New Addition to the Blog - Broccoli Factoids

I thought it might be nice to once in a while throw in some little known factoids about broccoli, so I can continue to enlighten my readers - which I believe consists of about 3.2 people - but those few people will, I'm sure, pass along my wealth of knowledge to the world. I will post from time to time these factoids on the right side of my page as a way to pass on this information to those less fortunate (aka Aunt Judi and Amy) that continue to be corrupted without any chance of repentance. My goal is to ultimately help win their souls back to the side of goodness, but if not, I'll still enjoy the postings, because after all, any anti-broccoli news is good news, right? :-)

Interpretation

I've found with kids that things are all subject to interpretation. Tonight was one of those cases where I realized that what I said wasn't necessarily done the way I meant it to be. I was picking up the living room and asked Noah to put his flashlight in his room. I, of course, meant to put it where it belongs in his room. He heard me say "put it in your room", so he did what I asked. When I looked down the hallway, I just shook my head and chuckled to myself. He literally put it RIGHT inside his room. I made him sit by it, so I could take a picture.



Here he is in his room by the flashlight he so loving put in his room like I asked.

Here's a closer view. Notice it is literally 1" inside his room. Barely making it past the door jam. Guess from now on I need to be a bit more clear on my instructions. ;-)

Babies

On the way home from school on Friday, Madie was talking about when she gets married that she wants to have 2 babies. She's going to have 1 boy and 1 girl. Noah announced that he was going to have twins - one boy and one girl - when he gets married too. I asked Olivia what she was going to have. She said, "My baby be.... (thinking...) green! And, have a tail.". I laughed so hard! Not quite the answer I was expecting! ;-)

Flashback Friday - Anniversary Edition

Well, today could not be a more fun "Flashback Friday" for me! Today is our 10th anniversary. :-) It's almost hard to believe it's been 10 yrs. It's just flown by really. But, in those 10 yrs, we've had 3 beautiful kids, bought a house, moved to 2 different states, made lots of new friends, and gotten really involved in a wonderful church. That's not in order, by the way. But, I think back to what we were like when we got married. I was 24 and he was 23. He had just graduated from college like 2 weeks before that. I was so excited to finally marry the man that I had been in love with for 5 1/2 yrs. Plus, the idea of finally getting to live with him and see him every day after being separated for 5 of those years while he was in school and co-op was just so fantastic! I got married in Royal Center at the church I grew up in. I really hadn't gone to church much in the 5 yrs after we left there, so that was still to me MY church. And, I really wanted to get married there. We did our counseling with the pastor of that church and he ended up doing the beginning part of our ceremony, with Larry DeMoss - a dear friend of our family's - doing the rest of the service. It was so special to have him do that for us. I remember getting a little teary-eyed as the girls were lining up to walk down the aisle. I was the first in my family to get married and as the reality of what was going to happen hit me, I suddenly got pretty nervous! But, I bucked up and hooked arms with dad and began my walk down the aisle. I did things very traditionally. We didn't see or talk to each other before the ceremony. I had the veil in front of my face the whole time, because I always dreamed of that moment when my husband would lift that veil and kiss me. :-) Once I got down there to Pete and dad handed me off, my tears went away and I just couldn't stop smiling! Granted, I was still a nervous wreck, but the smile didn't leave my face that whole time. :-) Both Pete and I were so nervous, we had to watch the wedding video to see if we actually said our vows. We couldn't remember! haha Well, when it was over and he pronounced us "Mr. and Mrs. Trolinger", I said a "Woo-Hoo!" and we walked down the aisle. I looked at him when we were in the back, before everyone else came out and said, "Can you believe we're married?!!". Still had to pinch myself to believe it was true. When the reception was over and we began gathering our things, it was time for us to say our goodbyes. Then it hit me. I was leaving. Not just going off on my honeymoon and coming back. I was, of course, honeymooning, but more than that. I was going to now live with my husband. We were moving to NY and my whole life was going to change. That's when the tears started to flow. I cried as I said goodbye to everyone. I loved Pete. Still do, but that was a hard moment for me. Made especially harder a month later when we left for NY the day my mom had her stroke. I feel like I definitely did what the bible says to do in that moment. I left my family and cleaved to my husband. Weddings are always memorable. But, I think what I've learned the most is that the ceremony really isn't important. It's just an opportunity to look pretty and have your friends and family gather around and give you presents. ;-) What's important is the vows you take and the life you live together afterwards. I won't lie and say those first few months together weren't an adjustment. They were. I was in a state where I knew no one really. Living with a man I loved dearly, but had only seen for a couple days at a time every 2 weeks or so throughout those 5 yrs of dating. We had to learn to be together. But, we learned quickly and I've never doubted for one minute where I belong. I belong with and to my husband and he's been my biggest supporter and the best father to our kids that I could have ever hoped for. I love him as much as I did that day 10 yrs ago when I committed my life to his and I look forward to many, many more years together. I love you, Pete.

