Beautiful perfection...

My heart feels led to share this with as many as I can, so I picked all of you since you are special to me.

I met Heather in my mom's group. She recently lost her little boy Carter. But he fought long and hard and touched many. He will continue to do so. Heather has been amazing throughout Carter's life and journey to Heaven, her grace is just beautiful.

I know that she would love for everyone to know Carter. So I wanted to share this with you. It's a picture of Carter's new headstone. It is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful and perfect. The hand and feet imprints were taken on the day he went to Heaven (it was planned after being on life support). Please click on this link to see Carter's new headstone *here*. Please do this, it is hard I know. You won't be disappointed. And if you would like, spend some time reading their story.

Thank you! And a reminder to hug your loved ones so very tight...never miss an opportunity to tell them how much you love them.

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Aloha Kai "Love of the Ocean"

I'm wanting to share an awesome new shop on etsy. For disclosure purposes, I'm not being compensated for writing this. When I saw my friend's art on Facebook, I encouraged her to open an etsy shop. This week she and her friend did just that! I promised her I would do my best to share their shop. They have been selling their art at different functions in So Flo, not living there anymore I really wanted to be able to buy a few pieces. Now I can and so can you!

ALOHA KAI "Love of the Ocean" is the shop run by Carol and Vic, two artists and surfers. They have found a way to clean up our beaches and make old things beautiful and new. They started this before the awful oil spill in the Gulf. Their art is made from items mostly collected from the Atlantic and Caribbean coasts.

Carol and I met in high school. Funny story and one to show you that though I have always had lofty aspirations to be crafty, I really don't think I have one iota of talent. (Maybe I just haven't found my niche yet). We were in ceramics class together and try as I might I could not make anything beyond the beginner's pinch pot. Carol would be whipping out piece after lovely piece, while I would have project after project fall apart or turn out downright pathetic. By the end of the year, I had not one, seriously not one ceramic masterpiece to show for my efforts. Carol took pity upon me and gave me one of her really cool pots full of swirly designs. I painted/glazed it and took it home...I was kind of proud-atleast of my color skills. But the truth, was engraved in the bottom, Carol's name!

I am pretty sure that my mom still has that pot that is now home to a plant. Yet another thing I can't do-grow plants of any kind. Instead of a green thumb I have the "thumb of plant death"! Mr. H will not let me touch any plant, flower, garden veggie. In fact, he prefers that I don't even look at them.

So back to ALOHA KAI...if you love the beach check out the shop and maybe pass it along to your friends! I just bought a few pieces that really spoke to me and reminded me of the many days spent on the beach during younger and more carefree times, ones that I've had my eyes on since Carol shared the pictures on Facebook. The images I've shared are the ones that I got. They will be a perfect addition to my bedroom redo, a room that I've been wanting to make all about peace and tranquility.

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Thank goodness for babies...you couldn't have a Happy Mother's Day without them!

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Remembering the sweetness...

they are worth it all!

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I've gotta share this new blog I've found and her totally scent-sational giveaway!

Just found a new blog to follow! Susannah's blog is all sorts of fun and interesting, I can't wait to catch up on her archives. She has a sweet baby girl, is a fan of SEC football, Diet Coke, Plaid, pink and green combos and an animal lover! That's my kind of girl!

In honor of Susannah's 200th blog post at her blog The Edwards Edition, she is having probably the most awesome and scent-sational blog giveaway I think I've seen!

You simply must head on over to check out her blog and sign up for her giveaway. You will be blown away by her giveaway loot!

Her giveaway runs through Friday April 30th and a winner will be picked on Saturday May 1st. Good luck to you! (and me!)

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Easter Eve...

Did you know that Easter Eve is actually a holiday of sorts? Well it is. Not quite like Christmas Eve. It's more of an anniversary. One of my bestest of friends, Krissy, and I picked Easter Eve as the anniversary of our friendship. Tonight is somewhere around our 23rd anniversary. (Wow-that makes me feel very old). Of course there is a story that explains why we picked Easter Eve as our anniversary.

