Back to School

 Can you believe that we are already back to school? 

Summer is winding down, leaves are falling, my tan is fading, and there's homework now.

I don't wanna.

Granted, I definitely shouldn't complain. E is a rule follower. Does her homework the second she gets home from school, well, after she eats a snack. And really doesn't need much help from me...but it's just still not as carefree as the summer. 

She spent 98% of her summer sitting in front of a monitor, playing her game. yelling at and with her friends, bouncing on a yoga ball that is her desk chair, and probably frying her brain. we do our best to get her outside some....but the girl just loves video games.

It's so fun to see how she is SO VERY different from her sisters. they could care less about gaming when they were her age. they spent their days fighting, and playing, and running around the neighborhood, and around this time they started talking about boys. life is different for an only child though. she isn't technically an only child but since her sisters are more than a decade older than her, she might as well be.

One time, while walking though the girls' clothing section and looking at all the cute clothes (me) and simply being annoyed (her), I said "oh man, i really wish I had a little girl to dress so cute"

her response: "you did. Mimi and Sister." hahahaha. There is ZERO PART of her that will wear a cute outfit. cute to her is not a factor. the girl loves comfort. and likes to dress cool...and by "cool" i mean she dresses like every boy her age. complete with tall socks, crocs, elastic gym shorts, and maybe a funny tshirt. 

I'm pretty sure she grew about a foot over the summer. It's crazy how fast it happens. Even when you have done this parenting thing once before, and you KNOW that one day you will miss this. and you know how fast it goes. it's still mind blowing.

I'm so glad that God gave me her. raising her is fun. and i can't wait to see what her 4th grade year brings.

She told Sister that she MIGHT wear her hair down when she gets to middle school. I'm not holding my breath though. also, I'll probably miss the day she leaves the tomboy look behind. Love that girl. and her (very unique could care less what anyone thinks about her) style.

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Wedding Bells

 I've been waiting to tell the story of the wedding until I had all the pics to upload....but I'm tired of waiting so pics will follow eventually. Let's get this story on paper while I'm still traumatized before I forget.

Small things went wrong all day long. To be expected in a wedding. Especially an outside wedding in the scorching heat of June, when rain is in the forecast.

LUCKILY, when it started pouring, my daughter and her friends are so loud that most of them had no clue it was even raining. so the bride didn't freak out about that. She also had no idea that there was a miscommunication and there were ZERO chairs set up about an hour before the wedding.

Well, she knew. but we tried to keep all the drama from her.

The actual ceremony was BEAUTIFUL. 

I found out beforehand that A was saving a seat for Baby Harper. If you have followed me for long, you know that this is her brother who passed away. The wedding planner let it slip when she was listing out who sat where, and I lost it. This is something I would have never thought of. Our family will forever have a baby sized hole in it because of losing him, but he was not on my mind at the time. what a sweet, thoughtful thing to do.

But that wasn't it. FH walked me down the aisle, and while I expected a seat to be saved for BH, I didn't expect it to be marked. It was, with the sweetest sign. and I lost it again. (these pics are just going to be grrrrrreeeat of me sweating and crying) AND THEN, here comes E, walking down the aisle like a big girl (yes, she's old enough to walk down all alone and be fine, but she DESPISES attention so this was a big deal for her) and she's holding a framed picture of BH. So very sweet and I will never forget this.

A was walked down the aisle by both her dad and FH. This was special to me because FH has been in her life since she was 6 and he has raised her as his own. He is a dad to her in every way possible, so I'm glad that he was not excluded from walking her down the aisle.

Prior to her walking down the aisle, you could hear her voice over the loud speaker, talking to her husband-to-be. This was so unique and she has such a way with words, that it was beautiful.

They wrote their own vows, and did so great. My nephew married them, which is so sweet to me.

Then, the reception.

It started off great, although I'm pretty sure there weren't enough seats for everyone. 

The wedding party entrance was fun and then they went straight into the first dance. This was different, but when you find out what happened about an hour later, you'll know why I was glad that she did this first.

The first dance with FH was the sweetest. Both of them in tears and just such a special moment.

Then they announced the mother of the bride dance. EXCUSE ME, WHAT?

