The Dresser

If you know me at all you know I am very sentimental. "A sap" my husband calls me. I can't throw away any of the kid's school work. Even if it is just a math sheet. So when I can pass something down to my kids that was mine as a little girl it just thrills me. I had this dresser as a little girl, in fact it was my moms when she was a little girl. Her father restored it for me when I was little. He signed his name in one of the drawers when he was finished. It says, "Refinished by Curt Trevis--Largo Florida June 1976 at St. Louis for grandaughter Diane." I had that dresser in my room up until I went to college. I remember keeping all my "treasures" in one drawer; pictures of boyfriends, little items that were private and special to me in my teenage years. Now the dresser is my daughter's. My mom painted it for Emma and signed it right next to her father's writing, "Refinished by Carol Trevis Campbell Aubrey Tx June2009 for grandaughter Emma" Ironically she restored it in June just like my grandfather did. I was putting away some of Emma's clothes the other day and sure enough in one of her drawers tucked away in a corner were little "treasures'' ; some shells, lipgloss, pictures...like mother like daughter :)

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun!

I love having a girl. I always wanted one. I remember being pregnant with Emma and praying to God to give me a girl. Don't get me wrong I love my boys too but there is something special about having a girl. I love the pink, the purses, girly movies, lip gloss, dresses, even the "girl drama". Emma has the girly side but still "kicks butt" on the basketball court too! I hope Emma and I will have that close bond where we can lay on her bed when she is a teen and talk about anything. Emma also loves sleepovers. We have been having a lot this summer. She is a lot like me when I was her age because I always wanted them at my house. I felt better at home. I love listening to the giggles at night and the singing to High School Musical through her door. I know I will cherish these memories...

Recipe Website

If you are like me cooking sometimes can be overwhelming. I never know what to make that everyone will eat. When I do find a recipe sometimes it is hard to follow. I found this awesome website that breaks down into pictures step by step the process of cooking. I have tried several recipes from it and they were so good. I thought I would pass it along. It is http://thepioneerwoman.com/cooking

Give it a try and happy cooking :)

My "Baby" is Five

Wow, I can't believe it has almost been a month since I updated my blog! I really think I stink at this. But since school is finally out I think I will be better at updating. Summer has started out with a bang as usual. We have managed to stay busy everyday. Oh, there have been the occasionally "I'm bored" but the rule at our house is if they are bored they can do summer homework (worksheets to review from the year). How quickly they find something to do!

We started the summer with Colin's birthday. We had the family party at the grandparents house with the cousins; Vincent and Gracie. We went to Grammy and Grampy's neighborhood water park (which is huge!!) I would have taken pictures of that but I forgot to bring my camera to the water park. It is really great to take all the kids to because it has something for all the ages--a splash park, sand area for the little ones and large slides for big kids (Curt loves these). Then today we had Colin's friend's party at a place called Peter Piper Pizza. He had his friends from pre-school there. It was fun to watch his first party with friends!

Perspective...

Colin never gets sick so when he woke up Sunday morning holding his throat and crying I knew right away it was probably strep. I took his temp and it was a little high. I gave him Motrin and he became a new kid. Motrin..what did we do before it?? The rest of the day he was fine but when the night came his fever was up to 101 and he felt crummy. I held him but before he fell asleep he looked up at me and said, "Mommy, make it go away". Ouch. That's the worse kind-of pain as a mother is when you can't make it go away. All I knew is in the morning I could take him to the doctor and get him medicine and he would be alright. Sure enough that is what happened. I took him and he did have strep. We came home with the yucky pink medicine and he is going to be alright. I was stressed those two days because my "baby" was sick. Then today everything was put in perspective for me. What if you can't make your "baby" well? Emma has a friend, Alaina, that when she was six found out she had neuroblastoma. She went through all the chemo, radiation and hell it takes to rid your body of cancer and now she is in remission--she is nine now and is still cancer-free. Through her mom I found a couple blogs. They are under my blog list. I just checked the one "what's cook'n.." and they received bad news about their little girl Bree. It hit me that at the exact time I was stressing over Colin's strep they were receiving the news that their one year old still had cancer in her bone marrow. What absolute pain that mother must be going through that she can't "make it go away". I need to remember that even when my situation seems so bad there is always worse. But even if that worse comes to us God will never leave us...even in this mother's darkest hours she is still praising God. In the end that is all we have. That is what I always need to keep in perspective.

