Take Me Out To The Ballgame

As we were walking out, this ball literally dropped from the sky and almost hit this sign. Pretty funny.

Abbey said she was lucky to have her homemade binoculars.

OK, so spring break came and went. We had such a wild and crazy turn of events that lead to a pretty busy week. Ross took 3 days off from work and got a lot of things done. We have something in the cooker, so you'll have to stay posted. Any who, we decided to take the kids out to the new Camelback ballpark. Well now that you mention it, we would have rather gone to see the TX Rangers, but they were in Tucson and our second choice was the Peoria stadium, but that was an evening game. So really, as a last option we went to the Camelback ballpark. It was pretty nice, but a little funny about the searching they did as you went in. My camera bag was searched for food and I was instructed to throw away my pei wei drink. As I zipped everything back up and started to walk in, a man walked past with a bag of peanuts in one hand and a bottle water in the other. Confusing.

Once we got in, Abbey and I set out to find our first ballpark delicatessen. Much to our disappointment, we could not find any funnel cakes or sno cones. The ice cream selection was also dismal. So I did what any totally defeated parent would do, I spent $5 on an Italian ice that she did not like and spent $5 on cotton candy for Andrew. Later, the natives grew thirsty and we spent another $10.50 on water.

At the top of the 7th and with the threat of sunburn, we decided to jet. As we were leaving we saw a ball drop from the sky almost hitting the sign that read, "Beware of flying balls and bats." Pretty funny really. We took yet more pictures and headed home.

Workin' At The Car Wash

Kids: "Mom, can we go swimming?"

Me: "No."

Kids: "Please?"

Me: "No."

Kids: "Why not?"

Me: "Because."

Kids: "Because why?"

Me: "Because you'll freeze your skinny little buns off, the water is 50 degrees!"

Me: "Why don't you wash the dog?"

Kids: "No."

Me: "Please?"

Kids: "No."

Ross: "Wanna go wash my car?"

Kids: "I'll go get my swim suit on!"

Dad is always the nice guy.

I answered the phone today and got the news
It was back, and nothing could be done.
I could not breathe, I could not think
All my life I’d never dreamed
That you’d be gone, there’d be no tomorrow

I'm beginning to sink.

I thought of you, I thought of me
I thought of all that would not be
My mom, my sis, my kids would miss
All the joy you bring us with your kiss.

All my life I’ve been taught
Everything is for a reason, God has a plan.
We all prayed and wept for a healing
We were sure, we kept pleading
God said a silent “no” but we were needing
Something more, something better
Didn’t He know this was my dad?
Didn’t He care? Wasn’t He listening?
Another “No” whispered again

I said goodbye today to the man that I have loved
To the man that taught so much without a word.
He taught me strength, he taught me courage
He taught love and how to let go.
I never knew dreamed I’d feel so empty
Why did this happen? Doesn’t God know?

“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation?”
“Who shut up the sea behind doors, when it burst from the womb?
“Who told these waves ‘This far you may come and no further’”
“Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea
Or walked in the recesses of the deep?”
“What is the way to the place where the
Lighting is dispersed, or the place where the east winds
Are scattered over the earth?”
“Do you send the lightning bolts on their way?”

I sat in silence today as I read your words
“I’m in control, I’ve been with you and carried you too.”
“I know you are hurting, I know you are lost
I am the maker of the universe I’m the maker of you.
I gave you your father I gave you this man
I must take him now, there is a bigger plan.”

I give my father to You today and do it again tomorrow
I give you my grief, I give you my sorrow
I will trust you with today, and I will live for tomorrow.

Time for Kindergarten!

Six years ago we sat went to our sonogram appointment to find out the big questions...boy or girl. I was pretty sure it was another boy, but I wanted to make sure. "It's a girl!!" Wow, I thought, how am I going to raise a little girl? What I did not realize at the time was how much she would learn by watching my every move. It's down right scary the things they pick up on.

This morning was like any other. Brush your hair, get dressed, brush your teeth, find your backpack, go back and really brush those teeth. I finished putting up Abbey's hair, and I went to my bathroom to finish myself. As I rushed down the stairs I heard her still rummaging around in her bathroom, so I yelled for her to hurry and come down. "Here I come, I'm finally finished getting all my make-up on!" WHAT?! She proudly hopped of the last step and strutted across the floor..."Don't I look beautiful mom?" She had some sort of greenish blueish glittery eye shadow and sparkle lipstick from ear to ear. I did what every mom would have done, I grabbed the camera and told her that she was the most beautiful girl I'd ever seen. She allowed these four self posed shots, than she was out the door and in the car, off to school we went. She is so stinkin' cute.

Extreme Room Makeover

Before shot. Poor Abbey gets all of the leftover furniture.

When we moved in 4 years ago, I was in a big hurry to get rid of white walls. Four years!! Wow. Anyway, my little devil was 2 years old. All we really knew about this little girl was her temperament. She had one of the shortest most random fuses ever given to a child. She was no walk in the park. When deciding on a theme for her room, I assumed that she would follow suit with most every girl and want to play with dolls and be a princess. I could have not been any more wrong about that. As she got older she preferred hitting boys not chasing them, matchbox cars instead of barbies and pretty much any animal over dolls. She prefers a dog to a doll any day. Sure, she gets the occasional attempts from Mema to play with dolls, and she entertains the notion while she is in town, but she always goes back to the animal kingdom. The little doll house in the corner only houses dogs, dinosaurs and matchbox cars. No people allowed.

One thing she has taken to is the beach. She would rather visit the beach to any other place on earth. I call her my Roxie girl. We discussed a surfer girl room for about a year before anything actually got done. The thought of paining furniture makes my back hurt, but we went ahead and did it. I also had plenty of "help" painting. Sure this "help" did not speed up my process, but dang they sure were cute. In fact, Abbey declared this "The best day ever." Anyway, after finally finding all of the "oops" paint colors that I needed, and several 75% off bargains from Target, we are almost complete!

Weekend Get Away

When it comes to being "girly" I really struggle. I don't refer to things as "precious", I don't really enjoy the mommy-kid groups such as MOPS, I prefer texting and facebook conversations to picking up the phone, and I would prefer to hang out with the guys on the back porch at all of the couple gatherings.

One thing I'm guilty of is being a scrapbooker. If it makes any difference, I still stir the pot when it comes to scrapbook conversations. Any who, last weekend some friends of mine set out for Flagstaff to enjoy a no kid or husband get away. The funny thing is, almost every conversation we had revolved around someones kid or husband. When it came to the group as a whole, I was definitely the light weight of the bunch. I took several mental breaks and went upstairs to check everyones status on facebook and answer emails. I was also the one who went to bed the earliest, 1am. Overall, the weekend was a success. The snow started to fall and the place was instantly beautiful. I could have stayed another day just taking pictures.

Back in the Saddle

It's been about 3 months since we have not needed some sort of arm apparatus on that arm. She has had a cast on her arm since Halloween, so now when I see her without it, it looks strange.

For several weeks Abbey has been wanting to ride her bike without training wheels. I'm not so down with that right now. In fact, I can play a flash forward in my head about 16 different ways and they all end in the ER. All it would take is one bad fall and we would be back in the same position we just got out of. Somehow, I convinced her to ride up and down the street with the training wheels. Now, if I could only convince her for the next 10 years, I'd feel better.