Prom 2009

Well, prom came and went this past weekend. It was a lot like Christmas... you plan and plan for so long and then it is over in a flash. The weekend couldn't have been more perfect... weather included.

Our prom day began with a trip to Bellbrook for Nick to ref a soccer game followed by a manicure and pedicure appointment for Les at noon. The appointment was supposed to run under an hour but we ended up being at the nail salon for 2 1/2 hours. They were running behind and Leslie had the slowest girl (seriously,she was... she even admitted she was the slowest). She was slow, but very good... Leslie's nails were perfect.


The lengthy nail appointment put us an hour behind schedule so we had to mooooove.

On to hair styling.......... Coffee was my first client.

Then Jill......

Aren't her curls beautiful???

Then last but not least..... Leslie.

She absolutely HATES it when I do this... she says brushing your hair in the opposite direction is like pulling your nails backwards. You can tell by the look on her face how much she is enjoying it.

Once hair was finished it was a mad rush to get dressed, do make up, and get in a few "girls only" photos before Anthony arrived. There was make up, hair spray, curling irons, hair clips, jewelry, clothing and shoes as far as the eye could see in our home. :)

The girls were absolutely breathtaking! They looked like princesses straight out of a fairy tale story.

Girls getting sassy.... :)

Over the shoulder pose... :)

The backs of the dresses

Jill and Allison headed out after the photos to meet up with their dates and take family pictures at their house. We squeaked out a couple pictures of just Leslie before Anthony got there...

Les and her daddy...

Close up of jewelry... can you see the sparkle in her right eye?? She was so excited.

Isn't she beautiful??? I know I am her mother, and I would think she was beautiful wearing a trash bag... but even if I weren't her mother I would think she was gorgeous.

then Leslie anxiously awaited Anthony's arrival.

Anthony was very dashing in his tux and the two of them together..... well..... see for yourself..

The corsage and boutonniere presentation was fun to watch....

Anthony placed it on her wrist in slow motion so we could take lots of pictures. :)

Leslie was unsure as to how to pin the boutonniere on Anthony.... do you see the worry on his face??

Ok, well just pose and let us get a picture.....

Then Mom can step in and pin it on him for real. :)

Leslie texting friends to see when to meet for the next group of pictures...

Anthony was kind enough to carry all of Leslie's "must have" items for the evening so she didn't have to carry a purse. Must have items included... phone, lip gloss, school ID, after prom ticket, and gum. Greg told Anthony he would have tennis elbow by nights end from retrieving Leslie's phone from his pocket all evening. I think she must have asked for it at least 15 times before they even left our house. :)

Time to head out.....

You can stop taking pictures now mother......

More friends....

Leslie and her friends drove over to their teacher (Mr. Erwin, Environment Management) house to show off their beautiful dresses. They spend two periods a day with this teacher and will have him for two years... they all have a great relationship with him so they wanted him to see them prior to prom.

Then off to another friends house for a group picture with more friends.

Just guys....

Silly guys....

Just girls....

Silly girls.....

From this house they headed to dinner and then to prom. We met back up with them around 12:30am for the after prom. Greg and I helped with check-in and check-out. We purposefully chose the I-J-K-L table so we could see Les when she checked in. :) I have to say as a parent it was wonderful chaperoning the after prom. Not that we need to worry about Leslie, but it was so nice to see when she arrived and then knowing she was safe the whole night. Many students checked in... stayed for 15 minutes and then left. I am sure their parents thought they were at the after prom till 4:0o am. We all fell into bed around 5:00am exhausted from a great day of fun.

It was a great day... a little stressful at times due to time limitations, but so much fun. I enjoyed the time with Leslie's friends before and after prom not to mention the couple nights of "practice" hair styling the week prior to prom. Greg and I couldn't be happier with Leslie's choice of friends as well as date. Anthony is a very nice young man and we look forward to spending more time with him. This weekend confirmed to us how blessed we are to have a wonderful daughter who continues to make wise choices with her life but also spends her time with friends who also are making wise choices in their lives.

Yay God for a great weekend!

