growing old(er) gracefully

in life, i have been given some great footsteps to follow in. namely my three older sisters...

my sister, amy, celebrated a big birthday this past week, bringing us all together. i won't tell you what number it was, though i might show you...

she is a great example of enjoying the benefits of growing older like wisdom, while not sweating the other stuff like wrinkles or "old eyes". but even with old eyes, she saw well enough to appreciate her gift from the etsy seller junkposse...

amy travels to zambia to teach pastor's wives there, so the heart is over zambia. thanks tracey!

even with her advanced age, she also had no trouble blowing out her candles (and helping lulu with the last one)...

at a family dinner, we shared our list of 50 things we love about amy. from her sacrificial care for our parents (through both alzheimer's and cancer) to her passion for jesus and his word to her pumpkin pancakes to the slightly deranged look in her eyes when we wake her up. it was shockingly easy to come up with 50 and the list could have gone on and on.

she may be growing older, but she is running harder after jesus and gaining speed with time, rather than losing it. thanks for the example. and the memories. and the pumpkin pancakes. i love you, sis.

laughter and tears

four little valentine's all in a row...

i love them.

we had a full day of valentine-giving(thank you very much, walmart!), party-throwing, and a date...

a family date. bill and i celebrated valentine's with our little people instead of out on a hot date just the two of us. with fruit kabobs (made by em)...

and chocolate milk in waterford crystal...

we ate so-so steaks and the pioneer woman's smashed potatoes which are definitely not so-so! we celebrated what romantic love has born: a family. and we laughed.

i'm so glad for laughter as we have also had some tears around here too. i've said it before, i'll say it again: i hate cancer. i hated cancer when i sat by my mommy's side as she breathed her last breath. and i hated cancer when i sat by the side of my mommy's dear friend (my dear friend too) as she is ending her journey in this life.

so there have been tears mixed with a lot of sweet remembering. and this is what i remember: a passionate, gifted, competent, intelligent, loyal, driven, compassionate, witty woman who loved fiercely and gave generously. a sacrificial mother and a devoted friend. a friend i don't want to say goodbye to. i will miss you.

gotcha!

today i am embracing the camera with emily from the anderson crew. why? because i have no time for a longer post. and because despite how hard jack tried to avert a picture with his momma at the school valentine's party, i snapped this one...

gotcha!

join in the fun.

Whoo's Two? Lulu!

Valentime is both an emotionally charged and busy time for me. Lulu's birthday is on the 9th. The anniversary of my Daddy's death is on the 12th. The kids always have Valentine's parties in their classrooms that I usually plan near the 14th. And, it often seems to be, someone is sick around here.

Here's how it went down this year. Tate was sick and home from school all week. It was fun because most days we had an afternoon movie date while Lulu napped. Hitch, Rush Hour, Inception, and several episodes of The Office were our selections. I wasn't feel so hot either, so it was nice to just rest. The good news is I got to take care of my big boy and spend some quality time with him. The bad news is that Lulu's nap time is when I spend time with Jesus and get things done around the house. Two things that didn't happen much this week.

The anniversary of my Daddy's death was the same day I had Lulu's party. Which meant I was significantly distracted and barely thought about it. Which, for a strong feeler like me, isn't really good thing. But Tate was no longer contagious and I was feeling better, so we dove head first into Lulu's party. Ready or not. Mostly not. Funny thing is that I have been planning her owl theme party for about 8 months and I still wasn't ready. But I was thrilled with her invitations that I got through dimpleprints on etsy...

She has all kinds of cute party stuff. Easy, affordable, and adorable. All I had to do was send her the text and picture then have them printed at the nearby Walmart, which made me happy.

One thing I was NOT happy with were the freaky looking "owl" cupcakes that I got from the grocery store...

It's an owl party, people, not a Toucan party. Next time I promise to go with plain cupcakes and cute cupcake toppers. Despite my disappointment, do you know who loved it? The one who really matters...

She loved all three cupcakes she ate. And the sherbet. And the Izze...

The decorations were very simple. I just kept everything from the LulaPalooza on her actual birthday and added some random owls and pix of her in her owl hat (also found on Etsy) to the mix...

