Am I right?

We have been trying to get Taylor to sleep upstairs for a while now. The room the girls currently share is too small to put a real bed in and she is now too long for her toddler bed. We could put bunk beds in there, but Callee is too small for a bed yet so we couldn't take her bed out to make room for the bunk beds. Taylor has not wanted to sleep upstairs so for the past week, she has slept on the floor in her room. I have asked her every night if she would like to sleep upstairs in the bed set up for her instead, but she always politely declines. I feel bad for her, but she can't sleep in our bed so she'd rather sleep on the floor. I told Mike Sunday night that we were going to have to make room in their room for her bed even if it meant moving the dressers out into the hallway until Callee's bed could be moved out and we could move the bunk beds in.

Last night Taylor came to me about a half an hour before bed time and asked me what her choices were. I asked her choices for what? She asked where she could sleep, so I told her in her bed or upstairs in the big bed. She told me she'd like to sleep upstairs. When it was bed time, I took her upstairs, read her a book, and said her prayers and I told her not to get out of bed. I didn't hear a peep from her so I took a shower and when Mike got home I told him she was sleeping upstairs. He asked if she had gotten up and I told him no so we went up to check on her.
There my baby was, not such a baby anymore, sound asleep in her big girl bed not fearing a thing off in dream land. I'm not so sure I am ready for this and Mike definitely is not because he decided to sleep on the air mattress in the other room in case she woke up scared or needed anything. We finally got what we want and now I'm wondering, is this what I wanted? I know it is best because now she isn't sleeping on the floor and is much more comfortable, but I hate that she is on a different floor than us. Also, Callee woke Taylor up every morning so I think this will help with her grouchiness. I just hope we made the right decision.

WW - Love

As much as I hate this pic, I love it. I love all pics of Mike and I, but I look high or something. I was trying to stop laughing because his friends are silly and it came out like that. Not so wordless after all.

Is it Monday all ready?

Seriously, I can't believe it is Monday all ready. I feel like I have had a four day weekend, but I'm just not ready to be back at work. Maybe I'm lazy or maybe I really do hate being away from my kids, but whatever it is, I'm not ready to be back at work. It was such a great weekend with my family. My kids were pretty good, which was a little shocking, Mike and I had an evening out and my mom kept the kids over night! It was really nice although Callee won't be staying over there again for a while.

She is a child that thrives off of routine. She goes to bed within the same half an hour every night, sleeps in her own bed with her lullabies on, and is out for the remainder of the night. I forgot the lullaby tape, she didn't sleep in her own bed, although she did sleep in the crib that is at my mom's, and she went to bed a little later than normal. All of this made for one crabby little baby on Sunday. She barely napped, she screamed and sobbed for about an hour, and was pretty much just a cranky butt for a couple of hours. Then, it was like a switch flipped and all of a sudden, she's happy again! I don't think she was ready for a sleep over.

Nothing really exciting happened this weekend, unless you want to hear about teeth! Callee got 2 of her 1 year molars and two of her front bottom teeth, bringing the grand total to 10. She is starting to get her other 2 one year molars so hopefully that will be soon so the fussiness will cease or at least calm down for a while. Enough with the boring post. Maybe something exciting will happen tonight, but not in a bad way.

Blah Blah Blogging

I hope every one's Thanksgiving was good. We watched the Macy's parade and then headed out to family's houses. We started at my mother in law's which was fun and the food was yummy. We drew names for our Secret Santa exchange and then let the kids play for a while. We all had a good time, but then it was time to head to my mother's. We ate more there (wonderful food) and then played games. Unfortunately the boys (Mike, Josh and CJ) won, but my mom and I don't care we know we're better anyway. We played Scene It Friends edition, they got lucky! A better post on Monday!

Mike's birthday present

This is Mike's birthday present:

He has been asking for a big screen TV for a while now and I kept saying no. This one was brought to my attention a week prior to his birthday for a VERY good price so I couldn't pass it up. He seems to like it and since my sister and her kids have moved in, it gives them a TV upstairs also. I'm thinking this should make everyone happy.

