My own random thoughts!

I'm going to digress a bit from my usual posts for this special post:

Close your eyes and imagine, if you will, that you have a friend, a very good friend. This friend has done something so horrific, so unbelievably galling and hurtful to YOU, her supposed friend, that it has forever ripped apart any hope of being friends with this person ever again. What she has done to you has hurt you immeasurably, but because you have other great friends, the loss of her friendship is really not much of a hardship to you personally. Life has essentially returned to normal, better, actually, since this person and all their mental and emotional baggage which has dragged you down for years is now no longer in your life. Unfortunately, you cannot EVER forget what she has done to you.

Would you still feel hurt by what she did to you? Wouldn’t you still be angry at such a heinous act, that a friend could betray another friend so easily and with no regard to your feelings whatsoever? A total betrayal, a complete and utter disrespect of you that you are left reeling from it…would it be so easy to just “let it go”??? Really????

The above scenario happened to me late this past summer. And now I am being accused of posting snarky comments towards this person. Well, here’s a little confession…they ARE snarky comments for the person described in the scenario above. Am I being juvenile? Perhaps a bit. But here’s my take on it. I damn well deserve to be mad! I was the unsuspecting victim of my “good” friend’s deplorable act and that gives me the right to be pissed! I neither asked for it to happen nor deserved for it to happen, yet happen it did!

Do let me make one thing clear, I HAVE moved on from this person and the horrible thing she has done to me. Life is pretty darn good at the moment and I am basking in it! But, as a TRUE friend once advised, I am holding onto just a little bit of the anger to keep me strong and on my toes. I shall never again let my guard down with people who aren’t my true friends. After all, a REAL friend would never have done what she did to me…keep your friends close and your enemies closer. I must have been her enemy and never knew it as I was completely fooled to think she was my friend!

So now she’s mad that I’m making snide comments on my blog….well, isn’t that too bad! Perhaps she should have thought of that BEFORE she did what she did to me!

Today’s quote: If there be devils, would I were a devil,
To live and burn in everlasting fire,
So I might have your company in hell,
But to torment you with my bitter tongue.
~William Shakespeare (I love his quotes!!)

This and that...

October 31st is Juliette Gordon Low's birthday. Who is Juliette Gordon Low, you may ask....why she's only the founder of Girl Scouts! She was born in 1860 and to this day Girl Scouts around the country still celebrate her big day! Our neighborhood (all the troops in our local area) celebrated by having a campfire and sing along on Friday 10/30. It was a bit chilly, but once the girls all started having a good time they warmed up quickly! (The s'mores helped, too!) Luci was definitely having some fun!



I stepped back but still couldn't get them all in!

Max's birthday was 10/29 and we all went over to Dan and Tina's for a small family birthday party for the brand new 4 year old!

Monty was being especially cute this day... He's sitting on the back of the recliner/rocker looking out the window.

We love this stupid dog!

Drew has had a renewed interest in her American Girl dolls as of late and asked me to take a picture of her with Daphne for a photo frame she has. She wanted the Chinese outfits, so I set her up with the Chinese parasol for a backdrop.

And of course whatever Drew does, Luci has to do, too! So here she is with Daisy doing some ballet.

The first video below is a pile of children on Dean. Have I mentioned before that he was my third child???

And my third child once again, being his usual silly self. Excuse the sideways view...one of these days I'll remember not to turn my camera on its side when taking video!

Today's quote:

When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you have a thousand reasons to smile! (Unless your teeth look like pinto beans, then do us all a favor and close your lips!)

Meema's Treasures

My mother has been begging me for years now to take some pictures of her and the girls and due to scheduling issues, it just never happened. But last week, we finally were able to take those shots and here are the results!

Hey Mom...let me know if you like them, otherwise we can try again!

Today's quote:

There is no pillow so soft as a clear conscience. (Kind of ties into that whole sleeping pill thing I mentioned before!)

Halloween Dancer

Luci's dance class held their Halloween party on Wednesday evening. Here is what she decided to be for Halloween...an Autumn Fairy. (Please note...in this picture, her wings are on upside down...not that she really cares!!)



Their beauty never ceases to amaze me!

This is Ellie, one of the girls in Luci's dance class. Her costume was awesome!

This is Claire. She is the daughter of the dance studio owner. She is too cute not to include!

Luci and my neice Sonja are in the same dance class. (Her wings are now right side up!)

Luci's whole class.

Today's quote:

The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.

Celebrations all around!

