Wednesday, January 27, 2010

For the LOVE of PETE

I've been saying that ALOT lately..... for one thing I'm trying DESPERATELY not to cuss as much... and saying FOR THE LOVE OF PETE.... is long... there are lots of vowels and it does make me feel a little better especially since my friend Sally said.... "This Pete fellow sure has been getting a lot of love".... It makes me smile .... and makes me wish I had a really good friend named Pete.....

But the reason I've been needing to avoid cussing is because people have really been annoying the crap out of me the last few days.... NO i'm not PMSing or Prego.... just once again I am amazed at how people can take something beautiful & simple.... and turn it UGLY and complicated.
Ok so let me give you some background, I'm the president of My son's PTA.... I've been getting alot of information from the National PTA on ways to get fathers more involved in our school. There are TONS of articles that talk about the importance of a father's involvement, the way it effects the child's view of school, the child's self esteem, the grades that a child earns...... litter ally their a million articles on the web that will basically tell you that but in much greater detail and much more eloquently than I.
So in one of the above mentioned articles it gives ideas on things a PTA can do to help get fathers involved.... one of many ideas listed was a father daughter dance....... Oh how cute... little girls dancing on their daddies feet.... getting a dressed up ..... getting pictures taken....... and just feeling like they are the center of the universe.... or at least the center of their Daddies universe..... It was that simple.... that innocent........
Well I took the idea to the principal and she was totally on board with the idea.... I researched DJ's..... looked into decorations..... and made up signs & Flyer's to put up at school. When i was typing up the flyer it occurred to me that not all little girls have a Dad.... so not wanting to exclude them I put ON THE FLYER..... All the ladies are invited to bring their favorite "fella" be it Dad, Step-Dad, Grand-Dad, Uncle, Brother...... I thought that would cover it all.... and then i decided that the cost of a ticket may keep some girls from being able to come, So i created some Gift certificates/vouchers.... that teachers could give anyone that they felt might need it..... I was feeling so darn proud of myself..... Doing something for all the little girls at my SONS school... thinking about how fun it would've been to do something like this with my Dad or Step-Dad as a kid..... So I made the copies and passed them to all the teachers.... hung up the sings around school..... All was right with the world
Then Yesterday it ALL blew up in my face.......... apparently people are "UP IN ARMS" that I'm excluding little girls who have same sex parents.... it's not fair for them to not get to go..... UH????? Say What? Of course they can go, bring who ever they want...... it's not like that.... and then today someone was upset by my choice of using the term "fella"................ Uh again HUH???
FOR REAL PEOPLE.....................GET A GRIP!!!! Surely this isn't the first time that this little girl has noticed that she has two Mom's and no Dad's.......... and I thought I covered the whole line up of possibilities...... she doesn't have a positive male role model in her life willing to spare two hours to take her to a stinking dance??? If that's the case this little girl needs an opportunity to create that relationship...... Did her Mom's really think that this would NEVER come up in her life? ... and as far as the term Fella................. REALLY??? You have a problem with the English word fella because apparently it can be translated to mean something similar to girl on girl............ The whole Gay angle is NOT one that I thought would come up in this scenario....................Never even crossed my mind....... FOR THE LOVE OF PETE..................... actually Pete's getting so much love.... go talk to Pete about all this cause I'm just OVER IT!!!!

Thursday, January 21, 2010

We Miss Our Abbey & Amelia!!!

It's been officially 6 months since the Gibbs moved to Utah,.... Yes Leah & I have been out there and Ben & Danielle have been here twice... but it's just not enough. Especially not for almost 3 and a 4 year old.

Abbey and Amelia come up in conversations daily, we have a conversation at least 1 a week about how long it takes to get to Utah either by plane (1 long day) or by car (4 long days) ... they are always talking about how we are going to go out there after the baby comes (due in march) and who Ethan thinks should be named Millie and Leah thinks it should be Hannah. Leah has also solved our housing dilema and says that when we move out of this house to find a bigger one, we can buy one down the street from Abbey's new house. There are LOTS of big houses out there by the BIG mountains!

