The Ivy Hill

For those of you that read my blog on a regular basis... know that I had a friend pass not but a few days ago.

I said that we named our garden after Lindsay and Sams daughter, Ivy. The Ivy Hill

I just wanted to put up some pictures I took the other day. I know it's not much, but it will be!

Front bed: strawberries
Right side beds: 1 onions and carrots 2 green and yellow bush beans
Right side ground: potatoes (will be planted) watermelon and corn will be planted in 2 weeks
Left side beds: 1 Tomatoes (planted, but not in this pic) 2 Cucumbers, 3 Red/Green peppers
Left side ground: Pumpkins (Monks) and Corn

View from the house

Apples!!

Our one lonely Pear. The rest of them were blown off with the tornado in April

We planted this mulberry bush about 3 weeks ago. When we planted it, it was a brown twig!!

Life has a new look!

So!
What do you think?!

I think I drove Courtney crazy with the amount of times I went "I really don't know... what do you think??"

She was AMAZING to work with!

Thank you Courtney SO much!!

New design is coming!

I've been hard at work with Courtney over at Not So Homemade to roll out a new blog design.

It's not quite done, but, it's coming along fantastically! I'm IN LOVE with it! There are a few little tweeks here and there, but, it's looking great! This will be the first design change for Life Along The Way since shortly after it's birth almost 2 years ago! ACK!

Anyways! Go show Courtney some love over at her blog. She's got a fantastic Calzone recipe that I'm dying to try! Maybe this weekend... hmmmm....

A-Quiltin' We Will Go!

So, it's no secret that I read a TON of blogs (82 and counting!)! Usually my morning routine, after getting the kids off to school is to read thru all of the blogs that have posted over the night, and periodically throughout the day. That's a lot of blogs I say, but each and every one of them has something that I want to learn, or improve upon, (Well, except for those few that are family and friends!) I added one yesterday about how to improve your marriage. Sam and I have a pretty good marriage these days, but, it NEVER hurts to find ways to improve things!

So, the other day, I found this FANTASTIC site called Cluck Cluck Sew, and she had this really cute quilt on there, and talked about Charm Packs and all kinds of things that I had NO IDEA existed. Allison is really nice too! Anyways! I was talking with Sam last night, and I told him that I would like for us to MAKE a quilt TOGETHER! So that way, we are spending time together, he gets to use his fantastic artistic ability, (who knew a colorblind guy could be so great at art?!), and we get a new comforter for our bed (which we REALLY need)! Oh, and it doesn't hurt that I'll be getting to use the fantastic sewing machine that he bought me last year! (Sadly, I've only used it a handful of times!) He thought it was a FANTASTIC idea! HOORAY! So, I guess that only leaves us to plan the pattern (anybody have any ideas for simpler quilt patterns??), pick the colors, buy the fabric, make the blocks, sew all the blocks together, get batting, and find someone to teach me the rest!! LOL

I think that this will be a fantastic adventure that Sam and I are about to embark upon. Never know, maybe I'll do so well at it, that I'll make one for Monkey and Buggy! I thought about making a Purple and Gold quilt for Monkey, maybe with some ECU Pirates fabric thrown in there as well. Never know! I think Momma has something up her sleeve for Monkey with purple and gold. I have no idea what, but I think she does. (I could be wrong tho!) For Buggy, it would be super simple... pink and purple. She's ALL girl! I'm not exactly sure WHERE she gets it from. I'm almost the opposite of girlie! I don't wear make up that often, I love t-shirt and jeans, heels are very uncomfortable to me, and I HATE doing my hair, but every once in a while, I like to get dressed up, look really nice, and be girlie (like, once or twice a year, seriously.).

Okay! Well, I'm stalking the UPS man today. My new workout video in on his truck! I'm off to do some recruiting, clean the house, figure out what I'm makin for dinner, work out, and have a hot shower with my new shower head! YAY! (Yes, the simple things really do bring me the greatest pleasure!)

Thursday 5

Okay, I'm a thief. Yup, call the Blog Police now. I have committed the worst possible offense in bloggerdom!

 I STOLE this post from Nicole. I think it's a fantastic idea! (Yes, I've seen it many many times Nicole... just never stole it from you before.... LOL) 

Basically what it is, you say what in the past week has made you thankful, giddy, happy, excited, and adored. So! Here we go!!

I was Thankful this week that Sam and I finally worked out our issues with personal transparency. 

