Hmmmm, where can I put this??

Last night at Lane's ball game, I saw that Bo's nose was running, so I got a tissue and asked him to blow....well along with the usual, out came a popcorn kernel! It was kind of frightening....he denied that he put it in his nose repeatedly, he just kept saying,"I don't want to talk about it" or "Let's just forget about it momma." I asked Lane after her game, and she said he told her he put it in his nose the other day when they were watching a movie in her room! That was Sunday!! Needless to say, it was swollen up and I have a feeling if I hadn't ask him to blow his nose we might have been in the ER in a few days!! Kids.....why do they do these things!!

Dance Recital 2009

Our second dance recital for Lane's Showstars "cheernastics" class......

4 great friends at dress rehearsal at the studio!

Lane and Addie are shakin it...not sure if it's to the right or to the left, but movin those hips!

I am sooooo proud of her backbend. The progress from Christmas time, when she couldn't lift her head off the ground out all to now being able to hold it for like a minute, wow! Now, let's hope the cartwheel will come around soon!

Is this the tiniest pyramid you've ever seen???

Shuckin' corn

Lane can shuck corn better than I can....and certainly better than her little brother. If I give them 8 ears, she does 7 of 'em!

one myth in the quest for contentment....

"I have met many women who live miserable lives because of the expectations they have for their husbands and children." This was the first line from my Bible study this morning. Okay, so I don't live a "miserable life"....but often, my bad days stem from unrealistic expectations that I have for my family. I often expect my 3 year old to act like he's 6, my 5 year old girl to make 10 year old decisions and remember every instruction I have ever given her in her life.....and too often I expect my husband to give me undivided attention while playing with the kids and doing laundry and helping with the dinner dishes at the same time.
This newest Bible study(Get a Life: Debunking 6 myths in the quest for contentment)in our MOMS group has been good so far, but today's kind of kicked my butt! It started with this line and talked about expectations of others, but then actually went on to talk about how material things can't make you happy. Although I think we all struggle to some extent with wanting "things" we don't have, I have never thought about how much it relates to expectations of others. Both get in the way of my full joy and contentment. Anything that interferes with finding full peace is not a good thing in my walk as a Christian. .... I think I am posting to help me sort through it in my mind. The expectations and desires that I have for myself are not my husband's or children's. My kids just want my love, praise, and to play with me. My husband just wants my love and a compliment every now and then (his love language is words of affirmation). But what I want them to do or to want doesn't exactly match up with what they want sometimes.....and I think that causes me to be disappointed all to often. So, how do I give up some of these unrealistic expectaions??? First, I guess I can pray... a little cliche, but a good starting point. What next, I think I need to pay less attention to every little issue or set-back that happens. Although I usually consider myself pretty good at finding the good in situations (probably why my favorite childhood movie was "Pollyanna"), I seem not be able to let the bad things go quickly with these 3. I see the bad, draw attention to it, tell them what's bad, how to fix it, and watch to see if the result happens immediately. If I can work on "defending" them when I see something in them I don't like or agree with as hard as I will " defend" others, it might help! I usually can overlook another person's character flaws and I am really good at saying, "that's just how God made them" but I have more trouble believing that God also made my husband and kids different too!
I don't know the exact solution, but I am going to pray for and search for a peace about loosing my high expectations of others (namely the 3 people that live with me!). I will try to be more thankful that God has given them the desires that they have and the talents that they have and thankful that theirs are different from mine. I apologize for the somewhat confusing nature of this post...I think it is mostly random thoughts, but it's kind of like studying for a test, if you write it down as you are studying, it helps you remember it more. Maybe writing it will help me do it! I am certainly open to insight from others if any one else out there struggles with this! Have a good day!

To add to yesterday's post....

more prayers from last night, that I just have to write down...Bo's insight and tangential thoughts are so cute....and well, I'll just say looks like Lane is going to be persistent!

