Another Year Older

And another birthday passed. I did actually celebrate this year. Unfortunately, I made my husband miserable in the process. Last Christmas, I received a trip from work in the Christmas present drawing. The trip was to Tempe and with it we received two tickets to an ASU game. I decided it would be a great way to celebrate my birthday. Little did I know that my girls would come down with colds during the week before the game and pass it on to my husband. We were actually both feeling a little down on Friday morning when we left, but I figured we could down the vitamins like usual and all would be good. For me, they were...for him, not so much. Friday night, we visited my college roommate who I have not seen in a few years. It was great to catch up with her again. Saturday night was the game. By then, my husband was absolutely miserable. The game was good, but I felt bad for making my husband come out when he should have been in bed resting. Sunday, my actual birthday, my husband was feeling even worse. Neither of us had gotten much sleep due to him being up half the night coughing. It was also the day for the long drive home. I was not looking forward to this drive, nor did I want to do it by myself. However, my husband was in no shape to drive. We were making pretty good time, when all the traffic on the highway came to a complete stop. Fortunately, it only took us about a half hour to get through the "big accident". By the time we got to the accident scene, all that was there was a tow truck and a trailer on the side of the road. Not what I was expecting considering the stop in traffic. We start moving again and only have about an hour in a half left to the trip when we see signs stating that the highway is closed 19 miles ahead due to a stalled semi. About this time I get the feeling that something does not want us to get home. So we take the detour which added about a hour to our trip. I am completely exhausted by this time, but continue to drive. Naturally, I start falling asleep at the wheel. My husband starts talking to me, but really, it was not helping. He finally told me to pull over and let him drive. Of course, by this time, I am so frustrated with the day not going the way I wanted it to that I decide to be stubborn. I still am not quite sure how we made it home safely, but we did. When I walked into the house, I was greeted with two very happy little girls telling me "happy birthday". That was the highlight of the day. My oldest then tells me that they baked a cake and shows me the cake, still cooling on the racks. Later, she helped grandma decorate it. I think it turned out pretty good...

I think this is probably the best cake I have ever had as well!

As for my husband...he is now feeling a little better. Monday morning, he went to urgent care since the doctor didn't have any openings. Diagnosis...ACUTE BRONCHITIS! I guess celebrating my birthday should have been put on hold.

Mommy Project 52: 7 Selfless

Ok, so I am late on this again. I ran out of time yesterday and crashed from exhaustion around 830. So here it is now...

I have had trouble coming up with something to write on this topic. I have thought about mothers, servicemen, teachers, nurses, etc. There are so many that I could list and all are perfect displays of what is selfless. In all of these positions, the person puts other's in front of their own needs. However, trying to find a good example in my own life has turned out harder than I imagined. I am a mother, yet, I often times find that I am also very selfish. Don't get me wrong, I always put my children before myself, but I always feel I am doing a poor job as well. My mother was a nurse, but it is hard for me to look at her as being selfless. There is a lot behind those feelings that I simply cannot go into. Unfortunately, most servicemen that I have known personally have not left much of a good opinion of them, so I can't really go there either. So that has left me wondering, who in my life do I consider to be selfless. After much thought, it finally came to me...my sister.

She was married for 17 years to a soldier. After 17 years, their marriage came to an end due to no fault of her own, but still leaving her with 3 young boys to care for. During that time she was married, she mostly did not work. She spent her days at home teaching her young boys right from wrong. She moved her family numerous times as is often the case with any military family. She was away from her family and left many friends that she had made to move onto the next station. Then after 17 years, it all ended. She was back at home relying on our parents to care for her children while she returned to work. She had no choice in this. She came through all of this though. She was strong and overcame in the face of adversity. Since then, she is out on her own, and has made a wonderful life with a new husband of almost 7 years. She now has 3 wonderful boys and a wonderful stepson. My sister gave her up dreams of becoming a pediatrician for her ex-husband. And although she has talked about going back to school, she is putting her own children through college. Again, she is giving up her dreams so that she can give to her family. She would do it all over again though. And the best thing...she is HAPPY.

