Happy Birthday Grandma

Today is my grandma's 85th birthday! We are driving down for a suprise birthday party they are having for her. My brother and family are up from Houston and she doesn't know that any of us are going to be in town. Wow, 85 years!! Grandma still lives in the same house that her and Grandpy built probably around 50 years ago. Besides some high blood pressure, there really isn't much that keeps her down. Of course the woman wouldn't tell us if it was anything else...she is "so damn stubborn". OK OK so maybe I know where I got it from now! Let me tell you a little bit about my Grandma........memories of Grandma are so intertwined throughout my life and childhood, there aren't too many memories i have that she isn't a part of. She truly embodies the word "Grandma". Everyone should be so lucky to know the love of, sweet and sometimes harsh, of a Grandma like mine. I used to spend the night at their house all the time when i was a kid. I even went to Grandma's when i had scarlet fever one year so I could get the one on one attention I so deserved feeling so crummy, and of course there I wouldn't get everyone else sick. We have had our disagreements, did I mention Grandma can be stubborn! And she nags, and gets more involved in things in your life sometimes than you would like...but that is ok....that is Grandma. Grandma just wouldn't be Grandma if it weren't for you being able to count on her for those things! Here are some examples....
- when we called and told grandma that we were getting married, se replied with a sobering, almost dissappointed "how are you going to survive on your own" - "we'll Grandma, we've been living together for over a year and haven't gone hungry yet"
- I think maybe just in the past year - and I stress the MAYBE - that I can keep my kids alive and healthy. As soon as you walk in Grandma's door she is trying to cook you something, well the same goes for the kids. I can tell her they just ate, or are going to in an hour so I don't want them to eat...and 5 minutes later she has them sitting at the table with food in front of them...and if they eat even a bit I get the "See, they were hungry" like I was lying to her or something! lol
- Same things with the babies sleeping....one time we had Turner in the pack-n-play putting him to bed at her house, and he was fussing some...but then she kept goig back and opeing the door to check on him, which of course brought the screaming back full force everytime. I think that each time he was almost asleep, there she would go down the hall. I thought Aaron was going to tackle her in the hallway....needless to say, I thnk that is the last time that we have stayed at Grandma's when Aaron has been with us.
- Grandma told my sister-inn-law at her BABY SHOWER that her kid was going to be ugly! I don't remember how she tried to explain it off - but that was a classic...Grandma isn't always the most PC person!
Things I will always associate with Grandma-
- Cream of Wheat - on a plate, butter and brown sugar....mmmmmm....
-Cream of Chicken Soup - and nobody can even come close to getting it the way Grandma does - and it is only the canned stuff, you'd think we could figure out her secret....of course the more I cook, I think the fact that Grandma uses the all out regular soup and whole milk might have something to do with the difference in taste from my 98%FF soup and skim milk.....
- Grandma's fried chicken..mm mm finger lickin good - and like no one else's
- "Skrimp" - see Grandma is Dutch, and still to this day can't say "shrimp" - I found this out one time when I was probably 12 or so and we went to Red Lobster and I swear it took her 10 minutes to get the waiter to understand what she wanted. By the time it was all said and done we were laughing so hard I don't know that he could understand anything - still have that joke to today.
- growing pains - the literal ones. I used to get such bad growing pains as a kid and remember countless nights of her sitting in my bed the whole night rubbing my legs so I could go back to sleep. And the warm washrags she would continue to bring to me to put against my ears when I had such bad earaches.
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I could go on and on, and maybe I will later, but right now I need to get in the shower so I'm not late to the party. I just want to end with that i love my Grandma soooo much for exactly who she is. I'm so lucky that my kids have been able to learn about who Grandma is for themselves and have the same memories of her as I do as a small child. I know that a day is coming where Grandma isn't going to be here, and I can't even begin to comprehend that in my mind..... so I'll try to get in as many more memories as I can before that day comes. I love you so much Grandma!!

