You Have One New Message

Last week my I had a voice mail come through on my cell phone and it was an old voice mail I had saved that was about to be deleted. It was a message my grandmother left me with the information about my aunts flight when she was flying in for my dad's funeral. It was so weird listening to that message. I could hear my sisters and their kids in the background at my mom's house. Those few days right after my dad died were so.....sigh.....I don't know. Crazy. 10 million phone calls. 10 million people. 10 million things to do. Running on no sleep. Hearing that message and remembering all that went on in that time, it was like a dream. Like it wasn't real. Like it didn't really happen. It was kinda weird.

I found this video on my mom's flip camera. I took it the weekend before my dad passed away. That was the weekend we were having our kitchen floor sealed and our house smelled so bad so we spent 2 nights at my parents house. This is a video I took one night. I am glad we spent that weekend with them.




I keep thinking about the day my dad died. It was a Saturday. My grandma was in town. We had friends in town who were staying at my parents house. We were going to go up and spend the day visiting. The week before had been so crazy. We had so much going on and we were all running in different directions. When we were getting ready to start getting all our stuff and kids together to go up to my parents house, I started thinking that maybe we should stay home. I was tired, didn't feel like loading everything up, Steve was actually home all day, and we were going to be going to my parents house the next day for Sunday dinner anyway. My head kept trying to talk myself into staying at home, but for some reason my heart kept trying to push me out the door. I didn't want to deal with making the decision any more so I asked Steve if he thought we should just stay home. Steve is a homebody who isn't at home all that much. Usually when given the option, he will opt to stay at home. He thought about it for a minute and said, "No, Let's go. Let's just load everyone up and go." It was strange to me that he said that because that wasn't the answer I was expecting from him. I told him I kept trying to talk myself into staying home because it would just be easier than loading everyone up and I was tired because I had had a long week. I said even though I keep trying to convince myself to stay home, there was something in me that just wanted to go. He said he felt the same way.

So we went. And we had a very good day. My dad was in such a good mood that day. We enjoyed our time with him. I am so thankful that we were able to be with him, just hours before he died. I am thankful my children were able to be with him on his last day on earth. I am so thankful for the still small voice that kept prompting Steve and me to go. I am thankful that we listened.

Take A Seat

Disclaimer: This is not my child, or any child that I know. This picture was found on the internet.

So, it's like this. I finally decided to buy Addison a new car seat. I know, it's about time. She is still 2 pounds underweight to be forward facing but I figure I feed her a lot of candy this week and she will be fine. I could not believe how easy it was to install her car seat. Five minutes. Five minutes to open the box, take the seat out, install it in my van, adjust the shoulder straps to the right height, adjust the tension in the strap, tighten the seat down. FIVE MINUTES. I didn't have to take the seat apart to adjust the shoulder straps. If she is wearing a coat, pshhhh...no big thang. Two second adjustment. HELLO!!! If you are a new mother let me just tell ya how easy you have it. Life and car seats were not always like this. When Zac was a baby it would take me 30 freakin' minutes to install the car seat and make sure it was in ok and put the locking clip in place and then heaven forbid I would have to adjust anything. You had to take the whole dang seat apart. And once I got that sucker in, ain't no way I was takin' it out and movin' it to another car. They have improved over the years but even 5 years ago when Aubrey was a baby, that was my last time dealing with a car seat, they still took some work, honey. Five minutes. I am so excited. It's like hummmm, let's put your coat on. Oh, look, I don't have to squeeze the life out of you to do up your car seat I just push this little magic button right heara and you can breath. I'm lookin' for excuses to go somewhere so I can put her in the seat. Sometimes I put her in a coat, sometimes in a jacket, sometimes in just her clothes. I vary it up so that I can adjust the straps every time I put her in. Who knew a car seat could bring so much joy and entertainment to my life?

One Tough Chick

Last weekend Steve had a job down south where the weather was nice. He took Emily with him and taught her how to ride a 4 wheeler. She enjoyed the time with her dad.

Monday Morning Musings - Grace

I really hope when glue says it is non toxic, it really is. Aubrey made valentine picture with candy conversation hearts glued on it back around Valentines day. She left it where Addison could get it and Addison picked off and ate every single heart. Emily just brought a picture home this weekend that she made at school that also had candy hearts glued on it. I just found all the hearts in Addy's mouth. Maybe that's why she's so sick.......



Addison has all of a sudden become very opinionated. And she has learned how to express herself and try to get what she wants. JOY.



This morning Addison learned that she can now reach my makeup drawer. And she learned that she can open it. And she learned that she can pull EVERYTHING out of it. And she learned that she can open everything in it. And she learned that she can make pretty pictures on herself and anything around her with the contents of the drawer. And she learned that it is really fun to dig around in a lipstick case with tweezers.



Steve and I were watching a show last night on HG TV and it was a top 10 kitchen show. We have found the EXACT way we want to decorate our kitchen. I am so excited. It is just what I wanted in my head and now I have a picture to go with it. I just looked it up and here it is:

We found these red cabinets at IKEA and wanted so bad to use them but we thought it might be too much red. I love how they just did some of the cabinets here in red and the rest in maple. These are the exact colors I have been wanting to do. You can't see the rest of the kitchen but they have pear green accents in it and like I said, these are the exact colors and style I wanted. I had pretty much talked myself out of the red cabinets, but I am back on track. Aren't you excited for me?

Yesterday, I exhibited extreme grace as I tripped on something and stubbed my pinkie toe. I swore it was broken. But I am thinking now that it isn't. It is just all blue and purple from the top of my toe all the way down about an inch into my foot. It is killing me to wear shoes but when I don't have my shoes on I seem to have a problem of re injuring it. Just call me Grace.

