Bigger & Better Things (maybe some rambling too!)

Okay, so the previous post was a little on the dreary side, so I thought I needed another post that was on the positive side. What is a better subject than my hubby and my Colleen! On June 29, 2010, Russell and I celebrated 14 years of marriage. Yes, you read that right - 14 YEARS of wedded bliss. If you know my age or the whereabouts and start trying to do the math, yes, I got married at the age of 19. Some people may not agree with the decision, but I would not change a thing. Russell and I waited 10 more years to bring the joy of our life into this world. Once again, nope, I would not change a thing. That 10 years gave Russell and I a change to grow and have "OUR" time with each other. It allowed me to get two degrees, both of us to get good jobs or at a good place in our job. It allowed me to build time to take 3 months off when Colleen was born and bond with my little angel. People may think some of our choices were wrong...but to each their own. I don't regret any decision I/we made for our family.

Within the last six months, Russell and I also found a church home for our family - Second Baptist Church in Huntsville. Colleen has been going to the preschool there for two years and we decided to try the church service out in January. It didn't take long for us to realize that this was where we needed to be. In early January, we had some medical news that kinda sent me into a state of shock and it took me some time to work through it. It was with the help of the church and God that I got through it and focused on other things. I was also reminded that although I may have a plan for my life, someone else has a plan as well - I just may not always know that plan. Sometimes my plan and God's plan just aren't the same and you just go with God's plan and figure it out along the way. The people at the church are great and the pastor is fantastic. No one is afraid to admit mistakes, no one judges, no one is perfect, and it is all okay.

Colleen is growing so fast and speaking and singing like such a big girl. Sometimes I can't get over the memory of that girl and I am just shocked at what she says and how well she speaks and completes sentences. She is an amazing little girl and I love watching her grow up every single day. I love watching her develop and learn. I love to watch her teach me new things. She sings, she dances, she kicks, she throws, she plays, and so much more. Russell and I have been blessed with such a good child. As with all kids, she does have her moments, but as we see kids in public places and watching parents struggle, I realize how lucky we are to have such a good child (98% of the time!). Colleen is a true joy to me and I cannot imagine my life without her now.

Okay...I think I am done with random thoughts for the night. I will try to get better at this blog thing so my future posts are not so long. Thanks for "listening" and check back again soon!

Random Thoughts (& Venting)

So, I have not posted anything in a month...A couple of reasons for this is because I am not sure I have a tremendous amount to say (I know...shocking), haven't had time, or wondering if my thoughts are something that I should post. But as I sit in a hotel room the last night of a conference, I think - what the heck...just blog away! I am watching HLN News tonight and they are talking about the dramatic weight loss of Jennifer Hudson (former contestant on American Idol for those who don't know) and how she went from a size 16 to a size 6. Apparently Jennifer has been criticized for this weight loss and commented about how she will never be "skinny"! Really people, since when is a size 6 not skinny! The girl looked fantastic! I wonder what in the world is thinking when a size 6 cannot be classified as skinny - just ridiculous. A 6 should be considered healthy. These super thin models that are like size 0 and 2 should really think about the image they are creating and what defines healthy and skinny!

Speaking of models, also on HLN, they discussed supermodel Gisele's recent comments regarding breastfeeding and how there should be a law requiring breastfeeding! REALLY! Seriously! You are a first time mom who got knocked up by her football player boyfriend who had just another kid by another woman and you want to give parenting advice that involves changing or creating laws! Some people can not breastfeed for various reasons, so before you make these comments, you may want to do a little research.

Then you have a Judge that wants to overturn a vote of the citizens of California. How is that possible?? The public voted and there was a majority. If the decision could be overturned by ONE person, what was the point of a vote of the people. Just ask the judge what he/she wants and let them change the law. If the decision of the public can be overturned so easily, I have to wonder other laws and decisions that are made by the public can be overturned by one person. Just doesn't seem to make sense or be remotely right for the American people.

Okay, I think that is it on the venting and random thoughts from the news of today. Now onto bigger and better things...

Vacation Bible School, Father's Day, and Summer Begins!

