November?!

I'm always amazed by how fast time seems to go by. It didn't used to be this way. When I was a kid, it seemed like time was just slowly creeping by. Now that I have kids of my own, it seems to be racing so fast that it's lapping me a few times. My kids are growing up too fast. I don't like it at all.

So...November. With November comes Thanksgiving. We think about all the things we're thankful for. Of course we think about those things throughout the year...but I think everyone talks about it a lot more as Thanksgiving approaches. A lot of people on facebook are posting everyday for the month of November what they are Thankful for. I don't remember if I participated last year...but I'm doing it this year. I have SO many things to be thankful for. I will easily be able to fill up all 30 days of all the reasons why I feel like such a lucky girl.

While life often throws things at us that we'd rather not have to deal with and life can change in the blink of an eye...life has still given me so many reasons to feel so blessed.

And NO MATTER what happens in life...these two amazing people will ALWAYS be at the beginning of every decision I make and everything I do in life. These two amazing people made me the person I am today...they made me a mother. And for them...I am so thankful.

 

Ashlyn and Aubry at Ashlyn's 8th Birthday Party at Chuck E Cheese. 

And SO many more things to be thankful for...

And then life happens...

I was coming back to my blog the other day to talk all about my love. I couldn't wait to share my happiness with the world. There are so many wonderful words sitting in the post that is still in my draft folder of my blog. And one day soon I hope to share that.

But right now...I choose to wait. There are things in life that happen so unexpectedly that just completely turn our world upside down. Right now we are faced with one of those moments. There are decisions to be made and so much uncertainty that we face. And that's exactly what can happen every single day of our lives.

I am the kind of person who believes that everything happens for a reason. It's just more comforting to me than "life sucks" so that's what I choose to believe. I've faced a lot of difficult times in my life...but I've had equally beautiful moments in my life, as well. I have amazing people in my life. My children give me purpose provide a sense of happiness unlike any other. My family and friends keep me sane and are a source of undying support. And my love...my soulmate. We've all been through a lot over the years. But I don't know how I'd make it through without them.

And...more later.

Thursday 13 - Back to Blogging!

Things have calmed down a little (okay not really) and I have a moment to actually put up a blog post. It's been awhile...but I do want to get back into blogging publicly on this blog. So...this week Thursday 13 is an update and welcome back to blogging post! Hopefully you'll see more from me in the future...as I have some great things going on!

1. The girls are doing well in school. They're both loving 5th and 2nd grade. The both love their teachers and love the things they're doing in class. So far, we haven't had any problems at all this year. This was the first day of school...they look so cute. :)

2. Both girls are in cheerleading this year and they're having a good time with it. Ashlyn was SO excited that they opened up signups for grades 1-3 this year and she was able to participate. My little diva LOVES cheering. Aubry is likes the fact that she gets a trophy at the end of the year. ;) She's on the fence about whether she wants to do cheerleading or volleyball next year. She has awhile to decide.

3. I can't believe that the year is almost over already. I woke up and it was October again! I'll be turning 31 years old this month...seems so crazy!

4. And yeah...it's October. Which means it's almost November. And this is an election year. Which means my facebook has exploded with people talking politics. I loved the thing I saw on pinterest that said pinterest makes me like people I don't know and facebook makes me dislike people I do know. ;)

5. Ashlyn turned 8 years old last month. EIGHT! My sweet little seven year old turned into a defiant little eight year old. She's always been my mama's girl and has been so good about doing what she's told. Until like the DAY she turned eight. Then it was like someone flipped a switch. Mom wants me to take a shower? NO! Hmmm. ;P

6. We celebrated Ashlyn's birthday at Chuck E Cheese this year (just like Aubry's 8th birthday). The girls had a wonderful time...but it was a lot more busy this year than two years ago for Aubry's party. The kids didn't mind at all, of course, but it started to wear on the patience of the adults. :P My dad actually went this year (it was his first experience ever at Chuck E Cheese) and I think after two minutes he'd decided that he wouldn't mind never repeating all the fun of Chuck E Cheese. ;)

7. My health has been fun lately. NOT. Had some new issues pop up that haven't been fun. My doctor decided it was time to start testing again and trying to get a definite answer. So I have an appointment with an MS specialist scheduled and hopefully that goes well.

