Vindicated

Sweet Hubby saw the new neurologist today and we loved her. She was SO much better than the last guy. She's only a few years older than us, which was comforting and scary all at the same time. But she was fantastic. Believe it or not, we actually spent more time with her than we did waiting on her. We got there early, they got us back early, and we were out of there only 16 minutes past our appt time.

Anyway, she ordered some more blood work and wants to get some MRIs on his neck and spine. After she said that, it was like Sweet Hubby and I both looked at each other and said, "Duh." We wondered why we (or the 2 other doctors we've seen) hadn't thought of that. We'll excuse our family practice doctor from not thinking of it, but seriously, the other neurologist wanted to drug SH up and put him in wrist splints and a neck brace. But I'm not bitter.

She did put him on some new meds, so we'll try it to see if it helps with his symptoms. We're due back to see our family practice doctor on Tuesday and then we'll see the neurologist again in 2 weeks. Hopefully by then, we'll have some real answers.

Six...going on thirty-six

Dear Stephen~

Yesterday, as your Daddy and I stood in front of the cake case at the Walmart (because I forgot to get eggs so I could bake your cake), I asked him how it was possible that we could have a six year old. How is it possible that that little tiny bald-headed baby could already be so tall (you come up to my chest!), so smart, so wise and so loving?

I kind of had to giggle to myself because after I wrote the title to this post, I went and looked back at your 5 year old letter, and I said then that you were 5 going on 35. Obviously, that aspect of your personality has not changed. You astound most of the adults in your life when you use words like 'sarcastic', 'dilemma', and 'assume' in conversation. You don't just say what's on your mind, you say it with intelligence and with style. This year, you also tried your hand at some more "grown-up" language.

One of the things that you started this year that has surprised me is the way you eat. You eat everything. All the time. All day long you want to eat, and you will eat just about anything that I put in front of you. And then you eat what's left on everybody else's plates. You've always been a good eater (my best!), but in the last few months, you've started cleaning your plate. Which no one in our family ever does. It's also obvious, that besides just being hungry all the time and filling up, you also have an appreciation for food. And that makes me glad. I try to give you new foods often because I know now is the time for you to be open-minded and I know now that you are learning what really good food is. You still love you a chicken nugget and mac and cheese, but you're finding all the more grown-up foods are really good, too.

You lost your first tooth this year, and I wasn't even there for it. But I was there for your second tooth, and your daddy was there for your third. Both your two top front teeth are loose now, and I can't wait until that happens. You are cute now, but I'm not sure I'll be able to keep from grinning and crying when you lose your two front teeth.

This year, you've really started learning self-control and how to handle stressful situations. You still fly off the handle (I'm afraid to say that I think you have your mama's temper) once in a while, but a lot of times, you will just seperate yourself from the situation, and there's been several times I've found you alone in your room sorting things out in your head, praying, or just taking a few minutes to calm down. I'm so proud of you for this, and I hope it's something you never forget because knowing when to give yourself a "time-out" is a valuable tool to negotiating your way in this world.

You started gymnastics this year, something you love and are getting really good at. Last week, I saw you hold yourself upside down on the rings which astounded me. The first week you tried gymnastics, it was obvious you had little upper body strength, so you've come a long way. Last month, you were evaluated by your coaches and they said that you are doing well at learning all the skills, but that you needed to work on listening skills. Hmmm. It seems that you love gymnastics, but you also love the antics of all the other little boys and have a hard time remembering why you're there. But you love showing off new skills and you and Zachary compare new tricks every week.

And I just have to add quickly, that your knowledge of all things relating to the Star Wars universe is staggering. You don't just know about Yoda and Darth Vader, but every other obscure character and storyline. You know all about the heirarchy of the Jedi and you are quick to correct me when I say something wrong about it all. How you know all this is still a mystery to me, but the fact that you do amazes me.

