Life update :)

Well, there is so much to update about..I'm sure I'll forget something but here goes!

Things have been going pretty smoothly so far, just a few bumps and bends in the road but nothing major. The girls and I have been doing okay, I'm still waiting for my inevitable break down to take place. I've been told that every wife has a breakdown at some point, and I have yet to have mine, hopefully it doesn't happen! Tim has been gone 12 weeks and 3 days, or 87 days. I'll be relieved when we finally hit that 100 day mark, come on..it's 100 days closer to him being home!

Speaking of Tim, we've been having some health issues with him. A couple weeks ago he went to the clinic and was told that he suffered a SLAP tear in his shoulder and that he would need to come back to see the doctor. When he finally went back to see the doctor, a week later, the doctor told him that rather than a SLAP tear, he had a torn rotator cuff. Lovely! He is scheduled to go back to see the specialist on May 9th to see what they are going to do. They are hoping that it heals on its own, but with how bad it constantly hurts him..I see a surgery in his future. The possibilities are to send him home for his surgery, recovery and rehab or to throw his arm in a sling and wait til he comes home from deployment for surgery. We're torn on what we would wish for, of course we want him home..but he wants to stay and serve his country. I can't wait til I can see it for myself when he comes home on R&R this summer, whenever that may be.

Speaking of doctor's and what they think, tomorrow I go back to the cardiologist for my echo. I will also be getting my heart monitor in the mail, which I am dreading having to wear. They have prescribed me the monitor for 30 days, but if it records enough data on my symptoms prior to the end of the 30 days, my doctor may allow me to stop wearing it. So bring on the coffee and exercise!

School is almost out, I couldn't tell you how many weeks/assignments are left, I haven't checked! I am thrilled to be so close to summer and relaxation. It stinks when I have to chose between cleaning the house and staying caught up on homework, or taking the girls to the park or taking the time to get in the kitchen and cook a good meal. This whole single mom and student thing is tough stuff! I rarely catch a quiet moment..and when I do..I want to enjoy it! I am so looking forward to relaxing with my girls this summer without homework constantly being on the brain! I had planned on taking two classes this summer but with Tim coming home somewhere in there..its not worth it. I want to enjoy my husband and kids!!!

Mackenzie is almost five, can you believe it!? Yeah, me either! I am once again planning her birthday party on my own, thanks Army, and I absolutely hate it. Parties and holidays aren't my thing. Ask my husband how many birthday/Christmas/anniversary/valentine's gifts I have bought him in our seven years...he can probably list the items on one hand. It's just not something I do. I don't see the need in showing someone appreciate/love through tangible items, and I most definitely don't want people to do it for me. I would rather be able to spend the day with them and show them love..not have to go out buy a cake, presents, food, decorations. So planning birthday parties is a hard thing for me to do, but I do it for her because the look of happiness that will be on her face.

I know I haven't put anything down about Madison, which I feel guilty about..but no news is good news with Madison. Nothing crazy or drastic to update about with her, thank goodness!!!

Pity alert!

PITY ALERT!!

Man, I miss my husband, like really miss him. This feeling is all too familiar and honestly, hasn't been gone that long. I just got him back, while it feels like he was never gone, I know he was..and he JUST got home.

He was gone for thirty five weeks, over eight months, and he only came home eighteen weeks ago. He has been gone six of those eighteen weeks, meaning I've only had my husband for a little over two months.

I can feel myself start to break down and I want to cry, but what good would it do? What good does wallowing in self pity do? It doesn't do any good at all, so I try to push it to the back of my mind and keep on trucking.

I don't want other's pity, I don't want them to feel sorry for me, I don't feel sorry for myself. This is the life we decided to live, and while I want to make the best of this life..it still hurts that my best friend isn't with me.

I miss him, I should miss him. If I didn't miss him, think of how screwy that would be?

He's home..

After a long 14 hour drive on Wednesday that was followed by an hour ceremony Thursday morning with the 14 hour drive right afterwards...we are finally home.

I just want to say that life is good, nearly perfect. Tim graduated from Ft Huachuca and is now considered an intelligence analyst for the United States Army.

The girls and I have been enjoying every second with him and are loving it. He had planned on taking 7 days worth of leave but plans on reporting early on Monday morning instead. He is ready to in-process and learn his unit and their deployment schedule. Since he isn't using the leave, hopefully his new unit will grant him a permissive TDY leave of 10 days.

We are currently trying to decide whether or not to move to Hood now. We could find an apartment for 6 months or wait the 3-4 months til a house on post opens up, it just really depends on how it goes for Tim to drive there every day. We drove there this morning and in good weather with no traffic it took him a little over an hour. During the week he will be dealing with traffic and all that goes with trying to get on post. Fort Hood is the largest military post in the United States, population wise. So Tim will be battling traffic along with all the other soldiers. Hopefully his first week goes well.

I am so thankful he is home and that we can finally be a family of four together again.

Ugh, I need a moment

I doubt I'll even post this when I'm done writing it. I just need to vent. Now that I've said that..I better write this well..because I'll post it just to prove that I can.

I feel like I have genuinely handled the past 7 months in an amazing manner. I don't cry, I don't pout, I don't throw pity parties and hate my life. I don't yell at my husband for leaving me, I don't blame my bad days on him. I don't regret him leaving, I support him every single day. You'll rarely hear me complain about our current situation and any situation that the Army has thrown at us to date. I say this because throughout the years you hear stories of women doing such things, and being angry at their husbands for leaving them alone.

I have bad days from time to time..but those are far and few between. My good days drastically outnumber my hard ones, but with that said..I still have bad days, mainly bad nights.

