Another year older

Well, I'm officially a year older today and I want to take a moment to reflect on the past year and my many blessings.  The Lord has blessed me with wonderful kids. Yes, they forget their manners and make me crazy at times but they can be so thoughtful and loving. 

Tonight I went to dinner with my neighbors (another of my blessings). When I returned home, the girls ( mine and my neighbor's) had decorated the house with banners and balloons (which they had sent my neighbor, Melissa, to get)  for a surprise party. They were so cute and so proud. I got many homemade cards, jewelry, and an ice cream cake, flowers and a song performed by Sadie Lynne.  My children are a gift and I thank God for them.

We moved into our new home back in November of 2007 and  I couldn't have asked for better neighbors!  The Lord was faithful to provide people to be a support to me and also provided friends for the girls. We love our neighborhood and I know there are several people I can call on if I have an emergency while Chris is away.  I am blessed, too, because they are not just neighbors they are also my friends.

This year was also fun because I've reconnected with friends from the past via Facebook. I was blessed today by all the messages I received from friends both old and new.  I am thankful for all the friends God has blessed me with through the years. With growing families and busy schedules it can be difficult to keep in touch.  Facebook sure make it easier. (The cards and calls I got were a great blessing, too. Thank you for remembering me!)

This year was also one to remind me of the brevity of life. We are not promised tomorrow, so I'd like to take this opportunity to thank all of my friends and family for loving me flaws and all!  Thank you for allowing me to be a part of your life and for sharing yourself with me.  I am blessed to know you!

I am blessed to have parents and in-laws who love my children and long to spend time with them.  Okay, sometimes the girls come back a little spoiled but, who doesn't enjoy being spoiled every now and then?!  

I'm sure I could go on until morning if I listed every blessing in my life so I'll close with this one.  Chris, my dear husband, is a blessing to me.  I am so thankful to have him to support and encourage me through difficult days and to have him to make me laugh as we enjoy the good days.  He is a hard worker and I am thankful for his provision for our family, which allows me to stay home as I desire. I am thankful for the time he spends with us and how he loves me and his daughters.

 The Lord has blessed me richly this year and I wait expectantly to see what He has in store for the year to come.  I pray He teaches me much about himself.

Hot air balloons

We went to Callaway Gardens today for the Sky High Hot Air Balloon festival. We discovered we are too impatient to be ballooners! We did get to see a few lift off. We think the others decided to deflate and skip take-off. It had been hot all day with only one breeze to cool us the whole time we were there, until time for the balloons to lift off. It then became windy. The balloon that was tethered to the ground for rides blew so hard that the basket tipped over twice with lots of passengers in it. We had discussed letting the kids go up with me but decided the line was too long and also heard it only went 10-20 feet off the ground. It ended up that they never even let passengers go up on the tethered rides.

 When the first hot air balloon lifted  off the ground there were lots of oohs and aahs, followed by gasps, as the balloon's basket hit the top of a magnolia tree. The balloon went right over our heads. The mishap caused a burn in the lower portion of the balloon and the basket was rocking pretty hard for a while before it settled down. This event was followed by RuRu running toward me and proclaiming, "I don't want to go up in the basket!!!"  She had both fear and tears in her eyes. I couldn't help but laugh first, then we assured her she was NOT going on the ride. She was relieved to hear it!

 When we gave up on the balloons we went for a swim in the lake then headed home. Although the kids had fun swimming, playing shuffleboard and doing the bungee bounce (RuRu decided to skip that too) the highlight of their day was when we made a quick stop to see the Tuleys and Womacks at the chalet where they were vacationing in Pine Mountain. They were thrilled to see all of Clem's cousins again (especially James- SL and A think he's "so cute!").

The highlight of the day for Chris was seeing a HUGE rattlesnake in the road on our way home. We both spotted it as we drove past, so he turned around and went back to get a good look. It "sat" in the road for several minutes before crossing over into the grass. We were stopped on one side of the road and another vehicle was stopped the other direction because the snake was blocking its path. Everyone was gawking at the size and snapping pictures. Check out the size of its rattle! It was 2-3 inches long. 

painting fun

The older girls and I made this painting to hang on the wall over Sadie Lynne's bed. I had planned on doing it about a year ago when Chris didn't want me doing any stenciling or painting on the walls in Sadie Lynne's big girl room. Then we sold the house moved and life took over. Well, we finally got around to it. It was supposed to be a project for me and SL but she did end up letting Adelaide help a little. It is multi media and we employed various techniques (dry brush, washes, bubble wrap -the circles, corn cob rolling) and materials (lace, jewels, slick paint, beads, foam stamps, stencils and body glitter from Libby Lu!).  They had a blast and with guidance on colors and placement I think it turned out pretty good. I want to paint some words on it but SL likes it like it is- of course she said that at each stage of the project, even when it was nothing but 3 shades of green brushed randomly over the canvas. It was fun and a great creative outlet. Adelaide is raedy to paint one for her room now!

