Holidays

Christmas was a good one. The kids got way too many presents from Santa, but what else is new?
The favorites seem to be Anna's new cell phone, Emma's little Tracphone and John M.'s play-dough. He also loves his Elmo, which he insists on calling 'Nemo'.

We still have unopened gifts at home, but we're getting to them one by one. We opened a bottle of bubbles yesterday and I swear, Anna and Emma enjoyed them more than John M. did. Note to self, when in need of a gift, a 99 cent bottle of bubbles is the answer.

We spent Christmas Eve with my mom and my sister and her family, as is the tradition. There are 7 grandkids total, so my mom's living room looked like Toys R Us threw up. Christmas day, we made the rounds to a few different places, including my in-laws' house. I had to get a picture of Anna and Mark's mom, because they're about the same height now. And the boys all matched so I got some pictures of them too.




















I hope y'all had a great Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy New Year. Let the fireworks begin!

I present . . .

The Virgin Mary and the Angel Gabriel.



















And about 2 seconds later, the real Anna and Emma came out.

'Ice Princesses'

Anna and Emma 'graduated' from their ice skating class last week. They absolutely loved it and we may do the next one in the spring. I think it's great that they're learning how to ice skate because that's something I never even tried as a child. Growing up in Southern Louisiana, you don't see much ice unless it's floating in your lemonade.

All I Want for Christmas . .

I actually made a list this year that I have saved on my desktop at work of things that I want for Christmas. Not things that I actually expect to get, but things that I yearn to have. Problem being lack of dinero.

Anyway, I thought I'd share. Let me know what's on your list so we can whine about not getting these things the day after Christmas.

1.) An I-pod Nano (Apple has these on their site refurbished for under 100 bucks. Hmmm...)
2.) A new laptop. I know I just got one but, long story.
3.) New bathroom towels.
4.) New set of pots/pans. Boring, yes, but I need them.
5.) New oven. Ditto #4. Mine has been broken for over 2 years now, but I'm not a cook so I put it off.
6.) New chairs for my dining room table.

I figured these things would be about 2000 bucks. So, I'm only about 1960 short.

Yeah, yeah, Merry Christmas. Only 8 more days. Yikes.

Happy 61st, Daddy!

My father would have been 61 today. I did a similar post to this one last year with a baby picture of him, so I figured I'd do a teen picture this time. It's hard to believe, but I think he may have even gotten cuter.

I see so many people in my father's face. I see a little bit of me, a little of my boy, and a lot of my sister's oldest boy. The funny thing is both of the boys mentioned are named after my dad. That says a lot right there.

I could never fully express what a wonderful father he was, how thinking about him just for a few seconds makes me cry. How I miss him so much every day and how little things remind me of him all the time.

His death has definitely given me a different perspective on the death of others since. Before, I could only see the sadness in death, but now I see a reuniting of my father with his friends and family. Our family may be shrinking here, but his is growing and that makes me smile.

Happy Birthday, Daddy. I love you.

Birthday Festivities

The party went well and the best part of it is . . . it's over!
We had 23 kids there. And I don't think we lost any. (If we did, their parents aren't complaining yet).
Emma is now officially 9 years old.

And now, some pictures from the festivities:

All lined up eating their Cane's.













Emma and her buddies:















John M. asked 400 times to 'wide' the carousel, and then
this was the look on his face when we put him on. He made
a quick exit.















Emma and the 'love' fry.

Happy 9th, Emma!

I hope you have a great birthday, my girl.

You make me laugh so much every day and I'm always amazed at your humor and wit. Sometimes I swear I'm talking to a 30-year old.

I'm so proud of your dedication to your family and the importance of prayer and spirituality in your life. You show me on a daily basis your firm belief in a life that goes beyond this one and your anticipation of seeing 'June' and others once you're there.

I love the fact that you're so much still a little girl and want to play Polly Pockets with me and dance in the living room. I always ask you to stay little and live with me forever and you say you can't promise to do that. But I sure wish you could.

I feel so blessed to have you as my girl.

Love,

Mom

John and Pearl

John M. has a thing lately for picking up Pearl, our cat. Thank God Pearl is a nice, old, patient cat that puts up with lots of crap. She tolerates him, but runs away at the sight of him too. I swear, she's thinking 'I'm not sure where this boy child came from, but can you please stick a stamp on him and return to sender.'

Single Mom

That's what I feel like these days.

Mark has been working like crazy. I knew this. I expected it. I mean, he just started a new job less than a month ago that's in a galaxy far, far away. I knew what I was in store for, and I put on my 'positive attitude, it'll get better' cap.

Surprisingly, that cap has been doing its job. It hasn't been all that bad.

Mark used to travel A LOT when the girls were babies and when I tell you, I had a time with the 'single mother' thing, I'm not lying. Of course, back then I had 2 babies only 2 years apart that required all of my attention. Now, with the 11 and 9-year-olds and one small hurricane, it's so much different. Actually, so much easier.

I'm hoping that these 15-hour work days shorten in the very near future though, just because we miss having him around. And that, in the long run, this was a good decision. I have a feeling that it was, I just have to give it time.

By the way, that picture there is of the 5-day-old hurricane about 2 years ago. I didn't have new pictures, so I thought we'd review that one.


P.S. The Emma-sheep performed last night and guess who didn't take one picture? you guessed it. Add that to my bad-mother list. But there is a DVD to buy of the whole production! Yippee!