A Star is Born

And so it starts...Maddy and Mommy have now completed their very first dance recital. Maddy loved being in the spotlight! She thought the whole experience was amazing...Mommy, not so much! For those of you who know me, this will not shock you...I got guilted into being a backstage Mom. We showed up for the Friday night dress rehearsal and one of the backstage Moms was no where to be found. That left only 3 Moms to get 17 little girls ready to perform. That entailed a costume change halfway through including a new hairdo. Yikes! Another Mom said I just had to fill in...so I did. I'm not positive, but I think my blood pressure is now back to normal...and it's Tuesday.

The dress rehearsal was torturous. It was 2 1/2 hours. The girls were crazy and absolutely bored silly. The backstage room was as hot as the face of the sun and the cloud of hairspray could be smelled a mile away. I did my best to keep the girls quiet and entertained, but it just didn't go so well. The dress rehearsal did give us plenty of time to come up with entertainment ideas for the real show on Saturday evening. What we didn't take into consideration was the fact that the show started at 7:30pm, not 6pm like the rehearsal and that the show had approximately an hour of extra performances, speeches, and dedications that the rehearsal didn't. Yikes!! By the costume change we had 17 girls ready for bed, but at the same time wound up like tiny little drums. I sat and stared longingly at the audience trying not to put a voodoo curse on all the parents who had not volunteered to be backstage parents...they sat peacefully enjoying the show.

After the show Maddy was thrilled to run out into the audience and see her Daddy. Luckily he did sneak in a video camera, so I have since gotten to see the dances. They looked adorable!! I don't think any have a future with the ballet, but the costumes sure were adorable!! Daddy was the hero because he brought flowers to our young dancer...he passed them to her as he ran out the door because he was late for a party across town. Mommy had to go back to the hell room backstage collect the costumes, make up, hairspray, snacks, toys, 2 sets of dance shoes and get my little ballerina changed into comfy clothes for the ride home. Oh to be a Dad...but I digress...we did make it home safely after a celebratory ice cream cone at Braums! And that's how it went...our very first dance recital.

Little things that make you smile

I was making supper this week, tacos. I really don't like tacos, but both Maddy and Jeff love them. (hint: if you aren't super fond of taco seasonings, like me, try using ground turkey instead of ground beef. For some reason the seasonings aren't as strong, maybe because the turkey itself is so mild.) So anyway, I decided to eat my taco as a salad. As I was crunching up the shell on top of the salad I had a childhood flashback of eating "upside down tacos" in our old house on Newmarket Drive in Louisville. I had not thought of that in years. Looking back now, I realize that upside down tacos are simply taco salads, but my guess is it sounded much yummier than salad so that's what we called it! Along the same line we also ate porcupine balls as kids too. Those are meatballs with rice-a-roni mixed in and cooked. Those were so yummy...I think I'm going to make those for my girls too. I'll tell them that Gigi made those for me when I was a little girl...maybe they'll do the same. Oh the things that make you smile!

Blog Crazy Girls

Well it's official...the Pederson girls have become blog obsessed!! Maddy saw the fudgesicle pictures on the blog and decided immediately that there must be pictures of both girls together...so began our blog photo shoot at 8:00 this morning!! Not a lot of time to write now...the Bachelor season finale is tonight and I really need to make sure those rumors are correct and Tessa is chosen!! LOL So it's off to my potato soup and cheesy garlic biscuits!! Yum!! Oh yeah and for anyone wondering...the cleaner man never came...apparently Jeff had not actually made a formal appointment so he was a no show. Hopefully he'll get around here tomorrow!!

Fudgesicle anyone?

So...does anyone think Sarah Beara enjoys fudgesicles??? She is a popsicleaholic!! After a day spent cleaning and farewelling these pictures made me smile!! She's definitely from the Temple clan...she loves her ice cream treats!! I bet she'd really love a Casanova concrete from the frozen custard store in Louisville!! LOL

Well tomorrow marks our very first real day of summer "vacation." We have a vet appointment for Fergus at 9:00am, an allied luncheon at 11:00am, a volunteer survey for Moms with children under 24 months at the mall at 2pm, and sometime in between a household cleaning inspection. Good thing it's summer break huh?

Time for bed...need to rest up for our first "vacation" day!! Have a great one!!

Where does the time go??

