My first blog award!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to Kendra at All & Nothing (http://kenedram.blogspot.com) for sharing this awesome award with me!

And now that it's on my Deliriously Delicious sidebar, I get to share it with some hard working bloggers that I know!

http://berrymorinbits.blogspot.com/
http://littlefamilyinthebigwoods.blogspot.com/
http://celebratinglifeasweknowit.blogspot.com/
http://stay-at-homemomwhoknew.blogspot.com/
http://kristifaith.blogspot.com/
http://farmhousecountrystyle.blogspot.com/
www.mandajuice.com/

Here are the instructions to claim your award!

Here's the instructions if you've been awarded this bloggy award:

1. Accept the award (by leaving a comment on the original award post)

2. Post about the award on your blog (include the image of the award) together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and her blog link.

3. List 7 other Mommy Bloggers that you want to pass the award along to (no backsies). Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

Time for Tuesday Tag-Along!

Welcome to this week's Tuesday Tag-Along blog hop, hosted by Twee Poppets Review and Giveaway! This is a great way to discover new blogs while increasing the number of followers for your own blog. 





Click on that cute badge there to learn more about Tag-Along Tuesday and her really cool give-aways!


And take a few minutes to check out the blogs below. We all welcome new followers, so clicking the Follow button on a blog (including mine!) will totally make the blogger's day!

Biggest Family Mystery Ever... SOLVED!

My amazing Hayley-Girl is... shall we say, hesitant.

She's hesitant to go places alone. She doesn't want to find the bathroom on her own at a restaurant or look at something in a different aisle at the store. She'd rather stay with me.

It took her two years (yes, two years) before she'd go to the drinking fountain alone at our church in WA.

And if she has to go somewhere completely separate from me? Oh Lord Jesus, help us all.

Two summers ago, she and Emma went to a Girl Scout day camp together. Emma hopped out of the car and started running toward the Meeting Field. Hayley cried and cried. "Mommy, don't make me go alone. Walk with me. I don't know where to go. What if I get lost?" Emma (who is three years younger) eventually came back to the car, taking Hayley's hand and leading her to her group.

Not normal.

And now we know why.

The girl can't see. She's worn glasses for years, but even with her glasses, she could barely focus on anything.

Of course, we updated her glasses every year, but in the meantime, her vision would change so dramatically, yet so gradually, that she didn't even realize she couldn't see properly.

No wonder the poor girl never wanted to go anywhere on her own! Who would when they can't see to figure out where to go?

I've been banging my head on the wall since Scott and I figured this out the other day. (I've got a nice orange peel print on my forehead now. LOL) How could we not have seen this? (No pun intended. Heehee!) How could we not have deduced this before now?

I took Hayley in for an eye exam last week. She's been telling me for a while that she needs new glasses, but we needed to wait until our new insurance could help pay for them.

The amazing Dr. J. actually held two lenses up to my eyes to show me what Hayley could see without her glasses. I'm not kidding you, Delicious Readers... blobs. All she can see are blobs. No detail. No definition. Just masses of faded color.

Then he showed me what she was seeing with her current glasses. Better, but still, I was horrified that she's been struggling to actually focus and I've been telling her to wait.

Had I only known, I would have paid just about anything to help the poor child.

Naturally, new glasses are in order, but more than that, she's getting contacts! The doctor gave her a sample pair that she's been wearing successfully for the past several days. This is huge news when you consider that Hayley, until very recently, has been intensely touch-sensitive. I never thought she'd been able to wear contacts, but she's been doing great with them.

Her sole frustration lies in that sometimes the lenses flip inside out when she tries to put them on. Neither Scott nor I have ever used contacts (and I don't ever wear glasses, thank you very much), so we cannot help her. I made sure she fully understood that before we left the optometrist's office.

I am so crazy proud of her for succeeding with contacts. My little girl is maturing.

And maybe now that she can actually see again, she'll develop the self-confidence she so desperately needs.

So we move to So. Cal. and we can't go to the beach.

Well, let me clarify.  Technically, we can go to the beach. We can build sand castles, have a picnic and dig holes down to China.

But swimming? Off. Limits.

I, for one, don't want to share the shallow water with the Great Whites spotted just 50 yards off shore.

Nor do I want to have a face-to-stinger meeting with all the jelly fish and sting rays haunting the beaches.

The way I see it, these fishies are merely doing exactly what most humans do (or would like to do): they're travelling from their cold homes to a place they can get warm and enjoy the sunshine.

Makes total sense when you think about the cooler-than-normal temps this summer. Without the stronger temps to heat the water, their regular stomping (swimming) grounds just aren't warming up. Thus, they swim to where the water is more amenable to them.

Bad luck for humans that feel the very same way about that very same water.

And bad luck for my family 'cause we really wanted to go boogy-boarding.

Feeling negative about being positive

I'm a naturally optimistic person. I look on the bright side of things and try my very darnedest to find the blessings and/or reason behind the annoying factors in life.

• Someone in front of my gets the last parking spot? Yay for them! That just made their day better!
• I get lost trying to find a new store? I get to explore a new area!
• I leave the house late for an appointment? Maybe God wanted me a few minutes behind where I would have otherwise been. 
• I can't stand the kids' messes around the house one more second? The girls will only be kids for a little while longer--appreciate the disaster.

It's really not hard for me to step back and say, "Yeah, there are legos in 10 sq. ft. area and I can't get to the stairs or the front door without walking on them, but how cute is it that the kids (and Scott-LOL!) are having such a great time with them."

This morning, though, I'm feeling annoyed with other people constantly fighting my optimistic nature.

Here's why:

• "It's a gorgeous day!" Response: The sun's too bright.
• "It's a great opportunity to meet people!" Response: I don't want to meet sixth graders.
• "Maybe you don't have anyone to eat lunch with because you need some down time or maybe you'll end up going to the same restaurant they did." Response: Right. Because there aren't any restaurants at all in Manhattan. (Obviously, he was being facetious. And annoyed.)
• "We're going to take some stress of Daddy by organizing the garage today!" Response: Do we have to?
• "We get to take the tram!" Response: "Only because we parked so far away."

Children mimic their parents. I see it every day! So why won't my children mimic my positive attitude?

I understand that some of it comes from their own personalities, but I also believe that optimism can be learned. And the more you do it, the stronger the happy habit becomes.

So why is my family so negative? I'm sick of it. I'm sick of their bad attitudes and constant pessimism. And I'm sick of the constantly negative responses.

Maybe my girls will be optimists as adults. Maybe their learning and I just can't see it.

(Grrr... Emma just came to me with a clay snail she made yesterday. Its head fell off and she's mad that now she'll have to start all over. Why can't she look at it as another opportunity to play with clay?)

Any advice, Delicious Readers?