Scared

Kyle is one of the smartest people I know. He is book smart and common sense smart and you can show him how to do something once and he knows how to do it.

Kyle has a good head on his shoulders. He knows how to make things better and he says things to make you feel better. And he can think through a problem or issue and make a really wise decision.

Kyle is my rock. When I am freaking out, he calms me. When I was in the throes of labor with both of my babies he kept me calm. He didn't freak out, so I didn't freak out and I very easily and speedily had them both.

Kyle is my gauge. When he is upset or worried I know that I should be too. Thankfully this doesn't happen often. When one of the kids is sick or scared and I am in a tizzy. He will settle me (and the kid) down so we can regroup.

Kyle is brave. He has had to do some pretty scary, awful things..just because he is the husband/dad/man. But he has done them without a second thought.

Tonight, after watching an Obama commercial, Kyle looked at me and said, "he scares me, I mean he really, really scares me"

Kyle is scared....

...that scares me.

Boys will be Boys

Wonder what it is about boys that makes them think getting hurt or hurting each other is fun??

My boys are at this lovely age where they want to play rough with each other and they think getting hurt is funny until someone gets mad or whatever it is REALLY hurts and then they sit and bawl. It's REAL fun.

Kyle has regaled us all with stories about him and his cousins shooting each other with bb guns..and Kyle is certain he still has one embedded in his leg. Why would people shoot each other with a bb gun for FUN??

The other night we were at Mark's house and one of our friends was there with his older boys. So, there were 4 boys there ranging in age from 16 to 18. Guess what they were running around and doing for fun??? Throwing GOLF BALLS at each other!! GOLF BALLS!!! The one kid had a HUGE lump on his head. The wife told the dad to feel it and the dad's response?? awesome!!

I swear you wouldn't find girls doing this kind of stuff!!

BOYS!! Gotta love 'em!!

Organization

I am feeling the urge to get the house more organized. Of course I do this every few months, get started and then that's as far as I get. Maybe I can stick with it this time. I look around at all the mess and think "I should get so and so to put X in, then it wouldn't look so messy in here all the time." I just have a hard time "finding" the money to purchase so and so.

I am deciding now that I don't need to have super cute bins to organize my shelves and closets. Shipping boxes will do just fine. A nice sturdy box is just as good as a rubbermaid bin, right?? No? well ok, it's not as pretty...but the mess around here isn't very pretty either!! Someday, when my ship comes in, I'll convert all the boxes to bins. Promise.

Next Stop...Branson?

Ok, so the BIG vacation is over and it was a wonderful one. So now, I am thinking about where we should go next. I'm always looking for the next "big" thing to look forward to. I'm pretty sure I have some type of imbalance that makes me that way. But, that's another post for another time!

I have already told my kids that we won't be going back to Disney any time soon. There are so many other places in this good ol' US of A that I want to see..and have them see and experience.

The list of places I would like to go is quite long and expensive. Hopefully I can cross some of them off my lifetime.

The only vacation Kyle ever took with his mom was to Branson. So, I'd kind of like to go there..and relive that for him. Well, scratch that..I just said something to him about it and it wasn't Branson--it was Wisconsin Dells. Oh well, that's close right?? No matter--I'd like to go there anyway.

I was checking out a vacation site (this is what I do while I watch tv. If I only watch tv..I get so antsy--I have to be doing something else...wonder what THAT means??) and it seems to be kinda like a Gatlinburg-ish area. Lodging ranging from hotels, to resorts, to condos. Shows ranging from Variety, to music, to acrobats. Attractions ranging from museums, to rides to caves and caverns! Definitely something for everyone.

Yes, I think I will definitely be adding Branson to "the list".

Joe Biden's Gift

**read this in my local Newspaper--just wanted to share--copied from www.calthomas.com **

JOE BIDEN’S GIFT
By Cal Thomas
Tribune Media Services

Just like that, Democratic vice-presidential candidate Joe Biden has given voters the single reason why they should not elect Barack Obama president of the United States.

In rambling remarks (does he ever make any other kind?) in Seattle, Biden guaranteed, like Babe Ruth calling his home run shot, that if Obama is elected president there will be an international incident to “test him” less than six months after his inauguration. Biden made no such assertion about a testing of John McCain should he be elected. Perhaps that is because McCain has already been tested … and he passed.

