Can I Help You?

This past week has been one with a lot of contemplating behind it.

One week ago today I found out that an old friend of mine had been in a tragic car accident and died. It has really had me thinking about friendships and mortality and the richness of life.

Sean and I both met this particular friend in about 1996 after he moved to my hometown from Oklahoma. Damn, Okies! (pardon the language, but if you're from Texas, you should understand the joke! Especially if you're from a part of Texas that is near OK.) Our entire circle of friends were really close hanging out with each other everyday. A few of us ended up coupling up and, in my case, even getting married.

After a while, Sean and I moved to the DFW area in order to give ourselves and our daughter better opportunities in life. Nothing against C-town, but we felt we could give her more being in the big city.

This friend ended up moving in with us eventually and would for the next 4 or 5 years off and on. He was really more like family. When we went on family outings to the zoo, he went with us. When we went out to dinner, he went with us.

He was a part of the family.

He, like many of our friends at the time, had a penchant for drugs and alcohol. I admit that I am not excluding Sean and myself on that. All of us had our vices. This friend of ours was one that got into a lot of legal trouble for drugs and alcohol, though. We would try to help him out as much as possible being that we were trying to straighten our lives up and raise a family.

He eventually had a daughter which made it that much harder for us not to help our friend.

Helping him out is what became the end of our communication with him.

After jumping a bail that Sean had taken responsibility for; we felt taken advantage of. We had two small children and were in no financial position to be paying for his mistakes. We were hurt that our brother would do that to us.

Jump ahead a few years later and here we are. Sean and I have continued do what we could to better our lives and found God again.

One day I get a friend request on Facebook. I always get nervous when I see a friend request because there is just no telling who it could be and there are people from my past that I just assume forget I once knew.

Then I saw it was him. I hesitated for a split second then hit approve.

I wish I had taken the time to write him a little note, though. I never did. I never told him that we forgive him for what happened in the past. 

The hardest part was watching his mom mourn the loss of her oldest son. Her sidekick as she called him.

This loss has brought other issues into perspective for me. It has also made me question some of those issues.

Sean and I have not seen many of the friends that we once hung out with when we lived in C-town. Some of them are still partying it up like they are 21. They're still doing drugs and getting drunk. Some of them have had their children taken from them due to their irresponsibility and refusal to grow up themselves. Some have been to rehab. Others have been to prison. Some still are. I hate that for my friends! I have known many of these people since before we were born. Our parents grew up together for crying out loud!

There are a few that we have kept in contact with and hang out with when we visit. This trip we saw a few more due to the funeral that we don't normally visit with. Some have cleaned their lives up. Some have not. Some tell me through the computer that they are cleaning themselves up but then I hear different when I'm in town.  Some of those people, one in particular, hurt me by not being the friend to me back then that she claimed to be.

My big issue now is whether I should worry about visiting these people when I go to C-town? Losing our friend has definitely made me realize that I can no longer take friendships for granted. No one is promised forever, let alone tomorrow.

I don't know if seeing my old friends will be detrimental to me.

To my children.

Should I put forth the effort to see them?

Should I continue to disassociate myself with people that don't hold the same values that I do?

Should I even continue to think of them as friends?

I'm not real sure of what to do. I sort of feel that I should visit with them and tell them how I am praying for them. How I pray for them to get their life together and be truly happy. I don't think a person who continues to abuse drugs and alcohol is happy with their self.  I have been there and I know that for a fact I was not really happy. It seems fun at the time to get high and be able to clean the entire house in an hour. It seems fun to drink until you can't remember what is happening and going home with a different guy. Better yet, going home with your friend's boyfriend. Yeah, that is the type of stuff that was going on when I was younger. That is the type of stuff some of my old friends are still doing. 

I suppose it's all just life. I can't change anyone, but I can pray for them to change themselves.

Right?

Can I Help You?

Who Put That There!?

Since today is Friday and the littlest rugrat is napping (at least as I begin to type), I am going to jump back onto the 5QF bandwagon. This weeks questions are really cute and I can't wait to see what everyone else has said.

1) Have you ever hit an animal with your vehicle?

