My wonderful family

When people tell me that Sissy is the spitting image of me, I always respond with, “Yeah, but she acts just like her Daddy”

That’s not entirely true though. Sissy acts a LOT like me and Bubba acts a LOT like Hubby.

Sissy has the same stubbornness, dramatic, cries about everything attitude. As bad as I hate to admit it, so do I. Bubba has a more laid back, happy go lucky, but don’t tick me off attitude..just like his Daddy. That is why Bubba and I get along and Sissy and I clash so often. And the same with why Hubby and Bubba clash and him and Sissy get along.

There are things, however, that Sissy does that is all Hubby, and the same with Bubba. There are things that he does, that is all me.

For instance, Bubba likes to be social. The more people around him, the happier he is. I’m the same way. I love being around a crowd of people…that I know of course. We get upset when people don’t include us. Sissy and Hubby both would rather be by themselves, doing their own thing. They get upset if people try to include them.

When it comes to sleeping, Bubba and I, have to have the blankets perfect and straight, and can’t stand to have our heads covered. Sissy and Hubby, on the other hand, can sleep with the blankets cock-eyed and bunched up, with their entire bodies bundled up. I love that our children are so much like each of us that it we can’t deny them…not that we would want to.

They are our light and our joy. They are more than we could ever imagine. They are why we live in the moment. They are…our children.

**Note: These pictures are from Jan of this year (almost 6 months ago).

Heading for a break-down…wait, already had one!

So besides my SUYL-Proposal Story that I just posted, I haven’t done a post in almost 3 weeks! WOW

It’s not because I’ve been busy, but quite the opposite. I’ve been very boring!! Hubby has been working out of town for the past 3 weeks..hopefully this is his last week…and he hasn’t had his normal 3 days on, 3 days off. So we haven’t had a chance to do much of anything.

We did, however, manage to go to his grandparents yesterday on his day off and paint their deck. They are out of town for their annual blue grass festival, so we decided to go out there and get it painted as a nice surprise when they get back home. We still have do a little touch up on the floor but it won’t take us that long.

I’ve been having some major hormonal issues to the point where I had a break-down in Bubba’s room the other evening. With Hubby working all the time, I haven’t had a chance to relax without having to deal with kids for more than 5 minutes. Even during the night or nap time, one of them seems to constantly be crying for some reason or another.

The other day it all became too much for me. I sat down in Bubba’s floor and lost it. I was thinking about how much I needed a break from the kids, which led to me feeling like a horrible mom for feeling like a needed a break from them. I then realized that I didn’t feel like cooking supper for the second night in a row, which meant no supper ready for Hubby when he got home from a long day at work. We ended up eating Pizza and Mac-n-Cheese both nights…yes that’s how bad it’s been.

Last night, after painting in the heat all day, I definitely didn’t feel like standing over the hot stove or grill and cook. So we ordered out from my favorite steak/bbq place. Hubby is working today though, and I plan on making a nice meal to make up for the past 3 nights of not using my kitchen for more than dirtying it up!  Chicken, steaks, baked potato casserole, corn on the cob, and rolls. How long til supper?!?!

SUYL-Proposal Story

So the topic over at Kelly’s Korner – Show Us Your Life today is Proposal Stories. Hubby and my story isn’t that intriguing but I will share it none-the-less.

When Hubby and I first started dating, I had just recently filed for divorce from my ex-husband. Hubby and I had been talking about marriage after being together for about a month or so (yes I know that was a little soon, but we had known each other and been friends for 4 years prior, and it just felt right). My divorce wasn’t final yet, and we knew that we didn’t want to rush right into it anyways.

The day my lawyer called me and told me that my divorce was final was a very memorable day. It was a cold January day. I was at work, and Hubby was at home sleeping (he worked nights at the time) when I got the call. When I got of work, I went to the bakery and I had them write “It’s Final” on a big cookie cake. I then bought some little votive candles and a single red rose.

When I got to Hubby’s house, I arraigned the candles in a circle and lit them, and placed the cookie under the couch. I went and woke him up (it was about time for him to get up and get ready for work anyways!)  and asked him to come out to the living room. While he was waking up enough to walk in there, I went and sat in the middle of the candles with the rose in my hand.

He walked out and I said, “Will you marry me?” He smiled and said, “I told you that I would”. “Tomorrow?” I asked. When he got the look of question on his face, I pulled out the cookie and said, “Because ‘It’s Final’”! He picked me up, grabbed me around the waist, and gave me a huge hug!

Within a few days, we went and picked out a ring, and set a date for Sept 19, 2002, eight months away.

Seasons Change

This is me with my little sister.

My little sister turns 14 at the end of this year…two more years and you better make sure your are not on the same road as her.

