Hostile Environment

I think it was about 3 weeks ago that I talked to my dad and he told me about the trip he would be taking. He works on the road and stays out there often for up to a month or so. He has even started going to other near-by countries.

This time it's different, though. Pakistan isn't Dominican Republic. Nothing like it.

He called me last night and said that it did scare him some. Actually, I think it scares him a lot. He hasn't been sleeping well and all of the paperwork is overwhelming.

Apparently, the airport my dad will be working at has bombs dropping "no closer than a half mile away."

U.S. bombs, that is. You know how those Taliban guys keep hiding out in Pakistan? Yeah. That's who they're after.

My dad tells me that he has had his employers take out a hefty life insurance plan on him in case something were to happen to him over there. He's also getting his will in order.

I would rather just have my dad back home safely. 

It's really cool, all the traveling he does now. But it's not so cool that he's going into such a hostile environment this time.

I'll tell you this. My praying knees are going to be busier than usual.

Hostile Environment

You Annoy Me!!!

I am the oldest of three girls. I have to admit that, although I am a pretty laid back, conservative person, there were moments that my sisters would get on my nerves. What I don't remember was getting annoyed by them for doing things that had absolutely nothing to do with me or when they were in a completely different room than myself.

Let me explain.

I love my almost-teen daughter so much. She is a smart, caring, sensitive young lady. She gives me a ton of attitude, but she also gives me so much joy.

While sitting at the computer yesterday, she came to me for help with her Language Arts assignment. As she walked up behind me I could hear her talking under her breath about how she was "gonna kill him". Raiden was in the front room keeping Kaitlan entertained until I came back to prepare lunch. I hear this kind of thing quite often from her. I understand that he's her little brother and I know that he does bug her plenty, but he was in the other room. Talking to someone else! The poor kid can't do anything right in his big sister's eyes.

My response was to stop right there before anything else and ask her (very calmly I may add) what it was that he was doing to directly annoy her. She tried to walk away. Yeah, that's the response I get much of the time when I try to talk to her or get on to her about something. I figure it's pretty normal for a pre-teen/teen. Right?

I wrangled her back in and gave her a talkin' to. I explained to her how her words can hurt not only her brother, but herself. How we never know what tomorrow holds for any of us. I asked her how she would feel if those type of words were the last she spoke to her brother. Needless to say, there were a few tears by the time I finished talking to her. I also talked plenty about how her attitude needs to change. How she makes the rest of us feel like we are making her life miserable.

This kid. I love her so much. I am trying my hardest to make life as happy as I can for her, but she is always crabby and throwing darts at just about everyone in the house. (Not literal darts!) What else can I do?!? She gets to do so much more than her little brother. And rightfully so. I let her stay the night with friends or have friends over when she hasn't cleaned her room or finished all of her chores. Maybe THAT is part of the problem. We have given our children so many liberties without earning them that they now expect them.

AAAAAHHHHH!!!!! So frustrating!

You Annoy Me!!!

Fall Fun

Where, O, where to begin this....

I've been thinking about my blog more here lately. I keep asking myself, "Self, why can't you just get in there and write a little something about your day?" So, it may be boring, but I'm going to attempt to get on and just write something. I have already missed the first day of November, but I will now try to get into a habit of writing each day. Wish me luck. :)

With Halloween being on a Sunday, it made for quite a full weekend. I actually wanted to go out on Friday evening, but I'm kinda glad we didn't. I think we got plenty of junk on Saturday and Sunday. We started out Saturday evening with a carnival in downtown. It was a great family friendly event and the kids, well, the two kids we had with us, had a blast. Sage didn't go because she decided to go watch Paranormal Activity 2 with her friend and friend's mom. I didn't really want her to go see it, but she's smart enough to know that that sort of stuff is just a movie and not real. Not to say that she doesn't understand that Satan really does tempt us everyday and.... Okay, I'm getting into a whole 'nother subject now. Let's just say she knows what it truth and what is Hollywood. Reeling it back in now.

So come Sunday, we had a birthday party for an awesome little man. My friend H's amazing little boy turned 1!!! He slept most of the time we were there, but it was still a great gathering with our friends.

After Lil' Man dug into his cake, we headed out to try to get our little monster to nap. I say little monster because she was tired and acting like, well, a little monster. :) The nap never happened, but it's amazing what a nursing session does for that kid. Once we got Sagie made up, we all headed out to the fall festival at the church. We had a great time. Sean lost the keys. Someone found them (thank you, Lord and Pastor Daniel!). And we headed to a trunk or treat at another local church. We tried our hand at the cake walk. We lost. But we did have a great time. We ended the night with some more trick or treating in the neighborhood. I think we ended up getting home no later than 8:30 so we did pretty darn good. We also did pretty darn good in the candy-getting department. I'm trying to change up some of our eating habits and what we put into our bodies, but I think I'll take it easy on them for now as far as the goodies go. It's not like they get to eat a pound of candy a day!

Now on to the good stuff. Apparently our camera decided to die on us after our vacation this summer, so I have no real camera, but I did get a few shots of the kids with my phone:

My 80s rocker chick!

There's Tony Romo! Broken clavicle and all.

And last but definitely not least, my little angel baby.

Fall Fun

Running on empty..

Today I just know that I will be walking around my house like a zombie. I already feel it. It seems that my adorable two year old thought it necessary to stir at around 3:30 this morning which usually prompts a quick nursing and she's back off to dreamland.

Not THIS morning, though. Every time I pulled her off, she would whine again. I'd plug it back in and she would act like she was going back to sleep.

Needless to say, that was not her plan. I attempted to refuse her the ti-ti.