The first time I hit a squirrel. I was 16 and I started crying. When I was 17 I also hit a kid, but that's another story.

Okay, I guess I can't just leave it at that,so a quick explanation. I was driving in front of Wal-Mart and a family of about 8 were standing out front. The mom carrying the baby, the dad (I think), and I guess sibling or cousin or something crossed into the parking lot. It was summer so the bicycles were out front. The grandma and a kid or two were standing there looking at them. I stopped 3 times to see if they were going to cross too. Never did so I pulled off slowly. Suddenly a little boy about 3 or 4 decided he wanted to be with his mom. Instead of running around the back of my car, he ran in front of and hit my car. Yes, I just said that he hit my car. I think his little foot got ran over or something. I felt horrible. I was also about 3 months preggo with my first. I did NOT intentionally hit the kid. I'm not stupid. Anyway, I was able to stop by my step-dad's work for advice, hunt my mom down at the city pool and then go to the police station and get half of my report filled out before they showed up to do their report. Just sayin'. The kid ended up being just fine.

Oh yeah, we also hit a giant owl that was about 3 foot tall, I swear, on July 4th that summer. That was scary.

2) When you see a string on your clothes do you pull it off or cut it?

I usually just pull it off unless it's one of those stubborn strings. You know, one of those with it's own little mind. Then I do get the scissors. That's a lot of effort, though.

3)Did you have your own room or share a room when you were young?

I'm all over on this one. I shared a room for a while with my sisters and then we moved out to the country. Since I was the oldest girl, I got my own room. The younger girls had to share and my step-bro got his own room too. At my dad's house, we were only there part time so Bran and I shared a room. Then he moved across the street and Brandi and I decided we wanted to live with Dad. We had our own rooms there. Theeen, I moved back to my mom's and she had a two bedroom apartment so I had no choice but to share a room with my sister 7 years younger than me. I was 15 or 16 so that stunk! As soon as we moved out of there I got my own room again until I moved in with my hubby. He makes me share a room with him still. I guess it's okay. Though I wish he'd keep his side cleaner.

4) Would you rather wear the same thing for the rest of your life or eat the same thing for the rest of your life?

I guess it depends what I would be wearing or eating. If I could at least wash the clothes occasionally I'd be just fine wearing my jammy pants and tank top every.single.day. If you're just talking about eating Taco Bell everyday then why the heck not! I don't think I would actually like to eat the exact same thing forever though. Too boring!

5)What was your favorite t.v. show as a child?

I loved all of the shows on ABC's TGIF. They rocked. I wish they still had that TGIF thing. I also loooved Punky Brewster as a kid. I saw a set that had 5 or 6 Punky's on a cd and I wanted it sooo bad. I hope it's still there when I have money to buy it.

So there ya go. My 5 answers to Mama M's 5 questions. Click on over and link up if you wanna. The old man is home so I guess I'm gonna go spend some time with him. Everyone have a wonderful weekend be safe!

*sorry I don't have Mama M's 5QF button today, but my computer is acting wiggy today.

Who Put That There!?

Friendship

All of us have friends.

The sad part is when we take those friends for granted. Even if there has been a falling out, we should always put our friendship first.

I hate that I haven't been a better friend.

That doesn't always become evident until we lose one of those friends. I'm not talking about them moving out of town or state.

I mean permanent loss.

What can you do then?

What does that mean for other friendships that have been lost in everyday life? Or even the friends that one sees everyday?

I haven't talked to him in a while. It's been years. He even lived with us for a few years off and on. Mostly on! :) He would drive me crazy but would also make me laugh. He was always so good to my kids. I couldn't ask anymore than that.

It was about three weeks ago that he found me on Facebook. I contemplated for a moment as to whether or not I wanted to accept the friend request. "What the heck", I thought. It had been years since our falling out and I definitely didn't want to be one to hold grudges. He left me a short message. I never took the time to return the message. I did think about it and about how I forgive him because I know he would forgive me.

He really was a good person. He will be dearly missed. His daughter will miss him though she doesn't really know him too well.

I feel so bad for his mother. She let us live with her for a little bit before we moved to the DFW area. I want to give her a hug and tell her that I'm sorry for not trying to make amends with her dear son.

