Let's try this again

Okay, so I've had a lot going in the past few months, and blogging as taken a back seat. But I'm going to try to do better. Now that the wedding is out of the way, I should have a little more free time.

I'm going to create a separate blog for Sammy's stories called "Sammy's Scrapbook". That way it can be something he can look back on without having to go through all of my stuff. It'll have his quotes, stories, pictures, and videos. I want to document his life while he lives here as much as possible. That means I have a lot of back stories to fill in. It may take me a few months to get it complete, but I might as well start now.

Stitches and Dresses

Sammy fell down to this afternoon, and had to get seven stitches in his forehead. Poor guy. But I heard he braved it well. He held still like the doctor told him, but he didn't like that he was being sewn up.

On the flip side, I have to find a wedding dress. I'm getting married in just over SIX weeks. Can we say off the rack and inexpensive ;)  I'm hoping to find a tea length, lace dress in my price range, which really isn't a range just a series of SMALL numbers. Wish me luck.

8 lbs

8 lbs. That's how much weight I've gained in three months since I've seen my nutritionist. *sigh* It's obvious I'm not doing what she wants me to do. So, it's time to start over...again. Keep track of my food to count calories (did that today...gracious, I need to make better choices), eat snacks, don't drink soda, and exercise (walk) three times a week.  Maybe I'll actually lose the 8 lbs before I get married. Here's hoping :)

Getting Married

Here's a picture of me and my sweetheart taken this Easter.

We just got engaged at the beginning of March, and we're getting married in just under two months on May 26.  And I'm only just now starting to plan. The good thing is that we're not having a big wedding. The great thing is that many of my friends want to help. I have a few ideas about what I want, but I'm not going to get upset if it isn't exactly the way I want it. I'm not going to turn into bridezilla. I'm grateful for the help. I have committees set up for decorations and food (and I should probably start one for music). Anybody who wants to help is more than welcome to join in. I'm more than willing to give up control to make the wedding enjoyable and stress-free for me my fiance. I already know the marriage is going to be wonderful because I'm marrying such a terrific man.

New clothes

I bought Sammy a few new clothes this weekend. I was super exited about the Perry the Platypus coat I got for $9. Sammy really liked it, but he was most excited about the black "exercise" shirt.


Show me you're guns. BAM!

Here he is "ninja posing" in his new Perry pajamas.

Oh, wait....

The thing about MS is that everyone experiences it differently. One of the *fun* things I have is "heavy legs". I've been doing really well over the past couple years, so when I woke up this morning with heavy legs, I was concerned I might be having a relapse. Then I sat up.



Sometimes it's not MS. Sometimes it's Milo.

Sammy Claus

My sweetheart

This is me and Leon

Leaving 36 Behind

Sammy: ANNIE! Someone put balloons on the mailbox.
Me: I think it was Grandma. What do you think they're for?
Sammy: Your birthday.
Sammy (whispering): I think those balloons would make a great obstacle course in the kitchen.

Bye Bye Blankie? Not quite yet...

On a whim I bought Sammy a Stars Wars Clone Wars throw blanket today...because he LOVES Star Wars. (I'll post a video of him singing the Imperial March below.)

Tonight he announced that the Star Wars blanket was his new blankie, and his old blue blankie (which I bought him when he was born and he HAS to sleep with every night or the world will end) was now Monkey's blankie. He wrapped Monkey up in the blue blankie, and then crawled under the Star Wars blanket.

(He has a stuffed pink monkey with long arms and legs that he plays with...granted, Monkey dies a lot when they're playing [he keeps getting shot for some reason], but he's brought back to life by the doctor.) Of course Monkey sleeps right beside him, so his tried and true blankie is within reach, but it seems to be a good first step (made on his own) to gradually outgrowing the need for a comfort item.

