A little experience goes a long way.

The T-ball season ended last Saturday. As I was looking over the pictures I took at their last game, I realized that a little age and experience goes a long way - even in T-ball.

This is a picture of Peter playing first base.

This was Peter's second year playing t-ball

Note how he is chasing the ball.

This is a picture of Sarah playing short stop.

This was her first year year playing t-ball.

Note how she is watching the ball roll right past her.

"I'm not chasing after that thing! Someone else will probably get it!"

I can't think of a better way to spend a Saturday morning.

Miracle Monday

It's Miracle Monday once again!

Today I would like to give you an update on Baby Gracie. She was born on March 7th and the doctors discovered that she had Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome which essentially means that the left side of her heart was not there.

She was rushed to Duke Hospital in Durham, NC. The doctors performed the first of three surgeries that would be needed the first two years of her life. Two weeks after the surgery she was supposed to head home to recover.

Unfortunately, she did not recover as she should have and two and a half months later is still in the hospital at Duke. She coded multiple times, received a pacemaker and fought infections and swelling.

Three weeks ago the doctors placed her on the heart transplant list and Gracie and her parents began the long wait for a new heart.

This whole time, Todd and Amanda, Gracie's parents, have been continually asking for prayers for Gracie. Almost daily, they would post updates and specific prayer requests to Gracie's CaringBridge page. They have been asking people to pray for a new heart if that is God's will but they never stopped asking people to pray for healing of Gracie's own heart. They never stopped praying for a miracle.

And through all of this, Todd and Amanda have remained faithful to God. So faithful in fact, that they have been ministering to other families staying with them at the Ronald McDonald house that don't know God's love.

And on Friday, Amanda posted the following update:

"Dr. Jaggers came in and spoke to Todd and I. He SHOCKED us to say the least! Here, we've been waiting for a transplant and wondering if the transplant team had gotten any offers.

Well, today, Dr. Jaggers said that Gracie was IMPROVING and the decrease in her chest tubes may indicate that the VENTRICLE is relaxing and she is getting.......better!!!!

Now, we're not sure for sure--but here is how he explained it to us. BASED ON THE LAST FEW DAYS, Dr. Jaggers wants to see if this may be a turn to Gracie's own heart healing!

I asked him...."So, if you got a beautiful heart offer today, would you transplant her?" He said...not today. He explained that the transplant is a "last resort" and could be very risky on Baby Gracie. The chance of her surviving a transplant today may be 50/50 (but that's just the numbers). He explained that it is a VERY HARD call to make. She would not be off the list, but at this time, if she's looking BETTER, than he'd rather sit back and watch her the next few days to see if she improves....NOW WOULDN'T IT BE WONDERFUL IF SHE DOES???

This is a beautiful answer to thousands of prayers. Wouldn't it be a wonderful miracle if God indeed healed Gracie's heart?

Please continue to pray for Gracie's healing and if you have a moment, please go to her CaringBridge page and leave a comment. Todd and Amanda look forward to reading them every evening after they leave the hospital.

If you are going to participate in Miracle Monday this week, it's simple. Just post a miracle on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below. Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

PLEASE NOTE - when linking make sure to link to your Miracle Monday post. Do not link to the front page of your blog. It is important that you link to the Miracle Monday post so that when others are reading your miracle in the future, the link will take them directly to your miracle and not to the front of your blog.For an explanation on how to do this, please check here. Or, you can always email me and I will be glad to help you. My email address is in my profile.
Have a great Miracle Monday and thanks for participating!

No cap and gown picture for Mommy.

Yesterday, Peter "graduated" from preschool. I had to send in one of Dan's white dress shirts which was going to be put on backwards and worn as a gown and the teachers made mortarboads out of bowls and poster board.

My husband left work to be there and as we settled into our tiny little seats with our cameras, I got a lump in my throat.

And all of the typical preschool graduation thoughts flooded into my mind. My baby will be going to Kindergarten soon. I can't wait to see him in his "cap and gown"! What are we going to do all summer?

Then his class began to parade into the classroom and I caught my breath at the site of the first student. The backwards shirt and homemade mortarboards looked so cute! I couldn't wait to see Peter in his.

As the class filed into the room,I had my camera poised and my breath held, waiting for my son.

My husband saw him before I did and all I heard was him say dejectedly, "Oh, Peter."

I finally caught site of Peter and realized why my husband sounded upset. Peter was the last student to come in and he wasn't wearing his "cap and gown".

When he came in the room, he left the line and came running over to me. I guess he wanted a hug and reassureance that it was okay that he wasn't wearing his "cap and gown". Instead he got me hissing in his ear, "Get over there with your class and say the Pledge of Allegiance."

He reluctantly stood with them for the Pledge of Allegiance but when they started singing the Copy Cat song, Peter hid his face. And when they started to perform another song, he came over and hid beside me.

I was disappointed. I wasn't going to get my cute graduation pictures and I imagined all the clucking the other parents were doing. They were probably all thinking that he's not ready for Kindergarten.