I talk a lot about how grown-up you are, but there are times you remind me that you are still a little boy. You jump off your bunk bed (and teach your brothers how, too), giggle at cartoons, love a good game of Guess Who?, color outside of the lines with one color on each page, laugh at words like "butt" and "toot", fall out of your chair at the dinner table, run through the house swinging a lightsaber, have an imaginary friend, sleep with stuffed animals, flip-flop all over your bed while you're sleeping, wake up at the crack of dawn, cry when you're overtired, have dirty fingernails all.the.time, can't tie your shoes, love to play in a bubble bath and ask amazingly bizarre questions. You are this perfect balance of little boy and wise, old man.

What's been so amazing about having you as my firstborn, is that you have taught me so much! Sometimes, "firstborn" translates in to "guinea pig", but you take all that in stride. Aside from watching you grow, one of the joys of being your mom is that I have grown with you. I look back to that excited but scared and ignorant 21 year old mom that I was when I held you for the first time, and I can see how much you've taught me and how you've not only made me a better mother every day, but you've also made me a better person. You are joy to have in this family and none of us will ever be able to know how much you've blessed us.



I say it to you all the time, and every time I mean it: I'm so glad God gave us you.
Don't grow up too fast, I'm having too much fun.
I love you,
Mama

Raincheck

Today is my Sweet Stephen's birthday, and I've been stewing a birthday letter in my head all day. But I've just now been able to get in front of the computer and my brain is fried and beyond tired. So let's pretend that the 27th lasts about 12-14 hours longer than any other day, and I'm going to get his letter written tomorrow morning.

And to prove how I'm actually am working at diminished brain capacity, I'll leave you with this. I went to the OB yesterday, and of course as soon as I got there, they asked for a *ahem* sample. So I went to the bathroom to oblige, and forgot to leave the sample. I remembered just as it was too late. I felt like such moron. The nurse was very nice and said I wasn't the only one. She told me that one lady said that she missed the cup completely. That made me feel mildly better. I kept laughing at myself because I knew that I had to keep laughing just to keep from crying. I've been feeling so stupid lately and frustrated with how stupid I feel.

Five and a half hours and $175 later....

This morning, about an hour after Sweet Hubby went to sleep (he works overnights, not sure if I've mentioned that on my blog before), his doctor called and said that the neurologist they normally refer people to can't get us in for 2-3 weeks, but they have another neurologist that could get us in today if went right then. So I woke SH up, and we all ran around trying to get dressed and out of the house. My MIL came and picked up the kids and we left. The office is about 45 minutes away, and we got there at about 11:30am.

At a little before 2pm, we finally saw the doctor. He was, um, curt to put it lightly. He told SH that he wanted to get an EEG right then, so they ushered us into another room where they start hooking him up. At that point we hadn't eaten lunch and SH had had one hour of sleep since 8:30pm last night. And the nurse informs him that he must lay perfectly still with his eyes closed for AN HOUR WITHOUT falling asleep. Okay. This is a man who will fall asleep if he sits still for 5 minutes an hour after waking up. He was able to pull it off, I think, but only because he was starving.

The test was over at 3pm and a little after 4 we finally saw the doctor again. We had written all of the symptoms and such down when we got there, plus we had given them copies of the results of the tests SH has had so far, but the doctor acted like he hadn't even looked at any of it. He asked us several times when SH was having an MRI, like he couldn't remember it from one sentence to the next. He then tells us he doesn't know what's wrong, but then writes out a list of 3 prescriptions he wants SH to take. (As a side note, we are very skeptical of prescription drugs to begin with.) He doesn't explain what any of them are for and I'm just curious what exactly it is that he's treating since he told us he doesn't know what's wrong (he never mentioned the possibility of neuritis). He also told SH to start wearing wrist splints to help with numbness in his hands because he's probably got pinched nerves in his wrists. Which doesn't at all explain what's going on with the numbness in his feet. The doctor also had SH write out "a story" of how all this has happened and when. When SH gave it to him, the doctor started scratching stuff out. That was frustrating...I want a doctor who will take in to account EVERYTHING we say. Oh, and he never did mention anything about the EEG results.

