Happy Easter 1977?

AMAZING! And kind of scary for me because I can see that I am the spitting image of my mom, who is shown here when she would have been about 10 years younger than I am currently! I think this was probably in 1977, but I could be a year or two off either way. That would make me, the little one in the front in the sailor dress about 5 and my sister, Nikki, about 8 and my mom 27, give or take. Kristin in the front, the only blonde in the bunch, would have been 4, Kellee on the far left 7 (or almost) and Kim I guess 9 or 10. I think I remember this Easter Sunday, but most of them we spent with Kim, Kellee and Kristin so I could be just remembering them all! I do for sure remember loving to wear an Easter Hat! That was my favorite thing about Easter. Wonder why we don't do that much anymore? I stole this picture off my sister's Facebook page, thank you, Nikki. I thought everyone would get a kick out of it. I can definitely see Billie in me as a little girl, too. How fun. Good times, I was a very lucky little girl to grow up with all of my cousins around me. The five of us were always so close and always had the best times together. I hope you all had a great Easter weekend. I will try to post more Easter pics later in the week when I can.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter Eve, all! We took Billie this morning to the "The Egg Drop" at Powell High School. This first picture is from that. They dropped eggs out of a helicopter! It was so much fun. Billie got to jump in "bounce house" things and slides and we saw lots of friends there. There was a huge turn out, tons of people. ONE LIFE Church hosted it and they did a great job. Billie didn't win any special prizes, but she got to get lots of candy and see some friends so she was happy.

Billie and I went to the zoo yesterday, and the other pictures are from there. They had baby camels that just loved Billie. I am sure they were really hoping she would give them some snacks, but she thought they just loved her so that is all that matters. We spent a good while watching "George" the one year old Chimp. SO CUTE! Oh my goodness, I totally see why people have them as pets because they are so much like little human babies, but they grow up to be strong, scary Chimps. Billie had a wonderful time at the zoo, and so did I. Matt worked half a day and then golfed with a friend in the afternoon. He had a great time. His office has actually moved, they moved Monday to their new location and he over looks the golf course all day, making him want to be out there golfing instead of working! So he plans to take advantage of the close proximity and get a lot more golf in from now on. I am so happy he has the opportunity!

I am trying to study while Matt and Billie wash the cars. I am sure I got the better end of that deal! I hope everyone is enjoying the beautiful weather and you all have a wonderful Easter. I am in awe of the sacrifice made for my sins on the cross this weekend so long ago. I am so thankful Jesus washed away my sins so that I may have eternal life. Love to you all!

Jack and Jessie

"Jack and Jessie"

