Moments of the Week

The move is quickly approaching...two weeks to be exact. We've wrapped up school, swim lessons and now gymnastics. I must say winding up the weekly commitments, although sad in many ways, is a bit of a relief. I feel like we will be able to have some fun with our friends and family before we go. We've had so many moments over these last couple of weeks that I captured on camera and some that I didn't.

First, my youngest sister, Meredith, graduated from high school. As we walked up to the same auditorium I graduated in, um 14 years ago, I couldn't believe it. FOURTEEN years ago I was headed to college and Meredith was starting kindergarten. Mary Ella is starting kindergarten. I also remember thinking, "I'll be 32 when Meredith graduates. Wow, that's old!" For the record...32 is NOT old (tell that to my stiff back in the morning). Anyways, what an amazing journey it has been for this young woman. We are so proud of her and love her kind spirit. My prayer for her is that as she embarks on college that she would remain true to her faith and to make her college experience her own....not what anyone tells her it should be. That is, after all, what is so wonderful about college life. This is YOUR time to shine!

I think I've passed on my love for chocolate to our two oldest girls. This is a pic of them enjoying their dessert after bath.

The residual mess....the chocolatey grins were worth it.

Addy "the wild card" Burlison unloaded all the books and climbed in. Guess who picked all these up?????

Mary Ella thought it looked like fun

This is Mary Ella's coach, Coach Calvin. He was so sweet with her and did such a great job at teaching her skills as well as motivating the other 3-5 kiddos in the class. At times it seemed like he was trying to herd kittens, but somehow made it look easy.

Too cute. I just had to include it. We just love kissing on that dimple in her left cheek and....

guess who has started sucking her thumb??? I was a little sad about not seeing Mary Ella with her thumb anymore. I guess this was God's answer.

Our little Graduate

On May 6th we attended Mary Ella's preschool graduation. They had a transportation themed show. Notice Mary Ella's shirt....it had been out to show all of her artwork; however, when she walked in, she had attempted to tuck it in. She definitely has her own sense of style. Now, I had prepared myself to be an emotional wreck the entire program....not so. There we were in the pew, Scott, Addy, Molly and myself. Addy was dressed in a cute, little, smocked dress and Molly in the same. Addy was engrossed in the program for, oh about 5 minutes before we started to "lose her". Scott sat on one side, I on the other with my foot blocking the pew exit. Molly got a little fussy in her seat, so I took her out. At that point, she started chewing on my chin like it had honey all over it while grabbing my hair and I looked over to see Addy's, cute little dress over her head just giggling away. Oh wait, her sandals had been taken off too (the kid will NOT leave her shoes or clothes on!)....Meanwhile, I was attempting to get as many snap shots as possible of our little graduate. After a few pics, I look over and Addy has her bare toes in Molly's mouth...Molly just gnawing away. Oh yes, we are that family. Nothing like a little comic relief to keep the mascara on, ya know???

Back to Mary Ella....she was precious and proud to be showing us all her moves. We are going to miss this place so much. In fact, I had to put her in bed tonight as tears streamed down her face saying, "I'm going to miss my real teachers." Heartbreaking. No matter how much we tell her God is preparing special new teachers and friends to add to her special old ones, her little spirit is torn. Mine is too. All the people there have loved on our girls when they were out of our hands. What a blessing they have been to our family! We are so glad they were both part of such a worthy and wonderful program.

Ten Years Ago

Ten years ago.....

1. I didn't know there were bills for water and garbage
2. We paid $140/month for a PPO
3. I didn't know what it meant to "bargain shop"
4. I had never paid a dime for my own gas or car insurance
5. I couldn't cook anything but noodles, rice, and desserts
6. I was a horrible housekeeper
7. We lived on a budget of $1500/month
8. I "decorated" our condo like a college dorm room
9. I didn't appreciate a well-organized grocery store with good customer service
10. I didn't know what "give and take" really meant

Yes, Scott and I just celebrated our 10th anniversary on May 16th. It has really been 10 years (sorry, I just had to say it again, because it is hard for me to believe). We celebrated by taking our girls to Chili's, yes, Chili's, but I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. We shared this milestone witnessing our girls diving into corn dogs and french fries...loving every minute of it. I sat there and thought, who woulda ever thought this is where we'd be? We are so blessed and humbled by the gifts and moments we've been given during our last 14 years together.

I am so proud to call him my husband, the father of our three girls and most of all my best friend. So here's to 10 more years. I believe at that point our oldest will be 14 (almost 15)....I think I'll stay in denial about that a while longer. After all, I've got 10 years to get used to that idea.

Mother's Day

A few years ago I was at church for, I believe it was my second Mother's Day. I was so excited. I think I had actually put myself on a pedestal thinking..."that's right, I'm a mom...". Many of the mom's in there had fresh flowers adorning their dresses and husbands who had dutifully taken on much of the childcare for that morning. However, our sweet pastor, who was raised by a single mother didn't preach that day about appreciating all the mother's out there..at least not those of us who had been blessed with an extra set of hands that morning. Instead he turned our focus onto those mother's out there who go it alone everyday and the women who so desperately want to be mothers, but for some reason or another are not. Afterall, Mother's Day for those women might be a painful day. It was powerful stuff. Ever since that sermon, on mother's day I make sure to say a prayer and think about those women. So may all the women reading this feel God's grace and peace this day and my love goes to you all.

Home Sweet Home

Scott came home and he was greeted with squeals of delight...daddy's girls. Molly Kate even let out a squeal or two. Yes, the month went by fast, but I think we felt every bit of it. Yes, things definitely run smoother when Scott is around. He's much better at the wrestling game than I am. However, I did have fun teaching them how to play dodge ball. Addy only wanted me to tag her with her blue ball though. They'd hand me the ball, giggle and start running in circles. It was so much fun. Anything below the shoulders was fair game. You just can't beat an old-fashioned game of dodge ball, can you?

We enjoyed him for a couple of days then Scott and I headed out to close on our house in Tyler. We are now the proud owners of a new home....well, I guess that makes it two homes since we haven't sold ours yet (please pray for that one!). My mother took care of the kiddos (thanks mom) which made the trip a lot faster and, wow, very efficient. The drive gave Scott and I time to reflect on our last ten years. We'll be celebrating our 10th anniversary on May 16th! It is hard to believe we met almost 14 years ago and here we are...finally about to settle somewhere with all the school and training (almost) behind us. So bittersweet. We've loved our time down here....met wonderful friends....grown from a family of three to five....many wonderful and sometimes exhausting times. Anyways, I put a link to the right for anyone who wants to see our new home. The roses our from the rose bushes in the back yard...so much fun! We'll be looking forward to lots of visitors.

On our way back we got a phone call from our realtor here asking if it was to late of notice to do an open house Saturday (today)....um, yeah! However, I held back and said....we can make it work. So we got the house in perfect condition...had the open house and.....NO ONE even came. Bummer. Well, I know the perfect family is out there somewhere and I'm sure we'll sell it. Evidently a lot of people like to move in the summer. We'll see about that and hope that is the case.