If you're happy and you know it...

A few things that make me happy lately...

-My daily workout classes at the YMCA. I love the teachers, I love the hard work, I love the sweat, I love the daily routine of being active again

-I also love that I have lost 20 pounds since joining

-80 degree weather and a backyard pool. Keeps the kids entertained for hours and tired at the end of the day

-Watching Jackson excel at sports, especially soccer

-Watching Ella's growing love of sports (she can't wait for practices and games every week)

-Using my Cricut to make projects

-The return of Glee

-Anticipating my trip to Alaska for my brother's wedding

-Goody StayPut Head Bands

-The dozen roses that Patrick brought home for no reason that are now sitting beautifully on my dining table. Haven't gotten flowers in a long time

-Listening to Kaley sing to all the Top 40 hits on the radio. Especially the shower radio. She rocks it out when she thinks no one is listening

-Knowing I will be seeing an old friend in less than a week!

What's making you happy lately?

Singer/Songwriter

Jackson decided yesterday that he wanted to write a song. I'm not sure what inspired him, but while we were waiting to be seated at Chili's, he sat on the sidewalk and wrote this little ditty:

My Girl

I met this girl

She walked by me

and I said

that's my girl, yeah-yeah

yeah that's my girrrrrrrrl

Oh that's how I got my girl

That's the way it goes with me and her

I love her good, my girl

myyyyyy girl, oh yeah

He was on a roll, so later that night he wrote another:

You Are Mine

Baby what are you doing

Yeah girl

Oh you are mine Baby

You are mine, mine

miiine, oh yeah baby

you arrre mine

Mine, mine, mine

Oh yeah Baby, yeah you're mine

if you like me then kiss me

Right now now

Clearly I might need to pay attention to what kind of music is on in the car, but even Radio Disney is chock full of these kind of songs, albeit more refined. He did sing the song once, so I know it has a tune. He also said he wanted to learn to play country guitar (acoustic) so he could sing and play.

Kaley wanted to get in on the action too! She chose to write about friendship.

(all spelling mistakes are transcribed as she wrote them)

Country Grils

I am a country gril.

Country grils hang out with there best friends

They play with there best best

country gril friends

I love being a country gril

Kaley hasn't really figured out the tune yet, but I know I love my country gril :)

Mod Podge & Canvas

I finished 2 quick projects yesterday involving Mod Podge and artists' canvas!

I have seen all around the web the "Family Rules" canvases that people are making and I liked the idea of them, but since in this house I'm not even sure what the rules are (!), I didn't feel like making a "Rules" canvas. So I put that craft on the back burner until on the way to the Y the other day, I heard a country song on the radio and I liked the lyrics, so I decided to make a wedding gift for my brother using the lyrics instead of rules.

It came together really fast and the process was really easy. Plus the canvases were on sale: a 2-pack for $5, so I have an extra if I ever decided to make some rules! The canvas is 16x20. I still think it needs a little bow or some kind of decoration, but I am happy with it.

The second project I used a small 6x6 canvas I found for $1 at Michael's and my Cricut. Here is my little ode to St. John, my home for only 18 months, but always in my heart and mind. I always get sad when I listen to Kenny Chesney's album "Be As You Are" since all the songs are about St. John and I want to go back ::not just for a visit::

So, those are my projects for the week. It makes me happy being crafty and creative.

Strawberry Festival

We went to the 75th Annual Strawberry Festival in Plant City, FL on Tuesday. We picked the kids up from school and headed down around 3:00.

We had a lot of fun eating fair food, riding unlimited rides, seeing Josh Turner in concert and then picking out some strawberries to take home. And just like they said, you can't leave without having strawberry shortcake, so of course I did and it was so good!

The festival goes on through this weekend and there are still some good concerts including Tracy Lawrence and Sara Evans, so we may even head back down before the week is out.

Why Don't We Just Dance

Your Man

Fearless

Friday night Ella and I ventured to Downtown Orlando to the Amway Arena for Taylor Swift's Fearless 2010 concert!

I'd say I was pretty fearless driving there myself in Patrick's big truck (how else do you roll to a country star's concert?) but the GPS kept me from getting too nervous or losing my way. I'd also say I was pretty fearless braving the loud screams of thousands of young Taylor Swift fans.

Ella was super excited about the concert and wore a cute sundress/cropped jean jacket/cowboy boots ensemble, but quickly asked if she could put on her Taylor Swift concert tee we bought once we entered the arena. Our seats weren't spectacular, but I don't think there were too many bad seats in the house anyway. We were there a little early, so we sat and shared some popcorn while the arena filled up.