SPECIAL BIRTHDAY MOMENTS

On the girls' actual birthdays I do something special with JUST the birthday girl. They get to choose what we do or where we go (within reason). Mom usually keeps the others for me unless Chris is home. Thanks, Mom, for helping to make this special time possible!

This year on RuRu's birthday I took her to Libby Lu in Montgomery. She loved the attention and getting all dolled up. Adelaide also chose Libby Lu for her special day. As usual, she picked out her goodies with her sisters in mind, taking great joy in having something special to give them upon her return. Sadie lynne decided to forgo  the trip to Libby Lu and get her ears pierced at Claire's instead. I still can't get over how brave she was! She didn't cry or even flinch. Which reaffirmed what I already knew- most of her former tears were worthy of an Oscar- DRAMA QUEEN!  We followed up the piercing with Chick-fil-a and a heavily iced cookie form Great American Cookie. Thank you, Lara, for watching the others for me that day.

Birthday Babes

Well, we've finally gotten all the girls' birthdays behind us for the year!

 RuRu had a carnival party in the backyard at the end of May. All the kids had a great time and several guests told the girls that it was the BEST party they had ever been to. Thanks to Emmy hooking me up with the cotton candy machine and carnival games, my Mom and Joe bringing a popcorn machine and laurie letting me borrow her Bounce Around inflatable castle, it was a low cost, high fun party!  We had a face painting booth at which I painted LOTS of Hello Kitty faces (RuRu's theme of choice) and my sweet mother-in-law helped me make caramel apples. We made the cake, too, though I'm to blame for the decorating!! Notice the Hello Kitty topper. It was one you can change the clothes. We decided to dress her like an angel! I don't think anyone else caught the irony:) 

 Ruby Beth collected items for the mission team from church. They needed Bible School supplies for their June trip to Uganda. She was so proud to be able to contribute to such a great cause.  I was very impressed by her giving spirit.  Check out the picture of her with all the donations ( the clear rectangular tub plus the Target bag are filled with items from her party guests) !!!

Sadie Lynne and Adelaide celebrated their birthdays together with a party at the neighborhood pool. Ariel was their chosen theme.  We had two cakes, one for each girl. We sang "Happy Birthday" to each individually and each got to blow out candles on her own cake. We had good weather and about 30 kids in attendance.  The girls all had fun and all children got along well. They alternated between swimming and playing on the playground.  Jana took some great pictures for us.

  They collected items for the Lee Co. Humane Society (Sadie Lynne's choice) and the Community Market/Food Bank (Adelaide's choice) and enjoyed getting to deliver the donations themselves. They loved looking at the animals at the shelter-Adelaide tried to talk me into adopting a dog, pointing out that we only have 1 and Chris tried to talk me into an outside dog.  At the Community Market the donation was weighed in front of them and totaled 23lbs. The worker thanked them for their generosity.

The years seem to be flying by. It is hard to believe the girls are now 7, 5 and 3! How did that happen?!!!  I know time will only speed up, so we must enjoy celebrating their milestones along the way!

All those girls

Last week the girls and I traveled to Florida to visit my friend April and her family. The girls had a great time playing with her 3 girls, Henley, Daughtry and Addie Ross. Thanks for letting us stay and disrupt life for a few days! Scroll to bottom of blog to see a picture of ALL THOSE GIRLS!!

Callaway Gardens

Yesterday we went to Callaway Gardens. The girls enjoyed the lake, the Florida State Flying Circus and putt-putt. RuRu was a wiggle worm but was amazed by the performance. She kept leaning forward in my lap and throwing her arms back like the performers did when they finished a feat. It was so cute!  Sadie Lynne said "I couldn't do that even if I tried" after the flying trapeze act. Adelaide enjoyed what she saw but missed a lot of the big stunts because she was watching the people around her or the crew setting another ring up for the next act.

