My Mug

Hiiiiiii ;)
In a rare move, I thought I'd show my face on here. You know, just to prove that I do exist in human form. So here's me and my kiddos. Aren't they cute? ;)


Our weekend was most certainly interesting- I can definitely say that I've never had to attend a funeral and a wedding in the same day, less than 8 hours apart. Each was beautiful in their own respect, though obviously the funeral was a terribly, terribly sad event that we would rather not have happened.

This past week has brought a lot of things into the light for me. I don't think that I've ever felt so affected by the death of someone that I didn't know very well. I can see myself in that position- not literally- but they are just like us in several aspects. Young, and he was the worker, she stays home with the kids. Their kids are just like ours- an older girl and a younger boy, and they are about the same age as our kids too. I sympathize for his wife, but I truly sympathize for the whole situation- the adjustment of having to become a working mom, a single mom, and now kids who will never have their daddy back. I know that I need to either figure out how to get my license back into active status, or have something else to fall back on in case of anything such as this (God forbid).

With that being said, I've hit another hump in what I like to think of as my 20's induced life crisis. Yes, I still have NO idea what I want to be when I grow up, and in just 3 short years I will be 30. So I'm currently researching other things that I may want to do with myself, besides the nursing career that I never even started (I did graduate and hold a license for the record- then had kid #2 and never went to work). Don't get me wrong, nursing is a wonderful profession and I know that I have the heart for it, and I am a caring person. But.....well, just but. I don't know what I want to do. For now that's ok. I at least will keep myself busy with researching options in the mean time ;)

July is just around the corner..literally. Where has this year gone? We have a busy month coming up, and I have to say I'm looking forward to it, BUT dreading the cleanup afterwards. We'll be leaving mid-month for vacation, then back on the 19th. Then the kiddos and I will be taking off for a weekend Bahamas trip. Once I get back from there, daughter will head to WV to visit for two weeks and I will hopefully spend a couple of nights at Disney visiting an old high school friend. All of the sudden it will be August, and I am sure to find myself back here wondering WHERE has the summer gone! But! Fear not my friends, not August, nor September, signal the end of summer here in Florida. It only means that we go from sweltering heat and near fainting, to tolerable heat and still large sums of humidity. ;)

With that my friends, I turn in for the evening. I lack anything exciting to report, but I can definitely assure you that I have had a terribly busy weekend, and for once I am ready to start a new week, bring on a Monday!

In Memory Of...

We've had one of those weekends around here where the sad news just keeps coming. A good childhood friend of mine lost his grandma, my dad lost a dear friend, and our neighbor died in a car wreck.

I think that of all of these, I'm really affected by our neighbor. He had two small children that are the same ages as our kids. They are all just good, good people. He was so helpful and nice, we never saw him look mad or angry, always had a smile on his face.

I can't imagine being his wife. She was out of state visiting family, and they had to track her down and let her know what happened. Can you imagine taking a 4 hour flight to know what you're coming home to? Going in your empty house with all of those reminders of what had been, just not so long ago? I can't imagine having to break that kind of news to my kids and tell them what has happened. What would you do when they ask for daddy, I can't imagine the sadness this would bring. I had dreams about them all night last night, waking up in between with overwhelming sadness at the thought of how drastically changed their lives now are.

Tomorrow is no guarantee, nor is the rest of today. Sometimes the people that we lose have only been in our lives for a short period before they are quickly taken away. We should cherish those that we have with us, and value that time that we have. It can be gone just as fast as it came.

Sliding Doors

Ever seen the movie? It's been awhile since I've seen it, but basically it's the story showing what would happen to the same girl, if she had taken a path different than the one that she had taken.

Typically I stick to the usual ramblings in this blog. I don't like to make it too personal, and sometimes personal can equal boring. There's been a lot going on around here, and sometimes I just need to get it all out. And well, this IS my blog, and I guess I should take advantage of that.

My own life is like the movie, Sliding Doors. Not necessarily the movie itself, but the plot in general. I am one side of that story, one part of the "what if". Only I don't get to watch for another 45 minutes and see how the other side would have turned out, I just wonder. Almost daily.