I was Giddy when I ordered my new workout video! (If Kristy can lose 90 pounds using it, I can lose too!)

I was Happy Sam told me that he changed one of our magazines (that we never read) to a subscription to Boys Life for Monkey.

I'm really Excited that Sam told me that we're going to go to the Gator Ball in the Spring! (If he's still in) Which means I don't get to go to the MC Ball in November (which kinda stinks), but I'll be in much better shape this spring! :-D (Silver lining people!!)

And I felt really Adored when Sam, Monkey, and Bug all told me that I looked really pretty. :-D

*whisper* Have you heard what her hobby is?! Weirdo!

So, as I said yesterday, I have a "strange" hobby. Most people don't understand why I love my hobby, or even find it interesting, but I have so much FUN with it!

I know what you all are saying right now.. "Can you just get on with it?! Tell us what it is already!"

Okay. My strange hobby is.... aquatic snails. I know it sounds really strange, but they really are so interesting to watch! I know you think that they don't move very fast because their land cousins don't, but, they're pretty quick! They also do lots of funny stuff. They will go up to the very top of the tank and "parasnail" to the bottom. They also like to play in bubbles. Another friend of mine does this too, and one time we were watching her snails get on top of the bubble wand, have it float them to the top, have the filter push them to the other side of the tank, and then parasnail to the bottom and do it all over again! It was really cute!

We've even named our snails, we have Talula, Stripes, Heart, Krabs, Spunky, Rainbow and Sandy. Talula, Heart, and Sandy are all Ivory (white), Stripes, and Krabs are purple, Spunky is blue and Rainbow is gold. Now, I have at least one female in there, and she(they?) have been laying eggs at the top of my tank. When they do, I take the eggs off the side of the tank, wrap them in a paper towel and put them in a zip lock baggie with a damp paper towel and put them in our other tank under the lights. The damp paper towel helps keep the eggs moist so that they can incubate and hatch baby snails! I have no idea how many baby snails I currently have, it's a bunch tho! I've managed to hatch 3 clutches (that's what you call the eggs) and I would guess there is somewhere between 50-125 baby snails in there right now! I have 2 more clutches incubating, and another was just laid last night. I have some people that are very interested in obtaining some of these snails and others I can sell online and to local pet stores.

I know that my hobby isn't for everyone, but I love it. I find them fascinating little animals, and they have so much more personality than fish! I admit, we have 2 tanks, a 20 gallon and a 30 gallon, and the 20 has 7 snails and a Betta (named Blueberry) and the 30 has 3 adult guppies, 3 juvenile, and 7 or 8 guppy fry with a bunch of baby snails and Spike the plecostomus (algae eater). The guppies are Bugs, the Betta is Monkeys, and the snails are mine. I guess that leaves the pleco to be Sams. I think they share the same attitude... hide until the sun goes down. LOL

Anyways, I think that's all for today! I've got a busy day of laundry and dog bathes for today!!  

It's been a while

Okay, so, I've been a bad blogger! Sorry about that.

I've been pretty busy since we came home from vacation!
Lets see, there was getting the kids ready to go back to school, which went pretty well! Monkey started 6th grade, and has 6 classes that he has to "commute" to. He even has a locker this year. It's not that big of a deal, he had one when he was in 4th grade as well when he went to school in Ohio. He really isn't too fond of going to school, but, he always says he's had a good day when he comes home. He's usually not all that excited about doing homework, but, he can usually get it done pretty quickly, at least for now. Bug loves school. She's in 2nd grade this year. She loves her teacher and classmates already. She's also found a little girl that rides the bus with her that she really likes. Most days she comes home, does her 15 minutes of reading and what little homework she has, and hops right on the phone to call her friend and stays on there for most of the evening. It seems like it has started already!

I recently became a Beachbody Coach. If you don't know who (or what) that is, it's the same company that does P90X. It's really a fantastic company. Their products are excellent! I've been using the Shakeology for not quite a month, and I've lost almost 10 pounds! I'll admit that I've not been working out as much as I should be, but I'm still losing weight! Soon, I think I'm going to get Slim In 6, which is a home workout that helps you reshape your body in 6 weeks! I'm really excited about this company! They give so much back as well! The company recently hit 30,000 coaches, and they donated $150,000 to Raincatcher for providing rain catching systems to 10 schools in Kenya & Uganda! That will provide clean drinking water to over 100,000 people!! That's not all though! Beachbody will also be donating $5 for every active coach the company has on December 31, 2010! This company really cares about people! I'm so proud to be a part of this company!