Here are some pictures from our day...

This was my favorite picture from that day. Notice he had to stand a step below just to fit in the frame. ;-) haha

Even though I wore those 4" heels and killed my feet, he still had to bend over to reach me. Poor guy!

My family. Boy, have we changed! Micah still had hair and I was still thin. ;-) This was one month before mom's stroke. Wow. That's hard to believe. Look how different we all look. 6 grandkids later - two spouses - and another baby (Cara's preggers) on the way. Cool.

Pete's family. They've changed a bunch too! I mean, look how young we all are!! Pete's grandparents have both passed on now, but thankfully both of them got to meet Madie and Noah(Noah is named after his great-grandpa - Noah "Paul"). We've had 6 grandkids and a spouse added to this brood as well. We keep growing and changing. :-)

This is just a shot of the ceremony. Just in case you wanted to see what it looked like.

And, here's my wedding party. Ten years ago we still did the matching dresses and dyeable shoe thing! haha So funny how much weddings have changed in 10 yrs. Bless their hearts for letting us strap them down with such unusable outfits!! ;-)



Well, there you have it. Sorry it was such a long post! Lots to fit in there on this special day. :-)

Last Day

Today was Livie's last day of gymnastics. You've seen me post a few times about her time there. She started in Sept and has grown so much since then! She couldn't even talk when we started. She was in the midst of speech therapy and today she was talking up a storm to everyone who would listen (and even those who weren't). In fact, she was going around saying she was Ganondorf from Zelda (Wii game), pretending to rip her chest open, and growling "I will DESTROY you!!!". Oh my gosh, it was hilarious! Here was my sweet little girl, with ribbons and glitter in her hair, growling at everyone and wanting to "destroy them". Much different from the quiet little girl I took with me that first week.


Here she is hopscotching her way to put her fruit in the basket. She picked out grapes. And, I'm very pleased to report I saw NO broccoli pieces in the basket. Yet another victory!

Here she is dancing with her ribbon in the opening part. She loves this part a lot! It's also before she turned into mean Ganondorf. That came towards the end of class.

Here she is on the bars. She got really good at holding herself up on the lower ones. That's something she's really accomplished since she started. This shortly before her doing the tumble track where Coach Nancy told her to jump straight like a crayon. That is when she began the growling. I asked her why she was growling and she said "I am a mean, blue crayon.". So, I guess when your coach tells you to jump straight like a crayon, the only way to do that is to be mean and blue.

This is a picture of her class buddies. Zach, on the end, is the only one that has been with her since Sept. We've had several kids come and go. Ava in the green shorts started just a month or so ago. Addison and Hailey started shortly after Christmas break. They are all sweet kids. As you can tell though, getting a picture with 5 2-3yr olds is not easy to do! ;-) It was a great year in gymnastics, but now it's time to move on to summer things and gear up for dance class in the fall. Fun!

Ahh.... Spring

Fall is my favorite season, followed closely by spring. And, the reason fall edges out the competition is because all the bugs die in the fall, where as in the spring they all come out. So, fall wins for that reason alone, but seeing how beautiful my garden is right now, it's hard to say it's not my very favorite after all!!


