Under Pressure

Remember a long, long time ago, like in 1937 or something, when Sally Fields won an academy award and said "You like me, you really, really like me!" (ok--it wan't in 1937, but it was a while ago--I said that for literary purposes). Anyway, I feel like jumping up and down saying that right now! Why? Because my blog-addicted (like me) friend Baloney said I'm blog worthy of reading. Sometimes I'm not sure why people would be so interested to read about the choas that I live in. Maybe so they can sit back and say "ha--I'm glad that's her, not me!" Regardless--Baloney awarded me with a Bloggy-type award. You wanna read a good blog--read hers--she's a hoot! And I have to admit that I totally appreciate her humor (it's a little too similar to mine), we might be trouble if we were together in a public place. Hey Baloney--wanna go to the fair and people watch--it could give us a year's worth of blog material!!! So go read about Baloney and her crazy hubby The Doc and her two precious boys!

Here's what I'm supposed to do, too. I'm to nominate 7 blogs I read for the award. And if you are awarded, you have to do the same. Basically it's a great way to make friends via blogging--gotta love that! Unfortunately I'm kind of a loser and don't have 7, but I'll give ya what I got and what I think is blog worthy...

1. Susie's Zoo--now, my guess is Susie won't do this because she's uber busy delivering babies in the wee hours of the night (plug for Susie--she's the most awesome L&D nurse this side of, well, this side of heaven--I'm not just saying this because she's my friend. Really, she's the best. If your preg and live outside of Tulsa, think about moving here just for your delivery)! But maybe if I put the pressure on, she'll do it.

2. The Manning Memo--this is my sweet, sweet friend and co-worker you've read about on my blog. She's got a new baby (delivered by Susie) and you gotta go to her blog just to see that precious baby Jackie. I just want to snap her up and take her home to love on her. But then I figure Kathleen might go Mama Bear on me and get primative.

3. MommaAmma--this is my SIL (sister-in-law) who is married to my baby brother. I love reading her blog because I like to see what my little bro and his little family are up to and because Korinne is often facing the same mommy problems I am and gives me the reassuring "it's going to be okay" or "you're not alone." She's a great SIL!!!

So go read their blogs and if you've been awarded, you do the same thing I just did--and you have to put that little icon thing at the top of your page (thanks for reminder Baloney)!

And if you got here through Baloney, leave me a comment to say "hi"--I'd love it!!

Me? A Soccer Mom?

I thought I was getting ready to make my grand entrance into the world of being a "Soccer Mom." Yesterday was Katie's first soccer practice. I was a little surprised that she wanted to play soccer since she's the girliest girl you'd ever meet. So when the sign up forms were sent home from school I just asked if she wanted to play and certainly didn't encourage it. "YES!" was the answer I got from her. But I was still a little hesitant to sign her up. Did I want her to play? Absolutely, but I've been down this road with her before....

Gymnastics--"YES!"....and she cried....and after 2 session we threw in our leotard

Ballet--"YES!"....and she cried....fortunately she loves ballet and we're still doing ballet and the tears have stopped.

Kindergarten--"YES!"....and she cried for the first week (disclaimer--she is doing great at school now).

Katie is a crier and I knew the first time she got kicked that the tears would start rolling. But playing soccer is kind of like a right of passage for little kids, and since Katie indicated that she wanted to do it...we went for it.

It started off okay. She was a little shy and didn't really want to participate, but she did fine.

Here we are practicing kicking the ball. (don't you love how she's playing in her uniform shirt and shoes with her soccer socks on).

But then the inevitable happened. She got kicked and the tears did, indeed, start. And wouldn't stop. So she stood in the middle of the field crying for the last 20-30 minutes of practice.

I don't want to say that my hopes were dashed for her to be the next Mia Hamm, but I think that maybe we should keep our eyes focused on the New York City Ballet. She did promise me that she'd give it another try at tomorrow's practice--but that was after I bribed her! I certainly don't think I should be classified as a soccer mom. I'm not sure that I want to be, do I?

Peace, Love and Happy Kicking!

