That's what Raegan told me the other day. My heart just melted on the spot.
Coincidentally, the next day I was getting ready for work and had my MP3 player going in the bathroom when the song "Best Day" by Taylor Swift came on. (it's the song currently playing on my blog right now). Now I've had this song on my MP3 player for a couple of months, but I never really listened to the words until then. I realized that she wrote the song about her mother. As I really listened to the words, I started to cry. (Now you have to really listen to the words). Not good when you're trying to put on mascara.
This song makes me think of my relationship I have with my daughter. Raegan has always been more of a "Mommy's Girl". She follows me around like a little puppy most of the time. I know a lot of her peers are starting to push their mothers away and focus more on their friends. I'm so glad she hasn't gotten there yet. I'm not ready for it. We love to have our "girl days" and just hang out, just the two of us.
I found a few photos of Raegan and I and made a little slide show to go with the song. Enjoy! I'm going to go give my daughter a big hug...
Ok, I surrender! I know I've been a terrible blogger. I've already slapped myself on the wrist. All I can say is "I'm sorry" (there is a small tear running down my cheek at this moment...)I have no good excuse, just laziness I guess.
So, let's see...
What have we been doing since my last post? Well, since that was way before the holidays, I guess I should start there.
We had busy but fun holidays as usual. Mine was especially crazy because I was working for a friend of mine for a few weeks before Christmas. My friend, Sheila, who owns her own hair salon, had to go in for surgery to have a kidney removed (yeah, ouch!) So she asked me if I would do some of her clients for her while she recovered. Luckily, I was able to work around my schedule and do several of her clients for her. It was fun to get back into a salon, but I realized that I don't think I could go back to it full time ever again. But I did earn some great money which I'm using to go visit both of my sisters over Spring Break! Yea, I can't wait!
The kids were excited as usual for Christmas to come. They were bouncing off the walls for weeks. Plus I tortured them by not putting any of their presents under the tree until they went to bed on Christmas Eve. I'm such a mean mom! We did have a nice surprise on Christmas Eve morning...SNOW! We woke up to about 2-3 inches of snow on the ground. It was so cool. Our first white Christmas!
Here's a few pictures from Christmas...
Since the holidays, we've remained as busy as ever.
Raegan played soccer for her school's team and is also still playing basketball in a city league. Riley is still taking piano lessons and playing his clarinet in the school band. Both kids have gone skiing a few times with Casey (I get to stay home and have a day to myself!).
I know that school will be out before I know it. It seems every year passes quicker than the last.
Ok, that's pretty much it for now. Let's see if I can get back here a little sooner next time.
I'll leave you with a couple of my newest layouts that I've done...
Time sure does fly! I just checked my blog and noticed that the last time I posted was in September! That's terrible! But, we have been very busy (so what else is new?). Let's see if I can sum up the past couple of months in a nutshell... (ha ha)
Well, since it seems that soccer takes up a majority of our time, I'll start there. Raegan's team has progressed so much this year. We went to a tournament in Benicia back in September. They only won one game, but had a chance to get to know each other outside of soccer, which was good. Although, I don't think the hotel that we all stayed at appreciated their bonding as well as we did. In October, we traveled down to Sunnyvale for an all U-11 tournament. This one was great because our team finally got to play against other teams that were all the same age. In our local league, we are the youngest team. There were 12 teams in the girl's division for the Sunnyvale tournament. Our team made it to the championship game against the Sunnyvale team and WON!!! It was so exciting! I wish I had a picture to share, but Casey didn't make it to that tournament and I didn't bring a camera. The girls all got championship t-shirts and first place medals.
The next weekend, we had a special visitor to our local soccer park. His name is Julian Valentin and he plays professional soccer with the Los Angeles Galaxy. (Yes, that is the same team that David Beckham plays for!) He was nice enough to come out and talk to our team and even warmed up the girls before the game. We've never seen them so enthusiastic about a warm up before! I'm thinking of buying a Galaxy jersey and finding random young, good-looking guys to come warm up our team.
Last weekend we had another local tournament. There were only 4 teams entered in our age division and they were all other local teams. Again, we were the youngest team. However, our "little team that could" went out and kicked some butt and took second place! It's so cool because the youngest team is never expected to do much their first year and we've already taken a first, second, and third place in tournaments this year.
