Hilarious Story

Please check out the post titled "Curls and Questions" on the Maddox family website. It is one of the links that I have listed to the side. I laughed so hard when I read it and I think it will make you smile as well.

2nd Grade...At last!

Today marks the beginning of my little girl's 2nd grade year. She was so cute getting ready this morning. When I woke her up and reminded her that it was the first day of school, she smiled the biggest smile and then was up and our of bed lickity split. She put on her new outfit and I did her hair for her while she ate breakfast. When the morning was all done she was beautiful and ready to start a new year. What a great kid! I love her so much ! I am so proud of her and the amazing person she is. I actually cried as I dropped her off for school this morning. That's kinda weird to say since I haven't done that yet in all the previous years. Well, here's to the beginning of a great year! I love you sweetheart!

Family Time

The longer we live away from family, the more I realize how really important it is to keep in close contact with them. The older I get, the more I realize what a precious gift they are!

Take for instance Grandma Sylvia. She is 95 years old and truly an amazing lady. I once heard it said that she prays for each and every grandchild every day. She now has many grand kids and great grand kids that are covered in prayer and I must say, it is a great comfort to know that she prays for my husband and my kiddos. She still plants a garden every year and is as sharp as a tack. I hope that if I make it 95 years old that I am as sharp as she is. She has this wonderful smile that really tells you how genuine her heart is and when you are around her you can actually see the joy of the Lord coming from her. It is a privilege to know her and I love getting to know her better.

My parents are amazing people as well. I love being around them because I know that they love me and my family unconditionally. We are continually blessed by them. I love that they thoroughly love my kiddos. As we were waiting for the wedding rehearsal to begin, my dad and son were finding berries in the bushes at the park. My son decided to make a family out of the ones that he found. There was a dad, mom, girl, boy,doggy and a baby. (He like to littlest berries, so there had to be a baby). Well anyways, I thought it was pretty funny because he called them his berry family. My maiden name was Berry so I thought I might take a picture of the berries and the Berry's.

The berries

The Berry's

Congratulations Eric and Marty!

We spent this last weekend in Pony, MT (what? you've never heard of Pony?) celebrating the marriage of my husband's cousin and reconnecting with family. We had many late nights and a ton of laughs. It was fun to meet all of the people that my husband grew up with and many friends that he had not seen in a very long time. Our kiddos had a blast playing with cousins and my daughter's new favorite thing to do is play on the round hay bales. I think all the kids played on top of the bales for a couple of hours and were still really bummed when we told them we had to go home.

The wedding was held in the park at Pony and everything went very well. The groomsmen looked great and the flower girls were princesses!




We had a great time dancing the night away at the reception. I kept thinking about how fun it is to be at a wedding reception where everyone is just plain having fun. It reminds you that most of us take life way to seriously. Sometimes it's good to be goofy! I don't know if it's just our group of friends or not, but it seems like every time we go to a wedding of our friends or family, the reception ends up being a really great time. OK, so on the corny side of that thought, I want to say that I think that "Dancing Queen" by Abba is one of the best wedding reception songs! I have this great memory of my friend Tanya at her reception dancing to that song in the middle of a circle of her closest friends and every time I think of it, it makes me smile. THAT was a good time.
I also love dancing to YMCA, almost all 80's songs and anything that I can jitterbug with my husband to. He is a great jitterbugger (is that even a word?)!
Speaking of dancing, here are a couple of pictures of the kids and the dollar dance.




So, what is your favorite wedding reception song?

Miss My Little Girl

Last Sunday I sent my daughter to MT with my mom. They have this really special little bond and I love the fact that she gets to spend quality time with both my mom and dad this week, but I have to say....I really miss her! Everything that we do seems just a little bit weird without her. I miss her wonderful smile, her gentle spirit and her little brother has kind of been lost without her. He's been like my shadow ever since she left. He is always asking me if we can call her, but when he gets her on the phone he just wants to say "hi" and "what are you doing" and then he says "wanna talk to mom?". We will be driving to MT tomorrow for a wedding and we will be picking her up on Friday. I can't wait to give her a big old momma bear hug and see that beautiful angel face again. I was planning on letting my son stay with my mom and dad for the next week and then they would be bringing him home when they come to visit during Labor Day weekend, but I am not sure that he will be alright with that. He's still pretty young to be gone that long, but we'll see.
On another random note, has anyone read "The Shack" by William Young? I have been reading it bit by bit over the past 3 weeks and I have to tell you, it's really rocked my world. I know that it is just fiction and someones interpretation of scripture, but it has really made me take a good hard look at how I view God. It is a great book and I highly recommend it, but I don't necessarily agree with all that is said in it. If you are reading it, or have read it, leave a comment and let me know what you thought. I am about 4 chapters away from finishing it.