Please, God, walk with her through this difficult time. Be with his little brothers and sister while they deal with their loss.

Friendship

I've Been So...

...lazy.

There, I said it.

I have been so incredibly lazy here lately when it comes to blogging. I haven't even been reading as much as I would like.

If I feel like my life hasn't been exciting enough to write, should I just make something up? Should I write about the boring stuff I do on the day to day? I don't like making stuff up. It seems so ingenuine. So the boring stuff it is!

I guess I could tell you about the day I tried to go to the public library.

We have three of them here in town, but I tried to go to the closest one, of course.

I have to tell you that I also am having issues with my van, so I try not to venture too far. Like, within a 2 mile radius of my house. Okay, maybe 3 miles at the most.

So I pulled up at the library and noticed a bunch of people sitting in their vehicles and a few hanging around outside.

Weird, but okay.

I walked into the first door and noticed a young lady sitting on the bench reading. Then I looked at the door inside that actually goes into the library. It said "closed until Thursday 1pm".

Door sign say whaaaaat?!

Our library is only closed on Friday.

So I thought.

When did they decide that the library closes for lunch?

I don't get to make that trip as often as I like so I was not happy. I also wasn't going to sit outside for the next 35 minutes waiting.

So I went home.

On the way home I started thinking.

In the vehicle next to me was parked a man and his companion. They watched me pull a baby out of my tired minivan, haul her up to the door and then back to the van.

From what I remember, they looked at me and was talking some. During their exchange it would have been nice to get a "hey, lady. They're closed till one for lunch."

But nooo.

So I went home and did some laundry.

There you have it. The day I attempted to visit the public library. Hopefully next time I'll actually have something interesting to say. Most likely not, though. Either way, I will try to post more often. Yay you!

I've Been So...

Mama Guilt Mondays

What do you do for a kid that doesn't eat the way you think they should?

I have three picky kids and a pretty picky husband to boot which so does not help the matter. Okay, Sage is getting much better about trying new things and Kaitlan will pretty much eat anything you stick in front of her face. Raiden is still choosy about what he will eat.

My problem is with Kaitlan, though. She is a tiny little girl as it is. Right now at 16 1/2 months she is about 29 inches tall and 16 pounds. We were going on monthly visits to the doc to keep tabs on her weight and see whether or not she was growing properly, including blood work to make sure there was no medical condition. Co-pays were never ending, though and I am pretty convinced she's just of small stature being that I am barely 5 foot and my MIL is a towering 4'7"!

Now for where my guilt sets in. Most of the time I can fix something for her, sit her in her high chair and she goes to town. Except for breakfast. I have tried different cereals, toast, oatmeal and I don't know what all else. She likes them, she just doesn't want to eat breakfast. She does nurse, however. I try to not allow her to until she eats food, but she won't always comply. Actually she never complies in the morning. She will however eat the occasional chip or part of a piece of bread while I fix lunch for the big kids.

Since this has been the way she does things for several months now, I have stopped offering her anything at all in the morning here lately. She usually sleeps most of the morning anyway. For example this morning. She actually woke up at about 7:00 and stayed awake while the kids got ready and I took them to school. Once we got home a little before 9:00 I fix a bowl of cereal, sit down with her and offer her some of it. Instead, she just wants her "ti ti". She nursed and went to sleep. Now she'll most likely sleep until around 11:00 and then she'll be ready for lunch.

I feel so guilty for her not eating breakfast in the morning. Especially since she is already so small. I guess that she is healthy, happy and growing is all that matters.

If you would like to link up and get your Mama Guilt off of your chest, join us over at Cop Mama's.

Mama Guilt Mondays

Rock Out Your Baby!

I came across this super awesome website thanks to the giveaway over at Familylicious Reviews & Giveaways. It's called Rockabye Baby! and I want every cd that they have. If you like music such as Tool, Nirvana, The Beatles and The Ramones just to name a few, then maybe your little one will love the lullaby version of their songs as well. I know mine loved it just from listening to the snippets on the website. You want one? Then you got two choices.