I had had up a picture on my header here from October when we were at the pumpkin patch and felt it was time to get something more fitting for the season up there, so I took the kids out on Sat and took pictures of them. The one in the header was taken in the front of the house by my now-blooming bush. I think it's called "roses and wine" something or other. The picture above was taken in the front of our house on the corner by our plum tree. It's blooms are now gone, but it's looking so pretty this year even without the flowers. :-)

This is my garden in my backyard. I don't have a giant garden, but it's big enough to start with. All my irises and daisies and several of my other things were all given to me as starts from my mom-in-law 4-5 yrs ago when we re-did our yard. They've grown and become soooo pretty! I always wanted a garden of my own, even though I'm not talented in that area at all - as you'll see in later pictures of the many, MANY weeds infesting my beds.

This is the long view - looking towards the picture above. This is my favorite time of year, when they are all blooming and just beautiful!

I bought this clematis last year and already it's grown by leaps and bounds! It wasn't even barely up to the first rung of this trellis and now it's grown past the 3rd one and it even has buds on it. Yay! I think it's supposed to be purple, so we'll see what we get when it blooms.

Here's where you see the crab grass that has taken over our beds. Darn it! I swear we pull and we pull and it still comes back like crazy. Haven't gotten out there so far this year to pull it all, so that's why it's so grown in right now. But, despite that, you can see my corral bells (also given to me by my mom-in-law) and some lilies I planted last year. They also have lots of buds this year. I think they're pink and white, but I'm not sure yet. Can't wait to see them bloom as well. Got a couple more of them down the way from these, but they haven't grown in as much as these have yet.

Anyway, thought I'd share a little of my spring with you all. The flowers this time of year are just so beautiful and I love to look outside and see them all growing so tall and pretty. The southside of our house has always been used as our veggie garden. Believe it or not we actually planted broccoli once. 'Course, we left it there to die (wah-ha-ha-ha), but we grew it nonetheless. But, I think this year we might try and just get around to filling the area up with flowers and make it part of our beds instead. We'll see. But, there you have it. Spring has come to the Trolinger house. Just love it!

Night at the Museum

Since we were having a rainy Memorial Day, we decided to head to the theater and see "Night at the Museum 2". :-) It's the first time Livie has gone to the theater, so it was the first time we all got to go together ever! Pete and I usually take turns taking Madie or Noah to see something. Never have we been able to do it together, so it was a real treat for us. Well, I should say GOING to the theater was a treat. PAYING for the theater, however, was not! $32 for the 5 of us to see a matinee and another 15 bucks for a bag of popcorn, nachoes for Pete, and a water for us to split. Can you believe that?!! I can't even imagine how expensive it is to go in the evening!!! Craziness. We got in there when the previews were going, so it was pretty filled up by the time we got in. So, the only place we were able to find 5 seats open was in the very front row. Pete actually liked it up there though, because he could stretch his legs out and Livie could move from person to person and wasn't cramped in a row. Yes, we're all a little blind and have cricks in our neck, but it wasn't all that bad. And we enjoyed the movie, so it was worth it all. Now, we'll probably wait until Ice Age comes out and do it again, so we'll start saving now. ;-)

Upload Success!

Well, I finally figured out how to get it to upload!!! But, I mistakenly thought if I uploaded the last part of the routine first, then the first part of the routine would upload above it and it didn't do that. Doh! So, if you want to see it in order, start with the bottom clip, then come up here to this clip. Sorry. But, as much work as it took to upload it in the first place, I wasn't about to start all over again. And, yes, I suck when it comes to filming. But, in my defense, I was trying to record while the people in front of me kept moving their heads, while she kept moving on stage, all while holding a sleepy 3 yr old. I'm a multi-tasker, what can I say. But, it did make for a less than stunning film debut by myself.