So much has changed since he's been gone..our girls have grown so much in the past 7 months, more so than I expected them to. Most of the change is in Madison. When he left she was still in diapers, drank out of a sippy cup, sat in a high chair, wore a bib occasionally, woke up 3-4 times a night and wasn't much of a talker. Now she is day time potty trained, drinks out of a cup, sits at the table, sleeps throughout the night and is talking up a storm. She is in need of her first haircut but I refuse to do it with Tim away, I want him there for it.

I miss him, I want him home more than anything in this world. It's hard not having him around when the house gets quiet and the kids are asleep. It gets hard doing this every day by myself, it gets lonely. I'm ready to have my other half back..I'm ready for my girls to have their daddy home.

 I can't stand to hear women complain that their husbands are working late and they are 'so lonely' or that their husbands went on a camping trip for a weekend and they don't know what they are going to do. I know this is the life we chose, but sometimes I just want to slap them and tell them to suck it up. It's the petty attitude inside of me, I don't judge these women..just want them to be grateful for what they have, that they will see their husbands in a few hours or a few days. I'm sure there are women out there who grow tired of hearing me complain about him being away when I have seen him every few months since he's been gone. I know they go year long deployments without seeing their spouse and I have no right to complain and because of this I try to keep my complaints to a minimum.

Tonight is a hard night. I want him home..but I know that when he finally gets here..it just starts the countdown til deployment. I know deployment is going to be a million times harder than what we are feeling right now. My heart aches, I miss him and want him back. I miss my best friend.

A perfectly short weekend.

Like my play on words? PERFECTly, har har har..I'm a genius.

So Tim is officially back in Arizona and as I type this he is trying to find the van to take him back to post from the airport. Yeah, he JUST got there.

This past weekend was perfect, exactly what we needed. Family, family and oh yeah..more family.

Saturday we spent the morning at Tim's parents house and then the afternoon at the Rockin River Pool thats in Old Settlers. Mackenzie has been talking for at least a month, about wanting her daddy to take her to that pool, so he was obligated since I told her he would. :) We had a blast and Tim even refrained from killing the older boys who kept plowing over our girls, and if you know Tim, then you know that took some restrain on his part.

Later that evening we cooked out at my mother's. Tim and I made our awesome bacon wrapped jalapeños and my hands were screaming for hours afterwards. Tim is the one who slices them open, fills them with creme cheese and wraps them with bacon, without him we wouldn't have these slammin peppers, but without me..you couldn't eat them. Thats right, I'm the one who gets rid of the HOTNESS, I'm the one who takes the beating. My hands are in the bowl of water, full of jalapeño seeds and juices for over 30 minutes as I scrape them clean. It's me, all me, who makes these things edible..even for tiny toddlers. So Tim and I made our awesome jalapeños and he also made fajitas. The girls and I relaxed in the backyard while we watched him grill and play with Charlie, who missed him greatly.

After we finished eating, we put our girls to bed and went up to his parents house and hung out til around midnight.

Sunday morning we woke up and headed to Tim's parents house for a day at the lake. The girls had a blast and we all got a pretty good tan, except for Tim...he just burned. We ended up spending the rest of the evening at his parents house where we played games til around 11pm.

All good things must come to an end, or so they say, so this morning Tim had to go back. His parents, sister, the girls and myself all escorted him to the airport where his family and the girls told him bye and I went back with him to wait. I am so thankful for gate passes! It's nice to not have to tell him bye just to know that he'll be sitting alone for an hour til he loads the plane. It's also nice to see the recognition he receives for being a soldier. He received many thank yous, as did I, handshakes and he was even bumped up to first class for his first flight. I must say, I love to be seen standing by his side while he is in uniform, I am so proud of my husband. That, and he's really stinking hot and all mine.

Well...44 days and a wakeup til he graduates from AIT and will be heading back to Texas. I am very excited for this day to come and can't wait til I can see him again!

7 weeks later..and onto another countdown

So my last entry was awhile ago..like..forever ago. It's been 7 weeks as of tomorrow and guess what, I'm still alive.

Tim came home for his leave, Christmas Exodus, and went back yesterday. When he came home he was definitely in the military mindset. He was "walking with a purpose" (which means speed walking as fast as he could to the next place he was headed), speaking VERY loudly and almost told his sister "add a sir to that" when she was speaking to her manager at work. He was barking orders at me and the girls and calling people out in HEB for staring at him, which I dumbly pointed out one night. (I told him a man had been staring at him for a good 5 minutes and he turned to look at the guy who was less than 10 feet from us and pointed at him while saying 'you mean this guy?') I wanted to die. After a few days he calmed down and became old Tim again, which was nice. For about the first week, the girls refused to let him out of their sights and he didn't object. There were lots of cuddles and kisses and 'my daddy is here'.

It was definitely nice having him home with us. Since it was Christmas, family came into town and one of those family members is my brother, Trenton, who is also in the Army. At first Tim was intimidated of him, after 5 years of knowing the guy, because he has the rank that a DS has. I told him he was an idiot, but still thought it was funny. He had a good break from basic, and wasn't ready to go back. He was ready to have it over with, but the two weeks went way too fast for him. He was able to hang out with friends, drink a few beers and relax. It was nice.

Finally after not having a single professional photo done since Mackenzie's 6 months and mine and Tim's back in Dec 05...we had our first complete family photo. I had originally planned on having a friend shoot some outside photos, but it didn't happen before he left for basic and these were done less than 24 hours after I reserved them. They turned out awesome, especially the ones of the girls. They were both all smiles and playing to the camera. Tim even smiled in a few too. I'm so thankful I was able to get those before he left. Tim's family also wanted family photos so those were done too, but our girls weren't too excited about those, so they didn't smile.