When we finally were done with him, we went to check out where the nurse gives us the prescriptions for the drugs, the wrist splints, and a cervical collar. Um, isn't that one of those neck brace thingies?? The doctor NEVER mentioned anything about that, let alone the fact that he never discussed any of the prescription drugs with us. We have no idea what the purpose of the neck collar was.

So, after five and a half hours and $175, all we got was frustrated and a big fat headache. I hated that doctor. He was very hard to understand, which I can deal with as long as I feel like the doctor is doing his job and is actually listening. This guy was worse than another doctor that I hated...he was the one that we saw when Zachary was baby. He asked if Zachary had a list of issues and when I answered no to all of them, he said, "So. That's just how he looks?" Grrrr.

We probably should have spoken up more. But neither one of us liked him, and he never really gave us chance. I think we were both waiting for him to actually start listening and asking real questions.

Thanks for the vent. We're calling Sweet Hubby's doctor as soon as they are open to tell them and to hopefully get another neurologist. We have no intention of going back to that guy. And we didn't any of the meds he described OR the neck collar or wrist splints. I didn't trust a word out of his mouth.

Here's the deal

Last week (or earlier this week?) I asked you to pray for my Sweet Hubby because he's not been feeling well and we weren't sure why. His blood work came back perfectly normal, which left only the CT results to give us any clues as to what was wrong. And of course, my brain went into "worse case scenario" mode. Add to that that the nurses would not discuss the results of the CT with us over the phone and I was calm on the outside but freaking.out on the inside (but don't tell him that, I was the picture of calm and level-headed with him). We had an appt with his doctor for this coming Tuesday, but Sweet Hubby started having bad pain and more numbness and he called and got in to see the doctor this afternoon. Here's what he told us:

The CT showed that it looks like Sweet Hubby has inflammation of some nerve cells in his brain. It's called neuritis (I'd link it, but I can't find a reliable link to the exact issue he has, apparently there are many types of neuritis...which makes sense because there are many types of nerves). Anyway, this sounds a bit scary, but it's actually the best news we could've gotten. I was afraid that either they would find NOTHING wrong, which meant that Sweet Hubby would be suffering with no answers, or that they would find something horribly wrong and our lives would be drastically changed. For some reason, my mind couldn't find any other scenario somewhere in the middle. But this preliminary diagnosis is good. This will go away on its own with some time (how much, we don't know yet). But just to be sure, the doctor wants Sweet Hubby to have an MRI, which is scheduled for Monday, and then he'll be seeing a neurologist some time next week.

So, thanks for praying if you did and I'll keep you updated.

Just the kind of twisted humor I needed this morning.

This is really funny, if you have a weird sense of humor like me. I wish I were funny enough to come up with that myself.

Honestly.

After a playdate we had this afternoon, Stephen was recounting how many pets his new friend had. He then announced that while he really wanted a dog, he also thought a guinea pig would be nice. Zachary asked him what a guinea pig is and Stephen replied:

"Well. It's kinda like a rat...just a little bit cuter."

Yes, my dear, just a tiny bit cuter. But not enough to convince me we should get one.

Everyone else is doing it

It seems like everyone's doing a bullet point post, so why shouldn't I? I do need to fit in to the bloggy world, right? ;)

• Potty training's going well with M-A. He's got the tee-teeing down pat. #2's not great, but he's had a few successes. He is, however, in underwears full-time during the day. He's still in diapers at night and nap, but that's because I'm not brave enough to do undies at night. He wakes up dry 95% of the time, but he's still in a crib, so we'll cross that bridge when we get there.
• Like I said, Marc-Adam's still in his crib (which I'm hoping I can make last for a few more months at least), but we moved his crib into the boys' room this evening. We tried this once before, but put him in the toddler bed. That went over like a lead balloon, so this is round 2. So far, they're all in there being quiet, and I bet at least 2 of them are already asleep. I have 3 kids in one room. LOL! Ah, the joys of a large family in a small house.
• So, you're probably wondering what's up with what used to be Marc-Adam's room. Well, obviously, it will be Evie's room. I wasn't opposed to having her share with one of her brothers for a little while (hopefully we'll be in a bigger house by the time it's important for her to have her own space), but if we can make this arrangement work, I think it's the best scenario for now. I'm flexible, though, and will mix things up again if we have to.
  
