A Good Cause

Friday night we went to a benefit for Captain Bill Dowling, "Iron Bill", at the RCC.  It was all to raise money to buy his wheel chair accessible van with 100% of the proceeds from the ticket sales and silent auction going towards it.  It was an electric, exciting, and very crowded night with a record crowd.  The silent auction was awesome, the honor guard played the bagpipes and drums for quite a while including Amazing Grace (goose bumps!), the National Anthem, an opening act by Two Tons of Steel, and Aaron Tippin rocking the house.  Wow, he is funny, energetic, and entertaining.  They brought the family on stage to present many checks worth a lot of money as well as a live auction with fire memorabilia.  A kid's bike went for $4,500 that Aaron Tippin auctioned off!  A lot of money was raised!  We won our bid at the silent auction for an autographed Johnny Manziel picture and at the end of the night they auctioned off the guitar that was designed and painted for Iron Bill that Aaron Tippin played during the show.  Also all of the proceeds from the purchase of the song Aaron wrote for Bill called "One of the Good Guys" goes to Bill.  He closed the show out with the song.  It was heart warming and humbling to see Iron Bill and his wonderful family.  His face was lit up the whole night with pure happiness and joy.  So glad we could be a part of it.

Clothing Woes

I forgot that before Spring Break the kids had rodeo day at school as well as a week of dressing up different ways to celebrate Dr. Seuss' birthday.  My kids don't branch out too much to look "silly", but they liked silly hat day.  Landon never gives me problems with what he wears and never has.   I set it out for him for the whole school week and he never complains and just puts it on in the morning.  On the weekends he picks out his own clothes unless it's church.  The only issue we have is with pants and shorts that fit since he is so skinny.  He needs a size 8/9 length but a size 6 waist.  So, athletic shorts are okay because we can get a size 6/7 and they are a little loose, but doable.  Blue jeans we have to still buy adjustable waist and take it all the way in.  But, athletic pants or non-adjustable pants aren't happening.  They are either high waters and fit his waist, or the perfect length but fall to the floor.  Bless his heart!  I remember the days when he was so chubby that he was always a year ahead in clothing size.  Now his poor belly button is even an outie.  He definitely doesn't have my metabolism!  I think it's all from his medications and medical conditions plus having Jason's fast metabolism and body build. 

Now, Emerson is a whole different story (and I want to document this for my memory for years down the road).  I remember 1-2 years ago talking to other moms that were complaining about their picky daughters and clothing and I said Emerson wasn't giving me problems...yet!!!  Yikes, that has all changed.  She despises buttons of any type.  Buttons on pants, the cuff of pants, shirts, hats, shoes, even buttons on pillows or on other people's clothing.  I have given my friend Cory a slew of brand new clothes never worn and some with tags because they consisted of a button somewhere.  Now, a few times if they are on the bottom cuff of a pair of leggings I will hide it from her and get her dressed or threaten her that she will go to school in her underwear if she doesn't put them on.  In the pictures below she is ticked off because I made her wear a shirt with buttons for rodeo day, after she turned down and screamed about two other shirts.  And then she refused to stand by Landon because he had pearl snap buttons all down his western shirt.  Made picture taking fun, especially when Landon teased her and chased her screaming "buttons" in a haunted voice.  He loves messing with her about it.  She won't wear blue jeans either unless she absolutely has to for horse lessons but we are sticking to non-blue jean pants for now.  She has told me since kindergarten that she is "allergic to blue jeans".  What a nut!  She doesn't like tags, ruffles, pockets, creases, etc. that bother her and she will only wear one type of socks.  She threw a fit when I put the athletic ankle cut socks on her wanting to know where the rest of the sock was.  She has to have the line on the toe perfect and her shoes have to feel just right, without her toe touching anything or feeling the crease.  Her shoes have to fit just right and she pretty much only wears tennis shoes, Crocs, and boots for horse lessons.  I had several cute brand new Sperry shoes she turned her nose up to.  She prefers to just throw her Crocs on when at home, even with socks on.  Just this morning she almost got out of the car rider line with only one shoe on because she didn't like the way her sock was feeling in her shoe and she was throwing an epic tantrum.  Mornings are a joy around here!!!  And then I get to race to work 4 days a week to teach 8 tough reading groups from 9-3.  We are back to the terrible 2's these past few months for some reason and boy is she opinionated and full of drama.  And her mind can not be changed or swayed one bit.  Next lawyer or president of a Fortune 500 company!  She will analyze her outfit each day before putting it on and now when I buy her clothes I show them to her and she "approves" of them, even telling me "Mommy, I approve". So much personality packed into that body of hers!  Oh, and did I mention that she ends up sleeping in our bed around 2-4am several nights a week, every week for about a year now because she is "scared".  Yawn!!  She gets scared very easily and is very afraid of the dark, has been for a while now but it's worse.  Despite her driving us crazy lately and wearing us out, she is a joy, happy, sensitive, smart, witty, hilarious, caring, always keeps us on our toes, and she has a HUGE heart for animals and critters.  If she likes you at the moment she will pour absolutely everything into you...if she doesn't, good luck.  HA!  She's a prissy girl and a tomboy all rolled into one (you should see what her clothes look like at the end of the day). 

Last of Spring Break

We finally had nice weather the last 2 days of Spring Break.  The kids swam in the very cold pool and warm hot tub, played outside with their friends, flew kites, played outside with Piggy, we went on a bike ride and fed the ducks, and Emerson had horse lessons twice.  She now takes group lessons with 2 older kids.  We want to lease a horse but the owner wants her to be in group lessons with her before we are considered.  Emerson is still doing great and blows me (and everyone else away) at the age of 6.  She rides circles around the 8 and 9 year old in her group.  Mainly because she has no fear and she has a very commanding personality.  She is something else!!!  We always stop to love on the orphan "baby", Cookie, who is now 14 months old.  He is huge and so precious and has a spit-fire personality too, which is partly why and how he survived his first few months of life.  I love that horse!  Spring Break went by way too fast but it was fun while it lasted.