He left yesterday and that was especially hard on him. We were leaving for the airport at 1:30 and at we laid the girls down for their nap at noon. Normally their naps are an hour long, but this one would of been longer had we not needed to wake them up. I woke up Mackenzie and told her 'you need to wake up, daddy has to go to the airport, it's time for him to go back to school'. (We had been calling it school, because it was the closest thing for our girls to relate it too. My brother Trey would come home for the summer and Christmas and then go back to school, and the girls were use to that, so we told them daddy was going to school and would be away for awhile.) Mackenzie went to Tim and wrapped her arms around his neck and squeezed him tightly and said 'I don't want you to go' and it hit him like a train. We took a couple photos of the girls with their daddy and then we were off to the airport.

I had been told by a few other wives to get a gate pass so I'd be able to sit with him, so we left a few minutes early hoping we'd be able to get me one. I was thrilled that I was able to get one, it made it so much easier. We sat over in a corner by ourselves and took photos and talked. When it came time for him to board the plane, we did good, no tears! I did have a mental breakdown on the way out of the airport though, thank God for waterproof mascara.

So here we are...on another countdown. His family day is Thursday February 4th and graduation is Friday, February 5th. I will be driving to my brother's house in Columbus GA on Tuesday, February 2nd and staying the night..then driving the 5 hours from Columbus to Columbia, SC on Wednesday. I plan on buying a DVD player for the car with the dual screens to go on the headrests for the girls. It'll be my first long trip without Tim there to help me, so I'm fairly nervous! I already booked my hotel off post, and I'm hoping that I can book one ON post 10 days prior. You can't book more than 10 days in advance for your stay, so I plan on waking up 8am their time and calling the first day. Hopefully I can get it! They won't be allowed off post during family day, hence why people try so hard to get stay on-post, so they aren't stuck in an overcrowded mall or bowling alley with all the other families.

Well, there is my update/ramble.

Just for Sexy Slushie Sarah

So at the request/demand from Sarah...I will write an update blog.

Tim has been gone for 2 weeks and 1 day. It actually, surprisingly, hasn't been as hard as I was expecting. Yes...yes...I know, everyone told me I'd be okay..but watching the days get closer and closer for him to leave..it was hard. I was able to speak to him pretty regularly from when he left til he went down range for basic, which was Monday, Nov 9th. They were allowed to have their phones and I think most of that was due to the Ft. Hood shootings. A lot of them were pretty shooken up, as was the nation. The night before he went down range, Sunday the 8th, he was able to speak to me on the phone for about 45 minutes and he was depressed. He said he was ready to get it over with so he could come home, but that he really missed us. I don't blame him..what those guys (when I say that, I'm including women too) were about to go through is pretty rough stuff. Especially the drill sergeants telling the fathers 'don't worry about your kids, Jodi (what the military refers to as the man who steps in when you're not around) is taking care of them and fucking your wife' Yeah, pretty heavy shit. Doesn't sound too bad written out, but those soldiers will tell you, that when you're sleep deprived, privacy deprived and homesick..it gets to you. We ended our phone conversation on a good note, with him laughing, excited and ready to get it all taken care of.

He called me Monday morning for 10 seconds telling me they needed a scanned copy of my drivers license, that they needed it for DEERS. He then called me for another 15 seconds on Tuesday morning to tell me his mailing address. Within that 15 seconds I asked how he was doing and he said 'awesome, i'm enjoying it.' I asked if he had been 'smoked' yet and he said 'oh yeah...we all have'. And that was the end to our phone convo's. I haven't heard from him in a week but have written multiple letters. I miss him like crazy but I'm not letting it get me down, gotta stay positive. He told me in the beginning, 'you can't get depressed because I need you to be strong for me. If you get depressed, I get depressed, and we don't want that!' So I've been staying positive. 29 days til I am able to pick him up from the airport and he is wearing his ACU's...hot stuff. And yes, I've already bought a new outfit for that occasion. :)

On to another topic, I quit my job. HOORAY!!! I'm not going to talk about how awful that place was or how management was all screwed in the head, because lets face it, everyone knows by now. I am so excited to be a stay at home mom again. Tim always jokes that I am allergic to work and that if he can make it work, he'd rather me never have to work another day in my life. I support that decision, lol. I do want to go to school one day to make myself a bit independent..but right now..I am happy to sit at home with my girls watching cartoons in the morning, baking blueberry muffins for breakfast and going for walks and going on playdates. :) I plan on, hopefully soon, buying a double jogging stroller so the girls and I can start going on LOOONG walks and I can get some more excercise. Except the really nice strollers are fairly expensive, at least in my opinion. Hopefully I can get one of those strollers soon though.

Madison has started sleeping in my old twin size bed that is in her room. When you see me say 'her room' what that means is..we are living with my mother, and my bedroom was left the way it was when I moved out back in 2005. What we did when we moved in was, we emptied the closet, since I obviously can't fit into any of that crap anymore, and we put the girls clothes in it. We then assembled Madison's bed in my room. So my old room, is now, her room. Well she started climbing out of the crib and climbing into my twin size bed and started sleeping in it. Right now I have the crib pushed up along side the bed so she can't roll off (the bed is against a wall so it only has one open side). It's working for now, I just need to get one of those bed rails that hooks on under the mattress, so I can FINALLY get rid of the crib. I can't believe Madison will be turning 2 on the 7th of next month. Where does the time go? Really!?

