243 comfy

He's enjoying the new bedding:)

242 princess story time

Bed time stories are a part of our ritual.  Gabrielle loves to read to me and be read to.  We found a cool book that invited you to the Royal Ball and helped you dress up.  Such a fun way to wrap up the day!

241 birthday lunch

Every year for Gabrielle's birthday we go have lunch at school with her.  She gets to choose what's for lunch.  Since her birthday was on Saturday we had lunch with her today.  She decided Panera today.  It's a tradition and we love it.

240 bday party madness

I didn't get this posted yesterday.  We had 9 2nd graders, 1 3rd grader, 1 5th grader, 1 6th grader, 1 7th grader, 1 8th grader, and a 3 1/2 year old yesterday for the Gabrielle's birthday party.  I was so worn out that I went to bed at 8:30.  So here is my picture of the day from yesterday. Gabrielle helping our magician out.  The girls loved him!

239 Happy Birthday Gabrielle Torrance

God blessed me with the best happy, surprise in the world on this date.  (She was never an accident.  Accident means mistakes.  She is no mistake.  God makes no mistakes.)  I was scared when I found out I was pregnant.  Her father and I had broken up.  I had just moved out and discovered I was pregnant.  It was a super scary time.  I knew the minute I found out I was pregnant that I loved her.  I knew she was a girl because I thought I always wanted boys.  I have 5 brothers and tons of guy friends.  I thought I would be better at raising a boy.  I am so glad God has a sense of humor and gave me a daughter.  I can't imagine having a boy.  She is my girlie-girl.  The pregnancy was rough.  I was sick thorough out the pregnancy.  I had dizzy spells and nausea at all times.  I spent a lot of timing laying down.  I remember people feeling sorry for me because I was pregnant over the summer.  Well that summer was unseasonably cool.  Mother Nature was nice to me  Her due date was the day after my little brother's birthday.  She should have been born on the 21st.  She waited.  I remember bribing her to come out.  Finally at 4am on the 26th, I went into labor.  I went to the hospital at 7am because my contractions were 5 minutes apart.  They sent me home because I was not far enough along in labor.  I laid around all day in pain.  I couldn't really eat or sleep.  I was so excited and in pain.  I went back to the hospital at 7pm.  They admitted me but said it would be morning before she would get here.  I thought this labor would never end.  The next morning there was a comical moment when my water broke.  I was on the epidural.  I didn't feel it.  Her dad was standing next to the bed.  His pants got wet and the floor.  I was convinced he peed his pants.  The nurse informed me otherwise.  I began pushing around 10 am.  I pushed for 6 hours.  I was so exhausted that I would fall asleep in between pushes.  Finally my doctor said this was enough.  He order an emergency c-section.  Gabrielle was born at 4:54 pm on August 27, 2004.  She weighed 8lbs 13oz and 21 inches.  I choose Gabrielle.  We wanted a name that was not super common but not far out there.  Gabrielle means strong by faith in God.  Her dad choose Torrance because it was close to his name.  I liked it because it meant confident.  I wanted her to have the confidence I lacked.  She saved my life.  She tore my uterus during pushing.  If she came out during pushing, I would have kept on bleeding and the doctors  might not have figured out why.  Well the c-section showed the doctors the tear and they fixed me up.  She also saved my life by giving me purpose and direction.  I am so proud of the little girl she has grown into.  She is simply amazing.  God blessed me with a wonderful, funny, smart, caring, healthy, beautiful daughter.  Happy Birthday Gabrielle!  Here's my favorite picture of the first few hours of her life.

235 emergency vet ugh

So Addy was bleeding yet again from her butt.  Of course, it happened after vet hours.  We had to have to pay extra.  She has some parasite that is common in strays.  She was a stray for 4 years before coming to the Humane Society and than be adopted by us.  The parasite does not kill adult cats but can be deadly for kitties and puppies.  So they want to treat her.  We have to spray medicine down her throat for five days.  Then we get the pleasure of taking a stool sample of Addy and Dallas to our vet to make sure no one has the parasite.  I swear our house is the sickest house.  Maybe we need to move.  Maybe it's the house.  I do know that when Mike took her to the vet.  Gabrielle was in tears because she thought Addy was dying.  I said no.  But I prayed Please God don't make this child lose two pets in less than 6 months! Addy should be fine.  She is happy right now.  Here is a picture I took five minutes ago.

