I wish I had kept this up!!

Boy, I have really great 20/20 hindsight.....  this blog would have been so fun to keep up on.  Almost like the baby books I never finish!!

My Baby is almost 6!!!!

Wow, and Wow!!! My baby Cassandra Laree is almost 6 and It has been almost a year since I posted. I have missed the opportunity to archive some very funny things this last year. If I did make New Years Resolutions a good one to have made would have been to blog more often. I hate the fact that my mother has quit blogging since I enjoyed her blogs so much, but here I have been doing the same thing. Although mine are never quite as enjoyable as hers, but I guess those in glass houses should not through bricks. ( Does that even work here?)

I did not even send out Christmas cards with my yearly picture and letter combo. Sometimes I feel very isolated out here in Chicago area, but the more I feel detached from my family and friends the less I seem to try and stay in contact with them. I think I see a pattern here.? I think if I went to see a professional about my issues they would have a hay day with me.

Now to do a quick catch up for the last year.....
Ashli, is 28 and still living in the Tahoe area, but is currently surfing up a storm in Saun Juan Nicaragua .... she is on her yearly winter break from working for the California Parks District, and instead of snow boarding this year she is surfing. If it has to do with outdoors and adventure Ashli is there! I miss her like crazy and really wish I could see her more often. I really want to make it out to visit her in California sometime.
Brendan, is 23 and living back in Kansas. I missed him before he moved out here, but now that I was getting use to having him around I really miss him. He is doing well and happy to be back. Kansas City is really a nice area to live in and he has so many friends back there. The big news with him is that he asked his girlfriend Ashley to marry him on Jan. 13!!!! I think they are planning on getting married next Jan. 13.

Marc, is now 18 and a Senior in High School. His is 6'5" and taking special classes at a technical school to be a Fireman. His graduation is June 1st for anyone who would like to come to Chicago for his graduation. He is sarcastic as ever but now has someone new to appreciate his humor. Aunt Willie is staying with us when she is in town and she seems to get his humor. Marc is still playing hockey and improving all the time. Last year at spring break is when Marc broke his ankle playing hockey. He had to have surgery to put in a plate and 5 screws in. Now he with have to have surgery to have the plate and screws removed.

Cassie, is going to be 6 and in Kindergarten. She is taking ballet, tap, and hip hop dance lessons. She LOVES to swim. She just earned the special wrist band at Lifetime that shows she can swim all the way across the pool and back without touching the bottom. So now she can go down the water slide and I don't have to be in the pool with her all the time. She is 49" tall and growing!! She learned to ride a two wheeler this summer and if she is outside she wants to be on her bike. She now wants a swing in her room like Bryan and Jamie have in their family room.

Well that is more than enough for this post.... hopefully I will be better about keeping up on this. I am starting a new weight get rid of forever blog. Wish me luck!

Boyfriend???!!!

The other day when I was picking up Cassie from school she announced very excitedly that she has a boyfriend!!! I am thinking, NO!!!! don't let this start this soon. I guess it should have been a clue when she actually blushes when she watches Derick on Dancing with the Stars, or that she names any new toy Twist after the boy on Fresh Beat Band because she "Loves him" that we were in for trouble!
I asked what her new boyfriends name was, but she didn't know, but she was sure he was her boyfriend. I asked if he was a boy, that was her friend? She said YES!, and they are going to get married some day. I asked it he was aware that he was her boyfriend, and she said that he said okay when she asked him..... well, then she said she thinks he asked her, and then she said they just are. Now is when I drop the boyfriend topic thinking she will forget...... Next day I pick her up and she comes running out of school announcing she knows her boyfriends name!!!! So Eric is the lucky guy.... She is 5!!!! What are we going to see when she is a teenager?
The other day we took her to a playland and there were not to many kids there. She was following one little boy around asking if he wanted to play with her, and he just kept walking..... she kept following and repeating... would you like to play with me? Finally when he stopped she asked again ... would you like to play with me and be my friend? He replied, You are a girl.... she then replied , but I am a pretty girl.... and guess what? He then started playing with her! Cassie just does not understand why anyone would not want to be her friend..... I think that is great!

