Texting With A 13 Year Old

Jake is in Florida with a neighbor's family....This is how a recent text went

Me: Did you go ziplining today???

Jake: No..they were booked. going tomorrow.

Me: How are you??

Jake: Good

Me: Are you okay? Are you having a good time??

Jake: Ya

Me:I miss you!!! I love you!

Jake: Ya...love you too.

My heart SWELLED. Silly how having your boy Text you he LOVES you makes you smile ear to ear :)

Karma is a Bitch

{{ Complete and total disclaimer....this title is WORDS only. It is SO fitting for the post. But my very very wonderful loving sweet niece's name is Karma, and of course implies NO reference to her whatsoever. I love my Karma SOMUCH! This Karma talked about in hereafter, well... nosomuch...)

When I met Mike, SAW Mike. I was in love. I know that sounds stupid. It really sounds overused and not truly REAL, but it IS what happened. Like I was shot with cupids jolt and never looked back.

Good thing, because the adult me, the more cautious, and SMART me, would have known how careless and stupid and against the odds it was what we did! I was in High School. He was almost 30! I was a teenager. He had lived life with marriage and states and jobs. I lived at home with my parents, and he held a full time job and had supported himself for years.

When I dig deeper at the time frame, I get even more amazed. In November we started dating, by December, engaged, by January, pregnant, by February married, by March I turned 18, by May I was graduating High school. Through all of this....if you would of asked me where I wanted to be....with love glazed eyes, I would not have hesitated and said with him.

I Know this had to be hard on my parents, but it didn't seem like it was THAT big of a deal. A little glitch, and over time, Mike and I proved ourselves, and soon he didn't become the 28 year old man, but just MIKE. My family loved him.

I proudly preached through the years that age was just a number, and when I looked at him I didn't see anything but my best friend. Honest to goodness, love is blind.

My daughter is starting to fall head over heals.

She will be 18 in October.

That means she is only 17.

He is 26.

That is only an 8 year difference, and I have done nothing but try to see the awesome wonderful person he is. (and he really really is pretty awesome!)

I would be a total hypocrite if I did anything else.

But today's time's with the social network and all there is so much more in your face.

And I am not known for my thick skin.

And this time I am not the one "Blinded" by love.

This hurts.

I want nothing more than my children to be happy and healthy and succeed at what the desire. To work hard and to Love God.

Please World....be kind.

Dog Days Of Summer

It is HOT. Whew! Heat Index of 114 today. Temp is 98. We are some hot sticky people here!

This Is The Summer Of...

Learning to Swim~This is still a work in progress, but progress it IS. Summer and I have been dedicated to working and achieving this. She is now going completely underwater, holding her breath, confidant without floaties, and CAN swim some underwater. (not on top yet) We are now signed up for 8 consecutive days at the Y to get er done. Yes!!!!

Reliv~I have got Mike started on a vitamin therapy program. To help him with back and joint/muscle pain. I have read up and studied this and am hoping this will help! We are on day 27!!!!

Mastering Some Photography~ I just completed my 10 week course. It was SO worth it and I have learned alot! I am wore out though. Maybe in the fall I can chose my next step!


Overnight Camp~Matt went for the WHOLE week. After Tatum and Jake NEVER wanting to do the camp thing...to have a kid LOVE and EMBRACE and ENJOY it has been so awesome. He loves it!!!!!!!

Fire Lanterns~For the 4th of July, I was able to purchase these lanterns that reminded me of the movie "Tangled". Summer is crazy for that movie, and it was going to be super fun the the kids and us. Not only that but a fun experiment for me and my camera. We got two of them and let me just say 1. they ARE really neat, but 2. they seem SUPER sinfully unsafe to me! LOL! Oh my gosh. You light this square on FIRE inside this PAPER lantern and release it to FLOAT amongst TREES FREELY till it burns OUT on it's own. It did get past the trees and high pretty quickly, but we went to a park where there was lots of space


Happenstances~I try really hard to not get too involved in much with the kids in the summer. Not that we really achieve this, but we try not to sign up for things and just "be". We are birds of a different nature when it comes to time, and have always leaned towards being night owls. This does get a little out of hand in the summer and eventually school comes and saves us. We slide into eating dinner at past 9 pm and going to bed around 1 or 2, all of us sleeping till 10 or so. With Jake being in the slacking teenage years he has embraced this WAY to hardily and 3 pm wake ups are getting ridiculous. Luckily for him, Cross Country training starts in August, so he will have some time to get back in line before school starts.
Any ways with us enjoying HOME and the comings and goings of it, we have come across some very neat occurrences.
I woke up one morning and sat sleepily in sun while the house slept, having to rub my eyes hard when I saw this crossing the street! A HUGE, had to be 30 year old at least snapping turtle. I have heard they can take your finger off! And this guy wasn't one to test the theory on. He acted slow, but when he wanted could JUMP. With Mike , 2 snow shovels, and the recycling bin we got him into the pond.
Our town in known for the hot air balloons. The other night one had an emergency landing. ON OUR STREET! Lucky Matt and his buddy got to even get in the basket as they moved it to pack it up!




Summer is only half way through...So much more to come! This is the surely the Summer of goodness!