Kinder graduate

This little guy graduated from Kindergarten on Wednesday. Where has the time gone? We are so proud of him! He can read and write now! He can play well with others. In fact, the one area that he received an "excellent" in was cooperating with others. I think that's almost as important as writing in your night journal!

 

 

 

Jake and Abigail

Most of his Kindergarten class.

Our sweet Mrs. Ware. I've already begged her to take Emma Mae when she gets to Kinder!

Jake and Kason. BFF's.

Our dear little Sydney. I'm not sure yet if Jake will marry her or her little sister someday. I'm ok with either one.

Little Miss gets to go to all of the Kinder parties with us. She's like an honorary Kinder mascot. Love them! Congratulations to my big man!

Girl Time

This morning Mike went to spend the day at Jake's school as part of their Watch Dog program. They were both very excited. Since the boys were both going to be gone all day I decided to plan a girly day for me and Em. So off we went to the mall. I needed to find a swimsuit top to match the hot pink boy shorts I found on sale a few weeks ago.

Swim suit shopping is torture on a good day for me. The lighting in the dressing rooms is awful. You see things you didn't realize were actually on your body under those lights. Like the giant blue vein that has taken up residence on the back of my knee.

I promised Emma Mae that if she acted nicely in the store and didn't run around like a crazy person we would stop at the cookie place on our way out for an m&m cookie. She couldn't have been happier. She was actually pretty good in the store once I told her that I needed her help finding the perfect swimsuit. She started picking out things for me that left me questioning her taste. Like the floral number she brought me that was about ten sizes too big. Mama doesn't do floral. So then she went to the other extreme and brought me a hot pink bikini with fringe on top. Let me tell you, nobody needs to see me in that.

I finally found three tops I wanted to try on. We headed for the dressing rooms. I disrobed and pulled out my hot pink boy shorts to try on with the tops. That's when Em decided to laugh hysterically and say at the top of her lungs "I see your booty mommy!" So I said, "yes emma." And she said "I see your tee tee spot mommy! and it has hair on it!" Look I know it's horrible to read this. Imagine living it in a dressing room with at least one other lady right next to you. So I said "emma! be quiet!" So she said "mama! you look kind of flat." And somewhat hopefully I said "really? does my tummy look flat?!" And she said "no mama, I said fat not flat. Fat! You look kind of fat with no clothes on!" Great. As if I wasn't already having self esteem issues what with the swimsuit trying on, massive blue vein and poor lighting and all. So then I put my clothes back on in shame and hurried out to purchase two swimsuit tops I'm not even sure I liked.

I still took little miss to get her cookie afterward because I don't think she was being intentionally malevolent. And she made it all up to me on the ride home by singing "Old McDonald had to fart" at the top of her lungs. I was just sad that the lady in the adjacent dressing room in Dillard's wasn't there to hear it.

Four. More. Days.

I had every intention of writing a humorous blog post today about the end of the school year and how as far as I'm concerned it cannot get here too soon. But then Amy shared this great post by Jen Hatmaker that explains it so much better than I could. And I am so glad I am not alone here. There are so many things she wrote about that I agree with.

I would feel really bad if I was the only mama alive who gave up on homework about two months ago. Technically, I gave up on homework about the third week that Jake brought home the dreaded night writing journal. I mean sixty minutes of sitting at the kitchen table with my child while he struggles to write "I love my crabe" is sixty minutes of life that will never be returned to me. It wasn't helping that I kept envisioning myself ripping the pencil out of his little hand so I could scribble the words on his paper and be done with it already. Instead, I came up with my own coping mechanism called the nightly half glass of wine. Not good.

Thankfully, the Kindergarten teachers had sense enough to stop sending home homework of any kind about three weeks ago. I think they know that not only are the kids done with school, but the mamas are also done with school at this point. We had reached the point in the night journal writing where  I may have told Jake not to bother drawing the three pictures he was supposed to use to illustrate his writing. I may or may not have seen his teachers note on one particular entry that said "don't forget about your pictures!" with a smiley face beside it.  Listen. I know this note was for me. Because I don't think Jake can read "don't forget about your pictures" yet. Although he is very good with reading things like "the baby is strong." Riveting. Besides, how many authors do you know who illustrate their own books? One. Eric Carle. That is it. And Jake is no Eric Carle.