Growing up in our neighborhood was full of awesome. There were a lot of kids. On just our street were three of us girls who were all the same age. And there were older brothers. And, well just a lot of us. It was a big neighborhood. We always had fun-every day! One of our traditions was playing *manhunt* at night. Some of the guys actually wore camouflage, and us girls usually just wore something dark. Another habit that Krissy and I had was telling each of our parents that we were spending the night at the other's house. This always worked out easily and we had many fun nights "out". (Kelley and Bethany better not ever try that. I'm really hoping that my experience as a kid will enable me to know when they are trying to pull one over on me).

So back to Easter Eve...It was one of those nights where we were "at each other's house". We decided to deliver Easter Eggs filled with treats to all of our neighborhood friends. Our brilliant idea was to sign each egg with a marker from the "camo bunny". No joke! As we spent several hours that night filling the eggs with candy, signing the camo bunny's signature, and delivering eggs throughout the neighborhood...it was then that we decided that Easter Eve shall be the anniversary of our friendship!

All these years later, I think back to the good old days. We had so much fun. Of course back then all we really wanted to do was grow up and be adults. Because adults could do whatever they wanted. If only we knew then what we know now...sigh. These days I see the same in Kelley and Bethany, wishing they were grown ups. They have big plans. I tell them all the time that their days as a grown up will be here before they know it, and it will last forever...but the fun days as kids will be gone. And they'll miss them. Like all kids before them, they just don't believe me.

Happy Easter!

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A quick thank you...

To all of you who have taken the time to read my thoughts from the earlier post and who have left comments. I encourage all of you to speak up. I do moderate comments and as long as they are not threatening or full of profanity, they will be posted. As I mentioned in a comment, we are all in this together.

I did lose a reader here or there. That was disheartening not from a financial aspect as the blog isn't monetized...but maybe they'll have a change of heart. If they just could realize that I entered a career field that is about saving lives. That is most important to me. Then to add my experience as a patient, it was really eye opening. We all have our passions and this is mine.

Currently working on my newest post...it's about bad habits that aren't so bad after all. Pretty interesting and makes me feel better about some of my own bad habits. Maybe it will help others feel better, too. I hope to have it finished tomorrow.

But for now just wanted to say thanks and that I love y'all!

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Reconnecting with a friend who made me her "hero"!

Growing up I lived in Ohio. I would spend about a month of every summer vacation with my Grandma and Grandpa Roger who lived several hours from us. As a kid it seemed like it took forever to get there. Though the drive was definitely worth it-I loved visiting my grandparents!

One of the perks of visiting was spending time with their neighbors including, Tammy, who was my age. I absolutely had a blast with her! She was one of my favorite friends. I wished that we lived closer and could have been able to see each other more than once, sometimes twice a year.

When I was 10 we moved to Florida and my grandparents did as well. Sadly, I didn't get to visit my awesome friend anymore and we lost touch. That is until a few months ago when we reconnected on Facebook after 25 years! As a side note, I am so thankful for Facebook. I have reconnected with so many people from all the different times of my life and places I've lived. I am also connected to people that I know now, too. It's really a great thing!

Since I had just recently reconnected with Tammy, she didn't know about my experience with Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I was really surprised when I saw that she was participating in The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training. It's a charity sports training program that has raised a lot of funds to support various aspects of the blood cancers leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Click here on *Team in Training* to learn more about the program.

I told her that I had fought NHL, thanked her for participating in such a great cause and that I would be making a donation. She was shocked to hear about my experience and asked me to be her "hero", the person she is running for. That is such an honor for me!

Please check out *Tammy's fundraising page* and consider making a donation to help her reach her goal. All donations go to a great cause dedicated to funding blood cancer research and providing education and patient services.

Thanks!

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omgosh!!! yay!!!