1) Go to Rockabye Baby and buy your own. I don't think you would regret it.

2) Go to Familylicious and enter to win one!

I know! Easy peazy chicken squeezy. So what are you waiting on? Go!!!

Rock Out Your Baby!

M.I.A.--A week in review.

I feel like I've been missing in action this week. Partly because it's so cold and that just doesn't motivate me to do squat!  Yes, I don't even wanna blog. I think it has been a case of writers block or just plain no motivation. It seems I would prefer to either play Bejeweled, edit photos or hang out with the kiddos. In fact, I spent the past Saturday with my girls having a little girls-day-out. We sent the boys out of the house to go help Uncle Jake get a new truck and we girls drove down to grab some lunch first.

See. The remnants of KK's sandwich. 

Unfortunately, Sage doesn't seem to know how to use the camera. Fortunately, Momma has photo editing software and has learn a little bit about it. Sage took this picture of Kater-bugs munchin'.

Kaitlan was almost completely white somehow! I love how her pretty blue eyes shine, though.

Then we have the lady of the hour.

She and I haven't a girl's day since the weekend before Kaitlan was born.

Here's Kaitlan and myself waiting for "Big Sis" to get her nails done. 

I know, I need a haircut... bad!

I wish I would have gotten photos of her fingers and toes. So pretty! She has bright, lime green toes and hot pink finger nails with the most beautifully painted white flowers on her big toes and thumbs. She was very happy with them.

After this we went to Babies R Us to look for a pail liner for KK's diaper pail. (I just can't see ordering one little pail liner online. I guess that means I'll just have to buy something else too!) We didn't find the liner, but did find a few other things including Where The Wild Things Are.

 

I looove this book and so wanted my kids to have it.

After Babies R Us, we tried to go to Sears to see what they had, but that was a huge mistake. I don't know what the deal was, but the mall was packed beyond belief! Mostly the parking long from what I could tell because that's as far as I was willing to travel. You'da thought it was Christmas Eve or something! Since that was a no-go and the hair salon had like an hour wait to get Sagie-poo in for a cute cut, we went home and kicked our feet up. It was a great girls-day-out that we all enjoyed.

The next few days proved to be nothing more than normal February days. Tuesday we had a PTA meeting and the 3rd graders were doing their musical. I have a 3rd grader if ya didn't know.

This is him after the musical.

I'm a bad mom and forgot to grab my camera before making a mad dash out of the door. We were already running late, of course. He was so super cute. He was supposed to be a kid in the 60's and borrowed the wig from his godparents who are awesome people. I wrote about them here. My kid is such a ham and although he said he didn't want people looking/laughing at him and the wig, his actions said otherwise. Here's Sage in the wig.

Her goofy behind thought it was funny to put a headband on it. I wish I could load up the video I took, but since I only had my cell... well can't figure how to get them on the computer with the sound. I would love for you to see a bunch of 8 and 9 year olds singing Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart Club Band. They totally rocked it!

Come Thursday we all awoke to a beautiful snow fall.

This was the view from my front porch.

That doesn't count as child labor, does it? Sorry, this one was taken with my cell.

I was taking my baby girl to school.

I needta get her to put on some lipgloss!

Raiden got out of school early so we played in the backyard. I don't know how Kaitlan's legs got that far apart but she was yelling for Momma and Rai was only dreaming of dropping a snowball on her head...  not helping her up!

When Logan got to our house the boys had a snow ball fight.

 

It was better than him throwing snowballs at me!

Everyone had to make snow angels.

Even Kaitlan

I never said she liked it, though.

 

Dad pulled her out gently ;)

 

And she had a pretty snow angel! See?

 

 With that, Raiden had to have Dad throw him into the snow just as he did KK.

 

We also made a snow man.

 

Raiden thought he needed to be a real snow"man"

 BOYS!!!

 Here's the final result.

Frosty the Irish Pimp? I don't know.

Dad taught Raiden how to write his name in the snow.

  

I think all he got written out was "Ra".

 We noticed there were a few tree branches down including our own.

 

Then we went for a drive in the neighborhood.

 

  

 Not to mention what I noticed just across the street.

