One year ago......

One year ago many of our lives were changed.

On this date, my sister, Shannon. Lost her left leg in an AKA (Above the Knee Amputation).



We, as a family, went thru the biggest and longest rollercoaster of our lives in those days that followed.



In the end, I think we consider ourselves blessed! After all, not all families that have domestic violence incidents are as lucky as we are.



Shannon survived. She was strong. She IS strong. This couldn't have possibly happened to a better person! As horrific as the accident was, she's a tough cookie!

There are many other families out there who lose their mothers, daughters, sisters, friends to this AWFUL crime. And this candle is lit for them!



Don't sit back and think there is nothing you can do. We all have junk laying around. Make a donation to your local women's shelter. Most of them are private, for very good reasons. Call your local police department and they will direct you where to send your things.
At Christmas time, do the same. Buy these women and children affected by this a new gift. It would probably mean more than anyone could every know.

The Council on Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence (CSADV) in Sioux City has done SO much for Shannon, Zoey and Harley. Call them and see what you can do to help! They have went above and beyond any type of 'help' or 'assistance' you could imagine. A great program!



Please! If you know ANYONE who is in an abusive situation, help them!




http://www.geocities.com/Wellesley/Gazebo/1601/purpleribbon.html
Check out this site!!

To School Or Not To School.... that is the question!!

If you are reading this blog and want to be informed when it is updated, i can enter your email into my settings and it will be sent out. Leave your email address here and I can do that or e-mail me at mythreegirlygirls at gmail dot com!!






The bigs girls on their first day of school! That famous "sister glare"!








So the 'big girls' started school mid-August. Emmy Belle entered Kindergarten and Jackie bumped her way up to 3rd grade. (unbelievable, right?!)

We opted out of sending Julie to preschool, for the same reasons that we didn't send Emmy. Here, our choices are limited. You either have an overpriced Catholic preschool (which is RIGHT across the street from us, major bonus!) or an old asbestos filled gym with walls lined in 1970's color/number/shape posters, that was converted into a HeadStart. Yea.... pass!

So as the summer progressed Emmy was able to take part in a few 'test' days to lure her into school. Julie jumped right in. And Emmy's teacher was great about it and included Julie equally. I have to say, we have raised some pretty bright cookies, and I'm not just bragging because they are ours!

So came the task of tell Julie she would not be going to school come August 16th, when her sisters went.

Here is her, less than thrilled, reaction to it all:









"What? I'm not staying!?!? Are you KIDDING me?"



So imagine our delight and surprise when Jackie and Emmy bring home some information about the Elementary school starting a preschool program!!!

So I attended some meetings and filled out more paperwork than an illegal immigrant trying to convince someone his name is REALLY Bob Jones! It was like a competition. There were only 8 openings. The race was ON! My kid is SOOO smarter than YOUR kid!

So I brought home yet more paperwork and started filling out the application. Then it started hitting me. If she goes to school that is all three kids, gone. No one at home. Empty nest syndrome anyone?

We started weighing the pros and cons.....

Pros:
~I would no longer have to watch Dora and SpongeBob from 8am-3pm. I could maybe squeeze in some Jerry Springer or something else educational like a LifeTime movie. Afterall, it is of vital importance that a woman know how (and why) to murder her husbands cousins wifes sisters boyfriend who is having an affair with your best friends moms brothers twice removed cousin, right? How would life go on without a LifeTime movie?

~I would no longer have to make meals..... as in Julie's famous 'peanut butter sandwhich' (which consists of peanut butter on spoons) for breakfast, snack, lunch and snack. I loathe the smell of peanut butter!

~I could have some 'me' time. Ha! What is that anyway? Like anyone would wear less clothes or eat less food? Thus my laundry and dishes would stay the same (minus 4 spoons) Does that mean the dog will stop peeing on the couch and taking a dump by the back door? Does that mean Andy won't need me call Ace Hardware and see if they sell an electric something or other that can be converted into something else that is made by a certain brand and has to be John Deere green? (love ya hun!!) No, but they can give me a number of a place that does sell that and I can sit on hold for 30 minutes while being transfered around to find out they do NOT in fact have that item. Will Jackie and Emmy REALLY not leave 1/2 a tube of toothpaste crusted to the sink every morning? In which I have to used 40 different products and ultimately use a butter knife to SCRAPE it off!!!

