The Cook

The other morning I woke up and blearily made my way to the bathroom. I had just sat down when KT burst in filled with excitement.  (You’d think I could get some privacy by now!) She proudly announced that she was going to make breakfast for all of us. Um…Ok.  

So she went to work armed with wonderful recipes gleaned from the internet.  (How did we live without it?) I was just finishing up my first cup of coffee when she called us to the table.  She had whipped up some crepes with a savory cheese filling finished with a white sauce.  Thinking that was enough, she also made some really good scrambled eggs and banana oatmeal muffins. (The muffins were going to be apple, but she said that it was too hard to cut up the apple.  Huh?)

Then she sat down to bask in the rightly deserved praise that we all heaped upon her.  Well, that most of us heaped upon her.  Mimi, who has always been referred to as “the one who cooks” had a bit of a problem with all this new won fame her sister now had. One of our family jokes was that KT was always going to have to live near her sister so that she wouldn’t starve to death.  She could barely make herself toast or a pb&j.  Yep, it would be up to Mimi to keep her sister from starving to death.

Mimi just kept muttering that cooking was HER thing. KT couldn’t even make herself toast a month or two ago and now she was the cook?  It was just so unfair! Hmmm, maybe they start having cooking battles and I’ll never have to cook again!

I can’t wait to see what happens.  

Memorial Day

Ahhh…Memorial Day. Most people enjoy themselves with BBQ, picnics, camping and just hanging out with friends and family. It’s a fun non-work/school day to celebrate the beginning of Summer.

Yet, amazingly, Memorial Day is supposed to mean something a little bit more. Yesterday we passed our little bitty town graveyard and Mimi counted 8 flags and several more bouquets of flowers on the gravestones. I thought this would be a good time to make a small tribute to one of our family’s veterans.

I was going to highlight my dad as he is my favorite vet, then I realized that you are supposed to be remembering those that have passed on. (I’m trying to follow the rules here!) Mimi helpfully suggested that I doctor up her grandpa’s photo so that he would just look dead. (We just finally rented The Corpse Bride and all the dead people were very appealing to her) I nixed that idea explaining to her that I didn’t think her grandpa would appreciate that very much.

So, I switched over to Shaun’s family. I remembered this amazing photo of one of his grandfathers and asked if he would mind my posting it. Nobody knows why he is posing with Eleanor Roosevelt, but isn’t it great to have?

I don’t know a lot about Shaun’s grandfather, Andrew Ivory. But what I do know is very interesting. (Ivory family? Can you fill in a bit???)

He was born in 1900 in Bray County, Dublin, Ireland. He immigrated to the United States with his family as a very young boy.

When he was 16 he ran off to join the Navy. He had to lie about his age, but he was anxious to fight in the War to end all wars. After WWI ended, Andrew decided to remain in the Navy as a Pharmacist Mate or what is now known as a Corpsman.

During WWII he was stationed on the maiden voyage of the USS Liscome Bay. This escort carrier was torpedoed without warning and lost in combat. Andrew was one of 272 sailors that survived the attack.

Andrew retired from the Navy and was later made the Public Health Officer of New York City.

Laughter

In my Thursday night class they like to mix us up a bit and keep us even in size.  So, last night, they moved a gal over from another table to our table. She looked at me and said;

“Oh good, I get to sit with the lady who laughs all the time.  This should be fun!”

“Me?” I asked laughing nervously.  “I don’t always laugh!”

“Yes you do!” responded everyone at the table.  “You are doing it right now”.

I have to admit that I was embarrassed.  I couldn’t help but wonder what people were thinking about me.  Was I some sort of freakish buffoon? Did everyone roll their eyes and think I was a braying hyena? (In case you didn’t notice, I’m really, really good at coming up with awful self-doubting scenarios!)

After mulling about it for a bit, I decided that it was a good thing.  Everyone seemed to remark on it in a good natured, positive way.  I also noted that they didn’t go searching for other tables either.

I don’t hold back when I laugh.  If I find something slightly amusing, I will just smile or chuckle.  If it’s really funny to me, I will let a full fledged belly laugh just pour out of me.  I don’t really understand why some people stifle their feelings…good or bad.  It can’t be good for you.

I laugh.  I cry.  I enjoy myself.  I hereby resolve to hold my head high and not be embarrassed or wonder what other people think.  And yes, you are welcome to come sit with me and see what all the fun is about.

