7.

I LOVE watching my seven year old be seven.  There is no high school musical in my house, no iCarly, no Hannah Montana. (Don't worry we do have Spongebob and Phineus and Ferb)  This is not because I am a control freak, it is because I want my sweet gal to be seven as long as she can.  There is plenty of time for her to figure out that she should like boys and roll your eyes at adults.  I love that she really thought the dance party out (mentioned in a previous post)  and thought it would work.  She saw nothing wrong with charging people to dance with her and her sister.   At seven I remember clear as day thinking that my friend Laura and I were going to dig an underground club house.  We were serious about it.  My mom gave us shovels and said , Go for it!  We made drawings (lots and lots)  and had NO doubt that it would be the coolest thing EVER. 

There are times when the real world comes dangerously close to the 7 year old world.  Times that she has serious questions about life and death and I can see her figuring out that things aren't as rosey as she thought they were. 

We sponsor a child that lives in India, J helped us pick out which child we were going to sponsor.  We thought it would be a good lesson that she knows some kids are not as blessed as she is, you need to help when you can, and think about how to responsibly spend your money.   I thought she would pick a girl her age and go on with her day.  She looked at every kid, about an hour later with tears in her eyes she picked a girl.  I asked if she was ok, she said I just don't understand how all these kids need help, why can't they get it?  There were many questions about why the child we sponsored doesn't have toys, or even enough food.   Sigh....lessons that she needs to learn but I wish it was always a dance party.    I know that she will lose the seven-ness of it all, but until then I love listening to her plan things and will try my best to be the mom that hands her the shovel and says Go for it!!! :) (thanks mom!)
Blessings-
Lindsay

Can I tell ya?

I am pretty sure that I have the cutest and most awesome kids in the world.  NO I am not biased. Wanna see?...

Oh yeah and as husbands go... I have also hit the double jackpot!

SIGH..... I am so blessed!

really!!!

Well....she did it!

To conclude my earlier post, J had her audition for our towns "American Idol".  She was so excited!  We arrived early and she got her little number. I looked around, she was defintely the youngest one there.  They called her number and off she went.  I waited in the lobby for her as they wanted them to audtion without parents.  That little freckle faced 7 year old marched back there with zero nerves!  She skipped back about 30 minutes later and said it went really well. The next day I got an e-mail telling me that she made the semi-finals! WOOOO HOOOO!    This means that she gets to sing at the towns 4th of July festival.  After that then the finalists are chosen and they will sing right before the fireworks display. 

I am pretty sure this is the mnost excited I have seen her. She is spends all of her free time singing!

Well almost all of her time.....this was on our front door

I will translate for you...it says  "DANCE PARTY- right now. $1.00 per person" then our address is listed below.    With a straight face I asked her- "J- tell me how you are expecting this to work?"

J-"Well mom people will drive by and see the sign and stop for my dance party."

me-"So let me get this straight- you are hoping strangers will drive by,see the sign, come into our house, dance, then hand you a dollar?-

J-"yep, pretty much"

In case you were wondering we have yet to have strangers dance in my house and pay us money.  If they do, you wil be the first to find out.  :)

L- is her normal self = a 2 year old. 

She threw an EPIC fit today. WHEW!

I will have more happy things to post about her on a different day, you know when she is not cutting molars!

Off to make dinner....yummm steak!

I deserve this??

Guess where I was from Wed- Sunday???   Give up?  VACATION!!!!
M's company sends all of its employees that have worked for them for 10 years on an all expense paid vacation to Amelia Island.  This year is also M and I- 10 year aniversary.  I really enjoy that we took a trip together and someone else paid for it!

We took the girls with us and they got to spend some wonderful, quality time with their aunt, uncle and cousins. (They live 30 minutes from where we had vacationed)  now back to our trip.  :)

This resort was amazing.  Here was my Saturday......
and a picture of where we were

wake up....
sit on the beach and quietly read....
head to a massage at noon...
.lunch at the bar.....
back to the beach.....
(insert a few drinks with umbrellas)
out for dinner with wonderful new friends
out to the bars after.
sigh.....

Really????

Not once did I make a meal or have anyone wipe a booger on me declaring "mommy- I done with this"


I am back to reality and recharged.  I lost my charge momentarily on the plane as holding my 2 year old was an actual aerobic workout....but we are getting back in the groove and coming down from our vacation high.
J has her last week of school and her big audition.  She is getting excited!!!  I am back to boogerland and ready to face the snot and applesauce with a smile on my face! Summertime....here we come!

Blessings-
Lindsay

Lights...Camera.....gulp.

