I've been thinking about my first love a lot lately...

A few days ago, and not for the first time recently, an old friend was asking if I was running into a lot of old boyfriends now that we’ve moved home. I told him I see a couple fairly frequently, and he asked if it was awkward seeing old loves. I told him no, and that they weren’t “loves.” I told him Cameron was the only man I’ve ever loved. “No unrequited first love?” he teased.

Oh yes, there was a first love, but it wasn’t a boy. My first love was basketball.

From the time I was very, very young, I was head over high tops in love with basketball. Eating and breathing and dreaming about it kind of love. Basketball and I were going to spend the rest of my life together. Quite literally, for you see, it wasn’t playing basketball that I was so passionate about, though I loved that part of it. I was truly, madly, deeply in love with coaching basketball.

I remember the very moment I decided that I wanted to be a basketball coach. I was 7 years old, and we were living in Ira, Texas, where my dad was coaching. Every season, right around the holidays, Ira held a basketball tournament for other itty bitty schools in the area. And for the first time that I realized, I saw a GIRL coaching. In my little bubble, I guess I assumed that Daddy and Coach Cook were the only two coaches in the world, since they were the only two we had at Ira. But this woman was young, beautiful, with big hair, colored Rockies and colored boots…. very 1991. And she was giving that game everything she had. She paced up and down the sideline, willing each shot in the basket, constantly instructing her girls, trying to talk the refs out of and into calls. I’m pretty sure I just stared the whole game. The clouds opened and angels sang. THIS is what I wanted to be when I grew up.

For the next 12 years, I don’t think I ever wavered in my career ambitions. And I realized I was equally as excited to coach other sports, such as softball and track. Oh, how I loved to coach track. It was entrenched in my bones. So much so that it escaped every now and then, which made my teammates just LOVE me! Every new coach I played for, every new school, I watched and studied the good and bad. I came very, very close to not playing basketball my senior year of high school, but realized very quickly that the bench offered me the best possible position to learn from a very good coaching staff. I chose to go to Angelo State, partly because it was home and cheapest, but mostly because it’s known for producing some of the best coaches in the state of Texas.

But, I never coached a game of high school, or even junior high, basketball. I coached some 6^th grade summer league while in college, but it was never my job.

Because when I was 19, I did fall in love. Real, deep, world starts spinning, love. The kind of love that made what I felt for any sport seem like a playground crush. I only thought God had designed me to be a coach. I knew then that He designed me to be Cameron’s wife, and the mother of his children. I always knew one day I’d have a family that I’d spend time away from during a season, but now that hypothetical family was very real, and the thought of them consumed me.

So I decided that coaching other peoples’ girls was not the path for me. I’d have children of my own that I could coach at home until they were old enough to play organized sports, then I’d coach their teams. Boys or girls, didn’t matter to me. They’d be the most fundamentally sound 4^th graders around J I hope they don’t hate me K

People have asked me a lot lately what I’ll do when Brynna starts kindergarten in the fall. Will I go back and coach? Nah. The fire for coaching is still there, but I have no desire to step into a classroom right now. Plus, coaches don’t always have the luxury of handpicking where they’ll coach, and I will not move our girls away from Wall.  I honestly don’t plan on going to work right away. Maybe in a couple of years, but I’ve loved being able to be involved with D’Laney’s school, I want to do the same for Brynna.

I think I would have been a good coach. I’ve helped my nephew a little with high jump this year, and I realized how much I miss it. But it doesn’t compare at all with the life I have now. I guess it is like that first love. You think about it every now and then, get a little nostalgic and miss things about it, but know that God had bigger and better plans for you, and are thankful that you followed where He led.

