Catching Up

Patience is a virtue, Possess it if you can, Seldom found in woman, Never found in man.

 

So it's been a while since my last post....sorry, sorry, sorry.  I'm a busy lady what can I say?

 

I seriously feel like I am being pulled in so many directions all the time that I'm never quite sure what task to complete first.  Unfortunately my blog is usually one of the things that gets put to the back burner when other crap is keeping my plate full.

 

But I have a lot of catching up to do so I figured now would be a good time to fill you all in on my happenings as of late.

 

2 weekends ago I attended my annual state bowling tournaments in Milwaukee.  I didn't bowl worth a darn but I did have a nice time with my Mom and my friends and got to sleep in on Sunday morning.  Hurray!!!

 

My Mom was crowned a Grand Duchess for being 70 years old and bowling in the tournament (see her crown pin she is wearing?).  She also received a plaque for bowling in at least 25 state tournaments in her life.  We were bowing down to her all weekend because of her Duchess status.  Duchess Muriel.  She looks like a Duchess, heh?

 

 

 

 

In addition to being able to hang out with "The Duchess" all weekend we also had a lot of fun playing Sour Apples to Apples in our hotel room while consuming alcoholic beverages of our choice.  Some consumed more than others.  Not sure what is going on in some of these pics?

 

 

 

 

 

I was a good girl.  I wasn't tackling anybody or wrestling, just sitting back and taking it all in.  Our motto for the weekend ended up being the following...

 

"If nobody else claims it, it's yours!"  I know that doesn't mean much to you guys, but for all of us there, it's pretty darn funny.  I can't wait to see what our motto ends up being next year.  LOL!!!

 

 

 

 

 

So, then...last weekend Jeff decided to attend the men's state bowling tournaments, and I was left with the kids by myself most of the weekend.  No big deal there.  However, the kids love when Dad is gone for a bit because he isn't always the most adventurous with his food/restaurants so they couldn't wait to do lunch somewhere different with Mom.

 

We decided on Beanies.  Love that place!!!

 

 

 

 

Zach and Luke were in Heaven with their Strawberry Smoothies.

 

 

 

 

As was I with my Strawberry Daquiri.  Yummy!!!

 

 

 

 

And of course, our family tradition of sticking a french fry into the burger came into play when somebody wasn't paying attention.

 

 

 

 

And Luke even managed to behave for the most part.  He only beat his big brother up once...or twice while there.

 

 

 

 

This past week we also celebrated Samantha's 15th birthday with some ice cream cake and candles.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sam was even nice to her brothers and after she blew the candles out initially, we relit them and let them blow them out the second time.

 

 

 

 

In-between the birthday celebration, bowling tournaments, working at the farm and everything else I managed to teach Zach's Sunday school class on Palm Sunday and later the boys were part of our Palm parade at church.

 

 

 

 

 

I also had flowers on the altar at church on Palm Sunday in memory of their brother, Adam, who passed away 6 years ago.

 

 

 

 

 And if you aren't tired yet (I am), we commenced Sam's birthday today by assembling the new futon she received as a birthday present. 

 

 

Her bed before.

 

 

 

 

 

And thanks to the large box it came in the boys have now decided to create a hideout/fort type thing on my living room floor.  Yippe, more crap to walk around and trip over.  You gotta love that!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

And so are the days of my life.  I require a lot of patience and a lot of energy.  Being a Mom is extremely trying and tiring and I hate to say it but Spring Break has been anything but a "break" for me.

 

I wish all of you a Happy Easter holiday.  I'll check in again next week.

 

Dedicated

 

 

A daughter is a mother's gender partner, her closest ally in the family confederacy, an extension of her self. ~Author Unknown

So, today is a very special day at our house, a certain daughter of mine is celebrating her 15th birthday.  It's crazy to think she is that old already?  I mean, seriously, I don't feel old enough to have a child that age and it seems like just yesterday when I became a mother for the first time.

 

So, because she has turned into such a beautiful person (inside and out), I decided today's post needed to be dedicated to her and everything she has accomplished so far, and to reflect on some memories from her past.

 

 

I do know that when she was under a year old, as you can see from the above pic and the next one, that she didn't have a ton of hair and earned the nickname "baldy butch" from some family members.

 

 

 

Bald or not, she was the sweetest little person I ever laid eyes on and I didn't care.  To me she was perfect just the way she was.

 

I think on her 1 year pictures she was finally starting to grow some real hair that was gonna stick around for a while.  Hurray!

