Day Fifty Five (some photos)

I've been trying really hard to post pictures at Forever Parents but for some reason, after I scan them they come out SO BIG!!! Blogger has a setting where you can resize pictures so for now I'm going to post some here.

I have two to start with...the first is Jacqueline on her 7th birthday. She's in our dining area before we painted the walls. Those sliding doors are no longer there either, they're now glass doors, kinda like french doors without the lines. Her hair is braided and pulled back.
I love this picture because her eyes are just shining and she looks so happy. :-)

I wanted to share something that I recently wrote on Forever Parents about her:

For Jacqueline Anne: age 7

I never though it possible to love another human being the way I love my Jacqueline.
She makes being a mother fun. She makes me enjoy being a mommy.

She makes me laugh with some of the things she says. Like the time she told me (thinking that my being a vegetarian and not having a job was somehow connected) that she wants to be a vegetarian so she doesn't have to get a job.
Or the first time I added some ground beef to ziti and she said to me "Well missy, aren't you becoming quite the little chef".

She makes me stretch the wrinkles out of my brain as she questions me on everything from abortion to homosexuality, from animal rights to racism.

Her smile lights up my heart.
Her laughter is the most beautiful sound I ever heard.

She tells me I'm the bestest madre (she's teaching herself Italian) in the whole world.
When we kiss goodnight she tells me she can't wait until the morning to see me again.

She makes me want to be a better person just for her.
She makes me want to make the world a better place, just for her.

I will tear the limbs off the first boy (or girl!) that breaks her heart.

She sings and dances and spins and twirls and sparkles and shines throughout our day.
She's thoughtful and kind and considerate.
She's funny and silly and goofy.

She's my daughter.



The second one is me but it's from last year. I don't have any new ones so I figured I just post this one. I gained quite a bit of weight in the last year and it shows in this picture! My hair is also pretty long but it's pulled back in this picture. I'm in the front of our house but everything looks totally different now! That white fencing is now gone and it's brown. The stones I'm standing on is now totally cemented in and bigger. The house that's in the background is the house my mother just bought a few months ago. :-)



Today, the kids went into the pool for the first time, since last fall. We started out in the hot tub, which just got fixed yesterday after 2 months of it being out of commision. While we were in it, Jacqueline said she wanted to go in the pool (we have a fairly large inground pool that we maintain all year). Even though it's Florida, it's not that hot yet and the water is probably only about 65 degrees so I warned her it would be cold. She jumped right in. LOL Cimion & Shawna followed (they got in a little at a time) and they all stayed in about 15 minutes then they all got back into the hot tub. LOL