Quiet evening

I am actually having a nice, quiet evening to myself. The kids are all in bed...finally! Alan is out in the studio jamming with Landon before he leaves for the summer. So I decided it is time for a blog! I don't have many exciting things to share, but it's still fun to write. I am on a mission (seems to be my lifelong mission) to get organized in my home. I have purged my home of so much junk in the last month, and there is still more! I never thought I was a pack rat, but I have just been hanging on to stuff, and I have no idea why! I cleaned out Alan's closet last week. Wow! Fashion wise, my husband has come a long way! I guess some of the things were in style about 10-12 years ago, and I honestly think he's been hanging on to them since then! It was so funny to hear him trying to justify keeping some of the items! I didn't realize guys had emotional attachments to some clothes! The worst were his old gig clothes. He would not let me throw them away! So, I added them to the costume section of my closet (I have quite a good collection!)

This is the jacket part of a polyester suit that is very dear to my husband's heart.

This is the lovely shirt that he would wear underneath the polyester suit. This picture does not do the silver flames pattern justice! And of course it's a nice rayon/acetate blend.

My personal favorite: the ocean/palm tree polyester shirt. The best part is the brand: Hoax Original. A hoax indeed!

This week I have moved on to my closet. I'm still not done, but I haven't had a chance to finish it up after I got started. I did get all of the maternity clothes put away. I decided there was no need to leave them out, because it is merely a temptation to slip back into the flowy, non figure showing looks that sound like a really good idea right now! Instead, I boxed them up and I think I'm going back to Weight Watchers this week. I had pretty good success with it after I had Ava and I'm certainly not losing weight just by wishing it! So, my plan is to go to the Mom and Me class tomorrow morning at 9:30. I can do it! (I'm giving myself a pep talk!)

This is my giant tub of maternity clothes. I even put away my FAVORITE elastic waist jeans. It was very hard for me. I would give them to Abby, but she is so tiny I don't think she will ever get into any of them!

I will leave you with my favorite picture so far this week. All of these pics are from my iPhone because I never think to carry my camera around with me. I'm glad I have it though, because I get to capture little moments like this one. Molly Kate and I were waiting for Ava at gymnastics and she was just being so sweet and looked so cute!

My Sweet MK

Molly Kate will be 6 months old on Sunday! What a great Mother's Day gift! Half a year with the sweetest little baby! I can't believe how quickly time is flying by. Honestly, I feel a little bit guilty. I have done a terrible job of documenting her first year so far. I try to remember to take pictures, but by the time I get out the door with the baby seat, the diaper bag fully stocked with anything we might possibly need, Ava's sippy cup, Pull up, and her favorite stuffed animal of the day, I rarely remember to grab the camera! I'm going to work on that though. I have documented a bit of her cuteness in the last few weeks so I wanted to share!

Here is my little princess enjoying some tummy time.

Isn't she the cutest!?!

This is MK's first taste of "food." I don't know baby Oatmeal counts as food, but I think she liked it! She did really good with the spoon, and just kept opening up for more.

And here is my favorite picture of me and my sweetheart. I realized that I have very few pictures of myself with my kids. I guess because I'm always behind the camera. So on Easter I made Alan take a few of me with my baby girl.

She really is the sweetest natured baby. She rarely fusses or cries. She's just laid back and quite content all the time. What a blessing! I love you Molly Kate!

Twitteriffic!!!

I jumped on the Twitter wagon a few months ago. When I signed up I only knew (personally) about two people on Twitter. At first I thought it would be just another social networking time sucker. I also thought "Who on earth would want to know what I'm doing all the time?" I guess I thought it's just like a Facebook status update, but at least on Facebook people can look at pictures of my cute kids. And to top it off, I felt like whatever I "tweeted" needed to be funny and witty. Oh the pressure! This was almost enough to deter me from the Twitter world, but I went for it. Now I can say, I really enjoy Twitter! My goal has secretly been to get more followers than people that I follow. I don't know why. I guess deep down I am attention starved! Not really, but why else would I want so many people waiting for my next tweet?? I am slowly giving up my Twitter dream, because I keep on finding more and more Twitterers that I want to follow. I have had to watch myself a few times. The world of Twitter can be a bit deceiving. Just because I can know what celebrities are doing at that exact moment does not mean that they care what I think about it. I found myself replying to a tweet from John Mayer at 3 am once while up feeding Molly Kate. At that moment I realized that maybe I needed a little Twitter break! I'm still trying to figure it all out, but it's pretty fun and much less time consuming than Facebook. Don't get me wrong, I still love me some Facebook!

So, to all of you out there wondering if you should jump on the Twitter bandwagon, I say go for it!!! And you should all follow me @lesliesrich, and just maybe my Twitter dream will come true.

P.S. If any one knows Soleil Moon Frye (aka: Punky Brewster) tell her to go follow my friend @JennPossible. She is on a Moonfrye mission!

