Here I Am

Hello! Remember me? No...I didn't think so.

Some of you may be asking, "Where in the wide world of sports has she been?" Others may not have even noticed that I've been away. I have been away and I apologize. "Life" has gotten in the way.

I thought that I'd give you the top 10 reasons that I abandoned you, left you out in the cold, turned an uncaring eye from you, those 2 people who actually read this, and left you in the dark.




The Top 10 Reasons I've Been Away


10. Kite Flying


9. Heroes(Thank you David & Rachael)


8. Children's ministry at Church


7. The French Open


6. 3 Baby Showers


5. My Dad's surgery


4. My very good friend has a very sick baby - please pray for Luke


3. Housekeeping


2. Teaching Miss G


and the number one reason I've been absent...


1. My daughter has hijacked my social calendar





I appreciate you, my 2 readers, for hanging in there and believing that I would eventually post again. I'll try to post more often although I will be without my camera for a bit. At the kite flying event mentioned above, the chair on which my camera was sitting blew over and now my camera doesn't work properly. Back to Nikon it goes and hopefully they'll be able to fix it.




We have lots going on this summer...swimming lessons, visiting relatives, family reunion and a trip to Florida. I'll try to update much more often. Miss G does keep things exciting and I know that you'll be waiting with bated breath...or not.




Now I'm going to have an infusion of "Diet Dr. Coke" and tackle the laundry. Anybody want to help? I thought not. "Miss G! It's go time in the laundry room!"

Earth Treasures

The screen door creaks open and I hear the familiar sound of little feet running down the hallway.

"Mommy, I need to wash my hands."

I think this an unusual request because that action isn't something she usually announces, but I decide to wait to see what develops.


Listening carefully, I can hear the water running in the bathroom with some muffled discussion. Since she's an only child, talking to herself isn't that unusual but after the water has been running a mysteriously long time, I begin to speak. Suddenly the water shuts off. Closing my mouth to listen, I hear nothing. All is quiet. I can almost hear her brain grinding trying to decided what to do. And then I hear,

"Mommy, look what I found."

A little panic rises in my stomach when a think about all the things that she could have dragged into the bathroom to wash. Swallowing hard, I ask her to come in and show me.





Oh, thank goodness. It's only an earthworm. A nice, harmless earthworm who has just suffered the ultimate earthworm humiliation of being forced into a bath. Poor worm!

"Oh, yes!
Very nice, Miss G.
Were did you find him?
Oh, yes, that is a good spot.
Thank you for showing him to me.
No, it's okay. I don't need to hold him.
Now, please take him back to his home so he's safe and sound."

After you have imagined the worst, a little earthworm dirt in your bathroom sink seems like a very MINOR inconvenience.

Thomas

We spent a wonderful day with Thomas and our cousins, Aunts & Uncles, and Grandma & Popaw.

The day was full of energy and the kids were plugged in.



Miss G and Cousin S ran at it full force.



Cousin Z took his time. Savoring the better things like a red sucker and corny dogs.



Cousin S did slow down enough that Popaw could show him the trains.

The triangles were a hit.

We actually got to ride Thomas.

Aunt S made yummy cupcakes to celebrate cousin S's 3rd birthday.

We all enjoyed them but Z was the most exuberant.

His joy was expressed in his every feature.

When I look out my window...

this is what I see.

I wish you all could see them in person. They are amazingly vibrant, shifting through the pinks as the wind blows them about.

There is something about azaleas that renews hope in me every time I see them bloom. They don't just show their love halfheartedly. The normally small, somewhat scraggly plant can only display their love in over abundance. What a blessing!

Weeds

Daddy thinks these are weeds. I think they're flowers. I think Daddy can tell they're flowers but for some reason he calls them weeds. Daddy is SO silly.

Welcome spring!

Beautiful!

It has been a long time since I've seen snow covered mountains. I had forgotten how amazingly beautiful they are.



This was Miss G's first experience with skiing. She loved it. Her favorite part was "going fast." She kept telling me, "Go faster, Mommy. Go faster!"




The chairlift was another favorite. She seemed fearless and wanted more asking to go higher up the mountain.

Riding the lift with her was a moment in time that I'll always remember. Her joy was overflowing. Her giggling was contagious as she waved and called down to the people below us. She told me knock-knock jokes that made absolutely no sense and we laughed and hugged and I tried to imprint that memory deep into my mind.



She would tell me she needed to rest which was really a big excuse to gather up snow for a snowball.




The only thing that would have made this trip better was if we could have shared it with Mr. Reserved. Unfortunately, he had to work as this time of the year is a busy one for him. We really missed him.

Children's Day - Tennis Clinic

Every month our church schedules an activity for the young children. This month we organized a tennis clinic for them.




We had great participation and the children loved it. I was suprised by how well they listened to the instruction and how long they stayed with it. We gave them instruction on how to hit a forehand and a backhand and then they played some games. We started at 12:30 and the kids were still hitting tennis balls at 2:30.




