TiNy DaNcEr...

Madison and Bethanie had their dance recital last Sunday. It was such a special event for for our family and community, as it always is. It was Bethanie's 4th year in dance, and Madison's 1st. Monday was Bethanie's dance pictures, and Madison's was tonight, so on with the curlers again and the make up and costume. Unfortunately it was POURING down rain, but we did it any way, and I am so glad! I snapped a picture with my camera phone so it isnt a good quality picture, but you get the idea. I was scolded by the photographer after I took this photo to NOT take pictures with the back drop, but I had this one anyway, so I wanted to make the most of it. She is so cute, and a good sport getting gussied up again. LOL! SOOOOOO DONE with dance for a few months!!!

NeW BeGiNniNgS...

A couple of days ago, our Branch had a wonderful experience. We officially broke ground for our new meeting house! Construction should begin mid-May, as it looks right now. This is an especially neat thing for Jeff and I. We are two of four original Branch members. We have been attending this Branch (LDS CHURCH) since October 1991. We have seen many people come and many people go. My folks are the next to longest members. So, after the initial ground breaking, we all had the opportunity to dig some soil. What a wonderful experience to share with my parents! We are all thankful for the blessing we are about to receive. Our current building is OK, but it is a split level building with bathrooms downstairs. We have an aging congregation so we really need NO stairs. :O) How exciting!

Sleeping Beauty's untied slipper...

Of all the days for her shoe to be untied! It truly made the recital special, though! She was beautiful, and she really knew her routine.

Spring Dance Recital 2010-Daddy-Daughter Dance!

Jeff and Bethanie performed in the Daddy-Daughter dance during the recital. They danced to SHOUT. The dads were dressed as nerds and we really love Jeff's red beanie. LOL! Bethanie was her gorgeous little self and they sure had a lot of fun!

I also participated in a Mother-Daughter dance during the recital with Bethanie. But since Jeff was the photographer, there were really no pictures that would work for a collage. :O( Sorry!!! But we danced to a song called: Mama, I'm a big girl now and the moms dressed as mothers from the 1950's. I wore denim capri pants with a dark green sweater and silk scarf around my neck with some white beads, some cute white shoes, dorky black rhinestone glasses and an apron. It was so much fun being on stage with her and dancing with her! We didn't tell anyone in the family that we were going to be dancing so it was a surprise to them when we showed up on stage (Jeff and I). :O) How fun the recital was. I know it is great memories for the girls (and for us).

I cant complete this post without saying, though, that recital weekend is HE** on wheels. It is running here and there, and with TWO girls in it this year, all I can say is WOW and YAWN!!! :O)

OK, I did find one picture of the Mother-Daughter dance. Bethanie and I are on the right side if you can spot us. :O)

Spring Recital 2010- Bethanie!

As usual, Bethanie performed her sweet heart out! I sit in awe of this child of mine! I am so proud of her talent, especially for being so shy! She danced to T-R-O-U-B-L-E (country song by Travis Tritt). She is the one in the front with the long blonde pony tails. I love to watch her perform. She makes my heart sing!

Spring Recital 2010-Madison

Today was the Spring Dance Recital for the girls. They did two recitals this year, the other one was in December when they performed The Nutcracker. Madison was not in it yet, because she did not turn three until December. But she joined Ballet in January and worked toward this recital. Here, she was Sleeping Beauty. We learned how to curl her hair with foam rollers (she loved every minute of it!!!) and she got to wear make up too!

During her performance today, she started off doing very well! She had so much fun! Then she noticed that her ballet slipper was untied. She became pre-occupied with it and tried to bend over and tie it herself. She became frustrated (this happened during the performance) that she sat down, and pouted. It was so dang cute! Every one laughed because it was just precious. I wanted to cry for her because I could feel what she was feeling. It was like, this is happening to me and I don't know how to fix it in front of all these people, so what do I do now??? Bless her heart for being so brave! She really did a fantastic job. I am so proud of her!! Way to go Madison!!! I love you so much!

Practice Makes Perfect Update!!!

OK, not only am *I* in love with these curls, but so is Madison! She LOVES it! And she was really sad when I told her that they would go away tonight when she has her bath. But I reassured her that they will be back next time I roll her hair. So cute!

Practice Makes Perfect!!!

Not only are the girlies practicing their dance moves for their recital this weekend, I have been practicing curling their hair with rollers. I have never really done the rollers, except once with Bethanie, and with her really long hair, it was not a good thing. I have something else in mind though for hers....anyway, Madison has been sitting so patiently while I do this to her, and she loves every minute of it! I will update with the end result in a couple of hours after this dries and I fix it. HOPEFULLY I can give her the most adorable head of curls ever! She LOVES being gussied up! Bethanie does too, and she looks forward to me putting full on make up for her recitals. Girls! They are THE BEST!!!

