Recital 2009

I am a picture taker. I love to take pictures of my kids doing stuff. Last year at Thing 1's dance recital I was a Room Mom. Room Mom's help the younger dancers with costume changes, keep them entertained while waiting, and basically baby-sit. Not a bad job, I enjoyed being with Thing 1. She had 2 costume changes last year. That also meant 2 hair style changes. No biggie, Momma was there. This year I was in the recital. I enrolled in an Adult Tap class in December at the same studio. I thought it would be a fun way to get some much needed exercise and Thing 1 would enjoy watching me too. Not once did I think about not being a Room Mom. I'm super Mom, I can do it ALL! Ummm, wrong answer. Thing 1 was in 3 numbers this year. The time difference between her 2 & 3 numbers and my dance did not allow for me to be there for her. Her ballet dance was way before mine so I was able to help her change from the ballet to the other costume and get her hair taken care of. That made me feel a little better. Then I had to rush back to my side of the stage and await our turn. The recital itself went fine. Thing 1's ballet class had a little formation problem and I forgot a few steps, but other than that we did great. Thing 1 and I both didn't perform until the second act. During intermission I saw my family (briefly) and tried to figure out what we were doing for supper. I was hungry! Thing 2 oh the wit that he is, thought now would be a moment for humor. "So Bubba, (which is his home nickname since oh BIRTH) what sounds good for supper?" "I don't know. I can guess what you are gonna be having though." A puzzled look for sure upon my face. "What's that?" "Hospital food cause of the leg you're gonna break... Old Lady!" He then proceeded to cackle and laugh. Now, I know he meant no disrespect. He teases me about age ALL the time. He knows I'm not old. I know I'm not old. Dear God please don't let 30 be old. He also did it because he was out of my arms reach. I was in the balcony and they were below me. I could have jumped from the balcony and landed on him in an awesome WWE form, but that surely would have resulted in that broken leg. So, if you are still with me, this all started about my love of picture taking. Last year I was able to take several good pictures at the dress rehearsal and the recital itself (after it was over). PLEASE NO FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY DURING THE PERFORMANCE. IT MAY CAUSE INJURY TO THE DANCERS... I got news for ya, the flash from a little ol' digital camera ain't nothing compared to those bright, white, hot, steam your face off bulbs on the stage. Anyway, we follow the rules and no pictures were taken during the performance. This year, after it was over, no pictures. I was tired. I had a bag packed full of costumes and make-up. and the kitchen sink. Our blended family was waiting patiently for us. My husband, my ex-husband, his wife, and Thing 2. Cindy Lou Who was at home with the babysitter. I didn't leave her anywhere! By the time we all got together in the lobby... it was 7:30. 30 minutes back to the home town = late supper. We ran home and picked up Cindy Lou Who. The babysitter had other plans for later, it was after all a Saturday night. She had been at our house since 2:30. We had to be at the auditorium by 3:15, so it was a long day.

Who needs a book when you've got one of these!

A relative who lives in another country and has amazing adventures! Meet my Aunt Vick.


(homemade treats in celebration of 1st of May. It's a holiday there.)

Vicki to some, Victoria at birth, and Visiona to others. She lives in Britzingen, Germany. In 1988, she packed up and headed across the sea to marry and continue her love for magic. Yup, I said magic. Growing up I remember Aunt Vick being Top Hat the Magic Clown. I will have to do some investigative work to find a picture of this! I liked to dress up in her old beauty pageant costumes and pretend to be her assistant. When she moved, I enjoyed writing her letters on my little blue typewriter. I even had a pen-pal in Germany thanks to her. I loved when the holidays would roll around. It always meant a special package from Aunt Vick filled with loads of German tasty treats! In 1993, when she got married, our family (The Lewis/Losson/Highfill Clan) all got to go over seas to Germany for 2 weeks! The first week was spent sight seeing and taking in all the beauty that Germany has to offer. The second week was spent on wedding preparations and the event itself. I wish I knew where those pictures were. I have a bad feeling that they are long gone, lost forever. Grandma Jane was the keeper of the pictures in our family. Every time we turned around there was a camera in our faces. "Ya'll get together right there." "Just one more, I wanna make sure." Had digital been around then we would have been in serious trouble! Little did I know then that I would long for those captured memories now. When Grandma passed in 2001, Papaw's & her farm were auctioned. All of her belongings distributed among her children... that's a whole story by itself.



