Rain Rain... I will kick your ass

Taylor's barnyard bash is being threatened by rain....

It will, of course, go on because it is IN the barn, but I wanted everyone to be able to enjoy a gorgeous fall day with the leaves turning, a cool breeze & miles & miles of land as far as your eye can see.... End the day with a roaring bonfire, some cocktails & adult conversation...

The weather men have been wrong before... A LOT, let's hope they are wrong about Saturday!

Taylor's Ho-Down

So, it started as a joke... Let's have Taylor's party in the barn so my family (who all live in the city) can see where we spend every waking moment on the weekends & all the animals....to which Kathy surprisingly was all like YES GREAT IDEA!

So then it took off...

If you know me, you were probably at my Luau... My very expensive over the top, took a theme & ran waaaaay too far with it Luau.... I had a 6ft Monkey with a lei & grass skirt... Necessary? No, but it was dressed for the occasion...It's a sickness, I cant help it.

Unfortunately or maybe fortunately, I don't have the kind of money as I did then... plus Pat would never allow the insanity of $5 grand... Oh yes, the luau went there.. But I had a REAL tikki bar...again I am a very SICK person...

SO the barn, sorry, first it was all oh animals.. yes animals, then it changed to fall at the farm, because, well it is. So the barn was emptied, cleaned, organized... a 4 day job to which I, the cleaning natzi, as they have referred to me, had it done within 7 hours,
(this is also part of my sickness)

Since I didn't have the funds to purchase what I thought should be in a barn, we had to be resourceful...... decorating with old jars, old farm items found in & around the barn, a few hay bales, some mums, soft fall colors... It is going to gorgeous, at least to me anyway... I didnt mind that I couldnt spend a crap load of money on decorations, I think the barn would have looked unauthentic with new stuff anyways.. so it worked out pretty good. Even Pat was amazed what I got done in such a short amount of time with hardly any budget.

Of course I HAD to buy cowboy hats & bandana's for all the kids, luckily it was the halloween season so they were easy to find. I ended up finding them at the dollar store which was good cause we had about 20 kids coming. My Mom is on cake duty, I told her I wanted a barn cake with animal cup cakes, so hopefully she can figure that one out!

I cant wait to for everyone to see it.. no one will quite understand the undertaking that came with deciding to have the party there, but it is adorable... The kids will love the animals... the grown ups will love that the children can run around & not be in our hair... I cant wait till Saturday

My Monkey is turning ONE

I cant believe that an entire year has passed.

I feel like only a few weeks ago, I was pacing my living room floor all hours of the night, crying because my leg cramps were so bad and I was so sleep deprived...

I feel like only a few days ago, I was walking into the hospital knowing she would be here in a very, very short amount of time...

I feel like it was only a few hours ago that Patrick & I brought home our tiny little bundle and just sat on the couch staring at her for HOURS on end...

I feel like it was only a few moments ago I was watching her find her hands, roll over, sit up, laugh, crawl, smile, coo for the first time...

And now, in about 2 weeks my little Monkey will be 1 and before we know it, we will turn around and she will be Alyssa & Tori's age...

Wow, one...

The Flu .. Already?

I dont get sick often, but I do always get a monster of a cold around the beginning of school.

Right now, because I cant sleep it off, I will safely say it is quickly turning into the flu.

I feel miserable, the baby is of course not napping ( I think she does it on purpose) & Pat couldnt be more unsympathetic so instead of getting better after 2 weeks, I am getting worse.

I wish I was home with my Nanny. She always makes me tea & rubs my back. I miss my family.

And Monkey says Mom...

I love love love the fact that Taylor says MOM. Not Momma, not Mommy but MOM. When she is upset I get the " Mom, mom,mom,mom MOM" I love it!

It makes my heart melt!

She talking up a storm, you ask her a question she says, "OK" or " yea". You say HI she says HI then puts her hand to her ear like she is on the phone. *Hi can not be said by her without the hand to ear motion*

When she doesn't get her way with me it's all Dada.. but lately it is mostly MOM!

She is at such a fun age now where she is silly.. she mimics everything. She even knows how to whistle from watching me & Pat do it.

Oh I could go on & on ... but I wont.. I am just so happy for her to say MOM!

Me & My Little Black Cloud...

I am thinking about writing a book...

Everyone has told me for years to do it...

It's just a matter of actually getting it down on paper, at least I have the title already.

Quote...

" Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who you are." -Bernice Johnson Reagon

Rough past couple of days...

Limits & strengths have been tested.. I am exhausted, I think this is bottom. Hopefully we can only go up from here. I don't think I can endure much more.

I need to repeat this to myself over & over to try to make sense of all that has happened.

Chop Chop...

I have been growing my hair long. I have been hating my hair long. My husband loves it, which a good wife would leave it for him to love.... But I can't stand how long it takes to do it, I never liked my hair long. Sooo call me a bad wife, call me lazy, but today I say goodbye long locks...

Chop chop, hello me, I have missed you!

First Day.. It's Offical

Today is Alyssa's first day back to school, she is going into 4th grade now. I can remember her first day of nursery school like it was yesterday. What she wore, how she cried, how I cried and how she didn't want to leave when I came back to pick her up. Every year I feel excited when school time comes, but once she is on the bus, I feel like that mother who just brought her 3 year old to nursery school for the first time.

Every year I watch her get bigger, smarter, more in tune to the world around her. I watch this beautiful flower that I helped nurture for these past 9 years blossom into a beautiful young lady...