Payback is a Bitch.....

Before I start, I just want to say how bad I feel for Marc.... He has had a really ruff couple of weeks. He broke his ankle and tore the ligaments so he had to have surgery and they put a plate and 5 pins in his ankle. Now he gets to hop around on crutches all day. I think that would be a pain even if you were not 6'4" like Marc is. I keep trying to be aware of things that might get in his way..... but lets face it, I am not on crutches (thank god) and sometimes I just over look things that are obstacles for Marc.
One of the funniest things about Marc being on crutches is that Cassie has now figured out she can out run him!!!! As long as she stays away from the front of Marc and out of crutches range..... she is good. Today she was using one of Marc's favorite sayings on him..... "I am going to kick your butt!" and she means really his butt, since it is behind him. She soon discovered the problem was that is butt is REALLY high! I can see she is working this one out, and he might want to watch turning his back on her.
Oh, have I mentioned how much I can not wait for Marc to get his cast off? I know it is not as much as Marc wants it off but really close.

The Power of a Smile :)

This morning while I was on my way home from dropping Marc off at school, I had a pleasant surprise. I was waiting to turn at a stop light and glanced over at the cars that were turning towards the school.... some of those kids are driving nicer cars than me..... All of the sudden I notice a Black Suburban that usually is dropping off about the same time I drop off Marc (which is now 5 minutes earlier.... crutches DO slow you down) and the teenager in the passenger seat smiles at me! It was such a surprise I was taken back..... You don't usually see teenagers just smile at strangers. As I was smiling the rest of the way home it really made me realize the power of a smile! It took a grumpy old lady like me ( I have only had half a cup of coffee at this point) and made me feel good.
Imagine if you smiled at half the people you see in one day..... You would feel so much better and so many other people would feel better too.
I am going to try this.... I am going to try and be conscious of smiling at everyone I see.... even those drivers that make me insane..... and then see how I feel. I am going to assume that my beautiful smile makes them feel as good as that smile from the teenage made me feel this morning, but I am really interested in how it changes the way I feel.
Well look for updates on this in the future, and feel free to copy me and SMILE!!!

Is it Spring yet?????

Okay, I am REALLY ready for spring. For some reason this winter seems like it has been a very long one. We have been teased with spring a couple of days, but I am ready for it to get here already!!! I know it will probably be like the other years and be gone before I fully realize it is here. I have so much to do this year..... new garden, flower beds, deck for the gazebo and a big garage sale! I need to pick a date for my garage sale and get that done before I have to get my plants in. (Garage Sale is paying for new garden, deck and flowers!) I am also excited to start taking more pictures as it gets nicer outside.... but that is a different Blog....
Speaking of Garage Sale.... I am really cleaning out the STUFF... I will be selling a lot of things from the studio, things we have left from I-Wrapz and as many toys and household things I can convince myself we can live without. I really need a new lenses for my camera and I want to take a trip back to South Dakota, so this will have to be a REALLY successful sale!!! I use to think the new lenses would be the big ticket item, but with the price of gas it will most likely be the trip to South Dakota that is costly.
Well hopefully this will not be my only post for 2011, but my track record has not been the best. We will see how I do at keeping this up..... At least an update about this Garage Sale I have been talking so much about:)

I love being a mom!

It is Friday night, I just got out of the shower, and boy am I beat! Even as tired as I am I will find the energy to go play a game of candy land with my daughter. I need to treasure these moments when she WANTS to be with me. Her highlight tonight is going to be playing a game with Mommy and Daddy. How could I not work up the energy for that.
Marc is 17.... wow, I almost typed 16.... can he really be 17? He is spending the night at Brendan's who is now 23..... Marc would much rather play X-Box with his brother than hang around his Mom. Marc would much rather do just about anything than hang around with his Mom, but I know he still loves me. He just doesn't want to hang out and do things..... wait, I take that back. Last Sunday we had an afternoon out together. We even went to see a movie. He said he would go see it with me in the afternoon, but not at night. No, I do not blame him.... I am sure I probably felt the same way.
Anyway..... thinking about this has just made me think about how much I enjoy being a Mom...... even when I am beat!

