Goodbye Preschool

Oh boy, today was the last day of preschool. Really...THE LAST DAY OF PRESCHOOL. Delaney is my baby so I will not have another little one in the glorious half days of playing games and making friends while learning some ABC's. After summer vacation all my peeps will be in school all day. I will have the house to myself. There will be no one home with me in the morning to help bake cookies, I won't hear the word "Mommy" called out countless times, no interrupted phone calls, no helper to fill the shopping cart with unneeded grocery treats, no one to give me spontaneous hugs and kisses.

Sigh...I'm not quite sure how I feel about all that.

When I asked Delaney how she felt about her last day of school she seemed a bit unclear herself ....."I'm kind of sad because I don't get to hang around with my friends anymore. But I'm happy because now I get to be with you more Mommy."

Well, that's just what I needed to clear up my emotions...would someone please pass the tissue.

Hunny-Do

Ahhhh...a holiday weekend. This is one of the few Memorial days where Ricky didn't have to go into work. I goes without saying that I had big plans for him to get some major projects done around the house.

At the same time that he focused on accomplishing his to-do list, he helped with the kids, tended to the dogs, and was attentive to his wife, never complaining about all the interruptions he had to deal with....He is such a good guy.


And I have to say the man knows how to enjoy himself while conquering his tasks.

It made me smile when I walked into the garage to find this.... should we say "poor mans bowl-cooler". Funny to me not only because it is a half full can of beer in a bowl of ice, but really funny because the garage is so cluttered that he had no where to set it except on the open box of sidewalk chalk.

While stumbling upon Ricky's invention I came to the conclusion that with the looks of our disheveled garage his work has just begun, his to-do list is not much shorter, his wife truly loves him, and there will be many more days with beers plopped in that bowl-cooler of his.

Can't wait for those days with him at home.

My Mom

My mom... Here is why we love her as our mom and grandma....

As Our "Regular" Grandma....

she makes good food
she spoils us
she is good at math
she really loves us
she plays music and I get to dance
she has a strong voice
she combs my hair and makes me pretty
she lets me label her letters
she knows a lot of interesting people
she makes vanilla shakes with me
she cares for us
she takes me shopping
she really loves us

As Our Mom...

she is always willing to lend advice
she is intelligent but still so personable
she helps us raise our children
she sends over food and goodies
she gives unconditionally
she reaches out to the needy
she makes us feel safe
she forgives me when I forget her birthday.

There is so much more we could say...But for now here is a big kiss from all of us....Happy Birthday Mom!

Listen..."Tweet" or "Cukoo"

Can you hear me tweet. Or am I saying Cuckoo?

I think the later is more accurate. But tweeting I am doing thanks to a new endeavor. I started (a week late by the way) a class from Big Picture Scapbooking. It's by Cathy Zielske called Everyone Can Write a Little. The gist is to use Twitter multiple times during my ordinary day to record small snippets of my life. Then I will gather pics and use Photoshop Elements to turn those blips of life into a digital mini album. Boy am I stepping outside my paper trimming, nondigital box.

Just one day into catching up on my homework and I found my first frustration when I had to pick a user name for my Twitter page. All the usuals were taken so I came up with "cuckoo" using zero instead of o to make it work....cUCkOo. I like it...Do you get the reference? Cuckoo is like a tweet but a little crazy. Anyway it works for me.

So I've tweeted a few times today and if you have nothing better to do you can follow it on the side bar of my blog. Yawn!

By the way if there are any Twitterers (how many different form of the word twitter can I use?) out there already, let me know so I can follow you. Eventhough the whole following thing kind of gives me the hee-be-gee-bees... it sounds like a stalker you know. But I'll stalk you if you are on Twitter just for entertainment purposes.

Tweet, tweet for now...

Time to change

The annual school spring concert. I contemplated dropping the boys off to do their part and then going grocery shopping to avoid the event. Yes...that is how much I like it...less than grocery shopping.

But tonight proved to be entertaining. In fact it was the first time since preschool that I wished I had brought a video camera.