Be prepared to laugh. They say it’s the best medicine.  

Stuff Portrait Friday

Ooooo...two weeks in a row! This week we are asked to post:

1. Your suitcase/s or travel bag.
2. Your ground.
3. Something you are powerless to.

I had to think about these, but here is what I came up with.

1. Your suitcase/s or travel bag. I don't travel all that much (across town and back constantly doesn't count) so I'm not going to bother digging out the suitcase. It's just your standard black wheeled thing anyways. I'm posting my "pack-pack" as one of the girls coined any sort of backpack years ago. I got this on Freecycle with the intention of giving it to one of the girls for school, but it was so nice that I decided to keep it for me. I LOVE it! I haul around anything I think I may need in one of it's zillions of pockets. It just makes me happy.

2. Your ground. I’m guessing this will be a different interpretation than most, but Shaun grounds me. In fact, I think he takes it as his personal mission to bring me back down to earth when I get a little too…well, I can’t think of a good word here. In all seriousness, he “gets” me in ways that other people simply can’t. He knows all the bad things about me and loves me anyways. He’s my home, my safety net, my ground.

3. Something you are powerless to.

I am powerless to the changes of time. Our girls are growing up so swiftly. They are already looking away from us, towards their futures. This is as it should be, but that doesn’t make it any easier. I know that they will always be our little girls. I also know that they need to branch out and be who they are meant to be. I have no power over the fact that they are growing up or who they will be in the end.

Can you tell I'm feeling a bit sentimental tonight? That will teach me to stay up so late!

OUCH!!!

When someone keeps asking me if I had put something on my blog yet…then quickly admonishing me that I had better not, I have to wonder. Then they tell me that I can take a picture…but that I had “better not put it on that blog!” I can’t resist, I simply have to take it for what it seems…a desperate plea for glory. (Such as it is!) This is going to be hard to explain, because I wasn’t there. I’ve heard the story from a few different view points and it can be tough to sort out what actually happened, but I can give you the main gist of it.

On Saturday afternoon I received an anxious phone call from one of my friends. It seems as though our daughters had gone off to collect pretty rocks together. Now, after one has collected rocks, the natural thing to do is to smash them open in the driveway. (I think they were looking for crystals or gold or genies or something like that) One of these children, not mine, had the presence of mind to pause for a moment and say;

“One of us is going to get hurt doing this” then merrily continued pounding rocks.

So…well…you know what happened, don’t you?

My wayward child brought a huge rock down upon another rock to break it. She had a moment to think “My finger shouldn’t be there” right before the rock smashed down on it. She said it just looked “funny” at first and didn’t really hurt. That was before the blood started gushing out. And before she noticed that her nail was sticking straight up, away from the finger. Then our little Drama Queen became hysterical and wanted me. The only thing was, I was at the grocery store playing chaperone for a group of kids collecting canned food for our local food bank. So I did the next best thing. I sent her father.

Now Shaun and I have very different views on what needs medical attention. He says I never get alarmed enough. I do tend to be very calm in these kinds of situations. This is both because nothing is ever helped by panicking and mostly because I have to counter balance him. So, he rushed our little girl off to the Urgent Care. She told me that they waited and waited and waited until they got to see the doctor. Then “they took an x-ray then put a band-aid on it.” She left out the part where they also gave her a little plastic finger shield held on with white medical tape. It looked truly awful and gave her great bragging rights at school.

When I asked our little trooper if she was planning on smashing any more rocks soon, she told me no. They already had the plan worked out to just drop the rocks from as high as they could to see if they would break that way.

Sigh…she really is her father’s child.

Election Results

“Hello?” I asked as I picked up the phone

“Hi…is KT there?” responded the voice on the other end

“No…she’s still at school. Can I take a message for you?”

“Well… I just wanted to call and congratulate KT!”

“You did? Congratulate her for what?” I asked cautiously

Then she proceeded to tell me in her very chatty way, all the election details, how close the election way, how she felt bad for the other candidates, how amazing everyone thought the posters were and how she sooo wanted one of KT’s tiaras because everyone says they were sooo cool.

Huh? The day of the election, before anyone but the candidates were supposed to even possibly find out the results, a friend from another school knows all the details?? Wow…word sure does get around!