Updates!!!

I realize it has been way too long since my last blog post. Today, I finally moved some pictures from my camera to the computer so I have decided to share some memories from this past week accompanied by pictures! This last week was so busy! Preparing for Easter is always a ton of work for the Riches. This year our anniversary fell just 3 days before Easter. At first I thought we would just skip over it and celebrate later, but I decided that 4 years is worth celebrating!!! Here are some pictures of our wedding (by the fabulous Mark Umstot). I can't believe it's been 4 years! I love you Alan Rich!

Molly Kate turned 5 months old on Friday! I just can't believe how quickly she is growing up! Can I just say that I think I have the BEST baby ever! She is so easy and relaxed all the time. What a blessing. I love you Molly Kate Rich!

Yesterday was Easter! We had a great service at the Civic Center. In all the years we have done Easter at the Civic Center, this was the best. It was just so much easier than it has ever been. I can honestly say it is all due to the incredible team we have! I can't even begin to list everyone or this blog would take an hour to read. Taylor had a part in the play we did and she was awesome!!! She just might be a little actress in the making! The most special part about that was her mom and grandmother came to see her! My prayer since I've known Taylor's mom is that she will come to know Jesus. I know that God was doing a work in her yesterday and I just continue to pray that the seeds that were planted in her yesterday will grow into a beautiful relationship with our savior, Jesus Christ. Alan's mom drove in just to see Taylor in the play and had to head back last night, so we had lunch with her and the rest of Alan's family (I guess I should say my family too!) When we got home I tried to get some pictures of the girls in their Easter dresses (with very little success, I might add) and then we crashed! After our naps we headed to the park for an Easter egg hunt. It was a great day!

Nurses are mean people

Today was Molly Kate's 4 month old check up. It was actually our second attempt at the 4 month old check up. On the first one, we found out she had an ear infection and had to do a round of antibiotics. So today, after rechecking the ears, she was cleared for the lovely 4 month shots. I hate when my kids get shots. Most mothers would hold their child, sing in their ear, lovingly pat them while they receive the shots, but not me. I am on the other side of the room. I am not afraid of needles or anything like that (I actually enjoy having my blood taken. I love watching it!). I, in no way, want my child to associate me with the pain that is being inflicted upon her. Now, my child is very smart. But in her 4 month old genius mind she can not rationalize that it is the mean nurse giving her the shot. If all she sees is my face in front of hers, shushing her and telling her it's all going to be ok, then that makes me the bad guy. So there I wait, on the other side of the room. When the shots are done, I swoop in and comfort her and save her from mean nurse Whitney. I am the hero. In her 4 month old genius mind she has not put two and two together yet and realized that I am the one who drove her to this place, and I am the one who undressed her and made her lay on that cold table. Nope, all she knows is that her wonderful mommy loves her and would never stick yucky needles in her. So I'm feeling pretty good about myself today!

Side note: Whitney is a FABULOUS nurse! It's just nice to have someone to take the blame for the awfulness of shots!

Letters I will never send...

Dear man leaving McAllister's last Saturday night,

As a mother of three, I am constantly trying to stay on top of my children's well-being. Would you mind letting us get in our car and out of the parking lot before lighting up your cigarette? I'm not trying to be rude. Taylor is allergic to smoke, but my bigger concern was the oxygen tank you were loading into your car as the lit cigarette was dangling out of your mouth. The six other tanks in your truck bed were also a source of concern for me.





Dear American Idol producers,

I was under the impression from the last seven seasons of this show that you were running a singing competition. At least that's what Simon reminds us all of as he mercilessly rips into the contestants he feels can't sing on any particular night. So, you must understand my surprise at the finalists. Now don't get me wrong, there are some of your final contestants who are very vocally gifted, but I was so disappointed with the Wild Card show in particular. I know this was a few weeks ago, but as each new show airs I am just still so shocked at a few of the choices. I am working on my critical spirit, so instead of voicing my frustrations at the the contestants who did make it, I will just say that Ricky Braddie was robbed! That boy can sing and should have been put into the finals! But as Simon put it that night, you had to "cast" the show and that's when I realized that this show just like every other "reality" show on TV is far from realistic and you were simply putting the characters for Season 8 into place. I will continue to watch, but I am disappointed.

Dear Lubbock National Bank,

While I appreciate your efforts to keep fraud and theft at a low level, would you please give me a heads up before you stop the ability to use my debit card? Just because a card is used in another state doesn't mean you should stop it after two transactions. Do you know how embarrassing it is to be told "Your card is declined" at the Alco in Pagosa Springs, CO??? If someone were to steal a debit card, I doubt they would be buying $26 worth of coloring books, snacks and a Wolf Creek tourist T-shirt. And to make things worse, it was St. Patrick's day and two people dressed up like Leprechauns would not stop offering up their opinions on why the card was possibly being rejected! The Alco was my main source of entertainment this week. It's hard to go skiing with 3 kids, so my little outing was quite enjoyable until the whole check-out debacle. A little warning next time might be nice.

