Is it the end of November already???

Wow, so much for me posting on the blog more often!!!  I seriously don't know where time has gone.  BOTH girls have started basketball.  They are playing  for the FLA.  Megan has practice on Monday and Wednesday nights and Emily has on Tuesday and Thursday.  Usually I will take the girls to practice, hang out and talk to the other parents for a few minutes then head to the rec center for a quick work out.  The past few weeks I haven't been able to work out (shoulder injury, whole other story) so I have been hanging out a little more at practice, running errands, come home and hang out with child who is not at practice and start a load of laundry!!!

Guess I should back up a few weeks.  Had a sharp pain in my right shoulder that made a pain shoot down my arm.  I get this every once in awhile, usually lasts a few days and then goes away.  This time it wasn't going away, it just got worse.  I self-diagnosed myself and attributed it to my gall bladder.  After an entire weekend of spasms so bad I wanted to puke, I decided to go to the doctor.  Diagnoses was strain in shoulder muscle and no lifting or working out for at least a week, maybe two.  Also received a script of Flexeril.  I missed a few days of work due to this and slept like a baby for a week and a half!!!    Shoulder was almost good until Turkey Shoot and raking leaves.  Still haven't worked out but am hoping to do so this weekend.

Now....aside from constant basketball practice we have been studying the solar system and some heavy memorizing of our times tables!  Weekends have been raking leaves, Turkey shoot, and Emily's first BB scrimmage and tournament.

Yesterday my dad drove to town yesterday afternoon to drive the girls and me to Chillicothe for the night.The girls and I played lots of board games that Craig and I used to play growing up!  I am the Marvel Comics Super-Heroes Card Game Champion!!!  We also played lots of Checkers and Connect Four.

Uncle Craig surprised us by coming "home" last night too!  It was good to spend time with him!

The girls helped Grandma bake pumpkin pies, make applesauce, and a peanut butter/chocolate dessert before they went to bed and woke up this morning to help snap green beans and roll the crescent rolls!

The drive back to Vandalia was not a fun one.  It has been raining for over 24 hours and the amount of water on the road was unbelievable.  We were constantly hydroplaning.  The rain finally started to lighten up once we got closer to town.

Tonight was are watching the Bengals V. Jets game!!!  Game started out ugly but turned out to be OK!!!!

I am not planning on doing any shopping tomorrow, hoping to finally work out and start getting ready to get the Christmas decorations out!!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!  Love to you all!!!!

Baba

This month we were so happy to have my grandma visit Ohio.  She is 96-years old and lives in New Jersey with my aunt.  My aunt went on a much deserved vacation to visit the Holy Lands.  Baba (polish for Grandma) stayed with my parents for most of the month of October.

We were able to get to Chillicothe a couple times to visit her for the day.  It was very nice for us to get to see her and for her to get to see the girls.

We even had Baba decorating foam pupkins and skeletons!

Putting eyes on skeleton necklace!

The Zedalis/Allen clan

Me, Baba, and my brother Craig

 

Baba and me!

My aunt has arrived safely back to NJ and will meet my parents between her house and theirs on Tuesday.  I am so thankful we were able to spend time with Baba!!!

M.I.A.

As you probably know I have not been posting a lot lately.  When things happen I always think I need to put it on the blog but I don't.  It has been a little disconcerning to me why I haven't posted when I enjoy it so much.  The other day I finally figured it out.

A few months ago I was messing around with the format of the blog and ended up changing the format of my blog.  Not sure how to get it back to how it was.  I am not happy with the format so I have avoided posting.

Cold weather is coming so hopefully I will soon be able to sit down long enough to "fix" the format to my liking.  Sounds like a good project to do while I am watching football on a chilly Sunday afternoon!

Here are some things that have been going on...

Girls started school.  Emily is loving middle school and Megan is loving 3rd grade.

We "broke" up with our babysitter.  Megan is now going to B.A.S.E. (Before and After School Experience).  Emily is doing her own thing now too.

