Long time

It's been a long time since I blogged... or journaled.. or wrote down any of my thoughts. And as much as I would love to have an excuse as to why, I simply don't have one. Life is busy. Raising four kids is tough. Like riding a bike up a hill with two flat tires tough. I find that I can't remember everything about my kids that I want to. So in an effort to record these events and milestones. And my emotions involved with all of it, I have to start writing again.
Let's start with the beginning. Emma is 13. I can't even believe that I'm writing that. I don't know where it went. But in the back of my mind all I can think is that I really only have 5 years left with her under my roof. I already miss her. I miss her chubby cheeks and dimpled fingers. I miss her innocence. I miss the way she used to think I was the smartest and best woman in the world. However I will say that she figured that one out pretty quickly. She has turned into the most wonderful young lady. She is responsible and determined. She sets goals for herself that I never dreamed for her. I love how she takes control of a situation. She takes responsibility for her self and for her future. I truly can't wait to watch her grow over the next 5 years.

Payton Danley is about to graduate from 5th grade. Next year I will be the mom to 2 middle school girls. I  could not be more proud of her. She works hard. She marches to the beat of her own drum. She is a loyal friend and  a determined softball teammate. Her will to achieve astounds me on most days. She has a quiet and watchful eye. And in all of our kids I see Erics personality in her the most. She worries about people. Last Wednesday as I checked her out from her bus on her field trip, she quietly asked her teacher who the girl she sat with on the bus would find to sit with on the way home. She worried that she would have to sit alone. I pray she will aways have that tender heart and I pray that I will be more like her in that manner. As she is heading to middle school next year I know I will miss the last of the class parties with my two girls. As they grow older they are trading in Their days of playing dress up and American Girls for Netflix and FaceTime with their friends. Through it all I can only look around and wonder where the time has gone. I am left only with the choice to cherish these days I have left with the girls and hold tight to the moments I have with their little brothers because I know all to well how quickly these days pass us by.
Easton. What a ray of sunshine God has given us in this little boy. I catch him at 6 years old  somewhere between the sensitivity of an innocent kindergartener and the toughness of an elementary aged little boy. He sees the word through fresh eyes. And treats everything as an adventure. He loves to play and explore. He is too busy for hugs during the day but in the quiet of the night when he is still and a little by drowsy , he lets me snuggle him and let's me know that the best part of his day was this right here. This hug and kiss and snuggle. Most of the time, it's the best part of my day too. When the girls weee little I didn't cherish those bed time moments like I do with the boys. I didn't realize that one day they would no longer need me to tuck them in and it just seemed like one more chore to do at the end of a long day. Now I see it as the prize I get after mothering these kids at the end of the day. I will take it every time.
Parker. Last but not least. Not that he would allow himself to be least in anyone's mind. He is a spitfire. A lover of life and laughter. A stubborn little man who adores his brother more than anyone in life. He looks to him for fun and guidance. He wants to be with him as much as he can. I pray that Easton will be the type of big brother that leads him well and shows him love and life. The type that leaves footprints worthy of being followed. Since I have taken a new job, I now have the flexibility to work from home on Fridays. I have loved getting to spend a little one-on-one time with him. In getting to know his personality, I see in him the desire to learn. The quest for knowledge and growth. He asks more questions than I am ready to answer and in the moments when he is quiet I know he is pondering his next move.

My kids are growing up so fast. In trying to get through the day I forget most of the small moments that are worth remembering. So I am challenging myself to take the time, slow down and write it down for my future self to look back and reflect upon.

To my yearbook class:

I know I haven't seen you in 7 days.  It's because I've been doing this: 

However, I haven't forgotten.  Tomorrow you will have this:  

Love,
Your Favorite Yearbook Queen

Long time coming

In my last post I showed you the room for the baby I was expecting... that was 10 months ago. On Friday that baby boy will be 9 months old.  My how the time flies!  I have loved every minute of watching my little boy grow from a tiny baby to happy, bubbly, loud 9-month old. 