I'm going to start another blog soon to recount my weight loss journey and business as well! I'll let you all know when I think of a good name for the blog! You guys can make some suggestions as well. :-)

Day 19: A talent of yours

Well, I don't really consider myself a very talented person, but, I guess to some I might seem so.

From the time I was young, I always wanted a horse. I remember the first moment that I decided that I wanted one. We lived out in the country, and one of the neighbors horses had gotten lose and made it's way to our house. My sister caught it and had it in the front yard. I remember seeing her out there with the horse, and how beautiful that it looked. I was in awe. Some time later, after growing up my tomboy self and always wanting to play with horse figurines instead of any Barbie or other doll, my wonderful Mom decided that maybe I should take some lessons. I took lessons on a wonderful little horse named Rags. I loved that horse to DEATH! She was bombproof! I also took lessons with another girl named Holly. She had Dusty. I always had my eye on other horses tho. Mom decided that it would be a nice thing to get me my very own horse. I did this for several years, and if we could afford it, I would still have them now. I think it's a fantastic idea for a kid to have responsibilities like that. I guess I was a pretty good rider. I never did horrible at shows or anything.

Another talent I have is musical instruments. I'm not the only person in my family that has this talent, tho I'm not near as talented as my cousin Robin is! He's an instrumental genius! I started in 5th grade playing the Flute. I pretty much played the Flute until about Sophomore year of high school. My Junior year, we had a new band instructor. So, when we all showed up to meet the "new guy" and learn about different things that we would be doing and whatnot, he asked me if I would be willing to switch instruments. Why not! I was already the best Flute player in our school, not that it was a big accomplishment to be better than 5 or 6 other flute players that haven't been playing as long as you in a band of approximately 23, which included flags! So, I started to learn the Tenor Saxophone. I played that for Marching Band, and then for Concert Band I would play the Baritone Saxophone. I like the Baritone a WHOLE lot better than the Tenor! It was HUGE!!! I didn't even need a neck strap! I could just put my foot on it's side and set it on there. Boy did that make my instructor mad! "Jacque! That's not proper form! Where's your neck strap!?!" Of course, it's hard to take a guy serious when he's only a few years older than you are. When I graduated high school, I kept my gorgeous Gemeinhardt Flute because I wanted to be able to give it to MY little girl when she was old enough to learn. Alas, it was not meant to be. (That, in and of itself, is another story.) I picked it back up a few years later when I played the flute for the church band. I also picked up the Clarinet then as well.

A talent that I'm just recently starting to cultivate is home domestication. I've started to be more creative and crafty. I've picked up sewing! I haven't really made a lot yet, but I'm hoping that very soon I will be able to pick up some more fabric and make some more things. I've already planned on making my own Ball gown. We will see how that goes!! I can also crochet a little bit. I can honestly say I'm not very good at that. Anything other that "stitch, stitch, turn and go again" I can't do! So, if you want a fancy scarf or something made, don't ask me!! ;-) Cross stitch! I used to LOVE to cross stitch. It's been a while since I've done it, but I'm sure I could pick it back up and do okay. I used to do cross stitch to help me with my concentration. It worked pretty well... I just never managed to FINISH anything! Cooking is coming along quite nicely. I can say that I've always been a decent cook, but I'm getting better! I find recipes that look good, change them a bit to make them how we like them. It works for us. Of course, there are still some of my family favorites that Sam can't stand. Like, soup beans, corn bread, and fried taters! C'mon! How can you not LOVE that?! I guess it's just a Southern thing. (Yes yes, I know I'm from Ohio, but my Momma grew up in the South, so we ate Southern food a lot!)

Other than that, I think I'm pretty untalented. I'm not a great Mathematician, I can't do simple math in my head, a trait that I've, unfortunately, passed on to Monkey. I'm not a History Buff, tho I do find history interesting, I just have never been able to remember when this important battle happened, or that important treaty was signed. So, I just like to go and learn things and even though I will probably not remember who was involved, what made it significant, or why it happened, doesn't mean that I don't enjoy going!