Take a Break and Bake

What is it with May? Every year it nearly kills me. I have a dry erase calender hanging in our kitchen to keep track of our family activities and May's is overflowing. Every single day has something written on it. It seems as if everyone panics and has to schedule every school event, meeting, birthday party, field trip, picnic etc in May. It is not the only month in the year people!!! Ok, I feel better now :) Anyway the other day I thought I needed to take a moment for myself and slow down. So I baked these delicious banana crumb muffins. The whole family loved them and that is really saying something. The kids even had them for dessert with a glass of milk. If you too are feeling the craziness of May take a moment and bake something yummy. Your kids will thank you. :)

Banana Crumb Muffins

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 ripe bananas, mashed

3/4 cup white sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup butter, melted

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups or line with muffin papers.

2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened. Spoon the batter into prepared muffin cups.

3. In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon of butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Sprinkle topping over muffins.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes until a toothpick inserted into center of muffin comes out clean.

We Survived Kinder Camp!

Last night they had Kinder Camp at our elementary school. It was a chance for the future kinder students to meet the teachers and see a real live kindergarten classroom. Colin was not at all keen on going. His Pre-K teacher had an idea to tell him that all the teachers up at Taylor (his new school) were her friends so could he please be nice and say hi to them. Well, that did the trick because he was all smiles after that. He even shook hands with them! So cute! It was just Colin, Emma and I that went because John and Curt had to go to Curt's basketball practice. Emma wants to be a teacher when she grows up and boy did it show! She walked Colin around to each of the centers, storytime area, calendar place and explained what he will be doing at each location. Everyone was so impressed because all the other students were listening more to Emma explaining it than the teacher! There is no doubt Emma will be an awesome teacher. As hard as it has been to let go I know it is time. I just needed to get the signal from him that he is ready..I think I got that last night. :)

What Happened to the Time??

Next week is a big week for me. It is one step closer to something I have wanted for a long time...peace, freedom and time for myself (or at least when September comes). I am registering my youngest, Colin, for Kindergarten on Monday. Yippee!! Now I can finally substitute whenever I want or maybe even try to get a full time position with the school--who knows-- but come September I am FREE! Wow, how come I feel so... sad? I have this feeling of ...oh no, once I put my baby in school, that's it, their ALL gone. I have this lump in my throat. What happened to their babyhood? What happened to the time? I thought it would last forever. The funny thing is I had wished it wouldn't. I would get so frustrated with the long nights of waking up to hungry babies, missing pacifiers, leaky diapers, cleaning bottles, trying to snap onsies on a run-away toddler, putting together all those toys, etc. Don't get me wrong I still really don't miss those days! I like them at this age. But I am afraid that if it is moving this fast--how much faster can it go? For instance the other day when Colin came to sit on my lap and had rested his head on my shoulder I thought to myself--soon he will be too big for this just like Curt. I thought to myself "I wonder when the actual day was that Curt did sit on my lap like this for the last time". If we all knew when and if those times were going to be the last we would surely treasure that moment more. I would have memorized the smell of Curt's hair and his little hands and legs. I would have held tighter and longer, savoring every moment. Now he is a big 5'3 4th grader who no longer snuggles up to me...that time is forever gone. Did I enjoy it enough? Did I take for granted when he called me "mommy". It makes me think of a Steven Curtis Chapman song--I love the words to this song:

There is only ONE who knows
What's really out there waiting
In all the moments yet to be
And all we need to know
is He's out there waiting

To Him the future's history
and He has given us a treasure called right now
and this is the only moment we can do anything about

And if it brings you tears
Then taste them as they fall
And let them soften your heart

And if it brings you laughter
Then throw your head back
and let it go, let it go,
You gotta let it go

Listen to your heartbeat.
There's a wonder in the here and now
It's right there in front of you
And I don't want you to miss
The miracle of the moment

I will make it through the registration on Monday. But I am sure I will be one of the moms you see on the first day of Kindergarten crying --after all he is my baby. Even when he is too big to snuggle in my lap I just might have to make him ;)

Happy Spring!

