To catch up a little, I don’t know where to start.  I guess I’ll start with my first love; Mike is such a wonderful father to our girls!  Two days a week, this fall, I’ve been out of town at the doctor.  It’s been really hard on us, but Mike has been amazing with the girls!  He’s literally my hero… and theirs.  Although things have gone very smoothly, last week was the hardest week so far, mostly for my heart.  To give context, I’m at everything the girls do.  That’s just one thing I’ve always managed to figure out.  I don’t call in sick, ever.  Well, this week, Noelle’s grade from her school got asked to perform at a city-wide Toys for Tots event.  They have been working on this performance ever since their “Go Fish” play.  Noelle has been beyond excited about it!  However, it fell on one of my out of town days.  I’m in a program that is helping me manage my fibromyalgia, and I’m paying it forward to take advantage of this opportunity.  I was 45 minutes away, stuck in traffic, when the performance started.  My heart was aching, even though deep down I knew I wouldn’t make it in time, I kept hoping that I would.  I just couldn’t stand not being there.  It literally broke my heart.  However, Mike fed and got all 3 girls dressed for the cold weather and to the Christmas event.  Not only that, but he recorded the whole thing for me so that when I got home, we could watch it and celebrate Noelle and her sweet enthusiasm for life together! 

After I spend a day out of town, I am literally dragging the next day.  It is all I can do to keep the littles safe, clean, and fed… just the basics.  Well, as the schedule turns out, Noelle had her 2nd grade field trip the very next day after this performace.  I knew I wouldn’t have the strength to drive to Ft. Worth to meet her group, so Mike took a vacation day off of work to be with Noelle and enjoy the day at the Ft. Worth museum with her (picture on the right).  It was so awesome for them to get to spend some one-on-one time together and experience a field trip together.  Things have a way of working out even better!  It’s always so important for Mike to be at work, while I take care of the girls, but this day for them was meant to be.  It melted my heart to see all of their pictures together of all of the fun they had.  You know, being a super mom, means filling back up your “bucket” so that you have something left to give or “pour out.”  I’m sacrificing a few things now, so that I can do even more in the future.  That has been a tough lesson for me to learn, but I’ve been running on E for quite some time.  I’m always so proud of my sweet, good, and kind family and how we work together to make it work, but last week, we seriously rose to the occasion.  I’m proud of the way we all worked together to be there for each other.  The girls are learning to be a little more flexible, Mike is rocking it out, and I’m using all the energy I have to get well. 

As far as this video of Noelle’s Toys for Tots performance, it kept me going and smiling all last week.  We’ve watched it so many times!  I hope it brings a big smile to your Monday!  Noelle is the diva wearing the shiny silver boots on the front row, to the left of the center.  ‘Tis the Season!  You go girl!!!

(If you can stick it out through the 12 minutes, they sing a Feliz Navidad song and rap song, creative choreography included!  I was so impressed their amazing teacher thought all this cuteness up!  They all knew they were so stinkin’ cute too!)  Oops!  We put two of the middle songs on the video twice.  My favorite song is the last one and starts at minute 10:45.  I’ll never hear, “We Wish you a Merry Christmas!” without thinking of these cute little jolly fists!