HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Hope everyone had a great halloween! We had fun trick or treating with our friends and then went over to their house for a barbeque and candy fest :-) Baby girl was a 50's girl, and Jace was a Jedi. I tried to be "Mrs. Roper" from Three's Company but ended up too pretty :-) hehe My grandma gave me this dress about 5 years ago and it FINALLY FITS so I was soooo excited to wear it! :-)

Beautiful Daughter

Baby girl and I spent about an hour tonight straightening her EXTREMELY curly hair. She is just getting more and more beautiful every day. I thought I'd share the results :-)

LILA AND MICHAEL'S NEW BABY!

I've been talking about this all day with my online friends and now it's time to share the news with the WORLD! :-)

Posted at about 9 am:
HE'S HERE!!!!
Evan Robert Stuteville born Tuesday October 14th, 2008 @ 9:04 am (central time)! 6 lbs. 6 oz. 21" Very healthy baby. C is doing great and is very happy for Lila and Michael. She did wonderful no drugs! WOW!

Post this at about 8 am:
Good morning ladies! Just heard from Lila's (5THOF11) hubby and she is busy HOLDING THE BIRTHMOTHER'S HAND who is dilated to a 10 and having their baby! I am soooo excited for her!

I was really worried they wouldn't get there in time because it's a 4 hour drive from where they live. I know she and the birthmother had talked about this moment and C (the birthmother) really wanted Lila and Michael to be there, to hold the baby immediately and start bonding with him. I was going to be sad for her if she missed that regardless if she had him to hold the rest of her LIFE. So I'm soooooo glad she made it in time!

I just can't wait for her to be a mother!

Posted last night:
LILA JUST TEXTED ME THAT THE BIRTHMOTHER'S CONTRACTIONS ARE 5-6 MINUTES APART AND THEY'RE CALLING THE DR. THEY'RE GOING TO THE HOSPITAL AND WILL LET LILA KNOW MORE INFO WITHIN THE HOUR!

PRAY FOR HER THAT EVERYTHING GOES WELL! LILA WON'T BE HEADING TO THE HOSPITAL TILL THEY HEAR BACK FROM THE DR/HOSPITAL.!!!! I'M NOT SURE HOW LONG THAT DRIVE IS FOR HER....

I'm sooooooo excited and anxious for her!!!! This is just such a long time coming! I just hope everything goes smoothly! I know she's sooooo excited and nervous!

Newbies: Lila is my sister who has struggled with infertility for over 10 years. She's been trying to adopt for 2 years, and recently went through a disappointment, but everything with this baby and birthmother is looking REALLY good!

HAPPY 93RD BIRTHDAY NONA "THE GREAT"

TODAY IS MY GRANDMOTHER'S 93RD BIRTHDAY! This is my Dad's mom. I'm posting three pictures - one is of Grandma Nona snitching frosting from her birthday cake last Sunday (my son is in the green shirt), then one of Nona, my mom and me, and the last one is just Nona and I.

30 POUNDS GONE FOREVER!

I took some new pictures today now that I'm officially down 30 pounds from my HIGHEST weight. It's taken a LOT longer than I'd hoped, and I still have a ways to go, but progress is progress! :-)


The picture on the left was taken in January of 2007, and the picture on the left was taken today. I personally can see the difference - aside from the tan :-) I'm definitely less "puffy" especially around the mouth and nose. I can totally see it now in the mirror too.

I thought I'd share another funny picture a friend made for me. The guy in the picture is my friend Troy. He's my "old" tennis pro from WLV. I do all my weight loss on sparkpeople.com, and I have a team of girls I've been with since last year (well, most of them anyway). Our team is the PURPLE POUND PUNCHERS. One day last year, I was sitting on the computer with my purple rollers in my hair, getting ready for church or something, and I thought "I'll take a picture of my purple rollers!" Long story short, they've become "iconic". So we were talking the other day about how I don't have any pictures of me with rollers and Troy. So one of the girls had her hubby make this one. :-) I love it!

SINGLES TENNIS TOURNAMENT

Well, today I participated in my FIRST Tennis Tournament! Not only a tournament, but a SINGLES tennis tournament! Yes, I'm off my rocker! :-)

Last weekend when I went home, I had a GREAT lesson with my fav pro Troy. I realized that one of the big things missing from my game since moving is "individualized" tennis instruction...essentially, playing for myself and singles. Everything here is geared for doubles, which is great, but I felt like I was losing my identity.

So, when I came home, I decided to look into more "singles" play. So, Thursday, a match was arranged between a nice girl at my club, and we got to talking about the upcoming "Club Championship Singles Tournament". She said there were only like 4-5 women signed up. I thought those were pretty good odds, plus, what would it hurt? So I signed up.

Now remember, I've never been a singles player. Sure I played in the singles league at my old club, but it's a tough "game" for me. I have a REALLY hard time keeping my head clear, and not letting my frustration and discouragement get to me. In the past, I've always had Troy there to help me get my brain resettled and refocus, but I was going to be on my own here. SCARY! :-)

So, this morning, I got up and hit a cardio clinic to get my body loosened up (7 am! and it was FREEZING here this morning!). Great clinic! :-) My match time was 10 am. I headed home and helped get Brent and the kids out the door, and they surprised me by coming to WATCH! It was really cool to have spectators and supporters! While the kids can't still to watch, it was cool having Brent there to see me play. I liked him seeing that I have DEFINITELY improved :-) LOL.

So, my first match I won easily. I beat the poor girl 6-0, 6-2. I definitely outranked her. Since I won, I went UP the ladder. OH BOY! I was recently ranked 3.5 which means I know what I'm doing - I have control of my ground strokes, serves, etc. I just lack "consistency" (it's coming...). So, moving UP the ladder meant I was playing with 4.0's - these ladies DO have consistency and they know how to PLACE the ball *gulp*.

