Tears already...

Katie and Lili are leaving tomorrow to head back home to Georgia and the tears have already begun to swell in my eyes.  To say that I have thoroughly enjoyed spending the past few days with our granddaughter is certainly an understatement.  The joy and 'brightness' she brings to our lives is immeasurable.  I'd give everything I have to have them nearer to us.  Just to hear her say out of the blue 'Nana, I love you,' brings me more joy than I ever thought possible.

The love I have for our granddaughter does not lie solely with her.  We Skyped tonight with Ryan and Jenny...we don't do that nearly enough...and we were able to see Nathan (our grandson whom I love just as much as our granddaughter),  Since they live in California and will soon be moving to Colorado, we do not get to see them nearly enough.  I truly hate having our family spread all over the continental US.


One of the highlights of my life was summer last year when we had all of Randy's children, with spouses and children, under one roof.  The only person missing was my biological daughter Jamie.  Here are some pictures that were taken then.  All photos provided courtesy of Ashleigh-Faye Photography.

Granted, the pictures are almost a year and a half old so obviously Nathan has changed as well as Grace's hair is finally growing out.  But it still remains the same,  I love my family.  Need I say more?

Thanksgiving 2011

We have so much to be thankful for, I honestly do not know where to begin.  One year ago Randy had just been laid off from his job, but we had so many promising leads on the horizon that we genuinely had no worries.  Yes, money was a little bit tighter than what we were accustomed to so Christmas ended up being less than normal but none of us minded.  We had no doubt that Randy would find a job by February...at the latest.  The new year began but still no prospects.  Randy never once admitted to being worried or concerned, he still had faith that he would find a job...and soon.  Winter ended and spring began, followed by summer in June.  That's when things took a down turn.  Randy had been interviewed in May but nothing came of it.  That was the first and only interview he'd had in 6 months. 

So what happened after that?  He went on a few more interviews but...nothing came of them.  Then at the beginning of October, 48 weeks since he'd been laid off, he received a call from that interview in May.  By the middle of October, 50 weeks post employment, he had started working!

Now back to Thanksgiving.  What am I most thankful for?  Obviously that would be that my husband is working again.  He's been lifted from his depression and is rediscovering his purpose.  I'm also thankful for our girls.  It took them a couple of months to realize what it meant to have daddy out of work but they hung in there with us and endured...even when that meant they couldn't go to a birthday party...or we couldn't go to the go-kart track...or to the movies...or that they couldn't take gymnastics or piano lessons or guitar lessons...they began to understand and when they asked and the answer was 'no,' they didn't throw temper tantrums (which was their normal reaction).

I'm also thankful for my family.  When things were VERY slim, they stepped right in and helped us out.  Thank you mom and pop!  Two of my very best friends, my sisters Leann and Stephanie, were never more than a phone call away, ready to listen to me sob through tears, knowing that I just needed to vent and get it off my chest so that I would not cry in front of Randy.

During our whole ordeal, when I wasn't even looking, I found a church for the girls and I to go to.  For about 6 months we went just the three of us but then Randy joined us as well.  It was a spiritual uplifting that we certainly needed.  I'm thankful to Janice, the mom of one of Emily's classmates who introduced us to the church.  I'm also thankful for all of the unknown prayer warriors...thank you!

This has been a very quiet yet joyful Thanksgiving.  Katie brought Liliana down on Tuesday and we've enjoyed a wonderful time together.  Lili cracked us up last night, see the video below:

She is so precious, she absolutely warms my heart.  While I've been typing this she called me across the room...just to say right out of the blue, "I love you, nana!"  It's terrific when you hear that from your own child, but even more awesome when you hear it from your granddaughter!

I'm thankful for so much this year...our family has truly been blessed during the darkest time of our almost 10-year marriage.  God has blessed us in many, many ways, for which we are so thankful. 

"I broke my toe"

So, a few weeks ago when I was trying to get the girls to finish cleaning their room, I separated them and let them only clean it one at a time (they were playing too much otherwise).  At one point I was holding Grace's hand and leading her to her room when her left foot came back as my left foot came forward and CrUnCh!  OUCH!  My pinkie toe immediately swelled up and had a tinge of black and blue.  By the next morning the entire area where your toe is connected to your foot was black and blue.  UGH!  Have you ever had a broken toe?  If you have, then you know that the only thing that can be done is to tape the broken one to the next toe.  So I did.

