We've Moved!

Well, just the blog.

I've jumped ship on over to www.webe6.wordpress.com.

So if you're so inclined, check out our goings-on over there!

Big Girl Beds

Now that we're accustomed to the idea of staying in this house for the indefinite future, I'm doing all I can to help us fit here better. And while having a crib and toddler bed in the girls' room was a good arrangement, MaraJade kept asking when she could get a big girl bed. And once her feet started to hit the end of her bed (and she turned 6!), I couldn't put it off any longer.

Putting aside my fears of Eowyn being loose (no!! we just got her sleeping alone!), we jumped in and got bunk beds for the girlies. One full, crazy Saturday of assembly, room rearranging and cleaning later, and they're in! And the girls love them. MaraJade spends hours playing, drawing, imagining on her top bunk, and Eowyn sleeps the whole night!! Really! Thank heaven for small miracles!

Happy 4th!

The 4th was a great day. We skipped the church breakfast, as 8:00 just seemed waaaayyy too early to everyone that day. Had tons of family over, had some awesome pulled pork (man, we just seem to make it better each time! :)), good food and tons of fun.

MissE and her Daddy

Auntie Nanoo (The Hoveenator)

The Pyromaniac Gang

Papasan and Nate the Great

Miss Zoe

Can you guess what Mace was imagining this sparkler was? If you guessed a weapon of any kind - you're right!

Auntie Auntie

Grandpa Joe as the Statue of Liberty

Besties

No, that is absolutely not a mortar shooting into the air, Officer. Cuz they're illegal here!

The Grandmas

MissE and Auntie RaeRae

Don't know why, but almost all my pictures of her end up looking like this.

My Daddy

The Princess is 6!

MaraJade is such a joy. She's girly, she's funny, she's a great friend, she's independent and not afraid to stand up for herself.  She's also emotional, stubborn, occasionally defiant and unwilling to share. But all these traits together make up one amazing girl!

In her Princess wedding dress. Grandma Joleen spoils her! And she LOVES it!

Happy birthday, Jadie!

And here are pics of her Princess Party with her buddies:

About to get "done up".

Buddies

My able assistant.

Happy Birthday, PJ!

Again, I'm late with this. (Does 9 months really count as late, or am I now 3 months early? Hmmmm...) Yeah, yeah - I know!

Anyway, we had to postpone and change some dates until a decent contingent of family could be rounded up for one day, but it finally came together and we had a lovely passle of people over to celebrate PJ's transition to the big 3-5. We smoked some excellent ribs and gorged ourselves on yummy food.

The only *ahem* "slip-up" was the cake. I made his favorite chocolate cake with caramel frosting. However delicious that frosting is, it's kind of persnickety. It's quite soft and loose. So I frost the cake and place it in the fridge right away to firm up. An hour later, PJ's sister opens the fridge and asks if I meant to have the cake fall over. *sigh* Sad little cake's 3 layers had slid right off one another, creating a lovely pile nestled amongst the lemon juice and soy sauce. I peeled everything out of the fridge, smushed it back together, and we had cake mush.

The kids were horrified when they saw it. We tried to get pictures of their faces as they came in the house, but couldn't quite capture it. Every one said, "Oh my gosh! What happened?" It was rather funny, after it wasn't.

But we were there together, and that's what matters - right? Happy birthday to my children's favorite person and my rock.

Well hellooooo, there!

Ha! Came back to the ol'blog and noticed that I started this draft back in May. Got as far as the title. Also found a draft post from PJ's birthday back in July - I think I was waiting to add pictures. *sigh*

I don't know what I've been doing lately that has kept me so very busy that I can't be bothered to blog at all, but here are some of the mitigating factors:

• My Kindle Fire. I got it for my birthday and I LOOOOVE it. iPad snobs can knock it all they want, but it does everything I want and I can have it with me all the time. That said, I get on the actual computer far, far less now that I have it. And there's no Blogspot app, and their site is totally not mobile-friendly, so there you go.
• Pictures. I love to take them, love it even more with our new DSLR, but once I've taken the pics, I have to a) find the cord that magically disappears all the time so that I can, b) transfer the pics from the camera to the computer, then c) look through the 857 pictures and sift out the obvious rejects, then d) whittle down the unnecessary/duplicate/not-so-good ones, then e) take the good ones from each event/slice in time/noteworthy experience and whittle those down to just a few great moments, then f) crop/Photoshop/de-redeye/fix, then g) write a post and upload pics. Hmmmmm.......why don't I blog more?
• The Computer. It is and always has been a giant sucker of my time. I get on to do one (or two) specific things and.......suddenly my day is gone. So now I kind of avoid the computer.
• Time. I just can't seem to find enough of it in my day (like most people, I'm sure), so I find myself avoiding known time-suckers even more.

That said, I'm going to try to do better. Promise. Because it's important that I capture these small moments for the family's posterity, to augment my own failing memory, and to share with family and friends.

Just gotta get myself a leeetle better organized to do it. Ha. Hahahaha. We'll see how that goes.

Dance Class!

After much fretting about whether to start MaraJade in dance now, and where and when and how, we decided to try some classes for the summer. A local studio had unlimited classes for July and August for a super good price, so I signed MaraJade up for ballet and jazz, thinking to get a feel for how/if she enjoyed dancing.

Well, she loves it. I, unfortunately, am less than impressed. I truly don't know if it's just because I danced for so long and am now a bit of a dance snob, or if my childhood dance studio had much higher standards, or if I'm just getting old and crochety, but I'm really not feeling this place. First, it's run completely sloppily, with no real order or instruction anywhere - from behind the desk to in the studio. The teacher doesn't introduce herself, can't remember the girls' names, doesn't have anyone line up, etc. It's kind of a slightly organized free-for-all. Jazz and ballet classes are only distinguishable from one another by the music they play. Foot positions are "open book" (first) and "penguin" (second). Freeze Dance is employed for much of the 30 minutes. Hmmmph. Gripe.

(Oh! Oh! And the pictures of their dancers on the wall! Holy cow! The pre-teen and teenage girls are wide-legged straddling chairs and giving the camera a full-on "come hither" look. Ewww!)

Then I talked to a friend who had a similar experience at another little studio I'd been looking at. Paying for running around and less-than-impressive dancing, even from the "veterans" in their studio. Hmmph. Gripe. Worry.

Then I had a little light bulb moment. I danced for a few years (like 13). I helped coach dance team for 1 year. It's possible I could teach my 5-year-old the basics of dance. Duh!

So I'm going to start our own little studio in the living room, setting aside 30 minute class times at set times each week. I think it might be fun. It'll certainly be cheaper than $40-65/month for 45 minutes of class time, plus costumes and such. It'll be less stress for me since I'm already going 3-4 different directions with the whole family's various activities. And I think she might get a better foundation this way. I can teach her all the basics in more detail and cover more ground - I hope. And in a couple of years when we maybe have a little more money and it becomes more important to be in the studio, we'll shop around for a higher-caliber studio. But we will dance nonetheless!