As usual I have fallen down on the job here on our blog page!! I tell you what I feel like I run all the time!! School's out for the summer and maybe we'll slow down...at least a little!!
Yep Sheena...we are already out of school!! Yikes!! My sister in law is quite concerned...rightfully so...about how she will keep my five year old nephew Brandon busy for the summer, while keeping up with my other nephew Wes who is one year old and just entering "toddler town." Well here's my advice...scheduled activities every day!!!!! I highly recommend finding something special to do daily. We have gotten water park passes for the water park here in Lawton. They have a great facility for babies as well as wading pools with small slides. Then our movie theater in town offers a free movie program. They play movies once a week in the morning, they are older, but hey...they're free!! And finally the library...Maddy loves the library and they also have a good summer program also once a week!! So there you go...a special treat once a day and the rest of the day they can fend for themselves!! LOL Okay, maybe Maddy won't fend for herself, but with one outing a day she always has something to look forward to!! Hope that helps Sheena!! You know...summertime seems daunting, but I wouldn't trade the memories from last summer for anything in the world...and I can only hope it will be the same this year!
So back to my excuses...we haven't slowed down since Mom and Dad came last week...okay really since I started the big clean three days before their arrival!! I had completely let my house go for the month before the yard sale. It was a disaster area!! Mom and Dad coming got me in gear and I had the house presentable when they arrived!! Maddy was so happy to have them here for the graduation. She honestly hasn't talked about much else. I wasn't aware how proud she was she had graduated from kindergarten...or maybe I wasn't aware she was afraid she wouldn't graduate from kindergarten...LOL...who knows?!?! I never really know what goes on in her little head!! Mom and Dad also got to see Maddy's ballet "performance." Let me just say...those little girls looked adorable in their costumes...and that's all I'll say!! It was a great treat to have my Mom here for Mother's Day! We got to spend the morning bonding over "Tori and Dean Inn Love" (which by the way is hilarious!!) while the boys played golf!! We did get to sneak off to shop at the PX for a while and we all had a great lunch at the Outback Steakhouse before they left that evening. I think the weekend took it's tole on all of us...Maddy was asleep at 6:00pm that evening! Don't worry though Gigi and Pa did make it safely back to KY!!
This week Maddy finished off her school year. We got to make up the Holy City field trip. Of course that day there was a morning long down pour!! We were all soaked to the skin, but those kids were not missing this trip!! I chaperoned and it was crazy!! The kids were wired for sound!! But it was fun and they all loved it...a great way to spend one of the last days of school!! Wednesday was my last Patriot Spouses Club luncheon...Yeah!! And finally Thursday was Maddy's final day at Lawton Christian and her fun field day!! She had been up all night with a sick tummy. She had vomited several times, but at 7:00am when the alarm went off, she was begging to go to school. I actually ducked inside a nearby closet...I figured I'd be less likely to be struck by the lightening I was certain was going to strike at any moment!! She wasn't 100 percent, but she made it. I thought she may have had a nervous tummy, but that afternoon it hit me like a ton of bricks!! I was asleep by 7:30pm and fortunately I felt much better Friday morning! Good thing...we had to celebrate school being over...and what better way to do that than SHREK!!! Yep we saw Shrek 3 and loved it!! A great way to end the school year huh?
So that's it...end of my excuses!! I'm going to try and do a better job at keeping this blog current...starting Monday!! Jeff, while I was out yard saling this morning, made an appointment with the home cleaners to quote us a price for our move out clean (IN TWO MONTHS) on Monday afternoon. That means my house...bathrooms, kitchen, floors, baseboards, oven, fridge etc. must be spic and span for the Monday afternoon inspection. That means my Sunday will be spent scrubbing the house...with a Colonel's wife's farewell thrown in for good measure!! That ought to keep me busy!! At least I don't have to wonder what it's like to be bored!!
So goodbye for now...Hope everyone is keeping as busy as we do!!

Graduation and Arts for ALL!!!!!!

Hey everyone!!!! Another blog from Jeffy comming your way, although it will be a short one. This was a big week/weekend for the Clan Pederson, especially for Maddy. Friday was her kindergarten graduation day and Saturday was her dance recital at the Arts for All in Lawton. What made it even more special for Maddy is that her Gigi and Pa travelled all the way from Kentucky to for the festivities.

The Graduation on Friday was excellent!!! The kids all did really good with their songs and their poem. It was sooo cute.... Maddy looked a little nervous when she was going up on stage to get her diploma, but she looked so cute in her cap and gown. The picture of the proud graduate is below!!!