PS.. just so everyone knows... Nick was not forgotten this weekend. After being a ref for two soccer games his dad drove him over to spend the night with one of his good friends... he too had a great weekend. :)

Boycots and Bananas

Today I filled out an email survey... you know.. the ones who ask you your favorite everything. I have decided that those surveys were not written to help you learn more about that particular person... they were written to stir the pot amongst friends. Why else would they write questions like "Who is most likely to send this back?" "Whose answers are you looking forward to reading the most?" "Who do you hope sends this back?" There's no other reason for placing those types of questions in surveys other than to cause trouble. I am now boycotting these types of questions. I will tell you all my favorite everythings, however, I will not answer the friend, trouble causing questions. :)

Also, today while packing my children's lunch I became frustrated as I looked at my browning bunch of bananas. My kids love bananas but I cannot pack them in their lunches. Have you eaten a lunch where a banana has been packed in it?? Notice anything different? If you pack a banana in your lunch you will then have a banana sandwich, chips, pretzels... you get the idea.


Bananas are limited to snack time at home. I only eat them when they are almost green so as I watch my bananas start to slowly turn brown I start to panic wondering if they will go to waste.... boy it sure would be nice to pack them in lunches.

Greg purchased Leslie some "baby bananas" (she likes exotic fruits so he always looks for something different for her to try) apparently they taste like a regular banana but with an extra kick of banana flavor... a banana x 10.

The fork is there to help show the size of these little guys.

I packed one of those little guys in Leslie's lunch today... it could go one of two ways... 1 it is small so maybe it won't make everything taste like a banana, or 2 it is more potent than a normal banana so everything will taste even MORE like banana. I will let you know. If you know how to pack a banana in a lunch without the banana flavor leakage please let me know.

I think sometimes we are a lot like bananas...I think we ooze what is inside us too. Have you ever spent the day with a really negative person? Or, have you been the negative person for the day??? How does the day turn out for you.. or as Dr. Phil would say "How is that working for ya?" I know if I am negative or if I am around a negative person everyone and everything becomes negative and the day turns sour. Or, if you talk about other people in a negative light or if you are around people who talk about other people.... suddenly the person who is being talked about is not all that perfect in your eyes anymore. You may not have had a problem with that person before your conversation with your friend but you sure do now.

It can go the other way too... if you are positive and happy than everyone around you has no choice but to be happy and positive. Even if they started out in a bad mood it is hard to stay in a bad mood when you are around someone uplifting and positive.

Psalm 16:9 says "Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure."

Dom DeLuise died this week of cancer and Greg read me a statement from Burt Reynolds... he said "Dom always made you feel better when he was around and that he never said an unkind word about anyone." Greg said "I would like that to be said of me some day when I am gone". I too want to make people feel better when they are around me... I want to always speak highly about a person even if the person I am talking to doesn't know the other person. God created each of us and I think it makes him sad to hear us thinking or speaking unkindly of one another. We all deserve for others to see the good in us instead of the bad.

I pray my "banananess" today will be good and positive so that every one packed in my day today will take on my positive attitude. My goal is to be positive even when it is hard and everything around me is negative. I will find something positive about everyone and everything today......in fact... if my bananas don't get eaten I will just make yummy banana pudding. How is that for positive?? :)

Have a great day!

What now??

Nick is into this new thing....... well, kinda new. Not the teasing his mother part (he has done that since birth) but the new thing of saying "oooooh what now?".

I think it is a new way of saying "in your face" for his generation. He follows me around the house and when something happens where the phrase is appropriate (and sometimes when it isn't) he will say "oooooh what now mommy?". For example, I told him he couldn't play xbox until his room was clean, so as I was walking down the hall he runs in front of me, whips his door open to show me his clean room and says...... "ooooooh what now mommy?"

I told him he needed to eat something nutritional prior to eating 900 ice cream sandwiches like he does everyday and he jumped around the corner from the kitchen with a mouth full of banana and in a muffled, my mouth is full voice said....."ooooooh what now mommy?"