• Speaking of Evie's room, the bedding's here!. It came in and I picked it up from my mom today. Y'all, it's even better in person. It's so well-made, so plush and soft and pretty and girly and....it's just perfect. Mom and I found a lamp that we fell in love with at Target today, and if the colors match the lamp shade, we're so getting it. It's perfect.
• We've decided to go with pink for Evie's room, but I'm worried about that. I'm afraid of it being "too pink" or Pepto Bismol pink, or just nauseating pink. But we've got a limited number of shades to work with out of her bedding. Anybody have any experience painting a room pink? Care to share?
• I feel like this pregnancy has taken FOR.EV.ER. And I still have at least 16 weeks to go. This is by far the slowest pregnancy I've ever had.
  
• I've decided to ditch part of our homeschool curriculum. I've been agonizing over this for days now, but I think I've finally come to the conclusion. It's really a great curriculum, it's just not working for us right now, so we're going to shelve it. I definitely plan on pulling it out again when the kids get a little older, though. I think they'll like it better in a few years.
• So, until I figure out what else we're going to do, I guess we'll just be sticking with the 3 R's: reading, writing, and arithmetic. And lots and lots of play.
  
• Pray for Sweet Hubby if you're the praying sort. He's not been feeling well lately and went to the doctor on Wednesday. They drew a bunch of blood and so far all those tests have come back normal. He had a CT scan today, but we don't have the results of that yet. On the one hand, I'm glad the tests have come back normal so far, but on the other hand, he still feels awful and we have no idea why (and therefor no way to make him better). I would have rathered something come back abnormal in his blood tests than the CT scan. If the CT scan comes back abnormal, then that means there something going on in his head, and well, I don't have to tell you that that scenario's a bit scary. So pray that he either starts feeling better, or that we found out why he feels so crummy to begin with.
• That's all.
  

I wonder...

...if the people on shows like Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby are coached by the producers to be so annoying and clueless.

Or if it's just me.

Well, that was fun!!

Thanks, all, for turning out yesterday and letting me know you are here. Admittedly, I'm feeling a tiny bit embarrassed now. But, it was so much fun to "see" everyone, check out some new blogs, and hear why you're here. There were a few surprises, too. People I know in real life that read my blog (there are very few of those, outside of my family) and people that I haven't really "talked" to in several years. It truly made my day to read all the comments and I'm SO glad you're here.

By my last count, there were 14 comments. Which makes much more sense considering my site meter says I average about 25 hits a day. When I only get 2 or 3 comments on average on a regular basis, I was wondering what was going on.

This has also opened my eyes a little bit, because when I blog, I usually do it with a few people in mind--the few people, mostly family, who I know read my blog (and even some of those are lurkers). Now I know that I'm "writing" for a larger, more general audience. I'm not sure if that realization will change my blogging style (probably not), but it'll probably make me more conscious of what I put "out there". It's not that I want to be more private now that I know who's reading my blog, it's just that I realized that I really have no idea who's reading my blog from day-to-day and for what reasons. And I also will probably try to be more conscious of myself and will make more of an effort to not sound like an idiot. Even though most days lately, I've had a hard time putting words together to form sentences.

So, I know you aren't really here reading this right now to read my reflections on what Delurking Day meant for me. You're ready for a prize! And your odds were pretty good, given that there were "only" 14 comments. I did a very official drawing, wrote the number of comments on pieces of paper, put 'em in a bowl, and let Stephen draw one. If you've been reading here long enough or know me in real life, you should know that you can totally trust me with this process and know that I didn't cheat or give an unfair advantage to anyone. Dishonesty is not the way we roll at "Imperfections".

