Pretty Girl

I love getting Melissa dressed up, and now she wanted it. She asked me to take a picture because she told me she looked beautiful that day. I put rollers in her hair the night before and the next morning I had a hard time getting them out of her hair because she wanted to keep them in. What a nerd!! Anyway, it made her feel pretty, I guess that is what counts. I had fun, she enjoyed it, and we made it to church on time. That's a good day in my book. It's she's too darn cute!

Valentines Day

What a fun day. I love all of the parties that Melissa gets to have in preschool. All of the kids in her class are so cute. She has great friends.  They decorated their own cupcakes and ate them along with a fancy sugar cookie that Melissa thought was the greatest because it had the tiniest sugar hearts sprinkled on them. 

Valentines Day was way too crazy though. I spent most of the day preparing for the preparedness fair. I made batch after batch of pumpkin soup, mom and steph made about a million pumpkin cookies, and I made a fancy poster with my new Cricut machine and I made handouts that I still have a ton of left. It was fun though. I'm glad it's over, it was a good turnout. Time to plan the next activity. 

Melissa gave me a Valentine, but I think she has eaten most of it. She gave me  a card and a little ceramic container with chocolates in it. Dad took her to the Dollar store and helped her pick everything out. It was very sweet of them. I loved it. Anyway, as hard as Valentines Day is for me, I enjoyed this year. I was busy, all my family was very thoughtful, (Thanks for my favorite candy, Steph) and I really didn't think about missing Joe until I sat down that night and remembered our first Valentine's Day together. What a sweet memory I have of him. It is one of my favorite.

Special Olympics

The torch for the Special Olympics came to Hawthorne Elementary. It was really cool! The kids cheered so loud for them all and sang a beautiful song that made everybody cry. It was amazing. All Melissa could talk about was "Special Olymkus"  She took Steve's Gold and 2 silver medals from Special Olympics to her class for show and tell. I personally enjoyed watching Melissa talk to them afterwards and watching Madisyn give her paper torch to one of the athletes.  It was a really cool program. I've been looking everywhere for the special olympics blue and white scarves, but they are no where to be found. They went quick. I was lucky, my friend Shannon decided to give me hers, so I have one now. Gotta love the Special Olympics!!

My 30th Birthday

I think this birthday has been one of the most memorable birthdays of my life. I really spoiled myself as well as have a good time with my family. It has really made me reflect on where I've come in the last 30 years. I've done a lot of growing and made a lot of mistakes, but for what I've done and experienced I would say I've found happiness. I know that sounds weird for someone who has lost a husband to cancer, watched family members suffer with different situations, and is raising a child without her dad. Nonetheless, I am happy and find joy every day in the midst of all the stress.  I try every day to look for the positive and avoid complaining about every little thing that gets to me. Notice the key word there, TRY!!, it doesn't always work, but when I do I have a pleasant day, and I have more patience with Melissa. 

I hope that my next 30 years are just as full of joy as my first 30 years. I know things are going to happen that are hard to deal with, but you just deal with it and put a smile on your face. If you can't control it, there is no reason to complain.

I am so thankful for my family, they are amazing. I love serving them and hanging out with them. They are my best friends!! They put the biggest smile on my face. I'm one of those people who look forward to family reunions in any way, shape, or form. Yeah, sometimes there is drama, but who doesn't have it occasionally. I'm learning that how you react is half the battle!! I'm still working on it. It's a good thing I'm not perfect, that gives me another 30 years to work on things right!!

Hair Donation

It's taken a long time and a lot of patience for me to get my hair this long. I have been growing out my hair for 3 years...and yes if you do the math that is since Joe died. I decided after he died that I was going to grow out my hair and donate it to make wigs for cancer patients. It was finally long enough and I wanted to do it before I started a new semester.  It was hard for me to do, but I'm very pleased with the outcome. I'm definitely lighter on my feet without all that hair!! It took a good 2 lbs off of me!! Just kidding, although it was getting pretty heavy on my neck. I don't know if it makes me look older and younger though. Somebody said it made me look my age and someone else said I looked 12. I don't know, I just know it feels better and not so hard to do.  I'm glad I'm done!!!!

The beginning of this new year has been fun and full of new things for Melissa. It's been really fun for me to show her all these new things to do also. She learned how to build a snowman, learned how to sew a straight line on her little sewing machine, and her preschool teacher told me the other day she recognizes 25 out of 26 letters in the alphabet. That is a pretty big accomplishment since she didn't even recognize one of them at the beginning of the school year. I'm very proud of her! What she is most excited about though, is dance lessons. She started that today and had a very good time. There are 3 little girls in her class and she loves her teacher. Itwill be fun to watch her learn. Too cute! Of course she is the shortest one in her class, but very cute in her little ballerina outfit. She came home showing off her moves! So far this year has been great...a great end to my 20's. I'm actually looking forward to seeing what my 30's lay in store for me considering the lifetime I lived in my 20's. Time will tell, it's up to me how to handle each experience as it comes. If there is anything I've learned is to take one thing a day at a time and to work on how to react to things as they come. My reaction will determine how it turns out.

Christmas Morning

4:17 AM Exactly...Melissa pops her head up and says...did you make it to bed BEFORE santa came? Of course was my reply before she realized that it was Christmas morning and upstairs was an explosion of Christmas toys and fun things for everyone!! She jumped up and knocked on Steve's door...if there was any question on whether he was awake or not and they awaited anxiously at the bottom of the stairs for the words, ready, set, and GO!

I walked to the top of the stairs and unknown to me, mom was JUST turning off the lights and was hoping to lay down for a few minutes before the Christmas morning flurries. SORRY!! They weren't waiting. I barely got the camera ready before the whirwind came running up the stairs into the awaiting assortment of toys. I love seeing Melissa so excited. She was ecstatic with every little thing she got, down to the slinky and ceramic bear in her stocking. As the other family trickled in and we opened presents she was more than grateful for everything. She made sure to thank everyone personally who gave her a present. It was pretty cute.

We had lots of fun, playing games, playing barbies (She got a lot of them) and combing their hair (I know Jana knows what I'm talking about) I could still spend hours combing barbies hair. Although she woke up with a fever and a terrible cough, she did pretty well, and as the day went on the 4 hour nap helped a lot!!

I personally had the best Christmas ever. I really enjoyed buying Christmas this year. I was able to help a lot of people and the meaning of Christmas was burning deep for me this year. As excited as Melissa was about her princess Barbies, I was just as excited to help the people that I helped this year. It was the best part for me. To tell you the truth, I really didn't look in my stocking for a good hour after everything. I didn't play with my Christmas toy until about 9pm last night. Melissa and I played a Disney Princess Wii game for an hour before bed. I had a lot of fun with her. It's been really fun this year!!