Moments Like These

It is moments when you least expect it that you catch yourself falling in love with those moments. Last night was no exception. My little angel, who has suddenly started acting like she is so independent and like she is 21 years-old during the day, melts my heart at bed time. Last night she climbed into bed with me and laid her head on my chest like she used to when she was such a tiny baby. As a tiny baby I used to lay there holding her and be able to touch her feet and all of her tiny toes and imagined what she would sound like when she talked, what she would become one day, what she would look like. Last night, I imagined the same thing, even though I could not reach her feet or her toes. She made me melt all over again. After many battles with her throughout the day, these are moments that I cannot and will not take back. She is as stubborn and sassy as the day is long. She is VERY opionated, and I wonder where she gets that? I do know that she will be great at whatever she does, because of her stubborness and her opinions and her sass. I know she will be beautiful to me. She is one of my precious gifts.

Pink Wallets and Dresses

After work, I went to pick up my sweet little girl. We get home and she is wanting to know where her daddy is. I tell her I don't know, but he would be home soon. Since yesterday was such a warm day, we decided we would wait outside until he gets home. As soon as he pulls around the corner, she asks her daddy to take her for a ride. He convinces her that we need to wait for her brother to get home and then we would go for a drive. Ella is all about going for a ride to see the ducks, the horses, the cats, the dogs, the goats, the donkey. It is amazing what animals we have in town, and my daughter knows where they all live!! Anyway, Tanner gets home and Ryan says, let's go to Wal-Mart. Tanner runs inside to get his wallet. Ella looks at me and asks "Where is my pink wallet?" Hmm, didn't know you were suppose to have one. So, at Wal-Mart we buy her one. She picks out the one she wants. She first picked out one with hearts, then one with cupcakes, then the heart one again only to wind up with a pink camo one. We then go to find Ryan another white shirt and Tanner is itching to spend his money. We go to the video games and he gets a new video game. He is quickly becoming the video gamer. (Scary thought for me!) We leave and head home for the night.

This morning, she woke very early, not to mention for about an hour last night. We were all ready except for Ella. Ryan and I put off getting her dressed for as long as possible. For one, she never wants to take her night dress off and put clothes on. For another, she never wants to wear what we pick out. If it is a dress, sometimes that is ok, but she would rather pick out her own dress. This morning was no different. Ryan goes in to change her clothes and her first words "No daddy, I don't want to take my dress off." He finally convinces her to take it off as he is pulling it off. As we are heading out the door, she has to take her pink wallet with her. In the car on the way over to Nesey and Pop's she asks where her money is and if I would give her some to put in her wallet. I gave her some change out of my car and she thanked me so much for her money. It was so sweet, because she was excited and had money in her wallet ready to take on the day!

Wow!!

I cannot believe that I made it through yesterday. I knew it was going to be a busy day, but I was completely blown away by what transpired yesterday. If anyone drove by the courthouse here in town, you probably noticed the numerous cars parked around. I have never seen so many people in the courtroom here in Childress. I actually felt like we were in Carson County, where we have 60 or so defendant's every time we go to court. We had a visiting judge, who I think is good, and a lot of old cases were cleaned off the docket. Ones that have not had anything done with in a year or so. Pretty amazing what happens when things get rolling. Anyway, from the time I got to work yesterday until 6pm last night, I don't know that I sat down for more than 20 minutes. People were sent to prison, some were put on probation and some cases were dismissed. But all in all, a very busy day. I do have to say thank you to Stephanie. If you remember back in January, I was not ready to get back in the swing of things and was wanting to be in better shape to go up and down the stairs at the courthouse. Well, if it were not for Stephanie and the treadmill, that I have come to being used to, or those weights, I would not have made it up and down as many times as I did. I may have, but I would have been dead LONG before I was ever finished. Thank you Stephanie for getting me motivated!! I do have to say though, I was sore last night and this morning from climbing the stairs in heels. I don't recommend that often!!

It happened!!

