"I am a Christian"

I have received yet another inspiring poem via email. My sister sent this to me a couple days ago. Thanks, Kimmy.

I do, however, have a confession to make. I am not really a Maya Angelou fan, but THIS poem of hers was really worth sharing. And who better to share it with, than my blog readers. I totally LOVE this! Hope you enjoy it too.

Christians - By Maya Angelou

When I say..."I am a Christian", I'm not shouting "I'm clean livin'." I'm whispering, "I was lost, now I'm found and forgiven."

When I say..."I am a Christian", I don't speak of this with pride. I'm confessing that I stumble and need Christ to be my guide.

When I say..."I am a Christian", I'm not trying to be strong. I'm professing that I'm weak and need His strength to carry on.

When I say..."I am a Christian", I'm not bragging of success. I'm admitting I have failed and need God to clean my mess.

When I say..."I am a Christian", I'm not claiming to be perfect, my flaws are far too visible. But, God believes I am worth it.

When I say..."I am a Christian", I still feel the sting of pain. I have my share of heartaches, so I call upon His name.

When I say..."I am a Christian", I'm not holier than thou, I'm just a simple sinner, who received God's good grace, somehow!

~~~

Have an awesome day...you deserve it!

This is Dawn...and it has been over 3 months...

...since my last postfession (post + confession=postfession...get it?) :-)

In my last post back in August I mentioned that J'Bears soccer season had begun. Well, lemme tell ya...this was THE worst soccer season EVVA!!! Never in all the years she's been playing have I said I was ready for the season to be over. But THIS one...I was READY! Ya'll hear me???

BUT, I admit, there were a FEW good times mixed in with the crappy ones. However, being that I'd rather not relive the season at ALL...how bout some pictures.

Hmmm, as I was posting the last 2 pics, I had a feeling of deja vu. I kinda feel like I've posted these already. However, if I haven't...please enjoy :-). And if I have...please enjoy AGAIN! LOL

By the way, don't pay attention to the uniforms being different (you probably didn't even notice). The top 2 pictures are from the first part of the season. And the bottom pictures are from the 2nd half of the season...But I don't wanna talk about it...

There's my girl in blue...No! The other one :-).  The cute one with the glasses trying to KILL the ball is the INFAMOUS #7! Get'er J'Bear! :-)

Here's (some of) our girls being silly & having fun with their coach. There are a few more girls on the team...but again, I don't wanna talk about it :-(.

ANYWAY...I've had a birthday since my last post!

It was only 2 days ago. But still...

Check our what my eldest gave me...

She went to Jared!
This has got to be one of the best birthday gifts I've ever received. I have been wanting one of these Pandora charm bracelets for quite some time. I didn't think anyone was getting the hints listening. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE it!!! Thank you, Bri!!!

And check out the sweet little card that my youngest gave me...

She's such a sweetie pie. Thank you, J'Bear!!

Speaking of J'Bear...she has a birthday coming up too. She'll be 11 years old tomorrow!!!

Well, I'm pretty sure I won't update before next Thanksgiving. So I hope you all have an AWESOME day and enjoy your time with friends and family!!

Lucky #7!

Well boys & girls...it's that time again!

It's SOCCER season!!

And the crowd goes WILD!!!

Ok, maybe just the people in MY house are going wild! :-) We LOVE us some soccer season!

J'Bear has just started her 15th season playing the "Beautiful Game". But this season will be a little different for the Bibbs family! One difference is, J'Bear has moved up to the Academy program from the Recreation program. So it's ON now!!

Another difference is, Mister M. is no longer coaching her team :-(. That part is actually kinda bittersweet. The bitter part is...he's not coaching her team anymore :-). The sweet part is, he's not coaching her team anymore he can now watch her play as her DADDY and as a spectator. But what's gonna be interesting to see is, if he will "practice what he preaches".

As a coach, he and the other coach would often tell us spectators, not to "coach" the girls from the sidelines. We are only allowed to cheer the girls on and clap and yell at the crappy refs.  They say that it confuses the girls. They should only listen to their coaches...not their mommas! Whatever!!

But Mister M., we found out this weekend at a tournament, is not gonna transition to The Other Side very well!  The man just can't help himself! I mean, he coaches the games on TV for God's sake!

So the only difference with him being on the sidelines with me now, is that he's no longer wearing a coaches shirt. That's it!! :-)

Gotta love him though! He just has a real love for the game and wants to see the girls (and our U19 boys) do well. He still coaches the boys. But that's even about to come to an end after this season (we think). As most of the boys are seniors in high school and will be moving on to college...or whatever.

Ok, I don't wanna talk about that part anymore!

