Butterfly Kisses

A child is like a cute little caterpillar. They are small, fuzzy, and people love to help them inch along from place to place.  Then sometime when you are not looking they hide away in a cocoon. Before you know it they emerge as this beautiful butterfly, which will soon fly away to experience life on its own, no longer needing help to "inch" them along.

This evening Matt and I were looking through some photos from our first few months in Japan. It is hard to tell how much a person has changed when you see them everyday. But sometime between March, 2009 and now, our cute little caterpillar changed into a beautiful, amazing butterfly.

Hard to believe only 19 months ago this was our little caterpillar, who had just turned 13 years old.

And here is our beautiful butterfly, who will be 15 years old next month.

I have a love/hate relationship with the song Butterfly Kisses by Bob Carslisle. However when I reflect on some of the lyrics, I can't help but think maybe Bob had the same thought as I, late one night when he thought about his own butterfly. 

Happy 14th Birthday Emily!

A birthday is just the first day of another 365-day journey around the sun. Enjoy the trip. ~Author Unknown

Happy 14th birthday Emily!

And We Were Worried

We were worried about Emily the most out of all our kids with this move. I would say she is settling in quite nicely.

I'm a mom of a teenager

My oldest daughter is turning 13 today. Thirteen –– Yikes! It seems like it was only yesterday that my life changed forever. Life was no longer about me, but about this tiny 6 lb 2 oz baby girl.

Emily is a pretty special girl. She is caring, sensitive, smart, athletic, friendly, always thinking of others rather than herself, and honestly a good kid. (Don't worry, Sam makes up for it and keeps us on our toes)

The past 13 years have been amazing and I cannot wait to see what lies ahead. As a mom of a teenager, anything is possible, right?

Happy 13th birthday Emily. We love you!

It's an Honor!

Emily came home from school today all excited because she was invited into the honor club. There is a breakfast tomorrow morning and then something else at school. She said people are invited once a quarter and it starts in 7th grade.

I am very proud of my baby. (Is almost 13 too old to consider my baby?)

And she is out!

We are back, safe and sound. We got home around 5 pm last night and was thrown right into the family routine. It was so good to see the kids and you could tell that they were glad to see us. (Or maybe it was just the gifts we had for them)

This morning we had appointments for our first round of shots for the move. You all know how I just love shots. I needed two, Matt needed one, Emily and Chris needed two and Sami (poor Sami!) needed three. Sami was in full drama queen mode before we even entered the door. I was just worried about getting my shots in front of the kids.

The nurse asked for the kids to go first. So Emily volunteered to be the first human pin cushion. She never flinched and even watched the needles go in. Chris was next. The first shot hurt pretty bad so Matt had to hold back his arm and help him relax for the second one.

Just as he was done we heard Emily gasp and then crash to the floor, smashing her head in the process. At first we thought she was having a seizure, but it appears that she just passed out. The nurse said post-anxiety fainting is not uncommon with preteens and teenagers. It took her about 30 minutes to stop looking like a sheet. Luckily she just has a bad headache and a goose egg.

So Sam was up next. You can imagine what that was like. Fortunately I sat with Emily while Matt dealt with Sam. Drama queen mode was definitely vamped up during those five minutes. Matt handled his shot like a pro and the nurse just made sure I sat down for several minutes after my arm was attacked. We go back in 10 more days for another round. Emily said this time she thinks she will just sit down for a while after.

Less than 24 hours back in the states and already drama. Only us.

State Bound

After the gymnastics meet in Las Vegas, Emily had been moved up to a level 7 on her team. Yesterday was the first meet she would compete as a Level 7, and it also was the last meet of the season to be able to qualify for the level 7 state meet. She has been going to extra practice the last three weeks and it paid off. Despite all the nerves, Emily did awesome (took 3rd place All-around) and managed to qualify for state. So now she has three weeks to prepare for state. Yikes!

This also was the first meet I had my new camera. My photoshop program is on the fritz so I couldn't edit anything. Taking pictures at meets is hard. No flash is allowed and the girls move so fast.

Here is a sneak peak at Emily's debut as a optional gymnast! Enjoy.

Girls Just Wanna Have Fun

Only 6 weeks late, Emily finally had her birthday slumber party last night. She had been wanting to invite all the girls in her gymnastics practice group but between other commitments and competitions we had to push it back until this weekend.