Captured Moments

I think that is going to be the colors for my new studio. I have already decided to go with the Shabby Chic decor, and green and blue are two of the main colors I have to work around. I found this while looking for a new background and now I am inspired!!

Merry Christmas

It is Christmas morning and I am sitting here quietly waiting on everyone else to wake up. It was a late night last night, but I still can not seem to sleep in like everyone else. I was not up at 4 like when I was little.... but still here I am. On a regular morning you have to practically drag me out of bed.
I wouldn't think I would be up and excited. This Holiday has not been my best. For the first Christmas I can remember I have not made any Christmas treats, sent out any Christmas cards, or been in a jolly mood. I did not even by anything for Christmas dinner until yesterday after noon.
Even now sitting here it is not like I am waiting all excited or happy. I am just awake.
I think I will go get some coffee.
Merry Christmas Colette......be happy for your kids..... tomorrow is just another day, but today is Christmas.

Christmas Lights

Well I decided to go with the first thing I thought of...... and that was Christmas lights. I really love looking at the lights. Both on the trees and on the houses..... even at the mall. I always think of the Christmas when Cassie was almost 2 and we were driving around looking at all of the pretty lights. She would go OOOOOOOOOOOO, more? She would repeat this over and over again. It was so cute. It was also what I was thinking put in the simplest way.

I don't know where the time is going this Christmas. We have both trees up, but I still need to put ornaments on the big family tree yet. We have some of the outside lights up, but none of the new stuff we bought last year. Dale bought this really cool music thing that syncs with the lights, but he still has not had any time to get it up. He also bought these rope lights to put on the ground so when it snows on them they light up the snow. Well the snow is on the ground, but no rope lights to make it glow. Maybe next year. I bet it is really pretty. I will have to take a picture if we ever do it.

Okay, now one of my favorite Christmas memories. It was the Christmas I finally asked my parents if Santa was real. I need to keep pretending for my little sister Rhonda. I was always the first one up on Christmas. Well actually I would get up in the middle of the night to see what Santa left, since he did not wrap our gifts.....play for a little while, and then go back to bed and wait for the sun to peak up over the horizon. Then I would run through the house wishing everyone a Merry Christmas to wake them up.

Well, on this particular Christmas my sister and I were sleeping in our playroom right next to the family room. I woke up in the middle of the night as usual, but Santa had not been there yet. I hurried up stairs and woke up my mother and told her she forgot to put out the Santa gifts. Then I went back downstairs to wait with my sister, who was suppose to be sleeping, but was waking up. She asked if Santa had been there yet, and I said no, and since my mother was now making noise, I told my sister we had to play a game for Santa to come. I would plug her ears and she needed to hummmmmmm. She did and it worked. Santa came!

I am afraid this Christmas is going to be here before I know it. I have not sent out cards, or made any goodies. I have done most of my shopping (thank goodness for the internet!) I just have to wrap it all. I usually really enjoy that part, but I need to set down and relax and take time to enjoy this holiday season. Maybe sit back and look at it thru my little girls eyes. That just might do it! I will have to blog about all my new outlooks while I am doing that, but in the mean while I really need to feed the little girl.

Being me.....

Well hello Colette, nice to see you after so long. So are you going to try and work on your blog?

I was thinking about it. I talk to myself all day long so I guess I could just type to myself on here. I wonder if I will ever go back and read any of these? I think I would have to make this blog pretty interesting to not only type it once, but come back and read it some other time. Way to much pressure. I think I will just go with the flow and not think about this so much. I think that is why I had trouble keeping up with my blog before. There was pressure that I put on myself to make it interesting.

Well I thought I might do this.......but the big guy just called and had a fit I was typing on my blog. Well I will take my sick little self and go down stairs and try and figure out more of this book work. I think trying to do book work with a fever should be a no no. But what do I know. This business was never my idea. I wasn't even asked if I thought we should do it....... Just like everything else, I was just told we were and now I have to find my silver lining. I guess that would be that Brendan and Ashley live here now. That does make a nice silver lining.

