Save the Last Dance For Me - Dance is Over

Princess four has her last performance this weekend. She isn't sure with everything going on if she will be doing drill team next year or not so this may be her "Last Dance" in her dancing career. 

It is sad each time I see them get to this stage. She enjoys dancing so much. You can see she gets all the right "faces" that the team does and is so precise in her presentation when she is dancing. 

Photos give you the moment stopped in time and she always used to say, she thought she wasn't sure she was good. 

But, when I show her the photos of her in mid air like the one at the top and her face is in the "Face" of the moment and her toes are pointed, her arms are straight, her leap is in mid air and she looks at the others around her, she can get a better perspective on how she really dances. 

The second one down is her literally rolling mid air on the tops of her toes. I couldn't do that for a million dollars. 

I love her smile in the flower photo and the "Breast Cancer" dance shirt.

The photos also depend on angle. I have this "leg up while kneeling shot" in about ten different angles from throughout the year but I just happened to be in a good spot for this shot only once. 

When she is in four competition dances and is on different sides of the floor for different dances, it is hard to be in one good spot to take photos. Seats at competitions can be at a premium so once you are sitting, you don't want to get up and try for another seat between dances so we have to take what we can get.   

At times, that means we get shots of her doing a great leap mid air only to have two other people in the shot in front of her. Here is one such photo. 
 
You can see her hands up, her toes pointed, she is in the air but she has an arm and a few bodies in front of the greatness. :-)

Princess one and Prince number one both came to support her in the state competition and Princess two also came. Princess three was doing ambassador work at a college weekend and couldn't attend.  
 
My dad showed up and I somehow missed taking a picture of him as he sat behind us, left for a call, watched the dance, took the others to lunch and then watched her dance for a second and then left. 

I am sad I didn't get a photo of her with him or of him supporting her as he is the male role model in her life and he drove an hour to see her perform those dances with a meeting before it, calls in between and then flipped the bill for them all for lunch. What a blessing he is in her (and all the princesses) life.   

I feel so blessed to have been able to find ways to allow the girls to be their best and have the chance to shine. Dancing gives them such great self esteem, exercise, poise and grace. I know it will help them throughout their lives. Small sacrifices now make a huge difference later.

With the service mission and  service hours, RYLA, Hoby, girls camp, church youth camp, perhaps girls state, getting her driving hours in, and perhaps student leadership again,  I don't know if she will do drill as she has had a difficult time with all her honors classes and maintaining her grades. She has been able to keep her 4.0 but it has been a struggle.

With all that, whatever she decides, I don't think she will be looking back.... except in this picture!  

Princess number four, you amaze me and  I LOVE YOU!I

Fair Way to Settle and Estate Part Three

I wrote a post about how last time the girls were together, I worked on a fair way to settle the items in the house that all the girls may want.  To read about those first two posts, click on the links below.

See the first post here.
See the second post here.

This weekend with the holiday, all the kids were down and since we had the main lists of items done, I figured we needed to break down the other items. Things that they all wanted. 

So, I pulled out all the Hot Wheel cars. I dumped them on the table. Yes, I did literally dump them which was not great for the table or the cars but I am so glad to be getting things organized and out of the house. 

Not sure why I feel that way but I really do feel like I want to simplify everything and have it all settled so later it won't be an issue. I am sure it is all I have had to do with my own mom's stuff like I have explained, but anyway, it is done!  

At first, I had them all choose one at a time but some were slow and we couldn't keep track of whose turn it was so that only lasted for a round or two. After that, we counted to ten and during that time, each had to choose one car. 
 
It was interesting to see who remembered what car. I was shocked to learn that Prince number one NEVER played with hot wheel cars. He is almost thirty so that was strange to me as he has lots of brothers in his family, I would have thought they would have boxes as it is for us with Barbies. 

He said they played with Legos. I think every child has wonderful memories with Legos. That is probably why Lego Land is so popular. 

After we started counting, the cars went quickly and each girl seemed to be extremely happy with the cars they acquired.

The older girls obviously took the older cars they had memories with, and the younger girls, took more of a variety such as a boat, a helicopter, an ambulance, a fire truck etc.  

I was shocked to see that we had some Hot Wheel cars from the late sixties and seventies. I told the girls that the older cars were of value but most just liked the different cars that opened doors, trunks, had lights, popped open etc. To see some of the prices you can get for your old "Hot Wheel" cars, Click this link.

