My memories from that day

Are your memories from 9/11 fuzzy, or crystal clear? What about the days following? I can remember every single moment from that day, as well as a few days later. I'm not sure if I've always remembered everything, or if it's come back to me in pieces. I've begun working on our 10 year class reunion, so I'm in a bit of nostalgia mode anyway, thinking back to that year. My most vivid memory from my senior year in high school isn't graduation, prom, homecoming, or basketball... it's Tuesday, September 11, 2001. ~Johnny Kissko seemed to be the first person who knew anything, and at first told us that a car had exploded in front of the White House. We soon knew that a plane had hit a building in NYC (I knew nothing of the World Trade Center at the time.) ~I was in Mrs. Grey's class, and went across the hall to the library to watch the coverage. I can't remember who now, but some one said, "What is that?" as the second plane flew into the second tower. ~Some people were allowed to stay and watch the news, I had to go to spanish class, where Mrs. C wouldn't let us talk about it AT ALL. She had a friend who worked there, and didn't know if she was still alive. ~We didn't work in any of my other classes that day. ~No one knew who would be attacking us. Weren't we the most powerful country in the world? Wasn't the whole world scared of us? Who would provoke us like this? ~I remember very clearly my physics teacher sitting back and letting us talk all through class. I remember the look on her face, watching us as we sorted things out in our minds. I think she knew how drastically the world changed in that instant, and how it might affect us as seniors more than the younger grades. ~We thought that there would be more attacks, and that Texas would be a target. We didn't know where in Texas, but we thought that since George W. was from here, and we had so many resources, that we were prime real estate. ~I honestly don't know if the school was on lockdown. Did they even do that back then? Or is that something that was introduced after the attacks? ~I didn't shed a single tear all day, until after practice. I went to the field house, and as the boys were coming off the field, I saw my dad and I lost it. He just stood there and held me, although I think it took him a minute to figure out why I was crying. I couldn't figure it out myself, because I am NOT a crier. Ok, I WASN'T a crier then. I was just so mad, and I couldn't talk, so I just cried. And then I was completely embarrassed that all the guys had seen me crying. ~That was my strongest emotion that day. Anger. ~I don't remember much else from the middle of that week, except the pictures and footage that we kept seeing. I didn't want to see it, but I couldn't get enough. ~I remember friday of that week just as vividly as tuesday. ~By coincidence, or providence, friday's pep rally was the "Fire Up" pep rally, to be held at the football field. The football players and us cheerleaders rode into the stadium on fire trucks. This had been planned since the summer. ~When we got off the trucks and in front of the student body, the elementary side of the stands was a sea of mini American flags. I think every single student must have had one. That's when I started choking up. ~My mom was in school and working full time, and didn't make it to many pep rallies, but she was at this one, and filming it. When she turned the camera to those kids, you couldn't see any of their sweet little faces, just the flags they were holding high. ~The band played the national anthem. I'm sure this was done at every pep rally across America that day, but I was so proud that we ALWAYS played it, every week. ~Big, sweet Billy Monpere led the most heart felt prayer. Talked about the victims in NY and DC, their families, and the workers. ~The band also played America the Beautiful, while the flag corp held red, white, and blue flags. ~We traveled to Jim Ned that night, and they had a memorial and played God Bless the USA before the game. ~We won the game (we won most of them that year) and I remember after the game thinking that we had no right to be so happy. I was, too, I don't mean I was standing around scolding people for celebrating. I just mean after it was all over, I felt pretty guilty. I know everyone has their own memories from that day, these are just some of mine, and I wanted to write them down. I never have before. I want to have it down in case my girls ever want to know what I was doing that day. Everyone knows exactly where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed, or JFK was shot. They remember where they were, who they were with, what they felt, etc. If I forget, or heaven forbid something happen to me, I want to have it all down.

Christmas pictures!!

Is it seriously time to start thinking about these?! UGH! Football hasn't even started yet!! But it makes me so happy! Buh-bye, summer, hated the visit, love to see you go!
My friend Lindsey does an amazing job. You should seriously see the "birth" session she just did for my old buddies Sharla and Scott, incredible! And such a good idea, Daddy didn't have to worry about getting all the pictures he was supposed to!
Check out her work!
www.lindseyjostphotography.com

Brynna

My baby is now 20 months. It's almost time to quit counting her age in months. She is ornery and sweet and beautiful and so smart. She's in to everything, speaking sentences, and is very affectionate with her momma, daddy, and LeeLee, always hugging and kissing us.
Brynna's vocabulary has just exploded over the last couple of months. She uses countless words by themselves, and she's begun speaking in sentences. It'll be no time at all that she'll only be speaking in sentences.
Some of her new sayings:
Sure luff you, Momma! my favorite ;)
Share (with) Brynna! when she wants something that her sister has.
My turn!
Don't like it. She usually says this when she's almost finished eating whatever is in her hand, but she wants more.
Ta-La!!! (ta-da)
Hello, is (it's) Brynna. She says this into any phone.
What, Momma? whenever I call her name. or when she's pretending she doesn't understand me.
And my absolute least favorite of all.... WHY???? Honestly, what kind of a kid starts that at 20 months?! Actually, she's been doing it for several weeks now, so it really started at around 18 months. She's not just saying a new word because she likes the way it sounds or hears Sister saying it. She knows exactly what it means and how to use it. She cocks her head to the side, burrows her brows over those massive lashes, and says Why? I've tried combating it by actually answering her. Every time she asks why, I'll say something silly, which leads to another why, something sillier, and so on. It gets boring to her and she walks off, and I feel proud to have outsmarted a toddler. Then I feel silly for feeling proud that I outsmarted a toddler.
She loves to sing. I really hope she inherited Cameron's musical abilities. She got everything else from him! During church, she has begun holding a song book and singing along. She's also picked up some of the words to the songs we listen to a lot. I have several Disney songs on my iPod, as well as some of my fave songs, that we just shuffle and repeat whenever we're in the car. She loves them, and she'll sing along and hit several of the actual words.
Brynna's favorite song, though, by a long shot, is the ABCs. And she knows them! She can go straight through A-G, pick it back up at L-P, and finishes with Y and Z. She can sign about 8-10 of the letters as well. She's trying to learn to count, and knows all the numbers to 10, but gets the order wrong. She can pick out colors when you ask, but will only say PINK! She can sign all of the colors.
Brynna's looks are changing a little, too. She still looks just like Cameron, but she's definitely looking more feminine. Her body is stretching out and thinning, making her look like a little girl and less like my chunky monkey baby. Her eyes are still crystal blue under thick, long eyelashes, and her hair has actually gotten more blonde after a summer in the sun. It's very straight and getting really long in the back, and I think I'm going to have to cut it. The rest is catching up much faster than D'Laney's did, she rocked a mullet for at least 2 years, and I think it'll all get one length pretty soon.
Now that I'm on the road to recovery and things are slowing down, we're going to tackle potty training head on. She's been ready for months, I've just been putting it off. Wish me luck!
My sweet big girl.

