The Mama Speaks (and smiles)

You cannot deny the occasion. You cannot deny the history.

I was lucky enough to be raised to believe that we are all equal; regardless of your color, religion, ability. And that's not just what I believe, it's how live. But I really didn't know if I would ever see a day like today. America is a place where all things are possible. I've never believed it more than I do right now. And now the hard work begins...

I can't stop thinking about my little Tress. At almost 18 months, she hardly knows the significance, and that's the best part. That's progress and a small part of leaving her a better world.

Tomorrow morning I will tell my daughters that in this country, one that their great-grandpa's fought for, that their grandpa's fought and served for and one that their uncles fight for today, that they can be anything they want. And I will never stop. Because they can.
And tonight proves it.

This holiday has been brought to you by your local dentist.

Halloween was two days long for us since Rowan doesn't have school on Fridays, the preschoolers celebrated on Thursday. The big parade was scheduled for 9:45am and since that really doesn't give me enough time to drive into work and back, I was lucky enough to get to stay and help in the classroom. I loved it! The teachers put me to work cutting and I am not a great cutter, I learned. I cut 68 little palm tree tops. Poor kids imaginations will get a work out on that one. Then it was costume time. Okay, I really don't think there is anything cuter than 12 little preschoolers in costumes...

And their off...

That's right Rowan, police officers are your friend!

That night we carved pumpkins. Rowan did a great job on this one...

Then disaster struck at the hands of her little sister (more due to lack of supervision on my part so I took the blame) and it ended up like this, shortly after the above picture was taken. Rowan took it in stride, thank goodness.

What a dad! He drives 800 miles and pours 2 courts in 36 hours and still has time for pumpkin carving.

And then it's finally Halloween.

Rowan is Daphne from Scooby Doo fame. Don't get me started. I was pushing for Velma and then we got into the "is it better to be smart than pretty or pretty than smart debate." I guess lucky for her, she's both. Tressin is a girl turtle- or gurtle. And quite the gurtle she is. She walked all the way to the end of the block and back with her bucket. And what's with these kids automatically getting the whole trick or treat concept? She just walks up to the door, sticks her bucket up and someone puts candy in it. I think they are born with it.Trick or treat partners- Ryan and Kiera from next door.

The Starman girls. Da da-da daaaaa....it's Super Mom. Faster than a falling sippee cup, able to leap large piles of laundry in a single bound.

Hope your Halloween was a good one. Now go brush your teeth!

If You Don't Vote, Don't Bitch

Crap. Here comes winter. Maybe? It's been so nice it's hard to remind yourself that before you know it it will be cold. Yuck. All the leaves are off the trees, the sprinkler system will be blown out this weekend for SURE and I better up my search for some decent size 10 boots for Rowan. But it is going to be so busy the next couple months, maybe I won't notice. Of course, Halloween on Friday, pretty sure one post will be dedicated to that topic. We took two grumpy girls to the pumpkin patch the weekend before last. Five pumpkins and $600 later, I'm still trying to figure out when exactly they will all get carved in the next 48 hours.

Then November and a week in Nebraska! Christmas will be here before I know it. We are making our first real Christmas dinner. Megan, Ryan and Mathisen will be here and my mom and the Bobcat! We have done Thanksgiving once but this is a Christmas first. I am pretty excited! Starman's can cook up some s***, I'll tell you what.

Last Monday, the girls and I went to the Children's Museum in Denver with my mom. What a cool place! They really liked it and I will definitely go back. We got there right pretty much when it opened and that was perfect. Then me and my "ladies" met an old friend of mine from high school for lunch. Since she was working. she was dressed very nice. When we got up to leave the restaurant, Rowan looked down at her high heels, (she definitely has never seen her mom in any!) and exclaimed "I love your shoes!" On the way home she asked me if she was a princess. I told her yes, yes she is. It was so nice to see my old friend again...

Starman is gone as usual... in Ridgeway, maybe there isn't an "e", can't remember. At least he got to drive through the beautiful town of my birth, Montrose, Colorado. He said the McCain-Obama people were out in full force on opposite sides of the main intersection in town, yelling, waving their signs. In Montrose??? Kinda surreal. I think he will be done traveling for awhile after this. We hope so.

Pink cowboy hat- a long time favorite

Cheerio booger

We stopped fighting over the hat for two seconds and happened to smile.

Happy Halloween!