"The years between 1989-1997 were filled with nothing but MAGIC. We lived above the magic business, spent most of our time in it, traveled the world to magic conventions and the only people we knew were either magicians or somehow related to magic. Besides Manfred’s annual magic convention that he hosted himself, he added new events to his magic calendar and hosted Magic Days and a Magic Auction." (taken from her own words & website)



She has her own website that details her journey from the United States to Germany and everything in between. She has a website for her current business of making magic silks. She has a website dedicated to her job of Visiona.





(Aunt Vick is a butterfly...really she's in there.)

Through out the years and all the traveling, she always keeps us up-to-date with wonderful stories and pictures. I love to get her e-mails and stories. Her writing is so descriptive that you can see everything taking place. The pictures are just a bonus. In addition to being a wonderful writer, she is very creative and crafty. She LOVES Halloween and has many American traditions that she's taken to Germany and shown them what it's all about. This Easter she created a paper mache Easter Bunny... life size. They even wrote an article in her local newspaper about it.



That's Chico laying next to the bunny. He is her dust mop baby! The most human like dog you'll ever meet. This is just a large example of her crafty ways. She does table settings, flower arrangements, and photography. I put a lot of links in this post so you could jump out and look at her websites if you like. For the most part they are in English. I received one of her storybook e-mails today and was inspired to dedicate a post to her. She really is a wonderful woman and it's a shame we live oceans apart. It is a great way to learn about another culture besides a history book. Go out and find yourself a pen-pal from another country. You might be suprised what you can learn (and teach).
Our goal for next year vacation is to go visit her (and my Uncle Manfred and human dog Chico). John has never been out of the country. I'm beginning to think he believes Florida is the only other state on the map in North America. It would be a wonderful experience for Madison too.

Wacky Wednesday

I am crossing my fingers that I will have a chance to post some pictures tonight. I was playing with my camera last week and over the weekend and I'm dying to see the results. So what makes Wednesday so Wacky? Let me enlighten you. I have 3 children. Thing 1 and Thing 2 and Cindy Lou Who. Thing 1 takes dance lessons and has her (ahem OUR) recital coming up this Saturday. She is also devastating her poor mother going to be in Middle School this fall. Oh the joyous days of Middle School... I NEVER want to relive those days. High School, maybe. At any rate, with Middle School starts the "real" sports and teams. Elementary school goes by the, Give Every Kid A Chance philosophy. Which is good, don't get me wrong. It lets the kids see what they like and what they don't. I know that Thing 2 has changed his mind between: baseball, basketball, and football all several times. Thing 1 has been dancing for 4 years now and has the talent. God given talent. We all know these types and to most they make us sick. I am certainly not promoting her to my blog readers and puffing her up because I'm her mother. I do love her, but I do have the sense to tell my children if they are wasting their energy on something that may never be. I'm not advocating they give up on anything they dream to do... I'm just real with them. I'm 5'2" on a good day. I never aspired to be a model or play basketball. I live in reality. I know there are all sorts of people who are vertically challenged like me who do these things, but I'm not one of them. Okay, I've completely jumped track. I do that. Moving right along... Middle School Dance Team. She is trying out for the team. The preparation clinics were Monday and Tuesday. The try-out is TODAY. I am a nervous wreck. As I type this, she is there and dancing her heart out. Monday she had clinic, Thing 2 had a baseball game, Cindy Lou Who (16 months old) is being taken along for the ride. Tuesday... clinic until 5:30, dance class at 5:30 (obviously we were late), Thing 2 Boy Scouts, Thing 1 extra practice on dance team routine at fellow friend and try-outter until 9, Cindy Lou Who along for the ride. That brings us to Wednesday. Today. The culmination of talent and memory. She has 3 dances for Saturday stuck in her brain already and learned this one in 2 days! I hope know she can do it. Thursday will be our slowest day of the week. We have absolutely nothing going on. Friday is dress rehearsal at 5pm until 10pm. Ugh. I hate dress rehearsal night. The kids are all worn out by the time we do the solid run through and the parents and kids both are cranky & hungry. Then Saturday is our performance. This week would not normally be so crazy except that John's schedule got totally changed at work due to a remodel they are doing and he is working 11a-9p every day... I am not a SAHM (yet) and work from 9-5. So I am running around town like a crazy woman. Just pay no attention to the woman in the grey/silver (cause that's the only color it came in 2004) Honda van and just check to see if Cindy Lou Who is along for the ride.

Not Forgotten... Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. But read mine first!