Let me introduce you to Jack and Jessie, Billie's Fire belly toads she got for Christmas. She was so excited to have them. That was really all she wanted, or at least what she wanted the most. She comes in from school and the first thing she does is go to the aquarium and she always says "Hi, babies. Jack, Jessie? How are you? Did you have a good day? I love you! I missed you so much!" and in that ooey-gooey voice we use to talk to babies and puppies. It is the cutest thing in the world. I am going to let you in on a secret, but PLEASE don't tell Billie. It will crush her. Jack and Jessie bonded with each other right away. Billie caught them "snuggling" on more than one occasion. We were pretty surprised we hadn't had any tadpoles, actually. So Jack and Jessie were in love and Billie was in love with both of them, and it was a beautiful and wonderful thing. Then one night Matt was feeding them and he walked away just for a second to get a rag to wipe down the glass, leaving the lid open. I was standing right there, and I let Bob in and then closed the lid, never looking down. You know what is coming, right? The next morning at 5 am when Bob got up to eat, I found something in the floor right in front of the front door. I didn't have my glasses on, so I really didn't know what it was. I got some tissue, thinking to myself "Bob didn't even make it out the door!" and got down real real close to the dark blob on the floor. I got within inches of it before I realized what it was---JESSIE! I immediately picked her up and took her to the sink. Somehow I thought I could revive her with water. Thinking back now it is so funny, but at the time I was crying and shaking! I could just only think of how devastated my little Billie was going to be, I had to try to save her. But I quickly realized it was just too late for Jessie. I wrapped her in paper towels and laid her gently in the trash can. I could see later in the afternoon having a funeral for a frog. I tried to turn to studying, but could not keep focused so after about an hour I woke Matt up. He immediately knew something was wrong. He was as shocked and felt just as bad as I did. We decided not to tell Billie before school but to wait until that evening. After he went to work and talked to his friends there, we both decided we would just try to find a good Jessie 2 and sneak her into the aquarium. We both felt responsible; he shouldn't have left it open, and I should have checked the ground knowing it had been left open. We just didn't see why we should put her through the heartache, especially since she has lost so much in her short life. She really loves these frogs, and it would really be terrible on her. Matt went to the pet store after work and got the closest thing to Jessie he could find. Later that night when it was time to feed them, Billie got very upset and ran to get Matt. She said "Matt, I don't know if I just can't tell them apart anymore or what is going on but something is wrong. Jack is hiding in Jessie's spot and Jessie is out here in Jack's spot, and Jack won't eat! He is going to die if he doesn't eat!" She started crying. Jack would not eat for about 3 more days. It was terrifying for Matt and I. Here we were trying to spare her pain, and now for Jack to be in shock and not eating, it was awful. We really think Jack was in shock, after talking to the pet store. We think he was love sick for his Jessie. Looking back to the night she had jumped out, he was acting weird then and wouldn't eat. We couldn't find Jessie, but just thought she was hiding under the log. We figured Jack would eat later, and just didn't think that much about it. Poor thing, he was probably wondering what we had done with Jessie! He has since gotten better, although he is not his normal self and probably never will be. He and the new Jessie have finally decided to get along with each other, but you can tell they are not in love the way Jack and the first Jessie were. I know this all seems so silly, but if you could have witnessed it you would understand. We told Billie we thought he was in shock because we had moved the aquarium to her room from the living room. She bought that. I know I have just admitted to lying to my child. And I almost always think that honesty is the best policy, but I am OK with this decision. I still think we spared her the pain of the loss, and there just was no harm done. I hope when she is older and finds out the truth, she will understand and not hold it against us. I do feel guilty for not being honest with her, but I am still glad to have spared her this pain - she has just gone through so much and it isn't fair. This was my way of making up for some of that unfairness.

