Going... Going... Goodbye Mr. Spalding!!!

OK - we are backing up to December 2nd now... I had a few posts about a friend of ours that had some really excellent news from DOWN SOUTH... but I decided to remove those posts becuase of the privacy of his family. So it appears I have let myself get WAY BEHIND in posting. Besides that...we have had 6 houseguests over the holidays and a 130 pound St. Bernard visiting. No offense to the humans... but that sweet dog is a breeze to care for. She is kind, gentle and loving... and she sleeps a lot. :) So for those of you that think I fell off the face of the earth... I have only been MIA.

Ali's birthday...it's such a tough one. It's not at a great time of year. You kind of get lost in the shuffle when it's right after one holiday... and yet everyone is gearing up for a new holiday. But still... we want birthdays to be a special time for each of our children. We set aside the entire day to spend with them - and if it is during the week... we take off the entire day to honor them and the blessing they are to our lives and our family.

Ali, however, has been a tough nut to crack. She always wants exactly whatever Rachel has gotten the month before. So I never have a new and unique gift idea for her, or she's upset because it wasn't what Rachel got. This year I began to look early for a gift that I thought would please her. I decided I finally found something! Ali's big day was on a Sunday. I could NOT WAIT until we had her party at home. I was so excited about her present. I just knew that I finally found something that she would like actually USE. (She liked the "I Can Play The Piano" for less than 10 minutes. She has never played it since.) We had our dinner... and we had her birthday cake...she wanted ANGEL CAKE (aka Angel Food Cake). She was thrilled. I( made the wrong icing...which she told me AFTER we had already started to eat the cake... but overall I think he was pretty happy with that part of the party.) She began to open presents... Rachel and McCaleb got her Bath and Body stuff... she was over the top excited over that! They also got her some art supplies. She is very talented, and she was excited about that, too. Then it was time for the "big" present. She opened her gift... and went totally NUTS! We got her the Nitro Notebook... which is like a kids version of a laptop. It's also pink. I wish now I had been taping with the video camera. She screamed... she jumped up and down... and I got the THUMBS UP. It was a great moment for the Mom that never seems to get it just "right"! I was tickled to death. She was out of control... she did a happy dance and began bragging right away.