"letter from Mom"

To my children -
I am your parent 1st. Your friend 2nd. I will stalk you, flip out on you, lecture you, drive you insane , be your worst nightmare & hunt you down like a bloodhound when I haven’t heard from you for too long because I LOVE YOU.
When you understand that, I’ll know that you are a responsible adult.
You will NEVER find someone who loves, cares &
worries about you more than I do!
If you don’t hate me at least once in your life - I am not doing my job properly.
Love, Mom


Just to make you smile on Wednesday!
~With all my heart!
Michelle

Who is this mom?! OH hey! It's me!

Well - I have to tell you - I have changed over the many years of parenting!

I'm sure some for the better and some for the worse....but I HAVE changed!


I'm no longer the first time mother who carries the diaper bag containing half of a baby super store! (6 outfits...200 diapers...lotion, wash, tylenol, thermometer, baby hair brush - even though baby is bald as a cue ball) etc. etc. etc....

I no longer (although maybe I never did...) feel that each new baby requires a new stroller....walker...bouncer...play pen...

I also no longer think that "bigger is better" when it comes to baby gear (eegads try fitting all that gear into a trunk!- each outing becomes a major move!)

But I have also gone the other way in my parenting....
After reading several articles (including one over at Strollerderby this morning) about how DANGEROUS it is for toddlers to be facing forwards in their car seats....(#1 reason for toddler fatalities is car accidents!!) my baby and grand babies will be facing backwards till they're 13 or so! (lol okay maybe only 4)

When I go to the store and see a sale on toddler meds (tylenol, teething gel...both "regular" or homeopathic) I STOCK UP!! seriously! No matter what - you WILL need these items sooner or later and it's bad (I MEAN BAD!) to find yourself at 3 am with a feverish baby and NO meds!

I have also learned to pre-stock on small sale items like birthday gifts (oy! I can't tell you how many times we had to put a $5 bill in an envelope because one of the kids "surprised" us with yet another birthday party to go to LAST MINUTE!)

I'm still the mama who asks everyone to use hand-sanitizer before holding my babies for the first few months (sorry - can't let that "germ" thing go :0)lol

But I'm also the mama who doesn't mind if the 7 year old holds the sleeping baby while I quickly do up a load of dishes (my boys are going to be QUITE the catch for some lucky ladies down the road a bit! - they are all SO WONDERFUL with babies - and they all have tons of experience!)

So...that's just a few changes I thought about this morning...

No - I don't worry about each and every little "phase" they go through anymore....I am well aware that "this too shall pass"....but I do monitor the sugar and "junk food" a LOT harder than I did years ago....

I HOPE with age comes wisdom.....I'd hate to think after ALL the lessons I've learned (most of them THE HARD WAY!)I hadn't truly LEARNED anything at all :)
How about you- how have you changed?

Are you more strict or more lenient on things?
I can't wait to hear!
With all my heart!~
Michelle

Can you hear me now?

He's "calling his daddy and sissy" (at least he nods his head yes if asked!) lol
If you ask if he's talking to anyone else...he says "no no no"
toddler talk ALWAYS contains the word "NO" :0)

Maybe he's telling them about how safe and sound he is in his car seat in our new HUGE blessing - a (new to us) Yukon.
There are SO very few vehicles that seat 8.
What a BLESSING STRAIGHT FROM GOD that we have one now that can fit 3 car seats (so the grandbabies can go places with us too!)

It's so very wonderful (even though...yes we will be making payments on a 2001 forever....I'm just so happy that everyone has their own seatbelt!!)
PRAISING GOD FOR THE BLESSING OF BEING ABLE TO MAKE PAYMENTS ON THIS MUCH NEEDED ITEM FOR OUR FAMILY!!

TO THOSE OF YOU WHO READ THIS BLOG...PLEASE PRAY ABOUT SOMETHING....OUR GRANDBABIES ARE IN A VERY ODD LIFESTYLE RIGHT NOW. THEIR MAMA HAS YET ANOTHER NEW BOYFRIEND WHO IS BAD NEWS. :( WE'RE NOT SURE HOW TO APPROACH THE SITUATION...BUT IT ISN'T GOOD!! THANK YOU!!

We have a busy weekend coming up - First football game (4 hours away!) but..hey...we LOVE driving now that we all ride "instyle" lol
Have a blessed week (in case it gets crazy and I don't get to post again till next week!)

Much love to you all!
With all my heart~
Michelle

It's that time of year again! FOOTBALL seems to dominate our life right now. Practice, meal planning, scheduling weekends etc.
Ranger was SO excited to show off his black eye from practice (um...yeah that's a boy thing...as a mom I was NOT so thrilled!)











Even Malachi is in the mood for Football! :) Actually at 19 months he just likes to get his way (all the time) and cried and cried when we took the shoulder pads off him...so he had them on for quite a while! :) lol

So - do you have kiddos in sports!? (Is it just me or do they take up a LOT of time and money?!)
Are you TOO running in 100 different directions?
:)Whew! I'm exhausted and it's not even me out on the field! :)

Have a blessed Thursday gang!!
With all my heart - Michelle!

Happy Birthday to my "baby" girl!

Well - she's 20 today. Not much of a baby anymore I'm afraid. I am excited to say that she just started College after saving $$ for a year. She is going into law enforcement. (Nothing a big sister isn't used to that's for sure!:)
All day long I posted baby pics on facebook and "tagged" the photos so all her friends could see :)
Time flys. I don't care for that one little bit! :*(

So...mom's out there (dad's too if you're reading this...) what one piece of advice would you give to her on her BIG 20th birthday? :)

I look forward to seeing your comments!
Blessings and love to you all -
With all my heart -
Michelle

Whew it's Wednesday!

