Everybody Cut Footloose

I was in preschool so my brother, Jarad, was about 2. Footloose was the hit movie. We had seen it a time or two and loved it. Of course we didn't really "get" it, but it was fun to watch them dance. One of Jarad's favorite parts was when Kevin Bacon was throwing a fit in an abandoned warehouse. He's mad about something so he does what any normal teenager in the early 1980's would do...he dances around and throws bottles while doing his high bar routine. You know...the usual. Jarad was so inspired by this scene that he decided to reenact part of it in our long driveway. He found some empty bottles and went to town. After breaking several, he realized that mom and dad may not be so happy about all of the glass in the driveway, so he swept it all into the grass.

Fast forward to later that day. We had set out with our Big Wheels so we could cruise down our long driveway that was PERFECT for picking up just the right amount of speed. We would get about 3/4 of the way down and turn into the grass sliding our feet to stop. I was making my first pass and I was FLYING! I got to the "turnoff" and headed left. And then it happened. I put my BARE feet in the grass to slide to a stop. I felt something sharp graze my cute little baby toe. As I rolled to a stop I saw A LOT of blood and my sweet little baby toe hanging on for dear life.

Of course, Jarad panicked and ran...away. NOT to the house to get mom and inform her that I may or may not be bleeding to death. NOT to get me a band-aid or a tourniquet. Nope, he ran and hid. Left me there to fend for myself. I crawled up the driveway leaving a trail of blood in my wake. Is it strange that I remember very distinctly (at the age of 4) which towel my mom wrapped my foot in??? It was one that had been hand embroidered with a potato on it and possibly the day of the week. I don't remember which day, but that's neither here nor there. I remember the car ride to the hospital and making some lame joke about how I wish it would have been the stupid dog across the street that had been hurt instead of my sweet little baby toe. (That dog had it comin' I promise. He ate my Slip N Slide...jerk.) I remember getting a shot in my sweet little baby toe and I remember what the stitches looked like. What I don't remember is what ever happened to my brother! I truly do not remember him being there. Maybe we just left HIM home alone to fend for HIMSELF...but I doubt it. My mom was good like that.

Still to this day, my sweet little baby toe tingles when I hear that song. I once told my sad story to my friend Kari at the bank. We decided that maybe "Toeloose" would be a more appropriate title.

Over the Mississippi and Through St. Louis....

to grandmother's house we go! Our big boys (Big Daddy, Uncle and Papa) headed west to hunt wild hog so we went east to visit my Grammy and Papa Tom! Here is our trip in pictures!

Poor Nanny was shoved in the back with all the littles. I'm sure if you asked her, she would tell you that she enjoyed every second...except maybe the stop at Steak & Shake on the way home. That was a little much thanks to Claire's stinky feet and stinkier attitude.

Little Coco watching a movie.

Livi Loo playing with her baby. Just so you know, this child RAN the whole way. All six hours her little feet NEVER stopped!!

Cohen...just the opposite.

Wide awake.....

not so much.

We got to Grammy's and played for a bit. Mom decided that she would stay with Grammy and the rest of us would stay at a hotel (there was just too many of us!). Friday night she kept Claire with her and Saturday night she kept Cohen so that I only had one kiddo to wrangle! Friday night when she took us back to the hotel, Claire wanted to stay behind with Grammy. When mom returned, she found the girls playing with the "city" they had built in the office!

Cohen, Papa Tom and Tasha (Grammy's little dog)

Haircuts ALL AROUND!

We stopped by the nursing home to visit MY Great-Grandma. (My Papa Melvin's mom)

We met up with Aunt Marylin and Uncle Jerry (Papa Melvin's sister and her husband)

I see orderly in his future.

Alivia with her momma and her Great-great-Grandma!

Grammy with Cohen, Alivia, Claire and Claire's attitude.

Cohen and his beautiful Great-Grammy.

3 Generations!

**Not pictured...our visit with my namesake Chris, her husband Doug and her girls Grace and Hope! We left the camera at Grammy's shop!**

Thank you Grammy for having us! It was such a special weekend!

