15, it just can't be....

My first baby is 15 today. 

Do you understand me?

She is fifteen years old.

old.

• Old enough for drivers ed
• So old she doesn't want to spend much time with me anymore
• Old enough to be a little moody most of the time
• So old that she knows more than me
• Old enough to think surely I will embarrass her at any time
• Old enough to be quite bossy
• Old enough to want to tell me what to do all the time (that's the same as bossy I guess but it deserved to be mentioned again...)

But you know what else she is?

• A beautiful young woman
• A Christ follower
• A good, kind friend
• Polite to others even if it's hard to see at home sometimes 
• A great student
• A great dancer
• A wonderful daughter

Happy Birthday my sweet one.

She made it

The big girl tried out for the Pom squad last week...
and she made JV...YAY!
She was a little disappointed she didn't make varsity but there is time for that.
So, add more practices to my schedule and more expenses.
But, I'm thrilled she made it.
I heard rumor of much crying from the girls who did not. 
Bless their mothers.

Tonight was the first parent meeting to let us know what all we will be paying for our daughters will be doing. 
There was a mom there that I have seen at other meetings.
She's the mom that can do, get, or make anything or in general take over.  Even the teacher/sponsor asked her if she wanted to "just be the sponsor?".  That was pretty funny but even funnier was she didn't catch the sarcasm and just said, "oh, no..."
Is there one in every crowd? 


And on another note, my mom jobs are keeping me from reading up on Rome...

It is real

The  trip to Rome is becoming more real to me. 
Still unbelievable but more real.
I still cannot believe I won this....and how perfectly everything about it has fallen into place...
I have spoken in depth now with two people from Susan G. Komen who have been wonderful and arranged the trip for us.
The tickets are booked, leaving May 19th.

The only downside I have found is that we did not get seats beside each other...fine for Jennifer but I'm not a good sleeper and I wouldn't mind keeping her awake but hate to bother a stranger...I just hope the stranger knows something about Rome to tell me all about...

Jennifer has already checked out the movies being shown on the flights... Now I'm not complaining but lets just say that I've seen Shrek several times...

I may take a couple of Benadryl and try to be a sleeper...

We are staying at a small boutique hotel in the heart of Rome.  It's on the 4th floor of an old building and only has 8 rooms.  All the reviews are glowing with the exception of the fact that the beds seem to be very very hard...all the reviews said it's more like staying at a B&B and aparently if you stay out till all hours of the night you have to ring up and wake some man up who will get up from his slumber and let you in wearing his PJ's...  too bad we're such light weights that we will probably not experience this late night issue!
The only downside I found was that there is no pool...I had big plans for spending the 'siesta' hours reading by the pool... oh well...

looks ok to me!

so in less than a month we'll be right there...(that's a map of Rome by the way)

What's more fun than lots of dancing and little sleep?

The girls had a dance competition this weekend in Dallas. 
Now, I am usually all for a trip home but when the dance is the reason it's not the same...

We spend the majority of the weekend dropping off, bringing lunch, bringing dinner, watching dancing that they are in and this year that was even more special than usual because Katie's dance was at 11:38 P.M....
And they were back at it by 7:30 the next morning...
So, it basically was a weekend of two very cranky tired dancers who ate more fast food than should be legal in one weekend...

But, there were some perks...

• dinner with the family at a favorite restaurant
• a little pre-Rome surprise shopping with Jennifer...

• another dinner with the family
• breakfast with a sweet friend who loves me enough to come meet me at 7:30 on a Sunday morning
• getting to visit a favorite family member in the hospital and happening to be there when the dr came in and offered up good news...

And we came back to just hit the ground running for the week... Katie is trying out for Pom this week so there are some nightly dance things and a little worry on her part... I'm hoping this ends well!

Not getting home till 10:00 last night is not listed in the perk section you'll notice...but, these girls are worth it...

Race for the Cure, in Rome?