I have not forgotten about my blog. This is what happens when you have kids... they rule. By the time I sit down at my computer, nothing wants to come out of my brain worth blogging about. This weekend Madison woke-up at 4:20am Saturday morning SCREAMING. I would say crying, but that doesn't cover it. Having a fear that she had thrown up, I flipped on the light upon going into her room. I don't normally do that. Why would I have the feeling that she'd thrown up? I'm good like that. Actually, there was a stomach bug that took the school by storm and hit many of the teachers and kids. I was warned that 2 tots from her room went home early Friday with it. Turns out it was an airborne virus that spread very quickly. So as luck would have it, she got it. Poor thing was covered. I mean COVERED. Hair, pajamas, blankets, tag, sheet. Iceberg survived. So I ran the bath water and we got in. In the meantime, Daddy was taking care of the bed. He was startled from his sleep when a voice yelled into the baby monitor... "John! She's thrown up! Come help me!" It sits on his side of the bed. (Not Me!) Mean Mommy. He's in and out of the bathroom, where are the clean sheets? Where are more pajamas? Where are more blankets? You can tell who runs the house, right? Madi and I stayed in the tub long enough for Daddy to get everything changed out and back to normal. Fresh pajamas, fresh diaper, paci, and Iceberg. She laid back down no problem. As soon as I closed my eyes...more SCREAMING. Oh no. Not again. Time elapse, about 5 minutes. Repeat cycle. So at this point we stayed up with Madi. Well, we took shifts. We brought her out in the living room and put up her gate. I took my turn at sleeping on the couch while John entertained Madi. Once I woke-up, we switched. Eventually we brought her mattress from her bed to the living room floor. She crawled right up on it without prompting and fell asleep. No kidding. Once she woke-up she seemed to be feeling a little better. She went after the cracker box we had in the living room. Cheez-Its, White Cheddar. Mmmmmm Yummy. She had a few. Then about 30 minutes later, the Cheez-Its and the Pedilyte reappeared. This one required the carpet cleaner. That was at 1ish. My mom got home at 4 and brought Madi a banana from the kitchen. I just looked at her and said, "If she pukes it, you clean it." Who would think about talking to their mother that way! Certainly Not Me! I waited. And waited. Nothing. She kept it down. Then as if to tempt fate, mom brings in a bowl of yogurt. Seriously, yogurt? **sigh** Madi gobbles it down and again I wait. Much to my chagrin, nothing. Mind you I was not hoping my baby girl to throw it up and continue the cycle, more like Ha! I was right and you were wrong. Yeah, my best Not Me! moment of motherhood.

My Heart Goes Out...

I stumbled across this blog several months back. To have 3 healthy children, I could not imagine the amount of faith it would take to get through the heartache of having a child who may never grow up. These parents lost their little girl after 11 months. There are no words. Tears just started streaming down my face the moment I saw the post title in my reader. I knew she had gone home to be with God. I am thankful that she is not feeling pain any longer. I am thankful that there is an almighty Father in heaven who was there to welcome her home and make her well again.

Mother's Day Part 1

This is the present that John put together for me. I don't think I'll ever hear another sigh when the camera comes out. If not for my constant picture taking madness... he wouldn't have these pictures of his baby girl.

Week 4... (a little late in posting)

(Taken 2 days into week 4)

Yup, that's right. I'm almost done with week 5 and just now getting around to posting Week 4 results. So without further ado, I lost another 2 lbs last Thursday. Woo Hoo! That puts me in double digits for weight loss. Awesome. For our group work-out (which we do on Thursday nights) our fearless leader decided we would do the Wii Fit. A video game for exercise! Yeah right. Like I'm gonna get anything out of this. Can I just go back to the Y? Let me be the first to tell you that I recant my previous statement! That was really a work-out and it was fun. Swiveled my hips for 6 minutes and 1,957 revolutions doing the hula-hoop exercise. You don't just stand there and pretend to hula-hoop. Nope. You've got Mii's throwing additional hula's at you that you have to lean and catch... and keep up with your original hoop! I must say that it was more challenging than I gave it credit for. It will be interesting to see what Denise comes up with this week. 2 weeks ago, she made an obstacle/relay course at our local park. That was fun! Pictures were taken, but not by me so I don't have them to post... yet.

