Oh, to be 18 again!!

Would you be 18 again if given the chance? Just one day?

Yesterday was my step-daughter's 18th. birthday. She is a senior in high school and is a beautiful young lady.

Dear Lyndsey,

Wow! Where to start? I have been thinking a lot over the past few weeks about you turning 18! An adult!! How did that happen? When I was reminiscing, I thought back to those first few weeks with you. You were the "baby" that a lot of people took to raising. Because we were all so young when we had you, a lot of close personal friends took care of you like you were theirs. Daddy was 19 when you were born and had just graduated high school when he found out he would be a daddy. Needless to say, it was a shocker. He was only a year older than you are now when you were born. Because of the circumstances, daddy and I didn't start getting you for weekends until you were 9 months old. A lot happened that first year or so, but we all learned together. Even with the shock of daddy finding out that he was going to be a father, you were the best thing that ever happened to him. He still tears up at that country song, "There goes my life". That song is so about him.

Anyway, I think about the sleepless nights (you didn't sleep all night until around age 2). You were just so busy and didn't have time for sleeping. When you did sleep, you woke us up on the weekends by rattling your baby bed and shaking it across the floor. Your smile was and is still infectious. You smiled A LOT. We loved that! You walked very early b/c like I say, you were so busy. You just had to go. When you were a toddler, you loved Barney. Oh yikes! We knew every Barney song ever sang on the show and you would dance and dance every time a song started playing. One time at Easter, you were just barely able to reach the counters and you pulled a whole cup of blue egg dye on top of you. You were stained blue for days and we called you Baby Smurf. It really wasn't funny at the time, but now that I think back it is! I remember you starting kindergarten, middle school, high school, dancing for 10 years, and your first and only beauty pageant. You didn't win, but you lit up the stage that night. You took your frilly little dress and rubbed it all over your face right in the middle of the stage. It was too cute.

I really just wanted to tell you how proud I am of the beautiful young lady you have become. I know I am not your mom, but I love you like the daughter you are to me and always will be. You make daddy and I proud to be your parents. Keep working hard and enjoy your last year of high school.

How blessed I am, you are my daughter and also my friend!! I love you and Happy Birthday, Zee!!

Wendy

Greetings from Heaven

This past weekend we decided at the last minute to take a trip to Ruby Falls and to see Rock City in Chattanooga Tennessee. The family got to enjoy seeing lots of beautiful scenery which we thoroughly enjoyed. Tori-bug was not on her best behavior, but we enjoyed the day nonetheless. I had been to Ruby Falls about 25 years ago (and no, I am not THAT old). It was when I was about 10 years old. When didn't go to Rock City that trip that I remember. The rest of the family had been to neither place so it was a real treat. On the way home, we were talking about how blessed we were as a family and "how can you not believe in God when you see such beautiful sights?" Right about the same time the bottom dropped out on us and it started pouring down rain. It rained really hard for about 10 minutes and then a complete rainbow formed in the sky. It was so cool, like a reminder that God was saying to us that He was there.

Sunday we were so exhausted from all the walking that we took a nap after church. I love Sunday naps. It came up a bad thunderstorm so that made for an even better nap. Life is great!

Now, I want to tell you another story......

I found a bookmark in my grandmother's Bible on Sunday. Two bookmarks actually, just alike. One was written out To: Jean and one was written out To: Winford. My grandparents names and written by my grandmother. My grandmother died in 2004 and I lost my grandfather in April this year. I read almost every day. I thought, "How cool is this?" I am going to use this bookmark for the book that I am reading. I guess my granddaddy was on my brain when I went to bed since I read mostly at bedtime. Let me go back a little and say that my grandparents had this old clock on their wall for my entire life. It is a wind up clock and chimes ever how many times that it is that hour and chimes once for the half hour. Somehow before my grandfather passed away the clock was not chiming the right amount of times for that hour so when my grandfather passed away I asked my mom if I could have the clock. Of course she said I could so I brought it home and placed it propped up against the wall in my living room. My thought was that I would take it to a clock maker and try to get it fixed to chime the right amount of times. I never once heard it chime in the 4 months since my grandfather passed away. It has sat in my living room for the past 4 months. I really thought the clock was now broken completely and now I really wanted to get it fixed so I put in in the back of my SUV about 2 weeks ago. I have not found anybody to fix the clock. I dream of my grandfather a lot. I don't know why I dream of him in particular so often, but I do. I think about him constantly. Anyway, yesterday morning I was driving to work and I heard a "ding, ding, ding". I turned the radio down and listened more closely. I thought it was something on the radio at first, but no, there it was again, "ding, ding, ding". It was the clock CHIMING!!! Good Morning Granddaddy! I have not heard it since. It felt like a reminder that my GOD and my granddaddy are here and still looking out for me. I don't believe in a lot that is "coincidental". I know in my heart it was a reminder to me and I am extremely blessed. It was like a greeting from Heaven. Have a good day. Be sure to look around today and find someway you might be a blessing to someone else.