Side note: I've always felt like the mother of the bride and the dad of the groom get the short end of the stick on this, like we need love too! I've never voiced that....but A wanted a dance with me. I couldn't tell you what song was playing, I can only tell you I cried the entire time. 

People started to eat, and drink, and be merry....it was pouring, but hey, we survived the outside wedding so who actually cares if it's raining now?!

And then BOOM. loudest noise ever. Lights out. Bulbs popping. Music stopped.

It appeared that lightning had struck the building. Then we saw fire through the window. so everyone FREAKED. especially yours truly because I could not find E right at that moment.

We were evacuated. Lots of people went home-not that I blame them. The rest of us stood on the porch, just waiting. Lightning had struck a power line, which fell and landed on the poor DJs car. His tires blew out because they were in a puddle of water. The concrete exploded and created an actual hole from the lightning. And a bush was on fire. For hours.

Sweet E has clearly been paying attention at church because she said "you mean, we had an actual burning bush?" I love that kid. A quote that I will remember the rest of my life. :)

We finally got back into the building, fired up some generators, found an iphone and a speaker (the poor DJ had to shut down because the lightning fried his board), turned on some fans and spotlights, and we partied all night.

I'm so proud of how A handled it all. Many brides would have been in tears. Not her. She took scissors to her dress because it was so hot in there, then told everyone to party on. Because life throws lightning at you sometimes, God sends rain to your parade, but how you handle it is a true sign to your character. And that child showed me that she has the best character. #proudmom

Oh, and the caterers decided to leave at the lightning strike, cleaned up nothing, and 50% of the guests got food poisoning, but other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day. 

One daughter down, two to go. Hopefully it's a long time before we have another wedding. Let's celebrate another graduation before we do that, ok K?

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Guess who's Back? Back Again.

 I'm coming out of blogging retirement for two specific reasons.

I. E was reading my old blog books that tell all about Raising Steppe Sisters and she looked at me with the saddest, most serious face you have ever seen and said "well, where is my book?"

and I'm the baby of the family so I know what it feels like to not have a a baby book.

II. A got married and I just can't possibly tell all of you (the 3 people who will read this) about how the wedding went down. Not to mention, I never want to forget the details. I'm not sure that I possibly could, since we are all going to deal with PTSD for awhile now.

So here we are.

When I last left you, I'm not sure how old the girls were but it's been YEARS so let's do an update.

K: 22 and living her best single life. She's having a yes-summer and basically just doing whatever she feels like it.....she's hoping to start PA school in Jan, so she's at home for the summer and enjoying being a kid while it lasts. She graduated from UT Martin this year and is fully aware that she will have no life once she starts back to school.

A: 22 and living her honeymoon phase. freshly married, I can't believe it. and brand new to the NICU world. Those 12 hour shifts are long but she is loving it. I'm just hoping that she is too busy to make me a grandma within the year....there's plenty of time for that later.

E: 9 going on 85 year old grumpy grandma. she enjoys soccer, basketball, Fortnite, swimming, and wearing nothing but clothes from the boy's section. I'm quite positive that she is the BIGGEST tomboy that I've ever met. She may or may not grow out of it...time will tell. Until then, she fills our days with laughter and has taken over the role of providing the QOTDs that K&A were once well known for. Oh and she is the most anti-social person you will encounter.

Example: "mom, do people in Mexico speak another language?" yes. "well, if we went there on vacation, at least I wouldn't have to talk to anyone" (serious face)

FH: still the love of my life. 

me: I play pickleball now. It's pretty serious. and I lift weights. and I try really hard not to eat junk, but it most definitely happens more than it doesn't. and I still work full time at the same place I always have, except I had a nice little 5 year break where I got to live my best life and work from home. That break is over now. and I'm saddened by it EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. 

That's us. We are all busy, but also not that busy because we spend a lot of time at home. Especially FH and E. it takes a lot to get them out of the house. the rest of us don't mind leaving the house if there's a good reason. 

Soccer. and church. and being outside. and walking the dog. and sitting in the backyard doing absolutely nothing. and watching reality TV, specifically Survivor, Big Brother, and Amazing Race. and listening to E scream at her game. 

These are the best days of our lives. And I hope to write about them again more. (really really gonna try!!)

Wedding blog coming soon. Even if FH is the only one reading and he was there. it's still coming. :)

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