I was always sort of a rebel child. A preachers kid who just wanted to break out of her shell. I experimented in my teenage years, I did things I shouldn't have. Somewhere along the way, I dated a few guys that were ok, no one that ever really stuck out.

After I graduated high school, I met a guy. In a bar. Sounds simple enough, right? I was 18, he was (at least 18). No? What?

Ok, so I dated this guy that was 2 years younger than me- I found out several weeks after we had been together, and we were already developing really strong feelings for each other. Age is just a number, right?

To spare you all of the seriously messed up details, it was a totally destructive relationship. At one point I moved to North Carolina with him and his dad, before something snapped in me 3 months later. I came back to WV, and never looked back.

I won't "knock" that part of my life- it was who I was at the time. I was blind to my stupidity at the time, and embarrassed by my actions now. I hurt my family, I alienated my friends. I gained so much knowledge experience from it, and I grew so much after it. I became a different, better person.

When I came back from NC, I moved back in with my parents, got a job, and started over. Life was really good. I had my own car, I had my family and I had my friends back.

I could tell you so many stories about how I met the love of my life. We knew each other in high school, and several times in life, fate has brought us back together in ways that you only see in a really good movie. Once I came back from NC, we started dating again. One night after dinner, we'd only been together a few days when he told me he loved me. It wasn't the first time, but it freaked me out that it was so sudden. We hadn't seen each other in years, we were different people giving it another go.

And I ran.

I literally cut ties with him, I for once in my life had TRUE love and I let it go. I freaked out, and I lost it.

That same night that he told me that he loved me, was the night that I met my now husband. We were out at a bar, the boyfriend has been drinking and was acting goofy, a a drunk tends to do. I had had a long day at work and all I really wanted to do was shoot some pool, which I was damn good at back in my day I must say ;) My now husband was there with a friend and so I played them in pool. The boyfriend was on the stool acting ridiculous, and the future husband was confident. He was self assured and seemed to be having a good time. He asked me for my number and I gave it to him, and we went on our first date that next weekend.

I don't know why I went out that night. I'd had a bad day at work and I just wanted to relax. And more importantly I don't know why I gave the now husband my number that night. I was with a guy that loved me more than anything, and I gave it up because for once in my life, I was scared of love. I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, and I ran through the wrong "sliding door".

I say all of this to say that rarely does a day go by that I don't realize that I married the wrong person. I didn't fall in love with my husband, I fell in love with what he could give me. I had come out of a terrible relationship with (literally) a teenage boy, and met a guy who was nice, who took me on trips, who was fun loving and respectful. And who was fake. He won me over, and then the curtains closed and the real guy came out. his attitude makes him ugly, and the fact that I could still love my ex boyfriend from forever ago helps nothing in our situation. I truly have lived the movie Sliding Doors because I know how it feels to wonder what if. I know that the love of my life is out there, engaged to someone else now (this is fact) and probably getting married soon. I know that if I STILL think of him and love him NO less than I did 7 years ago, then it is true. I know that you cannot possibly have a schoolgirl crush on someone for 11 years. This is how long I have known him.

I married my husband because I got pregnant with daughter. I know now that it was not the right thing to do, but as I've said in a previous post, many eyes were on me and my family and I felt like I had to do it. I know better now. I know that I would have had the best support system in the world as a single mom, and I know that my husband does not make me a good mom. I am a wonderful one without him, and sometimes in spite of him. It was the one thing that I didn't doubt when I became a statistic of teenage pregnancy. I never once doubted my abilities to be a good mother.

When we first got married, divorce was imminent. We fought non-stop, it was nothing but stress. I kept in touch with my ex, certain that I would end up back with him. At one point it was so bad that I took my then 7mo old daughter, and drove 6 1/2 hours to the beach. He lived an hour from there and we met up. my husband later found out about this, and I can honestly say I still don't feel bad about it. Call me a bitch if you must. We ran into each other a few times over the course of the next couple of years, and each time was just like we'd seen each other the day before. Literally nothing changed each and every time.

