Proxy Mother Daughter Dance

Here it is. The long awaited picture of us together the night of the dance. I have glitter all over my face. In the picture it just looks like sweat. The glitter was provided by my other dancing diva neice, Lynsey.

Here is how it all went down. A couple of weeks ago, Echo called and told me that Bethany wanted to do the mother daughter dance at her recital. Echo was not able to do the dance. She was having surgery the day before and wasn't sure she would be up to moving around on the stage the day after. Echo said that when she asked Bethany who she wanted to do the dance with, Bethany said, 'Aunt Amanda'. How can you resist that? Echo thought the dance would be fairly easy and no problemo. Just a few turns around the stage and done.

Not so much.

I have no dance history whatsoever. We had a whole coreographed routine that most people might consider very easy. At all of the practices, I stumbled through it. I wasn't turning at the right time or in the same direction as everyone else. I actually grew very anxious about the whole thing.

Finally, the night of the recital came and when I got there I realized that we were one of the last few numbers. I hoped that meant that lots of people would be gone by the time I got up there to work my magic. Bethany and Lynsey did their other numbers perfectly. I was so proud of them. They had the biggest smiles and the most personality on the stage.

The time came for my big moment and as we were walking up to the stage I said, "I think I'm going to vomit." Bethany said, "It's okay, just don't think about all the people out there. Just do it for yourself, you'll be fine." It felt very good to be comforted by my 6 year old neice. Nothing brings you back to reality like the sweet words of a child, right?

And I was fine. I actually got all of the steps right, I think. Now, I'm sure that I wasn't doing them exactly the way they should be done but I turned and twisted the right way at the right times. And of course Bethany was a little superstar up there with me. About half way through the dance, I realized it was almost over and couldn't believe I had spent so much time so worried about a very brief (about 3 min) dance.

Thank you, Bethany and Echo. I was honored to be a part of this with you gals. Love you.



I did have a date to the dance recital.

We shared a kit kat out in the lobby during a break.



Side note about Madi. She had her very first sleepover last night. I only cried for a minute. I'll bet they had so much fun. As a matter of fact, if you wanted to see how much fun, check out Christon's blog.

Side note about Echo. She is fine and the surgery went well. Maybe if she gets back to the blog one day, she will tell you all about it.

Family Vacation

I believe everyone has been formally introduced to Pat. Otherwise known as my fabulous mother in law. But have you met her better half? I can't remember, so here you go. Farrel, Bloggers, Bloggers, Farrel.


(Yes, Emma Mae is trying to figure out how to nurse with him in that shot) Anyway, for the past few years our Christmas present from them has been a family vacation. They rent the house (large enough for our giant family) and our only obligation is to cook one dinner per family while we are there. These trips have been some of the most fun times of my adult life. I love my family in law and feel very lucky to have them.

Somehow Emma Mae and I missed out on our family shot. (Probably because I took it and she was home trying to nurse Farrel)

That's Josh's brother and his wife Echo. All of Chris' kids were not available for the picture but here are a few of them. I'm not sure if I have mentioned Echo...just kidding. By now, you should all know that we are BFF.

This is Josh's sister Courtney and her husband Christopher. She has been very pregnant on the last two vacations and I am sure she is very ready for a vacation where she will be able to get comfortable and relax. Except for chasing after the two babies under two, of course.

We all have such a blast on Family Vacation and I am so excited to go. We will leave on Friday to head for Outer Banks, North Carolina. It is such a great time to just relax at the beach and hang out.

This will be our first vacation without Laura. I'm sure that we will all think of her and miss her a lot. But our family really needs this trip and we are all determined to have the best time possible.

Try not to miss me Bloggy Friends. I'll be back. And maybe I'll even try to post while I am gone. Maybe.

Nanny's Fish

Last night I had practice for a mother daughter dance that Bethany has asked me to do in proxy for Echo. I was gone for two hours. Apparently, while I was gone , Nanny cought the World's Giantest Fish. Maybe I should just call it the Pond's Giantest Fish. Up there, that's the pond at the farm. After the pond was made, Nanny had fish put in. Over the years, the fish have grown and we have caught some that were pretty large. Lately, Nanny has been trying a new way to catch giant fish. She puts a little baby carp on the line and uses that as bait. I guess it finally worked.

She looks all business there, but on the inside she is bursting with joy. I would also like to point out that we are not currently going through a cold snap. It was about 90 degrees outside, yesterday.I couldn't get this picture to turn to save my life. Just turn your head a little. Since I was not there when the photo was taken, I can only assume that this picture was taken sort of as a scale. If you know how large Jackson is, then you can see that that is a giant fish.

This picture is evidence that I was not there. I would not be able to watch as my son held a fish like that. It's one thing to hold it away from your body with just one hand but it looks like he is giving the fish a hug. There's not enough sanitizer in the world for those hands. (Mental note: must find that shirt and burn it)


There is that little bit of joy I was telling you about.

Strangely Inspired

The other day, on her blog, Sass mentioned a fitness plan. She was a little annoyed at the presumptions that she was pregnant and was ready to get super fit to deter this from happening again. I have had quite a few 'I'm not pregnant' moments myself. The most recent one was as I was sitting at Jonathon's field day at school. I had brought my own pop up chair and was sitting there as Emma Mae ran around making new friends. One of the girls came over and poked my belly and asked if I was having a baby. I said, "No, I just had one. See her?" She said, "She's not a baby." I said, "I think your mommy left you." I'm just kidding. I didn't say that. I just wanted to. She was right. Emma Mae is not a baby. And I shouldn't be blaming my pudgy belly on her another minute. I have actually gained more weight since I had her than the last month I was pregnant with her.