Two weeks later I woke up on a school morning and went into the girls' room to wake them up.  On the way in there, on my cut through the family room, I stubbed my toe on Grace's boot!  O.M.G.!!!  Yep, it hurt like the dickens but I continued to walk on it.

Fast forward to last week - 2-1/2 weeks post first break.  I decided to go to my doctor. My foot was STILL swollen and in a LOT of pain.  He had x-rays done and determined that I definitely broke it the first time....and re-broke it in the same spot the second time.  Fortunately the break was not in the joint of my toe so my doc taped it up and sent me on my way...with a bottle of painkillers.

It's only for a year, after all

Wow, it was a busy week!  Thankfully it is all over now and we can focus on what's ahead...Randy's favorite holiday!  YEP, that's right, Thanksgiving!!!  Randy does ALL of the cooking except for the sweet potatoes and I do the clean up.  On the menu this year and most every other year?

      Cajun deep-fried turkey
      Dressing
      Mashed potatoes
      Sweet potatoes with marshmallows and pecans
      Green bean casserole (he has mastered this in the slow cooker!)
      Dirty rice (YUM!)
      Biscuits (not from scratch but definitely not from a can!)
     
Our agreement since we were dating is that he cooks the entire dinner (believe me, he wants to!) and I clean the mess up.  I can live with that since he is, admittedly, a much better cook than me!  ;)

Efren, Katie and Liliana will be here on Wednesday, am getting very excited for them to get here...I miss my grandbaby!!!  I talked to her on the phone today and she kept saying over and over that she gets to come to 'Nana's house'...I miss that girl so much!

We told Katie this last week that if Efren gets orders for a remote tour (an unaccompanied, one-year tour) she and Lili may come live with us.  Yes, I know it will be hard, I'll go so far as to say it will probably be downright difficult.  Many of you know how difficult it was when we all lived together six years ago...the results were not pretty.  Much has changed since then and Katie and I both are in different places than we were then.  We've talked much about how to handle this or that --- hubs and I have had the same conversations.  It was actually me that pushed the vote to 'yes' to have them stay with us - I know that with hard work and perseverance we can make this work.  I plan to tap her gift of organization - she's already said she will help me de-clutter my house!  My only negativity towards it all is giving up my craft room/office...but since I'm giving it up to allow Lili to have her own room, it's worth it.  It's only for a year, after all.  Efren put it for his assignments this past week (he has actually been on his base for nine years but has deployed so much that his overseas return date keeps getting pushed back, out of the reach of orders) and so now it's a waiting game...

Let the fun begin!

I mentioned in an earlier post how much I despise stores that start putting up Christmas things before even Halloween.  I'm going to have to eat my words...anyone have any A-1 Sauce?

My step-daughter, her husband and our granddaughter will be here for Thanksgiving.  Traditionally I've always pulled out the artificial tree (after buying a real tree one year and having to tie it to the walls with fishing line since it had already fallen over 3 times, we decided never again), the fat bin bulging with light strands (nope, no pre-lit here), the bins of greenery - gold ribbons - gold ornaments - and lights that hang up and around our built-ins in the family room, the ornaments, the other decorations, etc., on Black Friday.  But I told the girls that this year we're going to do things differently.  Katie and her family historically have always spent Christmas with her mom.  My folks aren't coming down after Christmas this year.  Leann is coming down to spend Christmas with us though and we're very excited about seeing her.  But what it boils down to is that I want more people to see our house all decorated.  So, despite everything I have said in the past, despite the fact that I have NEVER done this before Thanksgiving, I'm breaking out the boxes of Christmas decorations today.  Yep, today.

So when the girls finish cleaning up their room so that there is at least a path cleared from the door to their bunk beds, we're going out to the garage and start going through boxes and bins.

I'm actually pretty excited, although I think I'll probably wait a few weeks before pulling out the tree!