It dawned on me today as I was holding my newest nephew, Ethan Shane, just how quickly they grow up.  Then I went and picked up my 2nd born 6 year old from school.  Have I mentioned that she is purposely lying about the answers to questions you ask her to see if you can catch her?  Without skipping a beat she tells me false answers to questions I already know that she knows the answers to.  What is that about?  Man.  They really do grow up... and outsmart you.  Still later I was helping my 2nd grader study for  a test on Martin Luther King.  I remarked to her that he died in the same year that my parents had been married.  After the initial shock about the fact that her grandmother was alive at the same time as MLK Jr. wore off she asked if they had been friends and then thought a second and said, "No.  I guess they wouldn't have because they were segregated."  Segregated?  That's a big word to use in a conversation with a 7-yea-old.  After thinking some more she then remarked on the fact that he had died in the same year her grandparents were married by saying, "It was the beginning of one life and the end of another."  When did she grow up?  Who is little person sitting in front of me and when exactly did she change into someone I can hold a regular conversation with?  

After the lying, the studying, the crying, the protesting, the upset tummies, the poopy diapers, the homework, the spilled milk, the uneaten dinners (and this was all today) I think I want another one.  ;)

Baby E's Room

I have for the most part finished Baby E's nursery.  I did just find a great little dresser I will refurbish and add... after he is born, but for now this should be it! 

Newish Cabinet

Two summers ago I bought a cabinet at a garage sale for $15.  I painted it black and it sat in my foyer for 2 years. 

Before the great "Spray Paint Ban of 11"  I had plans to paint it over spring break.  

However, I did sand it down to this: 

And then I enlisted the help of my dear friend Tammie to paint it while I watched from the side and added my moral support!  

(see this is NOT me painting... apparently my condition is soo sensitive for open air spray paint) 

Here is the finished product!  I am very happy with how it turned out! 

THANKS SO MUCH TAMMIE! 

What I did on Spring Break: Day 1

It's the first day of Spring Break and I was already planning so many projects.  I got started on a few today.  

My dining room chairs went from this: 

 To this: 

There will be more Dining Room updates throughout the week, so stay tuned. 

Then I decided to re-purpose the door handles to all 22 rooms in my house.  That gets expensive... unless you like spray paint.  And I do love spray paint.  

So I primed with this: 

And then painted 2 coats with this:  

(Side Note:  The sprayer on top is my NEW BEST FRIEND!

And my handles went from this:  

To this:  

I heart the change!!! 

Then I had a little extra time on my hands so I made this beautiful spring wreath for my front door.  It's perfect! 

(until the "It's A BOY" sign gets hung up in 3 weeks!) 

I liked the spring flowers so much I decided to save my backyard from a FEW of the coming dogwood flakes and brought some inside the house.  This was an idea sparked by ANGEL... the true craft woman.  

After that I cleaned the walls and door frames in my house.  Oh and all the spindles on the stairs where little grimey precious hands hold on.  Then I took a nap, went to Brusters and came home to blog.  There will be another update tomorrow! 

Off to make dinner... it's Mexican Monday!  

It has been a while...

but I've been off for two days for snow... so let me post!

Since July we have missed: 

The LAST of the Gwinnett Braves Games for 2010

The first day of School! 

Some pretty great T-ball games

Some pretty awful UGA games

A week at the beach with Grammie and Poppa

 The last Christmas as a family of four!

 A whole lot of snow in Atlanta GA

 The Mexican Family Reunion (don't ask)

 Payton turning FIVE

Lost a dear, sweet, wonderful, irreplaceable puppy. 

and the  nervous-fear-of-having-three kids anticipation of the newest member of the Danley family!

Love this

Consider two scenarios:

If you live a sedentary life, gorge yourself on high-fat foods, and puff two packs every day; your doctor will likely lecture you about your lifestyle and assign you some homework – diet, exercise, and no more tobacco. If you ignore the lecture and neglect your homework, next time you visit your doctor chances are you won’t score well on tests of blood pressure, body fat index, or lung capacity.

No halfway intelligent person, giving the situation a moment of thought, would blame your doctor for your ill health. Your doctor merely has the skills, means, and job to make your ill health visible.

Now consider a 16 year-old kid from an inner city where crime is a given, fathers are an endangered species, and cocaine is a food group. Born into poverty, this kid never saw a book until first grade. His elementary school years were marred by spotty attendance because of chronic illness – lung infections from the mold and rodent excrement in his housing project. When he did attend he struggled to concentrate, having had no breakfast and often no dinner the night before. Now he skips school more often than not, and when he does attend it's only to peddle drugs for his gang, or get high himself; like he did the day of the standardized test. Having missed most instruction and being too lit to read the test, he failed.

