When I got home from work yesterday I was perplexed by what I found on my kitchen island.  I came through the back door and rounded the corner from the sunroom into the kitchen and there it was, sitting right there on the corner of the island in all it’s glory.  It was a bug.  A GINORMOUS bug.  With big ass wings that spanned more than the width of the palm of my hand and a body as thick as my pinky finger.  It appeared to be propped up on its two front feet, totally prepared for takeoff, and I think it had teeth.  I was *so* creeped out by it but could not stop studying it’s presence on my island!  It was the most curious, disgusting thing!!  Belle is famous for her plastic bug and lizard collection.  It’s not unusual to find her spiders or grasshoppers or praying mantis’ all over the house.  Surely this was one of her bug toys…right?  Pleeeease dear God tell me this thing isn’t real!  H was in the kitchen and saw me studying the bug.  He could tell I was nervous.  He said, “it’s real” to which I screamed, threw my purse and keys, and quite literally walked (er ran) on air to get away from the disgusting thing!  H laughed at me and told me it was dead.  Then he got called a not-so-nice name.  After some questioning he told me that it was Belle’s.  She found it.  And then put it on the island in my kitchen for safe keeping.  Wth?  What kind of a household am I running here??  I told H that it needed to be removed immediately, but he refused.  He was too grossed out by it also to touch it!  Okay, I thought, I’ll just tell Belle to move it when she comes inside the house.  Until then, I’ll just ignore it.  At least it can’t fly.  Or bite.  So I go about my business cooking dinner…H had to run to the store for something…and then I noticed it.  The bug was gone!  OMG, tell me that thing did not come back to life!!  I frantically started looking around and then noticed the commotion between Tiffany Suzanne and Tink (dog and cat) in the living room.  Ah, mystery solved.  They somehow got a hold of the bug and were…playing with it?  Whatever they were doing to it, it was no longer in one piece.  Gross.  Oh hell…Belle is going to FREAK OUT when she finds out her dead bug was eaten.  I got on the phone and called H.  Did you move the bug?  No, why.  Because it’s laying on the living room floor in pieces, Belle is going to freak.  He told me not to leave it there – to pick it up and throw it away.  Maybe she won’t freak if she doesn’t see it.  Right about that time Noah came inside.  I told him that he and mommy were on a mission.  We had to get the dragonfly off the living room floor and into the trash.  He proceeded to ooooh and aaaaah over it’s…pieces.  I’m going over the instructions of how we are going to rid of said pieces…Mommy will get the broom, and you will hold the dust pan, and mommy will sweep it…  I was walking towards the scene of the crime, broom and dust pan in hand, when Noah simply picked it up by one of it’s broken wings and threw it in the garbage.  Thank God.  Now, what about the other pieces…?  I got the vacuum out and took care of the rest.  Fortunately when Belle came inside she had Orphan Annie in tow and was in good spirits.  I told some funny kitty-stories and slipped it in at the end that kitty got a hold of dragonfly and ate him.  Luckily, she laughed.  Whew!  No more dragonflies on my kitchen island, Little Miss Bug Collector!

 

The weekend is coming up and I’m not sure that I will have time to blog until sometime next week.  I’m keeping 2 extra kiddos Friday through Monday as their parents are going out of town.  I’m also keeping their dog.  It’s a labradoodle.  I need my head examined.  Why do I do things like this?!  Tomorrow I have a hair appointment!  I LOVE hair appointments!!  Getting my highlights updated, hopefully not a cut though.  I’m trying to grow it back out.  Not sure what we have planned for tomorrow night, but I’m sure we’ll be out doing something.  Saturday, we have the usual…games, practices, riding lessons…  Not sure of Saturday night plans either.  We’ll probably hit the pool at some point because it’s closing soon.  Sunday we have a family party at my sister’s house.  That is sure to be a fun time!  Love my family…  Monday, we’ll hang out at the pool all day.  The neighborhood is having a big party just like the one they had on the 4^th of July.  Cookout, live DJ, games, etc…  The kids will love it and we’ll have a great time hanging out with friends!  So yeah, I’m pretty sure that I won’t be hopping on here anymore until next week.  I hope everyone reading (hi Bridgette! ;) has a fantastic Labor Day weekend! 

 

Until next time, these are the days of my life.

 

Be great!    