And most of all, VOTE!

T.S. Eliot, William Faulkner, Kirsten Starman??

Sometimes I think too much. I'm telling you I can over-analyze like no other. For instance, I have started this blog post three times today, just to delete it. It's funny that when you think you have a lot to say, or blog as it is, you sit down and nothing comes out. Pardon the stream of consciousness post...it's the best I can do today.

First, let me tell you how much fun it was to have the Winn's in town. We partied like rock stars and realized we are way to old for such shenanigans. As fun as it was, it was bittersweet for me. I miss Stephanie more than I realized. I really do believe in my heart we will be friends forever. But the reality has set in. We will be long distant friends forever. They would be crazy to leave their beautiful house and all their family and the chances of us moving to Fremont, Nebraska are very slim, to say the least. I miss meeting at Target, taking the kids to the park, to the zoo, to Wendy's. I miss going over to their house for dinner on a whim. I remember my mom telling me one time, "When you die, if you can count your good friends on one hand, consider yourself lucky." Well, one down.

Work...argh. Scott has been gone a lot. Vegas, Salt Lake, the aforementioned trip to Omaha, Vegas and back to Vegas next week. It's better than the alternative; having no work. But his absence is exhausting for all of us. My job has been pretty challenging lately as well and I can sum it up in one word...budgets. Unless you live under a rock, you know that the economy is, uh ,well, volatile. Makes putting together budgets, especially the part when you tell people how much your services are going to cost them, fun. Car accident fun. Hemorrhoid fun. Besides that, look what happened to some of our constituents in Windsor yesterday. I took this picture this morning since yesterday morning there was so much water gushing out, I had to stand on the play structure behind the fence to survey what was going on. The poor homeowner said, "It sounds like a jet!" I thought, it sounds like a lot of money that no one is going to want to spend. Sweet.

Scott and I had our first ever parent-teacher conference on Friday afternoon. Talk about a milestone. The report from Mrs. Hess was about what we expected. Rowan is trending to be a class leader and a little above where she should be academically. Right on target socially. We were both so impressed with her teacher, the curriculum and the very detailed progress system they have for preschoolers. Looks like she will do pre-K next year and we are crossing our fingers for all day kindergarten the year after. Rowan still loves it. She said to me last week, "I want to go to school all day because I just love school."



And then there is Tressin who, although she still doesn't say any real words, makes us laugh and keeps us on our toes; she loves to play with everything she is not supposed to and nothing she is supposed to. Her pediatrician and Kelly keep me on an even kilter when it comes to her speech, or lack thereof. At her last well-check, I expressed my concern, "She doesn't say anything. Maybe a rare ma or da. But that's it." At first he patiently explained to me that she was fine, that it was very common in second children, especially with an older sibling that is quite verbal (enter Rowan). I continued to prod and question, so he did some very basic autism evaluations. "Tressin," he said. She looked right at him. He pointed to a poster on the wall, "What's that?" She looked right over at it. She's fine, he said. Freakazoid mother was still not satisfied and I think he was starting to lose his patience a little. "Do you think she hears okay?" he asked. "Yes." "SHE'S FINE!" Okay, okay, okay.


It's cold and rainy and I won't be surprised if there is snow on the ground tomorrow morning. We went for a walk today and I took a picture of this barn I always admire when we walk to the other side of the subdivision. It's so "American". I love it. Our good ole buddy Tango is buried on the bank of the pond you can barely see in the foreground. I guess he gets to enjoy it all the time.

My dad and Vee will be saying goodbye to St Cloud, Minnesota and heading back to Alamosa on Monday. We are happy to have them a little closer but pretty bummed we can't be at the big going away party tonight. Oh well, our livers will thank us.

Oh yeah. Remind to not talk about football on this blog anymore. Remember "All three Starman team are undefeated"? I jinxed them. The Buffs and Huskers have not won since. So I am not even going to say Go Broncos! Whoops.

That's that.

One Incredible Woman

Ninety years ago today, Scott's sweet, amazing, inspirational, cute little Grandma was born. Yes--90 years! Now, I have only known Lucille for the last 7 and a half. I'm no mathemateican so I will just say that's a real small percentage of the time she has spent on this earth. But from the minute I met her, I knew she was someone very special. Now, you must know, if you don't already, that Lucille and her beloved husband, Ray, had 14 children! Yes--14 children! Again, I have been in the know for almost 8 years and it still blows my mind. I wish I knew the exact numbers but she has more than a couple dozen grankids and the great grandkid count has to be over 50! Yeah the numbers are huge but what's even more amazing than that is that Grandma has a way of making every last one of us (even those of us lucky enough to have married into this crazy family) feel important and loved and special. What a gift!