This is the last part of Madie's routine. She's the one on the end of the pinwheel right in the front. Then she switches to being the second to last on the far left. Basically, just look for the shortest girl - that's her. ;-)

This is the first part. She's on the far left. She did a great job, only getting momentarily distracted when she spotted her nana and papa in the audience. ;-)

Recital Success - Upload Fail

Last night was Madie's opening night. :-) It was great, but super-busy! Pete's parents got here about 4:30 and by 4:45 I was pushin' Pete out the door to get dinner. He didn't leave right away though, so by the time he got back from picking something up it was 5:30 and we had to leave by 5:40! Doh!! So, I shoveled in my food and made Madie shovel in her food as well and if anyone knows Madie, she's about as fast an eater as a turtle on a slow day. So, I kept pushing her to get something in her. Because I didn't want to get dressed or get her dressed before we ate, I had to hurry up and put on my clothes and then get Madie dressed too. All, I'll remind you, in about 10 min!



Most, if not all, of the kids in the recital get a gift on opening night. Most get flowers or balloons, but I always like getting her something she can actually use or play with. So, here she is very quickly opening her gift from us. So quickly, that I made her just get off her chair where she was eating and open it on the floor! ;-)

This is what we got her. A cute outfit to wear to opening night. A tank, a skirt, a headband, earrings and bracelets (which she didn't want to wear). I thought she looked adorable!!

The bag we put her present in doubles as a purse too. :-) After she opened her present, I got her dressed and we were out the door! We had to be at the high school at 6, recital started at 7. So, I understood why 1st act people should be there at 6, but she was in the 2nd act and was going with us to the 1st, so I thought it was really lame that she had to be there so stinkin' early. We had a lot of time to kill before Pete and the rest of the family came. So, I put her make-up on and dropped her costume and stuff off in the classroom, then we kind of wandered around. Here she is in the doorway of the auditorium.

This is everyone (except me taking the picture obviously) waiting for it to start. It was REALLY hectic as everyone tried finding their seats. Opening Night is always the busiest. We actually sat 2 seats down from Noah's kindergarten teacher. He thought that was really cool. And, during Act 2, the people that sat in those middle seats had left, so Noah sat by Mrs. Newberry for most of the time and she would tell him who was coming up and stuff.

After Act 1, I raced Madie back to the classroom and got her in her outfit. Even though she wasn't until act 11 of the night, they gather the kids up quickly and get them in position. I went and found Pete, his parents, and the kids and took them over to give her a brief "good luck" and we went back to find our seats.

Here she is hanging in the hallway waiting to go upstairs.

Here are Noah and Livie before Act 2 started. Noah sat with his program in hand, by Mrs. Newberry and was so excited to see Madie come out. :-) He really did a good job. Livie did a good job too, but by the time Madie's act was on stage, she was asleep. It was a long night. We didn't get home until 10. Livie was out by 8:30 or 9. So, I held her until the program was over.

Since Livie was asleep and it was late by the time we got home, I wasn't able to get a 5-member shot of our family, so we just got one of us with Madie. Celebrating her successful opening night!

And, here she is with her nana and papa too. :-) She was so thrilled to have them there. Now, to the part of the title of this blog that says "Recital Success - Upload Fail". I recorded on my camera a couple short films of Madie's performance, but can't get them to upload on here. So, hopefully Pete will be able to figure something out and then I'll get to post actually footage of my sweet girl in action on stage. But, until then, just enjoy these pictures and know that she did a terrific job!!!

Flashback Friday

Tonight is Madie's recital, so I thought in honor of that, I'd do a little Flashback on her. :-) This was taken in Sept of 2005 when she was 4. I was pregnant with Livie then. This was Madie's first day of dance class. She was soooo excited! She had her new dance bag, a cute little leotard. She was set! Little did I know that the dance place was NOT air-conditioned. Poor thing sweated like a crazy person the whole time! I now know that those first few weeks of dance class, her hair will be pulled up to keep her cooler. And, no fancy leotards or tights either. Just something cool. And look at those curls!! Her hair has lot so much of the curl, that's fun to look back and see how much she once had. Such a cutie!!!! She's been in dance for 4 years now and this is her second recital. Very exciting for her and for us too. Pete's parents are due here any minute, so they can go see her perform, just like they did 2 yrs ago. :-) I'll post pictures of it all when we get back. Wish us luck!!!

Oh, and don't you love the purple door? Still not sure what I was thinking there.

