The weekend...finally

Callee is ready to go.

Okay so I finally get to blog about my weekend. My friend Ashley who was in the accident with me came into town to visit. I love when Ashley comes to town and so do my kids, especially Taylor. One thing you need to know is Ashley didn't always live in Pittsburgh. We met our Freshman year of college and have been friends ever since. I spent a lot of time with Ashley even after having Taylor because the girl loves kids. It was never an inconvenience that I had Taylor. She majored in early childhood education and now works as a nanny for a wonderful family, so Taylor was and still is always included in our outings. Very rarely do I leave my kids with Mike when Ashley is around because it isn't an issue with her. I love that about her. I never feel like I have to sacrifice my time with them to hang out with a friend. Also, Ashley is content hanging around my house so I never feel as if I am ignoring Mike either. She really is a great friend.

Taylor just chillin'!!!

Taylor became extremely close to Ashley in the months following the accident. As I have said before, Callee screamed for 9 1/2 months. Well, the first 4 or so months, Mike was on midnights and the child didn't care that nobody was there to walk with her, she still screamed at 12, 2, 4, and 6 a.m. It was really rough to know that she would quiet down if you would walk with her, but I could hardly walk myself and wouldn't walk with her because I fell all the time. That is where Ashley came in. I don't know if it was out of guilt (she was driving) or that she was just that good of a friend, I like to think the latter because she didn't do anything wrong and did everything to avoid the accident, but if she wasn't at school or work, she was at our house helping out. I had people who helped out beside her, but most of them were family. She is the only friend who would spend hours on end at my house helping with the baby or helping with dishes, baths, stories, playing, anything I needed. I appreciated all of that and mostly the company that she kept me. It is really hard after having a baby to feel like yourself again and when your husband is doing everything he can to support his family, he can't always be there. She helped me to not fall in too big of a funk. She would tell me to go to bed about 10 and she would either be there all night or at least until 3 or so. I would sleep that entire time. It was the greatest 5 hours of sleep ever! I knew my baby would be taken care of and yes I felt guilty letting her stay up all night with her, but I knew if I didn't get those few hours of sleep Taylor and Callee would have an irritated, crabby mother all the time and Callee would sense that and cry that much more.

She loves cookies!!!

Okay, that is not where this post was supposed to go, but apparently I needed to get it out or something. Anyways, Ashley picked up dinner on her way into town and we all had great food. My sister-in-law, who has also became friends with Ashley was there too. My sister came later. If you can't tell, Ashley is like having another sister. My mother even invited her to all our family things when she lived an hour and a half from her family. Ashley has just kinda been adopted and her mother has kinda adopted me too. Okay I digressed again. We had a great night sitting around talking and laughing. We got up Saturday morning and took Taylor to dance class. When we got home from there, it was time for Callee to take a nap. Ashley and I sat outside and watched Taylor ride her bike for a couple hours while Callee slept.

Ashley and Taylor at dinner. Gotta love the beer sign right over their heads in the background.

After Callee got up it was time to go get something to eat and say goodbye to Ashley. She had to go watch the kids she used to watch when she lived around here so her visit was short lived. We had dinner, talked, laughed, and took pictures. It was a really good visit with her, but as usual, it didn't last long enough. When you are used to having somebody around at least 5 days a week, 16 hours just seems to fly by.

Callee being rotten and getting everything out from under the sink:After Ashley left, Mike, me, Josh, CJ, Casia, Taylor, Callee, and Emma decided to go for a walk. First of all, it was like 105 degrees. We decided to take a two mile walk with 4 kids and a dog, and along the way, we picked up Kara and Makayla. Can you even imagine how much fun this walk was not? Everybody made it back alive, but only after much bickering and complaining. I was in bed by 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night and it felt great. I have been so exhausted lately, so the early bedtime was welcomed with open arms.

We went to church Sunday, as always, and I went to my Grandma's for dinner. My aunt had brought her new puppy with her. He is so cute. His name is Gizmo and here he is:

I hope everyone elses weekend and now week have been good. This post is a lot longer than I expected it to be. Sorry about that.

I almost forgot....Go Tribe....they eliminated the Yankees in game 4 last night. I hope this is their year! Maybe I'll post about my love for the Indians tomorrow, complete with pics from the game I went to last year about a month before I had Callee. Let me tell you how comfortable I was, but I still loved every minute of it.