 

 

 

 

And, from little on, she was very inquisitive and always advanced with many things.  She started walking at 10 months, talking super early and was potty trained at 2 weeks before her second birthday.  Jeff of course will say that she got all her intelligence from him but I would like to take some credit as I did spend a lot of one on one time with her when she was small.  I wish I had all that time now :(

 

In addition to spending a lot of one on one time with her, another thing I instilled in her from very little on was the following:

 

"Don't let anybody make you think they are any better than you are!  You are just as special as the next person and deserve the best just like anybody else."

I think she really took that to heart and has developed into her own unique, genuine person who does what she wants, and dresses like she wants, is friends with who she wants and isn't the least bit fake.  LOVE THAT!!!

 

Sometimes I think at the ripe old age of 15 she is way more mature than a lot of adults when it comes to fairness and not judging others.

 

Honestly, she is my best friend.  I confide in her a lot and she does in me.  I can tell instantly when something isn't "quite right" with her, and I don't know what I'm going to do without her in a few years when she goes off to college and conquers the world head on.

 

Some cute pics to make you smile.  My how she has grown..........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you're reading Mom's post baby girl, I love you more than you can ever know and always, always will.  I love that we think alike and finish each others sentences at times.  I love that we can act completely goofy and insane at times together but that you still "get" that I am the Mom.  I love how much you care for your brothers and help out with them so much and well, I LOVE YOU!!!!  Mwaaahhhh!   XOXOXOXOXOXO!!!

Memories

Memory is a way of holding onto the things you love, the things you are, the things you never want to lose. ~From the television show The Wonder Years

So, last week I borrowed a tote full of old pictures from my Mom's house.  I used to look at these pictures a lot years ago, before life got busy and hectic, but it's been a while so I felt a look into the past and into fond memories was well needed so the tote took a ride over to my house where I've been occasionally going through them all one by one.

 

Oh my goodness there are some real good pictures and some funny ones too.  It's fun to go through them with my kids and give them a glimpse into my life when I was young.  What Grandma's house looked like years ago when I was growing up compared to now.  How I looked and our various family members did and Sam especially got a kick out of the hair and clothing from years ago.  I'll admit, it is quite funny to look at.

 

While going through some of them I pulled out some of the more significant ones for me.  Pictures that no matter how many years go by before I go through these again, these are some of the pictures I will hunt to find and pull out to make me smile.

 

Like this one....

 

Yeah, this lovely lady is me when I was about 6 months old.  Look at those legs!  This photo is actually painted and my Mom and Dad had pictures like these done of my brother and sister as well when they were 6 months old too.  For the longest time these portraits of us hung on the living room wall at my parents house, in order by age of course.  I just think it is one of my favorite pictures of me ever.  I love the little flower basket.

 

Then while searching for more pics I came across this one.  Another family favorite.

 

 

 

 

The man in the center of this photo is my Great Grandpa Oscar, he is from my Dad's side of the family.  I am the little tiny baby in the yellow on the left and am sitting on my sister's lap.  The sweet little girl on Grandpa's lap is my cousin, Cindy and the two boys are my brother (the older one) and my cousin Tim on his lap. 

 

In fact, we decided to replicate the pose at my cousin Cindy's wedding in 1996, but instead of Grandpa Oscar we let his daughter (our Grandma), sit in his spot.  This photo was taken 24 years later.

 

 

 

 

Man, those were some good times.  I really do like to look at these old pictures and think back to those days and remember moments that correlated with the photos.  I remember her wedding being such a fun day.  It would be fun just to redo it all over again.

 

As I was going through the tote I was brought back to my roots and thinking about my Dad as so many people have told me in the past that I look a lot like him.  I also think our Zachary resembles him in many ways.  He has that super dark skin tone that my Dad always had.  He has the dark hair color as well as the big dark eyes.  Here are some pictures of him as a young boy to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, I really think this last one looks a ton like Zachary. 

 

 

 

Oh and yeah, the funny pics.  Somewhat embarrassing pics I might say.

 

How about this one?

 

 

 

 

Nice polaraid picture of some obnoxious orphan Annie lookalike.  Yep that's me alright.  I'm looking pretty hot, heh?

 

I actually remember going to the salon in Random Lake to get this wonderful perm.  The Golden Palace I believe it was called, correct me if I'm wrong.

 

Don't ask me why I thought I needed my hair to look this way but at the time I think I seriously thought I was looking pretty darn hot.  LOL!

 

Oh and the annual Christmas photo of the grandkids at Grandma's house.  We are all so cool, aren't we?  I love my plaid dress and my cousin's matching sweaters, not to mention my sister's lovely outfit and glasses.  Hilarious stuff!

 

 

 

 

Okay, enough of this for now.  My bed is calling me and I just can't look at anymore of these old time photos.  Although they bring back a lot of good memories it is also starting to make me feel REAL OLD!!!

 

Nighty night!