Starting Early

Saraya loves to do things that I do. She has always loved playing salon... fixing hair and playing with her pretend makeup. Well, as I cleaned out cabinets for the garage sale, I found some cream eye shadow and Saraya very quickly exclaimed, "is that mine??!!!?" Now that she's staked her claim on her very own makeup, she loves to put it on herself. The first thing out of her mouth almost every morning is, "mommy, are you ready to put on our makeup together?".

Pillow Pile

Grandma left for Searcy yesterday to spend the week with her friends. Saraya took this opportunity to play in Grandma's chair. As we watched football yesterday afternoon (where I watched my team - the Giants - win!!) Saraya gathered all the pillows in our whole house and brought them in the living room. She very quickly thought of the best plan ever. To pile them up in Grandma's chair and then climb on top for a birds eye view. This didn't last longer than 10 minutes and then the pillows became a path around the house and she jumped from one to the other.

Case of the Mystery Costume

Tonight was a big night. We went to Target to check out the freshly stocked aisle of halloween costumes. I would've loved to pick her costume again this year. But one thing Saraya doesn't lack in, is having her own opinion. Plus, part of me thought it would be really fun to look up and down the aisles with her and watch her be amazed by all the possibilities. That is exactly what happened. She was hilarious. She loved so many of them. But the time came for us to narrow it down and choose "the one". It was completely up to her.... and I loved her decision. As soon as we got home she wanted to try it on. In full costume she looks at me and says, "Can you take my picture in my costume??" Truly my child!! Of course I did take pictures, but as you can see there are none attached to this blog. That's because I can't give it away a month early!!! You'll just have to come back on the 31st to find out the answer to this mystery.

The Perfect Face

Saraya is at work with me today. I enjoy when she's at work with me. We watch movies, color, play ball and just about anything her little head thinks of. One of her favorite passtimes is drawing. She has now perfected her "face" drawing. And of course, me being the mommy, I think it's the best face a 3 year old has ever drawn. :-)

First: draw a large circle for the head

Second: draw two small sticks at the bottom for the feet

Third: draw a squiggle line on top of the circle for the hair

Fourth: draw three circles for the eyes and nose

Fifth: draw a line for the mouth

Sixth: draw a line on each side of the circle for the arms

Seventh: draw two circles for the ears

And there you have the perfect face.....

Sad Good-byes...

September 4th, 2007 - The day I've been dreading for seven years is now here. We always knew that Joe and Laura wouldn't stay in Jonesboro, but somewhere in the back of my head I think I hoped they'd change their minds. They came to Jonesboro eight years ago so Joe could train at Bell Athletics for the Olympics. Little did we know that our paths would cross and a lifelong friendship would be born. We've been through so much with Joe and Laura since they've lived here. We've gone from friends to family.

We lived together for 6 months... before kids, we ate dinner together once a week, played a game called Catan, and watched Survivor... after the kids, we usually just eat together, but it's still once a week... Laura was with me in the delivery room when I had Saraya, and I was with her when she had Rowan... they introduced me to avacados, artichokes and indian food...

I still can't imagine living here and not being able to drop by their house, have dinner together, celebrate birthdays, watch Rowan (and future kids) grow up. Joe, Laura and Rowan are part of the ins and outs of our weeks. Not having them here will leave a void.

Our last night with them felt very normal. Lots of talking, tons of laughter. Then it turned to tears. To say our good-byes felt very weird... knowing that this time, the good-bye hug was the last for quite some time. Things will be very different now. We must rely on emails, phone calls and blogs to keep up with each other. Something I know I will be very willing to do.....