A Sabbatical

I'm going to take some time off from social media. I'm addicted. Really, truly addicted. I think in Instagram captions and Facebook updates. I've realized this for a while, and it would give me a chuckle, but it's no longer funny to me.
Last night, while checking Facebook before going to bed, I learned that one of my favorite fellas from high school has cancer. In his wife's update, she thanked everyone for their offers of food, babysitting, etc, but said the best thing any of us could do is pray and donate blood. I thought, I can surely do that. And my very next thought was not bowing my head on behalf of my buddy and his precious family. I was already mentally writing a post about donating blood for the first time, no one could get me in that chair but Cole! hahahaha....
To quote one of my least favorite people on earth, it was an Ah-ha moment. It was pathetic. Sickening. I have a problem.
I don't think that social media is the problem. I think it can be a fantastic way to stay in touch with people that you otherwise wouldn't. I can keep up with friends I've made at each stop on our coaching road, from various church camps, or my Phi Lamb sisters. I've gotten to "know" Dad's players that are quite a bit older than me, or people that Cameron grew up with, that I would never have gotten a chance to in real life. And not a day goes by where I don't have someone telling me how much they look forward to hearing what crazy things the girls have said lately, or see their precious faces. I love sharing them. But I don't like this part of me.
I've always known I have a tendency to become addicted to things. Coca-Cola, I'm looking at you! There are lots of reasons why I don't drink alcohol, that's chief among them. I have such self discipline in a few areas of my life, none at all in others. Cameron and I have been talking a lot about this lately. About trying to take control of the things that I let control me. I'm (trying) to make a lot of changes to the way I do things: studying the Word, eating, exercising, spending money (both not on some things, and ON other things,) the way I keep books for our business... Adding my phone, and all that is on it, to that list never crossed my mind. How glaringly obvious that it should be at the top.
So, I'm going to take the month of January off. Like, removing those apps from my phone, off. I'm not deleting anything, just avoiding. After that, I'll have to learn where my boundaries are. Hopefully I'll get to the point where I don't even realize I'm without these silly little time suckers.

So I'm NOT crazy!

My health has been pretty poor the last few years. I haven't been really sick, but I have had some persistent, nagging symptoms that I've been dealing with.

• Exhaustion, like bone crushing, can't put one foot in front of the other exhausted. Going to bed early doesn't help. Sleeping late does some, but what mom can do that everyday?
• My allergies are worse than ever. And I just feel pretty poopy all around.
• I'm over weight. I certainly don't expect to look like I did in high school or college (I mean, I wouldn't hate it if I did...) but I understand that I am at a different season in my life, and I am honestly ok with that. But THIS overweight isn't ok. I had an eye injury 9 years ago that damaged my optic nerve, so to preserve my eye and vision, I was put on high doses of Prednisone for 9 weeks. That's a long time to be on such a strong steroid, and I gained a lot of weight on it. Baby weight fell of me (thanks breastfeeding!) but that steroid weight is a little more stubborn. I've worked at it over the years with little to no results, so never stuck with anything for very long. And of course, my food allergies prevent me from eating super clean.
• Remember when you're pregnant and you get brain fog? Mine never went away. I forget why I walked in to a room. I'll forget to run an errand that Cameron needed. I'll forget to feed my kids. Not really on that last one, they'd never stand for it ;)
• I lose patience with my kids too easily. And my husband is not excluded from this. I'm weirdly emotional about EVERYTHING.

The hardest part of all of this was that, at this point in my life, with the family and life that Cameron and I have created, I am the happiest I have ever been. And I don't feel well enough to enjoy it.


Moms, I know that most of y'all deal with similar stuff. But I felt like my case was severe. So I finally sought some help. I did some hormone testing, both saliva and blood tests. My results were horrible. And awesome. Horrible, as in my body does not function. Like, at all. I'm not producing much progesterone. I'm not producing hardly any testosterone. My adrenals are fatigued, which means they're not producing cortisol or DHEA. I won't go in to what all these hormones affect, but it's basically everything that has been wrong with me. And my thyroid levels are really low, as well. I started researching, and oh my goodness! These hormone deficiencies explain everything! That's the awesome part. To quote the NP who was consulting me, the results were very validating. I love that word. I'm not crazy! I'm not just lazy, and unmotivated, with no will power and a temper. Now, believe me, I know that I can't blame 100% of where I am, where my body is, on this new information. But the psychological effect of feeling so horrible for so long, and nothing I had done helped, makes you just kind of... give up. Or as they've said for years, let myself go.