Mackenzie's attitude is finally improving after being home for awhile and not around the kids at her school. For the entire time she was enrolled, she was terrible. Hitting, kicking, spitting, talking back and being disrespectful, and not just at school but at home too. Everyone was getting tired of it quick and despite the discipline, talks and things being taken away..it wasn't getting any better. I think she was just desperate for attention, she has spent her entire life with one on one contact...she gets bored easily and likes to always have something to catch her attention..and I don't think she was getting that while I was working. Mackenzie is spoiled and not the bad kind of spoiled, not spoiled with toys and materialistic things, she is spoiled with attention and interaction. She doesn't want you to throw a toy down infront of her and walk away..she wants you to play with her. She doesn't want you to give her some crayons and paper..she wants you to talk to her while she does. This kid is a full time job :) but it makes for a healthy toddler. It was hard on her being away from Madison also. They weren't able to play with each other, and by the time they got home from school..they were both so tired and grouchy they fought until bed time. It's nice to see them playing together again and laughing.

Well Sarah...how was that for an update? lol

My husband left today..

So Tim left this afternoon for Army basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina.

I am at a complete loss for words. I seriously have nothing to say about all of this, and I don't really want too. So for a future disclaimer, if you see me out and about, say walking in HEB, don't ask me 'how are you doing?' because it's highly likely I'll just burst into tears. This has happened already. The tellers at our bank saw me and asked 'Did Tim leave today? How are you doing?' and I almost lost it. I simply said 'Yeah he did, and it's hard.' and I think my eyes getting teary gave them the hint.

It's what I told Tim, I'm not crying because I'm upset that he joined or that I wish he hadn't, because it's not that. I am very VERY proud of my husband for becoming a soldier, especially in war time. I'm upset because for the past 5 years I have had my best friend with me every day and have been able to joke and laugh with him, and now, he's gone. Well not 'gone' gone, but you know what I mean. It's so hard to hear a simple song on the radio that him and I would sing all the words too and not have him in the seat beside me singing along. It's hard that when I came back to pick up the girl's from their Oma's house, that Madison was upset because Daddy didn't come back with me. He's my best friend and I miss him dearly, I want him back home too.

I know that now that he's in the military it's 'one of those things you have to get use too', but saying that is a whole lot easier than doing it. I swear if someone says it to me one more time, I'm going to ask them where they found their fucking 'emotion switch' to turn off. It's not easy, it's not easy to know something in your head and then to put it into actions, when it's not what you're use too. Am I going to eventually get over this? No, I don't think you get over something like this. Am I going to learn how to cope with it, where I don't cry at the drop of a hat? I certainly hope so.

I put on Tim's St.Christopher necklace earlier when I came home from the recruiter's station, after dropping him off. It's a necklace Tim's mother bought for him a few years ago. Tim isn't really big on it, but he wears it when he goes on a trip or has to leave us for a certain amount of time. I had planned on buying him a more sturdy one for him to wear at basic, but I didn't have the money. So I'm wearing it while he is gone. It's weird to me, I'm not Catholic and don't really understand the whole saint thing, but it makes me feel better.

I'm rambling. He comes home in 45 days for two weeks. Yay, another countdown. I can't wait til I can have him home with me again, even if it's only for two weeks.

Rodeo Austin and Craig Morgan

So we went to the rodeo tonight, and we had a great time.

We started off by riding a couple of the rides...and doing some of the silly kid stuff.

Tim road a ferris wheel for the first time ever. I pity him, it was an awful experience. The thing was all rickity and scary. I thought it was going to break! There were even parts being held together by tie straps...comforting.

Tim on the ferris wheel


My "it's blowing my hair crazy" face


Tim didn't like it..haha just kidding


Our videos..





We then road a pretty cool ride called arctic freeze. It kept slamming my body against Tim...haha.


We also played in a mirror house...weird.

ConeHeads anyone?


hahaha



Then I made Tim ride my favorite ride ever...ya know the one...that takes you up so many feet high, then drops you. Well Tim didn't want to go on it..he swore up and down he wouldn't go on it. He even held my purse while I walked up the stairs..then he said he would ride it. The entire way up he was saying "i don't know why im on this..why am i on this? i hate you..i want off now"...then...we dropped. He didn't like it. He was shaking so bad when we got off. He's not a chicken, he just doesnt like that ONE ride. Not sure why.








Then after we started to get cold, since it was 50* out and we forgot our jackets, we decided to go watch the rodeo.




After the rodeo was Craig Morgan, who I must say is INCREDIBLE live. He sounds the exact same. It wasn't recorded because bless his heart he messed up on his first song, only one word though. He did awesome. The entire concert would of been perfect had it not of been for the three teenage girls sitting by us. The stupid girls kept screaming, randomly..and loudly. I understand screaming at the end of a song..but at the end of each sentence in each verse of each song?! It was ridiculous and was ruining his performance. So everyone knows me..I turned around and yelled at them to 'shut the hell up..just shut up!!' Stupid teenage little bitches...get your braces off or go to a Backstreet boys concert next time. (You can HEAR them screaming in the videos..listen for it, it's hard to miss)



Do you hear the screaming in the end of this one? It was the whole time...


Oh and in this one too..i couldn't even keep recording...they were awful


He looks insanely creepy in this one....but he wasn't, i promise



Rodeo Austin 2009 was awesome..at least Craig Morgan was. Can't wait til next year.

Teething, The Walker's, Rodeo, Potty Training

So nothing really new to update about, just felt like writing. Tim is playing xbox and the girls are sleeping, i'm lonely.

