It's been the RAIN~

It has been so long.. I always have great blog ideas but never execute them... As any other mom would know.. April and May tend to be very busy months. Here are a few things that we have been up to.

1. This will be our 5th summer living in our house: We finally built up a flower garden around the front of the house. It is so beautiful! I love it.. with all of this RAIN we have been having I have postponed the actual planting of the flowers.. so as of now it is a mulch garden! I promise to post photos as soon as all the flowers are full in bloom!

2. Gabby has been a good adjustment to our family. I thought the potty training would be difficult, but she as proved us wrong. She is a very smart dog.. she picked it up quickly! She already knows the word "outside"!
However, she has done some serious damage around the house...I left my kitchen drawer open and she chewed off part of the corner!
She chewed off our numchuck to our Wii ($20)
She chewed up the hands and feet of Sydney's American Girl Doll Ivy...Ivy had to take a little trip to the doll hospital up by Chicago. (about $40)
and very numerous Starwars toys are missing limbs!
She has also learned out to jump onto the dining table... she jumps on a chair or bench and then to the table.. she just cant help herself.. the smell of food just drives her crazy! This behavior has been hopefully nipped in the bud thanks to a newspaper!
Even with all this... she is a very lovable dog & has a great personality.

3.. We are in full swing soccer mode... Three of our 4 kids are playing with Lonnie coaching one of the teams. It has been a little crazy with all of the RAIN! We have had too many games cancelled and rescheduled and cancelled again! I am just hoping we do not have the entire season in ONE day! ( for all teams)
We teach our children to always put out your best effort. I feel that two of my children mostly do that. But..... Sydney has always said she wanted to play soccer and she has played on a team since prek. I have had trouble believing that she was putting out her best effort. She really struggles with believing in herself and no matter what I say, she has to be the one who believes in herself in order for there to be change. She always complained that she didn't want to be there, she wasn't as good as the rest, she wasn't as fast! I always reassure her that if she really did her best she would get better and better and better.
Brings me to my "brag". On Saturday, she had two games back to back.. in the first game she was her usual self and coach let her play about 2 minutes the entire game.. Then after the game I had a great talk with her as I listen to her complain about how great the other girls were... but then we got to the second game and I assured her again that she was good enough and that you don't have to be the "fastest" player. .. she goes in and the ball keep coming to her over and over.. she can hear me yelling at her "Sydney! You can do it, keep it going!" (seriously i turned around and another mom from the other team had her fingers in her ears!! WHATEVER!! I should have handed her the TAD award!! so annoying!) so anyway back to my story... so coach sees that Syd is really doing well and "trying"(not just looking at her manicure) and she stays in and keeps going and going... she had control of the ball several times.. but then..... she got the ball at half field and keep going.. going... going....BIG KICK and .........












No score.... missed it by about an inch!!! I was soo sad BUT sooooo swelled with PRIDE for my daughter..... she really did well! I was in tears... I just could not get over it.. when you witness a child "get it" and their own pride just shining sooo bright... it is overwhelmingly emotional! I am soo proud of her... I am hoping now that she keeps what she "got" and keeps putting her best effort out!
KUDOS to SYDNEY!!

4. I also have to brag about my new dishwasher.. It is totally awesome!! Love it love it.. my other one was a cheap piece of junk and has never worked appropriately! So we, I mean I had a big enough fit to get a new one... It is a Maytag fully integrated stainless...just totally awesome.
Now, if it would just load and unload itself!