Olivia's Big Day

Today was the bowling state tournament. Olivia was so nervous & was saying she didn't want to go last night. Luckily, she changed her mid because she did so good. I'm so proud of my girl. She rocked it. 54, 51, & 65 -- it was awesome!


Her little team. That's Kaitlyn, Mallory, Olivia, & Morgan. All of the girls did so well! I'm so proud of them.



And, of course, my Rachey girl was there.



And Jarrett too. But he was behind the camera this time. I'm so glad Olivia did well. Even better was that she had fun.

The kids they bowled against were pretty good. I have no idea where in the state they were from, but I thought we were going to be the "hicks" there -- turns out I was wrong. Not that there is anything wrong with that. But that man's twangy voice will be replaying in my head for days to come. Whew.


Now I'm off to try to sleep, while the J-Man is visiting his brother in Chicago. The girls decided to sleep camp out style in the living room. Any bets on how soon this bed becomes full? I'm venturing a guess of 10 more minutes. Or just long enough for me to get really comfortable in the middle of the bed. I digress...


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so...

Just as soon as I talk about how they are sassy & sometimes difficult, they go & do something like this the same day.

Monday night, Rachel was telling us how she is going to marry "my Owen" - her boyfriend from daycare for the past 2 years. She is in love with Owen. Talks about him all the time.

She says, "when I marry my Owen I am going to wear a beautiful dress. And I's going to have red flowers. And I's going to wear fancy shoes." Olivia says, "let's do it tonight!"

So we had a ceremony Monday night. Rachel married her Owen & he wasn't even there. Olivia was triple booked as the minister, bridesmaid, & wedding singer.

Rachel wore my veil from when I married their Daddy & Olivia's flower girl dress from this wedding. Amazing how it fits here just like it did Olivia. I had a little flash-back to when my little Liva Lou was not quite 4.

Olivia, didn't have any pants on, but was wearing my jacket.

My girls were getting along wonderfully. Best friends even. And my heart melted a little bit. I was quick to forget the sass from Sunday afternoon & evening.

See, I knew it was just a phase. It's not over, probably won't be for a looooong time. But for Monday night, it was the perfect night for our little family.

Liv & Mama



nervous



 





not sure





cracking up





in love



weekends & sass

Oh weekends, you are a doubled-edge sword. I love you, but sometimes I cannot wait until Monday morning so I can join the grown-up world. (This was one of those weekends.) The monotony of typing away in my cubicle, answering questions about retirement, payroll, & everything else under the sun at work. Then by about Thursday, I've usually had my fill of the working world & am ready for the weekend. It's a vicious circle. Then of course, I suffer from the never ending Mommy guilt like a stab to my gut everytime.

I try to make weekends fun. And I think I was right on the money with this weekend!

Yesterday, I took the girls to the local hotel to swim. It's pretty awesome that you can pay $5 per person & be able to swim all day in the hotel pool. We were there for a little over 2 hours. And pretty much had the whole pool to ourselves for the entire time. It was wonderful. The girls had so much fun. And I in turn, am the best Mommy in the whole world. That's a direct quote from both girls. ::pats self on back::

Then since I was on a roll, we went to Wal-Mart & they each got to pick a movie from the $5 bin. Olivia chose Addams Family Values. A classic that I love. Rachel, with a little nudge from me, chose Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. The original, none of that remake Johnny Depp crap. You know what's sad, neither of the girls had seen that movie.

It had the makings of the most wonderful Sunday in the history of the world. I'm serious. It was awesome.

Somehow, after about an hour at home, the girls forgot how wonderful I was by taking them to swim. Because I heard the usual - you never let us do anything. Really?! Didn't I just spend 2 hours swimming & throwing you both in the pool. I'm pretty sure I did, because my shoulder is killing me from heaving a 70 pound 7 year old up over my head like 15 to 20 times.

After watching Willy Wonka, Jarrett & I decided our girls are just like Veruca Salt sometimes. I'm sure it's just a phase, but I am losing my patience.

Don't get me wrong, I would say the majority of the time, they are the absolute light of my life. And I would rather be with them than with anyone else on the entire planet. But yesterday afternoon, oh Lord help me.

What I really struggle with is the "you-never-let-me-do-anything" general sass they always seem to reserve JUST.FOR.ME. It's days like yesterday, that make me apologize to my own mother for, no doubt, behaving this exact same way. At least they come by it honest.

Surely, this cannot go on forever. Surely, it won't. Until this phase passes, I should get used to seeing these disgruntled faces.