Oh well, Until next time........ or when ever Dale deems it ok that I blog.

Okay, this a test and only a test to see if I can really post on my blog from my phone....... If this works be afraid.....very afraid!!!!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Gotta Love Summer

Boy do I love summer!!!! It is not only because my birthday is in July, and anyone who knows me knows I love my birthday....... even if it means I am getting another year older. My parents always made a big deal about birthdays when I was growing up and so the expectation has always been very high. But I digress..... summer is about more than my birthday, or two of my four children's birthdays.( I just happen to be sandwiched in between) Or my husbands or his sisters or even one of the grandsons. Wow, we have a lot of birthday in the summer! Okay, I am digressing again.

I love that you can be outside more...... I love the feel of air conditioning on my skin when I come in from the heat. I love the longer days. I love the smell of rain on a hot summer day. I love to relax and just gaze out at the lake. I love dangling my feet in the cool water. I love the smell of bar-b-que. I love the feel of the sun on my skin and the smell of sun tan lotion. I love all of the festivals there are to go to. But most of all I love seeing family and friends.

It always seems like summer is when we either visit family and friends or they visit us. We just got back from South Dakota visiting my parents, sister and her family. Now we will be seeing Dales sister and her husband soon. Then my eldest son Brendan and his girlfriend for his 21st birthday! (opps I said the B word again) Then we have my best friend from Kansas and her son coming to visit. I am so excited!!!
We still have plenty of summer left for more visitors.......and now you all know how much I love them.

One of the nicest things about summer is having my son Marc here all summer with us!

The Old Fashion Photo....or 2 ....or 3

Well, we are still visiting family in the Black Hills. The weather has been more like April than June, so we have been limited on our days that we can go outside to play! I still love playing tourist with my kids and being lead around by which ever family member draws the short straw for the day....... but we have had to modify our activities because of all the rain.

One of the things I really wanted to to while we were up here was get an old fashion photo taken. Just happens that is something we can do on a rainy day...... First time up in Keystone we had Marc and Cassie get a photo. It was so fun to see those two all dressed up. Cassie loved her dress and wanted to buy it..... Marc loved holding the guns and a whiskey bottle...... but complained that they didn't even put anything in it. I don't think he was hoping for whiskey...... just to look like he REALLY had some whiskey. After all, how tough is a cowboy that has an empty whiskey bottle?

Well after Cassie was done charming the photographer and Marc was done charming all the bystanders, we ended up with some really cute photos.
Now it continues to rain more and more ever day. Marc and I got to go to Deadwood on Saturday with Rhonda and Hali. While Cassie stayed home and watched her grandparents. Not only was it rainy, but very chilly on Saturday....... and since we are not big gamblers we had to find something fun to do in Deadwood. First Rhonda came up with this great idea while I was looking in one of the many gift shops. We should all get funky hats to wear while we walked around Deadwood....... after all it is raining. Really we had a blast with this, and I think Marc has decided to wear his for all special occasions.
I guess we got so into the dress up thing and our choice we limited to do in the rain so guess what we did?????? We had an old fashion picture taken!!!!! The place was really busy, and we had to wait, but it was so much fun. Marc was such a good sport. He was game to do pretty much whatever we wanted, but when the girl was trying to dress him and couldn't find a jacket to fit the length of his arms she called him "orangutan arms". All in all we had more fun getting ready for the photo than having photo taken. It just did not compare to the place in Keystone...... and there prices were outrageous!!!!!

The next day my brother-in-law Marty got back into town, so we decided to head back up into the hills. Mom stayed home to cook..... and Dad to watch mom cook. (He says this does not happen often and didn't want to miss it!) The kids and I went with Rhonda and her family. All plied in my new Suburban!!!!!! (So that is what all the seats are for.) Of course it was rainy and we had to look for indoor activities. We went to the National Presidential Wax Museum, which was very interesting, but then we went looking for something else to do. Hmmmmmmmmmmm, I have heard these old fashion photos are fun to do!!!! I know you are so thinking NOOOOOOOO! Step away from the studio. But no, we wander on in and get all excited about a new idea we have. After all now there are 6 of us, and who knows when we will be together again. We had a great day, and the photographer was the same one that was so good with Marc and Cassie. All in all we had lots of fun even though it rained. And now I have some great photos to add to my wall at home!

