Morgan's First Swim Meet

Colorado

Hello all! We are finally back from our vacation in Colorado which turned out to be a bittersweet experience. We visited Greg's grandmother for the last time. Her health had been declining in the past year and about a week before we arrived at her home, she was admitted to the hospital. We were able to visit her several times in the hospital before she passed away. Unfortunately we could not stay for the funeral because Greg had already taken a week off of work. Greg was happy that he talked to her and said his goodbyes the day before she passed on. Grandma Gorby will be missed.

We had a lot of fun in Colorado visiting family and friends. The weather was perfect and the scenery was amazing. The girls enjoyed looking for horses, cows and deer every time we got into the car for a drive. Greg and I enjoyed taking walks around the small town in the evenings. Almost every night Greg's dad got us together for a couple of games of spinner, which I completely "rocked at" the first time I played it. After that, I did not have the best luck. We all gorged ourselves on desserts. By the end of the week I was on sugar overload and for the first time in my life, I did not want to eat dessert. Now I am on a two week sugar detox diet.

We all learned that Morgan is a natural fisher. Greg's uncle Frank took Morgan, Greg and Dean fishing and Morgan "outfished" them all. She caught 3 fish on her own. Frank baited and cast the line for her and she hooked and reeled in 3 beautiful trout. Greg was so excited for her that he almost forgot to take pictures. The next night we ate some very tasty trout. Thanks Morgan!

The 4th of July in Paonia is a lot of fun for families. Festivities start July 3rd with exhibits, booths and activities all around town. The town has a large park to accommodate the carnival and food and craft booths. We entered Morgan into a competition for young kids that included tug-o-war, a potato sack race, water balloon tossing and a cherry pie eating contest. Morgan was not to crazy about the pie eating contest, so Taylor finished the pie for her! On the 4th, we started our day at the pancake breakfast sponsored by the police department. Then we lined up on Main Street for the "Cherry Days" parade. The pictures of Morgan and Taylor show their excitement at seeing horses and ponies, old fashioned cars, and clowns on bicycles. They also enjoyed collecting candy that the parade participants threw into the crowds. Taylor did not waste one minute enjoying her candy. After the parade we took the girls to the carnival for 45 minutes until the heat forced us to return home. The 4th was actually the hottest day of the trip. Later that day we returned to the carnival for more rides and snow cones. Just before the sun went down we drove up to the cemetery, of all places, to watch the fireworks show. Paonia has not had a fireworks show for years because it is always too dry. The whole town was excited to finally see a fireworks show put on by the fire department. After about 3 or 4 fireworks, the ground caught on fire and the show was cancelled. We did see a few more illegal fireworks set off by a group of people at the cemetery, but we decided to leave in case a fire broke out there as well. All in all, it was a fun day and now every time Morgan sees an American Flag she thinks it is the 4th of July. I hope as the girls grow up they will not be embarrassed to show respect for our flag and national anthem. Our nation may not be perfect, but I feel blessed to live here and I am grateful to the men and women in our armed forces who put their lives on the line for the rest of us.

Update

Time to update you all on our happenings this past month. Morgan is on a swim team. She attends practice everyday and she has made great progress. I hope this is the week she finds the courage to let go of her teachers and swim.

A couple of weekends ago, we visited with my friend Lacy and her husband Dave and their daughter Penelope. They took us to Dave's parent's house to ride horses. The girls had a blast. Then we drove to the mountains and camped over night. It was a fun experience until we tried to go hiking the next day. Both girls were exhausted and ready to go home. We will have to take them camping more often to toughen them up.

The other day, Morgan decided to do a project on her own. Greg was outside working in the yard and I was putting Taylor down for a nap. Morgan saw a video on how to make a princess using a sock and paper. She grabbed one of Greg's socks, a water bottle, paper, tape, scissors, tin foil and markers. The picture shows the result of her creative efforts. She was so proud of what she did that we could not be angry at her for climbing up on the counter to get the scissors. Greg thinks it looks like a character from "The Nightmare Before Christmas".