It finally ended shortly there after. And by "it", I mean communication. We did not have sex, there was nothing like that going on. He was begging me to leave my husband and move in with him, offering to pay for me to go to school and everything. I look back now and I wonder, why didn't I do things like this? I've always been a daring person, I've always gone against the grain. So why didn't I go with my heart instead of worrying so much about what other people would think of me? Why didn't I care about myself for once? I married while I was 8 months pregnant because I was so worried about what people would think, why didn't I take my chance to get out of the situation that I got myself into?

Don't get me wrong. From the outside looking in, we have a great life. We have a wonderful home, two beautiful healthy children that I wouldn't trade for anything in the world, husband has a great job. It's the little things that matter to me- the rudeness, the lack of respect, the things that TRULY count to me.

We moved to Florida, and I truly hoped for a fresh start. The guy that I was not with, ironically moved back to WV from SC, and said that he did it for me. Things didn't work out like they were planned obviously. I had hoped that moving here would give me a fresh start, mentally. But nearly daily, I wake up and at some point during the day, I think about what could have been. It's not the way I should be, but it's the way I am. There are things that I smell, places and things that I see that remind me of the past. Songs that I hear remind me of nights that we drove around with my head on his shoulder listening to him sing, and being nothing but content.

Something this past weekend at Disney reminded me of how things used to be. I can't remember what it even was now. It's been over 3 years since I've talked to my ex, and that last communication was a friendly one- he, telling me about his fiance, and I, telling him about how we were expecting our second child. So imagine my surprise tonight when I log into my messenger and I see that I have a request from him for me to add him to my chat list. I don't know why, there was no message attached to it or anything at all. Just there he was, reminding me that he does exist somewhere other than in my mind.

Why do I say all of this? For starters I haven't said enough. I could tell story upon story that has a fairy tale feeling. If you've never been in love, I can tell you what it feels like, and sometimes I'm afraid that I won't remember before too much longer. If you want to know whether to take that leap of faith, I can say with certainty, DO IT, because you may just spend the rest of your life wondering what would have happened it you had.

On The Road Again

Those of us who have kids, know that traveling with kids is no easy task. The saying "It Takes A Village", oh, it totally does. To raise them, to travel with them, all of that. I truly believe that in order to effectively raise a child and ever get anything else done, one must be an octopus. There's no other way to function fully, and I often find myself wishing for 8 arms in some weird, circus-freakish way.

But traveling is one of my loves in life, and so the show must go on. Now and then I get brave and plan a trip out of town for us to take for no particular reason. So tomorrow we're headed to Disney. :)

I'm really excited, because we're trying out Typhoon Lagoon (water park) and Animal Kingdom- 2 parks that we have yet to visit. I'm a total freak for the Magic Kingdom, so normally it takes up one day of our trip. I'm definitely sad that we won't be going there this time, but, I suppose I'll live. ;) We're leaving really early tomorrow morning and heading into Typhoon, and then Sunday doing Animal Kingdom before we come home. Did I put "Close proximity to Disney" on my list of things that I like about FL? I should have. With such a short drive, it takes a lot of the pressure off of us, we don't feel like we have to cram everything in like you do when you vacation there. We operate at the kids pace, and if we don't get to it, we'll see it next time. On days that we go to Magic Kingdom, we normally don't even go into the park until 5 or 6. Not so with either of these parks, since they operate on daytime hours (10-6 and 9-5).

Anyhow, I planned all of this last weekend, to give us a chance to get a hotel and so that I knew how to budget the paycheck and leave us extra money to go down on. I ALSO planned this when I thought that lovely time of the month was coming right away. But, as usual, mother nature laughs in my face and AF shows up 4 days late. So now I'm headed to a water park. On the heaviest days. Isn't that fab? Ugh. On top of that, I think my whole body is literally swollen. Like BLOWN UP. This has never happened to me to my knowledge, and trust me, I think I would have noticed if something like this had happened before. I literally can NOT get my wedding rings off. They've been stuck for several days, and I'm just hoping that once this month's dose of womanly hell passes, that the stinkin rings come off. It's uncharted territory for sure. What the hell has happened to my body??