Let's see...what else have we been up to? Both kids are doing music this year. Riley is playing the piano and the clarinet and Raegan is playing the viola. Both of them are enjoying their instruments, and they both have gotten their mother's musical abilities (wink). Raegan was asked by a group of musicians at her school to join a quartet. The other kids are all in 7th grade, but they couldn't find a viola player, so they asked the music teacher. The teacher said she had a student who was a beginner, but was picking up on it quickly (Raegan), and recommended her. Raegan auditioned for them and they asked her to join. I guess they plan to play at local venues and weddings and stuff. Riley also enjoys performing and has no problem giving on the spot concerts to anyone who will listen. His piano teacher has been giving him Christmas songs to learn and that has inspired him. I told his teacher that we should let him play Christmas songs all year long! I'm also still playing my flute in the local Shasta College Community Band and still loving it.
Casey has been a busy beaver too. Between working, school, and teaching, he doesn't get much free time.
Our third child, the hairy one (Drake), had to have a toe amputated last week. Poor baby! He's doing ok and manages to hobble around quite well. It certainly hasn't slowed him down much. The vets office cracks up whenever he comes in because they can't believe he's 9 years old because he's such a spaz. We love him though. He makes us laugh daily.
Ok, I've babbled on enough for now. As usual, I will try to be better about posting here, but you know the routine...
Wow, I just noticed that the last time I posted here was July 14! Well, I do think I have at least a few good excuses. First, we went on our vacation to Montana and Canada. It was great! So beautiful. Our friends, the Brittons, flew out from the Isle of Man and met us in Montana. We toured Glacier National Park for a few days before heading up into Canada. In Canada we stopped in Waterton, Banff, Jasper, and Golden. What beautiful country up there. The Canadian Rockies are spectacular. We traveled for about two weeks before coming home. Here are some of the highlights: (Casey is becoming quite the photographer)
Once we got back from our vacation, the chaos began...
Raegan had her first soccer tournament that weekend. Luckily it was in Redding, so we didn't have to leave town again. They lost all of their games, but played well. Then the kids went back to school the next day (Aug. 18), and I went back to work at the school. Raegan started at her new school, and apart from some pre-school jitters, she has really been enjoying it.
The next weekend, the kids and I went to Fort Bragg with my friend, Rita, and her two kids. Rita and I played in a soccer tournament over there. It was my first over 40 women's tournament, and I was pleasantly surprised at the competition level. There are some kick ass old ladies out there playing soccer! Our team didn't do very well (1 win and 3 losses), but we still had fun. Luckily our kids all get along well. They had a great time at the ocean (even though it was cold!).
The weekend after that, Raegan had yet another soccer tournament in Red Bluff (about 45 minutes away from us). This tournament ending up being a very exciting one, with 3 nailbiters. I told my fellow coaches that we may have to invest in a portable defibulator to keep on the sidelines for the coaches. The girls played fantastic and ended up going home with Third Place trophies!
So, as you can see, that between soccer (Raegan and I) and music (Riley and I) we have been a very busy bunch! I hope I can find more time to post here, but don't count on it. I enjoy keeping busy, but it would be nice to find time for a nap now and then!
So, on Friday, we came very close to having to evacuate. The winds shifted in our direction and we could see the dark brown smoke getting closer to us. Casey had gone to workout on Friday morning, and as he was heading back towards our house, he could see the flames from the highway.
Luckily, we had plenty of time to pack up more of our important stuff, and we had both cars loaded up and ready to go. Our friends, Chuck and Gaylene came over and took Casey's motorcycles and some of our boxes of pictures back to their house. We were just waiting for the word to leave. There were about 10-12 firetrucks parked down at the school, which is about a mile from us, ready to go if needed.
There was so much air power sent in that several of our friends in town said it looked like a dogfight out our way. They had lots of planes and helicopters flying around all afternoon dropping water and retardant.
Thankfully, later in the afternoon the winds shifted west, away from us, so we never had to evacuate. Things seemed to have calmed down a bit for now. They seem to have better control of the fires now. The winds have died and the humidity is up, so that's been a big help to the fire crews. Hopefully things will remain steady. We've sort of unloaded the cars, but still have things packed just in case. We're kind of living out of suitcases and some of our walls look a bit bare, but we want to still be prepared to leave just in case things change again.
