He has a HEART of gold!

We are so proud of Mr. Benjamin! You are looking at the top fundraiser from the entire school for JUMP Rope for Heart! Thanks to the generosity of so many of our friends and family, Benjamin raised over $550 for The American Heart Association during Glenview Elementary's JUMP rope for Heart. Benjamin asked for donations in memory of his Papere who passed away just before school started this year. He knew that without the help Papere received with his heart transplant almost 11 years before, that he, Benjamin, would never have had the chance to know a grandfather of his own. As many of you know, my father had passed away 5 days after Benjamin was born so Papere was the only one he got to spend time with. Now don't worry about his being grandfatherless, cause PawPaw Ricky said he could be everybody's PawPaw.

Okay, enough mushy stuff, this is a celebration! Thank you again if you helped Benjamin exceed his goal and if you didn't get the chance this year, maybe he will catch up to you next year! This is a cause dear to our hearts so we plan to do it again next year, and even better!

Check out this guy jumproping...

Apparently he got his talent from his Momma, cause I don't think that rope went under those feet too many times but let me tell you the laughter and smiles were enough to make it all worth while.
Look at this AWSOME group of kids, all 1st graders who raised money for JUMP Rope for Heart...

***Look Benjamin is even tall enough to stand on the back row!!!***

One last thank you to all who helped Benjamin reach his goal...

Thank You!!

Pure Enjoyment

Check this out, now this is what you call pure enjoyment...

These two love each other so much, but check out those faces. That is pure enjoyment of an ice cream sandwich that Brother Bear insisted Sister Bear NEEDED! They don't get that love of cold foods from me, that comes from that ice crushing father of theirs. Daddy can sit and eat a glass of ice in no time flat. I've thought about sending him out on one of those ice breaker ships and these two have got it bad too. They both crunch ice, well one of them crunches while the other one still gums it, like it's nobody's business. I don't even like ice in my drinks much less to bite into something cold like an ice cream sandwich. I am/was that kid with the drippy cone cause it takes me soooo long to eat ice cream. Drippy...hmmm...interesting word.

Well, it is 5:30 in the morning and I've been up since 3:30 because, to quote a new favorite for now movie, "Mother knows best" - sidebar... don't you just love the horse on Tangled?!?! - I am trying, quite successfully I might add, to convince Gracie that there is no need to see Momma sometime between 2:30 and 4 every morning. We have gotten into a habit of Momma rescuing the princess from her crib and snuggling up on the couch for a glass of warm milk, a good squeeze, and then back to dreamland, but it's taking it's toll on old Momma Bear. I need a whole night's worth of sleep and even though the pediatrician wants us to push those calories, it's time to stop that nighttime cup. It's not good for sleep habits or those budding teeth or Momma's beauty sleep. So tonight it was 3:30 and I still "rescued" her, but this time just offered the cuddle and a glass of water. Not exactly what she wanted, but not too offended, I loved her and put her back in the bed with pappy and blankie. Whew, that went better than expected... for 10 minutes. I didn't go back in, just let her fuss for a couple of minutes and guess what... she went back to sleep... for about 15 minutes... still didn't go in... two minutes and back quiet, this time for about 30 minutes. Now I'm wide awake, and she is sleeping almost peacefully, I still hear every once in a while sorta whimper, but she's a big girl, 16 months yesterday!

Can you believe it, almost 1 1/2 years since she made her surprise debut. May be she can keep up that early bird arrival trait cause the Good Lord knows He gave her that trait, she didn't get that from me. My dear husband says I'll even be late to my own funeral cause the hearse is gonna catch a flat or something. It doesn't matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to be early for anything. Oh well, life goes on...

Here is one more picture of Sister Bear, check it out, even a bad hair day can't stop that AWSOME smile!

Okay, just one more... she is loving the warmer days we've been having cause Momma lets her go on the back porch all by herself! Of course with the gates locked and the door open and I'm never more than 15 feet away... gotta love her!

Good night or should I say Good Morning to all! Signing out...

Just Getting Started

This is one of those things I keep saying in my head I'm gonna do, but just never get around to actually starting. I can't promise excellence, but I do promise honesty. This is my sharing. We, as a family have decided not to "do" the social media networking thingy. We just like to communicate with those we are connected to not just "friended" by. Sooo, here goes... our first entry into the great unknown... reaching for the frontier...