This morning my cell phone rang right after I got to school... a number I didn't know...
I answered to have a woman ask for me and me quickly assume she wanted to sell me some something...
She went on to tell me that she was with such and such and calling to let me know I won the "I am the Cure Sweepstakes"... uh, ok...
I'm sure she thought I was the most ungrateful winner ever cause I really didn't act like I belived her...

I called the Susan G. Komen office in Dallas and verified that it was real...

Really.  I won a trip to Italy... Rome.  Five days in Rome to walk  in the Race for the cure...

Mike can't take that week off and someone has to keep the those girls and go to their dance recital...( Missing that has me feeling like Mom of the year) 
So, he called the neice Jennifer and told her she could go... She's a little bit excited too.

I still really can't belive it's real!

We're going to Rome in about 6 weeks!

On an angle

I love looking at the different photo examples for the parties at Tracy's Trinkets and Treasures...

The latest party is for angles...

Going through my pictures I have discovered that a large number of my pictures are taken on an angle...

I love this picture of Katie... love the angle, love the light, love the sweet girl...

Not the best picture, but the angle served to get Elvis and the ballgame he was watching!

Worship in the garage, bring your saw

I want to be handy....
I want to have saws and tools and know how to use them...(I really want to be her http://manditremayne.blogspot.com)
I am teaching my girls that "handy" should be on the top of the list in things to look for in a husband...
I didn't question Mike thoroughly enough on that before the wedding!

Today is a good example of how I wish I was handy and had tools....and how things seem to be just a little crazy on our weekends lately...

I get a call first thing this morning from Katie's BFF's family... she knows I am a fan of anything old and I had mentioned to her I was looking for a set of old theater seats...
She asks me if I would like an old church pew and a set of theater seats in perfect condition.
YES.... Yes, I would...
She tells me to get on over to her church...

So, I throw on some clothes, try to make my hair not look like I haven't showered yet but it didn't work, grab my cup of coffee and open the garage door to see that someone has left us some nice, soft toilet paper on the driveway as well as some friendly messages on both of our cars...
And I felt like "sexy driver" and "yo my lov*r" were maybe not the message I wanted on my car when I drove up to a church...

So, I did a little window cleaning and picking up of the TP...there wasn't much toilet paper to clean up seeing that we have no trees....

I did leave the roll inside the door handle for embarrassment purpose of the girls...it worked well...

Katie had been at the BFF's house last night and I felt sure that they were the culprits... they were fast to explain to me that no looser would TP their own house...

                  She also explained that they did not have any fruity cereal to leave on the grass...

I think some of her dance friends may have been the culprit...

But, back to the church...
I get there to find Marci with my pew and theater seats already loaded into their truck bed.  And hanging out about 6 feet because she found me the longest church pew ever made as well as 6 theater seats that don't come apart. 
Katie was appalled that we might drive with this hanging out of the truck and a pair red shorts tied on for a flag...
She wanted to document the crazy...

I ended up not taking the seats since they were so big...
But if you care to worship with me, I have a very long pew waiting to be cut down in the garage...
If you are handy or have tools call me.  Please.  I can trade you a nice pair of red shorts....

Good friends

We had a lot of friend time this weekend...

It really does take a while to grow old friends...

This good friend is actually living at my house I believe.  She may not have all her clothes here but it's just a matter of time I'm pretty sure...

You know the friend is part of the family when Katie goes to dance and instead of friend going and watching  she chooses to run errands with me...

This friend is on the way to taking up residence with us also...She's a weekend resident at the moment....
She's already a little too comfortable here...

Then there are my friends...

I've got a good friend who got a new camera when I did... we've spent a lot of time out looking for the frightening gang areas fun places to take pictures...

another friend who will meet you for happy hour at the last minute and go sit through a painful benefit dance program

and a couple of friends who fill all the other needs...

One of them came over with her family for dinner tonight... our husbands hadn't met before but some trash talking domino games soon unfolded...

and my favorite friends right now are a little grumpy at times but still worth hanging out with...
Only one let me get a picture with her this weekend though...

Now if Mike can just find a friend to go to the ZZ Top concert with so I don't have to go,  all will be well...