November - Gobble Gobble!!!

Wow - October went by quick....and its been a crazy couple of weeks so I'm sorry I've been gone.  My aniversary was last month and it was amazing! Hard to believe that I have been a married woman for ten whole years!! 
We finished with softball and now both kids are starting basketball.  I have to admit that I am so excited to be able to sit in the bleachers and cheer for my kids for a change :)

Derek got a promotion a few weeks ago.  It is such a blessing too - I am so proud of him.  He wasn't thrilled, it wasn't a promotion he asked for, but I think deep down he was proud of himself too.

Did I mention that  I am pumped that its November?? Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday!!! I can't wait!!! Not to mention my birthday is the day before and the best shopping day of the year is the day after, so its going to be a fabulous week!!!

new moon!!

So New Moon came out Friday and I get to see it today for my birthday (which is tomorrow)!! Yay!!! So excited!

I got it!! yay!!

Well, I got my picture!! It is so beautiful and I am so excited. My camera is dead so I will have to take a pic of it later. I am going to clean clean clean today and organize tomorrow so I will likely just take pics of my house and post those.

Hubby brought my fall/Halloween/Thanksgiving box down from storage last night. I am so excited. I love to decorate for this time of year. Its so much fun!

Yesterday afternoon, Derek just had to go to Academy. We are wanting to get our light switches and outlet covers for the living room and kitchen (I want Mossy Oak covers - well actually Real Tree Hardwood Green but they are all the same.) So off we went. In my search for the outlet covers, I found something spectacular!! I found a REAL TREE CUTTING BOARD! It is absolutely darlin. So I bought it, took to my mommy, she paid me back and she is holding it till my birthday. I don't know if can stand to wait that long though! My birthday is in late November. Mom and I have a pretty cool relationship. I dont like for her to spend alot of money on me for holidays cause I know she's not got an endless supply of pictures of dead presidents so I prefer that she use her money elsewhere, so if I find something I have to have, I can call her and tell her and that is what she will get. But since neither of us go to Academy very often, I went ahead and just bought it and took it to her. I know it was the easiest birthday shopping ever for her! ha ha ha ... but I can't wait!!


Oh, and another totally awesome find at Academy that my hubby bought me....some camoflauge croc flip flops. They are so comfy and I love them. So that was my day of being spoiled :) Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!!

WHEW...What a day!

Okay, we are on day two of my vacation and I am worn out. I don't feel relaxed at all!! Its been go go go go go go since I got off!! :) Yesterday we picked up the floors for the house (YAY!! F.I.N.A.L.L.Y. ) and then we purchased the vanity and the sink for the kids bathroom. I am so excited. We are finally almost through. The only thing left to purchase it the crown molding and final baseboards. They should begin laying the floors tomorrow. We also emptied one of the two storage buildings so that is one less bill each month which is a good thing. Now to just get rid of about three more.

We had Shanna's birthday. I took her with me to the salon and we had our hair cut and I had my usual coloring and eye brow wax. After that she turned into diva prima donna. She ruled the world on her birthday! ha ha ha....she got an abundance of clothes which she loved and a hoola hoop that we can't get her out of! She also got her cook book and she is estatic. She is no longer a baby girl and she loves to be in the kitchen with me so I guess its about time I start teaching her the fundamentals.

Finally, while sister and I were at the salon, daddy calls me and he and Carson adopted the newest member of our family. He is a 5 month old lab/husky mix. He is white with a khaki spot around his eye and one or two khaki spots on his back. He is very excited and fun and large. The kids love him. Derek's even doting on him more than any other dog we have owned. I am very excited that we got him. We named him Gage and of course the "posse" (referring to the coven of cats that we have - that are mean btw...Mia Belle, Tinkerbell, Shadow and Salem) were not to thrilled. They know if they hurt them we will get em so they try to leave him alone, but the fact that we made his home close to the front porch (which they consider their turf) did not excite them by any means. ;)

So, our lil farm just got a little bigger!! I have always loved huge families...

To My Sunshine...

I love my son. He is my universe. But my daughter, she is the sun that lights up my world. And today, July 7th, my daughter is 6. She will be in 1st grade next year. And she has decided that she is no longer a cute little baby girl, but a mature independent BIG GIRL. No more character baby stuff for her. Just cute prints and colors. She is a big girl now, and mommy is falling a part like a 2 year old. My daughter has been attached to my hip since birth. She is MY baby girl. I could not have been more upset during my pregnancy with her. I didn't want a second baby and I was LIVID that my birth control wasn't working and I wasn't aware until it was too late.
I wasn't mad at her, just the situation. I knew she would be head strong since she tried to come a month early and turned her head and got stuck when they stopped my labor. She refused to budge. I wouldn' let her come when she wanted then BY GOLLY SHE WASN'T COMING WHEN I WANTED HER TO! :) I was in the hospital 5 times before I finally had her and we had to force her out. The experience was a night mare but as soon as I heard her tiny sweet cry, I realized that as much as I loved my son and I loved being a mother, my life would never be the same. She brought Derek to his knees with one look. She still does. Carson is my sweet, affection, grounded, brilliant, above average dreamer. I love to listen to him rationalize thing and learn knew things and I love for him to teach me. Shanna on the other hand, doesn't dream. She does. and she is fearless. She will take whatever comes at her full on and not think twice about it. Just does it. and she doesn't meet a stranger. She's so full of spark and life. She went to St. Louis and my mother in law took her to a museum or mall with a trampoline that had bungee cords that you could jump and do flips. This 5 year old (almost 6) gets up there and is jumping two stories high and doing back flips and front flips and having the time of her life. It must have been a good show b/c from what I hear people were in so much shock that she had people stopping and watching all over the place. There was apparently a LOOOONNNNGGG line of people watching this brave fearless one! ha ha ha