So anyway, that's my upcoming weekend in a nutshell. I'm headed to a water park, hopefully coming out on the other side of it with no embarrassing moments. Just look for me in the wave pool, I'll most likely be the one that doubles as my own inner tube :/

Yesterday was daughters program for kindergarten. I have to say that I am beyond shocked that I will soon have a first grader (school is out Wednesday). Where does the time go? It seems like she was just a little baby, my little tag along that went everywhere with me. Now she's 6, and I truly don't know how it happened. I'm looking forward to a nice family weekend, NOT answering the cell phone (my mom is really good about calling 5000000x when she knows we're out of town), and hopefully good weather- so far the forecast is rain. This will be a nice little break before husband leaves Wednesday for a trip to see his best friend (insert many comments laced with curse words and hatefulness from me here), and then 4 more days from there for work. I won't even get into that whole ordeal, it's too close to bed for me to get all stirred up. Plus I'm too excited at a chance to be a kid for two days to be bitter ;)

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!!

Recovery from Houseguests

Well, we survived the weekend and came out relatively unscathed. Of course any time you have 5 extra houseguests, it can be loud and chaotic, but the worst part is the disruption to son's sleep schedule. Hopefully he's back on track today.

My dad jumped out of the plane, and floated back to the ground safely. I was a nervous wreck just thinking about it, so whether I ever end up doing this myself remains to be seen ;)

Daughter's recital went well, and I must say I have NEVER been so glad to put those styling products back into the cabinet. By day #5 of hair and makeup on a 6 year old, we were both totally over it. The show went well, but was far below the standards of the dance school that she went to in WV, so we'd like to keep her on track. At any rate, she did great and her pictures turned out wonderful :)

I think that I have so much to talk about at this point, that I don't have anything to say if that makes any sense ;) Husband leaves next week for 10 days. Not that that's a long time, because I've been home alone a lot longer than that by myself, it was just the manner in which it all went down that resulted in a huge fight and lots of bitterness- mostly on my part. Men sometimes. Seriously, what is wrong with them?? Anyhow, in an effort for a little fresh air and a break of sorts, I think we're headed to Disney for the weekend. I have been craving a water park for awhile now ;)

Busy Busy

Well I am a total loser at blog updating lately. Yikes! Not that life isn't busy as usual, but I just haven't had anything out of the ordinary to talk about. My birthday was the 18th, and it started raining the day before, and rained for about 8 days straight. So needless to say, there were lots of new "lakes" and ponds around here for a few days. We're getting a nice break from it now, but it's still a possibility of rain for the next 7 days.

Daughter has approximately 11 days left of school. I can't BELIEVE I am the mom of a soon to be first grader! Time truly does fly and I can't believe how much she's learned in one year. Her school is most definitely awesome. Son's speech is starting to pick up, some days he nearly babbles all day, and then some days he just busts out with random words like applesauce and rainbow- things he's seen around the house, but that we haven't coached him into talking about. Truth be told, I think he's just stubborn and will talk when he feels like it. ;)

Memorial Day was nice- we had a break from the rain and we were able to go swimming all afternoon. Son has made a complete 180 from last summer. He can tolerate the pool a lot longer, and he LOVES to swim! I don't think we're going to have any problems teaching him. Daughter has not learned yet. You can definitely tell the difference between the kids who have always lived here, and those that haven't. The ones that have always lived here can swim better than I can it seems! Then like us, we only went to the pool once a year- on vacation. The pools in our neighborhood in WV were quite junked and full of some interesting folk, so we never went. Hence why daughter can't swim- she's taken lessons, but not enough. Son LOVES to float in his arm floaties, holding totally still and just smiling SO big, he's so proud of himself and it just melts my heart!