I wanted to stand up and scream "He's smart! He really is. He's just shy! He made 100 on his Kindergarten readiness test."

But of course, I couldn't tell them any of that because they wouldn't have believed me anyway. I just sat there in my tiny little seat, feeling sorry for myself.

Later after school, as we were eating our lunch, Peter told me he didn't want the other kids to laugh at him. That makes no sense since all the other kids were wearing the same goofy outfits and singing the same goofy songs.

Perhaps he meant to say he didn't want to feel silly or look stupid. Whatever the case, I wish I had been a little more supportive when he first walked into the classroom.

After the initial annoyance that he wasn't wearing his cap and gown wore off and as I began to realize that I really didn't care what any of the other parents thought, I took lots of graduation pictures. He may not be wearing his cap and gown and he may not be participating. But that's o.k.

I still think he's the smartest little boy in the world. I'm just going to have to wait a few years for the cap and gown picture!Not wanting to perform during the Copy Cat song.
Hiding from the class during the Copy Cat Song.
Looking away as the class performs another song.
At least he accepted his diploma. (He was fine as long as the class wasn't performing. I guess he won't be an actor, a standup comedian, or a public speaker when he grows up. But that's o.k. because if you ask him what he wants to be when he grows up, he will tell you he wants to be a Lego set designer. )

What do you get when...

Question: What do you get when you take one lone Goldfish cracker that has accidentally fallen under the seat of your car and add a few drops of water that have leaked from your child's water bottle?

Answer: An odor so foul that the preschool director that takes your children out of the car at drop-off in the mornings, shudders when she sees your car pull in the drive-through.

Yesterday I was determined to find the source of the odor and get rid of it. At first I thought it was the container of blue cheese that had unknowingly been left in the car from the previous days grocery shopping trip.

But alas, after removing the container and silently seething that I could be so stupid and waste $3.50, the offending smell remained. (Why is blue cheese so expensive anyway?)

I knew it wasn't the blue cheese because the smell had been in the car long before that shopping trip.

The bottle of Febreeze that I had been using to mask the smell was almost empty so I decided I really needed to search in earnest for the odor. After checking all the usual locations (under the car seats, in the cup holders), I determined that I needed to check "the secret location" for the source of the smell.

In our SUV, when the third row seat is folded down flat, it is covered, making a flat trunk area. When this cover is pulled back, all sorts of surprises that have rolled under the second row seat toward the third row seat are exposed.

In addition to crayons, straws and Bionicle pieces, there were approximately 20 Goldfish crackers floating around. One had landed in the bracket/bolt that secures the second row seat to the floor. Unfortunately some water managed to land in this bracket on top of this poor little Goldfish and created a stagnant little pond. The Goldfish started to break down and decay in just these few drops of water.

The smell this rotting Goldfish had created was so bad that my daughter thought I had loaded the weekly trash into the car to make a run to the dump.

The stink has now been removed - just in time for the last two days of preschool. Better late than never I suppose.

It's a good thing the preschool director has never been in my house though!

Wide Load Warning!

I love the check my Stat Counter to see what ridiculous things people Google to get to my blog.

I laughed out loud when I came across this one...

"Is her butt real?"

Yes. I can guarantee you it is. Would anyone pay for a rear end like this? I think not!

I am on week three of walking at the crack of dawn with my mom. And I am hoping that a little exercise is all this rear end needs to help slim it down.

When I am trying to get out of bed at 4:45 AM to walk, all I have to do is think about this view and I bolt out the door.

I was horrified when I came across this picture from our recent beach trip. Because while the little skirt bathing suit looks decent from the front, it's not doing a thing for the rear view!

Miracle Monday

Happy Memorial Day and Miracle Monday!

Not sure if anyone will be blogging since it is a holiday but if you have a miracle, I'm ready to hear it!

Several weeks ago, Tania posted a beautiful miracle about the day an angel of the Lord saved her life. This miracle will really make your toes tingle and your hair stand on end. God was truly present and working miracles the day he saved Tania from herself. Please head over to her blog and read all about it.

And if you have your own miracle, please post it here. God wants us to share our faith and the wonderful things he does in our lives with others.

If you are going to participate in Miracle Monday this week, it's simple. Just post a miracle on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below. Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

PLEASE NOTE - when linking make sure to link to your Miracle Monday post. Do not link to the front page of your blog. It is important that you link to the Miracle Monday post so that when others are reading your miracle in the future, the link will take them directly to your miracle and not to the front of your blog.For an explanation on how to do this, please check here. Or, you can always email me and I will be glad to help you. My email address is in my profile.

Have a great Miracle Monday and thanks for participating!

This edition of Miracle Monday is now closed. Please check back next Monday for more miracles!

Well, here it is...

Let me first start out by saying that I did not intend to get my haircut like the Marcia picture at the very end of the last post. I had my tongue planted firmly in my cheek when I was posting that. I hesitated to even post the picture because I actually thought it was a very cute cut.