The teacher didn’t create the poverty this kid was born into, nor run off the kid’s father, nor encourage the kid to join a gang or use drugs. The teacher didn’t chase the kid away from school four days a week. It took 16 years of neglect and misfortune to create the mess who walked into that teacher's classroom. Out of 16 years, the teacher's cumulative influence totaled maybe 24 hours.

What halfway intelligent person, giving the situation a moment of thought, would blame the teacher for that kid's test score?

Apparently quite a few, since people nationwide cling to the notion that thousands of teachers – all college educated, licensed, and having years of experience – suddenly need to be fired. Count U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan among the “fire the teachers” zealots. When a Rhode Island school board fired the entire staff of Central Falls High School, Duncan praised the move. “Education officials are showing courage and doing the right thing for kids” Duncan said. Others might say that school board showed political posturing; rallying their anti-teacher support base for the next election.

Placing blame for the achievement gap on social conditions, rather than on teachers, is a slap in the face of political correctness. The mere suggestion that factors outside the school setting influence achievement only brings more blaming, shaming, and even name-calling from anti-teacher factions.

Payton's Half Birthday

Poor Payton's parents didn't plan out her birthday very well.  (Uh... planning pregnancies just isn't our thing.)  Her birthday is January 5th.  This is usually the day we go back to school after winter break.  Everyone is tired, fat, tired, and with the onset of school...tired.  (did I already mention that one?)   We have done it once before and it worked out so we decided to again throw Payton a half-birthday party rather than one actually ON her birthday.  For the past year Payton has been telling me wants  a Minnie Mouse party.  This was just fine with me since I had this Disney cartridge for my cricut and was dying to use it on something.  So we invited our friends, got ready to go and had a Minnie Birthday!  It was all very cute.  I made the kids their mousekatool box that they would need throughout the party.  Inside were the 'tools' they would need.  For example: there were coloring books set out on the table.  But uh oh!  There were no crayons!  What do we do?  Oh toodles???  Inside our Mousekatools?  CRAYONS!   Or, when we went to eat.... there were no cups! What do we do!?  Oh Toodles??? (You get the idea)  I made the ears and pretty much everything else you saw.  WE served the kids hot-diggity-dogs and had an Ice Cream Sunday Bar. They jumped on our bouncy slide and played balloon games and best of all... I didn't have to paint a giant princess castle made out of boxes or hang up a circus tent in my living room or cover the walls of my foyer so the kids could finger paint Curious George style.   We had a blast!

 Couldn't help but post a picture of my little man! Thank you Stephanie for bearing him for me!

SWIM TEAM STORIES

Swim Team.  This has been the longest season of my life.  Well, that may be exaggerating a bit, but that's what it feels like.  Practice EVERY morning and meets on Thursdays.  It's exhausting!  To start off, Payton made her way on to the swim team this year and completely skipped the bubbles and went straight on to the team.  She was swimming the length of the pool unassisted from June on.  She came in last most weeks, but as one mom from an opposing team snidely remarked to me when she failed to decrease her time in an event, "She's ONLY four!"  Ok Ok I got it lady!  She did great though!  I was so proud of her all season!  Emma was also still in the 6 and under age group this year.  Being that she is 6, she should have done very well and she did!  She wasn't the best on her team but she improved her times each week and did great.  There is one particular girl on our team who is a phenomenal swimmer.  Fiona. 