Thank you, Amy, for letting me borrow your upcycled Valentine's owl to decorate with. You are my crafting guru...

And thank you, Walmart, for having marshmallow Owl Valentine's treat for cheap, easy party favors...

(Did you know that you spell marshmallow with an a instead of an e? I had no idea.)

The Lulu sign was another Etsy purchase...

It's cute, but it was smaller than I expected. I'm sure it said the size on the description, I just don't tend to pay attention to such things. I did pay attention to my accessories for the party, though...

Lulu's besties were there to hoot and holler with her...

And color with her...

And do "Pre-School Musical Jumps" with her...

The Birthday girl was having a good time. But the Birthday Girl's Mom was not. I was basically pouting and complaining because the party wasn't what I envisioned (not this issue again!). I didn't make the felt owls, or make the tissue paper pom pom's or put the fruit on skewers or fill the cute owl pinata with candy...

{whining continues} Or order the owl barrettes in time or get the right tablecloth or get the good bubble blower from Gymboree or figure out how to face paint owls or make the owl treat bags or turn the deviled eggs into little owls. And then there was the Nightmare on Sesame Street cake. This is when my friend, Kim, spoke truth into my life like only she can do. It went something like, "Okay, you need a serious attitude adjustment. Everything is great. And your friends are here so let's just focus on being together." Thanks, sister...

I needed that. Because there I was without felt owls, owl barrettes and owl treat bags, but with my peeps..."

Now that's something to hoot about!

P.S. If you want to do an owl party, please let me know because I have links and unused ideas (that I'm no longer whining about)to pass on!

LulaPalooza

lulu's birthday party is on saturday. but i couldn't let a birthday just slip on by. problem was, tate was sick and miserable and i was just so-so. and lulu, well she decided that her birthday would be a good day to "bring it" in the two year old behavior department...

i was exhausted by 9:42am. but we still managed to "bring it" in the celebration department, as best we could, with our very own lulapalooza...

this is how it began: when the birthday girl asks for cheezits for breakfast, she gets cheezits for breakfast...

and since we didn't have a very good breakfast, i guess, we had french toast and egg casserole for dinner. for dessert we had pink lemonade cupcakes (w/store bought lemon icing that had pink food coloring in it)...

they didn't turn out how i envisioned (this should be the name of my blog since NOTHING ever does!). i wanted the real big gumballs, but didn't want to spend the time or money to get them. though they weren't super cute, they still were devoured...

lulu was clearly excited about the mini ben and jerry's cups of ice cream everyone got...

everyone except for me. i'm "dieting" so i got myself a skinny cow one instead and i didn't even eat all of it. oh, but don't congratulate me just yet. i was the one doing the aforementioned devouring. i ate two cupcakes. that'd be two that night plus two the next day. probably not the best way to shed the pounds.

lulu was enamored by the decorations. first it was the balloons...

then the dangling lollies and candy-filled centerpiece caught her eye...

edible centerpieces don't last long around here.

what lasted way too long was the photo session i tried to have...

which left her resorting to hiding under the table...

which was when i had to remind myself that her birthday is supposed to be about her, not about me. so we celebrated our girl...

some more horizontally than others (poor tate)...

it didn't hit me until i was putting her to bed that we forgot to give her her presents! which is fitting really. because even though it was her birthday, she has always been the gift...

she's even wearing the hugest bow ever to prove it!

as her put her to bed, i was flooded with the emotion that i knew would come at some point on that day. it was a celebration of lulu's birth, but we were not there for her birth. and her birth family cannot be with her to celebrate her life on these special days. on each of my biological kids birthdays we have a tradition that i tell the story of when they were born. i am going to have to think about the ramifications of this for lulu as she gets older. but for last night, i told her what little i knew. which was hardly anything at all. and i cried. but then i was reminded that though i wasn't there, Someone was there with her. He knows every detail of how she came into this world. and though her birth mother is gone, He is with her still. and He knows every detail of the story of her life that will unfold.

so i do have a story to tell her. it may not have a lot of details, but it is a love story. and it is her story. i'm so glad we get to be part of the plot too.