This was at about 9am. The snow had been falling for about 5 or 6 hours at that point.

  

This is the same tree at about 6 hours later. Check out those flakes!

It literally snowed all. day. long.

Speaking of trees, we came across this on the way back home.

 

 

Say whaaaat?

 In the first picture you can see tire tracks that led toward the tree and exit tracks in the last picture. We just couldn't tell whether or not they drove through before or after the branches had fallen!

All in all we had a great day. I didn't get a bit of housework done for two whole days, but it was so worth trying to smush it all into today. We actually got a record snow fall that day. Sean and the kids had never seen such a thing in their entire lives. I had only seen it once in Colorado and it doesn't really count because all of that snow was already there when we got there for the vacation. Now I'll leave you with a few more pics including other snowmen that we found in the neighborhood.

  

Stabbing Frosty (?)

  

This one looked like either Michael Jackson or an Amish guy.

  

a cowboy

  

at Sage's friend's house

  

I'll bet this house has a little girl or two living in it!

  

my crazy neighbors. (I mean literally crazy)

 

 

 

That's the crazy neighbor! And Frosty as a Clone Trooper, of course.

M.I.A.--A week in review.

Fuzzy Feelings

I think I'm getting sick.

For the past few nights I've gone to bed with my nose feeling a little stuffy. I've awaken in the middle of the night to a dry throat and coughing. Today I have felt that way all day and can't taste a thing. That and my head feels like it's in the clouds. You know, it feels all fuzzy.

I'm not going to let that stop me from having fun, though! It's Friday and Friday is time for Mama M's 5 Question Friday. I'm gonna play along, so here we go.

This weeks questions were contributed by Pam, Christine, Liz, Tara and Renee. If you would like to be linked to Mama M's 5QF in the future, just go here to her community and give 'er what ya got. 

The questions:

1) What are you most afraid of?


I guess the biggest fear ever is that I would lose my family or one of my children in some way. You hear some pretty awful stories on the news and I'm sure none of those people thought they would end up there.


If you're just talking general stuff that I am scared of? I am claustrophobic as all get out. (Pardon my southern redneck sayings) I can't stand to be closed in anywhere. Elevators are barely tolerable. Crowded elevators? I'm the first one bustin outta the door and I made sure I had a bar or wall to hold onto while in there. Do NOT hold my arms down or I will beat you once I'm free. My husband can attest to this. And crowds of people. If they're too close to me and touching me, I'm extremely uncomfortable. Yes, that's just one of my many quirks! (that sounds nicer than my craziness!)


2) Do you use a flat iron or curling iron?


Most of the time I use a pony tail holder. I don't have much to dress up for being a stay at home mom. I have been thinking about getting a new flat iron, though. I left my old one at my mom's and my baby sis took it over. I never got it back. (little heifer!) If I do go any where and wear my hair down, I use these nifty velcro rollers and a dollop of super volume mousse. I have super fine and pretty thin hair. I absolutely HATE it!

3)Hands-free or phone to the ear?

I don't do a lot of driving so I no longer use my bluetooth. Plus I just didn't like looking like one of those %#@&^$ that look like they're talking to themselves and they're too cool to acknowledge that you exist. (sorry, I was a receptionist at a business with 98% men. you run into some real jerks.) So, it's phone to the ear for me.

4) Do you have a matching bedroom set?

We used to. Granted it was a set that my Papaw got for me when I was like a year old, but it was a matching set none-the-less. A full sized bed with only one nightstand, a chest of drawers (still have it) and a vanity dresser (still have). We do still own the bed, but it's taken apart and put in the attic since we were given a queen size by my mother-in-law. The kids have matching sets, though.

5) Do you believe in the paranormal?

I think I do believe! It's just too hard to deny when you experience that crazy stuff.

Now, I know I'm squeezing this just under the Friday night gun, but I'm sure you can play along too if you'd like. Or just click on over to Mama M's and see how others answered these questions. You all have a great weekend!

Fuzzy Feelings

This One Goes Out To The One I Love

I want to thank you.

Yes, my love, you. 