D'Laney

Sunday, my Laney-bug will be four. It's almost impossible to wrap my brain around. She has grown into the sweetest little girl. She is very curious about everything, and can be a little bossy and a bit of a know-it-all, I can't imagine where she gets that from! She is certainly a mother hen with her sister, and I have to remind her that it isn't her job to discipline OR grant permission to Brynna. She tends to do both.
D'Laney is maturing by the minute, it seems. She is so smart, and has a memory like I've never seen. She remembers things from months ago, or longer even, in perfect detail. It's crazy.
We're starting to have to really crack down on arguing and talking back from her. It's nothing malicious at all, and just something that she has to work through, but it is exhausting for us! It seems like I spend half the day getting on to her. I sure hope that it's a short phase. Fortunately, there is no attitude to go along with it. Yet. She doesn't roll her eyes, or speak hatefully, or stomp off.
However, when she's not arguing with us, she is so sweet, uses perfect manners, and is so affectionate, to a point that it's a little weird. She'll randomly thank me for things that happened days ago. An example: Momma, thanks for taking me to the water park today (2 weeks ago) I loved it. You're so the best! And then she'll give me a run by hug and kiss whatever she can reach, usually my arm or my hand or something. It's strange. But I love it. And she tells me she loves me constantly. She does have near perfect manners. She never forgets to say please, thank you, you're welcome, no thank you, excuse me (either when she burps or to get by someone,) and yes/no, ma'am/sir. We're working on not interrupting and perfecting table manners. That is both mine and Cameron's number one pet peeve, and our kids might be total hoodlums, but if they have good table manners, we'll be pleased :)
She had another head injury last week, but this one wasn't near as bad as the last. She was running through church and fell into a pew, splitting open her forehead above her right eye. She thought it was much worse, though, because she could actually see all the blood this time, it was running down into her eye. Cameron got her cleaned up and put a butterfly band aid on it. You should have seen the two of them, it looked like they had been to war! D'Laney had blood in her hair and smeared on her forehead, and spots all down her dress. Cameron had a big spot on his t-shirt and a couple of spots on his cheek. We went ahead and took her to the doc the next afternoon, just to be sure she didn't need stitches. She didn't, and he put 3 steri-strips on it to hold it together. The doc didn't seem to think it would scar, and I sure hope he's right.
D'Laney will once again have two birthday parties this year. My post op appt in Angelo is the 26th, which is also my dad's first game at LV, so we're having a party with my side of the family that weekend. We always go to Iraan for Labor Day weekend for football and dominoes, so we'll have a party with Cameron's side that weekend. I certainly don't plan on making a habit of having two parties a piece, but that's the way it worked out this time.
My almost 4 year old. She's never, ever, ever still, and almost always happy, so this pic sums her up better than any other. Her exact words were, take a picture of meeeeeee!!!!! as she was sliding towards me, on her belly, on the coffee table. I have no idea why she keeps busting her head open ;-)

Take the factory out...

When I opened blogger, my computer froze. What, you want to blog?!?!?! hehe no joke!

When Brynna was about 9 months old, my cycle started back up, with a vengeance. I'll spare you the gory details, but I was practically bed ridden for several days a month. In June, I had enough and called the doc. After an ultrasound, she found that I had a lot of fairly large fibroids in my uterus. While they are rarely fatal, they sure do make life miserable, and since we had already decided not to have any more kids and I had a tubal when I had Brynna, we made the decision to have a hysterectomy.
Surgery was on friday, July 29th. It went really well, even though she had to do some unexpected work on my bladder. It was stuck to something, but that conversation is still a little hazy. My ovaries looked great, so she left them, which means no hormone replacements or early menopause. I was in a lot of pain when I woke up, but they got the morphine into me pretty quick, and it wasn't so bad after that.
I was able to get up and walk a little later that day, but I had trouble eating for a couple of days. I never got sick and never really felt nauseated until I smelled whatever it was that I was about to take a bite of. My stomach would flip once, I'd put the food down, and a few minutes later I would be fine. I was able to eat a little sometime Saturday, although I really didn't get my full appetite back until the middle of the next week. They were a little concerned about my bladder since they had to work on it, but as soon as they took the cath out, I was able to use the restroom, so no problems there.
I have really breezed right through recovery. The nurses told Cameron that they haven't seen a patient handle a hysterectomy so well, and to make sure that I take it easy. Since I am feeling so well, they really warned me about overdoing things and having a set back. And they're right. There have been a couple of times when I've done too much too soon, a haircut the day after I got home or a funeral in Angelo saturday, where I've really paid for it the next day. But even those days haven't been too bad. I haven't taken any pain medication in several days, just Motrin, and unless I try to use my stomach muscles for anything, I can't even tell anything happened.
The real test will be tomorrow when my girls get home. They've been in Iraan with Cameron's folks since the day of the surgery. I'm not supposed to pick them up for at least the rest of this week, and probably next week as well. My mom is going to come back and stay a couple of days with us until the girls get used to the idea. I guess now's as good a time as any for them to learn a little self-reliance! Missing them hurts almost as much as the surgery. While I've never minding them spending time with family, and they've never really minded either, 12 days is WAY too long for this momma. Think they'll get freaked out when I cry tomorrow?
I know many of you have been thinking about me and praying for me through all this, so I just wanted to say thank you. Oh, and the title? When Cameron's cousin had the same thing done a few months ago, someone told her they were taking the factory out... Cameron thought this was hilarious and has told everyone he knows.

