Someone Stop Me!

I HAVE to stop looking at pets on CL and the Humane Society's website! I already live in a zoo. I feel badly that Zoe doesn't have a playmate, though. My in-laws brought their little dogs with them when they came to visit earlier this month and Zoe has been very lonely ever since then. There's an adorable lab on Craigslist right now that needs adopting and they only want $40 to help recoup the cost of nursing her back to health. She's about 5 months old and just precious looking. Zoe would have a blast with her! But alas, not only do we currently have the $40 to spend on her, we already have a zoo. Although, if I had the money right this second ... yeah, I'd so be picking her up tomorrow.....

What a Great Weekend!

(Look at me! Two posts in less than a week! I rock! ;) )


Friday night an amazing friend of mine, Meagan, sent me a text offering up a night of babysitting (at my house) so that Chris and I could go out. She brought her daughter, Azzy, along and my kids had a blast I'm sure. Azzy is 2 weeks younger than Kairi and they are best friends. Except, of course, every 5 minutes when one of them announces that she is no longer friends with the other person because they aren't playing "right". No, they're not both super strong willed and don't butt heads constantly. Why do you ask? lol

Chris and I of course jumped on the offer and went out to eat and to see a movie. It was such a great night. I don't know that we've enjoyed ourselves as much as we did. It was full of laughter and just general friendship. We definitely need more weekends like that.

Saturday morning Chris went to his first CMA meeting where he got asked why he hadn't brought the kids and I. Guess that answers our question of whether or not the kids would be welcome! We're in the process of joining the Christian Motorcycle Association right now ... instigated by Chris who is really excited about getting to join the music ministry there. (Yay!) And yes, this means that Chris now has a motorcycle. He's really happy about it and it has led to more peace in the house. He's already had his first accident ... yikes! But it wasn't his fault, the police report proves that as a cop witnessed it, and the bike will (hopefully) be fixed soon -- details on that in a minute.

We spent the rest of the day just being lazy around the house. It was really nice actually.

Sunday Chris sang at church which always makes me happy. Then we went out to eat with Meagan, Azzy, and Tim -- Meagan's husband. We had a great time, as we always do with them ... which is probably why we're spending almost every weekend with them. That night we were invited to their house for the evening, but only Chris went as the kids HAD to go to bed. It was not a good night for them.


Then the best part of the weekend was actually yesterday. Chris doesn't work on Mondays now. Kairi had the day off for MLK. That morning when Chris got home (he stayed the night there), he told me that he and Tim had decided to give Meagan and I a girl's day. They watched the kids while Meagan and I got to go out and have lunch, get our hair cut, and go shopping. We had so much fun! I got three new shirts, 2 pairs of shoes (both things that I've been needing for a LOOOONG time), organizational stuff for the kids, and stuff for our gardens! This year we're not only doing gardens, but we're going to do them together! I'm so excited. Now's the time to start planning and preparing for it so we're getting busy. It's going to be so much fun. While we were gone, Chris spent the day smoking a brisket and it was ready just as we got home. Both families ate together and we had just a general good time. I love days like that. They left around 7 at which point I immediately put the kids in bed and Chris and I went to bed right after that. Seriously, when I turned out the light it was 7:18. I have never gone to bed that early before! But apparently I needed it because when I woke up this morning I felt better than I had in a long time. I'm ready to tackle my house and workout schedule and get plans for a Bible study and our garden together.



So quickly, a FlyLady update. I'm not flying. I'm barely fluttering. I've realized that I need to start from square one. Today is Day One. Yes, my house looks better than it ever did before, but it's not where I want it, so I'm going to try to keep going w/ my normal routines but starting at Day One today with FlyLady, I'm going to add that in. I'm also going to start trying to add in at least 20 minutes of activity a day for me, and try to remember to read my Bible every day. Which leads to my Bible study stuff I mentioned earlier, and I'll try to post about that either this afternoon or tomorrow.



And while saying all this, I'd also like to mention that I'm considering switching to Wordpress. My biggest problem with updating is that I have 3, yes, count them, THREE, blogs. It's hard to keep up with them. It's hard to know what to put where, to remember who should read what, and who has links to which one. So all three have been dropped until Sunday night/Monday morning when I couldn't sleep because Chris wasn't home. Maybe switching to Wordpress will help me password protect certain posts while not having to either duplicate or triplicate posts on blogs where it could go to either or all, and would help me feel like I had a single home to post to all the time. I still haven't decided for certain ... but I'm definitely considering it...