I would like to thank you for taking care of things.  You know, like how you took such great care in your PS3 last night.  I know that we don't have a real working toilet in our house now, but that game was calling your name!  I also know that I am the one that broke our working toilet, but I was only trying to help. It is okay that I may have to dunk the diapers until the toilet is fixed properly. And plus, the corner store is only about a mile away. I'm sure the kids won't mind taking the trip in their jammies.

I also want to thank you for your stellar parenting skills. Yes, I stood there trying to put a dent in the ever growing mountain of laundry that is building on the couch. Yes, I had a bunch of it folded nicely on the table and had to leave it to cook dinner for you and the kids. Yes, you sat there playing your game while Kaitlan pulled most of it onto the floor. That is okay, though. I like folding laundry over and over and over and over again. The same laundry. Over and over and over. It's fine that you didn't pick any of that laundry up off of the floor. And that you laughed. I mean, it was kind of funny, huh?

Yeah.

That kind of reminds me of the other day when you and Raiden sat there so entranced in that game that you didn't notice Kaitlan pulling every tissue out of the Kleenex box. Again. But that is okay too. It is also okay that you didn't bother to re-stack the tissues properly. I like the jumbled mess. It's okay.

It is okay because I love you. I love you and I promise I will not retaliate in any way.

Promise.

This One Goes Out To The One I Love

My First Time

I thought I would share with you all my first time. No, you dirty birds! Not that first time. The first time I gave birth.

I was young. Like 17 young. It was actually 18 days before my 18th birthday that I woke up with my mom walking into my house to check on me. There I was laying in bed butt-naked because I had woke up earlier thinking that I was on fire. I had gotten up when my then boyfriend (now hubby) got up for work, took a trip to the bathroom and stripped off all my clothes on the way back to bed. I was that hot. My mom should of known then that something was gonna happen. 

Fast forward several hours later to that night. Let's just say Sean and I had participated in a little "canoodling" and were finally going to sleep at about midnight. He was already drifting into dreamland when I rolled my big belly into bed. *Hmph! Men!* I think I had barely gotten laid down good when I felt a weird feeling in my belly.

"Babe, I think something just happened." I whispered.

*grunt*

"I think my water just broke"

"oh"

"Sean, I think my water broke"

"What?"

I stood up...

...GUSSSSSH!

"Yeah, Baby, my water broke."

Finally he gets it. I calmly put on my sweat pants (that were my mom's favorite and I had borrowed from her) and grabbed my little bag for the hospital. The whole while he was running like a chicken with it's head cut off. We hopped (I waddled) into our bean-brown '85 Cavalier. I called my mom to let her know that we were going to the hospital. The phone was busy. Okay, Brandi's on the phone with her boyfriend. We'll just stop by and let her know. You have to understand we lived in a little West Texas town with a little more than 6,000 people. Stopping by Mom's was not in any way out of the way. Once we got there I proceeded to Mom's bedroom knowing that she would be sleeping.

"Mom" -trying to be quiet for some reason.

"Mom, my water broke."

"Well what do you want me to do about it right now?"

"No, Mom, it's Amy. My water broke. We're gonna go to the hospital."

"What are you doing here?! Get to the hospital!"

She had thought it was my sister Brandi who had a waterbed. She thought Brandi was saying that her waterbed had broke. Too funny!

I tell ya, it's a good thing it was a Friday night (rather early Saturday morning) because everyone, including my two little sisters, showed up and stayed most of the night. This was the first grandbaby for crying out loud! We got checked in and set up in the labor room. I so wish I had pictures of this room they had. It was something out of a mad scientist movie. Pea-green tile EVERYwhere. And nothing but a clock to stare at. Talk about watching the clock! I think the intent was to torture women with knowing exactly how long they had been lying there writhing in pain.

At that time, the (one and only) hospital in Childress had these crazy rules of having only one person at a time in the labor room. Maybe due to the small size of the room. Everyone took turns coming to check in on me. I only wanted Baby Daddy in there, though. Not even Mom so much. He was the one that had put me in this predicament, by golly, he was gonna suffer along with me. As I mentioned earlier, he had gotten up and went to work that morning so he was pretty tired. One of the few times I let him leave he had gotten some change from his mom to go the the vending machine and got a brownie. Yeah, I don't know what made him think he needed to eat while I lay in bed about to birth his spawn. It seems karma caught onto that, though because as he went to bite into his brownie, half of it fell on the floor. Yes! One point for Momma! But I digress. 

