Its not hard to tell I'm not your average blogger. I have a busy life even though I don't hold a paying job. Between two active girls, a husband on the mend, a huge house to care for, and quite frankly, my own issues that have gone unresolved for so long, I simply have not made the time to be here, spewing my inner-most thoughts. I still have little desire to do this everyday but so many people keep telling me I should have a blog, so at least I'm going to try.
To begin, I'm thinking I should at least bring you up to date on what happened the rest of 2013. I believe I left off with Jessica's broken arm........
Shortly before Halloween both girls decided to bomb me with the "I don't want to be Tinkerbell" statement. This, normally would not have been an issue, however; I had already made the skirts, shoes, and was working on the wings.
Not to worry though, I managed to appease them with Fall Fairies instead, in which I managed to save the costume already in progress but tweaked it a little for the change. And so we went from Tinkerbells to this.......and they even got an award for "Cutest Costumes" at the TaeKwonDo Halloween party.
Now, let me digress a little here, because shortly after Jessica broke her wrist the girls were to graduate TKD belts. As scheduled, Samantha graduated on time. So proud of our new Purple belt. Clearly she was proud of herself. Jessa, since she had JUST broken her arm, had to wait a week so we could get a modified graduation for her. Since she was not able to break the board with her arm she was allowed to do it with a kick, and I had to hold hand just as a precaution - didn't want her to fall on her arm and risk surgery. By the end of the evening we had a new Yellow belt in the Lee household.
So very proud of both our girls for their continued hard work and dedication to doing their best.
Shortly after both girls graduated belts in TKD they were off doing cheer-leading (something we had signed them up for before the broken arm incident). Thankfully the coach was nice enough to allow Jessa to stay in and even modified some of the tumbling to accommodate her arm. Yippee.
They practiced hard and learned a lot of routines, and judging from the smiles on those faces I'd say they had a blast doing so. The course was for eight weeks only but the entire squad was asked to return and perform at the Winter Festival. All those cute elementary school cheer-leaders !!!
Ya know, the Lee girls really do get to do a lot of stuff. Samantha has done gymnastics, has swimming lessons, did a season of baseball, joined cheer-leading, and is still an active participant in TKD. Jessica has done gymnastics and cheer-leading and is also still active in TKD. Both girls have participated in the National American Miss Virginia State Pageant and came away as state finalist. At seven and five years old they really have done a lot. But we're not stopping yet.
Jessica has said she wants to try soccer and baseball while Samantha has said she wants to do baseball again. Neither one has a desire to do the pageant again but both have said cheer-leading was fun and they would do it again in the spring if they could. So apparently we are going to have another busy year. 
Somewhere in between all the TKD lessons, the cheer-leading lessons, Halloween, school, and whatever else was going on Jessica finally got her cast off and was down-graded into a brace. Two weeks later and that was no longer needed. Now she is back to being our wild child - cute, loveable, and super sweet. 
This little girl even got to celebrate her 50th day of kindergarten at school with a special 50's Day party. The poodle skirt is one a neighbor friend made for Samantha when she was celebrating her 50th day and the leather jacket was a jewel of a find that same year. Together, with a plain shirt underneath, the Lee girls really know how to rock the 50's style. 
Shortly after the cast came off came Thanksgiving. I really hate that we didn't get any pics other than the one of the girls at the pumpkin patch. At any rate it was a nice meal and pleasant company. And I really am starting to feel like the wall between mom and I is disintegrating. It took me almost 10 years to let go and just let things be and I am very glad I have finally started to make myself feel like part of the family instead of always finding a reason to create an issue where none was before.
Thanksgiving gave way to Christmas and for the first time in years I actually got to plan and host an event at our house. I was so super excited that John had finally given in and let me do this but in waiting so long between events I was a complete mess. Dinner was no where near done in time so mom and Michelle both helped me with the food. Wouldn't you know it, the amount of veggies I prepared weren't nearly enough to feed five adults and two kids, but somehow we managed to pull it all together and in the end it was a really nice day.
Every year we get to see Santa ride through the neighborhoods on the fire trucks, throwing out candy. This year....we missed it. We had decided to get our tree the day before Santa was to come through so imagine our disappointment when we found out they had changed the schedule. And the girls, for the first time in four years, missed Santa. We didn't even get pictures taken at the Mall with Santa. What we did do this year was something even better. I managed to land four tickets on the Santa Train and Samantha and Jessica got to meet and talk to Santa and Mrs Clause. The experience was pretty awesome and they loved having Santa and Mrs Clause come through and sit with them and talk to them. An event we may have to repeat for as many years as they continue believing in Christmas.
And leave it to Michelle to get me back for that. I was completely blown away by this absolutely treasured necklace and pendant she gave me. A beautiful modern design of a family of four holding hands in a circle. And I cried - because I felt horrible at the lack of thought that went into her gifts after knowing she went out of her way to do this for me.
Next year, however, will be a lot different. Mainly because come hell or high water I am not going to let everyone else suck the joy out of Christmas. I refuse to not be in the Christmas spirit and to spend the last week or so fretting over what to get everyone. Nope. I have all year to think, plan, and execute and I have all intentions of making it my best and most thoughtful gift giving so far.
So to bring a fitting end to 2013 the Lee girls put together a display of what can be expected if ever a zombie attack happened at our house. Cute.
And with that we bring 2013 to a close.
There were many good things that happened over the past 12 months and it set the stage for a fantastic 2014.