Dear Project Runway producers,

Enough of this network bickering already!!! The season has been filmed. The finalists have already shown their collections at fashion week, and still we have no show on the air! Now that Top Chef is over I need my Wednesday night 8:00 pm TiVo slot filled, not to mention I love PR and I am in need of a new season! I don't care if you stay on Bravo or move to Lifetime. Like I said, I TiVo the show so I can fast forward through the cheesy Lifetime movie promotional commercials. Just put the show on the air! In the words of Tim Gunn, "Make it work!"

Dear Facebook,

So many things to say to you. First of all, I really love FB. It is a great way to keep in touch with people. My dad even got a FB this week on vacation. It's pretty funny to watch his excitement as he checks to see who wants to be his friend every few hours from his Blackberry. My dad is so hip. I would like to request that you stop changing the layout of the home page! Every time I just about get it all figured out, there you go changing it up again! I don't care one way or the other, just keep it the same! I am tired of having to figure out where the birthday reminders went and where the friend requests have relocated. People want my birthday greetings and friend approvals! Keep it simple and the same for more than a few months this time!!!

And finally...

Dear makers Boudreaux's Butt Paste,

Your product is fantastic. My girls have been diaper rash free since I discovered you. I only have one simple request. Is there any way you can make a lid for the tube that will not easily screw off? Your tube of paste combined with my curious two year old resulted in a 4 month old baby with an ear full of butt paste. I'm just saying, a better cap is something you might want to think about.

Yesterday...there's a shadow hanging over me...

I haven't blogged in a while. This morning as I sit and try to decide what fabulous things have happened over the last week to write about, I can't remember much of anything before yesterday. I ended the day by sharing with Alan that I feel a really strong heaviness in my spirit. I can't pinpoint it. I thought it was because I went to a funeral earlier in the day. A dear friend, Rocky Green passed away from brain cancer. Rocky and I met and became friends in January 2000. He was a great friend, brother, teacher and lover of Jesus. He was always so consumed with God and His word and just doing whatever he could to grow closer to the Lord. He always inspired me in that way. I have lost touch with Rocky in the last few years as he moved away to Hawaii and then to California. When I learned of his diagnosis a few years ago I was so saddened, but one day not long after hearing the news I ran into his parents at a store. Their faith in God's total healing and positive outlook for Rocky's life, just boosted my hope. So when I heard of his passing last Wednesday I was just overwhelmed with sadness. I know Rocky is praising Jesus and having an amazing time in heaven, but the grief felt by those left here still makes it hard. If you think about it, say a prayer for the Green family today. Rocky was married last August and his wife, Jena is expecting their first child. Pray for his parents, his sister and her family, and his brother Caleb. For a few years of my life, Caleb was my very best friend. I never had a brother, but Caleb was the closest thing in my life to it. God brought Caleb into my life at a critical time. I was starting my second semester of college and was desperately needing to find a Christian friend. It was very hard for me to be what felt like the only light in a dark world all around me. And then Caleb came along. His light never dimmed and he introduced me to all of the other "lights" that were already there that I was too shy or scared to try and find for myself. At Rocky's funeral, Caleb sang one of Rocky's songs called Rest, and I sat admiring and grieving for my dear friend as he paid a final tribute to his hero in life, his older brother.

I'm not sure if this is the root of the heaviness inside of me. I suspect it is something more, but I'm not sure what it is. It could just be the tiredness and exhaustion I feel in my physical body. I think it's a combination of a lot of things. I faced another situation yesterday that just totally drained me. I drove away from the frustration and could literally feel some of the heaviness lifting off of me as I drove further and further away.

The bright spot of my day yesterday was a little bit odd. Taylor's mom, Summer had her baby late Monday night, so yesterday I took Taylor up to hospital to meet her new little sister, Avery Star. I know Molly Kate is only 3 1/2 months old, but she seemed so big compared to this little newborn. She was so beautiful with a head of dark hair and Taylor's cute little nose. I just held her for the better part of the hour we were there. What could have been and probably should have been a really awkward moment wasn't. There we were, Taylor, Summer, and I just sitting and chatting. God's grace is pretty amazing. I pray that Avery Star Tanner will come to know Jesus at a young age and that she will always be protected and loved and that God's hand will be on her always.

The day ended with a birthday dinner for my brother-in-law Heath. If you haven't met Heath, you should. You can read this to see what my sister thinks about her hubby.

Yesterday was full of one crazy event after another and honestly I'm glad it's over. Today my goal is to have a peaceful, relaxing day with my girls and just spend some much needed time in His presence.