Another Annabelle Funny

So at my house, the three oldest kids play soccer. I have a "You must be at least 4 years old to play an organized sport" rule at my house. So the other day, I was cleaning the kitchen and I hadn't seen Annabelle in a little bit so I called out to her and asked her what she was doing. She replied, "Getting ready for soccer." I thought nothing of it because she is always putting on the other kiddos cleats and stuff. She comes out and says, "I put my shin guard on!" She was very proud. Here's what I saw...

Okay...I need a closer look...can't really tell exactly what that is...

Yep, it was a Maxi pad! Not to worry, it was a new one, but still...Zoe, of course, said, "Annabelle, that's not a shin guard!" Annabelle said, "Well, what is it then?" Zoe looked at me like what do I tell the three year old? I waited to see what Zoe would tell her. "Um, yep, it's a shin guard!"

Office Supplies and Mascara

No, this isn't a post about a recent shopping trip. This morning as I was putting on my mascara I thought to myself "I need some new mascara" which got me thinking about how much I love getting new mascara. My eyelashes are pretty much non-existent so I have to wear mascara so I love getting it new. Of course, I am married to man whose eyelashes touch his sunglasses when he is wearing them. (so not fair!!!) Anyway, there are a few aisles at the store that I will look at just about everything in them. Now, my desire for these items is almost always trumped by my hatred of spending money on myself, but I always look. One of those aisles is the office supply aisle. I love all that stuff...paper clips, pens, colored paper...you name it and I can probably come up with a reason that I NEED that stuff in my home. Again, I hate spending money on myself so I can usually talk myself right out of it. Another aisle is the craft aisle (or the entire Hobby Lobby itself). I love the idea of crafty projects. How sad is it that I rarely actually do them? I actually have done more here recently and since my kids are getting older, these type things are lots of fun. And the mascara aisle...I am lured by the promise of the brush extending each individual lash by 15% (who measures this??) Oh, and the voice in my head that makes that promise is almost always a British female and that mascara is going to make me 5 foot 11 and 125 pounds. Just by putting on the mascara! Powerful stuff...

Thankfully for Adam, my rational side almost always wins this battle. The side of me that says, "Why in the world would someone pay $15 or $20 for mascara?" And then I reach for the sensible mascara that will ultimately do the same thing for half the money.

Our friends...

Here is a picture from our Chick-Fil-A meeting with Charity, Andy and their three boys...Left to right- Heath (9), Jude (4), Sebastian (5), Noah (10), Elijah (8), Zoe (9) and Annabelle (3). This was as close to a good picture as I could get...we had a hard time getting them all to be still. And, my boys really wanted to make silly faces. But we had a great time! Love you, Charity and Andy!!!!

ATO Founders Day and lots of fun...

We had such a fun weekend! Each year, Adam's college fraternity has a Founder's Day celebration and he tries to go every two or three years. Well, this year, lots of his college friends all came so he was able to hang out with lots of his "old" friends. I think he had a great time. The kids and I dropped him off in Jackson, TN on Friday night and picked him up on Sunday. Friday night after we dropped him off, we were able to see my friend Charity and her husband and her three kids. We haven't seen them in 6 or 7 years! We stayed at Chick-Fil-A for a little over two hours and visited so much. It was so much fun. Then the kids and I headed for my brother's house. It's always so much fun to visit with them because they have a 10 year old girl and a 5 year old boy. So everyone has fun. Saturday morning I took all the girls to the mall to spend time with my friend Heather and her two kiddos. Ashley (my sister-in-law) kept the boys and took them to McDonalds. I think everyone had a good time. Saturday night, Ashley and I took the girls to see the Hannah Montana movie. It was pretty cute. Of course, it had a huge Daddy/Daughter relationship part of the story, so I cried. Add that to the embarrassing list of movies that I cry at! But, it was a pretty cute movie. Sunday morning we got up and went to Faith Baptist, which is where Adam and I got married. Well, to be correct, now there is a huge beautiful worship center instead of the gym where Adam and I got married. It was so much fun to see Brother Danny and Brother Todd and lots of people that I have known since I was 10 years old. Then we headed back to Jackson to pick up Adam and we even got to spend a little time with some of his friends. It was a lot of fun!!

A Random Thought

Why is it that we can put a man on the moon but no one has been able to figure out how to make a cereal bag that doesn't rip when you open it?

So there are certain things that happen in your life where you realize you are, indeed, a mother. You also realize why no one actually tells you every detail of being a mother before you are one because then no one would ever do it!

When they are babies, they pee and poop on you way more than anyone ever told you they would. And they "spit up" on you too. I put spit up in quotation marks because that is really just a nice phrase for puking on you. You spend the first year of life with something constantly on your shirt or pants and you don't change your shirt or pants because they are just going to get dirty again. At one point during this stage, you look at yourself and think, "Wow...I'm really a mom."

Then they start potty training and now you find yourself cleaning poop out of panties and underwear, pants, socks, and the floor of wherever they were just standing. This stage is slightly easier because at least now they can say, "I love you, Mommy," which makes things a little easier to swallow. And again, you look at yourself and think, "Once again, I am a mom."

Once they are out of that stage, then anything else that you have to endure in this field will be centered around blood and/or broken bones. Not too bad. Don't get me wrong, there are many other things that go on in this stage that I don't have time to discuss here, but on the subject of gross bodily fluids that you have to clean up, it's not too bad.

Which brings me to my day today...Zoe came home from school yesterday with symptoms that are textbook UTI. Of course, she didn't really express how she was feeling to me until last night. So, this morning we headed to the doctor. I found myself squatting between her legs as she is sitting on the toilet, holding the cup for her to pee in. Lovely. We were there for about an hour and she never could pee on demand. (For the record, I don't understand this, because I have had four babies, so I could fill a cup at any point on any given day. But, I realize she is only 10 years old) So, the doctor gives us the plastic urine specimen cup and tells us to bring to back once she has been able to pee in it.

So, now here I sit at work with a urine sample on my desk and I just looked at myself and thought, "Wow...you are a mother."

Video of Annabelle dancing with Adam's Dad

This is a sweet video of Annabelle dancing with Adam's dad. She is singing "Can I Have This Dance?" from High School Musical 3. She is saying "It's one in a million, the chances of feeling the way I do. And with ever step together, we just keep on getting better. Can I have this dance?"