love being a mommy

Today after my previous post, as my daughter was making mommy a little crazy, I got a little glimpse of the precious things in life. She has started this new thing, as she did with her paci that she no longer has, where she throws her lovey out of her bed and then cries and cries. It can be super obnoxious because I never know if she's crying to get out or if it has turned into an "I want my lovey back AND I want out" cry. She gets really upset when she doesn't have it, which of course is her fault because she threw it out, but I feel bad for her. I try to picture her crying herself to sleep without anything to snuggle and I can't bare it so I end up going in to give her back her lovey and to rock her for a minute. Today when this happened, I walked in and grabbed a blanket (because she was in only a diaper) and wrapped her up, gave her her lovey and proceeded to rock her and sing "You Are My Sunshine". She just grinned and listened. I loved it. Then when it was over with she cried some more because she wanted up. Yeah, so much for that special little moment. Hahaha.

Another thing I love (and hate sometimes) about my little babe is that she has started showing interest in things she really "wants" at the store (I know with time this will get worse). When she sees balloons at the store she starts kicking her legs, reaching her arms out in excitement and says, "ba ba ba ba" over and over again. It's so darn cute!!! (Ba is also the word for ball and bath. Hahaha. But the other day she did say "bat" for bath.) The look on her face when I give in to her "ba" and hand her a balloon is priceless. She carries it with such pride and it makes me happy.

She recently started recognizing when a book is upside down. I'm not sure when a kid is supposed to have the "ability" to do this but my kid does it and I find her to be a genius for it. Seriously, she'll sit surrounded by a pile of books (that she purposefully knocked on the floor...I guess for easier access) and grabs one and turns it the right way if it's upside down! Isn't that just amazing? Somebody tell me it is!

She knows that a brush is used for brushing hair and puts it on her head when she finds one. She also does this with her hair bows. I find that to be super cute and very girly ;).

She enjoys crawling around with her lovey on her head AND her toy basket. That's pretty cute too.

She's just so darn fun.

madness

I feel as though I've been stumped for words lately, hence the daaaays between posts. Honestly, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with life. Last weekend was a really busy weekend for me. With Sean working all weekend it makes it hard for me to be busy seeing as how he has our only vehicle out of town with him...but it still manages to happen. AK and I spent Saturday afternoon at my dad's house. It was fun. We haven't seen him for about two months-since AK's birthday party. We just hung out and wasted time. On Sunday I had a birthday party to attend. It was super fun. Great people, great food and great toys for the kiddos to play with. My stepmom came and picked us up and dropped us off and then picked us up again. Then we proceeded to go to the grocery store-me, AK, the stepmom, my TWO sisters and nephew. It was hectic to say the least. Not only that but Anna-Kate had been running a fever since Saturday afternoon (she had gotten her flu shot on Friday). I figured it was just a side-affect from the shot but then on Sunday her fever shot up to 102.7. This was super high for her. I called the doc and he said it was a little high to be from the shot but it's possible and he's sure that's what it was since she was exhibiting no other signs of illness. Okay. Good deal.

Monday she was fever free.

Tuesday morning she woke up at 5:45 and puked all over the blowup mattress we were sleeping on. She seemed super restless the night before so I pulled out the bed and stayed in her room that night. Now I know it was from an upset tummy apparently. So Tuesday morning a friend of mine so graciously came over and sat with my "sick" sleeping baby while I ran up to work for an hour. When I came home she was just waking up and feeling better so we went to the friend's house to help her unpack since she had just finished moving. AK had a better day and we were both tired when we got home.

Wednesday we went to work. Anna-Kate was acting awesome...being sooo good for mommy. I was proud of her.

Thursday we went to work again. AK had "school" pictures. She did super great and I can't wait to get the proofs. She looked sooooooo cute! Then I took her to her class and she again, did super awesome! My class on the other hand was has having quite a day. I don't know what it was but almost everyone seemed to be in a funk. This can be VERY frustrating when you have 12-3 year olds running around. AAHHHHH. I was SO glad for the day to be over.

