Engine, engine number nine

This post is all about our ninth child. Our adorable caboose (to continue the train metaphor). She is as the song says "a strange mixture of a woman and a child". She is only ten, but sometimes acts much older.

She enjoys dressing up, doing make-overs, and playing with the boys in the neighborhood, especially our next door neighbor (and best friend since she was three), Reed, whom she used to call "Weed".


She has turtles and catches tadpoles and bugs for them, wants a rabbit again badly, but Mom doesn't, and loves our dogs, Jack and Pearl. She loves having a cell phone, handed down from our short-time foreign exchange student. She will happily make me a gourmet salad at the drop of a hat (or plea from me)and enjoys using her play baking oven. She has loved pink, pink, pink all her life, but is beginning to like green and torquoise,too. She likes to climb trees and goes everywhere barefooted. But, she loves to cuddle with Mommy and DaDa still, and that's my favorite part.






Being the youngest has some perks, but also some challenges. Before she was born her oldest brother, 24 years her senior, told me, "You know, she will never really know me." It turns out that he is her favorite and closest sibling.

She loves being an aunt to her three nephews and one neice. And they love her! They come in our door shouting her name.


I wish she could stay this age forever. But, she will grow up and I just hope she can be one of our easier teenagers. We are, after all, getting older. The other day she asked me how old I would be when she graduated from high school. "Sixty-two", I tell her. "Why?", I ask.

"I just wondered if you would be still be alive to do that thing where you made fun of Hayley (the Senior Salute) for me."

"Yes, I'll still be alive when you graduate from high school and when you graduate from college. I'll still be alive when you get married and when you have children. Remember, my mother is almost 87, thirty years older than me, and she's still alive. I'll probably live a long time, too. I may not be alive when your children get married, but I'll watch from heaven, okay?" "Okay."

I just hope I don't look like this at her graduation.

My third son's first son's birthday

I know it's a complicated title, but I decided that if I titled this "My Granchildren" you would just run away. No one likes to hear someone else brag about their granchildren. Really, though, how can I help it?

Today was number two grandson's third birthday. Yesterday all the family living in our town came over to celebrate. I made spaghetti with meat sauce, his aunt made a great salad and his mom made homemade parmesan breadsticks which were fantastic. The girls made themselves sick eating so many of them. Here's the excited birthday boy. He's the blur in the front.










And here he is with his Dad. Genes will tell.













We had a lovely dinner together:















I just had to post this picture because of what daughter number three with the long blonde hair is asking at this moment. Can you guess? Yes, she's asking, "Is this going to be on your blog?" Well, it is now!

Birthday boy's sister and especially his cousins had fun.












Here's the whole gang:











We're missing our fifth son and his wife, sadly. They are too far away to join us-a thirteen hour drive away. And, even further away, 29 hours away, is our soon to be daughter-in-law. We can't wait until she's a part of the fun, too! Only twelve more days!


One last, but very important picture. The birthday cake was made and decorated by his Dad and he didn't even use a mold, in fact he was kind of bummed to find out that you could buy those. But, his effort is pretty amazing.

Sweethearts

The girls made sugar cookies tonight. "M" came and told me that I might not want to come out of the office and thoughtfully shut the door so that I wouldn't have to smell them.

It was kind of tough when I went to the kitchen later. But, just so that you see that I'm not suffering or going hungry, here is a picture of what I ate last night. I grilled the chicken with worchestershire sauce and lime and made extra for anyone else that wanted some. Most were eating leftovers from the night before. There's no picture of that because I couldn't eat it-pork roast with potatoes and carrots and celery. But Mike and I had the grilled chicken over salad and topped with chopped tomatoes, avocado, cilantro and green onions. I put a chili verede salsa on top of mine.



The limeade is also legal because it's just lime juice, water, and a sugar substitute called Truvia. It was deliciously sour.

I measured myself tonight and I'm not nearly as small as I want to be, but I've lost almost 12 inches total in my bust, waist, and hips. It's frustrating because I work so hard every day and I want to be a size 8 or 10 now! I just have to remember that I didn't put it all on in 3 months and it's going to take longer than 3 months to get it all off. So, I celebrate the victories and the milestones.

I got a pedicure this week to celebrate one month on Jenny Craig and over 20 pounds lost in all.



If your computer resolution is high enough you might see all the tiny marks on my feet. Those are just from wearing tennis shoes with socks all day.