A Different Motivation

It's tax-free weekend in North Carolina, and I just talked myself out of buying an ipad. There are certain health goals I want to meet, and I decided the ipad will be my reward...so it looks like I won't be getting one for about a year :( But maybe the ipad will be a more enticing reward than "good health" and "feeling better about myself". It's time to start moving and eating better.

posted from Bloggeroid

Chess

Sammy found a magnetic travel chess game and begged and begged me to teach him how to play. He promised he wouldn't get "flusterated" with all the rules. I showed him how each of the pieces moved. Of course he didn't remember...he's four. The biggest questions he had were why the rook wasn't called a castle and the knight a horsey.

Once we got the basics out of the way, Sammy opened the game with his first ever chess move...he moved the pawn to the refrigerator...where else are magnets supposed to go? After playing with it on the refrigerator for a minute, he moved it back to the board. I spent the next few turns showing him how to kill (capture) my players. His attention span lasted a total of nine moves. Not a bad first lesson.

posted from Bloggeroid

It's Official

7/7/11 - my new favorite day. My divorce was finalized this morning. Honestly, I don't feel anything...not sadness, hurt, anger, relief, anything. All of my emotions about him and us were dispelled a while ago. But I'm glad to have this part of my life behind me.

I'm still working on simplifying

I'm trying to get to this point with my books as well as other aspects of my life. I saw it on The Simple Life's blog: "When I think about my book collection, I think about the books I’ve read, not about the books I own. The value isn’t in the collection, it’s in the experience."

posted from Bloggeroid

There's more to buying a bike than pointing and saying, "I'll take that one"

I decided to get Sammy a bike for his birthday (he's turning four next Saturday). Little did I know it would take a whole hour to pick out just the right one.

I went looking at bikes a couple days to see what was out there. I discovered there are more girl bikes than boy bikes, at least at the three stores I went to. I also acquainted myself with the different sizes and shapes. I figured a 16" bike is what I was looking for, giving him a some room to grow into. Now all I had to do was find a color, and voila, I'd be done.

WRONG. I took Sammy bike shopping tonight, and let me tell you, buying a bike is a lot different than buying a hot wheels (his current cool ride). The first thing I found out was that 16" was too small. It just fit him, and as tall as he is and as fast as he's growing, a 16" would not do. His knees came to just under the handle bars when his pedal was at the top of the rotation. We looked at 16" wheels with a longer frame, but that stretched him out too far.

So we moved up to an 18" wheel. There were several that we tried, but they just didn't fit him right. Some were too hard to pedal, on one the training wheels weren't even, others were too big, etc, etc. And then we found GOLDIE. It was the right shape frame and right size wheel, and Sammy loved it. When the salesman from Toys R Us pulled it off the rack, Sammy's eyes got big, and he said, "Wow! That's a COOL bike."  Heaven help me. He wanted a gold bike. If I could talk him into another bike, I would try my hardest. But honestly, this bike really was perfect in every way (except color). It was small enough to fit him but big enough for him to grow into. The frame was the correct length, and it was easy to pedal. The orange 16" bike that cramped his knees that he HAD to have 5 minutes ago was forgotten. This was it.

I was talking myself into actually buying him a $100 gold bike when the salesman said, "I don't know why we don't have more boys bikes out on the floor. Let me go see if we have anything similar to this in the back." :D  <---This is me grinning and begging the salesman to PLEASE go look. If I had to buy him a flashy, blingy gold bike I would, but in the end, I didn't have to. He came back out with a green bike in the same style made by the same company. And it was only $75 (score!). And it was on sale for one more day for $20 off (double score!). This bike was mine. I even paid the extra $10 to have them assemble it (which made my brother happy).

Here's a pic of Sammy on the gold bike. Now imagine the bike as a light (but masculine) grass green. Yep, this is gonna be one good birthday.

Sammy the Water Gun

If it helps him enjoy brushing his teeth every night, I've got no problem with it.

We had to change his shirt before he went to bed. It was a little wet :)

How to use nunchucks

Sammy teaches how to properly use nunchucks. More importantly, we learn their correct pronunciation...it's nunchuckles.