Brynna is a big girl!

Brynna has been trying to climb out of her crib for a few weeks now, so saturday, we took the crib down to the toddler bed. She's pretty young still, just 17 months, but I didn't think she would have a problem with it. And we certainly didn't want her to succeed in crawling out of the full crib and hurting herself. We just put her in bed, close the door and leave her. We did put the baby gate up outside her closed door, just in case she was able to open it. She hasn't quite mastered going down the stairs yet, especially in the dark.
At night, she has done perfectly. She'll sit in bed and talk to herself for a little while, and she might get out and roam her room for a few minutes, but she'll crawl back in and go to sleep pretty quickly. The first morning she was up at 6:30 (yikes!) but the next morning she slept to her normal 8:30, 9ish. Naptime, though, has been more of a challenge. Sunday and monday, it has taken a couple of hours for her to finally fall asleep. She's not sitting in there crying, she just plays. Today, though, she went right to sleep. I figured it wouldn't take longer than 3 days for her to figure things out, looks like I was right. It's a good thing we put the baby gate up, too, because that little stinker figured out her door knob first thing! She opened the door and was yelling, not crying or upset, just yelling for her Daddy. I don't know why my girls always think Daddy will help them out in situations like that, he never does!
It took D'Laney a little bit longer to get to where she'd stay in bed. I'd find her asleep in the middle of the floor or right in front of the baby gate. This only lasted about two weeks, but I thought Brynna would catch on much sooner.


My big girl!


She doesn't sleep with that pillow. D'Laney just thought she needed one.

Bow holders

I've been meaning to make these for a while. Like since D'Laney was born. Yep, I'm on top of things!
I bought some cheap wooden frames from the dollar store, took out the glass and backing, and spray painted them the same blue that's in the flower painting on the wall in D'Laney's room (previous post.) Then I just hot-glued ribbon inside them.
Now why did that take me almost 4 years to get done?! Well, if you know me at all, that question answers itself. I had the paint, ribbon, and glue. I just had to drive 2 blocks to the dollar store on a day where I needed out of the house for a few minutes.
I'm chock full of ideas for all sorts of things. Execution is my problem. But I'm getting better, and the finished products are so fun, it's certainly motivation.

D'Laney's bedroom

When we moved in to this house, the room that we put D'Laney in had a really cute purple swirl paint job. That is, it was cute if you like purple. I don't. I don't know why, but for some reason I have always despised the color, absolutely hate it. Since D'Laney's bedding was black and red and ladybugs, I had intended to paint the room to match her bedding, but I never got around to it. When we were expecting Brynna and moved D'Laney out of the nursery furniture, I bought yet another Ladybug bedding set, this time for a full size bed. Both sets of bedding clashed horribly with the purple swirls. So a few weeks ago, I decided to forgo painting the room and embrace the purple, and bought bedding that complimented it, instead of matching it. I just don't think I could have handled that much purple.

Right next to the door, these little flowers had been painted on the wall. I took cues from it when it came to the bedding.

I happened to already have blue sheets the same color as the flower pots. I pulled yellow from the faces, pink from the petals, and threw in some green.


I decided to go with solids, because I like simple, but also so that each of the pieces could be used separately with different schemes. I got the down blanket, shams, skirt, and accent pillows from Target.


The letters for her name were already green, matching some trim in her Ladybug bedding. They fit in with the new stuff pretty well.


We still have lots of Laney-bug's through out her room.


I absolutely love this little ceramic ladybug night light. I hope that it is something D'Laney always has in her room.


This little nook is where the girls read. I'd love to say that all the books are always neatly lined up on the book shelf and the large stuffed animals line up neatly as well, but I don't like to lie.

Prom Proposal

My train of thought is hardly a straight train track. It's more like those twisty overpasses that criss and cross and spiral like spaghetti.
Follow if you dare:
My mom is the junior class sponsor, and had prom friday night. Her house has leftover cake, glitter, and mardi gras masks scattered throughout.
I loved all the proms I went to, they were so much fun!
Glee's prom episode was pretty good. It also introduced me to the term "prom proposal."
Cameron's twin cousins are seniors and the popular thing in their group of friends was who could outdo the next guy when asking their girls to the prom. There was a post-it in a fish bowl, a cookie cake, and I can't remember the rest, but they were good.
That poor kid in the news who was banned from his prom for a creative "prom proposal," but he was later allowed to go.
So, I got to thinking about prom proposals. I just had sweet guys call and ask, simple. Do you have a good story? Let's hear it!!
Me and my bff's our senior year. A great night!!