Veteran's Day

I'm going to climb up on my soap box for a little rant so please bear with me.

Tomorrow is Veteran's Day, it is a day when we remember fellow service members past and present and appreciate the sacrifices they made.  It's also a day to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice, who left families behind, who left very small children behind, who left parents and siblings behind.  So on this somber day (now don't get me wrong, I don't expect to see everyone crying all day long) why do some people insist on saying 'HAPPY Veteran's Day???'  What is so happy about remembering the one who lost his life in a training accident and left behind a young wife and infant son?  What is so happy about remembering the four who died in a fiery crash, one of whom left behind a wife and young son, another who left behind 4 beautiful daughters and a beautiful wife?  And there are others, just from the Special Operations community, who gave their life, leaving behind a spouse and often children.

Maybe I'm blowing this way out of portion but there is nothing 'happy' about Veteran's Day.  If you want to do something to make someone happy, find an airman/soldier/squid/grunt and shake their hand, tell them thank you for your service.  The next time you are in an airport and you happen to see a group of men and women in their BDUs, ask them if they are coming or going...if they are coming home, tell them thank you for what they've done...if they are going, wish them the best, tell them you will pray that they are safe and then do it!

Will it matter ten years from now?  I sure hope so.  Some of the lives lost from our community happened ten years ago and they are certainly not forgotten.

 A veteran is someone who, at one point, wrote a blank check made payable to ‘The United States of America  for an amount of up to and including their life.'

That is why you will not hear me wish anyone a 'happy' Veteran's Day.

Holidays around the corner...

I get so excited as Christmas approaches, I absolutely love to decorate the house, put up the tree, hang some lights outside and fill under the tree with lots of presents.  It's my favorite time of the year.

What irritates me though are stores that begin displaying Christmas things before Thanksgiving, some even before Halloween!  I love the holidays as much as anyone but for crying out loud, lets get through one holiday at a time!  I walked into CVS recently and the entire front of the store that you must pass through to get to wherever you are going is full of Christmas.  Even Publix, my favorite grocery store, has a huge display of toys and ornaments and lights...UGH!

OK, enough complaining about that.  Thanksgiving is two weeks from today.  Randy's getting excited because it is his favorite holiday.  He does almost all of the cooking... deep-fried turkey, cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes with pecans, green bean casserole and dirty rice.  I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!  This year Efren, Katie and Liliana will be here for the long weekend.  The girls are especially excited...they love any time they can get with their big sister.  And of course Randy and I cherish every moment with Lili.  The only thing that would make the day better is if Ryan, Jenny and Nathan could be here...maybe another year.

So what will I be doing on black Friday?  Hopefully I will be sleeping in unless I find an ad that says the gift I'm getting Randy this year has a huge price break.  Then I will brave the crowds.  I've actually gone the past couple of years even though I do not like shopping.  Surprisingly I did fairly well, didn't get into any fist fights at least.

So will it matter in ten years if I brave black Friday and get Randy his gift?  Probably not since it probably won't last that long.  But despite that, it will be worth it to beat the crowds and actually get him something he wants.  Hopefully he will remember that.

Thank you notes - how important are they really?

I used to hate it...right after birthdays or Christmas or anytime we were given a gift by anyone, my mom would make us sit down and write thank you notes.  I mean c'mon, really?  I just left grandma's house and told her 'thank you' to her face, do I really need to write a note as well???  Apparently you do.

As mentioned in an earlier post, the girls' school had their Fall Frolic.  It was a great success thanks to our wonderful volunteers.  We were filling spots at the last minute, which stressed me to pieces, but all the spots were filled.  So I set out to write every single person (except the board members) a thank you letter.  (The board members did not receive one because the letters were from the board members, but I'll catch up to them at another time.)

Today I walked around the school delivering thank you notes.  I had teachers continuously coming up to me telling me the note was not necessary but extremely appreciated...and also to tell me that no one had ever done that before.  See, thank you notes do make a difference.  Maybe now, with the teachers and staff knowing how much they were appreciated for their help at our functions they will be more inclined to help out.