My day got worse yesterday and then better. We had our new electric water heater installed yesterday and 2 hours later, my bathroom was flooded! Yep! Flooded.
Ryan and I had something we had to go to, and I knew we would not have enough hot water to take a shower by the time I needed to take a shower. Ryan took the kids to his moms and I went to my moms to shower. I get home and I hear water pouring out somewhere. I look to the kitchen sink. The water is not running. I immediately head to the bathroom and as I round the corner I see water coming into the hall way and the noisy is much louder. One of the connections blew loose and needless to say was spraying water all over my bathroom. I call mom and tell her to get dad over to my house now. That water is spraying out of the top of the old hot water heater. I run outside to see if I can find the thing to turn off the water meter. Ryan pulls up at that time and I frantically tell him to help me find the thing to turn off the water meter. He is looking at me like I'm crazy and I tell him that water is spraying all over the bathroom. Keep in mind, we have to be somewhere in less than an hour. Dad comes in and Ryan is outside turning off the meter. Finally we get the water turned off and I start the process of cleaning up the water. All of it. My dad is fixing the connection and I am wiping down the walls in the bathroom.
I guess I could look at it this way. My bathroom is clean and so is my hall!!

Bad Day

I'm not going to say that today is not going to get any worse. And if it does, I'm going to bed and not emerging until I HAVE to. I guess it started at about 2:15 this morning. I heard the train sirens thinking why in the world are they so loud and what is going on? Well, I soon found out. THE WIND!! As I am lying in bed, I'm thinking, this is good, less roof for me to have to tear off next weekend. Sweet....Then another thought hits....OH MY, the trees! I hope they didn't die from the tornado last year. I hope they don't fall on my roof. I hope they don't fall on my neighbors roof!! Finally go back to sleep somewhere around 3:30ish. I couldn't get the trees off my mind. 6:30 rolls around. My son is up.
Tanner:"Mom what are you doing?"
Me:(barely awake):"Trying to sleep"
Tanner: "Mom, where's dad?"
Me:(wondering why he cares):"In your bed asleep."
Tanner: "Mom, can I watch TV?"
Me:(Becoming annoyed):"I don't care."
Tanner:"Mom, can I watch tv in here?"
Before I get to answer,he runs out of my bedroom to go to the bathroom. On his rush out of my room, he wakes Ella up, who was sleeping in the living room. ( I know, I'm a bad mom. I left her asleep where she fell asleep!) So now, both kids are awake and wanting to watch tv. I tell Tanner, to go turn the tv on in the living room and watch cartoons with his sister, so I can get 10 more minutes. He happily obliged only to have Ella come back into my room 5 minutes later declaring she needs to watch Mickey Mouse. We get up and start getting ready to go to the Bakery, our Saturday morning routine. Ryan went outside to check out the wind damage, and found we had a gas leak in our back yard. So we called the gas company and they said they would send someone over to check it out. So, Ryan had to stay behind to wait for the gas company and the rest of us headed to the bakery. Get to the bakery, enjoy our breakfast and come home. Being the good wife I am, I brought Ryan a cup of coffee back. Still no Gas Guy. He showed up and shut our gas off. Thank goodness a year and a half ago we switched out our gas furnace for an electrical one. Or we would have been without heat today!!
I call the one person I knew to call. He worked with my dad at Villyards. I asked him what to do and he said he would come by and check it out. He did, said that should work and to call them back to have them turn the gas back on. Too easy right? Right. The Gas Guy comes back and says, I can't turn your gas back on because you still have a small leak. A small leak? Are you kidding me? Does he not know I have laundry piled high, floors that need to be mopped and a house that needs to be scrubbed? Ok. Call the Fixer Guy and my dad back. Both agree, it would be cheaper to take out the gas hot water heater and install an electrical one, than it would be to locate the gas line, dig up the yard, replace the gas line, get city permits and inspections, just for gas for a hot water heater. So, new water heater. That means I will not be able to wash clothes, mop the floors, or scrub my house this weekend. We will be going else where to take a shower.
Got that part settled. Things can settle down right? Oh no! Ella starts pitching a fit. She can't find her dad, she can't find her bird, she can't put her birdhouse together! Oh the drama! Finally get her down for a nap. Ok. This is good. Ella wakes up from her nap and wants some juice. Go to the kitchen to get her juice. Pour some in her cup and set the juice back in the fridge. One problem. I didn't get the lid on good, and when I set the bottle down it turned over and nearly a third of the bottle of juice wound up poured into my fridge. Take Ella her juice and go back. I have to pull the veggie drawer out. Clean the glass good and the drawer. Look into the next one. Yep. Had to clean it too. Get it cleaned out and the glass above that drawer cleaned. Kept looking down. Yep. Bottom of the fridge found the rest of the juice. So, needless to say, my fridge is clean (just don't look at my shelves!).
I hope everyone else is having a better day than I am having. Like I said, I'm not going to say it can't get any worse, because I'm sure it will. Just know if you don't see me for a few days, I'm in bed hoping nothing else goes wrong!!