The kids loved interacting with some of our "seasoned" tennis players. I think the older ladies loved it too.


We talked about being a good sport and that Jesus said that we should treat others like we want to be treated.






At the end of the day one little boy who doesn't attend our church ran up to me and said, "Can we do this again? I loved it."


It is such a joy to work with children and watch their eagerness glisten in their eyes. They soaked up our every word. How wonderful it was to spread some of God's word into their lives through the physical abilities He has blessed us with. What a blessing it was to us, the instructors, to be encouraged by their pure and open hearts. God truly blessed us with a great day.

Quick-change Artist

Miss G ran up to me today.

"Look, Mommy. I'm the President of the United States."

"Oh, wow. It's nice to meet you Madame President."

She spun in a circle and said,

"No! Wait! Now I'm the President of the World.

No! Wait! Now I'm the President of Outer Space.

No! Wait! NOW I'm the President of Heaven."

I raised my eyebrows and began to object when she said,

"No! Wait! I'm REALLY the President of Mexico."

Since I'm now confused and unsure how Mexico has obtained a higher level of status than heaven, I began to object again when she dropped to the floor and said,

"Now I'm a turtle and I'm scared of people.

I can't open my eyes because I'm so scared.

No! Wait! Now I'm me back to being me...but I'm asleep."

I think she needs to be in theater. Maybe she could do a one person play where she could be the whole cast. Several presidents, a turtle and a sleeping child...WOW...now that could be an interesting storyline. Stay tuned. If she writes the play, I'll let you know.

Refusing to Read

And not for the reason you might be thinking.

Miss G and I have been concentrating on her reading. She usually loves to read her silly sentences but today she told me she was not going to read a couple of my sentences anymore.

A couple of you may know that Miss G is full of drama. So full, in fact, that as we practice her reading flash cards she MUST act out or give an example of each word. This truly defeats the "flash" part of the card because it takes us a long time to get through them. She can read them all. She just has to act them all out. I've tried to keep her on task on many occasions but it's against her nature to mechanically read them.

Today, I wrote the following sentences for her to read:

I will not step on a squid and squish it.

And...

The mud went squish under my feet.

After she read the sentences she announced that she couldn't possibly read them again because they were too gross. And this is from my dirt lover.

I guess they weren't too gross because she re-read them to her Daddy tonight. Being gross and giggling about it must be different with your Daddy. There must be a gross acceptance level that mommies just don't have. It's just another perk of being a daddy.

So, when your children must be themselves and learn to read in their own dramatic way, try to turn it to your advantage instead of forcing them into a traditional school mold. It's taken me awhile to relax to her learning style, but I'm finally learning even if Daddy is the only one who can write gross sentences.

Italian Cream Cake

My favorite cake is Italian Cream Cake. My family LOVES this cake (except for Mr. Reserved and only because it has nuts and coconut). My mom would make us any cake we requested for our birthday and we all asked for this cake. We looked forward to our day just so we could taste this delicious cake.

Last Sunday, I made this cake for one of my dear friend's baby shower. It was so yummy that I thought I should share the recipe.

I'm sorry I forgot to take a picture of it. So instead, you get a picture of the shower flowers.


Mom's Italian Cream Cake

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
5 eggs, separated
2 cups cake flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup angel flake coconut

Cream butter & shortening. Add sugar gradually. Add egg yolks one at a time. Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk. Add vanilla, pecans & coconut. Fold in stiffly beaten egg whites. Bake in 3 greased and floured 8" cake pans at 350 for about 25 minutes. Frost after cake has cooled.

Frosting:

8 oz. pkg. cream cheese (at room temp)
1/2 cup butter (at room temp)
1 lb. box powdered sugar
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Soften cream cheese and butter. Mix cream cheese and butter until well combined. Add powdered sugar and vanilla. Mix in walnuts or sprinkle on top of cake.

This cake is best when made ahead one day and served cold.

On a side note: I make this cake in 9" round pans and it turns out fine. I also usually just spray the pans with Pam baking spray instead of greasing and flouring them. If I'm decorating this cake, I usually double the frosting recipe just so I have enough icing to use to make frills.


Go make this cake! Only your hips will regret it.



P.S. I noticed that I had taken a picture of the "food" table and you can see part of the cake. Sorry it's not a very good picture but you can see the basic cake.

Glasses

Do you have some of these at your home? These are the 3-D glasses that come with your ticket for "My Bloody Valentine, 3D". My crazy husband and his crazy friends went to this movie on their last guys night.



I think the best thing about the movie was that Miss G got to have another accessory for her dress-up box.




And as you can she, they suit her.

Her Mommy picked up a pair of glasses for herself just last Friday. I've bought magnifying glasses before to do some embroidery but it seems lately that I need magnification to read (either that or shorter arms). I'm afraid that my 40's are catching up to me. In an effort to stifle the mini mid-life crisis that reading glasses are causing me, I bought red ones. I guess that's better than buying a red convertible. Although I'll never be as cute as Miss G, I think the red ones suit me too.