Day 18: Whatever tickles your fancy

Ahhhhhhh!! I'm so glad that I get a free day today! To be honest, the 30 Days of Me is starting to get a bit much!  I start looking forward to these days! I get to talk about all the things that I have been going "Oh! I should blog about that!!" There have been contests that I couldn't exactly enter because I didn't really want to stray TOO far from this! It's okay tho. There will be more contests to enter at other dates. :-)

For my "fancy" today, I want to talk about some GREAT blogs that I follow! I read a lot of blogs. I used to not! I used to read only my Moms blog. She was the only one that I cared enough to read. Then it branched out to some random ones I found by hitting "Next blog" on the top of my blog. I've lost touch with most of those people, but I still read my Moms blog when she actually gets around to writing.

Lately, I've been reading a bevy of military blogs. I'm not going to play favorites, so I'm just going to name a couple that are closest to me by distance. Nicole over at Flip Flops and Combat Boots is such a sweetheart! She just recently got married. She does some giveaways, some recipes, and she did a Summer Essentials Swap! I signed up for it, and my partner is from Lexington! Lexington is one of my 3 favorite places in Kentucky. The Kentucky Horse Park is there! That is like my heaven right there! I have some ideas of what I want to send to my swap partner, but nothing concrete yet. Another local lady that I have grown to love is Katie! Now, she has TWO blogs! She just recently got engaged, so, she started another blog to keep up with all of the wedding prep. She is also another awesome local blogger! I hope to get an invite to Katies' wedding, just so I can blow bubbles as they walk out of the church. Does it matter if I'm the only one blowing bubbles? No! I just want to blow bubbles! *giggle* (Just kidding Katie!! ;-) )

I also have a bit of a crafty streak in me. So, I like to read about different crafts. I especially like the ones that give DIY home crafts. I think my favorite of all of the crafty blogs is Design*Sponge! They have some of the MOST awesome things on their blogs. Be warned though. Do NOT click the link if you don't have an hour to burn just reading through all of the awesome projects and whatnot! Another one that I just recently found that I fell IN LOVE (like head over heels!) with is Positively Splendid. Oh my GOSH! I love this site! If I could marry it, I would give it my wedding ring right now! On my Google Reader, I have a tag for Recipes, Stuff I want, and Stuff to make. Just about every single post at PS has the Stuff to make tag on it! (Yes, I'm serious!) She makes me wish that I could be more creative and that I knew more creative bloggers so I could come up with the awesomeness that's on her site. My favorite sewing blog is by leaps and bounds LittleBlueBoo! I LOVE LOVE LOVE LBB! She makes the absolute cutest clothes!!! They make my heart do little flutters and then it sort of sinks a little bit because I know that I'm not as creative as her. That doesn't mean that I don't love her blog any less!! She does sell her creations and patterns, and one of these days, I will get enough gumption to actually buy one and try to do something awesome like she does!

Another group that I want to talk about are the "combo" blogs and cooking blogs. On the advice of a fellow Military Blogger and Twitter friend Bethany for the tip on this one: ThePioneerWoman is hands down an AWESOME website! Yet another blog that you need to make sure that you have some time to waste spend checking out all of her awesomeness! She's got recipes, photographs, funny stories, giveaways, home decorating, you name it, it's there!! I'm always happy when I see her pop up on the Google Reader. I've entered another one of her contests and I'm anxiously awaiting to see if I've won an 8 piece dinning set of Fiestaware plates! Oh, I would be that happiest girl in the world! *happily looking slightly upwards and to the left with a smile* A girl can dream right?! My favorite cooking blog is A Year of Slow Cooking. Now, anybody that knows me, knows that I can be a bit on the lazy side. I don't always like to cook or clean, but, if I don't have a zillion pots and pans to worry about after dinner is done, I'm more likely to clean up. There are more than 365 recipes to make in your crock pot on this blog. That's my kind of cooking!!

The last set of blogs that I'm going to talk about are my miscellaneous blogs. They don't exactly fit into any of the above categories, but for some odd reason, I love them just as much! The first one I was turned on to when I used to work at the book store. Cake Wrecks is one of the most awesome sites! Some of the cakes they put on there are just... wow! How can they even display or offer them for sale to the general public?! You will just have to check it out to know what I mean! From the same "author" comes EPBOT. It's a sort of hodge-podge of geeky goodness. I can't exactly pin point an exact reason why I love EPBOT so much, other than the geekiness! The last blog I'm going to post about tonight is one that makes me giggle with glee. AwkwardFamilyPhotos is just about the most hilarious, safe for families, websites on the net.

Day 17: An art piece (painting, drawing, sculpture, etc.)