Today, I will spend my day packing and getting ready to go to Austin tomorrow until Monday. My dad will be taking us to meet my MIL in Temple and then from there she'll take us home with her. I'll be painting our room and bathroom while AK has much needed play time with her Granny. I'm anticipating this to be a good and hopefully relaxing weekend. Sean will be working all weekend and this will be the first w/e that we won't see him at all. Usually he comes home on Saturday night and leaves again early Sunday morning to come home on Sunday night. That method is getting expensive so he's going to start spending every weekend at work.

Our official move out date is November 21st-the weekend before Thanksgiving. This in-between time is getting harder by the day. It's not fun nor relaxing to have your dining room full of boxes, toys scattered about (because you can't keep up with the toy overload), clean loads of laundry stacked on a basket waiting to be put away and just stuff everywhere. Things that don't have a place anymore. I'm ready.

Fun pictures to come.

monkey wonkey

My child has been into climbing lately. I'm pretty sure this is just a phase but it can be pretty scary to walk in on your child standing on top of what you consider to be a pretty high object, for your little nugget anyways. This morning I found Anna-Kate like this

Then she proceeded to climb up and down the storage bin a few times. She thought it was sooo much fun.

I don't understand how she can be so cautious when it comes to walking but she can climb up something that is half her height and get down with no problems.

She's so silly.

And then from there she proceeded to the bouncy chair...

...the bouncy chair that hasn't been put in storage yet for the sole purpose of my adventurous one. She loves to climb in and over it.

On another note, my little princess climber is getting her flu shot today. I'm a little nervous because I know they put all kinds of random stuff in this shot and I don't know how it will affect her. I wouldn't be getting it done if it wasn't for her being in MDO two days a week and MOPS one day a week. I don't like the idea of her being in a room full of kiddos her age with all kinds of germies and such without being protected from the nasty flu virus. I think I'd rather take the risk of her having diarrhea for a day than her having the flu for a few days. It's all sad, either way. Pray for my little monkey face.

Nanners undone...

...is how a friend described Anna-Kate's hair on days like these

But this my friends, is not about hair, this is about a kid who is cutting three teeth right now and feels the need to stick EVERYTHING in her mouth to soothe her gums. It's so hilarious to watch her because you get to see faces like this

as she searches out her next victim who gets the privilege of being "gummed" to death.

Love it.

can't think of a title

Over the weekend my Aunt had her daughter's first birthday party at Peter Piper's. I have no idea what they were thinking by having it there but I must say, I did enjoy being with my family. I usually do what I can to steer WAY clear of that place. There are way too many people running around, very dirty and germy toys/games, possible child predators, sometimes rude & undisciplined children, very gross bathrooms (most of the time) and just an uninviting feel to the whole place. It could be just me but that's how I feel about it anyways. And here's a little tip for those of you who do not celebrate the scary things of halloween-don't go there this time of year. It's so annoying to see (and scary, of course) scary faces hanging from the windows on the doors going to the kitchen and spiders hanging from the ceiling and caution tape wrapped around the slide. Niiiice. I didn't like it AT ALL. Like my one year old needs images of dead looking people in her head...like I need images of dead looking people in MY head! GGRRR. Really, seriously, is it necessary to think that everyone celebrates halloween with scary masks, spiders, witches, tombstones and fake human remains???
But, besides all of that, AK LOVED that carousal.

Although not in this picture, I totally tought AK all about riding "side-saddle". It IS the proper way afterall ;).

On a lighter note. I painted my little darlings toenails this weekend and I must say, they are the cutest little toes I've ever seen.

Seeee, I told ya. -If you're wondering how I pulled this off lets just say a highchair and some yummy snacks will do the trick. Of course, you have to sit on the floor and hold the foot still for quick application. It really doesn't take that long because the toenails are so tiny...and it dries really fast. But yeah, I love her little toenails painted. Some people may think it's a little "over-the-top" but oh well. Do what you will (or won't) with your own kid :).