I FOUND MY CAMERA!!!

sorry, yes i was yelling. but yes! yay! i found my camera! and all of our pictures from christmas! and...just in time for bethany's party!

who'd have thought i'd be so upset over a 9 year old camera? (well and the pictures it contained of course). especially when i have a new camera that is way more technologically advanced? (and way too complicated to use).

back in my comfort zone i go...

in case you are curious it was in a box, but not a box that held christmas presents that were carted back from my parent's house. another box, that's been here all along. weird.

ok gotta run and get ready for a party.

yay!!!

p.s. 146 pictures total. wow!

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keepin' georgia on your mind!

wanted to share georgia and her blog with everyone. georgia is 10 years old and is battling leukemia. what a brave and strong girl she is!

also, she is hoping to get visitors on her blog from all 50 states and beyond. please stop by, say "hi" and tell her where you're from.

wouldn't it be so awesome to fill up georgia's map?!

http://keepingeorgiaonyourmind.blogspot.com/

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farewell to a legend...

as y'all know i'm a florida gator fan through and through. mr. h is a florida state seminole fan through and through. surprisingly, it's never become too ugly.

but if you are a college football fan and live in florida, it's inevitable that you respect bobby bowden, the seminole's coach. he has so many accomplishments. i won't list them here, but just know he is legendary! he was a head coach prior to joining the florida state seminoles but i do believe he'll always be known as that coach-he started coaching them in 1976!

today we had the honor of watching his final game, the gator bowl playing the west virginia mountaineers. the seminoles showed up in awesome form and bobby ended his amazing career with a win! and tears, lots of tears...including mine. dadgummit as bobby would say.

farewell bobby bowden, likely the most legendary coach of NCAA football. even i will miss his legacy.

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a little snippet of my year...

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the christmas story

this video was made by my friend wendy's husband and includes her two sweet sons-they are the brothers who are together in the video-you can't miss them... they are the two adorably handsome guys and quite funny too! you can meet the whole family here .

enjoy!

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i have got to stop slacking...(and whoa do i foresee trouble)

seriously. i mean i am a total slacker about lots of things-and i'm ok with that. one thing i've been pretty good at though is capturing moments with the camera. yep, i usually take pictures aplenty. i don't make those cute scrapbooks, that would be way too much work. thanks to mammie, kelley and bethany do have their own photo albums. though with the digital age i'm lucky to get prints made. in fact the summer i was sick i actually caught up with five years of pictures into each album. lately though i just plain suck. even when i manage to take pictures i haven't blogged them, uploaded to facebook, nothing. if i don't change my ways, the next current pictures you all see may be when the girls are teenagers. (oh holey crow, one day we're going to have two teenage daughters...at the same time!)

so really i need to get busy. for example i mentioned my complete lack of recording kelley's concert last night. and there was no excuse! i even have one of those flip video camera thingies. well i haven't opened it and figured it out yet. see? slacker.

what has me thinking of this now though is bethany. i can't tell you how many times i gaze at that child and try to figure out how i helped create her! forgive me for this, but you all will understand...cause aren't all of our children just gorgeous? yes they are. bethany. wow. long naturally curly hair, big blue eyes and teeny tiny. not a freckle on her face. really i'm thinking mr. heather gets A LOT of credit here. and she has this style about her. when i was her age, picture chubby, freckles, ugly dresses from kmart (sorry mammie and papa), and likely a kinky poodle curl perm. not to leave kelley out, because she is way too pretty for me to not be wowed when i get to claim helping create her as well. each day they are growing more and more into these cute little sassy girls. and i'm so *proud* to be their mommy.

so bethany today... gosh i wished i had snapped a picture of her before she left today with her papa. a cute little skort outfit which she was all legs in. a snow cap (yes in florida) perched perfectly on her head of curls. pink clogs. i'm just giggling now thinking about how darn cute she looked! and kicking myself for being such a slacker. fortunately she puts together these cute little outfits all the time so i will take some pictures someday soon. and of kelley, too. kelley's style is a bit more sophisticated and she's got a cute new haircut.

and back to that teenager thing? mr. heather and i are going to be in so much trouble!

