Movin' on Up

Well Guys and Gals,
You may not see a post on this blog for a little while. I've got to un-assemble my computer set up sometime tomorrow or Tuesday so that I can move it along with ourselves and all our other wordly possessions to our new home! Hurray! It's about time. I feel like I have been waiting forever. Granted, it's a lot of work. Especially considering that I'm 5 months pregnant and can't really lift anything. I packed ALL the boxes though. Just had to leave them sitting in the floor until Alan got home to move them out of the way. We're trying to move across town without having to rent a Uhaul truck. Thank God for good friends and Southern gents. We'll have about 6 guys with pickup trucks on our doorstep ready to help us relocate on Wednesday morning. Another friend has to work but is lending Alan his truck and trailor. Hopefully we can move everything in one day. Then I'll just be the rest of the month unpacking and organizing. Since I can't physically move anything I guess I will be pointing and directing. Oh, and I have to get ready for the HUGE moving/yard sale I'm having at the end of the week. There is a lot of furniture and other stuff that we didn't want to move to the new house, so a friend gave me the idea to have a huge moving/yard sale indoors in the old house while it's empty before we hand over the keys. Everything that we don't sell will be swept off to various local charities. I'm hoping to make enough money to buy a new computer desk and a few other things we'll need. *Ahem* Like a new vacuum cleaner, since my sister-in-law borrowed mine and blew it up. Don't ask..I'm not even sure I know how it happened. Oh well. Wish us luck and I will be back soon. (I hope.)

Circle of Life

Continuing with my "this has been a really difficult week" theme, we had to attend a funeral Sunday afternoon. Funerals in general are not typically pleasant experiences, but this one was made more tragic because it was to honor the life and mourn the death of a child. A six month old baby to be exact. Although my husband and I are not extremely close to the particular members of the family, familial duty saw to it that we attend - which we did. The saddest thing to me...other than seeing that tiny white coffin...was seeing the childs' other brothers and sisters. He was one of a set of quintuplets who seemed to take on all the illnesses and problems that preemies sometimes experience in order to spare the other four any hardships. He never breathed "room air" on his own, experienced multiple surgeries, and never got to leave the hospital. The poor little guy had just taken all he could. The comfort is in knowing that God has another little angel by His side.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Paying Respect

I want to share with anyone who might read this, an email that was forwarded to me today by a family member. It was sent to her by a friend who had just attended a military funeral for one of "our boys" who was killed in the line of duty in Iraq. What follows are her words...and then eventually several pictures taken. I will not comment further as I don't feel it is necessary. I hope this touches you as it did me.


" It can be argued, perhaps, the reasons we're in Iraq, but we cannot forget it is the nation's young people who are stepping up and going over there to do what they see as their patriotic duty. I could only wish that every college and high school kid, and some of the parents, would see this outpouring of respect for this fallen soldier. In my few 33 years on this planet it has been made clear to me that the best diplomat in the world, with few exceptions, has been the American GI. There's things wrong in America, but there sure as hell is a lot more that is right. Sometimes we forget that there is a huge price that has been paid for all the freedoms we enjoy and cherish in this country. Of course as many of you know I am a full blooded Texan and feel that we are the best state in the union, so the following story has to do with Texas. P.S. don’t know if the stat is true, but it has been sad that Texas has more of its boys in the military than the next 12 states combined. GOD BLESS TEXAS!

People can talk about Texas all they want, but this has renewed my faith in mankind. God bless America.
At least they give some respect for a soldier who has died. God bless them. Take a look at these pictures."

Amos and Abby 

The 4-legged Loves of our Lives....are Gone.

It has been a very difficult week. That my friends, is an understatement. I don't even know how to begin to write this post as I am so tired. Not physically, though I am a bit of that as well. Mainly though, I am just emotionally drained. My blood-pressure, I feel certain, has risen with our stress levels this week and though I have MANY things I need to be doing...I'm finding it an effort just to get out of bed and get dressed in the morning. Friday saw us driving about 3+ hours to Chattanooga, Tennessee where we made one of the most difficult transitions of our lives. We gave up our two precious puppies (our miniature dachshunds) two their new adoptive family. You can't even begin to imagine how difficult a decision that was for us. We have had Amos (a 5 year old male) since Alan and I were married. In fact, he was my wedding gift from Alan. I raised him, carried him in the pocket of my bathrobe when he was a tiny puppy, slept with him in my bed each night...loved him. Abby (the female) was only 8 months old. We have had her since January when my husband brought her home from work one day to "save" her and give her a home. She was a joy to wake up to each morning (as she also shared our bed). She is such an animated little pup...full of love. We had nick-named her "cartoon" because she just had that sweet, funny, unpredictable nature. Unfortunatly, she wasn't fully potty trained as her previous owner was an elderly lady unable to care for her. And though we were making progress, with packing for our move, our two children and the pending birth of our third, I also was unable to devote enough time to the task. Plus, as she was nearing a year old and Amos had not been fixed...we were looking at either choosing to breed them or having them both spayed/neutered and financially we couldn't afford to right now with everything else going on. Then too, we are moving into a new, fully-carpeted house. Right now we live in a house with all hardwood floors where accidents aren't such a catastrophe. In August my oldest daughter starts kindergarten. In October the new baby will be born. Basically it just came down to our love for the pups and our desire to give them the quality of life that we could no longer provide. They went to the home of an older couple who coincidentally already had two mini doxies. Their children are all grown, and they are completely devoted to their pups who have become their new kids. Someone is home with them at all times, they will still be allowed to sleep in the beds with their new owners, and the couple has a two-acre fenced in backyard that they will be able to play in (supervised of course.) I have heard from their "mom" and she is already planning their first vet trip for this years' shots and preventative meds. They are adjusting well. Probably a lot better than we are. We are going to be glad to be out of this house soon, because it's difficult to be here expecting to see them bounding around the corner at any moment...only to remember that they are gone. Our only consolation is knowing that we did what was best for them, and that they will be happy. To us they will never age, never suffer, never die. In our memories they will always be as they were last...healthy happy pups with their full lives ahead of them.