Shortly after that conversation I went to pick KT up from her school. I just looked at her as she plopped into the car. She had been on a field trip with the orchestra so I wondered if she had even heard the news. Of course she had, but in a very roundabout way.

KT told me that soon after she got back to the school all sorts of people kept coming up and congratulating her. She had won! Well, technically she only half won as it was a tie. The boy with the mean friends was now her co-representative.

One of the first things KT wanted to do was make some sort of a fun thank you for all of her campaign working friends. (Yes, a proud parent moment!) So she came up hand written thank you notes on balloons with a candy bar attached to it.

Yep, we're pretty proud of our girl. She even made sure her friend from the other school got a tiara! I’m sure that she will make a great Representative.

And now for something completely different!

There are a lot of little games and challenges going on in the Blog World. So far, I've just wistfully watched from afar. Today, I thought I would take up the challenge from one of my favorites. Kristine puts up an assignment each week asking for three different photos. It's up to each person to interpret and post what they will.
This week's assignment (and my very first!):

I am inspired by Wave of Modulation. She takes my breath away. Not only with her pictures, but her words that are so real, raw and soul squeezing. This week…it’s about WoM.

1. Something Discarded
2. Lay down on the ground and find something ugly and make it beautiful.
3. Take a picture in the style of the person that inspires you.

Here's my (very rushed) take on it!

1. Something discarded

Technically, these aren’t quite discarded, but they should be. They are my Mother’s Day roses and I just hate t0 let them go. It’s been so hot that they didn’t even last a week. Sigh…I loved them…

2. Lay down on the ground and find something ugly and make it beautiful. I found this ugly copper scrubby on the floor after I threw it there. I like all the little coppery glints and the blue glimpse of whatever that stuff is. (I’m not really sure I want to know!) I had trouble with the lighting. I kept getting a big shadow…I’ll have to ask Shaun about how to make it go away. I’m not sure if I should tell him I tried to get extra light with a flashlight or not. Hmmm…

3. Take a picture in the style of the person that inspires you.

My husband has this way of taking a really tight shot of somebody and capturing the “essence” of them. Having nobody around but the critters, I took a shot of my cat, Taigoo. I figured she was pestering me earlier so it was only fair!

I can't wait for next time! Did you play?

Painted Baby

Mimi came up to me and said

“Mom, if you are going to take my picture, you better do it right now before it gets even more smeared.”

Oh. Apparently, I’ve been falling down on the job because it hadn’t even occurred to me to take Mimi’s picture. Or maybe I’ve just got those girls really well trained.

We had just gotten back from her school’s Family Fun Night and I was tired. It was a Renaissance Festival, celebrating the arts and science. I had been stressing out about how well received the year long art project I had led her class in would be. I had also been manning the recycled art project booth for the evening. (I was supposed to be helping Shaun man the photo booth, but…well…he and KT seemed to have had it under control)

I had also, in a small way, been mourning the fact that this would be our last family function at this school ever. Eight years at one school went by so quickly. I have a zillion photos of the girls at these events through out the years. It makes me sad to realize I missed this last chance to take photos at this, our last event. I didn’t get any shots of Mimi wearing her renaissance costume, making art projects, just goofing around with her friends or getting her face painted.

I will treasure these quick and silly shots of my little girl. I’m glad one of us had enough sense to get a picture taken of that evening

Vote for KT!!

Last week, the day before the deadline, KT decided that she wanted to run for ASB Office. She just had to decide which position she wanted to run for. According to KT, the whole election was pretty much a popularity contest. Realistically, she knew that a lot of people liked her, but that she wasn’t considered one of the “popular kids”. After considering all the options, she decided that she wanted to run for 9th Grade Representative. It wasn’t one of the really cool positions, but it was still a great way to make a difference for her school. And she really wanted to make a difference. (Not to point out the fact that it would look really good on her college applications!)

KT mentioned to a couple of her friends that she was going to run for office . Suddenly it seemed as though everyone wanted to help her with the campaign! For the next few days, my dining room was turned into a frenzy of activity I liked to call "Campaign Central". We had a house full of teens working hard on designing and making up slogans, posters and all that other campaign stuff. I'm pretty certain this has to have been one of the most colorful and glittery campaigns this school has ever seen!