The family will be here Friday to watch daughters dance recital. 5 people at my house. Only 3 are staying here though. This week is really busy for us. I have 5 separate days that I have to have daughter in full dance costume, hair done, and makeup. She has two separate picture days, 1 rehearsal day, and 2 recital days, with her usual gymnastics class squeezed in there as well. Needless to say, I will most likely be over the whole dance thing by the end of the week. 5 days of hair in a bun is a bit too much for this mama to deal with, it takes at least 20 minutes to get it "perfect" each time. ;)

So anyhow, the family arriving on Friday kicks off what I officially like to think of as a very busy, but hopefully fun, summer. Between all of the busy stuff, we plan on just hanging out in the pool in our neighborhood all day. The family leaves here on June 1st. Husband will be out of town the 10th-20th. A week of summer camp in there somewhere for daughter. Then my mom will be back here on the 25th-28th. Then on July 12th, we leave for family vacation until the 18th. Then on the 23rd-26th, I take a short cruise to the Bahamas with the kids, my grandma and mother in law. Daughter goes back to WV with them to visit, and comes back on Aug. 9th. Then she and I leave Aug. 18th to go to her Jonas Brothers concert- which she still doesn't know about, I'm giving her the tickets for kindergarten graduation. Then back home the next day, and back to school the 24th. Then I have about a one month breather before my girls cruise.

Are you tired yet? ;) It's definitely a lot of traveling, but it's something that I love to do. Of course I hate the mess and laundry afterwards too ;)

Happy (almost) anniversary!

The end of this month marks one year since we moved here to FL, and I honestly cannot believe it's been that long already. Do I feel settled? Not completely. Moving somewhere as adults, and fitting in, takes time. It's nice to go outside and actually TALK to our neighbors now. I would say about 50% of people we encounter here are standoff-ish, and some just downright not friendly. But there are good ones that make up for it. Things take time. This major change in my life is trying to teach me patience. I've gained some, but not a lot ;)
Some days I feel like I've made my place in life- we've moved away, we've proved we can do it on our own. And some days, I feel like I'm just temporarily here, waiting on husband to drop the ball and say "we're going back". I know that that all rests on my shoulders- I get the feeling that he will never truly be content here, but he will never leave unless I say so (and I have no intentions of any such thing).
My major hurdle is still the lack of friends- it's a hard thing to do when you're not working, and not in school. I am hoping to get involved in the mom's groups this summer and meet some moms my age. There seem to be few of them. Most people are older, with kids our age- maybe that's another difference I hadn't thought of. Apparently there are other things to do in FL as a teen then get into trouble and/or have sex- thus, mostly older parents, and not younger like I encountered in WV ;)
So without further adieu, here are things I have learned and noticed in my first year as a FL resident (gotta love those Disney discounts! ;) ). This obviously doesn't cover them all, but my intention is to only SLIGHTLY bore you to tears ;)

#1- There are no native Floridians here. We have met about 2 of them. Everyone else is from some other state, which leads me to believe that people who grow up here can't wait to get the hell out of here, and the rest of the country can't wait to get here.

#2- The schools suck. For anyone who ever considered moving here, the schools suck. You basically have to look at the state of FL, pick the good county school districts (few), and then pick a place to live near one of them. There is no such thing as moving, then just going to whatever school you live near, it could spell disaster. Florida ranks 50 out of 50 states in public school funding. Hence the reason we moved out of the city a bit, because the schools were junk in our area. Now we're a bit further out, but in a fabulous school. Love it!

#3- The water here is the nastiest liquid thing I have ever encountered in my life, other than beer. ;) Seriously. Lots of sulfur water. It's a real damper for someone who hasn't lived here forever because I walk around knowing that I stink like that water- and so does everyone else, but I guess they're just used to it. So yes, we stink,but at least we're just like everyone else. I go through a TON of fabric softener- liquid and sheets- to cover this up. It's not smelly everywhere, but it is here. The worst is getting a fountain drink- you can totally taste it. ugh.

