Poetry by Ashley

Ashley is 12. She's teetering on the edge of independence. Some days she leans a little towards us, others she pushes off with all her might. The days of her leaning on us are numbered, I know this. When she opens herself up to us, and allows us to see the amazing young lady she's becoming, we can't help but swell with pride. I really don't take enough time to document how beautiful a person she is. It's amazing all the emotions that come along with parenthood. They're everchanging and completely unpredictable. I had no idea that letting go little by little could be so rewarding. Watching this young lady grow before us is indescribable.

Today she came home with several poems in a poetry book from English class. They are all just beautiful, but I wanted to share two. The first one is a concrete poem entitled Midnight. It's written in the shape of a star. (See the picture below) Her teacher left her a note on the table of contents that says:

"Concrete poem was the best I've ever read. It is "publishable".

And here is the poem:

It's midnight when we all come out to play.
It's midnight. Half night, half day.
It's midnight. Dancing on the big black dance floor.
It's midnight. When we come knocking on your door.
It's midnight. When we all start beaming.
It's midnight. No one can see us....
You're all dreaming.

The next one is my favorite. Ashley has always had such a big heart. She read this to us at the dinner table for the first time tonight. Before she was done reading Mark and I glanced at each other, both with tears in our eyes.

Peace

I am peace.
I wonder when the fighting will end.
I hear children cry and the gunshots go off.
I see broken hearts and homes.
I want us all to get along.
I am peace.

I pretend to be what you believe.
I feel your pain and sorrow.
I touch the broken.
I worry for the human race.
I cry a sad song.
I am peace.

I understand that you have something to fight for.
I say nothing is worth this.
I dream that someday I'll be a part of life on your planet.
I try to let my voice be heard.
I hope you'll see that I am what's right

I AM PEACE.

Promises, promises

Yeah, it's been a month, what can I say.

Life has been full speed ahead the past few weeks. With basketball, football and work, it's difficult to find the time for the MANY things I want to do.

I just celebrated my 32nd birthday, which was wonderful. I have such an amazing family, and network of friends. My friend Jess was in town from Washington for a few days and I am so thankful I was able to spend some time with her. We had dinner with a group of friends that I really don't see often enough, and the following day (my birthday) she came out to the house with her son Nicholas. They brought me the most beautiful roses in pink, red, orange and yellow. Probably the most beautiful roses I've ever received. The kiddos did some swimming while Jess and I did as much catching up as humanly possible in what little time we had, but I enjoyed our time none the less. Being with friends that night before REALLY made me realize how important it is to have friendships. I really don't take enough time for my friends. Truthfully, I don't take ANY time. I'm working on it.

Alex had his end of season playoffs for football this morning. No superbowl win this season, but they made major improvements throughout the season. We are not contemplating tackle football. I'm not sure he's ready for that, despite how insistent he is about it. We'll see what happens, and possibly consider it. This summer I signed him up for a swim team in town. He'll be practicing four days a week, and meets most Saturdays. I know he will do well. This boy has been a fish since he was tiny, and now that we have the pool, all he wants to do is race. I've timed him from one end of the pool to the other probably 50 times already this season and it's only just begun. I'm anxious to see him compete!

Last night Mark bought us a new movie camera. I am SO EXCITED! No more tapes! This thing is the size of my palm and super easy to use. I recorded some footage of Alex's football games this morning, but have yet to download them and check out the quality. I guess that's my next project. Now I have to figure out how to take pictures AND video without growing extra limbs.

I'll post video as soon as I can!

Baseball and Football and Basketball, OH MY!

This weekend was a busy one, with not much time to spare for blogage. Alex had two football games abd Ash had three Basketball games. Aside from all the running around, we managed to do a little Geocaching at lake Georgetown and even hung out around the pool a little in between games. We are looking forward to all the fun the new pool will provide this summer! It's right around the corner.

Here are some pics of our trip to the Dell Diamond on Thursday. We had a really nice time, and the weather could not have been anymore perfect! Click to enlarge.

 

Easter at Nana and Big Daddy's

 

Geocaching this weekend!

 

All work and no play makes Jamie a dull girl

Jumping on to post before Mark makes it home from the grocery store, which will begin the unloading and throwing together of dinner.

I'm so excited to see that I can now post via email and mobile phone!! This is good news because I know I'm good at the mobile thing, it's this sitting down and posting that seems to be difficult these days. We'll see.

Ashley had cheer uniform fittings on Thursday. This was the first time I've ever seen her in the whole cheer getup. She looked so cute, but wow! I had to make sure and ask for an additional 2 inches on the skirt. She is definitely her mother's daughter! Those legs seem to go on forever. She's 5'6" and about 90% legs.