One of her KT's friends said that working on the campaign made her feel as though she was on an episode of “West Wing”! It was a huge adventure for her. I'm still shocked when I think about how I drove a whole van full of kids to the school at the Crack Of Dawn one morning so that they could help hang posters. All those kids kept calling and asking if they could come over and what else they could do to help. I guess you really find out who your friends are at times like these. (Although somehow I can help but wonder if this in any way relates to my dad telling me that you’ll never get rid of strays if you feed them. I have to admit that I did feed all those kids. Yep, I fed them a LOT. Hmmmm…)

Over the weekend, KT insisted that we go to the library. She had found that there were several books on how to win a school election and she just had to have them. She read through them quickly and made a few adjustments to her campaign.

The books must have helped. KT was amazed that so many people that she didn’t even know kept coming up and talking to her, offering their support. I can't help but think that maybe all those photos of herself she had plastered on her posters had something to do with that. We had also made name badges and tiaras. Everyone wanted one of those sparkly and beribboned tiaras! Because they were in such demand, I tried to convince KT to sell them to help fund her campaign, (or maybe a family cruise) but she refused. She said something about it not being right. Dang kid...who taught her about ethics anyways!

She also used the information from those books to help write her speech. Our KT wanted it to be different from all the typical campaign speeches one tends to hear. She wanted her speech to make her stand out from the pack. It seemed to have worked because some of the kids in her homeroom were shouting for everyone not to vote for her. They kept hollering that she was a vegetarian and would take hamburgers off the lunch menu! (Those boys were SOOO lucky that I wasn’t there!) We later found out that they were friends of one of her opponents. I guess she scared them a bit!

Tomorrow is Election Day. I’m not quite sure who is more nervous about it. KT or her parents! No matter what happens, we couldn’t be any prouder of her. She worked her tail off in a good and fair fight. Think good thoughts her way!

Things I learned from my mother

As Mother’s Day quickly approaches, my thoughts naturally turn to my mother. In particular, I thought about the many things my mom taught me. As any parenting specialist will tell you, children learn the most from what you do, not what you say. From personal experience, I know that this is true. Here are a few things I’ve learned by observing my mother.

Don’t worry what other people think: My mother can’t sing. Oh, most people say they can’t sing, but my mom really can’t. Honest. She sounds like a sick, possibly dying, frog croaking out its last request. Yet, she loves to sing, and so she does….with much enthusiasm. I have fond memories of sitting on the couch, nestled in between my mom and my grandma singing our hearts out. Grandma would be on tune, yet singing lower and lower, Mom would be um...singing, quite loudly and the dog would be howling. Everyone else would have fled to somewhere...anywhere away from us. But it was wonderful. To this day, certain hymns or old time songs bring me back to the couch, singing and giggling with two very special people. As Grandma always said “I sing for my own pleasure and everyone else’s amusement”.

Have Courage: Mom has always been terrified of water for reasons that still aren’t clear to me. Yet, one day she decided to conquer that fear and signed up for a swimming class at the local college. To prepare for this, she sewed herself a special swimsuit. I’m not positive, but I’m pretty sure that it was made of some new space age waterproof, shark resistant, anti-sink fabric. To this she added goggles (although these are very common today, I had never seen them as a child) earplugs, nose plugs and a snazzy swim cap complete with pink plastic flowers. The memories are a bit foggy, but it seems to me that she was asked to leave the class because she had clawed and nearly drowned the two instructors while standing in a three foot pool of water. Oh well, at least she tried and that’s all that counts when it comes to true courage.

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again: Sometimes the odds can really seem to be stacked against you, yet it’s important to be persistent. Mom tried really hard to teach us kids right from wrong. Well, I was always the good one. It was my baby brother who was the problem child. I still laugh when I remember how Ricky would do something so bad that Mom needed to go get “The Spoon”. The dreaded wooden Spoon was mostly a threat, but upon occasion it would find itself whacking our backsides. The only problem was that my tiny little mom couldn’t catch my big galoot of a brother. She would chase him up and down the hall, her face twisted with determination, yelling at him to “get back here” so she could whack him with that Spoon. He of course would just laugh at her and run just fast enough to stay out of her reach. Yet, Mom never gave up, she’d get him eventually…even if she had to wait for him to fall asleep!