Behind the public’s swoon over Obama is the gnawing doubt that we are about to elect the wrong man; an inexperienced man who is more fluff than substance, more personality than resume, more idealist than realist. Obama, himself, said he lacked experience and was not ready to run on a national ticket shortly after his election to the United States Senate just four years ago.

And from where, exactly, will this test come? Biden mentioned the Middle East and Russia as possible administrators of such a test. Might Iran’s Ahmadinejad test Obama by following through on his repeated threat to wipe outIsrael? Would terrorists living in this country get a signal to blow up shopping malls and government buildings?

Two historic events offer instruction about what happens when foreign leaders believe an American president might not have the backbone or judgment for the job. Nikita Khrushchev twice tested John F. Kennedy after meeting him in Vienna in 1961. Khrushchev believed Kennedy was out of his league and that his youth and inexperience on the national stage made him and the United States vulnerable. So Khrushchev approved plans proposed by East German leader Walter Ulbricht to build the Berlin Wall and nearly caused a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Biden referred to Kennedy and Khrushchev in his Seattle remarks.

The other teachable moment came on Jan. 20, 1981, when Ronald Reagan took the oath of office and Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini immediately released 52 American diplomats held hostage for 444 days. Khomeini likely believed some American press accounts that Reagan was a “cowboy” and might bomb Iran back to the Stone Age, if that were possible, since the religious fanatics had already taken the country there.

Why shouldn’t a President Obama be tested by the world’s tyrants and wouldn’t it be better if they feared a President McCain and decided not to put him to the test? Not having a president tested in this way would benefit America, the fragile economy and world order.

Biden said something else that was bizarre. He said that it could appear in response to such a testing that Obama responds in the wrong way, but he appealed to the crowd to stick with he and Obama because even though the decision might appear wrong, it will actually be right. What kind of logic is this? The “messiah” can make no mistakes, because he is anointed, so even if a decision appears to be the wrong one and disaster occurs, let not your heart be troubled. It will actually be the right decision and to say otherwise makes it our problem and not his because of our lack of faith in Obama.

This is beyond hubris. This is cult-like devotion and dangerous. No politician enjoys angelic status and anyone who beatifies one in this way is setting himself up for more than disappointment.

What will John McCain do with this gift he has been given? At first, he dropped it. Instead of tagging Biden with the quote, he said that Obama had said it. He’s recovered from his own gaffe and he should now pound away on Biden’s statement, which is not a gaffe at all, but one of those rare moments in politics: a statement that reveals what a politician actually believes.

“Mark my words,” said Biden to emphasize that this self-proclaimed (and Obama proclaimed) expert on foreign policy knows what he is talking about. So let’s mark them and take them seriously and decide whether electing Barack Obama guarantees another international incident — perhaps a second terrorist attack on our homeland, which has not happened since 9/11 and for which the Left will never give President Bush credit.

Worship should be reserved for Sunday mornings, not Election Day.

Abby

It was on the Tuesday of the week that power was out ALL WEEK. My mom went across the street (they had power) to use the microwave. On her way back, Abby started barking at the door and Tony let her out..she made a beeline for my mom and ran right across the street as a truck was driving down. The first tires missed her, but the 2nd ones struck her.

I was sitting on my couch and I heard my brother yelling in the driveway, "TRICIA, come quick, Abby got hit. Bring a towel" My mind was racing. Dylan was standing there in undies only so I had to get him clothes on and get out the door. It was like I wasn't sure what to do..just let him go out "naked" or dress him or what. It felt like it was taking me FOREVER to get out the door. Finally, I grabbed a towel and ran down the street, mom and the neighbors were just standing in the middle of the street and there was little precious Abby. I walked over to her and I asked someone if she was dead and they said yes. I started crying and hugged my mom and my mom was bawling!! I just hugged her tight and moved her away and handed the towel to someone behind me. Mom then said, "come on we have to go to the vet" and I told her that it was too late, that Abby was dead. And mom was saying that she wasn't sure and she didn't know and maybe she was just in a coma. I just had to keep telling her that Abby was dead. Mom then took her (abby was wrapped in a towel) and walked over to the porch steps and sat down and just sobbed. It was SO sad. she kept rocking the towel/abby and saying, "how will I live without this little girl?"