If you are interested in keeping track of the fires, go to Enplan and check out the progress. We are close to both the Motion and Moon fires. You can locate the town of Shasta on the map just off HWY 299 and east of Whiskeytown Lake. So, quite a bit of excitement in our quaint little town, but we're OK!! (just tired of all the smoke)
So the fires are slowly making their way closer to our area now. There have been some evacuations in other parts of Shasta, but on the other side of the highway. There is also another fire burning in the towns of Ono and Igo, and it seems to be making its way in our direction. I can hear helicopters flying nearby that are dropping buckets of water/retardent or whatever. I can see the smoke behind the hills just west of our house.
Casey is at work right now and is keeping me up to date as to what is going on as far as evacuations and such. Luckily the winds that we had yesterday have died down, but it still seems they are having a hard time getting these fires under control. I think they are still quite a distance away from us, but they are heading in our direction somewhat. So, yes, I am starting to get a little nervous. Luckily, we are all packed and ready to go if needed. All we have to do is throw everything in the cars and get out.
This is bringing back memories of the time we had to evacuate from our other house in Redding. It was a week after Riley was born. Luckily, that fire never got real close to our house, but it was still stressful and scary.
All these pictures are from Redding.com . They have good updates there if you're interested.
So, that's where we stand right now. Hopefully, we won't have to evacuate and everything will be fine. But I think I'll keep praying, just in case...
As I sit here at the computer, my usual view of the surrounding hills is now blocked by a blanket of thick, brown smoke. Yuck! Fortunately, so far we are safe where we live, but there are several fires burning just miles from us. Yesterday I gathered all of the boxes of photos, cd's of photos, etc. and placed them all in the office just in case we need to eventually evacuate. I don't think any of the current fires burning pose a direct threat to us, but the way the drought conditions have been this year and the possibility of another thunderstorm heading our way this weekend could change things pretty quickly.
On a lighter note... Summer is here! And I'm lovin' it! The kids are going to summer school, so they are gone from 8:00am - 2:30pm. Freedom! I have really been enjoying my quiet days so far. Of course my big list of projects I have intended on getting to has sat untouched thus far, but who cares? I certainly don't! It is amazing how fast the time does go though.
I have done a little scrapbooking, but not as much as I would've liked so far. Here are some of my latest layouts:
I even did a couple of layouts using pictures of me when I was about 8 years old. I definately want to scrap more pictures of me from my childhood. So fun!
I was also busy making photo scrapbooks for all the dads this Father's Day. I made a slide show so you can see the results. I really like how they turned out. I got the idea from a website, so don't think I'm really this creative. I wanted to keep them really simple. I even made some of the "papers" for this on the computer. I wish I had more time to do more of the creating side of digital scrapbooking.
I've also been busy getting ready for the upcoming soccer season for Raegan's Division 3 team. Another one of her coaches and I have been taking a coaching class that ran last weekend and also this weekend. I'm learning alot and really like the instructor. I've also been playing in a summer adult coed league. There are a few of my regular teammates on this team, but for the most part, it's a totally different team. In this league, they are allowing some younger guys to play. In our other league, you can only have one man under 30 on the field at a time. The women can be any age as long as they are at least 18. In this summer league, they are allowing each team to play 2 guys that are between 18-25 and two between 25-30 on the field at a time. Holy Cow! Talk about feeling old! These young guys are so dang fast! So far I haven't felt like I can't keep up, but the game is definately faster than I'm used to. It's been fun, though and we have a really good team. We've been creaming every other team so far. I think the score on our last game was like 10-1.
We are going to take a vacation at the end of July. We're heading over to Glacier National Park in Montana and then up into Canada a bit. It should be a great trip. Of course we planned this all before the gas prices decided to take a huge leap, but I hope it doesn't ruin our trip. Our friends, the Brittons, from the Isle of Man will be flying in to meet us in Montana and then travel with us. That will be great, and I know we are all anxious to see them again.
Well, gosh, aren't I long winded today! I guess I should go glance at my project list, huh? Not that I'll actually do anything from it, but I need to refresh my memory on what it was I put on the list.
Oh, and before I leave, you may have noticed I added a new lead song on my playlist. It's the new single by Gavin Rossdale (otherwise known as Mr. Gwen Stefani). I really like this song, and like even more the picture I found of him! Sexy man! Yeah baby! Enjoy (both the song and the picture!)