All that being said ... I'll see you either this afternoon or tomorrow! Have a great day!

Not Bothering With Updates

I just have a couple funnies from the kids. Maybe if I start one day at a time with the funnies I'll eventually get to the point where I'm updating regularly. And maybe after that I'll start filling in holes from the last few months. :)


Today at dinner Kairi was talking and kept confusing herself but wanting me to help her "know the right words". The problem was I had no clue what in the world she could be talking about! Finally I had to tell her that. "Sorry, girl, but I REALLY don't know what you're talking about." Her response? "Yeah ... I don't know either."


~~~~~~~


A few nights ago I ended up giving Kairi and Alex the "if anyone touches you here, here or here, you HAVE to tell Mommy" speech. It was a good conversation for the most part and very unscary... just one of those things you have to prepare your children for I suppose. And at one point Kairi wanted to know what I would do to the "bad guys" or even good guys that do bad things. I informed her that I have special Mommy powers that help me take care of those people and she doesn't have to worry about it ... just to trust me. Kairi announces that she doesn't have special powers but she's TOUGH. (She saw Annie the musical about a month ago and has been obsessed with being tough like Annie ever since.) Alex then declared that he had cool little boy powers. Kairi teased him by saying his powers were stinky powers. I have to share Alex's and my conversation after that:

Alex: I'm not a stinky boy!
Me: Are you sure about that dude?
Alex: Yes! I'm not stinky, but my special power farts are stinky!
Me: Yup, you sure do have some stinky farts.
Alex: Yeah, it's the farty powers.
Me: So what do you have? The Power of Fart?
Alex: Yeah! I fart all the bad guys away!

I kid you not, during the last week he's taken every opportunity available to fart on the imaginary bad guys.

Just a few updates

I need to make this more than just a monthly thing. One day, right? lol


We've recently tackled potty training with Alex and that's been very ... umm ... interesting. It's not that he's not ready, because he is. He knows what to do, how to do it, and even when to do it. But if he has jeans on he won't go in the potty because he doesn't want to bother taking his pants down. But it's winter and he needs pants on those legs! I can't afford to keep my house warm enough for him to not wear pants during the winter so he's got to get better at it. One day at a time, though. We'll get there and carrying 5 pairs of clothes with me every where we go will be a thing of the past. :)


Kairi and I are still struggling with her attitude towards me and her friends. If it's not done HER way, then she's upset with us and suddenly laying in the floor screaming that she hates me/will never be my friend/won't play with me anymore/etc. After trying a letter chart and that not helping behavior, we're just putting her straight in bed when she does it. I'm not going to listen to her be rude. I know she doesn't mean it, but that doesn't mean she can keep saying those things. She's also doing it to her best friend, Azzy. Both Kairi and Azzy have very strong personalities and butt heads quite often. But they react totally different from each other. Kairi gets upset and she starts screaming and throwing a fit. Azzy gets upset and she cries to manipulate you into doing things her way. Needless to say, we're doing a lot of work on compromising. Kairi likes playing tea party. Azzy usually wants to play musical chairs. We have invented a musical chairs tea party game. Kairi wants to watch movies with Azzy. Azzy wants to play like they're in a movie. So we try to alternate in 15 minute rotations on which we do. Things like that. Both always want to be the leader, so we're taking turns in 15 minute rotations on that too.


I'm really thankful that Kairi has Azzy, though, as her parents have become the main people Chris and I spend time with. We're doing things together at least once a week. Her dad (Tim) and Chris get along great. And Meagan and I always have fun together. My only regret is that there is no boy for Alex to spend time with. He is always having to play with girls and we frequently find him wandering around by himself or standing next to us totally bored because either he doesn't want to be dressed up like a princess again or they are refusing to play with him. There is another little boy on the way! Meagan is due next spring. That's just going to be a big age gap for Alex. We need to bring another family with a little boy Alex's age into our group! Still trying to figure out who that might be though. lol


I'll try to update in a few days about our Christmas and other things. But there's where we are for now!

The Scoop On Kairi's Kidneys

I was so horrified by the test for Kairi's kidneys/bladder in September that it sorta sent me into hiding. I don't know how to explain the reaction that Kairi and I had to it, but let me try to explain it the best I can, and the next 24 hours, as well as the results of the test.

