Hooray for Memorial Day

I am on vacation visiting my grandparents in my 'hometown' (technically I only lived here 5 years out of my life) but this is where I came from, and this is where my my ancesters lived, this is where my history is. We have spent the weekend at the cemetary cleaning up the gravesites of family members and placing new flowers on them. I think I had forgotten just how many of my ancesters are buried here in this one cemetary. My grandma and grandpa on my dad's side and most of my grandma's 11 siblings and their spouses and some of their kids, as well as my great grandparents, my great grandparents on my mom's side, and one cousin--at least that is who I can think of right now. I was so grateful for the opportunity to spend this weekend remembering, and also for being able to begin sharing all of the stories about these important people with my daughter. This poem was in the local paper today--and I wanted to share it too. Don't forget the people who are responsible for bringing you life--your ancestors, and the soldiers who have protected your freedom.

JUST A COMMON SOLDIER
(A Soldier Died Today)
by A. Lawrence Vaincourt
He was getting old and paunchy and his hair was falling fast,
And he sat around the Legion, telling stories of the past.
Of a war that he had fought in and the deeds that he had done,
In his exploits with his buddies; they were heroes, every one.
And tho' sometimes, to his neighbors, his tales became a joke,
All his Legion buddies listened, for they knew whereof he spoke.
But we'll hear his tales no longer for old Bill has passed away,
And the world's a little poorer, for a soldier died today.
He will not be mourned by many, just his children and his wife,
For he lived an ordinary and quite uneventful life.
Held a job and raised a family, quietly going his own way,
And the world won't note his passing, though a soldier died today.
When politicians leave this earth, their bodies lie in state,
While thousands note their passing and proclaim that they were great.
Papers tell their whole life stories, from the time that they were young,
But the passing of a soldier goes unnoticed and unsung.
Is the greatest contribution to the welfare of our land
A guy who breaks his promises and cons his fellow man?
Or the ordinary fellow who, in times of war and strife,
Goes off to serve his Country and offers up his life?
A politician's stipend and the style in which he lives
Are sometimes disproportionate to the service that he gives.
While the ordinary soldier, who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a medal and perhaps, a pension small.
It's so easy to forget them for it was so long ago,
That the old Bills of our Country went to battle, but we know
It was not the politicians, with their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us the freedom that our Country now enjoys.
Should you find yourself in danger, with your enemies at hand,
Would you want a politician with his ever-shifting stand?
Or would you prefer a soldier, who has sworn to defend
His home, his kin and Country and would fight until the end?
He was just a common soldier and his ranks are growing thin,
But his presence should remind us we may need his like again.
For when countries are in conflict, then we find the soldier's part
Is to clean up all the troubles that the politicians start.
If we cannot do him honor while he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him homage at the ending of his days.
Perhaps just a simple headline in a paper that would say,
Our Country is in mourning, for a soldier died today.

YEA!!

I am probably the only one excited about this--but I jsut want to share that I gained another pound and I am psyched!! As you can tell I haven't been doing a very good job at counting my calories every day, but I have still been trying to eat as many calories as possible. Out of the 8 pounds I wanted to gain -I had gained about 3 pounds...and then lost some of that, and then I was back up to have gained about 2.5 pounds and I have been there for a week or so--and my motivation took a hit after not seeing very much progress. BUT --Today I am officially up 4 pounds!!--it helps that today is friday and I am wearing jeans to work--definitely the heaviest clothing item--however I will say that I did take off the Doc Martens that I was wearing to stand on the scale...maybe someday I will weigh as much as I would have with them on. :-)

Thank goodness

It was just preschool. She will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall...or summer. They actually start the school year the last week of July here--which is wierd--since I grew up here--and we never started that early. It is an almost year round school calendar. They get two weeks off in october, two weeks off in december, two off in spring sometime and then they are out at the end of may. Kind of different..however it will be nice that we get some time off in the middle of the school year to take some vacations when it isn't peak travel time.

My baby is 5 !!

Opening presents first thing in the morning

pictures with all of her friends at her pool party.

Snuggling up in her new soft robe from Grandma and grandpa.

I can't believe that she is 5!

The First of many graduations

Sometimes you wonder why they make such a big deal out of things like this--and then you see how excited the kids get. What is it about a contruction paper hat that makes a kid feel so special?? :-) They sang lots of songs for us, did the pledge of allegiance in sign language (well...mostly) and sang "I'm Proud to be an American"--very impressive. (Side note: I was having a good hair day in this picture-I wish it looked like this every day). Here us a short clip of the song--don't try and find Rachel--you can't really see her.