Bo: "God, thank you for mommy cause she's the boss, and she tells me what to do. And I need to learn to play baseball because one day Lane is gonna be 6 and I am gonna be 5. And God is watching us. Amen."

Lane: "God, thank you for my family. Thank you for my friends. I want a baby sister."

Last nights bedtime prayers...

Bo: "Momma, I'll say a prayer about God" (as opposed to what I am not sure....I think he meant he'll talk about God and not just say "thank you for....and for....and for.....) so here was his prayer "about God" "God wants us to do what he wants us to do. Jesus watches us all the time. We don't do what the kids tell us, and the teachers tell us what we need to do. Amen" Lane: "Thank you for my family. Thank you for my friends. Please give me a baby sister. Amen" (Gee, thanks Georgia for telling her to start praying for that!!)

Conratulations MTSU baseball!

Rob' s youngest brother, Hunter, is a junior at Middle Tennesee State University, majoring in construction management....but more importantly, he is a redshirt sophmore on the baseball team!

MTSU won the SunBelt Conference championship yesterday (well tied for it).....nonetheless, the boy is getting a championship ring!! Looks like they are also going to be playing in the NCAA tournament in a couple of weeks too. One of his friends on the team is up for college baseball player of the year with 27 homers and a ridiculous number of RBI's! Congrats!

The kids and I went up to see him for the opening of their new stadium in February. They are crazy about him (and Samanta too), and Rob & I think they are pretty special too! We didn't leave till the game was over and they had an autograph signing at the end, so who knows maybe we'll have the autograph of a major leager one day!

Rob and I went up again in March to see him play.....we had a good time going to the game, eating afterward, and Nanny rode home with us. Here are some pictures

The Ball Ballerina

I don't think any explanation is needed...

Benihana!

My friend, Sarah, and I took our kids to Benihana recently. My kids have never been and I have been craving that fried rice! I figured out how much cheaper the lunch menu is, so we did that! We ate for $24 hibachi style!! They loved it, especially since they watched Kung Fu Panda in the car on the way there, and Bo kept asking for "dumplins for his chop sticks"! It was so funny to watch them eat rice and corn by the kernel with those banded chopsticks! There is definitely a return trip in our future....

Mother's Day 2009

I have a few Mother's Day "thank yous" to issue. First, Thank you Rob, Lane, and Bo for making me feel special this morning. Rob got the kids up and let me sleep while they were making muffins and planting flowers for me. The kids also made me cards from school. Now, Bo ran in the house brining me his on the day he made it. Lane, hid hers carefully away until yesterday morning. Rob said when he woke her up, she stumbled to the kitchen, opened the drawer where she had hid it and started into my room. He said he didn't tell her it was mother's day; but she is very keen about remembering special things. I know we aren't very photogenic before showers, but hey, it's life:

During church, I thought a lot about the influence mothers have had on my life.

Next, I am thankful for momma. She has taught me how a mother loves. She loves my brothers and I unconditionally and we have always felt her love. She puts us first, and we know she would do anything for us. She has taught me how to have a kind heart to do special things for others. She is always thinking of things to do for others that would make them feels special (lucky for me I am often on the receivng end of that love!) She has also taught me about the importance of family. No matter what hardships have come her way, she has always stood firm in her dedication to her family.

I am thankful for my mother-in-law. She has taught me about not sweating the small things in life. She has taught me about balancing things in life....husband, kids, career, self.

I am thankful for my grandmothers. My dad's mother I never knew, and I hate that. I wonder what she was like....I wonder if she was like my dad. I wonder if I am like her in any way.