Connor had given me a heads up that his class sounded "terrible". I don't know about terrible, but the contrast between the enthusiastic, on pitch song from the girls, in comparison to the monotone, tone deaf sound of the hormonal boys just cracked me up.

Peter Brady look out here come the St Matthias seventh grade boys.

Since I didn't take video tonight we will have to get our chuckles from the Brady Bunch. I wish I could fully offer the concert's experience and display of talent on the blog. It was so fun that I have had a change of heart. Next year I possibly won't dread that Tuesday night in May and be tempted to go grocery shopping. I think once again I could enjoy myself if next year the melodies include some hormonal voices and teenage attitude. That would definitely be more entertaining than going out to buy a gallon of milk.

68 Years Young Today

The kids and I made this about a year ago. We sure do like you!

Happy Birthday Dad!

No Go...

Oh well, I didn't make the team.... no hard feelings....still love their products. I guess I'll just have to wait like everyone else to see what MLS comes up with for summer CHA and then fork over the $ to have it.

Stiff Competition

400 submissions for the MLS design team spots.....I would be SHOCKED if I made it. There is A LOT of talent out there, and A LOT of gals with A LOT of design team experience and followers. Very intimidating.

Thanks for the encouragement form my scrappy girlfriends. Be back tomorrow with the news or should I say no news. Yikes!

Fingers Crossed

So I'm going for it. Today I sent in my submission for the My Little Shoe Box design team call. It sounds like she has a lot of entries already sent in. Not a big surprise, MLS has fantastic products and designs!

Fingers crossed....They are announcing the three new design team members on Sunday!

Why?

Why did God make the beagle so darn cute?

Because when the beagle digs up your yard you can't help but focus on that cute little face instead of the muddy grass slippers on her paws.

Naughty beagle!

Open the Shade

This morning the alarm goes off at 6:30 and I wake up to Ricky telling me that we forgot to pull the van around to the alley last night. I have to say our tax dollars are well spent paying the West Allis police to drive up and down the city streets in the wee hours of the night and giving people parking tickets. And now the city of West Allis is $20 richer because we left out van on the street. So that was how I started my day... Ugh!

With kids to get ready for school, I reluctantly rolled out of bed, went to the window, and opened my shade. I was greeted with blue sky, and the warm sun. Looking out, I saw that my little part of the world had been transformed. After the thunderstorm during the night plants and leaves that were not there on Wednesday, were bursting and blooming throughout the yard.

And this little geranium that only bloomed one flower since I planted it last year showed countless buds of orange flowers. That made me happy... Happy to open my shade, forget the little mishaps that really do not matter, and see my blessings.

Embrace the Blur

Photo challenges...my biggest is indoor photos in poor light. I hate to use the flash (and not because I dropped my camera and now have a piece of tape holding it in place). Without the flash the image has a look that needs some serious editing afterwards. Yuck!

Shutter Sisters had a great post last week about embracing the blur. Keeping the shutter speed slow and letting life's moments be captured as they are....a blur.

What better place and time to embrace the blur than at a preschool Mother's Day party?

So I tried...

And tried again....

But I'm not quite embracing it. I still like the photos that don't have the blur and that need to spend some time embracing Photoshop.

I guess I'll have to keep practicing my blur technique. I know my family will give me plenty of opportunities.

Perspective

Perspective....the word clunked me on the head a number of times last week. Last Tuesday I attended a presentation called "The Common Ground of Grief". This story was shared during the evening...

A woman was grieving the loss of her husband. He had been diagnosed with cancer months earlier. Due to his disease she had a chair custom made to physically support and comfort him during his illness. When the chair arrived she positioned it so he was by a window able to enjoy the outside as much as he could, and still be in her site. He sat in the chair daily, thankful for its ability to make things a little more bearable.

Now two months later, the chair sat empty. As the woman was mourning the loss of her husband to a friend, she complained and agonized over the fact that he only used the chair for two months. She seemed to be stuck on the fact that he did not have the chance to use it longer as she had wished.