#4- The power bill is outrageous, and food is through the roof. Publix, a wonderful super market- I'm sure no one could ever beat them in customer service, but they are on average $.20- $.50 higher on EVERYTHING. It adds up when you have to do a lot of grocery shopping.

#5- However, house prices (at this point) are much lower than where we were in WV. I still can't figure out why, because there was nothing to offer in our area there, but home prices were ridiculous.

#6- It's bathing suit and flip flop season pretty much year round. I had on flip flops at Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. The pool does not shut here- ever. There's no waiting until Memorial Day weekend to go to the pool. There is no time to get in shape for bathing suit season, because it's ALWAYS bathing suit season!

#7- On that same note, it is perfectly normal to see people outside in a sweater or long sleeved shirt when it's 75 outside. You wouldn't believe me if I told you, but there are days that 75 feels COLD. It's amazing how fast your body adjusts. When we first moved here and I saw people in long sleeves I thought they were crazy. Now I am also on of those crazy people.

#8- We have weird, hard, sharp, grass. It's called St Augustine grass. and it hurts!

#9- There is a serious lack of furry creatures here. I don't hear a lot of birds chirping (I think mostly because they are in the water), I have seen 2 deer since we moved here a year ago. Which is nice, because I don't have to worry about plowing them with my car ;)

#10- The lack of furry creatures have been replaced with a surplus of reptiles, much to husbands horror. There are at least 10 frogs in our yard or on our driveway each night. They are all over the roads. There are lightening fast lizards all over the sidewalk and house. They constantly run in the house and they are a pain to get out- especially if husband vacates the premises as soon as one comes in. Gators 'o plenty, and snakes here and there. I've been told there are scorpions as close as 15 minutes away,by husbands friend who got bit by one. Which I am sure means they are here too- hopefully they do not come here.

#11 Having "the bug guy" at your house is not a bad thing like it was in WV- having the bug guy there was like "Ohmygosh! What do they HAVE??". Here, the bug guy comes every other month, for everyone. You wouldn't want to live here without him. Bugs O Plenty as well- spiders, earwigs, LOTS of ants, etc etc.

#12- There are 2 seasons here- Summer, and February. It's the only time of the year that it cooled off, and we actually saw some frost and freezing. You should have seen how people act when it freezes here- quite amusing :) The leaves did change and fall off- about the 3rd week of December, and it was a very fast process that lacked the really vivid leaf changing colors. It did happen though. :) I still wouldn't call it fall, it was too warm :)

#13- It's perfectly normal for my air conditioning to run ALL day at home. When I get up at 7:30 and it's on, you know it's hot ;)

#14- People here use their garage as a second hang out- our neighbor has his TV, beer, huge fan, and nudie posters in his. He has it made I tell you! But he's not the only one. Either there are a lot of bad husbands who have been banished to the garage (or gone there voluntarily), or there is something cool about the garage that I just don't know about. All of our neighbors have their football parties in the garage too. I guess at least the house stays clean..

#15- People driving around @ 7am with their convertible car tops open, totally normal. Did I mention it's damn hot here? Also totally normal to go to Walmart/Publix/store of your choice and see at least 2 or 3 people with their bathing suits on under their clothes/dresses. It is nearly constant tourist season after all ;)




So there you have it. I've become quite knowledgeable of totally useless things in the last year. I'm hoping that this next year coming up is much better than the first part of last year. ;) I'm off to pat myself on the back for (almost) one year survived!

Post-Mommy Day

Hope that all of you mommies out there had a fabulous Mothers Day! My day was quite nice- I slept until 10:30 (nowhere near late enough for me, but it beats the usual). Then we poked around the house, before getting ready and heading out for the afternoon. I did a bit of shopping, mostly for the kids, but it just feels so good to get out and do what I want. Husband chauffeured me around town and stopped at wherever I pointed to hehe ;)

The real kicker was dinner- oh, dinner. Ugh. In husbands defense, he wanted to take me somewhere really nice. But, given the last incident when we ate at this place, I didn't think they were ready to see us back anytime soon. We drove around for a bit, thinking about where to eat and noticing that of course everywhere was packed out. So we settled on-

Golden Corral. OMG.