Also, Mike got a card in the mail from his grandma and two checks inside. It was a mystery why the two checks were inside until he read the note. In case you can't see it, it says:

"Courtney - Oops!! Please forgive me - I realized when I was doing Mike's check that I missed your birthday - Better late than never! Sorry again - Nancie"

Mike was like, it's my birthday and I'm hardly mentioned by my own grandma, no she centers the card around you and even wrote you a note. All it says to him is Michael - Lots of Love! Grandma. He was cracking me up and I even got a check on his birthday! My birthday was 6 months ago so you see how worried I was about the check!

I just wanted to share that small, but funny story with you all and his gift. Have a wonderful Tuesday!

A Meme and quote of the weekend

I was tagged by Shana to do two meme's. 6 random facts about me and capturing the pic on my desktop. I am also going to do the middle name meme too.




My desktop pic:

It's football season and as soon as OSU plays their bowl game, it will be changed, probably something Taylor or the both of them. Shana, notice the window collapsed in the bottom?

Here are the rules:

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.

1. Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of their middle name. If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
   



2. When you are tagged you need to write your own blog-post containing your own middle name game facts.
   



3. At the end of your blog-post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag. Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog.

My middle name is Rose. I was named after my mom's niece who passed away when she was 15 months. Her birthday was May 23 and mine is May 26. Just a side note, Callee's middle name is also Rose.

R - Rambler. Yes I am guilty of rambling. I'll bet you couldn't tell by my blog, huh?

O - Outgoing. At first, I am very quiet, but once you get to know me, I am one of the most outgoing people you'll ever meet. So watch out!

S - Sarcastic. Unfortunately, I am also extremely sarcastic, but the tone must not be all the way there because people who have known me for a long time still can't tell when I'm being serious or not.

E - Easily Excited. Two e's. I am the person that gets so excited over the dumbest things. If you have anything you need someone to get excited about and you just aren't getting the results, tell me, you won't be disappointed!

6 Random facts (holidays edition)

1. The 4th of July is my favorite holiday. I love fireworks and picnic foods so this is great for me.


2. Thanksgiving is my second favorite holiday. I love all the food and when I was pregnant with Taylor, I craved Thanksgiving dinner the entire time.


3. Christmas is my least favorite holiday. I love the meaning of it, but I hate how commercialized it is. It drives me nuts that it should be a happy time and yet people are actually fist fighting in the isles.


4. Memorial Day I find exciting for a couple of reasons. One, it's the start of the summer and two, my birthday occasionally falls on it, like 2008.


5. I barely make it till midnight on New Year's eve. Ever since I had kids, it just isn't there anymore.


6. One of my kids always wakes up about 10:30 on New Year's Eve with the flu...it never fails!

Anyone who wants to do these meme's can just let me know you did them so I can come read. My Wonderful Men, I'd love to read these meme's from you, so you're kind of tagged.

Now for the quote of the weekend and I'll explain it in tomorrow's post.

Mike says, "Days like this dear, I feel like a superhero."

My response, "You are baby."

Happy Birthday Michael!

Mike's birthday is Saturday the 17th, but since I don't post on the weekends, I thought I'd post it a day early.

Mike, we've had our ups and downs, but I wouldn't trade them for anything. They have made our relationship stronger and made me look at you differently, good and bad at times, but none the less, it has made us different, better. Happy birthday and I hope you love your new TV! I love you.

I'll post pics of his present on Monday.

Go Bucks beat Michigan!

What a night

First of all, let me address the whole couch thing. Taylor and I think it is more of a green color and Mike and my mom swear it's blue. My brother said to me last night, in the picture it looks green, but at your house it's blue. So I guess I won in pictures, but at home...who knows! I still think it's green.

Last night I was sitting there watching TV at 10:30 when I got a call from a blocked number. I only have two people who call from a blocked number and neither of them usually call that late. I answered and it sounded like my friend Jenn. I said, "Hey what are you doing?" and the voice on the other end said, "This is you sister!" Oops!

