My Girls

My girls are growing up.  Yes....too fast.

I have decided that it doesn't help my littles to keep their "little girl" when there are teenagers around.

They see the things their big sisters are doing and wearing and want to be like them.

I get it.

I used to do the same to Karen when we were growing up.  Drove her crazy!

I am not sure if Kandi felt the same way about me, since there were almost 12 years between us.  I was probably basically a nerdy grown whose fashion choices were to be avoided at all costs!

They play dress up and put together outfits for each other.  I love that idea, in theory.

But, then my 5 year old walks out of her room, puts her hand on her hip and asked for her picture to be taken.

Yikes!  Where is my baby?????

Or, they surprise me by straightening S-girls beautiful wavy hair....

Then, I find that L-girl is taking duck faced selfies on my camera - since none of us have smart phones that can do it!

And then....A-girl.  A-girl went from this......

To this.....

It looks really pretty, but it seems like such a grown up thing to do.  Her coloring definitely supports being a red head (I have 2 red headed siblings, a few red headed neices and nephews....and according to the anesthesiologist at my C-section with S-girl, I AM also a red head!)

My babies!  Where have my babies gone????

A-girl's Birthday

A-girl is 14!  Gasp.  Choke.

Our birthday traditions around here have had to morph and change with the size of our family.  For birthdays, the whole family used to go out to the restaurant of the birthday girl/boy's choice.  But, as our family grew, that option became much more unaffordable.  So, now, the kids pick just Rainman or I to go out for a special meal.  I have to be honest here, Rainman is usually the parent chosen for these excursions (probably because he gets to spend a lot less time with the kids than I do).  This year, I was chosen for all the April birthdays (I think they felt sorry for me!)

On our way to the best burger place in town!  Don't you love A-girl's cat eye make-up thingie she has going on?

Then, it was home for presents.  A-man, as usual, gave a thoughtful gift of One Direction trading cards.

S-girl took a page from V-girl's book and "shopped on her floor", plus she made her a little yarn popsicle stick butterfly.

D-man strayed from his usual "coupon" for time spent with him and actually spent some $$$$$$ on new ear buds for her.

L-girl and A-girl got a few combined/shared birthday gifts this year.   Their first one was tickets for the 3 of us to go see Legally Blonde:  The Musical at our local community theater.

Have you tried this frosting yet?  We tried it for the first time with A-girl's cake.  You get this plain container for frosting and then......

.....add your flavor mix.  A-girl picked caramel.  It was honestly super yummy.  It didn't even taste very artifical....even though it obviously is.

She chose chocolate cake with caramel frosting.  She likes me to surprise her with decorations.  She still loves Peeps, so, as you can see, I went really fancy with my decorations.

Happy birthday by beautiful young lady.

Okay....Maybe I Am Crystal Gayle....

......and, I am okay with that!


A while back, I compared myself to Crystal Gayle and Caroline Ingalls.


I told you about the love/hate relationship I have with my hair.

I showed you pictures of my hair with rag curls (still love that).

But, A-girl, recently started straightening my hair for me.  It takes a while, so we put in a movie and she sits behind me and works on my hair until it is done.

I love it.

I feel young.

I feel sexy.

To the world, I am sure I look like the typical homeschooling mother who doesn't believe in cutting her hair....but that isn't it.....I really, really like it....for now.

So, I am going to keep my long hair for a while.  Maybe until all my hair straighteners/rag rollers, also known as, my daughters, are grown and gone.  There is no way I can keep this up on my own!

My Christmas Present (the one that made me scream)

I just realized that I never let you guys in on the Christmas gift that made me scream.

It was this.

I have wanted one for probably 20 years or so.  It was just one of those things that I just figured I probably wouldn't ever actually get.....like a red Jeep, or real diamond stud earrings, or cellulite free thighs. 

I never seemed to be able to justify the expense...even though I bake quite a bit.  I mean, even on sale....they are about $200.  There are a lot of other things that $200 can be used for in this household!  Although, everytime Pioneer Woman had a giveaway ....I was right there giving it a shot!

Apparently this dream of mine escaped my husband.....completely.

But, my girls, on the other hand.....picked up on it.....

And then, did something about it.  They got their big brother involved.  They got Rainman involved.

They searched Craigslist....because the their parents are doing the Dave Ramsey thing....it is rubbing off on them....so they needed to find a cheaper way.

