Halloween

Just pics today. :-)

One relieved Momma!

We got the results from Peyton's MRI the other day and it was NORMAL! Well actually, not normal normal. Normal for Peyton normal. She has some fusion in her vertebra that isn't normal anatomy, but its Peyton's anatomy. So what a relief! Thank you for all the prayers for her and for us, we truly appreciate them. God is Great!

A worried Momma

That is the face of a wonderful kid. I love her so much I can barely catch my breath sometimes. Which is true for all my girls, but this week it was especially so for her. About a week ago, I had taken her into the doctor for a short visit in regards to her dimples on her backside. See, they were not aligned and being the responsible parent I am, I made an appointment. The thing of it was, I fully expected her Pediatrician to say, "Don't worry Mom, its fine." Well, he didn't say that. In fact, he took one look at her spine and said, "This worries me." WHAT? He wasn't supposed to say that! And it wasn't the un-aligned dimples that he was worried about. It was the lump centered right on the base of her spine. A LUMP on my daughters spine. He did tell me that it is most likely a Lipoma. Which is made entirely of fatty cells. Ok. I can handle that. He also said it could be fluid draining there, or a tumor. A TUMOR. The first things that went through my head were: No. Not my kid. We have healthy kids. She's fine! She runs and laughs and plays. There is no way a tumor has been growing on her spine. Then I calmed down a bit and thought we will take it one day at a time. One Prayer at a time. So the Ped ordered an MRI of her Spine at OHSU, with complete sedation. We had to wait a week. A full WEEK before the thing was done. Which was this past Friday. We were to check her in at 1:00, she would be brought back to begin the IV/sedation process at 2:00 and the MRI would be at 2:30. No food after 8:00 am, no drink after 11:00. Of course, hospitals being hospitals, it was delayed by an HOUR. She was not sedated until just before 3:30 and she was off to her MRI for an hour. What a long hour. We got her back and was told that the results won't be in until Monday or Tuesday. One thing I do know is that they only had to take images of her spine which was relieving to me. I was told by the ped that if they found ANYTHING they would immediately scan her head, so the fact that they only scanned her back was good news. Until I know for sure though, my prayers are still right there... I will update with the good news when I get them!

What lisp?

Excuth me? Are you Thelling me that I have a lisp? Why? Oh, it must be becauthe I loths one of my thop teeth. :-)



Yes, Maddy lost one of her top front teeth! It's a funny story how it happened too. So, the tooth had been hanging on by a thread for a.very.long.time. She would not let us touch it. So we just let it hang. And hang. And hang. Then one day when I was on my way home from work with Alex & Peyton I got a phone call from Trav. Trav was at soccer practice with Maddy, so I thought it was somewhat strange that he was calling. When I answered the phone it was Maddy. She said "MOMMY! GUESS WHATH?! MY TOOTH FELL OUTH!" I made all the appropriate oohs & aahs a Momma is supposed to make then I asked her how it happened and if she pulled it her self. She says, "NO! Daddy kicked the soccer ball REALLY hard ath the wall, then Grandpa tried to stop ith, and ith flew up and ith HITH ME IN THE MOUTH! And my tooth justh flew RIGHTH OUTH!!"

Way to go coach(s). Its a good thing that was Maddy!

Buh Bye for now.

Hey.

So I am pretty sure that my frequent blogging days have come to an end. I am still keeping this though, so don't totally leave. Still check back! Or add me to your reader. Or something. I will try my super hardest to blog more, but like all mothers of 3 who happen to work full time, work in each of the kids' classrooms 1 hour a week, as well as coaching a kinder girls soccer team, who tries to feed her kids healthy dinners all while keeping up the laundry of said 3 girls, I am busy. Insanely so. Exhaustingly so.

I still have things I would like to document and hopefully I will work some of those memories free soon so I can blog about them. For now though I am saying buh bye. See ya soon I hope.

Me

Its the most wonderful time of the year - Soccer Time!

Its soccer time! What a wonderful day at the fields. Maddy's team lost, but seriously only because those girls were exhausted . No lie. The yellow team had 5 subs, to the black teams 0 subs. And the girls moved into a bigger field. A much bigger field. I seriously think it's twice the size of the Kinder/1st grade fields. AND they play for 25 min halves. So the Black Hawks were running their little hearts out. They were leading 1-0 for most of the game, but the Yellow girls ended up scoring 3 goals on them in the last 5 minutes or so when my girls just couldn't do it any more. I was super proud of them. For reals. I am normally not the Black Hawks coach either. My hub & father in law are the coaches, but they are both out of town this weekend at the Ducks football game so it was Coach Stacey to the rescue!

Alex's team WON! What an amazing bunch of kinder girls we have. I am one of her coaches, but had to miss the whole game because both the girls' games were at the exact.same.time. (Like half of the rest of the season too) They won 3-0. Alex even got to play for the opposite team for a few minutes because they just didn't have enough girls today.

I am super excited for this soccer season. I love pretty much every thing about it. Well, except for when it pours down rain. Or when it snows. Since both have been known to happen around here. Lets go Black Hawks & Blue Unicorns! (Alex totally came up with her team name too. The Blue Unicorns. How flippin cute is that?!)

Maddy with the ball. Doncha just love the "M" wristband?

Lets go #1 er, 1's! Alex rocks.

Hustle!

Are the games over yet? And yes, I have boogers. What's it to ya?

Post game pic of the really sweaty soccer girls.

Coach Stacey & the soccer super stars. Oh and Peyton too.

First day of school! (Ok ok, it was a few days ago, but I'm busy!)

Here they are folks! What I am sure you have all been waiting for. First day of school pics! Maddy is my great big 2nd grader, and Alex is in Kinder! Holy moly that went fast. They both had fantastic first days. Maddy has her two BFF's in her class again and Alex has a bunch of boys in her class but since she is pretty much a tomboy herself she won't have any problems finding a best friend soon.