Sick

Shel Silverstein

Sick

"I cannot go to school today,"
Said little Peggy Ann McKay.
"I have the measles and the mumps,
A gash, a rash and purple bumps.
My mouth is wet, my throat is dry,
I'm going blind in my right eye.
My tonsils are as big as rocks,
I've counted sixteen chicken pox
And there's one more--that's seventeen,
And don't you think my face looks green?
My leg is cut--my eyes are blue--
It might be instamatic flu.
I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke,
I'm sure that my left leg is broke--
My hip hurts when I move my chin,
My belly button's caving in,
My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained,
My 'pendix pains each time it rains.
My nose is cold, my toes are numb.
I have a sliver in my thumb.
My neck is stiff, my voice is weak,
I hardly whisper when I speak.
My tongue is filling up my mouth,
I think my hair is falling out.
My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight,
My temperature is one-o-eight.
My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear,
There is a hole inside my ear.
I have a hangnail, and my heart is--what?
What's that? What's that you say?
You say today is. . .Saturday?
G'bye, I'm going out to play!"

Today I feel like this poem minus the Saturday part. I've run fever since Sunday night and my head is set to explode any minute.

Last night, as I was trying to sleep in our recliner, this poem popped into my head. My mom read Shel's wonderful, silly poems to us when we were little and although I hadn't thought of this poem in years, last night it came back to me. Maybe in my misery I just missed and wanted my mom OR maybe I actually know that I'm pretty sure that I might have ALL of those symptoms. Have you guessed that I'm not a good patient? I don't do sickness well or with grace even though I try to be good.

We (the household here in Texas) are VERY ready to be well. One or all of us has been sick since the beginning of December. We went through 9 boxes of tissues in two weeks. That's an average of 3 boxes a piece. Note to self: Buy stock in Kleenex. We grateful accept the "Outstanding Nose Blowing Household" award from the Kleenex brand company. It will have a place of honor on our mantel...right beside the big, enormous box of Kleenex.

Thank you for commiserating with me. And if you've made it through this miserable post this far, as a bonus here's a little bit of Shel Silverstein trivia for you.

Did you know that Shel Silverstein wrote the music and lyrics for "A Boy Named Sue" which was performed by Johnny Cash and for which Silverstein won a Grammy in 1970?

Two words...

Australian Open!

Go watch some great tennis.

Go Roger!

PAR-TAY

And now....a post especially for the grandparents.

Miss G had her birthday party today at a bounce house. A good time was had by all. Wish you could have been there.

Birthday Girl

Happy 5th birthday, Miss G.

Thumb Sucking Solution

Here's my girl with her Du-dad and her yellow pillow. The very yellow pillow that we believed contributed to her thumb sucking. She held it next her her nose while she sucked her thumb.

Miss G has always sucked her thumb. She found it a few days after she was born and has been sucking it ever since. By the way, the right thumb is no good. It must be the left.

We tried everything to get her to quit. We took her yellow pillow away. We continually reminded her to stop. We promised treats. We did everything short of putting something nasty tasting on her thumb. Nothing worked.

A friend saw us getting on to her the other day and suggested keeping a band-aid on it. Band-aids don't taste very good. An extra bonus for us is that Miss G HATES to have band-aids pulled off. We started putting band-aids on her thumb 3 days ago and so far so good.

I've watched her lift her thumb to her mouth and once there stop because she doesn't want the band-aid in her mouth. Ta-da!! Success!! Something besides me reminding her not to suck her thumb.

Such a simple solution for such a big problem. Thank you, Jennifer! You may have saved us horrific orthodontist bills!

If you have a thumb sucker, try it. It may work for you too.

Weary

I've been out of touch and I apologize. There is a weariness that has settled over me and I haven't felt like burdening you with this grayness. I always feel a little sadness after the Christmas rush slows down. It's not just that the anticipation and excitement of Christmas is over but now it's the loss of not being able to share that time with my mom. I miss her greatly.

I have also been sharing a troubling and terrible diagnosis of a dear friend's unborn baby. She is now 21 weeks and the doctors believe that the baby will not make it. This our friends' first baby.

I think it was very providental today that I was asked to fill-in and teach a Bible class this morning on Naomi and Ruth. For those of you that don't remember, Naomi suffered great sorrow. Not only did her husband die, but both of her sons did also. She was so grieved that she changed her name. Her daughter-in-law, Ruth, returned to Naomi's homeland with her and there was blessed with a loving marriage and a son. Naomi's joy returned with the birth of her grandson.

Psalm 30:11 says, "You turned my sorrow into dancing." Can God do that? I believe he can. Sometimes His plan unfolds in a matter of days. Sometimes His plan unfolds over the course of years. Sometimes we never do see it clearly. Remain steadfast...remain faithful. He has a plan.

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Jeremiah 29:11

The above verse is my favorite verse in the Bible. It has pulled me through some very difficult times and I hope that it will be a help you as well.