Abby was 13 years old and weighed 3.5 lbs, she was a little yorkie and was my mom's life. It was SO SO sad. After she calmed down a bit we went to KMART and bought a tub to bury her in. Kyle came after work and we buried her in the backyard. We all said something nice about her...and cried and then Dylan prayed. "Jesus, please make Abby come back to life--I know you can do it--it's true!" Talk about a tear jerker!!! So, we buried her and decorated the "plot" with some pretty rocks, etc.

It's been over a month now and I am hoping mom will get a new dog soon. I think it would help her a lot. She says she keeps "seeing" Abby out of the corner of her eye and she misses her so much. :( I really think getting another dog would give her something else to focus on and another little buddy to take on car rides, etc.

My mom

Around the time Abby died, my mom started acting a little strange..just very slightly. She seemed more tired, like her thoughts were slow, etc. AS the weeks passed she got progressively worse. To the point that she couldn't keep a conversation, she couldn't pick up her feet to walk--she shuffled, she couldn't bring a drink to her mouth without her hand and mouth shaking really bad. At first I thought it was depression, but as she got worse we took her to the dr. Her dr. said he thought she was ok, thought she was under stress, he did change some of her meds to help her deal with some severe cramping she was having in her legs.

So, life went on...the change in meds did help her leg cramps but nothing else changed. In fact she got worse. I told her releatedly that I was going to take her to the ER. She refused. She said she would go to the dr. again.

The day we left to go to TN she drove the car and almost got in a wreck 3 times! She called and said she couldn't take care of herself. She called the dr. an had an appt to get in the next day. Off we went to TN to deal with Kyle's sick mom, all the while I was SO concerned about mine!!

She went to the dr. as promised on Tuesday and he told him that something had to be done that she couldn't function and again relayed all her symptoms to him. He told her that they were nothing to be concerned about and to go out and walk to strengthen her legs. When she told me this, I was SO upset. I told her to just hang on and I would take her to the ER when I got home the next night.

I started thinking back to what else happened around the time Abby died and I remembered that her psychiatrist upped one of her meds. This particular medicine can accumulate in your blood and become toxic--which I found out when I researched it. The more I read the more I thought that HAD to be the problem.

We got home that night about 8. I immediately called mom and she and my sister came to pick me up. The hospital took SUCH good care of her. they tested EVERYTHING and really put her at ease. When it all came down to it. Dr. Tricia was right! The levels of that med were at a toxic level!! They told her to reduce it to half and sent us on our way.

The next day the psychiatrist took her OFF that med and told her to spend the weeks resting. She has now been off of it for 8 days and is doing MUCH better. It's really amazing. I am so glad it was an easy fix.

She is starting to be depressed and very sad and is anxiously awaiting the ok to start a new med. It should be in the next week or so.

I'll be very glad to have a mom who is 100% soon!!

Sixth

I have seen this in my list of blogs a few times, so I decided to play too.

You open your pictures and pick the sixth picture out of the sixth folder and post it. You should play too!! If you read this..consider yourself "tagged".

Now, off to look and see what my 6/6 is....

ROFL how BORING. This is a picture of the trees outside of my inlaws house. Kyle had cut a bunch of the overgrowth back..and took pictures of it. BORING!!!
..

update on Kyle's mom

When I last posted I said that K's mom was in the hospital. She was doing ok but her gallbladder HAD to be removed. They have known it was diseased for awhile, but she was considered very high risk so she couldn't find a surgeon to do it. They had actually told her at one time that her chances of dying were like 1 in 2!! However, that was while she had blood clots in her lungs and legs.

About a week before this episode she had been told that the clots were gone. Therefore the risk was less and they had no option any longer. The gallbladder was no longer functioning and they were starting to fear gangrene! BLECK! So, it was scheduled for Tuesday morning. She asked if she was still high risk and the dr. told her yes and it really freaked her out.

