Daisys love Disney

All the Daisy's got together and headed downtown to watch Disney on Ice. My girls were thrilled and couldn't wait to be there. When the ticket request went out I just assumed it was for families so we ordered 4, enough for the whole fam. Most of the girls just went with their mom. So Chris definately wins the trooper award because I'm sure Disney Princesses aren't his thing. On the way in he was apologizing to Mason and assured him that someday his sis's would come to some manly event with him. But just look how in love with the show Mason was!!!

He payed more attention then the girls. He was in the zone all night long. Everyone was staring at him and laughing at just how much he loved it. I'm not all that proud because I know its directly related to his T.V. addiction.
All of the adults sat in the back row while the girls sat alone in the row in front. Rozzie was the only future daisy there but sat with the big kids and did good even though she was a head shorter. I was also proud, or should I be concerned, that my girls never got scared. Nothing disturbs them.
Before we left for downtown their leader calls and informs us that some of the girls are going to dress up in princess costumes instead of wearing the blue smock. The smock would have been way easier but I wasn't going to make Charlotte wear it while all the others are dressed up. So it was back in the ole Snow White costume once more. Poor kid, 2 Halloweens and 2 Disney of Ice's later, I make her wear it all the time because it's the only nice one we've got. It still doesn't even fit Rozzie but after she wears it a few dozen times that dress is going to be money well spent I tell you. Am I the only mom in America that recycles costume on Halloween because I'm to cheap and we moved so no one knew we did it last year?

Farwell to Running

I think in a previous blog I mentioned how I can no longer stand running. I had some harsh words that this old hobby of mine didn't deserve. To use a softer tone after I've had time to cool down, I'll run leisurly, no super long distances. I was fresh off of finishing a HORRIBLE race. You can't tell just how miserable my body felt by the pics but here is the slideshow of my happy smiling facade. The pluses to the race were being with Houston friends, talking and catching up on old times. However I was so sick and couldn't admit it to anyone because of my pride. The next three weeks I was still so stinkin sick and I thought it was all because of the race and somehow my insides got messed up. Looking back, I was sick running the race and thats why it was painful even getting to mile #1. The lady who collapsed at the end that Chris had to help administer CPR on by pumping her chest was also no sweet finish. (In one of my pics you can see the ambulance in the background!)
My glory begin a few years back when out of nowhere I decided to run a marathon as a new years resolution. I dragged my good friend Christy into it with me because I knew she wouldn't back out and I couldn't do it alone. (Chris also did it but we couldn't train together because we had to switch of babysitting kiddos). It was the best. Every new mile was such a victory! I remember being so excited after running three miles, five miles, etc. I had never even been on a treadmill before and thought it was crazy the way my body felt after getting off. Christy got sick, hurt her knee, had family drama and still came through like no one else would have done. We had the best longest talks for three hours every Saturday morning. Race day was the best, the trip to Vegas, getting bumped to first class, the free meal voucher, riding on the golf cart to get to our gate, pre-race dinner all of it. The race was so easy, it was a breeze, total enjoyment, no pain, lots of fans, beautiful scenary and plenty of tears from me at the end of my spiritual, emotional and physical victory.

Anyway, this blog was not supposesd to be dramatic. I'm still going to run three miles or so but no time consuming long distances. Oh theres so many thoughts running through my head in a random way so here they are in outline form.
Running is only fun if you have someone to go with , I don't
I don't like going to the gym alone
The locker room at the gym is bothersome to me. I'm scared of the people that have no fear of being naked and I'm scared that someone will see me naked. Why coudln't they pay the extra ten bucks for the lock on the dressing room doors? Why am I the only one that uses the dressing room?
I hate the feeling of being wet and putting clothes on. I feel stinky and sticky the rest of the day.
I love to shower at home and be free to roam around for awhile, which I can't do at the gym because of my fear of being seen naked even with the towel, what if it falls off? I've had that dream before.
I always want to go explore these trails all around my house but I need a bike and bike trailer to do it. I need to trade in my gym fees for a new bike.
I want to have a treadmill to exercize while I watch T.V.
I want to ditch the gym, my lonliness and public nakedness and save for a bike to explore and treadmill to satisfy my T.V. watching in a non guilty kind of way.