Anyhoo...back to J'Bear. For the past several years, she has been #7. And now that's her favorite number. So being that I'm the team manager for her team, we got first dibs on her jersey number. So of course, we went with lucky #7 again. In fact, I call her 7 when she's on the field. She hates loves it! Really...

So without further ado...I present to you....

LUCKY #

 

She's so stinkin cute!!!

Say it ain't so!!!

Today, August 13, 2012, marks the very last FIRST day of elementary school my J'Bear will have. She walked through the doors of the school this morning with a smile that stretched a mile wide.

TODAY...she is (in her mind, anyway) the HEAD HONCHO!!! She's a 5th GRADER baby!!!

EVERYBODY knows that 5th graders get special treatment (kinda!).

They are the oldest!

They are the tallest (most of them, anyway)!

They are the coolest!

They are the AWESOMEST kids in the whole, entire school house!

That's RIGHT!!!

They're FINALLY the upperclassmen!

Only 180 more days, give or take, until they make that final walk through the halls of S Elementary School! :-) (but who's counting?)

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!!

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful dads out there!  Even if you're not biologically someones dad...but you are in that roll...Happy Father's Day to you as well!

I'd like to make special Father's Day wish to some special men in my life.

My mom's husband, Peter!  LOVE YOU!!! (that's my mommy and my little Jayla too...aren't they cute?)

My dad! What an AWESOME man! He never ceases to make me (or my husband OR my kids) laugh. He still allows me to be a Daddy's Girl...even at the age of 45...he still treats me like his little girl. I love you, daddy!

  

And last...but DEFINITELY not least, my gift from God! The amazing father of my girls! The most handsome, sexiest, loving, man I know! My best friend! MY HUSBAND!!!  Marque, I love you bunches...Really, REALLY!! ;)

 

 

Have a great week, everyone!!

Fashionably challenged

Hi! I'm Dawn! And I'm fashionably challenged.

(This is where you all collectively say, "Hiiiiii Dawn!)

Considering I've done over 500 posts on this blog. I'm almost positive that I've done at LEAST one on fashion...or at least what I consider fashion talk.

But this post will be a little different.

Here's the thing, I'm in kind of a rut. A fashion rut of sorts.

How bout ya'll have a seat and hear a sista out! 

A couple months ago, I had a MAJOR breakdown over having to purchase shoes for myself. For those of you who follow me on Facebook; you may remember this.

Anyhoo...Mister M. told me that it was due time for me to go buy myself some shoes.


Some of you may be saying to yourselves, "Uh, so what's the problem?" WELL, my dawlings, the problem is...uh, how do I say this? I don't know how like to shop for myself. I mean, I CAN! I just don't do it very well. And I've come to the conclusion that my fat, flabby self body image isn't 100% to blame.

(Pardon the interruption: Don't get me wrong, I LOVE to shop. I just enjoy it more when I shop for other people...or for crafting supplies for myself. Ok, ok...keep reading!


Who am I kidding?? Yes it is my body image who's at fault! (insert big ugly cry here)

Back to the shoe thing for a minute. When Mister M. suggested that I go shoe shopping, he gave me a budget and a few "guidelines". Those guidelines were as follows: NO colored rubber flipflops! NO Converse! and NO cheap shoes!

OK, I can handle that! Of course I can...right up until I walk in the first shoe store. ARGH!!! Ya'll know how it works, you see TONS of stuff you like when you don't have a DIME! But now that the sky is the limit...so to speak, you can't find a dang thing! I sat in my car and cried after I left each store. Everything is SO expensive! I just can't justify paying so much on me shoes!

Let the crying shopping begin!! Oh how I hated this task! It would've been SO easy for me to just grab a pair of the Chucks and be on my way. But Noooooo! I have to buy grown up/girly shoes! Part of the problem was, I didn't really have a game plan. Alls I knew was I needed shoes; some other than what I normally wear. Like, I needed shoes for church and just something ELSE to bum around in.

ANYWAY...that's how this whole fashion thing started. Now that I have a few pairs of painful nice shoes. I need clothes to wear with 'em, right? Again...WHAAAA!!!

Alright...ALRIGHT!!! I'll say it...I have ZERO little sense of style! Happy now??  I mean, I have an idea of what looks nice. Case in point, check out this little "board" that I created over on Pinterest.

http://pinterest.com/dmbibbs/ok-now-i-d-wear-this/

This, my fine feathered friends, is how I would LIKE to dress!

There are items here that I KNOW would look REEdiculous on me. But I like 'em anyways! There are shoes on here that I KNOW would make me fall and break my ankle again! There are things on here that I KNOW they don't make in size HUGE! But again, I like 'em anyways!

Here's what I've been experiencing lately. I've purchased a few new things recently. My normal/everyday "uniform" consists of jeans/a skort/shorts, a tank top/t-shirt, and Converse/flip flops. Nothing wrong with that, right?