I hope everyone is having a fun summer. We look forward to seeing family and friends next month.

Ouch!

On Saturday, Morgan and Taylor were running around the house pushing each other, and Morgan pushed Taylor into the metal frame of the bed. The pictures do not do it justice. On Saturday, her cheek was swollen and blue. Sunday, she woke up with a little bit of black under her eye. Monday, it was even more black and blue and swollen. Today, it looks even worse. The pics were taken on Saturday and Sunday, before the beautiful blue, purple and green colors began to develop. She is fine and acts like nothing happened. I, on the other hand, am totally embarrassed to take her out in public. I feel like I should wear a huge sign that says, "I love my child, I did not beat her". I have a feeling this is just the first of many bruises, cuts and possibly broken bones for my little daredevil.

Birthday Girl

Tomorrow morning around 5:00am, marks my 32nd year on this earth. I usually am a little thrilled when it is my birthday because I can eat cake and open gifts. Who doesn't like cake and presents? This year though, I feel nothing. Tomorrow is just another busy day to me. There's swim class and play dates, a YW's activity and then a soccer game. I don't even think my kids know it is my birthday. I am not disappointed though. There is really nothing glamorous about turning 32. The carefree childhood days have long gone. My teenage years seem like they were in a different lifetime (maybe it's the 90's hairstyle). College and the 20's just flew by and now I am in the 30's. I remember being a young girl and thinking, when I am a Mom in my 30's, then I will be a grownup. Am I a grownup now? Secretly, I sometimes want to be a rock star with a bad attitude and lots of tattoos. Other days, I think it would be fun to join a motorcycle gang and travel across the country, wearing leather chaps and sporting lots of tattoos. Every once in a while I dream of playing on the U.S. Women's Soccer team and traveling around the world. Then I hear a child crying in the background and I am brought back to reality. Oh yeah, I have a husband and kids and something called responsibility. To those around me and especially to my kids, I appear to be an adult. Between you and me though, I am secretly a still a daydreaming kid at heart.

No more vomit, please!

For the past four weeks, someone in our family has been sick. First Greg had a cold with the cough that lasts for weeks after the initial cold is gone. Then I had vertigo. Yeah I know, weird. I felt like I had been on one too many carnival rides for two consecutive days. After the dizziness subsided, Taylor came down with the stomach flu and has been spewing for 5 days. A friend told me her nephew had the stomach flu for 2 weeks! I guess we can consider ourselves lucky.

I am looking forward to having a normal, boring and uneventful week. No coughing, no snotty noses or sore throats, no headaches or disabling dizziness, no waking up at all hours of the night, and absolutely no vomiting on mom, couches, beds and floors.

I will happily endure fights over stuffed animals, whining and complaining about eating vegetables, meltdowns before going to bed, arguments over who says the prayer, tantrums about who gets the pink plate, and listening to "I had it first!".

I will gratefully and humbly accept loving hugs, wet and sometimes sticky kisses, snuggling during story time, scribbles and stick figure pictures, ticklish toes, soft cheeks, tiny pink fingernails, singing concerts in the shower, excitement about peeing in the potty, and hearing the words, "I love you mommy!".

yummy lipstick!

Greg made blackberry milkshakes for the girls last night. As you can tell from the pictures, they really, really loved them. Morgan said that she and Taylor have lipstick on. I only wish lipstick tasted that good.

Morgan has one more day of school before the summer break. What to do this summer? Hopefully I can get Morgan and Taylor into swim lessons or tumbling classes. They need some kind of activity to burn off all that energy. I just picked up a flyer for AYSO soccer registration. I fondly remember the day my dad took me to register for soccer when I was 5 or 6 years old. Now AYSO accepts kids as young as 4. I cannot wait for Morgan to start playing soccer. What would I do if she didn't like it? That's not possible, she will love it because I said so. Actually, if she really does not like playing soccer, we will just find something else for her to do. She has lots of energy and a spunky personality. I am sure there is a future for her in something. Just as long as it is soccer.