Happy Wednesday.

ouch

Wow, it's been a long day. First, I started out by putting Anna-Kate down for a nap. In all honesty, that's when my day truly begins, as far "deep house duties" go. Then I headed out to the storage shed to see if I could make an "organized" dent in all the chaos. I ended up trapping myself in the back because I started pulling things from the back and putting them by the door (behind me) so that I could get it organized from back to front. I was tripping over stuff, climbing over mountains of baby paraphernalia and having it out with boxes, boxes and more boxes (they were totally ganging up on me). It was kind of frustrating. Not to mention the BUGS. I hate bugs. I murdered a roach on accident. Really, I'm kinda glad I did it because I would've feared for myself the whole time if not. What was even more frustrating than getting trapped, attacked by bugs & boxes and sweating my butt off was the fact that it still looked a mess when it was all said and done. Grrr. Atleast I know where everything is now, right?! Yeah. I did make a "garage sale" pile in front so I could start taking stuff from the house to the shed and have a place for it. Not only did I do all of that but I totally unloaded the bookshelf in our bedroom and put them in storage until we're ready to take them. It's so tempting to totally pack up our house before November even gets here but I know I have time and I'll do a little bit everyday so that we're not bombarded when the time comes to load up. We are really hoping for this to be a smooth, organized and light move.

On another note, I finally told my parents about the move. It didn't go over soooo well but it went over and that's all that matters. It's so hard to make them understand that this is for our best as far as time and money goes. We have atleast two classes each to complete, possibly three, by April or so. That's NOT a lot of time when you have a one year old and a part time job. They definitely do not like the idea of MAF and all that it entails. Moving their daughter across the US or even the world is not in the question (in their minds) but moving their daughter AND most precious granddaughter, now that's a different story to them. They find it to be a selfish thing to do because other countries can be "soooo dangerous". Now, I know there are things happening in other countries that are awful and scary but my take on it is that they should not, even for a split second, assume that we would take our family to a place that could be dangerous for us and our child. It's so hard when you are trying to tell these plans to people who do not have a "world view" and are not educated in the least about other countries...except for what they see on the news. It's sad and I hope one day my family will see the good in what we want to do and the reason WHY we want to do it. People are dying everyday without even hearing the precious name of Jesus. How unfair is that?! Very.

And then the thought comes to my mind, "has my family even had a true chance?" Ouch.

taking steps

My child is "walking". Well not completely, totally or uninitiated but she's doing it! On Thursday night I think she took about five or six steps total. Earlier last week it was only like two or three. On Friday she took about nine or ten steps. YESTERDAY this amazing little genius kid took sixteen steps and then immediately following that she took twenty-one steps!!! That's right, twenty-one ladies and gentlemen, TWENTY-ONE! It was so amazing to watch. AND better yet, we got it on video!

9 steps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=11bMraQJUy8

20/21 steps:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e22fzA5FAHY

special birthday

Happy 1st Birthday Tristan!

I can't believe he's a year old today...just like I couldn't believe when my little one turned one...and is now 14 months old. My my, where does time fly?!

Tristan, this post is for you. I want you to know that you have ONE of the BEST set of parents ever. They love you with all that they are, I'm sure of it. You are a well cared for little boy and it even shows on your face. You are doing a great job growing and getting big, way big. Your personality shines like no other little boy I've ever met and I'm very lucky to know you. We love you Bear and hope that this birthday brings you lots of joy, goodies and a good nap afterwards ;) (for mommy's sake).

Love, Aunt Tia

battle of the mind

I found out yesterday that we have some committed renters for our house. Great, now it's almost totally 100% official. Which, really, nothing is 100% until it happens but you know what I mean. This is making the realization more...real. My mind is battling against itself. Some days I think about how I know this is best for us right now. It will be good for us to have tons more time to be together as a family, more time to take some classes, more energy to actually DO things as a family, less of a house to clean ;), more room for our big dog, a "built-in" babysitter, a change (which is sometimes good), new friends and new hobbies. Then I think about how I will have to leave a job that I love!, we will be using well water and it has the most awful smell in the world, the water pressure (excuse my lang) sucks, when Sean goes to work (out of town) on the weekends I will be left without a vehicle in a city where I know noone, no dishwasher and I'm KNOW I could come up with more but I won't. I totally see that all of these things aren't really good excuses for not moving but it was a thought ;). I know things will work out the way they are supposed to. Surely, right?!