So at noon yesterday nine girls came to party at Casa de Jacobs... and boy did they party. Makeup, beauty salon and raiding my closet (and sock drawer for that much needed added padding). Jumping on the trampoline, watching movies, going for walks through the subdivision, hiking up dirt hills, scrapbooking, playing hide and go seek and of course eating –– lots. They sure put Cindy Lauper's 80s hit to the test. The only thing missing was a home theater popcorn machines.

The crew raided my and Emily's closet for some fashion show fun. That is my dress Emily has on.

The girls decided to talk a walk, singing, through the subdivision.
The girls decided to hike up the dirt hills on the other side of the subdivision. And yes that hill is huge.
The girls after going rock hunting. They sure were proud of their rocks.
And of course we have to smash those prize rocks to look for crystals inside.

The girls decided it was fun to paint their faces with frosting. Don't they realize that is the best part of ice cream cake?

More pictures for your viewing pleasure can be found here.

Curly Q

Last weekend while in Ohio Jamie decided to give Emily a bit of a new "do". I am so used to Emily's poker straight hair that it took me a while to decide if I liked it or not. In the end I did. Now Emily is bugging me for her own set of rollers. ((sigh)) More tween junk to deal with.

Wordless Wednesday: Hangin' Out at Caesar's Palace

Ahhhhh... A "Tween"

It was the "Blizzard of 1996". I was a day overdue, had been having back pain for about a day and I *thought* I was in labor. Our car was snowed in so my SIL and BIL picked us up and took us to the hospital to only be told that I was just "irritable" and they would see me back in a few days. So back out into the snowy weather we went.

We got home around 10:30 pm. We said goodbye to my SIL and BIL and I tried to sleep. However my "irritability" just kept getting worse. Matt went outside and started to dig the car out "just in case". Instead of sleeping I puked and tried to ward off the "irritability" with hot showers. Matt would come inside in between digging to help me out. However at that point I just wanted to be left alone. Finally I said to Matt "Something is wrong. We need to go back to the hospital." So he loaded me up in the car (we really could have used a big 4x4 truck with a truck rack), along with a blue trashcan and it took us 30+ minutes to drive 3 miles. All I remember saying to him was "If this is irritability then I am going to need drugs."

Our parking pass at the hospital said 1:30 am. We got into the ER and the nurse on duty took one look at me and told Matt to try to keep up as fast as he can and if he didn't to meet us on the delivery floor. We got up to a room and the nurse set off to find a doctor (mine was not on call that night). We no sooner sat down when I felt like I had to go to the bathroom. I told Matt something wasn't right and go find someone quick. The nurse ran in, whipped off my pants (well actually Matt's workout pants) went to "check me" and right then my water broke and the baby was crowning. They held me off to get the doctor in there, gave me an epismotmy (still can't figure that one out) and two pushes later we had ourselves a little girl. (So much for mother intuition and having a med student friend look at the ultrasound) All of that and she was born at 1:53 am. Yes, I was at the hospital for 23 minutes. Never got an IV, never even got my clothes changed. But in just those 23 minutes my life had changed forever...

Emily Ann Jacobs
January 12, 1996 1:53 am
6 lbs 2 oz
19.5 inches long

Emily at a year old.
Emily at 3.
Emily at 6.
Emily on her 8th birthday.
Emily at 8.
Emily at State Meet 2006.
Emily before Christmas dance last month.
Emily tonight opening presents.

Wordless Wednesday: Up on the Roof

Emily? Suspended?

My daughter was suspended from 6th grade. Yes you read that right... suspended. Emily. E-M-I-L-Y.

Was she fighting? Nope. Breaking school property? No. Stealing? No way. My good, sweet, honor student daughter was suspended for lack of receiving the hepatitis B vaccination series.

I was shocked yesterday when I opened a letter from the school saying that her vaccinations are not up to date and therefore by some code that she has been suspended from school. Of course I freak out as this is the first documentation I have received on the matter, plus I didn't even have a clue as to what vaccination she needed. After a call to the school to find out it was the Hepatitis B series, I frantically spent two hours and lots of tears finding an appointment for Emily to get her shots on Monday morning. When Emily came home from school I told her the bad news. She informed me that she would rather be suspended then get a shot.