I am very thankful for the years I had with my "granny." We lost her a few years ago at Thanksgiving. I thought a lot about her yesterday. My aunt had a lunch at her house, and memories flooded my mind of granny. Aunt Donna grilled hamburgers, and she made them like granny did...with barbeque sauce on them. My mom made angel food cake and strawberries, because she said, "Granny always had strawberries at Mother's day." I thought about the things I used to do with her.....going to get groceries in that big white cadillac and her telling me about the days when the rode on horse and buggy (with the mules "cap and john"), cooking with her (I remember rice pudding, cornbread and greens the most), getting popsicles from her freezer and using those big old black and silver scissors that sat beside the sewing machine in the laundry room, watering flowers, going to pick up a farm hand in the field, drinking out of that community water jug that stayed in the fridge, playing with my cousin Clayton every summer at her house, eating the jello she made me in that big brown bowl when I was sick (she kept me usually when I was sick because momma had to work), I not so vividily remember the smell of her basement that I loved, I can picture her Bible that sat at her counter where she ate..it was very worn and full of papers. She was a quiet Chrisitan example for me as a child. I miss her. I am glad I knew her. I have just a few things of hers...the one thing I wanted from her house was her old tin tea pitcher.

I am thankful for Rob's grandmothers, Nanny and Memaw.

Nanny has always made me feel like I am her own granddaughter. That is really special. She gives good advice and loves, loves, loves her grandchildren and great grandchildren.

I love to visit with Memaw and talk about church with her. She is the only Presbyterian on both sides of our family, and we love for her to share that faith with us.

I am blessed to have been shaped by these special women. I pray that God will be not only with me, but lead me in my journey as a mother. Happy Mother's Day!

The Climb

Lane, Bo, myself, and some friends went to see the new Hannah Montana movie a few weeks ago. I have to say I loved the movie and Bo even said he liked it! I really like her song "The Climb" about just taking life as it comes....So if you are having a bad day, here are the lyrics: I can almost see it. That dream I'm dreaming but There's a voice inside my head sayin,You'll never reach it,Every step I'm taking,Every move I make feels Lost with no direction My faith is shaking but I Got to keep trying Got to keep my head held high There's always going to be another mountain I'm always going to want to make it move Always going to be an uphill battle, Sometimes I'm gonna to have to lose, Ain't about how fast I get there, Ain't about what's waiting on the other side It's the climb. The struggles I'm facing,The chances I'm taking Sometimes they knock me down but No I'm not breaking I may not know it But these are the moments that I'm going to remember most yeah Just got to keep going And I,I got to be strong Just keep pushing on, causeThere's always going to be another mountain......

Bo thought that if the girls were all in Hannah Montana gear and garb, then he better find something cool to wear too! Funny thing is, I let him wear it to the movies, and I looked over at him during the movie and he had taken off the suite and was standing there in his underwear (clearly, I was way to into the movie if I didn't see it happen!)

We met at our house to get fancy before we went....

Fun with friends

Here are some pictures from a spring day at the playground with some friends...

BB's Babies

Rob's squirrel dog BB had puppies 6 weeks ago. She had 8 sweet babies....2 female and 6 male! She had them while we were gone to Kansas City! Anyone who knows me well, knows that I am not considered to be an animal lover, not because I don't like them, but because my asthma has always prevented me from being able to spend time with anything with fur. But I will have to say I have really enjoyed helping to raise this litter of pups. I even gave them their shots last week. Now, I did have to scrub down and change clothes everytime I touched them, but it was worth it. Especially to see how much the kids loved them...Lane cried when we got their tails cut, cried when we gave them shots, cried everytime she thought about that we weren't keeping all of them...she loves them. Lucky for us (or unlucky for us...!) we are keeping 2 of them. Rob chose Bo's dog "Tarzan" and Lane's "Kacie" to make their home at the Dawson kennel. He sold the rest....(finally some return from this expensive hobby!) I told him last night that I look forward to the next litter!

These pictures go from their birthday to this weekend (6 weeks) so you can watch them grow.

This is the runt or "Baby Girl" or "Gracie" as Lane called her...and yes, she cried when we didn't keep her!

Random picture of some hot "mammas" at play day when the kids played with the puppies!

This was so cute, the kids at play day all had a puppy just roaming around the yard with them!

Good ole momma's milk!

nothin' like puppies chasing a 3 year old boy in his underwear!

Bo and Tarzan!