Without further ado, the winner is comment #14! Sara! Sara and I "knew" each other a few years back from the forums of a baby website that was my lifeline after Stephen was born. Her oldest child and Stephen are very close in age (same month, Sara?) and I had NO IDEA she was reading here! YAY! Sara e-mail me at alligirl1104 at gmail dot com for your address and preference for your gift card!

For everyone else, when Stephen drew the number, I realized that I really wanted to give every single one of you a prize. But if I decided to do that, I would also have to decide which of our family members doesn't get to eat next week. So. I'm not going to do that. I'm sure that you agree that every member of our family should eat. But I want you to know that I'm happy you're here, and hope from now on, you feel comfortable enough to comment once in a while or to just pop in and say "hi". Or not. No pressure. Comment (or not) as you feel comfortable.

Delurk, you lurkers!! There's something in it for you!

So I just found out from Mommy Daisy that today is National Delurking Day! I was wondering when it is and so I'm excited that it's today.

Sooooo.....are you a lurker? Do you read and run? Do I have no idea that you even read my blog?? Well! Now I want to know! I'd love to see who all reads my blog, and I know there are some mysteries out there because I check my sitemeter.

If you read here and never (or rarely) comment, come out today, just this once and leave me a comment to let me know you're here. In fact, I think I'm going to make it interesting by offering a prize! My regular readers and commenters are welcome to join in, too.

Leave me a comment by 8AM CST tomorrow morning, and I'll enter your name in a drawing for a $10 gift card of your choice (assuming that it's a place that we have here in South Texas). One comment/entry per person.

Good luck, and I can't wait to "see" you!

Large and in charge

I'm going to be 22 weeks pregnant tomorrow. That means I have about 17 weeks left until Evie makes her arrival. And y'all. I'm just a little smaller than I was when I had Zachary. I carried Zachary smaller than I did the other two (and he was the biggest baby, go figure), and in another week or two, I'll probably be as big as I was when he was born. One the one hand, I worry about growing for 17 more weeks, but on the other hand, I remember how miserable I was with Zachary because he was taking up every inch of me. I keep thinking that maybe if I carry this baby more out instead of back, then I might be able to eat and you know, breathe at the end.

For a while, I was worried about the baby being too big, but at the ultrasound, she was measuring exactly to her dates. So it's just me. Fourth pregnancy I guess. I actually am measuring about a week and a half ahead of my dates.

I actually can't wait to see what I look like when I'm near the end. I've never had a really big belly.

Another moment of "What are they thinking?"

So have you heard of the new law going in to effect next month? I'm not sure our gov't officials really thought this through very well. It affects everything!

If you haven't heard (or read the article in the link), there's a new law on the books effective Feb 10, 2009, that says that ALL children's items being sold or given away must be tested for safety (free of lead and something else I can't remember the acronym of). So resale shops, handmade items at craft fairs and online and *gasp*, stores that sell used children's books (including homeschool books) will have to have all their items tested. The problem is is that it's quite pricey to have those items tested, and most of the small businesses and work-at-home moms won't be able to afford it. And even our children's libraries will be affected.

This is just craziness. Now I'm feeling compelled to go stock up on clothes for the kids from the great little resale shop I just found. And I need to get the kind of sling that I was planning on buying because the only way you can find them is handmade. AND I'll need to go buy all the baby bows I was planning on getting from a work-at-home mom.

I wonder if our marvelous gov't will bail my behind out with all the debt I may incur before Feb. 10.

At first, I thought this was totally no big deal and just a case of a slow news day and sensationalist reporting on the part of the news station I heard it on (local news, not my precious Fox News). But the more I've heard and read and learned, the stupider this sounds. At a time of 'economic crisis', they choose to enact a law that could shut down an entire industry?? What are they thinking???

Of course, one thing I read said that early last year, people were jumping up and down about the safety of our kids' toys after all the recalls. We were all yelling for gov't intervention. That's another moment of, "Be careful what you wish for".