His sister does not find this phrase funny in the least.... it doesn't go over well when she is told she needs to have her room cleaned prior to going out with friends and her little brother bounces in her face and says.... "ooooooh what now Leslie?".

Nick goes through phases and phrases... I thought we were through the jumping out from behind corners phase but apparently we are not. If I am into something... I am INTO it. I get absorbed with my every action because if I don't I will forget what I am walking into a room to do. This is how he gets me. He knows I am absorbed in thought and I am not expecting him to jump out and say boo. He even says things like I LOVE YOU MOMMY! and when I jump and then proceed to yell at him he will say... "Gosh, I just wanted to say I love you." I will say Nick, it's not funny! he will then reply with " I know it's hilarious". He will apologize and genuinely feel bad for scaring me but then it will happen again a few weeks later.

Nick bebops through the house.. he will have a song in his head and he will hum and clap along as if the rest of the house can hear it just as loudly as he is hearing it in his head. Clapping is a big pet peeve of mine. Clapping, in my mind, is used after a performance to communicate you liked it, it can also be used at concerts or during worship at church. Clapping is done at sporting events to show pleasure for goals, touchdowns etc being scored. Clapping is NOT (in my opinion) done loudly while walking around the house just because you are happy. I think I should enter Greg and Nick in a clapping contest because I promise they would win for loudest clap. They can make me jump 2 feet when they clap... it startles me every time AND it hurts my ears.... it is that loud.

Nick also likes to follow everyone around and make this sound.....That sound was actually Nick... not a recording of a monkey in an amazon jungle... my son Nick. He drives Leslie absolutely batty with this sound. He now has to ask before he is aloud to make it. Where it came from, and why he loves to do it, I will never know.

Nick and I usually have some sort of object we take turns hiding. I mentioned, in a previous blog, about Nick hiding a Fisher Price man in my purse, shoes etc.... now we are hiding 3 Rokenbok balls. They are blue and all three of them together measure to be about 2 inches long; they can be hidden anywhere. Nick's shoes were the last place I hid the balls, hoping he would feel them when he put his shoes on for school. He waited a couple days and I found them in my water bottle on my night stand. They were IN MY WATER after being in his stinky shoes....... he probably went to bed that night laughing at the thought of me finding those balls in my water. I am glad I noticed them before taking a drink. :)

Nick does not need to be around to find one of his jokes funny. A lot of his pranks are found long after he has gone to bed for the night. I will climb into bed after a long hard day... snuggle in and place my head on my pillow to hear loud fart sounds coming from a whoopee cushion that had been placed there several hours ago. He knew it would be funny... I am sure he laughed himself to sleep. I have also found a lot of fake bugs (praise the Lord they were not real) under my covers as well as Rokenbok balls and Fisher Price men.

Nick is a funny kid and he never fails to help me see the lighter side of life. He has his moments like anyone else where he is grumpy, but for the most part, you will find Nick with a big smile on his face and something funny on the tip of his tongue. Nick is also very thoughtful and sweet.. this is what I found as my laptop background after he had used it a while back.

I thank God every day for both of my kids... I sometimes lump them together in prayer and I need to remember how different they are and thank God for their specific gifts. The gift of laughter is a big one for my Nick. Thank you Lord for my smiley, funny Nick... he is my sunshine, especially on a rainy days.


It is now time for paybacks. I now wait behind doors and corners to jump out at Nick.... I am going to great lengths to find the perfect hiding spot for 3 little blue balls and maybe I will start to wake him every morning for school with a clap.. "ooooooh, what now Nick?"

Practice for prom...

We played dress up last night and practiced hair styles for prom. We are still somewhat undecided for Leslie as to how to style her hair. We would love to leave her hair down if we knew it would hold. She has beautiful thick hair but it does not hold curl very well, especially while dancing. (which works well for her every other day of the year) We have an idea ... so we will go with that. I typically do my best work spontaneously under pressure so we will see.

We were able to find a style for her friend Jill however so the evening was not a total bust. Plus we had fun talking and curling. :)

I will feel better on Saturday AFTER all the hair is styled hopefully with all the girls loving their hair and feeling beautiful for Prom.