Grandma loves to quilt and sew. She'll whoop you at any card game. Her faith in God is unwavering. Family is her life. I don't doubt that she misses Grandpa Ray everyday, especially on days like today. But I am also sure that he is with her, wishing her the best of times and urging her to enjoy them all.

Luckily, Scott is able to be in Omaha today to celebrate with Grandma, the Lordemann clan and the wanna-bes. Drink a white russian for me; I will be there in spirit.

So instead of Happy Brithday (it's too passe to capture the magnitude of what today really is) I will end with a Thank You. Thank you for being born, Grandma. Thank you for having my loving mother in law, who gave me and the world, an incredible man I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with. Most of all thank you for giving us the oppurtunity to share in the lives of our daughters. Without you, this Starman family ride would not be possible.

We hope you have a great day!

Goodbye Summer, Hello Football

I think around 9:44am today, summer officially ended. But rather than focusing on the end of another fun filled season of hot days and warm nights- I choose to focus on beginnings. Fall in Colorado; there is truly nothing like it. The night air begins to get that little bite of chill. Leaves stubbornly fall in full color as if to say "I'm gonna make you miss me". We busted out the Coleman for one last hoorah and headed to Jack's Gulch this past weekend. The weather was absolutely beautiful, even the little bit of rain was nice. We took a drive on Saturday. It was my idea, I admit it. And it started out well...

We saw some beautiful aspen fields as we travelled over Pennock Pass (a level 6 road! ain't nothin for the Chevy baby!)

But, as with all good mountain drives when you really don't know where you are going, it was way too long- especially with a little Tress that isn't so crazy about windy roads (way to go mom). About a half hour before we got back to camp Rowan just lost it-"But I just didn't want to go on such on long drive." Yep, mom of the year award- right here. Needless to say we made it through "the drive" and when we got back, Daddy set up the tent for the girls to play in. They thought that was pretty cool.

The weekend prior, Scott and I had a very nice time hanging out watching the Husker game Saturday night and golfing Sunday morning, while the girls had a sleepover at Grandma Sheila and the Bobcat's. I know it is important for us to have big people time but being at my house without my kids was super duper strange. Luckily, it doesn't happen very often. I will remind myself of that when Tressin needs a diaper change at 1am and Rowan has a bad dream at 4am.

The good news is... it's football season. The better news is... all three Starman teams are undefeated so far. Scott was lucky enough to be at the Denver/San Diego game courtesy of LER. Go Donkeys! Mama fears her Buffies have their work cut out for them this weekend when they travel to Jacksonville to face FSU. Oh well, The Winns will be here from Nebraska this weekend and I sure don't mind the incessant Go Big Red chants, especially when my BFF is around! Party in the garage at 2015 if you are in the neighborhood.

Suzie for President!

We made it through the Olympics, the DNC, Rowan's actual birthday, Labor Day weekend, the RNC, getting a new roof and Hurricane Gustav. Okay, maybe not the hurricane part but the last couple weeks have been action-packed, otherwise known as business as usual around here.

Scott and Derrick hit "the range" ghetto-Milliken style.




Our nice friends, the Kinyons, had us over for "potluck" and that was fun and loud and A LOT of little girls under 4~ plus John! All the entertainment we needed...





Saturday, the 6th, was Rowan's Birthday Fest 2008. This year, the twist we provided was the constant fear of being booted for illegally gathering in a "private" park. Oh yeah, and a Scooby Doo pinata. The feds never showed up to evict us and I think fun was had by all. I know that Rowan had a blast and I guess, in the end, that's all that matters. And, hey man, check out that cake Kelly made--groovy! Give that girl a scooby snack! :)




Now I refuse to let this family blog get political. I have no right to assume I can speak for the thoughts and beliefs of each member of this foursome. But I will say this, I want the best for the future of this world for two main reasons, who are asleep in the next room, and counting on me and their father to give them the tools for a wonderful life. But if anyone else is willing to start a write-in campaign for Suzie Wargin (the coolest sports chick ever), email me.


Peace out.