Birthhhhday Girl

Today, Rae turned seven. I'm not sure how I ended up the Mama of a seven year old, but there you go. I love her to pieces and I wouldn't change one thing about her, she is the sunshine in my day. Happy birthday bug, Mama loves you.

Buddy Time

I find myself in this unexpected happy place, spending a lot of one-on-one time with the little man. Reminds me why I love being a mama.

Grown Up Baby.

My little one has a different face, now. She's still a goofball, though.

Always cool...

Ten Years

I was literally driving over the Border in to Canada to close on some Real Estate, an appointment I couldn't miss. Frantically, I called my step mother who was near a TV, but she blew it off as not a big deal. Was listening to live talk radio based in NYC and KNEW it WAS a big deal. Heard the whole event first hand as they saw what was happening, but was trapped in my car, no answers to be had. I listened as the radio broadcasters yelled, as the gabled "it's down, it's down!!" was repeated over and over, with the bleeting of these weird alarms in the background. I later learned these were personal firefighter alarms, pulled when a firefighter was "down". Just listened, with no idea what the heck was going on, everyone was just reacting and not really reporting.  Finally made it to my ferry to Nanaimo in BC and was able to locate a TV for the first time.

 Canadian coverage isn't at all like the version shown here.

I didn't get home that day till after Midnight. The border wasn't closed yet but each and every car was inspected and everyone was considered a threat. We had no TV in our home at the time. It wasn't till two days later when I went in to work and they had the big screen tuned to the news that I saw what had been screaming in my head, those early unedited videos of the buildings and the heroes running in while the terror poured out. It was an awe inspiring, intensely horrible event.

You can ask anyone on the street, heck I'll bet you ask anyone in the 1st world, and they can tell you just exactly where they were when the pompous America was brought to it's knees that day. I know I'll never forget. The horror and the fear. But there was also something... else. In the weeks and months that followed that terrible day, we were all pulled together by how awful it was. How unexpected. I've never felt that kind of brotherhood with my fellow Americans before, united in fear and anger. Yah, I'll never forget. 

As of September, 2011

We're heading to Great Wolf Lodge in a few weeks as a grand finale for when my first surro family comes to visit, and out of curiosity I wanted to see how tall the kids were now, to see if they could ride the big ride. Not quite big enough, but it was interesting to see the plain facts about my munchkins. Was surprised to see Rae in such a low percentile for her height, she's average to tall compared to the kids in her class. Then my head popped off when I saw that the statistics put Kael as overweight. Bullshit. What a crap calculator. That kid has not an ounce of fat on his body.

Music on the Green

The last one of the season! The kids had a blast with the hula dancing and even ran into some school friends and their cousins!

Rae: First Day of First Grade

Today was a very big day in our home. It was Raegans first day of first grade, the first day she'd be away from us ALL DAY. The first of many and a happy but sad day for Mom. I missed her. It was just one more step away from me. I was bummed when the pics I took turned out to be a little too bright, you can't really see all the details, they're fuzzy.

Showing off her Big Kid backpack

Reassuring Mama and herself that she'll be fine. 

  But then I realized, they're perfect. My beautiful, talented, sensitive little Rae is growing up, and now she's growing away from me. I don't get to see all the little details any more, just what she shares. Bitter sweet.

And now she's gone. 

First Grade: As Raegan sees it.

Q: SO! First grade. The first day of school outfit is really important. What did you chose and why?
A: Okay. They're purple and my shirt is a kind of dress-ish and it's purple and it has a belt and it has hearts and one part of it says love and I have some black pants and I wear pink socks and I have pink and black shoes. And I have a pink backpack. I picked it cuz it's the first day of school. 

Q: What did you think when we walked on to that playground with all of those other kids?
A:  I was kind of nervous. Cuz there was a lot of people there but when I came right in to school almost everyone in the class was wanting to be my friend!

Q: What do you think about your teacher?
A: I like her, she's a good teacher and tomorrow we're going to do a big art project with the glue sticks so she said we have to make dots of glue to practice!

Q: Were there any kids that you knew in your new class?
A: Only two, that bad Taylor and Ethan. 

Q: What are three things that you learned today?
A: Um.. we didn't learn anything on the first day of school but we read books, lots of them. We, Um, read books, we sang songs, and we drawed a picture of what we saw. 

Q: What was your most favorite part of the day?
A: Of the day? I liked doing everything with my teacher. That's the fun part about it. 

Q: Did you like your lunch?
A: YES! And I liked how you made it. The marshmallows in the peanut butter and I liked the drink but it kind of got gross, the ice melted and then it made water and then after that it got rotten and I liked the granola bar and I liked the banana and apples. They're good. And we have two tables because we have a lot of kids.

Q: Who did you sit with at lunch?
A: I sat with a girl and she had curly hair and she had a flower in her hair. She was nice but she kept pinching me when she got in line, which I didn't like. But then two girls became my friends! Two big kids they're in my class, and two little kids, they're each sisters. One part of my friend that he they and he ended with the same letters, "gan", that was the same part. That was so cool, we became friends very quickly, right when me met. He was a nice friend. Oh and that guy, when he saw I had a cut, he told me how to get rid of it. Do you know what he said how to get rid of it? You can't mess with it and don't move that hand, and after two days it'll feel better. 

Q: Did you think the day was really long?
A: It were long. I liked it. But it was very long. 

Q: Did you miss me?
A: Um, well, we had fun AND I missed you.

One day down, a million to go!

My big happy FIRST grader. She had a blast!

Warm Springs Fire

On the way to the zoo the other day we drove past Warm Springs, where there are some big seasonal fires. The highway was closed the day before because they were right on the road, so it was pretty dang awe inspiring to drive by. The pics are crap, I took them while we were driving, but we were all agog at how huge this thing is!