little brother...

just eating my fruit snacks.  cause i'm a third kid.  and i am SURE that the older ones would NEVER have been allowed to have fruit snacks at this age!

cause i am cute.  and sneaking away with big brother's puppy.  and trying to get in to mom's purse!  but look at my eyes.  wouldn't you let me do anything i wanted?

like eat cheesy triangle.  make the older brother give up his lunch so i can be happy!  cause i rolled out of bed (as evidenced by my awesome bed head!) to make it to this preschool graduation!

oh wait... more food.  and clothes that don't quite fit anymore.  (cause mom has everything else packed...)  come on... i'm #3...

playing with toys at big brother's school.  so ready for preschool...

trying to join the class.  i considered leaving him!

making new friends!

chris kills me.  he's so stinking cute.  those eyes.  and he knows just how to snuggle!  i love him!  he's getting better at getting his point across.  i think the fact that the two knock-down-drag-out tantrums he's had (throwing himself on the floor, arching his back, kicking the cabinets, crying) haven't gotten him what he wanted, he now tries to get the point across well!

i was laying in bed (before i realized i had to check in for my flight) and was humming a song...  kenny chesney "anything but mine".  it goes:  in the morning i'm leaving making my way back to cleveland, but tonight i know that i will do just fine.  because i don't see how you could ever be anything but mine.

and instantly i was taken back to years ago.  when i first heard that song.  and the years that followed.  and the memories i have surrounding that song.  and so many others.  and realized that those short years seemed to go on forever.  and the last (almost) eight since i have met and married the mr. have seemed to go by in fast forward.  (you know how in movies they fast forward through parts of "life".  that's what it feels like!)

how is it that i have been married for (almost) EIGHT years?  or have a(n almost) SIX year old?  or have THREE kids?  

i was talking with a friend this week about how we are in the "middle" of it.  we aren't the young, newly marrieds.  we aren't middle aged.  but we are "veterans" of sorts.  we've done deployments.  we've been around this military thing for awhile.  it's not new to us.  we are the ones that people look to for guidance.  and somehow, i still feel like a teenager.  i still can feel so awkward and gangly.  (okay, gangly was never a word used to describe me!!)  but just so out of place.  and immature.  and trying to fit in.  

and to juxtapose that, we had a membership interview at church this morning.  and to hear them talk about how i am perceived...  brought tears to my eyes.  because i feel like that jr. higher that doesn't quite fit in.  such a blessing...

and i realize.  i am getting old.  er.  i'm not as good as i once was.  i am in my THIRTIES!!!  and my kids are getting older.  and life isn't going to slow down.  what did ferris bueller say?  we have to enjoy the ride?  i am trying to!  i really am...  i have to remember that i am going to miss so many of these moments...