Finally they came in and offered me an epidural. I happily accepted. At that point they told me that I could rest and even try to get some sleep. So I did. Sean also put his head down for a little bit. A couple of hours later I woke up and rolled back over onto my back. Yep, that's what I said. I had rolled onto my left side and taken a nap. Little did I know that when you do such a thing, all of the medicine from the epidural would also roll to the left side of my body.

I woke up feeling contractions on my right side only. It hurt. I didn't like that. It didn't take much longer and she was a comin'. The problem there you ask? The problem was that the nurses didn't believe me. I would yell at Sean to tell the nurse to get in here. He would do as I told for fear that I may knock him upside the head with my IV stand. He would take a peek. Didn't see anything. He didn't really count though because he had never once in his 21 years seen a baby birthed. 

"GET THE FREAKIN' NURSE! SHE'S COMIIIING!!!"

A nurse eventually shows up. 

Yep, she's crowning.

They move me onto the gurney. Old school, I know. Roll me to the delivery room. Make me move to the birthing chair/bed/thingy. And barely had time to get my legs into the stir-ups. She was a movin'!

They asked if I wanted the mirror to be set up so I could see. Well heck no I didn't wanna see! That was gross!

A couple of pushes and there she was. All 5lbs 4 1/2 ounces of her. She was the smallest baby I had ever seen. I looked up at Sean to see him crying and his first words regarding his newborn babe:

"That wasn't as gross as I thought it would be."

No, it wasn't that bad. She was so cute and so small. She appeared to look just like her daddy. Later she seemed to look more like my sister, Brandi. Now she looks like me. 

So there she was. Our first baby. We took her home a couple of days later and loved her to bits. She's not really in bits and pieces, but we really did love on her a lot. 

By the way, my baby shower for her was supposed to be that day. She was born the 10th and had been due the 14th. My mom had to call around and let everyone know that we were at the hospital and they were welcomed to come up and meet Sage.

I wish I had pictures of us in the hospital with her. Any that we have definitely aren't loaded on the computer. This one is at about 2 or 3 weeks.

If you would like to share your own birthday story you can link up at Mama M's. You got until tomorrow!

My First Time

Black and White Wednesday

I would like to introduce you to my grandmother. Edna Mary Floyd Manuel.

She was one of the strongest women I have ever met and just as bull-headed. I miss her so much. I can't believe it has been almost 9 years since she and Grandaddy left us. I wish I would have taken advantage of spending more time with her when she was still with us here on Earth. I know she's looking down on me from Heaven, though probably scolding me knowing her!

I don't know when this picture was taken but it is an original b&w photo. I attained this and a bunch of other photos after she and my grandfather passed.

I love you, Grandma.

Black and White Wednesday

Bad Mommy

I feel like a bad mommy. Today I took Kaitlan to her doctor for a check up on her ear infections from two weeks ago as well as a weight check. Kaitlan is very small for her age so the doc likes to see her more often to make sure she is growing properly. By the way, I think she's just small stature myself, but she is only 16 pounds and will be 16 months on Saturday.

 My tiny tot! 

Anyhow, it seems that little ones are supposed to have a 15 month well visit and get a couple of shots. I had no idea! It's been a while since I had to take a baby in so I guess I assumed 18 months was the next visit. I also looked it up on the good ole world wide web and thought it said 18 months. Either way, she was supposed to be checked out a month ago. Oops! Can we say bad mommy moment? All is well, though. She got looked over, got her shots and a toy to boot. Then, since Mom didn't know about the whole shot thing, she got a trip to McDonald's for a cheeseburger happy meal. I feel I made up for my mistake when I saw that gorgeous smile on her face as munched on her fries!

I promise she doesn't just lay around in her p.j.'s all day every day, but we do have lazy days and this was one of those. Plus she looked so cute and so into "Bob-Bob"!

Bad Mommy