Walewski Talent!

Friday night was an awesome night. My parents kept Audrey so I actually got to relax some and enjoy the show. The kids did awesome, and a great time was had by all.

For the IHM Talent Show, it is not about who is better than the rest, it is about showing what talents God has given you, and if you want to perform, you can. It was just a fun night for kids and parents.

These pictures of Allison and Julianne do not do justice, because in real life, they looked WAY WAY cuter than these pictures relay. :)







Here is the family act doing Forever (God is faithful)... Mason was just so thrilled to have his own microphone. :)





Here is Julianne and the Kindergarten class. :)



Here is my brave, brave Alena. She really struggled finding the courage to get up and do this...but SHE DID IT! She did "Love Story" by Taylor Swift... She was so good...



After the talent show came the "dance party". Here is Alena and her friend having a blast.



And I LOVE LOVE LOVE these two pics. This is Mason, being 4 years old, in dancing bliss....

Snow Day...

It snowed today! Enough to get school called off...which takes a miracle to happen at IHM, but it happened. The way it is snowing still, I don't doubt there will be no school tomorrow either!

So, I finally dragged out my new camera...first time since Christmas Eve. I got some pics of the kiddos, and then played with some editing. Here are a couple of them.







I would like to type out about how we saw that Home Depot was laying off a lot of people, and that we are just praying that Jeff's job will be safe...but I don't really want to talk about it. I know that God will provide no matter what...he always has and continues to do so. It is just so frightening what is happening in our world today. I don't see a turn around anytime soon.

Let's see what ya got, Barack....what can you do for ME?

Busy Day...

Today was full. We had two basketball games, two birthday parties, and one concession stand job. Tomorrow we have donut duty after mass, my real job and one basketball game.

Oh, and the whole getting ready for Monday morning thing...

I've returned!

To the blooging world. If there are really anbody who reads this, you are in luck...ha ha...because I feel like typing out my life again. :) More to follow.

But for now, all I have to say is:

What the HELL was I thinking when I signed up THREE kids to play bastketball this season? I mean, I am essentially a single mom on weekends, who works on Sunday's! I've just added ALL the games into my (STILL UP TO DATE, yay me!) daytimer, and....whoa. I'm just praying that I figure out a way to get them all to where they need to go, when they need to get there, and I will have to finagle some schedule changes at work.

I promise to post more often now!

Winter Happenings...

Winter is usually not my favorite time of year. Nothing has changed, I still pretty much hate winter, but in the last couple of weeks, we've been able to do some fun "wintery" things.

Last Sunday, was the Girl Scout Christmas party. It wasn't really a party so much as it was a gathering of all the Girl Scouts from all the grades at school, and their families who could come. I was fortunate enough to be able to get off work, and go! It was held at Steinberg Ice Rink. It was myself and my three Girl Scouts....my Junior, my Brownie and my Daisy.

It was really the perfect ice skating day. It was like 40-50 ish degrees, but very windy. So, it would get warm if you were skating in your two layers of clothes that your mother made you wear, but you didn't get cold!

Alena was very worried before going that she was going to fall, and that another skater would skate over her fingers and cut them off. (geez, where does she get this crazy thinking from??? ;)) I was worried that Julianne would have a very difficult time even standing up in the skates. But ALL three girls had a blast! Julianne was able to give the rail a death grip and go 1/4 way around, and then back. After that, she was "ready to go back to grandmas". ha ha!

But Allison had a blast, and Alena had a really, really great time! She did not want to leave! After a few hours, Allison had sore baby toes, but really, that was the only complaint of the day. I did not skate, but rather took pictures and talked with the other moms! A good day was had by all.

The next fun "wintery" thing we've done is make Gingerbread men. Well, I should say we decorated them.... Target has a great deal on them, so I picked up a couple packs. The kids were really excited to get to do it, but as almost usual, it turned into a circus side show.