And hey! Maybe I could hit the library and actually read a book with more than 28 pages and no cartoon pictures? Our trips to the library consist of Julie running downstairs 100 times to drink out of the oh-so-cool/germ infested water fountain. Although, at home, she insists she doesn't like water. Then she thinks the handicap door opener is the coolest thing since the water dispenser on grandma's fridge!!! Why not push it over and over and over and over again to see if it doesn't the same thing as last time? Jackie thinks she should only have to read Dick And Jane and Dr. Suess books. Those were great for 1st grade, lets get a BIT more challanging in the 3rd grade, no? Fights ensue. My limit of 6 books is FAR too few for Emmy. Afterall, her library bag would EASILY hold 15 books! And she just CAN'T for the life of her decide if she should get "Goldylocks has chicken pox" for the 100th time. MAYBE she (Emmy) will get them!? Or if she should get one of those 5,000 chapter Disney books just to see if mom can lose her voice if she read the WHOLE thing. So, you can see, why we don't do the library often!! So mom could easily pick out their books FOR them, AND get herself a 'big girl' book!! Hmmmm! Contimplating!



Cons:
~Daddy says the hours are too long. 9am-1pm Mon-Fri. When the other girls attended preschool it was a M/W/F or T/T type of deal. Julie is a daddy's girl thru and thru!

~Mommy would lose her baby and would have an empty house.

Call me selfish, but we opted out of it. I need to hang on to these last months as much as possible.

Of course, tell Julie that. To her, mommy is only 2nd best and only needed if SHE needs something.

A few Julie/Mommy convos from the past week:

Julie: Can I have a cookie?
Mom: No you had a snack after dinner
Julie: GIVE me a cookie ::pause:: please
Mom: No hunny, it's too late
Julie: Give me your phone, I need to call the cops!

-----------------------------------------------------

A Julie/Mommy convo after lunch

Julie: Mommy I ate all my lunch gone, can I have a snack?

Mommy: Sure, what do you want

Julie: You know those one things you bought?

Mommy: You're gonna have to be a BIT more specific baby.

Julie: Those carmo (caramel) things

Mommy: ::looks in cupboard::....... What kind of caramel things?

Julie: Those long things, you know?

Mommy: No, I don't hunny. Where did we buy them?

Julie: At the STO! (store)

Mommy: What shape are they?

Julie: Like this ::draws a straight line::

Mommy: ::looks confused::

Julie: Just let me call my dad!

::ring ring::

Mommy: Julie wants some caramel snack and I can't figure it out ::hands the phone to Julie::

Julie: I want a carmo thing. That we boughted at the sto. It is like this ::draws line again:: (mom says "a straight line") and has carmo

::pause::

Julie: yea.... uh huh.... YES! That kind of carmo!

::hands the phone to me::

Daddy: She wants those Hershey Sticks w/ caramel in the middle

Mommy: Oh yea! HOW long has it been since we had those?

Daddy: I bought them when they were new, so maybe 4-5 months ago?

Mommy: ::thru laughs:: Alright, you'll pick some up? Thanks for figuring it out! Love you, Bye.

Julie: ::rolls eyes:: *sigh* Nebermind, just give me peanut butter on a spoon for now!!!

<---- this, for the record, is what she wanted. She is my entertainment for the day! Never a dull moment with this child. Plus I am totally taking advantage of it just being her. Trips to the store are SOMEWHAT easier. She just wants to buy every sugarloaded item there is and screams if she doesn't get it :-X Yes, I have "those kids". The ones everyone says "I'd never let my kid act that way in public." That's me! When she allows (because everything is on Julie terms) we do fun stuff :) She is getting really good at painting :) Mommy just showed her how to paint a simple butterfly and house. Using shapes :) circles, ovals, squares, triangles. She is a pro at writing her name and spelling it for everyone that will listen. My favorite letter? "I wis a dot". It's always J-U-L-I wis a dot-E!!! :) My goal is to teach her to spell our last name before she enters Kindy next fall! Yikes! How many of YOU can spell our last name? Ok, Andy andSuzie and Mom don't count! haha ;) We got to enjoy a playdate just Julie and I :) She hasn't really ever had that one-on-one mommy time, so it's near and dear to me/us! We look forward to more in these next fall months! We have also took up a lot of baking. When you can buy bananas for 5lbs/$1 you stock up! Mommy made pancakes. Then we decided to make banana chocolate chip muffins
Julie's first time w/ a 'weel knife'. She was SOOO careful! Very proud moment for her!




Filling the paper liners. She actually only dripped once! Pretty good! She outdid mom there!



First time w/ the mixer too!!!! I fear splattered chocolate (we decided to make chocolate chocolate chip muffins for daddy!!!) on my walls and ceiling, but she did perfect!




Can I mom????


How do I say no to those baby blues?!!?







.
Julie hopped in the tub while mommy tackled the mess! YIKES!


All cleaned up and enjoying a banana muffin. Totally suprised me she picked this as chocolate is Julie's #1 food!!!
She quickly awards herself a thumbs up on her baking abilities! Must get that from her mama ;) haha

Here are our finished products ;)




So, in the end, I think we made the right choice ;) Julie will more than flourish next year in Kindergarten. Then mommy and daddy will have to deal with their "issues" once again!

Welcome!