I am so glad I am not the only mama who went from sending fully balanced nutritionally packed homemade lunches for my child to eat every day at the beginning of the year to just telling him to go through the cafeteria line again. Then last night I finally looked at his cafeteria account and realized the reason his money doesn't seem to be lasting long enough is because he is buying lots of .50 cent cookies and .75 cent CapriSun's and 1.00 cookies and ice cream that I didn't know about. Who knew the kid liked sherbet so much?

Last week when my parents were here I planned a trip for us to all go to a local farm to pick strawberries. I was totally going to take Jake out of school for the day even though my dad gave me a funny look about that. Who cares that he has already missed eleven days of school this year due to illness? One more day won't hurt him. At least he would be learning how to pick fruit instead of watching another movie or eating another popsicle or taking another extra recess. He would have an actual trade to fall back on someday if he learned how to pick strawberries. Sadly, my dad got sick and we cancelled the trip so I shipped Jake off to another day of school.

Today was the third Pajama day of this school year. The kids got to take books and flashlights to school so the teachers could turn out the lights while they read by themselves. Genius! Who doesn't think at least one teacher had to take a nap during this time? And trust me, I don't mind! I don't care. Do what you gotta do to make it through the last days. It is unreal, unfair and un-American that kids and teachers alike have to go to school at all after Memorial Day.

As for the class gift. I am sorry fellow parents that I have been bombarding you with emails to try to get you to donate some amount of money to buy our beloved teacher an end of the year gift. Your unresponsiveness was overwhelming. I have a child who comes home and tells me the things that your child has done in class that day. Trust me. You need to dig deep and show our teacher some love. The fact that I tried to arrange everything for you so you wouldn't have to do a darn thing but give me some money is unforgiveable. Go ahead and get your own gift.  And then write me three sentences about what you got her including an illustration.

Short of the glory of God

As a parent I believe one of my most important jobs is to teach our kids about God. It's not enough to tote them back and forth to church but we need to have actual conversations about Him and they need to see that their mama and daddy love God. So tonight I brought out the Bible at dinner time. What better way to teach and instill Godly principles than by reading the good book? The writer of one of the blogs I love suggested doing this and I thought it was a great idea. But like all of my ideas it took me forever to remember to do it. Better late than never.

So as the children were eating their spaghetti I told them we were going to start doing something different at dinner each night. They were so excited! So I brought out my Bible and quizzed them to see if they even knew what book it was. They passed. Then I turned to Philippians and told them I was going to read a little of that chapter to them because it is one of my favorites. And Jake said, "what about Jonas and the whale? can you read that one? I know that one is for real." And I said, "well it was actually Jonah, not Jonas and everything in the Bible is real." But tonight we are going to read Philippians. And they were like "okay."

So I began to read. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice!" And Jake interrupts me with "mama! I know one! listen mama!" And I'm like "what Jake?" And he says, "For all have sinned and fall off of the glory of God!" And I said "great job! You missed a couple words though. It's for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." And he's like "yeah, for all have sinned and fall off of the glory of God." Then he goes "that means everybody mama! everyone in the whole world sins! even the Spanish speaking ones!" And I was like "yes baby, even Latin Americans are not perfect. Because isn't that what that verse is all about?" And he was all "I don't know."

So then I started reading again. "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again. Rejoice! Do not worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God." And I said "see guys, we don't need to worry about anything but instead we need to ask God for everything." And Emma Mae said "mama! I need to pray. I need to pray now." And I was all "okay sweet baby Emma. You have been so moved by this Bible reading that you need to speak with Jesus right now. That is wonderful. Go ahead baby."

So she prayed. "Dear Jesus, I don't want to go to heaven. Please come down here and live with me in my house and play with my toys. Because me and my toys do not want to go up to heaven. Amen." And then she just looked at me beaming because now she just knew she wouldn't have to go to heaven since she asked God and all. And Jake looked at me and said, "um, mama? that is NOT going to happen."

And I realized that our first family dinner Bible reading may have been a complete failure. But I'm gonna go ahead and rejoice. Always.