Ashley and David came this past weekend. They got here Thursday afternoon and stayed til Sunday afternoon. It was so great having them here...I miss them tons. Ashley is getting pretty close to her due date, she is 37 weeks today. I can't wait to meet that baby boy!! On Saturday Ashley had a small baby shower at her sister Kristen's. It proved to be fairly entertaining, Ashley handled it very well, all that ridiculous belly rubbing. (Ashley HATES for anyone to touch her, being pregnant or not.) I can't wait til Drake is born and Tim and myself along with our girls can go down there and meet him. Ashley and I plan on going and getting ourselves pierced after he makes his appearance.

Ashley (L) with her sisters Kristen (M) and Brooke (R)


36.5 weeks prego



I've had the best sleep of my life the past two nights. My kiddos fell asleep around 9 and they both slept til 10 am. Wicked cool, Madison has slept through the night for the past...3 nights? Lovely, except the first night we were at my mothers and the dogs woke me up around 4 am.

We stayed at my mothers because we were taking the car to the shop around 8:30, which means I had to take Tim to work, and I didn't want to have to wake up the babies and take them with me. It's my mother's spring break so we just stayed there and my mom was home with them while I was gone. Really bad thing about it was, we woke up, took him to work, and once again, for the third day in a row, his plumber didn't show up. So Tim was off Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Anyways, we then went to the dealership and everything that has been going wrong on that car, was finally working and they couldn't do anything about it. Annoying.

Madison cut two new teeth....that's new. She slept really bad while Ashley and David were here, and I blame it on teething. She was fine once those teeth broke through. Either that or she didn't like Ashley and David, cause she slept fine once they left, ha.

Tim and I are hoping to go to the rodeo on the 27th, to see Craig Morgan. That is, if we can find a baby sitter for two. I don't want to ask my mother because she always watches them every Saturday for us, and Tim's family doesn't tend to watch them longer than an hour and normally not both at one time. I want to be able to go to the carnival, the rodeo and then to the concert...all of which will be a lot longer than a single hour. So if you know of anyone who wants to watch my darling children, send them this way, we will pay. I don't think we can pay much, but we will pay something. That and we will get them something for dinner, yay!

Well I don't know what else to write about so..oh wait!

Madison is using the baby potty. She has gone number 1 and 2 in it a handful of times. I'm really impressed, she just turned 15 months on the 7th. She will walk to the bathroom, and point at the potty. It's pretty neat. Hopefully she'll potty train easy. Mackenzie is completely out of pull ups except at night time. At 3 years I will take them away at bed also. She is waking up with a dry pull up most mornings, so i'm excited. Yay for easy potty training!

Well, that's it, I believe. Thanks for reading.

Oh and Tim got his tongue pierced on March 1st. alright done now.

Moving, Schnuller, bye bye baby food

So, I figured I would update on our lives.

I'll start with the parents, I always write about us last but i'll write about us first today!

So at the end of April we will be moving out of Colonial Grand and into my mother's house. We are ready to move tomorrow if we could. I am so tired of
living in this stupid apartment. It was nice when we didn't have neighbors, but gangsta boy upstairs drives me crazy. He is the loudest person I have ever experienced. He probably weighs 100lbs soaking wet, but he stomps like an elephant. Not only that but him and his buddies like to hang out by our front door and yell...and let their door slam...at all hours of the night. And don't even mention the rat they own that they believe is a dog. Damn thing stands in the stairwell and barks. Their stairs are smack dab in the middle of our apartment, thank you rat dog. So we are ready to move out of here. It will be nice to be able to let the girls play in my mother's back yard, instead of having to stay inside all day. We will put our stuff in storage while we are there. We plan on staying with her through the summer, so come August we will start looking for somewhere new..hopefully a house.

Tim gets to reapply for his plumbing test as of today. He won't be able to do it today though, he is in South Austin and his paper is here at the apartment. He only has to retake the questions portion, so he will be once again studying like crazy for a straight month. Who knows when his retest date will be, hopefully before May.
His birthday is next month, April 4th. I am trying to plan a fun night for him, i'm not sure what we will be doing yet though. I had thought we would go to a bar or a club or something, well he informs me today he would rather go to a sports bar and eat wings and drink and stuff. I'm not sure how many people would be interested in doing that. Of course his guy friends will, but I'm not sure that the girls will. Oh well, it's about him and what he wants.
He has been on a motorcycle kick for the past month. I posted a picture of him on a bike the other day, it's a bike he is really interested in. He has wanted a bike since he was 14, so it's just a matter of time before he gets one. I'm okay with it, as long as he stays off 35. He has decided to wait another year before he gets one, he wants to save up for a big down payment so his payments will be good.

So I have been chosen as a donor by another couple. I received a phone call from Texas Fertility Center yesterday and the woman said I was picked and the recipients wanted to know how many children I have and if I have anything coming up in the next 2 months that they should know about. I told them the only thing was my husband's birthday but that it was no big deal. I'm excited about it. Everyone keeps asking me if I'm just doing it for the money, which I'm not. While the money will be nice, it's not why I looked into it. I wrote a blog about why back in November/December, check it out if you don't believe me. So when they start doing the fertility drugs they will have to remove my Paragard IUD. All of the family is scared that I will get pregnant, and if I was to get pregnant, it would be a multiple pregnancy for sure. (The fertility drugs I would be taking would make me release 15-20 eggs at once, wow!) But ya'll don't be worried, you have to abstain from having sex for about a month. So basically, Tim will be locked in a basement, haha. But when they take out my Paragard I will be having the Mirena put in after. Has anyone used the Mirena?
I donated another eleven inches of hair to locks of love. My hair went from this..

to this...