The concert started out with "You Belong With Me" and immediately Ella was on her feet and screaming and singing along (with all the other thousands of girls in attendance) She liked it when the cheerleaders ripped off Taylor Swift's dorky band costume and revealed a sparkly silver dress underneath.

I took short video clips of a few of the more popular songs.

Fearless-listen closely for a shout out to Orlando!

Although we could see just fine I think Ella watched the jumbotron more than the stage since she could see Taylor Swift's face and expressions so much better.

Our Song

One of Ella's favorite parts of the entire show was the song "Love Story." Taylor Swift came out in a princess dress and there was a castle background and dancers and then when she got to the part of the song that says "pulled out a ring and said..Marry me Juliet," she magically changed into a wedding dress behind her dancers. Ella thought that was so cool and it was one of the parts if you ask her about the concert she will tell you first.

I tried uploading my video of "Love Story" but my computer is having an issue with it.

Picture to Burn

::Finale:: Should've Said No

Should've Said No was one of my favorite parts since the rain waterfall with words in it was such a cool effect! Ella thought so too and we got the poster of Taylor Swift in the rain waterfall.

I Love You Orlando, FL

I Love You Taylor Swift!

We had a great time and were so glad we got last minute tickets to this SOLD OUT show. The only thing Ella was disappointed in was that after the show our usher told us there was a meet and greet and so she got excited and we went down to where it was, but you had to have a pre-arranged wristband...bummer! I'm sure it is a night she will remember for a long time.

::I realize I used Taylor Swift's full name everytime I mentioned her. Since we're not on a first name basis I thought it better to retain formality. That is all. We love you Taylor Swift::

Valentine Craftiness

Let me start out by saying that I can't take credit for any of the following ideas. I peruse a lot of craft/mom blogs and that is where I got all the ideas for making the valentines this year. Thank you world wide web!

Let the craftiness begin...

Jackson gave his class iPods. Yes, he's cool like that. No, they're not real.

A box of sweethearts, scrapbook paper and a sweet template and you're in business. I found the idea here.

Ella's was pretty simple, just 20 copies of a photo at CVS and a bag of cheap suckers.

Kaley's was just a different take on the same concept. Dollar Store pencils 12/$1.

Patrick's took a little more work and a lot more money, but it was fun and it turned out looking pretty neat. I got the idea from here. Only I wanted a bigger spout, so I used a Starbucks frappucino 4 pack. I got a little help from Mod Podge, my Cricut cutter (1st project since getting it for Christmas) and Kaley. This is the perfect Valentine for Patrick since he is always snacking. I figured he could bring it to work. They are even refillable!

I filled the bottles with Jelly Bellys, chocolate covered raisins, cashews and valentine M&M's. If I had gone with the 6-pack I was going to put a bottle of Sweethearts and a bottle of peanuts as well.

I had fun making all the valentines even if it is easier just to buy the store-bought kind. The kids don't really care either way, but I do.

These were the perfect projects to fuel my creative side and maybe will inspire me to get going on a couple more!

She has issues

A few weeks ago we found a nice community park that includes a dog park. Since we have basically no yard and Maho needs to burn energy we've taken her there a couple times. I thought she would love it and had visions of her running, chasing and making lots of new doggie friends.

Turns out she's more of a loner.

When we take her inside the fence, she is excited to go find a place to do her business and then she likes to stay RIGHTBYMYSIDE. The other dogs try to come play and sniff, but she's not interested. To make matters worse, after a while of walking around (maybe a little running) she is foaming at the mouth so she looks like a crazy dog. I try to take her to the water bowl, but either she is not a fan of community-shared water or she thinks she doesn't need a drink. The foaming is gross though.

On top of that, she stands by the fence door waiting/whining for someone to come in or out so she can get out. To go where I'm not sure since I stay inside the fence with her, but she's more interested in all the people and kids at the park than the other dogs.

She has issues.

And after a little incident at the dog park yesterday, Jackson may have issues too.

Two older men came into the dog park with their greyhounds. Big, sleek retired racing dogs. Since I was standing near the fence when they came in (because that's where Maho likes to hang out) I heard them talking to another couple and the man said that he wasn't sure if he wanted to let one of the dogs off the leash because it had eaten smaller dogs before. Since the dog park we were in was for dogs 30 pounds and up I guess he thought they would be safe.

I went to sit down at the picnic table and watch all the dogs (with my dog beside me) and soon Patrick and the kids were done playing at the basketball court and came to join me. One of the greyhounds started chasing a springer spaniel type dog and continued until it started to attack it with a bunch of the other dogs following. Of course the old man could not get to his greyhound to be any help and the poor spaniel was yelping. It really was a big, terrible scene. Some other owners finally got the greyhound off and the spaniel owner tended to his dog. Then some loud name calling and yelling obscenities ensued and the scene just got worse. All of this in front of KIDS.