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it's GREAT to be a FLORIDA GATOR!

though i can't claim alumni status, i can claim being a BIG fan way before i was old enough to even think about college!

it's a big game today, playing our rival's the florida state seminoles. YUCK.

and it's also a special game as it's tim tebow's last regular season game. all of the gator nation are honoring him with this...


i'm a little sad. but we are ranked #1! and will be playing for the SEC championship and hopefully rolling right over the tide. maybe even playing for the national championship again. so tim still has time to shine.


and once he graduates...i'll still love the gators just like i always have-cause it's great to be a florida gator!!!

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holiday faves

i asked for requests for things to blog about during my nablopomo challenge and a bloggy friend jennifer (you can check out her blog by clicking on her name!) suggested favorite childhood memories. i have a lot of them, and i think i'll share my holiday faves from being a child to now being a mom.



growing up, most of the holidays were spent with just me and my parents. sometimes we'd have relatives over or go to visit, but usually it was just us. i have great memories of our holidays.

thanksgiving always started off with watching the macy's parade. then we'd have our thanksgiving dinner, complete with homemade noodles. yep noodles. outside of family, i've met just a few people who have noodles as well. but for us, it's a must! the day usually ended with our bellies full and watching the original miracle on 34th street. that was it, and it was perfect!

thanksgiving these days is spent with family, and of course the girls. i have never been able to get them interested in watching the parade, but i still give it a little peek every year. our menu has changed a little, but not much. mammie does the cooking, and other than mashed and sweet potatoes, there are no veggies, none. one year i did make the ever famous green bean casserole. but have since gone back to a veggie free thanksgiving.

my very favorite day of the year is christmas eve. i love the anticipation of santa claus and remembering the birth of Jesus. both are just absolutely magical. our routine hasn't changed much over the years. lots of christmas carols. dinner is an awesome mixture of appetizers and treats made by mammie and papa. papa's specialty is loaded nachos. we exchange gifts with extended family. and mammie always makes sure we have a new pair of christmas jammies. the girls hang their stockings and papa reads "twas the night before christmas" to the girls. we do all of this at mammie and papa's house because they have a chimney! they leave santa milk and cookies of course, and usually carrots or oats for the reindeer.



christmas morning is all about the presents. as a child i remember always waking up to a lit christmas tree stuffed with presents underneath. and santa always, always took great care of me! one year he almost broke my heart. what i really wanted that year was a speak n spell. i was so excited to get it, i just knew it had to be there. all the packages were opened and there wasn't a speak n spell. i was thrilled with all of my gifts but still sad. turns out santa had dropped a present behind some furniture...and it was my beloved speak n spell! i am an absolute spelling bee and i'm sure it's because santa didn't let me down!

our christmas mornings are pretty similar now, waking up to that magical site of a lit tree and presents everywhere! sometimes we sleep at mammie and papa's on christmas eve, sometimes we sleep at home. fortunately we are barely a mile away. papa has an "in" with santa and he never gets confused as to where he's supposed to show up. we unwrap presents from santa and from each other. listening to carols. we usually have a light breakfast of cinnamon rolls. saving our appetite for the big christmas dinner. my grandma has been making that for the past couple years.



as for new year's eve and day, we really don't have any traditions. it's never late to start them though! last year the girls had their first sleepover and rang in the new year with sparkling grape juice. the adults had champagne. new year's day we do watch college football. but again, no real traditions.

i'd love to hear about your new year's day traditions...we definitely need to start some!