Here are some photos of our test run.....





Plans are as follows:
Manicure and pedicure at noon
Friend #1 Allison arrives at 2:30 for her hair "appointment",
Friend #2 Jill arrives at 3:30 for her hair "appointment",
Leslie's hair "appointment" at 4:30.
Anthony (date) arrives at 5:30 for pictures,
Over to another friends house at 6:00 for group pictures,
Dinner reservations at 7:00
Prom 8:00-11:00
After prom 12:30-4:30 (which Greg and I are chaperoning)
After after prom 4:30-? at our house.

All day Mother's Day spent in bed........... priceless. :)

Still need to purchase lots of hair spray, hair clips, snacks and maybe a 24 pack of red bull for mom. :)

New friends...

We were excited to see we have new neighbors in our neighborhood. They stopped by yesterday to visit and we welcomed them into the neighborhood with a bite to eat. They seem like a very nice couple... a little shy but nice just the same.

The wife seemed a little bossy and the husband reserved. She seemed to eat most of the food we offered and I kinda thought that was a little rude but every couple is different in their own way. I noticed she would nonchalantly push her husband aside when food was offered leaving more for her. To each his own... it must work for them.

We invited them back sometime for another visit and we hope to see more of this couple throughout the summer.




Have a ducky day!

What a wonderful sunny weekend!

We had a great weekend; so much was accomplished and the weather was absolutely beautiful. It was a pleasant surprise to not have rain this weekend. (although I know we need the rain; it was a nice break).

I am rather weird.... I know I am weird in many ways, but lets stay focused on the reason I feel I am weird today.... I love mulch. I love the smell of mulch, I love the feel of mulch, and I especially love the way mulch looks in the yard. (I have never tasted mulch, not even while pregnant, I know some women are dirt eaters when they are pregnant but that was never me). Greg asked me what I wanted for Mother's Day and I told him mulch... he said " I am serious, what would you like?" I told him I really want mulch.

This love of mulch would explain my excitement when Greg called the Mulch Man Saturday morning. I couldn't wait to have our mulch delivered; I always take an active role in our landscape mulching. One year our mulch was delivered during the week while Greg was at work so I started spreading it before he was home. It started to rain and I continued to work. By the time I had all the mulch spread I had it all over me from head to toe, I even found some behind my ears during my shower. I loved every second of it. Should I be concerned for my love of dirt and mulch??? I don't typically like to "play in the dirt", however there is something about spring, landscapes and mulch that really gets my blood pumping. I love my Mother's Day present and I love how our house looks with our new mulch.




I was blessed with the opportunity to style a dear friend's daughter's hair for prom this weekend as well. I cleaned up a bit and drove over after mulching our yard with many apologies for my manure smell. I thoroughly enjoyed being part of her big day. We sat and talked for nearly 2 hours while curling and spraying. She looked absolutely beautiful! I now feel a little more prepared to style Leslie's hair this weekend for her prom as well as 2 of her girlfriend's hair too.

Here are some photos of the hair styling....

Here is Pippy Long Stocking... I mean me doing Kim's hair.

Pretty Shirley Temple curls...

The secret ingredient....

Isn't she beautiful??? Her beauty has very little to do with her hair though.

We were also able to squeeze in a some visits with family, church, a Bible study with dear friends, grocery, cleaning and a cram session with Leslie to finish her genealogy scrap book which is due today.

It wasn't a relaxing weekend by any means, however we were able to get a little bit of everything done and enjoy the beautiful weather.

I hope your weekend was as bright as mine, Happy Monday and Happy Birthday to my brother Jamie. :)

Rough week...

This week has been rough....(so I am going to complain about it) not necessarily Sunday through Saturday kind of week but more like last Thursday through this Thursday. I am not counting today... today is Friday and Friday's are good right?