HA HA HA! Right on schedule - it's "Whew it's Wednesday"....which means....which means...(well I'll be honest I'm not sure what it means other than its two days before pay day and that always means everything seems to get paid for with change :) lol
How about a picture? or two?








these are the two girls left - the two puppies we are looking for homes for :) ain't they cute?














Here we go with this again! Ranger's so excited to be back in football - he has worked out NON-STOP all year getting ready - he is in TOP form and I can't wait to go out and scream like a wild mama!



well August is our SUPER BUSY BIRTHDAY MONTH! OUR OLDEST "BABY" DAVID WILL BE 24 THIS MONTH!



MY DAUGHTER WILL BE 20!! (RANGER WILL BE 17 NEXT MONTH)


AND REMINGTON WILL BE 11! WOW WHERE DOES TIME GO SO QUICKLY???

Maybe it should be "wise wednesday" or "wild wednesday" lol we shall see!

~with all my heart
Michelle

So much to say....nothing much to say....

Ever have SO many ideas about blog posts - but then you mentally check each one off in your head as "no one wants to hear about that!".......me too!
I am searching for "meaning" on this blog. There aren't many comments and that made me think there weren't many views...then I got a chance to check out my stats! There ARE people out there reading!
So then I worry - "Is what I am saying RIGHT for this blog?" I mean...really who cares to hear about our gang other than family members who HAVE to read the updates? :)
There are such wonderful blogs out there -CRAFT blogs - THRIFT blogs - GREEN blogs - PRAYER blogs....what am I? What is this blog?
(since I try so hard to do it all!!) maybe I could say Monday is my favorite recipe I've run across lately...Tuesday is "Thrifty Tuesday"....Wednesday is "Whew it's Wednesday" lol - (I couldn't think of a snappy idea for wednesday) Thankful Thursday and Family Friday?! I'll provide the links to other blogs that probably do these ideas all the time and do them FABULOUSLY!! What do you think? I hate to think I'm wasting anyones time. I can't promise I'll always be chipper and upbeat....I will promise to be REAL though!

I'm open to ideas :)
p.s. I won "best speaker" for my speech last night :) yippie!

Next Tuesday I have to (well..get to..)give my Toastmasters speech #2 - Now I'm sure there are typos, but since I'll be trying HARD to memorize it....I just cut and pasted it here.
Hope it makes you smile!






I describe myself as a wife of one, mother of six and "mema" of two perfect grandbaby girls.If there is anything I have learned in 24 years of parenting it's this:They are up to something.


Today I'm going to explain why it is MOST important for you to remember this ONE sentence at all times. Now maybe you say "well I'm not a parent!" That doesn't matter I assure you. At some time you will find yourself “in charge” of children - be it in a family setting, being an aunt or uncle...or in an emergency babysitter setting when your friends call you begging.
You may think to yourself - they're darling - they're innocent - they couldn’t possibly be up to anything

I'm here to show you differently.

There are four main times when you should be concerned. Really only four

Numer one when they're noisy - Say they are in the back yard - they sound like they are having a fabulous time they probably are! - This should immediatly tip you off that a sibling is tied to something.
No one has THAT great a time without involving torture. Please proceed quickly but with caution to assist that situation.

Number two - when they use their “normal” voices. You know the child who nonchalantly walks through the living room and says “Hey mom whatcha doing?!” while you are on the computer - I mean doing something important?! That child is a spy!
That child has been sent to find out *Where you are *what you’re doing and * how long it looks like you’ll stay busy and blissfully unaware of the madness that is happening somewhere else in the household!
Normal voices are also the ones used at the dinner table full of family and friends for your little darling to pipe up with “I helped make the salad while mom was yelling at dad for inviting people over!” or Heaven forbid “Where DO babies come from?”. The thing to remember about NORMAL is :THEY’RE UP TO SOMETHING!

Number three Whispers. Whispers are not a good sign. Whispers in “happy sibling times” are used to tell that HORRIBLY dirty joke the kid down the street told them. (Oh don’t worry your youngest won’t understand it...but they WILL amazingly memorize it and repeat it back in “normal” voice at some opportune time such as Sunday School or that dinner table scenario we just talked about!)
Whispers in “ugly sibling times” are reserved for statements like “just you wait till mom and dad aren’t home” or “when sis leaves I’m gonna brush the dogs teeth with HER toothbrush!”. Whispers can only mean one thing. THEY’RE UP TO SOMETHING!

Number four - oh last but not least - number four. SILENCE. ( P A U S E ) SCARY!
Silence is a lack of sound….NOT a lack of TROUBLE!! I happen to know that Silence is employed when making “snow” in their rooms with the restaurant sized container of Garlic powder. Silence apparently is required when seeing how many matchbox cars can fit into a toilet. Silence is the only sound you hear just before checking on your precious toddler who is supposedly napping in their darling nursery you painstakingly decorated - only to find that they have removed their diaper and are re-decorating with the contents.
Silence is that chill down many a parents spine when they suddenly realize - THERE IS NO NOISE….THEY’RE UP. TO. SOMETHING.

Now we all know time flies. They go from infants to toddlers, toddlers to tweens, tweens to twentys and you think “ahhhh those days are all behind me!” You let down your guard. You forget! Then one day they bring your perfect little grand children over and while you are doling out kisses and cookies, your adult child will say “hey mom...what are you doing ?”

YOU WILL NOT EVEN SEE IT COMING! THEN AS YOU ARE ATTEMPTING TO WAVE GOODBYE WITH A GRAND BABY IN EACH ARM - YOU WILL REMEMBER..THEY WERE USING THEIR NORMAL VOICES…..THEY ARE ALWAYS UP TO SOMETHING!