 

As you know I've been busting ass on my "Project Overhaul."  Belle's bedroom proved to be the Project-Overhaul-Mutha of all Muthas, dirty little girl...  One of my complaints was that the child owns way too many pairs of shoes, especially when she can't keep her stuff in order.  Her closet was atrocious before I power-cleaned it!  So now that her bedroom is in complete order, we've been considering paint colors and shopping for various odds and ends such as lamps, etc...  Yesterday was one such day.  We ran over to Target to look for stuff for her bedroom and for the kids' bathroom.  Didn't find anything for Belle's room, but I got exactly what I needed for their bathroom (my most recent project), which was awesome.  I regret to admit, however, that I found something else...something that we totally did not intend to shop for...  Yes, I bought the child 2 more pairs of shoes.  Do the math; 31 + 2 = 33 pairs of shoes.  For a 10 year old little girl.  This is absolutely absurd!  And *I* am the one to blame!!  Dear Lord, please help me to break this compulsive shoe addiction of mine.....  Oh, but the shoes ~ are WAY cute!!!  Little croc/ballerina slipper type shoes ~ one pair in pink and one in navy...with sparkly little criss cross straps...OMG, out of this world cutes!!! 

 

Until next time, these are the days of my life ~ be great! 

 

Cute Belle Story…  When she was about four or five years old, she was outside playing in the backyard.  She was standing near a tree looking very intently at it when I thought I heard her say, “What the hell?”  I’m thinking surely she did not just say what I think she just said so I asked her to repeat herself.  Again I heard, “What the hell” only this time she said it a little louder.  Still I refused to believe that my little girl was using potty language so I asked her one more time what she said.   “I SAID WHAT THE HELL ‘CAUSE I DON’T KNOW HOW ALL THESE ANTS GOT ON THIS TREE!”  Clearly she was annoyed with me for not hearing her correctly the first time.  I explained to her that “hell” was a bad word and she shouldn’t be using it.  Of course she had to call me all out with, “Well that’s what you say all the time”….   Apparently mommy needs her mouth washed out with soap!

 

Noah Story….  This happened about a year ago…  Noah had fallen asleep downstairs on the sofa so I picked him up and carried him up to bed.  He was out, totally.  I’m talking boy was comatose.  But I needed to get him into his jammies so I’m fiddling with his clothes trying to get him undressed and trying to wake him up.  After several attempts at waking him, he sleepily sat up with heavy, grumpy eyes and said, “f*cking” in a pissed off tone.  Wha?!?!  I said, “what did you just say?”  He repeated himself, “F*CKING” only this time he said it in an angrier tone and with an exclamation point!  Dear God help me, I’m thinking…  I asked him where he heard that word and he named a boy from his class.  I know this kid and yeah, he’s a likely culprit.  I told him that that was a very bad word and that he was never to use it again, or like mommy, he would have to get his mouth washed out with soap.  Actually, I left out the mommy part.  J

 

Ah yes, these are the days of my life…  Until next time, be great!

 

 

 

   

 

 

YAY!  We did it!!  Or should I say *she* did it.  Belle got all of her hair cut off yesterday and she is just the cutest thing ever…J  Before we left for the salon, I made her take a few “before” pictures…..

    

 

 

 

 

 

And here she is in the process of getting it chopped off…..

  

 

 

 

What an awesome gift to such a wonderful cause and organization!

 

 

 

Here she is at home with her new do.  Too sweet!

   

 

 

 

 

Once we got home Belle settled in at the kitchen table to finish up her homework and I started making dinner.  I happened to notice that she was holding her left hand in a weird way; kind of balled up in a loose fist and she was very fidgety with it.  Upon further inspection I discovered she was holding one of her caterpillars ~ while doing her homework!  She’s a mess…  I told her that caterpillars are not permitted in the kitchen let alone at the kitchen table and asked her to please put her little “friend” away…

 

 

Doing homework with a friend…..

 

 

 

And, the “friend”…..

 

 

 

 

Until next time, be great!

   

 

 

 

We have an appointment today for my Isabelle Rose to get her hair cut!  She found out about Locks of Love through a little friend of hers a couple of years ago and immediately decided she wanted to be a part of the cause.  Two years ago she gave her first donation ~ ten plus inches of hair to be used to make a wig for a little girl somewhere who has lost her hair due to cancer treatment.   Right after she got her hair cut she decided she wanted to grow it back out so that she could donate it again.  Two years later and here we are…  For the first time ever, she is asking for a “big girl” haircut; lots of layers and sweeping bangs.  This should be interesting…J  I’ll try to remember my camera to catch it all on film!