Learn from your mistakes: Mom’s biggest mistake with Ricky was not realizing that her sweet little baby boy would get to be such a huge thing. So, when Shaun (who is basically an overgrown boy) came into our lives, she knew exactly what to do…Psychological Warfare. Shaun hadn't had much of a chance to build a relationship with my family when we decided to drive up to Los Angeles. We were going to visit my aunt and bring my mom with us. I recall that it was dark and I sat in the back seat so that Shaun and Mom could chat. Next thing I knew, I was waking up to the sound of my mother making very loud accelerating and braking noises and turning the steering wheel vigorously back and forth. Only she was in the passenger seat and Shaun was in the driver’s seat with a terrified look on his face. Sigh...I just went back to sleep and let them sort it out. It wouldn't have been the first boyfriend she had scared off. Another thing that Mom did that haunted Shaun for years was to casually mention to him that everyday she watered all of my dad’s iron junk that in the back yard. Her theory was that it would rust his treasures away more quickly. The thought that someone could be so patient in their evilness horrified him. Mom was quite pleased with the way her Psychological Warfare plan was working out. She would never have to worry about chasing Shaun around the way she had done with Ricky.

What doesn’t kill you makes you strong: If one could truly die of embarrassment, I’m sure I would be well dead by now. But, I survived growing up with my mother and well, I’m tough, not much fazes me now! It’s interesting to find that the cycle is repeating itself. I’ve found out that it really, truly is fun to embarrass your children. I have so much to teach them!

And she's brainy too!

Last night was one of those proud parent moments. You know, the kind where you wait and wait for those other kids to be recognized until they finally get to your child…the only one that really counts.

Actually, it was a really nice ceremony. It was fun seeing so many kids that we just don’t see that often any more. And the speaker, a ninth grade boy, was amazing! How rare for an even an adult to be witty, charming and insightful. He was so comfortable speaking to a group of his peers and their parents. I just know that kid will go far.

But enough about those kids… Last night, our beautiful KT was inducted into the National Honor Society for the second year in a row. This is an organization that promotes academic excellence, leadership skills and community service. Don’t we have a neat kid?

I can think of two quick improvements though. There was one girl who was so well trained that she would stop to pose and give a lovely smile to her mother who was patiently waiting with her camera. If we had trained our girl to do that, she wouldn’t be even a tiny bit blurry in this photo of her shaking hands with her school principal.

Also, she seems to have developed a slight memory problem. Shortly before we pulled into the school parking lot, KT remembered that we were supposed to bring some sort of dessert for the reception afterwards. Oops. We quickly solved that problem by deciding that we would claim to have brought a white plate of chocolate chips cookies. Surely there would be a couple items that would match that description.

Of course we had to tell everyone about our silly plan. Wasn't that a smart idea? (academic excellence) We entertained everyone (community service)while admitting that we messed up (leadership skills)! Now do you see where KT gets it from? I wonder if our folks are as proud of us as we are of our girl? Hmmm....

The Sweetest Sound

This weekend I came home to the sweetest message ever on my answering machine. It was a little girl’s voice saying;

“Aunt Susie te amo!” or I love you Aunt Susie. Of course there was a lot of other things being repeated and giggled about, but that was clearly the most important part of the entire message. Just listening to it, my heart soared. I had both a huge grin and tears dripping down my face at the same time. You see, after years of waiting, hoping and praying, my baby brother and his wife finally had their new babies.

For reasons that I don’t recall, they chose El Salvador as the place to adopt their children from. They just happened to be out here visiting us back in August when they got the call that a set of twins had been chosen for them. Two beautiful girls that they should have by Christmas. It was so exciting!

Sadly, cutting through all that red tape took a bit longer than it should have. But the prize at the end is well worth it. Apparently they are all bonding well with each other. The girls are picking up English already and it’s becoming clear that twins truly are Double Trouble.

To see more photos of the lovelies and read a bit of their story, check out the website they've put up. http://www.first-baptist.org/pages/index.php?pID=219

Isn't it purrrr-ty?

I’ve wanted a fun banner for the longest time, but couldn’t figure out how I would get it up there. I didn’t even bother trying to design something because what would be along the lines of “all dressed up and nowhere to go”!