There is a 14 1/2 year age difference between us, with no one in between. I was my mother’s only child, with the exception of step-children, until she came along. I had a big hand in raising her for the first 3 years of her life. When she cried it was always, “Get your sister!” When she needed changed, “Change your sister!” When she needed to eat, well after she was weaned from my mother, it was, “Go fix your little sister a bottle!”

When I got married to my ex-husband, I was quite relieved that I was able to get a break from raising a child at the age of 18. Little did I know, I would quickly miss her.  6 months after my ex and I married, we moved 3 hours away from my little sister. Thankfully, 6 months later, we moved back. Four months after that my ex and I split up. There were a lot of reasons for that split, but one of the them was the fact that he was NOT very nice to my little sister. He would yell at her and tell her to leave us alone. She was 4 years old.

When Hubby and I got together, he treated her like she was his own sister. He went outside and played basketball with her. He sat with her and watched TV. That’s when I realized that I could be with someone that loved her as much as I did!

As my little sister got older, her and I started clashing. A LOT! She was starting to get some attitude…not sure where she got that from. She treated my mom like my dad treated my mom. She got pretty much whatever she wanted. And she was the apple of my dad’s eye. All things that I despised.

We fought all the time, and my dad loved to egg it on. He loved to tell her that I was being mean to her. It never failed that when I went down there, I always left upset and frustrated and she was always in her room crying.

I’m not really sure when things between us started changing. When we both started looking at each other as sisters/friends instead of sisters/enemies.  I do know that I never want it to go back to the way it was before.

The time that I realized it though? About a month ago.

The kids and I went down to see my parents and my little sister. My mom and I always talk, the kids play in the living room while the TV is on what ever channel they prefer, and my sister hides in my parent’s room watching what she wants on TV.

This day was no different. Except for the fact that after a little while, I went in there with her and we discussed what shows we like to watch on a daily basis. Somehow, after 13+ years, a connection seemed to have been made. I left there, not truly realizing what had happened.

I got home, and as most days, okay, all days, I logged onto my FB account. My little sister was on there and she IM’d me.

“Hey. Long time not see”

Me- “Yeah, we need to get together sometime.”

Her- “And do what?”

Me- (Laughing because she didn’t get the joke, but yet totally excited that she wants to actually hang out with me!) “Well, we could go shopping and do lunch?”

Her- “Okay! When?”

Me- “When do you want to go?”

Her- “Sometime before July when I have to go to Chicago.”

Me- “Okay, how about sometime in June?”

Her- “Okay. I’ll start saving my money now!”

Me- “Yeah, me too!!”

I called her yesterday to see if/when she wanted to go. She said yes, but wanted to know how soon. Apparently she needs a new phone! HA!

We were trying to talk our mom into going with us, but she seems to want to rather stay home and keep my kids. “What?!?! You want to pass up a shopping trip with your daughters, so that you can stay home and keep a couple of pesky brats toddlers?!?!” To which she replied, “You two just want me to go so that I can be your pocket book!” Okay, so maybe she’s partially right.

Point is, I’m super stocked about spending time with my little sister before she grows totally up on me. Before long, the kid’s going to be graduating high school, getting married, and having kids of her own. Oh man! Saying that makes me want to lock her in her bedroom for the next 10 years!!!!

Your kidding, right?!?!

So much is going on that I don’t even know how to think straight. Of course that might be do to the fact that I am writing this post, and it’s not even 7AM yet!! Did I mention that I have been up since 330AM??

Um yeah, well Sissy decided to wake up at 330AM to play with Chicka. She hasn’t been back to sleep. Bubba woke up at 5AM, for un-known reasons, and hasn’t been back to sleep. Mom, of course, is EXHAUSTED!!!

Hubby was informed yesterday that he has to go to another store, about 45 minutes away, to work as the store manager for about 2 weeks…hopefully. It could be longer. Here’s hoping to it being shorter!

It’s bad enough that we don’t get to see him very often anyways, with his hours, but now it’s going to be worse. As of right now, he will still have his same hours, ALONG WITH driving time, but also will have to work 5 days a week instead of 3 on, 3 off. Not very fun for us.

Oh, AND, we don’t get to go on the camping trip we ALL were so excited about taking this weekend, because of it. I am totally bummed! We’ve been trying to think of something else to do with the kids to make up for it, but not sure what. We may just end up going with Hubby’s brother, his wife, and daughter swimming at the river or lake, and then coming home and grilling.

One thing that we keep trying to tell ourselves to make it all better is that he will get paid for mileage and that by NOT going camping, we are saving money.

Our dryer is going out on us…when it takes 110 minutes to dry a load of clothes, it’s going out! So we have been looking to buy a new washer/dryer set when/if we get our tax credit on buying a new house back. We have now decided that with 2 kids and a dog, our better buy with that $$ would be to tear up the carpet and linoleum and lay down wood floors.

Oh, I’m still getting a new washer and dryer, but we will have to go with the rent to own way…more payments..fun!

