MIA

Goodness, how do you start back blogging when you've been Missing In Action for so long now?  I've had several people ask me & to be honest - life has just been crazy for us lately and I really haven't felt like I had much to add of value for anyone.  Now how does that sound for pitiful?!

Also, I do not like blogging w/out pictures and the last time I had tried to add pictures there was something weird going on with blogger & I got terribly frustrated. 

With that said - I'll try to do better :-)

So what's been going on w/ us since August/September time frame.

Ryan:  Has realized he has a love & passion for cross country running.  Some of those meets were captured here ... or maybe it was just one???  But all of those were captured on Facebook.  Yes, I'll admit I'm a proud mama.  He did extremely well for his first season, but foremost - he enjoyed it and really that's all I want for any of my kids is for them to enjoy that which they do.  He also played fall baseball and again, I have about a bazillion pictures of that too.  Basketball has started for winter but most likely you'll be spared the pictures.  For one I get too excited about the games to actually be able to concentrate on taking pictures and two - I just have issues it seems trying to take any inside shots.

Emma:  This little dumpling moved up to the first level of competition in gymnastics and had her very first meet this past weekend.  I'll try to upload pictures of that - it was adorable!  Again, not a proud mama one iota.  January & February weekends will be full with more meets.   Looks like we'll be traveling to Indianapolis, IN and Knoxville, TN but the other meets will be a little closer to home.  Did I mention she looks adorable in her little competition leotard?  She does :-)

Rebecca:  Is absolutely LOVING being in Kindergarten.  Loves her teacher (who is AWESOME I might add), loves her friends and is so tickled about learning!  Right now she's not in any extracurricular activities other than AWANA at church - but I think she's happier that way anyway.

Other than kiddos, we were able to go to Oklahoma for Thanksgiving & one evening we were able to have a get together with a lot of the cousins from my dad's side of the family & it was a lot of fun!  I was also able to catch up with a childhood friend who was like a brother to me - very enjoyable trip!

So, there it is in a nutshell - we pretty much meet ourselves coming and going.

Promise to post pix soon!

Catching Up!

Oh my ... where do I start. Since posting last:

• Celebrated Emma turning 7! She was one happy & excited little camper to celebrate her big day.


• Baseball practice has started, but games do not begin until next week.


• We saw the 'Oscar Meyer Weiner' mobile in Shelbyville ... that was fun


• We watched the Derby with some friends - I was rather sad about ArchArchArch


• I broke my wrist


• Had surgery


• Have been exempt from dish duty


• But really, would much rather be washing dishes than dealing with this confounded cast.

I'll try to cover the big things in separate posts ...

In Case You're Wondering

We celebrated Thanksgiving in Oklahoma this past week, wonderful week of catching up with friends & family!!! Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Bad news is, the laptop has crashed again - this time most likely permanently ... so uploading of pictures isn't gonna happen for a while :-( Not even sure at this point how I'm going to get Christmas cards made.

Hopefully I'll be back to catch up soon. I do have some funny little Thanksgiving week stories to share!

Giving Credit Where Credit Is Due

I have a few more pictures to post, but wanted to make sure I give credit where credit is due on these! Robin, a photographer in Frankfort took these shots of the kiddos. I was given her contact information from my friend Cynthia after I inquired about some fabulous pictures she had of Miss Marlee that were of her sitting on a railroad track. They were just too cute for words!

Robin was very patient with the kids even though it was evening time and the girls were tired and Ryan was bossy. She was even patient with me as I was constantly combing hair, trying to straighten bows and keep Ryan from being bossy. I would say she earned her money that night! The hard part is going to be figuring out which ones to order.

A Place To Fall Apart

Let me get this out of the way & then I can move on. People respond differently to stress and crisis. I've pretty much always been the kind who does the jump right in and take care of business thing and then later have some sort of release. Thankfully I've only really had to deal with two major losses in my life and then two or three times I would label as times of crisis.

For the losses, one was my very best friend. One of those friends who knows all about you but loves you anyway. She died in a terrible car accident which just so happened to be on her birthday. My dad had to call me at work, over two hours away from "home" to tell me the news. One of the hardest days of my life.

The second loss was the death of my father who lost his battle with cancer. On both of these terrible occassions, I jumped in and did whatever was necessary to help either my friend's family or in the case of my dad - my family. For both, the grief hit me much later. Weeks after Lila's death I was heading south on I-35 toward Ft Worth when sobs just overtook me. I remember pulling over and crying my eyes out and letting all that grief escape. My place to fall apart.

I was in Oregon on business a couple of months after my dad passed away and had gone a day early in order to spend some time seeing an area I had never been to. Driving down hwy 1 along the coast, I drove up into a scenic area and found a beautiful water fall ... and that's when the same grief hit again. My place to fall apart.

It's been pretty much the same with crisis. I deal best by determining what the fix is and then making a list and start crossing things off. Then later I find some place, off by myself - a place to fall part. This right now is more of a loss right now than it is a crisis, maybe that feeling will come in time. The problem though is that for some reason, maybe jet lag - maybe just needing to be a mom right now and not wanting the kids to see me being emotional, but for some reason I don't have the answer this time. I don't have the list. I don't even have it in me to even make a list right now. All I have is faith that it will all work out. But I'm feeling that need to find my place to fall apart. A chance to get it all out so I can get back to normal.