Cleaning Up the Kitchen

We have all heard the phrase, "Desperate times call for desperate measures." If you read my other blog, you know that we have been teetering on the edge of desperate and faithful. We are faithful and serve a God who is so amazing. We trust in His plan. But we have learned during this journey that everyone has a story. People want to share their stories and we want to hear them. They give us hope. Everyone seems to have a cure. It's hard to know what to act on for fear that it may turn out to be the wrong choice in the end. Steph has spent hours upon hours in prayer regarding her treatment. She has researched nutrition and the effects it has on cancer. God has led her to put serious thought into what she puts into her body. In turn it has made me think...a dangerous pastime I know. I have the luxury of considering my nutrition in order to enhance my life. My friend HAS to consider nutrition in order to save hers. We also have a little girl who struggles with Insulin Resistance. I DETEST the fact that she is dependant on medication twice a day. Worse, the doctors think that hers is the rare case where it is NOT caused by poor diet and lack of exercise (because she falls into NEITHER category), therefore cannot be reversed with medication. This means, she could be on medication for the rest of her life. I hate that! If that is the case, we'll take it because I know it could be so much worse.

In light of ALL of this, I have decided to check into "Clean Eating" and have found that it's not horrible. I tried a little experiment this weekend. Last night we had sandwiches..."cleaned up" sandwiches. I have always given the kids all-natural peanut butter. They don't really know the difference so they don't complain. (I wish I would have done this with SO many other things!) Instead of jelly with their peanut butter, we used bananas and strawberries.

I put a little honey on Big Daddy's sandwich to sweeten the deal. THEY LOVED IT!!!! So much that they didn't even complain about the wheat bread! Claire even ate her crust! Today for lunch, she ate not one, but TWO sandwiches. (Which was great because the child NEVER eats anymore!) I realize, this was just a VERY small step and really nothing major but it was such a boost to my confidence. I am looking forward to trying some of the recipes in my new book.

Father Daughter Dance 2010

Claire's school has a Father Daughter dance every year. While it serves as a great fundraiser for our PTA, that night I saw that the benefits go FAR beyond just money. When I came home after school with my girl we saw these....

I saw the look in her eyes...

I saw the smiles on their faces.

I saw beautiful decorations....

made just for these beautiful girls.

Most of all, I saw a room full of dads...showing their little ladies how women should be treated. They ushered them in proudly through the front doors. They took their coats and pinned their flowers on their sweet little dresses. They danced the night away with them and brought them plates full of goodies! I loved watching every second of it. (This is a perk of being a volunteer because moms weren't invited!) I am so thankful that Claire has such an amazing Daddy. After all, I know from experience how important the relationship is between a girl and her daddy.

Lovin'

Better late than never!!! Here are the Valentine's pictures Aunt Karen took of the kids!

Morning Sports Report

Morning Sports Report

A Lighter Fare

Tonight, with Big Daddy at a meeting, I took my little lovelies to eat Chinese food. First, you should know that this little joint is quite small. In other words, you hear pretty much everything everyone says. We sat down and the kids started sipping away at their drinks. (Yes, soda.) Our food arrived via the waiter with black and red hair. Cohen asked me if that boy rubbed his hand on his red shirt and then wiped it in his hair. Oh dear. I was cutting up Cohen's chicken when all of the sudden this GIANT noise came bellowing out my sweet boy's face. He was just as shocked as I was. He said, "Excuse me!" We all cracked up...meaning me and every other person in the restaurant! Usually, I would not encourage such behavior (in public anyway) but it was just so obvious that the poor kid had NO control over that one! We settled ourselves and then Claire noticed something out of the corner of her eye. "Look mom! It's a doodoo statue!" What on earth is a doodoo statue?? I looked over to see a BUDDAH statue! Again...lost it! I turned to the door just in time to see a man walking in with a very interesting looking beard. Before I could whip back around Cohen yells, "WHOOOOAAAAA MOMMA!!!! LOOK at that LONG beard!" Oh dear. "Yes honey, that is a very neat looking beard but let's use our quiet voices please!" I don't think for a second that he was being mean or making fun, in fact he really liked this man and his beard, but you can imagine how tempting it was to crawl under the table. Not ten seconds later, Cohen's eyes lit up like the fourth of July. A smile spread across his face that could melt your heart in two seconds flat. I turned and could NOT believe my eyes. Cohen started bouncing up and down in his seat. I tried to settle him down and gain his full attention. That didn't happen. At least not until AFTER he squealed, "MOMMMA!!!! He's like the doodoo statue!!!!" In Cohen's defense, the man did like very similar to the statue. Again, he was NOT being rude. He was genuinely excited that he was seeing a real life Buddah statue! I think every mom has at least ONE of these stories. Why am I not surprised that I got 4 in one short meal? What's your story???