Time Flies...

Spent the day with my first daughter yesterday...it was awesome as always. I cannot believe how big my grandbaby is getting and wow the curls!!! I cherish every minute with them and have to give all my thanks to God for blessing me with such a wonderful relationship with my firstdaughter and her family. I try to explain how it is I feel when I am there, but for some reason the words illude me. I know that I am her first mom, but I also know I am not her mom. Nor do I intend to be. I am no longer jealous of the relationship that she and her mom have, and amazingly enough, have not had those feelings from day one of our first face to face. I really thought that I would, but I think that in my mind all I could see was that tiny little baby. Now it is REAL to me that she is no longer a baby but a grown woman and I am proud that I had some little part in that. Not in raising her, but in nurturing her while she was still apart of me and for being blessed enough to have found a wonderful family. She and her mom are so very close and it tugs at my heart...in a good way. :)

They have made me feel welcome and like a part of thier family from day one. It has meant so much to me that they made sure that my first daughter knew about me and about her brothers and sister. I still say that having an open adoption is something I don't think I could have done, but I feel as if in a way that is what we have now. When I was young, it was still too fresh and the pain was unbearable. My feeling is that it would have been like pouring salt into an open wound. The thought of seeing "my" baby with someone else, calling someone else momma, and then having to watch them leave with her everytime would have been too much for me to bear. I have to say that I have an enormous amount of admiration for those first moms who are in open adoptions. I took lots of pics and cannot wait to share...hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and I'll try to post again soon :)

Made it!!!!

This week has been so much fun, but an experience I do not want to repeat...LOL.
Our Church had it's annual week of VBS and it was a blast, but by Wed. everyone was exhausted, teachers and children alike...:(. Last year I had so much fun, learning the songs and the dances that go with, and this year was a whole new ball game. I was with the first graders last year, one classroom over from my oldest son. This year we had twelve two and three year olds!!!
Thank the Lord we had three teachers, as well as two of us had teen daughters that were too old to attend but were able to volunteer and they helped immensely. The girls got to spend the first hour in our small chapel working on the routines for the pre k and four yr olds then they would come help us after that. Setting up snacks and helping to keep the kids entertained by dancing for them while they ate. It was the cutest thing ever :). OOOHHH and the highlite of the week...drum roll plz....lol, my daughter has her first boyfriend. He goes to the church and actually helped in our room this week. He's really sweet.

I know that this year I will be having my own class, the two yr olds, and so now I have an idea of what to expect. The difference, however, is that this was all week and MDO is only Tues and Thurs, so we get a break in between. Of course, the drawback to that is MDO is a six hour day as opposed to three ...ugh. Really though, I'm thoroughly thrilled, excited and nervous, to be having my own room next year. I'm anxious to get in and start getting my classroom ready and to see how this first year will be. Thankfully, my friend and co worker from Wednesday nights is going to be my assisting teacher. She's great, I love working with her and our kids have a blast together. We are both ready to get started and I'm so happy that we both have the same ideas about what we want and don't want in our class. It's hard to explain, but for me......being able to work with the children of fellow church goers is the most satisfying and enjoyable "job" I've ever had. I feel blessed to have been given the opportunity to care for and get to know these children as well as develop a special relationship with thier parents. Before, it was just the other couples I attended bible class and church with, now it's ....I don't know...just a blessing I never dreamed of.

There is so much more that I could write, but I'll keep it short for now....have a great weekend!!!

Ready for school....sort of

I cannot believe another summer has flown by, the year too for that matter. Katlyn will be starting 8th grade this year and Travis 2nd grade...wow! It seems like only a short while ago Katlyn was starting 6th grade and her first year in middle school and Travis his very first day of Kindergarten.

Even though Travis went to a Pre K and that was a BIG deal for me, and him. It was not the same as his first REAL day of school. I cried the whole first week. I would drop him off and remember that it was only a few months ago my baby girl was in the very same school. Now I was taking my middle child there and my big Baby girl was going to middle school. I don't know which was worse, my daughter starting the first day of Kindergarten when she was an only child, or both of them starting a new school at the same time. What is really going to be hard is when Katlyn starts High School and my youngest starts Kindergarten.

I am anxious to get them back in school and out from under my feet, but at the same time I wish they'd stay little forever. I told a friend the other day that I was looking forward to my youngest starting school, but I know that will in a way seem like a finality in the sense that my babies are all growing up. Last year in Mothers Day Out at my church, I was assisting in the Pre K room, and the teacher I was helping was one of the very teachers that Katlyn had when she went there. She's 13 now...u do the math..LOL. Anyhow, they have a graduation ceremony just like schools do for the Kindergarteners, and the 5th graders when they leave for Middle School. Serveral of our kids were graduating and getting ready to move on to kindergarten. We had several practices in the small chapel the last couple of weeks and wow...I cried. I have pic on my fridge of Katlyn on the very same stage getting her little diploma, wearing her graduation cap and it just brought all that back to me. Since I am a teacher there, Caleb gets to attend for a discounted price and I am dreading the day when it's his turn to be up on that stage. I will bawl like a baby I know it already!!!

