Father's Day Part Deux

For the man who convinced me 12 years ago to marry him & have his babies :o) I couldn't have chose a better father for my children. They absolutely adore you and so do I ♥  Happy Father's Day darlin!

& you want more, you crazy man?!

Father's Day

"When a daughter first meets her father, she makes room in her heart for the first significant man in her life; she becomes Daddy's little girl."

As a little girl I thought my daddy hung the moon. As a teen I thought my daddy was a pain in my ass. There was a time when I made a hard decision and didn't talk to my daddy for a couple years. It was probably one of the most difficult things I've ever done. I don't regret it because I believe it gave us time to grow, to set us up for the wonderful relationship we have now. My daddy is not only my dad but my best friend and confidante. When things aren't going my way or I feel my world is falling apart, I call my daddy. He always helps me put things in perspective & makes me laugh. I wouldn't trade him for anything in the world :o) I love you daddy and I hope you know how much you mean not only to me but to my babies too ♥ Happy Father's Day!

My Boy Loves Me

I had an awesome lunch with Camden today. They put together a little lunch, singing, & laughs for Mother's Day. I videotaped the singing & took pictures which I'll share with you on Sunday :o) Camden made me a card & acronymed MOMMY. Here's what it stood for:

M - Merry
O - Outstanding
M - Magical
M - Marvelous
Y - Young

I like every single one of those words :o)

Something So Simple

So now that I remembered that I was supposed to type a post about how our behavioral plan was going, I feel like a jackass. But I'm not going to lie to you, I got caught up in mystery, suspense, & hot HOT sexual situations. I couldn't put it down so obviously this here blog suffered, oh well, the book is damn good, k?!

So as you know, or not, I've been having great difficulties with my children's behavior both at home & school. I thought that by keeping them super busy the days would fly & they wouldn't miss their dad so much (& they wouldn't notice my mental breakdown which was quite apparent to them). Again I repeat: "the road to hell is paved with good intentions", I've suffered, they've suffered, so now we're trying to set it right.

I bought a book. No not the ones with the hot alpha male & extremely carnal sex, get your minds out of the gutter people! This book is a sort of self-help book, Raising Happiness by Christine Carter. I've found it both interesting & helpful, maybe at the end of all this I'll even write a review :o) One of the #1 things that she believes can help raise happier children is simply sitting down to have supper together every day. This is something that is hard for me to do when Dave's gone. It's difficult to sit at our big family table with a spot left empty. In the beginning I would even set out his plate without realizing & when I got to his plate I would cry because part of our family was missing. Until one day I stopped trying to sit at the table. The kids still sat there to eat but I would plop my ass in the recliner in front of the TV or even the computer. I didn't realize that by alienating myself, at a time when we would normally sit down as a family, I was hurting my children.

So for the past week or more, we have started having our family suppers again. I get over my sadness at Dave's absence because my children need me. We eat, we laugh, we talk, & things have been getting better at my house. While my children aren't the perfect lil angels that I envision(yeah right lol), they are trying harder & paying more attention to what I say & the rules we set. It's good to see that we're on our way back to our normal. & it really astonished me that something so simple could change my children's (& my own) attitudes.

So while we are (im)patiently awaiting the return of our husband, father, Soldier, we'll keep up those family traditions that bring us closer together :o) & I'll keep reading this book to find other areas of our life that we can improve because if my children aren't happy then I'm failing. & I don't like to fail.

Words of Encouragement... Or?

My children are.... unique. They're a wonderful mesh of the good, bad, & weird things that make up my husband & myself. God knows they try my patience. They try to embarrass me, bless their lil souls. They make me laugh to no end, definitely good entertainment. But most of all they love me & I love them.

When my brain started showing signs of fuzziness & the inability to keep itself together, I started finding lil quotes & sayings typed on the notepad on my desktop. Things like "Life's a garden, dig it" and "Life is what you make it". Can you tell they've seen Joe Dirt about a million times? So much so they start making up their own words to the quotes, that's just how we roll.

& of course there's the "I/We love you Mommy" or they'll draw little pictures on Post-Its & stick them all over my computer screen. I mean seriously folks, I am blessed. I know this, I take great delight in it. They are the reason I keep myself together. I have my own cheerleading section & I won't let them down.

So earlier this week there was a new quote up on my desktop "love keeps us all happy in life!!" I mean really, where do they get these things? They're only 10 & 8 and here they are pulling some great quotes outta the air, it's fantastic :o)

I woke up this morning to an add-on to the quote: "love keeps us all happy in life!! unless some1 screwsup" Typed verbatim. Seriously. I was laughing my ass off. Leave it to my kids to keep it real, they get that from me.   :o)

A Time of Firsts

This evening brought another First to the forefront. Alysia had her first dance tonight. In the beginning there was First smile, teeth, steps, words, school, etc. I thought we were done with Firsts for awhile, apparently I was wrong.

There was clothes talk, flat irons, scents, shoes, purses, etc. All kinds of girly talk, I even reminisced for a minute or two. Devlan runs off to little kid school & the next week Alysia's going to dances. If Dave doesn't get home soon he's going to miss it.

The next two photos disturb me more than anything. They paused outside to make last minute phone calls & make sure they had their IDs, money, lip gloss, & other girly things.

It was the last stab to my heart to watch my little girl walk off & as she turned around she looked more grown up than I care to admit *sigh* Where's my glass of wine?

Security Changes

So today brought a new change that I'm implementing into my life, well our life. I've decided to put Devlan into hourly childcare a couple times a week. It's not a half day or full day situation, just a couple hours in the morning. It was a decision that needed to be made. I remind myself that Camden was in PreK at the same age so it's really no big deal. Then there's the "but he's my baby, my LAST baby" aspect so yes it was hard for me. Yet it was rewarding when I picked him up & he had a smile on his face. He had a great time & actually WANTS to go back tomorrow. So that eases my fears a lil bit.

Then I realize that soon my security blanket will be removed. They're growing up at a rate that gains momentum every year & I know that in the blink of an eye they'll be moved off, starting families of their own. I'll always picture them as they are now: sweet, loving, smiley hellions  & I'll pray that somewhere along the way I instill in them how to be the best people they can be. Amen.