Storybook Island....... again......

If you have ever been to Rapid City,SD and you have a little one you have probably been to Storybook Island. It is definitiley one of the jewels of this city. I have to admit that I was really looking forward to taking Cassie there. All of my other children have been there multiple times, and I have tons of pictures of them with the various character. It is always fun and interesting to see who they have added since our last visit. Well, it has been quite a few years and they have really improved the park.

We have always had a routine for going threw Storybook Island..... go to this setup and pose with this character........ Thus we have all the kids with the different characters throughout the years..... add the new ones as they are added to the park. You wouldn't think that we actually go to someplace like this to let the kids play? Not when you have a prime photo opportunity like this.
Problem number one..... someone forgot to inform Cassie of our plans. She seem to think she was there to run all over and play. This child is use to having her picture taken, but when there are so many wonderful things to see and play with you can't really expect her to stop and smile on command. So both mom and grandma had to get really good of catching her on the fly.

Problem number two.......something like a dozen school buses dropped off a bunch of wild animals impersonating children. OK, I have been to Storybook Island dozens of times over the years and I have never seen so many wild children out there before. So to make the challenge of getting Cassie's picture at the designated spots even more challenging..... we had to snap our shots in between the little heads that kept running in front of the camera.

All in all we had a wonderful day..... and it was very enjoyable to see Storybook Island again......Secretly, I think Marc was more excited to see it than Cassie..... or maybe that was just him putting on a good face for his mother. Yeah, probably just a good face. He was a very good sport. He was even very helpful keeping some of the wild children out of our shots. At 6'2" he is very intimidating to the little ones. Except Cassie.... she knows she has him wrapped around her little finger.
Well we are off to do more exciting things in the Black Hills today.

HELLLLLOOOOOO OUT THERE!!!!!!

Wow..... It has been a long time since I blogged. My husband being laid off is really throwing me off. I have been going crazy on so many levels that I should have been using this as therapy. My daughter has regressed and is now screaming and rolling on the floor every time I try to get her to go to the potty. I will have the only 10 year old that is still not potty trained. If I ever get it figured out how to finally get her potty trained I should write a book just in case some other poor soul finds them self in my predicament. Who knows.... maybe this is Cassie's secret to securing herself a college education.
In his attempt to help with the potty training, daddy bought his princess a fitting potty seat. It is literally a princess potty seat. It is padded purple seat with pink swirls and a crown and says princess. Cassie really likes it...... as a HAT! She runs around the house with it on top of her head. I think she still has yet to use it to go to the potty. Well good try daddy!!!
Well off of the potty training, we are visiting my parents, sister and her family in South Dakota. I am sure I will have lot to blog about and pictures to post. You might just get spoiled by all the new post I have on here......

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

Ashli's Feet..... gotta love em!

Looking for my signature photo.

Okay, after having not blogged for so long I feel like I have so many different things to blog about. I have decided to go with my most recent thought. "I need a signature photo." My daughter Ashli just got back from hiking the Lost Coast in California and she sent me photos from her trip. I have have included some of my favorites, but there were so many to pick from. The one that tickled me and stood out from the rest was the simple one of her feet. Ashli has this very unique signature when ever she is away and taking pictures, she take at lease one of her feet. Okay, I don't know if she always takes pictures of her feet, but I have noticed that at least the pictures of her trips that she shares with me seem to have pictures of her feet..... Maybe she just thinks I would be interested her choice of shoes? Anyway...... I think of it as her signature photo, and now I want one. Maybe I should start taking one of my hand? No, to similar..... how about one blurry one? That seems to always happen when I am taking pictures. Ohhhhhh, I know, I could shoot one and miss the top of someones head...... once again, seems to always happen. Maybe I need to think of something more artistic...... If anyone can give me a good idea, I am open for suggestions. Mean while, I think I will post some of my ideas on here in the future, and see what kind of feed back my mother gives me...... she is the only one to ever comment on my blogs.