So, the other night I was hunting on the Blogger site and anywhere else I could find to figure out a way to load a banner. I have my very own way of thinking and my brain just won’t think in computerese. As my frustration mounted, so did my muttering. (Yes, I talk to myself. We have very interesting conversations. Neener neener)

I think Shaun finally got tired of my muttering because he asked if I would like some help. (What took him so long!) Then he asked me how I wanted my banner to look. I gave him some sort of vague answer involving slices of lemon (to go with the fun sunny look and tying into “make lemonade” and that sort of thing) or maybe slices of watermelon as summer was getting close.
Of course he just laughed at me because if it were his banner, it would have been completely planned and created before he even began to think about how to post it. (Could we be any different?) He took this as a challenge and when I woke up the next morning, he had my new banner all ready to go. I love it! It’s fun and colorful. It makes me happy He even figured out how to post it. What an amazing man!

She's soooo Grounded!

Lately, our Sweet Little Mimi has turned into a bit of a Monster. I don’t know if it’s because of her recent lack of sleep, raging hormones or just plain orneriness. Whatever it is, she’s going to drive me absolutely nuts. (I just may end up stuffing her in a big box and sending her down to her grandparents!) Anyways, yesterday morning, being at the end of my rope, I told her that she could consider herself “Grounded”.

When I told Shaun about this his only response was to look at me with a blank face and then ask me exactly what being Grounded meant. Hmmm…we’ve never Grounded our kids before so I was at a bit of a loss as to how to answer that. Our girls are usually really good kids and shape up with a couple gentle reminders. (And maybe a few threats to break their toes off) I figured I’d just have to play this one by ear as I so often do.

As soon as Mimi came home from school she wanted to hop on the phone to chat with one of her girlfriends. I calmly reminded her that she was Grounded. After looking puzzled for a moment she simply asked if she could be done being Grounded as she had been being civil all day. I guess she doesn’t really get this being Grounded thing either.

When KT found out that her baby sister was Grounded, she was so excited and impressed. She kept exclaiming that she had never been grounded even though she was a whole two years older. She also begged to know what Mimi had done to no avail. (I hesitate to suggest that KT might have been just a smidge bit jealous.) Apparently a few of KT’s friends have been Grounded as KT started rattling all the things that Mimi had to look forward to. No TV, no phone, no friends, no computer…and on she went until Mimi was practically begging her to stop giving us ideas! (Of course, Mimi had no idea that we hadn’t quite made it all up yet)

So far, Mimi has responded fairly well to being Grounded. I know we’ve only had one day of it, but if this behavior continues, I may not end up sending Mimi down to her grandparents after all!

Biggest Fan

There are certain things they never tell you about when you are about to become a parent. Oh you hear about the dreaded two am feedings, the “Terrible Twos” and the horrors of the teen years. You may not really believe they can be that bad, but at least you’ve been warned. I may be going out on a limb here, but I’m willing to bet that you completely unaware of what the real “meat” of what parenting is all about. (Unless of course you have a child past a certain age.)

I’m trying really hard to think of a word that can properly describe this very important parenting skill. I think the best I can come up with is “fan”. Yep, you fledgling parent, are destined to become your child’s biggest fan. Think you can handle it?

It all starts off innocently enough.

“Look! The baby just smiled!” Everyone drops what they are doing and comes running to watch this precious child do it again.

“I swear that she did” you say after everyone has made themselves look like complete fools in a vain attempt to win some sort of smile from the little Imp. And so it goes…

Our girls used to have “shows” for us in the middle of the front room. We would have to move the coffee table and proclaim in our very best announcer voice;

“Ladies and Gentlemen, boys and girls of all ages…presenting the Most Incredible Sister Act in the World…Mimi and Kaitie!” (Woo woo clap clap) Then down the hall they would bound, ready to perform their latest talent. Our absolute attention was required, complete with enthusiastic applause at the end. (An end which never seemed to come!)

Soon we moved on to gymnastics and ballet recitals, dojos, softball diamonds, soccer fields and basketball courts. Then came the music halls and the good old school gym. We’ve been known to endure a couple of tedious hours watching other peoples kids just to see a few glorious moments of our own “oh so talented” children. (sometimes I just wanted to whack the people surrounding us that didn’t properly recognize our child’s special talents!)

I don’t think that we will ever lose our fierce pride in what we feel are our girls accomplishments. It doesn’t matter if we are watching those wonderful first steps or that triumphant first solo performance. We are just so proud of and always will continue to be our girls’ Biggest Fans.