Mighty Texas Dog Walk

Jeff, Jennifer, and I participated in the Mighty Texas Dog Walk. It's a fundraiser for a service dog training center that is in our town. There's some rivalry between this and a British dog walk for the Guinesses Book of World Records. We didn't break the record this year, but we still had fun. Our puppy was on the evening news today for just a second. That was pretty cool.
I have one complaint about the dog walk this year. There were 3 water stations set up along the course, but the problem was that there was a run of some kind that happened before the dog walk and used the same route and the runners depleted the water supply so by the time we got to any of those 3 tables for water, there was absolutely nothing left. I think they should have warned us before we started the walk that water would be unavailable. After 3 miles, we were parched!!!
Other than that, it was fun. Hot, but fun! :)
Here's a link to the TV program...not sure if it works...
Mighty Texas Dog Walk
In the video, about halfway through, two men will talk, then right after them is a woman and right after that woman is our puppy, Duke.
I'll post more pictures later. I'm kind of tuckered out right now.

Mother's Day Musings

Mother's Day...This year, it falls on Sunday, May 11. Actually, if you ask me, every day is Mother's Day. Think about it. Is there ONE day in the year when a Mom doesn't hear, "MOM!!!"??? Is there one day in the year when someone doesn't need, want, think about, love, cherish, or thank their mom??
I can't tell how many times "Let your mother do it for you" or "I'm telling Mom!" has been voiced in my household. Therefore, every day must be Mother's day if Mom has to do it all...
So, what, really, is the purpose of setting aside one day in the year to honor these hard-working, self-sacrificing icons we call "Mom"?? Overpriced flowers, more paper in our landfills (think, homemade and store-bought cards and the 2 year old's drawings), boom in restaurant business, extra opportunities for people to go to church, to name a few.
But Motherhood...if I were to sum it up...it consists of many emotions. Here's a recent story:

I took Matthew (now 5) with me to run errands. The night before, his daddy had been complaining his foot was cramping up. I don't recall Matthew being in the room at the time when Daddy was whining. (Bear with me...this has something to do with the story) I was at 4 different stores and a fast-food place and every place I went, Matthew would be limping and people would look at me with utter SHOCK on their face, or disgust. I guess you could call them disgustingly shocked. I have no idea what Matthew was saying, I tried to get him to tell me but I couldn't understand him myself. So this goes on all day. People look at me and I smile one of those smiles only a proud mother could have for her child. You know the type, right?? That brought even more horror to the faces of these passers-by. I started to worry a little bit, but wouldn't let it show in my face. That evening, we get home and I finally find out from Jennifer what Matthew had been saying all day..."My feet are crapping!! My feet are CRAPPING!!!" ::Groan:: (Picture me with a huge ear-to-ear grin as he yelled that!!! No wonder people were disgusted with this Mom!!)
Apparently, Matthew wanted to be like daddy. He also wanted to be like David...he managed to sneak David's old heel gel thingie, oversized and all, into his shoe!

But it is moments like that, and like the time Matthew insisted his foot broke (because his toenail needed a trim after breaking), the time Matthew asked me if I dreamed (the story is in an earlier blog), the joy of watching a child receive an award, score a goal, make a basket, successfully finish an instrumental piece, discover something scientific, misunderstand something that ends up being humorous, make it through surgery -- twice -- and go on to play football, get an academic honor, graduate from high school (sniff, sniff) and adamantly tell you that it is NOT ok for you to attend the same college as he does, THOSE are the things that help shape motherhood. The rewards are in the relationships themselves that last long after the kids leave home. When the kids are little, the rewards are in the neverending hugs and kisses and scribbled papers with "I :heart: Mom". When the kids enter the teen years, the reward is in maintaining communication when so many other kids are cutting it off.

I've been blessed. It's been a roller-coaster ride with all the highs, lows, loop-de-loops, twists, and upside down hangs, and there have been times where the car got stuck upside down at the top of the highest loop and all I could do was scream. Then there were times the car got stuck right side up at the bottom and all I could do was hold my children, sigh, and enjoy the quiet. The ride is far from over. I have at least one child at home until the year 2021 and I'm not pushing it.

For Mother's day, check this out:
Mother's Day Giveaways

And Happy Mother's Day (even though I still insist every day is Mother's Day) to all you other Moms!!!

Mother's Day Giveaway

I'm coming in on this late in the game, but I still wanted to throw it out there...