She is so full of love and compassion and Icould not imagine my life without my frilly princess who would wear her frilly dresses to ball practice if I let her. She gives 110% in everything she does and I love her endlessly. Happy Birthday to my Shanna Bug. and thank you Lord for blessing me with her. Thank you.

In Remembrance

Today is May 20th. Today is my dad's birthday. May he rest in peace. I miss you every day and now more than ever, I wish you were here. I hope your first birthday in Heaven is your best ever!! I love you.

Playing catchup

Okay, so its been awhile...been just a tad bit busy...

Sis-in-law's wedding was last weekend. It was beautiful if I do say so myself. I was thrilled for her. Her day went just as she wanted it. So I was pumped. I slept 7 hours in 2 days, but it was completely worth it. Just to see her relaxed and enjoying her self and so happy. Lord knows at my wedding, I was the exact opposite. But of course, she knew all she had to do was hollar and I would do whatever she needed so she had no reason to stress. Hey, that's what I am here for! :)

A week ago was March 16. It was one month since dad died. It was a hard day. Its still hard to actually grasp that even happened. It gets a little easier as time goes on, but the thought that it actually happened and he is NOT coming back whatsoever sucks. I finished cleaning out his house with my brother and going through his boxes of stuff I brought home absolutely sucks. I can't hardly do it some days. Just different things that I find that he had or he did, it just breaks my heart. I found different things he wrote or did for softball, or us kids, or calendars and notes he wrote to remember something. It just brings it all back. And the pictures, my lands, the pictures. You just really don't realize all the time that has literally just flown by.

I help coach my daughter's softball team. On the way to practice I think about how he used to do it. He coached softball from the time I was four until 2007 when he was diagnosed. He loved softball. Next to hunting and fishing, it was his world and he was known for it. Everyone locally knew him as an awesome coach. He was really good at it. I strive to coach like he did. I learned alot from him watching him coach the last several years and remembering things he did, his attitude toward coaching his girls. "Its not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game", "you can't hit what you can't see", "pick dirt up when you catch a ball on the ground" "you hurt the ball more than it hurts you"...I still to this day hear him say those things and I catch myself repeating those phrases to my girls now. I hope one day I am half the coach he was. He was truly awesome. Some days the wind blows just right and I hear him telling the girls what to do...other times I see him on a separate field running from first base to the pitchers mound to tell his girl something. Its crazy, I know, but that ballpark was my home away from home my entire life and for years, that man ran it.

Other than that, all I have done the last several weeks is work. I am ready for a break and I get a week off in July, which can't come soon enough.

In other news, our house had a holiday last week. My son turned 7. SEVEN! I almost out of fingers for that child! I can't believe it has been 7 YEARS since I held that sweet little baby boy in my arms and just stared into his eyes. He is such a sweet and brilliant little boy who is absolutely amazed by everything around him. He has such compassion in his heart for those around him and at times he blows me away by things he comes up with, says or even does. What 7 year old child do you know will get $20.00 for his birthday and when he goes to spend it makes sure that he buys something with his money for his little sister? He's done it his entire life and I have never once told him he had or should even do it. That's the kind of sweetness he has about him. He loves to do for others and Shanna is the same way. She always buys Carson a book with her birthday money. I am so proud of my children and I love my son more than anything in the world and I cannot wait to see what life has in store for him. I just still can't believe that my son is 7. Its nuts. I don't even think I am old enough for a 7 year old sometimes!! :)

LOL...more to come later...I promise to try to post more regularly now!

Friday Night Fish Fry

We had a fish fry, our family tradition, at my sister's house Friday night. It was so much fun. It was the first time that we have had ALL 14 grandkids and all 8 siblings and their signficant others, with the exception of my hubby and my sister's hubby, present. So there were nearly 30 people there just in our immediate family! crazy huh? It was a blast and I believe that my dad really enjoyed it. I am sure it was nice for him to have all of his kids and grandbabies around. ;)



Me n my dadL-R; F-B: Katrina, Haley, Emma, Aaron, Carson, Andrew, Elizabeth (holding Braylee), Anna, Dad, Kaelyn, Austin, Shanna, Keaton, and Tyler!!

I had such a blast spending time with all of them.

*****

Fast forward two days...and I am spending a day at home on my hubby's birthday doing absolutely nothing, when I should be doing a million things, with a severe headache and a sick baby boy. Boo. I feel so bad for him. His asthma is really acting up and he's congested and the sinus draining is making him throw up. He's just miserable. :( Its a short week for him at school, so I am hoping he is feeling better soon.