Pool Days

 

Our neighborhood swimming pool opened up early this year. Like, beginning of April early. At first I thought that would be a good thing but then I realized that it is not. The kids want to go swimming every day and the water is freezing cold. I won't even get in right now. So they have to stay in the shallow water where I won't have to get in to perform any rescues. They still love it. They love it until their lips turn blue.

 

Little girl has some swim style. Not many people can pull off the whole swimsuit with my cowgirl boots on thing.

This is a cool dude. I think his skin is glistening from sunscreen. I promise we didn't oil him up for this picture or anything weird like that. Now I need to endure the humiliation of swimsuit shopping so I can actually get in the water with them as soon as it warms up a little bit!

I'm so proud of my nephew Tom. He recently fulfilled all of the requirements to become an Eagle Scout. Not many people can say they belong to that club. His parents had a ceremony for him a couple weeks ago. Mike was supposed to be there to participate because he is also an Eagle Scout and they needed another one in attendance. Unfortunately, Mike got sick (very sick) the night before and couldn't make it. But my sister found a replacement at the last minute. I'm sure that wasn't stressful at all!

I didn't get any great pictures. But here is one of my sister helping him with some sort of Eagle attire. At the end of the ceremony, Tom stood up before a room full of people and spoke so eloquently about what everyone meant to him and how every one in that room had helped him in some way during his life. I just wanted to cry. When did he get so grown up? I know he's graduating from high school this year and all but still! How can that cute little boy I remember be giving speeches and earning high honors like it's nothing? Crazy. I just can't wait to see what his future has in store for him. Or rather what he has in store for us in the future!

Spring Jamboree

We took the kids to Jake's school Spring Jamboree a couple of weeks ago. They had so much fun. They both loved the train ride. But Jake's favorite part of the night was the dunking booth. He couldn't wait to dunk Mrs. Ware. He succeeded. Twice. He was not a very good sport about it either. I recall some dancing around while screaming "I got her! I got her!" That's ok. She got him back with her water gun later...

 

 

I honestly don't remember where this picture of my children on a giant twister game came from. I have no recollection of that at all!

My Shameless Plug

Last night I started my new job. And it was so much fun! If you know me at all you know I am always thinking about new ways to make a little money. Without actually going out to get a full time job. So recently, after talking to one of the ladies at my part time job, I decided to join Stella & Dot as a "personal stylist." I think that's a hilarious term for someone who is doing good to put on mascara and brush my hair before it goes up into a ponytail every day!

Anyway, Stella & Dot offers a very cute line of jewelry, hand bags and scarves. And now I get to show them to people and sell them. Last night I had my official "launch party." I invited everyone I could think of to invite and ten of my friends and neighbors showed up. That is actually a pretty good number. Mike helped me clean the house all day and then I baked up a storm. My theme was "desserts and drinks" because I like alliteration and I figured if people had some chocolate and wine while looking at my inventory they might actually be happy to buy stuff.

I was really nervous because I knew I had to "give a group hello" which seemed scary. I don't remember what I said (although I know I managed to work something about Rick Springfield in there) but everyone was nice and I think everyone had a good time. Much of the evening remains a blur because I think I was having minor panic attacks the whole time. Or premature menopause. I felt like I was getting hot flashes the whole time and had to keep turning down the AC. Thanks to my sweet friend Barbara from work who got me started doing this I made it through my first official trunk show. I'm excited to see where I can go from here.

Time for the shameless plug. Are you ready? If you live out of town or couldn't make it to the launch party you can still support me as I get started with this business. Just go to http://www.stelladot.com/ts/cqcp5  and shop online. You have until May 24th for the orders to credit my show. That wasn't so bad, was it?

Golden Anniversary

This is the only picture I got to commemorate my mom and dad's 50th wedding anniversary. Bad daughter. Mom and dad came down to my sister's house the day before I met Rick Springfield. You may remember that day? You may remember everyone agreed to have their anniversary dinner a day late to accommodate my need to see RS? So anyway, that Saturday-the day after their real anniversary we got to go to a very nice restaurant where Cheryl and Alan live to finally celebrate a marriage that has lasted for half a century. That is crazy talk. They have been such good role models to me about what a good marriage looks like. I never once worried when I was growing up that my parents weren't going to stay married. Well, I worried one time. It was the only time I ever heard them argue with each other. But when I asked them if they were going to get divorced they explained that you can argue with your spouse and still love them and not toss in the towel on a perfectly good marriage. So here's to mom and dad-we all love you so much and hope you have many more years to love, like and even irritate each other on occasion!

