Weekend Wrap-up (picture addition)

As far as weekends go this one was pretty uneventful...Just the way I like it.

Thursday and Friday nights I worked an event (Festival on the Border) which basically is a couple days of concerts and proceeds go to local charities. Thursday night was Stoney Larue and Justin Moore and Friday was 38 Special. I must say, attending concerts sober is an altogether different experience from attending one w a six pack of Bud Light Platinum w 3 limes cocktail or two.

The category five hurricane light smattering of rain both nights was not the highlight of the evening but this was sure pretty to look after the storms had passed

Justin was'nt too hard on the eyes either...

The little kids were all in Northwest Arkansas visiting their dad/godmother so it was rare mommy/Kaileigh time..and what did we do you ask? We watched a musical of course..I love the watching her watch the movie. Her sweet smile is genuine and precious to see (cause I don't see it very often anymore)

This was what I had my head buried in most of Saturday. I am a sucker for Nicholas Sparks...this one is "The Lucky One" and the book did not disappoint...the movie was not so great, but I got a chance to do this (see picture below) so I am not complaining one bit.

Sunday after I finished the book we rented the movie and the BF watched it with me. This is my most favorite time of the day..Either right before bed or just as I am waking up. There is this Howie Day song called "Collide" where he talks about tangled up in someone and that is what we call this.

finally...The BF brought these home for me..no reason flowers are the best kind of flowers to get I do believe and it was the perfect way to end a perfect weekend...

Always~Sometimes~Never

Emory addition......

Today my blog is being taken over by my nine year old...she is nicknamed the diva for a reason....the rules of the game are easy...thanks to Ellen , Brie, and Taylor

and away we go...

Always

always put deoderant on in the morning because if you don't your mom will yell at you that you stink

always be polite or your gonna get popped in the mouth

always take out the trash or you'll get grounded and it will stink

Sometimes

sometimes you have good days, and sometimes you have bad days. Good days are staying in bed all day bad days are having to go to school and get an F on your test.

sometimes your mom can get on your nerves because she cleans your face with her spit or picks your nose

sometimes you just have to take it like a man. even if your not a man. Like when your little brother goes in your room or your older sister yells at you that she is gonna knock your head off for teasing her about a boy she crushes on..

Never

never stick your tongue out at your mom cause she might pop your face and make you bite your own tongue

never turn your  homework in late. you get in trouble and that sucks (she turns to me and says opps, is that a bad word)

never forget your underwear it can be painful when you have to go to the restroom

Ok, so this is Wendy again. As I am interviewing my daughter I am trying not to giggle (this was serious business to her) while at the same time asking myself if I should even be posting this (do you think I am in jeporady of loosing my parent card?? but oh well, posting anyway, if I don't censor myself how the heck is it fair of me to censor my babies??

SMH.....so there you have it, this weeks always sometimes never as told by Emory Brewer

I Wonder....

I wonder..... if I will ever be able to explain to my babies why some peoples babies don't live. We have been following the daily updates on Baby Liam Lyon and it broke my heart to know that his little heart stopped beating last night. It reminded me of Jack, and Leighton and how truly precious life is. I stopped screaming at my own kids for a second and hugged them so tight (I think they must have been thinking I was hitting a crack pipe or something but oh well, won't be the last time they think that)

I wonder.....if you can mend fences, rebuild bridges, turn a new leaf, dust yourself off and try again (insert your own cheesy analogy here) I really hope so. I have always leaned on the side of optimism so I am willing to stay sidewise for awhile if that means I can fix some of the mistakes I myself made..It's been very humbling to stop talking and whining long enough to realize that I am not as blameless as I like to defend myself to be. Understanding why I did it is not the same as saying I am very.truly.sorry.

and I am

I wonder..... when my son grew up from the little momma's boy that he was last week to the big boy he is now. Some Isaiah cuteness this week includes:

"look mom I have abs"

Isaiah had Evan, his BFF spend the night on Saturday and the next morning when the boys were eating pancakes at the table this was our conversation... Me: "boys, if you are talking you can't be eating" Evan: "I can talk and eat at the same time" and while pointing at me with his fork MY son says "Not in this house you can't"

made me fall in love with him all over again.....HE DOES LISTEN!!!

and this was the cutest picture of all...both my boys working on Isaiah's homework together...I think I might have teared up a minute, until I realized how much they would roll their eyes and make fun of me for it so I went back to the dishes.  


I wonder.....if YOU will ever know that I do genuinely love you, pray for you and think about you....wherever you are and I hope that you are well and happy and healthy. Sometimes it is nice to just push pause for a second and let someone know your there..Thank you for thinking of me too.....

Writer's Workshop

This week I am taking time out of my busy completely boring day to take part in Mama Kat's Writer's Workshop and here are the prompts....
The Prompts:


1.) Share something your child taught YOU about parenting.
2.) What do you remember most about your childhood bedroom?
3.) Tell us about something you broke.
4.) If you could change career paths now and be anything you wanted to be…what would you be and why?
5.) Write a post about your third grade teacher.


