Is This Thing On...

Looking into the eyes of a man who has just lost his best friend is horrific. Christmas mornings as our children finished up unwrapping their presents. As our home beamed with Christmas joy my husband answered the phone to the screaming of his best friends brother. Adam's best friend of 18 years is gone. Took his life. Our life will never be the same...

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Enjoying Every Stage

I find myself daily getting sad that my kids are getting older and older and I can't make it stop. I quickly correct Caeden when he says he can't wait until he's 7 or 8 or 9. It's a never ending battle. But this week was pretty darn cool. Caeden let jealously motivate him. Yes, strange to think that's cool. He could not handle the fact that the kid next door learned to ride a 2 wheeler before him. From the moment he saw this he knew he had to get this task accomplished. Within a day our little guy went from a scared shaky guy to this confident proud kid.
Each day he's gotten better and better. This morning I went for a jog in the neighborhood and guess who was an awesome companion? It's sad to see your babies not as babies anymore, but it is so cool to find new things at every stage that can be enjoyed together. He thought he was so big. He motivated me to go further and faster.
Caeden is also taking an interest in baseball. This is his third season playing and you can just tell he likes this far more than anything else we've put him in. This makes dad so proud. They decided to sign up for a second league this summer and Adam would coach. When Caeden found out that his dad would be his coach his smile was so big. I treasure these times.

My Mom and My Work

This is my mom...



Here's the written story.


We happen to work for the same company (the one mentioned in this video). It really comes in handy when I forget my lunch money. She's been through a lot and always has a smile on her face. Everyone that knows my mom loves her. She is just a really cool person. The year I graduated from high school and my brother got married she was diagnosed with Uterine Cancer and was healed. Three years after that she was diagnosed with Colon Cancer. Praise the Lord she was healed again. I could not have asked for a better mom. She is such an example of strength and kindness and love.

Tales of the High Anxiety Kid

C:"Mom, white milk comes out of soccer uniforms right?" ( I look up to see a towel covering his entire front)
Me:"Yes, white milk comes out easily. No big deal."
C: "Well, uh it still comes out when all the cereal turns it chocolate right?"
Me: "No big deal we'll fix it. Take off the towel and let me see."


Guess who's wearing a brown shirt to soccer?

My 3 Year Old Girl

When you have one of each you can have a favorite girl in the world. Today is the day Aevry has been very impatiently waiting for. She walked around church on Sunday (the day of her party) telling everyone "say Happy Birthday to me". She makes all of our lives better. She is hilarious and beautiful. She has a very strong personality (which I am thankful for) but she is also the cuddliest kid I've ever met. Happy Birthday baby girl. I love you with my pink heart.

So the Fun Begins

Turns out I'm allergic to most everything. Cats, dogs, bunnies, guinea pigs, mold, dust, pollen, ragweed, grass, soy, beef and chocolate. Who would of thought? I've always had seasonal and some animal allergies but was not sure exactly what so when I went for the food tests she ran the whole lot. Have you ever read food packages? Soy is not an easy thing to avoid. Come to find out most things that are labeled "natural flavoring" means soy as well.
It's kinda funny because in all of my reading up on allergies it talks about craving food you are allergic to. Some of my favorite things when I haven't been feeling well lately were huge hamburgers and bowls of edamame followed with double chocolate fudge ice cream. No joke. It's been about a week and I don't notice anything incredible yet. The doc said I may not but it's best to stay away. So in short if you want to have a really lame dinner party invite me and The Burkulator over.

If you know of any cool blogs or sites about soy allergies please direct me. Chocolate and Beef are pretty self explanatory.

PS. We took A's pacifier away at night FINALLY. Now she lays in bed for at least an hour talking to "Hantannah" (Hanna Montana) and Ariel. Right now she is talking to them about "Adam" and "Laura" not mom and dad.

Content

Life is good right now. My incredibly awesome parents blessed us by giving us their old car. Which is in way better shape than both of our cars and I don't feel like such a dork in a big mini van when driving to Dr.'s offices all day. All of the drug reps I see have sweet luxury cars. I'm okay without anything fancy. I just want reliable and I'm not too sure how much Adam's 1996 Plymouth Breeze had left in it. It still ran, but when I pulled the Blue Book value it said it was worth $650. We just got new tires for over $200 and a radio when his was stolen last year for $150. So really the car is worth about$200. Sorry to say I will not miss that car at all. It was a stick and hate driving sticks.

