What beautiful hair you have, my dear!

Day #24: a photo of you that your hair looks nice in

What the heck? You mean like there's actually a time when my hair DOESN'T look nice? What is the implication here? Lol. Well, in all reality, I'm not happy with most photos taken of me and it really doesn't have much to do with my hair. It would be a bit south of there but then that's another story. So, for today, here's the picture I have chosen:

This is Courtney's adoption day. We adopted Courtney officially in the spring of 2005. She came into our life and family in August of 2004. Adjusting to a new member of our family was not an easy task. Robbie, who was the baby FOREVER, had the most difficult time (still does, I think). Not long after we took Courtney into our home, we were allowed to meet and then eventually adopt her twin brother, Jacob.

For the most part, this has been a positive thing for our family. Our children have had the opportunity to learn how to share with someone who didn't have anything. They have had to learn to adapt to new personalities on a day to day basis. Regrets? Yeah, of course there are. There are regrets in a lot of things we do. Am I grateful to have the twins in our family? Yes, I am. On days when I feel like the whole family is against me, it is always Jacob and sometimes Courtney that is there to give me a hug and make me feel like I'm the bestest mom ever. How can you top that?

And, if all else fails . . . my hair looked pretty dang good on this adoption day!! Right?

Babykins

Day #23: a photo of your friend as a baby

Like who has that? I guess if you are young (like I used to be) and have been friends with your friend since you were little (which I haven't) then you would have something like this just lying around on your hard drive (which I don't). So, I've decided to exercise my creative license and post this picture:

Yes, this is a picture of my baby (Robbie) when he was young (like 8) on board his trusty steed, Shorty (whom we gave the show name "Goliath"). Why do I post this picture? Because this picture makes me happy/sad. Happy because I remember what a wonderful young man this boy of mine used to be (and will be again someday, I hope). Happy because he was such a talented rider and had such great potential as such. Sad because things change and so do people. My sweet young boy has turned into a teenager and . . . well . . . what more can I say? Once he discovered gasoline and perfume it was all over!

However, because I'm his momma (and a proud one at that) I can post this picture on my blog and brag. Yes, this is my boy and I love him. Just the way he is and just the way he isn't.

Such a Beautiful Town

Day #22: a photo of your town

I just never managed to get myself downtown to snap a shot. Of course, I like the photo that Brandilyn posted on her challenge of our windy road. That was awesome. So, I won't copy her but I will post the following:

Yes, this is our drill team during the Livermore Rodeo Parade. I think our town looks simply wonderful with a drill team marching down the middle of it. I'm proud of our drill team and I was especially proud of us on this day back in June of this year.

Livermore was a much smaller community when we moved here 14 years ago. There were a lot less people and a lot less stop lights. One of the main reasons I was happy to leave Pleasanton was because it was getting so crowded and it took stinkin FOREVER to get from one side of town to the other. It appears that Livermore has become the same but this town will forever hold a special place in my heart.

The Morning After

So you remember the picture I posted of Brian during his whole wisdom teeth extraction ordeal? Yeah, the one where he's the happiest dude on the face of the earth? Well, here we have the same lad several hours later.

All iced up and no place to go!! Lol. Actually, this is after some intense medication and me nagging him to ice that bad boy up or he's gonna swell up like a chipmunk like Brandilyn did. So this is what I came up with to strong arm him into compliance.

Yes, I'm enjoying the down time with this boy of mine. He's home. He's mellow. He's occupied with something other than chipping away at my self esteem. Life is good.

Good Times

Day #21: a photo of you standing up

I was going to post a picture of me standing in Thailand by a colorful wall with my hat that I had just purchased on. I LOVE that picture of me. However, I've already posted it on my Thailand trip post and it would be redundant to re-post the same picture (even though I'm sure that I've posted several pictures multiple times - B-O-R-I-N-G!!). So, I decided to post this never-before-seen-picture of me standing up instead: This picture was taken back in 2006. Skip and I were on a cruise in the Carribean (a trip from our, ahem, kids for Skip's 50th birthday present - lucky guy!). If I could do this cruise over again, I would have postponed the trip until I felt better. It was my first experience with a cruise and my/our first experience with the Carribean.