Wow, I am not good at updating! I have discovered Facebook and it can be a little addicting. It is a great way to keep in touch with people but can take up a lot of time. I can not believe spring is here already. Some days feel like it and then we will get a blast of winter to remind us not to get too comfortable. The kid's spring break came and went--so early this year. We didn't go on a vacation. We are saving that for the summer. We managed to stay busy everyday. The big thing we did was go to the Ft. Worth zoo. It was..how should I put it..a ZOO!! It was soooo crowded. We made a mental note never to go during spring break again. But the kids loved it anyway.

I know I posted that one picture twice but I don't know how to remove the other one so enjoy it twice :)

The highlight of Curt's week had to be his first Dallas Mavericks game! He went with John and they had floor seats! Both "boys" were so excited.

My Birthday Celebrations

I meant to post before now. I am thankful for quite a bit this week (that is always a good sign you had a good week!) Friday was my birthday--the big 4-0. Ouch. I dreaded this one for awhile. I have came to the realization of course that that is silly. Everyday is a gift from God and I am very thankful I have had another year of life. I had a great celebration. Ever since we were kids my parents started the tradition of making signs the night before our birthday. When we would wake up the next morning we would be greeted with many colorful birthday signs made from construction paper. I carried it on with my children and even do it for my husband. It took my husband awhile to catch on to it but he eventually came around to the Campbell tradition :) I heard him sneak out at 6:00am the morning of my b-day and had the kids make my signs. Here are some:

That night John and I went to P.F.Chang's for dinner--yum! I am so thankful for my parents who stayed and watched to kids for us! The next night my parents took us out to dinner and then we came back and opened presents and had cake. I feel so blessed to have so many friends and family who wished me a happy birthday--I felt so loved on my special day--THANK YOU :)

Thankful Thursday

My cousin Sandy has a blog (the first one listed on the left) and she does this every Thursday so I think I will steal her idea :) Every Thursday I will talk about what I am thankful for that week. The first one is actually something my daughter is more thankful for than I am--the flat iron! See, she has super curly hair that I love (she not so much). Every morning I help her spray it and brush it out. It has so many tangles that she often cries out in pain! She has said so many times, "I wish I had straight hair!" How many times have we straight hair ladies wanted curly hair?? How many stinky perms did we sit through in the 80's just to get that perfect head of curls? (OK, maybe I am dating myself!) Anyway I remember my mom rolling my hair in foam rollers at night and then being so excited in the morning to see what I looked like with curly hair. I couldn't wait to go to school and show my friends. When I straighten Emma's hair with the flat iron it is the same but in reverse! It is so cute. She'll run her fingers through it and flip it around like a Pantene commercial. I straightened her hair last night as we watched American Idol together. The pics I have here are a little old (I didn't get the chance to download the picture I took last night). You get the idea. By the way, she has big earrings on in these pictures because it was 70's day at school that day. I don't always let her wear such funky earrings :)

I am thankful for something a little more serious this week than hair :) My brother had a very big interview this week. It was promotion with his same company but in Florida instead of Alabama. He has wanted this for many years. We all prayed very hard for Eric. Long, heart felt prayers. But I think we all prayed with the intentions that God has all the answers and if it is in His will that this be done. God wants us to be happy. He also wants us to be specific with our prayers. Eric got the job! The power of prayer is amazing. The thing Eric knew though was his faith would be the same even if he did not get the job. God is all knowing. Only He knows what is best for us. He still wants to hear from us though..He still wants to know what would make us happy. I am thankful for our Father that He wants to listen to us..He hears each and every one of us--so talk to Him.

Catch Up

Sorry It has been so long since I last posted. As my friend Nichole said "I have fallen off the blogging wagon!" Life with 3 kids is never stress free but I need to learn to take some time to reflect and this will be a great way to do that. This will just be a catch up of what's been going on. I have been subbing still and loving it. The downside is I have not been doing it very often. The system is overloaded with subs because of the layoffs of Dallas teachers. I guess now the district has too many subs. I still have "regulars" that call me but I need more work. My hope was to get an aide position in the fall to get my foot in the door but those are getting cut too. Scary time.

