What's been happenin???

Wow, has it truly been over a month since I posted on my blog? I'm such a slacker!

But those of you who know me and have followed my blog for a while/more than a year, know that this is crazy busy time for us.

Ok, who am I kidding? It's a crazy time for EVERYONE!  So with that in mind...I'm off the hook! :-)

Alright, since my last confession posting, a lot has happened. Why don't you sit a spell, grab a sip of something and read on.

You may remember in this post, I told you about a little "run in" I had with a box cutter? Well, I'm all healed up now. Went and got my stitches out after 10 days and a few hours later, the cut started to separate again. REALLY??? All is well now...other than a little tenderness now and again.

Jayla had her first sleepover this year. In the past, EVERYONE that she invites to her parties attends. That's not such a bad problem to have :-).  So with that in mind, we decided not to invite the normal 14 - 16 guests. Just my luck all of them will come and I'll have to stay sober entertain them all...by myself!!

So we only invited 8 friends. And of those 8, 7 showed up and one couldn't spend the night. Not too bad! They had a blast.

I made them an ice cream cake using  ice cream sandwiches, chocolate pudding mix, Oreos & Cool Whip.
YUMMY!!

Chocolate Fondue with marshmallows, pretzel sticks, pound cake,
and Rice Crispy Treats.

And of course a marshmallow eating contest!!

Then there's the dressing up for the fashion show.

Next, popcorn, crafts and a movie or 2.

And finally, at midnight...Zzzzzzz!! ;)

And in the morning, pancakes!!

Also for Jayla's 10th birthday, our awesome photographer friends did a photo shoot of her.

~~DRESSY~~

~~CASUAL~~

~~SOCCER~~

Forgot to give the photo overload warning :-).  But I mean, look at her! She's so stinkin cute and photogenical (it is SO a word!)  that I had a hard time choosing.

Anyhoo, I now have some new pics from Christmas...which is not surprising since I've been trying to do this post since the 21st, I think.
NOTE: My hubby has been on vacation since 12/15. He goes back to work on 1/3. And when he's home, he spends a lot of his time on his computer saving the world gaming. And when he's gaming, anything I do on my computer that entails anything other than simply READING slows his computer down *insert rolling eyes here*. SO...that's why it has taken me so dang long to do this post.

But being that I have shown you just about every picture that has been taken from the past couple of months in this one post...I will hold off on the Christmas ones. Not to mention, I'm tired of typing :-).

I'll holla....

My special birthday gift

Check out this sweet birthday card that Jayla gave me today.

I just love that little girl!

OUCH!!!

That's what I get!

I was working on yet another project for Jayla's new bedroom. And I almost sliced the tip of my ring finger off!

$25 co-pay, 30+ minutes of holding my hand over my heart/head, a V.E.R.Y painful numbing shot, 6 hairy stitches and a tetnus shot later...I'm all fixed up.

I neglected to take a picture of my injury...simply because I don't do too well blood & guts kinda stuff. Not to mention, I was too busy laughing at  consoling  Jayla because my injury was SO gross to her that it made her throw up!

Anyway, I'm all good now.

...and so is Jayla! ;-)

Pro in the making

Check out my girl....

I just LOVE the determination on her face. She simply LOVES playing soccer. And it's such a joy to watch her play. What skills!!!

It's happening....

Is this really happening to me??

AGAIN?!?

Some of you may remember this cute little kid....

Well, she ain't so "little" anymore! I mean, she's still physically little...she is only 9 you know! But my goodness she's growing up SOO fast!

I took her to get her hair done last week. And she BEGGED me to let her wear her hair down...like her "not brown" friends! LOL

Believe me when I tell you that I tried...with all my might, to not give in.

Just look how stinkin happy and cute she looks!!

I want so badly for her to stay that sweet, young, innocent little girl. I mean, she IS still all these things. But the "young" part is slowly creeping away from us.

Anyway, I'm gonna get all sappy if I continue with this post. sniff, sniff....

But I will say this, it is quite the adventure this time. Sadly, I don't really remember this part when my oldest was younger. I'm sure it has a little to do with my working full time and partially due to the fact she didn't want much to do with me/us most of the time. It was like she went to bed one night, woke up, came out of her room and she was a double "D" young lady! I just don't remember her "maturing".

Now that I'm home with Jayla and spending a ton of time with her, I'm seeing her turn into that beautiful little lady. She'll be 10 years old in about 2 months! Again I say...sniff, sniff!

I kinda wish it was ok to share a cute little conversation Jayla and I had here on my blog. But it's just not appropriate. However, I will say, that I'm thrilled that she's comfy enough to come to ME with her questions, as goofy as they may be :-).

I love this kid....

