Birthday Talk

There has been alot of talk around the house lately about birthdays. Gavin's birthday is coming up in 10 days and Katelyn's is at the the end of August.

Katelyn has decided that she wants a Tinkerbell party. That of course may change once August gets here.

I explained to Katelyn a couple of weeks ago that Gavin's birthday is in July and hers is in August. So even though we might be talking about both of their birthdays, Gavin will be having his party first.


We also went over many times that her birthday was August 25th. And now she remembers it and will say it back to you when you ask her when her birthday is. Very cute.

Yesterday she came up to me soooo seriously and says: Mommy, where is August?

And I said, What do you mean WHERE? August is a month, not a place.

To which Katelyn said, Then why do you always say I was born IN August??

I had no words to answer her- just laughter.

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Don't Steal The Lollipops!

When I was in 1st grade I had to take speech class. My mom said that family members had no problems understanding me when I spoke, but strangers had a hard time deciphering my words. I think that's crazy to think about now that I'm older!

I left my regular classroom once a week to meet with the speech lady. My half hour session with her included 2 other students. These 2 boys were older than me and I didn't know them. But I do remember I didn't like them.

They fooled around and didn't pay attention. I can remember the poor speech lady getting very frustrated with them too.

I would just sit there in disbelief that these boys were being so mean to the teacher. It made me sad and scared to be there. I dreaded speech day because of them.

One time I can clearly remember is when the teacher left us alone in her office for a couple of minutes. One of the boys got up and went to her desk and took some lollipops she kept in her drawer. He asked us if we wanted one and the other boy said yes.

I said no. I was horrified that he was stealing. I was horrified that I was with these 2 BAD kids. I was scared to death of what was going to happen when she found out.

Looking back on it now, this was probably one of the first times my little 6-year-old self was seeing that some kids were bad. That some kids didn't have the same morals instilled in them like I did.

It really was an eye opener for me. And of course as soon as the teacher walked back in, I told her what they did. They got in trouble and that made me very happy. LOL.

I am taking part in a 15 week series hosted by Mommy's Piggy Tales to record memories from our youth. To see more or join in yourself- click on over!

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Cassie - I Will Never Forget You

This weeks assignment over at Mommy's Piggy Tales is to share some memories of our Pre-School/Kindergarten years.

Let's see. Pre-School. I do remember my very first day of preschool. I remember being SCARED to death to go. I was not excited in any way, shape or form. I remember standing in the doorway crying as I was begging my mom not to leave me. My mom walked me over to a little table where a little girl sat doing a puzzle.

My mom asked the little girl her name and she answered "Cassie".

My mom said to me -"Melissa, this is Cassie. She will be your friend and you guys can do this puzzle together."

And I remember relief taking over.

Until Cassie said " NO, I'm not sharing."

Oh yes she did!! That little brat LOL.

And from that day forward I harbor bad feelings toward anyone named Cassie.

The only other thing I remember from pre-school is the calendar on the back of the door. Not sure why.

And let's see now.....Kindergarten. I remember picture day. My mom had set my hair in those pink spongy curlers the night before. Oh how I hated when she did that. I hated the way my hair looked that day. As our class walked thru the school to the gym to get our pictures taken I felt like all the kids that passed me were laughing at my hair. Wait. I just didn't feel it, I KNEW they were laughing at my afro hair. But I survived I guess.

I also remember the night my dad woke me up from sleeping in the middle of the night. He took me to the upstairs window where we had a good view of my school a couple of blocks over. And in the night sky we could see my school burning up in flames. I will never forget thinking how cool it was that I didn't have to go to school the next day!

I was transferred to a different school to finish out the year. And for the life of me I have absolutely no memories of the new school.


I am taking part in a 15 week series hosted by Mommy's Piggy Tales to record memories from our youth. To see more or join in yourself- click on over!

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June 20, 1974 ~ My Birth Story ~

I was born at Christ Community Hospital in Oak Lawn, Illinois.

My mom was in labor for 36 hours. 24 of which were in the hospital and 12 hours of hard labor she has told me. On Thursday June 20th, 1974 at 2:00AM I was finally born.

The doctors quickly diagnosed me with Patent Ductis Arteriosus (PDA) and a heart murmur. PDA is the blood vessel the baby uses while still developing that lets blood bypass the lungs since the baby gets all its oxygen from the mother. After birth the valve closes on its own.

Mine did not close. I was placed in an incubator to monitor my difficulty breathing since blood was now being pumped into my lungs. The doctors told my mom I had about 24 hours to live unless the valve closed on its own.

And to make matters worse, a tornado decided to touch ground right by the hospital. All the windows to the nursery were blown out and all the newborns were pushed into the hallways for the rest of their stay. Thank goodness I was in an incubator!!