 

The boys also need hair cuts!  Desperately!!  Lord, they’ve got some serious hair going on.  It is so thick and full and curly.  Their last haircuts weren’t very good so we need to remember to go somewhere else this time!

 

Other than haircuts, life continues to be crazy, busy and hectic ~ which is just the way I like it.  Back at the end of July, h took the kids on a family vacation on his Dad’s side.  They were gone for a full week and leading up to their departure, I was *so* sure I was going to love my alone time and get so much accomplished in their absence.  Ha!  Yeah right.  Five minutes after they pulled out of the driveway I was pacing inside the house having absolutely no idea what to do with myself!  That continued throughout the rest of the week…I called them at least 10 times a day because I missed them *so* much and didn’t want to miss a second of their experiences at the beach.  Why didn’t I go you ask?  My schedule didn’t permit it.  I’m committed to coaching cheerleading and I had evaluations, draft, and camp that week so there was no way I could go.  That being said, I have to admit I really didn’t want to go on the trip anyway.  I made the trip last year and it was miserable ~ because of mine and h’s situation.  I really didn’t want to repeat a miserable time so I was totally okay with having to miss it.  I knew I’d miss the kids, but Lord I was going out of my mind being away from all 3 of them for a whole week!!  My point is, my house is abso-freakin’-lutely crazy 99.9% of the time and I’m often pulling my hair out trying to keep everyone and everything under control.  Aside from my own munchkins, I generally have an extra kid or two…or three or four, so that adds to the mix.  Then you’ve got to consider the animals ~ because they’re like their own little zoo and totally add to the chaos.  It’s a freakin’ mad house, no doubt.  But as crazy and hectic as it is, I wouldn’t have it any other way!

 

Until next time, be great and stay tuned for more days of my life!

 

That's how many pairs of shoes Belle has in her closet, I counted.  Out of control....

 

 

This entry is certain to be scattered, kind of like my brain right about now.  I didn’t get enough sleep over the weekend so I’m dragging a bit this Monday morning.  Ah well, here’s the latest in the days of my life…

 

We had another super busy weekend…but I can’t remember what we did Friday night…?   Oh well, guess I’ll jump ahead to Saturday instead!  H left early Saturday morning to go play tennis.  He’s big into the tennis scene in our neighborhood.  I don’t play, but I’m thinking about taking it up.  I don’t think I’ll get involved with the neighborhood leagues though, I just don’t roll like that.  But I’ve always said that once the kiddos were older and I had a little more free time for myself, I’d like to learn to play tennis.  The kids are older but I’m still a bit lacking in the free-time department!  We’ll see…  So I dropped the boys off at the tennis courts with h and took Belle to her riding lesson.  Exciting news ~ her riding instructor has asked her to take part in a *real* horse show next month!  We’re so excited!!  After I dropped her off I drove to the football field for my scrimmage game.  Thank goodness it was only a scrimmage and lasted only 2 quarters.  It was hotter than Hades Saturday afternoon!  Since h picked Belle up from her riding lesson, I had time to do a little shopping after my game.  I’m really not much of a shopper.  If I could afford to have a personal shopper I totally would.  Shopping gives me a headache.  When I go shopping, I am on a mission.  I get in, get what I need, and get out as fast as possible.   It is rare that I go shopping just for the heck of it.  But I did on Saturday!  Picked up a few cute things for work.  Funny…when I drove up to the house, Belle came running out to me in a total panic saying, “There’s been a black ant invasion in my caterpillar cage!  They’ve eaten half of my caterpillars!!!”  God love that child…  She collected caterpillars the other day and insisted on keeping them with the hopes of them all turning into butterflies.  She constructed a caterpillar habitat with leaves and sticks and rocks and she’s constantly poking around in there, rearranging things, giving them water, and doing whatever else caterpillar owners do...  Well apparently a bunch of ants invaded her habitat and reeked havoc on her little creatures.  The little bastards...  She got them all fixed back up ~ those that were still alive, and put her habitat together again so all is well in the world...  Saturday night, we were gonna have friends come over and cook out.  By the time I got home and settled in and cleaned the house for company, I decided I wasn’t in the mood to fool with grilling out and preparing food and messing up my kitchen so I changed the plans and we all went for Mexican instead.  Three pitchers of margaritas later, we all headed over to my house where we hung out until about 1 in the morning.  It was a very fun time!!

