Moments that take your breath away

Adriana for over a year tried to convince me to let her have her long Beautiful hair cut short. This was a reoccurring argument, until the first week of August. It was her first week of First Grade she came to me with a valid argument. She said " Mom I'm going to donate my hair, to me my hair is nothing but trouble and tangles but some sick girl would Love to have it." As I looked at my defiant little girl with her hands on her hips, I realized there was no way to argue with that! So that very day we went and she had about 12 inches cut off and donated through locks of love to St. Louis Childrens hospital. Months went by and I quickly grew to love her short cut. Two weeks after Thanksgiving I received an e-mail from a stranger. She stated her Daughther had received the wig made from Adriana's hair. Her daughther Anna Lee had been diagnosed and battling Leukemia for the past 18 months. She is since in remission and the day before Thanks-giving and her 7th Birthday she had received the wig. The mother thanked us for the hair and wanted us to know she was returning to school after Christmas and was excited for her friends to see her with hair. As I read this e-mail I had the good kind of goosebumps. Adriana Lee and Anna Lee share the same Birthday they were both born within 30 minutes of each other on November 24, 2004. They were both named after their Grandmothers and both have brothers who are ten. I can't imagine the struggles that Anna and her mother have endured over the last two years. But it puts some perspective on our petty fights over hair! Since November our girls have became pen pals, and we plan on metting Anna and her family this Spring. I am very proud of Adriana she is very caring and I have no doubt she will continue to make sacrifices for others over her lifetime!

Little Boys have Beauty mishaps too!

As I mentioned before I'm not big on appearances and never have been but when it comes to my kids it's a different story. When Zach was 8 months old he was beginning to walk and fell and busted his lip. I took him to the base hospital and I not him cried like a baby as they gave him six stitches. I called his dad hysterical our little boy was going to be scarred for life. A fellow Marine brought Ronnie home that night he walked up to the door and said, "Maam chicks dig scars". I was speechless as I looked up at this Marine who had a big scar down his face. He smiled then walked a way. I realized the little scar above Zach's lip wouldn't define him. And it's a good thing I realized that early because in the few years following he had two more sets of stitches, a chipped front tooth, and I don't know how many black eyes and facial bruises. When he was four I had been dating David for a few months but hadn't had him around the kids. I decided one night to have him over and watch a movie with them. Zach had been eating popcorn so he went to wash his greasy hands. I peeked in on him and then went back to the living room. A few minutes later he came in and said "Mom where is the other hair gel?" Before I could answer he said "Oh and I cut my hair but don't worry I didn't cut myself".  In only a few short minutes he had cut a triangle out of the front of his hair all the way to the skin and had a nasty glob of hair gel in the back. And as David shaved Zach's head I again had tears but yet laughed at the same time. Oh the joy of little boys he has always kept me busy from son up to son down!

Little girls and Makeup

I've never understood the fascination of makeup. I do wear it occasionally but never a ton. It doesn't bother me to go to the store without it or even go weeks without ever opening my make up bag. But some girls can't live without it and most girls experiment with it all the time. I think every girl has had a bad makeup experience a foundation that looks orange, a mascara that runs down the face even though it says waterproof, Lipstick that is clumpy. Well Miss Adriana had a bad experience young. When she was three a friend of ours watched her for the day. Miss T. has a son so she was excited to have a girls day with Adriana. They went shopping and she took her to the kids makeup section and told her she could pick anything she wanted. Adriana picked a dollar tube of lip gloss and was so proud of it. She carried it in her pocket for several days it was her first actual lip gloss and she applied it several times a day. She went to my parents one night and had left it in the floor. My dad accidently stepped on and broke the beloved gloss. he felt so bad that he went that night and upgraded her little tube to a trunk full of makeup. She was so happy and quickly forgot about that little tube. That night I picked her and her trunk up and went home. I was in the shower and she said mom this gloss isn't the same. I opened the shower door and there she was with finger nail polish on her lips and eyes! Oh no I quickly realized I should have given her a makeup lesson. I grabbed her and put her in the shower trying to scrub the polish off her face. She had a hot pink tint on her eyes until it wore off. I packed up that trunk and put it in a safe place. But she continues to love her lip gloss she always has a tube. This year I was dropping her off at Kindergarten and Zach said mom i can tell Adriana has a boyfriend. We both looked at him and asked why. He said well she put on lip gloss so she could kiss a boy at school. Disgusted she looked at him and replied Bubba if I was going to kiss a boy I wouldn't waste my lip gloss! I have a feeling we will have plenty of makeup mishaps and fights in our future!  The picture above was taken a couple of days after the incident if you notice her right eye still has finger nail polish eye liner!

"While we try to teach our children all about life, our children teach us what life is really about"

Adriana and Zach are my teachers.

Zachary Michael is nine, He loves sports, reading and always has a smart come back or joke. He has a great appreciation for the military especially the Marines. There is no doubt that one day I will be a mother of a Marine.

Adriana Lee is six, She has a very sweet, caring personality, and Loves to Dance, sing, play soccer and Cheer. She has a very Bright sense of style she is a mixture of Hannah Montana and Punky Brewster!

I have been asked to start a Blog for a long time to share their humerus stories so here it goes...


This is old but is still one of my favorite stories.

I wear many hats as their mom and one is a student. It was finals week which was a week before Christmas and I was stressed to the max. Papers, Tests, Practicals, not to mention the mounds of dishes and Laundry and the presents that weren't bought. After dinner I told Zach and Adri that I needed to finish a paper and I was only asking for twenty minutes of peace and quiet. They agreed and went into the bedroom to play while I sat in the office and focused on the computer. About 10 minutes later my peace was interrupted. I could hear the wales of Adriana and Zach busted open the office door. He looked so frantic he said Mom we were wrestling and she fell off the bed her teeth are out! I jumped up and ran to the bedroom so scared of what I might find. When I made it to the bedroom she was still crying and had her hands over her mouth, I was frightened, she moved her hands and when she looked at me there wasn't a tooth in her mouth! My heart dropped my precious 4 year old had no teeth! Just then both of them began hysterically laughing. And she pulled out her fake gums that her brother had got at school and hid until the perfect opportunity. They had got me! They worked together, had a plan, and practiced their skit until it was perfect. Needless to say I was thankful that they weren't her real teeth and I waited until they were sleeping to finish that paper! They are my teachers as the quote says, the laundry and dish mounds didn't hurt anyone, the presents got bought the paper was finished. And I spent time with them which is what really matters!