Jackson is our most sensitive kid and all the events taking place really bothered him. He was almost in tears, saying he never wanted to come back to this park again. So we had to explain that the greyhound was doing what it's trained to do in racing, chase a small animal, and that the owner just couldn't control it and that in the end we were thankful that the spaniel was not hurt. It was scary, especially with the all the fighting afterwards.

I don't think he'll forget about it anytime soon, but I hope that next time we can have a much more positive experience at the park.

And that Maho learns to be more social.

A New Favorite

Like lots of Americans, I vowed to lose weight this year. I had a lot of success with Weight Watchers at work when we lived in Tulsa, so now that we are back on the mainland with plenty of grocery stores to choose from and plenty of "diet" foods I think I'll be able to do it.

I've been a subscriber to the Hungry Girl emails for a couple years now. She gives lots of good tips and food finds, plus recipes PLUS weight watcher points for almost everything. Not that I always followed the advice or anything, but it's good to be in the know. :) One of the products she always is talking about are VitaTops. They are like muffin tops and are made by a company called Vitalicious. They come in lots of flavors. I'm not sure how widely available they are, but I found them at the Publix and decided to try them out since they were on sale.

I only tried the deep chocolate kind, but man, they are my new favorite! I'm not even really a muffin fan either. They are satisfying because they have like a gazillion grams of fiber (well, 6). They are also only 100 calories and only 1 point on the Weight Watchers system. I have been having one as dessert and I am good for the night...which is good because otherwise I'd be snacking all night.

Plus it is chocolate people!

Go try some.

And if you don't like them you can send them to me.

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Last night the girls and Patrick attended a Daddy/Daughter dance at their school. Since I wasn't there, I can't technically give you all the details, but I can provide the sweet pictures and some second-hand commentary.

When Ella heard the news about the dance, she came home really excited and has been looking forward to it. She wasn't exactly excited about Kaley going as well, but she couldn't really argue about that point.

They decided to wear some dresses they had gotten shortly before leaving AK. Kaley was debating about wearing a flowery pink one, but I kind of coerced her into the black so they would all match.

And of course we had to take pictures of the cute couple (threesome?) just like you do traditionally before any formal dance.

Then Patrick pulled the car up and opened the door for them like a gentleman (reminding Jackson he needed to do the same thing for his mother when we went on our date to McD's later on...didn't happen)

They're off to the dance in style!

Patrick said there were probably around 30-40 dads at the dance, so it wasn't a HUGE turnout, but fun. A spaghetti dinner was included. The girls said they played group dance songs like the Macarena, the Conga line, Electric Slide, and of course the Chicken Dance. Kaley said her favorite was the Chicken Dance.

Afterwards they went for ice cream and saw some of the Epcot fireworks from afar.

The girls had a great night out with their dad and I think it was definitely a night for Patrick to remember as well.

Fake it til you make it

You know the old saying "Fake it til you make it?" I'm thinking I might need to apply it to my life right now.

Me and the kids left Alaska and the safety net of my parents 3 days before Christmas. I admit, it was hard to leave. When I should have been counting down the days to reunite my family and see my husband I was instead mourning the little time I had left with my family. My heart really did not want to leave. We had grown comfortable in Fairbanks. It was nice to finally live around my family and see them on a day-to-day basis. To be involved in the menial talks and tasks that go on in a household. And to make matters worse, my whole family had gathered for the holiday at my mom's house so it was especially hard to leave right before all the Christmas festivities.

But, leave we did and now we are in Florida. The weather has only gotten slightly better and my heart hurts only a little less each day wishing I could be back home.

As we head into the new year and our new life I am having a hard time. I'm not really excited to be starting over, I'm not really excited to be in FL, I'm not really excited to learn a new school routine and find new friends (if only!) or find where all the great places to shop are or even find out how to drive into Orlando.

So, after a week or so of a pity-party for one I have decided I need to change my attitude.

But what if I can't change my attitude? Does that change my situation? No. I am still starting over, I am still in FL, I am still going to have to learn a new school routine and find new friends and where to shop and how to drive into Orlando.

So I've decided I better "fake it til I make it" Act like I am interested in my surroundings even if I'm not, act excited about all the possibilities when all I want is the familiar, act brave even when I feel scared inside about starting over.

And then all that faking might just turn into sincerity.

At least that is what I keep telling myself.