(sorry for the blurry picture. But it's still pretty cool. By the way...that's Jayla in the red & black...LOL! And coach daddy in the background, in the blue shirt.)

Remembering....

Do you remember where you were when you heard the tragic news?

Take your seats everyone...school is back in session!

Here we go again!

Summer is OVA! And class is in session.

Our Jayla is SO excited to be a 4th grader! In fact, on the first day of school, when I picked her up, she said, "Mom, I had the BEST first day of school EVER! Can I just stay here and you pick me up on Friday?"

REALLY?

And when I asked what was so exciting about the first day, she gave me this long run down...which included, "And guess what? We've got HOMEWORK! How awesome is THAT?"

REALLY??

I promise you, had I not been there when she was born, I'd swear she wasn't mine! I know she's her daddy's...but I'm not convinced she's mine! I HATED school! Daddy, on the other hand, loved it and was a great student to boot.

Ok, I was a mediocre great student too....I mean, I did what was needed to keep from getting an F pass my  classes! But I did not ENJOY school.

Anyway, enough about me :-).

Yeah, so, 4th grade is the year the kids start getting the A, B, C type of grades.  So we'll see how excited Jayla is after these first 9 weeks.

Along with school starting back, soccer season is also in full swing. YAY!!! I love soccer season! Jayla's team is moving up to U12, so it'll be interesting to see how this season goes. Nothing worse than being the underdog!

Stay tuned...

Another moment of nostalgia

I was reading a blog today that really made me cry like a baby smile!

I truly love to hear stories from moms (or dads) about how their kids have, unbeknownst to the child, made a huge impact on their lives as parents. I have been very blessed (and continue to be) by the impact that my almost 10 year old, Jayla, has made on my life. My oldest, Briyanna, has made her share of impacts on me too. And now that she's older and a grown up, she's impacting me even more and more positively everyday. I'm so proud of Briyanna and how she's finding her way around "life" as an adult.

Those of you who have known me for quite some time have probably heard the following story about Jayla before. But as I mentioned, I was reading that beautiful mushy post today. And it just made me want to share this story again.

If you've already heard about this, and don't care to hear it again. This would be a good place to stop reading :-).  However, I hope you don't because it's really sweet.

One day when Jayla was about 4, she and I were out running errands. She was strapped in her carseat in the back seat of our van. Her little chin propped up on the arm of her carseat as she just gazed out the window in silence.


Without warning, she blurts out, "Mom, I'm so glad you're my mommy!" To which I smiled and responded, "Aww, Jayla, I'm glad I'm your mommy too!" Still looking out the window, she tells me how she remembers seeing me driving to work one day before she was "sent to me". I asked her what she meant. She told me, "I showed you to God and told Him that I wanted YOU to be my mommy." 


I then asked her how she knew me. To which she responded, "I told you! I showed you to God and told Him that I wanted you to be my mommy. But he made me wait for SOOO long to come see you!" 


As I continued to drive, trying not to have a wreck from the shock, I asked Jayla what she was talking about. I asked, "How did you see me?" Without missing a beat (and rolling her eyes as if she couldn't believe I was asking such a dumb question), she said, "I saw you driving your black truck to work. And you were fussing about being in traffic again!" :-) So I asked her, "What black truck?"  About this time, a Honda Passport drives past us. Jayla sits up quickly and says, "It was like THAT ONE, mommy! But it was black. Not a long truck".


I look at the truck passing by us and about burst into tears. Jayla then says to me, "Mommy, why do you think God made me wait SO long to come see you?" I told her I wasn't sure. But that God has His reasons for doing what He does (or doesn't do). Surprisingly enough, that answer was good enough for her. Because, as she turned back to look out the window again, she says, "Well, I'm glad He sent me here. Cuz I love me summa you!" :-)


This story still makes me a little misty. Although it may not seem like much when you first read it. The story behind the story is what makes it so special.

~First of all, me and Mister M. tried for 11 L.O.N.G. years to get pregnant. But being a 4 year old little girl, Jayla really had no concept of how LONG that really is. She just knew that God made her wait a LONG time to come to us.
~We found out we were pregnant with Jayla in March 2001. And in April of 2001, we traded our BLACK  Rodeo SUV (which is the Isuzu version of the Honda Passport) for a Chevy Tahoe. Jayla had NEVER seen the Rodeo!
~She's probably right about the fussing about traffic part :-).  I use drive 33 miles one way to work everyday! :-(

To this day, Jayla still tells me how happy she is that I'm her mom. But she has NO idea how glad I am that she's my daughter...my blessing the the 2nd power...my little angel.

Have any of you ever had moments with your kids where it just showed you how much of a blessing they REALLY are? Share...

We are the proud parents of a...

4th Grader!!

I don't think I need to mention how RIDICULOUSLY excited she was to start school today! So I won't! :-)