Happy Mother's Day ... to me

I forgot to post this picture of me and Rach. I love her to death, I am so glad that I am her mom :-)

Happy Mother's Day

Just wanted to say Happy Mother's Day to my mom. She is the greatest! She has taught me so many things: that you can do anything you set your mind to, to think outside the box, and everything I learned about bargain shopping...just to name a few.

I remember when we were little that she took a trip to see her sister, it must have been the first time she got away from her four kids--because it was traumatic. We all cried the whole week because we missed her so much--dad was taking care of everything, but we just wanted our mom. I laughed when I remembered this story, and I think it was one of the only times I remember her getting a vacation away from us--just for the record she definitely deserved many more. Thanks so much for everything you have done for us. :-) Rachel would like to add that she loves playing games with you...like Bingo, and perfection.

Hope you are having a great day!

Sleep Over at the Lake

(real pictures coming soon)

Last night I went on a trip with the girls from youth girls from church and we slept over at someone's lakehouse. We had so much fun! We played Nerts, Scum, and Up and Down the River, had a barbeque, laid out in the sun, and went out on the boat. I went wake boarding for the first time in about 9 years--(back when I was in young womens.) And can I just say...I did Awesome! I got up on the first try, and I was very impressed with that. I even stayed up for a while, and that was enough to make me happy...it didn't even matter when later I took a few dives, OR when I was finished with my 10 minute stretch of skiing and my leg and my butt muscles were twitching because they were overworked. lol! seriously it was so funny. I thought I had been working out at the gym...but apparently not so much. Now I remember how water skiing/wake boarding uses all kinds of muscles that you didn't know you had.

Last night when everyone started going to bed, I wasn't really tired anymore, so Kirsten and I stayed up chatting about everything...and a whole lot of nothing--until 2:30am (For the record-she was totally enjoying herself, and was doing plenty of talking herself--even though this morning she tried to act like I kept her up all night.) :-) It made me remember all of my fun sleepovers back in my younger days. I always have my biggest epiphanies when I am up late like this, and last night I had plenty (not that I remember all of them) but one of them was about how I want to feel more grown up...and more young at the same time. Confusing I know. What's new for me huh? Basically--in some ways I wish I could find some things to do so I can feel more like a grown up: maybe go on a grown up vacation, maybe hang out after work in a bar/coffee shop/cafe, or maybe just be spontaneous and go out on dates every weekend. Then in some ways I wish I could so some things to feel young again. Maybe it was getting married young, or having kids soon after that, but I just feel like I am always very responsible, and mature ...and well, I think I am done with that. Or at least I wish for one day here and there I could be young, and irresponsible, and carefree. Like Instead of doing chores on saturday--going to the lake and spending money we don't really have on renting Jet Skiis. Doesn't that sound fun!!?? Now ...if I can only convnince Sam to be carefree for the day :-)

Thanks girls for such a fun day! Here's for hoping I look more tan than sunburned tomorrow :-)

I am soooo EXCITED!!!

Kim is coming to see me in June! YAHOOOOOO!!! I will have my guest bedroom all ready for you, and have the lawn chairs all set up by the pool :-)

Rachel's soccer season is over--and thank goodness--because it is starting to get hot! She was really fun to watch--this season they started to get the hang of it. My mom took some really cute pictures of her in action, click here to see them.

Here is Sam giving Rach "Halo practice". No easy games for her. He is starting out slow, he let her spend a while figuring out how to walk straight and how to shoot. Some quality father-daughter time here :-)

What to do on my day off...

Well I decided to hang some pictures on the wall...somewhere...anywhere :-) I decided I wanted some fun pictures of us in the office. And since they were fun pictures..I wanted them to be in a collage. This is what I came up with. I think they look good. When I took this picture it made me realize that they may look like they are floating --since there isn't something , like a table or a couch, underneath them. Oh well. Thats where I wanted them, and now that's where they are. Yea! Finally cross one project off my list.

Here is a little table that I found at a yard sale this weekend. I don't have much of an entry way--so it had to be small--and it is definitely small. I set it all up, and thought maybe I would try and find some cute books to put in the little cubby later.. I went to take a shower and when I got out I found that Rachel had filled it with some of her books...and added some stuffed animals :-) My little helper.

Fun read-makes you day dream....

Thanks Nicole for the book suggestion--this was a really fun read. It is about a group of girls who just graduated from high school and go live in their grandparents' beach house for the summer. Not only is their story cute-but I definitely found myself creating my own little story in my head.

• How could I make living in a beach house for the summer a reality? Work as a teacher (summers off)? Open a store in a beach community and move there for the summer to run it (of course it would be AWESOME to have a quaint little book store) And maybe we would need it open for three months for the summer, so I would work on it with a few of my friends and we could take turns going for a month and running it.
• I definitely wish I could be on "island time" just no worries, do what pleases me, call in sick to work to go sailing ;-)

I for one will have some sweet dreams tonight !