After she explained her dismay a few times over her friend replied "I understand you are disappointed that he only used the chair for a couple of months, but I see it differently....I see that the chair you gave him, the one that supported him and gave him comfort, the one you gave him to share your love and compassion for him... he had that chair, that gift, not just for two months, but he for the rest of his life."



Perspective....The way we look at things can make such a difference.

Soggy Saturdays

Kevin started his spring soccer league in mid April but has yet to play a game. So far, every Saturday it has either been raining, or the field appears to be a big puddle of muck. I guess this Saturday the league decided they couldn't postpone the season any longer. So for Kevin and his team it was game on....or should I say mud on!?


I wasn't able to make it to the game so Connor had control of the camera. He took somewhere up around 300 shots during the game. My shutter bug captured some fantastic images of this day when his 5th grade brother was up against the ginormous 8th graders on the soccer field. I hear Kevin did a great job outsmarting the competition and holding his own.

Good Mornings

Most weekdays our morning starts at 7:30am with my dad bursting through our front door as happy as can be singing the Kellogg's song "Good morning, good morning, the best to you this morning...." (I'm not kidding) He has arrived in this way for the past four or more years to pick up my kids to take them to school.

All of us love the visit from Grandpa every morning. In fact last month when he and my mom took a short road trip, his absence was greatly noticed in the morning. Connor mentioned a few times how much he missed Grandpa, and that he never went more than just a couple days without seeing him. Let me remind you that is a 13 year old talking.

I have to say I missed him too, and missed being able to stay in my jammies. That's right, Delaney and I take advantage of his generosity by staying in our pjs, sometimes late into the morning. On some mornings Delaney doesn't even wake up in time to say good bye to her siblings. This week she was waking every morning right at the time everyone was walking out the door. One morning she was paniced that she would miss giving Grandpa his morning hug since he was already outside and at the car.

So still have asleep, she flew past me, out the door, down the sidewalk, and into her Grandpa's welcoming arms.

It was an wonderful sight to behold, and one of many good mornings!

Cover Girls

The new issue of the Catholic Herald Parenting came out today, and look who is on the cover! Delaney is following in her sisters footsteps. The way their cute little faces made the cover was though a photo contest the Catholic Herald runs every year. It's fun to see the photos blown up into the large format for the cover.

Here is a peek at the originals...

Sunday Morning Prayer

Every Sunday we prepare for morning mass. Picture for a moment a peaceful gathering of our family seated around the table ready to share a breakfast of pancakes and bacon while looking over the readings for that day.

OK, now erase that picture and view reality.... our family in a hectic mess, kids grabbing sugar sweetened cereal, siblings teasing, dishes on the sink, the teenager over primping, shoes gone missing, mom combing hair, Dad writing checks, warnings about hurrying, behaving and staying clean, and at the end of it all...arriving late to church.

No matter how hard Ricky and I try to make Sunday morning different, this is our fate.

So as I sat at church today, still frazzled from the morning ritual, I took a moment to reflect during the quiet moments mass allows. Unsurprisingly my prayers, like those every Sunday, seemed to center around patience and guidance. And then a prayer of thankfulness for those 4 gifts God has given me that cause the need for me to pray for the patience and the guidance.

I guess Sunday morning, with all of it's chaos, is a necessary reminder to help me see my blessings.

Flashback Friday

I am playing along again with my friend Beth and her fun idea of Flashback Friday for scrapbookers. Last week I posted my 8th grade graduation book. This week I am moving onto high school, and a scrapbook I made for a religion class. The assignment was to put together a project to reflect on who I was as I approached graduation. The book is 20 pages long. I guess I had to fill up the whole burlap covered photo book since it did not have removable pages. I don't want to bore you with the whole thing so are some bits and pieces...

Yes that is colored consturction paper cut into...shall we say, creative shapes?

My journaling pen? A blue ballpoint for sure.

And some things never change. I used the {...} thing in my journaling back then too. Still today when I write or type I often use {....} inbetween thoughts.

I guess I liked single photo layouts even back then.

I actually took that picture on my high school trip to Hawaii (who needs and SLR camera?)

And how thought provoking for me to end with a poem... got out the typewriter for that; maybe that's what got me the grade A++.