My 7 year old, J, has been singing since she could talk. Really.  Those that know her will tell you this is true.  I had a preschool teacher tell me once that she could never watch the movie Annie again because she had heard J sing it so much. :)

A few weeks ago we went out to breakfast and J saw a poster for an American Idol contest for our town and just LIT UP.  Can I do that mom??????  I told her I would look up more info when we got home.  I looked it up and there was a 12 and under catagory....sigh.   Now let me just say  I want what is best for my kids.....BUT I am not the mom that will be spray tanning my gals and looking into getting them veneers.
so....
I talked to her music teacher (who has approached me before about Julia and her singing) she said that it would be a great fit for her....sigh.   :) OK so J is signed up to audition.  There will be judges and then possibly moving on to the "next round" where she would perform at our towns 4th of July festival. 
No matter how this works out, she will learn something.  She will learn how auditions work and she might learn how to be  "gracefully disappointed."  Either way she is going to have a mom cheering her on, and most likely sweating thru her shirt!   

I will keep you posted on how this all works out....should be fun! 

So much to say.....

Guess what.....

RHINO BUTT! 

What does this mean?  

The Clark girls went to the zoo!!! OMG we had so much fun.  We did everything there. My 2 year old walked without her stroller from 9:30-3:30! What a trooper! Both girls got to feed giraffes. L has talked of nothing else. She tells strangers about it! It usually end with her screaming  "I DID IT!!!!"

 Here was our view while feeding the giraffes....FOR REAL!

Here are my monkeys waiting for the train....

and just being friggin' adorable.....

NEW TOPIC!!!!

Sometimes as a mom I feel like....REALLY PEOPLE? How do you do it all?

I understand as a christian and a generally decent person, I do NOT need to compare myself to others. BUT sometimes I do.   I will explain. I am currently addicted to craft blogs.  If you don't know what I am talking about....good for you (although I have learned ALOT). 

 While reading these blogs I see that some of these moms have 2 or 3 small children AND do all these crafty things.  I am a crafty gal....but alas no time to do it!  I understand that in a few years I will have SO much time to work on art...possibly professionally (my hope).  Instead of being jealous that these moms can do everything. I have decided to focus on what I do.  

Today L told me that she was not going to lick our dog.  Great idea!

I went to Meijer and Target...noticing after that I had applesauce all over my sleeve.

I talked L of the ledge of a MAJOR fit...when she saw a ruffled pink swimsuit that she was convinced was hers.

I took the time to take this picture of L before we left. 

 I will explain first....she took her sisters headband and grabbed her crucifix (J got this from sunday school for learning all her memory verses) out of her sunday school bag.  This results in a picture that looks like an angry jazzercise teacher heading out to save the world.  see...

Last night J woke up 2 hours after going to bed and wanted to talk.  Sure...sometimes the best time to talk!  She sat down and told me (in a very serious tone)  that she was pretty sure that she was the 3rd shortest kid in the 1st grade.  I asked her how she figured that out.  She named 2 kids that she has noticed were shorter than her  (she added that she was not making fun of them) :)   She also pointed out all the stools in our house have the word baby on them then "mom, sometimes you just can't reach something...this does not mean you are a baby"   then promptly went back to bed.  :)

J has a habit of drawing on EVERYTHING! Yesterday my grocery list had a heart on it with the word "happy" in the middle.  I noticed this on the MILK this morning!!! (don't worry I picked up more milk at Target!)

So my point is.... I have not made homemade bread or homemade ribbons....or even showered.

but....my kids are funny and happy and that is what counts.  When the bus pulls away with L on it (in a few years) I will make a million bows and loaves of bread...but until then I will take my life and love it!!

BLESSINGS TO YOU!

You just walk on them..right???

Well the Clarks have been on a flooring ADVENTURE the past month!

We got all new carpet upstairs. SO...everything that lived upstairs had to come down. We recovered, put things away, and rubbed our little Clark toes in the new carpet. THEN.....my husband and dad put in new laminate wood floors in the whole downstairs. So everything that lived downstairs had to go upstairs. We are in the recovering process right now. The house looks like someone picked it up and shook it!!! As overwhelmed as I feel right now it does not top the feeling of how blessed we are that we could do this and have the help from my dad!

I am still trying to figure out the picture thing on the blog and what I am doing wrong. sigh. I am going to try to post some before and after pictures....here goes...

Here are a few more during the process.....

Our dog Sophie is such a great helper. Her list of chores while the floors went in (in no particular order) bark at the saws..... barf on the new floors (due to nerves) running down the street to visit every dog on the block. I am pretty sure she was telling them about our amazing new floors. She was so helpful.

On a different note....my oldest daughter will be turning 7 tomorrow. I am so happy to see how she is growing up but will really miss 6. Six has been my favorite stage so far, I am hoping 7 is just as amazing. Knowing how amazing my kid is... I am sure that 7 will ROCK!

I am heading back to the mess of organizing my house and wiggling my toes in my new carpet. It is ALMOST as good as sand on the beach. Almost. :)

Blessings-

Lindsay