Quote of the Day

Emmaline: "When I grow up, I'm going to name my three girls Rosy, Posy, and Tigerlily."

Savannah: "You can't name them that. Kids will always tease them about the Black Plague."

Emmaline: "Hopefully by the time I grow up, people won't believe all that stuff anymore."

The Little Things

It's amazing how little things can make you feel so great. The other night, at dinner, Oliver looks over at me and says, "Delicious, Mama" and gives me the thumbs up. After all the scrambling of the day, it felt like all the weight on my shoulders just disappeared and I realized it's all worth it. This is a picture of him "doing his homework" (tracing the circles from the cooler divider onto his favorite train book).

The Miracle Dress

Remember how when you would go shopping with Mama, she would always say, “Don’t buy that. You could make that.” Maybe she didn’t tell everyone that, but she always said that to me. In fact, she had me buy my first sewing machine when I was eight (from Martha) and I was pretty convinced, even then, that I could make anything.

Well, Savannah had another dance performance today. They were doing a Puerto Rican Formal Dance and she wanted a “prom dress” to wear. Since I didn’t want to spend much money on that type of thing, and I was sure I could make it, I decided to go to D.I. and buy an old dress and cut it down to her size. Of course the only dress available in the color requested by her teacher was a sleeveless, women’s size 14.

It was a disaster from the start. Somehow, I measured wrong and cut off way too much in the very beginning. A friend of Savannah’s was over and she said, “I’m pretty sure it would take a miracle to fix that.” My thoughts exactly.

I only wanted to spend a couple of hours on this project, so I just kept cutting, and trying it on her, pinning it up and cutting again. I finally got it to a point that I thought was “wearable” although I was extremely disappointed with the results. I decided my last hope was to spray it with water, hoping some of the seams would lay a little flatter. And what do you know… we woke up this morning and put it on and it was a miracle!

Don't you love the pose. She was pretty impatient because she didn't want to be late (I think she is turning into a teenager already)! But the dress actually looked pretty good. The performance was so great. She really felt like a star. Wish I could post the video. I just don’t know how to do that yet.

Reminiscing

I got these pictures in the mail today from my cousin Trisha. They were taken the summer of 1976. Aren't they hilarious? Between those and the pouring down rain, I'm been doing a lot of reminiscing. I remember when it rained really hard, sometimes Mama would open the front door. I loved the way that made our whole house smell. I try to do that here, always forgetting that when it rains here it is still cold! I also love it that when I open the door to the rain, my kids always say, "You open the door because it reminds you of Ganmama," because I told them that once. I also remember that Neal and I loved to play in the big "pond" that formed in our front yard from the circular drive that was covered in grass. When we were little, it was the closest we had to a pool.

Circle of Blogs

I'm finally getting around to answering Leslie's question: (being a Cookie Mom is a lot of work!)

Who was the first person you knew (personally) with a blog?
&/or
Whose blog inspired you to start your own?

And the answer is, of course, Leslie! I had read some other people's blogs, but they were usually just essays or political dialogs that sometimes interested me. I never really followed a specific blog. When I read Leslie's, I really felt like I got to know her family better. In a blog, you hear the really cute daily things that happen that otherwise would be forgotten. It made me feel a little like I wasn't missing all the precious things my nieces and nephews are doing. It also reminded me of all the hilarious things my kids do that I won't remember in a couple of years unless I write them down!