She really is great and her and Emma are the same age so they are constantly swimming the same events.  At the second swim meet after swimming against each other all night and Fiona winning they were both slated to swim the Butterfly.  This is an even that doesn't occur until about 9:30 so Emma was EXHAUSTED!  Neither girl had a time for this event so they both had to swim in Heat 1 and happened to be the only swimmers in the pool.  I wasn't expecting much as I had never seen Emma swim fly successfully but she thoroughly surprised me and and did GREAT! She stuck with Fiona the whole time and only lost by less than 2 seconds!  She ended up coming in 3rd in the entire race which is great especially since it is an 8 and under event!  However when she got out of the water the poor girl just started crying.  It was partially due to being overly tired, but her tears stemmed from defeat.  "I always lose to Fiona!"  I felt bad for my little girl and struggled between wanting to push Fiona in the pool make everything better yet also wanting her to learn that she isn't always going to win and sometimes it just stinks.  Throughout the summer I have tried to stress that swimming is in some cases an individual sport where you try to beat your own times and not worry so much about everyone else.  I also told her that Fiona was a great swimmer who really worked hard and she should challenge herself to work that hard and maybe one day she could win.  That doesn't mean much when you aren't getting blue ribbons though.  Fast forward to the last week of swim team.  After swimming at a friends house and seeing that indeed Emma could be competitive if she wished to be, I challenged her before she swam back stroke to really want to beat the person next to her.  She was swimming in lane 6 and if you know anything about swim team lane 6 is not where the winner of the race normally swims.  (Hint: it's Payton's signature lane!) However, tonight was different.  Fiona was in lane 4 and when the race started Emma came out strong.  Halfway through Eric and I realized she had a chance and when the race was over we were looking at our FIRST 1st Place Win!  Emma ran over to us and the only thing she could say was, "I beat Fiona!" and then in a softer wisper, "but I didn't tell her that."  She was so happy and it really was a great way to end the season.  Unfortunately it didn't end there.  The 7-8s on our team really aren't that great.  There aren't many of them and they couldn't do all the strokes well (hence Emma's 3rd place win in fly).  Due to this our Medley Relay (an 8 and under event) was made up of all 6-yr-olds.  

This being the case Emma was asked to go to the county meet simply to race in the medley relay.  Mind you they swim against a bunch of kids 2 years older than them so we weren't expecting much.
This past Sunday we traveled down to Georgia Tech, which really bothered Emma.  She wasn't happy about all the yellow and blue.  She was mad at her coached for picking such a place for this meet.  (I tried to explain it wasn't their fault).  Hers was the third event and despite a very late start for Emma her team placed 2nd in their Heat of 5.  So I guess that means they didn't come in last!  Pretty respectable if you ask me!

We really did have a great season.  We all learned a few things and most importantly we had a lot of fun!

It's Summertime and the Living is Easy!

It's a NeW day!  

I have a new outlook. 

 

I have a new organized house 

 (ok... so the frames don't have pictures yet... I'm getting there!)

I have a new TAN!  

(pictures to come)

After school let out we headed to Charleston. 

 Photo By:  Emma Danley- Battery Park, Charleston, SC

We ran into my favorite family in the world, the Mullers.  

(Seriously, these people are my second set of parents and my 3 little sisters.)

 It was surreal to see these "little girls" with my little girls. 

I had the pleasure responsibility to teach Emma about the Civil War.  Despite her disappointment that the south lost... (after all... she's a southern girl!) she was interested to learn more about it... 

and this crazy looking flag! 

Then we went to Hilton Head! 

 Oh my

 She wore an itsy-bitsy teenie-weenie yellow polka dot bikini

Our yearly tree picture.

I still remember the first one

 (Don't judge.. gained 70 lbs with Emma and this was only 8 weeks later!)

We came home to a busy weekend full of friends, friends and watermelon baby carriages?!  

 

We were able to take a trip to see my grandmother.

 (on the hammock)

  I love how the "country" brings out the country in the girls! 

Best picture ever this week!

Then... on to a very relaxing first few weeks of summer spent at the pool.  

So far... Emma has placed 4th and 5th.... 

Payton.... didn't come in last!  

Top 10 List list of reasons why I love summer break:  

10. Organizing the house in the hopes of putting it on the market

9.  Celebrating mine and Amanda's birthday at Cinco's

8. Hanging out at the pool with friends old and new!

7. Watching Payton learn to swim 

6. Reading 5 6 books so far!

5. Watching the Hills with Alina 

4. Seeing DEBBIE!

3. Watching Emma become more competitive (this was a close tie with number 1)

2.The ability to spend so much time with two awesome little girls!

and the number 1 reason why I love summer break... 

1.  SLEEPING PAST 5:00 AM! 

Ahhhhhh.  

God is so good. 

(Stay tuned for an upcoming post devoted to Taylor Lautner and the ladies who love him... coming soon...)