234 parenting

Parenting is not for the weak.  Parenting is the toughest job out there.  You constantly want to be the perfect parent, but there is no such thing as a perfect parent.  Any parent that says they have never made a mistake is a LIAR!  You want to be your child's friend but you can't.  It's not about being their friend or even having them always like you.  This is hard for someone like me that wants everyone to like me.  Also it's not your job to always make them happy.  Another flaw of mine is wanting to make everyone around me happy.  My mom always told me that she knew she was doing her job when a child yelled I hate you! While I have never heard that I also have not been to the wonderful teen years.  (I am sure I will get plenty of I hate you's then.)  I believe it's our job as parents to love our children, teach them about God's love, and help them grow up to be great adults.  Part of this is teaching them respect.  I have lost count of the children I see in the hallways of schools, aisles of stores, even in church being hateful, rude, and above all disrespectful to their parents.  I am not counting children with disabilities that cause them to act and behave like this.  I am talking about completely healthy, normal children.  It truly sickens me to see how some children talk to their parents.  If your child talks to you that way, how do you think they are going to talk to everyone in their life?  If they can't respect you, how do you think they will ever respect God and God's word?  How will they respect their teachers and bosses?  I applaud teachers who spend a great deal of time on teaching children manners and respect but it should not be their job.  I believe a lot of it stems from parents who don't want to make their child unhappy and only want to be a friend not a parent to their child.  I would love nothing more than to always be Gabrielle's BFF and always make her 100% happy.  But then I would be doing her a disservice.  Today is a prime example.  Attitude with me all day from the moment she woke up.  At first I chalked it up to being tired and still waking up.  It kept going on and on.  I had to give her a talk in the middle of a grocery store using the mad voice.  I haven't had to do that in years!  I finally had it when she got upset because I said she watched enough TV tonight. I won't get into details but she had attitude and tried to disrespect me.  So I sent her to bed at 6:30.  Yes 2 hours early!  She cried so hard in bed that I thought she was going to be sick.  When she started begging for her mommy, I went in.  I told her if she couldn't stop I crying I'd leave the room.  It took her a bit to start breathing right.  I explained that she treated me with nothing but attitude.  I can only assume that she is mad at me about something.  She said no.  I said then you are over tired and need your sleep.  That is the only logical reasons to be so hateful today.  I told her to get some sleep.  She is probably wide awake in there.  But tomorrow will be better for us both.  I hate when I have to be the bad guy, but you can't always be the good guy.  Parenting is more than being your child's friend.  You have to know when to draw that line in the sand.  You CAN be friends with your child, but you have to know when to stop being their friend and be the parent. 

233 best burger, yummy

We got cheddar, bacon burgers from the Fresh Market.  They were amazed grilled.  YUM!

231 Rite of Passage

My baby's first pair of Nikes! She told she was a grown up because she has Nikes like mommy and Mike.  It was beyond cute.

230 MY BABY IS A SECOND GRADER,WHAT?

I can't believe my baby is already a second grader.  We got to school at the same time as her best friend.  So they walked in holding hands.  It was too cute.  I can't believe that in the last year my daughter has grown over 5 inches and 13 pounds! She went through a huge growth spurt this summer.  All the teachers and parents noticed her growth.  When you see someone everyday it's hard to see changes.  I found her height and weight from last October.  I can't believe how much she has grown.  I wasn't as emotional today.  I decided to birthday shop for her today so I kept busy.  Today was hard because she was with me everyday this summer except for her dad's visitation times.  It was weird to not have mini-me with me.  I am so proud of the girl is growing up to be. 

229 meeting the teacher

Tonight was the open house at Gabrielle's school.  We brought in all her school supplies and meet her teacher.  We love that some of her closest friends are in her class.  We love her teacher.  We have heard nothing but good things about this teacher.  We are looking forward for a great school year.

227 muddy fun

We went down to Sugar Grove today.  We had a blast with the zip line, tree climbing, playing in the small creek, and playing house in the cabin.  We were beyond messy at the end but we had so much fun.  I love that place!

226 Park time

I can't believe this summer has flown by so quickly.  We did a lot, so much that I am WAY behind on posting pictures on facebook.  We had a blast.  I hate for it to end.  This being the last Sunday before school starts, we used the day to clothes shop and then go to three different parks just to play.  We played until it was dark outside.  Here are my favorite pictures from each park.

225 reading

I love to lose myself in a great book!

224 imagination

Gabrielle turned her room into an office.  She used our old laptop and an old phone.  She pretended to run her own office to help others.  It was adorable. 

223 store

We played "store" for hours.  She charged me and make change.  It was great practice for her.  We had a blast.  I can't believe summer has flown by so quickly!  I am going to miss having her at home everyday. 

221 Cornbelters

Cornbelters are a baseball team here in Normal.  My daughter got a free ticket for reading.  We got free tickets from a season ticket holder who couldn't go tonight.  So we got to sit in the first row in between home plate and first base.  It was awesome. 

220 Six Flags

This picture says it all.  She was smiling and laughing the whole day until the cold rain came and we had to leave.  It was a great day. 

217 fair again

Gabrielle and I went head to head on the bumper cars.  We spent the afternoon at the County Fair.  We did everything we didn't have time for the other night and repeated some of her favorites.  She fed some animals, rode a pony, watched a puppet show, played carnival games. and rode tons of rides.  It was a great mommy-daughter day.