We then went through the barbies that I spent days sorting and organizing. See that post here.  

The first sort was the Barbies that each girl "got" for gifts and then the one's they all got. The older girls played with the older one's and the younger girls played with the newer so there wasn't much of an issues. This left the younger two without many sets as we stopped buying them and told people to not give them any more as we had so many. 

The girls were a bit sad that I got rid of several sets when I cleaned out a few years ago. I couldn't keep everything and got rid of the bigger items such as the beach pool, Ferris wheel, several cars like the jeep and corvette. With this many girls, I could have filled the closet with just Barbie stuff. 

They each then chose from the extra bags of clothes, hats, shoes until they all had what they wanted. I kept about five barbies and the left over small bag of extra clothes for my house. 

As you can see by the smiles on their faces, they were all happy with what they got and it was nice that they now know what they can take when they want and there won't be any hard feelings later because they all know it was as fair as possible. 
 
I put labels on each box of cars and dolls for the younger girls and put them in their closets except for the youngest which I left where she could get to them with her friends if needed. 

Princes number one and her Prince then got out the "Fisher Price" little people toys that she got in the "List" meeting and decided that she wanted to take them now for when they have friends over with kids. She took her little Fisher Price Vacuum as well. I was THRILLED to have them gone. The cars, Barbies and Little People sets being gone, gave me two empty shelves and a few less bins in the toy closet. 

I talked to the girls about how I hope when I die, they will be able to work out anything that may have been overlooked in the same manner by choosing numbers and going with the closest to the last and to continue until everything is gone. That way, everyone gets something. 

Oddly enough, they all ended up with most of what they wanted. It is funny how that works out. 

I was worried it may put a strain on the weekend but it was a really nice weekend for us all.

Annual Valentines Day Treasure Hunt

Because of the long weekend due to Presidents day, Princess and Prince number one decided to come down for the weekend and Princess three also came home. It was WONDERFUL that we could all spend the weekend together. 

We did our annual treasure hunt that the girls love and I don't remember it taking me so long to set up. We had lots going on today but we still all enjoyed it after I got it ready. 

Part of the wonder of the day was going to visit our friend whose wife passed away this past week. We sang him his favorite Hymn and took him a sucker bouquet and a sign that talks about how, "When we lose a loved one, they become a memory that lives with us." or some something similar to that. 


To me, that was the best part of the day. 

I got the scavenger hunt, yreasure hunt ready and Prince number one has never had the opportunity to participate in our annual Valentine hunt. He was as excited as any of the girls. 

He didn't quite get all the clues I left as he doesn't know our belongings and decorating as well as the girls but he follow the pack and ended up at the right place as the girls followed the clues to the next hiding spot for their treat. 

There were about 15 stops in all. Some were more hidden but if there is a hard clue, I just give information on the clue to make it detailed so we can have it go a bit quicker. 

For example, one talked about doing something "remotely" and we have several rooms with "remotes" in them so they raced around the house looking for the right room. 
 
I wrote them each a card telling them how much I appreciate them and put it in the mailbox with some stickers and Valentines.  

I had to get creative because as soon as they knew we were going to start, they rushed to check all the spots I've used before. 

The only one that was the same as one we have used before was the dryer. I put on it they should "Vent" about something and they picked up on that hint quickly. On the vent, it said, "Look inside"  so they could get the treat as I didn't want the treats on the floor.
 
We had a great day running for "treasure" and spending to together. 

Here is a picture of the clan huddling about near our mail box.

They all enjoyed the pirzes they recieved. I gave them all a bag to start with and they collected their " treasures"and put them in the bag. 

Once done, they sat in the living room and sorted their "prizes" like you do a Christmas stocking. 
 
Princess number one's favorite prizes were the chocolates. They each got their own box and the family got several wonderful chocolate items... 

To make it a bit more exciting, I sprinkled little hears all over the stairs and they all started looking for clues on the hearts thinking they were somehow connected to our first clue  (which they weren't.) 

I asked Prince number one what he thought about our tradition and he smiled and said he really liked our tradition. 

He was eating just as many chocolates as Princess number one.  

Here is a link to a past treasure hunt. As you can see from their smiles in the pictures, they LOVE the treasure hunt tradition and I love that they still love it.   