"I need you to come pick me up."

"Where are you?"

"Home, but the air is no longer in my tires and I have no way out."

"I'm on my way."

I called my little sister so I didn't have to drag my kids out of bed and I hurried over there not knowing what to expect. Just my sister, niece, and nephew were there and they were packed and ready to go. I brought them back to my house where they will stay for a while. I confess to being torn about this. I love the idea of living with my sister again. I lived with her until my nephew was 2 and I loved being around them all the time. The only problem is, I now have a husband and add 2 more kids to that mix! My house is going to be crazy for a little while and I will embrace every minute of it.

I have realized through all of this how lucky I am. Mike never asked, "Can't they go somewhere else?" or "We really don't have the room." I apologized to him and his response was, "Don't be. She is your sister and we will do what we have to for however long. Our house won't be clean for quite a while though." I think I just fell in love all over.

Back to single motherhood!

The weekend has come and gone. I enjoyed every second of it, but it flew by as always. I thought the extra hour from the time change would have helped slow things down, however, it didn't. During the week, I go back to being a single mother for five days. My husband goes back to being a single father and our relationship, once again, gets put on hold. This is the routine I have come to know and grow tired of.

The weekend was wonderful. We got up on Saturday and I took Taylor to dance, and Callee came along. We got to watch Taylor do her routine for the recital and it was so cute. I can hardly wait until the recital that is in June, so I guess I better put on those brakes, huh? After dance, we dropped Callee off at home for a nap and headed out to get a birthday present for one of my cousins, get some lunch and then go grocery shopping. I love spending one on one time with my kids. It really gives me an opportunity to appreciate everything about their personalities without the other child competing for the attention. Taylor and I really enjoyed our time together on Saturday. I had to drop a check off for my sister at my parent's house and Taylor wanted to stay there since she was going there in an hour anyways. I let her and headed home to get Callee ready to go after her nap.

We dropped Callee and the present off at the birthday party and as we were leaving, I realized I misplaced my keys. I know when you are pregnant and have kids you tend to lose some of your memory, but it doesn't make it any less embarrassing when you are in a houseful of people, all ready late to check out the TSO and where are your keys? Mike headed outside to see if I left them in the car while my aunts helped me look inside. We were looking in the gift bag, the diaper bag, on the table, counters, in shoes and jackets and they were no where to be found. Mike came in and said, the doors are locked but I don't see them in there. He then informed my aunt, whose house we were at, that the neighbor was outside throwing a fit about where we had parked and another one of my aunt's had parked. We all headed outside to look through the grass and my aunt was trying to clear up the misunderstanding with her (drunk) neighbor. I went in the house and thank goodness one of my cousins husband's had found my keys, bless that man. We were all ready late!

My uncle who is a retired cop had to go outside and calm the fight down between my aunt and her neighbor, that is how heated it got. We left before it escalated. While on our way to the orchestra, Mike told me it was over parking and the guy was yelling at him and said he was a disrespectful kid for parking where he did, even though it wasn't his yard! Whatever! He called my aunt a bitch and said to "F" her! Can we say maybe just maybe he is not a pleasant drunk?

We finally made it to concert about 20 minutes late due to traffic. The concert was good, but it's like when you hear a bunch of hype about a movie and then when you finally see it you think, that's it? It was good, but I kind of expected more. The major problem with the concert is now I'm ready for Christmas and it is only November 5! All that Christmas music really set the tone for the Christmas season. I can't wait!

Sunday was a lazy day and I pretty much did nothing. We got up and went to church and I made dinner and did a couple loads of laundry. Nothing else got cleaned and nothing exciting was done. I can now look forward to next weekend. I'm not sure what is going on, but I seem to be wishing my life away one week at a time. Until our arrangement changes I will continue doing that. Anything exciting for anyone else this weekend?