I Love My Mom!

Is it really the end of August? Where has the summer gone? I am a little bit sad that it is slowly ( maybe I should say quickly) coming to an end, and yet in a weird way I am excited to get back into a routine again. It has been absolutely wonderful having so much time with my kiddos these past 3 months. I have been blessed by them again and again and again. They play so well together and those expected sibling arguments are at a minimum. Life is good!

Last week I had a wonderful surprise. My mom drove all the way out here from MT and spent 5 days with us helping me get the inside of the house ready to sell. We had a great time and the inside of the house if ready to put on the market. We rented a storage unit and filled it up pretty good with all the extras. It was a a lot of work, and I am extremely grateful for her help. My mom has the gift of service. She delights in lending a helping hand, especially to her loved ones. I can't tell you how many times this last week that the tears started flowing because I was so thankful for her and her help. I love her so much!! I am even crying tears of joy as I write this, because my cup runeth over with love for her. Thanks, Mom, for who you are and for your unconditional love. I love you!

OK, so the last time I posted, my daughter was starting a soccer camp. That week is long since past, but the memories are still very fresh. She had an excellent week. She learned so much, and the biggest lesson that she learned was how to be a little bit tougher when she doesn't feel very good. She was hit in the head, stomach, hands, legs and many other places by the soccer ball, and didn't cry while out on the field. I was really proud of her. She cried pretty good that night because she was so tired, and she really did hurt her hand, but over all she was a trooper. They had the girls mixed in with the boys as they scrimmaged and the boys did not give the girls any special advantage. So, she really had to hold her own. It was very good for her to be given the opportunity to be a little bit rougher as she played. She is so kind and gentle that it goes against her nature to be rough. It will be interesting to see how she competes this Fall season. The coaches were great! They were from England and Ireland. It took a couple of days to understand what they were saying through the thick accents, but the kids didn't mind. Here is a picture of my daughter with them, and also the award she got at the end of camp.

This and That...And Oh yes....Corn!

I am lovin summer! I can't believe that August is already here and the summer is slowly coming to an end. It has been a very mild summer and that is the way I like it. Heat makes me cranky, and when mama ain't happy.. well, you know the rest.

One of the best things about living here is the fresh fruit and vegetables that are in abundance when harvest time comes. We found a lady selling corn from the back of her little El Camino a couple of days ago and we bought 10 ears of corn for $2.00! How awesome was that! We cooked it up that night and my kids thought it was so yummy that they were begging, yes begging, for seconds and thirds! When have they ever asked for seconds on vegetables? (When have they ever even asked for vegetables?) So, late Saturday afternoon we stopped by her truck again and my husband bought 20 more ears of corn for $4.00. By 7:00 pm Sunday we were already down to only 10 left. My kids were so cute as they were mowing down their corn on the cob.

Well, we finally had a full week and weekend here at home. That is a first since the last week in June! It has been a busy and wonderful summer for us. We still have 2 camps this next week (dance in the morning and soccer in the evening) and then we will be traveling back to MT for a wedding, then school starts! I can't believe that the first day of school is coming up. I am amazed at how quickly kids grow up. I have really tried to take in each moment with my kiddos this summer. Even though we were very busy, I made sure to slow down and cherish the things that they were saying and doing. I have even decided to start a journal of the wonderful little memories and other odds and ends that I don't want to forget. I hope that I will keep up with it, as I think it will someday be a treasure.

One final note...as my husband was reading through all the postings since the beginning of July, he said to me, "How come you have so many hits on the view counter, but nobody leaves comments?" . So, I sadly agreed that the comments are few and far between. If you are visiting please leave a little note, or something. I would love to know who really is reading. Maybe all the hits have been search engines. OK, that's depressing, thinking about that!