So, I now get to figure out a way to right all that is wrong.

• I've started taking a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) to replace what I'm not producing. My thyroid levels are low, but not low enough to start any therapy for it yet. I will have my levels rechecked every 6 months. The idea is just to take them for a few months, to give my glands a much needed rest and begin functioning properly again.
• Even though eating clean is extremely difficult for me, I'm just going to have to do it. My list of things I can eat will be minimal, and I will get sick of them so very quickly, but it's something I have to get over. And of course, my most difficult task, finally kicking my coke addiction.
• A difficult part of adrenal fatigue is that strenuous exercise exacerbates the problem. I won't be able to work out much for several more weeks. I can walk, do some yoga, maybe some light strength training, but my adrenals need to recover before I can really get after it. But now, I'll have the energy to actually do something! Because....

One of the nurses at one of my many doctors visits over the last few weeks suggested something else I might try, in addition to the BHRT. She said, "Have you ever heard of a product called Plexus?"
Um, YES! I had several friends begin taking Plexus over the last few months. Their results, both weight and overall health, were amazing. I ordered a trial from a friend and LOVED THIS PRODUCT! I took it for a week, and felt better than I had in years. I still felt like I had some issues that needed to be addressed by a medical professional, so I didn't proceed with it. But to have a NURSE recommend it for my severe issues?! I was so excited to hear that!
So I've been back on it for a couple of weeks. And I don't feel fantastic. But I feel better. I have more energy, earlier in the day than I had. I would probably feel even MORE better (how's that grammar for you!) if I could remember to take what I needed every day.
There are a lot of products out there right now. I've tried a few of them. Of course, now I know why my body didn't respond to any of them. But it did respond to Plexus. Even before I'd started on the BHRT. I am so grateful to have found bioidenticals AND Plexus. I plan to be off the BHRT just as soon as my body allows, but Plexus will be something that I think will benefit me for years to come.

The Big 3-0

I've been looking forward to turning 30. It'll be nice to be in the same decade as my husband for the first time in our married life. The next decade will be awesome. But it won't compare to my 20s. Because my 20s brought me these three. I started them by marrying this amazing fella. Then spent the next few years having his babies. And they're the two most awesomest babies in the whole wide world.

In February, Cameron and I celebrated 10 years together. It's been an amazing ride. We talked a lot about where we'll be 10 years from now, as I turn 40.

We'll have a 16 year old and a 14 year old. Those two teenagers will have us so busy, our world will spend a million miles an hour. They may be athletes, into drama or band, all of the above or none of the above. No matter what, it'll be a blast. Cameron will be on the verge of 50! I bet he doesn't have a brown hair left on his head (we will have teenagers, after all!) but he'll still be the hottest dad around. And maybe, MAYBE, by 40, I'll finally get in shape :)

I took a pretty long hiatus from blogging. It got to feeling like an obligation. I dreaded having to blog. So I quit for a little while. Probably at the worst time, as my kids have grown, changed, and achieved so much over the last couple of years. But I finally miss it. So I'm going to try to ease back into it.

Chore Charts

I've been trying to become a better housekeeper. It's the area of my life where I fail the most, among many others. Now that my girls are older and able to entertain themselves for extended periods of time, and I don't have to keep an eagle eye on them constantly, I really have no excuse. I am crazy OCD about some things, but not everything. I like to say my OCD is bi-polar, or has amnesia.
So, I've been taking steps to create better habits. I don't want to hate house work, or have an overwhelming amount to do at any one time. I want to pick things up without realizing it. I want to automatically get up to wash dishes after supper. I'm also working on my attitude towards housework. It's not going to be fun. Ever. But it's not that bad, and I want my girls to see that I do everything with a cheerful heart. Even dishes.
I also want to instill these habits into the girls. I thought something laid back, do-able, and visual would be the best for them. So I browsed Pinterest, gleaned ideas from a few things, and created this "Chore Chart."