A few years ago, I went to Washington DC. I went with a woman that I had been friends with all through school (Elementary and high school!) and when her husband deployed she asked me to come help her. Needless to say, I found out some not so wonderful things about this person, and we are no longer friends.

I still had fun on this trip tho! We all went to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History, and then we went across the way and seen a bunch of brass statues! This is one of the "clean" pictures from the statues. I'm not exactly sure that I'm supposed to be sitting on the marble taking a picture of this statue, but, if I wasn't, then the security guard that was watching my (former)friend and I act like fools and take "dirty" pictures with the statues! LOL

Day 5: Your favorite quote

Hmm.. I think that my favorite quote for life would have to be:

"Well behaved women seldom make history." Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

I don't know why it's my favorite, other than I used to cause a lot of trouble when I was younger. I know that's not exactly what it means, but, that's still my take on it.

I can honestly say that when I was younger, I was quite the trouble maker. I just never actually got *caught*! My Mom always knew though. She always knew that I had done something I shouldn't have done, and somehow she would make me feel bad about doing it, without every saying a word. Maybe it was just my subconscious doing it for her. How about that? Never even knowing that your kid has done something that might be illegal in several states, and they punish themselves for it?! LOL

Also, today is my 30th birthday. Shocking, I know! I want to thank my Momma for always being there for me, no matter how old I was, no matter how much you wanted to smack me in the head with a frying pan, and no matter how many HORRIBLE choices I made. If it wasn't for my wonderfully sweet Momma, I wouldn't be here, nor be the person I am today. I also want to thank my Step-dad Kevin. He's been a very positive influence in my life since I was about 17 years old. I know he's had a few times when he just wanted to pop me, but, he always tried to give me the benefit of the doubt. My sisters Angie and Kris, what would I do without you guys? And Jamey, well, I wouldn't have been as well looked after as I was in high school if it wasn't for Jamey! My wonderful hubby, Sam, for always loving me, no matter how grumpy, cross, or bitchy I get. And my fantastic children, who never cease to amaze me at how much of a kid I can still be at my "old age" and how much things have changed since I was their age.

Day 3: Your favorite television program

Hands down

Sam got me started on this show when we started dating. Sam always wanted to be a doctor, and even went to pre-med school! (He has a BS in Biology) So, Grey's Anatomy, Scrubs, ER, he watched them all. I watched ER way back when before Dr. Green kicked the bucket. (I BAWLED that episode btw...) I don't know what it is about Grey's Anatomy. I absolutely LOVE this show! I know that it's not exactly accurate (tho they try to be), and that, basically, it's a prime time soap opera (but who cares!), but I love it! If they ever get rid of this show, I will never watch TV again! (Okay, maybe that's a bit of a stretch, but you know what I mean!)
I think that they have some pretty good plot lines, really hot men (C'mon Dr Averys' eyes!! YOW!), and I get a tear going at least every 3 episodes, if not more! And if Shondra Rhimes happens to read this, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE let Lexie and Mark get back together, and keep Owen and Christina together! Bring in someone new for Jackson! And why can't Izzie and Alex be together?! Okay... sorry... back to why I love Grey's!
Grey's for me is just a great release! To be able to watch this show is relaxing, tho the season finale this year had me on the edge of my seat the ENTIRE 2 hours! My friend Keona and I would text during the breaks and I think almost all of mine consisted of : "OMG!!" and "HOLY SH*T!" Yes, I love it that much.
Sam gets really mad at me when I "go Meredith" and get all "dark and twisty." I use "Seriously?!" A LOT! and it drives Sam crazy sometimes. He created a monster, and now he's paying for it. :-)

Day 1: Your favorite song

My favorite song... wow.. that's a tough one! I've had many "favorite" songs in my time. I can't narrow it down to just one! I'll pick my Top 5 and tell you why I like them so much.

1. Magic by Colbie Caillat- I really like this song because it's Sam and I's song. You know, that one song that you and your significant other have decided sounds the most like your relationship. Well, that wasn't exactly why it's our song, but, sorta is. It's just been the one song that if we're stressed or need to relax, we just listen to it together and it makes us both really happy.

