Kristopher's 8th Grade Graduation

Well its official, my baby is aFreshmen (even though he still goes to school until Friday LOL, thats our School District for ya). How did he become a Freshmen already.....wasn't it just yesterday that I was a scared to death teenager finding out she was pregnant? What would I do? How was I going to tell my parents? How was I going to tell Mark? How were WE going to RAISE a BABY, we were SO YOUNG ourselves!! Wasn't it just yesterday that we were speeding towards Springfield because my water had broke?? I know it was just yesterday I remember it so clearly. Kari and Jamie beat me and my mom to the hospital....they ran a red light as I fussed at my mom because MY WATER HAD BROKEN AND SHE WAS DRIVING LIKE AN OLD LADY!! lol

It was just yesterday that we were staring in to the big blue eyes of that 8.10 oz baby. It was just yesterday that I was holding his hand walking him down the hall to his Kindergarden classroom trying hard not to cry because I didn't want to frighten him. His big blue eyes with his adorable little bowl cut looking up at me saying "mommy are you crying"...."no hunny I'm ok"...."yes you are mommy, It will be ok, I will only be gone for a little while"...I remember dropping him off not wanting to leave standing in the hall looking through the little window in the door, how had my baby gotten so big so soon he was already FIVE!!!

And here we are today, he is on his way to HIGH SCHOOL!! It just doesn't seem possible. We were at his Highschool orientation in Febuary and the teachers kept saying "its going to go by quick" "these four years are going to fly by" I kept telling my friend Sara I wish they would shut up I don't want to hear that its NOT going to fly by, he WON'T be out on his own in 4 years, but sitting here tonight I am realizing how FAST the last 14 years have gone. I can't imagine how fast 4 years are going to go.

I know some of you think I am a total freak and don't think its any big deal that your child is moving in into highschool or into Jr. High or whatever it may be, but to me I cherrish every mile stone, every thing in his life. I only have one child to experience this with and I savor everything with all that I have. I don't think I smother him, although he may say different, I really think for those of you that know me, I have backed away and cut the chord as you all have told me :-).

A mother's love for her first, her one and only child, is something that you can never compare anything too. My heart over flows with love for him and the joy he brings me in life is more than I could have ever hoped for!!

I became a mother very early but I wouldn't change it for the world!! God gave him to me when he did for a reason and I have cherrished and loved him ever since I layed eyes on him!! Here he is graduating from 8th grade.

These were taken before we left for the school.

Kristopher was totally annoyed with me by now for all the picture taking! And this was only the begining LOL

Getting his certificate!

With his buddies and their certificates!

Kristopher with his dad and his dads girlfriend Jenny

Fun morning at the park

Dillon, Kaitlyn and I went to the park Saturday morning to play. I love watching them play and use their imagination. Of course Dilly does this more so than Kaitlyn. He always has some sort of story he is acting out on the play ground! Now that its nice out I'm sure we will be there every day!! It fills the day and they have a blast! I think they would stay there all day if I let them!! :-) I am hoping to take a picnic lunch up there next week for a lunch in the park. My last day of work is Thursday so Dill is counting down the days until we get to play all day together!

Here are a few pictures of our fun morning!! Cotton met us up there after he got home from work!! He had to get in there and play too of course!! :-)

Walking to the park, Kaitlyn had to push her "baby" (a little stuffed dog that Dillon got as a gift) in the baby stroller. It was so cute!

WWWEEEEEE they loved going down the slide!

Dillon was walking across the purple stepping stones and Sister wanted to as well, and i wanted a picture of her first, and she didn't like having to wait!! :-) So this is the picture I got!! LOL

Dillon attempting to push cotton and Kaitlyn on the merry go round!! That didn't last to long!

Driving the fighter fighter truck as Dillon calls it!

Father and Son.....a great bond

Mark (Kristopher's dad) LOVED Indiana Jones when he was younger, he passed his love for Indy on to our son!! Kristopher has dressed like Indy for Halloween and watches the movies on DVD over and over. He has been DYING for the new movie! He actually thought I should let him skip school tomorrow so that he could go up to his dad (he lives 2 hours away) so they could go watch the movie tonight. I said uuuhhh NOT!! I know mean mom! I would take him to see it but I'm not the Indy lover as his dad is so the rule (in Kristophers head) is that he HAS to see it with ONLY his dad for the first time!! He's said he would be generous enough to take me but only after he sees it with Mark first LOL!! Which if fine, its their special thing together. So off to his dads tomorrow and I'm sure to stand in line to see Indiana Jones!!

The story is captured MUCH better by Mark's mom, Marla in this article in the Springfield, IL paper. The picture to the left of the article is Kristopher about 4 years ago, there is one underneath it that is of Mark he is the 2nd one, he has a white shirt on.
http://www.sj-r.com/entertainment/x2118743212/In-praise-of-Indy-films

Kristopher sure loves his dad, they have a great bond and a great relationship. We might have had him alot younger than most, but I think we have done an ok job with raising him. He has turned out pretty darn good if you ask me! :-) He is his dad up one side and down the other. He will do or say something and I will just say "good heavens you are your father!!!! " They share a love of so many of the same things, Indiana Jones of course being one of them. They love what I would call those stupid, silly, movies, Kristopher can just watch them over and over and crack up at the same thing over and over!!