She really wanted her kids with her and of course that responsibility fell to K. No matter that he is the only one with a job. But that's a story for another time. So, I threw some things in a bag, we went and picked up our new truck (more on that later) and hit the road.

We arrived at MIL's house at 3 am and had to be at the hospital at 8 the next morning. Needless to say we were really tired! We were able to see her for a few minutes before she went in. She looked SO bad and sounded so weak. I was kinda worried. K was confident everything would be just fine.

The surgery was quick and she was back in her room before we knew it...and when we talked to her she was so proud that she survived the surgery and was still alive. LOL We left to let her rest and she called the house several hours later when she woke up. I answered the phone and she sounded better than she had in months and months. We went back to see her that evening and then again the next morning. We were very encouraged to see how well she was doing. She told us that the dr. said a healthy gallbladder is about the size of a robin's egg and is light blue. Hers was the size of an EGGPLANT and PURPLE!

We left Wed morning to head back home. It was a a very quick trip.

Then, when I got back home. I immediately took my mom to the emergency room. (more on that later)

I am happy to say that Peggy is now home from the hospital and is doing very well. She feels better than she has in a long time. Kyle's aunt took a leave from work to go down and be with her to hopefully get her well. She really needs someone there to "mother" her and make sure she is eating and walking around etc. I really think she is going to be ok. It's been a LONG road but hopefully this is the turn around!!

YOWZA!!

One month and no new blog posts!! I should be ashamed!! and I am...I yam!!

It's been a full month...

On Sept 14th we had a HUGE windstorm blow through the area...it was due to remnants of Hurricane Ike. In case you didn't know...Dayton, Ohio doesn't get many hurricanes blowing through here...so it was a pretty exciting storm!!! We stood outside and just felt the wind BLOW. We walked over to the park so we could feel the wind without anything blocking it and man was it FIERCE! But..we really enjoyed it. Like I said, we don't get wind like this..unless it has a tornado along with it. Due to all that "excitement" we lost power. For SEVEN DAYS!! It was not a fun time. Food in the fridge and freezer lost, food in the deep freeze lost, laundry in the washer soured, food scraps in the garbage disposal un-disposed of. It was bad. Thank God we had hot water...so we were able to shower and wash dishes (by hand--hadn't done THAT in about 10 years!!), we also have a grill so we grilled dinner out a couple nights and played a lot of charades and had some nice family and couple time. There were parts of it that were fun. The fact that I was getting ready to go on vacation and needed to do a mountain of laundry was not fun though! $30 later and a trip to the laundromat and we had clean clothes to pack for our week of bliss.

Let me back up for a minute and say that while all this power outage stuff was going on my mom's dog got hit by a car and was killed. (more on that later) So, we had to deal with that.

On Friday we managed to get packed and on our way to a week of fun with Mickey and the gang!!

I was SO stressed thought from everything else, I had a hard time being excited (on Friday). then when we got to the airport we were a little confused as to where to go, and then at the hotel we were trying to get food..and there is a food court and it was PACKED with people and UGH--I was so frustrated. I wanted to sit down and cry and go home. LOL I am THRILLED to say that once we got in our room and settled down and had a good nights sleep that I was beyond thrilled to be there and enjoyed it so much. It was just what we needed and every one of us just loved it!!

Since we got back from vacation, we have just been getting back into the swing of things..or trying to.

Kyle's mom is in the hopsital again..so now we are dealing with that!

Never a dull moment!!

Tiger's Eye

The year was 1982 and Marlina Watkins and I spent several days making up a dance to "Eye of the Tiger". We would work on it and try to perfect it and then perform it for our parents and ask them to judge us.

The song was on a little 45 and she had to put one of those little yellow plastic thingies in the middle so it would play on her record player.

I remember standing in her living room...on one wall was a large mirror..on the mirror was a painted picture of a tiger. While waiting for our "cue" to start the dance, we "had" to look right in the tiger's eye. LOL

There isn't a time that I hear this song that I don't think about that dance...and no I couldn't even begin to do it now! I love the way music does that..you can hear a song and be right back where you were so many years ago when you first heard it..or played it until you knew it by heart. I love thinking about the songs of my "girl-hood". I'll have to post more of my favorites and memories soon!!

