Things that Josie did today...

Today was a very big day for Josie.

She had two experiences that may change her outlook.

She was given the privilege of performing at Carnegie Hall.

She called me shortly after full of excitement.

She had never had as much fun singing .

I found that hard to believe,

knowing that is singing is one of her great passions.

I am so happy that she appreciates this ......

The other experience that she had today was not as happy,

but was even more educational for her.

They went to ground zero today.

She saw the memorial wall.

She watched footage

that she was to young to see when it happened.

And she cried.

This was very moving for her.

She remembers listening to the radio,

but not understanding.

Watching us,

knowing that something was different.

But not knowing what.

Since then she has been taught.

But now she knows.

She understands.

She feels.

Today my daughter had two very different experiences.

Today I am a very proud.

3-2-1 Take Off

So this past Thursday Josie got up at 3 am to

shower

dress

and load up the van with her luggage.

So she may go to New York with her choir.

Pretty Cool hu?

They will be gone for 6 days and we are only half way done,

and I miss her like crazy.

I normally go on all of her performance trips,

but this was out of the budget for me to go also.

I just can't wait for her to get back.

When she get back I get to...

See her performance,

See the cool pic she took,

Look at the "city" things she couldn't live with out,

Hug kiss and just smother her with love,

But most important....

get my e reader back!

(j/k kinda I was in the middle of a book when she left)

In all seriousness,

I really do miss her and wish her home safe and sound.

So Tuesday hurry up and get here.

But until then I have a baking "date" with Brianna tomorrow.

We are experimenting with altering her favorite recipes to make them gluten free.

Wish us luck, for we might need it.

I Love denim!

I also have a favorite pair of jeans. Although they are not fit for public viewing. I kept trying to throw them away but never could bring myself to do it. Then a few weeks ago I bought the cutest hair clip from The Pleated Poppy. I just fell in love with it. I really got it for the kids, because I am not comfortable mixing color and patterns, I wish I could but I don't. Now once I got the cutest clip in my hands I wanted one. But I needed it to be very plain and match everything I own. I got really inspired, and the pair of jeans that I love but couldn't throw away became a pair of cleaning shorts and some really cute hair flowers. I love these. I have been

making them for everyone.

They are not perfect they have glue visible, off centered, but I am loving them anyway. My short legs have provided me with many hours of entertainment. They are a dark wash and sometimes I use one side and the other in the same flower, or I use a silk flower or lace.

I know kinda silly. I just don't mix very well.

If it is on a quilt I can, but not so well with my own clothing. I really hope Lindsy doesn't mind my coping her, it really is as a form of flattery.
So where have you been getting your inspiration from?

Western Bonanza

This past weekend Brianna showed her pig at Western Bonanza. It is where the local College puts on a show at the fair grounds.

My kids have been participating in this show for the past 9 years. Almost every year it is cold and stormy. This year was no exception.

I really love that it is all ran by students,

but they do over look a few details.

This year was no different. The lane that my daughter was located on had a minor error in construction....

They forgot to put a gate in, so no one could get in or out. Brianna being the sassy child that she is decided to let them know and where said gate was and to fix it.

Well, they did go install a gate and she still was not happy. They had installed an animal gate, so there is a bar straight across the fence, about 4 feet tall. This was not acceptable for her, she wanted a human gate. That gate has the swing gate and then the bars that steady it go up to 6 feet tall. This way people can enter and exit with out having to crawl. Now they did not understand why this is important. But she was instant and they did manage to change it for her but it was too late. This made her very unhappy, for her little cousin came to see her and with him in his wheel chair he could not fit though the gate. That prevented him from being able to go see the pig. Other than that mistake it went very well. The kids great grandparents, grandparents, Aunt, Uncle and cousins all braved the weather to watch. It was a pretty nice day if you ignore the water falling. Oh and it wasn't always falling equally. At one point we looked out the barn and saw no rain, then we looked out the other side and it was pouring....

Can you guess what end we used?

Happy Birthday dear GG

I am so happy!

I guess I better back up and do some "real" sharing. I have a large and close family, and my cousin lives on the same piece of property that we do. That makes for lots of time watching each others kids grow. Being around at a drop of a hat if you need anything. The best of neighbors. A few years back my cousin and his wife divorced, it was not nice. All visitation stopped immanently. It has been so pain full.

