A New but really Old project

So this was fun, I've always taken a picture of the kids on their first day of school so I found the pictures and I made a copy for each of their school books and made myself an album with all the First Days.  On the back of the page, I put the first kindergardener or I put the Senior or the College First Day.  So its neat to look through an album with only first days.

Katie at work...

Katelyn at work, snapped the pic when me and Maddie were having lunch there.  She really likes her job.  

She's learned some important lessons, she knows how to work hard, get her work done and work together with others.  On the other side she has also learned how drastically different teenagers of the world are, and how different our family and our friends are.  She has never been around public school teens and for the first time she has come to realize how fortunate she is for the life she has had.  Some of the talk of drug use, sex, and immorality has shocked her to think how these young people are ruining their lives.  She is also responsible for some very inappropriate talk being banned from the work place, happened to mention how she felt it was inappropriate and the manager agreed.  But its also a learning lesson of what is out there and how you get to determine the life you want to lead.

Baby love...

So things with Gwena are pretty great, her teething fussiness is tapering. She is napping a little better, but I'm in the market for getting her a new play n pack so I can put one in the girls room for day napping and start getting her used to a bedroom upstairs. I think Tony and me disturb her continuous sleep. The one thing about Gwena is she is in the stage right now of just being so in love with Mommy. Its such a glorious stage, the way she looks at me just melts me, this house can be quite busy and she enjoys the play time and attention but when I walk into the room, all attention no matter what is going on, goes to me. Today was funny, she was hungry and she did the sound like you would do if you see something really yummy like mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm! and then wanted to nurse. Cracked Steve up. Steve calls her "pretty pretty precious" and she lights up and smiles so big. It is a beautiful thing to feel love back from your baby. Of course we love them, but when you can feel the love back, that's pretty darn special.

Comparison pic

Here's a new comparison pic, these are fun, some similarities, some differences but still fun to do.  You can't see it from the picture but when Gwena sits she sits almost identical as I was sitting in this picture and has the same fat arms and hands, but I haven't got Gwena doing it in a picture yet.

A little late...

Well we celebrated Maddie's birthday this week, I 've been so busy haven't had time to come chat about it.  Of course we had Mom/Daughter date, but then on her actual birthday we had cake and icecream.  We had invited her school friend and her sister over for dinner.  We made pizza.  Katelyn had gotten her a stuffed zebra (Maddie's favorite animal if you haven't guessed yet) and Carolyn designed and hand drew on a pair of tennis shoes, very artisticly.  I found a collective Precious Moments Doll (perfect condition at a second hand store so I got a major deal), an art set, and some construction paper and bracelet making kit.

Katelyn decorated the kitchen and made the cake, she made a cake pop surprise cake.  Pretty nifty, next time we know to spread them out more, but we premade cake pops then we put them inside the batter and baked the cake so inside the cake looked like big polka dots!  Pretty nifty.

Here's some pic's from her birthday.  Happy Birthday super Moo!

Family life much????

So y'all know my daughter Carolyn works at the grocery store by the house.  I love her working here, its not a big chain, like Kroger, its a bit smaller, all the people that work there are either retired woman or college kids, but college kids that are all decent kids, all respectful and just a great group of young people.  I've been going in their for years so even before Carolyn started to work there I was on first name basis with most the employees.  They really like Carolyn there, and when I go in they always say, ...Carolyn said this or Carolyn is so great, so glad she works here...etc...

 

Well Carolyn also goes to the University here in Nebraska.  She hasn't made any friends, doesn't socialize, but just goes to class and during her break in the day she eats alone and then goes and studies, all her friends graduated and went back to where they live since they were all boarders for the most part, so she's not really socializing in real life right now.  But she's so driven it doesnt' seem to bother her, but I"d like to see her have a little more decent fun in her life, but she's a smart kid so she'll figure that out.  She does like to work and enjoys the people she works with.

 

So the other day they had free hot chocolate and just as she was reaching for her's another girl was at the same time, they looked over and it was one of her co-workers.  This young lady looks like she's 16 easy but she's 26.  A senior, working herself through school, you can see she's a good girl, very nice, a Christian of some sort, anyhow they decided to have lunch together once a week and I was pretty happy about that.

 

Today I went into the grocery store and Michelle was checking me out, we always chat for a minute and she says to me, "you know I had lunch with Carolyn and I am so entralled, it just warms my heart"  she puts her hand to her chest and then continues, "the family love you all possess is so wonderful, she talks about the family, we see you guys come in here and it would be just anyones dream to have what you have, I just have to tell you I'm so impressed with you."  ok, I was really taken back for a minute, thanked her and said, "yeah, we're a close family" but I kind of felt kinda sad.  Why is it this society has changed so much that family is not a priority, why is family as we have now a rare thing?  We aren't special, we're just a family, why are people so pulled to us?  Its really a shame, that its not the norm, often times people look at me like me and Steve have done the impossible or like we did some amazing feat, isn't this just what families do?  We are just normal people doing normal life.  Isn't this just normal?  Something to ponder for sure, but while I was very appreciative and the kids here this stuff and they are appreciative, but in a way I'm a little sad that family has become so rare.

Personality Type

Wow this is spot on to me, of course its just for fun, but I was a bit shocked to read it.  So many parts I find very true to form.  I probably couldn't have described myself any better.  

The engaged Idealists are extroverted and helpful. Others find them to be very congenial and inspiring - especially as they are always willing to see the best in the other person. Their humour, their energy and their optimism attract other people.

Engaged Idealists are very good at communicating and are good at convincing and firing on others. That is why it is a matter of course that they often take over the leading role in groups. This personality type often produces very charismatic persons.

Engaged Idealists have an unusually strong ability to empathise. They are tolerant and generous towards others; they sometimes tend to idealise their friends. They always try to suit everybody and want their relationships to be harmonious and satisfactory. To achieve this, they are prepared to invest a great deal and to put their requirements last. As Engaged Idealists are very considerate, there is the danger of them sacrificing and overexerting themselves for others. In their job, they therefore have to be very careful not to develop a burnout syndrome.

Madelyn's Birthday part 1

Well part 1 of Madelyn's birthday was today.  Its a milestone birthday in our family.  She turns 10 on Tuesday.  At 10 I take my daughters out just the two of us.  We have a girl talk about what to expect in the next few years as puberty begins, we enjoy ourselves, we have lunch together, they get their ears pierced and we walk the mall together.  We had  alot of fun.  Katelyn bought us lunch at her Jimmy Johns shop but Katelyn was working so it was still just us two.  We had a nice talk about the changes our bodies begin to make and what to expect over the next few years.  She cracked me up, in her very matter of fact and cute way, she says, when I asked her if she had any questions, she says, "... welp, that's just part of life..."  I have to say I've never had one of the girls respond that way. haha.  

Madelyn is so funny, she is a source of entertainment, that's for sure!  Then she talked me into doing a booth photo, those photo's are so bad!  I had to squash down, haha.  But she thought it was great fun, so that's all that counts...haha.