Yes, I am alive...

It's been quite sometime since I've blogged...forgive me ;-)

School has been crazy, and the kids are growing up way to fast! My oldest is preparing to entire high school in August. This cannot be possible!!! Gabe will be starting Jr. High, and Miles will be in Kindergarten. So we will be having 3 graduations this May, and I'm going to need to stock up on kleenx to survive them.

Birthday season is a blur to me now, but they all hit another year older. Christmas was fantastic, santa was very good to the kiddos.

Now just prepping for the end of the year school events and getting ready for a fun summer!

I'll try to be around more often!

My comfort

Two years ago we said goodbye.

Two years later the pain is still here.

You were my comfort. Just being in your presence made every problem in the world disappear. Your patience is unheard of these days. You loved with all of your heart and never held judgement for others. You lived your life to the fullest each and every day. By far the strongest woman I have ever met.

Not a day goes by that I don't think about you. You seem to still have a way of helping me through life when you appear in my dreams at just the right time. All of your nine great grand kids will know your love even if they were too small to remember. If only we could all be as amazing of a woman, wife, mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend that you were this world would be a much better place.

Miss you everyday Grandma!

Reflecting

This has been a year for sure!

Good, bad, ugly, happy, and sad. 

Fastest year to date! Between having older kids who are involved in more things, and little ones still needing a lot of attention, it's been an adjustment. School kicked my butt constantly. I was accepted into the Surgical Tech program, which has beyond thrilled me. Which also means this last year of school I have ahead of me will be the hardest yet.

My daughter had her Kindergarten farewell party this morning. Something about finishing that grade is always a heart string puller! 4 kids down, 2 to go. Realizing my 5th child will start Kindergarten in 2013 and that my oldest will be a freshman in HIGH SCHOOL the same year makes me want to cry and put my head through a wall. Why is time moving so fast? Why do the kids have to grow up? I will be 30 this year. My hair is starting to turn gray. I see new wrinkles on my face. My hips hurt when it is going to rain.  The summer is here. My big kids finish up school tomorrow. The babies have been out of school since the second week of May. As well as me.

It has been hard not being able to see/talk my grandparents anytime I'm having a rough day. My big brother and his family moved away this year. It's not too far away, but it just isn't the same as having all of them in the same town.

I have cried more in the last two weeks than I have in quite sometime. You would think being done with school for the summer, and all the activities coming to an end would do nothing but lift my spirits. No more running around like a crazy taxi driver, trying to help with the kids homework, and only thing I have to do is enjoy the kids, swim, snuggle, etc.  I think now that my only job is to take care of the kids, I finally had a moment to sit and think and the overwhelming stress that I just went through over the last 10 months hit me all at once. I think it was good for me to get to this point. Getting it all out, having a good cry, and facing the crap I went through without distraction of school. Life is good, shit happens, I've been kicked when I was at my lowest point. But I am a fighter and won't be beaten down that easily.

It is what it is...Right Grandma? 


Happy Summer Ya'll! 

Spring Break 2012!

We had a BLAST in Florida!!!! We are all sun kissed and still exhausted, even though we've been home since Monday night.

Only took us 9 hours to get down there and that was stopping every few hours (kid's have such small bladders!) and stopping for breakfast and lunch. And we left early enough Wednesday morning to be able to enjoy the afternoon on the beach.

We ate great food, swam swam swam, walked the Pier, played in the sand and ocean A LOT, and the big kids had a blast at Pirates Island playing at a HUGE mini-golf place.

The weather was PERFECT. Last time I went to Florida as a kid it was so hot that it was miserable. This was perfect weather. Cool mornings, but by 10am the sun was hot and warm enough to boogie board in the ocean or swim in one of the several pools our resort had. Wasn't real happy that someone put it in the kids head that it was going to be 'too cold' to enjoy our trip, which discouraged them BIG TIME, but they quickly realized otherwise.

We can't wait to go back! 6 days away from home was perfect for all of us!!!!



Now on to studying for me...5 finals over the next week and a half and my anxiety is sky high!!!

Good news is after these next two weeks, I will only have TWO semesters left before graduation!!!!! YAY!!!!!

Kid Logic

We were talking about spicy foods on the car ride home from school today...My boys think that since I'm a GIRL I cannot handle my 'spice'. I informed them that I ate nothing BUT spicy foods throughout my entire pregnancy with Zane.

Gabe: You did? Well that's why everyone always says Zane is so handsome. It's because you ate nothing but HOT stuff while he was in your belly.

Me: Hmmm, I don't think that's how it works bud.

Gabe: It HAS to be, why didn't you eat hot stuff with me?

Me: Dude, I ate nothing but chocolate and sweets while I was pregnant with you...

Gabe: And that is why I'm so sweet.

He's a funny kid.

But wait, the funny kid should be Miles if we are sticking with this logic. Due to the fact that we watched Lisa Lampanelli (hilarious comedian) during labor/delivery.

Last Day of Winter

Wait, what?!

We never actually HAD a winter to begin with! One week of cold doesn't really stop us warm weather loving Kentuckians from enjoying this very warm 'Winter.'

All weekend long we spent every second we could outside. Whether it be yard work, sprinklers, bubbles, or just plain having fun running around and soaking up the sun.

So today, on this LAST day of dreaded winter, we will be yet again, enjoying the outdoors.

View from our upper deck. Trees are blooming and the colors are just beautiful...


And of course, warm weather brings out the boys need to pee outside! Hey, saves me from cleaning bathrooms, so I have no problem with this! hehe

Marry a woman like your mom...?

I recently read an article about how men do, in fact, usually marry a woman like their mother.

Then I had a conversation with my sister in law about this.

Is it really true? Do they look for someone that nurtures EXACTLY like their mom? Physical traits? The list could go on and on.

I was nothing like my ex-husbands mother. Maybe that is why he is my EX. But my mother-in-law NOW and I are so similar it is very scary. I remember Paul saying "Wow, you sound just like my mom" very early on in our relationship. I had yet to meet his mom, so I just brushed it off. While her and I do have several things that are nothing alike, our outlook on life, similar views about how a man should act, kids, etc, are very very similar. If her and I plan a lunch date, we need to make someone else choose our location since neither of us like making simple decisions like that. We both can make Paul pull his hair out by just a look or a sentence.

Will my boys grow up and marry someone like me? I don't really get along well with people like myself. My closest girlfriends have similar interests as me, but their lives, backgrounds, etc are complete opposites. My oldest friend and I are still close after 15 years, and our lives were identical. We even look alike and are at the same point in our lives. But, she and I can fight like sisters if we are both too stubborn about something. We know how to push each others buttons, but we also know the perfect thing to say to each other when life throws us a curve ball. Another best friend of mine doesn't even have kids, a husband, or even a boyfriend. She's girly as they come. But we click.

So I think I'm going to start looking around and being more precise when it comes to relationships around me, to see if the wife is like the man's mother.

But if my boys do look for a woman like me, good luck ladies....I'm a hard one to top! hehe!