A new day...

What a great weekend, beautiful weather, well-behaved children, and getting out of the house. It's amazing that having the Sun shining can do to your outlook and mood. After 5 days of WIND and RAIN that brought a tornado to touch down in a NON tornado area, and the next 5 days of solid WIND and RAIN again, that the two days in between storms happen to be the weekend, and brought with it SUN! :o)

Spring is on the way. The trees are budding and blossoming, the flowers are growing, the plants are sprouting and birds are chirping. It's almost time to start getting my vegetable garden ready. What to plant this year??? Hmmm...

We also reconnected with our long, lost niece and had her family over for dinner this weekend. Such a lovely visit and adorable baby boy she has now. Makes me think of days long ago and memories.

Today is our last glance of Sun, so i'm outta here to go enjoy it!

XOXO

I just have to vent...

So bare with me. It may get ugly.

I am sooooo furious right now. Really??? This whole TEENAGE attitude and selfish behavior is beyond OLD with me now and I am ready to ship him off to TimBukTu for good.

Seriously! This not the child I raised, nor is it any attitude or behavior that we have around the house for him to mimic, and it is not anything that I will tolerate. Nothing pushes my buttons faster then disrespect. No matter who it is, but especially from children, much less my own. That is and always has been my biggest pet peeve. I will snap faster then you can blink if you disrespect me in my house.

The problem? I let it go on for way too long. I excused it. "It's hormones, it's teenage drama, it's independence." I looked the other way because of illness in the household and my attention being elsewhere where it was needed.


And now I have a 14yr old who thinks he runs this house.


And i'm here to make it LOUD and CLEAR that only THIS momma rules this roost.


I'm so over it. Someone's about to have his world flipped upside down.


Stay tuned...

XOXO

What we do for our kids...

Last night I froze my tooshie off for that son of mine. And do you think I heard a Thank You? Nope. Not one. Not one little hug, not one "thanks" not one " 'preciate it".

Last night was Baseball try-outs and we arrived at the fields at 6:30pm so he could warm up with the guys and get checked in. It was 44 degrees out. Not bad. A Lil chill in the air. And it started late. And with a last name at the end of the alphabet, and being one of the oldest out there, he was 4th from the end of about 50+ boys.

Which means, I was still sitting there 3+ hours later with now 2 coats on, my gloves and my snow hat and it was now 30 degrees out.

Did I mention that I was Fffrrrreeeezzziiinnngggg??? That is my teeth chattering thinking about it. It's one thing if I was one of those boys running around catching balls or batting, but no, I was sitting on COLD metal bleachers for hours!!!! HOURS!!!

I vaguely remember saying I could not feel my nose, fingers or butt cheeks and my son telling me "TMI mom!"

And I vividly remember telling him that he BETTER remember this moment and what I did for him and that I expected a VERY NICE nursing home in my old age.

And with that I marched my frozen butt to the car and blasted the heater on full blast all the way home.

XOXO

Have you seen my lung...

I've been sick. I've been really sick. I've been REALLY really sick.

Wanna know how sick? I haven't put on make-up in 5 days!!!

I took Austin to Urgent Care on Sunday because his cough was worse, his fever spiked high, and he hadn't moved from his bed in 3 days and THAT is so unlike him.

He had Pneumonia.

Sunday, the same Sunday, i started coughing. Sunday night, I started coughing allot. Monday I was choking. I spent the next 3 days in bed or sitting up on the couch so I could breathe and not choke. And it wasn't a cough. It was a VIOLENT cough that left me with a pounding headache from coughing so hard, and my back hurting from tensing so bad to cough.

I was miserable.

Monday, I get a call from school that Emily is sick. Coughing to the point of throwing up.

By Wednesday night, I went to Urgent Care. The doctor asked "what's wrong?" as I lay there choking in the room. I said "I purr when I breathe." He listened. He said, "do you hear that too when you breathe?" I said, "yep, like I said, I purr like a kitten." I was wheezing so bad he checked my O2 levels. Then he sent me home with 4 meds and said I had Bronchitis.

It's contagious. This Upper Respiratory Infection. Within one day of being around the person, you got it. The little girl I watch sometimes, got it. The neighbor, got it. The dog I think got it. The fly on my wall got it. The whole school is out with it. And the cough? The cough is HORRID. It hurts. It hurts everything. I swear, I coughed up my lung and it flew out of my body. I can't find it. So if you see it around, can you kindly ask it to come back? I'd like to breathe with out purring...thanks

XOXO

Happy Friday Quote...

"HOPE is the ability to hear the melody of the future.

FAITH is the courage to dance to it today."

XOXO

Adventure's and Life Lessons...

Lately, we've had a hard time teaching Austin just how good his life is (when he complains how "boring and horrible" his life is) compared to the times when DH and I grew up. How we didn't get all the toys they have now, or new clothes (hated the hand-me-downs), or bikes & scooters.

So a few weeks ago, DH decided that in order for Austin to understand fully the life differences of growing up with NOTHING and having to beg for odd jobs to buy food, or finding a broken lawn mower on the side of the road and fixing it yourself and pushing it up and down neighborhoods mowing lawns so he could buy socks for gym class at school, that Austin needed to SEE the difference between the house he lives in now, and houses his dad had to grow up in.

So DH packed a lunch and drove Austin the 1-1/2 hours up the hill to his childhood town. He drove him all over to the many houses they passed between, the run down country schools he had to WALK miles too, and places they use to hang out and use their IMAGINATION to entertain themselves with.

Along the way of their field trip, DH stopped off at a spot they use to hike as kids and took Austin to the creek they would swim in while they ate lunch. Austin said this was his favorite spot of the day. It was beautiful and serene. And I was so happy that DH stopped and took a few pics along the way. And let me say, they are AWESOME pics of Austin! They also grabbed a few of the creek, which in the winter time looks more like a river.

Austin hasn't said much about their day together, which usually means he learned something and is stewing on it. I'm hoping that he picks up the vibe from his dad, that he never wanted to live like that ever again, and has worked HARD all his life to make sure he had a roof over his families head. And that HARD WORK is what got him his toys he now allows himself to have.

Life lessons like these, you'll never know if they got until years later when they become adults. But I know parenting a teenager is a much harder job then parenting a newborn. We actually have to form them into little adults who can be prepared to go into the world on their own and make wise choices. And yet on the same foot, we can't force the life lessons we've already learned on them or they wont understand it, they have to LIVE the lessons themselves. That's a lesson i just learned.

XOXO

Stop the Press...

I've been cooking.

There. I've said it. I've been cooking allot. Being home and not working, I'm not tired all the time, stressed (ok, not AS stressed), or cranky. And I have time on my hands. So I cook.

No Frozen, premade stuff. No boxed stuff. No canned stuff. HOME COOKED stuff.

My family is worried.

Right now, I have Beef Stew in the crock pot.

My house smells so yummy.

Tomorrow, I'm making my famous Meatloaf. Hmm, maybe mashed potatoes with it too.

Are you drooling yet?

I'm baking Valentine's cookies this weekend.

Jealous?

I need a job before my waistline grows anymore...

XOXO