Lo and behold.....they found a used one in our town.  Turns out the lady is a professional baker and had her big/professional mixer break down and had sent it to the shop (who knew there was "a shop" for mixers???) to be fixed.  In the meantime, she decided to go ahead and buy herself a regular KitchenAid mixer to get her by.

When she got her "real" mixer back, she put this one on Craigslist.  My kids spotted it....arranged a time for Rainman to go pick it up.....and the part that really gets me.....they used their own money to get it for me.

Rainman had to contribute $20 to the mixer which cost $125.  Did you get that?

My wonderful, adorable, hardworking, sweet children used $105 of their own money to get me a present that I have wanted since waaaaaay before they were born!

They video taped me opening the gift....which I will NOT be sharing with you....I am wearing my  ratty old robe and there is waaaaay too much leg showing for public consumption.

But, I will give you a brief description:

D-man went out to the garage to get my surprise gift and put it on the kitchen table.  I walked over to the table in my ratty bathrobe and nighty (does anybody call them that anymore?).  I shifted the plain, unwrapped, cardboard box on the table....said, "Wow.....this is heavy." 

I opened the lid.....

Screamed in a high pitch voice (that didn't sound like me at all), "Noooooo waaaaaaay!  You guys!"  then I promptly burst into tears. 

Like sobbing tears. 

I went into the ugly cry, as Oprah would say. 

All of which is on video tape. 

All of which my children have watched over and over and over again....laughing their heads off. 

V-girl even did an impersonation of me for a few weeks afterwards.  Not funny.

Okay, it is a little funny....she is pretty cute when she does a high, squeaky voiced "Noooo waaay!"

The funniest part to me, is in the video, as I stand there sobbing, D-man casually walks by and says, in his low pitched teenage/man voice, "Yeah, I figured that would happen."

I really am not a highly excitable person.  I am pretty low key about most things.  I takes quite a bit to get me mad....and I don't get overly happy or excited either.  I am just kind of in the middle of the road.  So, this reaction took me totally by surprise.

I really, really wanted a KitchenAid mixer.  Now I have a beautiful white one.  I cannot believe how quickly I can whip up a batch of cookies or frosting now.

I also usually have running commentary, to myself, whenever I am making something.

Things like:

"See....I am now walking away while my ingredients cream together."

"Now, I am walking to the fridge to get eggs, while it is working."

"Look at how easy it is to add my dry ingredients a little at a time."

I love my new (to me) KitchenAid mixer. 

It makes me happy.

My kids knowing what would make me happy and then making it happen REALLY makes me happy!

Rainman was totally clueless and could not believe the "fuss" that I made over it.  He kept saying stuff in a totally befuddled way.  Things like:

"Hmmm....I didn't know you wanted one of these."

"Well, the kids told me you would like it.....but I didn't think you would like it this much."

"You weren't this excited when I asked you to marry me."

Stuff like that.

Oh, well.

They Finally Won One!

My 2 oldest girls play softball - last year was their first year playing.  Last year, mom did not know that they could, if I wanted them to, play on the same team.  As a result, last year, mom nearly went crazy.  I was driving D-Man to baseball, the A-Girl and L-Girl to separate games and practices all while Rainman was either working on playing on the church softball team.

Needless to say, I was very happy when someone told us that the title 10U, for example, means that the players can be 10 years old and UNDER!!!

Both girls seems to have inherited their natural athletic abilities from their dad, so L-Girl is more than keeping up with the team even though she is one of the youngest on the team.

L-Girl joined what was A-Girl's team last year.  The Warriors went all of last season without winning even one game.  It was a frustrating, sad season.

Enter this year, win a little more experience under their belts and a few new faces....

They won!  A-Girl pitched the whole game and got the game ball from her coach.

We surprised them on the way home with a victory stop at....

Where they got something called Pop Rock Explosion.....

It matched their uniforms!  It was cotton candy flavored ice cream with pop rocks in it that exploded in your mouth!  Cool, huh?  Sorry about the blurry shot - I must have been too excited about my White Turtle Waffle Cone that was ready!!!

Ah, a winning season....it feels good....for  me, I mean....it was hard coming up with all those encouraging, uplifting, peptalks last year!  I don't know if I have any good Mom speeches left in me!