 

Sunday I got up early and did some running around.  Then Belle and I went to a baby shower for my cousin.  Lord it’s a chore to get that child into a dress and dress shoes…ugh…!  It was at a neat-o place ~ a 100+ year old house converted into a restaurant.  I absolutely love that place!  It was so great seeing all my family.  We had a wonderful time.  We planned a family party for the Sunday before Labor Day.  Should be another fun get together!  So Belle and I got home and I did some laundry and cleaning up around the house.  Oh!!!  I was going through the kids’ backpacks and folders getting them ready for school Monday morning and I came across their CRCT scores.  These are the standardized tests they all took at the end of the school year last year.  I was *very* pleasantly surprised to find out that Noah did freaking AWESOME on his tests!!!  I was so proud of him I could have eaten him up!  He scored in the “exceeds standard” range in every area except for Language Arts where he scored in the “meets standard” range, which is where they really want them to be.  Oh my God, I was so excited about these test scores, you have no idea...  We had the toughest time with him last year in 1^st grade so I didn’t know what to expect.  I hate to point fingers and push blame, but Noah’s teacher last year was quite frankly, shitty.  I think she had a preconceived notion of his academic abilities and behavior and did only what she needed to do to get through the year with him.  Teachers have a responsibility to see to it that students reach their fullest potential and perform to their highest academic ability.  Don’t “dumb em down”.   Set the highest possible standards for ALL students and then bust your ass to see to it that they exceed them.  His teacher didn’t do what she needed to do to get Noah to perform academically, period.  I worked with him at home and saw steady improvements throughout the school year.  Why wasn’t that reflected in his school work?  Why would he come home with assignments filled with errors and then complete the same assignment flawlessly after a 30 second explanation of the directions?  Don’t misunderstand; Noah has no idea that h and I were very unhappy with his teacher last year.  We have let him know loud and clear that *he* is responsible for doing the best possible job in school and that *he* will be held accountable for his school work and behavior when it comes to school.  I’m just thankful that he’s got an AWESOME teacher this year and that he’s off to such a great start so far.  His progress report for the week ~ “E” in conduct and “E” in work habits.  The child has NEVER gotten an “E” in conduct.  Ever!  He’s such a good boy, he made me so proud…:)     

 

Whoops!  Got off on a little tangent there, where was I…  Sunday evening was pretty low key.  Belle had Orphan Annie over so I fed her dinner before sending her on her way.  We put some steaks on the grill and had a yummy dinner.  Everyone got showers and hit the sack and that pretty much concludes our weekend.  Busy, but fun! 

 

A story…  Noah has this little friend who is a little bit on the crazy side.  Imagine that.  One time after Noah had spent the night over there, I overhead him talking to Ross about being over at this kid’s house and jumping from somewhere onto the couch.  I reprimanded him and told him that he was under NO circumstances to jump on furniture, especially at a friend’s house!  No more jumping!!  This was a couple of months ago.  Last weekend we learned that this little boy had broken both of his ankles and was in a wheelchair because he JUMPED OFF THE FREAKIN’ CATWALK RAILING ONTO THE SOFA BELOW!!!  Apparently he attempted a "trick jump" as Noah so fondly called it where he tried to land on the arm of the sofa, which snapped both ankles upon impact.  Ouch!  THEN, I found out that Noah made the same jump back when he had spent the night a few months ago and was “jumping onto the couch”!  My baby jumped from a second story railing onto a sofa below!  Holy shit.  I am still shocked about this.  H and I sat him down and had an in depth conversation about how dangerous that is and what could have happened in way of accidents and injuries.  Noah proceeded to tell us that when he jumped, he didn’t try to do the trick jump.  He "just landed in the middle of the sofa instead"....on his butt!  I can’t even go there in my mind anymore.  To think of what might have happened had he slipped or fallen wrong…  Needless to say, my baby will not be spending the night at broken ankle boy’s house ever again. 

 

Until next time my friends, these are the days of my life….  Be great!           