First they did an ultrasound on her kidneys. It was only different in that they did the u/s from both her stomach and back. She had no problems with it and chatted the tech's ear off. From there we were taken to the xray room. The xray is actually called an VCUG as it's different from a normal xray. The put a catheter inside of her, injected dye, and took xrays while the dye went filled her bladder, and then while she voided. Let me just say, this was not a pleasant experience ... and that is the understatement of my lifetime. I won't share the horrors, but if your child has to have one, let me know and I'll try to calmly prepare you no exactly what to expect. And then I'll tell you to ask/beg/plead for sedation. Right before leaving we were told that we'd hear from our pediatrician in 2-3 days.

That night and the next day Kairi was in a lot of pain. She stopped urinating and was scared to even try. She ran a fever and cried for hours. I finally took her back to the er, where she eventually voided her bladder for the first time since her procedure. Thankfully, the hospital I took her to was the same one that she had had her tests run at (and is a children's hospital) so they were able to pull up her records. Because of this we did get some news. The er doctor told us that the VCUG showed that she had grade 3 reflux so it was relatively minor and that I could call our pediatrician the next day for more details. Of course, that information made little sense to me, so I had to do some research. Let me share with you the most helpful link I've found.

http://www.pedisurg.com/PtEduc/Vesicoureteral_Reflux.htm

That basically explains that while she urinates her urine goes backwards up her urinary tract, into her kidneys, and then back down. It gathers fecal matter in the kidneys and once that reaches the bladder it can cause severe irritation and infections. The severity ranges from grades 1-5. Kairi is a grade three which is right in the middle. It doesn't require surgery, if it can spontaneously correct itself. Grades 4 and 5 generally require surgery. There's a 50% chance that the condition will correct itself.

Our doctor referred her to a urologist. Dr. Mercer is great. After meeting with her, the following decisions were made. One, we're not doing surgery for at least a year -- not unless she develops an extremely severe infection between now and September. She's on antibiotics anytime she starts to show symptoms. She'll go on them full time if she starts having fevers on a regular basis. She's on a schedule to control how often she pees to help train her bladder how to urinate. She's drinking cranberry juice almost exclusively. And we're retesting her next September. However, next time the test will happen under sedation, with her Daddy present. I will not be the one to hold her down during it again. She'll still fight it, I'm told. But this time she won't remember it, which will be a blessing as she's still telling her friends at school about how the doctor put tape inside her vagina. :-\ If there is no improvements by next September, then she'll most likely have surgery. It's a full bikini incision, though, which is not something I necessarily want for her. If there is some improvement, we'll continue to watch it. And of course there's the chance that it's completely well, which would be my favorite option. :) If in a few years it's almost completely resolved itself but still seems to be lingering, there's an injection she can have, but it has a smaller rate of success so it's not something we want to try unless her condition isn't very severe.

Since her visit with the urologist, she's not had a full blown infection. The few times she's shown symptoms I've had her on her meds for a few days and it's resolved itself without needing a dr's visit.


We also learned that Alex is unfortunately at risk of having the same condition. It's genetic and therefore siblings run a high risk. Also, Kairi has a large bladder which contributes to her issue. It also helps explain why she had such a hard time potty training. Fortunately,she doesn't want to test Alex for this issue unless he has an infection (although, one infection and he's immediately tested ... but I've been promised sedation for that test).

A Quick Conversation

Mommy, Why are you so sad?
I'm not sad, baby. I'm sick.
Oh. Then you need to be in bed!
But if I'm in bed who will take care of you?
That doesn't matter Mommy. You need to go to bed.
I can't baby. I have to take care of you two.
Oh, well, I know who will take care of you!?!
Who baby?
GOD! He takes care of you and ME! So you go to bed and God take care of us both. Bye Mommy!

A Kairi Funny

Story for now. Updates later.


The Blend Chant

Kairi is learning phonics. It's one of the reasons I picked out her specific school. They learn phonics early and will be reading on a first grade level by the end of the year. The first sounds they learned were the vowels. Now they're learning consonants. One of the first letters they learned was the letter t. They then attach the vowel sound to each consonant as a blend. So when they learned the letter t the blends were ta, te, ti, to, tu.