8. Oh! I am working! I'm now the proud owner of my own cleaning business. I've been tinycandi on the internet since I was 15 and at 30 I'm not tidycandi cleaning an office. ;) It's only a couple times a month but the flexibility has been a blessing when it comes to my health issues popping up. And it's also during the afternoon while the girls are at school so it doesn't interrupt my time with them, either. It's just been a perfect opportunity.

9. I was honored to be able to take photos for another birth this year. I didn't photograph the actual birth...but I was there through almost the entire labor and several hours after delivery. It's always an amazing experience. And this one was special to me because they have become my second family and I love them dearly.

10. And speaking of my second family...I've been dating someone again! I'm sure I'll write more about it later...but suffice to say I'm incredibly happy and my life is complete. I have my girls and I have my love (and my family and friends) and life is complete. Life doesn't always give us second chances to have exactly what you want with someone and I feel very blessed that things have played out the way they have. He's an incredible man and thinking about him just makes me smile. :)

11. I've been doing a lot of studying lately...though I'm not getting through all of my books as quickly as I'd like and some of them are a little more time-consuming than others. It's not always fun reading a textbook cover to cover...especially when it's a statistics book. :P But...I'm soaking up all the information I can! It has to go in spurts...because I write my notes by hand (it helps put things in long-term memory because my short-term memory is kinda useless) and after awhile it starts to cramp. I've always had a bad habit of writing down too much...and starting over again and again so they're neat and have the information the way I want. :P Note taking with OCD is awesome! ;) lol. But...the more times I write the information the more I'll remember anyway so I'm looking at it that way. It just takes a little longer than it probably should. ;)

12. I'm SO happy that my shows (most of them, anyway) have come back from summer hiatus! I'm really, really sad that they killed off Mark Sloan on Grey's Anatomy and Pete on Private Practice...I liked both of those characters (especially McSteamy!!) but so far the shows are carrying on better than I thought they might. Law and Order SVU and NCIS have been wonderful so far. I'm trying to get used to the new girl on Criminal Minds...I miss Prentiss. Which is funny...because Prentiss was on the first episode of SVU and I actually didn't like her on it very much...I thought her acting was much better on Criminal Minds. But the episode of SVU was good and Criminal Minds is doing alright. If they get rid of David Rossi on Criminal Minds, though, I'm gonna be pretty darn upset! ;) I'm also super excited that in a few weeks Burn Notice will be back again from hiatus! I think that's my favorite show out of all of them. :) The only show I'm really sad is gone is CSI Miami. I miss Frank and Walter and even Horatio and Ryan. It was one of my favorites, too.

13. The weather has been crazy lately. A few days it's been SUPER cold (like the day it was 40 degrees and we were sitting in the bleachers watching the girls cheer for a youth football game), some are rainy (today it's 60 so it's a cold rain) and then other days it has been in the 80s. Welcome to Kansas in October! I'm not ready for the cold. I like 70s...I could handle 70s year round. :)

And there's my Thursday 13 of randomness! I will be back to blogging in full-force now! So expect to see more from me soon! :)

She's EIGHT!

My youngest daughter has turned EIGHT years old. Where does the time go?? My baby is starting to be all grown up. Her hands still seem like "baby hands" and she still has her cute baby cheeks...but her hands are bigger and her she has grown into that adorable round face. She still mispronounces some words sometimes...but she also uses big words like "apparently" and loves to say "oh my!" She used to love when I read her stories before bedtime...now she reads The Boxcar Children to me before we go to sleep. She's still a mommy's girl...but she's getting plenty of attitude and starting to test the limits just like her sister. She's growing up way too fast!

Some pictures of my little Ashlyn:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Thursday 13: Catching Up

I haven't written here in awhile. I actually have like seven drafts since my last post but I never actually finished them. I do that a lot. :-/ I either get bored with it, get busy, or I change my mind about posting what I'm writing about.

But...I really like doing Thursday 13...I like lists. :) So here's 13 updates for our life lately...

