by the wayside, but what it leaves behind in each of them will be a great memory that they will probably laugh about on her wedding day.

credit where credit is due

Dear Mr. President,
Thank you for keeping our brave men and women in the Middle East fighting terrorism so that we may live free, and for keeping Guantanamo Bay open, despite your wanting to close up shop there. I hear from the news reports that Bin Laden has been taken down and is no longer a threat. In fact, I hear that he is fish food at this point (burial at sea). Congratulations!
I do not like many of your decisions, nor do I agree with the way you see the future of America, but I sure am thankful for this successful mission and I applaud your decision-making in this matter.
Sincerely,
:o) mg