Summer Recap: The Olympics, our way

 Even though we couldn't watch the Olympics live (darn you NBC), I was able to show the girls some of the gymnastics and swimming highlights. One Sunday afternoon when it was too hot to go outside, we decided to do our own Olympics, little girl style. Emily started off with the cartwheel event. Look at that perfect form for a beginning cartwheel!

 Then Nathalie continued with a somersaulting event. The girl got solid scores all around.

 Here Emily is showing good form in the spinning event.

 And Nathalie, performing her heart out during dancing.

 Emily showed us how it's done on the balance beam and even did a few spins.

 Occasionally the athletes got a little unprofessional.

 Nathalie pulled top scores in the balance beam too.

And both girls won golds in their events. All around, a successful summer Olympics!

A Very Important Week

 Today was Emily's birthday. 5 whole years! Yesterday I had this wonderful, loving post planned. Today it all went out the window as Emily's behavior warranted a loss of movie/computer privileges for a week, bike privileges until Friday and many many time outs. Seriously, what is her deal today? We're talking pinching, hitting, pushing, pulling down, complaining, whining, throwing tantrums etc. Anyway, that's neither here nor there. Suffice it to say I'm glad her birthday is over.

I did make her a beautiful Sleeping Beauty dress, but those pictures will have to wait at least an hour until Charlotte is asleep and not climbing on my lap. Sigh. I think I should go to bed early tonight.

In much happier news, Matt's and my anniversary was on Sunday. I am so blessed to be married to this guy. He's not your typical chore-helping, flower-bringing husband. Instead he lets me sleep in (because I go to bed too late) on a regular basis. He helps with the canning. He encourages me to do things just for me, even when it means more sacrifice for him. He may rarely wash his dishes but he massages my shoulders almost daily. And to top that off, he's a great father, a wonderful husband and a shining example of hard work and dedication. So here's to 6 years plus 6 million more.

Whiddle Mattie-kins

While my sister visited in July I used her super nice camera to make some digital copies of baby pictures of Matt. He was so cute! And yes, these ARE Matt, not Charlotte dressed in 80s clothing.

One of my favorites. Notice the rope is slack and he's still rocking the tube?

This one is my favorite. Matt was about 2/3 and his family was flying kites. Well Matt got his kite really high and held for a really long time. He was enthralled. But when they tried to pull the kite in, the string broke and they lost the kite...and Matt was heartbroken. But he looks so cute!!

Can you guess what we did?

Skydiving was amazing. It wasn't scary at all. We never got the "stomach drop" feeling you get on a roller coaster. It didn't even feel like we were falling-- more like we had a strong breeze blowing in our face. Matt and I were surprised that it didn't provide more of an adrenaline rush. If you ever go skydiving (I recommend it!) then you really should go with Start Skydiving in Middletown, OH. They weren't expensive, but they were incredibly friendly, professional and safe. We felt completely secure at all times and the instructors were really great.

Best anniversary present ever.

And now we confiscate all scissors

This is partially my fault since I didn't remove the scissors when she first cut her hair. Or the second time. But the third time....well, see for yourself.

This is showing the first couple of times she cut her hair. First she cut herself bangs. Then she cut the bangs even shorter. Then she took a chunk on the top of her head and cut that short too.

But yesterday she cut these out of the back. And they are short, I tell you! Down to the scalp.

 So we took her to a hairdresser, because I couldn't leave it and I couldn't fix it!

Here is the finished product. The hairdresser did the best she could.

You can still see the short spots in the back, Hopefully they grow in soon. We would have had to buzz her head to even out the hair.

 You can still see the chunks missing off the top now too, but it's not quite as noticeable as before.

So we bought a bunch of headbands and she'll be wearing pink for a long time! At this point I really did remove all the scissors--not that she'd have anything left to cut.

Oh, my sweet Nan!

Be A Little Kinder

I haven't done one of these posts in a long time because I haven't really known what to say. But eloquence or not, I hope that somebody gets something out of this post.

This summer has been a lot of fun. Lots of guests, lots of great family time, lots of swimming and ice cream and cookies and chalk and parks and friends. But it hasn't been all fun and games. There have been moments of struggling for me. I've had a lot of worries on my mind and heart. They ranged from my own internal struggles to worries about friends and family. Sometimes the worries overwhelmed me.

During those hard days or weeks, I found myself wondering if anyone else felt like me. Worried and looking for some comfort. I looked into the eyes of the people at the park, at Kroger, at the library and wondered what kinds of struggles they were facing in their lives. Perhaps they, like me, were worried about a sister, brother, grandparent, parent or other family member. Perhaps they, too, were worried about the unknowns of their lives. Perhaps they just felt lonely and pleaded over and over again to their Father for some comfort. Perhaps they had worries which far outstripped mine, because my worries are valid and yet somewhat inconsequential in the long run.

I am lucky to have so many people who love me and support me. Most of all, I have Matt who has been a pillar for me. He has been so patient listening to me worry about the same things over and over.

But there are people whose worries are huge. People who suffer and struggle so much more than I can even imagine. And many who don't have the loving supports that I do. People who don't understand that peace is available through prayer. And so they can't find that peace or love and continue to struggle alone.

So what I ask is is that you be a little kinder. Despite what you may think, you don't know what is in their heart. I'll bet that they could use a little kindness.