1. Last week, the girls and I had lunch at a sports bar. A local non-profit group that I support was having a donation drive and lunch there. The girls just thought it was SO cool that they were in a BAR and there were BEER signs on the wall! :-P But there was no beer going on...just lunch. I had chicken tenders, Ashlyn had corn dog bites and chips, and Aubry had a grilled cheese sandwich and waffle fries. ;) And there was a lot of items collected so I'd say it was a pretty good day!

2. Last weekend we went to Chuck E Cheese. A lot of parents loathe that place, but I like it. They have good pizza and it keeps the girls occupied for awhile. I really, really love that the kids can keep their cash-out tickets (and they never expire!) to save up for a bigger item instead of just coming home with crappy plastic tops and candy all the time. The girls each found something for 1500 tickets. They have about 1000 more to go! 

3. We also went to the drive-in last weekend. We go about once a year and the last couple years my parents have gone with us. We pack up some snacks and drinks in the cooler and take some chairs and enjoy the evening! We saw Ice Age 4, Brave, and Madagascar 3. My mom slept through the last two movies and Ashlyn fell asleep about 20 minutes before the end of the last movie. ;) But me, dad, and Aubry stayed up for all three! We had a really good time. I love the drive-in because it's a lot more economical. All 5 of us are able to see 3 movies for $28...it costs that much for just me and the girls to see 1 evening movie at the theatre. 

4. Tonight the girls and I went to Michaels. I found a 25% off coupon that's good until Saturday. Since it's been so dang hot lately (it was 106 today and supposed to be even worse the next couple days) we've been doing a lot of arts and crafts. I wanted to pick up some canvases. They had value packs on sale...I got 5 16x20 and 7 12x12 for $15 each. There was also a rolling 10 drawer cart on sale for $38. Then we grabbed a couple little art sets the girls picked out and some acrylic paints that were on sale for $.89 each. I got it all for the original price of the organization cart! Here's our art area now (in my bedroom). 

 

5. One simple art project we did not too long ago was one I found on pinterest. You just trace your hands and draw lines across the paper with curved lines where your hand is...makes your hand look 3D on the paper. The other picture is something I used to do when I was in middle school...the teacher would draw a line and you would draw a picture from it. I also found this site on pinterest and printed a bunch of coloring pages. We've spent a lot of time coloring them before bedtime. 

 

6. I took pictures of the girls and my nieces this month. My oldest niece has hit a stage where she HATES to have her picture taken. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get a photo of all four girls but I got a couple good shots that day anyway: 

  

  

 

7. And then there was some swimming: 

 

8. Board games are another favorite on a hot summer day: 

 

9. A good friend of mine just had a birthday last week. He is a big fan of all things Civil War. We went out to dinner with several friends and I gave him this picture that I drew. It turned out a LOT better than I expected. I usually do not draw portraits very well. Had I known it was going to come out looking so well, I would have used my charcoal pencils instead of a mechanical pencil! 

10. I am SO glad that Burn Notice is back on right now. It is one of my favorite shows...and it's nice to have some new episodes while all my other shows are on hiatus. The girls like Burn Notice, too, so we've been watching a lot of the older episodes that I have on DVD, too. 

11. I also recently found Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken really cheap on Amazon.com and bought it for the girls. I hadn't seen it since I was in middle school...but I knew they would love it. It has horses (which they love) and stars Gabrielle Anwar (who plays Fiona in Burn Notice) so they thought that was cool. 

12. Speaking of Amazon.com, I really, really love having free streaming video with my Amazon Prime membership. I've had it for quite awhile but never really took advantage of the streaming video part of the membership. I don't have cable and couldn't sleep one night...so I went looking for stuff to watch. There's SO MUCH on there. I started watching a new show...The Secret Life of An American Teenager. I like watching a series from the start so I'm all caught up now...and I like that it has new episodes through the summer, too. But there are a LOT of shows and movies on there...I could keep myself busy for quite awhile! 

13. I think today we are going to do one of the things in my Stuff To Do With The Kids board on Pinterest...but I can't decide which one! We might have to do a few. :)