TGIF

I live for Friday's. I love everything about them. It is the start of the weekend and morale is up in the office because everyone is excited for the weekend. It is my last day of the week and I am going to visit my friend Angie because her mom is in town and hasn't seen the kids for a while and let me tell you, she isn't happy with me! I figure she'll get over it when she sees their beautiful smiling faces and they turn into the terrors they are, she'll be begging me to take them home...lol!

It's the start to another "too short" weekend and I love everything that surrounds this day. I feel relieved to know that I can catch up on sleep (which rarely happens) and we get to be a family again instead of trying to catch each other as we are coming and going.

This weekend is especially nice because my husband and I, along with most of his family, get to have a date afternoon. We have tickets to go to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra in concert and we chose not to take either of the girls. We were going to take Taylor and then right before we bought the tickets we decided not to. I'm sure I'll regret it because I usually do when I go back and forth, but I know I won't regret not taking Callee because I know she wouldn't sit still.

It should be an interesting weekend because we get to do that and my mom is watching the girls and they love spending time over there without Mike and I. I think they feel grown up or something because if we say you are going to grandma's, Taylor will ask with or without you guys? If the answer is without us, she gets so excited. Now that I just typed that out, it's probably because my parents let them get away with murder!

Mystery solved, but I hope everyone else has a great weekend and I also hope it doesn't go too fast. I need a nice long weekend for a change.

A post of pictures

My mother's house was raided by grand kids last night. My sister and I have always met at my mom's to take the kids trick or treating together and last night was no different. My poor mom though, her house was trashed in the first 10 minutes, but what a trooper she is. She never complains of the messes they make she just says, "Don't take pictures, I don't want people to think this is what my house looks like all the time!" So, here is the disclaimer, anywhere my kids go there will be a mess. No body's houses are usually messy, we just happen to be there.

Taylor in her Care Bear costume. She didn't like the hood on so she's trying to take it off. Callee in her monkey costume. What else was she supposed to be? She is a monkey! Callee and daddy. He was trying to get her to stand so I could get the whole costume. I wanted to get the back too cuz she had the cutest tail, but that wasn't happening.

My niece as a cheerleader. Taylor in the background trying to get her hood back on cuz I told her she better leave it on.

My nephew. There are actual pictures of him below, but he just loved this picture. Something about mysterious?

And here the agony begins. I could not get a good picture of them. My nephew does think he is a rock star though. Taylor, again, doesn't have her hood up and where is Callee?

Callee is trying to make a break for it and I think my niece was the only one ready for that picture. Oops.

Taylor eating pizza after trick or treat. Her and CJ quit early so they ate and got bathed while we waited for Casia and Callee to come back.

He is a goofy child, but I love him.

He thinks he's sexy or something. I don't think he realizes he's only 7. He was talking about his girlfriend at school. When did he grow up?




Overall it was a good night. Now I can't wait for the weekend!

Taylor's new haircut and the weekend

before

Taylor got her haircut on Saturday morning. She couldn't wait to get it done. She's been asking me to get her haircut like mine for about 6 months now and I kept telling her no. Well, her hair doesn't look like mine, but there is about 4 inches missing from it and she hates it! She cried starting about half way through and didn't stop until we got home. It is a cute little bob with layers and I think it is the layers that bothers her so much. She said, "I like it, but I don't like the sides and the top." That would be where the layers are, so I think we'll be letting those grow out. I'm not sure I like the layers either so I can completely understand where she is coming from.
after

Friday night after work, we went to my friend Angie's house. She has 2 adorable boys who are 6 and 19 months and she is pregnant with her third boy! Taylor and Christopher (6) play really well together, you wouldn't know there was a three year gap between them and they both ask for each other if we haven't seen them recently, it is too cute. Maurice (19 months) and Callee are a different story. They are cute together, but when they were just crawling, Reese didn't realize he was a lot bigger than Callee and when he would hug her, he would knock her over, unintentionally. Now, Reese is afraid of her because he kept asking her for five and after the thirtieth time of giving him five, she must have wanted him to stop asking so she slapped him across the face. Of course I told her she couldn't do that because it wasn't nice, etc while Angie laughed and as soon as I was done telling her, I excused myself to the bathroom so I could also laugh hysterically too! Here are a couple of pictures of all the kids.

