The girls are gone. Their dad picked them up today. They will be spending a month with him in California. The house is empty and quiet. This is always the worst day for me. I see a pair of Danielle's shoes thrown in the corner, Brittany's lip gloss is sitting on the kitchen counter, the juice they forgot to drink left by the sink, Danielle's hula hoop is in the livingroom from when she gave her dad a demonstration before they left and Brittany's jacket that she forgot is hanging on a chair. I am never prepared for them to leave. I wash all of their laundry, pack their bags, buy them stuff they need for the trip, buy them stuff to keep them busy for the airplane ride, give them lectures about wearing seat belts, being nice to their step mom, not eating too much junk food or drinking too much soda. No matter how much I mentally prepare for them to leave, when they give me their last hug and kiss goodbye, I fall apart inside. At least now I have Marshall and Anthony to keep me company. In the beginning it was just me, saying goodbye as I went home alone to any empty apartment. I know that they will have fun but today that doesn't matter much. Right now I just want them home. Marshall and Anthony are sleeping and it is so quiet I think I am going to scream. The tears won't stop and I feel so alone. I know that they will be back soon but right now I think I am just going to cry because I miss them so much and I hate when they are not home. What in the hell am I going to do when the grow up and go to college?!

Here are some pictures we took on Thursday on the last day of school. My stepsister Jenny treated Brittany, Danielle, Tori (Jenny's daughter) and Brittany's best friend Abby to a wonderful day.

First we picked them up in a limo, one of the perks of having a family owned limousine business. :-)

Danielle, Tori, Abby and Brittany

Then we took them to play minature golf

Abby and BrittanyTori and Danielle

Then we took them to a new place called "Clay Your Way". It is a studio where you can paint your own pottery. We had never been there before and we all had a lot of fun!

Brittany and Abby

Danielle and Tori

When we were done we met Marshall, Anthony, my mom and stepdad and the rest of Jenny's family here to eat dinner. The girls had a lot of fun. We spent Friday morning packing and then we picked up my sister and we spent the afternoon with her and Jeremy. We went back to "Clay Your Way" and painted more stuff. You have to keep your stuff there for 7 days so that they can glaze and fire them. I can't wait to see how they turned out! Well, I'd better get to bed. We are all doing yard work tomorrow in preperation for the kids new swingset/playarea. Marshall, my stepdad and my stepbrother are going to build the swingset. I am slightly nervous about it....we don't call my stepdad the "Handyman from Hell" for nothing! lol I'll keep you posted. :-)

Updated 06/02/01 - I had to post this picture from the talent show. The digital camera didn't take great photos in the gym cause it's so dark in there so the quality isn't the best but I still had to share. :-)

The Hula Hoop Girls
Emily, Tori and Danielle

It has been a zoo here! I have been running around like crazy trying to get everything ready for the girls to leave. I only have 2 more days left before they go visit their dad for a month! I am already missing them! :-( I am waiting for them to get out of school (today is their last day) because my stepsister and I are going to take the girls plus Brittany's best friend into town and have some fun. We will meet up with everyone else later tonight for dinner here.

I am always a proud momma but I really have to brag today! :-) hehe Yesterday was the girls talent show and both of my girls did an incredible job. Brittany did a dance/lip sync to The Animal Song with two girls from her class and they did very well. This year though Danielle, her cousin Tori and their friend Emily stole the show!!! The girls put together a hula hoop act to a song from this movie and they were incredible. All three of them hula hooped together and none of them dropped their hoop! Everyone was screaming and clapping. They were so cute!

Brittany was also scheduled to sing a solo of this song but they ran out of time for about 10 acts so they had to postpone them until this morning before the awards ceremony. I really have no clue where she gets it from but my daughter has this incredible voice. She blows me away everytime she sings. As she got up to sing I heard someone behind me comment about what a wonderful voice she has. She was of course incredible although I could tell on her face that she thought she had made a mistake. She is so hard on herself. I was in a trance watching her, I'm always afraid to look away just in case she should need to look at me. When she was younger she would do that when she was singing so that she wouldn't be nervous. I didn't notice but my stepsister noticed that Brittany had brought the music teacher as well as a few parents to tears. lol....okay I'm almost done bragging! hehe The girls each got awards for earning the state reading certificate and Brittany got an award for winning first place in a North Dakota Council on the Arts poster drawing contest. Poor Brittany was a little upset because she has always wanted to win an award for perfect attendance. She came so close.......she only missed half a day the day we took Gilly to the airport when he left for boot camp. I have never in my life even came close to perfect attendance! Marshall thinks they should still give it to her! lol Okay, done bragging...........for now! hehe *S*

No I haven't fallen off of the planet. I think I must have been in shock for a few days after the fire and when I finally snapped out of it I realized that I had slightly over a week before my daughters leave to spend a month with their dad in California. Jorge will be picking them up on June 2nd and they will be gone until July 2nd. This last week is always the hardest because I know I am going to miss them but at the same time I seriously need a break. They are of course really excited to go visit. Jorge is going to take them to Disneyland and they will also get to visit the new California Adventure park. I hope this visit goes better than last summer. Last summer was their second visit with their new stepmom and it did not go well. Hopefully this year will be better.

We had a very busy weekend. Here's a quick recap.

Friday: We spent Friday once again cleaning up a flooded basmenet. This time the sump pump went out. Not fun. We bought a new sumppump and spent the evening cleaning up water and wet rugs. Marshall of course has to mention that last Friday was the fire, this Friday was a flood, we are both concerned about what next Friday will bring. I'm betting for a tornado. lol

Saturday: Saturday was a busy day. We spent the day painting the livingroom and getting stuff done around the house. We put the kids to work even though I think I might have heard mumblings about child labor laws. To reward our hard work Marshall made dinner. Barbequed ribs and porkchops with this. If you haven't tried this you really should. It is so good!! Even Danielle loved it and she is picky. We then loaded the kids up into the car and headed into town. We drove by the cemetary where Marshall's two infant sons are buried. They are both from his first marriage. It is always hard for Marshall to visit but I am glad he still takes the time to stop there. After we spent some time there we took the kids to the park to play and then we went here for ice cream. We came back home and the kids played with their cousins outside until it was time to go to bed. Danielle talked me into letting her cousin Tori sleepover and we all watched movies until 1:00am.

Sunday: Sunday was a relaxing day. We didn't do much but my mom did watch Anthony so that we could take the girls to see this. What a fun movie. I can't remember laughing so hard at a kids movie.

Monday: Happy Memorial Day! Since this will be the last entire we spend all together before the girls leave we wanted to make sure it was fun. We took the kids to the Red River Zoo, it's not a large zoo but we had a lot of fun. The kids fed the animals and we put them on the carousel. Anthony was not impressed! He hung onto me for dear life and was more than happy to get off. He did enjoy watching from the sidelines when the girls went for a second ride. lol After the zoo we went out to eat at one of our favorite Chinese restaurant and then we came home and watched tv.

When I actually write down what we did this weekend it doesn't sound too exciting hehe but that is OK with me! After all of the excitement of last weekend I will settle for quiet and relaxing! I hope you all had a fun and safe weekend!