races, parade, and other hometown fun

Spending the last 5 days celebrating Mustang Days sure sped time up. I can't believe it is already June 29th. Justin will be here in 2-3 days (still not sure when he will actually land in the U.S.) WOW!


This is the Sat. morning view of my parents' "backyard." I thought the fog was pretty:
Saturday was a big day for us. Charlee ran in her first 1 mile race. She got to run with her grandma (my mom.) How neat is that? How many kids get to run in races with their grandma's? Charlee did a great job and ran the entire way. Her finishing time was 10mins 22secs....not bad for a 4 year old. :)
Sydnee ran her first 5K. I was planning on putting her in the mile with Char and my mom, and running the 5k by myself, but Syd insisted that the mile was too easy for her and she wanted to run with me. I finally agreed to run the 5K with her, and I am so glad I did. It was fun getting to watch her power through and do such a great job. My nieces Teisha and Tianna decided to run with us too. It was a lot of fun to run with them...I think it helped Syd stay motivated to run hard the whole time. Sydnee won her age group of 10 and under with a time of 29.01 mins.

Almost there: Crossing the finish line with Tianna:

Teisha, after the race:

(Race photos were taken by my Bro-in-law Jayson. He also kept Justee while we ran. Thank you so much Jayson!!!)
After the races we went to the parade. The girls and Burtons are watching as the parade gets closer:

I got to play in the vball tourney as well. I had a lot of fun playing with Teisha, Sami, Pat, Morgan, Jamie, Dax, and Christopher. (I just wanted to list everyone who played for memories sake.) We didn't win a whole lot, but we had fun and that is what counts, right? ;)

Then on Sat. night we went out to the lake to watch the fireworks. Justee was funny because she insisted on hiding her head under the blanket. When I kept pulling it down to make her look, she ran to sit with Grandma. At about half-way through the show, she started peeking her eyes out from under the blanket. By the end of the show she was enjoying them along with everyone else. We had a long walk back to our car, and Justee kept saying, "Awtome sky, mommy. Awtome sky."

It was fun to see family and friends, and the time flew by...now it is time to get things ready for Justin's arrival.

I am sitting in my parents house, thinking about how I will see Justin in one week!!!

Summer Solstice...and Father's Day

I better start off with a Happy Father's Day to Justin and my Dad! It was kinda hard listening to the girl's sing "I'm so Glad When Daddy Comes Home" at church. I kept thinking about how happy they will be when they see him again. That will be a marvelous sight.

Today is the first official day of summer and I am ready for it. I want the rain we have been getting so much of to stop, and the sun to shine! It sort of makes me sad to think that today is the longest day of the year (figures it would be on Father's Day...men always have it better. ;) Now the days will begin to get shorter once again.
It seems like there is always something happening tomorrow, always something you are looking forward to, always some reason you are hoping time will go by fast. I am really looking forward to Justin being home, and yet it makes me sort of sad to think that I have been wishing a whole year of our lives would just be over.
Waiting for Justin to get home feels like waiting for Christmas. Let me explain...As an adult I appreciate the build-up before Christmas Day much more than I did when I was a kid. I love the anticipation because once the waiting is over, the day has come and is gone in a flash. That is how I feel about Justin coming home for leave...I know that as soon as he gets here time will fly and then he will be gone before we know it. So, although I am really excited to see him walk off that plane, I am trying to enjoy the anticipation of knowing I will see him in a matter of days, not the matter of months that I will be waiting once he leaves again.
I just rambled on and I hope it makes sense...I guess my point is (if I have one) time is a funny thing...so enjoy your today....or something like that. ;)

Yesterday my friend Abbey invited me and the girls to go to the movie with her and her 3 kids. It was the two of us and 6 kids ages 7 and under, but it was much easier than it sounds...all the kids were very well behaved and we all got to enjoy the movie. The movie was "Up" and I really liked it. It has some pretty sad parts throughout (my mom would definitely cry ;) but it was a cute movie. Justee got scared a few times and jumped into my lap and really tensed up, the look on her face was the kind kids get when you push them too high on a swing. I tried to have her look away, but she was having no part in that.

After the movie I took Syd and Chuck to a special event at their karate place...they got to decorate their own t-shirts. They made beautiful shirts and had a lot of fun.

Justee got upset that she didn't get her picture taken....Here is proof of her mood change:

After shirts, it was time to get my kitchen ready for the new refrigerator Justin told me I could get for our anniversary present. I bought one earlier this week and it was scheduled for delivery Sat. morning. Here it is:

I am very excited about it...now I have to buy food to fill this puppy up. I am especially excited about the freezer...it has so much space.