I know I was in trouble, but I was determined to go in there and try my best and maybe get lucky! LOL Well, I got SPANKED! :-) I lost 2-6, 1-6. She was really good, and really sweet, and I was really .... well, we'll leave all the negativity at the door... :-)

I'm very proud of myself for trying. If you don't put yourself out there, how will you ever know what you can do? There's always next year :-)

BIG BOY COUSINS - PLAYING AND GETTING DIRTY TOGETHER

We spent the weekend at my mom's, and on Sunday we had a big get together. My son, in the past has "tolerated" his little cousin tagging along behind and around him, but this time, he truly ENJOYED his little cousin. He even told me that "he is soooo fun!" WOOHOO!



So, first they went to their aunties house and helped make pizza dough for dinner. My sister told me that it was really cute that everything my son said, little cousin would repeat and copy. He looks UP to his big cousin :-) Actually, we think he just wants to be bigger! LOL

Next they played some baseball. Little cousin is pretty amazing! Even my son admitted it! LOL Next they tried out a little tennis, that didn't last long :-)



But the main source of their enjoyment was the trampoline - they got nice and FILTHY and little cousin was so proud to be as dirty as his big cousin :-) I had to take a picture of their filthy little knees, legs and feet. It was so cute! They were both so proud of their dirt.



They finished off the evening with a little Playstation. Little cousin didn't really play, he just sat watching, eating his candy.

They had a great day. :-)

THE BOYS OF 2008

There's been a bit of a "baby boom" in my family this year. My second youngest sister had her first baby in January. Then my two middle brothers each had baby boys! The first was born in August, and the second in September. When we got together over the weekend, we got some pictures of the boys with their parents.

We are looking forward to the addition of ONE more little boy this year! My sister is anticipating the adoption of HER first child - a little boy due this month! We can't wait to meet him and add pictures of HIM to the "Boys of 2008" :-)

YAY FOR FAMILY VISITS!

I was so excited to find out my brother would be in town the same weekend we were! I couldn't WAIT to see his adorable daughter and his NEW little boy! It's always a pleasure to see him and his wife too. :-) I was hoping to get some doubles tennis in with them both, but unforunately, the baby kept his mommy busy. I had fun hitting with my brother, and discovering that the tennis court is slowly sliding down the hill! LOL It was also fun to find out that yet another of us has inherited our mother's dreaded "backhand slice" that has made us FAMOUS! :-) We all love it, but our opponents dread us! :-) Oh yeah, that's how we like it.

EXTENDED FAMILY FUN DAY

I took a MILLION pictures of the kids, my siblings and cousins. These are just a few of my favorites. :-)


I love how my nephew is looking at his big cousin. He loves my daughter! She loves him too. She is VERY good with him.


Here are the two newest "Boys of 2008". Aren't they HANDSOME!


My little pudgy goosh nephew is just getting cuter by the day! I loved seeing his personality coming alive and all the changes he's gone through since I saw him just 6 weeks ago!


I thought these two were SO cute playing together! I haven't seen this niece much in the last 6 months, so really enjoyed seeing the changes SHE's made too. She is such a cutie!


Baby girl LOVES, LOVES, LOVES her daddy! Every man needs a "daddy's girl"!!!

ACTION PACKED DAY FOR BABY GIRL

THIS IS NOT A PICTURE OF TODAYS BROKEN GAS LINE, BUT JUST TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA OF WHAT THEY COULD SEE FROM THE SCHOOL, AND WE COULD SEE FROM THE BARICADES. PICTURE THIS AGAINST A HILLSIDE...

Baby girl had a very traumatic day. Here's the email I got from her school:

Attention Parents: At approximately 11:30 a.m. today, construction workers accidentally tore a gas line and a fire was sparked at the corner of (names deleted for privacy...). At no time were any (name deleted) students in danger. The gas company, the fire department, and the sheriff’s department responded immediately and were in contact with us here at (name deleted) and are keeping us updated. (name deleted) is closed until the fire is fully contained. They estimate this will take until approximately 2 p.m. As a precautionary measure, to ensure that students and staff did not go near the fire, (name deleted) was under partial lock down for a short time today. The air quality has not been affected by the gas fire at this time. We will continue to monitor the situation. Once again, there is no risk of danger to the school, students or staff at this time. We will update you when we have new information.

Sincerely, Principal

Well, you know baby girl doesn't like stress and was EXTREMELY worried... Here's what I sent hubby:

Yes, she was very freaked out. I heard from her the whole way home about how she didn't know my cell number, and that there was only one other girl in the WHOLE SCHOOL who didn't have a cell phone! :-) This would definitely have been a good day for her to have one, but like I told her, how often does this stuff happen...

I told her that I knew what was going on the whole day. That you had called me, so I called the school. Then I told her the school called with updates thoughout the day. I knew she'd be freaking out so I got there early and waited right by her classroom, for her to come out.

She was pretty upset and started crying a couple times while walking to the car, but I told her to hold it together till we got to the car (because a few boys in front of us were making fun of her for freaking out...). I told her I knew she'd be worried about me knowing where to pick her up, etc. so I came there and waited for her where I knew she'd see me AS SOON as she came out - even though the teachers told me to wait at the top :-)

She's still upset - you can tell it in her "manners" but we'll be sure to have a REALLY laid back afternoon and evening and she'll be fine. :-) Poor little girl! :-)

Well, now that "poor little girl" has had 5 melt downs since we've been home. I'm in for a VERY long evening of Post Traumatic Stress...

In fact, she just threw 2 stuffed animals and a pillow at me because I won't give her the laptop.