I saw those little girls almost daily. Watched them constantly. I had a play room for them. complete setup for little people.

(My kids are 10 years older so not the same development level as they are)

My nephew is 9 days younger so I referred to Dom and GG as the twins.

Made their 1st birthday cakes.

You get the idea, they were (are) two of "my" kids.

The divorce happened. All contact stopped. Nothing. It broke my families heart.

Then a blessing happened

My Aunt (their Grandmother) was granted a 3 hour visitation each month.

It was given by the courts so it can't be taken away!

The first one is this Sat.

We are not aloud to be there, it was only for her.

(To make it less traumatic for them)

But I don't care, She get to see them. And 3 days after the older ones Birthday.

So I asked if I could bake a cake.

Decided that a whole cake for 3 was over kill.

So today I lovingly made cupcakes.

I poured all the love that I could into them.

They are not perfect, but every detail was made with love and

they will know how much their Aunt MeMe loves them.

So today I went shopping for inspiration and came up with...

Cherry chocolate cake with a cherry chocolate mouse filling.

Whipped cream cherry frosting

and white chocolate cherry rose on top.

My mom thought she had lost the kitchen to cupcake wars!

But I think the mess was worth it.

Tummy Troubles...

So this "little girl" has been having tummy troubles for a while now. She has a habit of getting sick a lot, and then some more. For as long as I remember she has gotten sick easily. if she was too anything she would get "sick" I just thought it was her being extreme and a cry for attention. Well 2 years of counseling and a few Dr. appoints and some test that show that the food doesn't go to the tummy, but comes right back up we are going to see a G.I. Now the ironic thing is last week I got fed up and put her on a liquid diet and started to introduce proteins, fruits and veggies. She has not vomited any in the past week. We also started a new stronger anti acid. So something is helping. Good, but now I get to guess which. The Dr. is a sweet man but never thought of a food intolerant issue. So we now have her not sick all the time, the damage that has been done to her esophagus is getting a chance to heal, but why. And how much damage was done because I tried not to give her attention for this issue thinking it would go away. oh well, I did what I thought was best, got her counseling and now am looking at physical reasons why. I wish I could just get answers. I do feel some guilt, but that doesn't help anything, so I am moving past that. If you are a praying person, please pray for solutions so I can teach this child how to take care of her body to be a healthy adult.

Our Christmas Angles

This year my family had the best Christmas ever. I feel that my kids had truly felt the meaning of Christmas, and we were rewarded for it.

It started off with Christmas eve (which is when I celebrate Christmas with the kids) I normally cook all day and then have all my family over for dinner. We listen to Christmas music all day and after dinner we open presents. This year was very similar in the schedule, which helped alot for my child who has a thing for continuity. We has a big difference in the location, we held dinner at our church. It was so wonderful to spent the day at church, we were given the privilege of cooking for any one who wanted to join us, and then taking dinners to the local "camp" for the homeless. This was the best part. My children were able to join a few to take meals to the homeless in our little community. This was a great learning experience for them. They were able to reach out and help some who needed the help. So cool! We stayed for the candle light service, then visited for quite awhile with our family. I saw some "family" who I hadn't seen in years. the girls were even enjoying it, not whining that they wanted to go home and open presents, that wasn't their focus. I felt that we had truly taught them the real meaning of Christmas. We were on our way home and Josie shared how much fun she had and she was happy we wanted to do this next year. That really surprised me, for she is the more judgemental of the two and she was very resistant of the two. This made me proud. We got home a bit before my dad so the girls started to clean up the wrapping debris with out asking and rearranged the furniture to better able accommodate our growing family. The opening of presents went off with out a hitch. It was so sweet to see the thoughtful gifts that both girls had picked out for each other and family members. They have really learned that when shopping for someone else think of what they would want and not what they want the other person to have. This seems to be a trait that many of my family might not have mastered, but I feel that they really have. This too made me get a bit teary eyed.


Christmas morning comes and the girls slept in and then they brought me their stockings so they could open them up with out me having to get up. I thought that was nice of them. We headed off to their other grandparents and that was a pure delight too. No snapping, put downs yelling or other traditional bad endings. It really was wonderful.

I have spent many Christmases in tears, and I never cried for hurting only tears of joy. I feel that we were truly blessed this season because we blessed others. So my question is this what have you done to bless others?