Ugh. It started off cool....then about halfway through, it started to get a little hairy, and the kids started "discussing" who had more cookies, who used more icing, and where on earth had all the little gumdrops gone?? (hint hint...check Julianne's mouth...)

It ended in an almost full blown fight, as Mason was soooo upset over not having enough gumdrops, and Allison worried that somebody actually ATE one of her cookies.... But, it was fun, and I have one more package to do...and when we do it, THEY WILL have FUN, gosh darnit!

The other fun winter/Christmas thing we've done is go to my employer's Christmas party. It was held at a place called Time For Dinner. I had an awesome, awesome time! I took my oldest daughter Allison with me. Allison has been wanting to take a cooking class for some time now, so this was a great and fun thing for her to experience.

I also had fun taking pics with my new camera.

So, even though I despise the cold, and the early darkness, and the high heating bills, and the scraping of ice off my windshield, and the dry skin, and the coats, hats, gloves, socks, wet floors, and everything else that comes with winter, I do enjoy the fun things I get to do with my family, that I otherwise would not be able to do in the summer.

The Walker Scottish Rite Clinic

Long time, no blogging, and I'm sorry. :) But, I'm back and will be updating here more frequently...I promise.

Last night was one of the best nights of my life. Back in October, I was asked by Julianne's speech therapist to give a parent testimonial at the clinic's annual Gala, their big fundraising event. Of course, how could I say no? I owe them, the Walker Scottish Rite Clinic, more than I could ever repay. They are such a wonderful organization. They offer free speech and language therapy to families at no charge. A blessing. Especially in this day when speech therapy usually is not a covered benefit in most insurance plans. They have helped over 13,000 families over the past 20 years, and 1000 families just this year alone.

So, I have been working on my "speech" for the past couple of months. I tried hard not to think too much about acutally "giving" the speech, because I didn't want to start freaking out. But, slowly, I've been working on what it was I wanted to say, and I had been helping Julianne to say, "Thank you for helping Children like me....".

Last night finally arrived. I actually had on new clothes, and shoes with heels. :) I haven't worn shoes with heels since I've been married, since you know, I'm already way taller than Jeff...but for this night, I went ahead, and didn't even feel self conscious about it. Even though my wonderful friend *adult acne* decided to visit me, I still felt like I looked decent. I even colored my hair to hide the gray.

When we walked in, it was like we were royalty. Everybody knew that we were Julianne's parents, and Julianne was the designated star of the evening. It was awesome. Julianne's picture was everywhere. They even had her picture on the first page of the "program" with a little blurb about her. She looked fabulous in her pretty purple dress and her fancy curls. She felt like a princess.

I gave my speech without any fear. Julianne said her line at the end. Jeff even said I did a great job...I think I surprised him....:) He didn't think I could handle the job. But I did, and I must say...I did good.

Here are a few pictures from the evening. Remember, you can click on them to make them bigger.

Here is Julianne and me:


Julinne and Dad:


Here are a couple of my favorite decorations:

The dinner table. There was almost a "hissy fit" until we assured her she did not have to eat the salad.

The "stage":


There we are....


Here is Julianne with Mr. Walker himself, and a big wig who just presented a check for $20,000.


And what it looks like after all that partying. :)

Halloween Pictures...

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. Allison is at the age where she went with her friend, and her friends mom, and did NOT want me to go with them. *sigh* Oh well. The other kids still "need" me. :) Allison was a "tattoo artist". Alena was a "dead cheerleader". I'm not sure what the deal was with the "dead" title, but it seemed to be the theme of costumes this year. Interesting. Mason would have been a knight/pirate/cop, but he was grounded...and did not get to trick or treat. Trust me, the punishment DID fit the crime... Julianne was JoJo The Clown. And Audrey was just a kid in a stroller. Yeah, I'm not the best "dress em' up" mother at Halloween time. But, you get what you get. Here are some pics... Again, you can click on them to make them bigger.










And can you find the cutest girl in THIS class????