(Grace, she passed away thirty years ago. GRACE. They want you to say GRACE. THE BLESSING!!!! I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.....)

Just in case you have no idea what just happened:

Yesterday Zac got in a little trouble. Ok, a lot of trouble. So I took away all of his privileges for this whole week. This morning when he was getting ready to go to school he said, "Mom, shouldn't I stay home from school today? You did take away all my privileges and going to school is a privilege. There are a lot of kids in the world who don't have the privilege of going to school."

The song now stuck in my head:

Why? Because of these lyrics of course:
GRACE Kelly, Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen,
Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire
Ginger Rodgers, dance on air
They had style, they had GRACE

Do you know Madonna turns 50 this year. HOT DANG!!! I'm 34 and I can't do what she does.

Current Song Stuck In My Head - Don't Spit In The Wind

I was driving home tonight and this song came on the radio. It reminded me of my dad.

PMA Update

I took Addison to the doctor today. She has ear infection #6 since November. She still has the poops and has just recently added vomiting to the equation. Just for the fun of it. She has lost a pound which now puts her down to 17 pounds. The doctor said if she loses any more weight she will have to go to the hospital and get an IV. To make things really fun my dryer decided to stop drying clothes. HAHAHAHA! Great timing. Thankfully I have wonderful neighbors and friends who are letting me use theirs.

If you can't be in the health you want honey, love the health your in. Love the health your in.......

Flashback Friday - Stir It Baby, Stir It!

My sister Farrah likes to stir things up. I told you about her anonymous Confessions Post a while back. Well now she has sparked a political debate over at her blog that is far more entertaining than my attempt at a debate. She is crazy and that is one of the reasons we love her so much. Here is a picture of her stirring things up long ago at a party we had at our house:

I have mentioned before that our house was the hang out house for all our friends. We had so many parties, I don't know how my parents handled it. I have a lot of fun pictures from that party that I thought some of you might enjoy. I was planning on sharing them here. However, my scanner is giving me fits and I am about ready to slam it up against the wall. I did get this one scanned. I will try and scan the rest later. Right now I just think the scanner and I need a break from each other.

Eddie, Kristy, Allyson and Kristen

YAHA!!! Spell check just worked!

Thursday Morning Musings - Why Not? I'm On a Musing Kick

We had an earthquake this morning. Actually it was in Nevada but I felt it all the way over here in my living room. Addison and I were the only ones awake. We were sitting on the couch in the living room. It felt like someone was under the couch and was trying to stand up, it was all wobbly. I thought one of the kids got up and was hiding under the couch or something. That doesn't really make sense because even though my kids are super skinny they still wouldn't fit under there. Oh well. Steve was upstairs in our bedroom and he said he could really feel it up there. Scarry! Our neighborhood is right on a major fault line. If there is going to be more quakin' I hope it holds off until we sell the house.

Steve is the only one still sick today. I never actually got sick. I think it was my PMA (positive mental attitude). My ear even stopped hurting.

I went a little crazy yesterday and there is a chance that we might all get Lysol poisoning. We'll see.

Zac has a Science Fair project due tomorrow. Humph. I guess we should get started on that.

It snowed last night and is still snowing now. We have snow in our forecast everyday from now until Monday. I am trying to have PMA about that, but it is pretty hard.

I am really angry at all cell phone manufacturers. I know they do this in order to make more $$$, but I really wish they would just be kind to the comsumers and make one universal charger. As I am going through the house and cleaning stuff out I have probably found 20 different chargers. Why we kept them? I guess we figured someday we might have a phone with that kind of charger again. I have since learned that no two cell phones have the same charger, so I might as well throw it out. I wonder, if you took all the worlds tossed out cell phone chargers and put them in one place, how many there would be.....If only we could get some celebrity to jump on the 'cell phone charger cause' band wagon, the world would be a much better place. (that was sarcastic, just in case you didn't know)

What's that picture at the top of my post, you are wondering? Why, those are people charging their cell phones, of course. I wonder how long that takes.

Current Ditty Stuck In My Head - Oh Yeah, Life Goes On

your welcome

i think i might be over my slump

just getting here? read on:

Wednesday Morning Musings - Take 2

This is what I have decided. I need to embrace it. So that is what I am doing. Embracing. Letting go of all the hate. The negative energy. (deep breath in, deep breath out)

So we're sick. Again. Pshhhh. Big deal. People get sick everyday. Like us. Everyday. We're not dying. We don't have a terminal illness. A degerative disease. (oohhh, big words, no spell check).

Embrace.

Be thankful for the health you have.

I have a new theme song. A little ditty (about jack and diane. two american kids doin' best they can)(gonna let it rock, let it roll. let the bible belt come and save my soul, hold on to 16 as long as you can, changes come around real soon, make us women and men)

That's not my new theme song. I just really love that song and once I start it is really hard to stop (in the name of love).

Apparently I am in a better mood.

Embrace.

Enough, here is my song: "If you can't be in the health you want, honey, love the health your in. Love the health your in."

I am embracing the vomit. I am embracing the poop. I am embracing the countless baths. The loads of nasty as all get out laundry. The 50,000 diapers a day.

I am so thankful I have clean running water to facilitate the clean up. I am thanful I have a washing machine and a dryer. I am thankful I have 50,000 diapers with which to put on my baby. I am thankful that my mother went to the store for me this morning and bought us the things we need to make it through this day.

I am thankful for lysol.

Embrace.

This is gonna be a good day. I can feel it in my bones.