I choose number 2.) What do you remember most about your childhood bedroom?

My older sister JaLana and I shared a room as soon as the spawn of Satan was concieved we got the joyous news that I was going to have a younger brother.(I'm kidding he's not the Spawn of Satan....at least I don't actually think that today). Our bedroom had shag carpet and this wall paper that my sister and I hated. It was yellow and had great big sunflowers on it. Need I say more?

ugh!

you can imagine how horrified we were to have a room with decor as shown above. We wanted our room to look like this

and this is more accurate potrayal of what our room looked like...bless our mom's heart.

My sister is 5 years older than me and made my life a living hell whenever my mom wasnt around loved every second of sharing a room with her adoreable sister. We'd lay in bed at night screaming, yelling, and throwing things at each other having long meaningful talks about life and love. I may or may not have gotten a few spankings for breaking her Barbie Doll house, reading her "love notes" and sneaking out onto the driveway and hiding between the family Station Wagon (nicknamed the Dragon Wagon)and my dad's Taurus so that I could listen in on conversations she tried to have with whatever boy she had a crush on at the time. I may or may not have even gotten a spanking from my dad (which hardly ever happened) for kicking said crush of the week in the you know where.....

Needless to say I spent alot of my childhood in that bedroom mostly not out of choice...

I have had asthma my whole life and another memory I have is the noise my humidifier made at night. The humming sound and misty water that came out of it was comforting. My mom would put it all the way on the other side of the room and when she would come wake me up in the morning it would be right up to the edge of my bed. I did that so I could lean over and let the water soak my face and hair during the night... still to this day in the winter I use one and think of that tiny bedroom where I lay dreaming up how my life was going to go when I grow up...I'll let you know if any of those dreams came true when I finally get around to growing up.....

I listened to New Kids on the Block, Cyndi Lauper, Heart, Roger Miller, Duran Duran, any band that had hair that locks of love would turn down because of the amount of chemicals used on it in that room. I played with my Rainbow Bright, my brothers He-Man dolls, watched Smurfs and Alf and wrote in journal after journal in that room. 

As a parent I can only pray that my children have that own comfortable, safe, feeling about the space they take up in my house. I hope they write on the walls and ding up the trim, and hide my spoons in the bushes outside their window so that when we go to move and rip up the wallpaper, have company and have to explain that no we do not have monkeys for pets my kids were just playing, or laugh at how mad I used to get when I could'nt find my silverware.... we will be reminded that we have history. we have memories and we actually lived a loud, full life instead of going through the motions of a cookie cutter, tidy life. 

Been There Pinned That

Pinterest,

I love you. Next to SongPop and Dice with Buddies I waste more time visit you on a daily basis. I spend more time with you than my own family and for these reasons they don't mind sharing.....

 here is why the diva likes you,swear that kid should have been born a boy...until she does something girly proving you can't pin her to just one board.. 

Stuffed Strawberries here illustrate why the boyfriend likes you.

My yum board gets lots of revists by me, this boy likes to eat...

Keeping with our Neverland theme (that is what we call my house) we have lots of forts like this quilt tent here . My living room is NEVER completely put together anymore and the furniture is usually covered with sheets, blankets, shirts, jackets, pillowpets, and any other scrap of material he can find. I hope my little prince never out grows wanting magical places like this one.

cute hair like this keeps my teenage dreamer happy. She gets bored easily like her mama so she is constantly wanting new ways to wind up her weave :)

I just love you, not for who you are but for who I am when I am with you...sigh!!!

Always-Sometimes-Never



This is a fun post that I didnt get around to doing last week so I am gonna do it now... The idea came from 
here, and here, and one more.....here.  This one is work edition...here we go

~always~

Have Pandora playing somewhere (either on my phone or my computer) i hate silence, much to the chagrin of the lady in the office next to me. Me being bipolar she might be subjected to Marilyn Monroe show tunes or Marilyn Manson slasher songs...poor tolerant JoAnn

Get excited when it is office supply ordering day. There is nothing like the smell of white out or making those squiggles on a scratch piece of paper so that your brand new Sharpie pen will work and don't get me started on how I feel about the way the stamp holder looks when you only have a few stamps left. You can't just leave the empty paper hanging and if you rip it too close to the end of the roll it wont be a roll anymore it just sort of curls up there sad and ugly looking

Have some article laying around that does not belong on my desk (exhibit A..sons swim goggles from last week that i am just too lazy to take home so swamped at work that i just dont have the time to put them in my bag. I do need to remember to take his homework home though he might need that)

~sometimes~

I can see the top of my desk..not this day, but sometimes I can see it

(SEE ABOVE PICTURE FOR ILLUSTRATION OF MY POINT)

Pretend that I have been here...or that I will be here someday. This hangs on my wall (with approved tape so as to not make the paint peel) and I may or may not have posted this on my boyfriends facebook wall a time or three to remind him...lest he forget

I have been known to scream out random cuss words if I lose a round at Song Pop. Our patients prob think someone working in the back has tourettes but nope, sadly, it's just me...( think I am reigning champ in the Ultimate 90"s and Love Songs categories)

~never

Have my filing caught up on..I hate filing and I'd rather go out into the clinic and collect urine samples (well, maybe not urine samples but I am sure there is something I could have more fun doing than filing)

Thought I would be labeled the toilet paper nazi but it is a title I inherited from my predecessor. The cleaning lady steals our toilet paper therefore it stays locked up in my  office and she has to come and ask me for rolls each time we get low...

