First time this year

A week ago, we headed out of state for a long weekend to get together with family and friends for some fishing, laughing, swimming, food and conversation.  This is an annual event and one that my family looks forward to every year (2009, 2010).

Come and see for yourself:

Fishing ~ and do you see how my rod is bent?  

I have a fish on the end of that baby!  

Time to put down the camera and focus on the task at hand!

The view...

Beautiful as always

But alas, someone NEEDED a nap and well, napping on the boat just isn't her cup of tea.  Actually, napping anywhere other than her crib or pack-n-play doesn't happen too often.

Splashing, Swimming with cousins and with Daddy

Day 2, more of the same.  But, on this day, someone surprised us all and actually crashed!  Yay!

And we caught our limit of fish!  

The first of many boating adventures of the season!

Embrace the Camera ~EASTER!

If you come by often, you maybe read that I forgot to pack my camera when we traveled out of state for Easter.  I was completely bummed and if you want the whole story, you can read it here.

Anyway, my sister-in-law did remember her camera and took some pictures of my family on Easter Sunday.   For the first few days after Easter every time I checked my e-mail, I hoped there would be an e-mail from her.  Nothing, and eventually I stopped missing the pictures I'd never seen.  And then, this past weekend we had another family get together.  And when I saw her, she handed me a disk.  A disk that had Easter pictures on it!  So, here you go, I am embracing Easter this week ~ I may be late, but I have to say, we clean up pretty well!

We were there.  We did dress up, search for eggs and fly kites and now, I have the pictures to prove it!

I admit, I'm a sore loser.

Monday's and Wednesday's nights around our house are a bit chaotic.  Sassy has softball practice and games.  Action has baseball practice and games, and my hubby is an assistant coach for Sassy's team.  So we eat an early dinner, load up the vehicles and go our separate ways.

Obviously, since my Hubby is coaching Sassy, I am with Action.  I've watched all of his practices and his games.  This is the first year he has played in an organized league.  The last few years he has played through our local parks and rec. program, which is more of a teaching program with about 2 scrimmages against other teams throughout the season.  Action is only 7 as are most of the kids on his team.

They have played 3 games.  They have lost all three.  The first game they lost by the "10 run rule" ( The game will end if the home team is ahead by 10 or more runs (anytime while they are batting) after 4½ innings or the visiting team is ahead by 10 runs or more (before they bat) after 5 innings.)  Second game they lost by 2 and the third game another "10 run rule" loss.  At the end of the 3rd game someone said, "they only needed 1 more run to keep the game going, but I'm sure you parents are ready to get out of here."

Are you kidding me?

My reply, "I'd much rather be here watching them play."

Rude, perhaps.  True, absolutely.

So here I sit, being a sore loser.  Just hoping for a win for the boys, and for me.

***UPDATE***

I wrote this post after their game last Wednesday (a week ago).  

I was frustrated at the lack of organization and lack of heart by some of the adults ~ I think their attitudes can rub off on the boys.

 I am happy to announce that the "White Sharks" got their first win Monday night.  

They went into the last inning down by 2 and ended up scoring 5 runs.  

They were thrilled.  I admit, I was too, but it wasn't just because of the win.  It was just nice to see the boys working together as a team and cheering each other on.  

The atmosphere was different.  

And action, he was up to bat 3 times.  He struck out once, and had 2 nice hits.

I admit, I am imperfect.
I don't like to lose, but when I do I like to know I tried my hardest and gave my all.  So if they would have lost on Monday, It wouldn't have hurt quite as bad as the previous week.  They tried hard, they were focused and the coaches ~ they were supporting the boys, cheering them on and find the teaching moments.  And in my mind, this is exactly how they game should be played.

Embrace the Camera

Ahhh, spring is upon us and hopefully, it is here to stay.

But with Spring and eventually Summer, all of my stinky, dirty, happy, busy kids need to go back to taking daily showers and baths.

So here is a quick snapshot of my cleaned up, fresh smelling girls and I, last night after a evening of playing on the baseball and softball fields.

Brightening Up

I don't know about where you live, but up until today the weather has been cloudy, drippy and dreary.  So I decided to add a little sunshine to my front entry.

Here is the before, in all it's new spring wreath and dirty glass door glory:

I purchased this chair from Sam's Club (I was too impatient to find one on Craig's list, thrift store, or garage sale).

Using some bright yellow spray paint, I spruced that baby right up for a fabulous pop of color.

Little Smiley, decided she needed a chair too, so she pulled an old rusty one (given to us about 10 years ago by our sweet elderly neighbor at the time).

The branches I had picked up off the ground one morning while walking my dog ~ who by the way likes to hang out in the cabinet I guess.

I couldn't find her one day and went to go shut the cabinet door (although they are gettting better, no one in my house seems to think it is necessary to fully shut all of our cabinet doors) and someone popped up.