Allergies

I went to a new doctor about my allergies last month. This doc is a chiropractor, nutritionist, acupuncturist, and holistic doc. He's busy!
He ran a lot of tests on me, and determined that I was allergic to all fruit, most veggies, all nuts, and shellfish. I knew all that. He also determined that I'm allergic to all soy products, refined sugar, MSG (which I think everyone should avoid anyway), and milk. Milk! I drink milk all the time, I love milk! I told him that I've been drinking milk my whole life, to which he replied, you've had allergies your whole life! He pointed out there is a major difference between a lactose intolerance and an allergy.
So I have a whole new diet. And by that, I mean that I can eat even less than I could before, which is pretty much nothing! Do you know what's left after you take out sugar, milk, and soy? Not much, that's what!
I can eat any kind of meat, potatoes, eggs, green beans, whole grains(ugh!), butter, and some cheeses. That's it!
To substitute milk, I can have rice milk. I haven't drank it straight yet, but I've cooked with it, and eaten cereal with it, and it's not bad. I've been drinking Sprite Zero to wean myself off of carbonation, but it has aspartame, which isn't good for anybody. I've found sugar free syrup, which tastes the same, and sugar free cookies, which do NOT taste the same. It's a learning process. I'm going to buy a bread maker and start making my own bread, subbing in the rice milk and stevia, but using regular flour. I just hate wheat, and I'm having a hard time choking it down.
Hopefully, after a while, I can start integrating some of these things back into my diet, slowly, with a lot of trial and error, I'm sure.
The other tests he ran confirmed that I'm allergic to pretty much anything that grows, dust, mold, etc. He found problems with my ovaries, probably cysts, and some adrenal gland issues. He also did some blood work and found that my blood is sticky, would be the best way that I could describe it. My red blood cells don't float freely, which means that they aren't functioning properly by getting oxygen to the rest of my body. They're not clotting, which could be really dangerous. Just sticky. It explains why I'm so tired all the time.
So. To fix ALL THAT, I'm on a series of supplements and drops. I take 34 pills broken up over 4 times a day. I take 15 drops under my tongue 4 times a day as well. And, of course, the adjustment to my diet. I really think it's working. Besides the almost 15 pounds I've lost so far since I don't eat (that's a nice little perk.) Unless the wind is blowing really hard or one of my neighbors is mowing, I really don't have much allergy trouble during the day. I still have some trouble first thing in the morning, that's always been the worst time of day for me, but it's not every day now. Over time, I should be able to cut back on the pills and drops, and maybe be able to eat a little more, like I said. But if not, if I have to jump through all these hoops for the rest of my life, I think I would. I've been miserable pretty much every single day of my life, and I think I've finally found what's going to help me. It's expensive, all these pills, and holistic medicine isn't covered by insurance, but I think it's worth the expense, for now. We'll see how long I feel that way :)
The only think lacking now is a little bit of energy. I don't know if I need to get more exercise, more sleep, or if I need to eat more. My body is getting very little fuel right now. I'm sure it's a combination of all three.

These are all my pills, sorted and stored. I have to sit and sort once a week, which is a pain. This little thing is actually for jewelry making, but it works pretty well.

Let me back up a little

I have about two months worth of catching up to do. And not just any months, March and April, two of the busiest months of the year for us. So here we go!
~Our sixth anniversary was March 12, and Cameron got me a spa day at a ritzy salon in Midland. While the girls were in Iraan, I got a massage, a facial, a brow sugaring (totally awesome, look it up!)and a mani-pedi! He did a great job, it was awesome! For supper, we went to a great Italian restaurant. It's the closest to the food we had while we were in Rome for our honeymoon. We realized that, by accident, we had eaten Italian for almost every anniversary so far.
~The next weekend, for my birthday, we went to Gruene for the weekend. We love it down there. I like all the eclectic shops, though I wouldn't buy 90% of the stuff in them. I just like looking. We ate at the Gristmill, and saw Roger Creager saturday night at Gruene Hall. Cameron and I were front and center. I literally could have held his microphone for him! My love for Roger predates my love for Cameron, but we hadn't seen him since before we had kids. It was a great little vacation.
~When we picked up the girls on the way home, we picked up Allie, too. After the first traumatic day, I'm happy to say that Allie is fitting in nicely around here. Cameron rigged up part of the old fence, so she now has half of the yard to roam, instead of just that little pen. She's growing so fast! It seems like she's twice the size she was when we brought her home! She's really a good puppy, but we're having trouble with her biting and jumping when she's excited. It's just puppy playing, but the girls don't like it. They try so hard to be brave, but they're still a little scared of her. Especially Brynna. She's so funny, she yells at Allie, calls her by name and holds out her hand for her to come, but as soon as Allie starts heading her way, Brynna sprints back to me and climbs straight up my legs. D'Laney is a little better with her, but doesn't like the jumping.
~We've been doing a lot of work on the backyard. Cameron poured a sidewalk that leads to the dumpster, and we have the new garage/patio marked off. We still have to tear down the old garage, but we're having a hard time finding the equipment. Tearing it down isn't the problem, but hauling the old wood off is. Our little dump isn't open on the weekends, and Cameron has been too busy to take any time off during the week. I'm afraid we're just going to have to hire someone to get it done.
~We've been to baseball games, soccer games, and track meets this spring. I love that my girls are growing up around sports and competition.
~Are you still there? I know, it's a boring post!
~We spent Easter in Angelo. I loved, loved, loved the dresses I found for the girls! They were beautiful! I tried making Bakerella's cake pops, and they tasted pretty good, but they didn't look all that great. And it was an all day process! I definitely learned a lot for the next time I try to tackle them.
~Brynna had a well baby check up, and got a gold star! She weighed 20 pounds, and is just under 30 inches tall, both putting her in the 25%. Dr P was very impressed with her vocabulary and her signing. She got two shots, and did pretty well with them.
~It's been a busy time in our prayer lives as well. Fires have ravaged the Concho Valley, coming within a few miles of my parents' place, both of my mom's parents have spent some time in the hospital, and baby Harper made her grand debut and spent a few weeks in the NICU in Lubbock. I'm happy to say MamaDeere and PapaDeere are both home and doing much better. Harper is also home for the time being, but will soon have to return to the hospital for major heart surgery.
~I went to a new doctor about my allergies. I'll post more about it later, but let me assure you, all these hoops that I'm having to jump through sure better be worth it! I think they will be, it's just really hard to tell right now because of these horrible winds that we've had.
~We're kid free again this weekend. Cameron's mother was in town thursday, and took the girls home with her. We'll pick them up sunday when we go down there for mother's day and Cameron's brother's birthday.
~I guess that's about it. I'm sure only a couple of you are still with me! You know, I started this post about 3 weeks ago. I'm just still in a bit of the blogging blahs. I love reading other blogs, I just haven't really been up to posting myself. I wish there were some sort of technology that could take down what I blog in my head, cause I could keep up with that really well. I blog while I'm driving all the time, but by the time I get home, I've either forgotten, or simply don't feel like typing it all out.
~I'll try to get some pics on here later today, ok, Cadye? You can quit texting me that I need to update now!

Update: Allie is home!!