After the circus we went to the lake and they tried some of their own human balancing acts with Daddy as the base. It was a fun day!

Recent visit to ophthalmologist

I wanted to update everyone on Sadie Lynne's eyes. She had an appointment on Thursday the 10th. They had her name or attempt to name letters of various sizes. (Once Adelaide was trying to name one and the technician chuckled, smiled sweetly and said "shhhhh". Then we all got to giggling.) Sadie Lynne had me scared for a while because the letter she was naming looked nothing like the next letter on the line. Later after a few lines I realized she was reading them from right to left. She is a very good reader so I have no clue why she was doing that. She doesn't know why either. Weird!!

 

When the doctor came in he held up lots of lenses while looking into her eyes for reaction and after a while determined she needed a stronger prescription. The new lens improved her corrected vision in the left eye from 20/200 to 20/80. He said it is difficult to get an accurate prescription right away on kids because they make so many compensations to improve their sight.

We will continue patching daily for 2 hours. I'm hoping the new lens will make it easier for her to be patched so she will be more compliant in that area.

The doctor was pleased with the improvement and encouraged us to continue pressing on because it is making a difference. He said he wasn't promising 20/20 vision in the poor eye but there was still a lot of room for improvement. He also reminded us that our time is short. We have until around her 8th birthday to make improvement.  After that no more change is possible. 

The doctor shared a story about a patient who just turned 9 that he'd been working with for years on the same condition. Her vision was like Sadie Lynne's when we discovered her problem-perfect in one eye and 20/400 in the other. He said now that child's vision is 20/25 in her poor eye!!! I was thrilled to hear again that it is possible!

We will go for our next appointment in 5 weeks and see how the new lens is working.

      

Well, yesterday was both exciting and sad. Exciting because my new washer and dryer arrived. Sad because I was soooo excited!!!  I even invited my neighbor, Becca, over to watch as I put in the first load. We couldn't believe how many clothes it could hold (about twice as many as my old one)!! Then the control panel lit up like a cock pit and I squealed with delight. The washer is a top loader with a glass top, so we stood there peering in as the clothes spun and were agitated, without an agitator, amazed by how quiet it was.  Are we pitiful or what!

Apparently enthusiasm is contagious. I had set a load of towels to delay start until this morning. Sadie Lynne discovered them, came into my room (where I was still sleeping) and announced that she had put the towels in the dryer but didn't know how to start it. I told her which buttons to push and she started the dryer.  A few minutes later she came in to inform me she had put clothes in the washer but didn't know how to start it. I got up and showed her where to pour the detergent and how to select the cycle and start it. Now she keeps updating me on how many minutes until the load is finished and is looking for more things to wash.  Too funny!! It probably won't last long but at least for today the laundry has been taken care of!

Our little RuRu is growing up! She has not been able to say the "or" sound and has been saying "er" instead. So, Gerge=George, fler=floor,  mer=more, ster=store, etc. It was so cute! We'd all, including family, friends and neighbors, started talking like her.

Well, two days ago Adelaide announced from the dinner table that "RuRu just said George not Gerge". I started getting her say words with "or" like "Dora", "fork", "door", "four" and she consistently said it correctly.

A little over a week ago she said "when I was bern out of Mommy's tummy". When Sadie Lynne questioned her about "bern" she said, "not like a burn on my arm, like bern in Mommy's tummy! 

I know I should be glad about this important step for her speech development but it sure was sad for me! It was past bedtime, but we had to call Amy, Jana and even Daddy at work so she could say words for them, too (the older girls insisted). Oh, my how quickly they change!

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We went to Lake Martin with the Phillips family. The kids had a great time. Chris took the older 2 out on the jet ski. We enjoyed a relaxing boat ride. It was too relaxing for some-Adelaide and Chris fell asleep. Of course Chris had worked all night and was going on no sleep. The girls enjoyed jumping off the pier into the water. It took Adelaide a while to work up the courage but she finally did it. She was so proud! Ruby Beth swam around in her floaties and even put her face in the water. Chris tried to catch some fish but had no luck. Now he's decided there are no fish in that lake. We skipped the fireworks since Chris had to get home and get some sleep. Will attach a picture once Chris downloads the pics from today.

Don't know that I have much to say. Maybe over time I'll get inspired. First I have to get over the intimidation I feel over trying this. Let me see if I can get this to show up on the page. If successful I'll add pics and catch everyone up on the latest with me and mine:)