Life At The Circus

The internet is a funny thing.  I know there are a million and one articles out their all over face book about parents and kids being too distracted… about the negative side effects of being on facebook and blogging… and well, this is not one of them.  Nor is this going to be an article in defense of face book or blogging.  Truthfully, like just about EVERY SINGLE OTHER MAJOR ISSUE plaguing Momma’s these days, I kinda think moderation is the key… and I also really don’t enjoy debating… so I just kinda stay out of it. However, one thing is most certain… I would not have some of the friendships I have today if it wasn’t for face book and blogging and the internet.  Case in point would be my dear friend Sarah. I can remember years ago when I first took the plunge and made myself a profile on that thing called facebook… like most trends (ie… maxi skirts and Spotify) I was late jumping on to the bandwagon… and I was cautious at first.  I remember making my profil...

My 7 year old recently lost one of her top middle teeth.  Those top middle teeth are my favorites, when they fall out because I find that gap tooth smile to be quite adorable. I’ve pondered the gap tooth smile recently, and realize that they truly illustrate growing up.  That stage of life when you lose your baby teeth, but yet aren’t quite ready for the grown up teeth.  It leaves gaps.  Holes that need to be grown into and filled.  This of course takes time, as growing up does and so you often find yourself with gaps…you aren’t a baby, but your not an adult… you don’t have all you need yet… these stages can be cute, and frustrating… and sometimes they seem to be filled in the blink of an eye and other times, as a parent you wonder if those gaps will ever fill….  While I only have one child right now with a gap tooth smile, I have several that are living in the gaps of growing up…. and I know that while their smiles don’t provide that visible remind...

It’s hard enough not living in the home town of your favorite sports team.  Even harder than that, is living in the town of the ARCH RIVAL of your favorite sports team.  One way that I think we as a family have connected and stayed connected with our Steelers roots, is by making the trek to training camp as often as possible.  We missed the last two years, but we went often enough over the past 10 years that the big 3 all remember going and talk about going and consider it a tradition. This year we were ALL itching to go back.  I had been wanting to go to the Friday Night Lights practice and this year we were able to make that work.  This practice is held a high school near their training camp, on, you guessed it, Friday Night.  We met my parents there.  We got there early enough for the kids to play some games and even get their faces decorated.  We also tailgated out of the back of my parents van before heading into the stadium.  ...

My daughter turned 7 last week.  She wanted a gymnastics party with her friends.  I had no idea how to throw a gymnastics party.  Turns out if you invite 10 gymnasts over to your house, you don’t have to do anything to turn it into a gymnastics party.  They do it themselves.  We picked the girls up from practice and brought them to our house for the party. Minutes after walking in the door, they were on the bar downstairs, then the trampoline, then doing their routine in the back yard.  In the midst of the all that flipping, they also ate, tie dyed and played a messy game with cones and icing.   Cartwheel once again proved her awesomeness when she made an appearance and then tolerated being passed around from one giggling girl to the next.   Seriously, look at that cat’s face?  That look says it all.  Yet she didn’t flinch once… she let every single girl hold her. World’s Best Cat.  right there. ...

1o years ago Scott and I went before our church and made a commitment before God to raise our son as a disciple of our Lord Jesus Chris.  Father’s day weekend, 2004, we rejoiced with our congregation as he was baptized.  This was not a sign of our sons salvation.  It was the sign of God’s promise to save and cleans sinners who call upon Him.  Our son was not saved, but we rejoiced in the seal representing God’s power to save.  In June 2004 our son was accepted into our church family to be raised as a disciple in the community of believers. This weekend, we watched our saved son go up before that same congregation and make a public profession of his faith.  Our son has accepted the promise and this weekend he was recognized as a full member of our church. What a blessed experience! I remember vividly when he was four years old and he first told us that he had asked Jesus to forgive him of his sins.  We had prayed with him before bed and I prayed something to the effect of, "pleas...

The last true day of our vacation (the day before we headed home) was in my opinion the most relaxing day of the week. We slept in, ate breakfast, (the kids did the dishes), and then we headed out for a morning hike along the beach.   The tide was out and we discovered many living creatures in tide pools on the rocky beach . We made our way to the other side of the island and even caught a glimpse of the Boston skyline.   The kids enjoyed splashing in the water and skipping rocks.   Then we headed back to the beach we spent the afternoon at the day before, stopping for a picnic  lunch (and some sword fighting) along the way.  We spent the rest of the day camped out along the shore.  The kids had the most incredible time digging, throwing rocks and balancing a board on a giant rock.  They pretended they were surfing.  When they started the tide was low and they could easily get to the rock.  As the tide slowly ca...