2. People Are Strange by The Doors- What can I say, I'm a sucker for a hot guy in leather pants! Honestly, (other than thinking he was a God with shoulder-length curly hair) I always found Jim Morrison to be quite the literary genius. I know that sounds like quite a stretch for a man that committed suicide in a bath-tub in Paris, but, I read his auto-bio when I was in high school, and he had such a great mind, just a strange way of getting the information out. I always related to the song, because I was always felt myself a bit strange when compared myself to my peers. Now, at the ripe age of 30 (on Saturday) I have come to realize that everyone is a bit strange, and that's exactly what this song is talking about. (Okay, so I figure out that's what the song is about way before now.....)

3. Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk by Rufus Wainwright- Oh Rufus... if only you liked WOMEN! *sigh* This song is such a great song. The way that I take it is that you always want something that isn't usually all that great for you. It's about how you, hopefully, will conquer those things in your life and come out standing at the end. It's one of those songs that can be taken SO many ways. Look up the lyrics, or better yet, listen to the song, and make up your own mind. (I also have to add a Thank You to Dann for ever introducing me to Rufus. <3)

4. Across The Universe by The Beatles- Okay, so, I'm sad to announce that I should have been born at the same time as my Mother. I LOVE LOVE LOOOOOVE "moldy oldies" as I called them when I was young. I also like the Rufus Wainwright cover of this song for the movie I Am Sam (Fantastic movie btw...) too. The song itself is very open to interpretation, which is why I love it so much. Way back when, when I was a stupid teenager, I listened to this song one time when I was stoned (Yes... I know smoking weed is bad, like I said "stupid teenager" and I haven't done it since then... so NYA!) it made PERFECT sense. Then I got paranoid that the cops were going to catch me and started yelling at people for staring at me. LOL

5. Winter by Tori Amos- God, I LOVE this song. It's been a favorite of mine for a very very *very* long time. Again, I must thank Dann for this one. I dated Dann a very long time ago, and he was an incredibly sweet, wonderful man, that I had the privileged of knowing. Dann was everything that I could have ever thought I was looking for (at the time). We talked, we shared, we held intelligent conversations about more than just regular every day things. Dann would come home from work, call me, and play the piano for me every day. He was always a wonderfully supportive friend first, then a boyfriend. One day, towards the end of our relationship, he played this song for me. He told me that this was his song to me. I never got it, not for a long time after he and I split up and *really* listened to the song. One line has stuck with me to this day. "Your must learn to stand up for yourself/ Cause I can't always be around" He was trying to tell me that I needed to stand on my own. That I needed to be me, fly or fall. At the time I was too "young" to get what he meant. He may have been a few years younger, but he was far wiser that I could even think of being. I'm sure that there are many other interpretations to this song as well, but that is what I took away from it. Since I've moved to NC, I have done just that. I have stood on my own, fly or fall, and sometimes I have fallen, and I realize that it's just one of the ways of life.

This past week has been a roller coaster of emotions. I have been high, low, and everything in between! I'm going to go back and attempt to explain this in chronological order, so, it's going to start about the time Sam and I started dating. (I'm not going to give you a day by day... calm down!)

Sam and I actually started dating for a couple of reasons, but, one of those was because I had called him one night because my male roommate was acting like a crazy person, and I asked if he would stay with me that night to make sure everything was okay. Well, once I got the male roommate (AKA Crazy-bastard) moved out, and a female roommate, who was the daughter of a co-worker, moved in, things were good to go! It was like a girls house actually. There were knick-knacks here and there, you know... the whole works! Well, my roommate, Moo as I called her, had a lot of friends that I didn't have. One of those friends, I met just once. Her name was Anneka. Now, some bad things happened at the place that Moo and I were living at, and we decided to move out. Moo and I were supposed to move into a bigger place, but it wasn't meant to be, and Moo and I parted ways amicably. I ended up staying with another co-worker named Steph for a while, and one of our friends (and co-worker) came over a lot. Now, a few times, she brought her sister.... Anneka, who also worked at the same place that I did, but left the company right before I got hired.

Now you know the back story. Let me fast forward to Sunday 23May. So, my former manager, and friend, Meridith, sends me a text and tells me Anneka hasn't been home since Saturday, and nobody has heard from her, and that they were going to report her missing. So, this week we made and passed out fliers to many local businesses. Meridith and I had high hopes, but as the days passed on, we knew that something was terribly wrong. On Thursday 27May, they found Annekas' body beside a drainage ditch in a rural field in a different county. She was killed by a 24 year old Marine and her body dumped there and covered with brush.