I HATE BROCCOLI

The time has come for us to boldly proclaim our hatred of this vegetable! My cousin Jenny (Rose)'s son has recently joined our cause and asked when he would receive his t-shirt. I will admit, in all my entries here and all my protest rallies across the globe, I never gave consideration to the fact that we should have t-shirts! So, upon his suggestion, I created one and voila! I display it for you here today. Granted, it would look a million times better on Gizelle or Heidi, but you'll have to do with a stubby, non-leggy model instead. Though, I eventually hope to have them on board and proudly sporting our attire as well. Originally I considered doing a simple "Broccoli Sucks" shirt, but thought that might not be appropriate for children to wear and I want to keep it open for people of all ages, so I went with a more understated "I Hate Broccoli" as the final product. Direct and powerful. I already have a few requests and will make them as they come in. I hope that everyone that receives a shirt, will take a picture of themselves in it, so I can post them here for all to see. :-) Show the world that our numbers are growing and we will not stop the fight until all are saved! I made one for Pete, so I will add his picture later. I need to make one for Noah, but my girls are sadly lost to the sinful world of broccoli and refuse to wear one. All I can do is pray that one day they will come into the light and realize how wrong they've been. But, it's hard to keep it from them. I tried looking up online things about broccoli haters to reinforce what I've been trying to teach them, yet all that was out there were headlines that stated things like "broccoli prevents cancer" and "broccoli saves child from fire". The media has silenced those of us who are out to speak the truth. Instead they make false claims and praise it as those it were a magic weed. We all know what's really going on though, so let us wear our shirts with pride. Showing those around us that we are NOT afraid to speak our minds about this thistle of death. And I believe we'll begin to see a massive wave of supporters stepping up to join our cause of liberty. Anyone interested in a shirt, let me know and I will gladly make one for you. Show your pride by saying "I HATE BROCCOLI"! No one is too old or too young to make this bold statement. Let us be the first generation of people to stop this ugly trend of broccoli consumption. If anyone can do, we can!

Dress Rehearsal

Tonight was Madie's dress rehearsal for her recital this weekend. The studio she's gone to for the past 4 years only has a recital every other year, so she did this for the first time a couple years ago when she was in kindergarten. When we showed up tonight, all the craziness that I remembered came flooding back to me as I walked into the classrooms filled with little girls and their moms getting costumes on, make-up on, hair done, etc.... It's always so fun and exciting, but definitely a bit mind-blowing at times as well. Especially this year with her having such a large class. There was hardly a place to move around in there! We're going to go on Friday with Pete's parents, so I'll try and see if Pete can take a short video with the camera, so I can load that on here, because still pictures don't do the routine justice. But, we'll see if that works or not. But, here are a few shots for all those who can't be here this weekend.



Madie's on the very end on the left side of the stage, so she's the one that starts it all. It's so fun to watch her. She's soooo in her element on the stage. She loves every single minute of it!

Here Madie's on the end again. They're doing a pinwheel thing and they do a really great job! Guess it's pretty special for 2nd graders to be able to do something like that. :-)

And, here's the end of it. Madie's second to last on the left there and she's already laid her pom-poms down. I was sitting next to Noah's teacher, Mrs. Newberry. Her daughter and son are both in it - like 5 routines - and they're both in jr/sr high school, so this is old hat for her. It was fun getting to sit and chat with her before the program started in a setting that ISN'T school. I've gotten to know her a bit from my volunteering there. I volunteered each week when Madie had her and now again since Noah's had her. It's a pretty nice relationship. If I can't help in the kids' classrooms next year, I'll probably volunteer to help her again instead. Anyway, there's a hint of what the weekend's going to look like. Should be fun!! And, you'll hear all about it on Fri night, I'm sure. :-)

Birthday Party

After school we went over to Madie's best friend Michael's birthday party. :-) It was a surprise/costume party.


Madie and Livie were cowgirls and even took their horses, which they played around with before Michael got there, then quickly tossed them to the side for me to carry. :-) Noah was a fireman and his costume stayed on for approximately 5 min and then he decided to throw it all on the floor of the fellowship hall (the party was at their church). Sigh. I made him put it on long enough to shout "Surprise!" as Michael walked in, but that was about all he'd do. He was too busy to be tied down by costumes.