 

 

I went to the promised land, I mean Hobby Lobby, and got three thin metal sheets, and three 12x16 picture frames. I had to cut about 2 inches off the metal sheets with tin snips, and then spray painted them pink. I put the glass from the frames behind the metal to keep the frame full and so the tin didn't push back into the frame when the girls were using them. I used my new Cricut (love!) to cut out their names, then went ahead and sprayed a little glitter on them, girls need glitter, and glued the letters on with krazy glue.

For the "chores," the girls and I made a list of all the chores that were appropriate for their age and abilities, and I found corresponding pictures on clipart sites. I krazy glued each picture to some little wooden plaques, probably about 2"x3", and then glued magnets on the back. I still intend to modge podge the tops, or something, because the edges of the cardstock will come up at some point, sooner rather than later.

The girls did really well with the first day of official chores. I only plan on assigning two to three on a daily basis, but there will be days where we'll ALL have more chores to do. I really hope it sticks.

So much sweetness in one little picture

I love this picture of my babies. I love how Brynna is leaning on her big sister, and how D'Laney is genuinely not bothered by it. They are so sweet, in general, but they are really sweet to each other. Only recently have we had any issues with fighting or bickering, and even then it is minor. They usually get along very well, and I was just watching them tonight talking to each other, and remarked to Cameron that they talk like peers, like actual friends. It makes me so happy, I hope they always are this close.

Flashback Friday

I haven't done one of these in a while. I think I've posted these pictures before, but I just can't get over how much Brynna Belle looks like Cameron.

I think they're both so cute!

Dayspring School

The girls started at Dayspring School this morning. It's a Tues/Thurs school at North A Church of Christ in Midland. Although D'Laney could have started kindergarten this year, we decided a long time ago to hold her, but put her in some sort of two or three day a week pre-school. We didn't intend on starting Brynna yet, but it would have been so hard on her for D'Laney to start without her. Plus, I signed up to be the sub at Dayspring, which waved Brynna's tuition fee, so we went ahead and put her in.
I think they love it. They haven't really said much about it, which is weird for my two. But both said they were really excited to go back on Thursday, so that says something, right? :)

I love Brynna's expression. It sums her up pretty well.

We've always called D'Laney laneybug, and Brynna Belle likes Bumble Bees (the whole double B thing makes it so cute!)

Modeling the oh-so-important first day of school outfits.

Such sweet sisters. They love each other so much, makes my heart happy.

Sitting at her desk like a big girl! I didn't get emotional all day... until I saw this picture! What a mess I'll be next year when she starts Kindergarten!

Brynna's class will be more play than anything.

 

 

I hope they continue to love school, not just throughout this year, but throughout their lives. I always did, even though I didn't love school work :)

Football! Finally!

Happy first day of Texas high school football!!!
Two-a-days started today, which means the most important time of the year has officially begun. Football was, and is still, such a huge part of mine and Cameron's life. Our entire high school experience revolved around this sport (for him, and a few others for me.) We still get to be around it, thanks to our equally sports driven families. This year, we have my dad coaching at San Angelo Lake View, our nephew Ryder will improve on last year's District Newcomer of the Year season in Iraan, and my little cousin Jancen isn't so little anymore, and will be playing varsity as a freshman at Water Valley. We'll be busy on Friday nights, but we wouldn't have it any other way!

How we miss those days!

USA! USA! USA!

I am so excited about the Olympics!! Starting next friday, my DVR will be in over drive.
I have loved the Olympics since I was little, and the summer Olympics are my favorite. I found D'Laney a super cute Team USA t-shirt, and I'm looking for one for Brynna. It's a great opportunity to teach them about the flag, the national anthem, and all things American, including being proud to live here, in spite of all the yuckiness going on here right now.

