Celebrate!

It seems to be coming so quickly... cake, cake, and more cake.

That means that time is passing and so is the deployment. This time we had a chocolate sheet cake. It is a special recipe from Brenda, the parent of a high-school friend. This cake evokes good memories for me. Coming to my friend's house to find this cake freshly baked for us. Moms doing special things for their kids just because.

I hope that someday, when the girls are grown, that the deployments evoke not only memories of missing Gene but memories of the fun times we had together as mother and daughter.

Abby, Kameryn, Hanna, Greta, and Gigi

Lovely Family Dinners

Before you call the authorities, I do not make the girls eat on the floor with the dog. We don't have a dog. This is totally a story of free will and how a five year old makes a point.

Those of you who know my sweet little Greta know that she is very fiesty. I also like to call her spirited. Some might say stubborn... I don't know where she would get that.

Anyhoo...

She and Gigi are in TROUBLE! I mean the kind of trouble that keeps you from going to softball games and gets you sent to bed immediately after dinner. I am shooting for bedtime to be 6pm tonight.

Anyhoo...

Gigi is over it and back to her cheerful self. Greta, my sweet little Greta, is not quite as accepting of her fate as her sister. She is ANGRY! She is so angry that she wouldn't sit beside me to eat dinner. In fact, sitting at the opposite end of the table was too close to me. She moved to the breakfast bar. Was that far enough away from her totally devoted Mom? You guessed it. She was still sitting too close to her loving mother. So, she moved her plate to the floor on the opposite side of the kitchen. Yes, my sweet little Greta ate her dinner while sitting on the floor while Gigi and I enjoyed a delicious dinner at the beautiful table and had a good giggle.

At least she remembered that she can't have food on the carpet. I have a picture of her during this stand off but I don't have the nerve to post it.

Anyhoo...

I wonder how it is going to go when she figures out that I am serious about her going to bed early. My glass is half full!

Clean Up

Gigi got her new glasses today. I guess she won't have an excuse when I tell her to put away her shoes and she says "what shoes?" Now I know she can see them... and her dirty clothes, and her books, and her papers, and her Pokemon cards, and her Bella Sarah cards, and her .... you name it!

Swimmy

We are having a great summer hanging out at the pool with friends. We probably go a couple times a week and I can tell the difference in the girls' swimming abilities. They swim for hours. It was just a couple of years ago that Gigi refused to put her face in the water. Now, she and Greta are swimming like mermaids.

Take Me Out To The Ballgame

Gigi finished a fabulous season with her Dad's Club softball team. Our summers are all about softball. We go to a couple of games a week and love it. Good job G!

Mom!

Mom

MOM!!!!

Hey Mom,

Mom look!

M-O-O-O-M-M-M-M!!!!!!!!!

Guess what Mom...

I decided to be an extra cool Mom and unload the dishwasher for the girls. That is their daily chore. They are soooooooo tired of taking out and putting away the 1,000 glasses that they dirty in a day. Grumble Grumble

On my way to be the BEST MOM of the day, Greta said "Hey Mom look at my bracelet!" They were happily playing with the slime they made today. I barely glanced her way and made the noise that Mom's make when they want their kids to think they are paying attention but we are really just thinking about all the other little chores that are taking up precious brain space. "Uh huh, that's nice Greta."

Mom...MOm... MOM...MOM!!!!

I realized "Someday it will be quiet". There will probably be days when the only voice I hear may be when I talk to my cats. The girls will be older. I won't be as important. They will have friends and families of their own. My heart skipped a beat. I realized that someday there won't be that endless chatter in the house. The constant distractions that make me forget my first name that was given to me at birth. I won't always hear the name that was given to me at their births that I share with so many other great women.

My days seems to never end during deplyments. I don't get time to think much less go to the bathroom alone.

Then I thought, when Gene is deployed he doesn't hear...

DAD!!!!!!

or

Gene, please go play with the girls. I am going to my room for some quiet time.

I am going to go enjoy my goop bracelet and the fact that today...

I AM IMPORTANT!

Party Like a Rockstar

Gigi knows how to party!

She is in a daze after going to a slumber party at her best buddy Ethan's house. Needless to say, she took a nap that afternoon.

In fact, a three Porter girls snuggled up in the bed. Gigi and I snoozed while Greta just enjoyed playing Polly's and sitting with us.