The Five Amigos

This was last summer...note my darling daughter Alison with her suit on BACKWARDS...she's still a little crazy with her fashion sense, but at least she has decided that the tags actually do go in back:)

This was this past weekend...my how they have grown. From left to right is my nephew, Clayton (8..soon to be 9), Madison (7), my niece Morgan (6), Sammi (4) and Alison (3). What a crew!!

My mother, the saint, decided to have the oldest four over for a sleep over on Saturday night. Yep, she's crazy. I think I'll add "Accessories for her padded-room and beautiful white-straight jacket" to her Christmas list. God love that woman for taking all four rugrats overnight. I'm told they were very well behaved and slept like little angels. Oh the love of a grandmother - you just can't beat it.

Our little Ali-Bubba is still a bit young for this kind of adventure (and it throws the whole balance off...Clayton & Madison....Sammi & Morgan...and then there is Alison fighting her way into one of the groups at all times!!) so she got a special date with her Mom. We went to the video store and rented a movie - one she picked out herself (Aladdin and the King of Thieves...she's on a Jasmine kick right now because she is "bootiful"), got her a bucket of popcorn that she didn't have to share and some yummy lemonade. She loved it and I loved the special time with her, cuddling under blankets with the air conditioning blasting.

When I look at the picture of these five fabulous kids, I get a whole mixed-bag of emotions. One, I get melancholy because I can't believe how time is flashing before my eyes. My nephew was just a baby in my very insecure arms just a moment ago - now he is talking Star Wars with his Uncle Scott and telling me about his girlfriend from school (who knew I had been replaced as the girlfriend!!). My niece is growing up so quickly and becoming this beautiful young lady. Her long dark hair and bright blue eyes remind me so much of my brother everytime I look at her. My own kids change daily and without notice. Time is marching on whether I'm paying attention or not.

I'm also so very excited when I see their smiling faces through the lens of my camera. Yes, because there are five faces that I have to have looking in one direction (no small task!!), but also because all of them get to be with each other so often. They have learned to love each other more like siblings than cousins. They talk on the phone, they send postcards when they go on trips, they make bookmarks for each other and send snail-mail...just sweet, sweet stuff that you don't want to have end. I so hope that the love they have for each other now will grow and develop into lifelong friendships that they will carry into their adulthood - wherever they may end up.

This weekend is Clayton's birthday and another day for them to get together, have some fun and just be kids. You can bet that I'll be there, camera in hand, ready to capture the moments as they unfold. I'm just hoping my picture-taking ability is at the top of its game because I fear I will be ducking water balloons and dodging silly string to get any good shots!! And when the cake is rolled out and the birthday wish is made, I know what I'll be wishing for...another year together just like this one - full of pool days, sledding trips and sleep overs:)

Amateur Golfer, Professional Student

Last Friday, I played in a golf scramble with four great ladies, benefiting my high school athletic program (yeah, I know, because I was SUCH a great athlete in high school - LOL!!). I love the third Friday in July - that means its Sailor Classic Day. A day on the green, green grasses of Oakridge Golf Course in lieu of the regularly scheduled chores of laundry and cleaning. Who could ask for more?

Yep - you guessed it - me.

Remember all those lessons you got when you were little about appreciating the little things in life? Well, I obviously forgot every single one that day. Let me set the stage:

I have officially (and unofficially) played one nine-hole round of golf this summer. Yep - one and that was just two days before the tournament. Not exactly a practiced hand standing over that ball on Friday. If it tells you anything, I had to clean out my golf bag Thursday night FROM LAST YEAR'S SAILOR CLASSIC just to find my glove, tees and balls. A sad state of affairs...

So I'm thinking that maybe if I haven't played that much (laugh!) that I won't have any of the bad habits that come with playing a lot of golf (laugh! laugh!). It's possible...

We start via shotgun on hole number 11: My drive, not too bad, but woody. Fairway wood, pretty good. Nine iron, hits the flag pole...we make par. Could be worse right? On to twelve: Drive - so close to driving the green. Chip, not too bad. Putt, someone sinks it for birdie. Mom Pucker pulls out the Apple and Watermelon Pucker (quite tasty at 7:35 in the morning), and we're off to another hole. For you see, it is our tradition to do a shot of pucker for every birdie that we put on our card. Can't hurt right?