WOW!  Guess I need to learn to get a little better with this blogging thing!  Well, it's been a while since I have blogged and we have been busy.  So, today is catch up day!

First thing to report on is Colleen's first experience at Vacation Bible School.  Colleen had a great time singing, dancing, crafting, meeting new friends, and most importantly - learing about God.  She talked about VBS for several days after it was over and even told us how happy she was because she loved God.  Others enjoyed Colleen too - such as the preacher and his wife.  On the Sunday afterwards, they told us how much fun it was watching her dance and enjoy VBS and the final program!  Below is a slide show of pictues taken at VBS and some videos from the final program.  Enjoy

Next up was Father's Day.  Colleen's school did a Father's Day program and it was great!  You can see from the videos that Colleen started off a little shy, but once she knew momma and daddy were there - she was good to go!  We have learned that she can multi-talk with ease...not only was she singing, but she was helping her friends find their mom and dads too!!

Lastly for Colleen is that Summer is well under way and she is definitely enoying it all. We (well Russell actually!) finally have gotten the swimming pool clean and usable (Fall and Winter did a doozie on it)! Colleen could not wait to get in the water; however, once she got in the water...it took her a little while to adjust - BUT NOT LONG! She started off swimming slowly across the pool, but has gotten pretty quick and now jumps, rolls, and anything else she can figure out. On the jumping, she started jumping from three steps down, then two steps down, and the last time we were in the pool, she was jumping off the top step and has even done belly flops! Too bad it hasn't stopped raining to go back in!  Enjoy the slideshows and videos of our start to Summer 2010!

As you can see, the first swim was a little slow...she just needed a warm up though!  This was the last time it was that slow!

Hey mom...Look what I can do - CIRCLES!!  Silly girl

Let the jumping begin!  Started off on 3rd from the top and worked our way up.

Getting a little braver!!

The BELLY FLOP!!

SUPER BRAVE!!  I couldn't tell you how many times she did this!  Too bad it's rained almost every day since this to do it more!!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed the show!  I hope to be better about updating this thing next time!

Happy Memorial Day

Sometimes we take for granted the liberty and freedom so many unknown fought for. We always think about our families and friends helping and fighting for us, but we never really think about those that we don't know and never meet fighting for us. They are fighting for our freedom to say what we want and believe in what we want, and allow us to protect ourselves. These are things we cannot physically see, hear, or touch...just things we feel in our heart. We don't realize how lucky we are until we don't have it and that's a feeling we never want to feel. Please make sure and take some time to think about and realize the freedoms we have and thank those who have served or are currently serving in our armed forced. THANK YOU

So Much to Say, So Little Time

Well, it has been a while since I had time to blog much, so I will be catching up on lost time with this one!

First, I was in Savannah, GA for several days for work.  I work with the Association for Paroling Authorities International, and their Annual Training Conference was in Savannah.  Savannah is a beautiful place; however, I did not have much time or energy to explore it.  Our hotel was on the river and so the view was wonderful.  I did have pictures; however, they were taken on my phone and I had a mild catastrophe with my phone there and lost all but one picture.

This picture was taken after a short shower one afternoon.  Throughout the day, it had rained off and on, but this was the first rainbow I had a chance to see.  So pretty!

Less than 24 hours after getting back from Savannah, we left for Dallas to see my wonderful future sis-in-law, Kaitlin, graduate from Northwood University.  Russell, Colleen, and I had the opportunity to meet Kaitlin's family and they may be a rowdy bunch, but they are very entertaining, and great to be around!  They are actually from the Kirbyville area and are owners/operators of a meat market in Jasper.

On our way to Dallas for the graduation, we ran into an awful hail storm that did some minor damage to my car with dings and cracked my bug shield.  We ended up pulling off on the shoulder along with around 10 or so other cars to minimize the impact of the hail.  After getting going again, Russell looked in the rearview more and we saw a nice big rainbow.