Last week I was waiting to pick Kairi up in the hall outside her classroom. They were walking through the classroom across the hall to enter their classroom when I heard it. Kairi's voice came strong and loud as she chanted out with a clear beat the t blend sounds. Every now and then the boy behind her would join in, but with or without help Kairi was chanting her blends.

Her lead teacher, Ms. Jennifer, entered the hall first to lead the way into their classroom. She stood in the hall watching her children go into the room. Kairi was at the back of the line. Her co-teacher, Ms. Christie, was at the end of the line. As Ms. Christie walked into the hall she didn't see me. Instead she looked directly at Ms. Jennifer and said "She's been doing this alllllllllllllllllllllllll day."

At that moment Ms. Jennifer looked at me and smiled and simply said "I know." I shook my head and said "Sorry about that. Sounds like my daughter. At least you know that she knows her blends!" Ms. Christie looked thoroughly embarrassed to be caught semi-complaining about my daughter. What she doesn't realize is that I fully sympathize. I understand how annoying that could be. And deep down inside, in a place I'd never admit to her face, I'm just thankful that I don't have to be the one that hears it all day. ;)

Moving

Have I ever told ya'll how MUCH I hate moving? Because I do. With a passion. It's one of the most horrible things you could ever do. Especially when you have bronchitis and a stomach bug that is immediately followed by the most terrible, horrible, excruciatingly painful cramps ever experienced by mankind.


In good news, I love my new house. And Chris is thinking that he likes this house so much that we may not move to the other side of town next year when he'll be working over there. And that is good.



So I'll be back to a normal routine once our move is finished and Chris is working again. (On leave till the 10th...). In the meantime, just be glad I'm not on here every night telling you all how much moving sucks. ;)




Oh, and btw, Chris is helping this time. It's a nice change. :)

Driving Me CRAY-ZAY!

I had to wake Alex up from his nap today. I hate doing that because he is always super grumpy afterwards, and really, who can blame him? I'm grumpy too when I have to wake up before I'm ready.

Because I woke him up he was crying. And crying. And crying. 30 minutes of crying later and he finally let me hold him in my lap. I was sitting with my legs crossed while he laid in my lap and tried to stop his sobbing. Kairi was on her knees facing me while trying to cheer her brother up. Here is the conversation that followed:

Me to Alex: So what is this Dude? Do are we going to have to sit here all night like this and send Kairi to church without us?
Alex (with much whining and a nod): Uh-huh
Kairi: But Mommy! I don't know how to drive!!!
Me: Really?
Kairi: Really!
Me: Really?
Kairi: Yes!
Me: Really?
Kairi: Yes!
Me: Really?
Kairi! MOMMY! You're driving me CRAY-ZAY!

Warning Signs You Don't Want to Miss

I've heard it over and over again, if you have a uti then you will KNOW that you have a uti. But what if you don't? More to the point, what if you don't know that your CHILD has a uti?

In May Kairi's ravenous appetite took a nosedive. Suddenly she was picking at her food and constantly telling me that her tummy hurt. Being the drama queen that she is, I generally believed her to be exaggerating and just started sending her to go potty more often. Then she had a few random fevers. Next she started wetting the bed -- something she hadn't done since February. I noticed after a while that her lips were always chapped and let her use my lip gloss occasionally while pushing more liquids.

Then the bombshell. During our trip to Texas, she suddenly started running high fevers and crying when she needed to tee-tee. I knew immediately what that signaled and took her straight to the er. A couple of hours later we had our diagnosis -- a uti. But I didn't combine the fevers and painful urnination with the other symptoms. To me they seemed to be completely separate issues. In fact, it wasn't until this last round of problems that I realized that it was all combined.

At this point Baby Girl has now had 6 suspected uti's. I say suspected because every time the culture done in the office comes back borderline. And most of the time she's treated just in case. And let me tell you, my baby girl can pee in a cup like a pro and on demand. She's GOOD.

When we finally got to see our regular pediatrician about the past few months and the suspected uti problem, he was immediately concerned. Worried that this was a recurrent problem, that may go back all the way into infant-hood (and explain the occasional low-grade fevers without any other symptoms), he scheduled an x-ray and ultrasound of her kidneys to be held this Friday. When we get more information I'll share that with you, but for now I know that we're looking to make sure that her anatomy is correct, nothing is enlarged, and that there's no scaring from past uti's.