Whether they do or do not doesn't really matter.  I'm reminded about the old saying (and I'm paraphrasing here) that says people don't always remember what you say to them but they do remember how you made them feel.  I hope by one little thank you note our teachers and staff realize how important they are to us.

In ten years from now will it matter?  Possibly not but possibly so.  Maybe they will look back on that piece of paper and think about how good that made them feel.  At least I hope so.

Skating fundraiser...

I had a very busy day and afternoon but I called up hubs and asked if he had a problem with me taking the girls to a skating fundraiser tonight for 5th grade.  He said of course so I contacted Em's BFF's mom to see if she were going too...to which she answered no.  Sooooo, I asked her if I could take her two kids with my two kids and let them skate and have fun.  Now stop there for a minute and hit rewind.....back to April this year...

I took Em to a birthday party at their house and that was the beginning of their 'bestie' status.  It's become almost a regular thing that Em will stay at their house on Friday night and go out to eat with them.  During the summer it was every 2- to 3-days she would spend the night and swim and go to movies and whatever else they were doing.  We were not often in a position where we could reciprocate so today was a first...

Their mama said yes so I took four elementary school children to the skating rink.  Did I mention that tonight is class night?  I didn't blow it off but I didn't go either, some things are more important.

So in ten years will it matter that I took them skating?  I sure hope so.  I hope they remember tonight, I hope they remember me kissing their boo-boos at the rink, I hope they remember that tonight was all about them...I hope they even remember that I did not yell at my girls at all tonight - nope, not once.  I hope they remember driving up Dale Mabry Hwy listening to the CDs and jammin' to J-Lo.  I hope they remember that I was being just as silly with the sunroof open as they were.  And most importantly, I hope they remember that tonight was all about them.  I don't do that enough.

15 days and counting...

This post speaks for itself...15 days to go!

Another month has ended...

It's hard for me to believe that October is now over and we're beginning November.  Halloween was fun, the girls were adorable in their costumes...and of course Emily and her bestie had to have matching costumes.  A couple friends brought their families over to trick-or-treat in our subdivision since neither have houses and/or houses that play for Halloween.  We had a blast!  The kids hit up every single house around the Blenheim/Longleat loop with the first family...and when we finally met up with the second family, they all went back with their kids and hit them up again!  When we finally got back to the house right at 8pm, daddy was all out of the 10lbs of candy (or so it seemed) he was handing out so I just started handing out the girls' candy...not that they'll get to eat it anyway.

So that was two days ago.  Prior to that, on Friday, we had our Fall Frolic at the girls' school.  The entire week prior, three other moms and I built a haunted house in a room off of the cafeteria.  One mom, Stacey, has bookoo Halloween decorations, black plastic, black lights, costumes, etc., from haunted houses she's built before and she brought it all in to the school and we created one there.  It was absolutely awesome!  We had a really ugly witch at the beginning, a headless character in a wheelchair, another witch stirring a cauldron, a very scary pumpkin patch and mummies followed by a mad scientist, the snake lady (with live snakes), a wicked scary clown and the zombie lunch lady.  The kids absolutely loved it...and of course I did not get a single picture!  BUT, I was saved when this picture arrived in my inbox...check out the snake in her hair!!!!!  I freaked out, of course.


All in all, judging from the responses from students, teachers, staff, administration and parents, our Fall Frolic was a success.  Even our storybook pumpkins were a hit.  Here are a few of my favorites.  Students 'voted' for their favorite by donating pennies (or other change) to the best pumpkin.  The total amount raised is going to our media center for aesthetics (maybe a mural or something?).

And yes, the reason these are my favorites is because they came from first grade.

Randy came home late Friday night from being in San Diego for a week.  It was a busy and exhausting week for him but he is re-energized and so excited to be working again.  He's been busy working every day this week, right now off to lunch and a meeting at USF.  I am so incredibly happy for him.

I did have reinforced to me over the weekend that yes, in ten years it WILL matter...that my better half is happy.  I've always struggled with balancing things in my life, the worst of which is keeping the house de-cluttered (yes, I'm a pack rat).  My project now is learning how to stay on top of things before they get out of hand...and teaching our girls to do the same with their bedroom and bathroom.  So far, so good.