I am having the hardest time getting out of this stupid rut. I have been in the most awful funk since winter began. I have lost all of my umph for keeping up with my "Self Improvement Tour". I am not motivated, I have a terrible attitude and it feels like I gave up. I know that the whole school situation with Matthew had a terrible effect on me. It drop kicked my confidence in myself. I have talked with my husband about it, and it is strange that it didn't affect me the same way it affected him. For some reason, I took it personally, and on a very deep level (who wouldn't when you sit in 19 meetings being told that you were a terrible parent and didn't have your child's best interest at heart). Not kidding either. I am trying to climb this hill and I feel like just when I am about to make it to the top, it grows and I am just short of making it. I hate this place that I am emotionally and spiritually. I don't even understand it. I know there are people out there in WAY worse situations, but what is my problem? Why cant I just get over it? He is so much happier now, and there is much less stress on our family now. I think it has something to do with the way he was treated, how people think it is OK to treat others like this, especially those who are disabled. I think it actually cracked my heart, and that is what isn't mended, because I can see that this will ALWAYS be the case for him. This is the part of Asperger's that will always be with him, and truly, it KILLS me to know that there are people out there all too willing to take advantage. This has really been on my mind quite a bit lately, and I just cant seem to get myself passed this. :O( Sorry for the pity party. I AM happy. Really, I am but inside I am still struggling with stuff.

Graduation is coming in a month. I am really nervous about the walk (for the diploma) I HATE being center of attention. I know it is a necessary evil though. I am nearing the end of these two classes. I HATE these online courses. They are so disorganized, and I have the same instructor for both, she also happens to be my advisor and it is really hard catching up with her to get the gist of what needs to be done. I am finding that the older I get, (which I get older next month) the more I want to just get things done, and not let things sit idle. It isn't a quality I like because I can see that I irritate others. In fact, I know my instructors will all be glad to see me OUTTA THERE! :O)

My dad has been ill and in the hospital this week. He had pancratitis and found the cause actually came from an old gallbladder surgery. Things were piling up inside as sludge, not draining so they had to clean all that out and snip a muscle so things could flow through better. Poor guy was MISERABLE. My MIL also had gallbladder surgery on Monday. What a week!

GoNe FiShiNg...

We took the kids fishing today. Jeff's dad is a great fisherman, and we finally found a place that is kid friendly. I cant stand the thought of letting the kids fish in a river. So we went to a nice pond with kid sized fish. It was such a pretty day today, so it was hard to resist being outside for most of it! To begin the day (after we had our Saturday Morning Pancakes), we went to a nature trail and walked it with the kids (took some Graduation Pictures). Then we BBQ'd some dogs at Grandma and Grandpa's and then we went fishing. How fun. Two fish were caught.....

(sorry, the video wouldn't load)

Madison was extremely excited to go fishing. She had never gone before, and she could hardly contain herself. She fished with a tiny pole that was about 40 years old (Thanks Uncle Greg for letting her use it!!!), and wouldn't you know, this rookie caught the first fish of the day. From then on, it became a contest to see who would catch one next.....

(again, no video!!!)

Matthew was the next one to catch a young catfish. He did a great job reeling it in. He even cast his pole several times. I was proud of him for using such patience while we were there. What an enjoyable time with him (those are rare).

Sadly, Bethanie didn't catch one. She was disappointed, but we told her we would go again soon. She had a good time though, caught some sun rays and maybe a little sunburn, but she always just tans. What fun it was!

Tuesday Treats...

They were delayed this week because a lady from work wanted to bring something in stead. AS IF!!!! :O) Anyway, they are dipped strawberries. They are so delicious! A lady from church brought them to our Relief Society Birthday celebration last month (hers were much more beautiful) and so I tried to make them and they are so yummy! What a treat!

BuSy BuSy BuSy!

I have been swamped with homework, spring time, Matthew's assignments. I am trying to get some MUCH NEEDED Spring Cleaning done and just keeping caught up on basic things. Sorry for not posting much. It is crunch time with only 6 weeks of classes to go. I am no where near done with these two and I am frustrated with them more than anything. I am really just looking forward to to having them done (but not looking forward to the math in the summer). Oh how I LONG for the days to NOT have homework anymore. LOL!

Matthew and I are working on a really cool Solar System for science. Hopefully he will take his time with painting it so we can enter it in the fair. We are also doing a PowerPoint for it too. It looks really great and he is taking his time on it which is WONDERFUL. He usually likes to rush through things.

Easter is upon us. Today is Good Friday. I LOVE LOVE LOVE this season. We will be going to my parents for our Easter gathering. I am really looking forward to it.