Another twelve holes go racing by, a few more shots of Pucker and we're already on number 7 ready to tee the ball. Our drives go splattering across the horizon. No one is in good shape, but we find we have a shot into the green albeit through the thick clover rough (think Tiger Woods hitting it out of the Old Scottish rough of St. Andrews...no really). Then the unthinkable happens...four out of five of us women put our golf balls in the water. Yep, can you imagine it? Painful (Que the Wide World of Sports theme and the announcer's words ringing ..."and the agony of defeat").

I know, you're wondering WHEN is she going to get to the point. Right now...

I was so mad at myself for not hitting that shot. Not just mad, down right tee'd off (get it...teed off??? LOL). I would actually describe myself as sulking or as my mom likes to say "pouting" and it lasted the remaining three holes. I'm ashamed to admit it, but I acted like THAT child in the grocery store - you know the one I'm talking about. I've played one round of golf this year and I expect to hit Tigress-like shots on a golf course that I play once year. Okay, saying that out loud (or on my keyboard anyway) makes it that much worse. I lost the whole point of being out there...to have fun...to be with friends and enjoy their company...to bask in the glow of the sunshine - oh yeah, it was raining - but you get the point. I forgot to just be thankful for a day on the course - a day to enjoy myself and leave the "small stuff" at home.

Who knew these little life lessons could be found chasing a little white ball into a little black hole?

So, to close, I have learned a few valuable things. One, making fun of yourself is far better therapy than paying a shrink to do it for you. Two, never hit your fairway wood out of the rough on hole number 7 because the results stink...I mean really stink. And three, never, ever take yourself so seriously on a golf course that the Golf Gods have to come down from the sky and bite you in the a@#!

One Door Down...

What does Alison do on a hot day when Grandma has made her get out of the pool because her Mother will be there to pick her up in just minutes?

The water bug that she is decides to do Grandma a favor and wash her door...I mean car. I sound like my real-life and blog friend Angie, but I'm starting to carry my camera everywhere because moments like this are just too precious to let slip by. Alison is just so crazy right now - hysterically funny, so terribly stubborn and love-love-lovey dovey. She wants to do everything herself, including using the hose, and gets so fighting mad when you try to help her out. With two big sisters that double for "Mother Hens" in the house, you can imagine how much THAT happens!! This time, we didn't. We just let her have at it with the hose. On this last picture, she got a little too close to the door and wound up spraying herself more than the car!! I don't think she cared much as she was screaming and giggling the entire time.

So if you see this lovely tan Grand Marquis driving down the road, never mind that the rest of the car is dusty and full of bug-goo. The driver side door is immaculate and washed with tender loving care, compliments of our darling Ali-Bubba.

B-Ball Baby

It is always so much fun when the summer enrichment class schedule comes out for our school district. The girls all get their little colored pens out and circle the classes that they want to take. This year, to my surprise, Madison decided she wanted to try basketball. She seems to like B-Ball, as we got her a basketball a few years ago for Christmas and she shoots hoops at the neighbors house. Scott and I wanted the girls to stay active this summer, so we told her to go for it and we signed her up.

She had a ball (pun intended!!).

And...she's pretty darn good. She's not as tall as a lot of the girls in her class because she is young for her grade, but she's quick and she likes to shoot the ball. Okay, so dribbling might need some work, but she's got some great potential.

Check out my little video of some defensive and offensive moves by our B-Ball Baby!!

Go Sailors!!

Also, I big thank you to Papa Kemp for getting Madison her very own regulation hoop from a friend of his. Now she can dribble, shoot and hoop every day in her own driveway:)

A Moment Turns Into a Month!

Wow, how does a whole month go by without a post? Crazy how time flashes before your eyes at this stage of life. Since I last posted, we've attended the Miss Michigan pageant in Muskegon (Maddie and Sammi went with their Daddy, while Mom did the official tallying for the pageant), and met Miss America, Kristine Haglund, while I was there, jetted off to Florida for a family vacation over the 4th of July, helped organize a block party on our neighborhood association that was on our street on Saturday and had Scott's relatives from Detroit over for a visit on Sunday. I'm pooped!!

I've got about a thousand pictures I need to organize yet, so look for pictures on our blog this week!!

Another exciting weekend is coming up...golf tournament on Friday (The Sailor Classic), more relatives from Detroit this weekend and a whole lot of summer fun!!