WOW!

My girl Alex is amazing. She is! She woke up yesterday morning and said, "Momma, I want to get my ears pierced." I was pretty shocked that she had made that decision to be quite honest. See, I offered for her to get hers done at the same time as Maddy back in July and she adamantly refused. There was NO WAY IN H E Double hockey sticks that anyone was going to come close to her with an ear piercing gun. Nuh uh. So, since I had told her that anytime she decided she wanted to get them done, we would go out as soon as we could. It happened to be a good day yesterday so off to Claire's we went. When we got there, she sat up in the ear piercing chair and she was ready. I had asked for them to do a double piercing, so we could get it done all at once and they stepped up, counted to three, pulled the trigger and voila, Alex has pierced ears. With.Out.A.Tear.Shed. Nothing. Not even a squeak came out of that girls mouth. Like I said, Alex is amazing. Now, bring on Kinder!

Pip Squeak

You know that old saying, "When life hands you lemons, make Lemonade?" Well I have a new one for you. "When life hands you a toddler covered from head to foot in VASOLINE, Blog about it!"

Another one bites the dust

My 7 year old daughter has become an Oregon Ducks Football fan. We're talking a big fan. HUGE. Its cute, but also a teensy bit disturbing. I mean come on.
1. She's a 7 year old.
2. She's a 7 year old GIRL.
3. Did I mention she's a SEVEN YEAR OLD GIRL?!

Is it me? Am I that out of sync with little girls? I thought they were supposed to be obsessing over Hannah Montana and Barbies & stuff. Not when & who the Oregon Ducks are playing.

This morning she was super excited. Her Ducky's are playing tonight. She got up, got dressed, brushed her hair & teeth, made her bed, came into my room, went into my closet, picked out MY clothes because she wanted me to to wear a GREEN shirt, then went into Peyton's room and picked out Pip's clothes because she wanted her to wear her Ducks tee shirt, all with out me saying one word to her. Then she says to Trav "Daddy! I am so excited because the Ducks are on TV tonight! I want some new Ducks clothes because mine are all too small now." And of course, when anything has to do with the Ducks Trav is all for it and tells her he will get her some soon.

And you know what Alex said? "The ducks are poopy butts, GO BEAVERS!"

So the war continues....

Wonder

My littlest girl, you're growing too fast.

Though you still fit perfectly as I hold you.

Your sweet weight in my arms.

A gentle pressure against my chest.

Your head tucked into my neck.

Your calm, even breaths.

The soft squeak as you suck your favorite thumb.

A quiet sigh.

Bliss.

A new day

Lately it seems like my family has been hit with some pretty serious stuff. My whole family. My parents, sibs, in laws, us. And its been making me re-evaluate my life. What I am doing? Where am I going? What choices should I make, or what choices should I have made.

Who can I rely on?

GOD

It boils down to that. I can put all my faith, all my hopes, all my dreams in Him. All my fears, all my apprehension, all my failures. He wants those too. HE WANTS EVERYTHING. And I NEED to give it to Him. My faith requires it.

Proverbs 3:5,6: Trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.

That is one of my favorite verses. It's so... Perfect in its simplicity. TRUST in Him. Easy enough right?

I know that that is what I am going to do. I am going to put my faith first. And I am going to try my hardest to be what He wants me to be. And I am going to love on my family, because it doesn't cost me a penny and it's value is priceless.

A moment to remember

*Disclaimer - These were taken at the END of the day, so don't mind my daughters very dirty clothes!

Amos Lee

Trav & I went to the Amos Lee concert at the Zoo last night. It was a wonderful night full of good food, great people watching, and truly excellent music. If you have never heard of Amos Lee before, I HIGHLY recommend him. Especially if you like folky, jazzy music. He reminds me alot of Jack Johnson, James Taylor, Jason Mraz & others. So good. Check him out.

Now. The people watching like I said was great. I mean GREAT. The amount of Wine & Beer being sold there was just, wow. I mean, everywhere I looked groups of people were walking by with each person carrying a bottle of wine or two beers each. Unbelievable. Even the air smelled like beer. Not that I'm an uptight non drinker. That's not it at all. It just seemed so excessive. Towards the end of the show, we decided to pack up our spot in the far far far back and walk around a bit to see if we could get a better look at the stage. We ended up against a wall like 20 feet away from the performers. It was pretty cool. Anyways, while we were standing there, this INCREDIBLY drunk man came up and started dancing. He looked like he was trying to mimic a monkey. The way he was waving his arms and body, and couldn't walk straight was funny but also a bit sad. I don't think I have seen someone that impaired for a long time. Watching him, and watching the girl he was with try to help him stay up right really made me think of how lucky I am to be married to Trav. Who would never ever become that sloppy drunk.

The whole night was really fun, and on the way home Trav told me that that was his first ever concert. WHAT?! We've been married 8 1/2 years and we've never been to a concert together? WOW! Well, it might've been his 1st, but it definitely won't be his last. We are already planning on going again next year.

Here's a pic of Trav & I under the umbrella that I took with my cell phone. Did I mention it was raining? At an outdoor concert? NO? Well, yeah it was. Didn't stop us from having a great time though.

Summer

Summer time. A time of the year to spend outside. Away from the computer. It's the perfect time of the year to ride bikes, have picnics, work in the garden, go to the beach, be a family loving each other. Which is what I've been doing instead of blogging. I'm sure I'll take the time soon to document all the fun things we've been doing, and not to mention school is almost back in session. Kinder for Alex, and 2nd grade for Maddy! If that's not blog worthy, I'm not sure what is.

For now though I will just post a few pics and say, have an awesome rest of the summer!