Yesterday was awful. It would have been bad anyway, but I was super sick from allergies and super emotional from, well, I was just super hormonal.
Around 7 last night, we got a knock on the door, and there were our NEXT DOOR neighbors. One was holding the flier I had made, and the other was holding Allie! When they were leaving for work yesterday morning, Allie was trying to get into their garage. Since she didn't have a tag and they didn't know who she belonged to, they were just going to hold on to her for a day or two and see if they could find her home. They had no idea she belonged to us! They said, we haven't seen her out in the yard with y'all, and I said, well, we just brought her home last night!
D'Laney was so glad to have her home, and Allie seemed to be glad to see D'Laney. After getting her situated in the bathroom, the girls and I headed to town at 8:30 last night (bad momma!) to get all the essentials for her that I had intended on getting earlier in the day. She now has her collar and leash, toys, and food and water bowls that didn't come out of our kitchen. I didn't have all that before we got her because she was a surprise for the girls, and I wanted D'Laney to be able to help pick her stuff out. I couldn't find any tags for her, but I'm going to try to find something cute and unique for them anyway.
Allie slept in the downstairs bathroom last night, and only cried for about 15 minutes, then was quiet for most of the night. When we got up this morning, the bathroom had ZERO puddles in it! No mess at all, aside from the food she had knocked out of her bowl. D'Laney took her into the front yard and she did her business right away. I think maybe this puppy is already house broken! Too bad she won't be spending much time actually IN the house!
I "fixed" her outside pen today. Can you say redneck?!

It is standard dog kennel, which she climbed out of, with a storm door on top, to keep her in and let the sunlight through. There is a pipe preventing the storm door from butting up next to the fence, so there is a box, anchored by bricks, and an old "for sale" sign on either side of the pipe to close any gaps. The long box and wooden fence are to break the wind and keep her from digging out.
It's worked so far. She's been in there for the better part of the afternoon, and she'll start yapping every now and then, but for the most part, she seems fine.
So we're happy at the Holifield house today! Now I just need to get to the housework that I was too distraught to do yesterday. Boo!

I'd love to introduce you, but...

This is Allie. She is the most precious little boxer I've ever seen! My mom picked her up for us last week, and we were finally able to bring her home last night. Because our fence is only half way completed, we rigged up a temporary cage for her to get us through the next couple of days, until Cameron gets home from a job and can finish the fence. When we first put her in it last night, she promptly found a corner and climbed right out. We put a portion of the old fence on top of the cage, cover the two corners that didn't butt up next to the new, wooden fence. We figured she couldn't climb a straight side and wouldn't be able to get out.
At 6:30 this morning, I heard her barking outside, and was so relieved that she was still there! When I went out to feed her at 8, she wasn't.
I don't know what happened. I think that she must have figured out how to climb out again. I really don't think that someone walked into our back yard and took her.
I loaded the girls up and we drove around for an hour and a half looking for her, with no luck. I thought I might ought to feed my own children, so we came home and while they were finally getting their breakfast, I called a friend that works at city hall. No one had seen her or picked her up, but she would sure let all of the water and sewage guys know to keep their eye out for her. I made some fliers, too, and put them up at the convenient store, grocery store, post office, and city hall.
Since we just got her last night, we didn't have a collar or tags on her yet. She didn't even have a name until Friday!
My prayer is that someone saw her running around this morning while they were leaving for work, and took her in until they could look for her owners this evening when they get home. It's now 1:15, and I haven't heard anything yet.
I'm just beyond devastated. D'Laney has been asking about her all day, although she hasn't cried about it (I can't say the same thing about myself.) She keeps saying Where's Allie? Did someone take her? She even told me that Allie would say to them, I'm not your puppy, I'm D'Laney's puppy! That one broke my heart.
Please, please say a little prayer for us. Pray that Allie is safe. Pray that no one stole her. Pray that whomever found her sees a flier and has a kind heart. That they return her and not decide to keep the beautiful, sweet little girl for themselves. Pray for me not to be angry with my husband for not finishing the fence in the 8 weeks that we've known that we were getting her. And mostly, pray that if we don't find her, D'Laney (and her momma) will handle it well.

I wonder who she takes after?!

I have lots to blog about. Our amazing anniversary weekend, Brynna hit 15 months, D'Laney is the funniest kid on the planet, our upcoming getaway to Gruene, and the new addition to our family, whom we will be bringing home sunday! (The puppy, y'all, no babies!)
But not today.
We are very well aware that Cameron and I each have a mini me, but you just can't grasp just how much until you see side by side, same age pictures.
I snagged a copy of a picture of Cameron as a toddler, and had to share it. I cropped it down, it's actually a picture of all three of the Holifield kiddos. Isn't he the most precious little boy you've ever seen?!



She is so pretty. It's kinda creepy to me how much she looks like her daddy. I'm absolutely thrilled that those blue eyes were passed down.



And, to show just how much D'Laney looks like me:

I was pouting a little bit wasn't I?


So is D'Laney. Even pouting, she's gorgeous. It's weird to me to recognize that D'Laney looks just like me, and think she's so beautiful, but not think that about myself.


I think Cameron and I are in for some trouble in about 12 years!

Favorite things

My vacuum cleaner finally croaked, and so I broke down and bought a Dyson, and I do mean BROKE! My goodness those things are expensive! I got it all put together and vacuumed just the two main rooms downstairs. Apparently, my old one had been going out for a while, because this new thing sucked up a whole lotta stuff!
It's pretty much stinking awesome! The attachments, WOW! And, it's red, which ups the awesomeness a bunch.
So, since it's my new favorite toy, I decided to do a favorite things. Chey-anne does them every now and then, and I always think it's a good idea.


I'm in love with this thing.


I'm feeling a need to take better care of my skin. I had the "mask of pregnancy" show up in the form of a big brown blotch on my left cheek. My skin is also a lot more blotchy than it used to be. So I'm using a spot remover serum from Clinic for the brown spot, but the thing that makes it the most effective is wearing sun screen every day. I found this one that has an SPF, and takes a little bit of the redness out of the rest of my face. It works pretty well, and my makeup goes on a lot smoother on top of it.


All four of us love these things. D'Laney calls them the leaf crackers, I guess that's what she thinks they look like.