I'm having a hard time bringing this up with my family. I have a feeling they aren't going to be exactly excited about the whole thing. I KNOW they won't. In my head I rationalize saying that it's only an hour and a half away and it's not that big of a deal. Right? Well, some people can't rationalize and they only think of the negative side of things, not what is really the best for others. It's hard and I'm putting off the conversation we'll have to have. I mean, who knows, maybe they'll surprise me but I'm having a feeling that won't be the case. I don't want to tell them too soon though because then I'll have to deal with it for a month and a half before it actually happens. Ya know? But then I think about how it's not fair for them not to know because they aren't getting a chance to spend time with us as much as they would probably want if knowing we were moving. Blah blah blah. I don't know.

I'll leave you with this, as promised, a picture of AK crawling through the house with her lovey on her head:

new baby

This beauty, right here, to the left, is giving me the touches of baby blues. Isn't she gorgeous! DLH and RH are the proud parents of EBH! I couldn't be more proud of them. She is absolutely amazing. Perfect blend of them both. So petite and angelic. Awww, I love her! Obviously you see why this is giving me some baby blue feelings, right?! I know we are in no position at this time to even think about such preciousness, and really, chasing a one year old around helps combat the feelings, but sometimes I still get the urge. Am I nuts? Ahhhh, baaabbbiiiieeessss. Yum Yum.

And here we are, proud of this beautiful baby girl. Anna-Kate loved her!...although she isn't in the picture because she couldn't sit still :). Oh btw, she took 6 STEPS tonight!!! We are so excited!

And below is Anna-Kate gettin' some lovin' from "Uncle Ro".

final plans

I really hope my mom doesn't read my blog because I'm about to disclose some information that she has no idea about...yet anyways.

We have officially decided to move. We gave our two months notice on the 5th of October which works out great because the first weekend of December starts on the 5th. The idea of it all hasn't exactly hit me yet. I'm not sure it will until it happens. At first I was really stressing out because thoughts of finding a new pediatrician, changing addresses on all of our important documents, finding a new part time job (which has already been taken care of), finding a place to put all of the things we want to keep but won't have room for, transitioning Anna-Kate to a "new life". It all seems overwhelming. I know this is part of growing up, moving on and achieving those dreams we've been striving for but that doesn't make it any easier. Plus, moving in with my MIL doesn't seem so grown up to me. Hahaha! I'm sure it'll all work out.

I think I'm going to keep AK's pedi here and just drive her back for her appointments. It will save me the time and grief of trying to find another great doctor in a completely different city I know nothing about. Plus, all of my family (and few friends) pretty much live here and it won't be that big of a deal to drive down for the appointments. I'll see how I feel about it when I have to drive an hour and a half for the first time just for a doctor's appointment. Hahaha.

My MIL got me a little job with a good friend of hers who either owns or manages a storage company. My job will be the mule of the operation. Running errands, making deposits, etc. Not bad. It is about an hour and a half to two hours a day, Monday thru Friday. I can handle that.

I'm slowly starting the process of hacking through our things and making sale, storage, take piles. It's tough. I don't like it. I have already found a temporary home for AK's crib. Yay. Maybe we can even use it when we are spending some time in town (as in at your house, in your spare room, with the spare full size bed--you know who you are) ;-)?? All of our bedroom items will be going with us. Bed, dresser, bookshelf, TV, nightstands, toy chest, AK's dresser, glider, mini table with chairs, baby bookshelf, changing table and clothes galore. We haven't decided yet what to do with our furniture, kitchen table and all of those goodies. I mean, I'd hate to sell them or give it all away and then not get accepted into the program right away and then have to eventually get our own place and have no furniture for it. Ya know. Too much to process for my brain right now.

I'm glad to say that I do have a couple of friends in the A area. Yay. One being a lovely lady named Tracy who just got married and moved there with her hubby. I can't wait to get together with her. She's pretty awesome.

Okay, well that's all for now. I MUST go do my workout videos or I'll never get to them. Ahhhhh.