I wish I could see them together more, but I know the bond they have is strong and I know kristopher's love for his dad is like nothing I can describe. He loves going up on the weekends and misses it when its been awhile. He is so active in sports and getting to the age where there is always something going on during the weekends that he doesn't get up there like he would like, but when they are together I know they have a wonderful time!!

Mark has been a great dad and I am very proud of the father he has become.

Dillon's 5th Birthday

Here are the pictures from Dillon's birthday. He turned five on May 1st. He hasn't had his big party yet... not sure he is going to have one with his friends like he wanted, his mom hasn't said anything about it. But I did make a cake, with his help and he opened his presents and we ate cake Thursday after Kristopher got home from school. Yes the cake is pink and yes I know he is a boy, and pink cake isn't really appropriate for a boy but he loves my strawberry cake so that's what he asked for. That's what he wanted last year too!! :-) (Please excuse the horrible hair day for me LOL I had been at work with my hair pulled back all day long!! ) In this first picture he had me take a picture of him showing the camera how old he is!! :-)

Baby Mama....

A friend of mine, Holly, had a get together with a few surrogate friends this weekend. We all went to see the movie Baby Mama... it was really funny. Totally unrealistic but very funny!! Some surrogates are offended by it, but we all just pretty much thought it was funny. It does take a bad twist in it that isn't real flattering for surrogates, but the ending is good. I would hope any normal person that doesn't know anything about Surrogacy realizes that its not realistic its just a very silly movie.

Holly had shirts made for us to wear out that night. They were really cute and hopefully got the point across that we wanted to make. The great thing about wearing the shirts is that while waiting at TGIFridays trying to decide if we were going to wait the hour and a half wait for a table, a lady came up and asked us if we had a website for information on surrogacy. It turns out her and her husband are not able to have children and have been exploring the idea of surrogacy. We gave her one of the websites that is very popular in the surrogacy world and Holly gave her her email for any questions she might have. It was nice to be able to help her out. She said her and her mom had just been talking about surrogacy and in we walk!! :-) Of course MANY people stared while we all walked in a place or by a table at the restaurant. I hate people looking at me so I didn't care for the attention, but it was good to get the message across in case there are people out there that would think that movie is realistic.

I have some pictures of all of us from the weekend!! And of our shirts!! :-) Thank so much Holly for opening your home and allowing us all to invade it!! You too Brett!! Sorry you had to put up with such crazy conversations from all us women!! LOL You are such a great sport!! And a good cook!! :-) This first picture from L to R Holly, Me, Kat, Melissa, Jackie

2nd Picture Jackie, Jen, Holly, Me, Kat, Melissa

Kat was smiling in this one LOL (she is the one with her back to the camera! :-) The back of the shirt says Surrogacy It's more than a silly movie .... Its a Miracle!! The front says Proud Surrogate Mother

These pictures here are funny because I for some reason could not get my eyes to stay open to get a good picture of me and Kat. I kept having them half open or all the way closed. Not sure what was happening but it was so funny we were cracking up. We were in the theater and I'm sure everyone was annoyed with all the flashes, but it was so funny. I took one with my eyes WIDE open because I just could NOT get them to stay open , and then we were dying laughing and Melissa snapped a picture of that, and then the last one is the best one we could get!! You kinda had to be there but it really was funny!

I also had to post about Holly and her addiction.... we think that before the end of the year she may need an intervention!! LOL I have never in my life seen anything like this before!! She tried to explain her addiction to us but we were all very confused!! I hate to call her out on a blog like this and expose her addiction to all the world but it just has to be done.....................................

SHE IS A COUPON JUNKIE!!!!!! Most people would not believe me so I had to take pictures of what all she has done with her addiction!!! It was unbelievable to me if some would have told me about this I would have never believed it was as serious if I hadn't see pictures!! So here they are! Its totally and completely amazing!! I am truly in aaawwweeee of what she can do with such little money!!! She seriously gets FIVE papers delivered every Sunday then goes to the Dollar Tree and gets 10 more. (her advise is the Chicago tribune is the best for all you fellow junkies or wanna be junkies) :-) She went this morning and bought NINE toothpastes and spent .23 cents can you believe that?? I took a picture of the receipt just to prove it!! Its just totally amazing!! I asked what in the world she does with it all and she sells allot to her and Brett's family and also has garage sales and sells it. So allot of the stuff she gets is totally free and then she can turn around and sell and make a nice profit!! She amazes me!! This first one is of her bathroom type bargain's, you will NEVER run out of shampoo or toothpaste at this house! The 2nd one is her freezer down stairs!! Her kids can NEVER say there isn't anything to eat!! :-)

The next one is her pantry off of her dinning room (for some reason I couldn't get it to rotate and save correctly so its sideways, sorry) then the next one is of her down stairs pantry type area, never run out of TP at this house!! Its seriously PACKED with everything under the sun. Kat said it reminded her of that special she saw on the Dugger Family, the ones that have like 17 kids or something and their pantry is just stacked full of stuff. The last pictures are of her deal from this morning on 9 toothpastes. You can see on the receipt what she pad and how much she saved. Its amazing! One picture I am missing is of the deodorant bag she had, it was FULL of deodorants. I asked Brett if he was really that smelly he had to have some many!! :-)

You know I love ya Holly!! I'm totally envious!!!