I had broken my finger and gotten a bone infection as a result just about a month before. A week before the cruise I was in the hospital for a week and had had surgery on said finger. It was this big drawn out dramatic deal. Anyway, I went on this cruise and was not allowed to get that finger wet. Somehow, I think the meds I was on limited me to the sun as well but I'm not really clear on that one (I'm not clear on a lot of things, lol).

Okay, so you can tell by the burn on my chest that I had NOT had any sun for quite some time (as I mentioned before, I'm a HUGE sun worshipper so burning is not something I do often). In addition, I'm wearing clothing that I distinctly remember as being extremely uncomfortable. I'm sure that I thought I looked good or something. Whatever.

Bottom line . . . things change. Nowadays -

I don't wear clothing that I'm not comfortable in any more. Not even to go out for a special occasion and I would NEVER waste good time and money on a trip that wasn't going to be the time of my life. Life and money are short Why waste any of it?

What I do like about this picture is that I was blissfully happy and didn't even know it. Things were so great for us then and we (okay, I, because I know that Skip NEVER takes things for granted) just really didn't appreciate what we had. The kids were all pretty well behaved and our financial situation was comfortable. Well, like I said . . . things change and change is good because it forces us to appreciate the good times even more.

Gassed Up

Okay, I couldn't resist this post.

Today was the big day for Brian. He was scheduled to have his bottom wisdom teeth out. The doc warned that this was going to be a big deal because of the position of the roots of the teeth, yadda yadda yadda. Anyway, Brian was pretty stressed out about the whole ordeal.

This morning I went in and woke the little tike up (he's 20). He was very cute the way he was muttering in his sleepy voice that he wanted me to reschedule the event and have it scheduled at the surgical center so that he could be knocked out. I, of course, said "not on your life, Buddy. We got a BIG day planned and you're the main event!" (Well, actually I might have used a little different verbage but you get the idea).

Brian was pretty ticked off about my lack of compliance in his seemingly reasonable request. As soon as I walked out of his bedroom to finish getting myself ready, I could hear him loudly exclaiming his displeasure with my "attitude" (ahem, you get the picture if you know me and my family dynamic at all). I politely ignored him and calmly walked out to the car. He followed a bit later slamming doors and informing me that I was not a nice mom (once again, I've changed the verbage up a bit to sound a bit more poetic, lol).

We got to the dental office and he had calmed down somewhat (I think the McDonald's breakfast might have softened him up a bit). I smiled, patted him on the back and told him I'd see him in just a bit. This is what took place next:

Yeah, the Brian that I picked up 3-1/2 hours later was still laughing and thinking the whole ordeal was great fun! I guess he was laughing at everything the dentist and his assistant were saying and, at one point, he was asked to quit laughing so that the dentist could cut through the tooth! (Are you freakin kidding me?).

Funny how a little gas can change your whole perspective on life!

Stuff I Dig

Day #20: a photo of something you enjoy doing

That's not hard. Right? Well, I guess it is if you are diverse in your enjoyable indulgences like I am. I couldn't just post one picture (big surprise) so I'm putting three different things here that I enjoy. In no particular order . . .

This is me riding Ellie in drill. I love riding. I love riding Ellie (I love riding Black Horse more, though) and I love drill. Horses is definitely right on top of my list of obsessive passions.

This is in Belize. Nan and I are doing a side stretch pose together. We are feeling pretty accomplished right about now because we rocked this pose! The only thing better would be if we were able to do it with the sun setting over the ocean right between us. Oh well, we ran right out and ate some delicious grub right after this practice so it was all great.

Yup, those are my hands. Nope that's not my foot. That's me zoning someone's foot. I LOVE working on feet and I LOVE being able to feel different imbalances (and balances) in the body through the signals on the feet and I really get a lot of satisfaction out of being able to help people. I haven't practiced foot zoning in like a month or so and DANG I miss it.

However, this Saturday I hopefully will get that opportunity again at Danielle's house. She's hosting a holiday boutique and I'm going to display my herbs, oils and talk to anyone who will listen about the magic of the feet. Anyone interested in coming? Well, contact me for the address, time and I'll give you all the 411.

So there it is. The things that make this girl giddy with excitement. The things that definitely remind me that life is wonderful and worth living.