When Michael walked in, he was in shock! It was really funny. He had no idea that he was having a party today. :-) The girls went up to him and wished him a Happy Birthday.

They all sat around and had pizza. Noah, being a non-pizza eater, had a pb sandwich that I brought from home. And, since my kids don't drink juice or punch, they insisted on drinking water. I swear, they're so difficult!! My kids are not the party-type people. Even the cake they wouldn't eat!! Though, Livie licked off all her icing. :-)

After they were done eating, my kids headed over to the BINGO table. Noah was the caller and the girls, along with another little boy, put markers on their cards. Livie ended up winning the game! They had 3 tables set up. One with BINGO, one with UNO, and one for making cards for Michael. All the kids made really cute cards for him.

Here's Madie and a VERY excited Michael!

Noah was a great BINGO caller! He thought it was a lot of fun and did a great job of making sure everyone had the right markers on their cards.

Present time is always the most fun! We got Michael a "DarthVadar tie-fighter lego set". He loved it and the kids were so excited to give it to him! They jumped up and down when he opened it.

Here are my silly kids with him after he opened the present. It was fun, but boy are parties with little kids a exhausting. There's only so much running, screaming, wrestling, crazinesss that I can take in a 2 hr time period!! But everyone had a great time and that's all that matters right? My sanity comes secondary to all that, of course. ;-)

Flashback Friday

It's Flashback Friday again and I found this picture we got taken at Sears when Noah was only 6 weeks old. I absolutely LOVE this picture!! First of all, because they're wearing matching shirts, which is the cutest thing ever! And, secondly, because Noah's such a doll! Look at that smile. Just melts my heart every time. :-) This was the stage that Madie went through from 18m to 3 yrs where she hated and I mean HATED getting her picture professionally taken. We actually got a good family picture of the 4 of us that day, but after that picture was taken, she was crying and screaming and wouldn't let us get any more of her. So, we focused instead on the newest of our brood. Sweet, loving, little Noah Paul. Now, that sweet little boy is my big 6-yr old boy - who is rambunctious and silly, but still wonderful and a joy. My two terrific guys!

First Playdate = Lots of Fun!

The much anticipated first playdate between Noah and his best friend Keeden was today. They came running out of the school together with giant smiles on their faces. The day had finally arrived!!


I love when kids first see our basement. It's like a giant ToysRUs store down there, so when Keeden went down there, his eyes lit up and he said, "Wow!" and started laughing. The boys played ping-pong, rode the bikes, ran around playing tag. Just had lots of fun. Here I caught them when they were playing a game on the tv downstairs.

Later they were putting together a map puzzle of the US. They got bored and decided to throw the pieces at each other and yell out "poop!" with each piece they threw. :-) What is it with boys and poop? Noah told me that sometimes during circle time, they'll just whisper words to each other like "underpants" or "poo". No wonder they get in trouble for talking and laughing so much! Ornery!!!!

I made them let me take a picture of them together while they were eating a snack and playing Wii. You can tell how THRILLED they were to smile for the camera. :-) All in all, a totally successful afternoon. I'm sure this will be the first of many play dates in the future. They're two peas in a pod. Best buddies. :-)

By the way, isn't it funny how they're called "play dates" now? Calls between parents are made, schedules figured out, all for the elusive play date to occur. When I was a kid, we just ran around town and went to each other's houses, without a parent in sight. Times have changed in those 25 yrs.

Lost Another One!

Well, Madie finally lost her second tooth today. :-) Yesterday we had corn on the cob. I got it with the idea that Madie would bite into it and finally lose her tooth! It had been pretty wiggly for several weeks, but just wouldn't fall out. So, last night, she was eating away when I heard her start crying. Her tooth had really gotten lose after a bite of corn. It was bleeding a bit, but it was ready to fall out now, so I was excited!! My plan had worked perfectly. :-) I thought she'd lose it during school today, but it fell out in the van when we pulled in this afternoon after school got out. She was so happy and couldn't wait to tell Pete when he got home.

