Another perspective

(What my son sees when he is sitting behind me in the bleachers at sisters' soccer game.)

So it turns out, I am a sucker for....

A good holiday shirt :)

How did this happen?

Where did the time go?

Those 9 candles seemed so hot and bright!

When did she get so big?

Last night when she kissed me goodnight she said,

"You know what Mom - this is the last night that I will ever go to sleep as an eight year old."

I said,

"That's right baby girl, enjoy your last sleep of eight."

She said,

"I can't wait to be 9."

I swallowed the lump in my throat and went on my way.

I feel the time passing.

It really is going too fast.

One of the most classic examples....

Of kindergarten legs

I have ever seen!!!!!

:)

So excited to bust out our Christmas shirts!

Hope your Thanksgiving was great! Looking forward to December.

:)

Holly

Twas the night before Thanksgiving.....

and all through the house


Not a creature was stirring - not even a mouse.


The tables were arranged with obsessive care


In hopes that the relatives would be happy there.


The children were nestled all snug in their beds


Battered and traumatized from the many times that Mommy said....


Do not make a mess - don't touch that it's clean!


The Mommy worked hard to not be too mean.


and Mamma in her sweat pants


and Daddy in his hat


Were never going to get


Their much deserved nap.


When from the kitchen there arose such a clatter


I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.


Away to the pantry I flew with a dash.


Threw open the door and let out a gasp.


When what to my exhausted eyes should appear


but a bad little pug with no morals or fear


Doing the best that she knew how to do


To hoist her fat self to the top shelf of food.


She was little and feisty and naughty and quick


I knew in a moment that I never should kick.


More rapid than eagles my coursers they came


and suddenly words came out of my mouth much too horrible to name!


At this point I am not sure that I remember the song


Plus there is still much to do and my rhyme is too long.


I will gladly exclaim as I turn off the light


Happy Thanksgiving to all


and to all a good night!!!!!!


Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Here's hopin'......

...that you are having a good weekend!!!! Only one more week until Thanksgiving break!!!!!!

On the Up Side

So here is what I have been thinking about lately....... (I know feel afraid)

I have been thinking about how people tell me all the time

"Holly - you are always so happy. You are so lucky that you get to be so happy all the time."

Well - guess what - I have a little news flash for you.

I don't get to be happy all the time.

You know what I say in the morning when my alarm goes off?

Ouch and 5 more minutes

Did you know that there are days that I feel

mad, sad, angry, frustrated, hot, cold, insecure, bored, anxious, lonely, stressed, too busy, and so on and so forth?

I have tons of faults

I tend to gossip - now people in my real life - don't be afraid of me now that I am confessing this - I am really not a malicious gossip - I am a story teller. I love a good story and I love to talk so there is a good chance that you could wind up in one of my stories. Consider yourself lucky to be a character - not afraid of the way the story is spun. You spin the tale - I just retell it. :)

Once again - I digress....

I am also super forgetful, I take on too much, I loathe people that drive like boneheads in traffic. I mean really people come on -

right turn on red

Despite contrary opinion - hand gestures do not make you go faster in traffic

stop texting

if you have to kiss them 300 times, park - don't hold us up in the drop off line

I could go on and on ........

but now I am really digressing and I need to get back to the point of my story.

I am also so blessed. I love the song that I have as the first on my playlist because it is how I feel. I am lucky. I am lucky to be in love with my best friend. I am lucky to have been where I have been. I am lucky that I get to be at home every day.

I would not change anything - you change one thing - you change it all. I would not go back and fix my mistakes or change any experiences good or bad because they have led me to where I am now.

I do (yes -folks it is like a miracle - we have finally meandered to the point of this post) like to look on the up side.

If I am hot I think "glad I have ac"

If I am cold I think "glad I have a sweater"

If I am tired I think "glad I get to sleep tonight"

If I think I can't I think "well I had better go ahead and try" (that is a lot of thinking in that particular sentence - way too much for me)

I am normal. I am a person. Just a regular person who has to give themselves regular pep talks. I have to say to myself

"self - do not shout at the children"

"self - do not be aggravated at that moron of a person who did (insert whatever drives you crazy here)

"self - do not be ugly to your husband for (insert whatever husband did here remembering that you yourself do a lot of boneheaded, irrational, forgetful things yourself)

Why am I writing this you say? Why are you going on and on, Holly, about your oh so wonderful thought process? I answer you with two answers:

A. You do not want to be in the hamster wheel that is my head - it is a jumbled confusing place to be and I am FOR SURE not here to give you advice on what to think. Just sharing what I think.

and

B. Because I think that we all need reminders to look on the up side. I have this little blog and it is my story to tell and my platform to use. I get it that I have no business being preachy and telling you what to do.