My sister in law Emily sent me this email this morning with a wonderful article.... I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.. Thanks Em!

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Quick, before they leave this morning. Take a good look. Touch their faces, run your hands through their hair.
We got antsy with them last month, but now we want time to stand still. Like falling leaves and chilly mornings, some great force signals us today. We are aware of life passing.
See the kindergartner with a brave, bewildered smile watching her mother cry as the school bus pulls away. The high-school freshman with a lump in his throat hears his father whisper everything will be OK. Brothers and sisters who fought all summer now hold hands.
Today is proud, today is helpless, today is tomorrow. This is a special morning, wrenching and sacred.
As a young reporter, I'd wonder why. What's the big deal about the first day of school? I would write down quotes in my notebook and comprehend nothing.
Then I became a parent. I found out. We mark time by today.
On this morning, we remember our own parents and our own childhood. We are filled with the smell of old raincoats, the sticky bond of classroom glue, the childhood knot of worried excitement. We were so small and lost. (Secret: A part of us is still lost. We tell no one.)
Now we have children of our own. On this morning, we remember the holy moment of their birth.
We see this is all just a matter of time. Once, we thought our children were ours alone. Each September, on this day, we learn better. Nothing is ours to keep.
Time passes through our eyes this morning. We see our children as newborns, we picture them as grown-ups. We see them walking their own children to school.
Time passes in the beat of a heart. I have seen my first kindergarten boy walk into his dorm on his first day of college. A few days ago, my younger son left for college. I stood there, at once empty and full, as frightened and proud as the morning his first school bus pulled away.
Come on, it's getting late. The bus is coming up the road. I'll keep this short.
Make sure they have everything they need. Double-check. Write their name on the book bag. Sweetheart, did you remember your lunch money? Dad, don't call me mushy stuff in front of the other kids.
They are right. Like the summer birds leaving us, our children know what to do. Like September leaves waving on the trees, we, too, give way to the winds of change.

Aggravations

1. Changing Taylor's diaper... I need her to stay still she needs to roll. She gets the urge to roll more so when she has poop then when its just pee. It must hilarious to watch, but it is impossible to do. She is very strong, I think she could take me.

2. Pat & the toothpaste... Every morning without fail! I go into the bathroom, he has the cap on one side of the sink and toothpaste open on the other. Every morning I put the cap back on & put the toothpaste away. I think he does it on purpose, I bet he thinks its funny.

3. Spiders, specifically Daddy Long Legs... I know spiders are supposedly a sign of a clean house, but come one man, my house isn't that clean. I kill about 6 a day sometimes more.... A DAY!
* did you know that Daddy Long Legs carry a poison that can kill a human.. the deadliest to humans but there mouths are too small to bite us* Thank god for that or my whole little family would be gone!

4. Laundry... I think they wait and watch, then wait some more & just when I have the last little piece of laundry done & put away, here they come, almost prancing like they are sooo funny with an armful of dirty... Even though I just asked anyone have any dirty laundry I didn't get? Noooo, but I am learning that Nooo means we have it hidden so we can do the laundry prance... I think Pat & Lissi are in co-hoots.

5. The living room area rug... We have a rug in the living room that wrinkles when you walk over it. I hate that. It pisses me off. I don't know how to make it stop. I have tried everything short of nailing it down.

6. Dishes... You know what a sink is right? In my mind or how I understood it, that is where you put the dirty ones that need to be washed. IN the SINK, not next to it, not near it, not on the counter across from it... IN IT! It must take too much energy to lower the arm into the sink, I don't get it. DIRTY = SINK, maybe my mother had it wrong, I will have to ask her.

7. Alyssa & Scissors... Every time that child has scissors you would think we just yelled Happy New Year & threw confetti, it doesn't matter what she is cutting or where, it can be 5 seconds or 2 hours and I feel like the clean up crew for a ticker tape parade.

8. Socks... I don't know what I do wrong. I use bleach, I use detergent, but I can never get them clean clean. WTF? I have even been so desperate that I researched it online to make sure I am doing it right. For some reason I am being punished by my whites, I want them whiter they like dingy... I am going to have to get that lady from the cheer commerical here.

8. The Night Time Mess Fairy... I don't know who this S.O.B is but when I catch it, mother's everywhere will rejoice & sing my name in praise. I am the last one to go to sleep ALWAYS. I am the last one to see the house, every night. Somewhere between my last waking memory & the time my brain is jolted back to life by Taylor, someone has come into my home & trashed it. I am setting up a video camera.. I will prove this theory to be true, maybe this fairy is friends with the sock stealer and I can get both at once.

9. The Lady Across the STREET... I hate the fact that we even live close enough to people to be able to say that... But this whack job, um I mean woman, has 4 maybe more dogs.. She lets them out whenever Taylor is sleeping, it's like she waits for it. These things bark like mad which then warrants her to scream like a banshee at them telling them to "shut up". This of course always wakes up Taylor. I want to walk over there & open her gate sometimes. I think they are barking for help, they want to get away from her, I might assist them in their plea. The dogs told me to, that will be my insanity plea.

10. Breaking News... If I am watching something I am invested. I want to see it through. It is very rare that I get to sit & enjoy any sort of show lately without having my own "breaking news" to interrupt me from it every 3 seconds. So unless my life is in eminent danger, break it during commercial. I don't care what Michael Jackson offical autopsy report is, bury him, he's dead, get over it.