Working Momma

My mom starts training for her job tomorrow. This is the same job she has had twice before and yet, she still has to train for it. Oh well, at least she gets paid..plus, I am sure there are some changes from last year. This is a seasonal position that she gets and it allows her to work from home. I have done it a couple years and HATE it!! I am SOOO glad I don't have to work for them again!

It's really a Godsend that this job became available again as she has been in desperate need of money and has been doing a lot of searching for admin jobs that can be done at home. They are few and far between though and just as she was toying with the idea of getting a job out of the house, they called her back for this one. Lucky her!

I am sad I am going to lose my daytime buddy though. It's been nice taking the kids to school and then being able to go out with her for coffee or lunch or to run errands with NO kids!! I'll be solo for awhile..and that makes me a little sad.

Grandmotherly Confusion

My poor grandma is not doing well. Well, she is doing fine physically..she really has nothing wrong with her. But she sure is confused and doesn't make sense sometimes. She is 87 (almost 88) years old and I suppose that is to be expected some what. But it still makes me sad.

She moved into a nursing home a couple months ago and sometimes when we go visit her (I try to go once a week) she thinks that her room is a room in a BIG house which belongs to one of her friends. Then the other day she was talking about having ants in her bathroom and moths in her pantry and wanted me to pick up some ant and moth traps. Now maybe she did have ants in her bathroom..I didn't see any and I can't imagine how they would have gotten there, but I know she doesn't have a pantry!

Poor Grandma. I feel so sorry for her. I am sure she is very lonely and with her getting confused..it has to be a little scary for her.

It makes me sad.

Zits

I can't believe how many acne products there are now. I think when I was in my teens and had most (I say most since I STILL break out and I am in my 30's) of my acne issues, my choices were Oxy and Noxema. Both of which burned my skin and made me break out more. I am thinking that with all the options there are now, it's probably not so bad going through the teen years. You know, because the ONLY problem with being a teen is the skin issue.

I worry about my boys having skin problems once their hormones (god help me) start raging. They both had infant acne--especially Logan, it was SO bad! I have no idea if that is any indication of skin as a teen. Oh!! I just remembered why I put those 2 things together: When Logan was a baby, I was at the grocery store and saw a lady I used to go to church with. We started talking about the infant acne and she told me that her son had it SOOO bad when he was a baby. I looked over at her son (now a teenager) and his face was COVERED with acne!! That's when the fear began.

Oh well, no matter what...I know they will have plenty of options in the acne products department if they should need them.

Hurricane Hannah

All these hurricanes have been something else, huh? It's like they just won't quit. One right after another. I did see that Josephine is now a tropical depression and seems like it will fizzle out in the ocean by Tuesday-ish. I've been watching the situation closely as we are leaving for Disney in about 2 weeks. As it looks right now..I think we will be ok. Of course anything can change. But I am keeping my fingers crossed that Ike is the last of it. It would be nice if "he" would just fizzle out too!!

I read that Hannah made landfall over night on the N. Carolina/S. Carolina border. I am praying for all the families there, hopefully any damage sustained will be minimal. I had some friends that were headed to NC to check out Wilmington NC real estate, I am wondering (hoping) they postponed their trip. I'll have to check on them.

Strangers in the Night

As I was leaving to take the kids to school yesterday I noticed a cop across the street from my moms house. When I got back, he was still there and the neighbor was outside in her robe.

I IM'd mom to ask her what was going on. (It's nice to have another set of eyes down the street..it really helps with my nosiness!!) She said someone had hit the mans truck across the street and knocked off his side mirror and made a huge dent in the door. I asked her if she went over to find out what was going on. She said that No, the cop had come over to ask her if she had seen or heard anything. She hadn't, unfortunately. Not surprising though since I can come into her house, talk to the dog, walk into the kitchen, go through her cabinets and then walk into her office and scare the daylights out of her because she didn't hear me come in!!

Anyway, it's a shame about that guys truck, especially since they will never (probably) know who did it. I suppose it will save him the time of hiring a truck accident lawyer though. And at least he wasn't in it when it happened.

Holy Big Spider, Batman!!