Wendy

Gymnastics update

I realized a little bit ago after responding to a comment from my sweet friend Sarah that I had not updated last night. Tori-bug got off the school bus saying she had a headache yesterday and she didn't want to go to gymnastics. I told her that I would give her some ibuprofen, but she WAS going to go to practice. Wed. night she didn't get in the bed until 9:45pm by the time we got home from church, finished studying for a science test, and took a bath. Way too late for her!! Big mistake!! So, when she got off the bus saying she didn't want to go to gym practice I thought it was just b/c she was tired. She did her homework then went outside to jump on the trampoline without taking ibuprofen. I called her in when it was time to leave for gymnastics and on the way, she started boohooing. Not just a little whine, but an all out breakdown about how she was quitting gymnastics b/c she didn't want to do it anymore. I couldn't figure out what in the world had happened and why she decided that she was wanting to quit all of a sudden. I calmed her down but told her that she had to go to practice b/c I had already paid for this month and if she indeed did want to quit then we would discuss it later (I don't want her to quit and I really thought is was all coming from her just being overtired). So, when we pulled in the parking lot she said she wanted to quit b/c she was scared of jumping to the high bar!!! OH! Her friend fell off of the high bar on Monday night and broke her shoulder (that is Caroline w/Tori-bug in the pic above). That was it. I told her that we would call her friend later on so she could hear it from her that it was just an accident and something that could happen anywhere. She did stay at gym practice but said they "spotted" her a little more for her jump to the high bar. When my friend Sarah told me all about how her daughter quit dance all of a sudden after dancing for several years I realized that I hadn't went into all this last night on the blog. Sorry Sarah if I confused you with my reply!! Geesh! Anyway, she talked to her friend that has the broke shoulder and all is well now. She is good to go again and told me to order her floor music CD when we got home. I am still sorting out the schedule as far as school and keeping her focused, but maybe all of this week was a result from being overtired. Now, I am sick so perhaps it was from her mom being a little oversensitive too. I hate Summer colds!!

Just Here

I have been so busy lately and having an almost non-stop backache that I have not been wanting to update my blog. School has begun and I am working pretty much full-time now. I do have off on Thursdays so that is nice. Gymnastics is keeping Tori-bug really busy. Three days a week is a killer for us. With school just starting and 11 hrs a week of gymnastics I am scared her grades are going to suffer for it. This is something I am struggling with b/c her attention has been all over the place since school started. She is forgetting to bring her books home on a regular basis, not writing her homework assignments down, etc. Can you tell I am a little frustrated at this point? It isn't the gymnastics, it is her. I just have to figure out the best way to handle it. I am hoping that it is just getting back on a regular schedule, but we will see. If not, we will come up with a plan and follow thru with it.
I will do better at blogging soon hopefully. Thanks for check in!
Wendy

It's Saturday

I love Saturdays. I love Saturday's that I can sleep in and do nothing for a few hours upon awakening.

That wasn't today, exactly. I woke up early at 7am with a backache. Uggh! I did get to do nothing (if you don't count watching TV and surfing the internet) for a few hours, waiting on my pain to ease up before I get the day started. But, I still love Saturdays. The girls are still sleeping and it is 9:40am.

It is supposed to be 93 today in Hotlanta! My nieces are having a combined swim birthday party today at Papa B's house. Ashley turned 15 on Aug. 5 and her sister, Hannah will turn 11 on Aug. 25th. They are growing up so fast. Ashley did not even study for her learners driver's test, went and took it on a whim and PASSED!!! Look out the girl will be learning to drive. Scary if you ask me. So we will go hang out and swim to celebrate their birthdays.

I kept Tori-bug out of gymnastics all last week b/c of her pulled muscle in her back (occurred early in practice on Tuesday). She was out doing back flips on the trampoline last night so guess that it is A-OK now. She will be going back to gymnastics on Monday. The first week of school went great. Tori-bug absolutely loves her 4th. grade teacher this year, Mrs. Lott. She seems really nice and I think she will be a good teacher and she will learn a lot. She has computers this year and they are going to learn to type. When Tori-bug came home and told me this earlier in the week, I told her about a CD that I had for the computer called, Typing Tutor and that being the way that I learned to type. When I quit my nursing job when I was pregnant with her I wanted to be able to supplement our income and decided that I would do some medical dictation at home. A friend at church lent me the CD (which I never gave back on accident- yep, guess I broke a commandment with that one- thou shalt not steal). Oops!! Anyway, in one month I learned to type using it and could type 65 words a minute. Which considering I was a hunt and peck kind of typer to begin with was amazing. She wanted to know if I still had it so she could practice at home too. Her daddy dug it out for her and she has been using it the past couple of days. She told me last night she was up to 14 words per minute. Amazing!!! I couldn't believe it. It is a really good teacher. Maybe she will make a good grade in that class this year.

Well, guess I will get off this blog now. I need to know that people are reading. Please leave me comments. I have been getting quite a few comments on my facebook page since this is directly linked to it, but not many people are commenting on here. Have a great Saturday! I love Saturdays!!

Wendy

Update

After 2 days of nursing a pulled muscle, my Tori-bug is much better. Thank you Jesus! She was really careful with it and walking gingerly, but now it is good to go. She will be able to go back to gymnastics on Monday. Thanks for all the prayers for her. She is one tough cookie indeed!

Wendy

Ouch

My beautiful girl hurt her back at gymnastics tonight. She was doing "bridge running". This is apparently where you do a backbend and then crawl like a crab walking on your hands and feet. When she stood up she said she felt immediate pain. It knocked her off balance I guess and she fell into the wall. I was at work when this took place so another mom called to ask if she could give her some Tylenol. "Of course", I said. When I got there to pick her up she was really walking gingerly and complaining of it a lot. She normally doesn't complain about too much. I asked her if she wanted to go to the doctor and she said she did. I ran her over to Regional FirstCare, an urgent care place in town. The doctor didn't feel x-rays were in order, but thought that she had a muscle strain and possible pulled the cartilage away from the muscle. He said to just rest it, give Motrin, and NO GYMNASTICS until further notice, i.e. not the rest of this week. We were told to follow up with our regular pediatrician (my employer) on Monday and see what she thought. Hopefully by tomorrow she will be feeling somewhat better anyway. I had to help her in and out of the car, in and out of the tub, and bending over causes her great pain. Geez, two people in one house with a bad back won't work for us :-)
Please pray that it gets better quickly and can go back to gymnastics on Monday.
Her mommy will thank you for it.
Wendy