Cezanne's Birthday

Cezanne's birthday was a blast!! She wooped it up at the Austin Children's Museum last Sunday. Here she is with her new Hello Kitty Skateboard!

Photos by Mariah

Jarcow-Brown-St.Pierre-Lossing-Cann-Gadban Family

This is what a day in a life of the Lossing-Cann-St.Pierre-Gadban-Brown -Jarcow family looks like. Grandma Rose is futzing with Cezanne. Mariah is trying to reason with her daughter, is frazzled and trying to keep it together. Cezanne is covered in makeup and fake stitches because she wanted to look like a Zombie. Auntie Cara is posing, is irritated by imperfections in her sisters hair. Uncle Timmy doesn't care, he's a rockin' guitar god.

Soooo Cute!!!!!

Just look at them!!! Auntie and Cz ... So pretty.

The St.Pierre's

Sometimes I worry that we psychologically damaged Timmy as an infant. I think we put too many ballerina outfits on him.

But hey! Cara and Mom look gorgeous! Bitches.

What I won't show is me on the floor trying to fix the vacuum cleaner looking like something that was dragged behind a pickup.

It's done

This was my house! Can you believe it? I think it was worse than I was prepared to recognize two weeks ago.

I feel the exhaustion setting in now. After two weeks of sleeping on the floor and eating out everynight because I didn't have anything to cook with, it has taken its toll on me mentally and physically. Yet I am moving forward, picking up the pieces and standing on my own two feet again!

The move was awful, but it is done. I finally have a home again that feels like a home. I don't have to live in a place that is unsafe, I have a place to sleep, I have a community where my daughter and I are loved, my furniture has been replaced. I am blessed in more ways than one. Coming from all of this, I realize that through extreme adversity I can bouce back, and asking for help is not a blow to my pride. It doesn't make me less independant or less capable of taking care of my family. Life can be turned upside down in an instant- it happens to people all over the world everyday. We go on, we rebuild our lives, our communities grow stronger as a result. I have a closer relationship to the people in my life as a result of this experience. There are moments when things get so bad you aren't able to shoulder it on your own. My hope is that I have the opprotunity to give back to all those who so generously gave to me. In my heart, I hope no one I know has to go through anything like what Cezanne and I had to go through.

Now she is 7!

What a month it has been! Cezanne and I finally are getting out lives back in order. On the 4th of February, my little girl turned 7!!

It seems like yesterday I could hold her in two hands.

Now she is running, jumping, catching bugs and digging in the garden. Apparently she is 'Hello Kitty Crazy' as well.