This wind has been killing my allergies and sinuses. I've taken Advil PM every night for a solid week!


The whole wheat aspect of these yummy things is sort of canceled out by the amounts of butter that I slab on them.


I've always said that Jane Austen is my favorite author. I love her stuff, I'm a bit of a romantic. But I realized that I've only ever read one of her books, Pride and Prejudice. I've seen several movies based on her other books, but I've never read them. I hope to read her entire collection by the end of the year. I hope.

Are you gonna kiss me or what?

Have you heard this song? I think it's so cute. Thompson Square is a husband and wife duo, and while I'm not a huge fan of their style of "country" I like this particular song. It reminds me of us.
Cameron and I were on our sixth date is as many days when he very shyly and sweetly asked if he could kiss me. I was anxious, a little scared (serious lack of dating, thus kissing, history) and said, "would you, please?!" As in, get the first kiss over with, the anticipation is killing me!
Fast forward to our wedding, and when Steve Sherrod pronounced us husband and wife, instead of saying "you may kiss the bride" he turned to me and said, "Amy, would you please?" I didn't catch it at the time, Cameron told me about it later, but I thought it was the sweetest thing ever. Sweet that Cameron remembered, and that he asked Steve to say it during our wedding.
So I absolutely love this song.

Are You Gonna Kiss Me or Not - Thompson Square - Thompson Square Videos

flashback friday

I haven't done one of these in a while.



a picture of two of my loves on Valentine's day. D'Laney's little onsie said "daddy's cupcake," but you can't see it. We made cookies for daddy, but I didn't let them cool enough before I iced them, and the icing ran into a big, pink blur. I'm sure they tasted good, though you couldn't read the "D'Laney's 1st Valentine's."
These two love each other so much, they've always been buds. I think that's why I love pictures like this so much. Someone else looking at them would see nothing special, but I see that love, and I remember those awful cookies, and I'm now a little teary eyed and D'Laney's looking at me like I'm crazy. I am, sweet girl, about you and your daddy and your sister.

I love a small town.

After lunch, I ventured outside for the first time today to find a small ice pond in the middle of the front yard. A water faucet had cracked and had been spraying for who knows how long, a pretty good while based on the amount of water that was frozen. I called Cameron as I turned off the water to the whole house to see what he thought I should do. I figured I'd have to replace the faucet, and thank the good Lord that it wasn't an actual pipe. Cam told me to do just that, but said he didn't have a pipe wrench at the house, so off to Harrison's I went.
Harrison and his wife Courtney own the hardware store here in Stanton. The store looks completely unchanged over the last 50 or 60 years, they even store lumber in original, slightly leaning wooden cubbies in the yard. Even the door handle looks original to the building. It's a really neat. I bought a pipe wrench and cap, and Harrison said if I had trouble with it, call him and he'd come get it off for me.
I came home, put the girls down for a nap, and fought with that stupid spicket for an hour. I just got more and more mad. I sinfully prideful when it comes to things like this, I can fix a lot of things that most women would put on the honey-do list. I actually enjoy doing them. So when I couldn't loosen a simple faucet, it made me really mad. I called Cameron and said it must have been cemented into place, I couldn't get it, and I might have shed a tear or two out of frustration. He said he'd call me back in a sec, and when he did, he said Harrison would be there in a few minutes. Sure enough, about 5 minutes later, he knocked on the door. He had already gotten the faucet off and wanted to know if I wanted him to cap it or replace it with a new faucet. I made him lie to me and tell me it was really hard for him, and he kindly did. Another 5 minutes and he was done! And he wouldn't let me pay him a dime.
It's the kindness and willingness to help others that you don't find in bigger towns, and it's why we won't raise our family anywhere but a small town. So thanks, Harrison!
The ice created some really cool formations. It reminded me of underground caverns.

Good bye old friend

This bedroom set has been in my family for a whole lotta years. My great-great grandmother bought it when she was older and moved in with my great-great-aunt, her daughter. I'm not sure of the year, but I believe it was sometime in the 40s. Since then, it has made its way down to my MamaDeere, my parents, and finally to me. I've had this set since I was 16, and when Cameron and I got married and I moved to his house, the bedroom came with me. We have been wanting to get a new set for several years now. The bed is just a full, which is really small, especially when you don't like to snuggle to sleep (I say, please honey, scoot over, at least a 100 times a night!)
The set is now headed back to my parents. They're building on another bedroom and an antique set will go perfectly in their antique, 102 year old house, even if the bedroom it's in is new:)






Here's our new furniture:









I'm really pleased with it. I'm not really picky when it comes to furniture, but it took me forever to decide on something! I think, because I'm not picky, I was waiting for something to just jump out at me and I say, that's it!! But that never happened. Our criteria was price and storage, and we got an amazing deal on this set. It's a king bed, which makes me very happy. We would have been happy with a queen, but we had some gently used king mattresses in the family that we could buy cheap, so there really was no choice. Do you know how much a new mattress costs? Especially a king! The mattress is super comfy, too, the kind that you sink down 3 inches when you crawl into it. Eventually we'll get a new bedding set, too. (Can you see the old valances still in the picture? I didn't even think about taking those down, oops!) This quilt is also a hand-me-down from MamaDeere, but I love sleeping under a quilt, and, after having a plush comforter for a while, I know that whenever we do get something new, it'll be a quilt as well.
The furniture fits really well in our bedroom, too. Our room is long and narrow, but it's like it was measured perfectly for this particular set of furniture. If and when we ever move, that might not be the case, but for right now, it's a great fit. I'm very happy with it.