Weird Cravings

Last night I had this weird craving. I wanted to eat some cucumber slices and pico de gallo. I have no idea why, but last night that sounded so good to me. Ryan and I have been trying to do better with our eating habits and sitting down to eat a meal with the kids. Anyone who has known me since I was a kid, knows I was never a big vegetable eater. About the only vegetables I would eat were, green beans, corn, corn on the cob, black eyed peas, fried squash and fresh tomatoes, ones right from the vine in our backyard. My mom always made me try three bites of everything every time we sat down to eat. I HATED asparagus, spinach, red beans, cucumbers, celery, just about any other vegetable you can think of. Now that I am older and a mom, I make my kids do the same thing. Tanner will get so mad at me and take as small as bites as he possibly can to say he ate three bites. I don't know if my taste buds have changed, but now I will eat cucumbers, fried or roasted asparagus, spinach that is fresh in my salad, peas, zuchini, egg plant, brocolli, and red beans. I just find it so weird at what I will eat and try now that I am growing up! (I won't same that I'm grown, because you are only as young as you want to be!) Does anyone else crave things like that? Am I weird? (Ryan, no response!)

Precious Moments

There are times when my children are so sweet and loving to each other and then there are times when they could kill one another. I know it is the whole sibling thing, that is what they are suppose to do, but jeez, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster most nights.

Ella has been funny voicing her opinions lately. Saturday night, she decided she wanted to sleep in Tanner's bed. Usually, I can talk her out of it and she will go to sleep with me rocking her in the recliner and then put to bed. Saturday, was a whole different story. She wanted to sleep with her brother and there was no way around it. I asked Tanner if it would be alright for his sister to sleep with him. He reluctantly agreed. So we said "Amen" and kissed both kids goodnight. My arms felt empty for the first time in a long time. I have always put Ella to bed at night and after two years it was kind of hard, but nice. 30 minutes later I go in to Tanner's room to see if they are asleep. No, Ella won't hush. I guess she is so excited that she gets to sleep with her brother that she hasn't gotten still or quiet to go to bed. I have to tell her to get quiet and go to sleep. "K Mom" Go back in 30 minutes later and they are both sound asleep. I noticed Tanner holding her hand. That made my heart melt. Next morning we get up and as I'm fixing breakfast I asked Tanner how sleeping with his sister went. "Fine", his standard reply to EVERYTHING. No elaboration just "Fine." I asked if she finally got still and he said "Yea. But I had to hold her hand before she would go to sleep." I told him he was an awesome brother for letting his little sister sleep with him. So, now, she starts off in Tanner's bed, but quickly winds up in my lap to be rocked to sleep. That time by far is my favorite time of day.

As I was typing that, I was trying to think back on my childhood memories wondering if I ever slept with my sister. I can honestly say I didn't. But that didn't mean my sister didn't torment me or we didn't have fun when I was little. One of my favorite memories is the first Christmas she came home from college. We moved to Clarendon the summer before she went to college, so having her home was a big thing for me. I had my sister back. For me, moving that time without her being there was hard. She was the one who I had moved with lots of times and we shared our experiences together. Anyway, the first night home, she and I laughed and stayed up late. We were mostly laughing because as a Sophomore in high school, I was balancing her checkbook. That night, I guess it was around 3AM, my mom comes in the kitchen and tells us to get quiet and go to sleep. We were both in our own beds, in our own rooms laughing and talking and keeping mom and dad awake. We started giggling histerically because we had heard mom say many many times, "Girls, get quiet and go to sleep" I remember going to bed that night realizing how much my sister meant to me and what having her home meant. I hope that one day my kids will be able to have memories similar to that.