A Day in the Life

So I figured with my crazy days right now, I better go ahead an capture a normal day for me so that I can look back and remember.

4:45-5 - wake up
5:45 - leave the house, stop at Quik Trip to get my daily cappuccino/coffee concoction. I really can't go without it!
6:30 - get to work
Stay crazy busy all day, about 12 heat up a can of soup and eat at my desk
3:30-5 - depending on the day, leave work. On Tuesdays I stay late and go straight to school from 6-10. Monday and Wednesday I have to be home by 4 so Aaron can leave for school, Thursday home by 5, Friday home about 4:30-5.
Get home and start my second job! lol Lets take tonight for example, got home about 4:10, from then till now at 7, here is my list:
1. clean kitchen
2. start laundry (load 3 is in now)
3. make cookies with the kids
4. make dinner
5. serve the kids dinner - feed Austin, tell Turner 563 times to get back to the tale and eat!, and Mackenzie was having her favorite dinner (cheesy chicken) so she ate fine.
6. Put all 3 kids in the bathtub
7. clean bathroom while kids are playing in bath
8. go to get towels out, and there are NONE clean...UGHHHH - that has never happened....Cameron??!!
9. Figure without all the big towels, it is a good time to straighten rest of towels/washrags in linen closet (right outside the door, I can still see Austin) while kids are in bath
10. Get all kids out and in jammies
11. unload/load dishwasher and clean kitchen again from cookies and dinner
12. Finally get a chance to update my blog!!!

For the rest of the night - around 8-9 the kids will all get to bed. I have to read at least 2 chapters for school, go to bed and back up at 4:45! Yippee! And no I don't sleep in on the weekends, I have to use the time of everyone being asleep to work on school papers. I'm not complaining, this is actually pretty good speed for me. I take a day off here or there and rest back up. Well I better go, I've got kids wanting to do homework and play with the bead things you put on and melt together (and Austin is helping out right now by walking around with the broom sweeping the kitchen floor - thanks buddy!). So...until next time.....

We went sledding yesterday...so it was at least 40 degrees outside, but there was still enough snow (barely) and we wanted to make sure we made it once before it all melted. So sledding we went and snowman we made. Had a great time, and it was nice to not be freezing cold while we were out playing in the snow. Austin LOVED sledding and threw a fit any time we took him out of the sled, also LOVES swinging...and you guessed it...all out fit when I go to take him out of the swing too. He is in quite the dramatic stage right now.

These are some random pictures from my birthday. Wanted to take a picture of me at 30 - but this was the end of a long day, so not lookin my best.

And here is my wonderful cake. Didn't have a '0', so I just got the 3! (Don't mind Turner in his dinosaur outfit!)

Best Birthday Ever

I have to capture this year....I think it was my best birthday ever. Aaron really went all out this year. Although, I think I figured out why...he just wants a big deal made out ohis 30th next year. Just joking, I know he would have done it no matter what. So everyone probably already read about last weekend, well after all that, I wasn't expecting a thing for my birthday. First, the first gift I got for my birthday was a surprise of Fran showing up at my work with a balloon bouquet. It had this "Over the Hill" balloon in it, so I think maybe the people at the store gave her the wrong one! lol Then i got home, and my wonderful mother-in-law had sent me flowers and a balloon - they are beautiful Denise (and Harold) - thank you. So that would have been more than I was expecting right there, but then as I walk in the house, this wonderful aroma hits me. Aaron had prepared my favorite meal from our FAVORITE restaurant. So last night for dinner, I had Shrimp Atescedero (bacon wrapped in wing sauce, dip in ranch....mmmmm sooooo good), then salad wedge with tomato, blue cheese crumbles, and ranch, then jalapeno twice baked potato and a fillet!!! Then for desert a chocolate cake! All from scratch, all made by himself. Wow....and I mean every single bite was scrumptious!
This is the stuff of fairy tales ladies - but it is real life. I don't know what I did to get so lucky, but I know not everyone gets this in life. This is a five star resort, now lots of people settle for staying in the Super 8, and hey, it meets the basic needs- but compared to this resort..... I wish everyone could experience it, but just so everyone knows, men like Aaron aren't a figment of the imagination, they are real.
Famous quote of the day: last night we were talking about when Mackenzie grows up and she told me that she wanted to be our neighbor when she was older (whew - better than saying she wanted to live in our basement forever!), and then Turner was saying he wanted to be a firefighter, and Mackenzie said she wanted to be a "fidghter fighter" too, and then she turned to me and said "What do you want to be when you grow up mommy?" Hmmmm, I'll have to think about that sweetheart...what do I want to be when I "grow up"???

