HAPPY EASTER!

This lovely greeting comes compliments of my dear friend Joni. Joni, I'll be your neighbor in hell. :)

judgment.

Upon blog-hopping earlier, I ran across some pretty severe judgment in a rant, followed up by some bandwagon comments by friends. I am not going to go into any kind of detail, but I just wanted to say something about that.
It’s an opportunity for me to look inward. Who am I judging? Who have I given an unfair chance to? Okay, I’ve been harsh with Obama, and perhaps with “Nelly” from work, and others too. I truly, sincerely apologize. I have opinions and ‘takes’ on situations, which I’m sure I’ll continue to blog about. However, on a very raw note, after reading such a directly harsh judgment on this other blog, I feel this should be said: you just don’t know what kind of battle people are fighting. For what we perceive as potentially harmful, or abusive, ugly or dangerous, we need to consider the person behind the label we’re so quick to give. There are a million more facets to what makes a person than what we see and instantly judge.

Because I know this, it is my responsibility to make sure that the unlovable are loved, lest that judgment come down on me someday.

I’m SO grateful that the ONLY judge who matters is perfect, and exists where every aspect of me is taken into account before I’m seen as something other than what I deserve…

Our Milly-Hill-Billy

This little cutie-pie deserved some CUTE shots to be posted here. I'm still feeling a twinge of guilt from posting her post-haircut-trauma! :)

She was so smiley this day, saying "teeze" for the camera, I got a TON of cute pictures -HAD to share!

Family Time

Usually at some point during the week, Lance changes shift from grave to swing the next day. When he has these nights off, it's par-tay-time at home. Since we had a sniff of spring yesterday, we all went outside and had a burger cook-out.

*No cook-out is good without marshmallows.
Ella's weary pony-tail is struggling!

Here's the token Becca-self-shot. :)

Le Chef!

Mia enjoyed herself tasting the local flavor -including rocks, mud, and even a bit of pavement.

Easter Is Coming

Rach and I have been planning a SUPER exciting Easter-Egg Extravaganza (notice a trend of my family’s “extravaganzas” –we love ‘em!) for the little kiddos this Saturday. I’m excited to see Mia zoom around look for eggs and candy. Ella is older than all her cousins from my side, so she’s probably going with Lance to one of his work friend’s houses for a hunt with some kids closer to her age. It’s going to be a fun day! I LOVE spending time with the family, and since Easter is such a beautiful and fun occasion, why not get the kids involved and create some fun traditions for them? I love Easter. It’s so beloved and important. Being a Christian is a beautiful thing to me. We have a book at our house that explains the true meaning of Easter to little children, how the eggs and bunnies, etc. are fun, but it’s truly all about God’s Son. I am beyond grateful to my parents for raising me in a home where Christ is the center. My personal relationship with the Savior is so precious; it’s the MOST important thing I can hope to instill in my own children. If I have given them the foundation to create this relationship for themselves, then I am a successful parent.

The r-word

It is time we SPREAD THE WORD TO END THE WORD!
March 31, 2009 is a national day of awareness for America to stop and think about their use of the R-word. That R-word is not “recession,” but something more hurtful and painful – “retard.” Most people don’t think of this word as hate speech, but that’s exactly what it feels like to millions of people with intellectual disabilities, their families and their friends.
This word is just as cruel and offensive as any other slur.
Visit www.r-word.org to learn more and pledge to help make a difference.

Mom's brain

Well, after a rough battle with medications and rapidly deteriorating eye-sight, Mom had an MRI. They found a walnut-sized tumor on her pituitary gland, which has been pressing on her optical nerve. Her carotid artery is mixed in somehow, making everything a bit tougher to fix (it wouldn’t be Mom’s body if it was easy). So, after seeing specialists and now the surgeon, she’s facing surgery in the near future. The longer the wait, the scarier it gets.
Recently Mom took a spill in front of her house and I watched her go down –almost in slow motion. I was at least 15 feet away from her, so it wasn’t possible to run to catch her somehow, but just watching her fall like that was VERY disturbing to me. Okay, now I’m pregnant, so everything is a BIGGER deal than it might have actually been, but it was absolutely terrifying. I had the quick vision of mom going down and not coming back up. The fall was quite bad, and Mom was really banged up –her eyes were so bad, she couldn’t tell if the huge cut on her arm was deep enough to go to the ER… It was the next day they found this tumor.
For Mom, it’s rather validating to have a REASON for all the irritability and the “need” for medicine changes, and the vision impairment. Regardless, it’s not going to be an easy road. Nothing about my Mom’s health history isn’t scary, but brain surgery makes me edgy.
I’m not going to make any “final thoughts” here on how much I admire and adore this woman. I will simply say; Mom, I love you, and I have faith that everything is going to be okay.

Big Government

SCARY SCARY SCARY. I can’t believe that somehow it’s okay that the Obama administration has taken such personal control over Chrysler. Regardless of bail-out responsibility to tax payers (hmm, did we rush into this?), this is a COMPANY, not a Government program. Who is next?
Yes, I want him to fail. I don’t want to see a successful attack on capitalism.

Uh, scary, but pretty true...

Thanks for this uplifting one, Peggy! I love it! Your Personality Is Like Heroin

You're capable of the highest highs and the lowest lows. Addicted to feeling good, you'll do almost anything to avoid pain. People seek you out, even though you can be quite moody. They're hooked on you! At your best: You are euphoric, stress free, and a little sleepy. What people like about being around you: They're not exactly sure, but they can't get enough about you. What people dislike about being around you: When you finally leave, they go some pretty serious withdrawal. How addicted people get to you: Very... you're quite dangerous.

What Drug Is Your Personality Like?

HAIR CUTS!!

My little Mia-Mushroom desperately needed a fix-em-up in the hair department after Lance had the bangs chopped ("at least it's out of her eyes"). Uhhhhhh.So we took a little tripsy to the most wonderful hair-genius in the WORLD, Lori! Lori has been doing my hair for a little while now (THANK YOU JAMI FOR THE REFERRAL!) and she's amazingly talented. She's got such a darling personality too, I told her she can never stop doing her job!

Ella was SO good in the chair -a natural! Once she's my age, she'll never know her natural hair color again either! :) The whole experience was a bit traumatic for Mia-babes. She cried and cried and cried! When I took her off the chair, she was still miffed with me, but was working through it.

(hahahahahahah, I LOVE this picture: MEANEST mom alive award?)

So when I held her, we tried a few "after" shots, but nothing turned out too honky-dorey.

(heh)

We were in a hurry to get out of there since Mia was so edgy, so I didn't get a good shot of Ella's cut. I took it this morning. How lovely is she?!