Life with a Dog…Days 6 & 7

Well to say that Chicka has gotten out of her depression funk is an understatement. She has been running and attacking the kids, and while most times they enjoy it, other times they act like she is really attacking them instead of playing. Which makes her want to play more.

We are still working on the house training. She does good for a day, and the next day (i.e. today) she has many accidents in the house. I’m starting to have some faith that she will learn.

Her leg is getting much better, she is able to walk and run, to an extint, on it. But if the kids are playing with her and lays on it just right, she lets out a yelp. Only 5 more days until we can take it off, but we may wait another week or so when we take her back to see the vet for a check up.

It seems as if she is getting bigger, right before out eyes. But maybe we are just wishing her to be a dog instead of a puppy now.

Life with a Dog…Day 5

Yesterday was quite un-eventful for Chicka. We left her in the pet carrier while we went to church in the morning…I did NOT want another bathroom ordeal!!  She didn’t have to stay in there but for maybe an hour because Hubby got home from lunch and let her out and then the kids and I got home shortly after.

She has been pretty calm the past few days. Okay, so maybe not “calm” as she is depressed. Poor thing is been sleeping ALL day long. We have been giving her lots of love and attention, but the fact that she can’t run and play has made her sad.

Right now, she is sitting on my leg, sleeping, while I write this. Not that it’s a bad little thing. It’s comforting to know that one of these days she is going to be a great protector of our family, and while she may be TOO big to sit on my lap, she will still be part of our family!

The housetraining is going better, except for the fact that with her being hurt she is only pottying on our back deck! Gross, I know, but it’s not in the house, and as soon as she gets better, we WILL take her out on the back yard grass.

The kids still love her, and it breaks their hearts that they can’t play with her the way they did the first couple of days. We have to keep telling them that she has a boo-boo, but that in a couple of weeks, she will be back to normal….hopefully!

Life with a Dog…Days 3 & 4

Yesterday was a pretty decent day with Chicka. She went potty outside a couple of times, and only went in the house about 3 times. Not bad.

Last night though, Hubby was carrying her in her bed to the bedroom and she jumped out of it before he could catch her. We thought she had broken her front right leg so we splinted it with markers and tape and tried our best to keep her off of it. Poor girl whined and cried and did not sleep very good at all last night.

First thing this morning, I called the vet at home and told him what happened. He said to bring her up to the clinic and he would look at her. Thankfully, he said that it was just a sprain. That that part of the leg is still just cartilege turning into bone and that it was a common injury in puppies. He wrapped her leg up in a splint and gave us some calcium tablets to help her heal faster.

We have to take her back in two weeks to have him check it again, but for now we just have to be careful with her because it’s going to be very sore and sensitive for the time being.

Poor girl. We knew she was going to be tough dog with having two rambunctious kids as “siblings” but we didn’t realize she would have to toughen up so quick!

Life with a Dog…Day 2

OMG…this house training thing is the pits!!!

I have been cleaning up poop and pee for the past 2 days! There are 3 puppy pads laid out, we don’t have a crate yet, in the 3 spots she seems to go the most in. But no, she still doesn’t use them!

I placed her in the bathroom while I took the kids to MDO and ran to WM this morning. I had expected to have to clean up some pee and maybe some poop and pick up some dog food, but what I walked in to when I got home was NOT that! She had pooped, stepped in it, and then proceeded to try and climb out of the bathroom. There was poop EVERYWHERE! Needless to say, I cleaned the bathroom probably better than it has ever been cleaned before! The walls, floors, cabinet doors, and door were scrubbed with Clorox wipes and then Lysoled!!

Ughh…I am so ready for her to be trained…I don’t have enough patience for this!

Weekend at Branson

We had an awesome weekend! The family and I went to Branson, MO on a mini vacation with some friends of ours. We got there around 1pm Friday, and went right into shopping. The rest of our party wasn’t going to be there until around 4pm so we had some time to spare.

When they got there, we went and checked into our cabin/condo and cooked some supper. Then we decided to go do some more shopping. Saturday morning, we woke up EXTRA early…as I stated in my previous post…and went to Silver Dollar City. The kids, as well as Hubby and I, had a blast!! We spend over 6 hours there…in the rain..before having to leave because of child meltdowns.

We left the rest of our party there, and we headed into town. Did a LOT of driving around, before making some shopping pit stops. We then met up with our friends at Montana Mikes Steakhouse to eat. Though the guys didn’t really like it, the girls did. After eating, we went and did a little more shopping before heading back to the cabin to head to bed.

Sunday morning, we woke up and headed back home around 930am. We made a few shopping and visiting stops along the way, so we didn’t get home until around 530pm or so.

Unfortunately, Hubby had to go back to work Monday morning, so of course, tiredness and exhaustion has set in with all of us!