RIGHT???

So I've tried to change things up a bit and wear a cute little dress with my new ballet style shoes. Or a pair of my new wedge heels with some jeans. And maybe some jewelry every now and again.

But the problem is, when I wear something out of my "norm". People compliment me!

Ok, I know that's a good problem to have. But they say it so...so...like their surprised! I hear things like, "Oh Dawn, you look so cute/nice TODAY!" Or, "Dawn, where are YOU going all dressed up?"

Even Mister M. asks me why I'm "dressed up". And what's with TODAY? Do I REALLY look THAT bad on a day to day basis??

That's the thing, it's so out of my NORM that it looks like I tried too hard. And that's exactly how I DON'T want to look.

Ya feelin me??

I'm 45 years old! And I'm not ashamed to admit that. If someone asked me, I'd say that I thought I looked pretty good for my age. Of course I could stand to lose about 200 100 pounds! But I'm pretty much ok with ME! I have no desire to look like a 25 year old. I just need to learn how to work with what I have.And step out of the box sometime without being "offended" when people comment...even when it's nice.

I've mentioned before that I'd LOVE to be nominated for the show, What Not To Wear! But I'd be a HOT MESS in front of Stacey, Clinton, America and GOD! Oh well, guess I don't have to worry about that ambush happening...episodes for the rest of the year have already aired! :-).

Anyhoo...how are ya'll fashionably challenged? Or ARE YOU??? Holla at me!!

Bring on 5th grade!!!

Welp, today is the last day of school for Jayla. And her last day in 4th grade. I just can't believe it! My baby girl will be in 5th grade next year. Her last year in elementary school! WHAAA!!!

Here's Jayla and her super sweet teacher, Mrs. Cox on the first day of school.

And here they are today...both with tears in their eyes. :-)

I'm not sure how many elementary schools do this. But on the last day of school, our rising 6th graders do their last walk of the elementary school halls. It's a big ole cryin fest! :-) It's so sweet to see the kids walking the halls...some with huge "I'm OUTTA here" smiles on their faces. And others with big fat tears rolling down their flushed little cheeks.  Either emotion is pretty cool to see.  Several of the kids have been there since kindergarten. So I can imagine that it would be with bittersweetness that they take this final stroll thru the halls. As all the underclassmates & teachers stand in the halls outside their classrooms and wish the outgoing 5th graders well.

But my Jayla...LAWD have mercy!!! She has been a blubbering mess at this time of year since she was in kindergarten. What's funny about that is, obviously, when she was in kindergarten, she didn't know any of the 5th graders from a can of paint! :-)  But she's an emotional kid and cries when she sees others cry.

It was so funny when she was in kindergarten, she was standing in the hall with her tiny classmates. And the girl could hardly breathe she was crying so hard. Parents would walk up to me in carpool saying, "Awww, you should see this little girl in the kindergarten hall. She is just crying her little heart out!" I later find out that they're referring to MY little girl. She's a mess.

Well...she was nothing close to the mess we're she's gonna be when she does HER walk next year!!

It has become a sweet practice with the 5th graders, that as they walk the halls, they give a flower (or a bunch) to all the teachers they had during their elementary career as they pass by that teachers classroom. Man, there are tears all over the place!

Jayla says she wants to do that too. And I'm all over it...in fact, I bought the flowers today! Tee hee...just kidding. But we did buy her 4th grade teacher some tulips today (see the picture above)

Due to changes in our county, several teachers are having to leave their current schools and be placed in other schools. Well, Mrs. Cox is one of the teachers that's leaving :-(.  We're all so sad. And since she won't be there next year, Jayla wanted to give her flowers on the last day this year. Mrs. Cox was so touched by that. You shoulda seen her and me and Jayla crying this morning. It was so sweet!

ANYWAY...we are now out for summer break. And we get to sleep past 6:15am! I think I'm looking more forward to that than anything!

Now to come up with 2+ months worth of stuff to do to keep a 10 year old occupied! I'm sure we'll come up with something.

Holla soon!!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!! :-)

I know it's the 5th of April!

I've been kinda busy.

One would think that someone that's been as busy as I SAY I've been, would have more to blog about. Well, I DO have a lot to blog about!

Ok, a "lot" is kind of a stretch! :-)

Here's the thing. I think I have a lot to blog about. But once I come up for air sit down, I come to the conclusion that I'm basically, a pretty boring run of the mill person. What I mean is, I just don't think people wanna read about this AWESOME sale I found at JoAnns or Hobby Lobby. Or how the copier wasn't working AGAIN at Jayla's school. OR...how I made this really yucky delicious dinner for my family.

