Wednesday, May 16, 2012

As Promised - Before and After...

Let's do this!

Marking the spot!

The anticipation...

The BIG moment!

Didn't shed one.single.tear - even surprised herself!

Cute as cute can be...

Seriously.


When did my baby girl get so grown up?


*Sure do love you, sweet girl...and your rose crystal earrings!

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

It Can't Be...

It can't be May. Where in the world did April go? Never has a month gone by so fast. I've thought about posting several times, but then my self-diagnosed ADD kicks in, and I am on to other things. I've also been hesitant to post...afraid of what might come out. Do you ever wish you had a switch to just turn off your thoughts? Over-thinking everything, worrying too much, what if-ing, remembering, wishing things were more like they used to be? Drives me nuts.

It can't be six days until Abby's 8th birthday. Seriously can.not.be.  When did this creep up on me? I was just now making her a pink and purple castle cake for her fourth birthday. And now she is sporting little pink crystal flower earrings that we have to clean twice a day. Yep. She got her ears pierced this past Saturday - an early birthday gift. A perfect way to end a perfectly girly day at "Sweet and Sassy" with her Brownie troop. They got their hair and nails done and had a little runway fashion show. It was too cute - although I could personally never justify spending that much on a birthday party. But their troop sold SO many cookies so this is what they picked as their reward - 2400 boxes, people! Not us - we sold a measly 75 boxes, but I didn't hold my own cookie booth every weekend like some of the other moms did. Wowzers. I will have to post some pics of Abby before and after - she was over the moon excited (after it took her 45 minutes to muster up the courage to do it) and kept thanking me over and over for letting her get her ears pierced. Such a cutie.

It can't be that my brother, sister-in-law, and their three kiddos are now in Texas - a THREE DAY DRIVE away. It hasn't sunk in. Thirteen hours was already far enough to Chicago, but he was presented with an opportunity in TX where he knows a couple of guys - short commute, all moving expenses paid, profit-sharing - so they decided to do it. I wasn't on board with it for purely selfish reasons - it's SO far away. My heart hurts thinking about it. I can't really blame them though. This 45-50 minute commute that Pat has is for the birds. We hardly see him. Brian's commute was over an hour between parking the car and taking the train into the city and then walking to work. Now his commute will be 8 minutes. Still why does TX have to be half way across the country? Plane tickets are so durn expensive. sigh....

It can't be that I have been interrupted six times in the last 15 minutes since sitting down to write this between requests for snacks from the neighbor kid, phone calls, refereeing...It's no wonder I feel like I have ADD. Now off to take Abby's friend home, then Girl Scouts, then the last TPO meeting of the year that class moms supposed to attend ( - hoping the DS will keep Noah occupied for at least part of the meeting).

It can't be that it's almost the END of the school year...

Good gravy.