Have a Great Day!!!!

Word of the Day:

edify: ED-uh-fy

transitive verb: To instruct and improve, especially in moral and religious knowledge; to teach.

What a Week!

Yikes! It's been a week since I blogged! I think that's a record for me. When I started this whole blog thing I promised myself and my 3 blog readers that I would keep and updated and timely blog. Sorry I failed you all this week. But things have been crazy! Here's a brief recap:

Last Friday Katie didn't have school because of Parent/Teacher conferences. Our time was scheduled for 8:00 a.m. When I first saw our time I thought "that's great, get it done in the morning and we'll have the whole day...works for me!" Well, not so much. Logistically 8:00 a.m. doesn't work so well for anything when you have 3 children. Let's just say that we were at Katie's school at 8:00 a.m. but in order for that to happen we had to be out the door at 7:00 a.m. (and Katie's school is literally 1 minute from our house--I'm not kidding--1 minute. Yet it took us an hour to get there). The conference was fine. Like I've said, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE her teacher!!!! She is truly a gift from God and has found her calling. She didn't really tell us much we didn't know. Katie's right on track. I have to admit that at the end of the conference I secretly wanted to say "but she's the smartest, huh?" But I didn't. I don't want to turn into one of THOSE parents. :) Later that day I took all three kids to the park to play and they were being so good we stayed for almost 3 hours!

Saturday was a hectic, hectic day. I'll just do the time table for you:
6:30 - 10:30 a.m. - Worked at Race for the Cure
11:00-WM had a tee time--I had to include this so you could see that the remainder of my day was me and ALL three Little Lams.
12:30 p.m.--Birthday party #1 that Katie was invited to.
2:30 p.m. -- Target run to get b-day presents for upcoming parties
4:00 p.m. -- Birthday party #2
4:30 p.m. -- Birthday party #3 (and I have to admit this was the best kid b-day party I've ever been to--I'll blog on it later).

Sunday was church and following church was our church carnival/festival that we spent the majority of the afternoon at. It was fun, but a little hot. Baby Lam got a little sunburn on her cheeks.

Monday--tackle the growing mountains of laundry. I'm afraid that there might have actually been little goblins living under those piles!

Yesterday--oh, the day of all days. WM and I spent the entire afternoon at the Urgent Care clinic because he has a kidney stone and was in great pain. I really had to restrain myself from taking photos of everything that went on--it was so blog-worthy. I even told WM that at one point and he glared at me and told me to quit talking about it. This was before he got his pain mediciation. I think if I had approached the subject 3 hours and 3 IV bags and 1 shot in the butt later he might have agreed. Maybe not. He's doing okay now and is relatively pain-free. Pretty looped up on some big time narcotic pain meds, but he's okay, just waiting for the stone to pass. I really did feel bad for him, but once we found out what it was and it wasn't life threatening, my sympathy waned a little bit. I mean, come on, I've given birth 3 times in the last 5 years to BIG babies. Let's talk about how many times I've been poked and prodded and how many large things I've "passed" through my "parts." Kind of puts it into perspective, now, doesn't it?!?! I love WM, I don't want him hurting, but he's going to be fine.

So that's been my week. Oh and did I mention that Baby Lam still isn't walking and still wakes up several times a night! AGH!!!! So that's why it's taken me so long to post something new. I'm so sorry.

Please forgive me.

Please continue to read my blog.

Please like me.

Please go get me some lunch.

Fun at the Park...

Katie at the bike parade (birthday party #3 on Saturday)

Face painting at the church carnival (that's her "6th grade buddy" painting her face. Katie adores her--and her little sister is Katie's best friend at school).

Word of the Day:

primogeniture: pry-moh-JEN-ih-choor

noun: 1. The state of being the firstborn of the same parents; seniority by birth among children of the same family. 2. (Law) An exclusive right of inheritance that belongs to the eldest son.

We Have a New Dog

We have a new little dog at our house. She's super cute, I love to hold her and kiss on her. And she smells so good!