Update, Finally

Good Saturday morning to everyone! It is a beautiful sunny day here in Knoxville, after a rather drab, rainy day yesterday. I have been on spring break this past week, but Billie was still in school and Matt still had to work, so I spent it mostly by myself. I worked pretty hard on the house, getting it back in some sense of order. My mom came over on Monday, bless her heart, and helped me totally clean out my kitchen and organize it. When Matt and I got married almost three years ago, we both had households set up. I had been in my condo for almost two years, and Matt had been in his town home about 7 years. We both had fully stocked kitchens. I tried downsizing and cleaning some stuff out before he moved in, especially in my closet, but when it came to the kitchen I had a hard time seeing what I could let loose of. So I basically moved his kitchen into my already full kitchen, and we have been suffering through that bad decision ever since. So my mom, being a much better organizer than I am, came over and helped me decide what we could part with and how to arrange it. The results were amazing and astounding. I still keep opening up cabinets and doors just to admire it! There are still two cabinets that we didn't get to, but I think I can tackle that today on my own. We both pick up coffee mugs on every vacation, so we have probably close to 50 coffee mugs, for two people. That is my next target. Any body in need of a mug from the beach? At least now when we go, we buy one mug and share it! I think we need to just break the habit of buying mugs, who needs that many mugs?
I also bought myself a new book and read it - the entire book - just for fun! It was an autobiography by Robert Wagner entitled "The Pieces of My Heart." I loved it. For those of you who don't know, I am a huge fan of Natalie Wood's, and he was married to her, twice. The whole book was about his life in Hollywood, and it was so interesting. He had spent a lot of time at Catalina and some of the other ports we got to sail to when we went out with Bob and Nancy a couple months after we had the boys, so I really enjoyed reading about that; I could actually picture it from my own experiences. That is actually where Natalie drowned to death, at the Isthmus in Catalina. That part of the book made me cry; I found myself thinking of ways to stop it in my head; pretty silly since I already knew exactly what happened in the end. But he loved her so much, and I know what that kind of loss is like so I just wanted to stop it somehow.
Thanks to my sweet father-in-law, Brian, I was motivated to update the blog and tell you about my speech. I had to give an informative speech for my Speech and Communications class. I chose conjoined twins for my topic and I shared my story with the class as well as facts and the stories of my wonderful friends that are conjoined twins, or were previously. The speech turned out great, and I am very proud of myself. I was able to get through my story without crying - although there were a few people in the audience crying and that made it a little harder. Everyone seemed to appreciate my story, and that of Kendra, Maliyah, Jade, Erin, Emma, Taylor, Melody and Madison. I was able to give them all the facts about conjoined twins and really educate them. I wish I had had that opportunity before I was pregnant with Joshua and Caleb, not that any of those students will ever face that or even know someone else that has conjoined twins. I just want to educate people, because so many still think of it as a circus act and that is so wrong. So this was my first opportunity, and I hope I have many more. I ended up with a 98% on the speech, and that was because I went over my time limit by 31 seconds. We all know how long winded I am! It is hard to stifle that. I had practiced and practiced until I got it down to about 6 minutes most of the time. But when I got up there and got started I got very nauseous and I thought I was going to be sick. I mean really nauseous; I had the cold chill bumps, but the hot skin and I felt dizzy. I had to decide if I was going to run to the bathroom or stay and go on. I knew if I ran out everyone would think I got scared, and that was not what was wrong with me. That thought process made me lose my place in my speech and it took me about 30 seconds to get back on track. Everyone said they didn't notice. I decided to stay and finish my speech, and that was a good choice. After about 2 minutes the nausea passed. I wondered if it really was nerves until later that day when I eventually got very sick with a stomach bug. I felt a little nervous getting up there, but not enough to get sick! Just really bad timing for me. It is a miracle I was able to push on and get it to pass, judging by how terribly sick I fell a couple hours later. I quickly said a prayer in my head asking God to not let me throw up in front of the class, thank God he answered my prayer!
So it is back to school for me Monday, and I will be so busy with papers, projects, presentations and exams. I was planning on trying to at least knock out my research and at least one paper while I was on spring break, and I did get started on the research, but the Robert Wagner book was just too good and I ended up relaxing on my break instead of working. I will get it done, though, I always do. It would have been nice and smart to get it done this week, but I can't turn back time so I am just going to push forward!
Billie had a presentation to do for her class on Cambodia, and she did such an amazing job. She has absolutely no fears about getting up and presenting, to anyone about anything. I am so proud of her. I helped her a little with what she needed to present, but she did the bulk of it herself. She had to have a costume that represented what the people in Cambodia wear, and she used one of my checkered scarfs to make a "krama," which is a head dress they use to protect their head from the sun while they are working out side, usually in a field. I had to teach her how to wrap it and tie it herself, since it would look a little silly if she wore it on the school bus. She was supposed to put it on when she put the rest of her costume on ,but she is so brilliant she had the idea at the last second to add to her presentation a "how-to" tie a krama. So she taught the whole class how to put it on. She said they all seemed to really enjoy that. She also told about a dessert they eat in Cambodia and she had a poster and a paper she had written. She got 100% on the project! They had a cultural fair later in the week one evening, and she was going to actually make the dessert to give out, but she got sick that day and called to come home. Billie doesn't fake being sick, and she would not have wanted to miss that for anything so I knew she was really sick and I took her to see Dr. Greg later that day. She ended up having a sinus infection and an ear infection. Bless her heart, her head hurt her so bad. She went on a round of antibiotics, and is feeling much much better. So much better, we actually took her skiing last Sunday. She had a great time, and we were so glad we got to go one more time before they close for the season. Grandma Rosecrance went with us, too. We went to Sugar, and Matt had been telling Billie all week that they have snow made of sugar on Sugar Mountain. She is not one to believe stuff like that, so she kept saying "No they don't, Matt. They just call it that because the snow is white." That morning when we were getting ready, Matt got some sugar in a little sandwich bag and stuck it in his pocket. When Billie was trying to get her skis on, he poured it out behind her back and then had her turn around and taste the snow. She was amazed that it tasted like sugar! So cute. She doesn't believe in Santa, the Easter Bunny, or the tooth fairy and hasn't since she was 5; she is just too practical and mature for that stuff, so it was nice to see that childhood magic in her.
I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!