Anyway, this weekend I was out on a walk in an effort to keep up with the Strangley Lush Fitness Plan (SLFP) and lo and behold, I saw this. It's a gym. Not even a mile from my house. So, I walked right up there and I joined. They have a little nursery for the kids and they have great classes. They even have a cycle class, which I may try tomorrow.

Today was my first trip to the gym. Jackson and Madi went with me and they did GREAT in the nursery. I did the elyptical for about 45 min and it said I went 4 miles. How exciting!! I wanted to go over and try the weight machines but I was a little intimidated. But that's okay. I will try them next time. Once I get a little more comfortable.

I got a little sunburned over the weekend but if you look back at the shot before the gym you will see that most of that ain't sunburn!! I'm working hard and getting fit. Can you tell I'm losing weight, already?

I'm A Little Overwhelmed

It's that time of year again. The garden is booming. Everything is getting ready to be picked. My father in law brought me two 5 gallon buckets of beans and we picked about three 5 gallon buckets of squash. My husband's grandma came to help me snap the beans yesterday. We sat there and snapped beans for about 2 hours while the kids ran amuck. This morning my mom came over to help me jar all of our beans. Neither of us has ever done this before so Nanny came back over to help us. She is about 80 years old and she just scoots around telling us exactly what we need to do. I wouldn't have it any other way. I tell her I'll do all the work if she will just tell me what to do. So, she obliges me. She is so funny. I'll turn the burner on and she'll turn it just a hair up or down. It's got to be JUST right. I'm so happy to have her around to show us how to do all of these things. Jarring is very intimidating because of the pressure cooker. But, really it's not that bad. Here's a shot of the pressure cooker.

Anybody can set a cooker on the stove and take a picture to pretend like they are really doing it. So, I made it into a movie. That way there is evidence that I was really pressure cooking.

Then there is the squash. We will be slicing it, blanching it and putting it into freezer bags. That will be the easy work. Although, I'm not sure you can tell from that picture how much there is. There's A LOT.

Let's just say I have it coming out of my ears.

That squash barely touched my ears and will be included in the baggies to go in the freezer. If any germaphobes out there have a problem with that, the next time you come by for dinner, pass on the squash.

(Gosh, that sounded really cranky, sorry, I'm a little tired. I will try to stop calling people names. Maybe.)

The Romance is Gone

In the beginning it was all so new. So exciting. I couldn't get enough. I had to look at it everytime I walked in the room. I thought about it all the time. I even had quite a few late night and early morning rendezvous.

Like any new relationship, the newness fades and you are left with just 'it'. No more mystery or excitment over what it could be, or will be. 'It' is just 'it'. Then the struggle is moving forward and trying to make 'it' exciting. Never as exciting as 'it' was. Just as exciting as 'it' can be now that the thrill is gone.

This is my struggle with my blog. The newness is gone. Will I ever be as good as I was when it was all new to me? Do we have to break up? Do I need to find a new blog? Or should I just commit to this one? That's what we do, right? We commit. We make it better. When we have all of that history (I think I have something like 95 posts) we don't just throw it out the window, right? We start 'faking it till we feel it', right? Some times are going to be better than others. And that's okay. Because when we do get that one post that takes us back to that feeling, it's worth it, right? So what if the rest of the posts are about toilets and kids in the sand. It's the posts that make you remember why you did it in the first place that keep you in it.

Madi and Madonna

On Saturday, Madi, Emma Mae and I had our girls day out. We went to our little mall and found just the right shop to purchase Madi's earrings in. It was just a little junk jewelry shop called Claire's. I'm sure that some of you have heard of it. They have the free ear piercing. But we passed that right up and went straight back to the sticker earrings. We found the perfect little pack of 30 sticker earrings. (you can also see that we found some other little junk jewelry, but that's beside the point)
I wrote my last post mostly thinking that I was going to go ahead and pierce her ears. I sure am glad I got so much good advice. Who'd have thunk that so many people would have such strong feelings about piercing a little girl's ears? I didn't do it for two reasons.

I really don't think that she knows what she is asking for. Meaning, I don't want to get up there and have someone stick one of those guns to her ear and have her freak out there in the middle of the mall. I think I'll wait until she understands what it will entail.

I had not considered that as she grows her body will change. I sure would hate for them to be lopsided when she got older.

I don't have any problems with piercing a baby's ears. It is probably a good time to do it because they have no idea what is going on and don't really feel a thing. Also, as a grown up will be responsible for turning them and cleaning them, it is probably more likely to really be done. I remember mine getting very irritated because I did not take care of them properly.

So, I will wait. Maybe not until 10 or 11 but at least until I know she will be responsible enough to understand the procedure and take care of them correctly. And we will have our girl's day out.

On a whole nother subject, Scrappy sue kindly mentioned that Madonna (Madge, as I call her) will be playing in Madison Square Garden the night of my birthday. The tickets go on sale tomorrow. What do we think? Are we up for it?

I hope she has calmed down some. I don't think I could handle any beds being brought out onstage, if ya know what I'm sayin.