Her permanent tooth from the other tooth she lost is coming up. It's way behind the other teeth though, so I told her to get familiar with the word "Orthodontist", because she's probably going to get to meet one within the next year or two. ;-) Oh, and I hear tell that the toothfairy has raised her rates. Madie got $3 for her first tooth, but the toothfairy this time around only had $5 bills in his, er, um, I mean, HER wallet, so I guess she's getting a bonus this time!

New Hair-dos

I am sooo loving that blog I found!! Every other day I get to try new fun hair-dos on my girls. Granted, they are fairly sick of the routine of picking it out, spraying, brushing, etc... but, they're always happy with the results. Here's today's look that I thought was particularly adorable. :-)



Don't ask me why Livie's wearing those glasses. I don't even know where they came from. But, since she doesn't have glasses, she seems to think those are her's and she wears them ALL THE TIME. Much to my chagrin.

I tried to get a shot from the front too. Madie's always cooperative. Livie, well...., not so much. ;-)

At least she took her glasses off, right?

She cracks me up!

Moms

It's Mother's Day again and I thought it would be a good idea to talk about our moms. :-) They usually get little to no praise at all. Aren't appreciated for everything they do. And rarely thanked. I've realized more and more as the years go on just how much our moms did for us.




This is one of the only pictures I have of Pete as a baby. And, I'm so glad I have it. Pete was the first boy in his family and from the stories I've heard, he was a wonderful, sweet little guy. I asked him if he could tell me one special story about his mom and this is what he told me..

"She got up early every morning to make us something special to eat. Most days it was cinnamon toast that we would eat by the dozens, just leaving the crusts behind that she would feed to the birds, who waited outside to eat them. She would get up early to get us all ready, make us that good breakfast, and take us to school. I love you, mom."

Pete's a man of few words, but his love for his mom is evident. :-) She's a really special lady for sure! I've known Sue for over 15 yrs now and she is definitely a second mom to me now. I'm so thankful that I have a mother-in-law that is so fantastic! She and I always have a fun time together, whether it be shopping (which we both LOVE to do), garage saling (does that count as shopping?), or just chatting away. She's also taught me a lot about gardening and decorating. Always telling me new ideas or things she's seen or tried. Love it! She's so great and I love that she loves my kids so much. She's always been willing to stop whatever she's doing in her life to come to my house when we've needed her and that means so much to know that she's there for us. Can't begin to tell you over the years how many phone calls she's gotten to come out to help me with the kids when Pete's been gone or I've been sick or something. Or we just needed a babysitter for an event and she's been there. She never complains and comes and helps out without a second thought. We love you and thank you for all that you've done for us! :-)

As for my mom, she's like I am. Always TAKING the pictures and rarely IN them. So, the only picture I have here at my house is the one above and her head's cut off!! Sorry. But, I never have given her a lot of credit for what she did for me as a little girl. The teenage years got in the way of that somehow. But, as an adult and as a mom, I realize that it was just my attitude that got in the way a lot of the times and I'm very thankful that she and I have a great relationship now. She and I talk on the phone nearly every day - with ME doing most of the talking, of course. ;-) She lets me vent or tell funny stories or whatever. And, I'm so glad it's like that now. As a little girl she was always very active in what I did. She was my room mom at school for many, many years. Made treats for all the class parties and crafts as well. She encouraged my art and my singing and went to every performance and display I had. She was at every softball game, every church function (and I know it wasn't just because she was the pastor's wife). She was, just simply, involved. And now, knowing now how many parents AREN'T involved, I realize how lucky I was to have a mom who cared and was there. Even it was for a small thing. I also remember her showing me important things that I didn't think mattered then, but TOTALLY matter now. How to make a bed correctly, how to iron clothes, how to do laundry, and how to cook. Things that when you're 8 or 9 yrs old, you could care less about knowing, but I now use those things every day in my own life. So, mom, I know I haven't always been a easy person to get along with. I know that I rarely tell you or show you how I feel, but I do want you to know that I love you very much and am very glad that you're my mom.

So, I say to you both...... HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!