My intention was to post a picture of Marcia Brady circa 1981 when she starred in the very lovely, The Brady Girls Get Married. Or perhaps circa 1988 when she starred in the equally charming, A Very Brady Christmas.

However, this morning when I was doing an image search, the images of Marcia with the hair I wanted to post were all linked to porn sites.

I kid you not.

Apparently there are a lot of sick people out there who like to think of Marcia and Jan as more than sisters. And I didn't want to go to their websites, much less download something from their dirty ole computers to my relatively clean one. Although, the cleanliness of my computer could be debated.

But back to my hair, which I am assuming is why you are all here on a Friday night in the first place. Shouldn't you be grilling out or playing with the kids or watching something on your DVR? Like Top Chef...which is what I will be watching this evening with my husband.

I love to watch a bunch of chefs scurry around and cook things I can't pronounce that would be featured on menus in restaurants I can't afford. Not sure why I find it so thrilling. But I do.

I guess the reason that I keep getting off track is that I'm not that excited to show you my new hair do. I wish I had gone shorter. But I guess it's better to wish I had gone shorter than to wish I hadn't chopped all of my hair off. I have already made another appointment for the beginning of July and I plan on going shorter and sassier then.

But in the meantime, here is my official before shot. (Why is it that my hair always looks really good right before a haircut causing me to question the 204 other times previously that it looked horrible? )

And here is the after:

I know. I know. It's not much of an after picture because it really doesn't look like I got much done to it. It looks very similar to the picture from the magazine I showed the stylist but not exactly like it.

I wish I had just gone for the inverted bob (or "the Christie" as my friend Christie likes to call it!) But there's always next time.

On the plus side though, this stylist was already there when I arrived at 8:30. I love the color job she did and we got along great! And, she charges almost $17 less than the old stylist.

So check back with me on July 1st when I plan to show you the real after picture...hopefully one with me sporting a sassy inverted bob.

And I'm not sure why, but every time I look at myself in the mirror today, I feel like I should be watching the Fonz at a demolition derby or hanging out with my sister Pinky.

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia

So today is the big day! I get my hair cut bright and early this morning.

I must admit, I'm a little nervous. The last time I had a short do, I was pregnant with Sarah.

She will be 4 in two weeks.

Hmmm....I'm not good with math but I think that would mean it's been over 4 years since I've had more than just a trim.

My mom doesn't want me to get my hair cut. And yesterday, when I told Sarah that I was getting my hair cut, she started to cry.

Real tears. I think my mom paid her.

Please don't get me wrong. I love my long hair.

I love the fact that even though I'm 38, with my long "color enhanced" hair, I can still turn a head or two. Heck...I can even get a wolf whistle here and there.

My only problem with my hair is that while it looks great right after I blow dry it and for roughly two hours after that, by lunch time (or depending on the level of humidity, even sooner) it falls completely flat.

It begins to stick to my head and then I start to feel like Marcia Brady.

And just in case some of my faithful readers don't know who Marcia Brady is, I've included this lovely photo from the Marcia Brady Fan Club website.

Yes. Marcia Brady has a fan club.

And a website.

Maureen McCormick also has a fan club and a website but I bet the Marcia Brady site gets more hits.

But back to my hair, which is really why we are all here today. Here are some lovely before shots:

(This is the worst one of all but I'm all about keeping it real.)

So, I'm off to the salon this morning. I want to get an inverted bob (suggestion from my friend Christie) but I don't want any tears upon my return so I think I will ease everyone into a shorter style with something more at the shoulders.

I was thinking maybe something like this...

Marcia, Marcia, Marcia...

Crafts? Um, no. We just aren't good at 'em.

I've mentioned before that my friend Jennwa loves to craft. And I don't.

But that doesn't stop me from trying.

On Tuesday, the kids were more bored than normal so I decided to try a craft that Jennifer recently posted on her blog. I had everything I needed and it seemed simple enough. (Head on over to her site to see just how cute hers turned out.)

I even got out the hot glue gun. I was serious about making me some inch worms.

The kids were excited and didn't even seem to mind when I realized we were out of pom poms. Being the smart, quick thinking mom that I am, we improvised with cotton balls.

The result - our inch worms look a little pale and sickly and just not quite right. The heads are just a little to big for the bodies and caused them to be a little top heavy.

And since I didn't have any pom poms I couldn't make cute little head phones like Jennifer's son made for his.

But I was proud of myself. We did make polka dots for ours. Peter even decided that his (the blue one) should have legs and 4 eyes.

But our craftiness didn't end there. No it didn't.

Peter asked me if he could make something on his own. I got excited and replied with a hearty "Sure! Of course! Make anything you would like!"

I figured why not. All of our craft supplies were already out and there was already a mess. I was excited to see what their little minds would come up with. This was going to be great!

"What do you want to make?" I asked.

"How about a dead tree on a fence?" Peter replied.

Looks like the kids have my crafting gene.