We had an awesome time at Kalahari last weekend. Adam and I actually survived an entire youth group trip without giving each other the silent treatment( if you don' tcount the part when he shaved one of the kids heads in our kitchen as we were about to walk out the door). Don't tell our kids we are going there without them for our anniversary. I can not wait.

The kids are awesome and hilarious. Caeden has been very at ease lately and that makes me feel 1000 times better. A mom from daycare just gave us all the summer clothes we could need for Aev. She has refused to take off the princess nightgown for 2 days. She is wearing it with pants. I will scrape it off of her at bath time tonight. You may hear screaming wherever you live. Don't worry she is fine.

It's been a while since I felt so content. I love this feeling!

Pajama Day

C has been talking about pajama day at school all year long. He can not wait to wear his Batman pj's to school. Well, tomorrow is the big day. He can not sleep. Not because he is excited, but because he is fretting that I have it wrong and he will be the only kid at school in pj's. Poor kid got my worry gene. I promised that his dad would be able to tell if the kids walking up to the doors had them on or not. If I'm wrong he can come home and change before anyone sees him.

It seemed like last year I could do no wrong. This year I apparently have no idea what I'm talking about. I wish I could have a pj day tomorrow. I wish he could stay 6 forever.

Sick Day & Birthday's

Hi friends. I apologize for my neglectful behavior. I read everybody's blog but am logged in as Zombie half of the time and am far too lazy to switch over to comment.
Today is Adam's Birthday. So stop on over and wish him well. He's always a ton of fun on March 10th year after year. His mom is going come by tonight so we can go out for a bite this evening sans kids.
C woke us up at 2 am with a 103.5 fever and headache. He is doing much better now, but he gets so goofy when he has a fever and talks non stop. I've never seen anything like it. I took the day off to cuddle with him and take him to the doctor.

Happy Birthday Adam. I love you with my pink heart!

Old Navy Monkey

Am I the only one who is horribly disturbed by this Chimp that tore his owners friends face off? That is messed up. The 911 call is horrible. I often pray for weird things like "God please don't ever let my family be on the news for some tragedy". I never want to have the fear in my voice that she had. I'm not a huge animal person so I can't understand dressing up animals daily or sharing my bed with an animal that is twice the size of me or sharing my tea and Xanax in a wine glass. This is why I don't watch the news.

You Can't Make These Things Up

Family driving in the car:

C: "Mom, dad when is Insane Patrick's day?"

M& D: Look strangely at each other.

The Weekend

We had a birthday for a special little girl this weekend. My step-daughter turned 12. I can't believe she is so old. She really is a beautiful young lady. We went to Mongolian BBQ and to see Paul Blart: Mall Cop (on the Burkulater's recommendation). I was pleasantly surprised. It was appropriate enough for C and A to sit through. C loved it and A stayed seated the entire time. It was actually a miracle. I think we all laughed out loud through the entire movie.
It's funny how the weather can change your mood so much. The sun has been shining around here and the temps are up. It seems as though our family has had an instant attitude adjustment. I like it.
You know how you get so excited for your kids to learn new skills? I never thought I'd be bummed about one of my kids mile stones. After a long action packed weekend I put A to bed at 7 (which never happens at our house). After realizing that his sister was missing C looked at me with disgust that I had actually put A to be so early.

Political Views

Now that my face has gone back to it's original shade I can share a story with my blogging friends. My poor little boy. He is so smart. Too smart for his own good sometimes. He listens to the many colorful conversations that go on around here and doesn't say too much. We have a very busy house with friends always coming and going. Religious and political views have been in a lot of our conversations lately.
I got an e-mail from C's teacher last week asking if we could talk to him about a conversation he had with a few girls at lunch after watching the inauguration in class. He said "I can't believe Barack Obama is the President don't you know he kills babies". This upset the girls and they all ended up in the principals office. He had never been called to the office before, but he knew it wasn't a good thing.
I did the walk of shame going to pick him up that day. We got in the car and he said "I can't bemember, does Barack Obama kill babies? I didn't get in trouble. I just can't bemember?"
Lesson learned. It's important to teach your kids how precious life is and that we need fight to protect it. It's not a good idea to use language that children can easily take literally.

Parenting Advice?

If you make a perfectly good soup for dinner and the kids won't eat it what do you do? I'm so tired of this battle. Do you give them another option? Is cereal an acceptable other option?