Feeling Pretty Blessed ...

I had my sugery today to fix my bum shoulder (Not my bum! I mean my bad shoulder...sorry, Lortab talking.) Anyway, all is well and soon I'll be out of pain and I'll get to do things I haven't done in years. Who wouldn't feel blessed about that!

But...
That's not the only reason...
my family has totally stepped up and are taking such good care of me. My kids even helped with laundry tonight!
I just want to say thanks to my kids for being so good, my mom for the dinner and beautiful flowers she brought over, and, especially for Lee taking such good care of me. He's made me rest, made me as comfortable as possible, kept things together and even did my hair!

Yes, I'm blessed.

Just for you Lee...

A belated anniversary present.

Enjoy!

(This is a joke! Just so you know.)

Yeah Baby!

21 years and going strong!

I love you Lee!

Happy Anniversary!

Remembering Always...

What are the Chances?

It was Emma's new friend, Watson's, birthday today and he gave everyone in his class a bouncy ball with some candy.

Emma was so excited.

You know how kids are with bouncy balls -- they can't hold on to them. She was bouncing it all around the house and knocking things over so I told her and Max to take it outside. Well, they were bouncing it out on the driveway until it bounced past Emma and into the muffler of Lee's car.

Yes, it went right into the muffler and stayed.

At first I didn't believe that it just bounced in there but the older boys confirmed it.

Because really,

what are the chances?

I was worried at first that we were going to have to go to a mechanic and it was going to cost all kinds of money (which would make Lee just so happy), but when I looked at it with the flashlight and saw it didn't go all the way in the muffler, I was relieved. It was just at the end of the pipe so I got a fishing pole and fished the ball out.

Crazy huh?

Rising from the Dead

I woke up to a big surprise today.

My original blog has been restored!!!

"Dear Dairy" is dead no more!

Last January, after getting a kind of freaky comment on one of my posts, I deleted my whole blog without even thinking about it.

I'd been in mourning ever since.

A couple of days ago, I got a glimmer of hope that there would be a chance of getting it back so I looked into it. To make a long story short, Blogger restored it for me and basically told me to be careful with the delete button next time. Okay, deal.

So, all 212 posts and basically two years of family history and my random ramblings have been restored and

I'm flying high today!

Look Who's a Teenager...

Happy 13th Cole!!!

Thanks for always bringing so much joy and laughter into our lives!

Hope being a teenager is all you hope it will be.

We love you!!!

Change is in the Air!

Look what I saw at the Park!

Yes, those are yellow leaves!

You know what that means?

My favorite time of year is coming!

I'm so excited for the cooler weather and beautiful colors!

Yippee!!!

Here's some pictures of some pre-fall fun at Pioneer Park.

(My kids are happy because it's not too hot to play at the park. I'm a whimp in the heat!)

Emma and Max played forever on the same slide.

The best is Max scaring Emma at the bottom.

She fell for it every time!

We're just crazy about fall!

Can't wait!

A Big Day for a Big Girl

Well, she did it!

In her own words,

"I didn't cry a drop!"

Yes folks, Emma went to Preschool for the first time today and didn't cry!

(You gotta love the school t-shirt! The back says, "Center Stage School Rocks!"

She had to wear it today.)

For those who don't know Emma, this is BIG.

She has some serious Separation Anxiety.

But, today was different.

She did it!

I am very proud of her for being so brave!

Preschool is a good thing for her. She doesn't get a lot of social opportunities where we live so this will be a very good thing for her. She gets to have preschool for 2 1/4 hours and then one day she has dance, another day she has karate, and the final day of the week she has a singing class. Today was karate (or "erawdee" as she says.)

She had a blast!

I got there a few minutes early to pick her up and listened through the door. I heard her laughing and talking to the other kids while they were cleaning up and I heard her learning their school song. I tell you, I almost cried! Then she came walking out to get her backpack and saw me. I smiled and she said, "No Mommy! I'm not done yet!!!" and went back in with her backpack. I'm taking that as a good sign that she loves school. As we were leaving, she ran up to her teachers and thanked them without me reminding her. I was so proud of her! She said goodbye to her new friends and was all smiles. It was wonderful.

My baby is growing up!

I will miss my little baby but I am so thankful that she is learning and growing and I know this will be good for her.

P.S. Last night, I was putting her to bed and she got a panicked look on her face. She said, "Mommy, I don't have a packpack for school." I had told her we were going to get a special backpack just for school and I totally forgot. I told her not to worry and she went to bed. Well, I did what any resourceful mom would, I turned an old backpack into her "special" one. (I didn't want a backpack to upset her. I already knew this would be hard for her.)

I don't know where we got a backpack that came from Kindercare Preschool, but I found it in her room so I made a patch out of scrap fabric and ribbons that said, "Emma" and covered the Kindercare logo.

How's that for last minute?

Well, as you can see, it totally looks homemade (definitely one-of-a-kind!) but Emma loved it. She was so surprised this morning and she was ready for school.

And that made me happy, too.

I Could Just Kick Myself!

This is how I'm feeling right now because I didn't plant a garden this year...

Why was I so lazy!?!

I mean, it's not like I had to pull up a bunch of grass to make a garden or anything.

My backyard is just dirt.

Geeze.