More girly stuff

We've decided on Evie's bedding. It's the sweetest, most girly thing I've ever seen and it's different from most of the stuff out there. And there's very little pink. Which is good because I'm afraid we're going to go on pink overload. Anyway, here it is. I'd love to hear your thoughts. I think we're going to go ahead and paint the walls pink like in the picture in the link. I was trying to avoid painting her room pink (because of pink overload), but that was when most of the bedding we were looking at was mostly pink and brown.

So what do you think? I'd love to hear....except if you hate it, because I'm already in love with it. :)

The Question I wasn't prepared for (and some fun updates)

So this evening, Stephen came to me and asked, "Mom, how did you first know there was a baby in your belly?"

Uhhhh.....

I've been prepared for the "How did the baby get in your belly" question....not quite ready for this one.

So I stalled.

"Well...what do you think?"

"God told you and you heard him?" he asks.

"Ummm...no....not quite..."

"You felt the baby move?"

"Well, I can feel her move now, but not early on."

"Well, then how?"

"Ummm....(freaking out in my head..."COME UP WITH SOMETHING SIMPLE BUT LOGICAL!!")"

So this is what I came up with: "Honey, we'll discuss this more when you are bit older, but there are certain things that happens to ladies. And when those things stop happening, the lady might think..."Hmmm...I wonder if I'm pregnant?" So she takes a little test and the test tells her whether or not she's pregnant."

And to my relief, he said, "Oh! Okay!" and ran back to what he was doing.

Whew. Didn't see that coming. I had no idea what would be appropriate to tell my 6 year old boy. So. What would you have said? I'm sure if I hadn't been blindsided while chopping potatoes, I could have been much quicker on my feet and thought of something wiser, like I usually do.

Annnyway...moving right along. We started potty training Marc-Adam last week. The first two days were okay. He had as many successes as he had accidents. Sunday, he spent all day back in his diapers because of the other stuff we had going on, and yesterday, he spent a good portion of the day in diapers, but still had a few successes. Today is only the third full day and he's done fantastic. He even pooped on the potty all on his own with no coaxing from me. He had one small accident where he started to tee on the couch, stopped himself, ran to the potty and finished. All on his own. He had another, bigger accident, but I'm not sure I'm going to count that one because he was in time-out and I think it was an intentional ploy to get out. He just let loose, never told me he was going, and didn't even stop himself like he usually does. After he was done, he told me he had gone. So, I think he's doing really well. I didn't think it would take him long. If he still progresses this week, I think I'll put him in underwear this weekend.

On the Zachary front, he's really been surprising me with his eating. Zachary's always been a terribly picky eater due to some issues he had when he was about a year old. But the last couple of weeks, he's been eating new foods (even eggs which has always been off-limits for him). He's eating greater amounts of food and actually enjoying it. I'm so proud of him. And I'm a little relieved. His diet has always been a source of concern for me. Today, he ate a whole handful of spinach with only a little bit of encouragement and yesterday, he ate a chicken-pasta dish that a month ago he would have never even looked at it. I'm so glad to finally be making progress in that area with him. His brothers eat circles around him.

Anatomy lessons

The kids stayed the night with my in-laws last night and my MIL relayed this little gem to me this morning.

She said that all the kids had piled up in bed with her when they woke up (too early) this morning. They were flip-flopping around and when they finally got settled, Stephen said, "Zachary? Would you please take your knee out of my thorax?"

The Genevieve Collection

So our little girl is already starting to have a better wardrobe than her mama. I figured that would happen eventually (it wouldn't be too hard to accomplish), I just didn't anticipate it would happen so soon. So here's what she has so far (I apologize for the poor quality of the pictures).





Here's what she's coming home from the hospital in that her daddy bought her:


And just for fun, here are two more pairs of shoes (I still didn't get one cute pair of shoes in this shot, but they're pictured in the first picture in top left corner):


Believe it or not, only the shoes and 3 of the outfits and the onesie are the only things that were bought brand new. We found a baby resale shop that has amazing clothes at even more amazing prices. Several of the things still had brand new tags and we haven't bought anything from there for more than $6.