Anyway, Hubby was attempting to clean out our garage and was tired of moving my lovely branches from point A to point B and back again.  So I propped them up in a planter, via some landscaping bricks,  stole some lava rock from around the house and filled it up.

Works for me, at least for a couple of weeks until I'm ready to do some flower planting!

Ahhh..... much better!

And of course, the sun is out and shining today :)

Today's Creative Blog

Sarah’s Home May’d spray paint linky party

81. A first Birthday 

82. Celebrating an accomplishment 

83. A clean house 

84. Brighter colors 

85. Laughing with my in-laws 

86. My family who knows how to rally together 

87. My beautiful 10 year old daughter 

88. My Amazing husband 

89. Warm water, the smell of chlorine and smiles at the indoor pool 

90. My mom

Cuddling in the Rain

Sassy had a softball tournament yesterday and today.

Saturday it was cold, cloudy and kept switching from a light mist to a rain.  Not a whole lot of fun.

And while Sassy was disappointed I didn't capture many pictures of her playing, I did capture this:

And quite honestly, it just makes me smile.


So do tell, what made you smile this weekend?

Embrace the Camera

It's baseball season!

And that means I have a stinky, sweaty Action and I after his games.

(he may stink, but he is still awfully cute!)

Really? They're just glasses.

If you come by and visit often, you've probably already noticed.

Smiley now has glasses.

I admit, I was upset at the news.   Me being shallow I suppose, but here is the story of how they came to be.

You see, Sassy (Smiley's older sister who is 10) has had her share of eye struggles.  It all started when she was 3 and we found out instead of being able to see 20/20, she could only see 20/1000.  I'm not going to go into details, but go here to read the story of her eyes.

Ever since then, I watch my children's eyes closely.  Just by looking them in person and in pictures.  I've never noticed anything with Action's eyes. But with Smiley, I didn't feel like they were straight and took her into the pediatric ophthalmologist when she was just shy of being 1 year old.  The doctor told me there was nothing to worry about at that point.  She had something called pseudo-strabismus, which is basically when one eye appears to turn in (typically in infants, but is usually outgrown) due to a wide nose or extra skin between the nose and eye.  We went home relieved.

But, I couldn't help but watch her eyes.  I felt like once in awhile I would notice one of her eyes turning in.  A friend of mine mentioned she thought she noticed the other one turning in.

Then, one day at lunch, Sassy yelled out for me concerned that Smiley's "eyes were everywhere".

I came to the table looked in shock at her eyes.  At one point both eyes were turned in, then one, then the other.  She was all over the place.

I calmly called the Doctor and amazingly got in to see him 1 1/2 weeks later.

We were there for 2 hours.  And the verdict.... surprising even her doctor... her vision was (is) typical for a two year old.  They expected it to be worse with the severity of her crossing.

The prescription:  Glasses. Putting her eyes at 20/20 (a typical 2 year old sees around 20/60).  Fingers crossed that glasses correct the turning otherwise surgery would be the next step.

And honestly, when I left the doctor's office that day.  I was a bag of mixed emotions.  Yay, her vision wasn't bad, there weren't any underlying causes for the crossing and all she had to do was wear glasses.

So what was my problem?  I have another girl in glasses.

That was my problem?  I have another girl in glasses.

I didn't want my daughter to wear glasses.  She's so cute without.

I didn't want my daughter to wear glasses.  It would be a struggle to get her to keep them on.

I didn't want my daughter to wear glasses.  Her sister, Sassy looks in the mirror now and says,  "Mom, I'd be so much prettier if I didn't have to wear glasses."  And I didn't/don't ever want Smiley to feel that way.

I just wanted my Smiley ~ flashing her beautiful lashes, sans glasses.

Really Wendy!

How petty.

There are so many other things that could have been wrong.  And all Smiley needs is glasses to hopefully correct the problem.

There are so many other people, suffering much greater trials, illnesses, medical problems and circumstances and I am upset because my daughter needs glasses!

How can I even allow myself to feel this way?

I guess that's me being real and imperfect.

You see, we all have feelings.  Some may be exaggerated, some my be spot on and some may be repressed.  But they are there.

And, I've come to terms with the glasses.  It didn't take me long.  I admit, I threw myself a little pity party. And then I heard these words "At least she's not blind."  And while that is exactly not what I wanted to hear, she gave me what I needed.  A good dose of reality!  You see there are so many worse things and glasses, well, we'll just call them a new accessory.

81.  A first Birthday

82.  Celebrating an accomplishment

83.  A clean house

84.  Brighter Colors

85.  Laughing with my In-Laws

86.  My family who knows how to rally together

87.  My beautiful 10 year old daughter

88.  My Amazing Husband

89.  Warm water, the smell of chlorine and smiles at the indoor pool

90.  My Mom