Anyway...guess I'm just sitting here being sad that all my "babies" are growing up and one day they'll be all grown with babies and families of thier own. Okay...going to stop there, before I really do start to cry.

I'll be back to post again soon....

Really Long time......LOL

I don't know if anyone ever reads my blog at all anymore, but if so then thanks for listening.
Hmmmm......Not much really going on with me. Life and family, like everyone else.

I did quit babysitting and am now working as much as I can at my church. I love it, not only do I get to get out of the house and be with other adults..hahaha, but I can bring my kids with me. Of course, I can leave them at home with their daddy too. I started out trying to babysit when I got laid off which was nice for awhile, but soon got annoying. Don't get me wrong, I love kids, I really do. Suppose I must since I have three right? :)

I just couldn't take the parents and the wishy washiness, "how much do I owe you?", "what time do you put "?" down for a nap?"...seriously?!? I even had a set time that the kids had to be picked up...5:30....me calling at 5:30..."you almost here?"....mom reply"I'm leaving now.."....AAAAAHHHH!!!! Not only that, but drop the kid off at no later than 9 am and pick up at 5:30 or later and only send maybe some fruit chews and a can of spaghettios and not one thing to snack on for later. I only charged 20 a day....no set amount during the week. Hell, there were days when the kid had no change of clothes...no diapers or wipes and occasionally nothing at all to eat in her bag. Not to mention bringing her over when it's maybe 50 degrees outside in a light jacket and sandals? Geesh.

Ok...enough about that. I started working at my church Wednesday nights, watching kids for the parents with choir and other things going on and then they asked me if I could work in MDO(mothers day out), in the preschool class. I jumped on it. I am now going to be a lead teacher in the 2 year old room next year and am working every other Sunday Morning as well as an occasional Sunday evening. I get to work with children which I love and be around other great people and still get to be there for my kids...could I ask for anything better? NO!
It's a win win for me...work but not work and that's hard to find. I worked the music camp with my daughter and my friend and it was a blast.

I am looking forward to seeing my firstdaughter and my grandson at least once this summer before school starts back up..haven't seen them since Jan 1st, and I know that little boy is getting so big. Hit a milestone bday this year...the big 40! Ugh....then to top it off my daughter turned 13....wow how time flies. I was lucky enough to go to the Jonas Brothers Concert with my daughter who was thoroughly ticked that I got a better seat than her. Her best friend and her won tickets and so I had intended to wait in a tent outside with all the other parents. About ten minutes after I had gotten in and started reading my book, a woman came in and offered me a free ticket...wow! It was fun, but a little awkward being a grown woman with no teenage or younger child sitting next to me...I felt like a pervert..LOL! Even though I knew that my daughter was there, no one else did! Anyhow, I love that I was there for my daughters first REAL concert.

Well. I'm sure there is so much more I've left out and I am sorry that it's been so long. Hope everyone is having a wonderful year and summer!

Much Love and God Bless

Happy 2009 Ya'll!

Wow...another year has flown by. This year has already been plagued by both good and bad luck...no surprise there..lol.
I was lucky enough to go and spend the day with my first daughter and my grandson, her mom and family. We had a blast, myself, Katlyn and Caleb. Ate, and ate and ate, played uno and just talked until the time had flown by. :( Then that is where MY luck went south, trying to get the car loaded and ready to go so that I didn't have to worry about anything more than coat, purse and children, I miscalculated the steps and down I went. I heard a very loud pop and prayed that it wasn't me...and that I would be able get up. I did get up, and at first, other than feeling a little tender and throbbing, I was walking fairly normally. Of course I went back inside and sat down only to feel intense pain when I got back up to leave. UGH! I had to drive for two hours with a sprained ankle on New Years Day...Happy New Year to me lol. I have had a few jammed fingers and a badly sprained toe before, but this was new to me and damn it hurt :(. Of course the one thing that was stressed, STAY OFF IT!, was nearly impossible. My hubby had to work the next day and heaven forbid I ask my daughter to do anything...get the typical eye roll and sigh and then I'm irritated and do it myself anyway. Then for the weekend anytime I asked my husband for anything, it was like pulling teeth, like father, like daughter..GRRRR.
Other than that, it's been fairly smooth sailing, if you don't include the 494.00 violation I got from the Toll Tag office for a car we no longer own. We sold my car in August and just six days after the sale, he went through the toll tag and didn't pay and then for most of December and the first couple of days in Jan too. Enough times to rack up a 500 dollar fine. I could not find the bill of sale and freaked, so I backtracked and found his name and number from an old phone bill. I called him and confronted him about it, to which he seemed genuinely shocked. Bullcrap! He told me that he had already changed the registration..Lie! I called DPS and they confirmed my suspicions and so I had to fill out and mail in a Transfer of Vehicle Notification...blah, blah, blah.
It was not only important I do this to get out of his fine, but when the registration expires at the end of this month, he HAS to switch it to his name....woohoo!
Two more things to ring in the new year, a code violation from the city to scrape and paint our house...YIKES...I guess that's pretty bad huh? Next but not least, the person I babysit for wants to renig on what we discussed at the beginning of the school year. I am going to do a lot of praying for a better year ahead... and hope ya'll have a great one too!