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i guess you could call us quiverfull

***this blog post has been sitting unpublished for several days now mostly waiting for pictures to be added. but also because i'm trying to anticipate the reaction this will get. my intention? just a cute little (or big) history of why i could very well end up as "the old lady with the cats". the situation we have right now is not ideal. and i hope that it is very much temporary! also this is in no way meant to offend large families. i am not the product of one, even though having siblings and a large family have been life long desires of mine. and we are not in the situation to have many more children, for several reasons. one? you will soon see!***

i'd never heard of the term "quiverfull" until the duggar family became popular. and even then i wasn't quite sure of the exact meaning so i glanced at wikipedia. according to the first little blurb it says that "children should be received eagerly as blessings from God". and i definitely do agree with that. but ok it's true we don't have a quiverfull of children. and although i really do want a "large" family, to me that means three or four children. not exactly very duggar-esque.

however, i also view animals as blessings from God too! sometimes i prefer them to humans as they never lie or cheat. pets just warm my heart and make me smile because they are true, pure and full of love. i definitely believe the studies that say pets are good for you. ever been comforted by puppy kisses or kitty purrs? now i won't say that my pets never get grumpy, they do! especially theo who often walks around the house complaining about this whole quiverfull mentality i seem to have. which i guess i should explain.

i've always been an animal lover. my dad says i've adopted strays my whole life (though he actually has included some people as strays too, but that's a whole other story), and i have rescued many, many strays in my lifetime. some i've kept as my own pets and some like a few litters of kittens i've rescued from the elements i've worked hard to find them good homes. this is no easy task. all in all, i've always had pets. and for a few years it was surprising because i had only one pet, ferris. he's my 16 year old best buddy, a manx cat that i adopted from animal control when he was only 5 weeks old. i say my best buddy because he is! he's been with me for my entire adult life, all the ups and downs, growing, maturing, college, working, boyfriends, marriage, kids, sickness, etc. not to mention all of the pets and strays that have come and gone. ferris has seen it all!



about four years ago or so theo joined us. a little kitten in the yard who was hungry and getting wet when it started to rain. of course we brought him in. he quickly bonded with mr. h and became "his" cat named theo. (the bonding could explain the grumpies theo is prone to). for the next few years it was just the two cat guys.



kelley did have a puppy from the humane society for a little while, but no matter what we did bethany was terrified of him. and like lots of "mutts" he got pretty big which made bethany even more scared. fortunately he found another good home. we had a few hamsters who were quite sweet but they are now running on the big hamster wheel in the sky.

kelley still desperately wanted a puppy. she first asked when she was just 2. on her eighth birthday she got daisy, who we all adore and is the "pug princess". i have to brag about daisy...puppies to me are A LOT of work. i've had one who seriously was more of a challenge than a newborn! not daisy though. she was easy to housetrain. she went through a flip flop chewing phase but even that passed quickly. so i don't know if it's daisy or pugs in general. i just know that our princess is the best.dog.ever. the boys-ferris and theo didn't mind her at all. we then became a nice little family with not too many pets. nice and normal.



last december we acquired another cat. he belonged to a patient of mr. h's who had passed away. the family said that mr. h was the man's favorite nurse and asked if we would like to have the cat. (i have to mention that i was always interested in hemingway cats-the ones with extra digits that are often found in key west at ernest hemingway's estate. and it turns out that this cat had extra digits though i'm not sure if he is a hemingway cat-he actually has six digits on all but one paw and seven on the other! and a few other oddities...also a manx and has the strangest ears i've ever seen-they are curled. he's really a sight to see!). so vader came to home to stay. we didn't name him, i'm not sure if it's from darth vader or not. but according to ferris and theo it is short for IN-vader. yep, after all that ferris has tolerated he drew the line with vader. theo doesn't like him and the grumpies have gotten worse. the feeling is mutual, vader doesn't like them either. but to us and even daisy he is completely lovey-dovey.



ok so now we're getting a bit packed. our house is small-it was my "batchelorette pad". we don't have a farm and really i'm a pretty big believer that house cats belong in the house. but everybody claims "their" spot and it works out. sort of. but we're not at quiverfull yet, not anywhere close!

have you ever told your children something that has come back to get you? well, i sure have. kelley and bethany often mentioned that they would like a turtle. i love turtles as well. and i told the girls that if they ever found a turtle that was in trouble they could bring it home. after clarifying that the huge tortoises that they see from time to time were not included, i figured this would never happen. right? nope! not in my life. the girls rescued an itty bitty tortoise that was about to be eaten by a friend's dog. of course! so they brought the little thing home and true to my word, we kept it. we never did see any "missing" signs, so for now alex or speedy (nobody can stick with one name) resides with us.