 

 

In one of my recent posts I mentioned that my life might be taking a new and different path.  I’m not quite ready to elaborate on the specifics of that situation, but things are going okay so far on that front.  When the time is right I’ll write more about it.  Aside from that, things have been busy, busy on my end!  Like I said, school started back yesterday.  I made it a point to take the kids school shopping one-on-one.  Makes it a little more special rather than having to drag all 3 around at the same time not to mention it’s always great to spend time with the kiddos alone.  Amazing how well behaved the boys are when they’re not terrorizing each other!  It makes such a big difference when you have them alone.

 

My boys have gotten into this thing where they want to wear the most atrocious stuff ~ black tennis shoes, WWE wrestling gear (which is usually all black or dark in color), etc…  Basically, they want to look like little hoodlums.  At least that’s my opinion.  Noah will pull his britches way down off his hips and say “that’s how the homies wear their clothes”.  Homies?  So my 8-year-old son aspires to dress like a “homie”?  And what the hell *is* a homie anyway??  I don’t think so little boy...  So I made a rule: this school year we are going to dress for success ~  no black clothes and no wrestling clothes.  When I said that to the boys they looked at me like I had two heads!  Ross, not so much.  He’s my laid back guy and really could care less what he wears.  But Noah?  He was floored!  “What?!  Dress for success? [insert lisp]  What is that anyway?  Why can’t I wear my wrestling shirts or black clothes to school?!?  That’s not fair!  Those clothes are cool and I don’t want to dress like a baby!”  He did not want to go shopping with me after that.  He was too busy pouting and didn’t want to conform to my new rule.  He was made to go shopping anyway and he did the *best* job picking out his little clothes!  I was so impressed!!  He was so cute looking through the racks saying, “nope, this ones black” then moving onto the next one.  He ended up with a couple pairs of shorts (plaid!) and a bunch of nice shirts ~ polos and collared shirts, button-down short sleeved shirts, and a few very tasteful tees.  He also picked out a pair of tennis shoes for himself and one for his brother, way cute.  He was busting at the seams to get into those clothes over the next few days, but I insisted that he wait for school!  He’s still really excited about all of his new stuff and in the evenings when we’re picking out his school clothes for the next day, it's hard not to laugh as he’s rummaging through his stuff all puffed up...  How I *love* my little hoodlum…;) 

 

Next I took Belle shopping.  Oh, that child is going to turn me grey…  She’s a great little shopper and we had a fun time picking out her clothes and shoes and accessories.  Speaking of which, I bought the child 5 pairs of new shoes.  FIVE.  Am I out of my mind?  Why does a child need 5 pairs of new shoes?  Especially when she’s got a closet full of shoes at home already!  Speaking of closets, her’s is disgustingly messy!  Since I’ve been working on “Project Overhaul,” I decided I would mix up my schedule a bit and knock out the kids’ rooms before school started back.  These should have been super easy because I just cleaned and organized the hell out of these rooms a few months ago in the spring.  Well, my little pig-girl has been hiding quite the mess in her pig-sty of a bedroom…  I was appalled when I got in there and saw the mess!  Where did she come from?  How did she learn to be so gross?  And when did she become a pack-rat extraordinaire??  Good Lord!  I put her little behind to work and told her that if she EVER let her room get this messy again, I was going to remove every piece of furniture from in there and make her sleep on a palate.  She was given a few storage bins to keep whatever she wanted to keep and I informed her that we would be getting rid of everything else.  I also made her clean everything out from underneath her bed and organize a few drawers.  The job still is not complete.  On top of all of her stuff, she’s got loads of hand-me-downs from one of her little friends that I have to go through and organize.  It’s ridiculous…she has enough clothes and shoes for 10 kids.  I had to take a break from her mess, so I went ahead and cleaned and organized the boys’ room.  That was an easy job, as expected.  They’re much cleaner than their sissy!  Once I finish up with everything in Belle’s room, I’m going to have it painted to match the comforter set she picked out for her birthday back in April.  It’s not much to my liking or taste, but I’ve got to let the child do her thing and express herself as she sees fit…as long as she doesn’t start dressing like a homie that is…;)  She and I have been looking at paint colors and I need to switch out some of her accessories as well, like her little lamps and other stuff I’ve got in there right now.  I need to take a picture when the project is complete!  I should be taking pictures as I complete all of my rooms, actually…  Perhaps I’ll work on that.