http://www.5minutesformom.com/3329/mothersday2008/

Texas Shows and Poodle Skirts

My daughter is in 4th grade. Her music teacher decided to make Texas the theme for the 4th grade music program this Spring. I think the kids only had like 2 weeks to work on the show, and when you only have music 1-2 times a week, that isn't much! The first time I heard about the show was when I got a notification that the program date had changed. Changed? Ummm....I didn't even know there was A show!! In this notification, attire was only mentioned with the sentence, "I would like for the kids to not wear shorts and t-shirts" then it was mentioned girls in another teacher's class could wear prairie skirts. I asked Jennifer what she was supposed to wear, all excited that I could make a prairie skirt (they're super-easy!!). She said she was supposed to wear a poodle skirt, according to her teacher. I scratched my head for a really long time, and not because I had lice or fleas either! What in the world do poodle skirts have to do with a music program about Texas??? Jennifer said her class was doing the song "Wooly Bully". Ok, now I'm REALLY confused!!! What in the world does "Wooly Bully" have to do with Texas???? Isn't that a 1950's sock-hop song? Ah HA! THAT'S where the "poodle skirt" fits in, but still...this is TEXAS!!!
So I oblige. I couldn't get ahold of the teacher, so I end up going to the store, seeing some polka dot fabric on sale, and purchased blue with white polka dots. I purchased some lime green felt rick-rack and a few iron-on rhinestones. I had white fabric and white chenille at home. Oh yeah, I purchased some tiny check lime green gingham and some lime green tulle. My daughter is obsessed with lime green and blue these days. I worked hard making her a full-circle poodle skirt, complete with white poodle decked out in chenille and the leash/collar were made of the lime-green rick-rack and the rhinestones decorated the collar portion. If I say so, it came out really cute. To add fullness, the gingham was used to make the petticoat and the lime green tulle was sewn on the bottom of that so it barely peeked out under the blue poodle skirt. To complete the look, Jennifer had some lime green and blue beaded bracelets, a pair of white sunglasses, and wore her hair in a high ponytail. She had tulle for a belt, hair ribbon, and a neck scarf. She looked really...umm..."Californiaish".
So after neglecting ALL my other responsibilities for the 2 days it took me to make all that, we show up at the program, still not quite done, but done enough we hope nobody else notices. As it turns out, Jennifer was the ONLY student dressed like that. ALL the other 80+ kids were in blue jeans, bandanas, cowboy hats, prairie skirts, boots, etc. ALL western wear!! Umm....oops!!! But in my defense, Jennifer insisted her music teacher specifically said, "Poodle Skirt"!!! See, that's just proof that us moms should ALWAYS listen to our gut!! When you have that urge to scratch your head in confusion, that generally means, "DON'T!" ;)
I think I covered well...when I got those quizzical looks from other parents there about Jennifer's attire, I just nicely replied, "Oh, She's playing the part of a Hollywood Queen who just relocated to Texas and doesn't quite fit in yet!"
I still say she was cute. They DID do "Wooly Bully" and basically, she was the only one dressed to match the song...all the other kids were out of place. hehehe
Here's some pictures:

Amazing Boldness

I had two specific conversations with Matthew recently. One was the day before his fifth birthday. It went as follows:

Matthew: Mom, can I have a cookie please??
Me: No.
Matthew: But why?
Me: Because you've already eaten a lot and you need to wait for dinner.
Matthew: (shrugs, mutters under his breath and walks off)

A few minutes later I see Matthew pulling a chair over to the cabinets where I keep the cookies.

Me: Matthew, what are you doing??
Matthew: I'm getting a cookie.
Me: Did I say you could have a cookie??
Matthew: No, but you will.

Ok, tell me how 4 year olds about to turn five can be so bold??? FYI, no, he did not get the cookie. I put my foot down and it stayed down!!

Then, the following morning, he wakes up and comes running to me...

Matthew: MOM!!!! Do I go to school today???
Me: No, you don't start school until after summer and when football starts.
Matthew: But I'm five!
Me: I know you're five. Happy Birthday!! But you have to wait until a new school year starts before you go and that won't happen for 4 more months.
Matthew: How many hours is that??
Me: Lots of hours!
Matthew: (shrugs and runs over to the computer)

A few minutes later:

Matthew: MOM!!! You LIED to me!!!!
Me: What? What did I lie to you about?
Matthew: You said I'm five today. But I'm not. When I'm five I can reach, but I can't reach, so I'm still four, I'm not five, you lied!
Me: Oh, Matthew, turning five doesn't mean you miraculously shoot upward and catch up with Daddy in height. You only grow about this much (holding fingers to show about an inch) every year, so it will be a few years before you can reach that high.
Matthew: Well, I still say you lied to me, I'm five and I can't drive either!

I love having conversations with kids at this age. It's so funny how their mind works!

Who do I look like?

Crafting

I have been a busy bee most of the month of March. I made a lot of stuff for my daughter's dance studio for company competition coming up. When I originally set out to do some of the stuff, I tried to find ways to cut costs. First on the list was table covers. We had 3 tables that didn't match and two chairs for each table. To make them seem more uniform, covers were created (by scratch, no pattern, thank you very much!). I didn't have a lot of fabric to work with, and I didn't have a lot of cash to invest in fabric, so I created the "illusion" of white table toppers on black table cloths. It didn't come out perfect, but it'll do the trick. Here's a picture:


Next order of business was to cover the mismatched chairs...

You can see through the chair fabric with the flash of the camera. On stage, however, it's fine.

Then I needed to find out how to create realistic-looking pizza. I ended up creating one out of fleece:


The last thing was to create some type of trays with wine glasses on them. I went an extra step and put cellophane inside the glasses to create the look of actually having liquid in them. The trays were made out of cardboard boxes and painted black, trimmed in black ribbon, and I even had an elastic band on the bottom for the girls to slip their hands through so they could balance them and dance at the same time. :) You can't see the "filled" look in this picture, but against stage lights, it's a different look!



All of these things were made for the song "That's Amore".

My daughter is also dancing to "Pink Panther" and they're wearing black jazz pants, a pink/white/black shirt, and fedora hats. The hats were a bit boring, so taking the inspiration from the ties on the shirt, I created a hat band and then created a flower using the colors from the shirt out of fabric. I went crazy on the flowers. Never did this before, but it was fun and I thought it came out really cute! :)


That's how I've been spending my time lately!
So what I've learned lately??? You can get carried away with what starts out as ONE small project! I ended up doing almost the entire production! Crazy me!