WHAT?!?!?! Ha--is that what you were thinking? Were you thinking "they just got Sally, why would they need another dog?" I know--we're crazy.

Oh wait--I AM crazy!

And we didn't really get a new dog. But Sally's dog crate is being used more by Baby Lam than Sally, so it's like we have a new dog. This weekend there was even a screeching scream from Katie "MOMMY! MOMMY! SHE'S CHEWING ON SALLY'S CHEWY BONE!" The germaphob in me got completely grossed out but I didn't do much about it, just went and pulled her out of the crate, again.

Hmmm...maybe that's why Baby Lam won't walk...because she thinks she's a dog! Yeah, that's it!


By the way, Sally is doing great. She kind of like a teenager now. She's still half baby and half grown up dog. She's got long, gangly legs that she trips over, but still has that sweet puppy face. And still sweetly chews on anything left within her reach. Oh wait--that's not so sweet. I'll put some current pics of Silly Sally on the blog soon. She's a goof ball.

But not as goofy as this one...

Word of the Day: (it's very descriptive of my household)

vociferous: voh-SIF-uhr-uhs

adjective: Making a loud outcry; clamorous; noisy.

Light up Someone's Life

If you've been reading and following my blog, you've read about my big girl, Katie's, little friend Micah who was was in her pre-school class at the St. John Learning Center. He was diagnosed with leukemia back in June. So far he seems to be doing fairly well. Definitely has his 'downer' moments when they pump him full of cancer-bug eating medicines and he just generally feels like poo (that's putting it mildly). But he's a great kid and is keeping a great attitude and he's going to fight AND BEAT this mean 'ol cancer bug!

So Saturday was the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night walk and to show our support of Micah, Katie, Baby Lam and I went. Now, if you don't live here in Tulsa you probably don't realize that Hurricane Ike moved in on Saturday, so there was no walking going on. It became the Light the Night Sit In. But we still had a great time. Micah and Katie hadn't seen each other since June (because Micah can't really be around other kids too much) and they both giggled and sword fighted (with thier balloon swords) and jumped around all evening.

I'm not going to get all philosophical about how this has affected our lives and how I admire the courage of Micah's mom to get up each day, put a smile on her face and tell her precious child "we are going to beat this" and "we are going to have a tough day, but it's going to be okay." Me being philosophical isn't going to change things. What will change things is prayer. So my request today is please pray for Micah and his family. Please pray for peace of mind for Micah's family, for perfect healing of Micah, for pain-free days.

Katie and Micah

Micah getting ready to get Katie with his sword.

Katie sacrificing her poodle.

So, go...go light up someone's life. Whether it be a child fighting cancer/illness...a special needs child...and eldery person who is lonely. Go touch someone's life...don't do it for yourself, do it for them. Make their day! :)

Word of the Day

(Betcha didn't know this one, I mean, I bet you've heard of the word, but not this definition of it).

tattoo \ta-TOO\

noun: 1. A rapid, rhythmic drumming or rapping. 2. A beat of a drum, or sound of a trumpet or bugle, giving notice to soldiers to go to their quarters at night. 3. A display of military exercises given as evening entertainment.

Monday Mumblings

I was going to do a weekly wrap up yesterday, but it was so nice out that we spent most of the day doing family things and I just never got to it. So here's a brief summary of what we've been doing lately and the craziness that happens in the wake of the Lam family.

On Friday Patrick and I partipated in the United Way's Day of Caring. I didn't really participate since I was running the show as far as the St. John team/project went. So it wasn't that I had a choice to participate...I had to. But I brought my little guy along because we took some home bound elderly folks to the Tulsa Air and Space Museum and I thought he would enjoy it. I'm going to do a blog on it because Patrick was in complete awe and I have some awesome pics to share. It was a confusing mess leading up to that day--and wouldn't you know that the first thing I did when we got there was lock my keys in the car. Ugh. But it was a nice and fun day.