This morning I will still upset about the matter. I mean come on. I have gotten Sam's vaccinations for Kindergarten a year early because that is how on the ball I am about these things. I decided to pull out Em's shot records and see how I managed to forget such an item. I thought maybe it was something that they get upon entry to middle school. I looked at her record and right there in black and white it showed 3 hep B shots. All three in 1996.

I took her records to the school and after cross checking her file it appears that when we first moved to Illinois back in 1998 the doctor office forgot to enter the shots into the computer system. The shot records that were in Em's preschool and elementary file were from Illinois, not Ohio, therefore showing her as being incomplete. When I asked the nurse how it was never caught when we moved here last summer she told me the bigger question was how come it was never caught, at three different schools, until she went to this middle school. Makes you wonder what else schools are missing.

So my daughter has been "unsuspended". The nurse ripped up the letter out of Emily's file so there will never be a record of any of this. And her shot files has been updated. Sheeeeeew.

Wordless Wednesday: Strike a pose

What a week

Shew... finally the week is over. Our gym hosted the first competitive meet of the season yesterday and as the Booster Club president I was in charge of half of the meet. So my past few days consisted of shopping, making phone calls, scheduling workers, setting up, tearing down, cooking and lots of other stuff in between. And in the middle of that we had football and gymnastics practices, Emily's first school dance, I managed to break my cell phone, school, homework, my work and a trip to the park.

But here are a few pictures and updates from the past few days.

Here is Emily before the dance. She had to get ready at the gym as she was having her final practice before her Saturday meet.
Another picture of my gorgeous girl. I think I needed a portable oxygen concentrator to revive Matt when he saw how gorgous his daughter looked.
My insomniac son helped me cook 10 pounds of penne pasta for the meet at 11 pm. What a guy!
Here is Emily and the other level 6 girls after the competition. Cool glasses, huh? Can you guess the meet theme?
Emily without the goofy glasses.
Emily got a 9.05 on the balance beam. She was .05 shy of getting first place. She had an awesome first meet, placing 4th in the all-around.
Sami decided that she couldn't go to bed without doing "homework". She feel asleep instead.
We took the boat out today for some R&R. As you can see the small amount of rain we had a few weeks ago did nothing. The water level is usually up to the big trees. Some of the towns get their water from this lake. The lake is only half boatable as it is now... a few more weeks and it will be unusable and the latest calculations gives Raleigh water until mid-December. However I am NOT praying for rain after my last little experience.

Wordless Wednesday: Sisterly Love

And Officially A Tween

Yesterday Emily came home from school, dropped her book bag on the floor, slapped a permission slip for the first school dance on my desk and started begging for me to take her to CVS to buy M Magazine.

My head started spinning. A dance? A teeny bopper magazine? Something about wanting to hang posters and clippings in her locker? Then the phone rang and she had to go in the other room "to take the call." I heard giggling and dance discussion. Oh my... she is officially a tween.

I guess I should be happy that she doesn't care that I told her Matt was going to chaperon the dance (it was a scare tactic that didn't work). And that the stars she is hanging in her locker have so far managed to stay clear of drug rehabs. And most importantly, I don't have the plague and she still wants me around.

It seems like just yesterday I was begging my mom for Tiger Beat and Bop magazines and hanging Kirk Cameron and Chad Lowe in my locker. Now it is my daughter doing the same.

Lord help me... I'm a mother of a tween.

Festival Fun

Today's Emily's competitive gymnastics team did a demonstration at the Angier Crepe Myrtle Festival so we decided to go a bit early for some "fair food" and free real estate promotional pens. Okay so the food was the real reason, the free pens were just just a bonus.

Only two weeks until her first meet of the competition season. I hope she is less nervous than I am.

Sami and daddy watching a clown perform.
Emily and three other gymnastics pals rode "The Cartwheel". Matt and I laughed because the ride wasn't operated by electric or a switch. Rather the man in the shirt just spun the cage around by hand, switching directions back and forth. Only in North Carolina.
Mr. Jack giving a last few directions. Notice how attentive the kids are being.
Emily showing the corwn a handstand forward roll. If only we all had leg muscles like these girls.
Emily landing her back handspring back tuck.