It's quite a change, one that I'm not use to yet, but I love why I do it. There was a woman in the salon when I was doing it. My stylist, Kim, turns and looks at her and says "she's donating to locks of love again." The woman looks at me and says "thank you, you don't know what it means to us that people like you do this. I have been cancer free for 5 years, and you don't know how grateful I am that someone donated so I could have hair, but I love having my own hair again!"
It was nice.


So Mackenzie has officially stopped using her nooney (new-knee). I finally asked Sandy what it means...apparently that is what Tim called his pacifier as a baby since he couldn't say 'schnuller'. Schnuller is german for pacifier. I think it's adorable to think of Tim as Mackenzie and Madison's age, very cute. Anyway back to Mackenzie, she no longer needs a pacifier to go to bed. I don't like when kids past the age of 2 use a pacifier and it was driving me crazy that at nearly 3 she still was using one. So we just took it away cold turkey. It took one night and now she doesn't even ask for it anymore. YAY!! She is also going to the bathroom by herself which is exciting. She will be playing and jump up and say "Mackenzie is going potty, you leave me alone, i'm a big girl, I do it myself" haha. She is getting so big..it's crazy. Look at this picture I took the other day..doesn't she look so grown up?


Madison, oh Miss Madi. I say it every time, but she is just amazingly precious. I think every single person needs to spend at least 30 minutes with this child to understand why. She is just so sweet. She slept through the night last night, big thing. She normally wakes up at least once, but last night she slept straight through. Of course she was also up at 7 something..which sucked! She is officially eating normal adult food, no more gerber graduates or baby food. She won't eat if you try to feed her, she wants to do it all by herself. Such a big girl. She is also wearing 18-24 month size clothes, which is funny because she is sooo tiny. My baby girls are getting so big!!

I'll just tell everyone

So here is my blog so we don't get asked a million questions and have to explain it a million times.

Tim failed his plumbing test.

There were three sections to the test..
The questions, mechanical shopwork and Two-Story Rough-in of Drains, Wastes and Vents.

Tim failed the questions and passed the other two parts. He failed the test questions by 6 points.

He has to wait 30 days before he can reapply to take it again, and after he applies it will probably be another month or two before he can take the test. He only has to re-do the questions and not the whole thing, so that's a plus.

I'm telling everyone so he won't have too, he is pretty upset/bummed/depressed about not passing it after he thought he did really good. If anyone wants to send him some words of encouragement I'm sure he would appreciate it and could use them.

an update

So here is my update, since I haven't since December.

I will start with Madison since she has the longest list to write about.

She is seriously one of the sweetest babies I have ever seen, and not just because she is mine. She loves to cuddle and give kisses and hugs. She is a quiet girl but she lets you know she is around.
She has been pretty silent for the past 6 months, but in the past two weeks has just become a jabber box. Its pretty cute. She said 'Opa' last week, clear as day. Twice too. Tim's dad had come over to help set up the wireless internet so Tim could play xbox live, and he was standing in the kitchen and she was sitting on the couch and goes "opa". I was the only one who heard it that time but then she walked into the kitchen, lifted her arms to him and said it again. It was really cute!! So far she has only said, mama, dada an opa. haha, seriously that's it, oh and uh-oh. Told you she was quiet. She loves to climb up in your lap with a book and have you read to her, her favorites are the ones she got for Christmas. They are sesame street beginnings books.
She is also pretty tough for her age, anyone who knows Mackenzie, knows Madison has to be. She doesn't really enjoy playing with kids her own age but prefers older toddlers, around 2-3 years old. She can hold her own with them too. Children at that age don't really understand the concept of sharing and tend to take away toys a lot. Madison will hold tight to a toy and if a child tries to take it she will scream to get an adult's attention. I'm pretty impressed that she doesn't just start crying like most kids. She also doesn't cry if she falls or trips, she just stands up and dusts it off.
Oh yeah, she's still sleeping through the night, woohoo! She also has a new interest in the potty. Thank god. Mackenzie is helping with that one, which is pretty cute. Every time Madison goes to the potty Mackenzie tells her 'be a big girl and go in the potty', Madison will sit there and then Mackenzie will tell her 'good job'. It's cute.

Mackenzie has a new cute thing that she does, she sings. Not those kiddy songs either, songs off the radio. Her favorites are "I'm yours", "Heartless" and "Womanizer". She's actually pretty good too. Quite cute.
She is starting to take naps in panties. She doesn't wear diapers during the day, but normally when she sleeps. She has recently started waking up with dry diapers after a nap so I'm starting to do panties. She still wakes up with a wet diaper in the mornings though, so I'm not THAT brave yet.

So Tim's test is on the 4th of February, and he is very nervous. I know he will do great regardless but he is still nervous. He is going to be studying like crazy from now til then. Our friend Matt has 7,000 hours and works with the Union so he has been helping Tim study. I'm so excited for Tim to finally be a licensed plumber and hopefully get his own truck, soon!

Anyway, that's my update.

And just because we got a kick out of how small Madison's bites are

My baby girl is ONE!

Okay, so I haven't wrote in a bit, so here is my update.

I will start off with updating about the birthday girl, Miss Madison. Her birthday was on Sunday, and I can't believe she is already one, isn't that insane!? I can't believe how fast the time really does go.






