Raw

Hab 3:2 LORD, I have heard of your fame; I stand in awe of your deeds, O LORD. Renew them in our day, in our time make them known; in wrath remember mercy.

http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local_wlfi_flora_Florafirekillstwochildrenmother_200905161540

http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local_wlfi_floramotherchildrenremembered_lafayette_20090517

http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local_wlfi_Wagonervisitation_Flora_20090518

http://www.jconline.com/article/20090519/NEWS/90519011&referrer=FRONTPAGECAROUSEL

Happy

You know how there are times when everything about life is not all well, but there are pieces that are so happy you don't know what to do with yourself? This weekend was like that.

I know there are things with life that are not right.

But it was so happy. The weather was in the 60's and 70's, perfectly sunny, and lazy. We've spent the last 3 days outside (before and after work, school, and church) on the picnic table Brian and the girls bought me for Mother's Day, laying in the hammocks, reading novels (for the first time in about 2 years), dreaming of the bonfires we will have in the fire bowl I got for Mother's Day.

Today, Brian and Hailey were fishing in his little boat. I was reading my second novel of the week, and I looked over at Shelby and said "Isn't this so happy?" She just smiled and kept swinging.

The last 3 or 4 days have been so happy. Peaceful and happy.

Surprise!

So tonight we had planned to go out on a triple date with friends to PF Chang's and then we realized that we're the world's lamest parents. We have been trying for almost a year to go on this triple date, we are all just so busy none of us are ever available at the same time. We were so excited that we finally got a Friday night free and we could all go out.

Only on Monday night we realized that the world's lamest parents don't know how to read school calendars and in our failure to read as 30 year old should be able to do we failed to see that Hailey's Spring Program was tonight. So we dutifully postponed our triple date, stopped longing for fabulous food, got a sandwich at Meijer, and ran back to school, dripping with sweat from running errands at the speed of light, hair all windswept because it had been rained on all day, and plopped into our seats to be "excited" about the event that is a Spring Program.

I will try hard not to be cynical or sarcastic about that.

Hailey looked so adorable. We realized the first time around in Kindergarten that kids generally get dressed up for these events (after we realized we were underdressed the first time) and so we did her up for this one - new dress, hair in Princess Lea buns, rhinestones in her hair, rhinestones on her bracelets, rhinestones on her shoes. She did look very very cute.

I was sitting there all proud of myself for managing to get the whole thing pulled together, work almost caught up for the weekend, and our whirlwind weekend just on the horizon. We have a Saturday that could possibly kill a cow. It's all going to be very very fun, but I've never needed a watch to keep track of a Saturday schedule until this weekend.

Anywhoo, I digress. . . .So we're sitting there enjoying Hailey being so cute, thinking how she's seriuosly the cutest kid on stage, in seriously the cutest little rhinestone outfit when she steps out from the crowd walks to the front of the stage and SINGS A SOLO. It was during the "Wiggle Worm" song.

Brian and I were so flabbergasted that by the time we were done we realized that we needed an instant replay to see what she'd just sang. She sang her little solo, then walked back into the crowd, and continued looking beautiful.

We were stunned! She never even breathed a word of it. She's been practicing her lines for kindergarten graduation, (in fact practicing all the different kids' lines for kindergarten), but somehow failed to mention that she was going to have a big solo.

We didn't even have a camera, so I popped these photos with our cell phone.

I can't believe we didn't get to video record her first solo :-( What if she becomes famous some day and we don't have a video of her first solo?

When we saw her after the concert we asked her why she didn't tell us she had a solo and she simply said "I wanted to surprise you." Guess she got what she wanted. :-)

Bluebell Woods

There's this little patch of woods that I drive by every day and I've noticed in the spring the whole forest floor radiates an electric blue. I've never had the nerve to investigate what the blue was until recently. I secretly just drove by wistfully and wondered if I'd ever be able to experience the flowers.

Well, we finally decided to do it.

Easter!

Secret Bend in the River

The two highlights of the day - The bullfrog we found that was nearly as big as Shelby's head and the beaver we saw swimming downstream to her den. We named the bullfrom Jake Jack and we named Mrs. Beaver Consuela.

Easter Eggs

Hailey working really hard!

This is what Shelby did most of the time - bossed us around.

I realized when I was looking at this picture that Hailey's hands look EXACTLY like mine. That's so cool. Everyone always says the girls look just like Brian, but that hand is identical to mine and mine is identical to my dad's. It makes me feel like I'm part of something bigger than me to have someone that I look like and for my daughter to have someone that she looks like.

Hailey was having so much fun designing eggs that she was laughing. Actually at this point she may have been dipping her fingers and watching them turn colors.