Helping me heal

It is never a good sign when a phone call comes anytime after midnight. This was no exception to the rule. My sweet cousin Jenny called to let me know that Aunt Diane had passed away early on Saturday, January 19th. Artyom was out of town and his phone was turned off, so I was forced to lay there by myself and try to take it all in. It was not till about 30 minutes later that it all sunk in and I needed...someone! I ended up calling my friend Chris in Italy and he let me blubber for a few minutes. It was all I needed.

The next morning. as I literally only slept for about 3 hours total that night, I told the girls that I was a little sad and needed to lay down for just a little bit. So I went downstairs to sleep. A little later I remember Ella shaking me and saying that she had made me breakfast in bed. To be honest, I was SO tired, I didnt know what to think. So when I could actually open my eyes a few minutes later, I looked over to see a piece of toast and a glass of milk set down on a pillow right next to me. Yep. Breakfast in bed. The toast may have had blueberry syrup on it, since Ella said she "knew it was my favorite" but it was the best gift she could have given me. He emulates the name she shares with Aunt Diane. It was a pretty proud mama moment.

Then the next morning, when Artyom got home, we told the girls that Aunt Diane was in heaven with Grandma. Sofia seemed to understand, Ella does not (which we expected). Later that morning, Sofia came to me with this...

It made my heart overflow with love for this little girl who wanted Jesus to know she missed her Grandma and Aunt Diane. What a blessing it is to know that we can be with our loved ones forever. It was one of those moments, that no matter how hard I try to teach her- today, she taught me.

Yep...I'm THAT mom.

So our little Maka goes back and forth about whether she would like to have "school lunch" or "home lunch" while she is gone during the day at kindergarten. It usually depends on what the lunch menu looks like and its fun to see her either smile...or scrunch up her nose-especially when it says "fish and chips" THATS MY GIRL!!
So every evening we have our ritual of looking the menu, deciding which lunch she wants and then going on with getting things ready for the AM. If she wants school lunch, I put the money in the same dora snack bag, in the same place (on top of her backpack) and then I head out the door to work.
Recently said Dora snack bag has been coming home with said backpack and I began to wonder. Sofia just said lunch was "free" that day. WELL. You know where Im going with that one....
"There is no such thing as a free lunch..." Come on. How could I resist THAT?!
So when this happened a few times, I was beginning to get very suspicious, but did'nt bother going the extra mile and really finding out what was going on.
Until I got THE CALL. The lunch lady called me!! She said that Sofia owed $5.85 for unpaid lunches.  When I explained that I sent money with her daily, the allotted $1.85 she said 2 things:
1) the "allotted" amount was actually $1.75- so I had been overpaying
2) She needed to take the money to the office prior to lunch since they do not take the money there...Hmmm. Good to know.
I was completely embarassed...for about 2 seconds. Then we both started laughing. Sigh. Yep. I am THAT mom. The one that the school lunch lady has to track down to make you pay your food debt. Hehe. Just goes to show...

There really IS no such thing as a free lunch. (eh? wink, wink, nudge)

Technical difficulties...

For whatever reson, I cannot seem to pull up pics to post on my blog. And, since that is mainly why I post on our blog for Grandpa to see pics of the cutest girls ever (ok, ok...i may be a tad bit biased). Im at a loss of what I need to do. SO. Ill try to figure it out, but until then. DON'T GO! Ill be up and running in no time.

I'm a glutton for punishment...and must like mud...alot

And not even a year later...an email that was so familiar came back to my inbox

Charity ,

Boom. You're in. You, my friend, are an early adopter. You adopt babies. You adopt stray kittens outside Walmart. You adopt stray babies outside Walmart. And now, you've adopted a tradition that will last longer than fish stick Fridays at your local elementary school.

You are an official runner of The Dirty Dash Utah Spring & Corporate Cup.

The mud circus comes to town 06/08/13 at Utah Spring & Corporate Cup, so tell your wife, tell your kids, and tell your husband, cuz The Dirty Dash is muddying up everybody up in here. You signed up for the 09:40:00 AM wave and we suggest showing up about 45 minutes beforehand to size up the competition, stretch out your hammies and hit the bathrooms.

You can make any changes to your registration by logging in here.

Be sure to check out the race page on the website for more of the nitty, gritty details. If after all your hard work and searching, you end up with nothing but a furrowed brow, an oncoming migraine and a mild case of indigestion, email us at info@thedirtydash.com and we'll take care of your questions.

In the meantime, read over the waiver and privacy policy, sign it and send it to your teammates so we can use your muddy mug to sell this race to your friends while keeping our legal records clean ... except for that misdemeanor back in college. But lay off, it was college.

So get ready to stick your tail between your legs and roll around in the muck with us cuz as it says in the Good Book: Muddyness is next to Hogliness.

See you 06/08/13 with a thick layer of mud hiding your pearly whites.

10 degrees

Man. I guess I just had to put it in writing to get just how cold it is outside this morning. 10 DEGREES! And you can feel it the minute you step out into the cold. BRRR. It was hard to go outside in it, that is for sure. But I guess I cannot complain all that much. I got to spend a week at home over the holidays and it was fabulous. No work, no committments, no deadlines. I got to wake up with the girls and eat breakfast with them. I got to lounge around in my pajamas till I decided it was time to get on real clothes. I got to cook, clean and entertain family over Christmas and loved it.

So take that 10 degrees. Ill write about Christmas and the New Year tomorrow. Today-its just way too cold.