I have strived all my life to be like my older sister. This is something I know I will never achieve, but if I can learn one thing from her...selfless. I would like to be more selfless.

Mommy's Project 52:5 Loving

I am late on posting this because it has been a crazy week, but I still wanted to get it posted. This picture is probably my favorite of my oldest and her grandmother. What more says love than a grandparent caring for her grandchild...

Child's Imagination

You have to love a child's imagination. Some of the excuses that they can come up with are amazing. Usually my daughter's excuses are limited to reasons why she can't go to bed, however, the following is her first excuse to attempt to get out of trouble. What an attempt it was!

A couple of weeks ago, my oldest decided to get her own breakfast instead of waking her grandmother up to help her. What did she have...a banana and a slice of whole wheat bread. Okay, it was a pretty good breakfast for a not quite 4 years old. She then decided that she would be very independent and feed 2 of our dogs breakfast as well. And what did they enjoy? Well, bananas and bread of course. Let me be more specific...They had a total of 4 bananas, 1 loaf (minus 1 slice that my daughter had) of whole wheat bread, and a half loaf of homemade wheat bread! All the while, her grandmother and sister were sleeping. I, who was at work, eventually received a text from her grandmother that simply stated "call me". The worst was going through my mind. I quickly called and grandma explained the events to me. Besides being relieved that it was nothing more serious, I was confused as to why she did it, upset about all the wasted food, laughing to myself at what a sight it would have been, and of course, worried about what kind of effect this would have on the dogs. During dinner that night, I started to question my daughter about why she fed the dogs all that food. After several minutes of her thinking and me rephrasing the question a couple times, I finally had an answer... "The worm in the clock made me do it"! There you go. That's the best excuse I have heard all year. It even beats the excuse her daddy used to tell his mom when he didn't want to get in trouble which was "The elephant did it".

Happiness

Yesterday, I was asked about my girls from several different people. The last person to ask me then told me, "You look happy". My response of course was "I am very happy". However it got me thinking. Since my youngest was born, I have not actually stated out loud that I am happy, and I had to think, am I? To answer the question, Yes, I am very happy. I just hadn't taken the time to admit that to myself until last night. I don't know why I couldn't admit it. It's not like it would be a bad thing for me to admit that I am happy, but I just hadn't. After I finally admitted out loud to another person, tought about it, and finally admitted it to myself, I felt like a weight had been lifted. Sort of like I had been carrying around this massive secert that I couldn't tell anybody, but I finally did. You know what, my world did not come crashing to a stop after revealing that secret either. So, am I happy? Yes, I am! I am not ashamed or scared to admit it either.

Here is the reason why I am happy:

These 3 wonderful people are the loves of my life...My husband and my 2 girls. This is also the first picture since my youngest was born that I actually look happy.

Favoritism

It has been a long week but my family is finally gone. I love seeing them, but I am so happy to have my house and my time back! Besides, the more I learn about some of the things that happened while I was at work and Todd was sleeping, the more upset I get. I will never understand how somebody can play favorites between their children, or in this case grandchildren! What scares me though is how common this seems to be, and not only in my family. I have 2 daughters and I love them both very much, but I cant see playing favorites with them. Yes, there are days when Piper is driving me nuts or Brylin is driving me nuts, but that doesn't make the "good" child better. For all I know, tomorrow they will flip flop and the one that was driving me nuts today will be the perfect angel tomorrow.

I would like to know why my child was the only one being told to share? Why is it that MY rules in MY house do not apply to another child when I am not there? And WHY do other people find it perfectly okay to criticize the rules another parent sets for their child? Just because somebody has been a parent longer than me, does not make them an expert on my children or what is best for them! Piper my only be 2, but she still has rules that I expect her to follow, whether or not we have company, and whether or not said company agrees!

Most times, I hate living so far from family, but times like this...I am happy. I don't deal with the favoritism on a daily basis. The only time I "deal" with it is weekly, while on the phone. Again, I am not "dealing" with it, but rather listening to it. I think I am actually more upset for the ones that do have to deal with it on a daily basis. If it makes me this crazy after only a week, I cant imagine it being an everyday issue.