Callee made herself a seat!

What a goofy face!

Saturday night, Mike, my friend Trisha, and I went to meet a couple of Mike's friends that were in town. We had a great time and still got home early which was wonderful. Mike really does have some great friends who have just kind of accepted me whether they wanted to or not, which I am grateful for. While we were out, I had a really good grilled chicken sandwich. Trisha and I were the only ones that ate though. We watched the OSU game (they won) and then we headed home. It was nice to get out.

On Sunday, we went to church as usual, but this time it was just me and Taylor because as we were getting ready to walk out the door, Callee decided to have a meltdown because she got up way too early so Mike decided to stay home with her and give her a nap. After church, we took the girls to a parade and I forgot to take my camera...I hate that! We had a lot of fun even though it was pretty chilly out and the wind blowing made it so cold. The parade lasted an hour and a half! The girls had a ton of fun and everyone was dressed in their costumes so it got the girls all psyched for trick or treating.

I hope everyone had a nice weekend too and Wednesday is the big day! I know my girls are getting so excited.

Can you tell she is mean?

The mind of a 3 year old...

A conversation between Mike and Taylor on the way home from school today:

Taylor: Mom's going to be mad at me.

Mike: Why?

Taylor: Because she said I was getting pictures today and I gave the lady my envelope and everything, but she didn't give me any pictures.

Mike: She will get them in a couple weeks. It's okay.

Taylor: Turn around I forgot the envelope.

Mike: Did you give it to the lady that took your pictures?

Taylor: Yes, but she should have given it back cuz I didn't get any pictures so she can have her money in a couple weeks! I'll see if my teacher has it.

Then Mike had to explain how we paid for it, but they had to take the pictures and then send them to the school and that's when we would get them. Too funny.

WW - My Best Friend

My 3 year old took this picture and to the right, that's the back of my head!

The weekend and the game

Here is a picture of script Ohio. If you don't know what that is look it up!

This weekend we went to the Ohio State game. Neither Mike or I had been to an Ohio State game or a football game for that matter, so when an opportunity arose to go, we definitely were game. We left Saturday morning at 8 a.m. and didn't get back until a little after midnight. Despite the long day, we had a great time and it didn't hurt that OSU won, although at the end, I was a little nervous with one interception returned for a touchdown and one fumble returned for a touchdown also.

When you spend six hours in a car with someone, you tend to talk to make the drive not drag out and that is exactly what we did, talked, a lot! I have begun noticing lately that every time Mike and I try to talk, someone will call or stop by or one of the kids need something or are sick so I usually end the weekend with, "Oh, I forgot to tell him _____!" Not this weekend, we talked uninterrupted for five hours (he slept about an hour on the way home) and it was wonderful. I'm glad we had the chance to catch up and we have decided that we need to go out to dinner or to a movie or just get a babysitter and stay home once a month so we can catch up. Mike did make me promise however to let him know I want to talk and not drag him in a car for that long to be able to talk to him.

Mike is 6'4" so he doesn't fit comfortably in a car for too long. By the time we got home, he was like an 80 year old man with arthritis so I had to help him get out of the car. It was too funny. Overall, it was a really good time and we had lots of fun.

Sunday, we went to church and then to my grandma's to eat dinner, just like any other Sunday. Taylor went to my mom's for about an hour so Callee and I took a much needed nap. When Taylor got home, it seemed her cough was coming back from last week and sounded a little worse. By 7:00 she was just out of it and you could tell she was sick so I took her to Immediate Care. I had debated this for a while because I am always afraid I am overreacting and there is nothing wrong with them so I hate taking them to the doctor's. I ended up taking her and I am glad I did. She has had croup about 8 times in her life and pneumonia twice, I think. Callee is also prone to croup and pneumonia and she has added RSV to the list of ailments she's had. For whatever reason, my kids seem susceptible to the lung problems. Taylor now has a sinus infection and bronchitis. I have never heard of a 3 year old having bronchitis so I am glad I took her especially with her history of lung problems.

