MAKING MEMORIES

TREASURED MOMENTS

No folks Mimi is not the bad guy, she is a "Ninja" Also I guess if we
are to have another animal in the house, a Zhu Zhu pet is the way to
go. I (you notice I said I and not Mimi nor Greg) don't. Have to feed
nor clean up after Zhu Zhu. It never fails that whenever I go into the
kitchen there they all are. Butch is at my feet, Stanley is perched on
his little stool and even the Guppies are getting into the act.
Usually they swim happily all around thei tank, but when they see me
coming, they all huddle together and look at me with their tails
wildly fanning to and fro as if to say "feed me! Feed me!" Sometimes I
wonder if it will ever end, then I realize it will. That's when I wish
I had these days again because my baby is growing up way too fast for
me and so are her friends. I love them one and all.

LUNCH TIME

Today was my volunteer day and usually I get to go have lunch with Mimi. Actually we the parents can have lunch with our kid/kids any day of the week. I just do it on Fridays cause I am always there. Man! Was it freeze you ass off cold this morning! The wind was blowing so hard (25-50mph) that it knocked the fence down on one of the houses in our neighborhood. Then there was the hail/rain. This is how it was on our way to school. The weather was so bad that the kids were not allowed to play outdoors which made them super happy. Things have quieted down a bit now but I have quite of debris to clean up from the green belt behind our house. I thought that I would take this picture of Mimi and Blake because they are now both toothless and today was an exciting day for Halliwell as well. She lost her (first) bottom front tooth and was soooooo excited about it. She told it to anyone who would listen.

PARTIES, PARTIES, PARTIES

As usual our weekends are quite full. There was a pre-comp meet at our gym but since Mimi is now on the team she did not have to compete which in turn made her super, super happy because she was then able to attend Kate and Ethan's birthday party at their house. This is a family who has not one but two sets of twins. First is Kate and Ethan who just turned seven. Then there is Owen (boy) and Avery (girl) who are 3 years of age......I think.....not sure. When I heard that the party would be at their house I most definitely that they (parents) had totally lost control of all their senses. I must say though that when I dropped Mimi off at their house, I was totally and completely surprised at how well all of 30-35 kids were behaving. They had everything so very well organized and planned out well. There were 3 parents that had about 10 kids each doing a different game at the same time. I guess it does pay to be a teacher at times. Michelle owns her own pre-school and Jason works as a schoolteacher himself. So while Mimi was at the party, I had time to go out and buy more plants for our backyard as I as still in the process of sprucing it up a bit. When the party was over it was playtime for Mimi and Blake. And play they did. Then they both asked if Mimi could sleep over at his house that night and so they had a sleepover. Apparently our sweet Mimi is not a good sleepover guest in that I mean when she sleeps she sometimes thrashes around which in turn wakes up Blake. At 2 in the morning Keri says that Blake came crying into her room saying that Mimi kept waking him up. Unless Mimi changes, heaven help the person she ends up with (much) later in life.

Yesterday afternoon while dad took both Mimi and Blake out to see the movie "How To Train A Dragon", Keri hosted a Miche Bag and Cookie Lee party. I not much into the jewelry but I do love nice handbags. Since I already had the bag, all I really needed was another shell.

When I arrived at Keri's, what I thought I saw wasn't really what I thought at all. I thought I saw a real baby on the sofa but what it was, was a baby doll for Izzy. Izzy lives next door to Keri and she is now 15 years old. Her mom Lisa was there for the party. Izzy has a project to do and that is to care for this doll as if it was her own baby. This doll is specialized in that it acts like a real baby and you have to care for it like a real baby. You have to figure out what each cry means. Lisa says that it even crys at 2 or 3 in the morning for its feedings. Then when the party was over and we were all sitting around with our wine, Izzy was caring for her baby and the ladies proceeded to talk about their birthing horror stories and I looked over to Izzy just in time to see the scared look on her face as they were relaying these horror stories. I think that they scared her straight. Next thing I knew, our Tazmanian devil came home. She still leaves her stuff all around the house. Here, there and everywhere. She cried like a banshee when we told her it was time to leave. "I wanna stay at Blake's house!!!" she cried and cried. That was when I knew she was tired, because when there is a sleepover, NOBODY SLEEPS. We will be going to bed early again tonight.

MIMI'S NEW NICK NAME

This afternoon Brandy came over to the house with the boys while Mimi and Halli were in school. Since Christmas she has been semi laid up with a bad foot. I offered to go over to her house for our lunch date thinking that it would be easier since she has the two babies but now I realize the the reason she wanted to use our house is the fact that she must be getting cabin fever by now. When the time came, I went to pick up the girls and come back to our house. McCallister was overjoyed to see the girls. He just loves tagging along after them. They in turn love to tease him in order to get him to chase the both of them around the house while shouting out Hawa (Halli) and Pee Pee (Mimi). The boy is only two at this point.

DEEP DISCUSSIONS

Mimi is just a happy-go-lucky kinda gal and I really love that part of her personality. Every now and then she will surprise me with some deep questions and it catches me off guard sometimes. This morning she saw our local paper that has a picture of Jesus looking up to the sky with the sun rays shinning down on his face and off in the distant is the 3 crosses. Mimi started asking questions during breakfast. I still did not have my morning tea and was not quite awake yet but I thought that if she is asking, now is the time to answer. She wanted to know who that was in the picture so I told her. Then there was silence. Finally she says "but how did he get in the picture?" "You mean, how did the picture get into the paper?" I asked. "Uh huh" Mimi answered. So I told her that it was actually a painting and the papers printed in the paper. "You mean he's not REAL???" the girl asked wide eyed. "Yes, Jesus is real but back in those days people did not have cameras so they drew pictures" I answered. She just looked at me like I had two heads as if to say "Are you serious? People didn't have cameras then???" More questions. "Is he talking to GOD?" "Yes" I answered. "Well then, how come we can't see GOD?" she asked. "WHERE IS GOD?" again she asked with a puzzled look on her face. "God is everywhere" I answered. Finally she pipes up with "Blake knows everything. He is so smart." End of discussion.

BUSY, BUSY, BUSY....

It seems that the older Mimi gets the busier I am. The other night when us moms got together while the girls and their dads were out a comment was made. Janet said that it seemed that last year when our kids were in kindergarten, it was like one big party for us moms. We had more time to get together. Why is that? I wonder??? You would think that since the kids are in school, we would have time to get together more often. As for myself, I joined the gym to get myself into shape or least try to. Also since the weather is cool, it's time to get my backyard together. I've got bulbs to plant tomorrow. Dad planted my rose bushes for me last Sunday. There are four bushes in all. Today Bryce came over to help me go out and pick up rocks to line my flower bed. Since going from two paychecks to one I am having to pinch pennies and buying the stones for the flower beds are costly. So now since there is a new developement going up, I went to pick up my rocks for free. In the next few weeks, the nurseries will be getting more plants and shrubs that I want to go and check out. Unbeknownst to Mimi, next month we will be making a trip down to Portland and on the way we will be stopping at The Great Wolf Lodge (indoor water park). I know she will be shocked. Last February Keri invited us to go along with them as it was Blake's birthday, but we graciously declined as we were getting ready for the Olympics. When Mimi got wind of Blake going there she was highly upset with me "I'VE BEEN DYING TO GO THERE AND YOU WON'T LET ME!!!" She would be even more upset if she knew Keri invited us and we said "No thank you".