PICTURES

Here are those weekend pics I promised. My husband didn't take the camera with him afterall...I found it on the couch ;)

^^^Here we are at the doctor's office...Daddy demonstrating how limber AK is^^^

^^^Getting her test done and napping afterwards^^^

^^^visiting Uncle Kevin and Riley at work and supporting the Longhorns^^^

^^^reading a book before bed and laughing at her Uncle Kevin at dinner^^^

^^^stopping for a visit with AUNT EMILY!!! and acting nuts on our way home from Austin^^^

^^^she's truly a silly girl^^^

^^^gettin' pooped^^^

As I was posting these pictures my little nut came crawling around the corner with her lovey on her head. It was SO HILARIOUS. I was rolling on the floor laughing and she was looking at me like I was the crazy one...and then continued on her way with her lovey on her head. I'll post pics of that later.

...home sweet home...

I am SO GLAD to be home!

Last Thursday Anna-Kate had a doctor's appointment in Austin so we decided to make a mini "vacation" out of it and stay from Wednesday night to Sunday.

The doctor's appointment: it went REALLY well and we couldn't be happier. There were no major catastrophes, praise Jesus. She did way better than I thought she would being that she is way more active than six months ago and she has her own opinion about most things. Of course, she experienced her first sucker in attempts to keep her as still as possible. The results?? you may be wondering. Well, they measure the whole thing on a number scale-10 and below is considered pretty normal. When we were there six months ago it measured at a 21. Thursday it measured at a 13!!!!! We were super happy. The doctor said that her valve is normal but wasn't opening up completely. As she grows, the valve gets bigger, therefore helping out with the whole problem. He doesn't want to see her again until she's two and he said that will most likely be her last visit. YAY!!! I'm so relieved and happy and...RELIEVED! In her case, it seems she's growing right out of it.

The whole weekend: was probably a little more stressful than I had hoped. First, Anna-Kate is trying to cut THREE teeth right now. That's more than ever before. So that made for some minor complications. Second, I don't know what is going on with her but she decided this visit that she DOES NOT like her room at Granny's house. I don't understand why. My husband says that she's probably afraid of the color red. Hahaha. In her room at her granny's house she has red curtains on the windows and a very red sheet on the bed. The bumper pad is denim with some red, a red-ish type carpet...and well, that's all I can think of. Seriously, I'm not kidding, my kid has never screamed like this before. Wednesday night she went down without too much of a problem, probably because she was exhausted, but from Thursday to Saturday the kid hardly slept at all! I consistently tried during the day to get her to sleep in there during her naps and she would scream her head off. She was screaming so bad that her voice starting cracking after the second episode. It was so sad. I couldn't bare to make her do it for long but I'd try for atleast 10 minutes every time. So, she had NO naps those days and slept in bed with me at night while waking up a couple of times during the night crying. Eventually I starting sticking some orejel in her mouth and then she'd go right back to sleep. On Saturday I finally came to the realization that she really just doesn't like that room so I pulled out the pack-n-play. I set it up in our room and put her down for a nap immediately after it was all out together and SHE WENT RIGHT TO SLEEP! I'm not joking. The kid slept! And we weren't in there with her-she was by herself and she went to sleep! I was sooo relieved. So from Saturday nap-on she slept in the pack-n-play. Atleast she slept, aye?

Despite all of the madness, Sean and I did get out for a movie and icecream on Friday night. It was nice to be together without a one year on my hip. We LOVE our daughter, but sometimes it has to happen. She had fun with her Granny and that Granny had her sleeping before we got home. Ahhhh. It was nice.

I wish I had some pictures to share but I left the camera in the car and Sean went to work :(. I was so excited to get them up too. More to come later.

SASS from a ONE YEAR OLD

My daughter is showing some little personality flaws this wonderful Wednesday. She woke up bright and early at 7 am fussing...yes, this is early for us. Not only did she wake up at 7 but she was up at like 1 and then 3. She hasn't slept through the night in about a week and hasn't had a real meal in just as long. Now, I know these aren't personality flaws but here's one for ya. She's been knocking the pictures over on the end table lately. I've given her a few "spankings" for it, none of which have phased her. When I see her standing at the table THINKING about doing it I call her name and tell her, "no"! She turns her little cute head around with her little cute curls popping out over her ears and gives me this look. I wish I could explain it but it's so funny and so ATTITUDE. I have to turn my head and giggle and then regain my seriousness about the crime she's about to commit and warn her about what will happen next if she chooses to put a finger on those pictures. She continues with her little look and I walk of. I've noticed that she's only threatening me with this daring look but then chooses to listen to her mommy. I seriously do not know where this "look" came from and I'll try to capture it on camera one day but I'll attempt to explain it for the time being. She turns and looks at me with semi-raised eyebrows, eyes that can stare a hole in you and this ever-so-sassy half grin as if she thinks she's the one really in charge.