Hi! Welcome to our family's little place on the web! I'm hoping word of mouth gets this around to family! So if you know anyone's email address! Link them here!

This will mainly be kept up by me *Wendy*! So when you see *me* and *I* and what not, it's moi!! I'm the fast typer :)

I'll update here with fun things we're doing and even some pictures!

You can always reach me at mythreegirlygirls@gmail.com!

If you want to reply just hit "comment" at the bottom!!!

Love to all!

Weekend Update!!

As I do this more often (if anyone reads it, that is) they won't ALL be this long! I promise! I just got windy ;) Wendy=windy!

This weekend there was a KidsFest here in Missouri Valley. We had known about it for a month, but it wasn't until the last couple of weeks we found out it was FREE!

Free is my favorite word! Especially with three girls!

So we headed down Saturday. It started at 10am and we got there around 10:30am. (I swear Andy will be late for his own funeral haha) We were surprised to see barely any kids there. But the girls jumped right in on the fun. No waiting in lines!

They did the mini ferris wheel, rode ponies and jumped in bouncy castles.

The mini ferris wheel seats rock back and forth.... if you make them. Out of the 8 seats... 7 were rocking hard core! Guess who was in the 8TH!? That's right! Jackie, Emmy and Julie! Lil chickens, just like mom! They were totally fine until they started letting people off. The brakes cause the thing to shake and Emmy got really nervous. But she survived and even went on again later! :)






Next were the ponies. I do believe we will own a farm in our future.






We have three horse lovers. With Jackie being their #1 fan. Andy's grandparents own a farm and have a beloved horse named, Duke.
The girls all love him and take pride in feeding him! After they got the hang of hanging on, they were left to go around by themselves ;) All did wonderfully!










Then we hit the MEGA blow up thing of all time! This thing had climbing walls, slides, cliffs, punching bags.... everything a kid would love! Emmy went first and surprised me her lil bod could handle the roughage ;) Then went Jackie who could barely pull herself up the wall!


And last was Julie who flew thru it like she had done it 100 times before!


















The 'clown act' was starting. By the quotes, I mean... it wasn't great haha But I have to say, none of the three girls are scared of clowns, so they enjoyed the corny lil show.


His acts were less than entertaining and the sun was shining brightly on us, so we decided to leave. But not before getting balloon animals. A dog, A bunny and a cat that all looked the exact same!



In the newspaper it was advertised "All food donated by FoodLand (our local rip-off of a grocery store.... gotta love small town prices!!) and to be sold at 'old fashion' prices". Yay! I'm thinking a dime... a quarter, right? Some of you may remember that ;) Imagine my surprise when it's $2 for a pork, chicken, turkey, beef and guinea pig hot dog! No thanks to that! So we headed out for some chicken crowns from BK! $1!! Grammy Addy (Andy's mom) met us there and the girls were excitedly surprised!!





Back to the KidsFest we went! Andy called his buddy, Mike, to bring his little guy, Zack! Share the free fun, right!? So we watched the 'circus' while we waited. Again, the quotes are for the lack of 'aw' that was experienced. First off, it was the clown w/o make-up redoing the same acts. Then the 'circus' part came. The kids, of course, got a HUGE kick out of it. They ALL got to dress up! THEY were the 'act's. The clowns and the animals and the trapeze flyers!!! Of course, after running around in circles to circus music for 1/2 an hour, they were more than done! But what kid doesn't enjoy dress-up?!

After that it was off to the bouncy castles and games! As if we didn't have enough little erasers, bouncy balls and other misc made-in-china crap.... but it's all for the kids! Emmy was super stoked to win a pink fluffy rabbit that I think was made in 1983 and probably had 12 previous owners. But whatever makes her happy!!

While in the bouncy castle Emmy comes out and says "I need a break, my tummy feels funny". The teenage girl's , volunteering to watch the Whopper Hopper, eyes about popped out of her head. I asked "It couldn't be all of the free sugar they are giving out, could it?" Imagine, at this point more kids had shown up, 100's of kids running around after getting free sno-cones, cotton candy and rootbeer floats! She got better and hopped back in, only after PROMISING the teenage girl she would NOT puke in the Whopper Hopper! The girls hopped around while Zacky laid on the floor of it and was flailed about!





They had karaoke set up.... but we have karaoke 24/7 at home!! And I really didn't want to hear anymore Material Girl, Oops I Did It Again or Goodbye Earl ;) But this town is a lil backwards as I over her a little guy sing "Redneck Woman" in which some words are "And I'm a red neck woman, I ain't no high class broad". Cute! Then an older boy got up and sang "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy" Nuff said!



Mommy had a girls night out planned! So we headed for home. The girls were a little hesitant, but when they realized Grammy was staying the night and Zacky was coming over to play (and whispers of ordering pizza were mentioned!!) they RAN to the truck!!