But if your child had a uti, would you really know it? See, I always thought I would, but now I'm pretty sure I'd be wrong. Uti's left untreated can cause scaring which causes even more problems. And in infants and young children, it's not always the "omg I'm dying" pain that we experience as adults. So here's a list, taken from www.kidshealth.org, that can help you recognize uti's hopefully earlier than I did.


Symptoms of a UTI can include:

pain when urinating
changes in frequency, appearance, or smell of urine
fever
chills
loss of appetite
nausea
vomiting
lower abdominal pain
lower back pain or discomfort
UTIs can also cause bedwetting in kids who were previously dry at night. Infants and young children may only show nonspecific signs such as fever, vomiting, or decreased appetite or activity.

Some kids experience UTIs again and again — these are called recurrent UTIs. If left untreated, recurrent UTIs can cause kidney damage, especially in kids younger than 6. So it's important to know how to recognize the signs of these infections and get help for your child.

A Mean Old Lady

I'm a mean old lady.

At least, that's what I tell my kids every time that they start to whine. Really, my theory is start out mean and strict and tough, and eventually you'll be able to loosen up and have fun. But the meaner you are on a regular basis, the more fun the fun times are. I mean, I don't run a boot camp here, but I do expect and demand good behavior from my children and I'm a pretty firm disciplinarian when disrespect, direct disobedience, or violence (towards me, each other, or an animal) comes into play. Other things can be dealt with through natural consequences, but those things warrant immediate action. I also am not afraid to tell my kids no. I know many moms that will go out of their way to find a way of nicely saying no, and there are things that I don't outright say no about (like buying something the kids want ... my answer is always "maybe later"), BUT I also try to be realistic and sometimes the answer is simply no.

All that being said, there can be some whining and crying whenever discipline occurs or the word no is uttered in my house. My response is usually "I know, I know. I'm a mean old lady. And I don't care. The answer is still no." To which a sobbing child usually mutters something about me not being mean (although you can tell that they don't mean it) (and I notice that they never contradict the old part). I chuckle, say it's ok, I know I'm mean, and then find something else to do while they calm down. They also adamantly deny that I'm mean when I'm relating a story of their adventures and when I said that I was a mean mommy and made them stop. I have suspected for a while that this is simply a way of buttering me up.... Perhaps it's a little psychology with the idea that if they tell me I'm not mean often enough maybe I'll start to act like I'm not mean.

Two days ago I was putting Kairi in bed. I don't remember what all our nighttime conversation entailed but I do know that by the end of it she was very happy. She jumped up and gave me a huge hug and a kiss and then while squeezing me tight a second time she exclaimed:

"You're so nice Mommy! I love you! And I thought you were MEAN!"

Picture this

Boxes piled behind the couch that separates my living room from my dining room.

Camping gear piled next to the door to take to the storage unit.

Laundry couch full of clean clothes.

Bedroom floor full of dirty ones.

A floor coated with toys.

Last night's dishes stacker precariously high in the sink.

A daughter in nothing but panties.

A son in nothing but a diaper.

Both kids are curled up on the couch watching Mulan way too loud.

A dog whining on the floor that she's not allowed to chase the cat that is perched on the back of the chair I type from.

Bathrooms that need to be scrubbed.

Bedrooms that need to be straightened. And my bedroom needs an overhaul.

Trash that needs to be carried out is sacked but still piled by the trashcan.

And finally, a kitchen floor needs to be scrubbed -- spot mopping won't do it this time.



Now that you have that picture firmly planted in your head, can you explain to me why I'm not doing anything about it? I really have no good excuse.... lol


But it is the reason I'm not blogging today. Hopefully by this evening I'll have at least a picture or two to share and will be triumphant in my quest to rid my house of the mess. :D




Oh, before I go I will share pictures. I finally have a camera again and while these aren't top notch they do make me happy. :)

She wrote her name all by herself! I had to help her remember how to spell it, but she did all the pencil (er, crayon) work herself!


A face I've missed very very much.


And finally, Alex has become a major cheeser recently. :) Just look at those eyebrows!

School Blues

