My favorite part of spring

My favorite part of spring has arrived....the Bradford Pear. Despite what my husband says, they are truly the best part of the season. They aren't nature's most pleasant smelling of trees, but I love them all the same.

And they are everywhere this week. I love it!

Sure their odor might have been mistaken for a sewage leak outside of our church when I was a kid....but they will always remain my favorite part of spring. The tree that first bursts from slumber to say, "Hey! You survived winter and it's all gonna be okay."

Ainsley's Turn

After three long seasons of being stuck on the sidelines, Ainsley finally got to become a soccer player tonight. There wasn't much playing since we had to get the teams divided up, but what little time she got to spend out there was great. She chose the team name (the Alligators) which the four other girls heartily agreed with.

The coach is wonderful. I took the "Team Parent" duties on so she won't have to deal with that as well. I'm in charge of the snack schedule and trophies and all that administrative stuff. I'm happy to do it since I have some experience now. It was fun being a "veteran" as opposed to a clueless newbie. I imparted what wisdom I could to the newbie parents who are very easy to spot.

Ainsley did very well and can't wait for next week. Tonight when we got home she looked at me and said, "Mom, I FINALLY have my jersey!"

The Case of the Missing Tooth

It sounds like the title of a good Nancy Drew mystery and it was every bit as drama filled as it might sound. Yesterday Anastasia came home from school with one less tooth. The nurse in the clinic finally yanked out the offending incisor which she had been wiggling for days. (It had started making this sickening noise! Blech!) It came home in a little tooth box on a necklace. Unfortunately, right around dinner she noticed the tooth was no longer in the tooth box. She freaked out but I assured her the Tooth Fairy would still bring her the cash she was so counting on. Just to make sure, Anastasia wrote the Tooth Fairy a note. It read: Dear Tooth Fairy. I lost my tooth. Now I can not find it. Please look around the house for it. From Anastasia.

She's getting so good at reading and writing. I'm going to date the letter and put it in her keepsake box. She was happy as a clam this morning when she woke up to a crisp dollar bill under her pillow. She's already spent it on some little trinket at Disney World when we go for vacation in May. She's just like her mother.

Now there's the problem of the actual missing tooth. A sweep of the kitchen turned up nothing so there's no telling where it landed. I'm kind of grossed out by the tough of a phantom tooth floating around the house, but what can I do? Where's Nancy Drew when you need her?

Visions of Spring

We've been enjoying spring more and more each day. The winter was long and cold and now we're reveling in the beauty God has blessed us with in this new season.

Sitting Tall

Look who is sitting on her own! She's still a little unsteady, but overall she's doing very well. Now if we can just get those teeth to break through and give her some relief.

Egg-cellent Fun

Last night we let the girls dye Easter eggs. They had a blast! In fact, it was so much fun we may do it again next weekend.

Dragon Tales

Anastasia's first soccer game went well today. They decided to call themselves the Dragons which was incredibly appropriate today. The girls were on fire! They scored 11 goals overall, four of which came from Anastasia. She was hustling and defending and running and working well with her teammates. I was so proud of her! Allie did very well and Ainsley had fun cheering on the Dragons and playing ball with some of the other siblings. It was a great way to kick off the season. I can't wait for our next game!

The team formerly known as the Ladybugs

Anastasia's soccer team plays this weekend for the first time, but the girls can't decide on a team name. Last season they were the ladybugs, but I think they've decided that's not hardcore enough for them. One girl suggested the butterflies which was shot down by another player who wanted to be the panthers or the tigers. Anastasia told me later she wanted to be the dolphins, which sounds more like the name of a swim team if you ask me.

They're a pretty intimidating group of gals. I mean, just look at them!



No matter what name they choose, I just want them to have fun when they take the field tomorrow. We are playing with the same group of girls from the fall plus one more who actually goes to the same daycare that we do. It's going to be a fun spring. (Ainsley starts next week!)

A donkey, a door and a distraction

This week has been a wierd one. The girls and I came home Monday afternoon to discover someone had broken into our house. I immediately noticed the back door was open so I rushed the kids back outside and we sat in the van until the police arrived. Once the officer cleared the house, we were able to go in and see what was missing. Fortunately, they didn't steal very much. The biggest thing they took was my security and safety in my own home and no insurance deductible can get that back. They took the Wii and the XBox 360, which really pissed off the kids. They left my camera and video camera and fortunately my laptop was hidden so they didn't get that either. The officer told me it looked like they had "donkey-kicked" in our door. Ainsley overheard this and has been telling everyone that a "donkey kicked down our door!!!!!" The downstairs was trashed as was our bedroom. My underwear was literally all over the place. The cat was terrified and we actually didn't even know if she was still in the house for about an hour. The officers dusted for fingerprints, but I doubt anything will come of it. Our neighbor a few houses down said she saw a suspicious car in the area around 4 p.m., but she failed to get a tag number so we've got nothing to go on.