Monday started with an intense pain in my abdomen. I called to made an appointment with my doctor and scheduled it for Tuesday at 2:15. The pain was very similar to the back labor I experience while giving birth to our son Nick. By the time of my appointment my pain had eased up a bit in my abdomen but had worsened in my back and leg. Apparently I had an ovarian cyst that had ruptured and endometriosis was wrapped around my sciatic nerve which was causing me neurological pain in my back and leg. Ahhhhh, the joys of being a woman. :)

Wednesday the pain was a dull ache and I could move around much better. I was happy to feel better for many reasons but mainly because Greg and I had a special weekend planned and I wanted to feel good. We have attened the Mix 107.7 Retro Prom for years... we didn't go last year so we were excited to go again this year. The evening usually consists of dinner prior to prom, dancing and fun with friends during prom and then a hotel stay with free breakfast following prom. We dress up and have a wonderful time together. I had been looking forward to this night for months.

Friday I noticed I had a scratchy throat, but I pushed it aside thinking it was my allergies since the pollen had been so high in the air. Saturday I attended my zumba class thinking if I work out and release some endorphins I will feel better and it will help me shake off this week and have a great time that night with Greg. It was wishful thinking. ... by the time we arrived at the hotel to check in and get our room sickness had set in. Greg was sweet and ran to the store and bought me some cold medication while I got ready.

The cold medicine kicked in and it really did make me feel better...we had a great dinner at Brio at the Greene. We purposefully chose to have dinner at the Greene to try to avoid the retro prom crowd around the Nutter Center. Little did we know Beavercreek High School's prom was the same night; we were surrounded by beautiful high school girls in princess dresses. They were soooo pretty.... we received a few weird looks since we were not quite in the same age bracket. :) My dad was kind enough to stay with the kids that night and they happened to be eating at Brio as well. It was fun seeing them a bit before heading to prom.

After dinner we went back to the hotel so I could take my second round of cold medication to help get me through the next 4 hours. For some reason the second dose was not as helpful as the first... as the night progressed so did my cold/flu. I was fading fast. I was able to make it through the rest of the evening but I was not up to dancing much which is typically my favorite part. I was so bummed, I had looked forward to this night for such a long time.



We got up on Sunday, ate our free breakfast (which was very good by the way) and headed home. Once we were home I slept most of the day.

Monday I felt better but still had a cough as well as a stuffy nose. I also was lucky enough to have a facial biopsy scheduled at 4:20.... always something to look forward to.

Biopsy went well... the stinging close to my eye was not as fun as I had hoped but it went well. They told me it would be a week to 10 days before I would hear any results.

Yesterday (2 days later) I received a call from the doctor with the results. Yep, cancer. It was a real eye opener for me.... I felt a pit in my stomach when they told me it was cancer... yes, nothing for me to really worry about... cut it out and move on. But, it made me think of those who sit in their doctor offices and receive the news of having cancer of their liver, or breast, or colon etc. I can't even imagine the pain. My heart goes out to those who face life threatening cancer. I will take all precautions I need to take from now on.

Greg had a really rough week at work and it had beat him down too. Les heard the news of her Mexico trip getting canceled today and she was devastated. Bless her heart... it hurts as a parent to see one of your kids cry and you can't fix it.

Les loved her trip to Mexico last year; she felt God move through her like she had never felt before. She bonded with a few children in one of the orphanages and she was so excited to go back and see them again this year. Her heart was crushed when the news came yesterday. Due to the Swine Flu Southbrook did not feel the trip would be safe and they plan to take another mission trip within the States. I know God will use these kids just as much here as He would in Mexico, but the reuniting of little friends will have to wait another year and that is what hurts.

Not sure if there was a full moon this week, but it was one heck of a week. PLUS..... Adam (my favorite on American Idol) was in the bottom 2 this week. COME ON!!! :)

These were little bumps in the road, .... no real troubles. We still are very blessed but we are ready for a new week,..... thankful today is Friday, and Prom for Les is next weekend so we have lots of stuff to look forward to. :)

This is a warm fuzzy I watched the other day that made me feel good... it is an animal lover thing so you if you aren't into animals it may not make you feel warm and fuzzy click HERE.

TGIF!