JJ Heller - What Love Really Means (Official Music Video)

(You have to turn off the music at the bottom of blog...press the play button to pause it....Most awesome song)

Dancing With Dad

I don't have many memories of my dad being upright and steady and strong. I have a terrible memory and this bugs me to no end. I don't know why, because I should have more.

I was 12 or so I know when he was very wobbly and fighting with walking sticks and canes. I know that before that there were ups and downs, and from 14 on, he mostly was in wheelchairs...

But 10 and under, surely I should have passels of memories of strong him.

Sadly I don't.

I do know of a couple things that my memory clings to fervently in fear of forgetting. Times I remember him just being a healthy man.

Oddly enough they are of me at quite a young age. Weird how this mind of mine has worked and processed it all...

When I was five or so we would dance. Quietly just the two of us go into the dining room with the lights dimmed and turn on the record player. He would hold me in his arms and dance.

You would think that such a profound memory to me, that I would be able to tell you more! But really I can't. I just remember this. The feeling of him holding me. Him being my dad and holding me. Him standing and dancing.

I have done it with each of my kids...Tatum and Jake and I would turn off all the lights and dance in a mad magical world when they were little. They would scream in delight and beg to do it often. When Matthew came along he joined our dance parties. Those were the days that Mike worked late evenings and nights were ours to fill.

Now that Summer is our little one, and she is so musical, it is quite often that she turns the radio on and begs us to dance. The other day I stopped what I was doing and danced till we were both out of breath. And tonight when she grabbed Mike's hands and convinced him to dance with her for awhile...it made me smile to myself and remember my strong dad dancing with me.

SALT

Something in the wintertime that this tired mother of four deals with (besides no school and snow days) that not everyone knows about was brought to light to me from a western living soul.

Salt.

They were not aware of the battles of salt.

It is something that we use here to combat frozen slippery roads. Spread by trucks by the tons. Tons and tons of salt is spread with just a forecast of snow. This is turn makes not only Mama's wish the snow would melt into spring. We pray for rain to come and wash clean the salt. To some this is common knowledge and probably the most boring blog post ever... But to other's...here is the effects of salt.

On your car.

You bring it in on your shoes...

again car...

here is just a pile of snow, lol

on the roads....

on the sidewalks...

and the worst....puddled dried on your floor!

It saves a ton of lives. The roads would be terrible without it. It uses SO MUCH of the tax dollars...but it is a necessary thing here.

Quick Memory

Until my computer is back from the shop, I can't put up pictures or videos, which is reaallly cramping my blogging. I have alot I want to share and can't!

So until then I will leave you with this laughable tid bit from this morning.

Tatum and I were sitting looking at her farmville. She sadly showed me a mink that she spent alot of her farmbucks on. (If you don't play the game, you are to know that farm "bucks" are hard to come by and you only spend them sparingly. Farm coins are easy...but the bucks you save for very special stuff). I asked her why in the world she spent her bucks on a mink???!!!

She despairingly told me that today in school she was forced to dissect a defurred mink in class and it made her feel better. Lol. oh, poor girl. I remember those days. Ours were pig fetus's, but yet, it was still upsetting...

Silly things and moments I don't want to forget about my kids...

Muddling Through January

The winter has become the hardest months for me to get through. For some reason, I have become unable to handle the cold in the last few years so that I am just so bitter cold every day, all the time. I freeze. My only solace is to once a day get into a steaming hot tub and burn it out of me. I never use to be like this and can't understand why my 35 year old body won't cooperate! I use to be the teenage girl that ran around with no coat or shoes and embraced any weather. I am not happy with who this body has become.

We have had bitter cold here and much ice and snow. It started early for us and December was filled with snow days for the kids already. Last week poor Tatum had her first experience with icy roads and slid. Thank the good Lord that She was okay, others were okay, and the only thing harmed was a mailbox. She was so shaken up by it, I am also really glad she has this experience under her belt. We had wonderful angel neighbors step in who drove her car home and drove her home and walked her through her first scary wreck. I am so thankful to them!

The kids are home for a snow day today...Matthew would be home again anyways because the poor fellow has strep, we have got antibiotics knocking that out of him, poor fellow! I am s.l.o.w.l.y recovering with an injured rib that that has been bugging me for about 6 weeks. Finally went to the ER the other night to make sure there was no breakage or crack. I have good meds and am taking to slow.

Today we are kind of just snowed in and I think will be just alot of laundry and tv and together. Sounds good to me :) Mike is out working in this though, and it won't be complete till he is home safe!

The Best Vet in the World

When I was a little girl our only pet was one cat. Me, being animal crazy, over loved this cat. SOMUCH.