And get this, this morning when I put her down for a nap she threw a fit. I left her in her bed for about and hour and a half, maybe two, and when I went in to get her it smelled like PUKE. She made herself throw up!! It was on her bed sheet, bumper pad, bed skirt AND the floor. Not to mention her clothes. I have no idea how she managed this. I know she's pretty much over being sick so that can't be it. She started gagging herself a little bit not too long ago and I'm wonder if that's what she did.

It's now noon and she's in her bed again (second attempt at a nap today) with only a sheet on the mattress. I had to remove everything else. She sure keeps me on my toes.

sick baby

*Update*

This is what has happened since I posted last. My child has broken out with this terrible rash and I'm not sure what is causing it. My suspensions point to a reaction to tylenol...maybe. This same thing happened the last time she had a "viral" infection. The doctor has said that viral infections can cause a rash like this and a reaction to tylenol can also. I was wondering about the whole tylenol thing because I've it given to her since she was a baby for fevers, teething and such and nothing ever happened but they said it can happen all of a sudden. Who knows. I'll be taking her to the doctor tomorrow morning if this rash isn't taken care of by benadryl. Poor baby.

My little darling is sick! Around 5:45 this morning she woke up crying. I let her "cry it out" for probably a minute or two and then realized that this cry wasn't like any other. So, I got up and stumbled into her room to be greeted by the most awful smell. I then continued stumbling over to her lamp. When I turned it on I could see that she had stuff in her hair and all over her sleeper. I walked over to the crib to check out the "crime" scene and it was full of nasty wetness. So to the bathtub we went. She was crying and shaking and acting so weird. I still don't know why she was doing that. I mean, she was probably just as tired as I was and then there I was stripping her clothes off and tossing her in some water...not the best early morning greeting. The whole time I thought she had thrown up because that's what it looked like and smelled like. Well, when I got her clothes off I soon realized that she had diarrhea dried up her back and on her sleeper. It was everywhere!!! She had been having diarrhea the whole day and I passed it off as teething and now I'm not so sure. I've never seen that much poo from teething. I had to totally strip her bed-sheet, pad, bear and lovey and get it washed asap so the smell isn't lingering around. That would be gross. I have no idea what my husband did with the diaper...hopefully he put it outside...I'm pretty sure he did because he was just as grossed out. She is now running a little fever and being cranky as ever. I can tell it's going to be a long day which is not good because I have a lot of cleaning, planning and packing to do for our trip to Austin on Wednesday. She has a pediatric cardiology appointment on Thursday.

Well, I'm off to try to get stuff done. Happy Monday.

cousins

Yesterday evening was pretty fun. I went to a friend's little boy's birthday party. He turned one last Sunday. It was small and quaint. Anna-Kate had fun playing with someone else's toys...you know, they get tired of their own after a while. About an hour and a half into the party my OB!! showed up who happens to be my friends cousin. Niiiice. It wasn't too awkward...only in my head. Sometimes I need to just face weird situations to help myself realize it's not really that weird after all. Her first response to seeing Anna-Kate (whom she hasn't seen since she was tiny) was, "Wow, she looks just like you!" That put a grin on my face since everyone seems to say she looks like her daddy. I KNOW for a fact that this kid looks like me...she just looks like her daddy too :). She's a MUCH CUTER version though which is a-okay with me.