The Arts for All festival in Lawton is quite a big deal. After living here for more than 3 years and never going to it we wouldnt know, but this year we had an excuse. Maddy's dance class was putting on a show at the festival, so off we went. The biggest problem is that it is now May in Oklahoma which means the HEAT!!!!! is starting to build up. It was in the upper 80s which isnt too bad for Oklahoma standards, but it still seemed pretty warm. We actually arrived there on time and the girls dance was very good. It seems like Maddy's class is broken down into a variety of dancing abilities. Some of the girls know the dance step very well, and some do not. Maddy is right about in the middle of the two. But she has a great time doing it, and she just loves to be on stage so it is very worthwhile. Not only was the dance worthwhile, but we also got to satisfy our need for Carny food. So after some shaved ice and some funnel cakes we called it it a day.

The Big Garage Sale

Well this weekend was the post wide yard sale here on Fort Sill. Living in post housing we are only allowed to have a yard sale two times a year, once in May and once in October. It is a huge event!! People pack onto base to look for a bargain. Most people think that officers have better crap so our street is a zoo!! Good for us today because we had the mother of all yardsales!! Seems the Pederson's have collected an awful lot junk since our arrival almost four years ago!! Today we took the opportunity to purge ourselves of some excess stuff!
Jeff's goal was to make enough money to buy a flat screen LCD tv for our new living room. My goal was to not have to lug any of that stuff back into the house! And yes, we both achieved our goals!! I spent about three weeks getting ready and our house has in turn looked like a cyclone blew through! Our entire entry hall, which is the size of most family rooms, was completely full. We really didn't sell anything big, an old sofa, a TV, our old kitchen table and chairs and that was about all...but we had lots of little stuff and apparently that all adds up! Oh yeah...we got rid of the fun house mirror the Pater's sold us in New Brunswick before we moved here! It was a beautiful mirror, but it was warped and made anyone standing in front of it look huge!! Obviously not good for me!! LOL Anyhow...it's gone!! Many women around Fort Sill are more than happy about that! Back to the garage sale...IT'S OVER!!!
Now of course I had to irritate Jeff by eating into his profits by purchasing things from my neighbors! In fact last night we were driving home from a hale and farewell when I noticed a big Little Tikes climber in someones yard. I've been wanting one of those for Maddy since we moved here, but I'm far to cheap to actually purchase it new!! And those of us who are seasoned yard salers know you very seldomly find big outdoor toys at yard sales...they go fast!! So I got Jane and we walked down the street, knocked on the door and I made my first purchase! Maddy loves it and it sure made selling her swing set (which the military won't move) a lot easier. Plus, it's designed for kids of all ages, so Sarah will be playing on it in no time! Then after the set up Shasta and I headed out to yard sale for a while. I was actually so tired (from setting up at 5am) that I couldn't even enjoy it so we came back to sell with Jeffy. My only other purchase of a Disney tigger costume for Maddy that will match Jeff's. That'll be fun at Halloween! (One benefit to Halloween in Canada, we can actually wear our Disney furry costumes without having a heat stroke!!)
After our day starting at 5am we are exhausted...the kids, not so much! They have enjoyed playing outside all afternoon while Jeffy and I whined about how old we are!! LOL So to sum it up...our yard sale is over and our junk is gone...I am now looking forwarding to heading out next Saturday morning to look at everyone else's junk!!

Student of the Month

Well I will take this opportunity to become a boasting parent! Our little Maddy was student of the month! At Lawton Christian each child is chosen once a year as student of the month. The teacher picks a character trait and highlights it in a little ceremony where they are presented with a student of the month medal. Maddy's character trait was compassion. I don't think her teacher Mrs. Schlumbohm (yeah, that's really her name and to think she teaches kindergarten!!) could have been any more on the mark. She is definitely a compassionate little girl. Her teacher wrote on her certificate that Maddy is very considerate of her friends feelings. She is happy when her friends are happy and hurt when they are sad. If there is a problem with one of her friends she immediately tries to make things better. Jesus taught compassion and Maddy is a great example of Jesus' compassion. Sweet huh? And oh so true!! She's just like her Mommy...she wears her heart on her sleeve!!
Like I said each student is chosen once a year...well two years in a row Maddy's been chosen on the last month of the year....hummmmm....anyway, I was worried she would figure it out and be upset. Not a bit!! After the ceremony she ran up to Jeff, Sarah and I and said, "Mommy, I just can't believe it...I was picked again!!" What a great way to see it!! She proudly posed for her pictures and of course had to have one taken with sissy. Later on that evening we took her out for supper and she got to chose where ever she wanted to eat!! (She chose Golden Corral) It sure was a great day in the Pederson household!!