This weekend was another "project" weekend. What else is new. We're in the midst of several projects but decided to put our efforts in to the basement this weekend. FYI, we've decided the new name for newly remodeled half of the basement will be "The Kid Crib". Initially, it was the kid cave, not to be confused with the other half of the basement, the Man Cave. Apparently, that wasn't cool enough, and Ashley modified to the final name, "The Kid Crib". I know it seems silly to have to name it, but as often as we're referring to that room, it needed a permanent name. It's been the "stinky room", "down under", "the 'other' room" among many other names I'm sure. So the room, yes, it is coming along beautifully! Saturday Mark and I hit it hard. Several weekends ago I ripped up the carpet and scrapped all the popcorn off the ceiling, removed the baseboards, primed the baseboards and primed the wrong side of the door. This weekend we primed the ceiling, window frames, door frames, and the correct side of the door. We painted the ceiling and walls a very light yellow to help open up the space since the ceilings are so low. Mark installed two new light fixtures along with all new outlets and covers. We haven't even begun the tile installation and already the room is completely transformed. The pale yellow was an excellent choice and we are very happy with our decision to continue the wall color on to the ceiling.

Today we took the kiddos out for a little geocaching in San Gabriel Park, and made a stop off to sign some life insurance papers on the way home. I have to say, the Geocaching has proven to be such an exciting activity to do with the kids. It's getting harder and harder for us all to do fun stuff together without spending a lot of money, since our interests vary so much these days. This is one thing we can ALL do and enjoy together, outside, which is one place we all enjoy to be. We found three treasures today, and both gets had the opportunity to guide us with the GPS. It was a gorgeous day, and could not have been better.

Next weekend Mark and I are going on a getaway with a group through the Rec. Center here in town. We're heading out Friday after work to Goose Island State Park near Rockport on the coast, where we'll camp until Sunday. I'm not exactly sure what all we have lined up, but I do know we'll be kyaking and fishing. (I'll have to make sure and take the GPS so we can get a little Geocaching in too!) The best part is that Mark and I will be sans kiddos. Love the little Urben's but by golly we're due for some adult time! It has been a VERY long time since we've had some time to ourselves.

I'm not counting on a post next weekend since we'll be gone most of it, but I'll make every effort to explore my new ability to post via my phone this week!

Hoppy Easter

It always gives me a little giggle to post for the first time after a lengthy hiatus. I see my last post and my thoughts turn silly, I imagine myself frozen in time, as if nothing has happened since that last post. Alex is still laying in bed smiling up at the camera with his toothless grin, with anxious anticipation of the fortunes he'll wake up to in the morning, Ashley is still in her room with the music turned up way to loud for bed time, and Mark groaning at me for taking too many pictures when all he wants to do is hit the sack.

Fortunately, time has not stood still, even if Alex's smile remains the same. We've been busy little bees with the basketball, volleyball, track, football, cheerleading and so on. We made our annual spring break trip to Alabama, which was sooo nice and much too short. And here I sit at Nana's kitchen counter, on Easter, making time to blog. I could say that I "finally found some time to blog", but truth be told, I probably could have found the time to blog all along, I just haven't found it to be at the top of my priority list. The ever changing priority list...what ever would I do without it. Don't get me wrong, it's not that I haven't THOUGHT about blogging regularly, and it's not as though the big grey cloud of guilt hasn't been chasing me around like a loyal little nagging puppy. Truthfully, blogging has MADE the priority list, it's just had a hard time making its way to the top. Which brings me to my next thought. HOW, oh HOW can I keep this thing up to date, without pushing something down on that ever so important priority list. I've decided that for the sake of those few family members that are pretty much ready to disown me, that I will update at least once a week. I may not be creative, or interesting, or thought provoking, but I will update with SOMETHING at least once a week. Some weeks I may update with a "week in pictures post" or even a "picture of the week" post, but it will be something. Afterall, I'd hate to have to find a new family to adopt me. :)

Boo-buh

The newest smile in the Urben household:



And the note we had to leave for the tooth fairy, since Alex managed to misplace his tooth. For the record, the kid can write much neater than this, promise, he just chooses not to. I suppose it's a boy thing.





I was really looking forward to him having a silly lisp once both front teeth were gone, but nooooo, he doesn't sound different at all. I even tried getting him to say "sister susie sittin on a thistle" but nothing. Oh well, what we're missing out on with the silly lisp, we're making up for in cuteness. Just look at that smile. He's just so precious.

A few nights later, he got all ready for bed and was so proud to show us that he had his clothes all laid out for the next day of school, and here is what we walk in to find:







Notice he's even "drawing" a picture with his oversized pencil. Silly goose! This kid is a constant source of laughter and entertainment.