it's here that i have to mention that i've always adored orange cats. never had one though. since i've brought this up, i'm sure you realize that is all about to change. oh dear has it changed! my parents noticed a very small orange cat hanging around their yard. she was probably still even a kitten, as much as she could be. and then her belly started to grow, and grow. oh no! she couldn't be pregnant could she? she was much too young. then her big belly was gone. we figured she miscarried the babies. my parent's neighbor had been trying to catch the cat to keep, but they were unsuccessful and ended up moving. some time later that's when we saw kittens, they had survived. five, adorable, tiny, orange kittens! and some time after that the neighbors came back and the mom cat was gone. we guessed that they finally got her, which was great! except for the babies left behind. i guess they didn't realize that she had babies.



this was no problem for me. my resume boasts several litters of kittens that i rescued and found homes for. so that's exactly what i was going to do. except wow, they weren't too friendly or brave. i had to go back and forth many times to catch them all. and i did get all of them except for one. meanwhile back at home we had four little guys (yep all boys) sequestered. they were not at all happy. first order of business was getting rid of fleas and other gross things that wild kittens get. yuck. but we got rid of those. then the challenge of eating, they were very young and i believe still nursing when their mom disappeared. got them eating. they took right to the litterbox. so it was then all about teaching them that we weren't going to eat them and that we were nice. this was a slow process. it was sad though, as we knew there was one kitten left and how scary for that kitten-lost mommy and brothers. i tried and tried to get that kitten. and i failed. my mom however (with my dad's advice) got her! yes she was the only girl. she was terrified, but reuniting with her brothers was so sweet!



now of course the plan was that after we got them socialized a bit that i was going to find homes for them. that would be easy, they are adorable! bethany did bond with one she named julian and since she didn't have her "own" pet like the rest of us, i figured what the heck-we'll let her keep her julian. the rest got names too. gabriel, eli, lexi and, and, well the last one we can't decide on a name for. he's the only one who isn't orange. he's a beautiful cream sort of color that i've never seen before, with dark rusty colored eyes. kelley named him cream puff. mr. h really likes the little guy and named him spooky. and though we call him all of those names, he's most often called pooky. lexi, the only girl and last to join us, is super shy. really shy. in fact after months she is just now comfortable and friendly. poor thing really had a hard time. she's super sweet now and very spoiled.



you may have noticed that i said "months" and that is no mistake. remember how i was easily going to find all of these kittens homes? well, it's not been easy. i have found not one home. not a one! we have mostly tried word of mouth. after it became clear that wasn't going to work i called the humane society. not what i wanted to do, but i had to do something. well that was a bust too. they didn't exactly say no they won't take the kittens. but they did tell me that they had so many kittens and cats that they were completely overloaded and not having any luck with adoptions. my heart sank. so i asked for suggestions and mentioned placing an ad in the paper. they told me not to do that because cruel people tend to answer ads for free kittens and do all sorts of awful things to them-using them as lab animals, satanic rituals or just all around horrible things. oh.my.gosh. by the time i hung up i was on the verge of tears. i just can't imagine these sweet babies being hurt. i refuse to call animal control as i've read too many articles in the paper about their adoption vs. put down ratios. i've called the vets in town. and i've even called animal rescue places out of town. so right now i'm stuck. we're stuck. if you get nothing else out of this long, rambling story of mine-please get this: spay and neuter your pets!



so now we are officially a quiverfull family. it's going ok. the girls think it's the coolest thing ever. daisy doesn't mind them at all. ferris has seen it all, nothing phases him. theo is grumpy and often heard saying all sorts of bad words in cat language-which is kind of cute. vader, poor vader. well he doesn't care for the grown cats at all but i do believe that he feels like he is in charge of the kittens. a surrogate mom maybe? he herds them around, bathes them, it's all very sweet. but i can tell that like any "mom" with five kids he is absolutely worn out. i try to tell him that he doesn't have to be in charge of them but he doesn't seem to understand that. mr. h grumbles about them half of the time and then spoils them the other half.