I hope you had a wonderful holiday weekend!

Knitting, Knitting, Scarf, Yarn....

I calculated how much I spent in yarn this past month and it was $500. So in the past few days, we finally broke even on the buying of the yarn. Now, anything Princess 4 sells, will be profit. 

The problem I see with this, is that Princess four is SO busy that she has no time to knit. Princess two is continually selling things on our "Indoor Yard sale" and Princess 5 has had a large project due which has taken most of her time. 

We have been out of town almost every weekend for the past two months and that leaves me to make ALL the scarves. With that, I still have all the crazy every day stuff going on driving kids around and parent teacher meetings etc.

So, by the time I finish up with all the things that need to be done during business hours, then, going through all the closets, drawers, storage stuff that Princess two needs me to sort so she can sell it on the "Yard sale", that leaves me knitting in the middle of the night. :-(

So, as you can see by my late posts the past week or so, I am exhausted. Last night, I fell asleep on the couch with the lights and TV on and the recliner out but I slept folded over in the recliner loveseat. 

I was so tired, I didn't hear the tv going off or the lights going off and when Princess two was leaving town for the day, I still didn't make myself comfortable. I got up and had to face the day with aches and pains from sleeping in a VERY bad position. 

All the activities that Princess two and three have going on this month took my entire income to pay so I will continue knitting the scarves to get those paid off so I can start living (and sleeping) again. 

Good news, I only have about 50 more skeins of yarn to go! lol Actually, I am teaching knitting classes and they go much quicker that way as I can do that in about an hour. I don't make as much per skein of yarn but make more per hour so it kind of evens out. 

Today was the first day I haven't blogged at least during the day and  I think this past week takes the cake for records of late posts times four. I know things will get back to normal but what mother wouldn't sacrifice for their child to have such wonderful opportunities. I know it will shape and make her even more amazing than she already is (if that is possible.) 

I pray that I can get myself together and finish off these projects and get my home and life back into a bit more normal routine.

"FUD" Raiser for Humanitarian Service Missions

Today we had a very busy day. I was getting ready for the day when Princess Two called me and needed me to meet her somewhere. I never got back home. I wish I had taken that few extra minutes but it worked out ok in the end. 

After that, I raced to get Princess five to dance after she had the day off for Parent Teacher meetings. I then took Princess four to her McDonald fund raiser. Four kids from our local area are doing service missions with the same group that Princess four is going with and Princess three went with two years ago. (see one of the many posts about that here)

They set up a service fund raiser for the kids to work at McDonalds and we tell everyone we know to go in and eat there on a specific night from 5-8 p.m. 

There were supposed to be a few more kids but they didn't show up so Princess two and I decided to chip in as well as Princess four and the friend she got to "help" her. 

I literally didn't go in my house after leaving it this morning so I had no coat, gloves anything. I ended up being the person at the drive through to get people to eat inside. I am not sure why they would only give half of the proceeds from inside purchases and nothing on drive through traffic. So, I got to stand in the cold pointing people to go inside. I think a few people thought the drive through was broken but most just opened their windows and let me explain that if they went inside and purchased their food, we would get half of the purchase towards the kids service Humanitarian Missions. 

Most people were great and went inside and the few that couldn't due to children or injury made donations. In the 1 1/2 hours I stood outside, I made almost $50 in donations and got more than half the cars going through the drive up to go inside to purchase their meals. 

Princess Two got to stand on the street shaking a pink sign trying to bring in business along with my sister whose daughter is going to Cambodia.

Funny story. My sister was chalking the windows of her suburban to park on the street for people to see when they drove past. She was in such a hurry that she wrote the sign and some people went in to restock "Red box" and as I went in, they came up to me discretely and said, "We didn't want to offend the lady outside but she miss-spelled fundraiser and wrote, "Fud" raiser." I laughed and said, "I guess it would have worked if she had put in the N and taken out the D and had "Fun" raiser." When I told my sister, she just laughed and went out to fix it.

Princess four got to serve drinks and make Chocolate and latte drinks. She said, "Working there has got to be the easiest job ever." However, she did complain saying her lower back and feet hurt from standing on the cement and tiles that entire time. 