One thing I forgot to mention in yesterday's post was that it was two weeks until Justin is scheduled to arrive home. Now it is less than 2 weeks! Whoo-hoo! ...and I know it will go by quickly because I am heading up to Mustang Days in a few days.

Friday Flashback...mini league

I was excited to get to post about Sydnee's first baseball (coach pitch) game, but last night her game got rained out. She was really bummed that they didn't get to play...I was too, because getting all the girls ready and packing all our stuff to our spot is a lot of work, and it turned out to be for nothing.

In keeping with the baseball theme, I decided to do a flashback of me and my first experience with coach pitch baseball...I believe it was called mini league and little league was what followed. I never played little league because I moved up to fast pitch softball. I LOVED softball. I remember when we moved when I was going into 7th grade, I was most upset about the fact that my new town wouldn't have softball. Anyway, I played tball for one year that I can recall (I was on the silver team,) and mini league for 2 years (one year we were the scarlet team and the other year we were the red team....important facts people.) Of those 3 years, I can only find pictures of my first year of mini league.

Here are the few things I remember about this team:

~The 2 boys on the left (front and back row) were twins...looked exactly the same except one was right-handed and the other left, and one had green eyes and one had blue.

~I really liked my coaches

~I had a bit of a crush on the coaches' son...he is the second one in the back row.

~I obviously didn't know how to wear a hat.

~I played right field one game, and my brother Rob teased me the whole way home...he kept telling me that the worst players played in right field.

I don't remember being aware that I was the biggest kid on the team. sheesh

I have pictures of my softball years, but I think I'll save them for another time.

We had a fun, busy day today, and I plan on posting all about it tomorrow or Sun.

ROY G. BIV

Red lights suck.

You know what sucks worse than a red light?

When you are so used to hitting every red light,

that you come to a complete stop at a green light.

And sit there for a good 15 seconds before realizing

that you are holding up the traffic behind you for no good reason.

This is the second time this week that we have been greeted with this site as we pulled into our driveway after Char's t-ball...and after I remembered that green means go.

It is like it was made just for us. :)

Justee running to the end of the rainbow:

Pretty Toes

I usually take time on Sat. nights to paint the girls' nails. They love it, and so do I because they actually sit still, and allow for some quiet, quality time. Yesterday I got some little stickers for their nails and they were delirious with excitement. The process of picking their colors almost takes as much time as the actual painting.

After the girls made their choices and their nails were finished Syd expressed her disappointment, "I really want Daddy to see how beautiful our fingers and toes are."

I told her I could take a picture and put it on the blog so he could see. That was a great idea as far as she was concerned.

...So here are the pics...just so Daddy can see. :)

Char's thumb and Syd's thumb (Justee didn't want to join in.)

Justin called this morning to tell me happy anniversary. It was nice to get to talk to him. We get to communicate a lot more than I thought we would while he has been gone, but we rarely talk on the phone. It is always nice to hear his voice. He has 2 weeks until he starts his journey home...he gets to head out on the 28th. Yay!

Friday Flashback...9 Years

Because our 9th wedding anniversary is on Sunday, I thought this flashback was fitting...

This is my sister Vicki, me, my little bro Mark, and my Mom on my 18th birthday...who knew I'd be engaged a few short hours later?... Yes, I was engaged at age 18. Crazy I tell ya...and yes, I knew it was crazy back then. I might have done things a little different if I could go back in time, but not if it would've changed where I am at in life now...I can't imagine not having Justin and the girls in my life...so I guess I made the right "stupid choice" at the ripe old age of 18. ;)

Justin and I have had some great adventures together; we have experienced many wonderful things in our life thus far. I can't wait for him to get home, so we can continue our life together.

I was feeding Justin our wedding cake on our first anniversary in the following pics...the cake fell off the fork, and because of my cat-like reflexes, I caught it and saved the day.

Going to my first formal military thingy:

At the temple on our honeymoon:

As I was preparing to write this post, I looked back through my blog....Justin will be home 3 weeks from today (How incredible is that??!!) I know that for some people, the time has seemed to fly by, and I myself am in awe that this day is so close; but when I was looking back through the blog, I realize just how long he has been gone. There have been about 165 posts made since he left...that is a lot of time and events missed. I found a few posts that I wanted to refresh my memory with, now I will share them with you...click on these 3 links: LAST YEAR'S ANNIVERSARY, 2 GREAT VIDEOS, and ONE MORE GREAT VIDEO

Thanks for 9 great years, Justin. I Love you!