Rick's girls

Friday night Amy and I went to see Rick Springfield in concert in Austin. We were super excited to go to the concert to see our childhood idol again. This was my 7th time to see him! Turns out number seven really is a lucky number. Let's start from the beginning.

The concert was supposed to start at 8:30 and the doors to the venue were opening at 7:30. Tickets were general admission so we wanted to get there early because we needed to be on the front row. We arrived at 6:30pm. Along with 14 other people. We were very happy to be at the front of the line. The excitement built as we realized we could probably outrun everyone in front of us if need be to make it to the front row.

In line we made some new friends. I began to realize that I am not the craziest Rick Springfield fan in the world. We met three ladies from the "valley" who skipped work and drove five hours to be at the concert. I was impressed. One of them even brought a guitar she had purchased at a previous Rick concert that was autographed by him. She was hoping he would play a song with it at the concert. They told us of their love for Rick and how many times they had seen him and met! him. Then I told them that I had asked my family to cancel my parents 50th wedding anniversary dinner that night so I could go to the concert instead. And they were all "okay, you win!"  (We had dinner on Saturday instead) And my family (to my knowledge) completely understood that I needed to be at that concert.

At 7:30 the doors opened. We hustled on in and made it to the front row and had a seat. Then we waited out the next hour with our new friends from line talking about Rick. They told us how you could purchase a "meet and greet" session with him which included an autographed guitar and an opportunity to meet Rick. Now, the last time we saw him I almost bought that package. But in the end I didn't do it because we just didn't have the money for the splurge. But now Amy and I were really considering it. She texted her hubby to ask him what he thought. I texted my sister asking her for money. Amy's hubby texted her back saying he thought we should do it. I never heard back from my sister. In fairness, she didn't get that text until later in the night. Anyhow, we couldn't believe that Amy's husband was willing to splurge on this for us. But he was and after much debate she went and bought the package.

Then we sat for the next hour dreaming of what it would be like to meet Rick Springfield. You have to understand this was going to be the fulfillment of an almost lifelong dream. A 32 year dream. What would we say to him? Would we be able to touch him? Would he ask us to join him on the road? The possibilities were endless. Finally, the concert started. He was amazing. The man is 63 years old and has the energy level of my six year old. He is still handsome as can be and he is still a great musician. He played all of the old songs we love plus some of his new stuff. Incredible. The only downer was a drunk lady right behind us who kept waving a picture of her and Rick in front of my face trying to get him to see it. She actually elbowed me in the head a few times. I thought about grabbing her picture and tearing it to pieces to make her stop but I knew with certainty that she would beat me up.

Anyhow, the concert ended. Amy and I (and two of our new friends) headed to the rendezvous point where we would be whisked away to meet Rick. I had just enough time to buy myself a Jessie's Girl t-shirt. Twelve lucky people were able to meet with him after the concert. We saw him walking over to our group with a roadie or something. I'm going "Amy, Amy there he is. Amy." Then he walks right over to us and says with his amazing Australian accent "who wants to go first?" And I said "I do! I do!" So he walked over to where Amy was desperately trying to unwrap her newly acquired guitar. He helped her get it ready and then autographed it per her request to her hubby for giving us the opportunity. Then we got to take pictures. He draped his arms around both of us and held on TIGHT! Pictures were being snapped. Amy grabbed onto him with both arms and said something about how we saw him for the first time 30 years ago and have been fans ever since. I honestly can't remember what he said to us.

I do remember the only words coming out of my mouth at that point were "oh my word. oh my word. oh my heavenly word." Because I am so eloquent. And cool under pressure. And that's exactly how I pictured myself acting when I met him after 32 years. So after the pictures were taken he started to walk away. And I realized my chance to connect and have a conversation with him was almost over. So I think I grabbed him and said "I have to tell you that today is my parents 50th wedding anniversary and I made my family postpone their party a day so I could come see you tonight!" And he was just looking at me very intently the whole time. And he looked a little teary eyed by my speech. And then he took both of his hands and placed one on each of my cheeks and smiled at me and said "thank you." Then he just enveloped me in the biggest hug ever. Then I died and went to heaven. Well, not really.