recently all of the kittens received their vaccinations and were spayed/neutered. wow! that whole thing cost a small fortune. ha-ha maybe i need to set up a "donate" button! but of course it was the necessary thing to do. my hope is that the kittens will be more appealing to people if all of the vet stuff is taken care of already. atleast i tell myself that. we are keeping the makers of kitten and cat chow and cat litter in business. and if only i got paid for my manual labor of litterbox duty...

sometimes there's a lot of work and it can sure be tough...



but the good news is that every once in awhile an unusual friendship is made.







and there's always a laugh to be had!



so there you have it, we are quiverfull!

would anyone like a kitten?

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blossoming kelley

being a 5th grader is definitely agreeing with kelley. my quiet little lamb is blossoming more and more with each day!

the first quarter of the year has not even ended and so far here are a few of kelley's accomplishments...

• she auditioned for chorus in public and was selected.


• she also auditioned for hand bells, the xylophone, and all things percussion and was selected.


• today she was selected to be the class representative for "eaglevision" the in-school daily television news program for the second quarter.

report cards are not out yet, but her progress report was excellent!

we are so very proud of kelley! and even better, she is proud of herself!

now that she's going to be a bit of a school t.v. celebrity, i think she might need a day of pampering. i'm thinking a new haircut and a manicure!

i need to share a family secret now, it's about the hand bells and all things percussion, and why i am especially excited about this! when my mom was in band she had to play the trumpet but she really wanted to play the clarinet. when it was my time for band i really wanted to play the drums. mom made me play the clarinet. it's kind of an on-going joke that my child would be a drummer no matter what. i was never in the marching band as the clarinet was just not my passion. but any time i hear a drum line i get the chills. and we are now on the way to kelley becoming a drummer!

***here is where i would add a recent picture of my sweet blossom. unfortunately the new kelley isn't so cooperative with pictures. trying to get a smiley picture? well that might have to be the next accomplishment we work on***

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bullet friday-the kelley morgan version...

• a week ago kelley celebrated her 10th birthday, i can not believe that my baby is 10!


• her birth day occurred on my 25th birthday, this was in no way planned...usually first babies are late and kelley was 10 days early.


• i did not want an epidural or any pain meds during the delivery. my water broke but i wasn't really having contractions. i was dilated 2 cm when they started the pitocin and it was 8am.


• by 9am i was asking for an epidural, so disappointed in myself...thinking i'd probably have another 12 hours of labor and i was already wimping out.


• they went ahead and checked again just to see, and i was suddenly 9cm-talk about relief!


• at 9:32am my little lamb was born, and i succeeded in my quest of no pain meds or epidural!


• my eyes were closed when i heard kelley's first cry, it was tiny like that of a little lamb. i imagined she would be tiny as well...i was shocked to see my baby for the first time and she was 7 pounds 2 ounces.


• kelley was always kelley. we don't remember a time of wondering if she was going to be a boy or girl, or having a list of names to choose from. she was our baby girl kelley, kelley from the belly.


• she still has a little lamb's voice at age 10.


• kelley has blossomed into a beautiful, smart and caring girl.


• we learn something new from her every day, her wisdom knows no bounds.


• kelley loves Jesus and Jesus loves kelley.


• she also loves animals and hopes to work with animals for her career, i'm thinking she would make a great veterinarian.


• kelley is a small girl, but she definitely isn't a push-over.


• in fact she can be very stubborn.


• she is also very honest, this proves to be a challenge with her having a sister capable of great sneakiness.


• she's an awesome sister.


• and she's a blessing to have as a daughter...the best birthday present ever!

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40 years worth of thanks...

thanks to a great friend for sharing this with me. i feel i should share it with you.

40 years' worth of thanks - The Boston Globe

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