Lovely Surprise

Sometimes love catches you by surprise.  :)

Sometime hubby sneaks up behind you when you are quietly reading on the sofa. 

Sometimes said hubby wraps his arms around you and softly kisses your cheek. 

Sometimes your wonderful hubby whispers "I love you and I think I forgot to tell you today" softly in your ear.

Sometimes....love catches you by surprise.

Pumpkin Patch 2010 :)

We finally made it to the pumpkin patch this year.  We weren't sure we were going to be able to make it since Kim and I weren't sure we make it on a flight home from Cali!

We always go to Hall's Pumpkin Farm in Grapevine ~ especially since it practically down the street from our house.  Hall's has to be, hands-down, the very BEST pumpkin patch in Texas!  It's has an old fashioned feel.  Features the pumpkin patch, Korn Maze, Hay Rides, tractors and hay bale houses.

Kim, John and Emma met us there.  Kat and Matt were so happy to see their cousin.  They focused on her the entire time.  The only time they left her sight was to run the Korn Maze.

I absolutely love these family traditions!

Glad to be home

I am so glad to be home.  Grandma's funeral and all of the family gatherings that go with it went well.  It was a time of tears and laughter, goodbye's and hello's.  I was able to see cousins that I haven't seen in 20 years and was able to laugh over pictures from the 80's.  I spent some wonderful time with my Aunt, Dad and sister.  And to say goodbye to my Grandmother.

<sigh>

Random thoughts before I fly away...

I need to get my eyebrows done before I can fly to Cali.... crud... have to do that on the way home.

I needed to dye my hair last weekend but couldn't because Doug wasn't home (he has to help me with the back).  So I planned to do it this weekend.  Can't now for obvious reasons.  I've decided that it's ok.... My brother Brandon is the only one that's tall enough to see the top of my head (and all those gray hairs) and he'll never notice something like that.  Right?

I'll bet they don't have my deodorant in travel size which means I'll have to get one that smells different.  Which means I'll keep looking for that other person following me that smells differently than I do.

I'm going to miss my hubby and my monsters. 

Dad's on his own

So my sister and I will be flying to CA later this week and leaving our husbands alone with our kids.  For three days.  That's right.  Three.  Days.  Alone.  With DAD.

Our husbands are perfectly capable Dads.  I'm not saying anything that they aren't.  But for my husband?  That's three days - of school, football, cheer, gymanstics, fall festival with our TWINS.  ALONE.  Did I say that before?

That's going to be a tough one.

Sad News

Grandma passed away yesterday afternoon.  She wasn't in pain and was sleeping.  But I honestly don't know that it makes it any easier.

I have all these thoughts about what I will miss about her.  But I've been missing them for the last 10 years due to her diminished mental skills.  It's so hard to have a loved one that doesn't remember you.  Doesn't remember all the good times...all the laughter, the love, the tears.

Rest in peace Grandma.  We will miss you.

Fix it Friday

I love the “I Heart Faces” website and check it almost every day.  I get tips and ideas ~ and just general inspiration from it.  This is the first time I’ve participated in their Fix It Friday photo.  Not that I’m very good at this… but I know that the only way I can learn is with practice.  Right?  Right!  So my attempt is here.  Let me know what you think.  (not that anyone ever reads this!)    Head on over to IHF to check out all the other photo’s!

Single parenthood

Doug leaves in the morning for a business trip in Houston.  Which leaves me home as a single parent.  **WAIT**  I didn’t sign up for single parenthood!  I signed up for that joint parent stuff.

I know that many people will tell me that this time with my kids will give me one-on-one bonding time and that I should appreciate that time.  But I need to point out to those people that I can’t have one-on-one time with TWINS.  I will be having one-on-two time with them.  Which means that they have the ability to gang up on me.  Seriously.  I’ll lose.
It means dealing with football and cheer on my own.  Which means I have to figure out why that yellow flag was thrown all on my own.  Which means…I have to WATCH the game and not sit and chat.  That’s just not fair.  And it means getting both kids ready and to the field on time.  And doing those special twists in Kat’s hair while I try to tighten the straps on Matt’s football pads.  I don’t think I can multi task like that anymore.
It means housework and laundry on my own.  And dishes.  yuck.
It means grocery shopping with the kids – which will completely blow my weekly budget.  Matt is terrible to shop with ~ I don’t know how all the extra food winds up in my cart when he is around.
It means sleeping alone.  And after all these years, I don’t do that well at all.
Which means I’ll miss him.  Terribly. 