 

Rossy never did get a shopping trip.  He absolutely positively refused to go.  I could have forced him to go but quite frankly, I have spent so much money on the other two kiddos that I kind of liked the idea of not having to spend anymore!  I talked Noah into sharing some of his new clothes with his brother (good boy :), so it’s all good.  They share all their stuff anyway, so it’s not that much of a big deal.  I have allowed Noah to declare a few items off limit and I think that’s perfectly fine.  Ross is easy anyway.  He doesn’t care one way or the other…

 

Plans for the week…well, I have started coaching my cheerleading squad again this year so I’ve got 2 practices and a game scheduled.  I cheered for years when I was little, starting in 5^th grade and continuing through 1 year at a junior college.  I coached for about 12-13 years also and stopped when I became pregnant with the boys.  Then Belle decided she wanted to cheer a few years ago, so I agreed to coach her team.  One year was enough for her ~ she spent more time climbing trees and chasing bugs than she did cheering!  Once during a game, I noticed her holding her hand in a weird way.  Upon further investigation I found that she had a freakin’ big ass bug in her hand that she didn’t want to let go…  Yeah, she’s definitely not cheerleading material…;)  But I’m back coaching again this year, my 3^rd year with this organization, and I’m loving it!  Got all of my girls back from last season so we’re aiming for a 3^rd win at our big competition in October!  Other than that…we have school, and work, a garage sale Saturday morning, horseback riding Saturday afternoon, a baby shower luncheon Sunday afternoon, and I’m not sure what else.  Missing my “triangle girls,” so we need to schedule a lunch or dinner sometime soon!  Don’t know if that will be this week ~ we’ll see…

 

Guess that’s all for now!  Until next time, be great!!              

 

 

The end of summer is near and school started back today ~ yay!  (Yay for school, not the end of summer ;) The kids were excited and ready for it.  They have had a *very* fun summer.  Belle went away to camp and enjoyed horseback riding, hiking, boating, swimming, and all kinds of other fun camp activities.  The boys went on 2 beach trips where they took up skim boarding for the first time and swam in the ocean until their fingers and toes pruned up.  Belle also spent a week at the beach where she went fishing and crabbing from sun up to sun down...  She spent lots of time with her cousins digging in the sand, swimming in the ocean, and riding golf carts all over the place.  I’ve loved being home on Fridays spending time with the kiddos doing all sorts of fun summer stuff!  We visited the library a lot, and of course the pool.  We’ve gone skating and bowling and visited the game ranch where we fed and interacted with squirrels, chipmunks, deer, rabbits, ducks, goats, sheep, pigs, peacocks, black bears, porcupines, skunks, turtles, and a myriad of other creatures.  We’ve been to the movies, laser tag, and miniature golf.  We’ve spent weekends at the lake fishing, swimming, playing on the shores in the red Georgia clay, and riding wave runners. We’ve had cookouts and bon-fires with friends and we’ve played flashlight tag ‘til way past dark.  We’ve done a little bit of everything!

 

Having promised the boys that we would take them to Six Flags before the end of summer, h and I took them there last Wednesday.  Belle wasn’t interested in going because she’s not into the big scary rides like the boys are.  Smart girl… Before I even stepped foot on a ride, I was already motion sick just watching the boys ride the swings.  That round and round motion…ugh, makes me queasy just thinking about it!  The boys are still too small to ride the really big roller coasters ~ like the ones where the coaster hangs from the track and your feet dangle down…and the one where you’re in a horizontal position “flying” like Superman…  But there was plenty they could ride and I think we knocked out almost every single eligible ride in the park.  Unfortunately for me, the roller coasters I remember as being *so* much fun when I was a kid…aren’t so much fun anymore...  In fact, I left the park that evening head spinning, nauseous, suffering from heat stroke (we picked the hottest day of the year to go to the park), and head, neck, and back injuries.  I swear I had a concussion.  And whiplash.  Good God man, those coasters did a number on my neck!  The very last one we rode, I was in so much pain and so stressed out trying to brace myself for every twist and turn and every downward trek that inevitably ended with my ass slamming down onto the seat, battering my poor neck and back even more, that my inner-screams wouldn't leave my mouth...  Yeah, my neck still isn't right and I have bruises on my arms and legs.  Battle scars, if you will.  But I haven’t seen two sweeter smiles than the ones my boys flashed all day long while they enjoyed the heck out of that darn park.  Yes, we will surely return again next year and I will pretend to enjoy every single minute of it.  There are a few coasters, however, that I think I’ll refrain from riding…and I just might come equipped with my neck brace…