My heart stopped at that moment. I may not have known Anneka very well, but, I knew her sister pretty well. We shared some friends. We shared motherhood. I couldn't fathom how someone could do this to another person. How someones life is worth so little that it can be taken in an instant. I don't understand how people can just not care! She had a little boy! How could you take a mother away from a child? What sort of monster does that?!

Bugs tooth!!

So, Bug had a couple of her adult teeth come in behind her teeth on the bottom because she absolutely refuses to wiggle, or try to pull her teeth at all. When we were at the Dentist a few weeks ago, they told her that she needed to pull them out and that if she hadn't pulled them by the next time she came in that they were going to have to pull them out for her. This sort of scared her a bit. It just so happened that she had Poison Ivy at that time and they weren't able to do her cleaning. So, we went back on Wednesday for her cleaning and she was SO worried that they were going to pull her teeth! I told her that they weren't going to pull them and that they would give her a little more time. She was still a bit worried though. Well yesterday Sam picked the kids up from school because I had a little more running around to do, and when I got home she runs up to me with a little baggy and says "Mom! I pulled my tooth at school today!" We then had dinner while we watched The Tooth Fairy with Dwayne Johnson in it. It was a really cute movie! Then the Tooth Fairy gave her $2 for her tooth and she was very happy that he didn't just leave $1 like in the movie!

Yesterday was an okay day. I went to Sams therapist with him. He gave us some good ideas for communicating better and whatnot. We, of course, started talking while we were in bed, and I told him that I didn't completely trust him yet. I KNOW that he's not going to do anything, but, to have been treated the same way that I was in just about every previous relationship really has me flummoxed. I never thought that my wonderful husband would be capable of anything like that. He has such strong ethics and values, which is one of the things that I love so much about him, and to just blatantly disregard them is just mind boggling! He ended up pretty upset because I can't completely trust him right now. I told him that it would take some time and effort on his part to regain that trust. He completely disagreed. He thinks trust is something that I have to work towards on my own, like forgiveness. I told him that wasn't the case. He was the one that did the damage, and he needed to make efforts to repair it. I guess maybe I should have asked him if I set a wooden bridge on fire, but put it out voluntarily, if I should expect it to repair itself. Sam ended up sleeping on the couch last night because he was upset. We didn't fight, or argue, he was just upset that I told him that I couldn't trust him completely yet.

Today, I'm watching my friend Keonas' lil boy! He's such a little cutie!! Every time he sees me he gets all excited and squishes up his little face. Keona is going to her little girls class tea party. Who was I to come in between a mother-daughter tea party?! Besides, I really like watching lil man. It gives me enough "baby time" to not want another one, which is something I'm sure my mother is thankful for!  I've started to think that I'm just getting to "old" to have more kids. Monkey is 11, and Bug is almost 7. They're both in school all day, can feed themselves, no bottles or dirty diapers to deal with. I don't think I want to start all over again! I'll be 30 in just over a month. I really didn't want kids in the first place, but I'm glad that I do have them and I'm glad that I had them young. I don't know how my Dad stayed sane when he found out Mom was having me. He was getting ready to turn 50 when I was born! Sheesh!

Today is also Military Spouse Appreciation Day! I can still claim this title for that time being. If you are a Military Spouse I want to thank you for "standing by your man (or woman)", and if you know one, make sure they know that you appreciate them today.

Military Spouses Appreciation Day!

So, a friend of mine is hosting a Military Spouse give away! Being a Military spouse has it's ups and downs. It was a whole lot different before they started really getting into the nitty gritty of getting Sam retired. Now, he sort of goes in at odd times, gets off at odd times. There are times where he barely goes to work at all, but is gone for most of the days for this appointment or that appointment. Don't get me wrong! I'm not complaining! He's non-deployable, which makes me happy, but in a sad sort of way. I know that he misses it. I know that he feels like he's letting his unit down at times. But I also know that he secretly enjoys the perks of being (almost) retired. Since he hardly wears his uniform any more, he goes to work in khakis, polo shirts, and dress shoes. He told me the other day that one of the "new guys" walked in the office and called him Sir because he thought that he was an Officer standing in the office dressed the way he was. I giggled because for 1, he could have been an Officer, he just didn't want to wait to go to OCS and simply enlisted. He does have a Bachelors degree in Biology! For 2, I've never seen a chubby Officer before! I love that man... *sigh*

Without further ado, for all of my military friends that read my blog, here is the link to get to her wonderful giveaway! CLICK ME!!