First Ski Trip

I think I mentioned we went skiing for our first time (mine and Billie's)a few weeks ago. We went with Brian, Cathy, Susan and her kids (Matt's cousin from Michigan) and Amy (Matt's cousin from Arizona!). It was Amy, Billie and my first time to ski ever. I was so NERVOUS! I just knew I would break a leg or get some horrible head injury. In fact, as we were driving up the driveway to the slopes I got so sick to my stomach, and I was thinking to myself "I have avoided skiing like the plague for 37 years, what am I doing here?! I am going to end up killing myself out here, this is nuts!" OK, so I am a drama queen! Now you all know where Billie gets it. But I kept my mouth shut because Matt loves it so much and I know he wanted me and Billie both to at least try it. The last picture here is of Billie, Amy and myself as we were getting our gear on--before we went skiing. We all three did great! It was so much fun! We all fell a few times at first, but after about an hour we were all able to make our way down the mountain. It was great. We took a lunch break at around 3 or 4 and then went right back out. I did fall later that evening off the chair lift, like the big clumsy person I am, and the chair lift hit me in the back of the head! It hurt so bad, I immediately got a splitting headache. But I had a helmet on, as did Billie-who I had pushed down by accident when I fell. I am so graceful. It is so funny now! But I was so embarrassed and my head hurt so bad. I admit, I threw a little fit. Luckily my family loves me enough to put up with me! Well, we did a few more runs and about 7 pm I couldn't stand the helmet on my aching head anymore so I gave up and went in, and Brian, Cathie and Amy came in with me. Billie and Matt stayed out on the slopes and we had to drag her off at 9:30 that night! She had been skiing for almost 11 hours straight at that point, and we were afraid she was so tired she would end up hurting herself. We only got her to agree to come in by promising we could go again the next day. We were at Winter Place in West Virginia, and we had hotel reservations for the night. I forgot to mention that it snowed all day--there was several inches of snow on the car when we got back to it that night. We all went out to dinner and then went straight to bed, we were all exhausted. The next morning we were all sore and tired and none of us really wanted to ski again, and my head was still throbbing so bad. Billie slept really late, she actually fell sleep in my lap at the restaurant. When she woke up the first thing she said was "What is wrong with my body?" Bless her heart, she was sore! She made the decision herself not to go skiing that day because she was so sore and tired. So since there was a pool at the hotel, we let all the kids ski for a few hours while the grownups watched and visited together. We drove home later that day and got home late in the evening. It was great, though. We promised Billie we would take her again soon-for sure one more time this season.
The first picture here is a picture I took the other day of Billie playing in the snow. I thought it turned out so cute I would share it with you. The blue hat made her eyes look so blue! They are usually more green looking, but not when she wears blue!

Billie's Slumber Party

Billie's slumber party was a success! She had so much fun. We had pizza for dinner, and the girls all got to decorate their own cupcakes (we gave them two but they were only allowed to eat one and then take the other home with them.) They also decorated canvas totes--too cute! I didn't get a picture of that because I was the only one here with them at that time, because Matt had gone out to get the pizza--and it was all I could do to organize and keep everything running smoothly by myself. I am definitely used to having only one very self sufficient daughter; nine of them just about broke me! HEHE! It was so much fun. I got to also learn so much about her friends, and that was huge and enlightening for me. They were all so good and so patient, too. It really was a great night. We rented the movie "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" and they all watched it and then turned in for the night at around 11:15. We don't have the biggest house, so finding places for 9 little girls to sleep was somewhat of a challenge, but we managed. I moved our dining room table out and put down air mattresses for four of them in the "dining room." Then we put two of them on a pallet in Billies room and two more in the bunk beds. I hated to split them up, but I think they probably got more sleep with it being only 4 in each room instead of 8 (one girl didn't spend the night.) They woke up around 7.30, which I thought was very late for a slumber party, but what do I know? We had a big breakfast of eggs, sausage, biscuits and even munchkin donuts that Matt picked up for the girls. They played fun games that morning and then the parents started picking them up around 10. I can't believe she is old enough for a slumber party. She really enjoyed herself and I was so happy we could do that for her. She has been asking for one since Kindergarten but I have made her wait until she was old enough. I am so glad we did it. Next time I might make it a little smaller, just because it is hard to have that many in our small house, but it really worked out fine. No one fussed or complained about a single thing. They were all jut happy to be together. There were two little girls that "don't like each other" according to Billie, but even they were fine together. I have no complaints about the entire night. Except I was so TIRED the next day! Of course I wanted it all to be perfect so I had cleaned the house (because 9 year olds would probably notice, right?) and worked on "goodie bags" and the craft and cupcakes and all that stuff. But I am glad I did so much ahead of time, because it really helped the evening go smoothly.