I mean really - who do I think I am? :)

BUT I see SO much negativity out there. I see a lot of negativity from people who have lives that other people would KILL to have. My advice to you is to be happy for what you have. Talk yourself into feeling lucky for just 5 minutes. I find it very hard to believe that you can't find an up side to whatever it is that you are doing right now. If you can't - well sorry - move on to another blog - but I bet you can and you will be surprised. If you can find the upside for 1 minute, I bet you can find the upside for 5, then I bet you could make it last all day and pretty soon people will be saying to you,

"Oh that (insert your name here), they are always SO happy. They are so lucky."

and guess what

Turns out - they are right!

Here's hoping....

You got good stuff!!!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

My jogging stroller days are.....

Long

Long


Gone!

Best Sewing Teachers EVER :)

Click here to go right to their website and see their work :)

Tara's Try

So I know that I have talked on the bowheads blog before about

try

I just feel like no matter what - you should try and try hard.

I met a nice lady.

She is in my early childhood pta

She came to scrapbooking at my house

She was working on her blog

I say - "oooh what blog? I love blogs."

She tells me.

I look it up.

Not long after we become facebook friends.

Cuz' you know - that's how we Moms roll these days - Facebook is the bomb.

Anyway

She ran a race. A REALLY big race and I am so glad that I got to read about it.

You know what that lady has

She has TRY

The next time that I feel tired. The next time that I think that I can't. The next time I want to stop - no matter what it is - no matter where I am - I know that I can try a little harder. I can go for a little bit longer and I can be a little bit better.

The next time that I feel like quitting. I am going to think about Tara's try.

You should go and read about it too because it would help your try - I know it would.

Go read it

HERE

Mars and Venus

I was looking through paperwork and graded papers from school.

I looked at the behavior calendar for my 3rd grade daughter who is always good.

I called her over and said.....

"Ladybug - I really do appreciate you for getting stickers on your chart every day and for being such a good girl."

She glanced over, waved a hand in the air and said,

"It's ok Mom. I'm a girl. It's easy for me to be good. Those poor boys - they have a really hard time being good."

The next day I was driving her 4 year old brother to preschool. He was feeling a bit feisty and said to me....

"Mommy - I don't even want to go to that DUMB school".

Then he gets a grin on his face and says with great pride,

"I bet our girls would never say anything like that!!!!!!"

When in Rome......

and because I am on a different very old computer with nothing to blog about....

Here is a picture of my three babies taken a very long ago. How is that little baby 4 now? I took him to preschool and the driving range for heavens sake today!

How is that big child a 3rd grader? She actually finished a sentence with the phrase - "personally, I thought it was funny...." the other day.

How is it possible that the little one in red is in Kindergarten? Do you know that she can read?????

Sigh - I am getting old......

:)

Happy Tuesday my bloggy friends!

7 things about me

So this is my pretty new award....... (Look, isn't it shiny and nice?)

Given to me by this awesome blogger........ (who I am copying and pasting her nice compliment here:

Holly at I Heart Bowheads – Don’t you just love that blog name?! Holly is a fellow DFW blogger who makes me smile, chuckle, and sometimes full out snort laugh.

- because - um, I want to)

and these are the 7 things about me that I can think of really quickly on the fly, with a four year old boy coloring next to me (not sure how long that will last) and wearing only one slipper because Penelope the Pug just took off with the other one that I need to run and find......

1. I should TOTALLY be cleaning right now.

2. I am getting way to old to type things like all caps TOTALLY

3. That is a very bad pug

4. I really love that 4 year old boy - he is a good little guy and I am glad that I get to keep him and watch him grow up.

5. I have to take my 6 year old's lunch up to school in a bit because I did not put it on the counter and the mean ladies in the office are going to look at me condescendingly and mutter something under their breath. I wonder if on the application to work in the front office of an elementary school it says that you need to be a tight nit click, and a little bitchy? (scuse my language but sometimes , if the word fits - you gotta wear it)

6. I am VERY excited about fall weather but with a high of 72 next week, I really need to find all of my sweatshirts since I am pretty much freezing at that temperature.

7. I think that each parent should have to take a class entitled "the fine art of navigating the parking lot of your child's school" before they are allowed to pick them up. I know it does not seem like rocket science but you would be surprised how much trouble some people have with it. Here are a couple of hints:

* kiss them BEFORE you leave the house

* I like watching them walk in also - do it as you are slowly carefully pulling forward

* if they cannot unbuckle themselves, um park and do it there - seriously do you get out of your car at the drive through at a fast food joint? No. Well don't do it at school - you are slowing the works down.