Laying in bed talking the other night I told Kyle about a spider I killed earlier that day.

"Dude! I killed a spider in the kitchen today--all by myself!"

"Didja?"

"Yeah, it was scary too!! It was crawling on the ceiling and was all weird looking and when it walked it would put out one of it's legs kinda like a feeler first. It was gross. So I took the kitchen spray cleaner stuff out and sprayed it, and it dropped down on it's web so I sprayed it again and I yelled for the kids to bring me a shoe. Dylan brought me one of my flip flops--usually I use your shoes to kill spiders but whatever-- and then I smashed it!!

"Didja just leave it smashed on the floor?"

"NO! I wiped it with a paper towel and even cleaned the floor in that spot. I thought about mopping the whole floor and then decided it wasn't that big of a spider."

"Yeah, it sounds smaller than the spider I saw in there the other night."

"You saw a spider? When? Where was it? How big was it? Did you kill it?"

"The other night--the night we had Joe's Pizza. I went into the kitchen and it was on the stove next to the pizza box. So I moved the box to kill it and it ran off the stove and went underneath it. I think it might have been one of those wolf spiders"

"It was NOT one of those wolf spiders...we don't get those anymore and we haven't seen one in a long time. NO WAY was it one of those. I'm sure it was the one I killed in there today. I mean how many spiders can we have in our kitchen, you know? I'm sure that's what it was. Don't you think it was probably the same spider I killed?"

"hmm, maybe"

"I bet it was the same spider--it has to be. I'm sure of it. "

"ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz"

Last night I was sitting on the couch talking to my mom and saw something run across the floor. I looked again and OMG! it was a spider a BIG spider..one of those wolf spiders.

"oh my gosh, there is a HUGE spider on the floor. Ohmygosh, ohmygosh, ohmygosh. Someone get me a shoe!!"

In the meantime I grab a section of Sunday's newspaper that is still scattered on the ottoman and roll it up. Since I took my eyes off the spider I can no longer see it. Dylan brings me the requested shoe--again with my flip flops. I'll have to give the kid a lesson on good spider killing shoes which is of course ANY shoe but mine!! I wave the newspaper over the floor and the spider takes off again. HEEB! My toes are curling and I think I am going to lose it.

"Help me Jesus, Help me Jesus, Help me Jesus, Help me Jesus"

THWACK!! I got it!

THWACK!! I got it again!!!

RUB RUB RUB--I grind it into the carpet to make sure no part of it is alive before I put my feet on the floor.

Whew! That was scary.

"Mom, you never even said anything during my whole spider ordeal"

"I said, Kill it Tricia"

"yeah, but you could have offered to walk down here and kill it for me or acted as appalled and scared as I was"

"Oh, sorry. What kind of spider was it?"

"I think it was one of those wolf spiders--you know like those ones we had in our basement that time?"

"Well where did it come from? I think I would sell my house and move if I were you."

"Ok, I'm going to go start packing, I'll forward you my new address"

"Goodbye, Patricia" (that's how I know she doesn't think I am funny--she uses my REAL name!)

Kyle comes in from work--he was on call last night and had to go in to fix an AC. Happy Labor Day to him!

"I think I found your wolf spider from the other night!"

"didja? where was it?"

"In the LIVING ROOM!!" I swear I about had heart failure! I was begging Jesus to help me and my toes were curling and I think it was going to eat me. It was going one direction and then started coming back for me. It was going to eat my toes, I just know it. That's why I kept my feet on the couch."

"I bet it was coming back to get you. You know they hunt their prey rather than just hanging out and waiting for them?"

"I KNOW" I say all wide eyed with head bobbing up and down.

"It was SUPER SPEEDY too!!"

"yeah, they're fast little suckers--It's hard to kill them 'cause they're so fast"

"I know..but I did it. Me and my trusty flip flop!! I sure hope that was the one that you saw in the kitchen and not it's mate. I hope we don't a nest of them somewhere."

"you never know"

"Um, the correct repsonse when I am talking about a nest of spiders in our home would be: "I'm sure you killed the one I saw, NO WAY do we have a nest of spiders in here--that's the only one there was and you got it. I'm sure of it!!""