I seriously hate public buffets. Not only are they full of germs, they normally also have quite a mass of not-so-clean people (who coincidentally probably spread most of the germs). don't get me wrong, for families with young kids, sometimes it's the only way to go. Son is wild and sometimes sit down dinners with a waitress are just not going to happen. We need to go somewhere where we can shovel it all in, and flee to the car before a meltdown happens. But a special breed of people were out in full force yesterday, that's for sure. The place was gross, the food was blah, just...ugh. Quite an experience.

But, the gifts were much better. Husband got me a bike- something I have been wanting but wasn't expecting. Obviously in FL there are no hills, so our neighborhood makes a great riding place. Daughter and I have been taking evening bike rides which is nice. Hopefully once husband gets his bike, we can put a baby thing on it and all go together. I also got some very cute handmade cards from daughter, and son even signed them with his custom "gurkles" (circles). He also got me a cosmetic bag from Juicy, so all in all I'd say they did quite well. Of course he gets a double whammy since my birthday is Monday, so it's double the trouble of figuring out gifts ;)

Other than that, the weekend was pretty low key. It's been in the mid 90's since Friday, quite hot. It is quite funny when the meteorologists talk about our "cold front" moving in, which will send a chill tomorrow- a high of 79. Oh BRRRR ;) Daughter did a spa day for Girl Scouts on Saturday and then we went to the water park, only they closed half an hour after we got there, but I'd already promised her we would go in, not knowing that. So, I paid $40 for 30min of water play. ugh.

It's another hot day here today, but we'll be out in it. At 2:00 son and I are riding down to the beach, with hopes that the sky is still as clear as it is now so that we can see the Space Shuttle launch. :)

Son

Simple title, huh? ;)

Long before I ever planned on having kids- but funny enough, not so long before I actually did- I always said I wanted two kids- both boys. Of course when daughter was born, I couldn't imagine myself having anything other than a girl. So then I got pregnant again 4 years later, and decided at that point that I wanted another girl, and had a boy. And of course, I couldn't imagine life without him :)

I've always heard how different each child can be, but I never imagined just HOW different my two kids would really be. Daughter was so content as a baby to just sit and play, read books, and to go out with me. We'd spend hours outside or at the mall, and she was wonderful. She could talk plain as day around a year old.

Son, is wild. I'm fairly certain that there is none other on the planet like him. In fact, I know there isn't. There can't be. He has no interest in sitting still, ever. He's constantly high flying off of whatever piece of furniture is most close to him at the moment. He refuses to behave when we're in public,he beats the crap out of his sister (yes, we try to stop it).

Son turned two last month, and I meant to give him a post dedicated to how he truly is a blessing in my life. I have a really strong bond with him, he's 1 of my two favorite people in the world- daughter being the other ;)

Then, I wanted to talk about how son makes me earn my money. Not that I'm getting paid- in anything other than hugs or kisses of course (and totally worth it!). But if I were getting paid, I would not be making nearly enough.

Take this year for example- and mind you, this is only May. Starting with early 2009,son meets our coffee table head first- courtesy of the dog, and ends up with 5 stitches in his cheek and 4 in his eyebrow. February, we have tubes put in each ear, and his adenoids out. March and April were semi normal, and then we met the past two days.

Starting with Wednesday night, we're all outside playing. Daughter has recently learned to ride without traning wheels, and she FLIES on her bike. She's riding along, and son steps out in front of her, and she PLOWS him on her bike. He falls to the ground and goes to scream and cry, only he doesn't. He holds his breath, and then he passes out. Fabulous.

Husband didn't freak out like I thought he would, suprisingly. And son recovered in about 10-15 seconds, all was well.

Fast forward to tonight, just son and I having a mommy and son dinner, while husband and daughter are out Mother's Day shopping. He's running around in the kitchen having fun, and trips on something and falls, pounding his head on our lovely tile floor. Ugh. He does cry immediately which is good, I'm certain it hurt him bad enough that he *almost* lost his breath again and I almost thought he was going to pass out again. Once a lifetime is enough of that, thanks.

