So cute

In the midst of all of the other pictures were these portraits of me with my siblings. There is my older brother Andy- he passed away when I was 16, and "the twins"- Mike and Melissa. These must have been taken late 1968 or early 1969. I wonder how on earth my parents could afford to have professional pictures taken back in those days. Most of my memories are of our family struggling financially for many years. Maybe these were the good years, before the difficulties of taking care of 4 children and 3 step-siblings hit our family. I recall my mother made alot of our clothes when we were little, matching dresses, always matching Christmas pajamas. Too bad she didn't continue with the sewing, she was actually pretty good at it and it's a nice memory.

Those were the days....

I came across these pictures of my parents while sorting and

scanning a ton of old photos. The picture of my mother on her wedding day was hidden behind some other pictures in a frame, I was shocked to find it. The picture of my father is one I had seen before but never actually had a copy in my hands to do anything with. They were both so young and good looking, I can see what drew them to each other. My parents are still married, after 4 kids together and many struggles along the way, they have managed to do what most people don't seem to care too much about these days... stay married. Have they had a perfect marriage? Of course not, but they did manage to raise some pretty decent kids if I don't say so myself. We all have values, we are hard workers and have also managed to raise some pretty amazing children of our own, thanks, in part, to what we learned growing up. Good or bad, lessons are learned along the way and it makes us all who we are today. For those of you who really know me , you must be thinking I've gone off the deep end. I'm not normally a sentimental person but looking at the people my parents once were gives me a feeling of nostalgia I'm not too sure what to do with. So here is my post, about my parents, good or bad, happy or sad, they are the reason I am here today.

She's off to Virginia

On Wednesday night Rachel headed off to Virginia for a 10 day vacation. Her friend Heaven is getting married on Saturday and Rachel really wanted to go so we gave her the ticket for a graduation present. Rachel's friends Kristi and Donni went with us to the airport and were hilarious. They all were so sad to leave each other, even though it's only 10 days-Kristi even cried a little. The TSA guy totally cracked us up- he asked if we were going to put him on MySpace and then proceeded to pose for a pic. Hilarious! I'll miss Rachel while she's gone but I'm sure she'll have lots of fun hanging out with Heaven and meeting new people. It's just another adventure for her.

Mothers Day 2009

Because of these guys - I am a mother. Cameron was not here today, he was spending the day with his mom, so he is missing from these pictures. I am so proud of each and every one of our children. They each are unique and bring their own personality to our family. It isn't always easy blending a family , there are arguments and struggles along the way, but I think we have done an amazing job of creating our family. I wouldn't trade a single day or change anything.

Saturday pictures

Here are some more pictures from last Saturday. Amanda's girls loved the trampoline, especially Laci. Apparently Auntie M and Jim love it too because she volunteered to let Jim bounced her to show the kids how fun it was. Laci was terrified and asked Jim to get off of the trampoline!! We tried to get the girls to sit with my dad for a few pictures but they were not having any part of it. I think they were a little scared of him, so sad. It was nice to have everyone over, especially since Amanda doesn't get up here too often. Probably the next time we all will get together will be Rachel's graduation party. That sure sounds weird to say, Rachel's graduating. Wow.

Amanda's girls

My niece Amanda came over today and brought her sweet girls with her. We took them down to the park to try to get some shots of the three of them together. I take lots of pictures, as you all know, and I can usually get exactly what I'm looking for. Not this time! The girls are really young, and really independent, so it's tough to get all three of them to do what we want at the same time. We did pretty good though,we tried to let them play for a while then have them pose for a few shots. The easy part was individual shots, I got plenty of those that I think both Amanda and I liked. We went back to my house afterward and had Mom, Dad, Melissa and her kids over for an early Mother's Day dinner. I'll post some more pictures tomorrow.

Gotta love the Baptisits!

In Texas, near Rachel's house, a really funny thing happened. Imagine a small town in Texas. Filled with Baptist churches. In the middle of the bible belt. Now, imagine a porn store. Opening up next to the gas station in the same small town. Yikes! So the good Baptists decide to build a church right next door to stop the porn store from opening. The problem is they could only by a tiny spot of land to build it on. So the county takes one look at the "church" and lets the porn store go ahead and open. Poor prayer chapel!! So, of course, we have to stop and take a few pictures of this ridiculous situation so I can scrapbook it. We open the door and Rachel finds $3 inside the bible. Like, who the heck would leave $3 in the bible?? So my Rachel thinks she's going to take it!! No way I was letting her take money out of a bible!! Anyway, the whole thing was just crazy funny and we had a good laugh at the expense of the Baptists. Oh, in case you were wondering, she didn't take the money......

Mike and the Snuggy

Some day he'll forgive me for posting these!! Mike's aunt bought him a snuggy last week, you know, one of those blankets with arm holes. He cracked us up when he wrapped up in it and proceeded to read Newsweek the other night. I told him I was getting the camera and he totally unwrapped and refused to let me. Of course I snuck back with the camera later so I could get some shots, this time he just gave in and let me. It really is a cool idea, kind of cheesily made but still a good idea. You know someone is making a million dollars of off it !! Mike is such a good boy, low maintenence, good student, great sense of humor- we are so grateful. Love you Mike.

Happy National scrapbook day!

Check out this super sweet mini album designed by my sweet friend Tiffany. This is her kit that she has for sale on her website this month, check it out before they are all sold out!! It's super easy to put together, it only took me about an hour this afternoon from start to finish. Thanks for gifting one to me Tiffany, you made my day.
I spent the day with Tiffany and Richele and some nice ladies at a charity crop in Tumwater. I did a few pages, the ones shown here, but mostly I just relaxed. Richel had some yummy treats fro us to eat, I even ate some chocolate( so much for weight watchers today!) It was very nice for me to just have a no stress, quiet afternoon with two of the ladies I am happy to call my friends. Thanks girls, it was a great day.