10 year high school reunion

I had my second 10 year high school reunion this past weekend. I didn't graduate twice (barely made it out once!) but was invited to the reunion of the school I attended 7th-10th grade. When I got the invitation for the first reunion, I emailed some of my Wall girls and asked if we were going to have one. They all said, great idea, Amy, why don't you get started on that! Didn't have to ask me twice! Put on a party? The biggest one I've ever done? Yes, please!

We had the reunion in the smaller of the two fellowship halls at the local catholic church. There was a playground right behind it for the little ones, and plenty of room for us to spread out and visit. Some of the guys cooked burgers, Marlayna had a delicious cake make, and we had an absolute ball.
Kysha and Skylar came to help decorate before hand, and Shyanne helped tremendously, from putting together and mailing out the invitations, decorating, and bringing year books from almost every single year we were in school. That was a huge help, since I only went to school there for our last two years, I didn't have anything like that. We counted, and 27 of our classmates went to school together from kinder until graduation. I think that is awesome. I hope to be settled somewhere so my girls can have that experience.
One of the things that worked out great for us was that I hired a photographer to take pictures, so none of us had to worry about getting all we wanted while chasing kids. Katie Probandt graduated a couple of years behind us and has just launched her photography career, and I think she did a great job. You can check out her work from the reunion here.

We had a pretty large group of friends, but within that there were smaller groups of 2, 3, or in our case, 4 girls. We even named ourselves AMOS, for Amy, Marlayna, Olivia, and Shyanne. Olivia has moved off to South Carolina, her oldest was turning 1 this weekend, and she's newly pregnant with number 2, so she wasn't able to come. We missed her! But we took a picture with her spot open :)

I had so much fun putting this thing on and then during the reunion. It didn't feel like work at all! And I think everyone enjoyed themselves. There was a lot of talk about not waiting another 10 years and having a reunion at 15. One even suggested an 11 year reunion!

Pardon me while I weep

Partly from joy, partly from sadness.
We're through buying diapers. My baby is no longer a baby.
That's right folks, Brynna Belle has finally decided to potty train. After flirting with it for months, on Monday, she just decided she was ready! I didn't have to ask her if she needed to potty at all, she would just tell me. It has been 5 days, and she's only had a small handful of accidents, most of which were my fault. She is still in a pull up when she's sleeping. But tonight, after putting her to bed, she got up and went potty all by herself. She started crying when she couldn't get her diaper back on, or I might have never known.
I'm so proud of her, and she's so proud of herself. She wants to call Daddy every time, and when I say no, she says Aunt Cadye? DeeDee? Nana? She just wants to let someone know!
It does make me more than a little sad. She is growing and changing so much these last few months. She talks all the time, though only at home, and her vocabulary has just exploded. Being potty trained is just the final little push into big kid-ness. It's pretty bittersweet.

Flash Back Friday

I'm just going to ease back in to blogging. I have no excuse for my extended absence. Well, my old computer sucked and wouldn't load pictures, but that's only about half of it. The other 75% was probably just pure laziness on my part. You're shocked, I know. No one could ever accuse me of being lazy. So easing in, and the first post from my shiny new laptop, is a simple flashback.

My sweet Laney-bug in the only bluebonnet shots we have. I know, we're bad Texans. We have been in a bit of a drought lately, though. This particular shot happened to be on the day that we found out she was going to be a big sister. And what a wonderful big sister she is! Seriously, I've never known a child to love, tolerate, teach, and appreciate their younger sibling like D'Laney does with Brynna. I just love that girl.
BTW, I am LOVING the new blogger! Do y'all? Any tips on how to optimize it? Or do you hate it and wish things would never ever ever change? (That's usually the way I lean, but I really like this.)

Testing. 1...2...3...

Hello? Is this thing on?

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.