I'm fairly certain that there's no concussion or anything like that- I hope. I'm keeping an eye on him and hoping that we go injury free for a long time from now!

And so on this Mother's Day weekend, I'm thankful for the two rugrats that I have, for the chance to be their mommy. I screw up often, but I really do try. I'm also thankful for my new pink bike that husband got me, since I have been wanting a bike since we moved here. I hopped on it tonight, and let's just say I'm a little rusty ;)

Chomp, Chomp

I have been pathetically lacking on my updates, sorry bout that. I am back, and in decent form ;)
Ok actually I feel like ass, but I hated to start off on a negative note. I think I have a combo of PMS and something else that mildly resembles the flu (no, not swine flu). And I'm here alone with the kids while husband is away. Good times! Moving on.

I've been saying since we moved to Florida that I want to see a gator "in the wild". Our subdivision has 5 or 6 "lakes" (in WV, it's known as a small pond ;) ), and they have signs about not feeding the alligators at a couple. I have yet to figure out if this is to be cute, if it's purely for decoration, to possibly avoid a lawsuit, or what. But I have yet to see an alligator in there, or anything resembling it.

So this past weekend, we take a day trip to a state park for daughters Girl Scouts. the park was very neat- the neatest thing being that it is an island, and that it used to be completely swarmed with snails, which is what the residents (Indians) lived off of. Now, the entire island is covered in snail shells. I had to threaten daughter with jail time for removing state park property, just to avoid coming home with 1000 empty snail shells- all of which looked alike ;)

We ride the ferry (like a 15 second ride) to the island, and eat our lunch, let the girls play ,etc. Our "outdoorsy" mom as I like to call her, suggests that we go canoeing. And I agree.

Why? Someone, tell me why.

There were 3 adults and 3 girls that went, and knowing that I could not maneuver a canoe on my own (seeing as how I've never set butt in one), one of the moms comes with me and daughter. They untie us, and we immediately start drifting backwards, into the bank. 10 minutes later, we inch forward out into the open channel.

From there, it's about 20 minutes of screaming, lots of drifting towards the bank, and TONS of circles- no forward movement, just circles. It was quite humorous, and annoying all at once.

Fast forward about 15 more minutes and we finally develop a rhythm. We head down the river, and I see a "dead head" (log) sticking out in the water, and we're drifting towards it. But then...what the.. all of the sudden , the log starts swimming.

And it's a gator.

We, the useless canoe operators, are drifting right towards what is, in my opinion, a very large gator. Very large.

Team work becomes priority all of the sudden, and out of nowhere we learn (quite quickly!) how to stop, and reverse, and get the hell out of dodge.

Escaping what could have been a potentially bad situation, we head the opposite direction on the river. And not 5 minutes in, there's another one, sunbathing. Needless to say, that was the end of my first (and most likely last) canoe trip. We later learned that it's mating season, and that's it's a good idea to avoid them because in the park rangers words, they are "quite hostile".

WTF? She didn't feel the need to tell me this BEFORE I almost turned myself into some reptiles lunch? Where were the signs for this? Or are we the only idiots who actually rent those canoes?

Anyway, I'm back unscathed, and now I can say that I have officially met my first FL gator- almost too close for comfort, and without my camera, but I still have the possibility of recurring nightmares to keep it fresh in my memory. ;)

In other news, I'm currently searching for "the" perfect dress to wear to a wedding, in addition to 2 outfits to wear to daughters dance recital. I have some time to work with, but apparently not the body to work with. Since when did I become so much bigger than I used to be? Or maybe clothes became MUCH smaller? ;)

The good thing is Newport News and Speigel both have sections on their websites specifically called "What to wear to a wedding". Beyond that, they even have them divided out into categories (beach, city, etc). So why can't I squeeze my arse into something cute? Who knows. Still waiting on that miracle diet cure here people! ;)