She is such a funny child too, for the first two months of her life, she cried..constantly. Turns out she had acid reflux, so we got her on medicine. She improved, and up until recently was a pretty quiet kid for the most part. Now she is gibbering, and talking and her favorite thing to say is uh-oh, which started last week. She walks around, drops things and says uh-oh. Tim noticed it first, it was funny.
She is sleeping better too, last week she slept through the night about 4 times, it was great! I feel so much better after being able to sleep a whole night. She is getting better at running now...she is always on the move which leads me to the next point.
Yesterday we had her 12 month check-up, and while she is an inch taller, she hasn't gained a single ounce. That had me worried at first, until the doctor pointed out that she is more active now than she was at 9 months. Good point, she is constantly running.

Guess who can say the ABC's perfectly, Mackenzie can! (okay so V sounds like B, but whatever) She also can count perfectly to 10, and sometimes all the way to 18 if her daddy helps her.
For the past week or two she had been sleeping in our room with Tim and I. She got in a bad habit of getting out of her bed and waking up Madison, so after a couple nights of laying down in our room we have moved her back into her room. Last night was the first night and she laid down and didn't get up, not once. It doesn't matter that she only did this because I told her she could eat birthday cake for breakfast if she stayed in her bed, does it? Well who cares, because it worked! haha, and for those wondering..yes I let her have cake for breakfast this morning.
On Saturday she made Christmas cookies with her Oma and Michelle, and she loved it. Shoot I loved it, I got a tin of cookies at home to munch on now. Speaking of Christmas, she can't wait until her Uncle Trenton and Aunt April come to visit, so she can see their new puppy Tinkerbell. She keeps telling us "Trenton is bringing me a puppy to play with." Trenton and April...ya'll better bring that dog, she will be crushed!

It's so fun to be able to finally start traditions of our own for Christmas. We decorated stockings and put up our Christmas tree, and can't wait to buy presents for the girls. Mackenzie is kinda freaked out by a man coming into her house while she is sleeping, and leaving gifts. She told me "No mommy, he can't come in here, make sure you lock the doors so he stays out." haha. I asked her how would she get gifts then? She told me "he can leave them on the porch, but no come inside"

Well, I want to chop my hair off short again. I asked Tim if he wants me to just trim it or go short again. He told me he doesn't care but if I go short, wait til it's long enough that I can donate to locks of love again. I love that, I love that he knows that it meant something to me, and he wants me to do it again. So I will probably wait a few more months, and around march or so cut my hair for locks of love.
Speaking of March, that will probably be when I donate my eggs. My recipient wanted to start the next step around January..and to get our cycle's aligned I will have to take a month of birth control, so if we started around the middle of January, I will probably be donating at the end of February to beginning of March.

Do you know how proud I am of my husband? Do you? I am stinking proud. He finally has his 4,000 hours that he needed to take his tradesman test and submitted them yesterday. They told him that it normally takes a month or two to get his test date, and they will let him know. He is excited, while nervous at the same time. This test will increase his paychecks by $400-$500 a week, which will be amazing. He will finally be a licensed plumber, not just an apprentice, and will be able to work on his own truck. He is so excited, and everyone should be proud of him and tell him how proud you are. He has worked long and hard to get to where he is!

Life is good.

Just another update

So I have been putting off writing a blog, just because I have posted more than usual lately. I don't want to go blog crazy or anything. So here is everything I wanted to post about..in one blog.


Mackenzie gave us quite a scare the other night. As you may of read in my bulletin, she got out of her bed and was sleeping under it. Tim and I couldn't find her until I saw her two toes sticking out, so we were pretty scared for a bit. Well last night she did it again, but this time I knew where to check first. I don't quite know how she gets there...she is a VERY light sleeper and I just can't imagine her getting out of her bed and crawling under there, or sleep walking. To get under her bed she would have to belly crawl, cause of how low it is. It's odd. Recently she has been coming into our room around 1-2am and climbing in bed with Tim. She likes to sleep with her daddy and of course he loves it too. I have re-assembled the pack n play and it's in our room. I don't like her sleeping in the bed with us, but if she wants to be in our room she has to sleep in it. So this past week she has come in 2-3 times.
She is officially in a big girl seat, like booster car seat. I know of a few people with kids around Mackenzie's age that already use them. This made me nervous with Mackenzie just because on some of the boxes they say "Do Not Use Under Age 3". So being the researcher I am, I decided to try and find the Texas car seat booster law. Damn them to hell, the only thing that they have are weight/height limits. That's stupid. You can have a freakishly tall 14 month old who can qualify, or like us, you can have a really small 3 year old. Well she isn't 3 yet but you get my point. Anyway, Mackenzie couldn't keep doing the front facing car seats, she would get out. She is on this kick lately "Well big girls do this....Big girls don't do this .." and it is working great. So since being in her "big girl car seat" she hasn't been escaping. I also have a new favorite thing that Mackenzie says...bubble bath. Except in Mackenzie lingo it comes out.."bubble baf" too cute.


Madison is 11 months today. Oh my gosh...1 month til she is a year. (I'm a genius I know..I can do math) It has flown by, my baby girl is a toddler. She is such a hoot, and a big Momma's girl.
She is content sitting in my lap all day and especially if we go to a friends house. She is the quiet one of the family, but we expected that. When I was pregnant with her, she barely moved..was real calm. Mackenzie on the other hand was real active and well....she still is. Madison is content sitting in my lap and just observing the world. She barely makes a noise, unless something is wrong. She doesn't really talk much for her age, she mainly grunts. No words, just ma,da,ba. that's it. We're not concerned...she'll talk later.
This past week she has been sleeping pretty good. I think the girls finally have a schedule together, my goodness it only took a year. They go to bed between 8:30 and 9:30..and sleep til 7 am. Of course if you know my girls this doesn't mean it's straight through..they wake up a couple times a night.
We don't have anything planned for her birthday, money is a bit tight right now..and we really don't feel like throwing a party anyway. We will probably do a little family bbq and just have fun with our family.