Kairi has been ready for school much longer than I have been ready for her to be ready for school. She astonishes both me and my family on a nearly regular basis with the things she has taught herself. Do you remember my grand plans for homeschooling this spring? Well, they fell through thanks to a certain young lady NEVER believing a word I said. Every single lesson or thought or game became a challenge of did I really know what I was talking about? Even just reading books for the last few months has been interesting. I read a sentence ... "Mommy, does it really say that? Are you sure? Maybe you need to read it again to make sure." (Sure being pronounced shore.) And if you accidentally stumble over a word ... may heaven have mercy on your soul because Kairi will NOT. To say that this deployment was trying would be a drastic understatement.

But despite my not spending as much time "teaching", Kairi still has managed to teach herself a thing or two. She can almost write her own name. She knows most of her letters and their sounds. She can draw very well. Her reasoning powers are amazing. And she believes that every story should have the following parts: 1) Once upon a time, 2) And then there was a PROBLEM! What are we going to do?!?, 3) The end. And she can quote facts about the ocean, dinosaurs, bugs, Texas, and other random tidbits she's picked up, at the drop of a hat.

I hadn't realized how far she had come until our second day at my il's house in Texas. It was our stop on the way to Midland. Becky (my mil) had brought the kids some highlighters and paper from her office. Kairi had been drawing and "writing" stories for a while when she jumped up and ran over to me with blank paper and highlighter in hand. "Mommy! Pretend this is red!" Ok baby, it's red. "Now, take de color and draw an octagon." An octagon? Ok... "Good job Mommy! Now put in the middle s." An s ... alrighty, there you go. "Perfect Mommy. Just perfect." Then she walks over to the coffee table and starts working intently on the same paper. Finally, she stands up and walks over to me and goes "Member we're pretending it's red! Now look! It's a stop sign! See?!? S-T-O-P! That spells stop!" And right next to the s I had written for her, she had followed it with a t, o, and p ... formed almost perfectly. Since that day she has told every one that she thinks might be interested how to spell stop and that a stop sign is an octagon and is red. She also tries to spell her name, but frequently forgets the last r and i.




This spring I also knew that starting in August Kairi would be able to start pre-school for half days for free. It's a nice program that Florida has for our children. I worked hard to pick out a school for her that used curriculum that I wanted her to use and had the same philosophies and ideals I used when teaching myself. I did find what I wanted in a school. They use a fun curriculum that is also much more advanced than the traditional pre-school stuff. It's also Christian based which is pleasing to me. My aunt uses the home-school version of it for her son and through them I have come to really appreciate it and what it teaches. It should push Kairi to learn (which she needs) but will give her a teacher besides Mommy so that maybe she'll believe her. They do require uniforms at the cost of the parents, and I had to pay a curriculum fee since it's not the state-provided curriculum, but beyond that I couldn't ask for a better situation for Kairi. I'm really excited about the coming school year.

So why the title you ask? If I'm not sad that Kairi's going to school, and Kairi's definitely not sad that she's going, who is blue? His name would be Alexander James. Alex frequently cries because he doesn't want his sister to leave him. He cries that he doesn't get to go to school. He cries and claims that no one needs to go to school. But mostly, it's just that Kairi is leaving him. The poor kid has never had to spend more than a few short periods without his sister. His life pretty much revolves around her and what she wants to do. This fall will be interesting for both of us as we get to experience what life without Kairi is like. I'm thankful it's only for a few hours each morning for this first year, but I also am hoping that just as it's good for Kairi to go to school, that it will be good for Alex to be home with me. And maybe he'll let me teach him if she's not there throwing things off with her constant questioning. :)

How in the world did so much time pass?

Here we are almost a week after my last post and I have no idea how I haven't blogged yet. lol I promise I have lots to talk about.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I think I mentioned in the last post that Chris reenlisted for another 5 years. His reenlistment ceremony was July 26th, and while I missed it because it was on the ship the day before he was home, his parents did get to see it. I'll try to include a few pictures from that. Even if it's not my most favorite thing ever, it's good for our family and I'm extremely proud. :)