I could go on and on but the pug has my other slipper now and I have not even given an award away yet so......

I award Megan at Sweet Sadie Marie and Julie at My Four Sons because - no matter I how busy I am, what I am up to. I always click on over to them and I think that says something about their blogs!

A Stoic Pug

Stoic - Noun: A person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining.

It is not easy being a Pug - don't let anyone tell you different

I Heart Beef

I am not gonna lie to you folks - I had a good time today. The stars aligned and 4 grade schoolers went off to school without a hitch and two Mimi's stepped up to the plate and kept 3 preschoolers (at their own houses but it sounds so much better when I say that we were able to ditch er I mean find someone to care for 7 kids) so that my friend Stephanie and I could head off to Milestone Culinary Arts Center with a bunch of other DFW area bloggers. (Feels quite official that the author of little old I Heart Bowheads can refer to herself as a DFW area blogger.)

Anyhoo - we were there for this.....

The Texas Beef Council threw a big old Moms Day out/education/cooking experience thing and if you ask me it was great. I am a sucker for anything with folders and neat labels - they pretty much had me as I walked in the door saying that this was the best day ever. Now I am linking up to a lot of stuff today (I am trying to keep organized and put all links to other sites in red by the way.) So that you guys can go check out the cool stuff I learned today. Seriously go visit the Beef Council link - it is one of the websites that I have been to since I have been home that I am most excited about. A lot of good stuff there.

Anyway - I digress......

I FINALLY got to meet Holly from June Cleaver Nirvana - I sort of felt like I already knew her but in real life - we had never met. It was great to meet her and we greeted one another with a big old - bear hug long lost relation - kind of thing that was fun. :)

We all introduced ourselves and then we had our first speaker. Angela of Mommy Dietitian Blog spoke to us about feeding our kids! She was really nice and provided a lot of great info. I was able to ask her a question about my 8 year old and she had some great ideas. I was so sort of caught up in the moment at this point that I totally forgot to take her picture. (I did take a picture of the cool folders and stuff cuz I'm a nerd like that you know.)

Then we got to learn from Chef Richard Chamberlain.

The whole thing was very Top Chef

I kept wanting to say - utensils down - hands up - oh who am I kidding - I said that at least twice

The coolest thing was after each thing he showed us - we got a little yummy plate.

This was a very lovely and well-timed surprise because I believe at one point I turned to Stephanie and mumbled something along the lines of "

this smells so good and I am so hungry I am about to start gnawing my arm off"

or something like that

anyway

I now own a WONDERFUL cookbook - signed by Chef Chamberlain himself.

Check out all my awesome stuff

and a meat thermometer - I REALLY needed a new meat thermometer - one of those things like floss - you only think about buying when you need it.....

Now I am a hair out of order here but this is the FABULOUS dish that our group made. I am TOTALLY making this again - totally - do I sound hip and young?

oh well - you can't win every time - back to the story

Here is Chef Chamberlain putting the finishing touches on our plate with Trista

So this picture was taken because I was cooking our squash and asparagus and Lee Ann and Holly were just chatting and taking pictures like mad and I busted my phone out of my pocket and said, "hey girls - let me take a picture of you two watching me cook"

Now it is possible that Lee Ann has a video out there somewhere with me allegedly joking that I wondered if I dropped the AWESOME knife that I was cutting with in my bag if anyone would notice - allegedly I might have said that - in jest.....

Anyway - carrying on

Me and Stephanie - having an awesome time

The very cool Top Chef er I mean Milestone Kitchen

This was our recipe card and "work station" not Top Chefish at all though. No way I cracked another Top Chef comparison here - not at all. (and no way I was totally pretending that I was a contestant in my head all day - no way)

Long story short - it was an AWESOME day and I really want to thank Holly and the Texas Beef Council again. I had the greatest time and I can't wait to cook dinner tomorrow night! (I am not going to lie - tonight I ate a veggie burger from Mooyah and felt a little blasphemous. Tomorrow for sure though I am going to make a beef recipe that my family will drool over!)

Take me out to the ballgame

Take me out to the crowds

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks (or pack me a spiderman lunch box)

I don't care if we ever get back

Hope you are all enjoying your fall as much as we are! (Although - I am not gonna lie - it is still ridiculously hot here in Texas - not complaining - just saying - well - maybe complaining a little bit)