The kids are doing great. I am room mom for Curt's 4th grade class so I was in charge of his valentine party. Crazy but fun! I mentioned Heath (Curt's friend who has autism) in my previous post. This is a picture of the two of them. The other one is Curt and his teacher--notice how Curt is almost as tall as she is!!

This weekend we went to Pizza Planet and celebrated Emma's end of the season for basketball. The kids had a blast. There were roller coasters, pirate ships, bumper cars and games! The season for both Curt and Emma will start up again in a couple weeks so we are enjoying the break :)

Because of Ted...

Today's entry may be a little deep.. so I apologize up front. For those who know I lost my brother on February 9, 2002. Because the anniversary is coming up this time of year is always hard. I have learned so much about life between then and now. The only thing Ted wanted is for people just to treat him like everyone else. He always told me that when people didn't it was because "they were just afraid of what they didn't know". He always believed people just needed to be educated. I think Ted still speaks to us. Which leads me to Emma's best friend..you see Emma's best friend is Rachel who happens to have down syndrome. The two of them are inseparable. Rachel's mom has told me some very mean things that other girls have said and done to Rachel. Emma is always defending her friend. Not because she has down syndrome but just because she is her friend. I love Emma's heart so much. Did she just happen to be this way? Of course I taught her at a very early age to be accepting of everyone but there is something deeper there. Curt has it too. A certain spirit in them. Teachers have commented to me how unusual it is for kids their age to help so many special needs kids so often. There is a boy name Heath in Curt's class that has autism. He will not talk to anyone and does not like to be touched. Well, his aide told me that all year Curt has been working with Heath; reading with him, sitting with him at lunch, including him in games at PE. Just on Friday Heath actually hugged Curt before he left for the day. His aide told me this was a real breakthrough. Did Curt just happen to be this way? No, I think Ted speaks to Curt and Emma and Colin; educates them, whispers to them that we are the same in God's eyes. We are all beautiful...we all need the chance to be part of the world without the stares. Thank you, Ted. They are listening.

Colin's Big Day

This is too cute not to share. I love this picture of Colin's first day of pre-K. Poor guy was so nervous but he kept a brave face. I can't believe he is old enough to go to school already. Next year it will be the big Kindergarten!

So far he is doing great . Every Friday is treasure chest day and he has earned a trip to it each time so I assume he is behaving :) Way to go Colin!

Our Life Lately

I added new pictures of the kids. Much more will follow--this is just a start! Just to catch everyone up--here's what they are all up to these days. Curt is a big 4th grader who loves basketball, basketball and did I mention basketball? Luckily, at 5'3 already and only 10 he is awesome at it. He also is on the A honor roll at school and loves his new IPOD from Christmas. Emma also loves basketball and is an incredible defender. People are amazed at her competitive spirit. Emma is already a 2nd grader and is also on the A honor roll. She loves spending time with her many friends and spends a lot of time on the phone (imagine that!) Lastly, our sweet Colin. He is 4 and half and just started pre-K. It is 3 days a week for 3 hours and he qualified for it because of a speech delay. It is nothing serious but this will be a great way to get him prepared for Kindergarten in the fall. He loves every bit of it! Well, except bathroom break for some reason :) Anyway we are so proud of him. John became the General Manager of the Dave and Buster's in Dallas in October--We are proud of him too!! :) Because of the economy business is slow but he is confident it will turn around. As for me I am substituting when I can. I love that so much. Just the smell of school makes me happy (am I dork or what?) It is just where I know I should be. I need to take my teaching test so I can teach full time when Colin is back in school. That should catch everyone up for now! :)

Kids Pictures

Welcome to Our New Blog

Thanks to my friend Nichole I now have a blog! :) The pictures are from her visit to Texas last summer! I will post some recent ones just as soon as I figure out how.
Hopefully I will update frequently to let everyone know how we are doing. This is basically a test just to make sure I even know how to post :) Enjoy and thank you Nichole!