We stayed at a hotel the last two nights because I couldn't sleep at home. I needed a little bit of time to process what happened and mentally prepare to be back at home. Last night's hotel had an indoor pool, comfy beds and one of the best breakfasts I've seen! It proved to be just the distraction we needed. The kids seem to be handling it well. Anastasia cried a lot on Monday, but seems okay now. Ainsley is her normal happy self. Although I think she's been having nightmares about a certain donkey. ; )

Soccer Season is Here!

Spring has arrived and that means one thing for the girls of the Lamar house: soccer season is here. This will be Anastasia's fourth season of soccer superstardom. Her sister joins her on the field for the first time this year. Ainsley will play with the younger kids, but she lacks the learning curve Anastasia had at this age. Ainsley has been at the fields watching her sister and the bigger kids for three seasons and is more than ready to get things going. She has her cleats, shin guards and cool soccer socks. It will be fun to be back out on the fields again. I really enjoy spending a few nights a week out there with the other families. Here's to hoping the weather will cooperate!

Where's Allie?

Now that Allie can roll, you just never know where you might find her!

Future Fashionistas

I had a good coupon for 30% off everything at Old Navy, so this weekend the girls and I did some shopping. For $18 I got two pairs of shorts, two shirts, two pairs of flip flops and a hat. You would've thought I took them to the zoo or something. They were SO excited. They just *had* to try the clothes on in the dressing room at the store. Then when we got home they did a fashion show for their dad. It was too cute. The clothes we bought were definitely summer clothes, but I think they are MORE than ready for the weather to warm up enough to wear them.

Just A Swingin'

The last day of winter proved to be a real peach. The warm weather was just what I needed to get over the last of my sickness. I'm still coughing a lot, but I am MUCH better than I was earlier in the week.

Today we got Allie a new swing. Our old baby swing was a hand-me-down and it had seen it's last swing if you know what I mean. She LOVED being out in the swing this afternoon. She was wiggling her toes and giggling as the girls pushed her. They hid Easter eggs and just enjoyed soaking up the sunshine. Anastasia has lost a lot of weight from the surgery, but seems to be on the mend. Here's to hoping the week ahead will be better to us all!

Some Bunny Loves You

Easter is just around the corner. The girls have been begging me to get the box of Easter stuff out of the garage. I pulled some of it out so they could play for a while before bed. Allie's ready for Easter too, are you?

We surrender

Lest anyone think we've won the lottery and retired to a tiny country in Europe with no internet access, I felt the need to post and say we're alive...barely. It started with Anastasia's tonsils on Thursday and has been uphill since then. We've all been hit with some horrible virus. I can honestly say I've not felt this awful in a LONG time. It's been brutal. Actually.....think of a word worse than brutal, that's what the last three days have been like. The girls went to bed last night at 6:15 and slept until a little after 7 this morning. It was crazy. Allie seems okay, so please pray she doesn't come down with this. My white flag is up. I surrender!

Photographic Memory Pt. 4

Time to share some more of my favorite photos.






This one is from Christmas 2008 at Mom and Dad's. I love their expressions!

They look so different to me here. Like babies!

This is Jamie and I at Discovery Cove in January 2008. An incredible day!

Whale of a Tale

I have long talked about Ainsley's questions. This week brought one of my very favorites. She had been reading her Finding Nemo book. "Mom, how do whales poop?" I had to explain that they do it in the water. She was incredibly grossed out! She then had to know if the rest of the ocean pooped the same way. I informed her that they did!

Surgery Day

Anastasia had surgery today. She had both her tonsils and adenoids removed. It went very well and we're now home resting. Anastasia is such a trooper. She was pretty scared this morning, but we were able to be with her until right before the surgery began. When she came out she was sobbing and very upset. She said "I feel horrible. No...I feel WORSE than horrible." We got her the pain meds and the drama meter dropped a few notches. She's watching the new Barbie DVD and has been eating pudding. Hopefully her recovery will continue to go well.

This is a picture of her right before things got started.

6 months old

Allie is six months old today. She had her check-up this morning. She weighed 15 pounds, 5 ounces and was 25 inches long. The doctor was impressed with her sitting up skills and she is developmentally on track.

She has eaten peas, bananas, rice cereal and sweet potatoes. So far, she loves them all. She can roll both ways and loves to jump in her Jumparoo. She is still getting up once at night, but to be honest...I love the extra snuggle time with her. I can't believe she is already 6 months old! Where has the time gone?

Spring has Sprung!

I picked these daffodils last night and put them in a vase in the kitchen. Ainsley asked if they came from the store. ; ) I love having fresh flowers. The calendar may not say spring for another 10 days, but it has certainly arrived!

Photographic Memory Pt. 3

What seemed like some nuts on the side of the trail were a treasure to the girls. That's what I love about kids. They see things we do not.

Prom Queen

I went to my first and only prom in April 1998 wearing a dress that I found in a magazine. It was my favorite color and I knew it was THE dress. Here I am 12 years later, once again donning that dress that cost more than my wedding gown.

Ainsley loves playing "Princess" and had been hounding me to dress up with her. She wanted me to wear a fancy dress so we could play Sleeping Beauty. Sunday afternoon, Allie went down for a nap and I stepped into my prom dress. We played, danced, twirled and laughed. They oohed and ahhed appropriately over my dress and didn't make any snide comments about the age of said garment. They've even asked to wear it to their own proms....perhaps I should get that in writing.