Now to study. I have a big next few weeks at school; One paper, three exams and a speech coming up, too. It will all hit pretty close together so I am trying to get a jump start on it. The speech is informative, and of course I picked conjoined twins for my topic. I find myself thinking about that more than anything, and planning visual aides and even a sound bite or two. I am excited about creating awareness in such a young crowd. I had no idea that conjoined twins even happened before Joshua and Caleb. Of course I had heard of them at some point in my life, but I guess it is like anything else--something that happens very seldom and not to me or anyone I know. I like that I have the opportunity to share my experience and knowledge with people. Of course, I always love the opportunity to share Joshua and Caleb with any one that will listen! Wish me luck, I am nervous about keeping my emotions in check. But I really think I can, as long as I stick to the facts and not delve too much into the personal/emotional aspect of the story. Practice makes perfect, too, so I know if I say it again and again that will help me push past any emotions that are brought up. Have a good week everyone!

Flashback Friday--Happy Birthday Billie!

Billie 7 years old

Billie 7 months old--her first "finger food"- crackers. Nalla LOVED it!

Billie and Nalla, almost 5 years old.

Billie Easter - 5 Years old

Billie and her Daddy, 9 months old.

Billie is 9 years old! I can not believe it! Sorry I do not have any newborn pics of her on my computer, that was before I had a digital camera! We had a great birthday party Wednesday night at our house with her grandparents. I told her to pic her favorite meal and she chose Vegetable soup and corn bread! Now let me paint the picture for you from four years ago: Billie was 5 and we had Greg and Kellee and the girls over for dinner at our new condo. I had made a huge pot of vegetable soup and we all sat down at the dinner table to eat. Billie got big tears in her eyes as she looked at her bowl in front of her. She refused to even taste it. "It has tomatoes in it!" she screamed, as big huge tears streamed down her face. I told her to just try it and if she didn't like it she didn't have to eat it. She still refused and I sent her to bed, screaming the entire way. About ten minutes later, she could still be heard in hysterics from her room, so I went in there to try to calm her down. Nothing doing. She had set her mind that she was not going to eat the soup. I left her in there to calm down. Greg and Kellee and the girls finished and we visited a little while and then they left to go home. I brought Billie back out to the table, heated her bowl of soup up and we tried again. She was still absolutely beside herself upset. I told her it was good with cheese and crackers in it, and asked if she wanted to try it that way. She did not. We fought about it back and forth for another hour probably and I finally told her I had had enough and she would eat the soup and say "Yum! Yum!" after every bite. So she finally dug in, and with her face soaked with tears and red from the trauma of the night, she began to giggle. She cried and giggled and kept taking bites of the soup. She said she was giggling because it tasted good. She was so surprised that it tasted good, and she had been so afraid to try it. She was sad because she had wasted a night of playing with Courtney and Mackenzie, but she was so happy that the soup didn't kill her. Bless her heart. She is so strong willed. But I knew if she would only try it, that she would like it. I usually know exactly what she will and won't like, and I am usually right. She now trusts me most of the time and tries stuff when I tell her she will like it. She did finish that bowl of soup and after each bite she said "Yum! Yum!" and we both cried and giggled as she did it. We laugh about that story now. It was a very traumatic night for both of us. I probably was too hard on her and should have just let her go hungry, but I guess I am strong willed, too! I was so surprised when she chose vegetable soup for her birthday dinner. I offered to make absolutely anything she wanted, but that is what she wanted! So amazing, my little girl. I am so glad that traumatic night turned into something so positive. I definitely had guilt over that one for a while, bless her heart.

Tonight she is celebrating with her friends. We are having our first slumber party. Nine 9-yr-old girls in our tiny little condo! It should be interesting. I am a little nervous. I really didn't plan on having that many girls. Yes, we did invite 8 girls. But I asked all of my friends who have done this sort of thing before and they all said only about half come! Imagine my surprise when all 8 we invited RSVP'd! But Billie is so excited and it should be a wonderful experience for us all. Matt thinks I was nuts for inviting that many, but we are just going to pile them up in sleeping bags on the floor and everyone will be cozy and comfy! Besides, I learned a valuable lesson: Only invite the number your house can hold! Live and learn, right? I will let you know how it goes! Happy Birthday Billie, my sweet precious little girl!