Meeting Rick Springfield was seriously one of the best moments of my life. Not because of some silly teeny bopper crush I had thirty years ago. But because he was so incredibly kind to us. He didn't act like we were lucky to be meeting him or that we were in any way bothering him. He actually seemed very humble and a little bit shy.  Yes, he is still handsome and nice to look at. But at this point the connection I feel toward him is more about the music. Every song he sings brings specific memories to mind-where I was when that song came out, who my friends were, how we bonded over a musician. We were afraid that meeting him might be a let down-that somehow he wouldn't be as dreamy in life as he was in our dreams. But, I am happy to say we were not disappointed. And I'm so happy to have had that moment with Amy-fellow fan, lifelong confidant and my full time giggle inspiring best friend.

Wild Women

 

Last weekend Amy and I ran a 5K race together. We had so much fun! At least we had as much fun as you can have while you are running. We actually did a lot better than I thought we would seeing as how we trained exactly zero minutes for the race. So out of 59 runners we finished 28th and 29th. I'm okay with the middle of the pack for now. This race was called the Wild Woman which I thought was highly appropriate for Amy and me. At the finish line we got a breakfast taco and a cup of beer to celebrate just how wild we are. So wild that I came home and took a nap afterwards.

 

In other news, I was wasting time on facebook a few days ago when my fb page told me that Rick Springfield is going to be in Austin on April 19th! What?! So Amy and I have secured our tickets and will be trading in our mom persona's for our wild woman ones once again. Can't wait!

Homemade Toaster Pastries

Emma Mae has been bugging me to make some homemade pop tarts. So I brought out my Homemade Pantry cookbook again and we made these together yesterday. They turned out really good. Jake and I loved them. Unfortunately, Emma decided she was not a fan. Here is the recipe. We filled ours with strawberry and blueberry jam.

Makes 6 pastries

Ingredients

• One recipe Basic Pie Crust
• Flour for the counter
• 1 large egg, beaten with 1 Tbsp. water
• 6 Tbsp. jam or Nutella for filling

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Roll the first disc of pie pastry on a lightly floured surface into a 9” x 12” rectangle, cutting away any errant edges with a sharp knife.

Cut the rectangle into six smaller rectangles. Gently separate the rectangles from the counter and lay them on the prepared baking sheet with at least 2 inches between them. With a pastry brush, paint each rectangle with the beaten egg. You will have some egg mixture left—set it aside.

Scoop 1 Tbsp. of filling onto each rectangle in a thin line down the center. Roll out the second disc of pie pastry, repeating the steps to create six rectangles.

Lay the new batch of rectangles over the rectangles with filling and seal by pressing a fork around the perimeter of each rectangle. Using the pastry brush, paint the tops of each pastry with egg wash and poke several times with a fork.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before dusting with powdered sugar or spreading with frosting.

From The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying & Start Making by Alana Chernila (Clarkson Potter).

Makes two 9-inch pie crusts

Ingredients

• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold, unsalted butter
• 2¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus additional to flour the counter
• 2 tsp. apple cider vinegar
• ½ tsp. salt

Directions

Cut the butter into half-inch squares and combine with the flour in the bowl of a stand mixer. Using your hands, toss the mixture to coat the butter in the flour. Put the bowl in the freezer. In a measure cup, combine one-third cup water, the vinegar, and salt. Stir until the salt dissolves and put the measuring cup in the freezer. Freeze both mixtures for 10 minutes.

Take the mixing bowl out of the freezer and blend the mixture on low speed with the paddle attachment until it starts to become the texture of crumbly meal. Take the measuring cup out of the freezer and, with the mixer still running on low speed, slowly pour the wet mix into the bowl. The dough will be crumbly at first, then after 10 or 20 seconds, it will come together in a ball. Stop the mixer.

Turn the dough out onto the counter and press it together into a large disc. Cut the dough into two equal parts, wrap each piece in waxed paper, and press each into a disc. Refrigerate for at least two hours, and up to three days.



Read more: http://www.oprah.com/food/Basic-Pie-Crust-Recipe#ixzz2PidC6wgm

Love notes

Two nights ago Jake wrote me a note for the very first time. Right there on my grocery list. I will keep it forever.