Know what I mean?

But for the record, I DO find really good sales at those places :-).  And the copier probably wasn't working at the school..at which time I showed amazing self control by not cussing that thing straight out in front of God and all the little chirens bursting into tears.

However, since I have ya'lls undivided attention....
chirp
chirp
chirp
I do wanna bend your ear for a second. (what exactly does that mean? I may need to look that up) ANYHOO...

I have a situation...well, really, my daughter, Jayla has a situation.

First of all, what do you notice that's kinda odd in this photo? Other than the crazy dance that Jayla is doing!

Do you remember that movie, Single White Female? Or what about, Roommate?

Ok, well due to Jayla only being in the 4th grade, it's not QUITE as bad as the psycho girl portrayed in the aforementioned flicks. But if this isn't nipped in bud with the quickness...I see a sequel in this kids future.

I'm just sayin...

Here's the thing. My daughter is very blessed to have many friends...in may different areas of her 10 year old life. She's got her soccer teammates, "personal life/family" friends, and of course her school friends. So the chick is not lacking in BFF's. Fortunately for her, she doesn't have to do much, if anything, for people to want to kick it with her.

NOTE: I'm not saying any of this about my daughters friendships because I'm her mother and I think she's the awesomest a good kid. Simply pointing out the obvious as it's been pointed out to me by others.

NOW, this kid in her class...let's call her...um, Shirley :-)...you know, to protect the innocent. Shirley has been around for a couple years. However, this is the first year she has been in Jayla's class.

A little bit of background on Shirley. Last school year she told Jayla... and I quote, "Jayla, I don't want to sound mean. BUT, your mom is kinda fat!". OK...this about tore Jayla completely outta her frame! She was SO upset and cried about this child talkin about her momma for months a couple days. She even said she hopes she's NEVER in her class because she would be angry with her the WHOLE YEAR!

Well, I guess that was short lived. Cuz now they are in the same class and are "friends".

So, back to the here & now. Shirley is very obviously dealing with some identity/insecurity issues. She follows Jayla EVERYWHERE. And is constantly pulling on her and wanting to hold her hand as they walk down the hallway. Jayla, being the kid that doesn't ever want to hurt anyones feelings, just deals with it. But you can tell that it is workin her nerves kinda bothering her.

In the above picture, they were at the 4th/5th grade dance. And that dang child was panting like a puppy behind Jayla the entire night. I happened to be a chaperone at the dance...:-D...so I could see on Jayla's face that she was NOT feeling it. As you can see in the above picture, Shirley is tapping Jayla on her shoulder as she's dancing! REALLY??

Here again in these pictures, she gotta be right there, all up in my girls grill! And do you see that sparkly hat Shirley has on? She told us that she went and got that before the dance because Jayla has one! Seriously? (ok, ok...I know they made more than one!)

Pretty peculiar, don't you think?

Threw this one in just cuz she looks cute :-).

At one point at the dance, Jayla had to escape go to the bathroom. So while she was gone, Shirley comes to me in a panic...with the McCaulley Caulkin hands to her face and everything, saying, "Oh Mrs. Bibbs! I'm worried SICK! I don't know where in the world Jayla could be! I can't find her ANYWHERE!". I told her that if I'm not worried, she shouldn't be. Jayla is fine, she's just hiding from you taking a break.

There are even times I will go to the school and Jayla's class is at breakfast lunch (they eat at 10:30A.M.!) And who's sitting right there? Yup! It's Shirley!  She'll sometimes tell me, "I'm not sure what's going on with Jayla today...she's not really eating her lunch!" Or she'll say, "Don't worry, I've been watching her, she's been eating today!"  

Don't get me wrong, I think it's kinda sweet that Shirley is so protective of Jayla. But why does she have to smother her with that protectiveness? It has been brought to my attention that Shirley doesn't really have many friends. And that she just wants to do everything she can to keep Jayla as a friend.

I will admit, Jayla has handled the situation pretty well though. One day she took Shirley in the girls bathroom and hemmed her up told her that she WANTS to be her friend. But that she has other friends too. She also said that they are "too big/old" to be holding hands in the hallways. Jayla says that Shirley cried and stormed away. But Jayla didn't go after her and let her "deal". Of course, they were friendly again later in the day....and the stalking has started up again!

SO...I said all this to ask, if this were happening to your child, how would you handle it? Is this just a GIRL thing? Would you intervene on your childs behalf? Or would you just let them work it out? I'm torn...

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....