Someone Actually Got a Smile Out of Him

The BF really hates pictures. He loathes them. It's almost like dealing with a 14 yr old girl the way he picks apart how he looks, what he is wearing, his weight, you name it.

So when I suggested we go get pictures made (in his uniform which is absolutely a huge turn on in my book) I thought I would get a big loud hell no. I got an eyeroll and a very timid ok.

So I ran with that!!! Originally I had planned on it being him and the kids but the post on his ex wife is a whole seperate topic...cut to the chase no babies, just us.

and here is a couple of the finished product..not only did I get him there in his uniform. I got a smile or two :)

I heart my soldier!!!

the wheels on the bus

Is it the first day of school already??

Over You

Today is a meloncholy one for me. I never know what is going to trigger it or how it's going to manifest itself, but Last night The Linda's and I (and I will have to blog on who the Linda's are another time) started texting back and forth about the upcoming anniversay of the day we lost our friend to cancer two years ago. It reminded me of another little guy that touched my life and the five years it's been since he has been in heaven as well. and then of course my thoughts turned to Leon. How it's only been 8 months but at times it feels like 8 seconds and others its 8 years.

Does time really heal all wounds?

Tonight my bestest partner in laughs and I are going to see Miranda Lambert. While I love her and I do mean LOVE her (Gunpowder and Lead is my go to she-woman song) she also sings a song that always brings me to my knees.

When Leon died of course all the songs we used to play over and over in high school ran throuh my head. Our first song, the songs we danced to at prom, the song we played at graduation and the song that was on the radio the day he pulled over in the First National Bank parking lot to ask me to marry him (he had just bought the ring and was so excited he had to give it to me right then and there in the middle of one of his Mazzio's Pizza deliveries) young love is so powerful and even as the passing of years and the fighting and bitterness set in there is something about sharing so much history with someone that for someone like me a song brings it all back like none of the bad happened. 16 years ago I never saw the time when I would be sitting on my bed and hear this song and lose it. The song talks about December (Leon died December 1) and I heard the song for the first time in Feb (which is also in the song)  I never thought something like this would pertain to me. And I never thought my heart would rebreak each and every time I hear our 15 yr old daughter singing it in the shower crying for a whole different kind of heartbreak....

"it really sinks in, you know, when i see it....in stone"

Always-Sometimes-Never

While stalking reading this super cute blog I follow I stumbled upon something fun I wanted to try....It's called Always Sometimes Never, and I could bore you with the explanation but your a smart crew just keep reading you'll get the gist.......

Walmart Visa Cards

 ALWAYS-make sure the person loading the card has an IQ above your five your old

SOMETIMES- you need to have a cold beer before calling the helpline for actual help (or an English speaking/understanding operator)

NEVER- try to use a card with an expired date

GRADE SCHOOL ORIENTATIONS

ALWAYS-make sure your iphone is charged so you have something to do when the first time parent next to you starts asking asinine questions

SOMETIMES - it's a good idea to have a glass of wine before you go so you can get through the redundant episode

NEVER-bring small children. I mean it. if you get nothing out of this post please take my advice. Just because we are parents we don't want to listen to your brat super sweet bundle of joy screaming or breaking classroom toys that our tax dollars will have to replace...*true story

ANTHONY

ALWAYS- am so proud of him when he puts on his army uniform. I never saw myself as an army family but now that I am in one it's all camo and black and gold for us. 

SOMETIMES- I think we are in competition to be the next Duggar family. we have SEVEN count them SEVEN kids between us...

NEVER- will I get used to the smell of his gas. It doesn't matter what I cook it's always nauseous and I always have to ask if he needs to be seen by a doctor for any stomach ailments..

THE BABIES

ALWAYS- I have to say their names in order like a song so I won't forget or leave one out. It's like the 50 states or names of the president or the spelling of Mississippi. if you can just spout it off without thinking your a rockstar...me? I'm more like a roadie

SOMETIMES- I wonder why one or both of us didnt run like hell when we realized how many kids we have between us

NEVER- would I trade or wish away a single one of them. KAILEIGH, EMORY, AYDEN, ISAIAH, EMMA BAILEY AND AJ are our world and each one of them bring something that completes our family.