Tim is still with Victory and is 100 hours away from his 4,000 hours. This means he will be able to get his test date for his license by December 1st. He is VERY excited, but also very nervous. The test he has to take is insanely hard and very complex. The book that he has to remember for this test is around....600 pages. It's not only residential plumbing but commercial as well. So some of the stuff he hasn't even encountered yet. His boss told him that since the economy is so bad, that Tim will get a test date immediately after he turns in his paperwork..normally they would wait a couple months. So he isn't quite ready to turn in his paperwork, we will probably wait until January just so he has more time to study.
He had been doing tubs with Santos, but since his company has been letting people go, they moved Santos off of tubs and onto Punch and put Tim on set-outs with Fred. Tim gets along well with Fred so this is good, plus Tim is doing more than just installing tubs, now he is installing sinks, water heaters, toilets and tubs in finished homes, custom homes. In fact today he is doing a house that has eight...EIGHT bathrooms. Ladies could you imagine cleaning 8 bathrooms?! His days are longer now..they work til about 6-7.


So as you read in the blog I posted a few days ago, I'm trying to become an egg donor. Well yesterday they called me and I have my consultation date set up for November 18th at 2:00pm. I am to bring in photos of me between the ages of birth to age 15. So I am trying to find lots of cute ones. I am so stinking excited about this whole thing. I did receive one hate message about this though. I was asked "How can you just give your egg to some random person you don't even know, that's like abandoning your kid". This certain person pissed off my husband very much. As Tim said "it's not ABANDONING her child, it's giving someone else a very important thing, a very special thing that they couldn't have else wise. It's giving them a child you dumbass." Sometimes I love him, haha.
Speaking of babies...Ashley is having a boy. Tim and I are THRILLED and can't wait for this little guy to make his appearance. YAY GO BLUE!!

Charlie boy is in surgery today. Tim and I dropped him off at 7:30 this morning in Austin. He is to be picked up this afternoon between 3-6pm. He also has to do the same thing tomorrow also. I hope everything goes okay, we're really nervous.

walking...talking..and bubbles

Madison is walking!!!! Not like a speed walker or anything but she can take more than a handful of steps before falling down. It's awesome. She started trying to take steps this past weekend (Sep 27th and 28th) and can now walk about 5-7 steps before falling. She has also cut her second top tooth, so she now has four teeth!
Madison has also started to wake up between 3-5 in the morning for a couple hours, it's not so fun. I know they say that happens sometimes when they are cutting teeth or learning new things..I wish it'd stop. I barely get any sleep as it is, I feel like I still have a newborn...without those long naps in the middle of the day.
She is such a hoot, and so much fun, I love this little girl to pieces. It makes me miss when Mackenzie was this age, where you could just lay her on the floor and blow raspberries on her stomach and she couldn't do anything about it but give you a deep belly laugh. If you tried that with Mackenzie now she'd start scream/laughing and yell "No mommy stop!"
My little duck



Speaking of the little monster also known as Mackenzie, that girl is getting sooo big. Sometimes she just amazes her daddy and I with the things she says and does. Her vocabulary is getting much easier to understand which sometimes isn't a good thing, especially becuase it's expanding. The other day we were sitting on the couch with my grandma and Mackenzie dopped a toy and said "oh damn". We all just died laughing as my Grandma tried to ask my mother what she had just said. She is starting to become a little parrot and we are having to watch the words we say around her.
She is also showing us that she will probably be the expensive daughter. She loves shoes, purses and clothes. But she is also incredibly smart and if you read a book ONE time to her, she can read it to her sister..well some of it, the Mackenzie version. She can also count to 7..sometimes skipping four, but hey she normally gets it right! She has really good balance as well, so we have been thinking about putting her in dance, gymnastics or possibly horseback riding since she shows such a strong interest in horses.
She is just getting so big and its a bunch of fun to watch her become this little girl instead of a toddler.


About Tim and I.

Tim just purchesed his Uniform Plumbing Code Study Guide and Book for $200 some odd bucks. This study guide is a must for every apprentice, journeyman, contractor and inspector. It contains questions and answers on every chapter of the UPC, plus nine practice exams, including plumbing layout drawings. He is so excited about it because in January he will have enough hours to take his test to move up from being an apprentice to a tradesman, which means he gets his own truck and he starts making the big bucks. I am seriously so proud of him it's not even funny. He will have to study his ass off to be ready..last night he studied for 3 hours before bed, which is a big thing, because he's never studied in his life!
Now about me...I don't even know why I update about me, nothing is ever different for me same old thing every time. ha. I am cruising craigslist today looking for a simple part time job, maybe doing receptionist work since I enjoy working on computers and I can work a telephone. ;) But that's all that's really new. Oh and I sold the majority of my infant furniture this past weekend at a yard sale. I made 56 bucks, yay.
Oh and to those of you that saw my bulletin about my blonde moment..apparently it's a very common thing and I'm not alone! I had so many people write me and tell me they had done the same thing, some of them multiple times! I was also asked to take a picture...well I did, but only after cleaning up the kitchen and getting rid of alot of the bubbles...so here is a picture with a couple left over. There is about two inches in the bottom of the dishwasher in this picture. This was taken on the last time I ran the dishwasher...yes I had to run it MULTIPLE times.