That was my weekend wrap up. It was a good one, but like all the others, it went by way too

fast! I hope everyone else's was good.

The weekend in photos

Needless to say, when I gave them a bath later, they had leaves everywhere! They did have fun though.

The ball that is floating to the left of Callee's head did bounce off of her head right after I snapped the picture. Luckily, I was not the one that kicked it...Kelly did...

but that's okay cuz she has kids too and I will get them one day!!! Lol.

Here Kelly is with her kids, sorry guys you will have to pay for your mom.

After the abuse ended we headed to the pumpkin patch. There were rows of pumpkins and then a field where you could pick your own, but we never made it back there.

Taylor with Mike's sister. Taylor ran her all over the place.

Leaving the pumpkin patch! It was a good time though.
Not the greatest pic, but whatever!

The yo-yo weekend

I forgot my camera at home today so I'll have to add the pictures tomorrow. This weekend was a yo-yo of a weekend. It went from good to bad to good. I won't post the bad part because it really was a stupid thing and I shouldn't have gotten mad, but I did and that's besides the fact. Friday night I didn't do much of anything because I am trying to get over this cold still. I didn't post it last week, but after my 10 days of headaches, I got a really bad cold. At least it explains the headaches. I didn't do much of anything in the way of house work last week and was in bed pretty early every night. Usually, I try to stay up until Mike gets home at 11:30 and then we talk for a little bit which leaves me getting to bed way too late every night. Not this week. I was in bed and asleep no later than 10:30 every night. So Friday I decided to stay up and wait for him since I hadn't seen him all week. All this did was have both of us stay up way too late! We caught up from the week and discussed our weekend plans and then went to bed. Both of the girls either have a cold or are getting over a cold so I knew noone would sleep well Friday night.

Saturday came and we didn't take Taylor to dance because I didn't want her getting all hot and sweaty and then going out in the cold to make her worse. I decided she needed to take a week off and besides that, I didn't need her getting any worse because we were going to the pumpkin patch and to visit Mike's aunt. Now some people are thinking, "If everyone was sick, why not just stay home?" and I thought of that too, but here are my reasons for going. 1)It was just a cold nothing more and I knew that. 2)Germs are festering in our house and I was hoping that getting out would do all of us some good. 3) It is supposed to be rainy and even colder next weekend so why push it back a week? Everything turned out really good. Nobody got worse and everyone had a good time. We visited with Mike's aunt for quite a while and she made us a delicious lunch. We arrived at her house at about 1:20 and didn't leave until 6:00. It was a really nice time, but it was also exhausting. We thought everyone would sleep really well from being so tired, but that's what I get for thinking. Callee woke up about 11:00 and I got her back to sleep about 12:00 and then got back up about 1:20 and didn't go back to sleep until about 3:00. It was not a great night of sleep, but nobody was any worse the next day, we just didn't make it to church.

Sunday was a lazy day. We went to my Grandmother's for lunch and while we were there, my dad took Taylor to his house. I took Callee home to put her down for a nap and left to go grocery shopping. I spent too much at the store, big surprise and when I got home, Callee was still sleeping! I couldn't believe it because she had been sleeping for 2 1/2 hours and I thought for sure I would come home to a monkey that wanted to cuddle. I put the groceries away and woke her up from her almost 3 hour nap. I had made arrangements with my sister earlier in the day to come and watch my kids for an hour or two so Mike and I could go to dinner. She came and we went, which is just what I needed. We were only gone for an hour and a half, but it was so nice to get out without the kids and have some adult conversations with the person I love. We went home to our normal routine of getting the girls to bed, folding and putting away laundry and getting ready for bed myself. Overall, it was a good weekend and next weekend we should be going to a haunted hayride with my sister and some other people. So we should have a good weekend and hopefully by then this cold will be gone.