I think it's amazing that even though it's been months since they've played together (Ethan hasn't seen them since they moved) they still talk about each other all the time. I know they seal families in the temple... but do they seal friendships too?

I think GOD knew that our families were meant to be together for all eternity and so we've been sealed/baptised through Kool-aid, snotty noses, lots of laughter, and just as many tears, and our strong faith and trust in each other... or the fact that we know WAY too much about the other to ever let the other get to far away.... for fear that we'd sell the rights to the others story and become a Lifetime Original Movie! ( I think Patrick Dempsey would make a great Ben)

We know adjusting to Utah hasn't been so easy at times, it hasnt been easy getting use to you being gone either! I'm still trying to find Ben a job back here in Ohio! There's been more than just a few days that I've wished I could just walk across the street and find 4 of my most favorite people in the world.... But we also know that everything happens for a reason and We are trusting that The Big Guy knows what he's doing!

For now we'll just keep planing trips to Utah and keep coming up with reasons for you to come back to Ohio!

We Miss you like crazy

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

My new favorite day...

There is no Rhyme or Reason to why it works with us, it just does. We make each other laugh more than we make each other cry. We work together more than we work against each other, we disagree but still listen to the other's side. And at the end of the day I rather get a hug from him than anyone else in the world! I just love this guy and it's a good thing because I'm hoping to live to be 95 years old... that means I'm stuck with him for 61 more years.

Here we are the new Mr & Mrs.

It was a great day! We had pictures taken downtown and we got to stay at the Hyatt on Capitol Square. They upgraded us to the Presidential suite so we had a GREAT view, a whirlpool bath, a sauna and I'm not sure If I'm spelling it right but it also had a bidet. Not to mention the enormous bed with 15 pillows on it! It was AWESOME.

Then we went down to Lindey's were everyone was wrapping up their cocktails and appetizers.We had the ceremony & reception there.

My sister was the Maid of Honor, and Theo's best friend Jason was the best man. The kids were our fabulous ring bearer & flower girl. Leah was a little nervous and had my sister carry her in, Ethan just flat out refused, but Alex was a trooper and did a great job! My Dad walked me in to the song "turn around" it's a oldie, but when I was in High school my step-mom Jean pulled me aside one night and told me to listen to a song that was playing on my little brothers Lullaby tape and it was Turn Around, she asked me to play that song at my wedding. I thought she was on crack at the time, but she's been gone almost 10 years and I'm so glad that the ONLY song played at my wedding was the one SHE had asked me to! I also got to wear her Mother's ring, a tradition my sister started 9 years ago. Two other sentimental pieces were a bracelet that my little brother Justin gave to me my senior year of High school for my prom and told me I could wear it when I got married too! And My Grandma McCord's rosary was wrapped around my flowers.

So I had all kinds of little memento's reminding of me of special people

The actual ceremony was just about 10 minutes long, our good friend Tim Lee performed the ceremony and I think he was a little nervous and accidentally call Theo.... Leo.... but he had no idea he had done it until his wife brought it to his attention later in the evening. But perhaps the funniest and most "US" moment was when we were exchanging vows and Ethan decided that it would be the perfect time to do ... 1....2....3... Wheeeee..... and have Mom and Dad swing him... it's so fun and how often does he see us just standing around holding hands.... It was a classic "schmierney" moment and I can't wait to bring that up at HIS wedding in 30 years! :)

Here are some pictures of the kids, even though these are great shots, they just couldn't capture how adorable they were from the suits & dresses to the "fancy shoes" they just STOLE the show Me and Alex my handsome little guy!

How Cute is Ethan in this one?

We didn't get ONE picture of him smiling the entire day! Little stinker! But he looked so cute in his little 3 piece suit!!! Here's Princess... Yes I got Leah a crown, if you could've seen her face when i showed it to her, you'd understand why. She was just so excited and honestly she was ADORABLE all day long!

I could post ALL the pictures from that night there were so many great shots and there are SO many details I feel like I'm leaving out, but I'll say it was just a great day .... actually it was my favorite day of all time because all the people I love the most were in one room at the same time and I got to hug each and every one of them!!!! How much better could it get?