"There's no nest of spiders, you killed the one I saw--that's the only one there was. Can we eat dinner now?"

"Thank you! Yes we can"

Date Night

It's been awhile since Kyle and I have been out on a date. A few weeks ago we made plans to go out to a Mexican place I wanted to try. I was really excited to go and then I got a headache and didn't feel like getting ready and going, so we stayed home.

Last night, Kyle's cousin called and invited us over so we decided to go. I took the kids to mom's and away we went stopping for a cheeseburger at Wendy's and a 6 pack of Mike's Hard Lemonade at UDF.

We hadn't been there longer than 10 mins when my cell phone rang. It was Dylan and he wanted me to come home and he was crying. I told him I would be home later and that if he behaved and acted like a big boy, he would get a surprise today. he immediately stopped crying but was a little whiney when we hung up.

At Mark's we sat around a fire outside and talked and laughed. I had one drink and stopped and told K I would be the driver. We had a really nice time and it was fun just relaxing and laughing really hard.

At 12:30 mom called to see when I was coming to get the kids. We talked about the kids staying the night, which was the original plan, but with littly whiney, hiney Dylan we were worried he would wake up at 4 and be freaking out to come home. So I told her I was leaving in about 5 mins and would come get them. She told me that from now on she is going to watch the kids at my house. Thank God.

I told K we needed to leave and after about 10 mins of conversation with his cousins about the best South Park episodes he was finally ready to leave. We stopped at Mickey D's on the way home and swung by moms. I picked up Dylan, but left Logan there as he was sound asleep in my moms bed, snoring away. Little baby Dylan was on the couch and had even refused a blanket. So I scooped him up and brought him home.

K and I ate our healthy dinner and then headed to bed. I don't even remember laying down. I was SO tired. Of course, it was 2:30 at this point. I go to bed every night before 10...2:30 is unheard of for me. I couldn't think straight I was so tired. I slept soundly until 7:30 this morning when Logan was banging on my bedroom window for me to unlock the front door. Of course, I couldn't go back to sleep after that..even after I told Logan he could watch TV or play on the computer--that I was going back to bed. Kyle is still sleeping though, of course. Mommy always gets the short end of the stick.

I am looking forward to our next date night when we will be in Disney. We're taking the kids to one of the kids clubs and going to have dinner at Epcot. I'm excited!

Now...I need to find something to give the kids as their promised "surprise".

Coolest plant!

We took the kids to the Children's Garden on Saturday. They had the BEST time. It was the first time we had been and was very nice. It was VERY HOT though.

One of the areas we walked through had a 5 senses area and then told about the different plants and how they related to the 5 senses. One of the cool ones was a plant that you touched and then smelled your hand and it smelled JUST LIKE chocolate mint!! It was so cool.

BUT..the coolest thing of all was the "touch" plant. Check out this video:

Happy Birthday, Amber!

***this should have been posted on 8/21***

When my sister was 16, she got pregnant. She gave the baby up for adoption. It was not an open adoption. We received pictures of Amber Nicole (what my sister named her) until she was about 4 months old and then, per the contract, all communication was stopped.

Today is Amber's 23rd birthday. I can't believe that I am old enough to have a niece that old!

Our hope is that Amber will decide to find Tammy and open her records at the adoption agency. We think of her often and really want to "meet" her again.

My sister still has a shoebox with Amber's hospital bracelet and the little hat she wore. I'll never forget after the baby was born and had been adopted and Tammy was home trying to get "back to normal" I walked in the bedroom we shared and she was sitting on the bed wrapped in a towel dripping wet from a recent shower. She had the shoebox in her lap and the little hat in her hands up to her face smelling it and sobbing. I tried to comfort her in the best way my 10 yr old self new how to. Now that I have babies, I fully understand what a HUGE sacrifice she made and just how much of an amazing person she is. I hope Amber realizes it.

So, Happy Birthday, Amber Nicole. I hope your day is full of all kinds of special-ness and lots of cake! I hope you are happy and healthy and feeling loved...and that you are wanting for nothing. You are continually in my thoughts and prayers and I hope for the day when I can wish you 'Happy Birthday' in person.