Brynna

~at her well baby last week, she weighed 19lbs, 10oz, and was 30 inches long, which bumps her up to the 30%! She showed great improvement since the 9 month appt where we had the whole nursing problem. She got rave reviews from Dr. Patyrak, and handled her shots very well. Yay for good checkups!
~has 8 teeth
~signs: milk, more, all done, please, ball, and eat
~says, some very clear, some not so clear, but we get it:) : Momma, Dad, D'Laney, eat, bite, ball, stairs (and points either up or down), cheese, milk, juice, stuck, cat, Papa (which would kill the grandmothers, if we told them!), coke (she's never had any), and no. She also says bop all day long, and we're not really sure what she means by it. I think she's trying to say wipe, because she says it the most when she's getting her diaper changed, or when she's following D'Laney into the bathroom. Who knows! I think that's all! She holds lengthy, serious conversations with us, but we just nod and pretend like we know what she's saying.
~points to her hand when she wants them washed.
~climbs on everything! She'll push chairs up to cabinets to climb up and reach something, and I've caught her standing on both the coffee table (not that high) to the dining room table (a little bit higher!) She'll climb up somewhere, but can't get down, and I'll hear her in another room saying, "stuck! stuck!"
~is becoming very, very affectionate. Loves to give hugs to the three of us, but is pretty stingy with her kisses.
~I'm tempted to start potty training in the next couple months with her. I know it's way early, but if she's anything like D'Laney, it'll take her several months, so I'd better get a jump on it! Seriously, I don't think it'll take her nearly as long, as she's already showing some of the "ready" signs. When she's pooping, she's very still while she's pushing, and then points to her diaper. I'll ask her if she's poopy, and she'll shake her head no if she is (she's a little confused as to what shaking her head means, she does this with a lot of things.) Her diapers are the consistency that they need to be for potty training, and she is usually dry when she wakes up from a nap, but wets her diaper shortly thereafter. It's probably just another of my hare-brained ideas that I won't act on, but I am tempted.
~Keva, once again, has taken some fabulous pictures of Brynna Belle. Here's the facebook album with all of them.

D'Laney

~poor thing has had the croup again. She had fever for a good 5 days, and felt just terrible. She still has a cough, but the fever has been gone for several days and she's acting better.
~today said her first cuss word. I'm positive she heard it on TV. She said "what the h-e-double hockey sticks is this?" I could not stop laughing! She said it very quietly and very sweetly, and I had to ask her twice to repeat it, because I couldn't understand what she had said. Then I felt bad about making her say it over and over again.
~I really need to get this kid in some sort of two day a week school. She needs the social interaction and some class room structure. There is a church in town that also has classes for Brynna, but I want to make sure that it's not just play time for D'Laney. It's also hard to drive 30 minutes to town, drop them off, then either kill time in town until they're done, or drive home and then back to pick them up.
~She showed her first little bit of animosity towards her sister by pushing her out of the playroom. After her spanking, I told her to give Brynna a hug and tell her she was sorry. Bless her heart, she really tried, but Brynna ran from her, which only made D'Laney cry harder.
~still has no interest in letters or numbers. I'll ask her what a letter is on a shirt or sign, and I know she knows, but she just shrugs, says I don't know, and turns her attention to something else. I'm secretly a little glad that she's in no rush, though. If she learns to read too soon, my life, and the life of her kindergarten teacher, will be miserable. She'll be so bored, she'll act up, or talk incessantly like she does now.
~refuses to wear clothes at home. She strips down to her panties as soon as she wakes up. However, she must wear pajamas to bed. Particularly, a night gown with the disney princesses on it.
~won't let me fix her hair. And she has some crazy hair! When we're going somewhere, it has to be freshly washed and dried in order for me to leave it down, otherwise it's in a ponytail, just one!, and has to be straight.
~if you can't tell, D'Laney has a mind of her own! It's exasperating, but I gotta say, I love it.
~D'Laney has always struggled with whining, which irritates me more than anything else on earth. When she's sick, it's a billion times worse, and she gets very, very clingy to me. This past week when she felt so bad, she wouldn't let Cameron hold her, and cried for her mommy, which she never calls me. She wanted me to hold her all day long, and that was a problem because her little sister was also croupy and wanted to be held. D'Laney feels a lot better, but the whining and clingy-ness has not gone away. For the first time, we're discipline her using her room. To me, when she's crying, I don't want to spank her to make her stop, because that just makes her cry harder. Of course, sending her to her room makes her cry, too, but I just can't hear it ;)

On the home front

~Cameron was sick last week as well. He was iced out at work tuesday-thursday, so he would have been home anyway. He had the same croupy symptoms as the girls, but not as bad. Although all three are still coughing a little bit. I really don't know how I didn't get sick. I had one of the three coughing on me at least 15793 times a day, and had two little fevered bodies curled up beside me 18 hours out of each day. And just to note, neither of my girls have ever been snugglers, and it irks me a little that they have to feel so bad for momma to get a little lovin':)
~we finally got a new master bedroom suit! I'll post more about that later.
~I finally got my chirstmas present, too... a Driod phone!!! As with all things, I'm a little behind when it comes to trends, and this is my first smart phone, and I love. love. love it. Cameron has a work issued phone, but still had a personal phone, as well as my phone, so we cut mine, I took over Cameron's number since it was a Midland area number, and he's just carrying his work phone. It cut our bill by almost half, even with the data package I now have to have! BTW, if you need my phone number, but didn't get a text from me, let me know. I don't know why I'm saying that, the only people that call me are my husband and my mom! I'm still trying to get the thing figured out, but my cousin, who has the same phone, assures me I'll get used to it quickly.
~we're getting a puppy! A little girl boxer. I've been waiting for 2 years for the dog of a friend to have a litter, and they're here! My mom is also getting a puppy from this litter, and I'm almost as excited for them as I am for us. My parents had to put down Keida, the boxer they'd had for 10 years, last fall, and it was so sad for all of us. Cameron is a lot less excited, he's not a dog fan. He worries about the girls, and of course the grind of what to do with her when we go out of town, etc. I think every child needs a dog. This is an odd thing in our marriage, to disagree about something. We're usually always on the same page. And this is certainly the first time that I've sort of done what I wanted, regardless of what he says. Don't get me wrong, we haven't argued about it, there's no animosity. His opinion is just, I'd rather not, but whatever. So now we have to come up with a name! We've always named our dogs after Lonesome Dove, and even though Cameron didn't mean to, several years before me, he had a dog and named him Newt, keeping with our trend. We've had a Gus, Maggie, and Jasper. It's harder to do that with girl puppies, because they're aren't many girls in the movie, and the ones that are are all prostitutes! I know there's a Lori and a Clara, which aren't great dog names, but I'm going to watch the movie again and see if there are any more to choose from. Then I'll run them by D'Laney and see what she likes. We haven't told D'Laney yet, because I don't want to have to answer every single day why our puppy isn't home yet.