Grandma

My Dad called this evening.  My Grandma, who had been taken to the hospital with pneumonia two days ago, will be taken off life support this evening and released to Hospice care.  She’s 95 now and I know that she’s “lived a full life” but that doesn’t make it any easier.  And as I talked to my Dad, I realized that, someday, I will have to make this call to MY children about my PARENTS.  Reality stinks.

Still in Pain

Doug is still in pain.  Every day.  Some days he has a hard time getting out of bed.  Other days, he’s almost back to normal.  If he’s really active, I know that he will be in pain by the end of the day.  But some days – like yesterday – he has a normal day; goes to work, walks around a little, sits at his desk a little, and he is in so much pain he has to go home.
And he’s so frustrated.  We’ve spent ridiculous amounts of money on doctor’s visits, tests, injections, medications, and all the other stuff and the doctors STILL don’t know what’s wrong with him.  He gets so beat down sometimes.  And with deer season right around the corner, he is chomping at the bit.
I try to stay positive.  But it’s really hard when you see your loved one – the one that has always been so strong physically – limping every day.
So we wait for yet another doctor to call him back.  So they can scratch their heads and say “Well, I don’t THINK that’s the problem but we can try it anyway.”  Seriously?  You don’t think?  How about an answer?  After more than $2,000 in medical bills can we just get a firm answer?!?

Everyday Struggles

Hardheadedness runs in the family.  “Hardheadedness” is that even a word?

Even if it isn’t, it applies here.  Especially with M.  My newest struggle with M is food.  Seriously, we struggled with it when he was 2, got past it, and are struggling with it at 10.  He is seriously rebelling against healthy food.  He’s not eating staples in our house like yogurt, granola, fruit, vegetables and soy milk.  And is constantly bugging me to buy junk food.  Or soda.  UGH.  What is the deal?  Did the double digits in age suddenly, magically make him more stubborn?  Am I the only one having this problem with a 10-year-old?!?

PSE

So I’m learning to use Photoshop Elements AND learning to use my digital camera for more than just “point and shoot”.  Trying to develop more of an artistic eye and learning with every blog that I read.  Here are a few of my recent experiments….

Another Sunday

It’s Sunday which means grocery shopping, laundry, and all of those other chores that we all hate to do.  Add to that the extra errands that we had to run.

Starting in May, we had to trim our grocery bill down a bit.  We decided to trim it to $150 per week.  That’s down about $100 per week.  And we decided to pay with cash so that we were forced to stay on budget.  That was a HUGE step for me.  Just the thought of getting to the register and not having enough cash to pay for the groceries terrifies me.  But for the second week in a row, I’ve been successful!  Last week I spent $133 and this week only $75!  We’ve been eating out of our pantry a lot but I’m still buying items to stock up (cereal, granola bars, juice, etc).  We are $92 under budget so far this month!

Matthew still had some birthday money that was burning a hole in his pocket.  He desperately wanted an Air Soft gun.  Dad ok’d it so Mom was out voted.  I took him down to Academy and he picked out the one that he wanted.  He also picked out bio-degradable pellets for it.  (He tells me that they are better for the enviroment AND they mean he won’t have to pick them all up when they are scattered though out the yard!

He is having a BLAST with that thing.  Since both he and his sister have had gun safety training with Dad, I guess I’m not too worried?

Single Mom Weekend

Hubby is off hunting this weekend.  Sorry – he’s “huntin”.  So I am doing the single parent thing with my monsters.  On the way home from work yesterday Kat called and asked if she could go to a friend’s for the night.  “SCORE!” is all I can think.  “But of course you can honey.  How long will you stay on Saturday?”

So it was just me and the boy monster for the night.  I had a $25GC to Carrabba’s so I grabbed Matt and convinced him to suffer through a dinner with just his ol’ Mom.  We had a wonderful evening!  I think Matt really enjoyed the one on one attention and I really enjoyed only having to focus on one kid for a while.  After dinner, we rented a movie (Astro Boy which I hadn’t seen) and snuggled up on the sofa.  We had a wonderfully peaceful evening.

Kat came home mid-day today and the twin bickering started again.

<Sigh>

Why did I sign up for this?

Friday's

I think Friday’s should be doubled (of course I tend to do everything in 2′s).  I think we should have two Friday’s every week and that they should be protected by law.  Everyone is always happier on a Friday…the work or school week is done…you get to stay up late…get caught up on your TiVo or rent some movies.  Friday’s are good.  If we had more Friday’s I’ll bet we’d have fewer wars.  Don’t you think?