When it came time for the cat's yearly vet visit, I remember it fondly as a BIG event. FUN times. I mean, come on! Cat in the car...going out. Showing her off. ONCE a year. Big stuff to that little girl :)

Our poor over loved cat, probably would NOT look back on those trips as anything but agony. She wasn't a very adventurous ol girl, strictly an inside cat, and during our vet visit she would climb INSIDE of my mom's purse. We of course delighted in this. My mom carried the same purse for years...a double leather strapped arm purse that's side were sturdy enough to stand up alone. Poor Grizilda would slide right in there and duck her head in too. Like an ostrich. You would just see her fluffy back popping out all along the zipper line.

The sympathtic vet would do his exam with her in the purse, which of course delighted us kids even more. Made the story better! To this day I tell my kids about Grizilda and mom's purse :)

Well now that I have a houseful of cats, and kids and other misc. animals, trips to the vets are not in short. With all that happened this summer to Chance we were long over due for the other cats to get caught up on their yearlys. Last week I tried to take Alice and Rosie in. I thought Bing Bam Bing...easy peasy. {{is anything easy peasy when traveling with cats and kids, I mean really????}} Matt and Summer and I loaded them up and off we went. I was a little worried about how Rosie was acting with all the guttural growling going on in the cage...and the hissing...and the hair flying out. Good Lord, poor Alice was just putting up with a VERY moody Rosie. She was stuck in the cage with her, but I thought with them being sisters, a combined appt. might be easy....{{there is that word again!}}

When we got in our room, our SUPER duper vet assessing the situation, said he would take them in back, to try to get them out of the cage. We just shook our heads, because at this point Rosie was hissing and growling, and losing hair, and now had turned on Alice and beating the crap out of her IN the cage. She had lost her marbles and was C-R-A-Z-Y. What ensued next was not pretty.

The kids and I sat in our little room while we heard the most horrifying HOWLS and YOWLS come from the back room. We just hugged each other a little. Dang that cat. She was being so bad!

When the vet brought them back in....he told me they had to REMOVE THE TOP PORTION OF THE CAGE TO GET HER OUT!. (boy that girl knows how to fight) and that he got her shots in, but no exam was done.

Oh yeah. And she trumps as the worst cat ever to examine, LOL!

oy.

So here is the problem.

She DOES have a problem. One I needed him to look at. Her gums. But he wasn't lookin THAT day. We had to have a plan. He had one. Tranquilzer. Jake and I came up with one too. We did it today! and it worked!!!!


LOL! look at that evil but tolarable face. No cage. No sister. In Jake's lap. Jake's hands covered in ham. She watched out the window. Oh and one more thing. The vet had to come outside and sit in my car! LOLOLOLOLOL! He did. Because he is most awesome. She still hissed, but not too much.

We've come a long way from the days in my mom's purse...but we still are having a hoot taking trip's to the vet ;)

The Ultimate Puppy

For Christmas this year I picked out two stuffed animals for Summer. One was of Curious George, her favorite cartoon monkey. The other was this super soft raccoon I found in the children's toy department at Target.

She loved them both and has slept with each night since. But the other kids starting making fun of the toy raccoon. Little comments would get said in passing. Things like "why is Summer playing with a dog toy??" and such?!?! I of course would get defensive and correct them immediately. "IT IS NOT A DOG TOY! STOP TEASING HER!" You see the tail made a crinkle noise and it was a bit floppy. But let's not give the kid a stigma here...

As I laid in bed with her the other day I was holding her raccoon and couldn't believe it when it's head squeaked. "Wha...?!?! I didn't know it did THAT?!?!?"

I brought my concerns to Mike. He had an easy solution. Read the sewn on tag. What did it say?

I read outloud..."NOTICE...Pet should be supervise when pla...."

Oh My Freaking Gosh. I bought my kid a dog toy.

For Christmas.

I see a mother of the year award coming my way! LOL!

2011

This past year buckled me to close my blog for awhile. This past year buckled me down to my knees a couple of times. 2010 was a year. A year that had a lot of lessons in it I'm sure, but a year I am ready to be passed.

I faced insecurities as a mother, as a wife. I had to let go, and I had to hold on. I dealt with months of insomnia and sleep and anxiety issues which, if you ever have had, you know is a battle that is fought alone in yourself... I've stood up and crossed lines probably. But, am discovering more and more what is right for me, and not others. I am fighting for relationships and trying to know where my journey leads ME, not let others lead my journey.

If I continue with my blog, it is for the sole purpose of the awesome journal I will have to look back on. Anyone who wants to check in is welcome, but that is why I am here now. I sadly regret the time I missed in the pocket I stopped. My family has changed so much in that short time!