And just for fun, here's a belly pic (where I have a really strange look on my face...I was focusing on trying to get a good shot...still don't think I accomplished it).

21 weeks

Happy Birthday My Dear

Tomorrow, my Sweet Hubby has a birthday. I keep teasing him that he's "30 minus 1". It's much more fun to say than '29'. I also tease him about how much older he is than me but I also poke fun at him by asking him at what point he plans on actually growing up. He's a good sport about it all.

My hubby, he's a good one. There are many many things that make him great, and most of them are little things that I might take for granted too often. Here are a few.

~I never ever have to ask him to take the trash out. It's always done before it gets too full or starts to smell. And if I've thrown something away that I know will start to smell soon, all I have to say is "I put something smelly in the trash earlier" and before I know it, there's a new fresh bag in the can.

~He's often cleaner than I am. He always hangs up his towel and rarely leaves dirty clothes on the floor. He also picks up his dishes. I'm not always good about any of those things.

~He works hard. He works 13-14 hour days and when he's home, he's always busy doing something...whether it be playing with/tending to the boys, helping with the dishes in the kitchen, mowing the lawn or crawling in the attic to find the source of the noises that have been keeping me up at night. Even when he's "relaxing", he's still doing something with his hobbies. He is the opposite of lazy.

~He worries about me. It's not that I want him to worry or feel uneasy about me, but I like that he worries. If I've been sick or not feeling well, he calls me often to check on me, and he immediately starts telling his bosses/colleagues that if I need him, he'll have to leave and he starts planning for that situation.

~He's just nice. He's a nice guy and anyone that spends any time with him knows that and sees it right away. He's got great manners and is always polite. He's always respectful toward anyone he meets. It's one of the things that I noticed about him right away and I knew then that he was a great guy. And it has not changed one bit.

~We have great conversation. I'm rarely bored with him. Even if it's been weeks since we've been able to really talk or have some alone time, we just pick right up where we left off and never feel like we have nothing to talk about.

~He makes me laugh--that's not always been the case. He didn't have that great of a sense of humor when we first met, but he's really loosened up over the last few years, and now he constantly catches me off guard with one-liners or witty responses. I still don't expect that from him. Which makes it even funnier.

So HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Sweet Hubby! Before we got married, I'd always heard people talk about how they were more in love after 10 or 20 or 30 years of marriage than they were when they first got married. I never really understood how that could happen, but I see it now.



Hubby, I love you for who you are and a little more every day. I hope you have a fantastic birthday and that you accomplish everything you've set out to do this year. You are one in a million and I'm blessed that we get to go through this life together.

*On a side note: I realized yesterday that I've already spent a third of my life loving my Sweet Hubby. So cool.

I think "love of food" is genetic

A few days ago while we were eating lunch, Stephen was explaining a new food he had tried at his Nonny's house.

"Mama, it was so good, I had to close my eyes while I ate it."

That's my boy.

Happy New Year

Wow, I didn't realize it had been several days since I last blogged...this week got away from me.

So, goodbye to 2008. Unlike many, 2008 was actually a pretty great year for us. There were a few things that didn't go our way or like we had planned, but there were many many things that were just plain good. Not "over the top, never gonna happen again" good things, but life in 2008 was a bit more...comfortable. Maybe it's my age and maturity, but I found myself content in 2008. We had a lot of great times, came through a lot and most importantly, found ourselves as a family of almost 6. But above that, I've somehow stumbled upon a peace that I've never experienced before.

I'm really looking forward to 2009. Even if nothing "over the top" great happens this year (besides actually becoming a family of 6), I hope I can continue being content in each and every day. I hope I can be a blessing to my family that they may be content in their days. And I hope this peace lingers, and that I can pass it on.

In 2009, may you find joy in the little things, love in the quiet moments, and peace that you didn't have before.