I was FREEZING with a short sleeve silky shirt on and ended up wearing Princess fours Micky Mouse sweat shirt (much too small) and my nephews BMX jacket (He is 12 and rather small) so I looked rather silly at the drive through with my breath showing in a jacket 10 sizes to small. All in all, we earned $200 for each person going on a service mission. 

I rushed home and taught Knitting classes  to seven women, showing them how to make the beautiful scarves that are so popular at the moment. Here is a link to my post about making those. That money also is going to the service mission payments. We also sold three more scarves to friends and participants of the class.

One blessing is that someone I really needed to talk with drove through the drive through and I got to converse with him about important matters as he has been too busy to return my calls. It seems like every time I think I am doing a favor for someone, Heavenly Father blesses me in the end.

I then went to buy groceries and found $21 as I was checking out. Once again, as I stress and rush to try and make up these payments for my daughter to have a wonderful service opportunity that is once in a lifetime, Heavenly Father reminds me to "trust Him" in so many ways. Here is a link to my "In God we Trust" post. 

So today, all in all, was a great day. We are so blessed.  Thanks McDonalds for your support of this great thing the kids are doing. Thanks to all of you who have and continue to support my girls in all they choose to do. They may have trials in some areas of life but you all make up for it by being so wonderful to support them in so many ways. Thank you! 

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentines Day!

Computer Hoarder - No, Just Being Safe

I have a friend that I visited over the holidays. She asked me while I was there if I needed a flat screen monitor. I told her I would love one. She said their computer stopped working and instead of getting it fixed, she bought a new one.

She said she didn't know what was wrong with it but said I could have it and the printer they threw out. Her husband went out to the trash and brought in all the wires and the printer.

They had gotten an all wireless system and didn't want to deal with any of the old stuff.

I took the computer home and thought I would see if I could save any of her data. I spent a few hours vacuuming it out, problem solving to find out that some liquid had gotten on the contact for the keyboard. I cleaned it and replaced the keyboard and the computer worked just fine.

I told my friend the next morning and asked if she wanted it back. I told her if she would get a back up hard drive, I would back it up for her and her daughter could take it to school or something. She said she didn't want it back but today I got a call as her daughter had a paper on the computer that she needed. They had never gotten me the back up hard drive. So, today, I pulled the computer out, (It is in bins for Princess number 2 when she gets an apartment as she gave her laptop to Princess three for college.) and set it up. My friend dropped off a back up hard drive and she mentioned that she had three other computers stacked up in her storage room that had information on them that they wanted and I told her that the local recycling place will remove and destroy the hard drive on the computer while you watch so you don't have to worry about information getting stolen.

She came back later with the other three computers. I spent the entire evening backing them up. I thought it would be an easy project just plugging in the back up but the problem is that they are so old that they don't have the software needed to run the new back up drive with "Cloud" technology. It made the back up process tedious and lengthy but I am happy to say that my friend can now get rid of the three pc's that were stored in her storage room for ONE back up drive that is 1 terabyte in memory and is about the size of two decks of cards.

I organized it so she has all the pictures off all four of her computers right at the opening of the back up and the documents are saved by computer.

Princess five went to a church youth meeting where she made these beautiful cookies so we could each have one. She did a great job decorating them and they tasted great. You can see I had already taken a bite when I decided I should take a photo of the beautiful creations.

She had fun while I kept busy. Can't beat that.

I wonder how many people have several computers stacked in a storage spot because they don't want to have the information stolen. I have another friend that moved this week and she said they have a few stored for just that reason.

Perhaps I should start a back up business! I am glad I could help her and now I can clean off the computer for Princess 2 of all their docs and pictures. Princess Two is looking for work now that she is feeling better so she may be needing a place of her own soon. 

The Mad Hatters Strike Again for Charity

The girls have been busy over the past few years, on and off, making hats for charity. Princess four had a box of them and I had put some away and found them today while going through more items. I put them together with Princess four's latest batch. They made many more a few years ago.See that post here.

So today, I took over a few bags to the local hospital with the girls. We had a bag for baby boys, one larger one for baby girls and we also took a bag with larger hats. We asked if they had any need for larger children's hats and they said they did. They had several right now that have RSV so we weren't able to go into their rooms to let them choose a hat but the Nurse said she would allow them to choose one. 

The girls were happy to be able to serve and I was happy that we have something more out of the house.I'm still going through lots of stuff cleaning out and Princess two is still working on selling it all.