Part of the goodness of reenlisting when you're an ET in the Navy is the nice reenlistment bonus that comes along with it. I'm not going to say exactly how much, but let me describe to you what this means to us: we're paying off the car, we've bought new kitchen stuff, Chris built a new computer, a couple of new gun/gun supplies, new furniture, NEW CAMERA STUFF!, spending money, etc. Needless to say, it's been nice to be able to put money in savings and still treat each other with things things we've been wanting for a while. My favorite things at this moment are tied between the dining room chair covers and my new camera lens. The chair covers makes everything just look RIGHT again. They're now black and eliminate the harsh contrast of patterns and colors. And actually, I bought two lenses. One has come in so far and I'm really excited. :) It's a 70-300mm lens and it should be very nice for what I need it for. The bonus also helped to pay for our trip to the mountains. Another nice part of the bonus is that we'll get some money from it every October for the next 5 years, starting this October. And with that bonus check .... Chris is buying me a new wedding ring!!! I'm currently wearing his mom's ring (who is wearing an anniversary ring). It's pretty, but tiny and not something that I would ever pick for myself. This time we're picking out my new ring together and I'm so very excited about it. :D



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


Two days ago I did something I've been wanting to do for a while. I re-pierced my (left) ear cartilage, and I pierced my nose! I have a little stud on the right nostril now and I love it. Of course, I'd love it all more if they were all through hurting, but that might be a little while. In the meantime, I'd settle for the kids just not bumping them anymore.

Once they aren't bright red, I'll post pictures. :)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


After all we've dealt with food issues with the kids, I've now got a new food issue to deal with. But not with any PERSON in my house. Instead, it's with Zoe -- my DOG!!! She's always been an itchy dog, and recently has been sneezing non-stop, so I finally took her to the vet for it. They think she has food allergies! So we're trying her on a prescription food diet for a while and seeing if that fixes it. Part of me hopes it's that simple because it would be an easy fix -- in a way. But part of me is praying it's not the issue because convincing the kids to not feed her, and keeping her out of the cat's food is becoming a problem. Very very very hard.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


I'm sure there's more to share, but at the moment I'm having a hard time thinking of them so I think I'm just going to go to bed with a book. Have a good night! ♥




ETA: Pictures aren't cooperating. I'll try again for those tomorrow. G'night!

Let's Restart

It's been a while since I've truly blogged. I had every intention of keeping the private-ish blog updated on what has been going on, but it just felt weird blogging there. No real reason why, but it just didn't mesh. And I may still eventually make my blog more anonymous in order to talk about those things, but right now, it just doesn't feel quite right.


So let's do some quick updates, and then hopefully we'll get restarted on this whole blogging thing. :)

~The kids and I spent a month in Texas with my family. Zoe came along with us while I had a friend staying in my house and taking care of Aslan. We spent time with family, played in sprinklers, went to the Sandhills, and just in general had a good time. Zoe had fun too playing with all the different dogs we saw. Now that she's home she's super lonely and restless. I'm thinking that when we move next (into a house WITH a fenced yard) a new playmate is in order for the poor baby. :)

~I did really well with Weight Watchers for a while, lost a lot of weight. In the last month and a half I have gained back a little of it, but am now getting serious again. I don't want this weight on my body any longer.

~CHRIS IS HOME! His ship pulled into port on the 27th and we are all happy to have him back home. Alex is suddenly more happy to see him than he ever was before. And of course Kairi adores her daddy and is always seeking his attention.
The 27th was a Tuesday, we spent Wednesday with his parents who came into town to see him, and then Thursday morning before the kids got up we packed up and headed out of town. Chris' parents kept the kids Thursday and Friday, and then took them to a friend's house where they stayed until we came home. Chris and I went to the Smokey Mountains to camp for a week. If I remember to, I'll blog about that later this week. :)

~Now we're preparing for the next phase in our life -- shore duty! Chris officially leaves the ship in September and begins working at the other base in Jax in October. He has a few short trips out to sea between now and then, but thankfully he'll be home from there on out for the next 3 (or so) years. I'm hoping that that will good for all of us.


Ok, so onto trying to read a few blogs and catch up with people that I've missed. Here's to a more consistent future for this blog! :)