On Saturday Patrick and David went to a Ducks Unlimited banquet and Patrick had a great time and came home with all sorts of goodies. The girls and I went to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Walk. But since Hurricane Ike arrived, it became a Light the Night Sit In. We went to go support Katie's little friend Micah who is battling leukemia. I'll do a post on this one, too. They were precious together. We had a great time even though we were soaked to the bone by the time we got to the car. But it was worth it to see Micah's smile!

Yesterday was stay at home and clean up, laundry, etc. WM got the wild hair to paint the living/dining room walls. So our house was in a mess for most of the day, but now it looks much, much better!

Today is school picture day at Katie's school. I hope she cooperated and took her picture, because last night when I told her it was picture day she told me "I'm not doing that." Hmmm, I didn't really know that you didn't get the option. I LOVE that she has to wear a uniform to school--it cuts down on many, many morning arguements and crying sessions, but I have to admit that today I was a little sad that we didn't get the put on that special "picture day" outfit. Oh well, I guess it's a sacrifice that I'll make. :) I'm just glad we made it to picture day without some type of facial injury that resulted in some type of bruise, scrape, scratch that would appear in the photo. We had a close call last week when Katie took a face dive off the monkey bars, but we're all healed up and good to go for pics.

Today Katie will also be sent home with her 1st quarter progress report. And I'm nervous about it. Is that weird? I'm also SUPER nervous about our first parent/teacher conference that is coming up this Friday. I will be the first to admit that Katie is definitely NOT perfect and is quite high spirited, cries easily, somewhat stubborn. But I don't want anyone telling me that. I guess I need to put my thick skin on an be prepared. I need advice from all you other mommies out there...how to I prepare myself for this? Am I over-reacting? (WM says I over-react about everything since Katie has started school). Why am I so freaked out about a simple little parent/teacher conference? AGH!!!!!!!

Sorry for the boring post. Just needed to do a quick update. Tomorrow's will be better! :)

Have a super day!

Peace out! (not sure why I put that--just thought it was funny--'cuz I'm a dork).

Word of the Day:
wheedle: HWEE-d'l; WEE-d'l
transitive verb:1. To entice by soft words or flattery; to coax. 2. To gain or get by flattery or guile.

If you would like to wheedle me that would be fine. Oooooo....better yet....maybe Katie's teacher will wheedle me at our parent/teacher conference! :) HA HA HA HA HA

Tag--You're It!

I was tagged by my friend Baloney to do this so you all can get to know me better. She said the rules are that you can change any question that you don't like and replace it with your own and that you have to tag 8 people. If you don't want to get to know me, or already know me as well as you would like to know me then click the "x" and I'll see ya tomorrow (I hope--I hope to be able to blog tomorrow). If you're tagged (at the bottom of the blog) then put the link to your blog in the comments section so I can read about you...or if you don't have a blog, either 1). email me your "get to know you" or 2). Get a blog!--Come on just do it! :)

1.How many songs are on your iPod? Hmmmm, I don't know exactly but I would guess somewhere around 75. I really, really need to take some off and add some new ones on, but I haven't had time to do it. I will also admit that I have about 10 "kid" songs such as "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid. I know my iPod should be just for me and be kid-free, but we listen to it in the car, so....

2. What music would you want played at your funeral? I haven't put much thought into that, but one song that I love is "Time to Say Goodbye" sung by Sarah Brightman. I'm leaving my funeral upto my family, so whatever they want is good with me.

3.What magazines do you have subscriptions to? Parenting (imagine that) and Better Homes and Gardens. And even though they aren't for me, the subscription is in my name for Golf, Golf Digest and Golf World.

4. What is your favorite scent? Probably because it is consuming my life right now, I love the smell of a freshly bathed baby who has been slathered with Baby Magic (baby fresh scent) lotion.
No Johnson & Johnson has to be Baby Magic.

5. If you had a million dollars that you could only spend on yourself, what would you do with it? Ok, this is going to sound uber-selfish, but that question itself is uber-selfish, so...since I basically have either been pregnant or post-baby for 5 years I would do a MAJOR overhaul of my wardrobe. Nothing fits right anymore (all you ladies out there who have had babies know what I'm talking about, you wear the same size but it doesn't fit the same). But even with that wouldn't spend the whole million, so I'd take my kiddos and WM on an awesome vacation.