I Won! I Won!

Yep, little ole me who never wins anything can now claim fame as the co-winner of an original "Avon Haiku Contest" hosted by Birdie on her blog at http://blogs.salon.com/0003522/. In honor of May 7th, 2005 which as you will notice has the same numerical value as a haiku's syllables (5-7-5), Birdie posted a contest for all her readers, promising a box of Avon goodies to the one who could come up with the best Avon related haiku. To my surprise when I visited her blog today, I discovered that I shared the honor of that title with another fellow reader. Below is my "winning" entry:

Heard that Bust-Sculpt cream,
Has been used on men's *ahem* parts.
Wonder if it worked?

*** Interestingly enough, that haiku is derived from a true story told by a fellow Avon lady at one of our local sales meetings. Scary thought, huh? ***

Think Pink!

Yep...

It's a GIRL!!!!

Looks like that Chinese calendar was right after all. We don't have any names picked out yet. I like uncommon names and I'm having a hard time with this one. I need something that will go well with our other two daughter's names:

Caitlyn Ainsley and Ashlyn McKennah

Suggestions are MORE than welcomed, as Alan and I only have four and a half months to agree on something (and trust me that's no easy task!)

Ps. Ben...if it was right for you too then that means you and Syd are expecting a boy right?
Pps. A - the Chinese calendar was right for all three of my pregnancies....so congrats girl! ;)

Pink or Blue...Care to Guess?

Well friends, tomorrow at 2:00 pm, Alan and I go to my doctor's office in the hospital (we usually go to our local clinic for regular visits) for the ultrasound which will tell us -- among numerous other things -- the gender of our third child. Care to hazard a guess? I'm not sure I can. Based on previous history, I would guess a girl, since we already have two daughters. At the same time, my pregnancies with those two daughters were nearly identical. I didn't have QUITE as much morning sickness with the second as the first...but all-in-all, I was still pretty "green." This pregnancy, however, has been nothing like my first two which would lead me to guess that perhaps it is a boy. It's weird really. I have no instinctive feelings one way or the other this time. I KNEW with my first two that they were both girls. In fact, I even dreamed exactly what they would look like before they were born. I knew that Cat would have dark hair, dark eyes (eventually of course) and her daddy's dimples. Just like I dreamed that my second daughter would have blonde, curly hair...and her daddy's dimples. And so they both do. With this baby though, even my poor dreams are confused. The first time I dreamed about the baby, I dreamed it was a girl. Then the second time I dreamed it was a boy, and a few nights ago... I dreamed we had fraternal twins...one boy and one girl. (Heaven forbid..LOL). Oh well. I guess we'll know soon enough. Last chance to get your vote in before the mystery is (hopefully) revealed. :)

Wish us luck and send your prayers please.

Going out with a "bang!"
As you may have guessed, Alan and I enjoyed our night out at the ballfield. The weather was great, the view was excellent, and best of all... the Braves beat the Astros with a final score of 4-1! And at least the Astros participated in the game. The next night the Braves slaughtered them 16-0! I'm not sure that would have been too fun to watch in person. I kind prefer to watch a game where both teams actually show up and there is a little bit of a competition! The only part of the night that wasn't pleasant was the way they routed the traffic leaving the ballpark out of Atantla. They wouldn't let us go the direction we needed to go in. Instead we ended up on US 75 which took us about 45 minutes longer to get home! Oh well. It was still a great night out, and a much needed one at that. Now...back to packing! :)

Got the job done w/ bases loaded in the 9th! 

Final Score 

Take Me Out to the Ballgame!

Well, tomorrow is May 7th and tomorrow night Alan and I will be going to the Braves game. The Atlanta Braves play the Houston Astros tomorrow night in Atlanta at 7:35. I am looking forward to going for several reasons. One being the fact that I adore baseball -- pretty much any kind. MLB, college, Minor League...doesn't matter. I can almost always get into the game. I also have quite an impressive baseball card collection, though I have to admit I don't have any recent additions. Probably the "newest" card I have is a 2002. I just don't have time to keep up with stuff. Though occasionally I do buy a factory sealed complete set as a gift for Alan. I like to be able to buy two though. One to leave sealed, and one to dig through. :) Anyway, the other reason I'm looking forward to the game is because it's the first "date night" Alan and I have had without the kids in....um....geez...I guess since I bought him tickets for his birthday LAST YEAR! The only other time we have been together without the kids was in the hospital the few hours before our second daughter was born. Of course technically we WILL have ONE of the kids with us. LOL But at least this one is pretty obscure, and lacks the capability of hollering "mommy, mommy, mommy!!!" every five minutes. Though it does squirm every once in a while just to remind me it's there. (Not that my Chinese food eating, feet swelling, and having to pee every five minutes body is likely to forget.) I bought a parking pass when I ordered the tickets so we won't have to walk five miles to get to the stadium. AND we are sitting in the Lexus level which is an upgrade from last year's seats. I just hope I can sit back, relax, and enjoy the game without worrying about the kids and whether or not they have tortured and tormented the poor babysitter. Did I mention she will be keeping them from 3:00 pm until around midnight?