I hope everyone else had a good weekend! Pictures tomorrow.

All about Michael

Here is Mike being "fatherly" with Taylor (Just kidding about the "fatherly," he is a great dad!). Yes, she is holding her butt and that is what they are talking about because she hurt it. And the monkey in the background looks like she is getting ready to tackle someone.

Okay so my post today is going to be all about my husband for 3 reasons. 1) I never really post anything about the wonderful man I married, 2) His birthday is coming up and I don't know what to get him (looking for suggestions based on what I tell you about him), and 3) I found a blog of someone who lost her husband way to early. We did have a scare a little over a year ago, but it didn't impact me as much as it did him. I wasn't the one going to be left behind to pick up the pieces, he would have been.

Okay, so I'll tell you the story of Mike and I. It's not the story I wish it was, but we all go in directions we would rather have back to do over. Mike and I met in March of 2003. We worked together. I had met his dad before him because he was my boss and apparently Mike had gone on military leave. After breaking his ankle pretty bad, he was discharged from the Marines and returned to work. In the meantime, I had been hired there and knew nothing of this "Michael" character except that he was super nice and helpful, according to the 40 something's women I worked with. I met him the day he came back to work and he worked along side of me. He was nice, had absolutely gorgeous eyes and was nicely built. He was very attractive. How come nobody had mentioned that part to me? Well, we started hanging out, mostly going to bars after work and stuff and then one day, we went to the movies just him and I. It was kinda weird, but I thought I was hot stuff cuz he chose to go to the movies with me not the other girls we worked with. In hindsight, he was really shy and he and I talked all the time because we worked side by side. It had nothing to do with me, it had to do with him not wanting to venture out of his comfort zone and anybody who knows me knows I am in no way shy.

March through June flew by and then July was here. Apparently, some time during that month we made a baby because toward the middle of August I started feeling really sick and thought I had the flu. I was talking to a friend of mine about my symptoms and she said, "you're pregnant, I knew it!" "Take a test, come over, I'll go get the test," all of this was said frantically and running together. It was 11:30 p.m. and I didn't feel good so I declined and told her I would take one tomorrow and let her know. I did and the second I peed on that stick it said I was pregnant, so naturally I thought it must have been wrong because nothing changes that quickly and Mike and I are still newly in this relationship thing. So I took 2 more, all pregnant. I had to tell Mike, my parents (who were going to kill me) and other people I didn't really want to tell. I told Mike first. He was scared and clueless and I would have loved to been able to hear what was going on in his head. Then I told my mom and asked her to tell my father because I was certain he really would kill me. My mom wasn't happy and she was definitely disappointed, but she tried to hide it well. I avoided my dad for days. If I knew he'd be home, I found somewhere else to be and if he wasn't, I went home then to shower and sleep. I don't know if I have been that afraid of him ever before in my life. I ran into him at my cousins house and he came outside. He hugged me and said I won't kill you if you promise me one thing, you won't marry him because you are pregnant. If you love him, marry him, if you don't, don't.

The time of pregnancy was long, much like this post, and we had our good and bad times. I changed my number in an effort for him to leave me alone. Girls, the hormones were going wild and people were telling him she wasn't his. And, he was believing them, what was I to do? Well, obviously we ended up getting back together because we are married today. Things came and went, we had a beautiful baby girl, we were engaged and in love. We got married April 2, 2005, Taylor was 11 1/2 months old. It was great, went by way too fast for all the planning we had done, but that's how it is.

In August of 2005, we bought a house and in November, he did the unthinkable. I kicked him out, I let him come back home and surprise, I'm pregnant with number two. We found out the day he came home. Welcome home? We went on to fix our relationship, I got into that horrible accident and now life is back to "normal" without being able to do too much because of my "piece of crap" knee, as it has come to be known as. We have had ups, downs, and in betweens, but I probably couldn't be any happier with anyone else right now. I love spending time as a family and as a couple. I hope we have many years together ahead of us. That is the story of Michael and myself in a very small nutshell.