After the party I "ran" to my mom's house for a little while to get some much needed NEW pics of all her little grandchildren, two of which have been adopted by a wonderful family and are so gracious and caring to let us see them. They spend weekends with my parents quite often...atleast one every couple months. Before the oldest started school they were there every month for days at a time. We have been very blessed with the family they have been adopted to and couldn't ask for more. (This whole adoption thing is a loooong story) Anna-Kate, of course, was the only cousin. The other four are brother and sisters but they don't exactly know it. The oldest, Madi, knows that Cameron and Emily are her siblings but Cameron and Emily don't know that we are their biological family. I think Cameron senses it some where deep inside because of the way he acts sometimes but he was really young when all of this took place. Cameron spent the first year and a half with our family before he was removed from his parents (my brother) and Emily went to this family straight from the hospital (in which she spent a month or two, I don't remember). Needless to say, it was all a mess but everything is okay now. Here are the pics from that (almost disaster ;)):

You know, I figured I might as well explain this whole family dynamics thing really fast so people aren't left wondering. Okay, my brother had Madison with a girl who didn't tell him that Madison was his until she was like 3 or something. Then my brother had Cameron and Emily with another girl. When this girl got pregnant with Emily she then decided that having another baby was not a good idea so someone told her that if she did crack then she would have a miscarriage (obviously they were already doing things that weren't good ideas). So, she does this not knowing exactly how far along she is (because she never went to the doctor). Eventually she goes into labor from all of the drug use and delivers Emily. She weighed four pounds and tested positive for drug use. Cameron was immediately taken away and Emily was never given to them. My brother and this chick ended up spending some time in jail for some other things and eventually lost all rights to their kids and were adopted by this family I spoke of earlier. After all of this happened and while my brother was in jail (I think) this other girl comes forward and tells my brother that he fathered Madison (and there is no denying it, the girl looks JUST like him!). So when he got out he started getting her on weekends and stuff and eventually met a girl whom he is married to now. They have a little girl named Kylee. Madison's mom got all of her kids taken away just at the time my brother was settling down with his current wife so they have had custody of her for almost 2 years or something. Cameron and Emily's adopted family allow all to see the kids and spend time with them. Their biological mother has no contact because she never got her act together.

Whew, okay, that was a lot but hopefully it makes sense and explains the pics a little bit.

P.S. It's hard to get good pictures of a 5 year old, 4 year old, 3 year old, 1 year old (mine of course)and a 10 month old all together.

darn couch cushions

So, my husband got a weekend job about an hour away being the pilot for a skydiving company. It sounds like a pretty cool job except the pay is little, it's an hour away and it's basically 12 hours both Saturday and Sunday. He has to leave at 7am and gets home around 6 or 7pm. No bueno. He started this last weekend and it made for a very long weekend on our (mine and Anna-Kate's) behalf (and I'm totally sure his!). Since we only have one car this means we are stuck all weekend without transportation. Last weekend my mom came and picked us up in the mornings and we basically camped out at her house all day. I don't necessarily want to do that every weekend as that gets just as boring as being at home alone. He took this job to help get the remaining hours needed for MAF. He's at around 340 right now and needs 400. He says this job will only be for about a month or two. Hopefully it's true. Not only is it not fun for me and kiddo but it totally wears him out because he works 40 hours Monday through Friday and then picks up another 20 or so hours on the weekend at this new job. Bear with me on this. Anna-Kate's wake time is from 7am-7pm. During those 12 hours she takes a total of about 2-4 hours worth of naps. Sean doesn't get home until 5pm during the week so this means he sees her for a total of about 10 hours during the week and pretty much not at all on the weekends...maybe an hour or two if we're lucky. That is so sad to me! I know I shouldn't say this but most of me can't wait for this phase of our life to be over. As much as I don't want to move I kind of do because this means Sean will be around A LOT more and I'll get more assistance with raising our child. I'm not at all mad or bitter with him, I'm just sad that he is missing out on our daughter. Because afterall, she is TRULY AMAZING. And I'm sad that she's missing out on her oh-so-fun daddy. All I can do at this moment is sigh.

On another note, the Heart of Texas Fair & Rodeo is in town. This yearly "extravaganza" takes place about 5-7 minutes from our house. Do you know what this means???? It means that every night around bedtime those darn country bands start up and disturb our peace. The first night I seriously thought the block behind us was having some kind of party so I drove around looking for it and there was none to be found. Then as I was watching the news I realized that it was the "kick off" night and they were jamming it up. So it's safe to say that for the next 8 evenings I'll be feeling the urge to call the police on some obnoxious music that I almost always assume is located one block over at a certain house...I won't give out addresses. I know this disturbance is just part of living near the HOT coliseum but none-the-less it's still nerve rattling. I just feel sorry for those people who live basically next door to the place. Ahhhhh!!! So, if you are one of those people out enjoying these country bands (because in all honesty I wish I was) just think about how I'm at home wishing they would turn down the bass about a million notches...then try to enjoy yourself ;).