Birthday Bash

So the sweet little Lottie is officially six. To celebrate we invited 12 other crazy six year olds over for some fun cookin'. We dressed them all in their personalized aprons (those Avery printable iron-ons are awesome!) and chef hats. They looked so cute. They started at our huge table each with a pile of flour, a pile of dough, some hand sanitizer (a must). Chris was sweet and cut some round dowels and sanded them so each girl had their own rolling pin. It was some good, floury messy fun. They decoratd their own pizza's which looked nasty but we let them eat them anyway.

Next we went into the back yard for some messy egg relay where they had to carry it on the spoon crack it in the bowl carry another egg back to the next person on their team. You could definately pick out the experienced crackers from the not so experienced. Then they had a huge laundry basket full of tupperware and lids that they raced through looking for matches and putting together containers and lids.

After the games and eating the pizza, we rolled out white paper and let them go crazy decorating. They then decorated their own individual sized cakes with piping tubes and had all the soda they could drink. There definately was a sense of relief after it was all said and done. It was all worth it to see just how happy Charlotte was. She was in heaven the whole time, a house full of friends, tonz of cake, presents, etc. Both her teacher and student teacher came to the party. Have I mentioned before how she has the worlds greatest teacher? Charlotte even said the best part was having her teachers come and bringing her two new webkinz.

I just can't believe she's 6!! Where did all of the time go. The feeling is a little bittersweet, the past six years were not the way I always pictured them to be. This parenting business is so much harder then I ever dreamed. There are so many days when the trials are many and the rewards are few. I am so glad I have my Charlotte, I'm sad to know she's six and she's only getting older. Sometimes we sing the part of the song from Cliffords Puppy Days (Mason's a HUGE fan) that goes "love makes little things grow" and I think of my tiny 7.5 lb girl and how big she's got , and I know I haven't done to many things right but that I've always loved her.

Random thoughts & Dr. Suess Parade

I just looked at my blogger account and saw that I have 37 posts in my history. That's 37 more so called journal entries then I've done in the past 10 years in a traditional journal. (I'm exaggerating a little but not much). I've loved having a place to put my funny stories and pictures all together. I love the comments and staying in touch with all of you who are far away.

A friend of mine recently found this blog www.heatherdwhite.typepad.com which she passed along to me. My friend recommended it because of this gals love of vinyl lettering, which I myself really like! At first I read it for the ideas, now I just go look from time to time out of curiousity and amazement. She posts practically every day, there millions of craft ideas, tonz of recipes and very very long entries. She always, in detail, puts down how she makes her projects, where she got the projects, and step by step instructions complete with photos. She is a special kind of public service announcement and whenever I need to feel motivated or like I'm maybe getting to much sleep I just read her blog.

This has led me to the conclusion that there are two type of people in the world, people who motivate (the former) and people like me, who are just there to make others feel better about themselves. I've attached a picture of my very tall pile of socks to illustrate the point. Have you ever let your socks go this long without matching them?

The picture couldn't show all dimensions but believe me, there's a year supply right there. To tell you truth, Chris matched all of these, I think he gave up on the idea that I'd ever get around to it. I try very hard to do the laundry but by the time the clothes are folded and all I have are socks left I throw them in this special drawer where everyone can go look for their own matches.

I'm also showing pictures from Charlotte's cute Dr. Seuss parade this morning at school. She was the pink cat in the hat.

I couldn't talk her into being anything else, the only twist I could put on it was to make her a pink one, since I knew every other kid would also be the "cat". She looked adorable. When they all got together I realized the pink was a pretty lame idea. I should have left it with red and white. I'm sure this was another confirmation to all the parents in the class that I'm a little bit freaky. They probably feel bad for us and want to inform me that there is no pink cat and that they gladly would have lent us some red paper. The truth is it was very intentional. The picture doesn't show the cutest, curliest pink tail, that was the best part. The parade was fun, Mason and Roz loved it. If you ever have your own Dr. Seuss parade here are fun ideas, some from Charlotte's class and some from others. Mr. Brown, front row, far left, the cat with the umbrella, back row middle. There was some kid not even dressed up but he carried a sign with him that said "I've got a wocket in my pocket". It made me laugh, and that parent had it way easier than the rest of us. Don't Charlotte's teachers look the best? I'm really on a campaign for Mrs. Thomas for best kindergarten teacher. Thing 2 is the student teacher whose name happens to be Mrs. Graham.