I hit the 100 pound mark on my weight loss journey a few weeks ago.  No worries, I am sure I am back to 95 or less right now.  Need to get back on the wagon before it is too late!!!

My work has merged with another company.  As of now nothing has changed and I am praying nothing does.

Nothing else exciting has been happening.  We are keeping busy yet it feels like we never do anything.  I don't know where time goes.  I do know it is going by way to fast!

A very special birth…

11-years ago today I became a mommy!  It was one of the scariest days in my life yet one of the best days of my life!

In the past 11 years I have asked a lot of questions and have  learned a lot of things…some of the most memorable are:

• How can something so tiny make so much noise?
• Will I ever sleep again?
• How could I have helped make someone this beautiful?
• It’s ok to eat nothing but ranch dressing and ketchup for every meal for a month.
• There is such a thing as tears of happiness.
• I can never get enough hugs and kisses.
• How did you get to be such a wonderful big sister?
• How can I be sooooo mad at someone I love sooooo much?
• It really isn’t possible to take too many pictures!

 

Emily,

You are turning in to a beautiful young lady and words cannot express how much I love you.  I pray one day you realize I yell at you because I love you and I will never stop loving you, no matter what.  You are a very sweet, smart and caring girl, I hope you stay that way.  I am not a perfect parent and I never will be.  I can already see you and I are not going to see eye to eye on everything, but I promise you I will try to keep an open mind and try to see things through your eyes.  You are growing up before my eyes and I am the first to admit it is hard for me to let go.  Baby steps.

  

I love you Emily Grace Allen.  I hope you have a wonderful 11th birthday!!!!!

Love,

Mommy

Not much

Have been jam packed with SOFTBALL!  This season has had a lot of rain out games and the local Parks and Recreation department were nice enough to allow the teams to make up the games.

To the Allen family (and many others with multiple kids) this meant softball/baseball every night this week.  For three weeks straight we were at the sports complex for one reason or another.

Quick summary of how the girls regular season softball teams finished…

Megan’s team finished 3rd in the league but lost in the first round of tournaments.

Emily’s team finished 2nd in the league and lost in the second round of tournaments.  The game they lost was a nail biter.  I was at a scrimmage with Megan so Ron was keeping me updated on Em’s game via text message.  I could not concentrate on Megan’s game at all.  I was dying.  Emily was pitching the game of her life and I wanted to be there to see it.

Normal league rules are the pitcher can only pitch 3 innings per game. Regular season Emily averaged about 2 innings. Tournaments are unlimited innings.   The texts kept coming…Em was still pitching well past her typical two innings.  She was striking out the other team left and right!

Megan’s game was finally over and she and I flew over to the sports complex to catch the end of Em’s game.  There were quite a few parents from other teams standing around watching the game.  Some parents came up to me immediately  to tell me how well Emily was pitching.  I wanted to cry.  One because I was sad I wasn’t there and the other because I was so darn proud of her!  Emily ended up pitching all six innings of the game!!!  Wow!

The team lost by one run at the bottom of the 6th inning.  And of course, Em made the last out.  :(  She was very upset.  She had NOTHING to be upset about since she had just played the best game of her life!

No championship trophy for her for the first time in 3 years but she did get a trophy for 2nd place in the league!

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In other news…

We all volunteered at the St. Chris Festival in June.  This year we worked twice.  Saturday night Ron and I manned the ice cream booth.  Emily went off with a friend and Megan went to play games at the next tent over!

Sunday we worked in the funnel cake booth.  We had a good time.  I didn’t eat as many funnel cakes as I would have liked but I did get enough to cure my craving for awhile!!!

Haven’t had many opportunities to exercise like I should.  Now that we only have All-stars I can start eating better and working out more!  I am ashamed to admit this but I really do miss exercising. 

We have All-star tourney’s the next 3 weekends then the month of August is completely softball free!  YIPPEE!!!

Here are some misc pics..