 

          

 

 

I have been wanting to post an update for quite some time now…my life has been a whirlwind of happenings…lots of ups and downs and in betweens…  I think my problem is that I’ve been thinking way too much on how to put into words these latest happenings in my life.  So, finally I decided ~ no more thinking!  I’m just gonna write it all down however it happens to come out.  Here goes…

 

First and foremost, I must talk about the passing of my father-in-law; h’s step father, otherwise known as “Granddad”.  Granddad had been diagnosed with leukemia last summer.  My kids spent a few last happy moments with him at the time of his diagnosis before he entered treatment, which consisted of lots of meds, hospitalizations, chemotherapy, and a bone marrow transplant.  Granddad pretty much sailed through his treatment, as much as one with cancer can “sail through” the horrid regiment of treatment that is.  It was quite a difficult time dealing with his illness as my kiddos are accustomed to lots of “Grandma” and “Granddad” time.  Being that Grandma spent most of her time by Granddad’s side (when she wasn’t attending to the 2 businesses she continued to run), she wasn’t able to see the kids much either during his treatment.  Besides, they had to be super careful to keep away from all possible carriers of nasty germs and illnesses and Grandma couldn’t afford to get sick and possibly pass it on to Granddad.  The boys really missed Granddad being at their baseball games this summer.  He was quite the permanent fixture there at the ballpark and the boys could always count on him being there.  He was the typical Grandfather ~ proud of his boys beyond words and the first to holler words of encouragement (or not ;) to the boys and to whoever else needed to be praised (or reprimanded)…  Luckily, he was entitled to do so.  He was a Granddad!  And that’s just what Granddads do!!  Belle, on the other hand, missed doing what she and her Granddad loved doing most together ~ fishing.  He had a fishing rod in that child’s hand shortly after she learned to walk, no joke.  And Lord does she LOVE to fish…she could do it for hours…Granddad definitely instilled that in her.  Every time Belle spoke to him on the phone, the conversation always involved fishing.  The last time my kids saw their Granddad was when he was quite sick and in the hospital.  He had done wonderful with his cancer treatment and bone marrow transplant.  His counts were better than expected and we all felt that he was without a doubt going to beat this thing.  Until he had some issues with his liver counts...  He was scheduled for an outpatient liver biopsy; a procedure that should have had him in and out of the hospital within 2 hours or less.  Long story short, Granddad pretty much never came out of the hospital following that procedure.  The kids saw him about 2 months after that and he had taken a big downward spiral by that time and it was questionable as to whether or not he would pull through.  The kids had not seen him in about a year and he was very, very ill at the time.  Granddad was a tall man ~ probably about 6’2 or so.  I would be surprised if he weighed 100 pounds at the time of the kids’ last visit with him.  Needless to say, the kids did a lot of talking and Granddad did a lot of listening.  The only time he spoke during that visit was with Isabelle when he reminisced about one of their fishing expeditions.  Super sweet…  Well, Granddad continued to decline in health and without going into the details of all the horrible ailments he suffered after the liver biopsy, h’s mother along with Granddad’s surviving sisters decided to stop all treatment.  We lost him on July 12^th and we have been missing him something fierce ever since… 

 

Deep breath…I’m kinda feeling a bit emotionally drained after writing all of that so I think I’ll close a little sooner than I originally planned.  Before I sign off, I will say that the kids are all doing great ~ they have had a fantastic summer!  I will update on some fun stuff sometime soon.  In regards to myself, I’m doing fine as well.  Lots going on…I think my life is taking a new, unexpected path…we shall see how things continue to unfold on that front…  But life continues to move forward and my kiddos are healthy and happy, and for that I am and will always be very grateful.

 

Sorry for the lapse in updates (as if anyone other than myself is even reading this ;).  Hopefully I’ll get on the ball and update more often.  Lots has been happening around here so I have plenty to write about.  I just need to stop thinking and over-analyzing things too much and just put it out here!  I’ll work on that.

 

Until next time and as always, be great!

 

PS ~ President Bush signed the Conquer Childhood Cancer Act on July 29^th, which will dramatically increase federal investment into childhood cancer research!  This is wonderful news…J