A week or two ago, a squirrel decided life was no longer worth living and dived into a transformer effectively ending not only his life, but also the power for half the city! On this same evening, we were heading into town to spend the evening with Dean's parents and Dan and Tina to celebrate the birthdays of Earl (14th), Audrey (17th) and Tina (17th). As we live outside of town, we were not affected by the power outage, so we weren't aware that it had happened until we drove past the point where the outage boundary was. We arrived at Dean's parents' house and decided to bring the party back to our house since Dan and Tina were also without power. So explains the pictures below. Drew helps Audrey put the candles on the cake. The little girl beside Drew is Ana, the daughter of Tina's sister, Vicky.



Not sure where Max was for this moment, but the girls gathered around to blow out the candles on the cake.

Grandma is famous for giving gifts to the kids on her own birthday and this year, they each received a handmade hat, scarf and mittens set knitted by Grandma! Drew models her pink set. Luci got a sage green set, but was too busy playing the piano to pose for a picture.

What a ham! Both girls love their sets!

Ana, Max and Sonja playing a trio. If you look closely, you can see Max's rainbow hat and scarf. He looked just like a Rasta mon!

Last week, Drew and Luci's school held their first student recognition assembly. All the students attend to watch a select group of students receive awards for excellence in certain fields. Luci notices us right away and waves wildly.

Drew goes up to receive an award for excellence in writing. She loves to write!

Drew with her writing award and Grace (my cousin Heather's daughter) with her Language Arts award. Drew is in a multi-age class of first and second graders. The first graders receive mentoring from the second graders, and the second graders tend to boost their self-esteem by being helpful to the first graders. Drew and Grace are in this class together, and though you'd never guess it by the picture, Drew is the 2nd grader and Grace is the first grader!!

Meema gives Drew a congratulatory hug for her award! Good job kiddo!

Both me and the girls are looking forward to daylight savings as this is currently how dark it is while they wait for the bus! But the sunrises are pretty!

This past Saturday, Dean and I were invited to a Halloween party. We dressed as a Renaissance couple. Here, Dean and Julie, dressed as a dance hall girl, pose for a shot.

Sorry for the crude pose, but it was the less crude shot of the only two pictures I actually have showing my costume! What can I say, it was an adult party! L to R, Kathy (hippie), Julie (dance hall girl), me and Sue (bride of Frankenstein). It was lots of fun!

Speaking of Halloween, Drew's dance class held their Halloween party on Monday evening. Here is what my little China doll decided to be this year...a China doll! The long jacket we got in China on our adoption trip to get Drew and the hat is handmade by me. It was originally a Mickey Mouse ears hat from Disney. It worked perfectly for this costume!

Gorgeous!

Here she is waiting for her class to go in, posing with a favorite friend from Kindergarten class, Connor. Connor's mom told me that he was just asking her the other night if he was ever going to see Drew again! (He's in a different classroom this year). Too funny!!

Luci catches a ride on an obliging witch's broom as they fly around the waiting room at dance class. She had baton class this night, but her regular tap/ballet class is on Wednesday, so she'll dress up then. I'll post pics of her in her costume, too.

Drew's tap/jazz class.

Today after school, Meema brought the girls a couple of chocolate cookie haunted houses to decorate for Halloween.

Luci needed a little help holding the bag.

Luci growls behind her finished creation.

And now for a little sample! Yummy!

At this rate, she'll have it all eaten by the time Halloween arrives!

Drew poses with her masterpiece.

And for her scary pose...she didn't know Papa was behind her! She laughed when she saw the picture!

I'm hoping to post some pictures of our brand new master bathroom in the next week or two. It's nearly finished, but not quite! I need to tile the countertop, grout it and then trim the edge, we need to add the baseboard molding, add shelves above the countertop and do some touch-up grouting on the floor. Other than that, we're done! Hopefully we can get those few jobs done and then I'll post some pictures of it. I love it already, but you'll have to wait just a little while longer! We're pushing ourselves to get the two empty bedrooms in the new addition finished as we have reason to believe that one or both may be needed next year!! :-)

Today's quote:

"You're fat and ugly" said the pot to the kettle. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones!

A fond farewell...

Today, I lost my last remaining grandparent, and the girls lost their only Nana. She lived to the ripe old age of 91 celebrating her last birthday just this past August. She had been failing for the last several months and it wasn't wholly unexpected, but sad just the same. As I write this, the girls are still in school and don't yet know...the job of telling them I am not looking forward to. This will be their first experience with the death of someone they loved very much. RIP Gram and Nana. We'll miss you so much! Millie F. 8/28/18-10/23/09
The girls and Nana on her birthday, 8/28/09.

The world's most beautiful children!

It's been a while since I had a photo session with the girls, plus some grandparent birthdays are coming up, so I thought I'd set my stuff up and take some shots. They were due! Here are the world's most beautiful children! (I'm allowed to say that because I'm the mom...also, it happens to be true!)

Today's quote:

Generally speaking, those who lead an honest decent life rarely need sleeping pills.