I am not sure how this week will pan out. Friday was the Madi vs. Hair Spray Can incident (which I'll post about) so I ate emotionally for dinner. Not too bad, but not healthy either. Saturday was terrible! Well, not the entire day just dinner. I had an additional dance practice for recital in 2 weeks Saturday evening. John & Madi dropped me off, ran some errands and came back to get me. On the way home I said, "Wanna go to Sonic?" Dear hubby said, "Sounds great to me! I'm starving." Sonic, really? Does this sound like a healthy dinner to you? Nope. I did the best I could, after all it was my selection/suggestion. Good thing my lunch and breakfast weren't much... I had 930 cals and 35 g's of FAT! Wonderful. I won't even go into what we had for Mother's Day dinner... I don't even think there is a site for the cals/fat out there. Mother's Day post is also coming so you will see what I ate.

The good news in all of the bad food I ate over the weekend, is that it did not taste as yummy as it used to. The only meal that I ate in its entirety was dinner Saturday. I brought over half my dinner home last night (which I won't eat, but John will).

So, today is a new day and I'm back in the saddle so to speak. Work-out at the Y tonight per usual. Had my Special K for breakfast and my lean pocket for lunch. Just don't hold it against me if I break even or gain a pound this week.

Iceburg

Meet Iceberg. Iceberg is Madison's penguin friend. Press his hand and he plays the tune "Jingle Bell Rock". Iceberg was lovingly stuffed at Build-A-Bear workshop by Mommy & Daddy for Madi as a Christmas present. On Christmas morning, Madison was more interested in playing with Iceberg's Igloo than she was her new friend. All in due time. She wasn't even a year old yet. Rewind if you will back to January 9, 2008. This is Madi's birthday. John was making frequent runs between home and the hospital to tend to our pets. At some point during our hospital stay (5 days!) he ventured into the gift shop. He bought Madi her first penguin. This is where it started. The penguin was not just a stuffed animal. Nope. He was a Star Registry animal. Madi has her very own star named after her out in the cosmos.

So with that a star, err, I mean a penguin was born. Moving right along... we kept with the penguin theme for Halloween. It just seemed so cute and all since her first Daddy purchase was the stuffed penguin, why not dress her up as a penguin too! As luck would have it, Gymboree had a penguin costume for 2008 and I caught it on clearance. Even better.

Now we're up to Christmas and you've already met Iceberg. The entire purpose of this post was centered around the pajama's. A friend and fellow blogger from high school has a daughter who is 8 months older than Madison. When catching up on some reading, I saw a post of her daughter in these pajama's. Since that post was at Christmas and her daughter is now 2, I thought, Hey! Wonder if she still has those and would she be willing to sell them to me? I forwarded her a copy of the picture from her blog and as luck would have it, she still had them. Before I could offer to pony up some dough, she was asking for my mailing address and was ready to ship them out. As you can see, they fit wonderfully and Iceberg thinks they're nifty too.

Thanks again Kristin & daughter... (didn't get permission to use baby's name so I'm not gonna post it here!)

Week 3...

was a flop. When you don't put much into something, you can't expect a lot back in return. Well, I guess you could, but then you're just being delusional. This past week was rough. The first 2 weeks, the twins were at their dads so getting in my workouts and fixing dinner quick wasn't a problem. This was the first week of them being home. Friday, Shelby had her award banquet at school. Saturday I did manage to work out for an hour, though very unenthusiastic about it. Saturday afternoon was spent at the dance studio for pictures. 3 dances = 3 costumes + 3 individual pictures + 3 group pictures + 1 mommy in her costume & picture with daughter = long afternoon. Not to mention the dance bag fiasco. Sunday was much more laid back. Then the work/school week started and here we go! Picking up 3 kids from school (at different locations) going home trying to start supper right away was not happening. The twins wanted to play outside and with that Madi has to go too. I can't blame them! We had some beautiful days. So with no one to watch the baby outside, I go. Supper is not getting done this way. John gets home and takes over baby, but at that time it is already 6. No way am I getting out of the house at 6:30 when I haven't done anything regarding feeding my family. Tuesday is dance night for Shelby and I. So at least with that I get some cardio. Wednesday, just flat exhausted. Thursday morning is the weigh in. So I have learned a thing or two this past week in regards to making me time and just getting it done. Excuses are what got me here in the first place. I have this guilt of being away from my family and feeling selfish. I know deep down that I am improving my health which hopefully increases my chances of being around for my kids for a long time. Full-time job and Full-Time Mom need to find a balance. 1.4 lbs for the week was my number. Weight loss over 3 weeks... 9 lbs. I'm okay with this. It is a journey, not a race. My belt went down to the next notch and I tried on a pair of pants I haven't worn in 6 years. They fit. Week 4 will be better with regard to effort.