Wow, it sure seems like I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. Actually, I woke up on the wrong side of the couch cushions. Anna-Kate is teething, which makes for awful poopy, which makes for an awful diaper rash, which makes for a bad night because every time she tt's she wakes up screaming. So, being the smart person that I am, I took the couch cushions off the couch and put them on the floor in her room so I wouldn't have to keep getting up. Plus, I didn't want to disturb Sean because he has to get up early. Needless to say, I was up a majority of the night and was not excited about waking up at 7:30 especially when I went to bed around 3 or 4. She's napping right now and I should be but I have too much on my mind to do so.

Peace out.

...a possum is eeeating my shooooe...

Gotta love Veggie Tales songs. One thing you must know about us, we ALWAYS have a Veggie Tales song stuck in our head! This morning Sean woke up singing, "Driving down the road in our sport utility vehicles, slam in to 4-wheel drive for a scoop of rocky road!"....or something along those lines. It's always funny when Sean has a Veggie Tales song playing in his head because he never has the songs correct. Probably because he doesn't watch them nearly as much as I do. Hahaha! It's pretty funny though. Just ask those who talk to me often, I sing them a Veggie Tales song atleast once a week...and that's not nearly enough considering they are almost constantly floating around in my head. It's sad when I make it a point to avoid putting on certain veggies because of the guarantee that I will be walking around all day with an annoying song in my head. Anyways, I thought that would be a fun conversation for the time being.

News, we HAVEN'T put in our two month notice. We are both feeling as though we may not be ready for it. I'm okay with that. I haven't come to grips with the whole idea of moving yet. I've lived here my whole life and have only spent a month away from home and that was probably one of the hardest and lonely months of my life. It's going to be hard, I know it is, and I need to be preparing myself for the day that I actually have to grow up and make this transition. I'll keep you all informed.

Now, did anyone watch the debate last night?? We did. I was hesitant at first because I find my nerves ridiculously rattled by the voices of both Barak Obama and Joe Biden. I don't know why, it just happens every time. I have this "I'm going to be revisiting my dinner if I have to hear you say another word" type feeling when I hear them speak. They both totally creep me out and I'm really anxious to get this whole presidential election thing OVER WITH! I must say, Sarah Palin did a grand job and definitely fired some stinging remarks that SHOULD'VE had people thinking if they even considered voting for Obama-Biden.
One last thing about that, my BIL (brother-in-law) posted this thing one day that said, "Obama n Biden. Sounds a lot like Osama bin Laden. Coincidence? I think not!" It was so funny! And true. Wow.

Well, I'm off to hang out with my daughter on our day off ;). We have some errands to run. Happy Friday to all!

...trust...

I'm wondering when life will start filling me in on upcoming events. I'm not complaining, I'm just saying. My husband talked to me this morning about giving our landlord a two months notice today on when we'll be moving out-which makes for December 1st. This wouldn't be such an....annoyance for me if I hadn't just gotten a job, gotten Anna-Kate used to a new schedule (and even myself), and became comfortable with my position in life right now. I mean come on, I just started actually HAVING a life, making friends, having fun, earning some much earned money and the whole shabang. Now, we're going to uproot my current "life" to begin another one...only to uproot that too eventually. I know it's part of living and getting to those dreams that have been out of reach for so long, but I was just getting used to settling for what's going now. And settling is obviously never a good thing. I don't want to settle for the little things in life when I know there are bigger things yet to be had. I think my problem is that I think way too much. What will we do when we get to where we're going? Are we even going to get there? How will it affect Anna-Kate's life? Will it change her fun loving personality? Will it make me more anxious/paranoid? Will we make decent money to live and do the things we want to do? Will we have decent healthcare? Will we waste our time striving for something only to be shot down? Will I reeeally be able to stand living with my MIL (she's totally awesome, I'm just saying)? Will things ever be normal-consistent-steady? Will we ever be at a place to have another child? Do we even want another child?

Blah blah blah.

Sometimes I wish I could shut off my brain.