After the graduation on Friday, we drove to Tyler on Saturday, so Russell could shoot a field tournament.  While Russell was shooting, I got to meet up with an old neighbor and her two kids.  Brooke (Barrington) has two young kids, an almost 3 year old and a 5 year old.  Colleen had played with them a couple of times before and they always have a great time.  Brooke told me about a great place called Brookshire's World of Wildlife Museum.  They have lots of animal mounts and a nice playground for kids of all ages.  Colleen had a great time!  She climbed things very tall without fear and one woman commented on her determination to try and reach some monkey bars by finding a huge rock and moving it under the bars to step on to reach them.  I have always called her my "fearless wonder" and she continues to hold that nickname!

I will end this post with one more picture and comment.  I am lucky to have one of the best daycare teachers there could ever be in Ms. Patty.  She always takes great care of my Colleen and keeps me in the know of all she does.  Every once in a while, Ms. Patty finds time to take pictures and send them to me.  This past Thursday was the first water day at her school for the summer and Colleen LOVES water day, as you can tell (thank you Patty for this great pic!).

Mommy's Day Love

Mother's Day 2010 started off fantastic with the dedication of Colleen during the church service this morning.  Our church has two services - a contemporary service at 9 am and the traditional service at 11 am.  We have been going to the contemporary service since we started going and really enjoy it.  The band is wonderful and really loves what they do.  Well, usually Colleen is in the preschool area learning about the Lord with others her age during this time, but due to the dedication, she was with us for a little while.  I couldn't help but laugh while we sang b/c Colleen was just a dancing to the music.  There is no doubt Colleen has my love of music and dance as it doesn't matter what kind of music it is - she will dance!  Then it came time for the dedication portion of the service...After we had been called up to the front of the church with the other families dedicating their children, Brother Gary started going through our commitment to our child for the dedication, Colleen decides she needs to go POTTY!  Thank goodness the preschool director was near and Colleen knows her, she stepped out quickly to take her potty.  The church gave Colleen a wonderful children's bible and Colleen started looking through it as soon as we took our seat again.

Colleen has danced for me, sang for me, made my laugh by telling me daddy hurt her feelings, colored, practiced writing her letters - but also typical three year old stuff.  You know the doing the stuff you tell her not to do and not doing stuff you tell her to do!  OH the joys!

Start of Mother's Day Festivities

We are lucky to have Colleen in a preschool that loves putting on programs for the families of the children in the program - that preschool is Second Baptist Church. We were guided to this program almost 2 years ago and became members of the congregation of the church in February. We love every aspect of the preschool and church. Over the last couple of years, the school has done 2-3 programs each year ranging from a Thanksgiving and Christmas program, to Mother's Day this year. At each program, the kids from each class (including the infants) participate in one, sometimes two, songs and then enjoy lunch with the kids. Each program brings the mystery of "is my kid gonna be the kid that cries the entire time, sings as loud as they possibly can, shies away, runs away, and the many other thoughts that go through a parent's mind!

Colleen has always been kinda in between all these. She does look around for mom and dad and she has kinda sorta sang in the past - but we have been lucky and not had the one that feels the need to run with horror from the stage or cries during the entire performance! Today, I had my first "scare" that one of these things was gonna happen! She has been practicing her song in the car and at home for about two weeks now.



In the video, you will see her looking around and then spotting me and waving. I wave back thinking, she is comfy now b/c she knows I am there. THEN, she attempts to come to me. Thankfully, Colleen has the best teachers there are and Ms. Patty (who likes for people to think she is mean, but we all know is one of the sweetest people with the biggest hearts around) stops Colleen and gets her back on stage. AND just when you think Colleen is about to loose it on stage, Ms. Patty hugs her and says something very sweet to Colleen that keeps Colleen on the stage and not crying. She actually sings, but with her hands at her mouth the whole time. That's okay though...Later on, Colleen actually sang the song for me and I got it all on video!

The first video is from the program.


Now, this is the video we did at home later this evening of her singing the Mommy song...OMG, isn't it just precious!




Seems like I have a few things to update! One week ago I got an iPhone! YES, I LOVE it! Well, Colleen loves it too and has her own page of apps and games! She has figured out how to unlock it (thinking I may have to set a password for it) and how to get to her page of apps and get out of an app to pick another one! Scary, huh! I will leave this for now..watch for more to come soon!