If you stand for nothing, you will fall for anything.

Note to myself 16 years ago, you were dumb for being so scared! You wasted so much time an energy being frightened and fearful of the unknown! If you could have seen the future you would know that this child ROCKS!! You would have even seen his clefting as a blessing. Dumb, dumb girl. Ohh the lessons this tall one was going to teach you. Then god gave you a second child and a girl, just to make sure he covered all of the necessary hardships of raising kids. Then he sprinkled a little bit of your stubbornness, sense of adventure, and their fathers fearlessness. Yeah, you are WELCOME world. YEP, here you go dumb girl - wing this one!! I sit back and I feel like this time has FLOWN by!!! I know people say it all the time, blah, blah. There are days where I have cursed, driving to work, turning around to drop lunch money, only to leave by 3:30 to make a practice or a game. Or getting up at 3 am because they are sick, getting to bed at 5 (maybe) to be up by 6 for a full da...

This one right here was born today around 11 am in the afternoon. Right from the start she came out hair crazy, eyes wide to the world and smiling. Not much has changed in her little 11 years. Her hair is always crazy - she has so darn much of it. Her eyes are wide to the world and she takes it all in with such joy and passion. And her smile, well that will light up a room filled with darkness. Just the other night she asked me at dinner 'Mom, are you glad you had kids?' Perhaps is was one of those 'stressed' nights where I was acting like nut job and not taking the time to remind my kids that I love them and needed the world to slow down a bit. I stopped mid sentence, looked across the table and smiled at her - took the time to look her in the eyes and said "having kids is the best thing me and your father could have ever done. You and your brother are the best parts of us. God took the good the parts of us, put them in you and then you just made them ...