Just RK

I’m not upset about turning 40 today.  I get a little solemn sometimes around birthdays and anniversaries for a few reasons that I don’t know if I’ll elaborate upon or not. But it’s not the aging part.  I feel good about my age.  And as I’ve looked through some old pics, I think I haven’t changed all that much, but for the better when change is apparent…  don’t ya think? Cheesing with new glasses 2001: Age 28 2013: Age 39 Dressed up to party 2002: Age 29 2013: Age 40 (minus 6 days) So here’s to the next 10… or 20…   who knows. But the best is yet to come, I think.

It’s 90 in our corner of the St. Louis metro today.  It’s days like this I miss our pool. It used to be THE place to be.  For friends, for fun, and for cooling off.  Busy every night of the summer and many days all day long. (Check out that cute little bug in the lower part of the pic… only about 6 months old. Braska Bear, the tiny-er version.) Right about now, we’d be prepping to go through the arduous process of opening the pool.  It wasn’t glamorous, that part.  But oh so worth it. Yet with the girls at the age they are now, as much as they love the pool, I’m glad it’s not right out the back door.  For a few reasons. So I’m kind of glad we no longer have a pool, too.  I’m torn.  But I suppose I’m glad the decision was made for me, so to speak. One day, I hope to have a pool again, though. ------------------------------------ And as I was looking back through old posts, thinking about the pool, I came upon this post from 2010 …...

Just looking over old pics today, hunting a couple for M’s new digital picture frame…  Came across this one… pre-OHS, heart failure worsening, but stylish nonetheless. Almost exactly 5 years later… healthy as a miniature 5-year-old can be. With twice the attitude… Sometimes I wish I could go back a few years, do a lot of things differently.  But for just this split second, it’s all ok. Her heart’s fixed and she’s a spunky little chatterbug who loves playing with her sister.  If that’s all the happy I have left (and I’m sure it’s not), then I can’t complain.

Kinlee picked up this picture today out of a photo album of “baby Mommy pictures” that the girls look through sometimes.  She looked at it for a moment and said, “Mommy, who is this holding me?”  I told her it wasn’t her, that it was me and that was my babysitter and Santa.  She looked at it again, pointed, and said, “No, who is holding ME?” It must be the emotion that’s tripping her up. Or maybe it’s the finger in the mouth.  Or maybe it’s the stylish attire.

I referenced the tiny-ness of Braska in  this post (And if you haven’t seen it, you MUST !  Big news in our world!!)  So I decided to look back and see just how my girls measure up.  The Normie and the Downsie, not in comparison to each other, though that’s often fun, but according to the “official” growth charts. (ETA: In case you’re new…Yes, we affectionately refer to the girls in that way, as stated above. Yes, we know it might not be everyone’s preference. They are derived of love and pride in both of them, combined with the dry wit that lives in our house, and originating from self-advocates with DS who are proud to own the “Downsie” term for themselves and their close friends.) Braska was 7 lb 0 oz at birth.  At 1 year, she was 15 lbs. At 2 years, she was 19 lbs. At 3 years she was 22 lbs. At 4 years, she was 24 lbs. As of today, at 3 months shy of 5, she is 25 lbs 10 oz  and 36.75 inches tall. (That weight is also a BIG deal!) ...

Today was Kinlee’s birthday. She’s 2. As all parents say… it’s hard to believe she can be two. But please…don’t tell her. She thinks her birthday is Saturday, the day of her party. She knows all about it. She is excited about her party. She’s excited about her Snoopy cake. She is just excited about being 2. We didn’t mention it at all today (save one almost slip by a particular almost-practically-a-sister teen…ahem). We discussed if we wanted to do a birthday today then a birthday party on Saturday, but we decided it might be confusing and it would be more fun to just have Saturday be “the birthday” all day. All that said…I still felt a few photos were necessary to document the birthday. I mean, we don’t have any guarantees in this mortal life, so why not? There will be more after the party on Saturday, and maybe I’ll do a little mushy retrospective…but don’t hold your breath. I don’t really like to do au naturel photos, but oh well. It’s what you do when it’s early and you want a c...

Not my birthday. Don’t worry. You didn’t miss it. Yesterday was my BFF Melanie’s birthday. I won’t say how old she is. We’ll just say she’s a few months older than me, and I’m 36. tee hee. We started the day meeting at the YMCA to test out some guest passes. We’re wanting to join, so we thought we’d go workout and see how it went. It was a great workout, some girlfriend therapy included, of course, and we felt really jazzed for the day. She hung out with her guys for the day and then we met up to go out on the town for dinner and whatever else we felt like. Theme of the day: How in the heck is it possible that we’re this old??? We don’t feel any older than we did 19 years ago when we met on our first day of college orientation. We might look a little different, though. Want proof? Here’s us all ready to head out last night for dinner. Now get ready for a very scary trip down memory lane… don’t take a drink, though, you’ll spit as you laugh. Where it all began….St. Louis Ch...

I'm so behind in everything! Blogging included.... and I don't like it one bit! Here's a quick something I can put up... even though neither of these pics is on my faves list. We'll have to keep it real. Sometimes pictures aren't great. Sometimes they are and we just have to deal with the reality we see, right?!? The before (3/21/09) And the after (4/4/09) I like the cut alot. I'm not much good at styling, but oh well. It's much easier to deal with, and of course, when all else fails or it's a crazy day, it still goes up in a pony tail in a flash. Can't live without that option in my house!

We didn't have any actual pictures of us on our wedding day, just us, so this is a crop. (One area where our super-cheap plan went TOO cheap.) 11/11/00 And last night at dinner... of course, Olive Garden. It's kind of our place, plus Braska likes the marinara sauce. 11/11/08 My sister Rachel and her fiance' Patrick joined us for dinner, and we had a nice time. Today we start year 9... one day at a time. Sometimes one hour at a time. Lord, continue to guide us and remind us daily that you are the center of our hope for a future.

Christina at Kwisteena's Kwaziness tagged me to do a little looking back exercise. I've chosen to make it a series, in order to cover a few angles. This first edition is mostly for us big kid members of the family. When my husband and I met online , his screen name was Muncher and mine was Wish. This is part of our story in pictures. As mentioned in my recent re-post about looking back , it's not always a pleasant thing for me to do. That's unfortunate, as I love to look at old pics and remember how fun stuff was and what was happening at each stage. SO...I'm going to have a little fun, remembering JUST the good for a few minutes(I'll try)...even if it is a little bit personally embarrassing. (What wasI thinking??) Here's one of the first pics of M and me, and that's my youngest sister, Julia. This would have been about Spring 98, I think. We'd been dating about 6 months maybe, age 24. September 2000, engagement pictures. Age 26. Here's that sto...