You go girl!

I am amazed at how gifted and talented so many of my friends are! I have to brag on my friend, Brandi, now ;-) Her website reads, "
Brandi Stafford Simons is an award-winning freelance photographer based in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Brandi has been photographing daily news, sports, and portrait assignments since 1993, working as a photojournalist on a newspaper staff as well as freelance. In 2005 she and her family returned to Tulsa so her husband Mike could take a staff photographer’s position at The Tulsa World, and Brandi could freelance. Oklahoma has always been “home” to Mike and Brandi, and they are very excited to be back.
Brandi brings her years of photojournalism experience to her documentary portraiture, working unobtrusively. Her Don’t Say Cheese attitude paired with photographing people in their own comfortable surroundings makes for some truly amazing storytelling images."

Member
NPPA-National Press Photographers Association
WWW.NPPA.ORG
ASMP-American Society of Media Photographers
WWW.ASMP.ORG
SportsShooter.COM
SportsShooter.COM

JUST A FEW OF HER GREAT CLIENTS
The Associated Press
Getty Images
The New York Times
The Tulsa World-
The Oklahoman
World Picture News
Just Between Friends
The City of Tulsa
The Wall Street Journal
The Performance Resource Group
CSP Magazine

A few days ago, Brandi covered the Picher tornado. Her photos even made USA Today's "The Day in Pictures" Go to "May 14th" & it's picture #3.

You can see more photos of the Picher devastation if you go here - you'll also see more amazing pictures she's taken from all over the U.S.

Yea, Brandi ;-) You go girl!

Happy Mother's Day to my Mom ;-)

Yesterday, the girls, Steve & I joined my sister and her family in surprising my mom for Mother's Day. We met at her house in OKC and did a backyard makeover for her - we should be on t.v.! We cleaned out her flower beds, pulled weeds, cleaned off her patio, planted flowers & potted plants & gave her new patio furniture. I'll have to post pics later. We had a great time and we hope she enjoys her surprise. She's worth it! Love you, Mom ;-)

Happy Mother's Day weekend

Hmmm - Mom's Week has apparently been shortened to "Mom's Weekend". I knew it was too good to be true ;-)

We have butterflies!

In a previous post, I mentioned that we were raising caterpillars and waiting for them to turn into butterflies. Well, the girls woke up yesterday morning to 3 butterflies in their cage & we're still waiting on the 4th. God's little miracles of nature can be pretty exciting ;-)

Silhouettes

My friend, Leslie, who owns L.E. Portraits , created some awesome silhouettes of my girls for me and we also did a cousin's picture for Steve's mom. They turned out great & will be wonderful keepsakes!

Mother's Day Lunch

Today after church, we went to Steve's parent's house in Sperry for a delicious Mother's Day lunch. Steve's sister's family was there and his grandmother was, too. We had a great time ;-)

Happy Mother's Day

I woke up yesterday morning to a delicious breakfast of a bowl of milk with a little bit of cereal ;-), a tiarra and a very cute note. Notice the note reads, "Happy Mom's week" - hmmm, I wonder if they'll remember that?! I love my sweet girls.

Awwwwww...

The other night, Steve and I went to check on the girls before we went to bed and "A" was asleep holding a note written by "M". "M" wrote this note for "A" for her birthday. Too sweet ;-)

Quack Quack

We've gotten so much rain today that our ditches have filled up and look like mini ponds! In fact, our neighbor across the street from us had ducks in hers! Of course the girls wanted to see them close up so they took them some bread and popcorn. As they ran out the door to feed them, I said, "Now don't chase the ducks and scare them away!" The third picture shows what happened ;-)

Our new pets...

The girls are so excited because we are raising Painted Lady butterflies from Insect Lore. (This is probably the closest thing they'll get for a pet for a while - with the exception of the fish "A" received for her birthday.) They are currently in the chrysallis stage & should be turning into butterflies within the next few days. More pics to come soon!

Would you like to play a game of A-ne-jo-di?

The girls recently attended a homeschool activity at the Collinsville Library. Two Native Americans came from Talequah to show the kids how to make an Indian game called "Stickball". It was pretty interesting learning about Stickball and making the sticks. Here's some info we learned:

A-ne-jo-di, or Stickball, is a very rough game played by many Indian tribes.. KEYWORDS anejodi stickball Indian games lacrosse muscogee games creek games seminole games southeaster woodland tribes yuchi games natchez games cherokee games stomp grounds stomp dance intertribal games

A-ne-jo-di, or Stickball, is a very rough game played by not only the Cherokee, but many other Southeastern Woodland tribes including the Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, and others.