Okay, now, my husband is into working out, the Cleveland Browns, Cavs, and Indians and he loves to watch Ohio State football. I have gotten him Cavs tickets two years that we have been together and his father got him tickets the year I was pregnant with Taylor so I think Cavs tickets would be predictable. I don't want to get him Browns tickets because then I'd have to go and not only am I not into NFL football, it's cold and I don't want to go and freeze to watch something that I didn't want to watch in the first place. Good luck getting Indians tickets and his b-day isn't until November anyways. I would love to get OSU - Michigan tickets, but they play in Michigan so more expenses and tickets start at $250. We are not made of money. We do not have that laying around to just get them. He wants a bowflex, but no for two reasons: 1) money and 2) we have nowhere to put it.

So, my question to you, What to get Mike for his birthday? Any suggestions would help a lot, so let me have it. Thanks!

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.

I think I need pills

Okay, that is kind of a bad title for a post. I think I may either need an anti-depressant or sleeping pills though. Sleeping pills may not be such a good idea since the reason I am feeling so gloomy and unhappy is because my kids don't want to sleep. If I got sleeping pills, I wouldn't hear them to get up with them and I would be a really bad mom. However, anti-depressants have side effects that I don't know if I am willing to risk. Some cause weight gain and since I am still trying to lose, I don't think I want that. Also, there are sexual side effects, sleeping side effects (insomnia), and lots of other ones that I don't know which is worse the sad feeling all the time or the side effects. I think I'll probably make an appointment with the doctor and discuss my fears and anxieties and see what his suggestion is.

My children have had some odd sleeping habits lately. Last weekend, my sister watched my kids and said she put Callee to bed at 10 which is an hour and a half later than normal. I had expected her to sleep in, but at 2 a.m., she was up. I stayed up and got her back to sleep at 3, put her in her bed and went to sleep myself. At 3:40, my sister brought her in my room to me because I hadn't heard her crying. That is really weird, I must have been exhausted, but it still scared the crap out of me. Who doesn't hear their crying child? She stayed up until 6:30 and finally went back to sleep in our bed. She was up again at 10:30. Apparently sleep is over rated in her eyes. However, it is not for mommy and quite frankly, I need it.

That brings us to this weekend. I got her in bed about 9 Friday night. She was up at 7 and took a nap from 12:15 - 4:30. She was back in bed by 8:40 and got up at 7:30 on Sunday. She took a 2 hour nap and was pretty much happy the rest of the day. Mike and I put the girls to bed about 8:15 Sunday night because they were out of control bad for some unknown reason. They went to sleep fairly easy, but at 8:50 Taylor got up and you could tell she had been sleeping. A couple minutes later Callee was crying and Mike went to put Taylor back to bed. Taylor got up again about 15 minutes later and we told her we weren't tucking her in again, she needed to do it herself. You could still hear Callee whining and fussing from being woken up, but it seemed as if she may go back to sleep. About 10 minutes passed and you can hear incessant giggling emerging from their room. Mike went in there to see what was going on and both girls were still in their own beds, but were talking and giggling. We allowed them to get up for a little while because you could tell they weren't going to just go back to sleep. Callee went back to bed at 10:50 and Taylor at 11:30. They were both up by 8:15 this morning.

I had to get up for work and now I am dragging through this day. I know when I get home I will be short patienced and counting down the minutes until bedtime, praying it will be an easier night. Having two kids is a whole different ball game. I had bedtime down to a tee with Taylor and then along came Callee. Bedtime still went pretty smoothly for a while, but in the last month, everything has taken a turn for the worse with bedtime. I don't know what to do really, but I do know I need something to change.

Any suggestions?

**On a side note, Mike and I have been talking about moving our room upstairs, but I really don't want to sleep on a different floor as them. This would give them their own rooms and keep one from waking the other up.