Lucky Number 13!!!

13 years ago.  October 5th at 8:45 in the morning, Keelin Gray entered the world.  I remember watching the Today show and Katie Couric talking about how the 5th was a popular birth date because it is 40 weeks from New Year's Eve.  Except Keelin was a week late!  She was the sweetest little baby.  Now a teenager. I can't believe it.  I am so proud of the young lady she is growing up to be...as a daughter, sister, singer, actress, student, athlete, and friend.  She is beautiful inside and out.  (I try to remember this when she is fighting with her sister or telling me how I am SO unfair!)  I loved that her birthday was on a weekend.  Here is to another wonderful year....

xo~M

Opening presents

Opening cards and presents before running out to soccer!

The knife was coincidental....just thought it was a funny...."do you want to see your next birthday?" kind of shot!

Sweet sisters at their first 5K

Braces off!

11 Years

I was making dinner and listening to Pandora.  Sara Bareilles' voice came on to intro a song.  "I wrote this song, Gravity...after my first heartbreak."  It struck a cord with me.  I thought my first high school boyfriend broke my heart....then I thought, no that could NOT have been heartbreak, my first serious college boyfriend, HE broke my heart.  Moving on....no, no any number of choices I made could have led to heartbreak.  My dad died when I was 16...heartbreak?  The rate I am going, my heart is in a million little pieces.  The definition of heartbreak:  overwhelming mental anguish or grief, especially that caused by loss or disappointment.  Just reading the definition, brings tears to my eyes threatening to spill over onto the keyboard.  And I know...I KNOW with every piece of me...when my heart actually broke.  I was sitting in a doctor's office.  I was looking at my son on an ultrasound screen.  I was in the specialists' office-hearing the Doctor's words.  I was in the hospital as my OB asked me if we catholic and if we wanted a chaplain.  I was numb sitting on my couch watching the world out my window, wishing I was invisible.  Wishing I was with my son.  A million little pieces....
A three year old little girl climbed onto my lap, holding my hand as I watched out the window.  Finding out I was pregnant with Ella.  Helping to chair the Walk to Remember in Atlanta.  Having Max and listening to  him talk about Ben more than anyone in our family.  Finding friends to share in this journey.  Having my silent army in blue every October 1st and March 7th....all of these things and more fill the cracks.  A broken heart pieced back together with love and support.  It is a sad day.  I miss my son.  But I am grateful for Keelin, Ella, and Max.  I am grateful for Josh and my support from near and far.  There was overwhelming anguish and grief.  There has also been overwhelming joy.

xo~M

My little memory area complete with the candle scent I made especially for him. 

My mommy necklace with all of my babies' names.

A tired looking selfie...in my blue :)

Sister Time

No one loves you like your sisters.  When my girls fight, I cringe.  At the same time I know that in 2 minutes they will be besties again.  I have had some friendship difficulties lately which have weighed heavily on me.  I am trying to instill in my girls that no matter what, your sister WILL be your Best Friend Forever.  You can fight, say things you don't mean, hurt each other...but your sister will be there for you-your fiercest, most loyal ally.  I am fortunate to be geographically close to one of my sisters and close in relationship to both of my sisters.  I love them so much.  And when I need them, they are there.  Whether they are far from me or not.  We got matching tattoos a couple of years ago. The lyrics are from the Nixons song, Sister.  "Our souls speak"  each word written in one of our handwriting.  The line from the song, "inter-twined, you and I, Our Souls Speak from across the miles..." Thank you Krissy and Bean for being my best friends in life.  For being there to talk me through the rough spots.  For being there when I am overjoyed. For being there...always....

xo~M

chillaxin with Krissy last night....a little blurry due to taking pic with iPad and consuming much vino

Our sister tat <3

Getting off the Slack Train

First of all I have been a major blogging slacker.  Time to get back into the groove.  I have also been a workout slacker.  Josh gets up every morning and does yoga.  I could too.  I can hear it.  I just choose to pull the blankets over my head and sleep for "just a few more minutes." He also works out most evenings.  I know...I live with this....and I have NO reason to not get off my butt.  Except for the fact that I just don't!  So I was in Kentucky with my sister and sweet nieces.  My back was a little bit tight from the plane so I did a nice long yoga work out on Sunday night.  I also had a little pep talk with myself that I was going to start running again.  I set a goal to run three times this week. Monday night I went to pick Ella up from her speed and agility workout.  I talked her into running a lap around the park with me. Day 1 down...woohooo and I got home and had so much energy!  Now that DOES NOT mean I was able to get up and do yoga Tuesday morning....nope...more burrowing.  I did, however take Ella to soccer practice Tuesday and I ran another lap:) Yea! More than half way to my goal!  Tonight I made it 3 for 3 and ran another lap with my Ella Bella.  Maybe yoga tomorrow morning....hmmmmm

xo~M

View coming over the hill from my first night's run.  I can handle this!

Ella's House-View from the Net

This past weekend marked the beginning of our soccer games.  Ella played in a tournament in Dallas, GA (which is not too far from the Alabama border!) Ella started in net, in her goalie position.  She is so cute in there....trying to look tough. Before every game, I tell El, "Don't let anyone in your house." She gives me the thumbs up.  She played the first half of both of her games in the net, allowing 1 goal.  A tribute to her and her defense. They make a really good team. She passed to team mates from the net.  Twice, this resulted in assists.  She played forward in the second half of the game....displaying some sweet foot work. Her coach encouraging, "get the ball to Unger!" She scored twice. Not bad for a goalie. Unfortunately, the second day of the tournament was rained out.  The team was going into the second day in first place-geared to take home a trophy.  It is only the beginning though.  Many more games to be played and a tournament on tap for next weekend.  Here are some Ella shots :)

xo~M

warming up

following the ball

getting ready

UFA girls cheering

Goal kick

there she goes!

Running hard!

I've Got Spirit, YES I DO!

My schedule today: work by 7:25 (with two out of the three children). Interim IEP meeting at 7:45.  From 8:30-11:30-testing for 2nd graders (reading fluency) and Kindergarten (letter naming). Break for lunch (30m). Back at 12 for 1st grade-letter sounds, letter naming, nonsense words, and reading passages (mind you, I can recite all of the reading passages by heart). Finished at 2:50 pm, did some busy work at my desk and checking emails until I picked up the kids from the after school program. Went to Primrose School to see a private kiddo for speech -kids back in car to drop Ella off for goalie training.  Max and I opened up the Spirit Wear store, where I volunteer every Wednesday for 2 hours.  No WiFi, so I can't do work or blog, so I old schooled it on a notepad. Also coordinated soccer games for September, October, and November, since we got soccer schedules-I color coded.  It looks like a rainbow nightmare.  So it is 9:42pm. I had a bagel with tomato and cucumber for dinner with a glass of vino.  Looking toward to another full day tomorrow.....

xo~M

My view ....

My partner-he tells me when someone steals something, I'll run after them. I'll do my boxing moves.  (he looks really invested)

Old schooling it.....

Color coding, but missing Max's blue....his schedule isn't out yet!

The End of my 365

I gave it a good shot....I made it 176 days. I would have liked to make it at least half of the year, but I didn't make it.  So for 176 days I added a picture to the blog.  Something that represented my day/time at that moment.  It was a good run.  Around the time school let out (when I SHOULD have had time to load a picture a day) is when I dropped the ball.  So while I won't stop taking pictures, I have stopped linking them to my 365 blog. 

Sadly~M

Here are some I have taken recently

Sunset on the Sound

A rose bush at Josh's dad 's house

Charlie....riding on the console

A man and his chain saw!

Playing air hockey