My 24 hour window passed and the valve had still not closed. My mom has told me that at this time the doctors told her my valve would not close now and I would be gone within 12 hours. Sometime in that next 12 hours my valve did close all on its own and my heart murmur was gone too, much to my moms relief I am sure.

My parents named me Melissa Charlotte. My mom has told my that my father picked it out because it was different. And let me tell you, I grew up HATING my name. I wanted a popular name like all the other girls like Jenny or Amy. And I also refused to tell people my middle name. All the other girls had middle names like Anne or Marie.

But now I am older and wiser, haha. And I no longer have name issues.

To see other birth stories or to add your own head on over to Mommy's Piggy Tales.

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Um, What?

Katelyn said to me today, Mommy, can I have a peen ana for my birthday?

I said, a what???

A PEEN ANA!!! she yelled back at me.

I said , Oh, a Pinata! Haha, Ok Katelyn. What made you think of that?

And she replied- I had one at my 2nd birthday when I turned 3.

This girl cracks me up on a daily basis!!

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Good-Bye 2nd Grade

So today was Gavin's last day of 2nd grade. I guess I officially have a 3rd grader now. He has been counting down the days all week for today.

This morning I said to him- Good Morning Gavin! Today is the last day of school and the last day you have to wake up early until next year!

And he said back to me- Good, its the last day I have to brush my teeth too.


This is Gavin this morning before school:

He ended the year starting to learn fractions and multiplication in math. I am sooo not ready for that! I am not looking forward to homework already next year.

We've got tons of stuff planned for the summer to keep both Gavin and Katelyn busy. Gavin is going to soccer camp for 2 weeks, we have a weekend away planned in a couple of weeks, and a week vacation in July to Tennessee. I also signed up the kids for free bowling a couple of days during the week and of course there is also the free movies that come out every summer.

Congratulations Gavin! I am so proud of you this year!

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Award Ceremony

Yesterday was the 2nd grade end of the year awards ceremony. Katelyn and I headed up to the school and surprised Gavin by being in the audience to watch.

Gavin won 2 awards. The first award he got was the Super Citizen ( showing courtesy, kindness, consideration, and respect for his fellow students and teachers).

When they called his name he got to go up on stage and shake the principals hand, receive his award along with a pencil and ruler. Then the kids who won the award get to stand up on the bleachers together.





He also won the Certificate of Achievement Award for doing Quality Work each day. So twice I got to clap and Cheer for him. And speaking of cheering, on the way back to their seats the kids get to walk thru girls with pompoms while music is playing. Kinda cute.

After the ceremony I asked Gavin if he was surprised that he won awards and he said NOPE. I said, Oh really?

Gavin said- Well, I figured I would get the super citizen award because ya know mom, I am really kind at school.

ok- LOL, if you say so Gavin.

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Puppies, Movies, and Swimming...

That's how I would describe our weekend. Friday evening Ken worked late so I took the kids up to the pet store to get some new treats for Barkley. We started off at the hamster cage and we had fun trying to catch them. Then we moved onto all the sweet little puppies. It was dinnertime so they were all jumping around and barking in their cages. I let Gavin pick out which one we wanted to play with and he chose a cute little brown Boxer puppy. He was just sitting quietly in the cage watching all the people go by.

Once we were in the little room, the quiet little guy went WILD. Ran around in circles jumping up and biting us wherever he could. Katelyn quickly jumped up onto the bench while Gavin, Danyelle and I did a little dance around the room to get away from him. One of the employees threw in some chew toys and we held him off with those for a little while!! Even after all the little puppy nips I'm sure Gavin and Katelyn would love to go back and play with him again.

Saturday early evening we took the kids up to the theatre to see the new Shrek movie.

Let's see....that's 5 family members plus the cost of tickets = HOLY CRAP THAT WAS EXPENSIVE!!! Seriously, not only did we have to pay for admission, but since the movie was in 3D they tacked on another $3.50 to every ticket. GRrrrr. Other than that we had a great time. The movie wasn't too long and was full of laughs. I just love that damn donkey!

Sunday morning we tried out a new church here by our new house. Katelyn surprised me by saying she wanted to try out the Sunday school. I walked her in, sat her down, and said goodbye. When we picked her up she was laughing and told me she liked it there.

That afternoon we went to an anniversary party/BBQ/Pool party. Katelyn jumped right into the pool and stayed there for the rest of the day only getting out to eat a hotdog.

Gavin on the other hand spent some time playing with the remote control boat. Which at first scared the daylights out of Katelyn. She would scream and try to swim away every time the boat was coming anywhere in her direction.

He finally changed into his bathing suit and wasted no time trying out the slide.

And then after that it was off to clean the tiki bar.

Who knows why, but that's my Gavin, lol.

And that, was our weekend!

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