She would fuss louder.

Then Dad began complaining.

Yes, dear, I'll keep her quiet.

Back with another attempt to nurse the little booger angel to sleep. Never mind the fact that my bladder was on the verge of combustion.

Then the alarm starts going off it's normal six or seven times.

She finally decides to fall asleep just in time for me to get up and get Sean ready for work.

I do believe a nap will be on the schedule for today.

Running on empty..

She's Aliiive!

Yes, I am still alive and I am waaay overdue for an update! I have had such good intentions, but I have been so super busy.
This would make week 5 of our new home schooling adventure and I can now say that things are going pretty darn well. ;) I must admit that week 3 was a difficult one, though.

We had visited our family in C-town (for the first time in almost a year!) for the Labor Day weekend. Once we were back home, I started hearing a lot of complaints from Sage. She was voicing her desire to return to public school on Facebook and Myspace but not so much to me.

It hurt my feelings. It hurt that she had not yet given home schooling a chance. That she wasn't talking to me about it. I let her know how I felt and then left the ball in her court.

The past two weeks haven't been so bad. I am getting more organized and figuring out what works for us.

I'm happy with that.

Last week I finally took care of something that has needed to be taken care of for a while.

I am (what I figure to be) a typical mom in the aspect of taking care of the husband, kids and house and not taking care of myself so much.

I found out a few years ago that I had what they call dysplasia when it comes to my cervical cells. In other words, the cells were abnormal and could form into cancer.

I found this out at about the same time I found out I was pregnant with KK. In fact, I found out about the pregnancy the day I went in for the biopsy.

Praise the Lord that it was not too bad at that time and all I had to do was come back every 6 months for another pap.

Well there I go again not taking care of myself. I went to my first appointment a few months after Kaitlan's birth but failed to make my next appointment 6 months later. And the next 6 months after that.

With some hard nudging gently coaxing from dear husband, I finally went in for an appointment.

What do ya know, it had gotten worse.

That's when the wonderful Dr. W scheduled me for what is called a LEEP procedure. I went in Tuesday morning last week for a (really) quick day surgery that hopefully took care of what ailed me. (When I say quick I mean quick. I went in at 6am and was on my way home at 9am!)

Now I just pray that it has been taken care of and I will not have to face this issue any more.

In other medical news, it seems that Sean's maternal grandfather will probably be joining his wife in the Lord's arms sooner than we had hoped. We found out that he has stage 4 colon cancer that has spread to his liver among other places. We're talking about an old tough Marine who is now weak and depending on his children to take care of him. It's really sad and the family could use your prayers. I don't know if it's awful to think this way, but when it comes down to it, sometimes I just wish God would take them and get them out of the misery they're suffering. Such a difficult subject.

Okay, I really need to get out of the doom and gloom that I'm starting to fill with, so on to something great and sad in it's own right.

My baby girl is going to be 2 years old in just about 2 weeks now! I can't believe it! She is so tiny, but I can see how much she is growing and I wish she could just stay little forever. Especially when I think of her sister and that attitude! Only kidding... kinda. =) Actually, this kid is a teenager in a toddler body, I tell you. She has attitude that is unimaginable for a kid her age. I'm really loving (almost) every minute of it, though. Our family wouldn't feel complete without her.

Well that's it for now, folks. Someone has to do laundry around here and I can tell you that it isn't any of the other 4 people that live here! Have a blessed day and I hope to post again soon!

She's Aliiive!

Nerves

I almost feel as though am about to have a panic attack.

This is tough.

I am sure I've made the right decision, but I am still so apprehensive.

I feel like a fool sitting here crying over whether or not I am doing the right thing. I am though... right?

I definitely don't take my children's education lightly and that is why I decided to home school them. I would never down the public school system even with all of its flaws, but last year was a difficult one for us. I was tired of hearing my son tell me that he can't. It was hard to see my daughter struggle at something that I know she can excel at.

We start school in three days and I feel so unprepared as sit making our first weeks lesson plans. I know that I have put a lot of thought into home schooling. I thought about it for over a year before I decided for sure to do it. I really believe that we can do this and that my kids will be better off.

Then why do I feel like this?!?

I think the other issues in our life are contributing to this feeling. Money matters. Talk of moving. Talk of fixing up our house in order to sell. Would anyone even buy our house? Wanting to start my own business on top of it all. It is something I really want to do and know I can do, but is it the right time?

I'll be praying for insight and doing what I have to do in the meantime.

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9

Nerves

Gone Fishin'

Today is the last full day of our little (much needed) vacation. We haven't been on a real vacation in about 5 years so this has been so nice!

On Thursday, we drove over to Possum Kingdom Lake to meet my dad and then my sister, Brandi and her family joined us on Friday.

This has been the best weekend we've had in a long time despite the sweltering heat!

Yesterday we rented a boat for four hours where we rode out to a spot called "Hell's Gate". There we all jumped in the water for a swim. Well, everyone except for Sage. She was not real happy about the boat at all! As soon as we got on she started telling us she didn't want to go. The rocking was making her sick. It didn't make me feel that way until we had been off of the boat for a few hours.

I can't wait to share pictures! I have never seen an elevator in the side of a cliff that takes you from your house down to the lake until yesterday. As Kaitlan says, it was "tooool"!, or cool for anyone who doesn't speak toddler.

I've been so proud of myself for making sure everyone has their sunblock on. I usually underestimate the power of that big fire ball in the sky and it's effect on our near-transparent skin! The only thing that seems to have been looked over is Sage's scalp.

Now I think we're going to go on a hike.

Catch y'all later!

Gone Fishin'