(The nunchucks are homemade from two soft blocks and a rubber band.)

R2D2, Darth Vader, and a monkey walk out of a store

Sammy and I played Candyland this morning. The bad thing is that we've lost most of the cards. The good thing is that it ends quickly because 3 of 10 cards left are shortcut cards :) But I realized I didn't have any more games to play that were on in his level.  So we took a trip to the store where we picked up R2D2 in Trouble and Chutes & Ladders (the superhero version).

After *looking* at the Lego aisle (he LOVES legos, but it's amazing how expensive they are and he has TONS), we were walking past the stuffed animals when he said, "Oh! What's this?" And he went straight for...a pink monkey. I kid you not. A PINK monkey. It has long arms that velcro so it can hug you and a button to press in his chest that makes monkey sounds. And he wanted it. He wanted it bad. I diverted his attention to other stuffed animals. No go. I suggested we leave it on the shelf, and he said, "I'll just carry it around with me and take care of it."

We looked at the trucks (not interested), the guns (he has too many), and other toys, all with a pink monkey wrapped around his neck. He was getting impatient. "We need to go check out now!" Before we went to the register, I told him he could only get two things, so he had to chose between the R2D2 game (he also loves Star Wars...the PS3 game and star wars Legos...not really interested in the movies.), the super hero game, and the monkey.

(Aside) When we were looking at some of the board games, he wanted to get ones that were too complicated for him. He gets frustrated easily when he can't do something. You can guess what I said to him multiple times in the toy store by his response to choosing which toy to not buy. (Aside over) "I think I need to get the super hero game later, when I'm older so I'll know how to play it." Yep. He chose R2D2 and the pink monkey. The Chutes and Ladders game (which is well within his age range) was tossed aside.

As we walked up the register, they had bags with Barbie and Sponge Bob and other assorted characters, and he wanted one. I initially told him no (even though they were only $2), but then I saw a Lego Darth Vader one...so I bought him that too.

Here's Sammy with his prize monkey. He played with it all the way home. Ran into the house to show his dad. We've played hide and seek with it and they've jumped on the bed with it. It's his buddy. When we had to go somewhere in the afternoon, the monkey came too, along with the Darth Vader bag filled with his Ninja Turtles. Hey, whatever makes him happy, right?

Spike...through the years

One of my mother's cats died unexpectedly this afternoon. Whatever the cause, it came on suddenly. Within 24 hours of discovering he was sick, our sweet Spikey would leave us. Our pets are more than just animals. They're members of the family. We'll miss you Spike. 7/7/06 - 5/3/11

Spike was just minutes old

Katie (middle) "pinning down" her brothers, Spike (top) and Tater (bottom)

They had just started opening their eyes

Paparazzi again? Why must you take so many pictures of me?

He looks innocent...

He looks harmless...

...but this darling brought home lizards and birds for everyone. So thoughtful.

Spike and his brother Tater

I claim the top of the couch (and this cute lady reindeer) in the name of Spikey!

Our sweet boy

I Thought I Passed This Test Already

There has been drama in my house over the past few months. It came in spurts, but it was always there in unspoken words and agitated feelings. Without going into any details, the drama is no longer in my home, but at a significant price, and now there are bigger issues to deal with...not by me but by my family. It's a situation that didn't need to happen, and it didn't need to take the path it's taken. But it has. And I really want to yell and scream at certain people right now. But I can't. I want to complain about the unfairness of it all to anyone who will listen. But I won't. Because even people who only have cruel intentions have a right to privacy too, right? Plus focusing on the anger only feeds it and lets it grow and take residence inside my soul. So instead, my heart silently aches with the pain and hurt of betrayal and sadness for the innocent.  I thought I'd mastered the lesson of forgiveness with the trials I went through with my ex, but this situation has shown me I'm still a grasshopper with much to learn.