6. What hobby do you have that you don't have time to do? Read. I LOVE to read, but I just don't get to sit down and do it like I'd like to. Usually if I have a little free time that would normally be reading time, I'm busy catching up on something. I will admit that lately I've been committed to finding time to read more.

7. Do you trust easily? It depends--but generally, yes. Probably because I'm pretty particular about who I choose as friends. So if I consider you a friend, you've probably proven yourself trustworthy, therefore, I'll trust you. Does that make sense?

8. Do you generally think before you act, or act before you think? I used to be a total "fly by the seat of your pants" type of gal. But since I've gotten married and had children, that's pretty much stopped. I think things through so I can make the best decision for my little ones or WM. But my "fly by the seat of your pants" days sometimes resurface during benign activities--like when I'm shopping.

9.Is there anything that has made you unhappy these days? I am frustrated when Katie cries when I take her to school when I know that she's loving Kindergarten (have I ever mentioned that she's a TOTAL drama queen)???? Oh, yeah, this rain has made me unhappy and lately my job has been frustrating me.

10. Do you have a good body-image? Um, no. Did you read #5? I've either been pregnant or post-baby (1 year after the birth of a child) for 5 years. So my body image is a little off kilter right now. I wouldn't say it's bad, I'm just trying to adapt to my new body.

11. Is being tagged fun? Sure!! Someone actually thought of me--if only for the .5 seconds that it took to type my name!

12. How do you spend your social networking (Facebook, etc.) time? I read blogs and email mostly. Even though it's probably not considered "social" time, many of my good friends are my co-workers, so my job is very social for me. Also, even though it's a new "social" time for me, pick up time at Katie's school is becoming quite social.

13. What have you been seriously addicted to lately? Well, definitely blogging. :) And playing the trivia quiz (thanks Baloney)! And lately I've kind of gotten into photography...I'm not good, but I love my camera!

14. What kind of person do you think the person who tagged you is? Baloney--I've just recently gotten to know Baloney and it's mostly through blogging/email/mutual friend. But read her blog and you'll realize what an amazing mother/woman she is. She should be an inspiration to every mother (and person) out there to never give up, trust your instincts, fight tirelessly for your loved ones, live a Christian life while keeping a great attitude and peaceful spirit. I can't wait to get to know her even better.

15. What’s the last song that got stuck in your head? Celebrate by KC and the Sunshine Band or is it Kool and the Gang? I'm drawing a blank on that. But my girls and I went to Light the Night tonight and that's the song they ended the night with. So that's what's in my brain! Agh--get out!!

16.What’s your favorite item of clothing? I love my yoga pants and a soft t-shirt, but I also have this one--ONE--pair of jeans that I have perfectly broken in.

17. What is the perfect birthday cake? Chocolate sheet cake. I LOVE it and it's what I always requested as a child when my mom asked what kind of cake I wanted for my birthday. It would still be my first choice. But I also do love that strawberry/whipped cream cake that Queenies makes.

18. What is your signature color? Pink, pink and pink. I LOVE pink. I wear pink a lot and I love pink flowers, pink paper, pink sheets, etc. Is there any home decor items in my house that are pink? Nope, there are not. I have no pink comforters, sheets, curtains or any such thing in my home. But someday when we get a bigger house, you better believe there will be some pink involved.

19. What items could you not go without during the day? My kiddos and WM.

20. What should you be doing right now? I probably should be in bed sleeping since that's what everyone else is doing...and since Baby Lam will be waking up at some point in the night. But I haven't been online in practically 4 days, so I got a lot of catching up to do. Plus WM and Patrick aren't back from their little "boys" outing and it's getting late--so the worry monster in me is starting to rear it's ugly head and I can't go to bed until all my loved ones are home safe with me.

Ok--so who am I tagging? Which 8 people? Here they are: Kathleen, Susie, Korinne, Joy, Sarah, Karen, Nick and Jenny.