The game resembles the modern European game of LaCrosse, using ball sticks which are handmade from hickory. A small ball, made of deer hair and hide, is tossed into the air by the medicine man. The male players use a pair of the sticks, and female players use the bare hands. In earlier times, only the men with the greatest athletic ability played the game.

Read more here: http://www.mailtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080321/NEWS/803210325

Not so deep thoughts...

With my 20th high school reunion coming up this summer, I've been reflecting a lot recently about where I currently am in life. I think back to my high school days and I'm definitely not where I expected to be - but I think that's probably a good thing. Back then, I saw myself as a fashion buyer and living in a loft in New York. I thought of the endless options for shopping, exciting new places to eat and all of the dance clubs I would frequent. Now look at me - I'm a homeschool mom living in a fairly small town in Oklahoma. Not really what I thought I'd be doing, but I have to say I really love it. I love homeschooling, having play dates with our friends and spending time with my family.

I look at where other people are in life, especially public figures, and I wonder if they are really happy. They might have the fame, but do they have true joy? It's ironic that I've been thinking about this lately because our pastor actually spoke on this topic in today's sermon from John 4:1-42. It's the story of the Samaritan woman who had 5 previous husbands and was currently living with a man. He pointed out how she kept looking to men for happiness, but true happiness can only be found in Jesus. He went on to say how we are a "restless" society, always looking for the next thing to make us happy - expensive cars, bigger homes, the latest fashions, alcohol, drugs, relationships, etc. - but that happiness is only temporary.

While my life is far from perfect, I know that God has a hand on my life and will work it out for His good. One of my favorite Bible verses is Jeremiah 29:11 - "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Knowing that, I don't have to be concerned about what tomorrow brings. Having Jesus in my life doesn't mean that I am now worry free and that hurt and disappointment won't come my way - it just means I don't have to face it alone. He is always there for me and walks beside me in times of trouble. He makes the pain barable and always brings good out of a bad situation. I feel truly blessed to be where I am today and I thank God for being there for me every step of the way.

Move over Dorthy Hammell!

We went iceskating for the second time for the Homeschool Ice Skating Day at the Oilers Ice Center in Tulsa last Friday. It was also "A's" birthday, so ice skating was a fun way to celebrate her special day. Unfortunately, this was the last homeschool skating session until next fall. I suppose that will give us something to look forward to after the summer is over!

Happy 6th b-day to my baby ;-)

The story of "A"...

It took us about 6 months to get pregnant with "A" and that six months seemed like such a long time! I began to wonder if we'd ever get pregnant again! The day I found out, I was SO excited! "M" was not quite 2 yet but I was so happy for her, too, that she'd have a little sister. I thought we'd get a little creative in our way of telling Steve he was going to be a daddy again, so I made "M" a little t-shirt that said, "I'm going to be a BIG sister!" I put it on her and when Steve came home from work, she ran & gave him a big hug. It took him a few minutes to read her shirt but when he did, he was very excited, too!

My pregnancies with both girls were really pretty easy and I just loved being pregnant. I loved feeling the girls inside me - just knowing that there was life inside me made me awe at God's handiwork. Well, it was about time for Abby to be born so we scheduled a c-section about 2 weeks before my actual due date. I had to have a c-section because "M" was delivered emergency c-section. She was born beautiful and healthy - thank God! However, she was just 5.3 pounds and when the nurses ran the normal newborn tests on her, they determined she was actually probably about 4 weeks early.

"A" was so tiny! She dropped to 4.12 in the hospital. Every time she'd try to nurse, she'd burn more calories nursing then she was taking in, so we had to supplement with milk I pumped and we fed it to her with a medicine syringe. She also had a little trouble keeping warm, so even though she was born in May, we had to keep her bundled up in blankets, warm clothes and hats for about the first six weeks of her life. She continued to eat from a syringe for about 2-3 weeks but finally started to gain some weight and I was able to nurse her for about 14 months.

Today, "A" is still very thin, but she's very healthy and of average height - a problem I wish I had! Most people say she looks like me but I think she acts like her daddy. She has his sense of humor and is pretty silly most of the time. She has a very sweet spirit and I am so blessed to be her mommy. Happy 6th birthday to my baby "A"!

A study of Minnesota...

We belong to the Heritage Homeschool Co-Op of Owasso and on the last Friday of every month, we have a special day called "Heritage Day". On this day, our Co-Op meets at Freedom Church and we have fun, educational activities planned. In the past we've had Show & Share days, The Roving Reptiles came and did a presentation and this month's activity was a "State's Fair". Each family chose a different state to do a display/presentation on. My girls chose Minnesota - mostly because they are very into Little House on the Prairie right now & Laura Ingalls Wilder lived in Minnesota for part of her life. They enjoyed learning about the state's symbols as well as other interesting facts about the state. They worked very hard on their project - as well as all the other families that participated, too!