Princess Mitt and Pink Butterfly Bat

...So goes the life of little girls and baseball....mind you, I never had a pink mitt or anything of the girly kind...I have to admit though, the bat is pretty dang awesome. ;)

It seems like the girl's activities are taking over my life lately...not that I'm complaining, it is just that there is nothing too exciting to blog about.

Syd and Char did get to have a new adventure today...they had karate class in the park (ok, just to get it out there, I don't think it is actually karate. In fact, I don't have any idea what the proper term for their "martial arts" class is. Tae Kwondo, Karate, mixed martial arts, or something else? I just know that I call it karate because that is the easiest thing to do.)

Sydnee doing push ups...she can now do proper push ups
Char's push up... :)

Justee had a blast gathering pine cones with another little girl.

After karate was over, we headed to the baseball field for Sydnee's practice.

Charlee and Justee passed the time by climbing the fence.

**I have been getting 7 or 8 strawberries a day for the last week, but today I picked 18! The net covering the strawberry patch has worked like a charm.

Baseball and T-Ball

Sydnee and Charlee have both had their first practices...Sydnee is in coach pitch for the first time, and this is Charlee's first year in T-ball. I am very excited about watching them both; plus it keeps my schedule full, which helps the days go by a little faster (just over 3 weeks until Justin is home!) Char's days are Mon. and Wed., and Syd plays on Tues. and Thurs.

Sydnee did really well her first practice...she has a pretty good arm and she is catching well with her mitt. She has always been able to hit the ball well, but she doesn't swing that hard...I keep telling her to put some muscle into it. :) She is definitely a pull hitter...every hit goes toward third base. I am excited about her coach...he really seems to know what he is doing. She was very excited that she got some "cleaks" this year, just like Dad wears. ;)

Charlee is the youngest on her team...she is a pretty timid little girl (until she warms up) and she was a little frustrating to watch at first. She would barely throw the ball (if you can call it a throw)...I'm talking like maybe 3 ft. I know she can throw harder than that, she was just acting...well...timid. She cannot catch with her mitt unless the ball lands directly in it, then she acts like she made the greatest accomplishment ever. The one thing that she did do amazingly well, was hit. Now I don't mean she hit the ball really hard, but she hit the ball EVERY time. She didn't slip up and hit the T or miss the ball once. The coach kept putting the ball on the T and she kept whacking it off. It was pretty fun to see. At the end of her practice she asked me, "Can I come back here again another day? That was weely fun!"

Both girls love playing and they have been asking me to go out and play with them in the yard...they really miss their daddy for stuff like this. I like to play and love to give them the practice, but I get frustrated faster than Justin does, and it is easier to have a second person there to play so I could be getting stuff in the house done.

Come and Buy my Junk...

We had a community yard sale...I thought it was a great way to have a yard sale. Everyone in the community who wanted to, could participate and the advertising was taken care of for us. Yard sale go-ers could come to one place and find lots of "one man's junk is another man's treasure" 's.
We mostly got rid of outgrown baby things. Our basement has lots more room now. ;)

The girls set up a Kool-aid stand and sold cups of Kool-aid along with mini muffins. They would get very excited whenever they had a "customer." By the end of it, Syd was saying they were rich...I wish making $10 made you rich.


And for no other reason than boredom....I present.....Strawberries:

Friday Flashback....

I thought it would be fun to do a little flashback of Justin and his fam...
This is Justin at 3 years old: As I was going through stuff for our yard sale tomorrow, I found the pic below. There was no writing on it, so I can only assume it is Justin and his older sister Michelle and older bro Shane. It looks like Shane would be about 3 and Michelle about 5. I can't believe how much Michelle looks like her kids...

Here are the same siblings nine years later (soon to be joined by 3 more siblings.) Michelle is almost 14, Shane is 12, and Justin is 9 years old.

Not sure where they are headed, but it looks like Justin and Michelle are sitting in a van. (Maybe you remember, Michelle?...or Justin?)

Here is Justin's whole family:

Patrick is standing, Samantha is on her mom's lap and Justin is holding Steven.

This is kind of a random flashback. I think it was more of a reason to take a break from folding so many dang baby clothes...I am surprised at all the clothes we have...seriously, it is ridiculous. And Justee is a pain, every time I get a pile of stuff together, she runs off with something. I have a lot of baby blankets and apparently, they are ALL Justee's and she wants them all.