My Three Girls

I take a lot of pictures of the girls, but it's difficult to get a good one of all three of them. I snapped this beauty before church yesterday. Six eyes looking at the camera and three smiles. Not too bad!

Another milestone

Allie will be six months old this week. It's hard to believe that we've already been blessed with half a year with her. She decided to celebrate with a milestone. This morning, while the rest of us were getting ready for church, she rolled from her back to her belly. She was on her playmat while the girls were playing and Jamie and I got ready. Jamie walked by her room and said "Did someone flip Allie over?" After it became clear that none of us had we all started congratulating her on her new feat. She's done it several more times since this morning. There will be no stopping her now!

Trashy Saturday

Walt Disney World is doing a promotion called "Give a Day. Get a Day." Basically, you volunteer for an organization and you get a ticket to one of their parks. Since we are already going to Disney in May we decided to take advantage of this deal. We chose Keep Blount Beautiful as our organization. Late last week I picked up gloves and trash bags so we'd be ready to go.

This morning we loaded up and hit the greenway. The girls were incredibly excited considering we planned to spend the morning stuffing detritus into garbage bags. We did almost two miles of trail. Cans, bottles, styrofoam, paper, a comb, a MegaBlock, wheels off of a toy...you name it, we found it. "Hey look MOM! A Gatorade bottle!" They were troopers and did a great job. We ended up with two and a half bags FULL of trash. It was a fun outing and I think the girls really learned a lot. The spring-like weather was an added bonus. We may actually survive this winter after all!

Photographic Memory Pt. 2

Here's another one of my favorite pictures. Jamie and I are so rarely in photographs together. One of us is always the one taking the picture. I snapped this one of us on the Triceratops Spin at Disney's Animal Kingdom in Sept. 2008.

My Family

I will admit that I am overwhelmed by the amount of paper and artwork that comes into our home. That being said, I love days when the artwork looks like this. Anastasia came home with this beauty yesterday. I was touched immediately by her interpretation of our family. Upon closer inspection I saw that she drew each one of us in our favorite color. I'm drawn in blue, Jamie is in green, Anastasia is in purple, Ainsley is in pink and Allie is in red. Allie has only been alive for six months and thus lacks the necessary skills to select a favorite color so one has been selected for her.

Our fridge is covered in papers just like this so we'll have to rotate some of them out to make space for this one. It's a keeper!

Photographic Memory Pt. 1

It's no secret I love taking pictures. I've been doing it since the age of six when I got my very first camera, a Polaroid. Many of those early pictures had smudge marks in the shape of my little first grade thumbs because I was so eager for the image to develop. Now I'm older and wiser and I have the benefit of instant gratification with my digital camera. Sometimes I will go through my photo files in the evenings to relax. I like to look back at my kids and see how much they have changed. I like to see places that we've been and activities we've shared as a family.

Over the next few weeks I'm going to share some of my favorite pictures. Just because it's fun and because I've got thousands of images on my computer, so why not?

This was taken on a stormy day in Buxton, NC when we visited the Outer Banks in May 2008. Most of the house was napping so I ventured out for a walk down the beach by myself. What resulted was some of my favorite photographs I've ever taken at OBX. This one is my top pick and is the background on my computer desktop. Makes me want to pack my bags and head east!

Twirling Plates

Jimmy Buffet has a song called "The Far Side of the World." I really love listening to it as it follows his travels around the world to remote locations. My favorite line comes towards the end..."There's jobs and chore and questions and plates I need to twirl. So tonight I'll take my chances on the far side of the world."

This is how I feel this week. I'm balanced on top of someone's head twirling plates. One wrong move...and it all comes crashing down. Between work, sick kids (yes, that's plural), field trips, broken contacts, snow days, laundry, antibiotics...there are more than enough plates to keep me busy for a while. I'm grateful yet again for an understanding and extremely accommodating employer and co-workers who have my back 24/7.

Allie has a double ear infection and Anastasia is having her tonsils out next week. Ainsley is fine (knock on wood) and is thriving in her new classroom at school. The weather is miserable and I am not getting much sleep. Exercise is on the back burner which makes me even more weary. Hopefully things will settle down soon and I'll only have 20 plates to twirl instead of 200. In the meantime, I'll dream about being on the far side of the world where adventure waits instead of another pile of laundry.

Random Acts of Flowers

Let's be honest, winter sucks. But the cold, dark days are slowly winding down and better days are ahead. Last week I got the chance to help bring some springtime cheer to more than 50 of our patients.


Each month a non-profit group, Random Acts of Flowers, arrives at the hospital with dozens of donated arrangements. They are unloaded onto a cart and then the fun begins.



Each of these precious arrangements is hand-delivered to a patient. Some laugh with delight, others get weepy...all are touched and humbled by such a simple act from strangers. I'm so blessed to be able to help with the deliveries. It is something I look forward to each month. When the next delivery day rolls around, spring will be in full swing and we'll be able to bring some of those beautiful colors inside to the patients. I can't wait!