A New Angel in Heaven

I just checked....poor Tuesday died yesterday. How can a life of a girl I've never knew, the words of parents I will never meet...tear me and rip me apart so rawly. I sit here sobbing uncontrolably, barely able to see through my tears. How do you go on. How do you hold your child as they die in your arms. How do you tell them it is ok to go. How do you comfort their siblings. How do you face the world the next day. It is so unfair. That DAMN cancer...I HATE YOU, I WISH YOU WOULD GO AWAY FOREVER. God help me if I ever meet you because I will destroy you. So why do I do this, why even follow the story knowing that it won't have a happy ending. I don't know. Maybe I am a glutton for punishment, maybe just to remind me of how precious life truly is, maybe to remind me to just sit and hold my babies and never let them go. I've read before, there is no word for a parent who has lost a child. People who lose a spouse are widowed, children who lose a parent are orphaned...but what do we call someone who has lost a child. Why has this never been "named". Possibly because the word would be so painful to hear that we can't even imagine. Those of us lucky enough to have never experienced the pain will forever be on the outside, neverable to comprehend. There is no word I can think of that even does justice to how awful it would be. To look at my healthy children playing in the living room right now, without a care in the world, and to think that they to, or me, or you, could have this silent killer inside and tomorrow it could reveal itself....but I would rather live with the unknown forever than to ever know the worst. God be with this family and all the others out there that are grieving the loss of a child.

Like a fine bottle of wine

Well at least I think i'm getting better with age. Compared to HS years - oh yeah, compared to me at 20 - well at least I'm not an alcoholic anymore (lol) - compared to 25 - much calmer and more well rounded. So will I continue to get better or is it all downhill from here? My personal opinion...I know I have at least another good 5 years upward still, will re-evaluate at 35! lol I'm livin the life right now, things are good. Got me a good husband, good kids, good friends. So what will I be doing different now that I'm 30, well, I think if my 20s were building my family, my 30s will be building my career. Of course, not over family, but you know. And I'm not naive, I know I will change dramatically still over the years. Gosh, to look back at being 20 and realize I didn't have a clue who I was then. I think I've got a pretty good grasp on it, but I know it is all perspective and at 40 I'm going to look back and say "and I thought I knew who I was at 30 - ha" These years are going to be the best years of my life I think. I have an idea of who I am, who I want to be. My life is steady and i have a strong support system built in that I think can handle any things thrown our way. I'll watch the kids grow up into little kids - but they will still be young enough in this decade to like me (the next decade is a whole different story!). I'll get my Masters, hopefully excel in my career. Speaking of which, so much work to do right now and I'd like to get home sometime today........so until next time.

Snow Day!

Work got snowed out today!!!! Yippeee...so that means lots of fun in the sun around here. It is like turning in to a kid all over again. I could stay out there all day. We've played in the front yard and hope to go someplace to go sledding a little later. No snowmen though, as the snow is like fine powder.....oh how I LOVE the snow. Grandma and Pop, you've got to miss this?!

The perfect snow!!!

Hmmm Turner, I'm not sure how this is going to work out for you??

Ahhh, now that makes more sense!

Making angels - my favorite snow activity.

Hey guys, better make sure that snow isn't yellow!

Aaron shoveling, oh wait that's a rake.....Aaron RAKING the driveway.

Right before I forced them inside with those rosey red cheeks.