Girls Day Out

Saturday, while Jarrett was at the supercross race in Indy, the girls & I made a day of it at the local zoo. They may have been over-dressed compared to the other zoo guests, but what can I say, I have fancy girls.  

Rachel was a little scared having to do the carousel by herself, so Olivia held her hand. It was so adorable.

Oh yea, there were also some animals at the zoo.

let's spring it up in this joint

Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas -- all are decorated for in great amounts in my house. Love it! But past January, the snowmen & general wintry decor come down. I feel it leaves the house drab until September when I break out the harvesty fall stuff.

I decided I need to decorate for Spring. What is Springy? Tulips, bunny rabbits, little blue birds, lilacs & anything pastel. Well, that's what I think is springy.

I'm on a mission. And I'm on a budget. Who isn't? $4.09 for a gallon of gas, you feel me?!

So I hit up my favorite budget friendly store -- The Dollar Tree. I also hit up Pier One, not so much on the budget friendly side. But it did give me some good ideas. (and left me envious of the people with hands full of crap.)

Anywho, at the Dollar Tree I found these ugly & quite frankly frightening looking bunny figurines. I bought 2 super ugly albino ones. Red eyes aren't a good look for anyone.






And this cute little brown one.





I painted the albino ones cream. They turned out cute even though they don't have eyes anymore. And they found a home on my hutch.






I also found some ugly little birdies. They were quite sad looking.










They needed spruced up too. I'm seeing this bright blue & bright spring green all over. And by all over I mean at the little craft store in town. Haha. In fact, I almost replicated the $10 little blue birdie they had for sale.










And my new springy mantle is done. My wreath has seen better days. The berries used to be red. I painted them the same blue.





Well, done for now. I'm still thinking I need some flowers. So far, it's springy for the low budget price of $9 bunnies & birdies and 3 $.97 craft paints. Not too shabby.

This girl named Olivia

This girl is gorgeous.


This girl is sassy. This girl makes me laugh. This girl has my whole heart. This girl rocked a side ponytail today at school. This girl loves the dress her Grandma got her. This girl also loves the go-go boots her Grandma got her. This girl is going to be 8 three short months. This girl lost her 7th tooth Sunday night (only the second one she has pulled entirely on her own).


This girl is Olivia & we love her so much.

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Pre-Spring Fun

3 guesses as to who is enjoying this lovely pre-spring weather???

Monday night, the girls & Jarrett played "Tag" for about an hour in the front yard. I played too. I am always, always "Base". Not by my choosing, but I don't complain.

And who doesn't love these smiles?!?!

Rachel & Mama

Happy


Mad


Nervous


Sad


Surprised


Say whaaaaaat


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these girls are nuts

Sometimes, I don't think pictures do enough justice. Sure, they are cute. They capture some of the craziness. But they aren't full effect. There is a constant stream of singing, laughing, screaming, more laughing throughout our house at any waking moment.

Olivia sings all the time. Hope you all enjoyed her rendition of "Farmer's Daughter". Also a little bit of a PSA to not do drugs! haha

As you can see, Rachel is feeling much much better. Spelling her name is one of her favorite things to do. If you ask her what her name is she says Rachel & then spells it R-A-C-H-E-L. Sometimes she gets to talking too fast & leaves out the A. But whatev, it's close.

There is just so much personality inside the 4 walls of our home. Love these crazy girls.

3 am

My girl says to me, "Mama, I love you so so so much." She's still running a fever 102.9 at 2:30 am. She requested that I sleep with her in her Minnie Mouse bed. She won't drink milk, chocolate milk, or much water, but she has pounded an entire large McDonalds sweet tea today, or yesterday I guess. I haven't slept. But I'm in pretty good company. Pretty pretty company, if you ask me. And there isn't anyone I'd rather not sleep with right now. And she's still wearing her fancy dress. I plan on wrestling it off her later today.


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Image is Everything

Rachel says "a positive diagnosis of influenza & fever of 103+ is no reason to not be fashionable."



Oh yea. Positive for influenza. She feels pretty crumby. Really high fever. And I mean really high, 104.2 around 2:00 am to be exact.

We are basically quarantined to the hizouse until she goes 24 hours without a fever. Hopefully my girl gets to feeling better soon. Definitely don't like seeing her feeling so awful and looking so pitiful.



She's doing ok, aside from that dangerously high fever over night. That scared me. But we are in a pattern where she has a high temp then gets medicine and perks up for a bit. See...






Then she gets to feeling all horrible again. I feel fine. But look like crap run over twice. See...



So, the doctor's appointment today went well. She was a real trooper with the tests they did. And she had to wear a surgical mask which did not go with her general fancy-ness.


Hope this medicine helps my girl.