I need to blog.

I'd love to say that my blogging absence has been because we've been so busy, but we haven't been. Not any more than usual, anyway. Like I said at the beginning of January, I've had a bit of the blogging blahs. I haven't stopped reading, just haven't posted.
I'm going to bullet a few posts and try to briefly catch up.

Day 8 & 9

We spent yesterday in Iraan having our last christmas, so I'm combining yesterday's and today's photos.
Day 8, a photo of your favorite musician/band:

That's all I have to say about that.

Day 9, a photo of yourself as a baby/child.


(don't tell my dad, he'll kill me!)

Day 7

A photo of something you'd like to buy:

I don't have a dishwasher. When our kitchen was remodeled, the cabinets they installed are 2" too short for a dishwasher. 2 little inches!!! There is a spot for one, all we would have to do is take off the cabinet doors. They even ran plumbing there! But when the next kitchen face lift happened, elaborate tile work was done on the counter tops, so lifting the counter the 2 inches needed is out of the question as well. And just a little tip, if you want to do tile work on your kitchen counters, DON'T! While it looks great, I really do love the pattern and tiles they used, it is absolutely impossible to keep clean! And forget about rolling any kind of bread, cookies, pie crust, etc. on it.
So, since I just finished washing 5 meals worth of dishes, right now, I'd love to buy a dishwasher!

Day 6

A photo of someone you love:
I'm going to go with the obvious choice here with my husband.
I won't list the trillions of reasons why I love him, but the few that stand out in this picture.



~He's a wonderful daddy
~that boy can sing! and plays very well, too.
~he's such a handy man. (He had been outside tearing down our dilapidated garage when I took this.) I find it very attractive that he can build whatever he wants, whether it's out of metal or wood. If only he had more time (and we had more money!) to get all my big and little projects done.
~he's just so darn cute.

Day 5

A photo that makes you laugh:



This picture makes me fall on the floor laughing, for a silly reason. I'll tell you the story, just know that I'm blushing from embarrassment while I'm typing.
When Cameron and I decided it was time to start our family, he was working in New Mexico. It was a big job and he was only able to come home about once a month, and they worked it so that they'd be home for Thanksgiving, then a month later for Christmas. When he came home for Thanksgiving, we were supposed to be baking cookies to take to my grandmother's, but they burnt. So did the next batch. And D'Laney was born nine months later.
It's Cameron's favorite story to tell, just to see me turn beet red.
When I found this little blanket at Wal-Mart one Christmas, I couldn't contain myself. People were looking at me like I was a mad woman! I have the same reaction when I hear George Strait's Christmas Cookies.... "every time she sticks another batch in the oven, there's 15 minutes for some kissin' and a-huggin'!"
PS: I can't believe I just told you all that!

Day 4

A photo of a place you'd like to visit:




Cameron and I went to Rome, Italy for our honeymoon, and we're always asked if we'd go back. Well, obviously, of course we would, but if we're going to spend that much money on another big trip, we'd rather go somewhere we've never been before.
I would love to go to Ireland. I kinda have a thing for the country. It's probably equal parts the huge amount of Irish heritage I have and being born on St. Patrick's Day. Without meaning to, I named both of my girls old, traditional Irish names.
So I would love to visit Ireland, and stay in a castle, and find the villages that my ancestors came from.

Cross your fingers!

Poor Cameron has been dealing with severe vertigo for a month now. Towards the end of last week, he was finally feeling like himself again, but it took a long time to get there.
He started getting dizzy the week before Brynna's birthday party. After having to crawl into the house on his hands and knees the day of the party, he finally went to the local doc on the 13th of Dec, who said he had an inner ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. The vertigo didn't go away. So he went back to the same doc on the 27th, and he said it looked like the infection was gone and he couldn't find a reason for the vertigo, so he referred him to an ENT. Cam went this morning and the ENT said that he had had a pretty bad inner ear infection, and that it had dislodged some crystals in his ear. He also found some minor damage caused by Cameron's obsession with q-tips. In the last 6 months or so, Cameron has had a lot of allergy and sinus trouble as well, so he prescribed something for that, along with a steroid for the damage in his ear.
The ENT also asked Cameron when he had broken his nose. Cam said never, he doesn't remember ever being hit in the nose, much less it breaking. The doc was surprised to hear that, and told Cameron he didn't know how he was breathing through that thing! So he also has a nose spray, which will help with the sinus and allergy problems.
It was a stressful month. While I love having Cameron home on days off, 3 weeks was a little too long. It just throws off our routines. You would think that with Cameron home to watch the girls, I would have had a spotless house for all that time that he was home, but it was worse than when he was working! Really, he was in no shape to watch the girls, but he'd say, come watch this movie with me, or, I'm going stir crazy, let's go to town for a little bit, or this, or that... I got no work done! That part made us laugh, not working for 3 weeks is no laughing matter. I think we were hyper-aware of it because of the holidays, too, and how expensive they can be (although, I must say, I am WAY proud of our holiday shopping and how good we did!) We don't have any cause to worry, but in the oilfield, when there's work to be had, and you're not able to be out there working, it's stressful. Thankfully, Cameron was able to go back to work yesterday. It's going to be good for all of us!
We're really praying that this doc has the answers for him. Vertigo is really frustrating because you don't actually feel bad, you're just so dizzy you can barely stand. Some people are nauseated by it, but Cameron just got headaches, which could have been caused by laying around for days on end. The doctor said to give it a week, then call him and let him know how he was feeling. Hopefully, he'll have a good report to give him!

Day 3

A photo that makes you happy:

Here's 2. A sweet daddy that is madly in love with his girls.

D'Laney was just a couple weeks old... Cameron couldn't get enough.


I don't know if you can see Cam's expression here, but it was so sweet. He and Brynna just locked eyes and looked at each other for a long time.