Pesky Bee

Gabby reached another milestone today. She got her first bee sting and I must admit, it was one of the bigger ones that I've seen in my life. My sister in law and niece came to visit us for a couple of days this week. We had just finished having a picnic at Solomon Farm and were walking around when it happened. Of course, it got her right on the bottom of the foot because she stepped on it. Tears and crying immediately followed and we hurried her to the car to go home and treat it. She handled it like a champ and by the time we got to the car, she was done crying. The best part of it (if that's even possible) was that she wanted to tell everyone how "pesky" those bees can be and when Brad got home and they were talking about it, she told him, "Daddy, I didn't even see it comin!"
I told her it would all be alright but part of me wanted to tell her that she would experience many different kinds of "stings" in her life and that it won't always be o.k. right away but if she can look at it with a "pesky bee" attitude, she would be just fine.

Blueberries

As a child, one of my fondest memories is going blueberry picking with my grandma and cousins. My grandma would have all of us (anywhere from 6 to 9) grandkids over for a slumber party the night before. We would play games with my grandparents until it was time to go to bed. Then, she would tuck us all into sleeping bags out in their living room and tell us to get our rest so we could go picking the next morning. Needless to say, we layed on the floor and giggled for quite a while and sometimes she would come back out and say, "Now, if you don't get to sleep, we're not going in the morning." That was the point we knew grandma meant business. Once we finally got to sleep, it wasn't long and grandma was standing at our toes telling us it was time to get up. She would wake us around 5:30 a.m. and we'd get dressed and ready to make the trip to the blueberry patch. We didn't have one close to where we lived so we would drive approximately an hour to an hour and a half into Michigan. On the way there, grandma would get us breakfast at McDonald's. As a kid, who doesn't like breakfast at McD's??? I'm almost 30 and still enjoy it from time to time. So we would pick berries until we had enough to take to all of our families back home and then we'd load up in her van and hit McD's for lunch on the way home...AGAIN! It was the only day of the year we got to eat fast food twice in one day. I won't ever forget those times in the van and the slumber parties with my cousins. Many fond memories were made during those times.
Well, I took Gabby blueberry picking this morning and she had a great time. No, we didn't leave at 5:30 a.m. the patch is just down the road from us but seeing the dew on the grass and feeling the hot early morning summer sun brought all those memories rushing back while also making new memories with my daughter. I wondered to myself if there would be a day many summers from now that she would let me have her children overnight and then take them blueberry picking and I also look forward to the day that Carson can join us but for now, he is just enjoying all the "fruits of our labor" and Gabby and I are enjoying the one on one time alone that we so seldom get anymore. I used to always think back to my childhood, every time I saw blueberries but now I'll also think of my little girl! I love my little princess even more than the memories.

Old Navy

I am dedicating today's blog to Brad. In fact, he named it! This past weekend was great! We spent time with family, by the pool, ate good food, AND BRAD DECIDED TO REMODEL THE KITCHEN! O.k. so it may have not been a "complete" remodeling job but it came close. God Bless that man! On Thursday night, we spent the night at my parent's house and then Brad decided to come home early on Friday to get yard work done. The kids and I stayed behind since we had our own car there and wanted to have some time by the pool. At approximately 6 p.m. Friday evening, I received a picture on my cell phone of my kitchen. At first, I honestly did not recognize it. Why??? Because he had come home, ripped all the wallpaper off the walls and painted my kitchen...navy blue! Now don't gasp too hard. I had mentioned a few times that I thought I may have it painted when the time came to do that. Now that we've lived here for a couple of years, we're starting to make our house a little more "ours" if you know what I mean.
So anyway, I saw the picture and really didn't know if I was excited he did this "random act of kindness" or if I wanted to wring his neck! Only because I had just told my sister the same day that I thought of maybe doing red in the kitchen instead of navy but now it was done!
I came home that night and saw it.............and I must say I love it! I still have some things to get to accent the new color with but I do like it and think I'll enjoy spending time in my kitchen!
Moral of the story....if you're thinking about doing something different in your home, make sure you are serious before you voice it to your husband. You never know when he may throw you for a loop!

A lesson in spending

Wow! The month of June buzzed right on by and now we're well on our way to the "Big Fourth." The kids and I have enjoyed the beautiful weather we were blessed with by making several trips to the zoo with our new zoo pass. It's been great to have as it's not always possible to take kids and stay the entire day at the zoo....they just don't last that long. So, with our pass, we can take off and go for an hour or two in the morning, picnic there on the lawn for lunch and be home in time for a nice, long afternoon nap. Gabby is also getting to the age that she loves seeing all the animals and telling me what she already knows about them. I would have to say that the aligator is by far her favorite (right now). We never leave the zoo with out checking in on the gator and hopefully getting a ride on the ponies!
This past month also provided an opportunity to teach Gabby about saving money in order to be able to purchase "fun" things. Brad and I both have a theory that we can occasionally buy our kids toys and fun stuff but other than that, it comes at Christmas, birthday and of course the grandparents keep them satisfied. Well, one evening Gabby and I had gone to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. Gabby had been asking for fish and for some reason, this night I thought, "Why not?" So we purchased 3 goldfish of which she named Nemo, Goldie and Emma. I know you're wondering where she came up with those names...........I HAVE NO IDEA!
So we brought these goldfish home and I prayed that they would not die within the first 24 hours that we purchased them. We put them in a fish bowl that I have had for years. She was just beside herself. I think she told almost everyone that called the house for the next week. Every morning during that week, I would come down before Gabby got up just to check and see if I could still find 3 fish swimming and I would come down to find 3 of the most lively fish ever! So.........after the first week, Gabby came down one morning and asked if she could go to the new dollar store and pick out something as I had promised her $5 to get anything she wanted. I told her we could do that and then, in the same breath, she asked me, "After that, can we go to PetSmart and get an aquarium for my fish?" Well, that just wasn't going to fly with me so I told her that she could either buy toys OR she could put the $5 in her piggy bank and save up money to go buy and aquarium. She ran upstairs right away and got her bank, brought it down and dumped out ALL of her change so that I could count it and see how much she had.
Needless to say, she had over $12 in change BEFORE I gave her my $5 so that day, she decided she would rather have an aquarium than more toys. Later, we trotted off to PetSmart with all of her change and she got her fish a small 1 gallon aquarium. Those $.28 fish have brought her more joy than a $5 toy ever would and I don't have to pick that aquarium up off the floor everyday and throw it back in the toybox so it was a win for both of us.

Among all of the above, Gabby and I also enjoyed our annual trip to the strawberry patch this year. As she gets older, she eats less and picks more, always asking for my approval before she drops the berry in the box. I believe in today's world, we need to GIVE our children the affirmation and blessing they are looking for without them asking for it. I want her to grow into a strong confident woman, something I didn't get until after college. It wasn't that I didn't get it at home, I just always felt like I needed others' approval to be accepted and I want Gabby to get that long before college graduation. I want her to know in her heart that she is a wonderful, smart and funny person.

So that catches you up a little on what's been going on here. I'll try to do a better job of posting this month! Thanks for reading!